[213] εἴδωλον is best represented by our word ‘phantom.’ It is used almost identically with “ψυχή”, as the immaterial ghost that remains when the body is dead, and the “θυμός” extinguished. But it implies more than the notion of “ψυχή”, first, as conveying specially the idea of something unreal and illusive, and secondly, as presenting a visible though unsubstantial copy of the person whom it represents. Thus it is coupled with “ψυχαί” in Il.23. 72; Od.24. 14“ψυχαὶ εἴδωλα καμόντων”, and in Il.23. 104 the apparition of Patroclus is called “ψυχὴ καὶ εἴδωλον”, while inf. 475 we even have “νεκροὶ . . βροτῶν εἴδωλα καμόντων”. The seer Theoclymenus, Od.20. 355, when he beholds the prophetic vision of the suitors passing to their doom, cries, “εἰδώλων δὲ πλέον πρόθυρον, πλείη δὲ καὶ αὐλὴ”
“ἱεμένων Ἔρεβόσδε ὑπὸ ζόφον”. But the strongest passage for deciding the use of the word, as meaning the unreal and phantom image, is inf. 601 “ἐνόησα βίην Ἡρακληείην”“εἴδωλον, αὐτὸς δὲ μετ̓ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι”
“τέρπεται”, where the contrast between “εἴδωλον” and “αὐτός” is vividly brought out. In exact harmony with this view we have the phantom of Aeneas, which Apollo fashioned to delude the Greeks, called “εἴδωλον . . αὐτῷ τ᾽ Αἰνείᾳ ἴκελον καὶ τεύχεσι τοῖον” Il.5. 449; and when Athena sends a warning dream to Penelope, in the form of her friend Iphthime, we read “εἴδωλον ποίησε, δέμας δ᾽ ἤικτο γυναικί” Od.4. 796, called ib. 824. 835 “εἴδωλον ἀμαυρόν”. This notion of “εἴδωλον” has many points in common with the Lucretian simulacra.
