king Ogyges to be a creature of fiction, we confine ourselves to the inquiry : what may have been the cause of his name having been placed at the head of the list of Attic Kings.
According to J. K. Ogyges, a lengthened form of Gyges,
signifies a man of darkness, being derived from the noun (
Greek characters)
which was equivalent to (Greek characters). This would appear indeed
to be something more than conjecture, if we could rely on the
present reading in Hesychius, in the words (Greek characters). But we are rather surprised that J. K., who quotes
another gloss of the same lexicographer, (Greek characters)
should not have been struck with the inference which it suggests against the genuineness of the word (Greek characters) for which
the editors of Hesychius with one accord have proposed to
substitute (Greek characters). Still it would not follow, if this connection is admitted, that (Greek characters) may not originally have signified dark. Who can say, if Alberti's suspicion is well founded,
and we ought to read the gloss (Greek characters) after (Greek characters), that
(Greek characters) may not have been derived from (Greek characters) and have
been equivalent to (Greek characters) which might answer J. K's purpose even better than the etymology which he adopts. But
leaving this in its present uncertainty, we proceed to consider
the arguments produced in confirmation of the lexicographer's
very questionable evidence. Calypso's island was named
(Greek characters) and it was " situated on the furthest verge of the
West, the region of the evening shades," and "the goddess
herself appears from her name to have been originally a being
presiding over darkness." From this it is inferred that the
sense of dark suits very well the Homeric application of the
name to Calypso's island. I must own that the force of this
inference appears to me to be considerably weakened by the
fact, that however near Homer may have imagined Calypso's
island to have been to the region of the evening shades, he
does not represent it as itself dark or gloomy: and whatever
he may have thought of the proper functions of the nymph,
he does not describe her as withdrawing her charms from
view. To any eye but that of Ulysses Ogygia would have
seemed a very cheerful place ; for it is one on which even a
god might gaze with delight, and which by its beauty arrests
the steps of Hermes when he is bearing his message (Od.
E. 75) : and the hero is well aware how inferior his Penelope
