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[521] ἀμενηνά, probably compounded of “ἀ, μένος”=‘powerless,’ which suits well with the description given of the dead by Anticlea, Od.11. 217 foll. and with the thin and ‘squealing’ voice that characterises them (cp. “τρίζειν”). Döderl. prefers to compound “ἀμενηνός” of “ἀ” and “μένω”, as describing one ‘who fleeth as a shadow and never continueth in one stay.’ But this meaning seems incompatible with the use of the word as an epithet of a wounded man, “ἀμενηνὸς ἔα χαλκοῖο τυπῇσι” Il.5. 887. Eurip. speaks of “νεκύων ἀμενηνὸν ἄγαλμα” Eurip. Troad.193; and Sophocl. ( Soph. Aj.890) uses it of the crazed Ajax, where Schneidewin renders, ‘wandering,’ ‘restless.’ See Hom. Od.19. 562.

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

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