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[43] δόμον … δῶμα. The words are contradistinguished again in Od.16. 273-6; and used indiscriminately together, Od.15. 509-11. It would seem that “δόμος”, in its proper sense, is more restricted than “δῶμα”, which is used of the whole building, exclusive only of the “αὐλή” (see Od.7. 139; 15.109; 16. 74), though sometimes also of the “μέγαρον” ( Od.22. 494“εὖ διεθείωσεν μέγαρον καὶ δῶμα καὶ αὐλήν”); on the other hand, the reference in the words “οἷο δόμοιο” Od.1. 330, signifies only Penelope's apartment. In Od.7. 88“θύραι πυκινὸν δόμον ἔντος ἔεργον”, ib. 131 “ὑπ᾽ αὐλῆς οὐδὸν . . πρὸς δόμον ὑψηλόν”, Od.18. 237“οἱ μὲν ἐν αὐλῇ”

“οἱ δ᾽ ἔντοσθε δόμοιο”, and elsewhere, “δόμος” is identified with “μέγαρον”, the banquet-hall. This last seems the proper use of “δόμος”, while the proper signification of “δῶμα” is the whole of the inhabited buildings. There is another sense in which both words are used, which, being the perfectly general one of ‘abode,’ reduces the two words to synonyms. Both words are found in their proper sense in the plural as well as the singular.

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

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