Commentary on the Odyssey (1886)

Commentary on the Odyssey (1886)
By W. Walter Merry
Oxford Clarendon Press 1886-1901

Perseus Documents Collection Table of Contents

Funded by The Annenberg CPB/Project

Book 3

Book 3 (γ)

Commentary on line 1

li/mnhn, the mere, used of the sea (here, of the ocean stream) near its shore. Besides the meanings of a lake, and of an overflow of water ( Il.21. 317, where the word is further described by τὸ δὲ πᾶν πλῆθ' ὕδατος ἐκχυμένοιο ibid. 300), λίμνη has also in Homer the meaning of bay or strait; Il.13. 32ἐστὶ δέ τι σπέος εὐρὺ βαθείης βένθεσι λίμνης

μεσσηγὺς Τενέδοιο καὶ Ἴμβρου παιπαλοέσσης, Il.24. 78μεσσηγὺς δὲ Σάμου τε καὶ Ἴμβρου παιπαλοέσσης
ἔνθορε μείλανι πόντῳ: ἐπεστονάχησε δὲ λίμνη . . εὗρε δ' ἐνὶ σπῆι γλαφυρῷ Θέτιν. Eurip. Hec.446 has οἶδμα λίμνας as a synonym for the sea; and similarly Simonides, Frag. 44. 2. In Aesch. Prom. Sol. Frag., 178 Dind., we read χαλκοκέραυνόν τε παρ' Ὠκεανῷ
λίμναν παντοτρόφον Αἰθιόπων,
ἵν' ὁ παντόπτας Ἥλιος ἀεὶ
χρῶτ' ἀθάνατον κάματόν θ' ἵππων
θερμαῖς ὕδατος
μαλακοῦ προχοαῖς ἀναπαύει, which may well be compared with the present passage. The general meaning of the word, which is more or less appropriate to all passages in which it occurs, is that of water which washes a shore. Etymologically it is connected with λείβω, λειμών. The farther margin of the ocean-stream is here meant, beyond which the sun sets (cp. Od.24. 11πὰρ δ' ἴσαν Ὠκεανοῖο ῥοὰς καὶ Λευκάδα πέτρην
ἠδὲ παρ' Ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον ὀνείρων
ἤισαν), and beside which he rises, cp. Od.23. 243Ἠῶ δ' αὖτε
ῥύσατ' ἐπ' Ὠκεανῷ χρυσόθρονον οὐδ' ἔα ἵππους
ζεύγνυσθ' ὠκύποδας. See also Il.7. 422ἐξ ἀκαλαρρείταο βαθυρρόου Ὠκεανοῖο
οὐρανὸν εἰσανιών. Nitzsch refutes the supposition of Voss, that the Caspian is meant, observing that not only is that sea never mentioned by Homer, but that even the eastern part of the Euxine is unknown to him.