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[225] The next hundred lines or so are taken up with a catalogue of noble ladies, mothers and daughters of heroes. It will be noticed (if we omit vv. 321325, of very questionable authenticity) that all the characters are taken from legends of the Minyans and Thebans, seeming thus to point to a Boeotian origin of the passage. Lauer (Hom. Quaest. p. 70 foll.) claims a Boeotian author for the whole of the 11th book; thinking that the entire story of the visit of Odysseus to Hades belongs most appropriately to a country that was singularly devoted to the worship of Hades and Persephone; and where so many oracles of the dead (“νεκυομαντεῖα”) were established. He reminds us that there were oracles of Amphiaraus in Thebes; of Teiresias at the springs of Tilphosa; of Trophonius at Lebadea; and at Coronea there was said to be an opening into the nether world. Whether we go as far as Lauer in assigning the whole book to Boeotian authorship, we can hardly help accepting his arguments for the nationality of the present passage, especially when he reminds us that the Boeotians had a peculiar fondness in grouping together lists of noble women, as illustrated by the “Ἠοῖαι”, or “κατάλογος γυναικῶν”, of Hesiod. And we may remark that the “κατάλογος νεῶν” in Il.2 was known by the distinctive title “Βοιωτία”. Cp. Od.15. 225 foll.

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

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Homer, Iliad, 2
    • Homer, Odyssey, 15.225
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