Agamemnon’s skēptron in the Iliad

For the student of Greek literature authority starts with Homer. One might indeed have chosen to write about Homer himself, or his poems, as images of authority in later times, but I have preferred to be more literal-minded and to take one of the Iliad ’s most obviously authoritative emblems, Agamemnon’s skēptron (neither ‘sceptre’ nor ‘staff’ is quite adequate, 1 and the safest plan is probably to avoid translation altogether). Now that more attention is being paid in Homeric studies to artistry and design we can take it as a working assumption, without the need for elaborate demonstration, that passages of detailed description are to be seen not as ‘mere’ ornament randomly placed, but as potentially enhancing the significance of the person, event or place to which they are attached and making links between different parts of the narrative.