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[150] πολύφημον, elsewhere ( Od.22. 376) used as the epithet of Phemius the bard. With a reference to this passage, the answer of the Pythia ( Herod.5. 79) directs her inquirers “ἐς πολύφημον ἐξενεῖκαι”, meaning thereby “ἐς δῆμον” or “ἐς κοινόν”, and so they evidently understood it, “ἐξέφερον τὸ χρηστήριον ἁλίην ποιησάμενοι”. Transl. ‘straining forwards on the wing, abreast of each other, they kept flying for a while along with the moving wind, but when they reached the midst of the voiceful assembly, there wheeling round they shook out of each other a shower of feathers.’ This seems to give the reciprocal force of “τιναξάσθην”, as expressed below by “δρυψαμένω” and in Hom. Od.4. 179 by “τερπομένω”. For “τινάσσειν” in this sense cp. Hom. Il.13. 242“ἀστεροπῇ ἐναλίγκιος ἥν τε Κρονίων”

“χειρὶ λαβὼν ἐτίναξεν ἀπ᾽ αἰγλήεντος Ὀλύμπου”. The change from their quiet flight alongside each other is marked by “ἐπιδινηθέντε”, which the Schol. S. interprets “ἐκεῖσε δὲ ἐνταῦθα συστραφέντες ἐν τῷ καταράσσειν τὰ συνεχῆ αὐτῶν πτερά”. If, however, we follow the majority of commentators in rendering ‘they flapped their thick-plumed wings,’ we shall have the contrast between their gliding flight and the angry movement of fighting birds.

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

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