Εὐμήδεος υἱὸς / κήρυκος θείοιο
A patronymic is often read as a sign of traditionality: that is, a character with a patronymic has a lineage within traditional epic (for more about this initial line of introduction, see “Tradition and Reception” above). As we see here, and again when the patronymic is used on lines 412 and 426, it is also a useful formula for composition: combined with Dolon’s name, it fills the line from the weak caesura to the end of the line, one of the most common metrical patterns for name-epithet formulas. The enjambment of his father’s occupation on the next line is compositionally noteworthy: it is not necessary to complete the thought of the previous line (indeed, none of these details are strictly necessary—line 318 could follow 314 with no loss of sense). As Lord reminds us, “This absence of necessary enjambment is a characteristic of oral composition and is one of the easiest touchstones to apply in testing the orality of a poem. Milman Parry called it an ‘adding style’; the term is apt” (Lord 1960/2000:54). Eumedes’ role as herald must strongly suggest itself to the singer when his name is used in the patronymic formula. Scholiasts offer the possibility that Odysseus and Diomedes would perhaps know Dolon because he accompanied his father on official dispatches to the Greek camp (see below on 10.447). But there may also be implicit contrasts here: his father the herald visits the Achaean camp in an official capacity during the daylight. We can compare Iliad 7.370–415, when the Trojans decide at dinner time to send Idaios to the Achaeans at dawn the next day (see Iliad 7.370–372, 380–381). That is, it is made explicit that the herald will wait for daylight to go to the opposing camp, rather than immediately going in the dark. Dolon, as a spy at night, is a different kind of unofficial “visitor” to the enemy camp. Heralds are divinely protected in their duties, as the epithet θεῖος indicates, but spies are not, and Dolon cannot expect protection, or even mercy, when he encounters the Achaeans on his mission.