But the term epidemic already existed in 430 BC. The Greek word epidemios is constructed by combining the preposition epi (on) with the noun demos (people), but demos originally meant "the country" (inhabited by its people) before taking the connotation "the people" in classical Greek. Indeed, the word epidemios was used by Homer, 2 centuries before Hippocrates, in the Odyssey (canto I, verses 194 and 230), where it was used to mean "who is back home" and "who is in his country" in contrast to a voyager who is not: