I was thinking about the tamarisk the other night again and another odd thing occurred to me about it, namely that in at least three of the mentions of the tamarisk weaponry is somehow involved. I haven’t gone back to the Iliad in a while so this is all a bit foggy and from memory but I believe the following is true:
— in the first mention, a slain Trojan’s armor is concealed in the tamarisk bush;
— in the second, the axle of a chariot gets twisted up in a tamarisk;
— in the third, a spear that has missed its target is lodged in the ground beside a tamarisk.
I would have to go back and read it, but it seems as if they might be notably different sorts of armament as well: shield — chariot — spear…. I don’t believe the fourth mention involves a weapon. There, the tamarisk is named among other plants as being consumed by fire on the bank of the river Xanthos. [Initial note on the tamarisk in Homer is here.] [Update: is fire the ‘weapon’?]
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 