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[75] νεῖκος is in apposition with κλέα. On this passage the Schol. H. Q. V. says, “φασὶ τῷ Ἀγαμέμνονι χρωμένῳ περὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον τέλους ἀνελεῖν τὸν ἐν Δελφοῖς Ἀπόλλωνα τότε πορθήσειν τὸ Ἴλιον ὅταν οἱ ἄριστοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων στασιάσωσι: καὶ δὴ παρὰ πότον διαλεχθέντων Ὀδυσσέως καὶ Ἀχιλλέως, τοῦ μὲν Ἀχιλλέως ἀνδρείαν ἐπαινοῦντος, τοῦ δὲ Ὀδυσσέως σύνεσιν, μετὰ τὴν Ἕκτορος ἀναίρεσιν ὁ μὲν βιάζεσθαι” (sc. Troiam) “παρῄνει” (“διὸ καὶ ἀνῃρέθη”）“: ὁ δὲ δόλῳ μετελθεῖν. καὶ Ἀγαμέμνονα ὡς τελουμένου τοῦ λογίου χαρῆναι”. Eustath. gives the same story, noticing that the event proved the wisdom of the advice of Odysseus, inasmuch as Troy was taken by subtilty, whereas Achilles fell in fight. But this explanation has nothing to corroborate it: and Nitzsch gives grounds for placing the incident before the time of the Iliad, when the Greeks first landed in Tenedos, and were keeping festival in prospect of success; cp. θεῶν ἐν δαιτὶ θαλείῃ 76. The most trustworthy evidence is that of the fragments of the Satyric drama of Sophocles, “Ἀχαιῶν σύλλογος” or “Σύνδειπνοι”, referring to which Aristotle, Rhet. 2. 26, p. 382, says, “εἴ τις φαίη, ‘τὸ ἐπὶ δεῖπνον κληθῆναι τιμιώτατον: διὰ γὰρ τὸ μὴ κληθῆναι ὁ Ἀχιλλεὺς ἐμήνισε τοῖς Ἀχαιοῖς ἐν Τενέδῳ: ὁ δ᾽ ὡς ἀτιμαζόμενος ἐμήνισε: συνέβη δὲ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ μὴ κληθῆναι”.’ And Plutarch, Moral. p. 74 A “ὁ παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα παροξύνων Ὀδυσσεὺς οὔ” “φησιν ὀργίζεσθαι διὰ τὸ δεῖπνον ἀλλά φησιν, Ἤδη τὰ Τροίας εἰσορῶν ἑδώλια Δέδοικας”. It would seem also that after Hector's death there was no room for such an event. Nitzsch refers to the Aethiopis of Arctinus, as showing that Odysseus was then friendly to Achilles. May it not be further argued, that no quarrel of chiefs would have inspired any cheerful recollection of the oracle (78 foll.), after the discouraging experience of the “μῆνις Ἀχιλλῆος”? The oracle was given before the war, v. 81.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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    • Aristotle, Rhetoric, 2.26
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