The two warriors who are jointly named by way of the dual form Aiante here are to be identified as the greater and the lesser Ajax—in contexts where the hero Teukros, who is the bastard brother of the greater Ajax, is also named as a participant in the action. In other contexts where Teukros is not named as a participant, however, the dual Aiante are to be identified as the greater Ajax and his bastard brother Teukros. Such contexts reveal an elliptic use of the dual. The use of the dual form Aiante in the contexts of Iliad 12 can be cited as evidence for building an evolutionary model for the making of Homeric poetry.