--How
Melanthius
got out of
the hall remains a puzzle.
the hall remains a puzzle.
Odyssey - Cowper
?
?
, for which Cowper
gives as a paraphrase "spikes, crested with a ring," elsewhere means
_axes_, and ought so to be translated here. For since Cowper's day an
axe-head of the Mycenaean period has been discovered _with the blade
pierced_ so as to form a hole through which an arrow could pass. (See
Tsountas and Manatt, _The Mycenaean Age_. ) Axes of this type were not
known to Cowper, and hence the hypothesis in his text. He realised
correctly the essential conditions of the feat proposed: the axes must
have been set up, one behind the other, in the way he suggested for his
ringed stakes.
NOTE IV.
Bk. xxii. l. 139-162 (Hom. xxii. l. 126-143).
--How Melanthius got out of
the hall remains a puzzle. Cowper assumes a second postern, but there is
no evidence for this, and l. 139 ff. (l. 126 ff. in the Greek) suggest
rather strongly that there was only _one_. Unfortunately, the crucial
word ? ? ? ? ? which occurs in the line describing Melanthius' exit is not
found elsewhere. "He went up," the poet says, "through the ? ? ? ?
gives as a paraphrase "spikes, crested with a ring," elsewhere means
_axes_, and ought so to be translated here. For since Cowper's day an
axe-head of the Mycenaean period has been discovered _with the blade
pierced_ so as to form a hole through which an arrow could pass. (See
Tsountas and Manatt, _The Mycenaean Age_. ) Axes of this type were not
known to Cowper, and hence the hypothesis in his text. He realised
correctly the essential conditions of the feat proposed: the axes must
have been set up, one behind the other, in the way he suggested for his
ringed stakes.
NOTE IV.
Bk. xxii. l. 139-162 (Hom. xxii. l. 126-143).
--How Melanthius got out of
the hall remains a puzzle. Cowper assumes a second postern, but there is
no evidence for this, and l. 139 ff. (l. 126 ff. in the Greek) suggest
rather strongly that there was only _one_. Unfortunately, the crucial
word ? ? ? ? ? which occurs in the line describing Melanthius' exit is not
found elsewhere. "He went up," the poet says, "through the ? ? ? ?
