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[222] μεγακήτεϊ, with mighty hollow, capacious; so 21.22, with mighty maw, and Od. 3.158 of the sea with mighty deeps. Jordan proposes to derive the word from the ordinary sense of “κῆτος”, monster, explaining “πόντος μεγακ”. as teeming with great monsters, and “μεγακ. νηΐ” as ‘with a great monster’ at the prow; for it was a common practice to make the prow of the ship in the form of an animal's head; see the Egyptian ship of about 1000 B.C. in Torr, Ancient Ships, p. 65 and fig. 6. The ‘ram’ in the form of a head, a pig's for choice, is apparently post-Homeric; see Helbig H. E. ^{2} p. 77. The phrase recurs in 11.600.

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

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