The formula πάντες ὁμηγερέες, ἠμὲν νέοι ἠδὲ γέροντες used to describe the gathered assembly of Trojans as composed of “both young men and old men” (ἠμὲν νέοι ἠδὲ γέροντες) has the underlying meaning of “all men of a certain group who count.” This meaning can be discerned by comparing the other contexts in which it is used. In Iliad 9 Diomedes uses this formula to say that both the young men and old men of the Argives (that is, all men of the Argives who count) know how Agamemnon spoke to Diomedes earlier (ταῦτα δὲ πάντα / ἴσασ’ Ἀργείων ἠμὲν νέοι ἠδὲ γέροντες, Iliad 9.35–36). Odysseus reminds Achilles that his father Peleus advised him to avoid strife so that both the young men and the old men of the Argives (that is, all the men of the Argives who count) would honor him (ληγέμεναι δ’ ἔριδος κακομηχάνου, ὄφρά σε μᾶλλον τίωσ’ Ἀργείων ἠμὲν νέοι ἠδὲ γέροντες, Iliad 9.257–258). These uses found in our Iliad are always in the same metrical position. By contrast, a formula found in the Odyssey describing “young men and old,” νέοι ἠδὲ παλαιοί, seems instead to emphasize the large number of men involved (Odyssey 1.395 and Odyssey 8.58), not the “completeness” or social importance of the set.