ΜΟΝΟΠΑΤΙ (Monopati)
As we hike around Greece in the 21st Century, often we are not on an odos but on a monopati.
Ancient Greek does not seem to have monopati, but we can see where it comes from. In Iliad 20, Poseidon tells Athena that they should…
κιόντες ἐκ πάτου ἐς σκοπιήν…
Go off the path to some scenic overlook…
And in Book 6, Homer says that the hero Bellerephon, when he became hateful to the gods, wandered around, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων (“shunning the path of men”) (Iliad 6.202)
πάτος [ᾰ], ὁ, is a “beaten track; footpath” in Ancient Greek, so our μονόπατι is a mono-patos, a “single-track”.
