The Odyssey of Homer, Done into English Prose

16

We have omitted line 483, as required by the sense. It is introduced here from line 540.

17

Neither in this passage nor in B ii.171 nor in B xx.121 do we think that the aorist infinitive after a verb of saying can bear a future sense. The aorist infinitive after [Greek] (ii.280, vii.76) is hardly an argument in its favour; the infinitive there is in fact a noun in the genitive case.

18

Melampus

19

[Greek] seems to mean 'upon the earth,' 'above ground,' as opposed to the dead who are below, rather than 'bound to the soil,' in which sense most commentators take it.

20

See Lenormant, Premieres Civilisations, vol. i. p.289.

21

[Greek] in strict grammar agrees with [Greek] in 574, but this merely by attraction, for in sense it refers not to the living man, but to his phantom.

22

Reading [Greek], not [Greek] with La Roche.

23

Reading [Greek]

24

We omit line 101, which spoils the sense of the passage, and was rejected by antiquity.

25

Reading [Greek]

26

Reading [Greek]

27

[Greek] is perhaps best taken as an adverb in [Greek] formed from [Greek], though some letters of the word are still left obscure. Most modern commentators, however, derive it from [Greek] and [Greek] 'near the ground; hence, in this context, 'lift him by the feet.'

28

Reading [Greek]

29

[Greek] can hardly have a local meaning here. If retained, it must be nearly equivalent to [Greek], 'it seems,' with a touch of irony. Cf. i.348. The v. 1. [Greek] is a simpler reading, but by no means certain.

30

Placing at colon at [Greek], and reading [Greek] (cf. xix.312).

31

Accepting the conjecture [Greek] = [Greek] for the MSS. [Greek]

32

Reading [Greek]

33

Reading [Greek], which is a correction. Or keeping the MSS. [Greek] 'and this should bring thee in a goodly price,' the subject to [Greek] being, probably, THE SALE, which is suggested by the context.

34

The accepted interpretation of [Greek] (a word which occurs only here) is 'pretext'; but this does not agree with any of the meanings of the verb from which the noun is derived. The usage of [Greek] in Od. xix. 71, xxii. 75, of [Greek] in Il. xvii. 465, and of [Greek] in Od. xxii. 15, suggests rather for [Greek] the idea of 'aiming at a mark.'

35

Placing a colon at [Greek]

36

Or, reading [Greek], smite him as he stooped over the corpse.

37

Or, as Mr. Merry suggests in his note, 'tie boards behind him' as a method of torture. He compares Aristoph. Thesm. 931,940.

38

Reading [Greek].. [Greek].

39

Reading [Greek]

40

Supplying [Greek] from the preceding clause as object to [Greek]. Other constructions are possible.