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[38] ἀργειφόντην. It seems likely that the “ο” in “φόντης” is the common Aeolic change for “α.” This agrees with the interpretation of Schol. Lips. ad Il. 2. 104 “ὁ ταχέως καὶ τρανῶς ἀποφαινόμενος”. We also find in Alcman (apud Athenaeum 11. 499) “τυρὸν ἐτύρησας μέγαν ἄτρυφον ἀργιφόνταν”, of a bright, white, cheese. And according to the Etym. Magn. “ἀργειφόντης” was an epithet of the Sun-God. The word then refers back to an old myth which connects Hermes with the phenomena of the dawn or the brightness of day. Another view, making Hermes the Wind-God, who drives his fleecy flock of clouds, interprets “ἀργειφόντην”, as ‘sky-clearing’; like “ἀργέστης Νότος”. And this picture of Hermes as a careful shepherd gives a new point to “ἐύσκοπον”. A later age succeeds which is ignorant of these earlier legends, and a new etymology and new associations are invented for a word which has lost its original meaning, and thus we come to such interpretations as the Scholiasts reproduce—“ἢ τὸν ἀργὸν καὶ καθαρὸν φόνου, ἢ τὸν φονεύσαντα Ἄργον τὸν πολυόμματον ὃς ἐφύλασσε τὴν Ἱὼ, ἢ τὸν φονέα τῆς ἀργίας, κ.τ.λ.” The Latin word Argiletum gives a good analogy to this etymological process.

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

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