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[176] κυάνεαι must mean ‘dark.’ The poet forgets that Ulysses had ‘yellow’ hair before: see Od.13. 399 Od., 431.

An interesting parallel to this contradiction has been pointed out to me by a friend. In the first edition of Scott's Heart of Midlothian, vol. I. ch. iv (p. 119), Effie Deans is described as ‘a modest-looking black-haired girl.’ In ch. ix of the same volume (p. 240) it is said that ‘her Grecian-shaped head was profusely rich in waving ringlets of brown hair.’ Finally, in vol. II. ch. x (p. 231) in the account of the trial special mention is made of ‘her beautiful and abundant tresses of long fair hair.’ In later editions the inconsistency was removed by altering ‘black-haired’ in the first of these places into ‘fair-haired.’ But the necessity for such a correction was probably not felt before the ages when ‘second editions’ and the like made revision possible.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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