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[275] οἴη δ᾽ ἄμμορος. On this expression Aristotle ( Poet.c. 25) remarks, “καὶ τὸοἴη δ᾽ ἄμμοροςκατὰ μεταφοράν: τὸ γὰρ γνωριμώτατον μόνον”. Of course, as a matter of fact, the Bear is not the only constellation that never sets. Strabo considers that Homer here includes under “ἄρκτος” the whole of the northern heavens, but the description given of the wheeling of the Bear so as to confront Orion sufficiently disproves this. Heliodorus, quoted in Apoll. Lex. Hom., admits that Homer made the statement through ignorance (“ὅτι ἠγνόει”). Sir G. C. Lewis suggests, as a more probable solution of the difficulty, that the Great Bear was the only group of stars in the northern sky which had in Homer's time been reduced to a constellation. Cp. Virg. Georg.1. 246‘Arctos Oceani metuentes aequore tingi,’ Ov. Met.13. 725‘Arcton aequoris expertem.’ Sophocles, Trach.130, compares the ceaseless recurrence of joy and sorrow to the “ἄρκτου στροφάδες κέλευθοι”. And Callimachus gives a fresh mythological colouring to the story by making Tethys, out of regard for Hera, refuse a refuge in the waters to Callisto (the Bear), the concubine of Zeus.

With λοετρῶν Ὠκεανοῖο cp. Il.5. 5 foll. of Sirius, “ὅς τε μάλιστα

λαμπρὸν παμφαίνῃσι λελουμένος Ὠκεανοῖο”.

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hide References (4 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (4):
    • Homer, Iliad, 5.5
    • Sophocles, Trachiniae, 130
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses, 13.725
    • Vergil, Georgics, 1.246
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