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[383] Σικελούς. The earliest Greek colonists in the south of Italy came in contact with a people of this name, apparently the same as the Siculi of history. In the time of the Odyssey these Italian “Σικελοί” may have been known to the Greeks as slave-dealers: cp. the “γυνὴ Σικελή” among the servants of Laertes (24. 211).

A different view was suggested by Niebuhr (Philological Museum, I. 174). The scholia on Od. 18.85 tell us that the king “Ἔχετος” there mentioned was said to have been ‘tyrant of the “Σικελοί”.’ As other indications place him in Epirus, Niebuhr inferred that the “Σικελοί” of the Odyssey were to be found in that country. But, though “Σικελοί” may have been the name of a real people, it is most probable that “Ἔχετος” was purely mythical. The notice connecting him with the “Σικελοί” looks like the guess of an ancient commentator.

ὅθεν κέ τοι ἄξιον ἄλφοι. The difficulty here is to find a nominative for ἄλφοι. It is extremely harsh to understand ‘the thing done,’ viz. ‘the sale,’ as subject (as proposed by Nauck). Bentley conjectured ὅθεν κέ τις, which seems to meet the case. As Dr. Hayman observes, the word ἄλφοι must be understood of the man who is sold: so that τις would be=“τῶν ξείνων τις”. There is some plausibility in Düntzer's conjecture τὸν ξεῖνον, for “τοὺς ξείνους” in l. 382. If it is adopted (or if l. 382 is struck out, with Bergk), we should also read ξείνῳ for ξείνοις in l. 374 (“ξείνω” F Z). The subject will then be the new “ξεῖνος”, Theoclymenus, with only a parenthetical reference in 377-379 to Ulysses. Failure to perceive this would easily lead to the plurals ξείνοις and τοὺς ξείνους. Bekker's proposal (in H. B. I. 113) to read “ἄλφοιν” as a 3rd plur. is quite inadmissible.

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

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