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Love what you say about horses occupying a middle ground between the human and animal...

Isn't this also the book in which Hector loses TWO of his charioteers?

I ask myself why such repetitions as losing two charioteers in one book happen in Homer (another example: the duels) and the answer I give is that repetitions happen in actual life and make the narrative more realistic . You can imagine Hector sitting around a fire telling his friends about the day he lost two charioteers -- but it isn't meaningful.

What leapt out to me about this book were the mentions of gold, lightning and fire -- which could all be seen as slightly related. Everything of Zeus's is gold; Zeus sends the lightning; the lightning makes fire... I think Book 8 is where the mentions of fire, not only in the action of the narrative but in the similes, start to get thick. We see many more references to fire after this book.

Interesting that you associate getting Nestor's shield with kleos: that shield being referred to as being made out of gold. So maybe kleos fits also in that chain of meanings-- gold, lightning, fire, fame.

Not sure if it's in this book but the ring that holds Hector's speer point to his speer shaft is also called golden.

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