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[336] Γερήνιος is traditionally explained as a local name from a river or town in Elis where Nestor was supposed to have been brought up when expelled for a time from Pylos. The story is attributed to Hesiod (fr. 34, 35, Rzach), but Strabo p. 340 makes it clear that no ‘Gerena’ or ‘Gerenia’ was known to him, and that he regarded the supposed sites as fictions (cf. Paus.iii. 26. 8, who identifies the Gerenia of his time with the Homeric Enope, 9.150). The alternative which makes “γερήνιος” only a lengthened form of “γέρων” is also known to the scholia. Another explanation, “ἔντιμος”, seems to imply a der. from “γέρας”. The title is evidently so old that the real meaning of it had been lost in prehistoric times. Byz. Steph. mentions a village “Γέρην” in Lesbos, named from “Γέρην τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος”, who may have had a place in the Neleid genealogy.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Homer, Iliad, 9.150
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.26.8
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