592 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 216. 



Hermse), the priestesses and priests turtiing towards the 

 setting svn, the dwelling of the infernal gods, devoted 

 with curses the sacrilegious wretch, and shook their 

 purple robes, in the manner prescribed by that law, 

 which has been transmitted from the earliest times." — 

 Mitford, History of Greece, ch. xxii. 



Liddell and Scott consider ^EpuSos (the nether 

 gloom) to be derived from ipscpu, to cover ; akin 

 to fpejxvos, and probably also to Hebrew erev or 

 ereb, our eye-ning ; and mention as analogous the 

 Egyptian Amenti, Hades, from ement, the west. 

 (Wilkinson's Egyptians, il. 2. 74.) 



Turning to the East on solemn occasions is a 

 practice more frequently mentioned. There is an 

 interesting note on the subject in the Translation 

 above quoted, at Oedipus Col., 477., 



and doubtless much more may be found in the 

 commentators. The custom, as is well known, 

 found its way into the Christian Church. 



" The primitive Christians used to assemble on the 

 steps of the basilica of St. Peter, to see the first rays of 

 the rising sun, and kneel, curvatis cervicibus in honorem 

 splendidi orbls. (S.Leo. Barm. VII. Be Nativ.) The 

 practice was prohibited, as savouring of, or leading to, 

 Gentilism. (Bernino, i. 45.)" — Southey's Commow- 

 Place Book, ii. 44. 



" The rule of Orientation, though prescribed in the 

 Apostolic Constitutions, never obtained in Italy, where 

 the churches are turned indiscriminately towards every 

 quarter of the heaven." — Quarter!)/ Review, vol. Ixxv. 

 p. 382. 



In the Reformed Church in England the custom 

 is recognised, as far as the position of the material 

 church goes. (See rubric at the beginning of the 

 Communion Service.) "The priest shall stand 

 at the north side of the table ;" but turning east- 

 ward at the Creeds has no sanction that I know 

 of, but usage. (Compare Wheatly On the Com- 

 mon Prayer, ch. ii. § 3., ch. Hi. § 8. ; and Williams, 

 The Cathedral (" Stanzas on the Cloisters "), 

 xxiv. — xxvlii.) 



The rationale of a western paradise is given in 

 the following extract, with which I will conclude: 



" "When the stream of mankind was flowing towards 

 the West, it is no wonder that the weak reflux of posi- 

 tive information from that quarter should exhibit only 

 the impulses of hope and superstition. Greece was 

 nearly on the western verge of the world, as it was 

 known to Homer ; and it was natural for him to give 

 wing to his imagination as he turned towards the dim 



prospects beyond All early writers in Greece 



believed in the existence of certain regions situated in 

 the West beyond the bounds of their actual know- 

 ledge, and, as it appears, of too fugitive a nature ever 

 to be fixed within the circle of authentic geography. 

 Homer describes at the extremity of the ocean the 

 Elysian plain, ' where, under a serene sky, the fa- 

 vourites of Jove, exempt from the common lot of 



mortals, enjoy eternal felicity." Hesiod, in like man- 

 near, sets the Happy Isles, the abode of departed 

 heroes, beyond the deep ocean. The Hesperla of the 

 Greeks continually fled before them as their know- 

 ledge advanced, and they saw the terrestrial paradise 

 still disappearing in the West." — Cooley's History of 

 Maritime Discov., vol. i. p. 25., quoted in Anthon's 

 Horace. 



A. A. D. 



■ GREEN EYES. 



(Vol. vill., p. 407.) 



In the edition of Longfellow's Poetical Worhs 

 published by Routledge, 1853, the note quoted by 

 Mr. Temple ends thus : 



" Dante speaks of Beatrice's eyes as emeralds (Pur- 

 gntorio, xxxi. 116.). Lami says, in his Amiotazioni, 

 ' Erano i suoi occhi d' un turchino verdiccio, simile a 

 quel del mare.'" 



More in favour of "green eyes" is to be found 

 in one of Giflbrd's notes on his translation of the 

 thirteenth satire of Juvenal. The words in the 

 original are : 



" Casrula quis stupuit Germani lumina." 



Juv. Sat. XIII. 164. 



And Glfford's note is as follows : 



" Ver. 223. . . . and eyes of sapphire blue fl^ — The 

 people of tiie south seem to have regarded, as a pheno- 

 menon, those blue eyes, which with us are so common, 

 and, indeed, so characteristick of beauty, as to form an 

 indispensable requisite of every Daphne of Grub Street. 

 Tacitus, however, from whom Juvenal perhaps bor- 

 rowed the expression, adds an epithet to ceeridean, which 

 makes the common interpretation doubtful. ' The 

 Germans,' he says (ZJe Mor. Ger. 4.), 'have truces et 

 ceerulei oculi, fierce, lively blue eyes.' With us, this 

 colour is always indicative of a soft, voluptuous lan- 

 guor. What, then, if we have hitherto mistaken the 

 sense, and, instead of blue, should have said sea-green ? 

 This is not an uncommon colour, especially in the 

 north, I have seen "many Norwegian seamen with 

 eyes of this hue, which were invariably quick, keen, 

 and glancing. 



" Shakspeare, whom nothing escaped, has put an 

 admirable description of them into the mouth of Juliet's 

 nurse : 



' O he's a lovely man ! An eagle, madam. 



Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye, 



As Paris hath.' 



*' Steevens, who had some glimpse of the meaning of 

 this word, refers to an apposite passage in The Two 

 Noble Kinsmen. It is in JEmilia's address to Diana : 

 * . . . . . Oh vouchsafe 



With that thy rare green eye, which never yet 

 Beheld things maculate,' &c. 



" It is, indeed, not a little singular, that this expres- 

 sion should have occasioned any difficulty to his com- 

 mentators ; since it occurs in most of our old poets, 



