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[278] ἁψαμένη, ‘having fastened high a noose from the lofty beam;’ αἰπυν has here its simple physical meaning, and stands predicatively with ἁψαμένη, the words “ἀφ᾽ ὑψ. μελ”. being added as epexegesis; cp. “γυμνὸν ἄτερ κόρυθός τε καὶ ἀσπίδος” Il.21. 50.As Hephaestus, Od.8. 279, let down his fine nets over the bed where Ares and Aphrodite lay (“καθύπερθε μελαθρόφιν ἐξεκέχυντο”), so here Epicaste makes fast the rope ἀφ᾽ ὑψηλοῖο μελάθρου. This long rafter, which went across from wall to wall, carried the weight of the roof. Athena, in the form of a swallow, sits “ἀνὰ μεγάροιο μελάθρῳ”, and the eagle in Penelope's dream perches “ἐπὶ προὔχοντι μελάθρῳ”, which may be the free end that came through the wall to the outside.

μέλαθρον was also used more widely, in the senses in which we use ‘roof,’ as “μέλαθρον ὑπελθεῖν” Od.18. 150, “φίλτατοι ἄνδρες ἐμῷ ὑπέασι μελάθρῳ” Il.9. 204.The ethical meaning attached to it is seen in the words “αἴδεσσαι μέλαθρον” Il.9. 640.

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

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