1. That, Homer having an Inner or known and an Outer or imagined world,
between which a line may be drawn with tolerable certainty, the voyage
of Ulysses, from the Lotophagi to Scheria inclusive, lies in the Outer
world.
2. That we may not only implicitly accept the geographical statements
of Homer, when they lie within his own horizon or the Inner world, but
may fearlessly argue from them.
3. That arguments so drawn are available and paramount, as far as
they go, for governing the construction of passages relating to the
geography of the Outer world.
4. That we have no title to argue, when we find a point in the Outer
world described in such a manner as to correspond with some spot now
known, that Homer gave to that tract or region in his own mind, the
site which we may now know it to occupy, but that he is quite as likely
to have placed it elsewhere.
5. That arguments grounded on the physical knowledge of the Poet are
to be trusted. I would name by way of example, (subject only to a
certain latitude for inexactness,) such arguments as are drawn from the
directions of winds, and from other patent and cardinal facts of common
experience, for example, the distances which may be traversed within
given times.
6. So likewise are the indications, which harmonize with known or
reasonably presumed historical and ethnological views, to be trusted as
good evidence on questions relating to his geographical meaning.
In order, however, to be in a condition to make use of indications
supplied by the Winds, we must consider what the Winds of Homer are.
~_The Winds of Homer._~
The Winds of Homer are only four in number, and the manner of their
physical arrangement is rude. It by no means corresponds with our own,
but varies from it greatly, just as his points of the compass varied
from ours. And though he names only four winds, yet I apprehend we must
consider that upon the whole he uses them with such latitude, as to
express under the name of some one of them every gale that blew.
As to some of these winds, Homer has provided us with an abundance of
trustworthy _data_ for their point of origin: and through them the
evidence as to the rest may be enlarged.
Homer’s governing points, from which to measure arcs of the horizon
were, as is evident, the sunrise and the sunset. This is clearly shown
by his expressions, such as πρὸς ἠῶ τ’ ἠέλιόν τε, for the east, and
then in opposition to this, ποτὶ ζόφον ἠερόεντα[547] for the west.
Again, when Ulysses urges upon his companions that he has lost all
means of forming a judgment of their position, his mode of expression
is this, that he does not know where is dusk or where is dawn; where
the joy-giving sun rises, or where he sinks[548]. We must therefore
dismiss from our minds the four cardinal points to which we are
accustomed. They were not cardinal points for Homer. We must also
remember not only (1) that Homer had only two[549], but also (2) that
his two did not correspond with any of our four, and (3) that from the
variation of sunrise and sunset with the seasons of the year a certain
amount of vagueness was of necessity introduced into his conceptions of
the point of origin for each of the different winds.
[547] Il. xii. 239, 40.
[548] Od. x. 190-2.
[549] Wood (Genius of Homer, p. 23,) says, ‘only four,’ meaning only
four winds. But it is pretty clear that Homer’s four winds were not at
anything like ninety degrees from one another. There is in Homer no
word meaning strictly either south, or north. _Daksha_, however, from
whence is derived δεξιὸς, means _southerly_ as well as _on the right_:
but probably S. E. rather than S. Pott, Etymolog. Forschungen, II. 186,
7.
We should not, however, exaggerate this vagueness. It had its cause in
the variations of the ecliptic, and, like its cause, it was limited.
I suppose, however, that the eye guesses rudely at the deviations of
the ecliptic, and that we must take N.W. and S.E. for the two cardinal
points of Homer.
Homer’s west then ranged to the north of west, and Homer’s east to
the south of east. But although this must be borne in mind when we
translate his winds into our language, yet of course the winds
themselves were arranged, not technically so as each to cover a certain
arc on the horizon, but with reference to the directions in which they
were found by experience commonly to blow. And in associating each wind
with a particular point of the horizon, we must bear in mind that such
a point is to be regarded as its centre, and that the same name would
be given to a wind within a number of points on either side of it.
As to the respective prevalence of the different winds, the criterion
is certainly a rude one, still it is a criterion, which is provided
for us by the comparative frequency of the occasions on which they are
mentioned. Eurus is mentioned in the poems seven times, Notus fifteen;
Boreas twenty-seven, subject to a small deduction for cases where he is
simply a person; and Zephyr twenty-six. The latter pair are the leading
Winds of the poem: not necessarily that they indicated the prevailing
currents of air, but that they represented such currents of air as
usually prevailed with force sufficient to make them good poetical
agents.
We may also learn, from the epithets given to the winds, the
impressions which they respectively made upon the mind of Homer.
Eurus never has a character attached to it. Notus seldom has any
epithet; but still it is mentioned, by the comrade of Ulysses in Od.
xii. 289, as one of the most formidable winds. This may probably
have been on account of its direction relatively to the place of the
speaker; because from that point it blew right upon Scylla[550]. Again,
as Zephyr and Notus are nowhere else associated by the Poet, the
presumption arises on that ground also that here Notus is put in for a
special and local reason. It is called ἀργέστης, and is so essentially
allied with the idea of moisture, that νότιος stands simply for wet
(νότιος ἱδρὼς, Il. xi. 810).
[550] Od. xii. 427.
The characteristic epithets of Boreas are μέγας, ὀπώρινος, and
αἰθρηγένης. The first of these indicates that he blew hard: and we know
the same thing from the facts, that Achilles desired him to contribute
towards rapidly consuming the pyre of Patroclus, and that he is often
used for a storm[551].
[551] Il. xxiii. 194.
But, of all the winds, the Zephyr evidently was the most prominent in
the view of Homer. It is μέγας (Od. xiv. 458), λαβρὸς ἐπαιγίζων (Il.
ii. 148), κελαδεινὸς (Il. xxiii. 208), δυσαὴς (Il. xxiii. 200, and Od.
xii. 289), κεκληγὼς (Od. xii. 408); and it alone of the winds roars,
ζεφύροιο ἰώη (Il. iv. 276). In Od. xii. 289, it is mentioned with
Notus: they are the winds most apt to destroy ships even despite or
without the gods. For Notus, as I have said, this character seems to
be local: but the Zephyr is here called δυσαὴς, and the sense of the
passage is in accordance with his general reputation. He, with Boreas,
is invoked for the pyre of Patroclus: and these two are the only winds
which are ever employed singly to make foul weather. Homer’s other
modes of creating a tempest by the agency of the winds are (1) to make
a combination of all or several of them, (2) to cover the matter in a
generality by speaking of the ὀλοοὶ ἄνεμοι without distinction.
There is, however, in Homer a faint trace of the milder character,
which was afterwards more fully recognised in Zephyr, when he had moved
down from the north, and become a simple west wind. In the description
of the Elysian plain, we find that it is never vexed with tempest or
with rain, but that the happy spirits dwelling there are incessantly
refreshed with the Zephyrs which spring from Ocean[552]. But even here
the breezes are λιγυπνείοντες: and this word means what is called
blowing _fresh_. And the conception of the wind here is rather as a
sea-wind, and therefore not a cold one, than as being soft and gentle.
[552] Od. iv. 565-9.
Of these four Winds, Homer has made, on various occasions, two couples.
He repeatedly associates Boreas and Zephyr in the same work[553]:
[553] Il. ix. 4.
ὡς δ’ ἄνεμοι δύο πόντον ὀρίνετον ἰχθυόεντα,
Βορέης καὶ Ζέφυρος, τώτε Θρῄκηθεν ἄητον.
And again, for the purposes of Achilles, the two come together over the
sea, and quickly fall to, that the pyre may be consumed; even as the
prayer of the hero had been addressed to them in common[554].
[554] Il. xxiii. 194, 212.
In the same way, Eurus and Notus are associated together as exciting
the Icarian Sea. This passage is curiously illustrative of Homer’s
distinctions between the winds. He has two successive similes, both
describing the agitation of the same Assembly[555]. In the first it is
compared to the Icarian Sea lashed by Eurus, and by Notus charging from
the clouds. In the second, to a corn-field, on which Zephyr powerfully
sweeps down[556].
[555] Il. ii. 144-6, 147-9.
[556] The arrangement of these similes tells powerfully against the
ingenious argument of Mr. Wood concerning the birthplace of Homer.
Genius of Homer, pp. 7-33.
From a just consideration of these passages, it becomes clear that the
four winds of Homer were not at equidistant points of the compass,
but that each two of them were capable of association, while neither
member of one pair is ever described, except in a single passage,
which I will presently notice, as cooperating with one of the other.
Of course I do not refer to those cases, where the Poet raises all the
four winds at once, simply to create a hurricane; no bad conjecture, I
will add, for those times, in anticipation of the modern discovery that
hurricanes are eddies, and that it is their circular motion which makes
them seem to blow almost simultaneously in all directions[557].
[557] See General Reid’s Law of Storms and Variable Winds. London. 1849.
Let us now inquire what can be done towards ascertaining more
particularly the leading points of these winds, of which we have
surveyed the general descriptions.
~_Points of origin for Zephyr and Boreas._~