This was a raft, and not a boat, or even a rude imitation of a boat. Many of the difficulties connected with the well-known description of its construction in the fifth book of the Odyssey have been increased by the confusion of these ideas.
Homer, ‘qui nil molitur inepte,’ is evidently well acquainted with ships, and with a seafaring life, and all its technicalities. In this respect he differs from Hesiod, who (possibly glancing at the manifest σοφία about ships displayed by the older bard) expressly tells us that, unlike his father, he is
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Εργ. 647.