διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη πολυμήχαν’ Ὀδυσσεῦ
Nestor, who is the most diplomatic of the heroes in the Iliad, addresses Odysseus in connection with both his lineage and with two of his traditional epithets, thereby using an entire hexameter to address him. He does the same with Agamemnon in 10.103 (Ἀτρεΐδη κύδιστε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν Ἀγάμεμνον), in precisely the way that Agamemnon instructs Menelaos to wake up the heroes in 10.68–69. And as with Agamemnon, Nestor chooses what is perhaps the most honorific of Odysseus’ traditional epithets. In the Iliad, the epithet διογενὲς ‘descended from Zeus’ is applied to several heroes, including Patroklos (1.337), Achilles (1.489), Ajax (4.489), and Menelaos (23.294), but in the Odyssey it is restricted to Odysseus. πολυμήχανος, on the other hand, is Odysseus’ distinctive epithet. It is used of him and him alone, and, with one exception, always in the vocative. That one exception is the signature description of Odysseus by Athena, who in the guise of Mentes tells Telemakhos that his father is on his way home, “since he is a man of many devices (πολυμήχανος, Odyssey 1.205).”
It is a testament to the economy of Homeric diction that other than the full verse phrase that appears here (and six other places in the Iliad, as well as fifteen times in the Odyssey) there are only three ways to address Odysseus in the vocative in our Iliad, each with a different metrical configuration: ὦ πολύαιν’ Ὀδυσεῦ μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιῶν (9.673, 10.544), ὦ Ὀδυσεῦ πολύαινε (11.430), and [ὦ] Ὀδυσεῦ (9.346, 14.104). This does not mean, however, that the epithets are without semantic weight (see especially the formulation of Lord 1960/2000:66, quoted on 10.3 above). The full verse formula is particularly flexible and can be used or not at a composer’s discretion. Its contexts suggest that it conveys formality and respect. In the Iliad, the goddess Athena and the heroes Agamemnon, Diomedes, Achilles, and Ajax address Odysseus this way. In the Odyssey, Athena, Calypso, and Circe do, as do the shades of Teiresias, Agamemnon, and Achilles.
Diomedes, by contrast, does not get quite the same respect as Agamemnon and Odysseus. In 10.159, Diomedes is addressed as simply “the son of Tydeus.” In Iliad 9.32–49, Diomedes is the first to speak after Agamemnon’s address to the assembled warriors and is sharply critical of him. Nestor praises Diomedes for his abilities as a warrior and for his speaking ability but qualifies the latter: he is the best in counsel for his age group (Iliad 9.54). It seems that Diomedes is still too junior in relation to Nestor to get the full honorific address. Three times, however, he is addressed by others with the affectionate full-line formula Τυδεΐδη Διόμηδες ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ (Iliad 5.242, by Sthenelos; Iliad 5.826, by Athena; Iliad 10.234, by Agamemnon).