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[18] ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης ‘from a far-off land.’ This must be the meaning here and in 7. 25 (see the note). From Aristonicus (Schol. A. on Il.1. 270) we learn that “οἱ νεώτεροι” , i.e. post-Homeric authors, understood it as a name for the Peloponnesus. This is possible in the Iliad (1. 270. Il., 3. 49). If it is so, we must suppose that in the time of the Odyssey the word “ἄπιος” survived, though its proper meaning was forgotten, and that it was then connected with “ἀπό” by a kind of ‘popular etymology.’ The true derivation may be, as Curtius conjectured (Grundz.^{5} 469), from a root ap ‘water,’ whence “Μεσσ-άπιοι”, &c. Or, if the root is aq, it may be connected with Latin aqua, ahva ‘river.’

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