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[529] εἴρερον, ‘slavery,’ is connected with “εἴρω”, from root “σερ”, whence “σειρά”, and is to be compared with Lat. servus from sero (serui). The word does not occur elsewhere in Homer, though the idea exists in the Iliad, with respect (for instance) to the daughter of Chryses, Il.1. 29; but the circumstances described here suggest customs more barbarous than we find in Homer; so that the passage is not free from suspicion. With the construction compare “εἰσφορέουσιν ὕδωρ” Od.6. 91.Here ἀνάγουσι may mean ‘take on shipboard,’ but the use of “εἰσαναβαίνειν” Od.2. 172, etc., suggests the taking up with them into the captured citadel.

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

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