The Homer Reader The Iliad & Odyssey · Greek and English

οὐδός

oudos

threshold

Appears 45 times across Homer's epics.

Frequency by work

Click a work to list every occurrence by book & line — each links into the reader.

Dictionary (LSJ)

οὐδός (A), Dor. ὠδός Berl.Sitzb. 1927.170 (Cyrene), Hsch.; Trag. and Att. ὀδός S. OC 57, 1590, IG 22.1668.33, 7.412.7 (Orop.), Lycurg. 40, Hyp. Dem.Fr. 6, Men. 671, BCH 35.286 (Delos); also at Samos, Michel 832.30, and Epidaurus, IG 42(1).102.232 and 249, also (later) at Branchidae, CIG 2885d9: gen. pl. ὀδέων IG 42(1).109 ii 105, 150 (Epid., iii B. C.): ὁ:—A. threshold, esp. threshold of a house, in Hom. χάλκεος οὐδός (as in Hes. Th. 811), Od. 7.83,89; also λάϊνος Il. 9.404, Od. 8.80, Parm. 1.12; μέλινος Od. 17.339; δρύϊνος 21.43; μέγας Hes. Th. 749. 2. generally, threshold, entrance to any place, ἐπὶ προθύροις Ὀδυσῆος, οὐδοῦ ἐπʼ αὐλείου Od. 1.104; to the nether world, Il. 8.15; χαλκόπους ὀδός S. OC 57, cf. 1590: in pl., perh. lintel, Theoc. 23.50 (dub. l., ὀόδων cod.). 3. metaph., ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ on the threshold which is old age, i.e. perh., on the threshold that leads from life to death (so οὐδὸς βιότου the end of life, Q.S. 10.426), Il. 22.60, Od. 15.348, Hes. Op. 331, Hdt. 3.14, cf. Pl. R. 328e; ἐπὶ γήρως ὀδῷ Lycurg., Hyp., and Men. ll. cc.; μέχρι γήραος οὐδοῦ Ps.-Phoc. 230; γήραος οὐδὸν ἱκέσθαι Od. 23.212, cf. 15.246.—Poet. word, used by Arist. Metaph. 1042b19, Plu. TG 17, and Luc. Dom. 18, al., in the form οὐδός, which is Ion., cf. Hp. Art. 78, GDI 5601a (Ephesus), IGΙΙ(2).158 A 69 (Delos, iii B. C.), and is used later as gloss on βηλός, AB 224 (so ὀδός in 225 and Hsch. s.v. ὀρρόβηλος). (The forms οὐδός ὠδός ὀδός point to *ὀδϝός.)
‹ All lexicon entries