κρατὶ δ᾽ ἐπὶ κτιδέην κυνέην
Dolon’s helmet, like those worn by Diomedes and Odysseus on this night, is made of animal hide rather than metal, as is appropriate to maneuvers in the dark. It provides stealth, whereas metal can reflect whatever light is available and give an ambusher away. (See on 10.257 and our essay “The Poetics of Ambush” for a full discussion.) The animal from whose hide Dolon’s cap is made, the ἴκτις, is the marten, a member of the weasel family. It is tempting to make the connection that, by wearing this helmet, Dolon is being characterized as “weasely.” (About this animal but not this passage, Aristotle notes that the ἴκτις has the “wickedness of character like the weasel,” History of Animals 612b10.) Even with that ancient testimony, however, we need to be careful not to make assumptions about associations with this animal in Homeric epic. This helmet is the only mention of the marten in our Homeric texts, so we can only speculate about what the associations might have been. The significance may instead be that this omnivorous animal hunts at night (Schwanz 2000). Nicander’s Theriaca 196–197, from the second century BCE, describes the ἴκτις as an animal that kills domestic birds in their sleep, making it very much like an ambusher at night. Also, Wathelet argues that the marten, like other members of the weasel family, is perhaps known for spying (Wathelet 1989:220). If these are indeed the associations an ancient audience would make, then not only are the physical qualities of the hide appropriate to the night, but also the marten’s characteristics mark Dolon as a “creature of the night.”