In the _Odyssey_, xvii. 541-7., we have, imitating the hexameters, the
following passage:
"Thus Penelope spake. Then quickly Telemachus _sneez'd_ loud,
_Sounding around all the building_: his mother, with smiles at her son,
said,
Swiftly addressing her rapid and high-toned words to Eumæus,
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'Go then directly, Eumæus, and call to my presence the strange guest.
See'st thou not that my son, _ev'ry word I have spoken hath sneez'd
at_?[5]
Thus portentous, betok'ning the fate of my hateful suitors,
All whom death and destruction await by a doom irreversive.'"
Dionysius Halicarnassus, on Homer's poetry (s. 24.), says, sneezing was
considered by that poet as a good sign ([Greek: sumbolon agathon]); and
from the Anthology (lib. ii.) the words [Greek: oude legei, Zeu sôson, ean
ptarêi], show that it was proper to exclaim "God bless you!" when any one
sneezed.
Aristotle, in the Problems (xxxiii. 7.), inquires why sneezing is reckoned
a God ([Greek: dia ti ton men ptarmon, theon hêgoumetha einai]); to which
he suggests, that it may be because it comes from the head, the most divine
part about us ([Greek: theiotatou tôn peri hêmas]). Persons having the
inclination, but not the power to sneeze, should look at the sun, for
reasons he assigns in Problems (xxxiii. 4.).
Plutarch, on the Dæmon of Socrates (s. 11.), states the opinion which some
persons had formed, that Socrates' dæmon was nothing else than the sneezing
either of himself or others. Thus, if any one sneezed at his right hand,
either before or behind him, he pursued any step he had begun; but sneezing
at his left hand caused him to desist from his formed purpose. He adds
something as to different kinds of sneezing. To sneeze twice was usual in
Aristotle's time; but once, or more than twice, was uncommon (Prob. xxxiii.
3.).
Petronius (_Satyr_. c. 98.) notices the "blessing" in the following
passage:
"Giton collectione spiritus plenus, _ter_ continuo ita sternutavit, ut
grabatum concuteret. Ad quem motum Eumolpus conversus, _salvere_ Gitona
_jubet_."