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[134] ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ πατρός, ‘for from him, her father.’ So “τοῦ πατρός” Od.16. 149.The demonstrative serves to give additional emphasis to contrast “πατήρ” with “δαίμων”. The evils which Telemachus would suffer from the “πατήρ” he has already described as “πόλλ᾽ ἀποτίνειν”, the necessity of restitution. But it is very possible that τοῦ πατρός may mean ‘that father of mine,’ sc. Odysseus, whose return might come at any moment, although there was such uncertainty about his fate. For “τοῦ πατρός” it has been suggested to read “οὗ πατρός” in the sense of “ἐμοῦ”. See on 1. 402.

δαίμων. Nitzsch distinguishes between the meaning of “δαίμων” and “θεός” in their Homeric use, as if the former represented the darker and more dangerous side of superhuman powers. Nägelsbach (Hom. Theol. p. 72) sums up the uses of both words as follows: “δαίμων” stands indifferently for “θεός” five times in the Il.(1. 222; 3. 420; 6. 115; 19. 188; 23. 595), and once in the Od.(15. 261); while the two words are used as interchangeable synonyms in Od.21. 196, 201; 6. 172-174. Compare with these Il.17. 98, 99; Od.5. 396, 397; Od.3. 27; which seem to show that “δαίμων” stands to “θεός” as numen to persona divina; and that originally there is nothing in “δαίμων” which tends in malam partem. In this general sense of numen divinum or voluntas divina, “δαίμων” occurs six times in the Il.and eleven times in the With Od.the additional notion of kindness or goodness it is found in two instances ( Il.11. 792; 15. 403) in the Iliad; but nowhere in the Odyssey. The phrases “ἐπέσσυτο δαίμονι ἶσος”, occurring ten times in the Il., carries with it the idea of a violent and evil power; and two instances ( Il.9. 600; 15. 468) assign to “δαίμων” a distinctly malignant action, while in one passage in the Il.(8. 166) “δαίμων” is used to mean fate or death. In the Odyssey there are at least twenty instances of “δαίμων” used in this sinister sense, sometimes with such epithets as “στυγερός, κακός, χαλεπός”, etc., sometimes standing alone. The tendency in this direction is especially noticeable, as Nitzsch here remarks, in the significance of the adjective “δαιμόνιος” as opposed to “θεῖος”.

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

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