2. It is applied to place, time, or causation. Of these three, when
treating of a geographical question, we need only consider the first
with any minuteness.
3. Ἐπὶ, when used locally, means with the genitive (_a_) _on_ or _at_,
and (_b_) motion _towards_ a place or thing. With the dative (_a_) _on_
or _at_, and (_b_) _by_ or _near_. With the accusative (_a_) _towards_,
and (_b_) ‘extension in space over an object, as well with verbs of
rest as of motion.’ Of this sense examples are quoted in πλεῖν ἐπὶ
οἴνοπα πόντον for verbs of motion, and ἐπ’ ἐννέα κεῖτο πέλεθρα for
verbs of rest. Both are from Homer, in Il. vii. 83, and Od. xi. 577.
The Homeric ἐπὶ δεξιὰ and ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ are also quoted as examples of
this last-named sense. But in Od. v. 277, if the meaning be _on_ the
left, it is plainly quite beyond these definitions: for so far from
being an object extended over space, the star is, as it appears on the
left, a luminous point, and nothing more. It was an extension over
space, such as the eye has from a window over a prospect; but then
that space is the space which lies over-against the star; so that if
the space be on the left, the star must be looking towards the left
indeed, but for that very reason set on the right. The difference here
is most important in connection with the sense of the preposition. If
ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ means _on_ the left, it is only on a single point of the
left; if it means towards or over-against the right, it means towards
or over-against the whole right. Now, the former of these senses is, I
contend, utterly out of keeping with the whole Homeric use of ἐπὶ as
a preposition governing the accusative: while the latter is quite in
keeping with it.
~_Force of ἐπὶ with ἀριστερά._~
The idea of motion, physical or metaphysical, in some one or other of
its modifications, appears to inhere essentially in the Homeric use
of ἐπὶ with the accusative. In the great majority of instances, it is
used with a verb of motion, which places the matter beyond all doubt.
In almost all other instances, either the motion of a body, or some
covering of space where there is no motion, are obviously involved.
Thus the Zephyr (κελάδει[666]) whistles ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον. A hero, or
a bevy of maidens, may shout ἐπὶ μακρόν[667]. The rim of a basket is
covered with a plating of gold, χρυσῷ δ’ ἐπὶ χείλεα κεκράαντο: that
is, the gold is drawn over it[668]. Achilles looks[669] ἐπὶ οἴνοπα
πόντον. The sun appears to mortals ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν[670]. Here we
should apparently understand ‘spread,’ or some equivalent word. We have
‘animals as many as are born’ ἐπὶ γαῖαν[671]. Or, again, we have ‘may
his glory be’ (spread) ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν[672]. Again: ἐπὶ δηρὸν δέ
μοι αἰὼν ἔσσεται is, ‘I shall live long[673].’ And Achilles seated
himself θῖν’ ἐφ’ ἁλὸς πολιῆς[674]. A dragon with a purple back is[675]
ἐπὶ νῶτα δάφοινος. The shoulders of Thersites, compressed against his
chest, are, ἐπὶ στῆθος συνοχωκότε[676]. The horses of Admetus stand
even with the rod across their backs[677], σταφύλῃ ἐπὶ νῶτον ἐΐσας. I
have not confined these examples to merely local cases, because a more
varied illustration, I think, here enlarges our means of judgment.
In every case, it appears, we may assert that extension, whether in
time or space, is implied; and the proper word to construe ἐπὶ (except
with certain verbs of motion, as, ‘he fell on,’ and the like) will be
over, along, across, or over-against. Further, we have in Il. vi. 400,
according to one reading, the preposition ἐπὶ combined with the verb
ἔχειν, and governing the accusative. Andromache appears,
[666] Od. ii. 421.
[667] Od. vi. 117. Il. v. 101.
[668] Od. iv. 132.
[669] Il. i. 350.
[670] Od. iii. 3.
[671] Od. iv. 417.
[672] Od. vii. 332.
[673] Il. ix. 415.
[674] Il. i. 350.
[675] Il. ii. 308.
[676] Ibid. 318.
[677] Ibid. 765.
παῖδ’ ἐπὶ κόλπον ἔχουσ’ ἀταλάφρονα.
The recent editions read κόλπῳ: I suppose because the accusative cannot
properly give the meaning _upon_ her breast. But we do not require that
meaning. The sense seems to be, that Andromache was holding her infant
_against_ her breast; that is, the infant was held to it by her hands
from the opposite side. The idea of an infant _on_ her breast is quite
unsuited to a figure declared to be in motion. But the sense may also
be, stretched over or across her breast. Thus we always have extension
involved in ἐπὶ with the accusative, whether in range of view or sound,
steps of a gradual process, actual motion, pressure towards a point
which is initial motion, or extension over space. But the Homeric use
of ἐπὶ with the accusative will nowhere, I think, be found applicable
to the inactive, motionless position of a luminous point simply as
perceived in space. And if so, it cannot be allowable to construe ἐπ’
ἀριστερὰ χειρὸς ἔχων, having (Arctus) _on_ his left hand.
The nearest parallel that I have found to the phrase in Od. v. 277, is
the direction given by Idomeneus to Meriones, who had asked him (Il.
xiii. 307) at what point he would like to enter the line of battle.
Idomeneus, after giving his reasons, concludes with this injunction:
νῶϊν δ’ ὧδ’ ἐπ’ ἀριστέρ’ ἔχε στρατοῦ.
In the Odyssey, the order is to keep Arctus ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ χειρός. Here
it is to keep Idomeneus (and Meriones himself, who preceded him), ἐπ’
ἀριστερὰ στρατοῦ. The parallel is not complete, because in the latter
case the object of the verb moves; in the former it does not move.
Let us, however, consider the meaning of the latter passage, which is
indisputable. It is ‘hold or keep us,’ not on the left, but ‘towards,
looking and moving towards, the left of the army.’ Probably then they
were coming from its right. Therefore, if for the moment we waive the
question of motion, the order of Calypso was to keep Arctus looking
towards the left of the ship: and accordingly Arctus was to look from
its right.
We must, I apprehend, seek the key to the general meaning of this
phrase from considering that idea of motion involved in the ordinary
manifestation of omens, which appears to be the basis of the
phrase itself. Now, it seems to be the essential and very peculiar
characteristic of this phrase in Homer, and of the sister phrases
ἐπιδέξια (whether written in one word or in two) and ἐνδέξια, that they
very commonly imply a position different from that which they seem
at first sight to suggest. For that which goes towards the left is
naturally understood to go from the right, and _vice versâ_.
‘To’ and not ‘on’ is the essential characteristic of the Homeric ἐπὶ
with the accusative. Accordingly, where ἐπὶ is so used with the words
δεξιὰ or ἀριστερὰ, we may often understand an original position of the
person or thing intended, generally opposite to the point or quarter
expressed. In such a case as εὗρεν ... μάχης ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ we should
join ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ with the subject of εὗρεν, and not with its object.
Not A found B on the left, but A (coming) towards the left found B
(there). Again, in Il. xiii. 675, νηῶν ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ should, I submit,
be construed _towards_ the left, or in the direction of the left.
Now, while there is not a single passage in Homer that refuses to bear
a construction founded on these principles, an examination of a variety
of passages will, I believe, supply us with instances to show, that
there is no other consistent mode of rendering the phrases ἀστράπτειν
ἐπιδέξια; ἐέργειν ἐπ’ ἀριστερά; οἰνοχόειν, αἰτεῖν, δεικνύναι, ἐνδέξια;
ἀριστερὸς ὄρνις, δεξιὸν ἐρώδιον, and others.
And although in some of these phrases the idea of motion is actually
included, while the motion of omens was the original groundwork of them
all, yet, as frequently happens, the effect remains when the cause has
disappeared. A bird called δεξιὸς is one moving ἐπὶ δεξιά; and this,
according to the law of omens, is _usually_ a bird from the left moving
towards the right. And thus, by analogy, a star ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ is a star
on the right not moving but looking towards the left. Once more, when
we recollect that ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ habitually or very frequently means on
the right as well as moving towards the left, it is not difficult to
conceive so easy and simple a modification of this sense as brings it
to being on the right, while also looking, instead of moving, towards
the left. Lightning, which had appeared on the right, would I apprehend
be ἀστραπὴ ἐπ’ ἀριστερά: Ἀρκτὸς ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ would be ‘Arctus on the
right;’ and the introduction of the word ἔχειν cannot surely reverse
the signification.
In later Greek, the expressions ἐνδέξια and ἐπιδέξια, with ἐπαριστερὰ,
which seems to be the counterpart of both, the preposition ἐπὶ
sometimes being divided from and sometimes united with its case, appear
to be equivalent to our English phrases ‘on the right,’ and ‘on the
left.’ But not so in Homer.
~_Illustrated from Il._ ii. 353. _Od._ xxi. 141.~
Let us now examine various places of the poems, where ἐνδέξια and
ἐπὶ δεξιὰ (single or combined) cannot mean on the right, but may be
rendered either (1) from the left, or (2) towards the right. Thus we
have, Il. ii. 353,
ἀστράπτων ἐπιδέξι’, ἐναίσιμα σήματα φαίνων.
This means lightning on and from the left, so that the lightning
passes, or seems to pass, towards the right. The analogy of this
case to that of the star is very close; because it is rarely that
lightning gives the semblance of motion: and this expression precisely
exemplifies the observation, that these phrases often really imply a
position of the subject exactly opposite to that which at first sight
would be supposed.
Again, when Antinous bids the Suitors rise in turn for the trial of the
bow, he says, Od. xxi. 141,
ὄρνυσθ’ ἑξείης ἐπιδέξια, πάντες ἑταῖροι·
and he goes to explain himself beyond dispute, by referring to the
order observed by the cupbearer at the feast;
ἀρξάμενοι τοῦ χώρου, ὅθεν τέ περ οἰνοχοεύει. (142)
His meaning evidently is, Rise up, beginning on or from the left.
~_From Il._ i. 597. vii. 238. xii. 239, 249.~
The practice of the cupbearer is stated with respect to Vulcan, Il. i.
597:
αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖς ἄλλοισι θεοῖς ἐνδέξια πᾶσιν
ᾠνοχόει.
So the κήρυξ (Il. vii. 183) goes round ἐνδέξια with the lots for the
chieftains to draw. The beggar[678] in making his round follows the
supreme law of luck, and goes ἐνδέξια. And as this meaning seems to be
established, we must give the same sense, in Il. ix. 236, to ἐνδέξια
σήματα φαίνων ἀστράπτει, as to the ἐνδέξια in Il. ii. 353, namely, that
Jupiter displayed celestial signs on the left.
[678] Od. xvii. 365.
Again, Hector boasts of his proficiency in moving his shield so as to
cover his person, Il. vii. 238,
οἶδ’ ἐπὶ δεξιὰ, οἶδ’ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ νωμῆσαι βῶν.
We should translate this probably without much thought ‘to the right
and to the left.’ But when we consider what sense is required by the
idea to be conveyed, it is evident that ἐπὶ δεξιὰ means, from the left
side of his person towards the right, and ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ from the right
side of his person towards the left. That is to say, the first position
before and during the motion, in each case, is at the side opposite to
that indicated by the adjectives respectively.
Again, in a well known passage (Il. xii. 239.) Hector tells Polydamas
that he cares not for omens, be they good or bad;
εἴτ’ ἐπὶ δεξί’ ἴωσι πρὸς Ἠῶ τ’ Ἠέλιόν τε,
εἴτ’ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ τοίγε, ποτὶ ζόφον ἠερόεντα.
Apart from the question, whether the sense of right and left is
suitable to this passage at all, and assuming it to be so, the meaning
is _from the left_ for ἐπὶ δεξιὰ and _from the right_ for ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ,
on their way in each case to the opposite quarter.
Again, the portent which had drawn forth the observation of Hector was,
(Il. xii. 219,)
αἰετὸς ὑψιπέτης, ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ λαὸν ἐέργων,
namely, an eagle appearing on the right and then moving towards the
left. Now ἐέργω is not properly a verb of motion; and yet we see that
ἐέργειν ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ means to close the army in from the right; that is
to say, the eagle, which does the act ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ, is itself on the
right.
There were in fact three things, which originally might, and commonly
would, be included in each of these phrases. For example, in ἐπ’
ἀριστερὰ,
1. Appearance at a particular point on the right;
2. Motion from that point towards the left;
3. Rest at another point on the left.
Of these the second named indicates the first and principal intention
of the word; but when it passes to a second intention or derivative
sense, it may include either the first point, or the third, or both.
In the later Greek it appears rather to indicate the point of rest;
but in the Homeric phrases of the corresponding word δεξιὸς, οἰνοχοεῖν
ἐνδέξια, δεικνύναι ἐνδέξια, αἰτεῖν ἐνδέξια, ἀστραπτεῖν ἐπὶ δεξιὰ,
ἐέργειν ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ, the starting-point, and not the resting-point,
is the one brought into view. It is the commencement of the motion, in
every one of these cases, which is indicated by the phrase, and not its
close.
Being engaged upon this subject, I shall not scruple to examine one
or two remaining passages, which may assist in its more thorough
elucidation.
~_From Il._ xxiii. 335-7.~
I therefore ask particular attention to the passage in the Twenty-third
Book of the Iliad, where Nestor instructs his son concerning his
management in the chariot-race. On either side of a dry trunk upon the
plain, there lay two white stones (xxiii. 329). They formed the goal,
round which the chariots were to be driven, the charioteer keeping them
on his left hand. The pith of the advice of Nestor is, that his son
is to make a short and close turn round them, so as to have a chance
of winning, in spite of the slowness of his team. The directions are
(335-7):
αὐτὸς δὲ κλινθῆναι ἐϋπλέκτῳ ἐνὶ δίφρῳ
ἦκ’ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ τοῖϊν· ἀτὰρ τὸν δεξιὸν ἵππον
κένσαι ὁμοκλήσας, εἶξαί τέ οἱ ἡνία χερσίν.
It is clear from the last line and a half that the goal was to be on
his left hand. But what is the meaning of κλινθῆναι ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ τοῖϊν?
Nothing can be more scientific than the precept. The horses are to make
a sharp turn: the impetus in the driver’s body might throw him forward
if he were not prepared: he is to do what every rider in a circus now
does, to lean inwards; and that is expressed by leaning ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ,
of the goal--for τοῖϊν must, I apprehend, be understood to agree with
the dual λᾶε (329), and not the plural ἵππους (334); particularly
because the word ἵππος is repeated immediately after it. The meaning
then is, that he is desired to lean to the left of the goal, while all
the time he keeps on its right. We should under the same circumstances
say, ‘Lean gently towards the right side of the goal, as you are about
to turn round it.’ He, meaning the same thing, says, ‘Lean towards the
left; that is, lean _from the right_, or while keeping on the right,
of the object named. Now this I take to be exactly the sense of Od.
v. 277. Ulysses was bid to sail, having the Great Bear placed on his
right, but looking from his right, and towards his left, as every star
looks towards the quarter opposite to that in which it is itself seen.
He is to have the star _e dextrâ_, because from that point it looks _ad
sinistram_. It looks across him towards his left, just as Antilochus
was to lean in the direction across the goal towards its left.
The whole of this interpretation without doubt depends upon the word
τοῖϊν; and I do not presume to say that it is necessarily, under
grammatical rules, to be understood of the goal, and not of the horses.
But it is the more natural construction: and Homer often reverts merely
by this demonstrative pronoun, without further indication, to a subject
which he has only named some time back[679].
[679] So τήν δε, Il. i. 127, and particularly τὴν in Il. i. 389,
meaning Chryseis, who has not been named since v. 372.
But if grammar leave that question in any degree open, I apprehend
that physical considerations must decide it. It is impossible for the
driver to lean to the left of his horses as they are rounding the goal.
To the left of his chariot he may lean, as he stands upon it: but to
their left he cannot, for they are considerably in advance of him;
and in order to make the turn at all, they must, at each point of the
curve, which is a curve to the left, be much further along the curve,
and consequently much further to the left, than he can possibly be. It
would be a parallel case, if there were two riders round a circus, one
following the other, and the rider of the after horse were told to lean
to the right of the fore horse. Therefore the word τοῖϊν can, I submit,
only refer to the two stones, which form the goal.
~_From Il._ ii. 526.~
A line in the Greek Catalogue will enable us to carry the question
still further. In Il. ii. 517, after the two Bœotian contingents, come
the Phocians: and the Poet says, ver. 526,
Βοιωτῶν δ’ ἔμπλην ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ θωρήσσοντο.
I see that this is translated even by Voss ‘on the left.’ Now is not
this contrary to all likelihood? Was not all propitious movement with
Homer from left to right? Has not this been proved by the cases of the
Immortals, the Omens, the Cupbearer, the Beggar, and the Herald? Is it
likely, or is it even conceivable, that Homer should depart from this
principle in his order of the army? Surely the meaning is this: Having
fixed for himself geographically the order of his contingents, he has
likewise to state their order of array upon the field; and accordingly
by this line he informs us, that the Phocians, who were the second
of the races he mentions, stood ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ of the Bœotians: he of
course means us to understand that the Abantes, the third race, were
ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ of the Locrians, and so on through the whole: or in other
words, that he informs us he does not forget to follow, amidst the
multitudinous detail of the Catalogue, the established, the religious,
and the propitious order of enumeration, namely, the order which begins
from the left, and moves towards the right.
Thus we must in this place translate ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ ‘towards, that is,
looking towards the left of the Bœotians;’ or ‘looking to the Bœotians
on their left,’ i. e. of the Phocians; the Phocians being, whichever
construction we adopt, on the right, actually on the right, not the
left of the Bœotians. The real force of the expression probably is
this: that the Bœotians, having taken their ground, the Phocians came
up and took theirs next to them on their right.
~_Application to Od._ v. 277.~
Now this case is precisely in point for Od. v. 277: because θωρήσσεσθαι
is not properly a verb of motion: and in all likelihood it may be
relied on independently of further details from Homer, because it
brings the matter to an easy test, through the certainty which we may
well entertain, that Homer would have the order of his army begin from
left to right, like every other duly and auspiciously constituted order.
There is, however, another interpretation proposed as follows: they,
the Phocians, took ground next (ἔμπλην) to the Bœotians on the left, i.
e. of the army; the two together, as it were, forming its left wing. To
this construction there seem to be conclusive objections:
1. Why should Homer tell us that the Bœotians and Phocians together
constituted a division of the army, when he tells us nothing similar
respecting any of the twenty-six contingents that remain? Neither of
these races were particularly distinguished either politically or in
arms.
2. It appears clear that the Bœotians and Phocians did not together
form a division of the army: for, in the Thirteenth Book, the Bœotians
fight in company with the Athenians or Ionians, the Locrians, Phthians,
and Epeans, but not with the Phocians. Il. xiii. 685, 6.
3. Neither did the Bœotians belong to the left wing of the army at all:
for they are found defending the centre of the ships against Hector
and the Trojans, with the two Ajaxes in their front. Il. xiii. 314-16,
674-84, 685, 700; 701, 2; 719, 20.
4. There is nowhere the smallest sign, that the Greek army was divided
into wings and centre at all.
5. The order of the Catalogue is a geographical order, and not that
of a military arrangement. Therefore it was requisite for Homer to
tell us how the troops were arranged in the Review. This he has
effected by telling us that the Phocians, the second of his tribes,
drew up on the right of the Bœotians: which we have only to consider
tacitly repeated all through, and the order is thus both complete and
propitious. But, according to the other construction, the Poet begins
with an arrangement by wings, of which we hear nowhere else: and then
he forthwith forgets and abandons it.
6. I do not think ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ can be construed to the left of the
army. The army has nowhere been named. The phrases ἐπὶ δεξιὰ and ἐπ’
ἀριστερὰ require us to have a subject clearly in view. It is frequently
named, as in ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ μάχης. When it is connected with omens, it
means to the west, and ἐπιδέξια the reverse. Again, οἰνοχοεῖν ἐπιδέξια
is to begin pouring wine from the left, and towards the right end of
the rank whom the cupbearer may be serving. The ‘army’ has not been
mentioned since the reassembling in v. 207.
These objections appear to me fatal to the construction now under our
view. They do not indeed touch the question whether ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ should
be interpreted on the left, or (on the right and) towards the left.
That must, I think, be decided by the general principles of augury duly
applied to order and enumeration.
On the whole, then, I contend that it is wrong to construe Od. v.
277, ‘to sail with Arctus _on_ his left hand.’ It would be much more
nearly right, and would, in fact, convey the meaning, though not in
a grammatical manner, if we construed it ‘to sail with Arctus on
his right hand.’ But the manner of construing it, grammatically and
accurately, as I submit, is this: ‘to sail with Arctus looking towards
the left (of his hand, or his left hand);’ that is to say, looking
_from his right_. And generally, that the proper mode of construing ἐπ’
ἀριστερὰ and ἐπὶ δεξιὰ in Homer is, _towards_ the left, _towards_ the
right; or, conversely, _from_ the right, _from_ the left.
This meaning is in exact accordance with the North-eastern, and is
entirely opposed to the North-western, hypothesis. And I venture to
believe that, itself established by sufficient evidence from other
passages in the poems, it enables us to give a meaning substantially,
though perhaps not minutely self-consistent, though of course one not
based upon the true configuration of the earth’s surface as it is now
ascertained, to every passage in Homer which relates to the Outer
Geography of the Odyssey.
Both ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ and ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ χειρὸς are used repeatedly in the
Hymn to Mercury[680]. One of the passages resembles in its form that
of the eagle, Il. xii. 219. It is this:
[680] Hymn. Merc. 153. Cf. 418, 424, 499.
κεῖτο, χέλυν ἐρατὴν ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ χειρὸς ἐέργων.
And probably the basis of the idea is the same. The really correct
Greek expression for ‘on the left hand’ I take to be χειρὸς ἐξ
ἀριστερᾶς, which is used by Euripides[681].
[681] Hecuba 1127.
~_Sense altered in later Greek._~
But in the later Greek the idea of the point of arrival prevailed over
that of the point of departure: and, conventionally at least, the
ἐπιδέξια, with its equivalent ἐνδέξια, came to mean simply ‘on the
right,’ and ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ, ‘on the left.’ It is worth notice, that we
have a like ambiguous use in English of the word _towards_. Sometimes
towards the left means being on the left: sometimes it means moving
from the right in the direction of the left: and a room ‘towards the
south’ means one with its windows on the north, looking out over
the south, like as the star Arctus looks out towards the left of
Ulysses[682].
[682] I have observed that δεξιὸς ὄρνις means a bird flying from the
left towards the right, and ἀριστερὸς ὄρνις, the reverse. Here however
the force of the epithet is derived from immediate connection with the
motion implied, and with the doctrine of omens: δεξιὸς ὦμος would of
course be the right shoulder, and δεξιή, as we have seen, may stand
alone to signify the right hand. And so in general with these words,
when used as epithets, apart from a preposition implying motion, and
from any relation to omens.