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[400] The common reading is “ὅ κε στυγέῃσιν ἰδὼν ἄνθρωπος ἔχοντα” ‘which any man who should see thee wearing would loathe.’ This is unsatisfactory, because (as was pointed out by Nitzsch, Sagenpoesie der Griechen, p. 176) “ἄνθρωπος” would not be used by Homer in the indefinite sense required,=‘any man,’ “τις”. On the other hand the participle “ἰδών” may be = “ἰδών τις” ‘any one that sees’: cp. “ὅσον τε γέγωνε βοήσας” ‘as far as one is heard when he shouts,’ and the other places quoted in H. G. § 243, 3, e. Hence it seems best to adopt ἄνθρωπον from the variant mentioned by Eustathius. Of course “στυγέει τις ἰδών”, which Eustathius gives with “ἄνθρωπον”, is impossible, and is only due to the failure to see that “ἰδών” has the indefinite force required.

It is curious that the word “ἄνθρωπος” is very rare in Homer in the singular. This is the only place in the Odyssey in which it occurs.

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

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