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Book Twelve
himself. Nestor was KeAaivfj A. T. in his younger days (i 1.747). A storm is a
favourite image for Trojan attacks in this part of the Iliad, cf. 11.297, 12.40,
r 3-334j x 3-795 (^^"OJ 11.306 (AouAccvy). The cumulative effect of such
repetition conveys a more vivid impression of the Trojan attack than any
narrative statement.
377 For ovv 8' 8(3&AOVTO u&xecrOai see 18in. The middle auupdXAouai
usually means 'meet with', but need not be corrected.
379 'EiriKAfia ueydOupiov: -KAT^CC ueyaOuuov (BaOu-, A10-, 'ETTI-, *OI-,
TTcrrpo-) is formular. The initial u- of |J€yas and its compounds regularly
makes position, as if < eia, has caused some surprise: an Ionic colloquialism according to Meister,
Kunstsprache 193.
382 x £ fP 6CT(J * dcucpoTeprjs is a correction of Aristarchus (so van der Valk,
Researches 11 617-18) for x 6l pi Y 8 T Vi ^9Vi of the vulgate, but has considerable
MS support. Aristarchus thought the reading of the vulgate reflected
adversely on Aias' strength, cf. 45on., it being no surprise if Aias could hurl
a stone which a modern man could not grasp with one hand. Note ixoi, not
P&Aoi; the modern man could not even get his hands round it. The vulgate
reading is so odd that X 6l P* Y £ T< Q ^?Vi could conceivably be the remains of
a verse following 383; Aias threw the stone with one hand, cf. Hektor's
exploit, 452. For the motif 'only he could ...' cf. 449, 11.637, 16.142,
24.456.
383 0T01 vuv ppoToi eia* is formular (4X //., 6aaoi ... Od. 8.222 in a
different context). bT at 5.304 comment that it shows the poet 'was much
later than heroic times', apparently a controversion of Aristarchus' view
that Homer was an Athenian living shortly after the Trojan war.
384 Aias catches Epikles as he clambers up the wall. The 9&Aocpa of
a helmet (see 16.106), implied by the epithet TETpoup&Aripov, are obscure,
see 5.743-4^, but probably distinct from the 9AX01, at least originally.
Lorimer, HM 242, identifies the