Note 69
BOOK VIII
[ “Il.” xiii. 37. Here, as so often elsewhere in the “Odyssey,” the appropriation of an Iliadic line which is not quite appropriate puzzles the reader. The “they” is not the chains, nor yet Mars and Venus. It is an overflow from the Iliadic passage in which Neptune hobbles his horses in bonds “which none could either unloose or break so that they might stay there in that place.” If the line would have scanned without the addition of the words “so that they might stay there in that place,” they would have been omitted in the “Odyssey.”]
…ooding mischief, got his great anvil into its place, and began to forge some chains which none could either unloose or break, so that they might stay there in that place.[69] When he had finished his snare he went into his bedroom and festooned the bed-posts all over with chains like cobwebs; he also let many hang down from the great beam of the ceiling. Not even a god could see them so fine and subtle were they. As soon as he…
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