Untitled - Get a Free Blog

Book Twelve
word for snowflakes; but this is no ordinary snowfall, it yiz\ EMTTESOV and
blankets everything.
283 ACOTOUVTCC, by contraction of AcoT6(p)6VTa, is the reading of
Aristarchus (Arn/A) and OCT, but would be the only adjective in -osis so
contracted in the Iliad. (The Odyssey offers the enigmatic KaipOCTEGOV at
7.107). The vulgate reading AcoTeOvTa is preferable phonologically, but
would be the participle of an otherwise unattested AcoTeco. The sense
'covered in lotus' is unaffected. ACOTEOVTOC was known to Hesychius who
glosses it as dvOouvTa.
284 onerous offers another orthographical problem. Instances of -ais as
opposed to normal Ionic -rjs are rare (also 1.238, Od. 5.119, 22.471), but
strongly attested where they occur. It is hasty to class such forms as Attic,
which dialect had -ocai, -r|ai until the fifth century. For detailed discussion
see G. M. Boiling, Language 22 (1945) 261—4.
285 IpuKEToa must be passive (pace Leaf). The snow blankets even the
waves and prevents their breaking.
287 AiOos is normally masculine in the epic, whether the meaning is 'a
stone' (for throwing) or 'stone' (the material). The feminine is found only
here and at Od. 19.494.
289 (3aAAo|J6VGov: masculine. The reciprocal sense of the middle voice, 'as
they bombarded each other', is clear, though surprisingly without parallel
in this common verb, but cf. VUCTCTOUEVGOV (14.26 = 16.637) f° r an identical
usage.
290—4.12 Sarpedon, commander of the Lycians, intervenes. He summons Glaukos to
join him and in a famous speech utters a lapidary statement of the heroes' code. His
attack on the wall comes near to success
Taken as a whole the assault of Sarpedon and Glaukos is a repetition of the
assault of Asios (108—94). As us ual when a motif is repeated after a short
interval the second occurrence is in a more elaborate form:
I. Asios attacks 110-26
Opposed by Polupoites and Leonteus 127-53
Missiles and snowflake simile 154-61
Asios admits failure 162-72
II. Sarpedon (with Glaukos) attacks 290—330
Opposed by Menestheus and the Aiantes 331-99
(Missiles and snowflake simile 278-89)
Sarpedon admits failure 400—12.
Already from 265 the narrative has lost its special character as siege-poetry
and now continues to revert in its themes to an ordinary open battle. A
348