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[57] τῇ δ᾽ ἄπτερος ἔπλετο μῦθος is generally taken to mean that the speech stayed in the mind, was not forgotten or neglected. But “ἔπεα πτερόεντα”, the Epic phrase upon which this one is evidently founded, means words uttered, not words that fly away and are lost; and similarly “ἄπτερος μῦθος” must be an unspoken word. Hence ‘her speech took not wings’ means simply that she heard in silence. Cp. 13. 254 “πάλιν δ᾽ ὅ γε λάζετο μῦθον” ‘he took back his (unspoken) word,’ i.e. did not utter what he thought; and the common phrases “ἔχειν ἐν φρεσὶ μῦθον, ἔχειν σιγῇ μῦθον”, &c.

62-64, = 2. 11-13, a description of Telemachus going from his house to the “ἀγορά”. Hence ἔγχος ἔχων is not to be pressed as implying that he had his spear within the “μέγαρον”: cp. the note on l. 29.

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

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