{15} [Greek] "The [Greek], or tunica, was a shirt or shift, and
served as the chief under garment of the Greeks and Romans,
whether men or women." Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities, under "Tunica".
{16} Doors fastened to all intents and purposes as here described
may be seen in the older houses at Trapani. There is a slot on
the outer side of the door by means of which a person who has
left the room can shoot the bolt. My bedroom at the Albergo
Centrale was fastened in this way.
{17} [Greek] So we vulgarly say "had cooked his goose," or "had
settled his hash." Aegyptus cannot of course know of the fate
Antiphus had met with, for there had as yet been no news of or
from Ulysses.
{18} "Il." xxii. 416. [Greek] The authoress has bungled by
borrowing these words verbatim from the "Iliad", without
prefixing the necessary "do not," which I have supplied.
{19} i.e. you have money, and could pay when I got judgment,
whereas the suitors are men of straw.
{20} cf. "Il." ii. 76. [Greek]. The Odyssean passage runs
[Greek]. Is it possible not to suspect that the name Mentor was
coined upon that of Nestor?
{21} i.e. in the outer court, and in the uncovered part of the
inner house.
{22} This would be fair from Sicily, which was doing duty for
Ithaca in the mind of the writer, but a North wind would have
been preferable for a voyage from the real Ithaca to Pylos.
{23} [Greek] The wind does not whistle over waves. It only
whistles through rigging or some other obstacle that cuts it.
We have hundreds more books for your enjoyment. Read them all!
{24} cf. "Il." v.20. [Greek] The Odyssean line is [Greek]. There
can be no doubt that the Odyssean line was suggested by the
Iliadic, but nothing can explain why Idaeus jumping from his
chariot should suggest to the writer of the "Odyssey" the sun
jumping from the sea. The probability is that she never gave
the matter a thought, but took the line in question as an effect
of saturation with the "Iliad," and of unconscious cerebration.
The "Odyssey" contains many such examples.
{25} The heart, liver, lights, kidneys, etc. were taken out from
the inside and eaten first as being more readily cooked; the
[Greek], or bone meat, was cooking while the [Greek] or inward
parts were being eaten. I imagine that the thigh bones made a
kind of gridiron, while at the same time the marrow inside them
got cooked.
{26} i.e. skewers, either single, double, or even five pronged.
The meat would be pierced with the skewer, and laid over the
ashes to grill--the two ends of the skewer being supported in
whatever way convenient. Meat so cooking may be seen in any
eating house in Smyrna, or any Eastern town. When I rode across
the Troad from the Dardanelles to Hissarlik and Mount Ida, I
noticed that my dragoman and his men did all our outdoor cooking
exactly in the Odyssean and Iliadic fashion.
Page 2 of 17
Who's On Your Reading List?
Read Classic Books Online for Free at
Page by Page Books.TM