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Some Points with regard to the Homeric House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Guy Dickins
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Extract

Some scholars, in the face of the great difficulties presented by all attempts to reconcile the indications given in Homer with any reconstruction of a house that may correspond to them, have despaired of success to such an extent, that they fall back on the arguments of confusion in the text, or ignorance of what he is trying to describe, on the part of the writer or compiler of the Odyssey as we have it. If any apology is needed for a further contribution to the already copious literature on this subject, it must rest on the ground that, before we give up the question in despair, no theory ought to be left untried. The present paper is mainly an attempt to deal with the difficulties presented by Od. xxii. 126–177, of which the first twenty-one lines contain nearly all that is important.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 23 , November 1903 , pp. 325 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1903

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References

1 J.H.S. vol. xx. p. 128.

2 J.H.S. vol. xxi. p. 293.

3 J.H.S. vol. xx. p. 144.

4 J.H.S. vol. xx. p. 136.

5 Mr. Myres seems to be right in explaining ὀρσοθύρη as a trap door of some kind. Other compounds of ὀρσο and ὀρσι seem to be active in meaning, but doubtless the passive sense is also possible. Prof. Ernest Gardner has suggested to me that the ὀρσοθύρη may be a species of serving-hatch, a suggestion which fits in well with the theory of this paper as it explains why a single man might slip through while a combined rush would be practically impossible.

6 A glance at the plan of the gallery of the treasure-chambers on the west side of the palace of Cnossus, which is reproduced in Fig. 4, shews how admirably that will suit the Homeric narrative. Here we have an excellent example of the ὀρσοθύρη with treasure-chambers and store-rooms leading from it and a passage P, which may well correspond to ῥῶγες if we accept the derivation of that word from ῥήγνυμι and take its meaning to be a crooked winding passage. Compare also the ‘dog's-leg’ passage leading from the Hall of the Double-Axes to the Queen's μέγαρον

7 J.H.S. vol. xx. p. 141.

8 The great door, the ὁρσοθύρη the ὁδὸς ἑς λαύρην and the door communicating, in the old plan, with the women's apartments.

9 Mr. Myres suggests a connection between ἀργαλέον and the Romaic ἀργά ‘hard to get to’ popularly used for ‘distant.’

10 Cf. Od. xviii. 185 and 198, and xix. 60.

11 Cf. Od. i. 276, xv. 128, and xx. 343.