78 HOMER—METHODS OF FISHING 
Four differing explanations are possible :— 
I. That “little ’’ is an ornamental or redundant adjective. 
2. That paBdec, which is usually translated rod, ze. 
Jishing-rod, is (according to Hayman and others) not a fishing- 
rod, but merely a staff, or spear, shod with horn, and that 
“little ’’ signifies only fish suitable for food, not large fish, 
such as dolphins, etc. 
3. That the fishermen of Homer (anticipating our profes- 
sional deep-sea fishermen in Kent and the Channel Islands, 
who for quickness and certainty, especially in the case of 
heavy fish, prefer hand-lines to rods), limited the use of the 
Rod to “‘ little,” z.e. not large, fish.! 
4. That “little’’ is partly ornamental, partly intentional, 
because fish caught close inshore are normally smaller than 
those caught farther out. 
From the adjectives in passages D. and E. can we infer the 
use of the Rod? Of the adjective in E., Butcher and Lang 
write: “It is difficult to determine whether isode in Homer 
does not sometimes retain its primitive meaning of ‘‘ strong ”’ (see 
Curtius, Etym., No. 614) ; in certain phrases, this may perhaps 
be accepted, as an archaism. . . . On the whole we have not 
felt so sure of the archaic use as to adopt it in our translation.” 
Paley, “‘ispdc means huge, as if a favourite of or dedicated 
to some sea-god.’’ Was it from this shade of meaning that 
Theocritus in his Fisherman’s Dream? drew his conception 
that certain fish might be xemhdwov ’Augirpirac, a pet of the 
sea-goddess ? Faesi seems to incline to Paley’s view, but for 
a more general reason: ispdc equalling dveroc earmarks “ all 
herds and shoals of fish, especially those in the Sea, as consecrate 
to the Gods.” 
Granting this, why should one fish be singled out by the 
epithet when the whole ‘herd or shoal’’ is equally ispd¢ ? 
The infrequent coupling of the adjective with iy@dc¢ suggests 
some less general meaning, if it mean anything. , 
1 There are of course limitations to the “ pulley-hauley ” of a hand-line : 
with a 700 Ib. Tuna a Rod may be a very present help, a windlass even more 
so. The practice in vogue among the Spanish Tunny fishers is to throw aside 
the Rod at the moment of hooking and man-handle the fish with the Line. 
2 Idyll, XXI. 55. 
