A Reading Course in Homeric Greek
- NOTE S
115 μετ’: “towards” or “at.”
116 ἅμαρτε : the subject of this and ἔμβαλε is still βασίλεια.
117 ἐπὶ μακρόν : “over a great (distance),” i.e., “loudly.”
118 ἑζόμενος : “sitting up.”
119 ὤ μοι ἐγώ : an exclamation, i.e., “Woe is me!” τέων : indef. interr. adj. Scan as one syllable
(synizesis; §35).
120 οἵ γ’ ὑβρισταί τε καὶ ἄγριοι οὐδὲ δίκαιοι : understand εἰσί. Cf. the same question asked
before setting out to meet the Cyclops at 9. 175-176 (Book I §508).
122 ὥς τέ με κουράων : “as if it were that of girls.”
125 ἦ νύ που introduces a question (“Is it perhaps that....?”).
126 πειρήσομαι is probably aor. subj., like ἴδωμαι, rather than fut. ind. Both would be hortatory
(“Let me...”). This sense is strongly suggested by the preceding ἀλλ’ ἄγε (see the note on 6.
36, above). The ο in πειρήσομαι is used in place of ω for metrical reasons.
127 ὑπεδύσετο is a mixed aorist, with a first aorist stem and second aorist endings (cf. 6. 78 and
note ad loc.).
129 φύλλων is governed by πτόρθον in 128.120f. ἤ ῥ’ οἵ γ’ ὑβρισταί τε καὶ ἄγριοι οὐδὲ δίκαιοι,/ ἦε φιλόξεινοι καί σφιν νόος ἐστὶ
θεουδής; These are the very words Odysseus uses in his address to his assembled
companions before setting out to explore the land of the Cyclopes (9. 175-76, §508
in Book I; cf. also 13. 201f. and 8. 575f.). In the Odyssey, ὕβρις is a quality regularly
opposed, as it is here, to δίκη as well as to proper hospitality. Besides the Cyclops
Polyphemus, it is also attributed to the suitors because of their misbehavior in
Odysseus’ household, i.e., their consumption of his household’s wealth through their
continuous partying (1. 227, etc.), and their mistreatment of guests and servants
(17. 565, etc.). When the suitors are killed, Penelope conjectures that a god has
accomplished this deed to punish their ὕβρις (23. 63f.). Accordingly, the suitors are
said to be unjust (e.g., 2. 282, 14. 90). ἄγριοι: In the Odyssey, when this adjective is
used of specific characters, it is used most often of Polyphemus; but it is also applied
to the monster Scylla (12. 119) and to the Giants (7. 206). Otherwise it is used in
constructions much like this one, to describe a type of people who are not δίκαιοι or
φιλόξεινοι, i.e., do not conform to the laws of civilization in their behavior towards
others. It is also used of the wild goats who populate the forested and pristine island
near the land of the Cyclopes in which Odysseus sees so much potential for the
improvements of civilization (9. 119 and 116-141 passim); while there is certainly no
fault to be found in these goats for being ἄγριοι, Odysseus clearly finds something
objectionable (and expects his Phaeacian audience to, as well) in the “wild”
Cyclopes’ failure to develop this real estate. By contrast, in the Iliad the word does
not carry the same morally pejorative undertones when used of humans. The heroes
Diomedes, Hector and Achilles are described as ἄγριος while they are dominant on
the battlefield (6.97, 8. 96, 21. 314)— though in each of these instances the speaker
wishes to put an end to the warrior’s aristeia.