previous next

[264] νῆες ὁδὸν … εἰρύαται. The Schol. is uncertain between the interpretations “εἱλκυσμέναι εἰσί” and “φυλάττουσιν ὁδόν”, and there may be some doubt. For εἰρύαται, like “πύλας εἴρυντο” Il.12. 454, may perfectly well signify ‘protect,’ only that the idea of ‘guard-ships’ seems to be altogether un-homeric. It will be better then to render, ‘are drawn up along the road,’ as in Il.4. 248; 18. 69, where “εἰρύαται” and “εἴρυντο” are used of the drawing up of ships. With this interpretation ὁδόν may be explained as an analogous accusative to “ἀγρούς” sup. 259, or as governed “κατὰ σύνεσιν” by the sense of “κατέχουσι” or some such word implied in “εἰρύαται”. It is a moot point with philologists whether the various forms given under “ἐρύω” may be referred to one stem, and whether the various meanings are but extensions of an original one; or whether we are to suppose two distinct words, (1) “ἐρύω” (“ϝερύω, ϝρύω”) with the meaning ‘draw,’ and (2) “ἐρύομαι” or “εἰρύομαι” (originally “σρύομαι”, Lat. serv-o) with the meaning ‘protect.’ It is possible to make the meaning ‘draw’ pass into that of ‘protect,’ through the sense of ‘drawing out of harm's way;’ so “ἐκ βελέων ἐρύσαντο” Il.18. 152; or followed by the genitive alone without a preposition, as “ἄνδρα μάχης ἐρύσαιο” Il.5. 456; or, lastly, “ἐρύεσθαί τινα” or “τι”, as “σανίδες πύλας εἴρυντο” Il.12. 454, “οἶος γὰρ ἐρύετο Ἴλιον Ἕκτωρ” Il.6. 403.Monro, H. G. § 18, notices that the verb “ἐρύομαι” (“ῥύομαι”), protect, is for the most part non-thematic. The verb “ἐρύω” (“ἐρυσ-”), draw, is wholly thematic in Homer. See also §§ 11, 63, 392.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: