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[309] ἀίδηλος is generally taken as meaning in Homer ‘annihilating,’ ‘making unseen,’ “ἀφανίζων”, distinct from the later signification, ‘unseen,’ ‘invisible’ (“ἀ-ἰδεῖν”). It is used as an epithet of fire Il.2. 455; of “ἔργα” Il.5. 872(with v. l. “καρτερὰ ἔργα”); of Athena, as a term of abuse applied to her by Ares, Il.5. 880; of Ares himself, here and Il.5. 897; of Melanthius, Od.22. 165; and of “ὅμιλος μνηστήρων” Od.16. 29; on most of which passages the Scholl. interpret by “ἀδηλοποιός”. Savelsberg (Zeitschr. für Gymn. 1865) regards “ἀίδηλος” as a compound of “ἀι” or “ἀτι” (Skt. ati), an intensive prefix, and “δαίειν, δέ-δηα”, so that the meaning would be ‘fiercely burning.’ The form “ἀι” for “ἀτι” is found, according to Savelsberg, in “ἀί-ζηλος, αἰζηός”. Düntzer, on the present passage, connects the latter part of the compound with “δηλέομαι”. Others attempt to combine in the word two meanings derivable from “α-ἰδεῖν”, making the Homeric signification to be ‘that on which one cannot look,’ because it is too horrible; and ‘that on which one cannot look,’ because it is ‘invisible,’ the common meaning in later authors.

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

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