previous next

[661] Fleeces and sheet and fine flock of linen. Cf. 24.644 ff. ἄωτον is explained by Buttm. Lexil. as meaning ‘floccus,’ the flocculent knap on woven cloths. The original use was probably of wool only, “οἰὸς ἄωτον”. The application here to linen is unique, and the word has retained only the sense of ‘the most delicate fibre.’ The later use of the word, a particular favourite with Pindar, is almost entirely metaphorical. The ῥῆγος itself seems to have been a sheet of linen, to judge from the “ῥήγεα σιγαλόεντα” commonly mentioned in Od. (Od. 6.38, Od. 11.189, etc.). “πορφύρεα” in 24.645, Od. 4.298, Od. 7.337 points in the same direction, for purple was the one dye used for linen. If so we ought apparently to take “ῥῆγός τε λίνοιό τε ἄωτον” together by hendiadys; and so Od. 13.73 “στόρεσαν ῥῆγός τε λίνον τε” (see also Od. 13.118). The three constituents of the Homeric bed, “δέμνια, ῥήγεα”, and “χλαῖναι” (Od. 11.189, etc.), then resolve themselves into mattress, sheets, and blankets. In this place the fleeces seem to serve alike for mattress and coverlet. “ῥήγεα” are used only for beds, and in Od. 10.352 for covering chairs.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (9 total)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: