Orero e il falso Etone: ἴσκε in Odissea XIX 203

Abstract

In Od. XIX 203 the narrator comments with ἴσκε ψεύδεα πολλὰ λέγων
ἐτύμοισιν ὁμοῖα the mendacious tale of Odysseus to Penelope. If the general
sense of the phrase is clear, an accurate translation presents difficulties, especially
due to ἴσκε, often translated as ‘said’ or ‘lied’, far away from the basic
etymological meaning of the verb, which is ‘believe or make similar’. The
closest translations to ‘made similar’ seem to neglect the issue given by the
explicitness of ὁμοῖα, the meaning of which is already contained in the verb.
The analysis of all the occurrences of ἴσκω and ἐΐσκω in Homer will lead to
a reconsideration of the value of ἴσκε in our passage: with the same syntax of
other passages that focus on the act of mimesis, even here the narrator presents
the mimetic creation that Odysseus makes through words.