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[125] μιλτοπάρῃοι. The same epithet is given to the ships of Odysseus, Il. 2.637.Cp. Hdt.3. 58“τὸ δὲ παλαιὸν ἅπασαι αἱ νῆες ἦσαν μιλτηλιφέες”. Probably “μίλτος” is cinnabar, an ore of mercury from which vermilion is made; it must have been one of the oldest pigments in use as the cinnabar mines of Almaden in Spain are said to have been worked nearly 2500 years. We find also as epithets of ships “κυανόπρῳροι” inf. 539, and “φοινικοπάρῃοι” Hom. Od.11. 124.Here “μιλτοπάρῃοι” is used only as a standing epithet, and does not imply that the Cyclopes had ships, though not red ones. Translate, ‘For the Cyclopes have no red-prowed ships by them, nor are any men in their country shipwrights, who might make them strongbenched ships, which should perform all their purpose, travelling to the cities of men, as oftentimes men cross the sea in ships to visit one another— craftsmen, who would have wrought their island also into a fair settlement.’ We find καμεῖν used as a direct transitive with the sense of ‘making’ only in the aorist; as “μίτρην κάμον” Hom. Il.4. 187, “πέπλον” Hom. Il.5. 735; Hom. Od.15. 105, “ὅπλα” Hom. Il.18. 614, “ἵππον” (wooden horse) Hom. Od.11. 523, “λέχος” Hom. Od.23. 189.In four passages the combination “κάμε τεύχων” occurs with accusative ( Hom. Il.2. 101; 7. 220; 8. 195; 19. 368), in which cases “τεύχειν” is the governing verb. The verb “κάμνειν” is common in this sense in the later Epicists, as Apoll. Rhod. and Smyrn. See La Roche, Hom. Stud. 183.

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

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