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[302] χείρ᾽ ἐπιμασσάμενος. The acute accent is thrown back in consequence of elision, and so we have here “χείῤ” for “χειρί”, as “εἴφ̓” for “εἰπέ” sup. 279. It is commonly taken to mean ‘feeling, fingering, my sword,’ as “ξίφεος ἐπεμαίετο κώπην” Od.11. 531.But a more likely interpretation is ‘feeling for it,’ i. e. for the mortal spot near the liver, passing his hand in the dark over the monster's body till he found the place, where the breastbone ended and the soft parts would offer little resistance to the sword. Ameis, Anh. on Od. 19.480, quotes from Oppenrieder (de ii. Hom. loc. Comment. Augsburg, 1865) the statement that “ἐπιμαίεσθαι” regularly has the sense of ‘placide tangere’ or ‘leniter contrectare.’ Comparing Od.4. 277; 8.196; 9. 441, 446; 11. 531; 13. 336; 14. 356 and 19. 468, 480, he decides in favour of this interpretation, adding, ‘ad leniter tangendi et attrectandi significationem saepe accedit quaerendi et explorandi significatio, siquidem hoc cum alioquin tum imprimis in tenebris vel caecitate tangendo et contrectando fieri solet.’

θυμός, here in its most concrete sense, ‘a second thought.’ The Schol. T. interprets it here by “λογισμός”, but the word signifies not so much the result of calculation, as ‘impulse,’ as may be seen in such expressions as “κέλεται δέ με θυμός”.

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

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