From the embassy’s arrival in Iliad 9.180.

They went along the shore of the splashing sea
praying much to the earth-holding Earth-Shaker
to readily persuade the great heart of the son of Aeacus.
To the tents and ships of the Myrmidons they came,
and him they found delighting his heart with a clear-toned lyre
beautiful and skillfully embellished, and the bridge on it was made of silver,
then he took from the spoils when he had sacked the city of Etion:
With it he used to delight his spirit, and he sang the famous deeds of men.
Patroklos, alone with him, sat opposite keeping silence,
waiting until the son of Aeacus should leave off his singing….

τὼ δὲ βάτην παρὰ θῖνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης
πολλὰ μάλ᾽ εὐχομένω γαιηόχῳ ἐννοσιγαίῳ
ῥηϊδίως πεπιθεῖν μεγάλας φρένας Αἰακίδαο.
Μυρμιδόνων δ᾽ ἐπί τε κλισίας καὶ νῆας ἱκέσθην,
τὸν δ᾽ εὗρον φρένα τερπόμενον φόρμιγγι λιγείῃ
καλῇ δαιδαλέῃ, ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἀργύρεον ζυγὸν ἦεν,
τὴν ἄρετ᾽ ἐξ ἐνάρων πόλιν Ἠετίωνος ὀλέσσας:
τῇ ὅ γε θυμὸν ἔτερπεν, ἄειδε δ᾽ ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν.
Πάτροκλος δέ οἱ οἶος ἐναντίος ἧστο σιωπῇ,
δέγμενος Αἰακίδην ὁπότε λήξειεν ἀείδων,

The scene is well-known for the depiction of Achilles playing the lyre himself for himself (the only amateur singer in Homer and only song not performed for a group) and for the thematic resonance of his singing κλέα ἀνδρῶν (deeds of men).  It’s also been routinely observed that Achilles didn’t bring the lyre with him (which potentially suggests that the pleasure of song was felt to be incompatible with war, a social stricture which would explain why there are no singers in the Iliad otherwise), but I’ve never seen anyone poke at the potential character implications of the timeline and circumstances of its acquisition.  But I’m lazy and do no more than point the way.

 

 

The truce and burial of the dead in Iliad 8.420.  The scene generally is touching but all the more so for the specific detail that ‘Priam did not allow his people to weep’ – which I can’t help but contrastingly connect with the lengthy lament for Hector at the end of the work.  There’s also the unifying parallelism of the final six lines here.

And Helios just now was striking the fields
climbing heaven from the soft-gliding, deep-flowing ocean.
And [the armies] met one another.
There it was difficult to distinguish each man,
but washing off the blooded gore with water
and shedding warm tears they lifted them onto carts.
But great Priam did not allow his people to weep. They in silence
heaped the corpses on pyres, grieving in their hearts,
and after they had burned them they went to holy Ilium.
So likewise on the other side the well-greaved Achaeans
heaped the corpses on pyres, grieving in their hearts,
and after they had burned them they went to their hollow ships.

Ἠέλιος μὲν ἔπειτα νέον προσέβαλλεν ἀρούρας
ἐξ ἀκαλαρρείταο βαθυρρόου Ὠκεανοῖο
οὐρανὸν εἰσανιών: οἳ δ᾽ ἤντεον ἀλλήλοισιν.
ἔνθα διαγνῶναι χαλεπῶς ἦν ἄνδρα ἕκαστον:
ἀλλ᾽ ὕδατι νίζοντες ἄπο βρότον αἱματόεντα
δάκρυα θερμὰ χέοντες ἀμαξάων ἐπάειραν.
οὐδ᾽ εἴα κλαίειν Πρίαμος μέγας: οἳ δὲ σιωπῇ
νεκροὺς πυρκαϊῆς ἐπινήνεον ἀχνύμενοι κῆρ,
ἐν δὲ πυρὶ πρήσαντες ἔβαν προτὶ Ἴλιον ἱρήν.
ὣς δ᾽ αὔτως ἑτέρωθεν ἐϋκνήμιδες Ἀχαιοὶ
νεκροὺς πυρκαϊῆς ἐπινήνεον ἀχνύμενοι κῆρ,
ἐν δὲ πυρὶ πρήσαντες ἔβαν κοίλας ἐπὶ νῆας.

From Glaucon’s retelling of his grandfather Bellerophon’s life in Iliad 6.150-210:

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ καὶ κεῖνος ἀπήχθετο πᾶσι θεοῖσιν,
ἤτοι ὃ κὰπ πεδίον τὸ Ἀλήϊον οἶος ἀλᾶτο
ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων

---

But when even that one became hateful to all the gods,
Then he wandered over the Aleian plane alone
devouring his own spirit, shunning the path of men.

 

This is the locus classicus for histories of depression and melancholy in the western heritage, but I’ve never before noticed the wordplay between Ἀλήϊον and ἀλάομαι – and likely also  ἀλεείνω in the following line (which Diomedes echoes in his response as well).  A small but curious Homeric flourish that could maybe be tied to a conception of wandering – being away from home and social support networks – as an activity only voluntarily undertaken by someone unstable.  Which then bleeds to the question of whether the Iliadic and Odyssean traditions are directly or indirectly in dialogue here – the Iliad expressing a traditional view the Odyssey later works to overwrite.  On that point I’m most curious about the diction of the final line, especially the opening ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων which has for me the feel of an Odyssean refrain, especially the thematic metaphor of κατέδων.

From Iliad 5.405-409. Autenrieth gives παππάζω as ‘say papa, call one father.’ It is – threatening context aside – the cuddliest of the Homeric hapax legomena.

But the grey-eyed goddess Athena sets this one [Diomedes] upon you: the fool, nor does the son of Tydeus know this in his heart that not at all long-lived is he who fights with immortals, nor ever do his children at his knees call him papa when he has come home from war and dread strife.

Apollo’s approach to the camp of the Achaeans in the Iliad 1.40ff:

ὣς ἔφατ᾽ εὐχόμενος, τοῦ δ᾽ ἔκλυε Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων,
βῆ δὲ κατ᾽ Οὐλύμποιο καρήνων χωόμενος κῆρ,
τόξ᾽ ὤμοισιν ἔχων ἀμφηρεφέα τε φαρέτρην:
ἔκλαγξαν δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὀϊστοὶ ἐπ᾽ ὤμων χωομένοιο,
αὐτοῦ κινηθέντος: ὃ δ᾽ ἤϊε νυκτὶ ἐοικώς.
ἕζετ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ἀπάνευθε νεῶν, μετὰ δ᾽ ἰὸν ἕηκε:
δεινὴ δὲ κλαγγὴ γένετ᾽ ἀργυρέοιο βιοῖο:
οὐρῆας μὲν πρῶτον ἐπῴχετο καὶ κύνας ἀργούς,
αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ᾽ αὐτοῖσι βέλος ἐχεπευκὲς ἐφιεὶς
βάλλ᾽: αἰεὶ δὲ πυραὶ νεκύων καίοντο θαμειαί.