previous next

[122] ἔνθα δέ. Here follows the de scription of another part of the “ὄρχατος”. Altogether three scenes are described, all introduced by “ἔνθα δέ”. (1) The fruit garden 114-121; (2) the vine ground, 122-126; and (3) the garden of herbs, 127, 128. In v. 121 the mention of σταφυλή is unexpected, as vines belong properly to the “πολύκαρπος ἀλωή”.

ἐρρίζωται. The Schol. interprets this “πεφύτευται”, nor would there be any objection to transfer to the vineyard a word which, on this interpretation, can belong only to the vines. But such a meaning is hardly adequate to the word “ῥιζοῦσθαι”, which signifies ‘to be rooted,’ in the sense of ‘fixed firmly:’ cp. Od.13. 162“ὅς μιν [ναῦν] λᾶαν ἔθηκε καὶ ἐρρίζωσεν ἔνερθε”, and especially Soph. O. C.1590“τὸν καταρράκτην ὀδόν”

“χαλκοῖς βάθροισι γῆθεν ἐρριζωμένον”. So here possibly the word points to the excavations and solid foundations made for the wine-press, if not also to an encircling “κάπετος” (cp. Il.18. 564), which, as going deep below the surface, are regarded as the ‘roots’ of the “ἀλωή”.

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 (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: