Book 10
2.10
But though at the present time only the people of the island Cephallenia are called Cephallenians, Homer so calls all who were subject to Odysseus, among whom are also the Acarnanians. For after saying,but Odysseus led the Cephallenians, who held Ithaca and Neritum with quivering foliageHom. Il. 2.631(Neritum being the famous mountain on this island, as also when he says,and those from Dulichium and the sacred Echinades,Hom. Il. 2.625Dulichium itself being one of the Echinades; andthose who dwelt in Buprasium and Elis,Hom. Il. 2.615Buprasium being in Elis; andthose who held Euboea and Chalcis and Eiretria,Hom. Il. 2.536meaning that these cities were in Euboea; andTrojans and Lycians and Dardanians,Hom. Il. 8.173meaning that the Lycians and Dardanians were Trojans)—however, after mentioning “Neritum, he says,and dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips, and those who held Zacynthos and those who dwelt about Samos, and those who held the mainland and dwelt in the parts over against the islands.Hom. Il. 2.633By “mainland,”“epeirus” (cp. “Epeirus”). therefore, he means the parts over against the islands, wishing to include, along with Leucas, the rest of Acarnania as well,On Homer’s use of this “poetic figure,” in which he specifies the part with the whole, cp. 8. 3. 8 and 1. 2. 23. concerning which he also speaks in this way,twelve herd on the mainland, and as many flocks of sheep,Hom. Od. 14.100perhaps because Epeirotis extended thus far in early times and was called by the general name “mainland.” But by “Samos” he means the Cephallenia of today, as, when he says,in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos;Hom. Od. 4.671for by the epithet he differentiates between the objects bearing the same name, thus making the name apply, not to the city, but to the island. For the island was a Tetrapolis,i.e., politically it was composed of four cities. and one of its four cities was the city called indifferently either Samos or Same, bearing the same name as the island. And when the poet says,for all the nobles who hold sway over the islands, Dulichium and Same and woody Zacynthos,Hom. Od. 1.245he is evidently making an enumeration of the islands and calling “Same” that island which he had formerlyHom. Il. 2.634 called Samos. But Apollodorus,See Dictionary in Vol. I. when he says in one passage that ambiguity is removed by the epithet when the poet saysand rugged Samos,Hom. Od. 4.671showing that he meant the island, and then, in another passage, says that one should copy the reading,Dulichium and Samos,Hom. Od. 1.246instead of “Same,” plainly takes the position that the city was called “Same” or “Samos” indiscriminately, but the island “Samos” only; for that the city was called Same is clear, according to Apollodorus, from the fact that, in enumerating the wooers from the several cities, the poetIn the words of Telemachus. said,from Same came four and twenty men,Hom. Od. 16.249and also from the statement concerning Ktimene,they then sent her to Same to wed.Hom. Od. 15.367But this is open to argument, for the poet does not express himself distinctly concerning either Cephallenia or Ithaca and the other places near by; and consequently both the commentators and the historians are at variance with one another.
