71 Homer, Iliad 10.360–64.
72 Homer, Iliad 5.161.
73 The simile is always used of great warriors in combat (with the exception of Book 10) e.g. Hector in Homer, Iliad 15.275; 630; Hector 18.161; Patroclus and Hector 16.752, 756; Achilles 20.164; 24.572.
74 Homer, Iliad 11.450–55.
75 Flaumenhaft, p. 15.
76 Notice the political motives here – the Greek sentinels protect their own (Homer, Iliad 10.180–189). Dolon distinguishes between the Trojans who keep night watch, and their allies who sleep. The allies’ children and wives do not need to be protected (ibid. 10.418–22). The Trojans defend themselves out of necessity; the allies have come to win glory.
77 Dué and Ebbott, p. 62 point out that even the normal weapons carried in daylight may be a liability at night. Metal can reflect in the moonlight or campfire light and betray the presence of the ambushers. Darkness enables hiding, the surprise nature of the attack and the escape.
78 Flaumenhaft, p. 20. D. M. Gaunt, ‘The change of plan in the “Doloneia”’, G&R 18, 2 (1971), p. 197 argues that the theme changes from a spying mission to a direct attack because there were two traditional stories upon which the poet could draw. One focused on reconnaissance and the other on an assassination attempt on Hector or some great hero.
79 Dué and Ebbott, pp. 54, 57; McLeod, pp. 121–5 discusses the effectiveness of the bow in night ambushes and demonstrates how archers can find their targets in the dark. Of course, the bows that Dolon and Odysseus take on their respective missions are not, in fact, used as weapons in this episode (ibid. p. 61).
80 Ranke, 48–9 believes that Diomedes’ character was tarnished by Book 10 because the night raid was unheroic. Fenik, Iliad X and the Rhesus, p. 20, n. 3 disagrees, saying that Diomedes’ portrayal was consistent with his portrait in the Epic Cycle. Shewan, p. 155 also finds no departure from heroic ideal in the killing of Dolon. Cf. M. F. Williams, p. 11. See Dué and Ebbott, pp. 104–5 who discuss alternative (local) versions of the story where Rhesus is killed during an aristeia. They show that in Rhesus the eponymous hero rejects ambush and states that courage can only be found in the polemos (ibid. pp. 126–7); this is in contrast to the Homeric epics, which ascribe courage to ambush. They identify Diomedes as a warrior who excels at both polemos and lochos (ibid. p. 305).
81 Homer, Iliad 10.37–41.
82 Homer, Iliad 1.223–28.
83 Homer, Iliad 10.37–41.
84 Homer, Iliad 13.276–94.
85 Homer, Iliad 10.204–217.
86 Homer, Iliad 10.212.
87 Homer, Iliad 10.213.
88 Homer, Iliad 10–214–217.
89 Homer, Iliad 10.37–41. Kirk, The Songs of Homer, p. 350; G. S. Kirk, Homer and the Epic: A Shortened Version of the Songs of Homer (London: Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 218–19, 222; M. F. Williams, p. 12.
90 Dué and Ebbott, p. 336.
91 Homer, Iliad 10.41–45. Cf. Nestor at 10.118, 144–45, 172–74, 192–93.
92 Homer, Iliad 10.227.
93 Homer, Iliad 10.22.
94 Homer, Iliad 10.244.
95 M. F. Williams, p. 12. Diomedes is notable for his fighting skills. He is the one who exhorts the Greeks to continue the war without Achilles (Homer, Iliad 9.31–49; 9.696–709) and is one of the nine warriors who volunteered to fight Hector in single combat in order to decide the war (ibid. 7.161–169). He even dared to fight the gods and lived (ibid. 5.327ff.). O. Taplin, Homeric Soundings. The Shaping of the Iliad (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 135 calls him Achilles ‘without the complications’.
96 L. Collins, Studies in Characterization in the Iliad, Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie, 189 (Frankfurt am Main: Athenaeum, 1988), 21–6 on the ethics of the Iliad; D. L. Cairns, Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 59, 68–71; J. B. Hainsworth, The Iliad: A Commentary, at 10.237–9; M. F. Williams, p. 12.
97 M. F. Williams, p. 12.
98 Athena provides a favourable sign when the heroes depart from the Greek camp (Homer, Iliad 10.273–276) and is prayed to by both Odysseus and Diomedes at their departure (ibid. 10.277–282, 283–295). They also pray to her on their return (ibid. 10.578–579). Odysseus dedicates his spoils to her (ibid. 10.462–468, 571). On the other hand, the gods play no role in assisting Dolon who does not pray to them. Fenik, Iliad X and the Rhesus, p. 23 describes her involvement as ‘typically Homeric’ in that she does not infringe upon the initiative and credit of Odysseus or Diomedes.
99 Homer, Iliad 10.507–511.
100 Homer, Iliad 19.299–331.
101 Homer, Iliad 10.324.
102 Homer, Iliad 10.321–323. J. S. Clay, The Wrath of Athena (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), 75–6; Cairns, 54–60 notes that the words of physical disfigurement or ugliness are linked to shame. M. F. Williams, p. 14.
103 Homer generally portrays the Trojans as weaker, less courageous and more interested in prizes than the Greeks. See Hainsworth on 10.13–14.
104 On the charge of Book 10 being un-Homeric, see Dué and Ebbott, pp. x, 3.
105 Homer, Iliad 9.66–68, 76–77.
106 Homer, Iliad 9.79–88.
107 Homer, Iliad 9.78.
108 See Homer, Iliad 10.118, 144–45, 172–74, 192–193. Some scholars believe this passage indicates that Book 10 was carefully inserted into our version of the Iliad. Shewan, however, does not think that Hector really fears a night raid but rather that this passage was inserted to foreshadow the Doloneia.
109 Homer, Iliad 10.12–15.
110 Homer, Iliad 10.97–101.
111 Homer, Iliad 10.73–79.
112 Homer, Iliad 10.150–156.
113 M. F. Williams, p. 15 points out that the anxiety that is present in both books indicates that Book 10 follows naturally upon Book 9 and ties the two books together.
114 Homer, Iliad 8.517–529 Fagles trans.; 8.517–529 Greek text.
115 C. W. MacLeod, Homer: Iliad, Book XXIV (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 16 says ‘… mercilessness is a feature of war which Homer deliberately stresses’ as he does war’s brutality. Shewan, p. 155 says that there is no departure from the heroic ideal in killing Dolon: ‘The heroic ideal can be, and often is, rated too high.’ Homeric warriors are often brutal and so is the aftermath of their wars.
116 Homer, Iliad 10.446–453.
117 Homer, Iliad 10.336–337.
118 Hainsworth, on 10.544–553, strangely remarks that Odysseus and Diomedes exceeded their orders, yet learned nothing about the Trojan intentions for the morning. Shewan, p. 156 believes that the capture of Rhesus’ horses also countered Hector’s threat by answering his promise of the horses of Achilles for Dolon. There was a tradition that if Rhesus’ horses ate food and drank Trojan water, Troy would not fall.
119 Dué and Ebbott, pp. 70, 243.
120 Dué and Ebbott, p. 86.
Chapter 3: Ambush in the Odyssey
1 See, for example, M. F. Williams, p. 2.
2 M. F. Williams, p. 3; Vidal-Naquet, ‘The black hunter and the origin of the Athenian Ephebia’, 49–64 outlines the mythic, ritual and historical foundations for a contrast between heavy-armed, disciplined infantry combat and attack by light-armed warriors, often characterised as ‘trickery’. See also P. Vidal-Naquet, The Black Hunter, Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); Nagy, 45–8.
3 Homer, Odyssey 9.408; Fables trans. p. 455.
4 Dué and Ebbott, 84–5, 254 who show how the blinding of the Cyclops displays the traditional features of an ambush. On the contrast between strength and stealth, see D. Wilson, ‘Demodocus’ Iliad and Homer’s’, in R. Rabel (ed.), Approaches to Homer: Ancient and Modern (Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2005), 1–20; Edwards, p. 19; Buxton, 58–63; Frontisi-Ducroux, pp. 182–5; Detienne and Vernant, 19–20; K. Rüter, Odysseeinterpretationen: Untersuchung
en zum ersten Buchund zur Phaiakis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, 1969), pp. 247–54; E. Howald, Der Mythos als Dichtung (Zürich and Leipzig: Niehans, 1937), 14–50 who argues that the myth underlying the Troy Cycle is organised around a ‘Heldenpaar’ contrasting cunning with force. Polyaenus, Strat. Proem, 305 discusses Homer, Odyssey 9.409 in these terms.
5 Homer, Odyssey 9.476. There is the metis of getting the Cyclops drunk, using the sheep as a disguise and getting out of the cave. See Dué and Ebbott, p. 85.
6 Edwards, p. 19. Edwards argues that the Iliad and the Odyssey offer the Greek audience two distinctly different views of heroism. I am arguing that the contrast also includes different forms of warfare. See Sinos, pp. 133–5, for a review of Edwards.
7 Edwards, 38–9. For Odysseus as a spearman see Homer, Odyssey 11.401–410, 5.306–312, 16.241–42 and 18.376–80.
8 D. Wilson, Ransom, Revenge, and Heroic Identity in the Iliad, 45–8; D. Wilson, ‘Demodocus’ ‘Iliad’ and Homer’s’, p. 1; Edwards, p. 39; J. H. Finley, Homer’s Odyssey (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), 25–30, 41, 209–10; N. Austin, 81–129.
9 N. Austin, p. 109.
10 However Flaumenhaft, p. 18 argues that Odysseus holds back from battle, is reluctant to join the expedition to Troy and was even the last to volunteer to join Diomedes in the night expedition in the Doloneia. A. Heubeck, Der Odyssee, Dichter und die Ilias (Erlange: Palm and Enke, 1954), notes that the word for ambush, lochos, would later come to mean a ‘troops of soldiers’. He believes it as used in Homer, Odyssey 20.49 in this sense.
11 Hector comments on this in the Rhesus line 507. Odysseus is also said in the Little Iliad, 1 to have ambushed Helenus.
12 Flaumenhaft, p. 18.
13 Edwards, p. 21.
14 Homer, Odyssey 13.260ff,, 468ff., 14.216–21. On his associations with metis – craft, see Dué and Ebbott, pp. 271–2.
15 He is called at various times enduring, much enduring, or enduring and suffering in mind. The Greek words used are all derived from tlao. They suggest his suffering, both the afflictions of war and the insults of his homecoming: Flaumenhaft, p. 18.
16 Flaumenhaft, 18–19.
17 Iliad 10.462–64; 529, 571.
18 Homer, Odyssey 9.49–50.
19 Homer, Odyssey 4.280.
20 Homer, Odyssey 14.470–71.
21 Homer, Odyssey 4.388–463; Dué and Ebbott, 78–9, 253.
22 Hyginus, Fabulae: The Myths of Hyginus, trans. by Mary Grant (Lawrence: University of Kansas Publications, 1960), 105.
23 Hyginus, 105.
24 There are other versions of the story that say there was no such plot, and that Palamedes was drowned by Odysseus and Diomedes when he put out to catch fish. See Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, trans. and with an introduction by Mary M. Innes (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1955), 13.56; Vergil, The Aeneid, trans. by Stanley Lombardo, introduction by W. R. Johnson (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2005), 2.82. See Edwards, p. 27 on the two being geographical opposite.
25 Dué and Ebbott, p. 86 point out the similarities in formulaic diction between various ambush narratives in Iliad 10 and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.
26 Eight references to the ambush of Telemachus: 4.670, 4.847, 13.425, 14.181, 15.28, 16.369, 16.463, 22. 53; other ambushes: 4.388, 4.395, 4.441, 4.463, 4.531, 13.268, 14.217, 14.469, 20.48; the wooden horse: 4.277, 8.515, 11.525.
27 See Dué and Ebbott, p. 70 where they break down the subthemes that constitute an ambush.
28 Murray translation: Homer, Odyssey (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), 2 vols.
29 For a discussion of the three songs, see A. Thornton, People and Themes in Homer’s Odyssey (London and Dunedin: Methuen, 1970), 43–5. Edwards, p. 40. The scholium preserves the opinion of Aristarchus: K. Lehrs, De Aristarchi Studiis Homeriicis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1882), p. 147. See Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 209–15 for a parallel to this dispute over force and trickery.
30 D. Wilson, ‘Demodocus’ Iliad and Homer’s’, 1–20
31 The Little Iliad is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It is one of the better-attested epics in the Epic Cycle, i.e. that told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. Nearly thirty lines of the original text survive.
32 This contrast is supported by Hector’s comment at Rhesus 497–507 where he states that Odysseus had done the Trojans more harm than any other Greek. He then goes on to list some of Odysseus’ trickier exploits with the conclusion that he is always found in ambushes.
33 Homer, Odyssey 9.39–42. See Jackson, ‘War and raids for war booty in the world of Odysseus’, 64–76.
34 Homer, Odyssey 14.85–88.
35 Homer, Odyssey 3.103–06; Flaumenhaft, p. 16.
36 Edwards, p. 32.
37 Homer, Odyssey 13.256–284; Fagles trans, lines 13.289–323.
38 K. F. Ameis and C. Hentze, Homer’s Odyssey (Leipzig: Teubner, 1879) regarded this name as an invention for the immediate context. E. Risch, Wortbildung der Homerischen Sprache (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1974), pp. 191–2 asserts the meaning of the name was ‘the one who attacks the lochos’ or the one who urges the lochos to attack. Edwards, p. 33 prefers the former.
39 Homer, Odyssey 13.260.
40 Homer, Odyssey 13. 321–25; 790–92. Edwards, 15–16 and 16, n. 3 for the pattern of swift, forceful figures overcome through trickery.
41 See chap. 1 on these two ambushes: Tydeus in Iliad 4.385–398 and Bellerophon in Homer, Iliad 6.178–190.
42 Edwards, p. 33.
43 Homer, Odyssey 14.214–22.
44 Homer, Odyssey 22.199–210; Edwards, p. 33.
45 Homer, Odyssey 14.468–506.
46 Edwards, 33–4. See the discussions of this tale by Heubeck, 26–7; P. Walcot, ‘Odysseus and the art of lying’, Ancient Society 8 (1977), 15–16; and Nagy, pp. 235–8. On Odysseus’ speech generally, see Detienne and Vernant, 30–1.
47 Homer, Odyssey 4.384–480.
48 Dué and Ebbott, p. 82 compares Odyssey 4 to the Doloneia and the Little Iliad because each has connected themes that build on one another and create a larger song. They discuss the connections between prophecies and ambushes (ibid. p. 97).
49 Edwards, p. 34. A similar contradictory evaluation of the word metis is also apparent. See Detienne and Vernant, 30–1.
50 This is significant in view of the close parallels between the nostoi (returns) of Odysseus and Menelaus. See Howald, 51–6, 63–73 and W. F. Hansen, The Conference Sequence, Patterned Narrative and Narrative Inconsistency in the Odyssey, Classical Studies 8 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California, 1972), 8–19.
51 Edwards, passim.
52 Homer, Odyssey 22.26–34.
53 D. L. Page ‘Stesichorus: the Geroneis’, JHS 93 (1973), pp. 138–54 argues this interpretation from a fragment of Stesichorus’ lost Geryoneis. Cf. Edwards, p. 34.
54 Edwards, p. 35. On the relationship between Odysseus and Heracles, see Howald, 39–43; and 617–26 with the comments of K. Galinsky, The Herakles Theme (Oxford: Blackwell, 1972), 12–14. For post-Homeric texts expressing a positive view of the ambush, see Vidal-Naquet, ‘The black hunter and the origin of the Athenian Ephebia’, 49–64 and compare Hesiod, Theogony 154–82 for an interesting parallel.
55 Homer, Odyssey. 8.266–366. This pattern has been noticed by W. Burkert, ‘Das Lied von Ares und Aphrodite, Zum Verhältnis von Odyssee und Ilias’, RhM 103 (1960), pp. 140–2 and Thornton, People and Themes in Homer’s Odyssey, 44–5.
56 Homer, Odyssey 4.240–64.
57 Edwards, p. 35.
58 Homer, Odyssey 4.529ff.
59 Edwards, p. 29.
60 Edwards, p. 29.
61 Edwards, pp. 29, 32 and verses 267–8.
62 Homer, Odyssey 17.80.
63 Edwards, p. 30.
64 Homer, Odyssey 20.49–51.
65 Note that the meaning of lochoi in 49 is disputed. Some take it to mean ambush while others interpret it as ‘infantry formations’. Edwards, p. 30, n. 27
for references.
66 Homer, Iliad 4.397.
67 Homer, Iliad 6.188–190.
68 Dué and Ebbott, 103, 276–8.
69 Edwards, p. 31.
70 Edwards, p. 18.
71 For other studies that have explored the manner in which the Odyssey employs repetitions of narrative patterns and themes to tie together the diverse strands of its plot, see S. Said, ‘Les crimes des prétendents la maison d’Ulyse et les festin de l’Odysée’, études de la Litterature Ancienne (1979); F. Bader, ‘L’art de la fugue sand l’Odyssée’, REG 89 (1976), 18–39; and Fenik, Iliad X and the Rhesus, 91–138. Edwards, p. 40.
72 See Sinos for review of A. T. Edwards’ book.
73 See, for example, Homer, Odyssey 1.234–243 where Telemachus says that, if his father had died at Troy, he would have had a proper burial and the kleos of a warrior but since he apparently died before reaching home he is without kleos. See the ambush of Tydeus by fifty Thebans, where he released ‘only one to return home’ (Homer, Iliad 4.397). Similarly, in the ambush of Bellerophon, the ambushers never return home (Homer, Iliad 6.188–190). Dué and Ebbott, pp. 78, 287–8.
74 Edwards, p. 18.
75 Dué and Ebbott, p. 103.
Chapter 4: The Archaic Age and the Problem of the Phalanx
1 On the historical origins of hoplite warfare, see H. van Wees, ‘The development of the hoplite phalanx. Iconography and reality in the seventh century’, in H. van Wees (ed.), War and Violence in Ancient Greece (London: Duckworth, 2000), pp. 125–66. P. Cartledge, ‘Hoplites and heroes: Sparta’s contribution to the techniques of ancient warfare’, JHS 97 (1977), 11–27; I. Morris, Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); A. Snodgrass, ‘The hoplite reform revisited’, DHA 19, 1 (1993), 47–61; Van Wees, ‘The Homeric way of war’, 1–18. On the arms, armour and social class of these citizen-armies, see H. van Wees, ‘Tyrants, oligarchs and citizen militias’, in Angelos Chaniotis and Pierre Ducrey, Army and Power in the Ancient World (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002), 61–82; see also Van Wees, Greek Warfare, Part II, ‘Citizens and soldiers’; and H. van Wees, ‘The myth of the middle-class army: Military and social status in ancient Athens’, in T. Bekker-Nielsen and L. Hannestad, War as a Cultural and Social Force. Essays on Warfare in Antiquity (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 2001), 45–71.
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