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[73] The river is presumably the Styx, as in 8.369; though the crossing of the river, so prominent in the later Hades legends, is not elsewhere alluded to as necessary to the departed. (Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Kokytos in Od. 10.513 are evidently later additions to the Styx.) It is possible, however, that “ποταμός” may be Okeanos, which Odysseus has to pass in Od. 11.13-23, and the souls of the suitors in Od. 24.11-14, in order to reach Hades. ἐῶσιν, i.e. (“ποταμοῖ᾽”) “ἐάουσιν”.

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

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