219. mvp-comment-67-1 10.219 βοὴν ἀγαθὸς See below on 10.283 for more on this epithet.

220. mvp-comment-68-1 10.220 ἒμ’ ὀτρύνει κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ In a simile in Iliad 12, when Sarpedon is about to make his attack on the Achaean wall, we see a lion on ambush ( Iliad 12.299–308). The lion is hungry, but it is nevertheless his audacious heart that bids him to attack the flocks and go to their densely packed enclosure ( κέλεται δέ ἑ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ / μήλων πειρήσοντα καὶ ἐς πυκινὸν δόμον ἐλθεῖν, Iliad 12.300–301). He is desperate enough that he will make his attack even though the flocks are guarded by dogs and men. The formula θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ thus is used to indicate the motivation to undertake a particularly risky endeavor, and it seems to be used frequently, though not exclusively, for nighttime or ambush situations. Here, the nocturnal nature of the lion’s attack is not explicit, but is implied by the animals being in their pen and by the use of the adjective pukinos for that pen (see above on 10.5–9 for more on the associations between pukinos and ambush). Other examples of ambush contexts in which we see the formula θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ include the suitors’ plan to ambush Telemakhos ( Odyssey 4.658), Odysseus preparing the wine-skin before he meets Polyphemos ( Odyssey 9.213), and the ambushes Odysseus describes in one of his Cretan lies ( Odyssey 14.217–219). See below on 10.244 for more on the qualities of κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ and their association with nighttime spying missions and ambush. See also below on 10.297 for more on similes involving lions at night.

222. mvp-comment-69-1 10.222 On the significance of the verb ἕπομαι, which is also used of gods who “accompany” heroes, see on 10.285.

224-226. mvp-comment-70-1 10.224–226 Anthony Edwards (1985:22) identifies two leaders as a common feature of the Homeric ambush, and so Diomedes’ request for a partner may already indicate that the spying mission that Nestor proposed will become an ambush. Robert Rabel (1991, see esp. 288–291) sees an emphasis in Iliad 10 on cooperation among heroes in order to achieve success that contrasts strongly with Achilles’ choice to “go it alone” in Iliad 9. In Diomedes’ description of the ideal night raid team, νόος and νοέω are cited three times in three lines, together with μῆτις (cf. Iliad 23.590). It is no surprise, therefore, that he chooses Odysseus. For Odysseus’ association with mētis and noos, see on 10.137 and 10.247, respectively.

227-231. mvp-comment-71-1 10.227–231 We can compare this list with the list of those willing to duel with Hektor (after Nestor’s rebuke) in Iliad 7.162–168. These lists comprise a kind of subtheme that occurs in these types of “selection” situations but also in situations in which the Achaeans “regroup” to fight back (e.g. Iliad 8.261–266, after Diomedes leads the charge). This subtheme seems related both to the idea of volunteering for dangerous assignments, and, in the larger scheme, to the contention among the heroes for who is the “best”—for more on which, see below on 10.236.

228. mvp-comment-72-1 10.228 Αἴαντε As discussed above on 10.53, at one time this dual referred to the fighting team of Ajax and Teucer, which would be a most appropriate meaning here. The dual, then, could mean not that Ajax son of Telamon and Ajax son of Oileus each individually volunteered (no other two warriors are listed as volunteering this way), but rather that Ajax and Teucer volunteered as a team. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that two-horse chariot teams are described in the dual (as at 10.530–531), as are Diomedes and Odysseus when they are working as a unit, as we will see. (See below on 10.243.) Likewise, when Diomedes makes his case for taking a partner on the expedition (10.222–226), he uses the dual to describe the advantages of such a pair. The Aktorione-Molione, the possibly conjoined twins who fought Nestor in his youth ( Iliad 11.709–752 and 23.638–642), are, of course, yet another pair of warriors who are described in the dual. The dual thus seems to be a traditional way of referring to a closely linked fighting team.

228. mvp-comment-72-2 If the dual in this line is referring to Ajax and Teucer, then there is no mention of Ajax the son Oileus volunteering. We can speculate that in some performances of Iliad 10, especially those composed at a time when the dual was understood to refer to Ajax and Teucer, this dual meant that fighting team, although in our version Ajax son of Oileus is specifically named as someone to gather for the meeting at 10.110. It is worth noting that in Iliad 7.164, when the two Ajaxes are included among the heroes who volunteer to fight Hektor one-on-one, the form attested there is the plural, not the dual.

231. mvp-comment-73-1 10.231 ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς On this epithet, Milman Parry offers the following:

MHV 82 For more on the significance of this epithet, see below on 10.248, where we connect Odysseus’ epithets from τλάω with the endurance and daring required for ambush. Here, we see both semantic fields of the word at work: ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς is followed in the very next line by the phrase: αἰεὶ γὰρ οἱ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θυμὸς ἐτόλμα (“For the spirit [ thumos] in his heart [ phrēn] was always daring”; on the thumos as the motivator in risky undertakings, see also on 10.220 above). If we connect Odysseus’ epithet to the theme of ambush, we need not state with Parry that it could never have been invented for the Iliad, or assert that it is more appropriate for the Odyssey (Hainsworth 1993 ad loc.). Rather, it is appropriate in an ambush context, wherever that theme is invoked. On the significance of the definite article here, see Haft 1990:46–48 (with further bibliography ad loc.), who notes that although ὁ + epithet phrases are relatively rare in Homer, ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς is one of four such phrases applied to Odysseus in the Iliad and Odyssey, and should be understood as demonstrative (i.e. “that [well-known] enduring Odysseus”). See also on 10.363.

234. mvp-comment-74-1 10.234 Τυδείδη Διόμηδες ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ For commentary on this full line formula of address, see on 10.144 above.

236. mvp-comment-75-1 10.236 τὸν ἄριστον Agamemnon tells Diomedes to choose the “best” man. The question of who is the “best of the Achaeans” is a theme that runs throughout the Iliad, as Gregory Nagy has shown. In the catalogue of ships ( Iliad 2.761), the narrator asks the Muses who was the best ( aristos) of the Achaeans, and answers that it was Ajax, so long as Achilles had mēnis (2.768–769). But as Nagy points out, the claim to being best of the Achaeans is a disputed and divided one in the Iliad, precisely because the acknowledged best, Achilles, has withdrawn. The Odyssey tradition is not divided, however. There, Odysseus is the unquestioned best (Nagy 1979:26–35 and passim). So too in the Doloneia tradition is Odysseus the “best,” and here he is so in part because of his association with nostos ‘return, homecoming’, as Diomedes states explicitly (see below on 10.243).

236. mvp-comment-75-2 An interesting correlation to this competition to be the “best” in epic is that ambushes feature the “best” men. (See also Edwards 1985:18–24.) There are several examples of the best men going on ambush in Homeric epic. Achilles states that Agamemnon does not go on ambush with the best ( σύν ἀριστήεσσιν, Iliad 1.227). Idomeneus’ description of ambush involves a gathering of the best ( ἄριστοι, Iliad 13.276). Those in the Wooden Horse are the best ( Odyssey 4.272, 8.512–513, 11.523–524), and the best men are selected for ambushes of Bellerophon ( Iliad 6.188), Proteus ( Odyssey 4.409), and Agamemnon ( Odyssey 4.530–531). Even in a Cretan lie, Odysseus says that he used to choose the best men for ambush ( Odyssey 14.217–218). We can also see that the best are involved in ambush warfare because both Odysseus and Achilles participate in nighttime ambushes (see “The Poetics of Ambush”).

237-240. mvp-comment-76-1 10.237–240 The narrator makes clear that Agamemnon is referring to his brother Menelaos when he advises Diomedes not to choose his partner based on social status. See above on 10.30–31 and 10.121 for how Menelaos is portrayed as not the best choice. It is, however, an unexpected argument coming from Agamemnon, who depends on social status for his authority, as we see in his dispute with Achilles in Iliad 1 (see also Wilson 2002 for her argument that Agamemnon relies on this kind of status). It is also Agamemnon who insists on his status as kinglier ( βασιλεύτερός, 10.239) in Book 9 (160), arguing that Achilles should yield to him for that reason. (Although Odysseus leaves that argument out when he delivers Agamemnon’s offer to Achilles, Achilles seems to know it anyway, as he says in his response that Agamemnon should give his daughter in marriage to someone who is kinglier than he [ Iliad 9.392].) This word thus provides a telling thematic contrast to the embassy, and perhaps is an indication that the two nighttime missions are performance alternatives of each other. We should also note that, in ambush, being the “best” is defined strictly in terms of the skills needed to be successful, and not in terms of social standing. The question of how to define the “best” that underlies the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles is made explicitly moot for this spying mission.

240. mvp-comment-77-1 10.240 This verse was omitted altogether in the text of Zenodotus (that is to say, it was not present in his text). It was present in the texts of Aristarchus, but he athetized it. The A scholia on these lines say that it was athetized because it is redundant ( περισσὸς), tacked on ( παρέλκων), and not in keeping with Homer’s dianoia, all of which are common reasons given in the scholia for athetesis. As noted above (see on 10.51–52), Alexandrian editors frequently drew on their own sense of what is appropriate and poetic to determine the authenticity of verses, and athetized those they felt were not in keeping with those standards. It was the practice of Aristarchus, however, to leave verses that were well attested in the texts available to him in his text, and to indicate by way of the athetesis mark his objection to them. Zenodotus’ text seems to have been considerably shorter than that of Aristarchus. We may compare 10.253, which received treatment similar to 10.240. It was omitted in the text of Zenodotus, and present but athetized in the texts of Aristarchus and Aristophanes of Byzantium. Martin West (2001a) has speculated that Zenodotus’ shorter text derives from an Ionian rhapsodic performance tradition, as opposed to the Athenian tradition on which the other Alexandrian editors seem to have relied.

241. mvp-comment-78-1 10.241 βοὴν ἀγαθὸς See below on 10.283 for more on this epithet.

243. mvp-comment-79-1 10.243 πῶς ἂν ἔπειτ᾽ Ὀδυσῆος ἐγὼ θείοιο λαθοίμην Diomedes chooses Odysseus to go with him on the expedition, and that choice is marked in the formulaic language by a shift to the dual from 10.254 onwards, where the two heroes are understood to be a closely linked pair. (See also above on the dual Αἴαντε at 10.53 and 10.228.) The ensuing events of this book have long troubled scholars, who find the actions of Odysseus and Diomedes during this night raid to be un-Homeric and even un-heroic. (See “The Poetics of Ambush.”) But if we look at the Greek epic tradition as a whole, taking into account what we know of the now lost poems of the Epic Cycle, we find that Diomedes and Odysseus traditionally excel at the kind of ambush warfare depicted in Iliad 10. Diomedes is a stellar fighter in the polemos, but he is equally good at the lokhos. The sack of Troy is the ultimate night ambush, and both Odysseus and Diomedes are involved in several nighttime escapades leading up to and during its fall, including the following.

243. mvp-comment-79-2 In testimonium 34 [Bernabé] of the Cypria, a lesser-known version of Polyxena’s story has her being wounded by Odysseus and Diomedes during the sack.

Scholia to Euripides, Hecuba 41

Euripides and Ibycus say that Polyxena’s throat was cut by Neoptolemos. But the composer of the Cypria says that she died after being wounded by Odysseus and Diomedes in the capture of the city.

In the Little Iliad, Odysseus seems to have been connected to the ambush and capture of Helenos, the prophetic son of Priam, and it is Diomedes, according to Proklos, who brings back Philoktetes from Lemnos. (Cf. Sophocles’ Philoktetes, where Odysseus is the one who goes to get him.) Philoktetes’ presence is required, according to Helenos, for the successful capture of Troy:

μετὰ ταῦτα Ὀδυσσεὺς λοχήσας Ἕλενον λαμβάνει, καὶ χρήσαντος περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως τούτου Διομήδης ἐκ Λήμνου Φιλοκτήτην ἀνάγει.

Little Iliad, from the summary of Proklos

After this Odysseus captures Helenos in an ambush, and as a result of Helenos’ prophecy about the city’s conquest Diomedes brings Philoktetes back from Lemnos.

Also narrated in the Little Iliad, according to Proklos, was the theft of the Palladion, which survives in several variant versions in which Diomedes or Odysseus or both try to get sole possession of it, betraying the other. The Palladion is yet another item that had been foretold to be required for the successful capture of Troy. In these ambush style episodes we find Odysseus and Diomedes frequently working as a team, though sometimes they split up the work or act on their own. As the episode with the Palladion suggests, the advantages of working as a team do not cancel out the desire on the part of each hero to obtain great glory for himself.

243. mvp-comment-79-3 Still another attested collaborative ambush by Odysseus and Diomedes is the killing of Palamedes. In Cypria testimonium 30 [Bernabé], Diomedes and Odysseus drown Palamedes, ambushing him while he is fishing:

Pausanias 10.31.2

Palamedes was drowned when he went out to catch fish. Diomedes was the killer and also Odysseus, as I know from reading it in the epic poem the Cypria.

In all of these episodes Diomedes is linked, as in the Doloneia, with Odysseus. Indeed, Odysseus has long been understood to be the hero of mētis. (See on 10.137 and 10.148 above.) But it should not be forgotten that, like Diomedes, Odysseus has his fair share of traditional fighting. The Odyssey ends with Odysseus about to engage the families of the suitors in battle, and with Laertes rejoicing that he will have a contest for aretē with his son and grandson ( Odyssey 24.515). When Demodokos sings about the fall of Troy in Odyssey 8, Odysseus is the hero raging “like Ares” through the streets of Troy ( Odyssey 8.515). In Iliad 11.310–319, Odysseus and Diomedes together stave off a rout of the Greek forces before both are wounded. Recent scholarship has focused on the oppositions set up between mētis and biē in Homeric poetry (see e.g. Nagy 1979:45–48), but as Donna Wilson (2005) has recently pointed out, the two concepts are also complementary in many respects.

243. mvp-comment-79-4 10.243 This verse is also used at Odyssey 1.65 (and compare how the phrasing of Odyssey 1.66 is similar to that of 10.244). There, it is Zeus speaking in response to Athena, saying that he could not overlook Odysseus. Since Iliad 10, like the Odyssey, features Odysseus in a prominent role, the formula seems to be useful and good for introducing Odysseus in a starring role.

244. mvp-comment-80-1 10.244 πρόφρων κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ At both 10.220 above and 10.319 below, the formula ἔμ’ ὀτρύνει κραδίη καὶ θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ (“my heart and audacious spirit rouse me”) is used when Diomedes and Dolon, respectively, respond to the call for a spying mission. Here, Diomedes says that he is choosing Odysseus as his partner in the mission because his heart and audacious spirit are ready and eager for all kinds of labors; these personal qualities of courage and boldness are what impel men to go on nighttime or spying missions or on ambushes. We can compare the opposite in Achilles’ denunciation of Agamemnon in Iliad 1.225–228, when he says that Agamemnon has the heart ( κραδίη) of a deer and never arms himself for war or goes on an ambush with the best of the Achaeans, enduring it in his spirit ( θυμός). It is clear that there is a deep-rooted association between these qualities and the daring feats of these types of missions. See also on 10.231 and 10.248.

245. mvp-comment-81-1 10.245 φιλεῖ δέ ἑ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη On the relationship between Odysseus and Athena, see on 10.275.

246. mvp-comment-82-1 10.246 ἐκ πυρὸς αἰθομένοιο Petegorsky points out that this particular image calls to mind “the background of Achilles’ challenge to the Achaeans to avert the danger that threatens the ships by employing μῆτις. His words acquire a strong ‘horizontal resonance’ by pointing back to Achilles’ challenge and forward to the Patrocleia [cf. Iliad 16.81]. And yet, his description of Odysseus also has a strong ‘vertical resonance’; for it evokes an image of Odysseus that corresponds remarkably well to that which we find in the Odyssey” (1982:193). The types of resonance that Petegorsky reveals remind us of how oral poetry can have complex ways of creating meaning that are different from those in written texts.

247. mvp-comment-83-1 10.247 ἄμφω νοστήσαιμεν, ἐπεὶ περίοιδε νοῆσαι Odysseus’ primary heroic identity is concerned with nostos ‘homecoming’, which is the subject of the epic devoted to him. (See Nagy 1979:35 and 38–39.) Douglas Frame has shown that the words nostos and noos ‘mind’ share the verbal root * nes-, whose meaning has to do with “returning to life and light” (a meaning best understood, according to Frame, in the context of solar symbolism), and that the two concepts are combined on a conceptual and verbal level throughout the Odyssey. (Cf. e.g. the opening lines of the Odyssey, 1.3–5: πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω … ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων [“Many are the cities of men and their ways of thinking he came to know, as he strove to win the life and homecoming of his companions.”]) See especially Frame 2005a and 2005b; on the root * nes, see also Frame 2009 and Bonifazi 2009. We can see that the deep connection between nostos and noos is built into the traditional character of Odysseus and comes into focus whenever he is featured, be it in the Iliad or the Odyssey.

247. mvp-comment-83-2 We have already seen some indications (on 10.211–212) that spying missions share some traditional language and thematic associations with journeys. Diomedes’ choice of Odysseus as the master of the kind of journey called a nostos (due to his quality of noos) is another example of this commonality. See also below on 10.509.

248. mvp-comment-84-1 10.248 πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς In this book Odysseus is also referred to as ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς (“that enduring Odysseus,” 10.231 and 10.498; cf. Iliad 5.670 and Odyssey 18.319). Although Odysseus is polutlas ‘much enduring’ five times in the Iliad, the epithet is by far more common in the Odyssey, where it is naturally associated with the many travails he endures in that epic (cf. Odyssey 1.4: πολλὰ δ’ ὅ γ’ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα [“many are the pains he suffered”]). It is significant therefore that this formula appears directly following the verse in which Odysseus’ Odyssean association with nostos is conjured. But as we saw in our discussion of the etymologically related epithet τλήμων on 10.231, this formula may well have another aspect to it. When Achilles excoriates Agamemnon in Iliad 1 for his lack of participation in the hardships of war, he says:

“You drunkard, with a dog’s eyes and a deer’s heart,

whenever it comes to arming yourself for war with the rest of the warriors

or going on an ambush with the champions of the Achaeans,

you don’t have the heart to endure it. That looks like death to you.”

The verb Achilles uses is τέτληκα. In Idomeneus’ description of ambush warfare in Iliad 13 (discussed above, pp. 45–47), the verb τλάω is not used, but the need for endurance is likewise emphasized. Warriors on an ambush must endure fear, the discomfort of sitting/crouching as they wait for a long period of time to attack, and the cold of the night (as evidenced by the clothing chosen for ambush, clothing which Odysseus forgets to take both in Iliad 10 and in the story narrated in Odyssey 14). When Menelaos tells Telemakhos the story of the wooden horse in Odyssey 4, he praises Odysseus’ endurance ( ἔτλη) on that occasion ( Odyssey 4.271–272): οἷον καὶ τόδ’ ἔρεξε καὶ ἔτλη καρτερὸς ἀνὴρ / ἵππῳ ἔνι ξεστῷ (“What a thing he accomplished and endured, the mighty man, inside the wooden horse”). Odysseus’ steadfast character and ability to endure the lokhos are contrasted in Menelaos’ anecdote with that of the weaker-willed heroes, Diomedes, Menelaos himself, and Antiklos, all of whom Odysseus has to restrain from succumbing to Helen’s trick. In Odyssey 9, Odysseus describes how in the cave of the Cyclops he hid beneath the ram and held on, awaiting dawn “with an enduring heart” ( τετληότι θυμῷ, 9.435; for this same formula in other ambush contexts, see also Odyssey 4.447 and 4.459, Menelaos’ ambush of Proteus, and Odyssey 24.163, the description by the shades of the suitors of how Odysseus ambushed them). This kind of waiting—during the dark of night, in a hiding position—is what a warrior undergoes in an ambush. When Athena tells Odysseus in Odyssey 13 that he will need to conceal his identity in order to take control of his home, family, and kingdom again, she tells him he will have to endure ( σὺ δὲ τετλάμεναι καὶ ἀνάγκῃ, 13.307). He will have to take them by ambush, not outright force. (Cf. Odyssey 13.309–310: ἀλλὰ σιωπῇ / πάσχειν ἄλγεα πολλά, βίας ὑποδέγμενος ἀνδρῶν [“{You must} suffer many pains in silence, submitting to the biē of men.”]) Odysseus’ ability to withstand this particular kind of hardship is an important part of his epithet polutlas, and the endurance that Menelaos remembers as being so remarkable during the ambush of Troy is fundamentally connected to Odysseus’ ability to withstand the many algea he suffers on his journey home. (On the connection between the tla- compounds that describe Odysseus and the endurance required for ambush, see also Edwards 1985:17, and on the second half of the Odyssey as an ambush, see again Edwards 1985:35–37.)

249-250. mvp-comment-85-1 10.249–250 Τυδείδη μήτ᾽ ἄρ με μάλ᾽ αἴνεε μήτε τί νείκει· / εἰδόσι γάρ τοι ταῦτα μετ᾽ Ἀργείοις ἀγορεύεις Gregory Nagy sees this response by Odysseus as a meta-commentary on the epic tradition and the question of who is the best of the Achaeans (see 10.236). Nagy writes: “It is as if he were saying: ‘The Achaeans are aware of the tradition, so please do not exaggerate.’ With the words of Odysseus himself, the epic tradition of the Iliad has pointedly taken Odysseus out of contention” (1979:34). But just as Ajax can be called best for battle so long as Achilles remains withdrawn ( Iliad 2.768; Nagy 1979:27, 31), Odysseus here can contend for “best” at nighttime missions, since Achilles is not available now, either.

251-253. mvp-comment-86-1 10.251–253 μάλα γὰρ νὺξ ἄνεται, ἐγγύθι δ᾽ ἠώς, / ἄστρα δὲ δὴ προβέβηκε, παρῴχηκεν δὲ πλέω νὺξ / τῶν δύο μοιράων, τριτάτη δέ τι μοῖρα λέλειπται The amount of time that the events of Iliad 9 and Iliad 10 take up has been used, by Leaf and others, to argue that Iliad 10 does not belong to the Iliad. Of course, the events related in Iliad 11.1–18.242 all take place on one day, so narrative time seems quite flexible, expanding as the dramatic intensity increases. Thus this crucial night could dramatically include the “three-part” structure implied in these lines: the first part would include the embassy to Achilles, the second part when the Achaeans, other than Agamemnon, slept, and now this episode, comprising the remaining third part. In any case, these lines call attention to the urgency of the time, as well as suggesting the possibility of multiple episodes during the same night.

253. mvp-comment-87-1 10.253 According the scholia in the Venetus A, Zenodotus “did not write” this line. For more on the Alexandrian editorial procedures, see on 10.240 above.

254. mvp-comment-88-1 10.254 ὣς εἰπόνθ᾽ This is the first dual verb used for Diomedes and Odysseus. As soon as Odysseus agrees to be Diomedes’ partner, they are spoken of as a team, working together in every way. For more on the use of the dual verb forms, see on 10.53, 10.228, and 10.243.

254-272. mvp-comment-89-1 10.254–272 The passage that begins here functions much like an arming scene. In a well-known article, James Armstrong (1958) shows how formulaic arming scenes are employed at climactic moments in the Iliad with great effect. He analyzes in detail the four major arming scenes of the Iliad (those of Paris in Iliad 3, Agamemnon in Iliad 11, Patroklos in Iliad 16, and Achilles in Iliad 19), arguing that formulaic language in these passages is manipulated for various poetic purposes, and that each scene resonates with what came before, so that there is a cumulative effect over the course of the poem.

254-272. mvp-comment-89-2 In the night raid/ lohkos tradition, the dressing and arming of heroes would no doubt have had a poetic purpose similar to the expanded arming scenes of conventional battle. These scenes contribute both to suspense, by increasing the audience’s anticipation of the coming ambush or raid, and to characterization, as the details of each dressing or arming passage reveal important aspects of the hero’s character as a fighter. But even more importantly, the passages serve to signal that the poet is moving into a different poetic register. The poet transitions by way of such scenes from one megatheme to another, and the alternative style of clothing is emblematic of not only this alternative mode of fighting but also an alternative poetics.

254-272. mvp-comment-89-3 The armor described here is in many ways atypical. Most distinctive is what the heroes wear on their heads. Diomedes and Odysseus wear leather skull caps ( κυνέην … ταυρείην … ἥ τε καταῖτυξ κέκληται—the word καταῖτυξ is used only here in extant Greek literature), and the history of Odysseus’ cap is elaborately described: Odysseus’ own maternal grandfather Autolykos stole it and gave it away as a gift to Amphidamas, who likewise gave it as a gift to Molos, who then gave it to the Cretan Meriones, who now gives it to Odysseus along with the other weapons Odysseus will carry, a bow and quiver and sword. Meriones must give Odysseus all of this gear because when Odysseus leaves his tent, unlike the other heroes who dress in skins and cloaks and take their weapons, he takes only his shield. (See above on 10.149.)

254-272. mvp-comment-89-4 But both heroes, it should be noted, are given weapons and armor by the two leaders of the guards, Meriones and Thrasymedes, who came out into the night fully armed. Diomedes, we are told here, borrows a sword and shield from Thrasymedes, just as Odysseus uses Meriones’ bow, quiver, sword, and helmet. Such borrowing may reflect the impromptu nature of the mission—a quality that will be seen again when it changes from a spying mission to an ambush/night raid. Or it may give the mission a communal aspect, which can also be seen in the rest of the leaders remaining in this same spot, beyond the ditch, until Diomedes and Odysseus return. They are all invested in the success of these two.

254-272. mvp-comment-89-5 But while the clothing they wear and weapons they carry are unusual for extant Homeric epic, they are completely appropriate for a night raid, where, unlike the polemos, it is important not to be conspicuous. (See also Shewan 1911:55.) The history of the cap as a gift indicates that such an object has prestige as well as utility, and possession of it may indicate “the best,” who would wear such equipment for these dangerous and important missions. That it was originally stolen by the thief extraordinaire Autolykos seems related to the stealth that it affords the wearer, and also makes it even more fitting both for Odysseus personally, who is very much like his grandfather, as we know from Odyssey 19.395–412, and for the night mission that requires stealth. Petegorsky (1982:200) also argues that the helmet connects all of these elements of Odysseus’ identity: “This helmet functions as a kind of identity marker for Odysseus, and it is in effect the equivalent of the scar in Odyssey Nineteen, which was the result of a wound inflicted on the hero by the tusk of a boar.”

257. mvp-comment-90-1 10.257 ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ κυνέην κεφαλῆφιν ἔθηκε Nowhere else in surviving Homeric epic do we find heroes putting on leather caps, but we must also recognize that no other expanded descriptions of night raids of this nature survive. If more of the Epic Cycle narratives describing Diomedes’ and Odysseus’ nighttime exploits survived (for these, see on 10.243 above), such items of clothing might not seem so exotic. In the Nisus and Euryalus episode in the Aeneid, Euryalus makes the fatal mistake of putting on the helmet that he takes as spoils from a corpse, and the reflection of the moonlight off the helmet gives him away to the enemy ( Aeneid 9.373–374: “alea Euryalum sublustri noctis in umbra / prodidit immemorem radiisque aduersa refulsit”). Whereas heroes strive for conspicuous distinction ( kudos) on the battlefield, ambush warfare is characterized by hiding and concealment. Cf. the Venetus B scholia on 10.258, which note that the kind of leather helmet worn here is ἄφαλον and ἄλλοφον “for being inconspicuous” ( διὰ τὸ λανθάνειν).

259. mvp-comment-91-1 10.259 θαλερῶν αἰζηῶν ‘flourishing, vigorous young men’: Botanic imagery is used here to describe the warriors whose heads are protected by these helmets. The imagery of the hero as a plant that blossoms beautifully and dies quickly is an important theme in Greek lament traditions, as we see in Thetis’ lament for Achilles in Iliad 18.54–60 and in other passages throughout the Iliad. It is also a metaphor that encapsulates what glory means in the Iliad. One of the primary metaphors for epic song in the Iliad is that of a flower that will never wilt:

410 My mother the goddess Thetis of the shining feet tells me

that there are two ways in which I may meet my end.

If I stay here and fight around the city of Troy,

my homecoming is lost, but my glory in song [ kleos] will be unwilting:

whereas if I reach home and my dear fatherland,

415 my kleos is lost, but my life will be long,

and the outcome of death will not soon take me.

Here Achilles reveals not only the crux of this choice of fates around which the Iliad itself is built, but also the driving principle of Greek epic song. The unwilting flower of epic poetry is contrasted with the necessarily mortal hero, whose death comes all too quickly. (See especially Nagy 1979:174–184 and Dué 2006a:64–69. Nagy shows that the root phthi- in the Greek word aphthiton ‘unwilting’ is inherently connected with vegetal imagery, and means ‘wilt’.) The Iliad quotes within its narration of Achilles’ kleos many songs of lamentation that highlight the mortality of the central hero, as well as underscoring the immortality of song. The traditional imagery of these quoted laments spills over into epic diction itself, with the result that similes, metaphors, and other traditional descriptions of heroes are infused with themes drawn from the natural world, as here.

259. mvp-comment-91-2 With Diomedes, Meriones, Neoptolemos, and even Achilles as examples, we might also argue that ambush is associated with younger men in particular, and thus the cap that is good for ambush is worn by young men. In the “Tradition and Reception” essay above we noted Gernet’s (1936) work on the Dolon myth, in which he argues that the episode is suggestive of initiation rituals in which young men must spend a period of time apart from society as well as other rites of initiation that take place at night. (See also Johnston 2002 on cattle raiding as a form of initiation; we have explored above in “The Poetics of Ambush” the thematic overlap between cattle raiding and ambush in Homeric epic.) The word thaleros used in this line to describe the young men may be important here. This word is used several times in Homer of husbands or young men and women on the verge of marriage. See e.g. the Homeric Hymn to Demeter 79, where Persephone is called a θαλερὴν ἄκοιτιν; Iliad 6.430, where thaleros is used of Hektor by Andromache and 8.190, used by Hektor of himself as the husband of Andromache; Iliad 4.474, where it is used of Simoesios, who dies before marriage—i.e. at the age when he should have been getting married; Iliad 3.26, where it is used of young hunters, who are likewise αἰζηοί; Iliad 8.156, where it is used of the Trojan husbands whom Diomedes has killed; Odyssey 6.66, where it is used of Nausikaa’s impending marriage; and Odyssey 20.74, where it is used of the requested marriage of the daughters of Pandareus. In the Theogony, it is used of Gaia’s first “husband” Ouranos, but there he is being described as the parent of Zeus. If we posit that ambush expeditions could serve as a rite of passage or form of initiation, it would explain why fear is said to be such an important factor: the success or failure of the mission would hinge on how the young men handled that fear. (See e.g. Iliad 13.277–278, where ambush is described as “the place where the merit of men most shines through, where the coward and the resolute man are revealed” and Odyssey 11.528–530. Both passages are discussed in “The Poetics of Ambush” above.)

260. mvp-comment-92-1 10.260 βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην On the bow as a particularly appropriate weapon for night attacks, see the arguments of McLeod 1988. The Townley scholia at this line explain that Odysseus takes the bow so that he can shoot at those who are in the light (as the Trojans would be beside their campfires). McLeod adduces “half a dozen sources, spread over two millennia, testifying to a recurrent connection between the dark of night, the bow, and aiming at light” (McLeod 1988:123). The bow is of course also Odysseus’ signature weapon in the Odyssey, and similar to the lineage of the boar’s tusk helmet below (see 10.267), the bow that Odysseus leaves in Ithaka also has a particular story, being both an heirloom and guest-gift ( Odyssey 21.13–41). Steven Farron succinctly describes the importance of the bow in that epic: “Odysseus boasts of his pre-eminence at military archery ( Odyssey 8.215–222), establishes his right to Penelope with his skill at using the bow and it is his main weapon against the suitors” (Farron 2003:182). It has been argued (by e.g. Lorimer 1950:296–297 and 483) on this basis that Iliad 10 must be composed later than the Odyssey. On the problems with this argument, see “Interpreting Iliad 10.”

263-264. mvp-comment-93-1 10.263–264 ἔκτοσθε δὲ λευκοὶ ὀδόντες / ἀργιόδοντος ὑὸς θαμέες ἔχον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα As Hainsworth notes (1993 ad 10.261–265), “There is no doubt that a piece of bronze-age equipment is being referred to.” But how does this much-discussed example of Bronze Age material culture contribute to our understanding of the composition and poetics of the Iliad? Sherratt (1990:818) observes that the boar’s tusk helmet “though still occasionally found in graves as late as the 12th and 11th centuries, disappears from representational art of a military nature after 1200 BC.” (See also Lorimer 1950:212–219 and Stubbings 1962:516.) Is the boar’s tusk helmet evidence that Homeric poetry was being composed in the Bronze Age? Many scholars have rejected such a proposition, and instead have viewed this helmet as an instance of an eighth-century poet deliberately “archaizing” (on this concept, see e.g. Dickinson 1986, Kirk 1960:190ff., and Morris 1986:89ff.). Hainsworth questions whether the verses could survive from the Bronze Age, “their language being in no respect exceptionally archaic”; rather, he asserts that “[t]he poet of this book wanted to introduce an interesting and exotic object.” Those who see Iliad 10 as a particularly late composition are not inclined to accept that such an old object forms a natural part of this book, and instead prefer to see its inclusion as the work of an archaizing individual. But Sherratt (1990) has shown that, just as there are linguistic layers in the traditional language of Homeric poetry, so too are there archaeological layers that are not well explained by those who seek to isolate and dismiss individual Bronze Age relics as heirlooms or as products of deliberate archaizing. And just as the poetic diction evolved in such a way that we cannot easily separate out Aeolic language from Ionic (see above on 10.18), so too elements of disparate material cultures are integrated into the Iliad in such way that they can only be explained as the result of an evolving but also conservative process of oral composition, hundreds of years in the making. The arming scene of Odysseus and Diomedes in Iliad 10 is no different than countless other passages in the Iliad that include weapons from very different eras (see e.g. Sherratt 1990:810–811 on Iliad 19.369–391). Here, the boar’s tusk helmet seems to serve a poetic function beyond that of simply being an exotic object, for which see on 10.267.

267. mvp-comment-94-1 10.267 Ἀυτόλυκος was Odysseus’ maternal grandfather. According to some traditions (Apollodorus 1.112, Pausanias 8.4.6, Ovid Metamorphoses 13.146), Autolykos is the son of Hermes (thus making Odysseus Hermes’ great-grandson). In Odyssey 19.395–396, Autolykos is said be a favorite of Hermes and “preeminent among men in thieving and perjury” ( ἀνθρώπους ἐκέκαστο / κλεπτοσύνῃ θ’ ὅρκῳ τε), a gift given by Hermes himself. Odysseus is in turn a favorite of Autolykos (see Odyssey 19.393ff.). The relationship with Autolykos is one of many links that Odysseus has to the god Hermes, with whom he shares the epithet πολύτροπος (“of many turns,” Odyssey 1.1; Homeric Hymn to Hermes 13). Hermes is the god described in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes 13–18 as “crafty of counsel, a robber, a driver of cattle, a leader of dreams, a spy at night, a thief at the gates … Born at dawn, at mid-day he played the lyre, in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting Apollo.” Athena’s intelligence is central to the attested ambush episodes in Homeric epic (see on 10.275), but Hermes’ thieving and crafty ways play a vital role as well. (See also on 10.41 above for the use of the formula νύκτα δι᾽ ὀρφναίην in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes 578.) Here Autolykos is said to have stolen the boar’s tusk helmet that Odysseus wears from a house that is pukinos. The house, in other words, is carefully and solidly built. Its many beams and planks are closely joined one upon the other, much as the boar’s tusks are made to fit seamlessly around the helmet. The word pukinos unites the mētis associated with Odysseus, his maternal grandfather, and Hermes with the cunning required to break into a well-built house and the craft required to construct such a helmet. The invocation of the history of Autolykos’ cunning thievery here thus places Odysseus’ own cunning in a continuum that stretches back through several generations, much as Diomedes’ role in the night raid of Iliad is placed in the context of his father Tydeus’ ambush history in 10.285–286. See 10.5–9 for more on the meanings of pukinos, epsecially as it relates to ambush.

267. mvp-comment-94-2 For a similar “lineage” of an object of prestige, see the history of Agamemnon’s scepter at Iliad 2.101–108. The fact that the object was originally stolen does not seem to disqualify it from becoming a valued guest-gift.

273. mvp-comment-95-1 10.273 βάν ῥ᾿ ἰέναι See on 10.32.

273. mvp-comment-95-2 10.273 πάντας ἀρίστους In Iliad 7, Hektor challenges whoever is the best of the Achaeans ( Ἀχαιῶν … ἄριστος, 7.50) to a duel, which at first only Menelaos accepts, followed (upon the reproach of Nestor) by Agamemnon, Diomedes, the two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, Meriones, Eurypylos, Thoas, and Odysseus. Here, many of the same heroes are being referred to as aristos, namely Agamemnon, the two Ajaxes (if Ajax the son of Oileus is indeed present, as he seems to be in our text; see above on 10.228), Idomeneus, and Meriones. For who is “best of the Achaeans” in epic, see above on 10.236.

274. mvp-comment-96-1 10.274 ἐρῳδιὸν This bird is a night heron. The Venetus A scholia says that it is an auspicious sign for Diomedes and Odysseus as they depart for clandestine activities and appropriate to the marshy area that they are in (see also 10.466–468 on the tamarisk bush for the marshy place of the ambush of Dolon, as well as “The Poetics of Ambush” for the kind of location where ambushes are often set up). The scholia in the Townley (T) manuscript, according to the edition of Maass, likewise call the bird a good sign for ambushers ( ἀγαθὸν λίαν τὸ σημεῖον τοῖς ἐνεδρεύουσιν) and appropriate both because of the marshy place and because it hunts at night and is rapacious ( νυκτὸς ἀγρεύει καὶ ἁρπακτικόν ἐστιν). The night heron does exhibit ambush-like behavior in its hunting: it waits while standing still for its prey to come into range at night and also plunders the nests of other birds (see e.g. http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=BD0117 or http://www.sdakotabirds.com/species/black_crowned_night_heron_info.htm). But what we see in these scholia is part of a “system of associated commonplaces” (Black 1962:39 and above at 10.5–9) that the ancient audience would have had for this bird—namely, that the bird itself is an ambusher found in places used by warriors for ambushes—and those associations make it an appropriate omen. Such associations can be common without empirical evidence of the creature’s actual behavior. The fact that the bird is heard but not seen is also appropriate to the poetics of the night, where hearing is the predominant sense.

274. mvp-comment-96-2 See Thompson 1895:58–59 for ancient sources on the ἐρωδιός: he notes that the heron is a symbol of Athena on coins. See also Pollard 1977:68–69 for this bird in general. Pollard notes a story from Aelian relating that Diomedes’ men were transformed into herons (Pollard 1977:164), and Vergil alludes to the story that Diomedes’ men were turned into some kind of bird at Aeneid 11.271–274. Other stories show evidence of a connection between herons and horses (Thompson 1895:59, Pollard 1977:167).

274. mvp-comment-96-3 For another bird omen at night, compare the bird omen Zeus sends to Priam before he infiltrates the Achaean camp ( Iliad 24.315–321).

275. mvp-comment-97-1 10.275 Παλλὰς Ἀθηναίη Walter Burkert describes Athena this way: “More than any other Greek deity, Athena is always near her protégés—‘Goddess of Nearness’ is how Walter F. Otto described her [Otto 1929/1956]. Wherever difficulties disappear and the impossible becomes possible, Athena is at hand, but her presence does not detract from the achievement of the other” (Burkert 1985:141). Athena is present for Odysseus throughout the Odyssey, and indeed she guides his entire nostos from the opening scene among the gods in Olympia to the conclusion of the strife on Ithaka in the final lines of Odyssey 24. They rival one another in cunning intelligence ( mētis) and, as Burkert notes, Odysseus and Athena’s special relationship is exemplified by the way they reveal themselves to one another in Odyssey 13. Each knows the other by the false identity/lying tale that each offers to the other. Odysseus’ story is that he killed a man in Crete (by ambush— λοχησάμενος, 13.268) and fled, ending up in Ithaka. But Athena knows exactly who he is:

So he spoke, and the goddess owl-radiant Athena smiled,

and took him by the hand. In form she resembled a woman

who was beautiful and tall and skilled in splendid handiwork.

290 She spoke out and addressed to him winged words:

“He would have to be a wily thief, the man who could get past you

in every sort of deception, even if you had a god for an antagonist.

You are intractable, crafty in intricate ways, insatiate of deception, nor were you about,

even now that you are in your own country, to leave off from deceiving

295 and the beguiling words that are constantly dear to you.

But let’s no longer talk about these things, since we both know how to be

wily. You are the best of all mortals

in planning [ boulē] and words, while I among all the gods

have glory for my craft [ mētis] and wiles. Yet you did not know that

300 I am Pallas Athena, the daughter of Zeus, who always

stands by you in all your labors and watches over you,

who made you dear to all the Phaeacians.

Now again I have come here, in order to weave mētis with you

and hide all the goods that the noble Phaeacians

305 gave to you when you went homewards by my planning [ boulē] and my thinking … ”

Athena is the god that most resembles Odysseus; she embodies the boulē, mētis, kerdea, doloi, and noos that Odysseus is legendary for in the epic tradition (skills that are the hallmark of ambush warfare). So here too in Iliad 10 Athena is near to Odysseus, and he prays that she stand by him as she has done in the past ( παρίστατσαι, 10.279). Note the same formula used in 10.279 and Odyssey 13.301: Athena there asserts that she does indeed stand by him in his many labors.

275. mvp-comment-97-2 On Odysseus’ relationship with Athena in the Iliad, see also Haft 1990:42, who, in discussing the many parallels between Iliad 2 and 10, notes that Athena makes an epiphany to Odysseus in that book. On Diomedes’ relationship with Athena, see below on 10.285.

278-279. mvp-comment-98-1 10.278–279 ἥ τέ μοι αἰεὶ / ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοισι παρίστασαι This same formulaic language is used at Odyssey 13.300–301, when Athena asserts that she does indeed always stand by Odysseus in every kind of labor. For a full discussion of that Odyssey passage, see on 10.275. For a similar use of παρίστημι, see below on 10.291.

281. mvp-comment-99-1 10.281 πάλιν ἐπὶ νῆας ἐϋκλεῖας ἐφικέσθαι See above on 10.211–212 and “The Poetics of Ambush” for more on the thematic similarities between nighttime missions and journeys and for the importance of the safe return. Cf. 10.247.

282. mvp-comment-100-1 10.282 ῥέξαντας μέγα ἔργον, ὅ κεν Τρώεσσι μελήσει An interlinear scholion on this line in the Venetus A indicates that Aristarchus understood this “great deed” to mean murdering Hektor. See the Rhesos section of the “Tradition and Reception” essay for more on the theory that a mission to assassinate Hektor might have been told in some versions. Just such an assassination attempt is the initial object of Odysseus and Diomedes’ mission in the tragedy Rhesos (575–576). But we should note that, within the context of Iliad 10, the murder of Rhesos and his men fulfills Odysseus’ prayer (see below on 10.524).