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[16] κύθε γαῖα. Nitzsch rightly takes this of ‘burial;’ arguing from “πότμον ἐπέσπεν”, which must refer to death. The word “κεύθω” does not of itself determine the point; cp. Od.6. 303; 9.348. But the use of the aorist, describing not a state but a definite moment, seems to settle the meaning, ‘he was buried.’ Thus “κύθε γαῖα” forms a kind of prothysteron with “πότμον ἐπέσπεν”, ‘how he died, and where earth received his body.’ Here the worst is supposed; the hypothesis, ‘if he be dead’ being understood, as infra 93, and as in Od.1. 396“ἐπεὶ θάνε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς” (said by Telemachus). ἔπεσπεν (aor. “ἐφέπω”) obiit, ‘encountered.’

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

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