FOOTNOTES:
[513] Cf. The Origin of the English Nation, p. 327 ff.
[514] ξυγγενῆ γὰρ αὐτῷ τὸν φονέα εἶναι οὐ θέμις. Cf. Greg. Tur., II 40, where Clovis says: nec enim possum sanguinem parentum meorum effundere, quod fieri nefas est. But this is represented as mere hypocrisy; cf. II 41, ad fin.
[515] In some cases the deed was certainly done by the relative's own hand. Such was the case with Lothair and the sons of Chlodomer (Greg. Tur., III 18).
[516] Beow. 2618 f.:
þeah ðe he his broðor bearn abredwade.
Many scholars here understand ða faehðe to mean not the encounter between Eanmund and Weohstan, but the hostility (vendetta) which devolved upon Onela as Eanmund's kinsman; but I think the idea is rather that of 'bloodguiltiness' (towards Onela) incurred by Weohstan. Eanmund was the son of Ohthere, Onela's brother.
[517] It may be observed that in Beow. 452 ff. the hero requests the Danish king to send his mail-coat to Hygelac, if he should be killed by Grendel. This mail-coat (described as Weland's handiwork) is said to have belonged formerly to Hrethel, Hygelac's father (Beowulf's grandfather).
[518] In the seventh century it appears to have been customary to make these grants when the recipient was about twenty-four or twenty-five years old; cf. Bede, Hist. Abb., §§ 1, 8; Ep. ad Ecgb., § 11.
[519] We may compare the use of the word sluga in Servian heroic poetry (cf. p. 316); its ordinary meaning is 'servant.'
[520] The same word is used in a similar sense in the Langobardic laws; gasindus (or gasindius), 'Gefolgsmann,' and so also gasindium, 'Gefolgschaft'; cf. Brückner, Quellen und Forschungen, LXXV p. 205.
[521] Quoted from the translation by Lang, Leaf and Myers.
[522] The interpretation of Hesiod, W. and D. 38 f., need not be discussed here.
[523] The other types (e.g. Πηλείων, Τελαμώνιος) are less frequent.
[524] Καδμεῖοι, Καδμείωνες are at best very dubious examples, for Cadmos is probably to be regarded as an eponymous national hero, like Dardanos.
ὡς φρήτρη φρήτρηφιν ἀρήγῃ, φῦλα δὲ φύλοις.
Cf. Tacitus, Germ. 7: quodque praecipuum fortitudinis incitamentum est, non casus nec fortuita conglobatio turmam aut cuneum facit sed familiae et propinquitates. But the context shows that the conditions here are of a totally different character from those in the Iliad.
[526] But cf. Il. IX 63, where the word ἀφρήτωρ occurs, apparently with reference to the same institution.
[527] The meaning of the word ἔμφυλον in Od. XV 273 seems to be quite ambiguous.
[528] Cf. Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, p. 238 ff. The story of Peleus and Eurytion bears rather a close resemblance to that of Bellerophon.
[529] It is to be borne in mind that the Epizephyrian Locrians were one of the first, if not the very first, of all Greek communities to obtain a codification of their laws—probably indeed within half a century of the establishment of the colony. This fact may perhaps account for the survival of primitive institutions among them.
[530] Except perhaps in Cos; but the evidence here is ambiguous.
[531] Cf. Ridgeway, The Origin of Tragedy, p. 190 ff.
[532] The nature of Agamemnon's proposal to Achilles in Il. IX 144 ff. (286 ff.) is not quite clear. Achilles is to choose one of Agamemnon's daughters and take her to Peleus' home. But with her Agamemnon is to give seven cities, situated apparently in Messenia, which in future are to be subject to Achilles. Possibly v. 149 is to be understood as introducing a new (alternative) proposal.
[533] Cf. Cauer, Grundfragen d. Homerkritik2, p. 292 ff.
[534] We may compare Beow. 2369 ff., where—in a situation somewhat analogous to that of the Odyssey—Hygelac's widowed queen offers both treasury and kingdom to the chief surviving prince, distrusting the ability of her young son to hold his own.
[535] That the type of organisation which prevailed during the growth of Homeric poetry was agnatic may be inferred from the regular use of the word πάτρη and the (probably older) expression πατρὶς γαῖα, which perhaps originally denoted 'land of one's father' (the faeder eðel of Widsith, v. 96). But according to Plato (Republic, 575 D) the Cretans used μητρίς for πατρίς. Evidence for the prevalence of cognatic organisation in early times is furnished by certain words denoting relationship, especially ἀδελφός (originally 'uterine brother'), and a relic of the feeling that this form of relationship was closer seems to be preserved in Il. XXI 95. We may also take into account the formation of patronymics in -ιδᾱ, which appear to be extended from the feminine suffix -ιδ- by another suffix (-ᾱ-) also properly feminine. In the north-western dialects these names were declined as feminines (e.g. N. sg. Εχσοιδα, G. sg. Προκλειδας). One can hardly help suspecting that these names belonged originally to genealogies of the Lycian type.
[536] It is possibly due to the same cause that we meet with some curious marriages. Thus Alcinoos is married to his brother's daughter, and Iphidamas to his mother's sister. The former case offends against the principle of agnatic organisation, the latter against the cognatic. Some other heroes (e.g. Diomedes) seem to be in somewhat similar positions.
[537] The Locrian case quoted above (p. 357) suggests that the kindreds may, sometimes at least, have been organised on a cognatic basis.
[538] There is a certain amount of parallelism also between ἑταῖρος and gesið (cf. p. 350). But the former has scarcely the same technical significance as the latter.
[539] Assuming the Homeric Ithaca to be identical with the Ithaca of later times. If 'Same' is the later Ithaca, the number of suitors furnished by this island is twenty-four.
[540] Cf. Fanta, Der Staat in der Ilias und Odyssee, p. 26 f., where a distinction is drawn between higher and lower nobility—the βασιλῆες being only a portion of the ἀριστῆες; but the evidence seems to me inconclusive.
[541] Yet the promise made by Odysseus to the herdsmen in Od. XXI 213 ff. may perhaps be analogous to the change of status involved when a Teutonic slave was made a freedman.
[542] In both cases the household slaves seem to have been almost entirely women, who were occupied for the most part in grinding corn.
[543] From Od. IV 644 and VI 489 f. it seems probable on the whole that there existed a class of landless freemen corresponding to the Ang.-Sax. geburas. But no information apparently is given with regard to the κλῆρος—whether it corresponded at all to the hide of the gafolgelda (roughly comparable with the Athenian ζευγίτης) or whether it represented normally a much larger estate.