MÉTODO DE DIFUSION EN DISCO

The final rebuke of Hector for failing to protect his hetairos is tied to the pathetic semantics of the phrase pistos hetairos. As discussed in Chapter 1, the phrase pistos hetairos

appears in the Iliad only in the books surrounding Patroclus’ return and death; every hetairos

called pistos, except one, is called pistos in the passage in which he is killed; and every pistos hetairos killed, except one, is killed by Hector. This exception is Podes, Hector’s own pistos hetairos.

Podes is introduced as Hector’s dear hetairos just before he is killed. Inspired by Athena during the fight for Patroclus’ corpse, Menelaus stands firm and casts a spear at the Trojan forces – and suddenly Homer pauses to name his victim:

βῆ δ’ ἐπὶ Πατρόκλῳ, καὶ ἀκόντισε δουρὶ φαεινῷ.

78 _{Moulton 1981 offers an excellent close reading of Glaukos’ rebuke, building on Fenik 1974, 167-169 and} accurately observing Glaukos’ focus on Hector’s ingratitude. For Glaukos’ rebuke as characterization of Hector, along lines similar to those outlined here (albeit without focus on hetaireia), see Kozak 2012.

79 _{Interestingly, Hector “ran and met up with his hetairoi” (θέων δ’ ἐκίχανεν ἑταίρους) to strip Achilles’ armor, a} verb-object pairing that does not appear elsewhere in the Iliad. This comes immediately after his rousing speech (184-187) to Trojans and Lykian and Dardanian allies, clearly an attempt to address Glaukos’ rebuke (οὐ γάρ τις Λυκίων γε μαχησόμενος) directly.

116 ἔσκε δ’ ἐνὶ Τρώεσσι Ποδῆς υἱὸς Ἠετίωνος ἀφνειός τ’ ἀγαθός τε· μάλιστα δέ μιν τίεν Ἕκτωρ δήμου, ἐπεί οἱ ἑταῖρος ἔην φίλος εἰλαπιναστής· τόν ῥα κατὰ ζωστῆρα βάλε ξανθὸς Μενέλαος. (Iliad 17.574-578)

Podes is wealthy and noble (ἀφνειός τ’ ἀγαθός τε), and Hector particularly honors him because

he is dear hetairos to Hector at the feast (ἐπεί οἱ ἑταῖρος ἔην φίλος εἰλαπιναστής). The appositive εἰλαπιναστής is unusual. Scholion 4 uses this passage to contrast the hetaireia joining Achilles and Patroclus with the hetaireia joining Hector and Podes. The former were joined by shared virtue and noble deeds (ὅτι κοινωνὸς ἀρετῆς καὶ γενναίων ἔργων), while the latter were hetairoi

rather like Athenian noblemen of the fifth century (ὅτι συνέπαιζεν οὐδ’ ὅτι αὐτὸν ἐκολάκευεν

οὐδ’ ὅτι ἡδὺς συμπότης ἦν), not warrior-companions. The scholiast may be exaggerating: here Podes is of course fighting at Hector’s side. But Homer’s mention of the feast has poetic effect:

the word briefly suggests a peaceful, celebratory scene that contrasts with the present scene of

bloody combat.

Apollo chastises Hector for being afraid of Menelaus, but his rebuke is designed to

inspire. Taking the form of Phainops, dearest of xenoi to Hector (οἱ ἁπάντων / ξείνων φίλτατος ἔσκεν), Apollo tells him that he must avenge his pistos hetairos if any of the Achaeans are to fear him:

Ἕκτορ τίς κέ σ’ ἔτ’ ἄλλος Ἀχαιῶν ταρβήσειεν; οἷον δὴ Μενέλαον ὑπέτρεσας, ὃς τὸ πάρος γε

117

μαλθακὸς αἰχμητής· νῦν δ’ οἴχεται οἶος ἀείρας

νεκρὸν ὑπ’ ἐκ Τρώων, σὸν δ’ ἔκτανε πιστὸν ἑταῖρον

ἐσθλὸν ἐνὶ προμάχοισι Ποδῆν υἱὸν Ἠετίωνος. (Iliad 17.586-590)

Menelaus is a weak spearman (μαλθακὸς αἰχμητής), but he has killed Hector’s pistos hetairos, a noble man on the front lines. In Apollo’s judgment, Hector has no reason to be afraid. Again the

rebuke has its intended effect, mild as it is. Hector fights amid the promakhoi (βῆ δὲ διὰ

προμάχων κεκορυθμένος αἴθοπι χαλκῷ: 592) and Zeus turns the tide of battle. The death of this

pistos hetairos will not go unavenged.

But the effect of Hector’s hetairos-avenging counterattack is not what he intended. As the Trojans begin to overwhelm the Achaean forces, Ajax recognizes Zeus’ fingerprint in the perfect

accuracy of Trojan spears and seeks “some hetairos”80 _{to tell Achilles that his dear hetairos is} dead, in a passage dense with hetaireia:

ἀλλ’ ἄγετ’ αὐτοί περ φραζώμεθα μῆτιν ἀρίστην, ἠμὲν ὅπως τὸν νεκρὸν ἐρύσσομεν, ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ

χάρμα φίλοις ἑτάροισι γενώμεθα νοστήσαντες,

οἵ που δεῦρ’ ὁρόωντες ἀκηχέδατ’, οὐδ’ ἔτι φασὶν

80 _{This is the only appearance of τις ἑταῖρος in the Iliad (in any grammatical case). The phrase appears twice in the} Odyssey: 8.584 (Athena, as Odysseus feels her support when she praises his throw on Scheria) and 16.8 (Odysseus speaking about Telemachus, inferring that he must be hetairos or gnorimos because the dogs didn’t attack). The indefiniteness suggests both Ajax’s desperation (‘somebody tell him!’) and also the fog of war (Ajax says this immediately before Zeus clears the skies).

118 Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο μένος καὶ χεῖρας ἀάπτους σχήσεσθ’, ἀλλ’ ἐν νηυσὶ μελαίνῃσιν πεσέεσθαι. εἴη δ’ ὅς τις ἑταῖρος ἀπαγγείλειε τάχιστα Πηλεΐδῃ, ἐπεὶ οὔ μιν ὀΐομαι οὐδὲ πεπύσθαι λυγρῆς ἀγγελίης, ὅτι οἱ φίλος ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος. (Iliad 17.634-642)

In a passage about the fight for the corpse of the dearest dead hetairos, Ajax names hetairoi three times in seven lines: those whom he wishes to bring χάρμα by returning the corpse (χάρμα φίλοις ἑτάροισι); the ally who will bring them salvation by telling Achilles of Patroclus’ death (τις ἑταῖρος ἀπαγγείλειε τάχιστα / Πηλεΐδῃ); and the dear hetairos Patroclus himself, whose death will return Achilles to battle (ὅτι οἱ φίλος ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος). When Ajax prays for visibility, Zeus

clears the skies (645-647); Ajax tells Menelaus to find someone to tell Achilles that his dearest

hetairos by far is dead (εἰπεῖν ὅττι ῥά οἱ πολὺ φίλτατος ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος:81 655); Menelaus finds Antilokhos encouraging his hetairoi (θαρσύνονθ’ ἑτάρους καὶ ἐποτρύνοντα μάχεσθαι: 683); and Antilokhos runs to tell Achilles.82 Thus the counterattack Apollo inspires by appealing to

81 _{This line repeats the phrase ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος, first introduced at Iliad 17.411 as precisely what Thetis does not tell} Achilles (δὴ τότε γ’ οὔ οἱ ἔειπε κακὸν τόσον ὅσσον ἐτύχθη / μήτηρ, ὅττί ῥά οἱ πολὺ φίλτατος ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος). The phrase appears four times from here until the beginning of book 18 (Iliad 17.411, 642, 655; 18.80) and nowhere else. The emphatic bucolic dieresis, combined with the laser-focus concentration in this very short passage, turn the phrase into an obsessing and brutally factual refrain, mimicking Achilles’ frame of mind when the thought of his dead hetairos blocks any other activity, including eating and drinking (Iliad 19.305-308). Homer thus uses the phrase ὤλεθ’ ἑταῖρος to encode how Achilles will react to the news in the narrative of the message itself, both under erasure (at 411) and as soon as Antilochus begins to transmit the message (655).

82 _{At this moment Antilochos is hetairos in two senses, focalized through two subjects: (1) he is an ally near Ajax} and Menelaus on the battlefield; and (2) elsewhere Achilles calls him philoshetairos (Iliad 23.556). Thus his physical position and persistent relationship to both make him an appropriate messenger.

119

Hector’s bond with his pistoshetairos indirectly results in Achilles’ return to battle and thereby brings together multiple Achaean hetairoi as victim, avenger, and recipients of protection.