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[184] μῆλα, the lesser cattle, including sheep and goats. The etymological connection of the word is very uncertain. It may be connected with “μαλακός” in the sense of ‘soft’ or ‘woolly,’ a notion which suggests a further reference to “μαλλός”. If we might compare the word with “μα_λός”, ‘bright’ (compare “μήλοπα καρπόν” [?] Od.7. 154), we should have an etymology which would equally suit “μῆλον”, ‘the apple’ or ‘bright-cheeked fruit,’ and “ἄργυφα μῆλα”, the ‘bright white flocks.’ Grimm J. refers “μῆλα” = ‘the lesser cattle’ to the same root as ‘small.’

ἰαύεσκον, i. e. ‘were housed at night;’ in the day-time they were out at pasture.

αὐλή. The cave penetrated back into the interior of the cliff, but round the mouth of it was a yard (“αὐλή”), surrounded by high stone walls of ‘Cyclopean’ architecture, and along the walls a row of trees. See on Od. 6.267. The αὐλή seems to have had a huge door, as well as the “ἄντρον”, but cp. inf. 239. The trees had been, as it were, worked into the wall, the stonework being brought close up to the standing trunks. The massive stone architecture of early Greece was, probably in allusion to this passage, attributed to the Cyclopes. Pausanias (2. 16), speaking of the ruins of Mycenae, and especially the Lion-gate there, says, ‘They affirm that these were the work of the Cyclopes, who also made for Proetus the walls of Tiryns.’ See Eurip. I. A.153“ἐπὶ Κυκλώπων ἱεὶς θυμέλας”, on which Strabo (8. 6) says that the Cyclopes accompanied Proetus on his return from Asia. and that he “τειχίσαι τὴν Τίρυνθα διὰ Κυκλώπων: οὓς ἑπτὰ μὲν εἶναι καλεῖσθαι δὲ γαστεροχείρους, τρεφομένους ἐκ τῆς τέχνης [̣], ἥκειν δὲ μεταπέμπτους ἐκ Λυκίας. καὶ ἴσως τὰ σπήλαια τὰ περὶ τὴν Ναυπλίαν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἔργα τούτων ἐπώνυμά ἐστι”. And even a later and more elaborate kind of masonry still kept the same appellation. Cp. Fur. Eur. Herc.15“Ἀργεῖα τείχη καὶ Κυκλωπίαν πόλιν”, ib. 944 “τὰ Κυκλώπων βάθρα”

“φοίνικι κανόνι καὶ τύκοις ἡρμοσμένα”. Cp. also Eur. I. T.845; Eur. Troad.1087; Soph. Elect.1158; Orest.965.

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

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hide References (7 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (7):
    • Euripides, Heracles, 15
    • Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, 153
    • Euripides, Iphigeneia in Taurus, 845
    • Euripides, Orestes, 965
    • Euripides, Trojan Women, 1087
    • Homer, Odyssey, 7.154
    • Sophocles, Electra, 1158
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