The names of the Snakes are very many, ascetic –– I shall not mention all of them. But
hear from me the chief ones (MBh. 1. 31. 4, cf. 52. 2 f.).
At this war of the Kurus many hundreds of thousands of kings foregathered, eager to
fight in the battle. Their names are innumerable –– not in a myriad years could their
number be counted. But the chiefs have been mentioned, by whom hangs this tale
(1. 57. 105 f.).
There are many thousands, myriads, and millions of warriors in your army, but hear
from me the principal ones (5. 162. 18).
Their number is not known nor is it possible to count how many of the common
soldiery fell there, but their leaders alone have been reckoned. Here follow their names
(Táin (I) 2318).
Sometimes the number of an army is conveyed not with a vague reference
to thousands and myriads, but by means of a multiplication sum, as in Il. 8.
562 f., ‘a thousand fires burned on the plain, and by each one sat fifty men in
thefirelight’ (cf. 2. 123–8). In a Norse heroic poem Angantyr asks Gizurr the
size of the Hun army, and Gizurr tells him, ‘Great is their multitude. There are
six regiments of men; in each regiment, five Thousands; in each Thousand,
thirteen Hundreds; in each Hundred, men reckoned four’ (Hunnenschlacht
32; cf. Saxo 5. 7. 4 p. 130). And in an Irish text: ‘A question: what is the
number of the slain?’ Lug said to Lóch. ‘I do not know the number of
peasants and rabble. As to the number of Fomorian lords and nobles and
champions and over-kings, I do know: 3 + 3 × 20 + 50 × 100 men + 20 × 100 +
3 × 50 + 9 × 5 + 4 × 20 × 1000 + 8 + 8 × 20 + 7 + 4 × 20 + 6 + 4 × 20 + 5 + 8 × 20
- 2 + 40, including the grandson of Nét with 90 men. That is the number of
the slain of the Fomorian over-kings and high nobles who fell in the battle’
(Cath Maige Tuired 724–41, trs. Gray).
In the so-called Teichoskopia of the Iliad (3. 161–244) the poet avails
himself of a means to attach physical descriptions to the major Greek heroes.
Priam stands on the wall of Troy with Helen, describes one after another of
the men he can see below, and asks her to identify them, which she does.
The same narrative technique is used in Indic, Celtic, and Norse texts. The
most similar situation appears in the Ra ̄ma ̄yan
̇
a, where the king stands on a
vantage-point and the leaders of the attacking army are pointed out by
description and identified to him (6. 17–19, cf. 47. 11ff.; cf. MBh. 15. 32).
Dialogue scenes in which a series of heroes are described by one speaker and
identified by the other are typical of the longer Irish sagas.^79 A variant of the
(^79) Cf. Táin (I) 3205–82, 3589–3861; Fled Bricrenn 44–52; Mesca Ulad 33–47; Togail bruidne
Dá Derga 75–140; Thurneysen (1921), 61.
- Arms and the Man 471