previous next

[37] ἔμπης. See on 18. 354.

The μεσόδμαι of a house, according to Aristarchus, were the spaces between the columns (“τὰ μεσόστυλα”): according to others, the interval between the beams (“τὰ μεταξὺ τῶν δοκῶν διαστήματα”). When used of a ship the word meant a sort of box in which the mast was set (“κοίλης ἔντοσθε μεσόδμης”, see note on 2. 424). It does not seem likely that the same word would denote two things so different. Moreover, a phrase like “καλαὶ μεσόδμαι”, used as it is in this context, would naturally be applied to a prominent part of the building, or at least to something of importance for the decoration. Possibly the “μεσόδμαι” are the stone bases or pedestals on which the wooden columns stood. In the palace at Tiryns thirty-one stone bases are still in situ (Tsountas and Manatt, p. 53). The resemblance between the base of a pillar and the box in which the mast was set is sufficiently obvious.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: