Lost in Translation: Verb forms in Iliad 4.134–138

At this point, dying-for-drama Athena has just convinced Pandarus to fire an arrow at Menelaus. She then, somewhat puzzlingly, deflects said arrow from hitting an exposed area. We then get this description of where she guides the arrow.

ἐν δ᾿ ἔπεσε ζωστῆρι ἀρηρότι πικρὸς ὀιστός·
διὰ μὲν ἂρ ζωστῆρος ἐλήλατο δαιδαλέοιο,
καὶ διὰ θώρηκος πολυδαιδάλου ἠρήρειστο
μίτρης θ᾿, ἣν ἐφόρει ἔρυμα χροός, ἕρκος ἀκόντων,
ἥ οἱ πλεῖστον ἔρυτο· διαπρὸ δὲ εἴσατο καὶ τῆς.

The Murray/Wyatt translation gives us:

Into the clasped belt entered the bitter arrow,
and through the elaborate belt was it driven,
and clean through the curiously worked corselet did it force its way,
and through the apron which he wore, a screen for his flesh and a barrier against missiles,
which was his chief defence; yet even through this did it speed.

Fagel translates (lineation his):

The shaft pierced the tight belt's twisted thongs,
piercing the blazoned plates, piercing the guard
he wore to shield his loins and block the spears,
his best defense-the shaft pierced even this,

There are a couple of features this passage that go unexpressed in either translation, and I’m especially curious about one of them. The first is the sequence created by the verbal forms, highlighted below.

ἐν δ᾿ ἔπεσε ζωστῆρι ἀρηρότι πικρὸς ὀιστός·
διὰ μὲν ἂρ ζωστῆρος ἐλήλατο δαιδαλέοιο,
καὶ διὰ θώρηκος πολυδαιδάλου ἠρήρειστο
μίτρης θ᾿, ἣν ἐφόρει ἔρυμα χροός, ἕρκος ἀκόντων,
ἥ οἱ πλεῖστον ἔρυτο· διαπρὸ δὲ εἴσατο καὶ τῆς.

The two bolded verbs are ἐλαύνω ‘to drive’ and ἐρείδω ‘to force one’s way’. Both are in the pluperfect—which is just grammar-speak for past actions setting up yet another action after them, but still in the past. This climactic action is referred to by the verb εἶμι ‘to go’ (in bold and italics, and expressed in the aorist). Thus, a (admittedly wooden) translation that takes these verb forms seriously would be something like,

The sharp arrow fell into the fastened belt,
and—having had been driven into the ornamented belt
as well as having had been forced into the very ornamented breastplate
and the waistguard, which he bore as a guard for his flesh, a wall against missiles,
which protected him the most—even through this it entered.

Are the pluperfect forms chosen simply because they fit the meter better? Even if this were the case, a speaker would surely have instinctually tried to arrange the actions according to them.