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[123] In the vineyard again are presented to us three locally distinct scenes, of which the first and third are subdivided—(1) the ripe grapes, of which some are left to hang [“ἕτερον μέν”], and others are being gathered [“ἑτέρας δέ”]; (2) the treading of the grapes; (3) the grapes, which are (a) just formed, or (b) are just changing colour. The description, though adequate and exact, is very concise, and the poet has been as sparing as possible of those localising or enumerative words which are the mere framework of a description. Thus, the three scenes form a back-ground, a centre, and a fore-ground; but we are left to find this out from the word πάροιθε. And again, grammatically, while we have the pronoun ἄλλος to mark out the second scene, for the first and last we have no corresponding distinctive words. All the hint we have for these is the pronoun of dual distinction, ἕτερος, which indicates that in what precedes the clause ἄλλας δὲ τραπέουσι and in what follows it we have respectively two subdivisions of one scene. For a similar economy of formally distinctive words cp. Livy 5. 8 ad fin. ‘pauci reipublicae, huic atque illi, ut quosque studium privatim aut gratia occupaverunt, adsunt;’ where ‘huic atque illi’ points to two classes of partisans, subdivisions of an unexpressed ‘plerique,’ standing in contrast to ‘pauci.’

This interpretation seems more symmetrical than that of Nitzsch, and more faithful to the distinction of “ἄλλος” and “ἕτερος”. Nitzsch divides thus: 1st scene, introduced by “ἕτερον”; 2nd, introduced by “ἑτέρας” with “ἄλλας” subordinated to it. It may be added that no poet or painter would be likely to make the scene of the wine-press a mere accessory feature to the gathering.

τῆς ἕτερον … τρυγόωσιν, ‘one part of it, a warm spot on level ground, is dried by the sun, other grapes again they are gathering.’ That is, the gatherers are busy upon some of the vines, but others they have left untouched, that the bunches may become sun-dried, and fit for making ‘vinum passum,’ i.e. raisin wine. This is in better general keeping with the scene than to suppose the bunches already cut from the vine and hung up to dry.

θειλόπεδον, or εἱλόπεδον (see crit. note), stands as the subject to τέρσεται, though more properly “σταφυλαὶ τέρσονται”: it is by a similar transference that “ἕτερον” agrees with “θειλόπεδον” though contrasted with “ἑτέρας [σταφυλάς”].

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

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