| Harpyiai:
a weather-watching folk of NERITON (Peljesac) |
A people of NERITON (Peljesac), though likely not KEPHALLENES
(occupants of NERITON (Peljesac)—and perhaps of Hittite
origin?— known to Telemakhos, Eumaeos, and Penelope alike:
i, 241
(Telemakhos):
But as it is, the spirits of the storm [Harpyiai] have swept
him away and left no tidings: he is gone out of sight, out of
hearing, and for me he has left anguish and weeping;
xiv, 371:
(Eumaios):
But as it is the spirits of the storm [Harpyiai] have swept
him away, and left no tidings. I, for my part. dwell allof with
the swine, nor do I go to the city, unless haply wise Penelope
bids me thither, when tidings come to her from anywhere.
xx, 77
(Penelope):
-meanwhile the spirits of the storm [Harpyiai] snatched away
the maidens and gave them to the hateful Erinyes to deal with.
Disliked... folks...considered
a menace...
>In later times they were (see oxford classical encyclopaedia)
>It could be said, that, if the Harpyiai are an incredible people,
they are much more real (ojo, bad wording) than the fantastic folks
which Odysseus met: the Lotophagoi, Laistrygones, Kyklopes, Phaiakes,
Seirenes, and so on.
>connection with wooers who are by al counts are not Kephalenes
and strangers to
These folk-whoever they were-are likely to be connected with the
westernmost tip of Neriton, an inhospitable place in the extreme
buffeted by strong winds.
>connection with Penelope's wooers likened to gibbering bats,
and with Daidalos, father of Penelope and Icarus who flew like a
kite
identity
/quotes/
location
origins/associations
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| Kyklopes:
not-so-fictitious inhabitants of LEKTON (Hvar) G An unruly, cave-dwelling
folk encountered by Odysseus- |
ix , 105 et pas.:
"Thence we sailed on, grieved at heart, and we came to
the land of the Cyclopes, an overweening and lawless folk, who,
trusting in the immortal gods, plant nothing with their hands
nor plough; but all these things spring up for them without
sowing or ploughing, wheat, and barley, and vines, which bear
the rich clusters of wine, and the rain of Zeus gives them increase.
Neither assemblies for council have they dwell on the peaks
of lofty mountains in hollow caves, and each one is lawgiver
to his children and his wives, and they reck nothing one of
another.
"Now there is a level isle that stretches aslant outside
the harbour, neither close to the shore of the land of the Cyclopes,
nor yet far off, a wooded isle. Therein live wild goats innumerable,
for the tread of men scares them not away, nor are hunters wont
to come thither, men who endure toils in the woodland as they
course over the peaks of the mountains. Neither with flocks
is it held, nor with ploughed lands, but unsown and untilled
all the days it knows naught of men, but feeds the bleating
goats. For the Cyclopes have at hand no ships with vermilion
cheeks, nor are there ship-wrights in their land who might build
them well benched shops, which should perform all their wants,
passing to the cities of other folk, as men often cross the
sea in ships to visit one another-craftsmen, who would have
made of this isle also a fair settlement. For the isle is nowise
poor, but would bear all things in season. In it are meadows
by the shores of the grey sea, well-watered meadows and soft,
where vines would never fail, and in it level plough land, whence
they might reap from season to season harvests excceding deep,
so rich is the soil beneath; and in it, too, is a harbour giving
safe anchorage, where there is no need of moorings, either to
throw out anchor-stones or to make fast stern cables, but one
may beach one's ship and wait until the sailors' minds bid them
put out, and the breezes blow fair. Now at the head of the harbour
a spring of bright water flows forth from beneath a cave, and
round about it poplars grow. Thither we sailed in, and some
god guided us through the murky night; for there was no light
to see, but a mist lay deep about the ships and the moon showed
no light from heaven, but was shut in by clouds. Then no man's
eyes beheld that island, nor did we see the long waves rolling
on the beach, until we ran our well-benched ships on shore.
And when we had beached the ships we lowered all the sails and
ourselves went forth on the shore of the sea, and there we fell
asleep and waited for the bright Dawn.
...
"So saying, I went on board the ship and bade my comrades
themselves to embark, and to loose the stern cables. So they
went on board straightway and sat down upon the benches, and
sitting well in order smote the grey sea with their oars. But
when we had reached the place, which lay close at hand, there
on the land's edge hard by the sea we saw a high cave, roofed
over with laurels, and there many flocks, sheep and goats alike,
were wont to sleep. Round about it a high court was built with
stones set deep in the earth, and with tall pines and high crested
oaks. There a monstrous man was wont to sleep, who shepherded
his flocks alone and afar, and mingled not with others, but
lived apart, with his heart set on lawlessness. For he was fashioned
a wondrous monster, and was not like a man that lives by bread,
but like a wooded peak of lofty mountains, which stands out
to view alone, apart from the rest.
...
"Speedily we came to the cave, nor did we find him within,
but he was pasturing his fat flocks in the fields. So we entered
the cave and gazed in wonder at all things there. The crates
were laden with cheeses, and the pens were crowed with lambs
and kids. Each kind was penned separately: by themselves the
firstlings, by themselves the later lambs, and by themselves
again the newly yeaned. And with whey were swimming all the
well-wrought vessels, the milk-pails and the bowls into which
he milked. Then my comrades spoke and besought me first of all
to take of the cheeses and depart, and thereafter speedly to
drive to the swift ship the kids and lambs from out the pens,
and to sail over the salt water. But I did not listen to them-verily
it would have been better far-to the end that I might see the
man himself, and whether he would give me gifts of entertainment.
Yet, as it fell, his appearing was not to prove a joy to my
conmrades.
"Then we kindled a fire and offered sacrifice, and ourselves,
too, took of the cheeses and ate, and thus we sat in the cave
and waited for him until he came back, herding his flocks. He
bore a mighty weight of dry wood to serve him at supper time,
and flung it down with a crash inside the cave, but we, seized
with terror, shrank back into a recess of the cave. But he drove
his fat flocks into the wide cavern-all those that he milked;
but the males-the rams and the goats-he left without in the
deep court. Then he lifted on high and set in place the great
door stone, a mighty rock; two and twenty stout four wheeled
waggons could not lift it from the ground, such a towering mass
of rock he set in the doorway Thereafter he sat down and milked
the ewes and bleating goats all in turn, and beneath each dam
he placed her young. Then presently he curdled half the white
milk, and gathered it in wicker baskets and laid it away, and
the other half he set in vessels that he might have it to take
and drink, and that it might serve him for supper.
> how the identity with Lekton is established
>the origins of these folk (?)
The name of the Kyklopes is , rather than a two-word-one-language
compounded-type ethnicon (as conventionally understood, and yielding
"round-face", allusive to one eye in the head), a one-word-two-languages1
compounded-type ethnicon descriptive of this folk, derived from
Archaic Illyrian kuk- 'cave' or 'nest' (cognate with 'cocoon' as
well as Srb-Cro. kuca, 'house', 'dwelling'), and lep- also 'cave'
or 'nest' (cognate with Lepenski Vir as well as Gr. lepis, 'husk',
'shell'), thus, literally, 'cave-dwellers'.
Several caves situated on the southern shores of LEKTON (Hvar),
from which a loud yell may be heard across the channel on NERITON
(Peljesac) and remeniscent of the bellowing Polyphemus and shouting
Odysseus, have been found to have their floor-beds paved with a
thick packing of of oyster shells, which, in a way, is also remeniscent
of Polyphemus loosing his one eye, gouged out by Odysseus. Such
a connection between the Kyklopes and an ample supply of oysters,
naturally prevalent in these waters and now of world-fame, invites
further speculation that an excessive diet of such sea-food-oysters
being especially rich in cholesterol-produced along with the pleasure
of eating them the undesirable side-effects of a brutish mentality
as well as acromegalia, a condition in which the bone structure
acquires an abnormal thickness with an extra layer of tissue, not
unlike a callus, making the body become unusually large and distorted,
and thus accounting for their awsome aspect. However, independently
of such a connection, it should be noted that-for some hitherto
unexplained reason-up until relatively recent times the inhabitants
of the isle of Hvar were known to be a stock of unusually though
not abnormally tall people, so much so, that, by comparison with
otherwise tall folk, they towered over these.
1. The notion of two languages (as opposed to two synonyms in the
same language) is recurrent in several geonyms of Homeric Geography,
and is disturbing, for, it suggests, that these geonyms are perhaps
composites of a foreign Pelasgian language and a local Archaic Illyrian.
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| Laistrygones: |
x; 80 : (verify in text)
So for six days we sailed, night and day alike, and on the seventh
we came to the lofty citadel of Lamus, even to Telepylus of
the Laestrygonians, where herdsman calls to herdsman as he drives
in his flock, and the other answers as he drives his forth.
There a man who never slept could have earned a double wage,
one by herding cattle, and one by pasturing white sheep; for
the outgoings of the night and of the day are close together.
When we had come thither into the goodly harbour, about which
on both sides a sheer cliff runs continuously, and projecting
headlands opposite to one another stretch out at the mouth,
and the entrance is narrow, then all the rest steered their
curved ships in, and the ships were moored within the hollow
harbour close together; for therein no wave ever swelled, great
or small, but all about was a bright calm. But I alone moored
my black ship outside, there on the border of the land, making
the cable fast to the rock. Then I climbed to a rugged height,
a point of outlook, and there took my stand; from thence no
works of oxen or of men appeared; smoke alone we saw springing
up from the land. So then I sent forth some of my comrades to
go and learn who the men were, who here ate bread upon the earth—two
men I chose, and sent with them a third as a hereld. Now when
they had gone ashore, they went along a smooth road by which
waggons were wont to bring wood down to the city from the mountains.
And before the city they ment a maiden drawing water, the goodly
daughter of Laestrygonian Antiphates, who had come down to the
fair-flowing spring Artacia, from whence they were wont to bear
water to the town. So they came up to her and spoke to her,
and asked her who was king of this folk, and who they were of
whom he was lord. And she showed them forthwith the high-roofed
house of her father. Now when they had entered the glorious
house, they found there his wife, huge as the peak of a mountain,
and they were aghast at her. At once she called from the place
of assembly the glorious Antiphates, her husband, and he devised
for them woeful destruction. Straightway he seized one of my
comrades and made ready his meal, but the other two sprang up
and came in flight to the ships. Then raised a cry throughout
the city, and as they heard it the mighty Laestrygonians came
thronging from all sides, a host past counting, not like men
but like the Giants. They hurled at us from the cliffs with
rocks huge as a man could lift, and at once there rose throughtout
the ships a dreadful din, alike from men that were dying and
from ships that were being crushed. And spearing them like fishes
they bore them home, a loathly meal. Now while they were slaying
those within the deep harbour, I mean while drew my sharp sword
from beside my thigh, and cut therewith the cables of my dark-prowed
ship; and quickly calling to my comrades bade them fall to their
oars, that we might escape from out our evil plight. And they
all tossed the sea with their oar-blades in fear of death, and
joyfully seaward, away from the beetling cliffs, my ship sped
on; but all those other ships were lost together there.
struge=
funnel, force things through
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| Lotophagoi:
fictitious 'lotus'-eaters. |
Lotus eaters from the environs of Enope...
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| Phaiakes:
inhabitants of Skheria (Scõedro) |
............ many quotes here--------------
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| Seirenes:
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xii, 39: (verify)
"To the Sirens first shalt thou come [says Kirke to Odysseus],
who beguile all men whosoever comes to them. Whoso in ignorance
draws near to them and hears the Sirens' voice, he nevermore returns,
that his wife and little children may stand at his side rejoicing,
butthe Sirens beguile him with their clear-toned song, as they
sit in a meadow, and about them is a great heap of bones of mouldering
men, and round the bones the skin is shrivelling. But do thou
row past them, and anoint the ears of thy comrades with sweet
wax, which thou hast kneaded, lest any of the rest may hear. But
if thou thyself hast a will to listen, let them bind thee in the
swift ship hand and foot upright in the step of the mast, and
let the ropes be made fast at the ends to the mast itself, that
with delight thou mayest listen to the voice of the two Sirens.
And if thou shalt implore and bid thy comrades to loose thee,
then let them bind thee with yet more bonds."
xii; 158,
et pas.:
"First she bade us avoid the voice of the wondrous Sirens,
and their flowery meadow. Me alone she bade to listen to their
voice; but do ye bind me with grievous bonds, that I may abide
fast where I am, upright in the step of the mast, and let the
ropes be made fast at the ends to the mast itself; and if I implore
and bid you to loose me, then do ye tie me fast with yet more
bonds.
"Thus I rehearsed all these things and told them to my comrades.
Meanwhile the well-built ship speedly came to the isle of the
two Sirens, for a fair and gentle wind bore her on. Then presently
the wind ceased and there was a windless calm, and a god lulled
the waves to sleep. But my comrades rose up and furled the sail
and stowed it in the hollow ship, and thereafter sat at the oars
and made the water white with their polished oars of fir. But
I with my sharp sword cut into small bits a great round cake of
wax, and kneaded it with my strong hands, and soon the wax grew
warm, forced by the strong pressure and the rays of the lord Helios
Hyperion. Then I anointed with this the ears of all my comrades
in turn; and they bound me in the ship hand and foot, upright
in the step of the mast, and made the ropes fast at the ends to
the mast itself; and themselves sitting down smote the grey sea
with their oars. But when we were as far distant as a man can
make himself heard when he shouts,driving swiftly on our way,
the Sirens failed not to note the swift ship as it drew near,
and they raised their clear-toned song: "'Come hither, as
thou farest, renowned Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans; stay
thy ship that thou mayest listen to the voice of us two. For never
yet has any man rowed past this isle in his back ship until he
has heard the sweet voice from our lips. Nay, he has joy of it
, and goes his way a wiser man. For we know all the toils that
in wide Troy the Argives and Trojans endured through the will
of the gods, and we know all things that come to pass upon the
fruitful earth.'
"So they spoke, sending forth their beautiful voice, and
my heart was fain to listen, and I bade my comrades loose me,
nodding to them with my brows; but they fell to their oars and
rowed on. And presently Perimedes and Eurylochus arose and bound
me with yet more bonds and drew them tighter. But when they had
rowed past the Sirens, and we could no more hear their voice or
their song, then straightway my trusty comrades took away the
wax with which I had anointed their ears and loosed me from my
bonds".
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