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[377] ἀν᾽ ἰθύν. Both Eustath. and the Scholl. seem to have doubted whether to write “ἀνιθύν” as an adverb, or two words as in the text. In Od.4. 434“πᾶσαν ἐπ᾽ ἰθύν” must mean ‘for every enterprise;’ and many commentators assign the meaning of “ὁρμή” to ἰθύς in the present passage, comparing the phrase “ἀν᾽ ἰθύν” with “ἀνὰ κράτος, ἀνὰ τάχος”, and rendering ‘with might and main.’ But after the description of the special kind of ball-play where the ball was thrown into the air, it seems more natural to take ἀν᾽ ἰθύν as meaning ‘straight upwards;’ and the translation fits in very well with the passage generally quoted as corroborating the other interpretation, viz. Il.21. 303“πρὸς ῥόον ἀίσσοντος ἀν᾽ ἰθύν”, which is at least as likely to be ‘adverso flumine,’ ‘up stream,’ as ‘vigorously’ or ‘eagerly.’

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

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