Homer Iliad 24.217

Samuel Butler (Translator)

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Iliad. Homer. Samuel Butler (Translator). London. 1898.

Current edition Perseus

Iliad (English) (Homer. The Iliad of Homer, rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902, translator. London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898.)

Editions (1)
Ἰλιάς Perseus (Homer. Homeri Opera, Volumes 1-2. Monro, D. B. (David Binning), editor; Allen, Thomas W. (Thomas William), editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1920.) — 24.228 focus
Translations (7)
Iliad Perseus (Homer. The Iliad, Volume 1-2. Murray, A. T. (Augustus Taber), translator. London: William Heinmann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1924-1925.) — 24.228 focus
English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020)) — 24.228 focus
So saying he lifted the lids of his chests, and took out twelve goodly vestments. He took also twelve cloaks of single fold, twelve rugs, [230] twelve fair mantles, and an equal number of khitons. He weighed out ten talents of gold, and brought moreover two burnished tripods, four cauldrons, and a very beautiful cup which the Thracians had given him when he had gone to them on an embassy; it was very precious, [235] but he grudged not even this, so eager was he to ransom the body of his son. Then he chased all the Trojans from the court and rebuked them with words of anger. “Out,” he cried, “shame and disgrace to me that you are. Have you no grief in your own homes that you are come to plague me here? [240] Is it a small thing, think you, that the son of Kronos has sent this sorrow upon me, to lose the bravest of my sons? I tell you, you shall prove it in person, for now that he is gone the Achaeans will have easier work in killing you. As for me, let me go down within the house of Hādēs, [245] before my eyes behold the ransacking and wasting of the city.”
English (William Cullen Bryant, 1870) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cullen Bryant, 1870)) — 24.228 focus
English (Alexander Pope, 1720, ed. Watson, 1857) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Alexander Pope, 1720, ed. Watson, 1857)) — 24.228 focus
Forth from his open'd stores, this said, he drew
Twelve costly carpets of refulgent hue;
As many vests, as many mantles told,
And twelve fair veils, and garments stiff with gold;
Two tripods next, and twice two chargers shine,
285
With ten pure talents from the richest mine;
And last a large, well-labour'd bowl had place,
(The pledge of treaties once with friendly Thrace;)
Seem'd all too mean the stores he could employ,
For one last look to buy him back to Troy!
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English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843)) — 24.228 focus
English (George Chapman, 1611, ed. Hooper 1857) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (George Chapman, 1611, ed. Hooper 1857)) — 24.228 focus
English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey)) — 24.228 focus

New Alexandria Commentaries

Douglas Frame

analysis of the significance of nóos and néomai in the speech of Diomedes

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analysis of the significance of nóos and néomai in the speech of Diomedes

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brief analysis of the importance of ‘returning’ in this scene

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Gregory Nagy

The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector, not of Achilles. And it is Hector, not Achilles, who is lamented at the end. But it is Achilles who makes it all happen, since he has transcended his rage and has shown mercy to an old father. The tears of Priam had made Achilles think of his own old father, of his own ancestors—and of Patroklos, who embodied the glories of the ancestors. Achilles was looking bad at the beginning of Iliad 23 and even at the beginning of Iliad 24, but he looks very good by the time Iliad 24 comes to a close.

draft js image errorMourners lament as Hector’s corpse is laid out in preparation for the funeral that closes Iliad Rhapsody 24. Copperplate etching (1795) by Tommaso Piroli, after a drawing (1793) by John Flaxman. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

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Leonard Muellner

analysis of thuoskoos as not a particularly prestigious occupation, in the context of analyzing Odysseus’ response to Leodes in O.22.321

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postulation of the preservation, only in connection with Hector, of a phrase which might have once been hieratic (posis eukhomai/Vedic pátir … ohase), in the context of the analysis of the development of Greek posis compared with Vedic pati-

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in a list of passages with eukhesthai + infinitive (aorist)

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analysis of the attestations of eukhesthai + aorist infinitive (and the series to which this verse belongs)

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analysis of the traditionality of the collocation of eukhesthai and spendein

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analysis of the ambiguity in the meaning of eukhesthai in this verse (‘make a wish,’ ‘pledge, promise,’ ‘boast’), discussion of Benveniste’s analysis of the collocations of spendein and eukhesthai

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analysis of the versatility of poetic technique to report prayers (invocation, grant of favor, request of favor)

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analysis of the section I of the classification of the attestations of eukhesthai + dative (consistent inflection but apparently irregular metrical position of eukhesthai)

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in a list of examples of eukhesthai + dative (sacral)

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Richard Martin

The address that Hekabe makes to Priam as he leaves for Achilles' tent is explicitly presented in the language of lament ("she wailed [kōkusen], and answered with a muthos," 24.200). The speech starts with desperate rebukes of Priam's folly in going—a tone comparable to Andromakhe's lament at 24.743-45, chiding Hektor for not consoling her. Even more explicit is the call for others to join in her mourning, a theme found in Greek lament tradition. Hekabe concludes with a dramatization of her anger and grief: she could eat the liver of Achilles; only such violence would offer requital. In sum, the speech laments both her son, now dead, and her husband, whom she does not expect to see alive again (Martin 1993:87-88).

Given the male, heroic in-group orientation of the word muthos and its association with powerful self-presentation, it would seem to be a social taboo for women to employ this kind of speech. But both Hekabe and Helen, who also addresses Priam with a muthos at 3.166-80, are in fact enacting laments in the speeches labeled with this word. They fulfill an expected performance role, using a recognized genre of muthos as memory, but they are presented as doing so at unexpected times, to create dramatic effect (Martin 1993:87).

Helen's use is equally marked. When Priam on the wall asks her to name a hero below (3.166), she delays this identification and in her reply uses the language of lament, recalling her former home and wishing she had died when she followed Paris to Troy (3.171-80). The poet's use of the line Τὸν δ' Ελένη μύθοισιν ἀμείβετο, δῖα γυναικῶν keys an audience by the use of the word muthos to a graceful enactment of desire in the context of lament (Martin 1993:88).

These lamentations by Helen and Hekabe fulfill the conditions for performance found throughout the analysis of the three muthos genres: they are acts of self-presentation with an emphasis on extension and detail, in a public setting. It is, as well, the genre of lament in the context of larger memories that finally unites Achilles in thought with Priam and effects the closure of the Iliad, both men remembering their losses (Martin 1993:87).

References

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

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