Some of the language used by scholiasts to designate sections of the Odyssey as spurious is based in a metaphor drawn from the legitimacy of offspring. As such, it might be rigidly authoritarian and misogynistic in emphasizing one (paternal) authority and one legitimate text.
Schol. HQ ad Od. 13.320-323
“These lines are spurious…”
νοθεύονται δ′ στίχοι.
Schol H. ad Od. 15.19
“Some people think these lines are illegitimate…”
ἔνιοι τοὺς γ′ νοθεύουσιν…
Schol. H ad Od. 15.45
“This [line] is spurious because it is adapted from a half-line from book 10 of the Iliad
νοθεύεται ὡς διαπεπλασμένος ἐξ ἡμιστιχίου τῆς κ ᾿Ιλιάδος (158.)
νοθαγενής: “base-born, illegitimate”
νοθεία: “birth out of wedlock”
νοθεύω: “to adulterate; to consider spurious”
νοθογέννητος: “of spurious origin”
νοθοκαλλοσύνη: “counterfeit beauty”
νόθος: “bastard”; in Athens, any child born of a foreign woman.
Schol. A ad Il. 5.70a
“He really was a bastard: this is because it was the barbarian custom to make children from many wives.”
ὅς ῥα νόθος μὲν ἔην: ὅτι βαρβαρικὸν ἔθος τὸ ἐκ πλειόνων γυναικῶν παιδοποιεῖσθαι. A
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