I have read translations of this line, so I get the thrust of it, but it confused me a a bit because he seems to be saying that the ὀδμὴ (smell) was smelling (ὀδώδει). So maybe that is just how you say “there was a smell” in Greek…fair enough. I just want to make sure I have not missed something. Does ὀδώδει apply to something else in the sentence instead?
…τηλόσε δ᾽ ὀδμὴ
κέδρου τ᾽ εὐκεάτοιο θύου τ᾽ ἀνὰ νῆσον ὀδώδει
Thanks!
I don’t think you’re missing anything.
In English we can use the word “smell” to mean both (1) “perceive an odor” (“I smell a dead fish”) and (2) “emit an odor” (“A dead fish smells”).
The Greek verb οζω/οδωδα generally means (2), but in Homer, this verb only occurs in the pluperfect form οδωδει, and it’s always used with οδμη. It’s not really equivalent to either sense of the English verb “smell”–it would mean something like “become perceptible as an odor” or “become smellable.” The perfect/pluperfect would thus mean “be smellable”. The closest English verb would probably be “waft”.
From the Liddell-Scott-Jones dictionary:
ὄζω . . . :—smell, whether smell sweet or stink, Hom. only in 3sg. plpf. with sense of impf., “ὀδμὴ κέδρου . . ἀνὰ νῆσον ὀδώδει” Od.5.60 ; ὀδμὴ δ᾽ ἡδεῖα ἀπὸ κρητῆρος ὀδώδει, of wine, 9.210
:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Do)%2Fzw