ἀκτίνεσσιν ἐοικότες ἠελίοιο
Nestor’s statement that the white horses “look like the rays of the sun” implies that they are particularly visible in the darkness, and it also has a temporal correlation in that dawn is now near. But on a deeper level, the important concept of nostos in the ambush theme (that is, the importance of the return of the ambushers) is also connected to sun imagery (see Frame 1978/2005 and 2009 for the connection between nostos and the rising, or return, of the sun). The conversation between Odysseus, the hero who achieves nostos (see also on 10.247), and Nestor, whose name, according to Frame, reflects an earlier function of “he who brings back to life and light” (Frame 1978/2005:96–115), thus connects the horses, which look like the sun that will soon rise, and the safe return of Odysseus and Diomedes, marking the success of their night mission. We may compare the moment at which Odysseus reaches Ithaca in Odyssey 13.93–95: at that moment, twenty years in the making, the sun rises just as the ship draws near to land.