Homer's Iliad

Marina Coray, S. Douglas Olson, Benjamin Millis, Sara Strack

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781501504341
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

At the centre of the commentary on Book 19 of the Iliad is the interpretation of speeches and events at the assembly of the Achaean army. It is here that the argument between Achilles and Agamemnon was settled, thus enabling the Achaeans to take the field in the decisive battle against Hector and the Trojans.

Commentary

In Book 16, Patroklos went into battle in the armor of his friend Achilleus and was killed by Hektor. In the course of these events, the armor fell into the hands of the enemy; after a hard-fought battle, the Greeks were able to bring back to camp only Patroklos’ body (17.1–18.242). The second part of Book 18 describes the production of new armor by the divine smith Hephaistos (369–613), the delivery of the armor to Thetis (614 f.), and her departure from Hephaistos’ workshop (616 f.). Book 19 follows seamlessly with Thetis’ arrival in the Greek camp, where deep sorrow is felt for the slain Patroklos. Preparations for the imminent battle, in which Achilleus and Hektor will confront one another, begin with the handing over of the new armor: first, the mustering of the troops with Achilleus’ renunciation of his wrath, the settlement of the quarrel and the return of Briseïs, followed by a meal and the arming of the troops before their departure for battle, which will be led by Achilleus (fourth and final day of battle in the Iliad; see STR 21 fig. 1 and STR 22 fig. 2). Close links are apparent here with Books 1 and 9 (eruption of the quarrel, failed attempt at conciliation), with which Book 19 also shares a comparatively high proportion of direct speeches (Book 1: 61 %, Book 9: 82 %, Book 19: 64 %; see FINGERLE 1939, 68; EDWARDS p. 234 f.).

1–39 Thetis arrives in the encampment of ships and finds her son bent in grief over the body of Patroklos. She hands him his new armor and requests that he announce his return to battle to the Greeks. Since Achilleus is concerned about Patroklos’ body, she uses nectar and ambrosia to keep it from decomposing.

The book begins with the themeP ‘daybreak – convening an assembly’ (cf. 2.48–52 [2.48–49n.], 8.1–3, Od. 2.1–8, 5.1–3, 8.1–15, 9.170 f., 10.187 f., 12.316–319). The convening of the assembly by Achilleus (41) is preceded by the delivery of the armor (12–19) and the preservation of Patroklos’ body (20–39). The arrival of Thetis (CG 20) at daybreak seamlessly continues the action of Book 18, i.e. the type-sceneP ‘arrival’ (1.496b–502n.): (1) the character departs (18.616 f.); (2) he/she arrives (19.3) and (3) finds the character being sought, and (3a) the bystanders are named (4–6a); (4) the first character approaches (6b); (5) he/she speaks (7 ff.). Between (1) and (2), i.e. at the moment of the change of scene from Olympus to the Greek camp, the type-scene is expanded by the motif of the arriving dawn, and is thus adapted to the course of action announced by Thetis at 18.136 f. (delivery of armor on the following morning; EDWARDS on 1–3; see also 1–2n; comparable modifications of type-scenes: 1.320–348a n., 1.447–468n., 2.155–181n., 2.167n.; on a deity’s ‘travel’, see 1.43–52n.). – The division between Books, which falls in the middle of the type-sceneP, is likely post-Homeric: STR 21 n. 22; for discussion of the division into Books in general, GT 5; RICHARDSON, Introd. 20 f.; EDWARDS 2002, 39–47 (with bibliography); for divisions by the poet of the Iliad, JENSEN 2010, 329–362, esp. 346 ff.; see also 6.1n. – Some interpreters felt that 1–2 were a disruption and suspected, probably wrongly, that they were an interpolation connected with the post-Homeric imposition of Book divisions (cf. 1–2n. and 3n. [s.v. ἣ δέ]; EDWARDS on 1–3).

1–2 Day 27 of the action of the Iliad begins (STR 21 fig. 1). The daybreak serves to structure the action and forms the prelude for important events: Achilleus’ step toward (formal) reconciliation and the end of his wrath at 75 (STR 22), his re-entry into battle (364 ff., 20.75 ff.) and the killing of Hektor (22.131 ff.); cf. the similar function of daybreak preceding important events at 2.48 f. (inspection of the army and departure for battle), 8.1 (defeat of the Greeks), 11.1 f. (Agamemnon’s aristeia and wounding; Hainsworth on 11.1–14). — Here, the daybreak is not described with one of the usual whole-verse formulae (e.g. 1.477, 8.1; on the various ‘morning’-formulae, see 1.477n., 2.48–49n.; KIRK on 2.48–9; DE JONG on Od. 2.1). The formulaic statement that Eos, the dawn (CG 38), is rising from her husband Tithonos’ bed (11.1, Od. 5.1) is omitted as well, since here the arrival of dawn is closely linked to Thetis’ change of location: flight down from Olympos (Il. 18.616) and rising from Okeanos (19.1 f.), delivery of the gleaming armor (18.617, 19.3) and light (19.2). The sequence in the shape of the ring-compositionP Thetis – Eos – Thetis thus calls forth an association of Thetis, who brings the armor, with Eos, the bringer of light (‘imagistic association’: NAGLER 1974, 142; EDWARDS on 1–3; cf. also Slatkin [1991] 2011, 38 f.). Eos elsewhere rises from Okeanos only in the Odyssey (22.197, 23.243 f., 23.347 f.).

1 1st VH = 8.1; ≈ 24.695; 2nd VH ≈ 3.5, Od. 22.197; VE ≈ ‘Hes.’ fr. 363 M.-W. — yellow-robed: In Homer, the epithet krokópeplos ‘with saffron (colored) peplos’ is used solely in reference to Eos (4x Il.), while in Hesiod it is used as an epithet of Enyo at Th. 273 and of Telesto at Th. 358 (LfgrE s.v.). On the female garment ‘peplos’, see 6.90n. and MARINATOS 1967, 11; on saffron as a dye for clothing, LfgrE s.v. κρόκος and MARINATOS loc. cit. 3. In other passages in the Iliad (8.1, 23.227, 24.695), the epithet is linked to an image of dawn spreading across the land or the sea like a saffron-colored cloak and, as here, is closely connected with divine action (8.2 ff., 23.226, 24.694; VIVANTE [1979] 1987, 51 f.: divine perspective; on dawn’s clothing in IE poetry, WEST 2007, 220 f.). Additional epithets of Eos that refer to color phenomena are ‘rosy-fingered’ (Greek rhododáktylos) 1.477 (see ad loc.) and ‘golden-seated’ (Greek chrysóthronos; on this, 1.611n.) Od. 10.541, 12.142, etc. (KIRK on 2.48–9 and on 8.1, where note also his reticence on the issue of the different implications of the epithets). — the river of Ocean: the stream encircling the earth (1.423n.).

2 = 11.2, Od. 5.2. — to men and to immortals: The polar expressionP brings into view the community of gods and human beings (KEMMER 1903, 81), while simultaneously underlining the change of scene from the workshop of the god Hephaistos (CG 15) to the Greek camp (cf. 1–39n.). In contrast to the simple juxtaposition ‘gods – humans’, the Greek phrasing athanátoisi … brotoísin ‘immortals … mortals’, adapted to the situation, emphasizes the fact of mortality (LfgrE s.v. βροτός; cf. 1.339n.; LfgrE s.v. ἀνήρ 834.11 ff.; on Indo-Iranian parallels, WEST 2007, 127 f.).

βροτοῖσιν: on form and meaning, 1.272n.

3 The motif of the delivery of armor finds a parallel in the Aethiopis (Proclus, Chrest. § 2 West): Eos’ son Memnon receives armor made by Hephaistos. According to the Neo-Analysts, this is to be ascribed to an oral version of the Trojan myth complex upon which Homer as well was drawing (EDWARDS on 1–3 and Introd. 17 ff.; Currie 2006, 23–41, especially 28 f.; cf. KULLMANN [1991] 1992, 114 ff.; on neo-analysis in general, KULLMANN 1984; WILLCOCK 1997; BURGESS 2006; Currie 2012; cf. also NTHS 10); contra WEST 2003, 9 ff.: Memnon as a post-Homeric invention meant to provide an evenly matched opponent for Achilleus following Hektor’s death. – The delivery of armor is also a common motif in ancient vase-painting. But it is frequently unclear whether what is depicted is the first delivery of armor at the departure for the Trojan War or the second one before Troy, or whether the depiction is even of a mythical scene (discussion in FRIIS JOHANSEN 1967, 104 ff.; SNODGRASS1998, 149 f.; GIULIANI 2003, 133 ff.; LIMC s.v. Achilleus 71 f., 122; on the basic issue ‘mythological scene – scene of everyday life’, see FITTSCHEN 1969, 9 ff., 176 f.; KANNICHT [1979] 1996, 49 ff.; GIULIANI loc. cit. 46 ff.). — to the ships: i.e. in the Greek camp (1.12b n.). — carried with her the gifts of Hephaistos: the continuation of the Thetisstory (cf. 18.617): the armor is a gift for Achilleus in recognition of the help his mother Thetis once gave to Hephaistos (18.394–407, 18.463–467). Gifts from the gods may be special talents or actual objects (weapons, musical instruments, etc.). The motif ‘gift from a god/gods’ indicates a special aptitude of the character concerned in that area or in the handling of the instrument in question (cf. DE JONG on Od. 2.116–18; 6.156n.). The divine provenance of the armor is consequently emphasized repeatedly (18.617, 19.10, 19.18, 19.21, and in the arming scene 19.368, 19.383). ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of contents
• Preface to the German Edition
• Preface to the English Edition
• Notes for the Reader (including list of abbreviations)
• 24 Rules Relating to Homeric Language (R)
• Overview of the Action in Book 19
• Commentary
• Bibliographic Abbreviations
• Endnotes