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[5] ἐπί with gen. = towards, as 5.700; H. G. § 200 (3). The streams of ocean seem to represent the bounds of the earth, not any particular direction. Cf. Herod. ii. 23.The war of cranes and pigmies (‘Thumblings’) does not reappear in H., but is very common in later literature, both Greek and Latin; the reff. are collected in Thompson Gloss. p. 43. ‘The legend of the Pigmies appears in India in the story of the hostility between the Garuda bird and the people called Kirāta, i.e. dwarfs .. It is quite possible that this fable has an actual foundation in the pursuit of the ostrich by a dwarfish race’ (ibid.). We know from recent travels that such a dwarfish people lives in the heart of Africa; some report of them may well have reached even prehistoric Greece through the ivory trade. See also Miss Clerke Fam. Studies p. 145. Acc. to Eust. the pigmies lived in Britain!

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.23
    • Homer, Iliad, 5.700
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