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[394] φανήῃ. We often find “φαίνεσθαι” used of the reappearance of things which had been lost. Cp. “φάνημεν” Od.9. 466, of the return of Odysseus and his companions to their comrades after their escape from the Cyclops; or “οὔ τις ἐξεφάνη”, of the loss of the men who were detained by Circe's treachery; or “ἐξεφαάνθη”, of the reappearance of the planks from the whirlpool, Od.12. 442.So here, the father's life had seemed lost beyond all hope of recovery. Human skill was not supposed by the ancients to reach to inward ailments; cp. Od.9. 411“νοῦσόν γ᾽ οὔ πως ἔστι Διὸς μεγάλου ἀλέασθαι”. Nitzsch quotes from Seneca ( Ep. 95), ‘Medecina quondam paucarum fuit scientia herbarum, quibus sisteretur fluens sanguis, vulnera coirent paullatim.’ See especially the remarks of Plato ( Rep.406) about invalids and their doctoring, “τῇ παιδαγωγικῇ τῶν νοσημάτων ταύτῃ τῇ νῦν ἰατρικῇ πρὸ τοῦ Ἀσκληπιάδαι οὐκ ἐχρῶντο, ὥς φασιν, πρὶν Ἡρόδικον γενέσθαι”, i.e. fifth cent. B.C.

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

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hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
    • Homer, Odyssey, 12.442
    • Homer, Odyssey, 9.411
    • Homer, Odyssey, 9.466
    • Plato, Republic, 406
    • Seneca, Epistulae, 95
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