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Book Twelve
Fenik (TBS 24ff.): a Trojan associates a friend in the fight; his adversary
calls for aid; the attack is repulsed: cf. 5.166-310 and 13.455-539.
310-21 These famous verses constitute the clearest statement in the Iliad
of the imperatives that govern the heroic life and their justification. It is, as
Sarpedon puts it, a kind of social contract: valour in exchange for honour,
see Adkins, Merit and Responsibility 34-6. Honour comes first, for only the
founders of dynasties gained their thrones by first showing valour (like
Bellerophon, 6.171-95); their successors inherited their status, and might,
as here, have to remind themselves of the obligations that it entailed. At
least Sarpedon admits obligations (which is more than Akhilleus does) in
addition to the reward of KAEOS, but we are still some way from the £uvov
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