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[290] θεῶν ἀέκητι ἀνάκτων. This is the only passage where the ‘sovereign gods’ have the collective title “ἄνακτες”, though “ἄναξ” is applied individually to Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon, etc. The phrase reminds us of “ὑπὲρ μόρον” Od.1. 34; but probably it is no more than a graphic expression to describe the wildness and waywardness of the winds. The south wind (“Νότος”) is, in Homer, the stormy rain-wind, which often wraps the mountains in mist ( Il.2. 394; 3. 10). Its epithet “ἀργηστής” ( Il.11. 306) refers to the foam into which it lashes the waters; like our ‘white squall;’ though others render the word ‘swift,’ or ‘sky-clearing,’ like Horace's ‘albus Notus.’ For Ζέφυρος see on Od. 4.567.

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

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