example of Nestor as the symbol of nóos

analysis of the connection of Nestor with noos, he as its personification

comparison of Nestor and Polydamas, the counselors on their respective sides, in terms of noos (in the context of interpreting them in terms of the twin myth)

example of the inherent opposition between verbs pheúgein and halonai. Compare to Il. XXI.493-495

provides evidence for contention that Homer no longer understood the context and traditional meaning of ásmenoi because it has here lost its verbal force and functions as an adjective

analysis of asmenos as having lost its original meaning and being understood as an adjective meaning “happy” in Homer, with this verse as an example

The momentum of the attacking Trojan warriors gets stalled here, since Hērā interrupts the ongoing Plan of Zeus. The goddess seduces the god, and the setting for their divine sexual encounter is the spectacular landscape of Mount Ida, which is the private abode of the thundering almighty. During the tryst of the god and the goddess, the Achaeans regain the upper hand in the fighting. But this new momentum is soon headed for a downturn. The divine interruption, despite all its cosmic sexual energy, becomes retrospectively a mere interlude in the narrative arc of the Iliad—once the tryst is over and the Plan of Zeus resumes its relentless course of action.

Juno and Jupiter. Detail from “Loves of the Gods,” fresco by Annibale Carracci (1560–1609). Annibale Carracci [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carracci_-_Jupiter_et_Junon.jpeg.

Nestor here reconnects with Agamemnon and other leaders of the Achaeans at their headquarters, I.14.027–028. The headquarters are pictured as a massing of ships beached on the shores of the south end of the bay of the Hellespont, and this location has been reconstructed in the comments on I.08.220–227, I.11.005–016, and I.11.806–808. But there is now an added detail to be noted here at I.14.030–032: the ships had been beached with their sterns facing inland and their prows facing out toward the waters, so that the Wall of the Achaeans, built ten years after the original beaching of the ships, was made to be contiguous with the sterns of the ships lined up along the southern shores of the bay of the Hellespont. See also the comment at I.15.385. As for the other ships of the Achaeans, they had been beached along the shores of the rest of the U-shaped bay, as we read at I.14.033–036. See the comment on those verses. These other ships, then, are peripheral to the ships beached at the central shoreline of the bay, which are pictured as the headquarters of the Achaeans. And these headquarers, as noted in the comment on I.11.806–808, are called the naustathmon ‘ship-station’ by Strabo 13.1.31–32 C595 (quoted at HPC 153) and 13.1.36 C598 (quoted at HPC 154). Also, as noted in the comments on I.11.806–808, Homeric poetry pictures such a ‘station’ as a political and sacral centerpoint for the leaders of the Achaeans. See also the comments on I.08.220–227. It is this central station that becomes the political stage of Agamemnon when he stands on the beached ship of Odysseus and projects his voice of authority to all the Achaeans stationed at their ships, I.08.220–227. And it is this central station, we will see later in more detail, that becomes the prime target of the Trojan hero Hector when he succeeds in penetrating the Achaean Wall. Also in a later comment, there will be more to say about the sharing of this central space by two figures in particular, Agamemnon and Odysseus. The joint participation of these two Homeric heroes in the innermost political zone that is marked by this spatial centerpoint is homologous with their engagement in two epic quarrels involving Achilles as a political outsider: the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in the Iliad, it can be argued, is linked with the quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus in the “micro-Iliad” at O.08.072–083, which is the First Song of Demodokos (BA 42–58).

Again, as at I.13.227, the fear is expressed that the invading Achaean warriors could die nōnumnoi ‘nameless’ at Troy. On the connotations, which can be seen by way of comparing Hesiodic poetry, see the comment on I.12.079.

example of ‘standard’ usage in Homeric quotations of Plato

analysis of the meaning of thēmis and the role of Themis

in a list of attestations of genos eukhesthai einai and its transformations

analysis of the classification and interrelationship of the different genos eukhesthai einai formulas

By Book 14, Diomedes has learned how to construct an impregnable speech by taking preemptive action against possible objections. As does Nestor, he prefaces his speech with disarming recollection of the past—his own ancestry in this case—and thus rejects possible claims that he is too young to speak well, while raising his status as a warrior by blood. As a result, his muthos is assured of success: "Therefore, you cannot devalue my muthos by saying I am strengthless and have a bad ancestry, whatever I say" (14.126-27). The poet concludes the speech with the same line that followed Nestor's exemplary muthos in Book 9: "Thus he spoke and then they listened and obeyed" (14.133 = 9.79) (Martin 1993:25).

Diomedes' employment of genealogical recitation at 14.110-27 is a device for accomplishing his entry into the world of heroic speakers. The recitation of genealogy in poetic form is recognized throughout Africa as an essential social genre and holds a good claim to be one of the oldest Indo-European genres, attested in Irish, Welsh, Avestan, Old English, Norse, and non-Homeric Greek poetry. The role of genealogical memories within Iliadic speeches is oriented toward the hero's marking of his own deeds or to shaming another to act: Agamemnon and others use genealogical recitation with Diomedes himself at 4.375 and 5.813. Aeneas' use of the genre is ambiguous—he is characterized as "a master of poetic skills in the language of praise and blame," as his very name asserts, yet seems to spend an inordinate amount of time recounting his genealogy to face down Achilles before a duel (20.200-258), compared with Achilles, who can afford to wait until after the victim is dead (Martin 1993:85-86).

For the broader analysis of memory as a muthos genre, see the comment on Iliad 1.259-274.

References

Martin, R. P. 1993. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca.

The style of giving more information by adding clauses can best be seen in longer stretches of Odysseus' speech. His reply to Agamemnon's proposal in Book 14 features at least one such clause in nearly every sentence: "Nor should you rule us, to whom Zeus granted . . . the raveling of wars" (14.85); "You wish to abandon Troy . . . for which we suffer many evils" (89); "Silence, lest another Achaean hear the muthos / which a man, at least, might not draw all through the mouth, a man who knew to speak close-fitting things" (91, 92). These eight lines contain four relative clauses, compared with Agamemnon's immediately preceding speech, in which only two occur over seventeen lines (67, 81). The difference in their preferred syntactic strategies explains a good deal of the tone of each hero's speech: curt and hard-bitten for Agamemnon, fluid and accommodating for Odysseus (Martin 1993:122-23).

The realization that speech can be good or bad prompts Odysseus' remark that Diomedes should neither praise nor blame too much among a knowing audience (10.249). The urge for proportionate speech explains his criticism of Agamemnon's style, since Agamemnon's call to retreat is out of all proportion with the heroic ethos: it is, to Odysseus, a muthos that one can hardly pronounce, the opposite of an act of speech (Martin 1993:122-23).

For the broader analysis of Odysseus' style, see the comment on Iliad 3.212-223.

References

Martin, R. P. 1993. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca.