Mehr zur Astronomie in den homerischen Epen

While Iliad 10,251–253 has often been translated correctly, Odyssey 12,312 (≈14,483) has not fared nearly as well, although the meaning is basically the same. Whether this means that the author of Iliad 10 improved on the Odyssey or not, Odyssey 12,312 is best understood as meaning “But when it was the third part of the night and the stars had already completed a considerable part of their paths.” In the second part of this article it is argued that τeίρeα in Iliad 18,485 means not all stars or constellations, but just the most conspicuous ones, which explains why in Iliad 18,487–489 = Odyssey 5,273–275 it is asserted that only the Great Bear is barred from bathing in the ocean, a problem already debated in antiquity: the seven stars of Ursa maior forming the Big Dipper constitute the only conspicuous group of stars which was circumpolar in archaic Greece. The latter theory, an overlooked explanation of Walter Leaf, can be supported by further evidence.