The catalogue here of heroes who volunteer to accompany Diomedes on his nighttime spying mission is organized by way of repeating the verb (e)thelein ‘wish’ in the specialized sense of ‘volunteer’, and the various heroes who do volunteer are figured as the subjects of the repeated verb. Each one of these heroes is a potential candidate for the title ‘best of the Achaeans’. As the narrative proceeds, Odysseus will emerge as the most qualified for that title at this moment.