Book 10
2.10
But Apollodorus at one time says that the ambiguity is removed by the epithet, which the poet uses, when he says, and hilly Samos, meaning the island; and at another time he pretends that we ought to write Dulichium, and Samos, and not Same, and evidently supposes that the city is called by either name, Samos or Samé, but the island by that of Samos only. That the city is called Same is evident from the enumeration of the suitors from each city, where the poet says, there are four and twenty from Samé,Od. xvi. 249.Od. xvi. 249. and from what is said about Ctimene, they afterwards gave her in marriage at Samé.Od. xv. 366.Od. xv. 366.
2.10
There is reason in this. For the poet does not express himself distinctly either about Cephallenia, or Ithaca, or the other neighbouring places, so that both historians and commentators differ from one another.
2.11
For instance, with respect to Ithaca, when the poet says, and they who possessed Ithaca, and Neritum with its waving woods,Il. ii. 632.Il. ii. 632. he denotes by the epithet, that he means Neritum the mountain. In other passages he expressly mentions the mountain; I dwell at Ithaca, turned to the western sun; where is a mountain, Neritum, seen from afar with its waving woods;Od. ix. 21. but whether he means the city, or the island, is not clear, at least from this verse; they who possessed Ithaca, and Neritum. Any one would understand these words in their proper sense to mean the city, as we speak of Athens, Lycabettus, Rhodes, Atabyris, Lacedaemon, and Taygetus, but in a poetical sense the contrary is implied.
