The opening lines of this book follow what seems to be a traditional pattern in which a pressing situation causes an inability to sleep, which in turn results in the formulation of a plan of action. We can compare 10.1ff. to the beginnings of Books 2 and 9 for a more complete understanding of the workings and traditional structure of this theme. Iliad 2 begins:
ἄλλοι μέν ῥα θεοί τε καὶ ἀνέρες ἱπποκορυσταὶ
εὗδον παννύχιοι, Δία δ᾽ οὐκ ἔχε νήδυμος ὕπνος,
ἀλλ᾽ ὅ γε μερμήριζε κατὰ φρένα ὡς Ἀχιλῆα
τιμήσῃ, ὀλέσῃ δὲ πολέας ἐπὶ νηυσὶν Ἀχαιῶν.
ἥδε δέ οἱ κατὰ θυμὸν ἀρίστη φαίνετο βουλή …
Iliad 2.1–5
The rest of the gods and the men who wear horse–hair helmets
slept all night long, but deep sleep did not hold Zeus.
Instead, he was divided in his mind how Achilles
he would honor, and cause the destruction of many at the ships of the Achaeans.
This is the plan that seemed best in his heart …
Iliad 9 similarly starts at night:
ὣς οἱ μὲν Τρῶες φυλακὰς ἔχον· αὐτὰρ Ἀχαιοὺς
θεσπεσίη ἔχε φύζα φόβου κρυόεντος ἑταίρη,
πένθεϊ δ᾽ ἀτλήτῳ βεβολήατο πάντες ἄριστοι.
ὡς δ᾽ ἄνεμοι δύο πόντον ὀρίνετον ἰχθυόεντα
5 Βορέης καὶ Ζέφυρος, τώ τε Θρῄκηθεν ἄητον
ἐλθόντ᾽ ἐξαπίνης· ἄμυδις δέ τε κῦμα κελαινὸν
κορθύεται, πολλὸν δὲ παρὲξ ἅλα φῦκος ἔχευεν·
ὣς ἐδαΐζετο θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν Ἀχαιῶν.
Ἀτρεΐδης δ᾽ ἄχεϊ μεγάλῳ βεβολημένος ἦτορ
10 φοίτα κηρύκεσσι λιγυφθόγγοισι κελεύων
κλήδην εἰς ἀγορὴν κικλήσκειν ἄνδρα ἕκαστον …
Iliad 9.1–11
So the Trojans kept holding watches. But the Achaeans
were held by awesome panic, the companion of chilling fear,
and all the best men were struck by unendurable sorrow.
As when two winds stir up the sea with all its fish,
5 the North wind and the West wind, which blow from Thrace
coming suddenly, and at the same time a dark wave
towers up, and it pours out much seaweed alongside the sea,
so the heart in the breasts of the Achaeans was torn.
And the son of Atreus, struck in his heart by great sorrow,
10 went about telling the clear-voiced heralds
to call each man by name to assembly …
The use of ἔχω ‘hold’ in all three passages suggests that even such a common verb can have a traditional poetic resonance in this context. The simile in 9.4–7 resembles the simile in 10.5–8 (discussed further below), in that both use an example from the natural world to convey a heightened emotional state. Whereas in Books 9 and 10 it is Agamemnon and/or the Achaean warriors who are in turmoil, in Book 2 it is Zeus who cannot sleep, as he turns over in his mind how best to accomplish what he has promised to Thetis in Book 1. (Agamemnon, by contrast, is sleeping soundly in this book, and the Dream sent by Zeus reproaches him for it at Iliad 2.23–24.) Zeus’ sleeplessness in Book 2 is not elaborated with a simile, but there the emotional state being conveyed is not one of great sorrow and fear, as it is in Books 9 and 10. The sorrow evoked by the similes of 9 and 10 marks in each case the beginning of a change in plan that will lead to a nighttime episode, a sequence that is in keeping with the incendiary power of lament. (For more on the similes’ associations with lament, see below. On the power of lament to spur action, see Dué 2006a:47 and bibliography ad loc.)
The three passages together give us a sense of both the strongly felt structure and the flexibility of the traditional system in which they were composed. In Books 2 and 10, a single individual cannot sleep. In Book 9, the whole Achaean army remains awake, but once the simile is complete the focus shifts to an individual, Agamemnon, who is of course the same sleepless individual being described in Book 10. The heightened emotional situation in Books 9 and 10 leads to a simile describing that state. If we postulate that Books 9 and 10 are possible multiforms of one another (see above, p. 13), each introducing an alternative narrative that encompasses the same dramatic night, then it is illuminating to note that they begin in much the same way, following a traditional pattern that expresses anxiety or fear and the resultant sleeplessness as a prelude to nighttime action. This pattern seems to be related, though not identical, to descriptions of the cognitive process that leads to a decision being made (characterized by the verb μερμηρίζειν, as in Iliad 2.3 and also on 10.503 below, on which see Arend 1933:106–115) and/or a plan being formulated, for which we find the use of the word βουλή at both Iliad 2.5 and 10.17. (See also Iliad 9.75 and testimonium 1 of the Cypria [Bernabé] and below on 10.43–44 and 10.302.) It is instructive to compare the beginning of Book 24, where Achilles, unlike the other Greeks, cannot sleep because of his grief. There, no plan is being formulated, and the scene makes use of virtually none of the formulaic language that we find in 2, 9, and 10. This suggests that, as Lord has argued on the basis of comparative evidence, formulas are closely tied to particular themes (Lord 1960/2000:49). (For further analysis of the relationship between Books 2 and 10, as well as 1 and 9, see Haft 1990 and above, “The Poetics of Ambush”).
Although Achilles’ sleeplessness in Book 24 does not follow the pattern that we have traced in Books 2, 9, and 10, there is a compressed version of the theme in Book 24, in which Hermes, like Zeus in Book 2, does not sleep as he ponders how to help a mortal. This theme appears after Priam has gone stealthily into the Achaean encampment to supplicate Achilles and ransom Hektor’s corpse. After Achilles has agreed both to ransom the corpse and to enforce a cease-fire so that a funeral for Hektor may be held, Priam and his herald go to sleep in the forecourt (prodomos) of Achilles’ shelter, while Hermes, who escorted Priam to the Achaean encampment, ponders how to get him home safely:
οἳ μὲν ἄρ’ ἐν προδόμῳ δόμου αὐτόθι κοιμήσαντο
κῆρυξ καὶ Πρίαμος πυκινὰ φρεσὶ μήδε’ ἔχοντες,
675 αὐτὰρ Ἀχιλλεὺς εὗδε μυχῷ κλισίης ἐϋπήκτου·
τῷ δὲ Βρισηῒς παρελέξατο καλλιπάρῃος.
ἄλλοι μέν ῥα θεοί τε καὶ ἀνέρες ἱπποκορυσταὶ
εὗδον παννύχιοι μαλακῷ δεδμημένοι ὕπνῳ·
ἀλλ’ οὐχ Ἑρμείαν ἐριούνιον ὕπνος ἔμαρπτεν
680 ὁρμαίνοντ’ ἀνὰ θυμὸν ὅπως Πρίαμον βασιλῆα
νηῶν ἐκπέμψειε λαθὼν ἱεροὺς πυλαωρούς.
στῆ δ’ ἄρ’ ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς καί μιν πρὸς μῦθον ἔειπεν·
ὦ γέρον οὔ νύ τι σοί γε μέλει κακόν, οἷον ἔθ’ εὕδεις
ἀνδράσιν ἐν δηΐοισιν, ἐπεί σ’ εἴασεν Ἀχιλλεύς.
685 καὶ νῦν μὲν φίλον υἱὸν ἐλύσαο, πολλὰ δ’ ἔδωκας·
σεῖο δέ κε ζωοῦ καὶ τρὶς τόσα δοῖεν ἄποινα
παῖδες τοὶ μετόπισθε λελειμμένοι, αἴ κ’ Ἀγαμέμνων
γνώῃ σ’ Ἀτρεΐδης, γνώωσι δὲ πάντες Ἀχαιοί.
ὣς ἔφατ’, ἔδεισεν δ’ ὃ γέρων, κήρυκα δ’ ἀνίστη.
Iliad 24.673–689
They there in the forecourt of the home bedded down,
the herald and Priam having schemes one after the other [pukina] in their minds.
675 But Achilles was sleeping in the inner room of the well-built tent,
and fine-cheeked Briseis lay next to him.
The rest of the gods and the men who wear horse-hair helmets [= Iliad 2.1]
slept all night long, overcome by gentle sleep [= Iliad 10.2],
but not Hermes the helper—sleep did not lay hold of him
680 as he pondered in his heart how king Priam
he would send back from the ships without the sacred guards of the gate noticing.
He stood over his head and addressed words to him:
“Old man, now no evil is a concern to you, seeing how you sleep
among enemy men, since Achilles allowed you to.
685 And now you have ransomed your dear son, and you have given much.
But to get you back alive they would give even three times as much,
those sons of yours whom you left behind, if Agamemnon
the son of Atreus were to recognize you, and all the Achaeans recognize you.”
So he spoke, and the old man was afraid and he got the herald up.
We find the same traditional language in 24.677–678 as we see in Iliad 2.1 and Iliad 10.2, respectively. One god or mortal is sleepless while everyone else rests. We do not find the term βουλή here as we do in Books 2 and 10, but we do have the verb ὁρμαίνω at 24.680 to indicate the formulation of a plan. The same verb is used at 10.4, as Agamemnon ponders many things in a state of sleeplessness. The astonishing situation in which this theme appears (that is, Priam sleeping among the enemy and needing to get out without the guards noticing or anyone recognizing him) may also have more in common with the plan that is ultimately formulated here in Book 10, an infiltration of the enemy camp. In other words, Hermes ponders how to achieve the all-important return to one’s own camp. Priam’s secret expedition to Achilles has much in common with the theme of a spying mission, including the need for stealth, the eluding of guards, and danger in general. If Priam is caught, Hermes tells him, he will need to be ransomed just as he ransomed Hektor from the enemy. We can compare this exchange to Dolon’s offer that his father will ransom him, which he makes to Diomedes and Odysseus after they have captured him (see below on 10.378–381). The thematic association between Priam’s situation and other nighttime missions for spying or ambush may help us to better understand 24.674, where Priam and his herald are described as “having schemes one after another in their minds.” Though it is Hermes who comes up with the plan and ensures their safe homecoming, the words πυκινὰ and μήδεα are so associated with this kind of action (see below on 10.5–9) that Priam and the herald are credited with them even though they go to sleep in the middle of their mission (cf. Iliad 24.282 for the use of this same phrase at the beginning of their mission). For a discussion of the poetic implications of other instances of the word pukinos in Iliad 24 see Lynn-George 1988:230–233 and 240.