previous next

[572] 572-578. The latest and most adequate commentary on this much vexed passage will be found in Helbig's work, Das homerische Epos, ed. 2, pp. 348353. This discussion is the basis of the following notes.

The “δρύοχοι” to which the axes are compared in l. 574 are stays or trestles on which the keel of a ship rested while it was being built (“στηρίγματα τῆς πηγνυμένης νεώς” Suid. ; “ξύλα ἐφ᾽ ὧν ἡ τρόπις ἵσταται” Eust. ). Hence the phrase “ἐκ δρυόχων” = ‘from the laying down of the keel.’ Others (as Ameis) understand the word of the ribs of the ship. In any case we are to imagine a straight line of upright pieces of timber.

In what sense, then, could it be said that Ulysses ‘used to shoot an arrow through’ (“διαρρίπτασκεν ὀϊστόν”) all the twelve axes? In 21. 421-422 we are told that he ‘did not miss the foremost point of the haft’ of any of them (see the note there on the phrase “πρώτη στειλειή”). Evidently we must suppose that at the end of the haft, i.e. at or in the head of the axe, there was a hole or opening of some sort, and that the axes could be so placed that the twelve openings were in line, and formed a kind of tube, through which a very expert archer could send an arrow. Two forms of axe satisfying these conditions are given by Helbig. One of these is a double axe or bipennis, in which the two blades are separated by circular openings, above and below the end of the shaft (fig. A). This form is chiefly known from post-Alexandrian representations, but Helbig finds traces of it in early times. In the other, which is known from the figure of an Amazon on one of the metopes of Selinunte, the two sides are different. One side is a fragmentary blade (or, as Mr. Myres thinks, an adze seen edge-ways); the other is rounded, and perforated by a crescent-shaped opening (fig. B). To these alternatives—between which Helbig does not decide—a third has now been added by an axe found in the famous ‘Mycenean’ tomb at Vaphio (fig. C, from Tsountas and Manatt, p. 207). In this axe the blade is shaped like an arch, with two large holes instead of the single opening in the second form.

If we had merely to consider which of these forms answers best to the story as told in the Odyssey, it might be difficult to arrive at a conclusion. But as a question of archaeological evidence there is no doubt that the Vaphio axe has the advantage. We possess the actual implement (or weapon): and we know that it belongs, in time and in place, to the Homeric world.

ἄεθλον is acc. masc., as in 576 and 584, meaning a ‘contest’ or ‘competition’ (later “ἀγών”). The axes were to be made ‘the contest,’ in the sense that they were the material of it: cp. 21. 3-4 “τόξον μνηστήρεσσι θέμεν πολιόν τε σίδηρον ἐν μεγάροις Ὀδυσῆος ἀέθλια καὶ φόνου ἀρχήν”.

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: