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[127] 127-128. Through the “ὀρσοθύρη” there was a way into a λαύρη or passage— doubtless one of the narrow passages that must be numerous in a house made up of several distinct buildings. So much seems clear: but the words ἀκρότατον παρ᾽ οὐδόν have not been satisfactorily explained. If the “οὐδός” is the sill of the “ὀρσοθύρη”, it seems needless to say that the way out of the “ὀρσοθύρη” was over or ‘past’ the top of the sill. We expect rather to be told how the “ὁδός” reached the “λαύρη”. Possibly the meaning is that the way to the “λαύρη” passed along the outside of the “ὀρσοθύρη” at the full height of the sill. This would imply that the level of the passage outside was somewhat higher than the floor of the “μέγαρον”. It would be worth mentioning in order to show that the “ὀρσοθύρη” was easily approached from the “λαύρη”.

The phrase “οὐδὸς μεγάροιο” may be applied, as Protodicos observes (“Περὶ τῆς καθ᾽ Ὅμηρον οἰκίας”, p. 50), to the sill or threshold of any entrance to the “μέγαρον”: cp. “οὐδὸς αὐλῆς” (7. 130), “οὐδὸς θαλάμοιο” (4. 718), &c.

The σανίδες seem to be those of the “ὀρσοθύρη”. The mention of them is intelligible as a descriptive touch, though it does not affect the story, since the door must have been open at the time (cp. l. 155). Some take σανίδες of a door in the “λαύρη” (l. 137): but no such door has as yet been mentioned.

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

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