Book 13 (ν)

5-6. The words here are taken from Il.1. 59νῦν ἄμμε παλιμπλαγχθέντας ὀΐω ἂψ ἀπονοστήσειν εἴ κεν θάνατόν γε φύγοιμεν, but with a change of application which has made them somewhat obscure. In the Iliad ἂψ ἀπονοστήσειν refers to returning disappointed to Greece, and thus carries on the idea expressed by παλιμπλαγχθέντας. Here a return home is not a disappointment, and cannot be described by such a phrase as παλιμπλαγχθέντα. Some commentators meet the difficulty by confining the negative to that phrase: I think that, not having been driven from your course, you will return home. But, apart from other objections, an interpretation by which ἂψ ἀπονοστήσειν and παλιμπλαγχθέντα are made to express contrasted things is surely excluded by Il.1. 59.The necessity for such an interpretation only arises from taking ἂψ ἀπονοστήσειν of return to Ithaca. The meaning is simply that Ulysses will not return driven back from the house of Alcinous, but will have his desire. So Naegelsbach, Anmerk. zur Ilias^{3} (on Il.1. 59).

tw=. There seems to be enough evidence in Homer for an adverbial τῶ, distinct from the dative τῷ.