A Second Thematic Approach

Abstract Chapter 3 revisits one of the main arguments of many modern commentators of book 10 of the Iliad who treat the fact that Rhesus’ horses are not used by Diomedes in the chariot race in the funeral games for Patroclus (Iliad 23) as a strong indication that the Doloneia is a major interpolation. By widening the interpretive lens, the chapter reconsiders the function of horses in the Iliad, discusses certain fallacies of modern scholarship with respect to the horses of Rhesus, and explores why Diomedes, who has already (in book 5) acquired Aeneas’ semi-divine horses, will use them to win the chariot race in Iliad 23. The dense nexus of intratextual references, backward and forward thematic associations, and verbal resonances between the Doloneia and the Iliad shows that book 10 and the rest of the epic share the same sophisticated technique of allusion. Furthermore, it is suggested that, with respect to the absence of Rhesus’ horses from the chariot race in book 23, the Iliadic epic tradition manipulates audience expectations and employs a policy of exclusion that amount to making a reference by refusing reference. The suppression of a feature such as Rhesus’ splendid horses from a context in which their use would be expected constitutes a type of statement towards both the kind of warfare promoted by the Iliad and the epic tradition in which this type of warfare would have been at home.