The Authoress of the Odyssey

50

Talking of Homer Fielding says, "I had the curiosity to ask him whether he had really writ that poem [the Iliad] in detached pieces and flung it about all over Greece, according to the report that went of him. He smiled at my question, and asked me whether there appeared any connection in the poem; for if there did he thought I might answer for myself." This was first published in 1743, and is no doubt intended as a reply to Bentley. See Jebb's Introduction to Homer, ed. 1888, note 1 on p. 106.

51

The part about the bard is omitted in my abridgement.

52

Studies on Homer and the Homeric age. – Oxford University Press 1858, p. 28.

53

Od. xxii. 473, cf. Il. XIII. 573.

54

I should explain to the non-musical writer that it is forbidden in music to have consecutive fifths or octaves between the same parts.

55

Od. i. 356-359, cf. Il. VI. 490-493. The word "war" in the Iliad becomes "speech" in the Odyssey. There is no other change.

56

Od. ii. 15-23.

57

Od. iv. 186-188. Neither of these passages is given in my abridgement.

58

Od. ii. 127-128 and 203-207.

59

Od. x. 40, this passage is not given in my abridgement.

60

Od. viii. 38-40, cf. also 61. It would seem that Alcinous found the provisions which the poorer guests cooked for themselves and ate outside in the court yards. The magnates ate in the covered cloister, and were no doubt cooked for.

61

See Chapter X.

62

A few years ago the stone work at the entrance to the harbour of Selinunte was excavated, but it was silted over again in a single winter.

63

Shown in the plan as the Salt Works of S. Cusumano.

64

Of recent years an excellent carriage road has been made from Trapani to the town on the top of Mt. Eryx, but pedestrians still use the old path, which in places is very rough.

65

In the Odyssey more generally called Same.

66

The name Favognana is derived from Favonius, this wind blowing on to Trapani from off the island. It is, however, also and perhaps most frequently called Favignana.

67

Gr. Τὴν γὰρ δή μιν ἄνωγε Καλυψὼ δῖα θεάων ποντοπορευέμεναι ἐπ᾽ ἀριστερὰ χειρὸς ἔχοντα.

68

We may neglect the Pleiades, as introduced simply because they are in the Iliadic passage (xviii. 486-489) which the writer of the Odyssey is adopting with no other change than taking out the Hyades and Orion, and substituting Boötes. This she was bound to do, for she could not make Ulysses steer towards both the Bear and Orion, when she is just going to tell us, as the Iliad does, that Orion is on the other side of the sky. The Pleiades she has allowed to stand – which of us knows in what quarter of the heavens (let alone the Precession of the Equinoxes) they are to be looked for? – and it is made quite clear that the Bear is the constellation by which Ulysses is steering.

69

At Messina a few months since I saw a printed handbill about the hours when the boat would start for Reggio, in which Italy was called "Terra firma," as though a sense of instability attached itself to any island.

70

The name seems derived from λᾶας, τρυγάω, and αἶα, Œnotria is from οἶνος, τρυγάω, and αἶα. I have read, but forget where, that Œnotria is only a Greek rendering of Italia, which is derived from vites, alo, and some Latin equivalent for αἶα. The modern Italian word lastricare, "to pave roads with stone," is probably derived from the same roots as Læstrygonian.

71

Segesta would have been seen from the top of Mt. Eryx gleaming in the summer sunset, and I think there would have been some kind of allusion to it.

72

The Asinelli is a single islet much in the shape of a ship heading straight for Favognana. There is nothing plural about it, and one does not see why it should have a plural name. Who were the "asses" or "fools"?

73

Virgil does not let it pass unnoticed. He writes: —

"Cernimus adstantes nequidquam lumine torvo

Ætnæos fratres…