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[128] ἀθηρηλοιγόν. The proof that this country had been reached would be an unmistakable one. The complete ignorance of the sea would be shown by a traveller meeting Odysseus and mistaking the oar that he was carrying, for a winnowing shovel. Nor, under such circumstances, would the mistake be absurd; both may fairly be called “πλάται”, as Eustath. says, “πλάτη θαλασσία ἐστὶ τὸ ἐρετμόν, χερσαία δὲ τὸ πτύον”. Sophocles copies this in his “Ὀδυσσεὺς ἀκανθοπλήξ” (see inf. on 134), but gives the word in a somewhat different form, (Frag. 404 Dind.) “ὤμοις ἀθηρόβρωτον ὄργανον φέρων”, which reminds us of his epithet “σιδηροβρώς” Aj.820.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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    • Sophocles, Ajax, 820
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