previous next

[234] ποτιδόρπιον, ‘that it might serve him [for light] at supper,’ “ἵνα ἔχῃ πρὸς φῶς δειπνεῖν” Schol. H. Cp. “ἐπὶ δόρπῳ” Od.18. 44.For a similar use of a compound adjective Nitzsch compares “καταθύμιος” Il.17. 201, “μεταδόρπιος” Od.4. 194, “μεταδήμιος” Od.8. 293.The fuel seems only to have been used by the Cyclops to give light, as in Od.18. 307 we find cressets fed with billets of wood, “αὐτίκα λαμπτῆρας τρεῖς ἵστασαν ἐν μεγάροισιν”,

“ὄφρα φαείνοιεν: περὶ δὲ ξύλα κάγκανα θῆκαν κ.τ.λ.” There is no allusion here to the use of fire for cooking; as, under ordinary circumstances, the Cyclops seems only to have eaten cheese and drunk milk. In the ‘Cyclops’ of Euripides however the monster is represented as feeding on the sheep which he pastured, “γάλακτι καὶ τυροῖσι καὶ μήλων βορᾷ” (122), and as hunting with dogs, “θῆρας ἰχνεύων κυσίν” (130), and as keeping horned cattle as well as sheep and goats; for Silenus offers to Odysseus “βοὸς γάλα” (136).

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: