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[751] Τιταρήσιον, the later Europos. Bentley's “Τιταρησσόν” is most tempting, because of “ϝέργα”, and of the analogy of other place-names in “-ησσός”: cf. Lucan vi. 376 “Defendit Titaressos aquas.” But unfortunately it contravenes the rule that lengthening by position of a vowel short by nature is not permitted before the bucolic diaeresis. What idea the poet had in his mind about the meeting of the rivers it is hard to say. It is said that the Europos is a clear stream which is easily to be distinguished for some distance after it has joined the Peneios white with chalk; but ἀργυροδίνηι is a strange epithet to use for a river if the emphasis is laid on its want of clearness. The connexion of the river with the Styx is no doubt due to the existence of some local cultus of the infernal deities of which we know nothing. ἔργα, tilth, as 12.283, in a purely local sense of tilled fields. The word is of course common in Homer in the pregnant sense of agricultural labour.

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

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