previous next

[43] 43-49. The whole passage is identical with Il.24. 339-345, to which place the mention of the magic wand and its soporific powers seems more appropriate: for Hermes had on that occasion to lull the sentinels to sleep, “τοῖσι δ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ὕπνον ἔχευε διάκτορος ἀργειφόντης”

“πᾶσιν”, which words explain “τῇ τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει”. Virgil, in his adaptation of the passage, Aen.4. 238 foll., extends the power of the wand to the causing or breaking the sleep of death, ‘dat somnos adimitque et lumina morte resignat.’

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: