Appropriating Mourelatos’ distinction between an existencial and a characterizing use of nothingness in ancient Greece, we will study the word outidanós in the works of Homer, trying to show that in its archaic origin, nothingess (medén/oudén) is not identified with what is not (tò mè ón), but registered in an implicit process of classification and hierarchy of material values. For this purpose, we will study the term outidanós from the relationship existence/ attribution (in Odyssey), linking it to a distributing logic (in Iliad).