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[5] τέλος implies ‘realisation’ or ‘consummation.’ It means rather the ‘highest perfection’ of a thing than the ‘end:’ as we see from the phrase “ἦμαρ τέλεσ᾽ Ἠώς” Od.5. 390; cp. also “τέλος γάμοιο” Od.20. 74, “τέλος θανάτοιο”, etc. In a similar sense “τέλειος” is used, as in “τελειότατος πετεηνῶν” Il.8. 247, of most decisive augury. In the later language of philosophy, “τὸ τέλος”, like the Lat. ‘finis bonorum,’ came to mean the ‘chief good.’ But “τέλος” does not imply so much as that here, as Schol. Q. V. remarks, “οὐ παντὸς δὲ βίου τὴν ἡδονὴν τέλος εἴρηκεν ἀλλὰ συμποσίου τινός”. Plato, Rep.390B, censures the whole passage for its sensual tone; and so Lucian, Parasit. c. 10; but Eustath. says rightly that Odysseus is not here propounding a philosophy, but only chiming in with the opinion expressed by his host in 8. 248.

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

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