Formulas and Other Ancient Patterns in Iliad, Books 9 and 10


Examination of its links with the rest of the Iliad shows that Book 10 is an integral part of the poem. Since the claim is frequently made that Books 9 and 10 cannot coexist within the Iliad, a study of Book 10 must also try to accommodate Book 9. One avenue for doing this is provided by the phrase klea andron "fame of men", as used at Iliad 9.189 and 9.524. These two uses of a fundamental Indo-European formula (found also at Odyssey 8.73 and Theocritus 16.2) have profoundly shaped our view of heroic poetry; they have also somewhat distorted scholarly reception of Iliad, Books 9 and 10.