The addition was, I imagine, suggested by a desire to excuse and
explain the non-appearance of Hermione in bk. xv., as also of
both Hermione and Megapenthes in the rest of bk. iv. Megapenthes
in bk. xv. seems to be still a bachelor: the presumption
therefore is that bk. xv. was written before the story of his
marriage here given. I take it he is only married here because
his sister is being married. She having been properly attended
to, Megapenthes might as well be married at the same time.
Hermione could not now be less than thirty.
I have dealt with this passage somewhat more fully in my
"Authoress of the Odyssey", p.136-138. See also p. 256 of the
same book.
{37} Sparta and Lacedaemon are here treated as two different
places, though in other parts of the poem it is clear that the
writer understands them as one. The catalogue in the "Iliad,"
which the writer is here presumably following, makes the same
mistake ("Il." ii. 581,582)
{38} These last three lines are identical with "Il." vxiii.
604-606.
{39} From the Greek [Greek] it is plain that Menelaus took up
the piece of meat with his fingers.
{40} Amber is never mentioned in the "Iliad." Sicily, where I
suppose the "Odyssey" to have been written, has always been, and
still is, one of the principal amber producing countries. It was
probably the only one known in the Odyssean age. See "The
Authoress of the Odyssey", p260.
{41} This no doubt refers to the story told in the last poem of
the Cypria about Paris and Helen robbing Menelaus of the greater
part of his treasures, when they sailed together for Troy.
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