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[86] τελεσφόρον only occurs in Homer in this phrase. It serves, that is, as a fixed epithet of “ἐνιαυτός” as comprising a complete cycle of the observed relations of the earth to the stars and to the sun; of the terrestrial seasons; of the stages of vegetation; and, consequently, of the operations of husbandry. The period of the coincident completions of all these phenomena had been abundantly marked, and become the chief measure of time, long before the cause of coincidence was imagined. The period itself was represented meanwhile as the cause, and called the ‘time-maturing’ or ‘the maturing’ year.

A conclusive reason against writing “τελέσφορον”, and taking the passive notion of a ‘completed’ year, is that such an epithet would not be a fixed epithet, the essence of which is to be descriptive. Only a fixed epithet could refer, as here, to any year. Cp. Od.10. 467; 14.292; 15.230; Il.19. 32.

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

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