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[66] σκῶπες. Cp. Pliny, Hist. 10. 49, 70‘nominantur ab Homero scopes avium genus; neque harum satyricos motus cum insidientur plerisque memoratos facile conceperim mente, neque ipsae iam aves noscuntur.’ The word may come from “σκώπ-τειν”, ‘to mock,’ meaning a bird that ‘mimics’ the tones of others, or there may be a reference in it to a grotesque appearance in the bird itself, or to its curious gestures and movements. But we should rather connect “σκώψ” with “σκέπ-τομαι”, as “κλώψ” with “κλέπ-τω, φώρ” with “φέρ-ω”, and regard it as meaning the ‘staring’ bird. So “γλαῦξ” is connected with “λάω” and “λεύσσω”. Perhaps in the absence of any evidence we may translate “σκώψ” ‘horned owl;’ Aristotle ( Anim. Hist.8. 3) mentions “σκώψ” among the “γαμψώνυχες τῶν νυκτερινῶν”, adding “ὁ δὲ σκὼψ ἐλάττων γλαυκός”. Another reading is “κῶπες”, see Athen. 9. 391 c.

κορῶναι εἰνάλιαι may be rendered ‘cormorants,’ whose dark plumage probably gained for them the popular name of ‘sea-crows;’ cp. Od.12. 418.There is nothing inappropriate in making these birds roost in trees, as, in the southern seas, cormorants build their nests in the mangroves. But after all there is nearly as much uncertainty about these κορῶναι as about “σκῶπες”. The Scholl. identify them with “αἴθυιαι”, and Hesych. with “λάροι”. The epithet τανύγλωσσοι probably refers to their constant cry. The bird is, as it were, represented at the moment when he uttered his screech, with the tongue outstretched.

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

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hide References (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Homer, Odyssey, 12.418
    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 10.49
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