by Peter Wright

Page 430, Line 12. the gates of the Sun. Perhaps those through which he sets. This approach to the Land of the Dead, since its details differ from those in Book xi, along with the subsequent conversation between the heroes’ ghosts, have been suspected of having been inserted in the original Odyssey.

The poet apparently wished to add a final reminder of the contrast between the wives of Odysseus and of Agamemnon, and also to further fill in the gap between the end of the Iliad and the Odyssey by giving some account, however brief, of the death and funeral of Achilles.

Page 433, Line 78. Menoitias. So tr. by Morris from the patronymic ’Menoitiadao’.

Page 433, Line 105. This line, and lines 116-19, are some of the few in the epic that refer to the preliminaries of the Trojan war.

Page 433, Lines 109-13. These lines largely copy the questions that Odysseus put to Agamemnon in Book xi, lines 399-404; indicating likely activities of Achaean warriors when away from home.

Page 433, Line 119. Since hardly ... Odysseus … we won. This line seems to allude to the tradition that Odysseus was initially unwilling to go to the Trojan war and had to be obliged to abandon a pretense of madness by threats of danger to his infant son.

Page 436, Lines 167-8. he bade his wife to lay ... The bow before the Wooers. These lines suggest the poet’s awareness of another possibly traditional version of the story, in which Odysseus actually directed his wife to put to the Wooers the test of the bow: in the epic as we have it Penelope proposes it of her own accord, and her husband merely accepts her proposal.

Page 437, Lines 197, 200. The ‘story’ and the ‘tale’ are in the Greek ‘aoide’, a song.

Page 437, Line 209. Morris omits to tr. ‘siteskonto’: referring to the slaves eating there.

Page 439, Line 264. my friend. Tr. ‘xeino’: guest-friend; cf. lines 266, 271, 286, 288.

Page 439, Line 277. tapestry. tr. ‘tapetaas’: carpets.

Page 445, Line 413. Fame. Tr. ‘Ossa’: rumour.

As a herald. Tr. ‘angelos’: a messenger.