Nestor assigns Hecamede the care role of heating Machaon’s bath and washing away his clotted blood.
See evidence text
“while fair Hecamede heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood from off you.”
Book 14
Passage 1
Source text
Nestor assigns Hecamede the care role of heating Machaon’s bath and washing away his clotted blood.
“while fair Hecamede heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood from off you.”
Nestor identifies Machaon as blood-clotted and in need of a heated bath and washing.
“stay here, therefore, and sit over your wine, while fair Hecamede heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood from off you.”
Nestor hears the strengthening battle-cries, directs Machaon to remain for treatment, and goes to investigate from the lookout.
“the cry of battle did not escape him, and he said to the son of Aesculapius, ‘What, noble Machaon, is the meaning of all this? The shouts of men fighting by our ships grow stronger and stronger; stay here, therefore, and sit over your wine, while fair Hecamede heats you a bath and washes the clotted blood from off you. I will go at once to the look-out station and see what it is all about.”
Hearing the battle cries intensify near the ships, Nestor tells the wounded Machaon to remain with Hecamede for a bath while he goes to learn what is happening.