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[232] κομιδή, ‘I had not sufficient provision on shipboard.’ But perhaps κομιδή means more generally ‘comfort,’ including supply of food under it; cp. Il.8. 186; 23. 411, where “κομιδή” is used of the feeding and tending of horses, Od.14. 124, where it is used of men, and Od.24. 245, where it signifies the ‘care’ taken of a garden. We might then translate, ‘I had no constant comfort on shipboard.’ Odysseus is referring to the period preceding his actual shipwreck, during which time want of food and comfort had so reduced him, that when he had to swim for his life, he was all the more ‘sorely spent in many waters.’ But seeing that the ship was properly provisioned before starting, Od.5. 265 foll., there seems to be something wrong here. Perhaps he means that his shipwreck had shortened his enjoyment of the good things on board, and had consigned him to the tender mercies of the “κύματα πολλά”. The Schol. Q. T. E. has a strange note on the passage—“εἰπὼν κύμασιν ἠνίξατο τὴν ναυαγίαν: προσθεὶς δὲ τὸ ‘ἐπεὶ οὐ κομιδὴ κατὰ νῆα’ τὴν τῆς θεοχολωσίας ἐκάλυψε βλάβην”. But this fact he had betrayed—if he ever meant to conceal it —already, Hom. Od.7. 270.

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

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