[26] 'Outis as a name, could only denote him who bore it; but as a noun, it signifies, no man, which accounts sufficiently for the ludicrous mistake of his brethren.'
[27] Vos, the admirable translator of the Odyss. in German hexameters, well aware that the question here lay not between grammar and licence, puerility of conceit, or dignity of fiction, but between sense and nonsense, without deigning to notice the contest of commentators, has rendered ουτις, by "Niemand," in the first instance, and afterwards varies it with "Keiner."
"Niemand ist mein Name; denn Niemand nennen mich alle.
Niemand würgt mich, ihr Freund', arglistig! und Keiner gewaltsam!
Wenn dir denn keiner gewalt anthut."—
[28] The first, in ΠΥΘ. A. v. 28.
γαν τε και ποντον κατ' ἀμαιμακετον
The second, in ΠΥΘ. P. v. 57-8.
Πεμψε κασιγνηταν μενει;
Θυοισαν ἀμαιμακετῳ·
where the scholiast explains it by ἀκαταμαχητος, and the notes deduce it from a compound of the A ἐπιτατικη and μαιμαω: a derivation more probable than that of our translator from ἁμα, and the Doric μακος; unless we suppose that Homer made use for his substantives, of the Ionic, and for his compound adjectives, of the Doric dialects!
[29] Plin. L. xxxiii. c. 4. 'Electro auctoritas, Homero teste qui Menelai regiam, auro, electro, argento, ebore fulgere tradit.' Helen, he continues, consecrated a cup of electrum at Lindos, 'mammæ suæ mensura,' and adds, 'electri natura ad lucernarum lumina clarius argento splendere.'