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[326] νόστον … λυγρόν. Everything that Phemius sings for the suitors, or Demodocus for the Phaeacians, is taken from the incidents of the Trojan war, with the exception of the lay on the loves of Ares and Aphrodite ( Od.8). The bard began at any point in the Trojan story that the audience desired. We may suppose the “νόστος Ἀχαιῶν” to be a single lay from the cycle of adventures that marked the homeward voyages of all the Greek heroes. So then the Trojan war, ten years after its completion, had, as we should say, become matter of national history. The anger of Pallas here alluded to, was caused by the outrage offered in her temple to the priestess Cassandra, by the Oilean Ajax. But in Od.4. 499 his death is ascribed to his insolence against Poseidon.

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

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    • Homer, Odyssey, 4.499
    • Homer, Odyssey, 8
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