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[170] It is hard to say whether the κληῗδες were the rowers' benches or the rowlocks. The word recurs in the Iliad in connexion with ships only in the compound “πολυκλήϊς”, though it is common in Od.; and in Od. 8.37 “δησάμενοι . . ἐπὶ κληῗσιν ἐρετμά” it is simplest to understand it of the rowlocks or thole-pins, the later “σκαλμοί”, ‘on which the oars worked, and to which they were attached by a leathern loop or strap, called “τροπός” (Od. 4.782, Od. 8.53),’ M. and R., App. i. p. 540. We must then translate ἐπὶ κληῗσιν ‘sat at the rowlocks.’ Ap. Rhod. however always takes it to mean benches (Seaton in J. P. xix. 6). It may be added that some regarded the words as meant to distinguish the rowers from the fighting men, whose number is not stated; they thought that a full complement of fifty men to a ship would be too small as compared with the 120 of the Boeotians (2.510). But see 2.719.

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

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