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[433] κοτυληδόνες, ‘suckers,’ are so called from their cup-like shape (“κοτύλη”, connected with “κοῖλος”). Here κοτυληδονόφιν stands as a dative parallel with “πέτρῃσι”. There is a general resemblance between the polyp and Odysseus, in so far as both cling with a tenacious grasp, but we must not push the applicability of the simile too far, lest a contradiction be involved. For the small stones stick to the suckers, while the skin of the man's hands is left sticking on the rock which he grasped.

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

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