[164] τηλύγετος: M. and R. on Od. 4.11 summarise Savelsberg's view (Rhein. Mus. 1853) that this word=adolescens, “grown big” (*“τῆλυς” “great”), and is applied to boys and girls from the age of about thirteen to twenty or more. Leaf on Il. 3.175 approves. This explanation takes no account of the present passage, where Demophon is quite an infant. Fick Wörterbuch i.^{4} 440 connects the word with “τᾶλις” a bride: Prellwitz s.v. sees in the latter part the root of “ὐγιής” etc. It is of course possible that the writer was ignorant of the real meaning, and understood the word as referring to an only son, or to one born to his parents in old age, as the ancients variously explained. Francke and Gemoll think that the sense “lateborn” could not have been here meant, as “ὀψίγονος” follows; but pleonasms are quite in the manner of this poem; cf. “πολυεύχετος” and “ἀσπάσιος” 165, and the synonyms in 124.
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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