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[259] Ἐφύρη. Probably an Aeolic form of “Ἐφόρα” (“ἐφοράω, ἔφοροι”), and equivalent to “Ἐπωπή”, ‘a watchtower.’ This descriptive name was naturally applicable to many places; and we find no less than eleven of the name enumerated (Pape, Dict.s.v.). But of these there are but three, or at most four, that come into the Homeric poems. (1) The city afterwards called Corinth, Il.2. 570; 6. 152, which of course is not intended in the present passage: (2) A town in Thessaly, known in later times as Crannon, cp. Il.13. 301, with the interpretation of Strabo (9. 442). But for the Ephyra in the Odyssey the question lies only between (3) a town in Thesprotia, called later “Κίχυρος” ( Il.2. 659), and (4) an old Pelasgic town in Elis on the river Selleïs (Strabo 7. 328; 8. 338). Nitzsch declares in favour of (3), because in this passage Athena, in the character of Mentes king of the Taphians, represents Odysseus as having touched at Taphos on his return (“ἀνιόντα”) from Ephyra to Ithaca; and in a direct line Taphos lies between Thesprotia and Ithaca; but a ship sailing round the Leucadian promontory to Ithaca would avoid Taphos altogether, and Leucas had not yet been made into an island by the channel dug across the neck, for Homer calls it “ἀκτὴ ἠπείροιο” Od.24. 378.But if, following the Schol. on Ap. Rhod.1. 747, we place the Taphian isles among the Echinades and so much further S. , we shall get an equally good argument in favour of the Eleian Ephyra, as Taphos would then lie between Ephyra and Ithaca. Another argument in favour of the Eleian town is the mention ( Il.11. 741) of Agamede, daughter of Augeias king of Elis, as a sorceress, “ἣ τόσα φάρμακα ᾔδη ὅσα τρέφει εὐρεῖα χθών”, which suits well with the description here of the “ἀνδροφόνον φάρμακον” and “θυμοφθόρα φάρμακα” in Od.2. 329.In the latter passage, Ephyra is named along with Pylos and Sparta, as if all three places were in the Peloponnese.

Again, in Il.3. 627, Meges son of Phyleus is said to have been the leader of the contingent from Dulichium and the Echinades, “αἳ ναίουσι πέρην ἁλὸς Ἤλιδος ἄντα”, and in Il.15. 530, Phyleus is described as having bought a corslet, “ἐξ Ἐφύρης ποταμοῦ ἀπὸ Σελλήεντος”. The statement of the Scholiast that Ilus son of Mermerus was great grandson of Jason and Medea, and was king of Thesprotia, is given on the authority of Apollodorus. Eustath. also mentions a story which makes Medea to have lived for a while in Elis; either story doubtless being invented or acknowledged by those who maintained the claims of the Thesprotian or Eleian Ephyra respectively. See Buchholz, Hom. Real. 1. 1. p. 90.

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

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