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[74] οἴμης, ‘strain;’ literally, ‘way’ of song. The word is always used of song, however independent it stands; cp. inf. 481 “οἴμας μοῦσ᾽ ἐδίδαξε”. On its particular meaning see Mure, Lit. of Greece Anc., vol. i. 170, note, ‘With Homer “ἀοιδή” means all poetry or song, Epic or Lyric; “ἔπη” merely conversation or discourse. Later, “ἔπη” is the familiar phrase for every kind of recitative or Epic poetry; “ἀοιδή” or “ᾠδή” is limited to song in the stricter sense, or lyric performance. The longer, more continuous epic narrative, or Epopee, bears with Homer the title “οἴμη”.’ The genitive οἴμης need not be accounted for by attraction. It is simpler to treat it as a partitive gen., ‘from that tale the fame whereof.’ So Nicanor “ἀπὸ οἴμης ἐκείνης ἧς εὐρὺ τὸ κλέος ἦν”.

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

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