ἀλλ’ ὅτε δή ῥ’ ἀπέην ὅσσόν τ’ ἐπί οὖρα πέλονται / ἡμιόνων
The distance of the mule’s plow range seems to take us out of the realm of war and into a farming setting, but when we look at other instances in Homeric epic of this description of distance, it takes us rather into the world of athletics. During the funeral games for Patroklos, this same word οὖρα is used for the distance of a discus throw of a young man, and it serves as a point of comparison for the distance during which Antilokhos’ horses were even with those of Menelaos (Iliad 23.431–433). And in the games on Phaeacia in the Odyssey, it is used to describe by how much Klytoneos won the footrace (Odyssey 8.123–125). Since we find many similarities of language between this section of Iliad 10 and Iliad 22 (see below on 10.363–368), we might also compare from that episode how Achilles’ chase of Hektor is compared to both a footrace and a chariot race at a hero’s funeral games, but with Hektor’s life as a prize (Iliad 22.157–166). Here, too, begins a “footrace” that will end in Dolon’s death.