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Book Twelve
preserved now because the poet needs him later, or as he puts it in book 16
(433-8), it was Sarpedon's fate to die at the hands of Patroklos and not by
the ships. The omission of 403 by Pap. 342 seems accidental; the verse is
dispensable but is read by two other early texts.
404-5 = 7.260-1, but with OU6E for f) 8E, a bold adaptation of a formular
verse by substitution, see Introduction 15. r\ 8E is read here by some
MSS, an obvious example of'concordance corruption'. The tactic, pushing
the opponent back by brute force, is typical of Aias, see also 13.192-3.
407 £EA8ETO, 'desired', is more exclusively epic than EEATTETO and has
considerable MS support, including Pap. 9; it is marginally preferable.
Leaf's objection to the construction of EAiroiiai with the aorist ccpEcrflai
(< apvuuai), however, is not well founded, cf. Goodwin, Syntax 45-6.
408 = 16.421 (with KaOaTTTOUEVOs) and = 12.467 with the substitution
of TpcoEaaiv in the first hemistich.
409—12 The leader's complaint that he cannot do everything recurs,
from the Achaean side, at 20.354-63. Perhaps a typical motif; 410 =
20.356, but there is no other language in common between the two passages.
412 EcpouapTErrE: the dual EcpoiiocpTEiTov would not have troubled
Zenodotus, who could accept the concord with genuinely plural subject,
but in spite of its MS support, cf. 8.191 = 23.414, is clearly impossible after
AUKIOI. The Lycian pair of course are Sarpedon himself and Glaukos, now
hors de combat. — TTAEOVCOV KTA.: 'many hands make light work'. Sententiousness,
apart from the concatenation of aphorisms in Aineias' speech to
Akhilleus (20.200-58), is more characteristic of the Odyssean style, cf. Od.
6.29—30 and Hainsworth's note ad loc.
413-71 The Achaeans rally and the battle hangs momentarily in the balance. The
Book then concludes with a truly epic moment. Hektor inspires the Trojans for a second
assault and bursts through the gates, spears in hand. The Trojans swarm over the wall
The passage has been justly praised from antiquity for its vigour, cf. bT
TravTax60£v EKIVTICTE TT|V EVEpyEiav, EK TOO (3CCA6VTOS, EK TCOV SiappiTrrouEvcov
cravi8cov, EK TOO EiCTTrn8covTOS Kai cpopEpov PAETTOVTOS, EK TCOV UTT£p|3aiv6vTcov
TO TETXOS, KOO' 6 uEpos Eppr^E 2apTrf|8cov, EK TCOV EiorpEXovTCOV E!S TOCS TTUACCS,
KOCO' 6 uEpos auTos ^PP 1 !^ CCUTOCS 6 "EKTCOp.
414 pouAr|96pos is epithet of Sarpedon at 5.633 but does not, as epithet,
appear to have specific significance, least of all in the midst of battle. (Verse
414 in book 10 is different; pouAr|9Opoi is there predicative.) Its use in
formulas is principally as a metrical alternative to f|yf|TCop.
415-16 The first verse is formular (= 11.215 = 16.563 = Hesiod, Theog.
676). To resist the Lycians' final effort the Achaeans mass behind their
battlements. This must be the sense of TEIXEOS EVTOCTOEV, cf. 380-1 where
360