Note 1
[ Black races are evidently known to the writer as stretching all across Africa, one half looking West on to the Atlantic, and the other East on to the Indian Ocean.]
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Notes to The Odyssey — Samuel Butler translation
187 notes in Samuel Butler translation. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.
187 notes
Note 2
[ The original use of the footstool was probably less to rest the feet than to keep them (especially when bare) from a floor which was often wet and dirty.]
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[ The θρόνος or seat, is occasionally called “high,” as being higher than the θρῆνυς or low footstool. It was probably no higher than an ordinary chair is now, and seems to have ha…
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[ Temesa was on the West Coast of the toe of Italy, in what is now the gulf of Sta Eufemia. It was famous in remote times for its copper mines, which, however, were worked out when…
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[ i.e. “with a current in it”—see illustrations and map near the end of bks. v. and vi. respectively.]
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[ Reading Νηρίτῳ for Νηίῳ, cf. “Od.” iii. 81 where the same mistake is made, and xiii. 351 where the mountain is called Neritum, the same place being intended both here and in book…
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[ It is never plausibly explained why Penelope cannot do this, and from bk. ii. it is clear that she kept on deliberately encouraging the suitors, though we are asked to believe th…
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[ See note on “Od.” i. 365.]
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[ Middle Argos means the Peleponnese which, however, is never so called in the “Iliad”. I presume “middle” means “middle between the two Greek-speaking countries of Asia Minor and …
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[ cf. “Il.” vi. 490-495. In the “Iliad” it is “war,” not “speech,” that is a man’s matter. It argues a certain hardness, or at any rate dislike of the “Iliad” on the part of the wr…
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[ μέγαρα σκιοέντα The whole open court with the covered cloister running round it was called μέγαρον, or μέγαρα, but the covered part was distinguished by being called “shady” or “…
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[ The reader will note the extreme care which the writer takes to make it clear that none of the suitors were allowed to sleep in Ulysses’ house.]
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[ See Appendix; g, in plan of Ulysses’ house.]
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[ I imagine this passage to be a rejoinder to “Il.” xxiii. 702-705 in which a tripod is valued at twelve oxen, and a good useful maid of all work at only four. The scrupulous regar…
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[ χιτῶνα “The χιτών, or tunica, was a shirt or shift, and served as the chief under garment of the Greeks and Romans, whether men or women.” Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman A…
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[ Doors fastened to all intents and purposes as here described may be seen in the older houses at Trapani. There is a slot on the outer side of the door by means of which a person …
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[ πύματον δ’ ὡπλίσσατο δόρπον. So we vulgarly say “had cooked his goose,” or “had settled his hash.” Ægyptius cannot of course know of the fate Antiphus had met with, for there had…
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[ “Il.” xxii. 416. σχέσθε φίλοι, καὶ μ’ οἷον ἐάσατε...... The authoress has bungled by borrowing these words verbatim from the “Iliad”, without prefixing the necessary “do not,” wh…
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[ i.e. you have money, and could pay when I got judgment, whereas the suitors are men of straw.]
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[ cf. “Il.” ii. 76. ἦ τοι ὄ γ’ ὦς εὶπὼν κατ’ ἄρ’ ἔζετο τοῖσι δ’ ἀνέστη Νέστωρ, ὄς ῥα....................................... ὄ σφιν ἐὺ φρονέων ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπεν. The Odyssean …
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[ i.e. in the outer court, and in the uncovered part of the inner house.]
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[ This would be fair from Sicily, which was doing duty for Ithaca in the mind of the writer, but a North wind would have been preferable for a voyage from the real Ithaca to Pylos.…
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[ κελάδοντ’ ἐπὶ οὶνοπα πόντον The wind does not whistle over waves. It only whistles through rigging or some other obstacle that cuts it.]
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[ cf. “Il.” v.20. Ἰδαῖος δ’ ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα δίφρον, the Odyssean line is ἠέλιος δ’ ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην. There can be no doubt that the Odyssean line was sugg…
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