Ambiguity and Mythic Imagery in Homer: Rhesus’ Lethal Nightmare

This paper reopens the discussion on the peculiar lines describing the death of King Rhesus in the Iliad (10.494–497): the text seems to suggest that at the very moment that Rhesus is being slain by Diomedes, he is having a nightmare about his killer. The exact relation between dream and reality remains unclear, however, and because of this ambiguity the lines have usually been regarded as problematic or flawed. This paper aims to challenge this view. By analyzing the use of the traditional mythic imagery involved (in particular the stock phrase στῆ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς) and by comparing the passage to other related (dream) scenes, it will be illustrated how this vagueness is in itself poetically effective and in line with Homeric style and thinking. The example of Rhesus thus provokes the question whether philology should always strive for disambiguation when dealing with obscure passages. It will be argued that certain ambiguities that we are inclined to approach as textual problems are in fact stylistically functional and inherent to the workings of the text.