Book 3
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
1–14 The two armies advance against each other across the plain
1 The forces on each side have been described, together with their leaders, in book 2; this verse provides a brief resumption and leads to further images of the armies as they advance, ἡγεμόνεσσιν | is a formula, 4× Il., and the whole verse has much in common with 12.87 πένταχα κοσμηθέντες ἃμ̓ ἡγεμόνεσσιν ἕποντο.
2–14 The language and ideas of the assembling of the two armies in the previous Book are repeatedly evoked: the noise of the Trojans (2.803f. and 810), the comparison with clangorous birds (2.459ff.), οἱ δ̕ ἄρ̕ ἴσαν of the Achaeans (at 8 and 2.780), the mountain peaks which blaze with fire at 2.456 but are shrouded in mist at 10, in both cases to illustrate an aspect of a marching army, with the same final verse ἐρχόμενον … πεδίοιο (14 = 2.785). The repetitions and overlapping imagery serve to link the elaborate scenes of preparation with the actual advance of each army, and further to integrate the catalogues into the whole scene.
3-5 The simile is closely related to 2.459–65, one of the set introducing the Achaean catalogue.
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- Information
- The Iliad: A Commentary , pp. 264 - 330Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985