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[420] ἴκμενον, always used in connection with “οὖρος”. It was originally a participle, related to “ἵκομαι” as “ἐπι-άλμενος” to “ἅλλομαι”. The meaning then will be equivalent to ‘secundus;’ a ‘favouring,’ that is, an ‘accompanying’ or ‘following’ wind. Compare the common phrase at sea, ‘we took the wind with us.’ This suits with one of the interpretations of the Schol. “τὸν ἐπιτήδειον εἰς τὸ ἰέναι”. The adjective “ἱκανός” has got its meaning in a similar way. Nitzsch approves the alternative interpretation of the Schol. “τὸν δίυγρον καὶ ἁπαλόν, ἀπὸ τῆς ἰκμάδος”, but he rejects the quotation “ἀνέμων μένος ὑγρὸν ἀέντων” ( Od.5. 478) as illustrative of the meaning, which, according to him, has rather the notion of a smooth-gliding wind.

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

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