[404] κολεόν, subject to ἀμφιδεδίνηται. Cp. Il.23. 560“θώρηκα . . ᾧ πέρι χεῦμα φαεινοῦ κασσιτέροιο”
“ἀμφι-” “δεδίνηται”, Il.11. 30“περὶ κουλεὸν ἦεν ἀργύρεον”, and sup. 175 “χάρις ἀμφιπεριστέφεται ἐπέεσσι. ἀμφιδεδίνηται”, ‘encloses it;’ cp. Od.19. 56“δινωτὴν ἐλέφαντι”, of a chair, where the meaning is somewhat different, referring to the rounded legs.νεοπρίστου ἐλέφαντος. Homer is acquainted with ivory, but not with the elephant that produces it. Cp. Pausanias 1. 4 “ἐλέφαντα γὰρ” (sc. ivory) “ὅσα μὲν ἐς ἔργα καὶ ἀνδρῶν χρείας, εἰσὶν ἐκ παλαιοῦ δῆλοι πάντες εἰδότες: αὐτὰ δὲ τὰ θηρία, πρὶν ἢ διαβῆναι Μακεδόνας ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν, οὐδὲ ἑωράκεσαν ἀρχήν, πλὴν Ἰνδῶν τε αὐτῶν καὶ Λιβύων καὶ ὅσοι πλησιόχωροι τούτοις. δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ Ὅμηρος, ὃς βασιλεῦσι κλίνας μὲν καὶ οἰκίας τοῖς εὐδαιμονεστέροις αὐτῶν ἐλέφαντι ἐποίησε κεκοσμημένας, θηρίου δὲ ἐλέφαντος μνήμην οὐδεμίαν ἐποιήσατο. θεασάμενος δὲ καὶ πεπυσμένος ἐμνημόνευσεν ἂν πολύ γε πρότερον, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ἢ Πυγμαίων τε ἀνδρῶν καὶ γεράνων μάχης”. The names for ivory and the elephant do not seem to be common to Sanskrit and Greek. Solomon's fleet is recorded to have gone to Ophir (perhaps at the mouth of the Indus), and to have brought back among other treasures ivory, the name for which appears in Hebrew as shen habbim, the latter word being probably copied from the Sanskrit ibha. See Max Müller, Lect. on Languages, vol. i. chap. 5. Ivory is described in Homer as in use for chamber-decoration, Od.4. 73; as material for a scabbard (as in the present passage); for a key, Od.21. 7; for the ornamentation of reins, Il.5. 583; of a couch, Od.19. 55; of a bedstead, Od.23. 200; of the headgear of a horse, dyed or painted red, Il.4. 141.It is not necessary to suppose, with some commentators, that the Greeks could only have had access to fossil ivory: it is far more likely that the Phoenician traders brought it into Greek ports from the East; unless indeed we find it difficult to suppose that they could have brought such monstrous teeth for sale, without spreading the story about the huge beast that carried them.
