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[258] αἰσυμνῆται, not exactly ‘umpires,’ but regulators of games, ‘masters of the lists.’ They were “δήμιοι”, public officers, not servants attached to the king's household: distinguished from other public officers (such as the public “κήρυκες”, called in Od.19. 135“δημιοεργοί”, cp. Od.1. 109) by the designation οἳ κατ᾽ … ἕκαστα, where the tense πρήσσεσκον shows that their regular duties, and not only what they did on this particular occasion, are meant. The Schol. derives the word from “αἴσιον” and “νέμειν”, Curtius, with greater probability, gives “αἰσο-μνή-τη-ς”, from “αἶσα” and root “μνα”, ‘one who thinks about, or attends to, the rights of the competitors.’ The “υ” is in accordance with Aeolic usage; compare “ὄνομα” and “ὄνυμα”. Döderl. seeks to connect the latter part of the word with “ὑμνεῖν”. On the “αἰσυμνητεία” or “αἱρετὴ τυραννίς” of the Aeolians, Ionians, and Mityleneans, see Aristot. Pol. 3. 10.

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

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