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[435] ἐνώπια: a much disputed word, recurring only in 13.261, Od. 4.42, Od. 22.121, always with the same epithet, and always as a support against which something is leant. Various attempts have been made to identify it with some particular spot in the Homeric house — either the side walls of the entrance, a short passage leading from the street into the courtyard, or the front wall of the “μέγαρον”, at the side of the main door-way, facing the person who entered the courtyard from the street. But the word is better taken quite generally, inner walls or rather inner face of the walls. This suits the form of the word (cf. note on 15.653 “εἰσωποί”), and its use in all places. Here and Od. 4.42 it means the inner face of the wall of the “αὐλή”: in “Ν” and “χ” it is used of the walls of the “μέγαρον” itself. παμφανόωντα, because covered with polished stucco, like the walls at Tiryns, or perhaps with polished wood, cf. 14.169 “θύραι φαειναί”.

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

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