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[171] Of ἀσφαλέως ἀγορεύει, ‘his address goes surely on to its point,’ we have Socrates' interpretation, Xen. Mem.4. 6. 15, where, after mentioning how Socrates' method (“διὰ τῶν μάλιστα ὁμολογουμένων ἐπορεύετο νομίζων ταύτην τὴν ἀσφάλειαν εἶναι λόγου”) carried persuasion with it, Xenophon adds, “ἔφη δὲ καὶ Ὅμηρον τῷ Ὀδυσσεῖ ἀναθεῖναι τὸ ἀσφαλῆ ῥήτορα εἶναι, ὡς ἱκανὸν αὐτὸν ὄντα διὰ τῶν δοκούντων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἄγειν τοὺς λόγους”. This “ἀσφάλεια” is something better than fluency; and the Homeric gauge of oratory was far too true to make fluency the highest meed of praise. Cp. Il.3. 213 foll.

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

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