τοῖον γὰρ ἄχος βεβίηκεν Ἀχαιούς
See also above on 10.85. The sorrow (akhos) that Nestor cites here is of course ultimately the result of the withdrawal of Achilles and its disastrous consequences, and Nestor uses an equivalent phrase when the strife between Agamemnon and Achilles begins (see Iliad 1.254; see Nagy 1979:69–72, 94–95 for the equivalence of ἄχος and πένθος in Homeric diction). The Trojans have had a great deal of success in Achilles’ absence and are now encamped on the plain. This sorrow is what keeps Agamemnon and Menelaos awake at the opening of this book. Likewise, in Iliad 9.9, Agamemnon is “struck in his heart by great sorrow” (ἄχεϊ μεγάλῳ βεβολημένος ἦτορ). Achilles had predicted that Agamemnon would feel sorrow (ἀχνύμένος, Iliad 1.241) when the Greeks fell dying. The akhos that Achilles experiences when Agamemnon threatens to take and then in fact takes Briseis in Iliad 1 initiates his wrath, which in turn leads to the sorrow of the Achaeans. Nagy has argued that there is a “pervasive nexus between ἄχος and Ἀχιλ(λ)εύς” in Homeric diction that is “integrated in the inherited formulaic system and hence deeply rooted in the epic tradition” (Nagy 1979:79). This akhos seems to be the root of Achilles’ name, which Nagy etymologizes as *Akhí-lāṷos ‘whose host of men is sorrowful [= grieving]’. (See Nagy 1979:69–93 and Nagy 2004:131–137, as well as Palmer 1963:78–79 and Holland 1993.)