Page 441 - the-odyssey

[Greek] I take to be a door, or trap door, leading on to the
roof above Telemachus’s bed room, which we are told was
in a place that could be seen from all round—or it might be
simply a window in Telemachus’s room looking out into the
street. From the top of the tower the outer world was to be
told what was going on, but people could not get in by the
[Greek]: they would have to come in by the main entrance,
and Melanthius explains that the mouth of the narrow pas-
sage (which was in the lands of Ulysses and his friends)
commanded the only entrance by which help could come,
so that there would be nothing gained by raising an alarm.
As for the [Greek] of line 143, no commentator ancient or
modern has been able to say what was intended—but what-
ever they were, Melanthius could never carry twelve shields,
twelve helmets, and twelve spears. Moreover, where he
could go the others could go also. If a dozen suitors had fol-
lowed Melanthius into the house they could have attacked
Ulysses in the rear, in which case, unless Minerva had in-
tervened promptly, the ‘Odyssey’ would have had a different
ending. But throughout the scene we are in a region of ex-
travagance rather than of true fiction—it cannot be taken
seriously by any but the very serious, until we come to the
episode of Phemius and Medon, where the writer begins to
be at home again.
{172} I presume it was intended that there should be a
hook driven into the bearing-post.
{173} What for?
{174} Gr: [Greek]. This is not [Greek].
{175} From lines 333 and 341 of this book, and lines 145

0 The Odyssey