Here at I.11.288, Hector is boasting that Agamemnon, ‘the best man’, ho aristos, is now out of the picture. There is an irony built into the words of Hector, and this irony emerges from the context. The aristeiā ‘epic high point’ of Agamemnon in the Iliad, inaugurated in grand style when the Master Narrator invokes the Muses at I.11.218, does not go all that well for the high king. Early on in the fighting, he gets wounded in the hand, I.11.253. He tries to fight on, but the pain from the wound finally gets to him, I.11.268–272. The intensity of his pain is compared here to the birth-pangs experienced by a woman at the climax of her labor, I.11.269–271. Unable to withstand such pain any more, Agamemnon jumps back on the platform of his war chariot and orders his driver to drive him back to the safety of the beached ships of the Achaeans, I.11.273–274, shouting to his fellow warriors that they should now follow him in retreat and defend the ships, I.11.275–278, since, as he says, Zeus has not supported the ongoing offensive initiated by the Achaeans, I.11.278–279. So, the aristeiā ‘epic high point’ of Agamemnon has not exactly turned out to be a spectacular success. And Hector knows it. As the chariot of Agamemnon speeds this over-king away from the scene of battle, I.11.280–283, Hector notices, I.11.284, as expressed by the verb noeîn ‘take note’. It is in this context, then, that Hector says what he says at I.11.288: ‘the best man’, ho aristos, is now out of the picture. But of course the truly best of all the Achaeans is not yet in the picture.