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[89] ἄωροι. The etymologies and meanings assigned to this word present the widest differences. The most important seem to be these, (1) ‘ugly,’ from “ὥρα” in the sense of ‘beauty;’ (2) ‘imperfect,’ from “ὥρα” in the sense of ‘perfect maturity,’ so Ameis; (3) ‘feeble,’ “οἱ μὴ δυνάμενοι ὀροῦσαι, ἀνόρμητοι, ἀσθενεῖς”, Scholl., Eustath., etc.; (4) ‘pendulous,’ “κρεμαστοί ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰωρῶ”, Schol. B. cp. Lobeck. path. el. 2. 75. Another meaning, through “αἰωρῶ” or “ἀείρομαι”, viz. ‘fore-feet,’ (5) is preferred by Nitzsch, who quotes from Bekk. (Anec. 1. a. E. ) “οἱ ἐμπρόσθιοι καὶ Φιλήμων: οὐ τοὺς ἀώρους εἶπά σοι, μαστιγία”,

“πόδας πρίασθαι; σὺ δὲ φέρεις ὀπισθίους”. But here the comic poet may be playing upon the meanings of “ἄωρος”, with a further reference to a word “ὥρη” which a Schol. here gives as Ionic for “κωλή”. To these we may add the view ascribed (6) to Aristarchus, “ἀκώλους” (see on “κωλή” sup.) “καὶ πλεκτανώδεις”, and (7) that of Crates, “δυσφυλάκτους, οὓς οὐδεὶς ἂν ὠρήσηται”, i. e. “φυλάξηται”. Of these (2) and (4) seem to have most to recommend them. Curtius, Gk. Etym. p. 317 adopts (4), and certainly it carries out most graphically the picture of a monstrous polypus (see above) with its swaying tentacles.

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

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