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[389] ὁδὸν … κελεύθου. The juxtaposition of these two words, as in Od.9. 261, suggests a difference of meaning, which is not easy to detect. ὁδός seems to mean rather the ground travelled over, Lat. via, and κέλευθος the act of travelling, Lat. iter. But the meanings are not kept distinct.

In the story of Proteus we may suppose that we have the poet's adaptation of some well-known ‘sailors' yarns.’ Virgil has employed the story; but he has located Proteus in the Carpathian Sea (Geo. 4. 387 foll.). In later legend Proteus appears as a king in Memphis, Hdt.2. 112-116. The story of Proteus and his transformations was afterwards allegorized, as representing various processes of nature, or of the intellectual powers of man. Proteus stands as the type of a wizard, and the phrase “ὀλοφώια εἰδώς” inf. 460, reminds us of the epithet “ὀλοόφρων”, applied to Atlas, Hom. Od.1. 52.When Proteus is called Ποσειδάωνος ὑποδμώς, Eustath. remarks, “περιττὴ ἡ πρόθεσις”, by which he intends to express that “ὑποδμώς” only means ‘a servant,’ and not an ‘under-servant,’ the preposition illustrating the general condition of ‘subserviency,’ and not any particular grade of servitude. So we have “ὑφηνίοχος” and “ὑποδρηστήρ”. “‘Num putabimus aliquem inferioris ordinis famulum significari? Nec res patitur nec sermo desiderat,’” Lehrs, Aristarch. 108.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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