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[52] ὀλοόφρονος, ‘malign.’ Lit. ‘of mischievous intent.’ The word frequently denotes the qualities for which a wizard is feared; so we find it applied to Aeetes, Circe's father, Od.10. 137; and to Minos, for his evil designs against Theseus, 11. 322. Compare the expression “ὀλοφώια εἰδώς”, used of the magician Proteus, Od.4. 460, and “ὀλοφώια δήνεα Κίρκης” 10. 289. The reason of its being applied here to the giant Atlas is more general but still similar; it is implied in “ὅς τε θαλάσσης πάσης βένθεα οἶδεν”: preternatural knowledge makes its possessor suspected of the inclination as well as the power to use it hurtfully. F. G. Welcker (Götterl. 1. 479) interprets the epithet here of the guilt of Atlas in having led a rebellion of the Titans excited by Hera, which was put down by Zeus with the help of Athena and Apollo (Hygin. Fab. 150): and he gives as a comment on “ὅς τε . . οἶδεν” a legend in Pausanias (9. 20. 3) that Atlas sat at Tanagra (“πολυπραγμονῶν τά τε ὑπὸ γῆς καὶ τὰ οὐράνια”. Nägelsbach (quoted by Buchholz, Hom. Real. iii. 1. § 8) connects the myth of Atlas with the western voyages of the Phaenician traders beyond the pillars of Hercules, who jealously concealed (cp. “Καλυψώ” = the concealer) the distant sources of their wealth from other voyagers. He sees in the epithet “ὀλοόφρων” an allusion to the greediness and piracies of this seafaring folk. Atlas, with Calypso, in the West will then answer to Proteus and Eidothea ( Od.4. 384 foll.) in the East, and we may compare the “Protei columnae” (Virg. Aen. 11. 262) with the “Herculis columnae” at the Straits of Gibraltar.

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

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