[296] θεσμός is a word which does not occur elsewhere in Homer. It seems here to have the sense of ‘place,’ ‘situation’: cp. the later words “θήκη” and “θέσις”.
This verse, we are told in the scholia, was pronounced by Aristophanes and Aristarchus ‘the end of the Odyssey.’ We also know that Aristarchus obelized two passages which come later, viz. 23. 310-343 and 24. 1-204. The question at once arises: how could he reject these parts of a text when he had already rejected the whole of it? Doubtless if we had the commentary of Aristarchus, the difficulty would be explained. The most obvious solution is that he distinguished (1) a continuation of the Odyssey by some later poet, extending from 23. 297 to the end of the 24th book and (2) two still later interpolations, viz. the two passages said to be obelized. This view, simple as it is to the modern scholar, was one which the obelus could not express. Accordingly it would seem that the condemnation of the text from 23. 297 onwards did not take the form of “ἀθέτησις”, in the strict sense of the term viz. the affixing of an obelus to the verses condemned. This was reserved for the later interpolations. The question whether the continuation was needed in order to bring the story of the Odyssey to a satisfactory close is one that can hardly be settled by discussion. The issue depends rather upon the evidence afforded by language and metre: see the notes on 23. 300, 316, 361., 24. 235 ff., 237, 240, 241, 245, 248, 286, 288, 332, 343, 360, 394, 398, 465, 497, 534, 535. Other points are noticed on 307, 368, 469, 472, 526.Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
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Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.
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