(1) the only question that can arise me

(assuming for the moment the sense of daar te f hand' means the left of the line described by the onwart

ment of his body, or the left of the direction n vinet, ie land

that is, his right or steering hand, points while upon the heim :

which would be t

the latter in

se of the former. But, though

grammatic

rate, it

is too minute and subtle, as respects the sense, to agree with Homer's methods of expression. And (2) some of the Scholiasts report another reading, vnòs, instead of xepòs, which would present no point of doubt or suspicion under this head.

We have then two questions to consider; of which the first is the general use and treatment by Homer of the word aptστερός.

It appears to me well worth consideration whether the defiòs and ȧptorepòs of Homer ought not, besides the senses of right and left, to be acknowledged capable of the senses of east and west respectively.

The word aptorepòs takes the sense of left by way of derivation and second intention only.

The word σkatos is that, which etymologically and primarily expresses the function of the left hand. The use of this as the principal hand is abnormal, and places the body as it were askew (compare σkáčo, scavus, schief) b. In Homer the only word used singly, i. e. without a substantive, to express the left hand is okatós. At the same time, we cannot draw positive conclusions from this fact, because apiσrepòs could not stand in the hexameter to represent a feminine noun singular, on account of the laws of metre, which in this point are inflexible.

Ekain means the left hand in Il. i. 501. xvi. 734. xxi. 490. This adjective is but once used in Homer except for the hand : viz., in Od. iii. 295 we have σkaiòv píov for the foreland on the left. But Exaιal múλat may have meant originally the left hand gates of Troy.

The application of degiòs to the right hand (from which we may consider değirepòs as an adaptation for metrical purposes), is to be sufficiently accounted for, because it was the hand by which greetings were exchanged, and engagements contractede. But it is not so with aptorepos: and while we contemplate the subject in regard only to the uses of the member, the word Okatos remains perfectly unexceptionable, and even highly expressive and convenient, in its function of expressing the left hand.

It appears that the Greek augurs, in estimating the signifie Il. ii. 341. X. 542.

b Liddell and Scott.

Senses of δεξιός and ἀριστερός.

351

cation of omens, were accustomed to stand with their faces northwards; or rather, I presume, with their faces set towards a point midway between sunset and sunrise. The most common descriptions of omen in the time of Homer appear to have been (1) the flight of birds, and (2) the apparition of thunder and lightning. The test of a good moving omen was, that it should proceed from the west, and move to the east; and of a bad moving omen, that it should proceed from the east, and move to the west. Possibly we may trace in this conception the cosmogonical arrangement, which planted in the West the Elysian plain, and in the East the dismal and semi-penal domain of Aidoneus and Persephone. Possibly the brightness of the sun, which caused the East to be regarded as the fountain of light, may be the foundation of it: together, on the other hand, with that close visible association between the West and darkness, which the sunset of each day brought before the eyes of men; so that to lie pòs Copov meant to lie towards the West, and was the regular opposite of lying towards the sund.

Whatever may have been the basis of the doctrine of the augurs, there grew up an established association (1) between the west and what was ill-omened or evil, and through this (2) between what was ill-omened or evil and the left side of a man. The west was unlucky, because the science of augury made it so. The left hand was unlucky, because in the inspection of omens it was western. One half of the objects in the world, and of the actions of the human body, thus lay, from their position relatively to omens, under an incubus of ill-fortune. It was retrieved from this threatening condition, by an euphemism; by the application of a word not merely innocente, but preeminently good. Everything covered by the blight of evil omen was to be, not only not harmful, but àpitepòs, better than the best. Consequently it would appear that the word apiorepòs probably meant westerly, before it could mean on the left hand because not the left hand only, but everything westerly, was within the range of the evil to which it was intended. to apply a remedy.

In a passage like II. vii. 238, the meaning of degiòs and apɩd Od. ix. 25, 6. e Compare the use of the word εὐώνυμος.

σTepòs is, plainly, right and left. But what is it in the speech of Hector, where he tells Polydamas that he cares not for

omense,

εἴτ ̓ ἐπὶ δεξί ̓ ἴωσι πρὸς Ηῶ τ' Ηέλιόν τε,

εἴτ ̓ ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ τοίγε ποτὶ ζόφον ἠερόεντα.

In the first place, it is a more appropriate, because more direct, method of description with respect to birds of omen to say, they fly eastward or westward, than that they fly to the right or the left hand since the sense of right and left has no determinate standard of reference, but requires the aid of an assumption that the person is actually looking to the north, so that the words may thus become equivalent to east and west. But in this case, which is one of warriors on the battle-field, would there not be something rather incongruous in interpolating the suggestion of their turning northwards as they spoke, in order to give the proper meaning to these two words? We must surely conceive of Hector standing on the battle-field with his face towards the enemy, if we are to take his posture into view at all. If he stood thus, he would look, as far as we can judge, to the west of north. Now the Cópos was the northwest with Homer, and not the west: and, conversely, the 'Hos inclined to the south of east. In this way he would nearly have his face to the former, and his back to the latter; and if so the meaning of right and left would be not only farfetched, but wholly improper, while the meaning of east and west would be no less correct than natural.

I must add, that there are other places in Homer where difficulty arises, if we are only permitted to construe defiòs and aptorepòs by right and left. I will even venture to say, that there are passages in the Thirteenth Book which render the topography of the battle that it describes, not only obscure, but even contradictory, if aptorepòs in them means left; and which become perfectly harmonious if we allowed to understand it as signifying west.

These are respectively II. xiii. 675 and 765.

In order to apprehend the case, it will be necessary to follow closely the movement of the battle through most of the Book.

e Il. xii. 238-40.

Illustrated from Il. xiii.

353

1. Il. xiii. 126-9: The Ajaxes are opposed to Hector, vnvolv ἐν μέσσῃσιν, 312, 16.

2. The centre being thus provided for, Idomeneus proceeds to the left, orparoû èπ' àpiσtepà (326), which is the station of Deiphobus; and makes havock in this quarter.

3. Deiphobus, instead of fighting Idomeneus, thinks it prudent to fetch Æneas, who is standing aloof, 458 and seqq.

4. Summoned by Deiphobus, Eneas comes with him, attended also by Paris and Agenor, 490.

5. They conjointly carry on the fight at that point, with indifferent success (95-673), but no decisive issue.

6. Hector, in the centre, remains ignorant that the Trojans were being worsted νηῶν ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ by the Greeks, 675.

7. By the advice of Polydamas he goes in search of other chiefs to consider what is to be done; of Paris among the rest, whom he finds, μáxns èñ' àpiσtepá (765). With them he returns to the centre, 753, 802, 809.

Now the following propositions are, I think, sound:

1. When Homer thus speaks of en' åpɩstepà in Il. xiii. 326, 675, and 765, respectively, he evidently means to describe in all of them the same side of the battle-field. Where Idomeneus is, in 329, thither he brings Æneas in 469, who is attended at the time by Paris, 490; and there Paris evidently remains until summoned to the centre in 765.

2. If Homer speaks with reference to any particular combatant, of his being on the left or the right of the battle, he ought to mean the Greek left or right if the person be Greek, and the Trojan left or right if the person be Trojan.

3. This is actually the rule by which he proceeds elsewhere. For in the Fifth Book, when Mars is in the field on the Trojan side, he says, Minerva found him μáxns èπ' àpiσtepà, Il. v. 355. What is the point thus described, and how came he there? The answer is supplied by an earlier part of the same Book. In v. 35, Minerva led him out of the battle. In v. 36, she placed him by the shore of the Scamander; that is to say, on the Trojan left, and in a position to which, he being a Trojan combatant, the Poet gives the name of μάχης ἐπ' ἀριστερά.

Now en' ȧplorepà is commonly interpreted 'on the left.' But if it means on the left in Il. xiii., then the passages are contra

A a