Abstract
The Greats of the Iliad and the Achaemenian kings. Three points are chiefly studied here : first, the names of Ἀγα-μέμνων and Ἀχιλλεύς, etymologically linked to μέγα (*mgh₂-, whence discussions about some problems arising from laryngeals, either in phonology or in metrics) ; second, the Akhilleus's formulary ("Great, greatest bringer of booty among the Greats [who bring booty]"), in its archaisms : comparison of μέγα φέρτατ(ε) with the Indian Mahā-bhārata- ; metaphor of the warrior in his economical function of "he who brings booty" ; form of the superlative "great of the greats" ; comparison with the beginning of the Achaemenian's formulary "I am (Darius, etc.) the great king, king of the kings" (Agamemnon's formulary can be compared too, by other syntagms which are disseminated in' the Iliad, while Achaeans' formulary is partly related to Hittite) ; third, the relation between the narrative frame of the Iliad and the political programm included in O.P. Hahā-manis, "Companionship (and) Thought". This name is compound of *men- and *sekw- ; *men- (like in Ἀγα-μέμνων : *men-môn designating the king metonymically by his faculty of thinking), *sekw-, in *sokw-eh₂ (action noun besides the agent noun *sokw-h₂i-(o)- > skr. sakhi-, lat. socius), the meaning of which is to be explained by Gk. ὀπᾱ-Ϝων : it is an epithet of Mērionēs, a warrior initiated to the function of a "socius- secundus" by the other Cretan chief Idomeneus. So, there are two pairs in the Iliad exemplifying the good or bad performance of the association proposed by the Persian name : the Cretan one (Idomeneus-Mērionēs), harmonious, the Achaean one (Agamemnon-Akhilleus), conflicting. Their opposition will be neutralized by the reconciliation of the two Greats of the Iliad, the king and his warrior, socius who has to remain secundus : in the last of the funeral games of Patroklos, Akhilleus gives the first prize to the king Agamemnon, the second one to the όπα-Ρων (*men-...sekw-) Mērionēs, without the trial going on : these prizes are functional.
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