The Odyssey of Homer Part 38

NOTE II.

Bk. xi. l. 162, 163 (Hom. xi. l. 134, 135).--

???at?? d? t?? ?? ???? a?t?

??????? ??a t???? ??e?seta?.

Others translate, "And from the sea shall thy own death come," suggesting that Ulysses after all was lost at sea. This is the rendering followed by Tennyson in his poem "Ulysses" (and see Dante, _Inferno_, Canto xxvi.).

It is a more natural translation of the Greek, and gives a far more wonderful vista for the close of the Wanderer's life.

NOTE III.

Bk. xix. l. 712 (Hom. xix. l. 573).--The word pe???ea?, for which Cowper gives as a paraphrase "spikes, crested with a ring," elsewhere means _axes_, and ought so to be translated here. For since Cowper's day an axe-head of the Mycenaean period has been discovered _with the blade pierced_ so as to form a hole through which an arrow could pa.s.s. (See Tsountas and Manatt, _The Mycenaean Age_.) Axes of this type were not known to Cowper, and hence the hypothesis in his text. He realised correctly the essential conditions of the feat proposed: the axes must have been set up, one behind the other, in the way he suggested for his ringed stakes.

NOTE IV.

Bk. xxii. l. 139-162 (Hom. xxii. l. 126-143).--How Melanthius got out of the hall remains a puzzle. Cowper a.s.sumes a second postern, but there is no evidence for this, and l. 139 ff. (l. 126 ff. in the Greek) suggest rather strongly that there was only _one_. Unfortunately, the crucial word ???e? which occurs in the line describing Melanthius' exit is not found elsewhere. "He went up," the poet says, "through the ???e? of the hall." Merry suggests that "he scrambled up to the loopholes that were pierced in the wall." Others suppose that there was a ladder at the inner end of the hall leading to the upper story, and on through pa.s.sages to the armoury.

In l. 141 (l. 128 in the Greek) the word translated "street" by Cowper is usually rendered "corridor."

F. M. S.

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