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Book Twelve
'OAUHTTIOU), Z. epiPpe|Ji6T6co (hapax legomenon), Z. KeAcuvecpeT, Z. Kpovicova
(and Z. ... Kpovicovos), TravotJupaicp Z. (hapax legomenon). Zr|v6s epiySouTtoio
is therefore most likely to be derived from ipiy5ou7ros TTOCTIS "Hprjs (4X //.,
3x Od.).
237-43 Hektor's fine words make a memorable heroic speech, appropriate
both to his dramatic role as leader and to the tragic movement of the
Iliad. Hektor relies, as he thinks, on the promise of Zeus given at 11.207-10,
but to any pious mind his words would represent a fatal delusion. In
tragedy contempt for oracles is always a sure precursor of doom. In general,
however, the epic takes a rational view, accepting omens as a confirmation
or discouragement of decisions already taken but not allowing them to
determine action, cf. the sceptical attitude of Eurumakhos at Od. 2.181-2
opviOes 8E TE TTOAAOI UTT S auyas f]6Aioio | cpoiTcbo-', OU6E T£ TT&VTES evaiaipioi.
237 TUVT| is an emphatic 2nd person pronoun found 5X elsewhere
in the Iliad, (5.485, 6.262, 16.64, I 9- I0 > 24-465). According to Wathelet,
Traits eoliens 286—7, the form is probably an Aeolism — or a very remote
archaism; see also 16.64—5 n - It * s entirely absent from the Odyssey but
is found three times in Hesiod. Apollonius liked the word (8x in the
Argonautica).
239-40 The Greek OICOVOCJKOTTOS faced north, hence the sunrise lay on his
right and the sunset on his left. The same language is used to indicate west
and east at Od. 9.26 ['IO&KTI] trpos £6