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[351] This phrase must be compared with Od. 8.124 “ὅσσόν τ᾽ ἐν νειῶι οὖρον πέλει ἡμιόνοιιν, τόσσον ὑπεκπροθέων κτλ.” An ingenious explanation is given by Ridgeway in J. H. S. vol. vi. He shews that the length of a furrow was commonly a fixed and recognized standard of length; with us it is the furlong (furrow-long), which was, in fact, the length and breadth of the common field, theoretically regarded as a square of ten acres. Now the unit of area was a day's work of plough (“γύης”), as the German Morgen and Gallic journel denote the patches in the common fields, and a ‘day's work,’ or ‘daymath’ (see New English Dict.) was a local name in England for a measure of about an acre. If mules ploughed more swiftly than oxen, but with the same length of furrow, then in a day's work they would plough a wider piece of land. The width which they would thus cover (“πλέθρον”) is expressed by the distance between the οὖρα or side limits (whilst “τέλσον” = endlimit, ‘headland’); and the “οὖρον” of mules will form an absolute standard of distance, as we see that it does in Od. 8.124. We may also compare 23.431 “δίσκου οὖρα”, 523 “δίσκουρα. οὖρα” is generally considered a heteroclite plur. of “οὖρος” = “ὅρος”, but so far as the Homeric evidence goes the old form of the singular may have been “οὖρον”, as Ridgeway remarks. ἐπί goes with “ὅσσον”: the accent, according to the rule, is not thrown back, because “τε” intervenes. Cf. 2.616 and note. For the use of mules in ploughing cf. Soph. Ant. 341.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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