[78] οἰκία Ποίησονται: cf. Il. 12.168 “. ἀκηδέα” is probably passive, “unheeded,” and so “safe.” But it has also been taken as active, “careless,” in which case the epithet would be transferred to the “οἰκία” from the “φῶκαι”, to which it would more properly refer. Cf. Il. 21.123 “ αἷμ᾽ ἀπολιχμήσονται ἀκηδέες”.—The reading of the Paris family “ἕκαστά τε φῦλα νεπούδων” is recognised to be a late piece of patchwork, suggested by Od. 4.404 “ φῶκαι νέποδες καλῆς ἁλοσύδνης”. The form “νεπούδων” (= “νεπόδων”) is quite barbarous, and the sense of “fish” or “sea-monsters” was not attached to the word before Alexandrine times. The variant was probably due to a “corrector,” who could make nothing of “ἀκηδέα ἄχη τεϊλάων”, or some similar corruption.
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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