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[456] εἰ δὴ ὁμοφρονέοις, ‘couldest thou feel as I do, and get the gift of speech, so as to tell me where that man is skulking from my wrath, then should his brain, as he was smitten, be dashed all abroad on the ground, and my heart should be eased from the trouble which good-for-nothing No-man gave me.’ There is a grim sort of reference in πόρεν to the word that was used, sup. 360, of Odysseus handing the wine to the Cyclops.

ποτιφωνήεις is a word the composition of which suggests a difficulty; the general rule being that Homeric adjectives in “-εις” are derived from nouns substantive, as “ὀμφαλό-εις, αὐδή-εις”. There appears to be an exception to this general rule in “ὀξυόεις”, which seems to point to “ὀξύς”. But we may follow Bekker in referring “ὀξυόεις” to “ὀξύα” or “ὀξύη”, and so make it equivalent to “ὀξύινος”. But there is no synthetic compound of “ποτί” and “φωνή” from which “ποτιφωνήεις” can be formed; and a similar irregularity appears in the words “βαθυδινήεις”, from “βαθύς” and “δίνη”, or “ἀμφιγυήεις”, from “ἀμφί” and “γυῖον”. For other readings see crit. note.

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

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