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[510] μαντευόμενος κατεγήρα. For “μαντεία” was a regular profession, the “μάντεις” being reckoned as public servants (“δημιοεργοί” Od.17. 383) along with the “ἀοιδός, ἰητὴρ κακῶν”, and “τέκτων δούρων”. The “μάντις” could interpret the present and predict the future either by the study of the flight of birds, or other augurial signs (“οἰωνοπόλος” Il.1. 69), or by dreams (“ὀνειροπόλος” Il.1. 63), or possibly by the smoke of the sacrifices, if this meaning can be got from “θυοσκόος” Od.21. 145; Il.24. 221.

Κυκλώπεσσιν may be taken with μαντευόμενος=‘for the Cyclopes;’ but its position in the line rather suggests that the meaning is local: he passed his life and reached old age among the Cyclopes.

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

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