Page 426 - the-odyssey

she presently does by repeating it (line 340) at the stern of
the ship. As for the two rocks thrown, the first I take to be
the Asinelli, see map facing p.80. The second I see as the
two contiguous islands of the Formiche, which are treat-
ed as one, see map facing p.108. The Asinelli is an island
shaped like a boat, and pointing to the island of Favognana.
I think the authoress’s compatriots, who probably did not
like her much better that she did them, jeered at the absur-
dity of Ulysses’ conduct, and saw the Asinelli or ‘donkeys,’
not as the rock thrown by Polyphemus, but as the boat itself
containing Ulysses and his men.
{82} This line exists in the text here but not in the cor-
responding passage xii. 141. I am inclined to think it is
interpolated (probably by the poetess herself) from the first
of lines xi. 115-137, which I can hardly doubt were added by
the writer when the scheme of the work was enlarged and
altered. See ‘The Authoress of the Odyssey’ pp. 254-255.
{83} ‘Floating’ ([Greek]) is not to be taken literally. The
island itself, as apart from its inhabitants, was quite nor-
mal. There is no indication of its moving during the month
that Ulysses stayed with Aeolus, and on his return from his
unfortunate voyage, he seems to have found it in the same
place. The [Greek] in fact should no more be pressed than
[Greek] as applied to islands, ‘Odyssey’ xv. 299—where they
are called ‘flying’ because the ship would fly past them. So
also the ‘Wanderers,’ as explained by Buttmann; see note on
‘Odyssey’ xii. 57.
{84} Literally ‘for the ways of the night and of the day
are near.’ I have seen what Mr. Andrew Lang says (“Homer