D.M. Gaunt argues that these lines are the point at which the theme changes from a spying mission, or “reconnaissance-story,” to “a direct attack” (1971:197). Gaunt postulates that there were at one time two traditional episodes, one that focused on reconnaissance and the other on an assassination of “Hector or some great hero” (1971:195). (See also on 10.282.) Gaunt argues that when oral poetry is composed and performed, “paratactic” thinking allows for this kind of shift, since both the singer and the audience are most focused on the immediate scene. We disagree with Gaunt’s characterization of oral composition as primitive and his assertion “that sometimes the narrative leads the poet” (1971:195). Instead, we can see how these themes are linked in ways that Lord (1960/2000) and Petegorsky (1982) have explored, a phenomenon that reveals the complexity, rather than the simple-mindedness, of oral traditional epic. (Note that Hainsworth 1993 calls 10.433–441 the “turning-point of the Book.”)