The second of these points may be speedily dismissed. For (1) the only
question that can arise upon it would be, whether (assuming for the
moment the sense of ἀριστερὸς) ‘the left of his hand’ means the left of
the line described by the onward movement of his body, or the left of
the direction in which his hand, that is, his right or steering hand,
points while upon the helm; which would be the exact reverse of the
former. But, though the latter interpretation would be grammatically
accurate, 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, νηὸς, instead of χειρὸς, 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 ἀριστερός.
~_Senses of δεξιὸς and ἀριστερός._~
It appears to me well worth consideration whether the δεξιὸς and
ἀριστερὸς 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 ἀριστερὸς takes the sense of _left_ by way of derivation and
second intention only.
The word σκαιὸς 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 σκάζω,
_scævus_, _schief_)[660]. In Homer the only word used singly, i. e.
without a substantive, to express the left hand is σκαιός. At the same
time, we cannot draw positive conclusions from this fact, because
ἀριστερὸς 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.
[660] Liddell and Scott.
Σκαιῇ 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 σκαιὸν ῥίον for ‘the foreland on the left.’ But Σκαιαὶ
πύλαι may have meant originally the left hand gates of Troy.
The application of δεξιὸς to the right hand (from which we may
consider δεξιτερὸς as an adaptation for metrical purposes), is to be
sufficiently accounted for, because it was the hand by which greetings
were exchanged, and engagements contracted[661]. But it is not so with
ἀριστερός: and while we contemplate the subject in regard only to the
uses of the member, the word σκαιὸς remains perfectly unexceptionable,
and even highly expressive and convenient, in its function of
expressing the left hand.
[661] Il. ii. 341. x. 542.
It appears that the Greek augurs, in estimating the signification 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 πρὸς ζόφον meant to lie towards the West, and was the
regular opposite of lying towards the sun[662].
[662] Od. ix. 25, 6.
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 innocent[663], but preeminently good.
Everything covered by the blight of evil omen was to be, not only not
harmful, but ἀριστερὸς, better than the best. Consequently it would
appear that the word ἀριστερὸς 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.
[663] Compare the use of the word εὐώνυμος.
In a passage like Il. vii. 238, the meaning of δεξιὸς and ἀριστερὸς
is, plainly, right and left. But what is it in the speech of Hector,
where he tells Polydamas that he cares not for omens[664],
[664] Il. xii. 238-40.
εἴτ’ ἐπὶ δεξί’ ἴωσι πρὸς Ἠῶ τ’ Ἠέλιόν 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 ζόφος was the north-west with Homer, and not the west:
and, conversely, the Ἠὼς 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 δεξιὸς and ἀριστερὸς 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 ἀριστερὸς in
them means _left_; and which become perfectly harmonious if we allowed
to understand it as signifying _west_.
~_Illustrated from Il._ xiii.~
These are respectively Il. 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.
1. Il. xiii. 126-9: The Ajaxes are opposed to Hector, νηυσὶν ἐν
μέσσῃσιν, 312, 16.
2. The centre being thus provided for, Idomeneus proceeds to the left,
στρατοῦ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ (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, Æneas comes with him, attended also by Paris
and Agenor, 490.
5. They conjointly carry on the fight at that point, with indifferent
success (495-673), 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,
μάχης ἐπ’ ἀριστερά (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 ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ 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 μάχης ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ, 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 ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ is commonly interpreted ‘on the left.’ But if it means
on the left in Il. xiii., then the passages are contradictory: because
this would place Paris on both wings, whereas he obviously is described
as on the same wing of the battle throughout.
But if we construe ἀριστερὸς as meaning the west in all the three
passages, then we have the same meaning at once made available for all
the three places, so that the account becomes self-consistent again;
and if the meaning be ‘on the west,’ then we may understand that
Idomeneus most naturally betakes himself to the west, because that
was the quarter of the Myrmidons, where the Greek line was deprived
of support. If, however, it be said, that the Greek left is meant
throughout, then the expression in v. 765 is both contrary to what
would seem reasonable, and at variance with Homer’s own precedent in
the Fifth Book.
Thus there is considerable reason to suppose that, in Homer, ἀριστερὸς
may sometimes mean ‘west.’ So that _if_ ἐπὶ in Od. v. 277 really means
‘upon,’ the phrase will signify, that Ulysses was to have Arctus on the
west side of him, which would place Ogygia in the required position to
the east of north.
~_The force of ἐπὶ in Homer._~
The point remaining for discussion is at once the most difficult and
the most important. What _is_ the true force of the Homeric ἐπί?
I find the senses of this preposition clearly and comprehensively
treated in Jelf’s Greek Grammar, where the leading points of its
various significations are laid down as follows[665]:
[665] Jelf’s Gr. Gr. Nos. 633-5.