DREAM OF A CHASE: AN ICONIC ILIADIC MOMENT AND ITS ATHENIAN COUNTERPARTS

The paper explores a system of references generated by two similes in the scene of Achilles’ chase of Hector in Iliad 22, of a chariot race and of two people in a dream, frozen in the attitudes of flight and pursuit. It is argued that the two similes connect the scene of chase with the episodes of the dream apparition of Patroclus to Achilles and the funeral of Patroclus; they further evoke the Panathenaic athletic contests and particularly the apobatic race, alluding to the Athenian epichoric tradition of the apobatic race of Achilles at the grave mound of Patroclus.