535-537. mvp-comment-215-1 10.535–537 Nestor says that he hears hoofbeats and hopes that that sound indicates a successful return for Odysseus and Diomedes, driving horses off from the Trojans (after all, they did not leave with horses). That a return with horses is interpreted as success for what was originally a spying mission is another indicator of the thematic association between horse stealing and night themes in general. See “The Poetics of Ambush” for more on how these themes are associated within the epic tradition.

539. mvp-comment-216-1 10.539 ἄριστοι See commentary on 10.236. Nestor calls those who have gone on the spying mission the best men, a common designation in the ambush theme.

540. mvp-comment-217-1 10.540 ἄρ( α) Egbert Bakker’s work on this particle, as on many other aspects of Homeric diction, illuminates both what it means and how it is used in performance. Bakker explains that ἄρα is a marker “of visual evidence in the here and now of the speaker” and, more precisely, “the interpretation of such evidence” (Bakker 2005:97). Visual evidence had not yet been present during Nestor’s speech; he instead only heard the hoofbeats and tried to interpret them—as we have seen, in the poetics of night action, hearing precedes seeing. Although this ἄρα is not in a direct speech of a character, the action happens during Nestor’s speech: “He had not yet spoken every word when, look! they came.” ἄρ( α) marks the point at which Diomedes and Odysseus become visible, and thus their success in returning to the camp is confirmed. The particle happens to be omitted in three manuscripts, according to Allen’s edition, including the Townley.

542. mvp-comment-218-1 10.542 δεξιῇ ἠσπάζοντο ἔπεσσί τε μειλιχίοισι From the three uses of the verb ἀσπάζομαι in the Odyssey, we can see that it is used in contexts of welcoming someone who has just arrived after a journey. Nestor and the Pylians greet Telemakhos upon his arrival in Pylos ( Odyssey 3.39), Autolykos welcomes his grandson Odysseus after he arrives for a visit ( Odyssey 19.415: the whole line is very similar, χερσίν τ’ ἠσπάζοντο ἔπεσσί τε μειλιχίοισι), and the slave women welcome Odysseus home after Eurykleia has told them of his arrival ( Odyssey 22.498). Thus its use here is one more indication that spying missions and ambushes share the traditional thematic language also used for journeys in these epics, and we can understand such “Odyssean” language as related to the theme, rather than any indication of “lateness.”

542. mvp-comment-218-2 See above on 10.288 for more on the meaning of μειλίχιος. On that line, it is used to describe a muthos, and here it is used with epos. Although we may translate both words as ‘word’, Richard Martin has demonstrated that there are important distinctions between the terms in Homeric diction: epos is the unmarked term for “utterance,” while muthos is the marked term for a public speech-act, a “performance” of sorts that conveys authority and power (1989:22–30). When we compare the different contexts of the adjective μειλίχιος in these lines, then, we can observe that Tydeus’ muthos was indeed a public, performative speech in which he was at least trying to exert his authority, whereas these words of welcome carry none of those connotations. Martin also notes that “a muthos focuses on what the speaker says and how he or she says it, but epos consistently applies to what the addressee hears” (1989:16). Thus words of welcome are appropriately epea, since they are particularly heard as such by the addressee.

543-544. mvp-comment-219-1 10.543–544 These lines use the same formulas as Iliad 9.672–673, although there it is Agamemnon (instead of Nestor) asking Odysseus what Achilles’ answer was to the embassy’s request that he return to battle. As we discussed in our essay “Interpreting Iliad 10,” a singer could have composed these two episodes paratactically (with both episodes occurring during the course of the same night), as they appear in our Iliad, or they may have been performance alternatives of each other. The contrast between them is that while the embassy fails, Nestor treats this return as a resounding success, regardless of the insistence of some modern critics that Diomedes and Odysseus have not fulfilled their mission (see 10.406–411 for our discussion of whether Odysseus gets the information that Nestor suggested for the spying mission). Petegorsky (1982:175–254) argues that the Doloneia responds directly to the embassy’s failure, and especially to Achilles’ challenge that the Achaeans find some better mētis ( Iliad 9.423).

544-553. mvp-comment-220-1 10.544–553 Nestor’s greeting focuses on the horses with which Odysseus and Diomedes return. His statement that he has been active in battle but has never seen horses like these is particularly appropriate to the version of Rhesos’ story presented here, in which Rhesos and his Thracians arrive that night but have not yet entered battle. (See our essay “Tradition and Reception” for a full discussion of the Rhesos tradition.) Odysseus’ response describing the horses as “newly arrived” ( νεήλυδες, 10.558), which is the same adjective that Dolon uses to describe the Thracians at 10.434, similarly reinforces this version of events. Petegorsky (1982:205–206) has interpreted Nestor’s suggestion that the horses were given to them by a god (10.546, 551–553), along with Odysseus’ rejoinder that a god could give much better horses (10.556–557), as an allusion to the horses of Achilles, which were indeed a gift from the gods. This allusion, according to Petegorsky, shows how the success of the night raid as evidenced by the capture of the horses is “oddly concessive to Achilles” (Petegorsky 1982:206).

547. mvp-comment-221-1 10.547 ἀκτίνεσσιν ἐοικότες ἠελίοιο Nestor’s statement that the white horses “look like the rays of the sun” implies that they are particularly visible in the darkness, and it also has a temporal correlation in that dawn is now near. But on a deeper level, the important concept of nostos in the ambush theme (that is, the importance of the return of the ambushers) is also connected to sun imagery (see Frame 1978/2005 and 2009 for the connection between nostos and the rising, or return, of the sun). The conversation between Odysseus, the hero who achieves nostos (see also on 10.247), and Nestor, whose name, according to Frame, reflects an earlier function of “he who brings back to life and light” (Frame 1978/2005:96–115), thus connects the horses, which look like the sun that will soon rise, and the safe return of Odysseus and Diomedes, marking the success of their night mission. We may compare the moment at which Odysseus reaches Ithaca in Odyssey 13.93–95: at that moment, twenty years in the making, the sun rises just as the ship draws near to land.

560. mvp-comment-222-1 10.560 πὰρ δ’ ἑτάρους δυοκαίδεκα πάντας ἀρίστους We have seen in several places that, in the theme of ambush, it is the best, the aristoi, who are chosen for such missions. The thematic association of the best seems to be so strong that it applies to the victims of the ambush here as well. It would seem to apply to Rhesos in particular on the deeper mythic level, in which Rhesos is a grave threat to the Achaeans.

561. mvp-comment-223-1 10.561 τρισκαίδεκατον See above on 10.495 for more on the number thirteen within the tradition. There Rhesos is the thirteenth victim among the Thracians and the number caps the killing as last and most important. Dolon is sequentially their first victim, but in Odysseus’ narrative of the events, he is mentioned last and so caps off this list of victims as thirteenth. In other words, the thirteenth victim is once again the one singled out for a special focus. The A scholia note the discrepancy and say that some critics before Aristarchus made the number here ‘fourteenth’. Counting both Rhesos and Dolon as the thirteenth victim may also indicate something about the convergence of the Dolon story and the Rhesos tradition in this episode.

564. mvp-comment-224-1 10.564 τάφροιο διήλασε μώνυχας ἵππους Crossing the ditch is once again a spatial indication that Odysseus and Diomedes have truly arrived back safely—and successfully, since Odysseus leads the horses of Rhesos with them. As we saw at 10.194, the summoned Achaean leaders move across the ditch to hold the council. This movement indicates that they are then on the offensive and thus presages the night’s mission. Here, we notice that they all have remained there while Diomedes and Odysseus were on their mission. That solidarity among the whole group is made explicit in the next line as they cross back together, exulting in what Diomedes and Odysseus have accomplished. Compare 10.414–416, where Dolon assumes that Hektor is still at the place of the Trojan council while he is on his mission.

565. mvp-comment-225-1 10.565 καγχαλόων See above on 10.400, where Odysseus smiles, for our discussion of how to understand facial expressions within their cultural context as well as their formulaic and episodic contexts. Those same caveats apply to Odysseus’ laughter in this line, since laughter is another kind of nonverbal expression that has specific meaning within a culture. Some studies of laughter in Homer take their starting point from the suitors in the Odyssey, since their laughter is so memorable, but such an approach suggests the conclusion that laughter is negative in Homeric epic. Levine (1982) argues that laughter in the Homeric epics “generally implies a real or imagined physical or moral superiority over another person” (Levine 1982:97). As he strives to make that one idea fit every instance, the natural variety we would expect of different kinds of laughter in different situations is lost. He does not distinguish between the words καγχαλάω and γελάω or γελώς in his list of examples of laughter from the Iliad (Levine 1982:97). Colakis (1986) argues that laughter in the Odyssey “usually indicates some sort of weakness of character” (Colakis 1986:137). (The fact that Paris laughs on more than one occasion in the Iliad may contribute to this kind of interpretation.) Although she does not cite Levine 1982 on this argument, Colakis also asserts that smiles mean an actual superiority, a control of the situation, while those who laugh only think they are superior (Colakis 1986:139).

565. mvp-comment-225-2 Such interpretations of laughter do not get us too far in this case: certainly Odysseus could be expressing his superior position after he reports the victory that he and Diomedes have achieved. But he could also be expressing relief at having made it back and/or showing social solidarity with the other Achaeans who here, as earlier, exult ( χαίρω on this line and on 10.539). We need to be careful about how we interpret such culturally specific nonverbal communication, and not base our conclusions on the meanings of laughter in our own culture or on our personal feelings about the characters who laugh. For insightful approaches to and examinations of laughter in ancient Greek culture, including in the Homeric epics, see Halliwell 1991 and 2008. Halliwell recognizes the broad range of laughter in these epics, maintaining that “it would be misguided to claim a univocal significance for ‘Homeric’ laughter” (Halliwell 2008:97). Instead, he argues that “Homeric laughter spans a spectrum of feeling that includes both positive and negative emotions” (Halliwell 2008:53). So we must still pay close attetion to the uses of this particular verb in context in order to understand what its connotations for the ancient audience may have been.

565. mvp-comment-225-3 When we do look at other uses of this same verb, we find that it is used in situations of ridicule (such as when Hektor imagines that the Achaeans are laughing at the idea of Paris as the Trojans’ best fighter, Iliad 3.43) or perhaps excessive celebration in triumphing over an enemy (Eurykleia laughs this way in Odyssey 23.1 and is warned against such laughter by Penelope at Odyssey 23.59). Halliwell (2008:57n15) notes that the verb καγχαλάω is later associated with animal noises, inlcuding a horse’s neigh, so here we might wonder whether it emphasizes the particular sound Odysseus makes while perhaps evoking the horses he is leading.

565. mvp-comment-225-4 In terms of composition, though, the closest parallel comes from Iliad 6.514, which describes Paris returning to battle:

Just so the son of Priam, Paris, down from the height of Pergamon,

all shining in his armor like the sun, had gone,

laughing, and his swift feet were carrying him.

In this passage, too, we have the participle accompanying a verb of motion and enjambed as the first word of the following line. What is Paris feeling as he makes his way out of the city that makes him laugh? This passage follows the simile that compares Paris to a running horse that has broken free. (That simile is remarkable because it is repeated: compare Iliad 6.506–511 and Iliad 15.263–268, where it is used as a comparison for Hektor returning to battle.) The simile, as well as the laughter of Paris, conveys a sense of exhilaration as he moves. But the differences between the situations should caution us from making broad pronouncements about laughter and character.

565. mvp-comment-225-5 The parallel between these two passages has to do with the verbs of motion and the direction of the person who laughs. Paris laughs as he moves from the safety of home, the fortified citadel of Troy, back to the plain where the battle is raging. Odysseus laughs as he moves across the ditch, from the dangers of the night to the safety offered by the ditch and the wall the Achaeans have built. They are moving in opposite directions, yet the movement itself seems to provoke the same reaction. Thus within the traditional diction this kind of laughter may accompany such a transition between safety and danger.

566-579. mvp-comment-226-1 10.566–579 The end to the episode confirms what we have seen earlier: that the ambush theme is structurally similar to that of the journey, in that the return takes on a special importance. Now that Diomedes and Odysseus have been welcomed “home” to the camp, the end of their journey into the enemy camp and their successful return is marked by taking a bath and eating a meal, as we see so often in the Odyssey, an epic which is itself an extended version of a journey theme with many journeys and arrivals embedded within it.

572-575. mvp-comment-227-1 10.572–575 First, the two rinse off in the sea and “cool off” ( ἀνέψυχθεν); then, they take a bath in a bathtub. The latter is perhaps a hot bath, even though the language seen elsewhere in the epics about heating the water is not included here. See the next comment on 10.576 for more on bathing words.

576. mvp-comment-228-1 10.576 ἀσαμίνθος appears only here in the Iliad, but ten times in the Odyssey (3.468 = 23.163, 4.48 = 17.87, 4.128, 8.450, 8.456, 10.361, 17.90, 24.370). Because it ends in – νθος, the word is generally taken to be a non-Greek word that has been adopted into the epic language (see Hainsworth 1993:210 ad 10.576 and Stanford’s [1961] commentary on the Odyssey ad 8.450). Hainsworth also notes that the word is attested on a seal from Knossos, and Stanford points out that earthenware bathtubs have been found at Knossos and Tiryns.

576. mvp-comment-228-2 This line is the same as those found at Odyssey 4.48 and 17.87. The word ἀσαμίνθος is part of a formula system for getting in and out of the bathtub: eleven of its twelve appearances are part of a phrase that starts a line with ἔς ῥ’/ δ’ ἀσαμίνθον/ ἀσαμίνθους or ἔκ ῥ’/ δ’ ἀσαμίνθου/ ἀσαμίνθων and in most of these cases is followed by some form of βαίνω. So taking a bath in a bathtub is a frequent enough event in the epic tradition that this formula developed. The one exception to its line placement in the first two feet of the line is at Odyssey 4.128, which details the gifts that Helen and Menelaos received from Alkandre and Polybos in Egypt: Polybos gave Menelaos two silver bathtubs, among other things. Such a list of guest-gifts is, of course, a theme very different from narrating a hero getting in or out of a bath, and so it is not surprising that the formulas used are different in that case.

576. mvp-comment-228-3 Getting in or out of the bath is more frequent in the Odyssey because it is associated with an arrival after a journey, which is a common occurrence in that epic. Telemakhos on his journey bathes at both Nestor’s palace ( Odyssey 3.468) and at Menelaos’ ( Odyssey 4.48, where it is both Telemakhos and Peisistratos bathing, and plurals are used as they are here). Odysseus gets in and out of the bath in the palace of Alkinoos and Arete ( Odyssey 8.450–456) and tells of how he bathed at Circe’s once he had an oath from her for his safety ( Odyssey 10.361). The association seen in that case between baths and safety appears many more times and is part of the poetics of the bath. Telemakhos ( Odyssey 17.87–90), Odysseus ( Odyssey 23.163), and Laertes ( Odyssey 24.370) all bathe in an ἀσαμίνθος once they return home. Telemakhos has arrived safely after the suitors’ attempted ambush, and Odysseus bathes after his slaughter of the suitors: the baths, which involve an associated vulnerability of nakedness, signal safety after danger. Laertes is not so much in danger as in a prolonged state of suffering, and this kind of recovery has parallels elsewhere in the epic. Odysseus is of course known for his suffering on his journey, and he is given his distinctive epithet πολύτλας just before his bath in Phaeacia ( Odyssey 8.446). In Odyssey 17, we have seen that Telemakhos’ bath implies safety after the danger of the suitor’s planned ambush, but his guest Theoklymenos bathes in that passage as well. Theoklymenos is an exile because he killed a man of his community ( Odyssey 15.271–278), so Telemakhos taking him in is a measure of safety for him, and he is called here the “long-suffering guest” ( ξεῖνον ταλαπείριον, Odyssey 17.84), a phrase used elsewhere of Odysseus himself ( Odyssey 7.24; compare also Odysseus as a “long-suffering suppliant” ἱκέτην ταλαπείριον at Odyssey 6.193 and 14.511). Bathing in an ἀσαμίνθος, then, has associations with an arrival after a journey and with getting home safely after being in danger, and marks an end to suffering.

576. mvp-comment-228-4 Bathing does indeed happen in other situations in the Iliad, but the word used in these other situations is λοετρόν ( Iliad 14.6, 22.444–445, 23.44) or a related word ( Iliad 18.346). We might expect the Trojans to bathe in their own homes, and we do see Andromache’s preparations for a bath for Hektor that he will never take ( Iliad 22.444–445). But the Achaeans have hot baths as well, as we see when Nestor tells the wounded Machaon that Hekamede will prepare a hot bath for him and wash away the blood ( Iliad 14.6–7) and when Achilles refuses the hot bath that Agamemnon ordered be prepared for him ( Iliad 23.39–44). (Note that Achilles has also refused to eat since Patroklos’ death: as the following lines here also make clear, there is a thematic connection between bathing and eating a meal.) The corpse of Patroklos is also washed when it is brought back from battle ( Iliad 18.343–353). There, we see in detail the water heated in a bathwater tripod, using formulaic language seen also when a bath is prepared for Odysseus in Phaeacia ( Odyssey 8.435–437 ≈ Iliad 18.346–348). Similar to the way that Diomedes and Odysseus rinse and cool off in the sea here, we also see the Achaeans ritually wash in the sea after the end of the plague ( Iliad 1.313–314). The Iliad thus displays several examples of other language about washing or bathing, and the language used here is particularly associated with journeys and ambush.

576. mvp-comment-228-5 In a recent article, Jonas Grethlein (2007) examines the poetics of the bath in the Iliad. He confines his examination to the baths in the Iliad, saying that others have treated the theme in the Odyssey as part of the “ritual of hospitality,” which does not hold for the Iliad (2007:25). Grethlein argues for two types of baths in the Iliad: that of a warrior returning from battle (and he includes this bath in Iliad 10 in this category) and the washing of the corpse of a dead warrior (2007:28). Then he shows how these two types of bath create narrative tensions and connections, focusing especially on the bath that Andromache prepares for Hektor (2007:28–49). Grethlein also argues that both kinds of bath share a connection with a transition: the bathing of the corpse involves the transition from life to death, and the warrior’s bath involves a transition from the danger of death in battle to a place of safety (2007:28–29). Our arguments about the bath here in Iliad 10, developed before Grethlein’s article appeared, agree in many ways with his. But in his separation of the Iliad and Odyssey, he seems to have overlooked that the arrival after a journey, beyond being simply hospitality, often in the Odyssey includes a similar measure of safety after danger as that which he sees in the warrior’s return from battle in the Iliad. And although he pays close attention to formulaic language in these types scenes, he does not mention the particular language used in this case, which differs from the other baths in the Iliad in particular ways.

576. mvp-comment-228-6 We can now see what ἀσαμίνθους adds to this particular scene. This type of bathtub is formulaically associated with the safe arrival from a journey, and a night mission, whether spying or ambush, is thematically like a journey particularly in that it involves a return. We have seen (1) Nestor describe the spying mission as (ideally) a going out and coming back safe and sound (see 10.211–212), (2) Diomedes choose Odysseus as his partner for the mission because of his abilities to get home (10.247), and (3) Athena tell Diomedes to remember his homecoming while he lingers momentarily in the Thracian camp (10.509). As Albert Lord notes briefly regarding the bath Odysseus takes in Odyssey 23: “The bath belongs in the tale of the return—it surely has ritual significance” (1960:176). There is an idea of a nostos associated with this kind of mission, and the traditional association of a bath in a tub with a safe arrival after a journey appears in this expanded version of the spying/ambush theme.

577-578. mvp-comment-229-1 10.577–578 τὼ δὲ λοεσσαμένω καὶ ἀλειψαμένω λίπ᾽ ἐλαίῳ / δείπνῳ ἐφιζανέτην Even at the end of the mission, dual forms are used for the actions of Diomedes and Odysseus. Such dual verbs and the teamwork they embody are such a deep-rooted part of the ambush theme that they continue to be used in these final actions of the night. See above on 10.243 and 10.254 for more on these dual forms.

578. mvp-comment-230-1 10.578 δείπνῳ ἐφιζανέτην An older style of criticism was concerned about the so-called “unity” of Iliad 9, because the members of the embassy have multiple meals within one evening (see also Shewan 1911:186–187 for a review of scholarly objections that this is Odysseus’ third meal on this night). At Iliad 9.65–73, Nestor advises Agamemnon to prepare and host the evening meal, and the guards for the night have their dinner at their station ( Iliad 9.88) while the leaders eat at Agamemnon’s tent ( Iliad 9.89–92). It is after dinner that they discuss the embassy to Achilles. Three of the leaders who must have eaten with Agamemnon, Phoinix, Ajax, and Odysseus, go on the embassy. When Achilles welcomes them, he and Patroklos immediately prepare a meal ( Iliad 9.205–220), and it seems that all of them eat and talk only after they have finished ( Iliad 9.221–222). We should first of all note that these two lines indicating that they eat their fill are the same formulas as Iliad 9.91–92, which transition from the meal preparation scene to the conversation. So meal preparation and consumption is, from the standpoint of oral poetics, a theme that is closely associated with gatherings of leaders and, as is made explicit in the advice of Nestor to Agamemnon, with the hospitality offered by those leaders. Thus it makes sense that more than one supper is prepared for these men: there is much more to it than satiating their hunger.

578. mvp-comment-230-2 Once we recognize that there are multiple associations with the poetic theme of a meal, then, how should we understand Diomedes and Odysseus eating once again here? According to the A scholia, Aristarchus marked the dual form of the verb here because the meal should apply to all, not just these two, since they are having breakfast in the early morning at this point. This objection seems to apply a similar logic to that which we have already discussed, namely keeping track of which meal the men should be eating. Instead, we can look for other associations that meals have within this tradition, focusing, as the dual verb form does, on the two warriors who have just returned from a dangerous mission. As we saw with the baths at 10.576, the meal here has associations with an arrival after a journey, and the return after a spying mission or an ambush has much in common with the theme of the journey. Indeed, there seems to be a traditional sequence of bathing and then eating after such an arrival, and we see such a thematic sequence in the examples from the Odyssey: after the arrivals in Odyssey 3, 4, 8, 10, and 17, in which a bath in an ἀσαμίνθος takes place, a meal follows the bath as part of the hospitality for a guest or the arrival home. As Foley says about baths in the Odyssey in general, its theme is securely linked to that of the feast (Foley 1999:185, 245). Thus, the bath–meal sequence here is entirely traditional and should be expected rather than suspected.