previous next

[377] θεῶν μέγαν ὅρκον, ‘a mighty oath by the Gods;’ “ὅρκον” is the cognate accusative with “ἀπώμνυ”. The context here settles the translation, but “θεῶν ὅρκος” can, by itself, equally well mean that by which the Gods themselves swear; as h. Hom. Cer. 260 “ἴστω γὰρ θεῶν ὅρκος, ἀμείλικτον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ” , cp. Od.10. 299.See also Hesiod , Hesiod Theog.784“Ἶριν ἔπεμψε θεῶν μέγαν ὅρκον ἐνεῖκαι . . πολυώνυμον ὕδωρ”. Ameis prefers to render ἀπ-ώμνυ in the sense of ‘sware unreservedly,’ as “ἀποειπεῖν” Il.9. 431, “ἀποθαυμάσαι” Od.6. 49; but it seems simpler to take it in the ordinary sense which it bore in later Greek, viz. ‘sware that she would not,’ as “ἀπώμοτον” Soph. Ant.388.But cp. Thuc.5. 51“ἀπομόσαι ἐναντίον τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἦ μὴν ἀποδώσειν ὕστερον τὴν καταδίκην”, a usage which Arnold (ad loc.) considers to have come from the fact that the oath of an accused party is generally exculpatory, as disclaiming a charge. Nitzsch renders “ἀπώμνυ”, ‘took the oath in due form,’ explained in the next line by the words “τελεύτησέν τε τὸν ὅρκον”. So “ὄμοσεν” will refer to the substance of the oath and “τελεύτησεν” to the form in which it was couched. Fäsi compares supra 9 “αὐτὰρ ἐπεί τ᾽ ἤγερθεν ὁμηγερέες τ᾽ ἐγένοντο”, for another seeming tautology that may thus be explained.

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 References (7 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (7):
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 784
    • Homer, Iliad, 9.431
    • Homer, Odyssey, 10.299
    • Homer, Odyssey, 6.49
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 2 to Demeter, 260
    • Sophocles, Antigone, 388
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.51
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: