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Book Twelve
SVTOS implies Trap' ETraA^iv. The breach opened by Sarpedon (397-
9) was not so great after all. — oxpicn refers to both Lycians and Achaeans,
as if oi 5e (413) and 'ApyeToi 5e (415) were subjects of parallel clauses in the
same sentence.
417-8 The battle reaches an impasse. The image and some of the
language recurs at 15.405-9 ccuTdp 'Axoaoi | Tpcoocs £7repxo|J£vovs uevov
£|i7T65ov, ou5e 5uvavTo | TraupoTepous TT6p EOVTCCS dcTrcbaacrOai Trapd vncov |
ou5e TTOT6 Tpcoes Aavacov e5uvavro 9aAayyas | pr^duevoi KAiairjai
|iiyf)|ievai. — Aavaoov ... | TeTxos: B. Giseke, Homerische Forschungen (Leipzig
1864) 47-8, an early study of word position in Homer, noted the rarity of
this kind of enjambment in which a genitive noun is placed in the verse
preceding the noun on which it depends. TeTxos 'Axocicov (223, 5X) is
precluded here by the parallelism of 418 with 411.
421-4 The point of comparison in the simile is unusually recondite - the
farmers are quarrelling over a foot or two of ground, so the two sides are no
more than the battlements' breadth apart. oOpoicri is from oOpos (Attic
opos), 'boundary stone', rather than oC/pov, an obscure measure of distance
mentioned at 10.351, 23.431, and Od. 8.124. There is even a verb for the
fraudulent adjustment of opoi, diroupiaaeiv (22.489). ETTI^UVCO: a common
field, distinct from the T£uevr| of the aristocracy, cf. the ki-ti-me-na and
ke-ke-me-na ko-to-na of the Pylos Tablets. For Terns, 'fair share', cf. 11.705.
423 Zenodotus read oAiyr) evl X^P^ (Did/A), as at 17.394. X&P°S> 'piece
of ground', is better here than X^P 1 !? 'space' (which is appropriate in book
424 OCUTEGOV: the Ionic genitive in -ecov (< -dcov), unless its use gives a
rhythm u , occurs for the most part in the first half of the verse, where
diction is looser and old formulas are infrequent: so in books 9-12 Trocoicov
(9-33°)> ayopecov (9.441), TTOAAECOV (9.544), OTTASCOV (11.536 = 20.501),
(3ouAecov (12.236), m/Ascov (uu-, 12.340), cf. KpiOcov (sic) 11.69. A plusverse
pdAAov d|iuv6|Ji6voi x°^ K1 1P £0 " lv ^yX £ ^ CJl looks like an alternative to
425-6 (= 5.452-3), so van der Valk, Researches 11 561.
425-6 =5.452-3 (see nn. ad loc). The enjambment is formally 'violent'
in that the adjective (3oeiocs precedes the noun do"TTi5as, but (3oeir) can be
substantivized and the second verse understood as standing in apposition to
it. The AcuoTjioc are very obscure, see H. Borchhardt, Arch. Horn, E 52-3.
Arn/A records among other conjectures that they are long shields, as if the
word stood in contrast with EUKUKAOUS. Herodotus (7.91) uses the word for
Cilician equipment made of rawhide (cb|io(3o£T|) and distinguished from
dorriSES. Aaiafjiov, like Kpoaaoa, appears to be an Ionic word unfamiliar to
other dialects.
428 Turning to retreat is fatal to many Homeric soldiers, either because
they wear no thorex or because the thorex provides inadequate protection
361