Walter Leaf_The Homeric Chariot

7/29/2019 Walter Leaf_The Homeric Chariot

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The Homeric ChariotAuthor(s): Walter LeafSource: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 5 (1884), pp. 185-194Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

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THE HOMERICCHARIOT. 18 5

THE HOMERIC CHARIOT.THEobject of the present paper is not to give a full accountof the Homeric chariot, but merely to call attention to asomewhat minute point, in which, as it seems to me, light maybe thrown upon the words of Homer from the representationsgiven us in the painted vases.By way of preface it may be mentioned that the war-chariotwas hardly known in Greece proper, at all events after

the heroic age. The only occasion in Greek history when itplayed an important part was on the half-oriental soil of Cyprus.In the battle so picturesquely described by Herodotos (v. 113),the fortune of the day was finally decided by the treachery ofthe war-chariots of Salamis, whose desertion threw the islandinto the hands of the Persians (498 B.c.). On the rugged andbroken mountains of the mainland, such an arm could hardlyever have been of practical service, and we may assume thatthe type familiar to the vase-painters of the fifth century B.C.must have been derived from Asia Minor. It is therefore notsurprising to find that the red-figured vases of the fine periodvery rarely give us any picture of a chariot, at least if weleave out of the question the racing chariot, which, as will beseen, was probably of a slightly different pattern from that usedin the army. On the black-figured vases it is a very favouriteobject, but the representations are conventional, and fall intotwo classes, which are given over and over again with littlevariety. Of these two, one, the full-front view, with its stiffand hard schematism, and its too ambitious attempt at fore-shortening, is decidedly among the least successful effortsof the archaic draughtsmen, who evidently found the detailswith which we are concerned quite beyond their powers of


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THE HOMERIC CHARIOT.86}perspective.J We shall concern ourselves only with the secondclass, those giving us a side-view of the chariot at rest. Theteams at full speed seen in three-quarter view belong entirelyto the later and technically more accomplished period.But however imperfect their execution, these artists seemto have had tolerably fixed ideas as to the nature of a

1

2

part of the harness. If we look immediately over the horses'shoulders, we shall find a mass of gear which at first sight looksrather confused, but on examination shows such consistency1 A curious attempt to reproduce this in relief appearsin one of the Selinusmetopes.


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THE HOMERICCHARIOT. 187that we can hardly suppose it to be anything else than a re-presentation of a reality which was at one time familiar to theGreek warrior. The appended cuts (1) and (2) give a fair ideaof the harness as shown on the vases.The gear in question lies immediately over the point wherethe yoke crosses the pole. We can, in almost all but the mostcarelessly painted examples, make out, firstly, a ring; secondlya short peg, which we will for the present call the pin; thirdlya long projection, which for convenience we will name the horn.The relation of these parts is, as we should expect, not alwaysvery clearly given, but the usual arrangement is, that the pinseems to pass through the ring, while the horn stands up beyond.In (2) the opposite arrangement is shown, the horn passingthrough the ring; but this is less usual. In (1) it is onlythrough bad drawing that the ring seems to cross the horse'sshoulder. The loop and strap shown hanging from the yokeare the collar and trace for the areipa~opoS which is about to beharnessed.

But however this may be represented, there is one furtherdetail which is almost invariably prominent, and it is to thisI wish to call particular attention: it is a rope or strap which isfastened to the horn and passes thence to a tall projection onthe front of the car itself, which for our immediate purposemay be christened the post. We generally find marks whichindicate that the rope has been wound round the horn, andsometimes the knot by which it is attached is very clearlyindicated.Now we have in Iliad, xxiv. 265-274, a very full account ofthe process by which the yoke was attached to the pole. It istrue that the wordsapply not to a war-chariot but to a mule-car;but there is no reason to suppose that this would imply anydifference in the yoking, and I hope to show that the words ofHomer agree both with the details of the vases and with thenecessities of practical use

"Qfl '+S',a0 ol y' apa 7raTrpbs 7roBelaavres o,oecK\V]EKcJ?V aba~av aepav ev'rpoxov ,}ptoveltv,/ca\rjv qrp6oTOTwyqea,relpFvffaS^ 8t7jav e7r avtrRsgca 8'ro 7rao'o-aX6f) vqfvy7peovvo"o ' ,w^ivovvookaXoev, e~ ol,rlceoao'tvprqpo,'


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188 THE HOMERICCHARIOT.edc y' ~4:epov 'v/yoSear/zov a,u*a gv~y eveoY rlXu.tcal To p,ev e5 Kare'Orlgav fvierze '7rl pvtL,eTrr~, ~T, tgXo,t , A7T6^?7rl 'TpTpCOT, 67TI oE KpifCOV eSo-TpI /a\^or,OTpl 8 Ke~arepOev eSrjcrav e7r' oua\6v, avr'p e.tr...a~eli tca~eSr7o'av,wv7ro fi/X va 8' e'catuay.

Of the parts named by Homer we of course recognize thetcp[tco, in the ring of the vase paintings. The e"aTcp isdoubtless the pin passing through the ring, and fixed intothe pole. The o,uqa\6, may then be safely identified with thehorn. This, as we see from the epithet o3/aXoey, formed apart of the yoke.Now the following points seem to be clear. 1. The wheelswere placed so far back that almost the whole weight of thetwo riders must have been thrown upon the pole. Some meansmust have been provided by which this downward thrust wastransferred from the lower side of the pole to the yoke. 2.There must have been a provision for the lateral play of theyoke, or the unequal pace of the two horses would inevitablyoverstrain it and break either yoke or pole. The first of theseobjects would naturally be provided for by placing the yokebeneath the pole, the second by having the ring of considerablylarger diameter than the pole. This supposition exactly agreeswith what we find in the paintings where a very large ring isrepresented, while the pole is hidden behind the shoulders ofthe horses. 3. The third very important force remains to beprovided for, the forward pull of the yoke. This was of coursetaken by the e%rop or pin, which was passed through the ringand then through a hole near the end of the pole. This isdescribed by Homer in the words, edrlBe CcplfcovSaropi,3/kBor,and leads to the conjectural restoration which I have givenin the cut, No. 3.We have now provided for the attachment of the yoke withdue resistance to every interaction, but we have not reachedthe end of the process described by Homer. What is meantby the words wrplsecd?epOev Srljav d,r' o,fJ


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THE HOMERICCHARIOT. 189the neglect of the f of ?efcdTepOfevay possibly indicate acorruption concealing some forgotten word, which was either asynonym for 'vTyoSeo-pov, r was the name for some part of it.This however is not essential to the argument, and can hardlybe considered even probable.

vya os-.-- ...........-rco5

3Now the 'v.'yJo'epuov hich was thus tied to something wasnine cubits-say thirteen feet-in length; it cannot thereforehave been meant formerely tying round the pole and omphalos,for in that case, a length of three or four feet would have been,to say the least, amply sufficient: and besides, such an arrange-ment, without adding any real strength to the attachment of

the yoke, where the end of the pole pierced for the e%rTcpwas the weakest part, would simply destroythe free play of theparts, without which the pole could not survive any but theslightest inequality in the pace of the horses. The explanationI believe to have been this: that the l'vTo.ecrplov was taken inthe middle, and fastened by three turns of .each end to theomphalos or horn, which it will be remembered I take to be apart not of the pole but of the yoke: then the two ends, eachhaving now a free length of some five or six feet, were led backto the body of the car and tied to the post.We now have to explain the phrase eteF'V?aTer8;ap. Thisis commonly translated ' tied the Zygodesmonin an orderlyknot,'laying the consecutive turns side by side in succession. Thiscan perhaps be got out of the words, though it is rather forced;


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THE HOMERIC CHARIOT.190but I feel little doubt that e[eiw is here not the adverb at all,but the genitive of a substantive e[erV or something like it,which was the Greek name for what I have called the post.Such a word has an obvious derivation from the verb 6'%etv,because the primary use of the post was to afford something bywhich the parabates could hold on and aid himself in what musthave been the far from easy task of keeping his balance. Thevases themselves often enough represent this use of the post.Whether we have the exact original form in the word e,%l/f wecan hardly say. I do not recollect any case of a substantiveformed with the suffix -ae~V,unless indeed the adverb e~lqTbe itself a genitive: but the loss of the original word woulditself be likely enough, when the war-chariot with all .itstechnical details had passed out of Greek memory; theresemblance of the more familiar adverb would be amplysufficient to cause a corruption when some sort of sensecould still be made.If this explanation be not accepted, I do not see on whathypothesis we can account for the inordinate length of theZygodesmon, which be it remarked, will even allow sufficientfor any one who still wishes to take a turn or two round thepole and yoke before leading back the ends, though I regardsuch a precaution as likely to do more harm than good.It is, moreover, certain that the Zygodesmon, as I have ex-plained it, was from the first an integral part of the Greekchariot, and not a mere freak of fancy on the part of anunconscientious vase-painter; for we find it, though rarely, evenon coins of early workmanship.1 In the best period it is omittedfor the obvious reason that such a minute and purely realisticdetail was inconsistent with breadth of artistic design; but wehave also corroborativeevidence, for there is no doubt that theGreek chariot, like the Egyptian, came from Assyria. Thepattern is in essentials identical in all three nations, and in thecase of Egypt at least there seems to be evidence enough, thatthe chariots, at all events those of the best class, were an articleof import from Asia. Thus Weiss (Kostuimkunde, . 95), says,'Unter den von Asien eingelieferten Waffen bildeten fernerauch die Kriegsw/agenvon prunkvollster Ausstattung einen ganz1 It is very clearly represented in Prof. Gardner'sTypes of Greek Coins,the fine Syracusan drachma, given in P1. JJ. 9.


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THE HOMERIC CHARIOT. 191besonders gesuchten Tributartikel.' As regards Greece, it is soobvious that the chariot cannot have been indigenous here thatthe only question that can arise is that of the exact means bywhich it was introduced from its birthplace in the Mesopotamianplains. Now very little observation of the Assyrian monumentsis enough to show that in the Assyrian chariots such a Zygodes-mon as we are concerned with is extremely common. We findthe post in the front of the chariot in two forms; sometimes itis a short and wide elevation of the front part of the car, whichis itself of more solid construction than the Greek. In othercases it is very long and slender, bearing at the top a disc whichcontains a device, no doubt the standard of the captain whorides below. The Greeks, whose chieftains in Homeric timesdo not seem to have carried such devices, retained the slenderpole, but shortened it, and so adapted it to the purely practicalpurpose of a support to hold on by. They also retained therope or Zygodesmon which we find connecting the post inboth its forms to the yoke.The Assyrian chariot often had another ornament, which Imention only to say that it seems to be independent of thisZygodesmon, as each is frequently found apart from theother. This is the curious long oval, of uncertain material,often adorned with religious symbols, which extends in avertical plane from the yoke to the car. What the use orsignificance of this was I do not presume to guess.The fact of the existence of the Zygodesmon in this sensebeing established, there remains the question of the purpose itwas meant to serve. This is not very obvious, but two sugges-tions may be made. In the first place, by thus attaching theyoke directly to the body of the chariot, part of any violentshock might be taken off the [cplos and ecrT'op, while therewould be no interference with the free play between them.Secondly, we see from Homer, that the pole was very apt tobreak vr~, ~rl jrpor.f: that is, no doubt, at the point where aweakness was introduced by the hole in which the rtaorpwasfixed. In such an event, the Zygodesmon would possiblyprevent the escape of the horses, though so far as I recollectwhenever a pole is broken in a Homeric battle the horses runaway; but this may be only from poetical propriety. As to theOmphalos, this may have been meant to keep the Zygodesmon


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THE HOMERICCHARIOT.92clear of the Kpl'co~ and erwp, which by their constant frictionwould soon wear it out. But such speculations are of little im-portance, inasmuch as the Omphalos and Zygodesmon werethere, whatever their use. Possibly they may have only beena useless survival of some older means of harnessing by traces;in such matters man is apt to be irrationally conservative.In favour of this last supposition it may be mentioned, thatwe elsewhere seem to find the same appendage reduced to ameaningless ornament. In the war-chariots of the Egyptians,according to Wilkinson ({c. Eg,yp. i. 238), ' a large ball placedupon a shaft projected above the saddle; there is reason tobelieve it was added solely for an ornamental purpose, and fixedto the yoke immediately above the centre of the saddle, or tothe head of a pin which connected the yoke to the pole. Thesame kind of ornament, though of a different form is met within Persian cars, and that it was not a necessary part of theharness is shown by the many instances of its omission inEgyptian curricles, and even in some of the chariots of war.'

In the later Greek racing chariot the post was of no use, asthere was no parabates to hold on by it, and the charioteeralways drove with both hands. It was however retained in amodified and adapted form, by being made double with a cross-rail at the top, at about the height of the driver's breast. Thisform we find on some of the later agonistic vases as well as oncoins.1 It evidently served the double purpose of saving thecharioteer from the possible danger of being dragged over thefront of the chariot, while at the same time it gave him greaterguiding power by enabling him to lean far forward,in the atti-tude which is familiar on works of art, and thus to grasp thereins nearer to the horses' heads.There is yet another passage in Homer which may be illus-trated by what we know of the Egyptian chariot. It occurs inthe second locusclassicusforHomeric chariot-gear, Il. v. 722-732.We are told that the Si(pao

%pvxrsoiai, ca dapyvpeoia'tvpa'aiv,evdrerarat. (727-8)This is usually explained of the breast-work of the car, or~rt~;tpteS, which is supposed to be formed of interwoven1 E.g. Gardner,Types,P1.VI. 25, 26; XI. 30.


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THE HOMERIC CHARIOT. 193straps of leather; it was rather the floor of the car on which thecharioteerand parabates stood.x For the Egyptians actually usedthis device of a floor of interwoven straps strained tight, tosupply the want of springs, which must have been a seriousmatter in fighting over rough ground (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt-ians, i. 227). We may then compare Od.xxiii. 201, when Odysseusemploys precisely the same device in order to make himself aspringy bed, ev S' e'avvna luavTa306S.If further argument be needed in favour of an interpretationwhich seems to be sufficiently recommended by its own probabi-lity, it may be pointed out that s;gpov means in the narrowestsense,the platform on which the riders stand, because the breast-work is called ?7rS^qp~aS (II. x. 475), and that it is only thusthat we obtain the full meaning of the word ~vrTeTa'ai, isstretched tight,' for this could hardly be used of a semi-circularbreastwork of woven straps, where some at least must havebeen comparatively loose. It is of less weight perhaps, but stillit may be mentioned, that vase-paintings do not seem to giveany representation of chariots with such interwoven breast-works.

Since the preceding paper was written Dr. Helbig's highlyinteresting book Das Ilomerische ,Epos aus den lDenkmalernerl&eterthas appeared. It does not contain any fresh explan-ation of the point under discussion. He brings forward someevidence, however, to support the usual theory that the wordse?6rk?KTOSnd ev7r\e.vs refer to the breastwork,not to the floorof the car; this question therefore must remain open.He also gives the following description of the manner inwhich the peasants in South Italy, especially in the Basilicata,attach the yoke to the pole (p. 107). ' Der Jochbalken hat inder Mitte der unteren Seite einen beweglichen eisernen Ring,die Deichsel unweit der Spitze ein vertikales Loch, in dem eineiserner von unten nach oben bewegbarer Nagel steckt.Nachdem man das Joch zwischen der Deichselspitze und demLoche auf die Deichsel aufgesetzt hat, wird der Nagel empor-gezogen und der Jochring zuriickgelegt. Hierauf lasst man denNagel in die Oeffnung des Ringes hineinfallen, dergestalt, dasder letztere nunmehr mit seiner unteren Wolbung an den

1 So also I1. xxiii. 335, 436, EV7bTrKfy v\ t~p~, ~tfpovs EbXEiceaV.H.S.-VOL. V. O


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THE HOMERICCHARIOT.91Nagel anliegt. Auf diese Weise befestigt, kann sich das Joch,soweit es der Durchmesser des Ringes gestattet, nach vorwartsschieben, aber nimmermehr von der Deichsel abgleiten.Schliesslich werden Deichsel und Joch, damit das letztere beimZiehen nicht hin und herschwanke, noch durch ein mehrfachgeschlungenes Seil verbunden.' I am afraid that I do notunderstand the arrangement exactly; at all events it does notseem to give any explanation whatever of the nature andfunction of the 6gaBX09. Dr. Helbig claims that it givesa more natural explanation of the words CT7rKp[~ov Saropef3k\kov than that adopted by Grashof,and in another way bymyself, where the ring is put over tlhe pole before being securedby the earop. In any case the phrase must mean ' put thee'reop through the ring,' if the Yteop is, as we all assume, apeg made movable in order that it may be lifted up, in orderto be passed through the yoke-ring. The inversion of thoughtwhich expresses this as 'putting the ring over the peg' issurely very slight. Dr. Helbig rightly notices the necessity ofsupposing that the end of the w/o~Set^ror must have beenfastened to a point at some distance from the yoke, as ' nachdreimaligem Umbinden gewiss ansehnliche Enden uibrigblieben.'Mr. C. D. Durnford has recently published in the Athenaeumof Aug. 2nd, 1884, a very plausible and ingenious theory,according to which the long fish-shaped or oval connexionbetween the car and the yoke of Assyrian chariots served as aspring. This however lies too far from the present question topertnit of discussion.

WALTERLEAF.

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Walter Leaf_The Homeric Chariot