Page 439 - the-odyssey

she found that the path of least resistance would lie in the
direction of making Eurynome and Euryclea two persons.
Therefore in xxiii. 289-292 both Eurynome and ‘the nurse’
(who can be none other than Euryclea) come on together. I
do not say that this is feminine, but it is not unfeminine.
{157} See note {156}
{158} This, I take it, was immediately in front of the main
entrance of the inner courtyard into the body of the house.
{159} This is the only allusion to Sardinia in either ‘Iliad’
or ‘Odyssey.’
{160} The normal translation of the Greek word would
be ‘holding back,’ ‘curbing,’ ‘restraining,’ but I cannot think
that the writer meant this—she must have been using the
word in its other sense of ‘having,’ ‘holding,’ ‘keeping,’
‘maintaining.’
{161} I have vainly tried to realise the construction of the
fastening here described.
{162} See plan of Ulysses’ house in the appendix. It is evi-
dent that the open part of the court had no flooring but the
natural soil.
{163} See plan of Ulysses’ house, and note {175}.
{164} i.e. the door that led into the body of the house.
{165} This was, no doubt, the little table that was set for
Ulysses, ‘Od.’ xx. 259.
Surely the difficulty of this passage has been overrated.
I suppose the iron part of the axe to have been wedged into
the handle, or bound securely to it—the handle being half
buried in the ground. The axe would be placed edgeways
towards the archer, and he would have to shoot his arrow

The Odyssey