Today’s paper is on a Greek topic for a change (hmm: just noticed that’s a pun): ‘Making Change for a Tripod: A Footnote on Homeric Economics (Iliad 23.736-37)’. The PDF is here.
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Is it possible that the idea is simpler than you propose, and that you have a better (punnier) title than you realize?
A tripod’s shape is not valuable, but it is a convenient form for transport of raw metal; it is the metal’s value that is being stated. Further, a tripod has three legs. It is therefore easily dividable into 3 units of four-oxen-worth of metal.
Why doesn’t one victor take two legs of the tripod, and the other a slave and the remaining leg. No one needs oxen in store (good thing, given Ajax’s future), and it might be that I come away with a slave and a single foot, appropriate for your footnote on economics.