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[64] ὀφθαλμῶν μὲν ἄμερσε. Curtius, p. 574, notices that for the Homeric “ἀμέρδειν”, Pindar writes “ἀμείρειν”, the two forms being referable to “ἀμερ”j-“ω”. The root is “μερ”, ‘to apportion.’ Taking expertem facere as the original sense of “ἀμέρδειν”, we must, says Curtius, in those cases where, by itself, it means ‘to blind,’ refer it to a different root, sc. “μαρ”, ‘to be bright,’ and so we may compare it with “ἀμαυροῦν”.

These words remind us of ‘blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides,’ and of our own poet who in these words parallels their lot with his own. The author of the Hymn to Apollo gives as the description of himself, “τυφλὸς ἀνὴρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἐνὶ παιπαλοέσσῃ”, which line seems to be the foundation of the tradition of the blindness of Homer, in the first place; and, secondarily, of the tradition which takes the description of Demodocus in the text to be intended by the poet for himself.

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

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