A recurring epithet of Homeric chariots is ποικλο‘bright-coloured’,
sometimes with the addition of χαλκ;ι‘with bronze’, but sometimes on
its own (Il. 5. 239, 10. 501, 13. 537, 14. 431), where it may be taken to refer
to painting. In the Linear B tablets from Knossos the colour of chariots
(vermilion, purple, red) is often noted, and it may have been significant for
identification in battle.^76 Dawn’s chariot in RV 7. 75. 6 is vis ́vapís ́-, ‘all-
decorated’, as is Mithra’s in Yt. 10. 124 vı ̄spo ̄pae ̄sa-, where -pís ́-,-pae ̄sa- repre-
sent the same root *pei as does ποικ-λο. In Dawn’s case the colours are of
course those of the morning sky, but the metaphor of the painted chariot no
doubt had a grounding in real life.^77
BATTLE NARRATIVE: SETTING THE SCENEThe narrator of a major conflict needs to give an account of the forces
involved. Even if he is actually going to concentrate on the deeds of a small
number of individuals, their achievement is the more significant, the greater
the scale of the action as a whole. And their fame is not just a function of the
numbers of men they kill, but of who they kill and in the context of what
legendary event.
Hence a typical element in traditional battle narratives is a catalogue of
fighting groups and their leaders. As examples we may refer to the Homeric
catalogues covering both the Achaean and the Trojan confederations (Il. 2.
484–877); the long section of the Udyogaparvan (MBh. 5. 161–9) devoted to
listing and evaluating the warriors and paladins who are to take part in the
great war; the catalogue of the monkey contingents in the Ra ̄ma ̄yan
̇
a (4. 38.
10–35); the musters of the Ulstermen and the men of Ireland in the Táin ( (I)
3455–97, 3948–81); the review of armies in Sassountsy David 314 f.^78
Of course, if the conflict is conceived as involving thousands of men, there
is no question of listing them all, only the notables. The poet of the Iliad asks
the Muses to recite the names of the Danaans’ leaders and commanders,
confessing that ‘as for the multitude, I could not tell of them or name them,
not even if I had ten tongues and ten mouths, an unbreakable voice and
a heart of bronze’ (2. 487–90). This explicit exclusion of the masses from
catalogues is routine in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata, and paralleled also in the Táin.
(^76) M. Lejeune, Minos 9 (1968), 29; Drews (as n. 71), 126.
(^77) Another divine chariot in the Rigveda is that of R
̇
tam (Truth, Right), with which Watkins
has compared Simon. eleg. 11. 12 {ρμα ... ∆κ[η (Ériu 30 (1979), 181ff.= (1994), 626ff.;
(1995), 16). It should be noted, however, that there is an ancient variant reading τρμα.
(^78) Cf. McCone (1990), 51; West (1997), 208. On catalogues more generally cf. H. M. and
N. K. Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, i (Cambridge 1932), 276–83.
470 12. Arms and the Man