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[235] The words ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἀκαχμένον seem to mean that there was a double blade, as in the Lat. bipennis, so called because it looked like a bird with outstretched wings, the handle being in the centre. This description of the “πέλεκυς” suggests the interpretation given by GA. öbel, on Od. 19.574, who represents that the test in the “τόξου θέσις” was to shoot an arrow between the upper cusps of a row of 12 such axes, standing upright, with the end of the handle fixed in the ground.

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

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