[256] Od. ii. 239-41.
[257] Griech. Staatsv. b. ii. p. 57.
[258] Od. ii. 257. Il. i. 305.
[259] Od. vii. 151.
[260] Od. vii. 189-94, 317.
[261] Od. viii. 7-15.
[262] The number deserves remark. Fifty, as we know from the Catalogue, was a regular ship’s crew of rowers. What were the two? Probably a commander, and a steersman. The dual is used in both the places where the numbers are mentioned (κρινάσθων, ver. 36, κρινθέντε, 48, βήτην, 49). There are other passages where the dual extends beyond the number two, to three and four. See Nitzsch, in loc. But the use of it here with so large a number is remarkable, and may be best explained by supposing that it refers to the δύω, who were the principal men of the crew, and that the fifty are not regarded as forming part of the subject of the verb. If this be so, the passage shows us in a very simple form the rudimentary nautical order of the Greek ships.
[263] Od. viii. 38.
[264] Od. viii. 158-64.
[265] Od. viii. 157.