Page 420 - the-odyssey

earlier lines of the same book, give sufficient authority for
[Greek], but the [Greek] would not be redundant; it would
emphasise the surprise of the contrast, and I should prefer
to have it, though it is not very important either way. This
reading of course should be translated ‘Ithaca is an island
fit for breeding goats, and (by your leave) itself a horseman
rather than fit for breeding horses—for not one of the is-
lands is good and well meadowed ground.’
This would be sure to baffle the Alexandrian editors.
‘How,’ they would ask themselves, ‘could an island be a
horseman?’ and they would cast about for an emendation. A
visit to the top of Mt. Eryx might perhaps make the mean-
ing intelligible, and suggest my proposed restoration of the
text to the reader as readily as it did to myself.
I have elsewhere stated my conviction that the writer of
the ‘Odyssey’ was familiar with the old Sican city at the top
of Mt. Eryx, and that the Aegadean islands which are so
striking when seen thence did duty with her for the Ionian
islands—Marettimo, the highest and most westerly of the
group, standing for Ithaca. When seen from the top of Mt.
Eryx Marettimo shows as it should do according to ‘Od.’
ix. 25,26, ‘on the horizon, all highest up in the sea towards
the West,’ while the other islands lie ‘some way off it to the
East.’ As we descend to Trapani, Marettimo appears to sink
on to the top of the island of Levanzo, behind which it dis-
appears. My friend, the late Signor E. Biaggini, pointed to
it once as it was just standing on the top of Levanzo, and
said to me ‘Come cavalca bene’ (“How well it rides’), and
this immediately suggested my emendation to me. Later on

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