Homer Iliad 10.128

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'Then none' (said Nestor) 'shall his rule withstand,
'For great examples justify command.'

Iliad. Homer. London. 1863.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

English (Alexander Pope, 1720, ed. Watson, 1857) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Alexander Pope, 1720, ed. Watson, 1857))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

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.) — 10.128 focus
Translations (8)
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.) — 10.128 focus
Iliad Perseus (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.) — 10.115 focus
English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020)) — 10.128 focus
“In that case,” answered Nestor, the charioteer of Gerenia, “the Argives will not blame him nor disobey his orders [130] when he urges them to fight or gives them instructions.”
English (William Cullen Bryant, 1870) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cullen Bryant, 1870)) — 10.128 focus
And Nestor, the Gerenian knight, replied: -
"Then let no Greek condemn him, or refuse
150
To heed and to obey when he shall speak."
He spake, and drew his tunic o'er his breast,
Laced the fair sandals to his shapely feet,
And round him fastened, with a clasp, his cloak, -
A double web of purple, with full folds
155
And flowing pile. He grasped a massive spear,
Its blade of trenchant brass. And first he sought
The galleys of the Achaians brazen-mailed.
There shouted Nestor the Gerenian knight,
To raise Ulysses, best of counsellors,
160
Jove-like in wisdom; who perceived the voice,
And issued from his tent in haste, and said: -
"What brings you forth to walk the camp at night,
Beside the ships alone; what urgent cause?"
Then answered Nestor the Gerenian knight: -
165
"Son of Laertes, nobly born, and skilled
In wise devices, be thou not displeased:
A fearful woe impends above the Greeks:
Come, then, and call the other chiefs, to give
Their counsel whether we shall flee or fight."
170
He spake; and wise Ulysses, entering
His tent again, upon his shoulders laid
His well-wrought shield, and joined them as they went,
Till, coming to Tydides Diomed,
They found him by his tent among his arms,
175
His comrades sleeping round him with their shields
Beneath their heads. Their spears were set upright,
The nether points in earth. The polished brass
Gleamed like the lightnings of All-Father Jove.
In sleep the hero lay; a wild bull's hide
180
Was spread beneath him, and a carpet dyed
With glowing colors propped his head. The knight,
Gerenian Nestor, touched him with his foot
And roused him, and addressed him chidingly:-
"O son of Tydeus! wilt thou calmly sleep
185
All the night long? And hast thou, then, not heard
That on a height amidst the plain the sons
Of Troy are stationed, near the ships, and small
The space that parts the enemy's camp from ours?"
He spake. The son of Tydeus sprang from sleep
190
At once, and answered him with wingèd words:
"Thy labors are too constant, aged man;
Thou shrinkest from no hardship. Are there not
Young men among the Greeks to walk the camp
And call the kings? Thou never takest rest."
195
And Nestor, the Gerenian knight, replied: -
"Well hast thou said, my friend, for I have sons
Without reproach, and I have many troops;
And any one of these might walk the camp
And give the summons. But to-night there lies
200
A hard necessity upon the Greeks,
And their destruction and their rescue hang
Balanced on a knife's edge. Come then, since thou
Art younger, call swift Ajax and the son
Of Phyleus, if thou wouldst relieve my age."
205
English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843)) — 10.128 focus
English (George Chapman, 1611, ed. Hooper 1857) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (George Chapman, 1611, ed. Hooper 1857)) — 10.128 focus
English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey)) — 10.128 focus
English (F. W. Newman, 1856) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (F. W. Newman, 1856)) — 10 focus

New Alexandria Commentaries

Casey Dué

πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεὺς

On Odysseus’ associations with mētis, see on 10.5–9 and on 10.137 above. Polumētis ‘who is crafty in many ways’ is one of Odysseus’ most commonly used epithets. Other than Odysseus it is only used of Hephaistos (πολυμήτιος, Iliad 21.355), who is the god of a different sort of craft. (The English word ‘craft’, like the Greek mētis, encompasses both meanings.) Milman Parry says of this particular epithet: “δῖος and πολύμητις, for the audience, describe the Odysseus of all the epic poems which sang his deeds” (MHV 171). πολύμητις is one of the distinctive epithets of Odysseus, while δῖος is a generic epithet of heroes (see Parry MHV 145 for πολύμητις as a distinctive epithet, and MHV 84 for δῖος as generic). Parry writes:

Epic lines without epithets would have seemed to them like a heroic character without his traditional attributes. But even now, who among those of us who have any knowledge of the legend has asked why Odysseus should be crafty in this or that particular episode? Just so, Homer’s listeners demanded epithets and paid them no attention, showing thereby the same lack of exact observation that becomes a habit with the modern reader. And it is this lack of exact observation that explains uses of the epithet which appear to us unmotivated, because we look for their motivations in the lines where they occur, rather than in all the poetry Homer’s audience had already heard before they ever heard him sing.

Parry MHV 137–138

As we discussed on 10.3 in connection with the phrase ποιμένα λαῶν, the phrase πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεὺς can be used of Odysseus even in situations in which he is not being particularly crafty; the distinctive noun-epithet combination is, to quote the formulation of Nagy once again, “like a small theme song that conjures up a thought-association with the traditional essence of an epic figure” (Nagy 1990b:23). The phrase is not without significance in an ambush context, however, because Odysseus is a pre-eminent ambusher within the tradition as a whole. Odysseus is called πολύμητις just as he leaves his tent, which marks the beginning of what will become a spying mission/ambush episode that will prominently feature Odysseus’ mētis. Once that episode is well underway, Odysseus will be again called πολύμητις when he interrogates Dolon (10.382; see also 10.488, where he handles the horses so they are not spooked).

source

ποικίλον ἀμφ᾽ ὤμοισι σάκος θέτο

Agamemnon and Diomedes each wear a lion skin, Menelaos wears a leopard skin, Nestor wears a khiton and khlaina, and all take a weapon (egkhos or doru), but Odysseus takes only a shield and leaves without putting on any outerwear of any kind. This seemingly mundane detail actually serves two significant narrative functions. First and foremost, it sets up the extended arming scene that takes place at the assembly, just before the raid itself (see below on 10.254–272). Odysseus’ lack of appropriate gear here means that he will have to borrow armor at the assembly. Second, Odysseus’ lack of an animal skin has an intriguing corollary the Odyssey, where, in one of his Cretan lies to Eumaios in Odyssey 14, Odysseus comes close to revealing his true identity, at least from the perspective of a traditional audience of epic. Odysseus describes how once on a cold night at Troy he went out on an ambush. All the other heroes were dressed for the weather, but he himself had no cloak, and had to come up with a clever scheme to get one from one of his companions on the lokhos. Odysseus’ Cretan lie may well be playfully alluding to a Doloneia tradition, in which case the story is a coded verbal message (ainos) directed at both the internal audience (Eumaios) and the external audience, who will “get” the inside reference. Such a reference is possible if we understand the Iliad (including the Doloneia) and Odyssey to be co-existing oral traditions, evolving in conjunction with one another. (On the ainos as a coded verbal message in Odyssey 14, see both Muellner 1976:97 and Nagy 1979:234–237, with further reference ad loc.) On the multiple significances of the shield being “intricately patterned” (poikilos), see above on 10.30.

source

ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ κλισίης σὺν τεύχεσιν

Diomedes and his comrades are so ready for battle that they are not even inside their tent. Agamemnon had earlier stated his concern that the Trojans might be planning a night attack (10.100–101), and the preparedness seen here may also reflect the same “state of emergency” that is also prompting the night meeting and spying mission.

source

ἔγχεα δέ σφιν/ ὀρθ᾽ ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρος ἐλήλατο, τῆλε δὲ χαλκὸς / λάμφ᾽ ὥς τε στεροπὴ πατρὸς Διὸς

Their spears are planted in a kind of palisade, perhaps as a defense while they sleep on this dangerous night, or perhaps so that they are easy to reach in case of attack. The shining of the bronze like lightning is a frequent image in Homeric poetry (see Iliad 11.66, which is also an explicit simile, and the metaphorical uses of στεροπή with bronze at Iliad 11.83 and 19.363, and Odyssey 4.72 and 14.268 = 17.437). In most of those cases, just as here, the gleam of the bronze has a threatening or awe-inspiring quality to it. That the bronze shines this way at night is suggestive in terms of what is visible in the dark.

source

ὄρσεο

The manuscripts are divided between this reading and ἔγρεο. The scholia indicate that Aristarchus had both readings: ὄρσεο· διχῶς ὁ Ἀρίσταρχος, ἔγρεο καὶ ὄρσεο [A intermarginal scholia]; ἔγρεο· γράφεται καὶ ὄρσεο. διχῶς αἱ Ἀριστάρχου [T interlinear scholia]. This is possible because two separate editions or ekdoseis of the text of Homer were attributed to Aristarchus (= αἱ Ἀριστάρχου in the scholia), both of which were known to his student Didymus. From Didymus’ scholarly work many of the scholia derive. (On the ekdoseis of Aristarchus, see Montanari 1998 and Nagy 2004:85–86. On the sources for the Homeric scholia, see Nagy 2004:3–24 and Blackwell and Dué 2009.)

The sources, both ancient and medieval, are perhaps divided here because both verbs are well attested in the formulaic diction. ἔγρεο occurs here and in two places in the Odyssey; ὄρσεο is attested four times in the Iliad and once in the Odyssey. Clearly, both verbs could be generated by a poet composing in performance. Here is a perfect illustration of the difficulty a modern editor of Homer faces when trying to choose between two or more equally Homeric (= formulaic) variations. We, as the editors of this volume, have for this very reason rejected a traditional text critical approach, and instead have advocated a multitextual approach that accounts for the multiformity of the Homeric poems at different historical points in their transmission. (See above, “Iliad 10: A Multitextual Approach.”)

source

Τυδέος υἱέ

See on 10.144 above. See also Schnapp-Gourbeillon 1981:96–100 for more on Diomedes’ patronymic and his youth.

source

The third-century CE scholar and poet Diogenes Laertius relates an anecdote (6.53) that features the hexameter line μή τίς τοι εὔδοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ. This verse is probably a literary play on Iliad 8.95: μή τίς τοι φεύγοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ. The twelfth-century scholar Eustathius may be in fact thinking of Diogenes and not Homer when he writes (in 519.32) ὁ Νέστωρ τῷ Διομήδῃ κειμένῳ πού φησιν· ἔγρεο, μή τις τοι καθεύδοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ (“Somewhere Nestor says to the sleeping Diomedes, ‘Wake up, lest someone pierce you in the back with a spear while you sleep’”; cf. Diogenes Laertius’ ἐπέγειραι, ἔφη … ). It is possible that Eustathius had a text of the Iliad with this line following 10.159, but the verse is attested nowhere else in our manuscripts.

source

ἑέσσατο δέρμα λέοντος / αἴθωνος μεγάλοιο ποδηνεκὲς, εἵλετο δ᾽ ἔγχος

Verse 177, after the caesura, and 178 are also used to describe what Agamemnon wears in 10.23–24, which is indicative of their formulaic nature and also suggestive of their use in night raid contexts generally.

source

βῆ δ᾽ ἰέναι

See on 10.32.

source

As we discuss in the introductory essay “The Poetics of Ambush,” this simile emphasizes the sounds that are made in the dark, as well as describing a scenario of being on the defensive against a nocturnal attack (see above, pp. 63–64).

source

δυσωρήσωνται is another hapax legomenon, appearing only in Iliad 10, but we can understand why it might only appear once in our extant Homeric epics from the simile’s interaction with its context. Although in other parts of the poem there are similes describing predatory animals attacking domestic flocks at night, and the retaliation of men and dogs (see e.g. Iliad 11.546–557), here the simile is for a particularly “painful” night watch. It is painful both because the young men on guard duty have had an extremely hard day of fighting and because the Trojans are camped out for the first time, closer than ever, during this night. (See also the commentary on 10.331 for more on words that appear only in Iliad 10.)

source
Gregory Nagy

There is a pronounced shift in mood in Rhapsody 10. Unlike the narratives in the rest of the Iliad, this narrative focuses on how heroes behave at nighttime, as distinct from daytime. What dominates now is a poetics of ambush, which is a different kind of warfare. And a prime exponent of such poetics is the wolfish figure of Dolon. My comments here on Rhapsody 10 are mere supplements to the extensive commentary of Dué and Ebbott 2010.

draft js image errorDolon. Detail from an Attic red-figure lekythos (460 BCE). Image via Wikimedia Commons.

source
Leonard Muellner

comment on Odysseus’ lack of a cloak, but only carrying a shield (this verse) in the Doloneia in contrast to the other heroes’ elaborately described cloaks, in the context of analyzing O.14.463-466, where the disguised Odysseus tells Eumaios a story of when he tricked Thoas out of his cloak during an ambush

source

comment on Odysseus’ lack of a cloak in the Doloneia in contrast to the other heroes’ elaborately described cloaks, in the context of analyzing O.14.463-466, where the disguised Odysseus tells Eumaios a story of when he tricked Thoas out of his cloak during an ambush

source

Commentary

Commentary (Casey Dué and Mary Ebbott, 2010) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Casey Dué and Mary Ebbott, 2010)) focus

148. mvp-comment-51-1 10.148 πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεὺς On Odysseus’ associations with mētis, see on 10.5–9 and on 10.137 above. Polumētis ‘who is crafty in many ways’ is one of Odysseus’ most commonly used epithets. Other than Odysseus it is only used of Hephaistos ( πολυμήτιος, Iliad 21.355), who is the god of a different sort of craft. (The English word ‘craft’, like the Greek mētis, encompasses both meanings.) Milman Parry says of this particular epithet: “ δῖος and πολύμητις, for the audience, describe the Odysseus of all the epic poems which sang his deeds” (MHV 171). πολύμητις is one of the distinctive epithets of Odysseus, while δῖος is a generic epithet of heroes (see Parry MHV 145 for πολύμητις as a distinctive epithet, and MHV 84 for δῖος as generic). Parry writes:

Epic lines without epithets would have seemed to them like a heroic character without his traditional attributes. But even now, who among those of us who have any knowledge of the legend has asked why Odysseus should be crafty in this or that particular episode? Just so, Homer’s listeners demanded epithets and paid them no attention, showing thereby the same lack of exact observation that becomes a habit with the modern reader. And it is this lack of exact observation that explains uses of the epithet which appear to us unmotivated, because we look for their motivations in the lines where they occur, rather than in all the poetry Homer’s audience had already heard before they ever heard him sing.
Parry MHV 137–138 As we discussed on 10.3 in connection with the phrase ποιμένα λαῶν, the phrase πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεὺς can be used of Odysseus even in situations in which he is not being particularly crafty; the distinctive noun-epithet combination is, to quote the formulation of Nagy once again, “like a small theme song that conjures up a thought-association with the traditional essence of an epic figure” (Nagy 1990b:23). The phrase is not without significance in an ambush context, however, because Odysseus is a pre-eminent ambusher within the tradition as a whole. Odysseus is called πολύμητις just as he leaves his tent, which marks the beginning of what will become a spying mission/ambush episode that will prominently feature Odysseus’ mētis. Once that episode is well underway, Odysseus will be again called πολύμητις when he interrogates Dolon (10.382; see also 10.488, where he handles the horses so they are not spooked).

149. mvp-comment-52-1 10.149 ποικίλον ἀμφ᾽ ὤμοισι σάκος θέτο Agamemnon and Diomedes each wear a lion skin, Menelaos wears a leopard skin, Nestor wears a khiton and khlaina, and all take a weapon ( egkhos or doru), but Odysseus takes only a shield and leaves without putting on any outerwear of any kind. This seemingly mundane detail actually serves two significant narrative functions. First and foremost, it sets up the extended arming scene that takes place at the assembly, just before the raid itself (see below on 10.254–272). Odysseus’ lack of appropriate gear here means that he will have to borrow armor at the assembly. Second, Odysseus’ lack of an animal skin has an intriguing corollary the Odyssey, where, in one of his Cretan lies to Eumaios in Odyssey 14, Odysseus comes close to revealing his true identity, at least from the perspective of a traditional audience of epic. Odysseus describes how once on a cold night at Troy he went out on an ambush. All the other heroes were dressed for the weather, but he himself had no cloak, and had to come up with a clever scheme to get one from one of his companions on the lokhos. Odysseus’ Cretan lie may well be playfully alluding to a Doloneia tradition, in which case the story is a coded verbal message ( ainos) directed at both the internal audience (Eumaios) and the external audience, who will “get” the inside reference. Such a reference is possible if we understand the Iliad (including the Doloneia) and Odyssey to be co-existing oral traditions, evolving in conjunction with one another. (On the ainos as a coded verbal message in Odyssey 14, see both Muellner 1976:97 and Nagy 1979:234–237, with further reference ad loc.) On the multiple significances of the shield being “intricately patterned” ( poikilos), see above on 10.30.

151. mvp-comment-53-1 10.151 ἐκτὸς ἀπὸ κλισίης σὺν τεύχεσιν Diomedes and his comrades are so ready for battle that they are not even inside their tent. Agamemnon had earlier stated his concern that the Trojans might be planning a night attack (10.100–101), and the preparedness seen here may also reflect the same “state of emergency” that is also prompting the night meeting and spying mission.

152-154. mvp-comment-54-1 10.152–154 ἔγχεα δέ σφιν/ ὀρθ᾽ ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρος ἐλήλατο, τῆλε δὲ χαλκὸς / λάμφ᾽ ὥς τε στεροπὴ πατρὸς Διὸς Their spears are planted in a kind of palisade, perhaps as a defense while they sleep on this dangerous night, or perhaps so that they are easy to reach in case of attack. The shining of the bronze like lightning is a frequent image in Homeric poetry (see Iliad 11.66, which is also an explicit simile, and the metaphorical uses of στεροπή with bronze at Iliad 11.83 and 19.363, and Odyssey 4.72 and 14.268 = 17.437). In most of those cases, just as here, the gleam of the bronze has a threatening or awe-inspiring quality to it. That the bronze shines this way at night is suggestive in terms of what is visible in the dark.

159. mvp-comment-55-1 10.159 ὄρσεο The manuscripts are divided between this reading and ἔγρεο. The scholia indicate that Aristarchus had both readings: ὄρσεο· διχῶς ὁ Ἀρίσταρχος, ἔγρεο καὶ ὄρσεο [A intermarginal scholia]; ἔγρεο· γράφεται καὶ ὄρσεο. διχῶς αἱ Ἀριστάρχου [T interlinear scholia]. This is possible because two separate editions or ekdoseis of the text of Homer were attributed to Aristarchus (= αἱ Ἀριστάρχου in the scholia), both of which were known to his student Didymus. From Didymus’ scholarly work many of the scholia derive. (On the ekdoseis of Aristarchus, see Montanari 1998 and Nagy 2004:85–86. On the sources for the Homeric scholia, see Nagy 2004:3–24 and Blackwell and Dué 2009.)

159. mvp-comment-55-2 The sources, both ancient and medieval, are perhaps divided here because both verbs are well attested in the formulaic diction. ἔγρεο occurs here and in two places in the Odyssey; ὄρσεο is attested four times in the Iliad and once in the Odyssey. Clearly, both verbs could be generated by a poet composing in performance. Here is a perfect illustration of the difficulty a modern editor of Homer faces when trying to choose between two or more equally Homeric (= formulaic) variations. We, as the editors of this volume, have for this very reason rejected a traditional text critical approach, and instead have advocated a multitextual approach that accounts for the multiformity of the Homeric poems at different historical points in their transmission. (See above, “ Iliad 10: A Multitextual Approach.”)

159. mvp-comment-55-3 10.159 Τυδέος υἱέ See on 10.144 above. See also Schnapp-Gourbeillon 1981:96–100 for more on Diomedes’ patronymic and his youth.

159a. mvp-comment-56-1 10.159a The third-century CE scholar and poet Diogenes Laertius relates an anecdote (6.53) that features the hexameter line μή τίς τοι εὔδοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ. This verse is probably a literary play on Iliad 8.95: μή τίς τοι φεύγοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ. The twelfth-century scholar Eustathius may be in fact thinking of Diogenes and not Homer when he writes (in 519.32 ) ὁ Νέστωρ τῷ Διομήδῃ κειμένῳ πού φησιν· ἔγρεο, μή τις τοι καθεύδοντι μεταφρένῳ ἐν δόρυ πήξῃ (“Somewhere Nestor says to the sleeping Diomedes, ‘Wake up, lest someone pierce you in the back with a spear while you sleep’”; cf. Diogenes Laertius’ ἐπέγειραι, ἔφη … ). It is possible that Eustathius had a text of the Iliad with this line following 10.159, but the verse is attested nowhere else in our manuscripts.

177-178. mvp-comment-57-1 10.177–178 ἑέσσατο δέρμα λέοντος / αἴθωνος μεγάλοιο ποδηνεκὲς, εἵλετο δ᾽ ἔγχος Verse 177, after the caesura, and 178 are also used to describe what Agamemnon wears in 10.23–24, which is indicative of their formulaic nature and also suggestive of their use in night raid contexts generally.

179. mvp-comment-58-1 10.179 βῆ δ᾽ ἰέναι See on 10.32.

180-189. mvp-comment-59-1 10.180–189 As we discuss in the introductory essay “The Poetics of Ambush,” this simile emphasizes the sounds that are made in the dark, as well as describing a scenario of being on the defensive against a nocturnal attack (see above, pp. 63–64).

183. mvp-comment-60-1 10.183 δυσωρήσωνται is another hapax legomenon, appearing only in Iliad 10, but we can understand why it might only appear once in our extant Homeric epics from the simile’s interaction with its context. Although in other parts of the poem there are similes describing predatory animals attacking domestic flocks at night, and the retaliation of men and dogs (see e.g. Iliad 11.546–557), here the simile is for a particularly “painful” night watch. It is painful both because the young men on guard duty have had an extremely hard day of fighting and because the Trojans are camped out for the first time, closer than ever, during this night. (See also the commentary on 10.331 for more on words that appear only in Iliad 10.)