Belcher. — Land-system of the Iliad. 25 



house and land, the landlord's house and land, are conceptions 

 that have some correlation in fact. That a man should dwell 

 in the midst of his land seems an appropriate arrangement. 



Society, as Eidgway points out, seems to be in the house- 

 community stage. 



In Priam's house, II. vi. 243, the whole of his family dwell 

 together : 



fiAA.' 0T€ 8^ Ilpiu/xoto Sojuov TreptKaAXe' iKovev. 



■'o^ 



■jT-evTrjKOVT evecrav daXafjiOL ^ecrroio XlOolo. 



It contains fifty apartments built of polished stone. The 

 sons of the monarch, his daughters, live with tlieir spouses 

 beneath a common roof. The passage in Virgil repeats the 

 intimation afforded by the Iliad. A man's kinsfolk are i^ia-TioL, 

 they belong to the same hearth. This may be an epithet sur- 

 viving from an older time, but it is significantly appropriate 

 to the conditions of the only known Trojan household. The 

 term is also applied to the native Trojan as distinct from 

 foreigners (eVtKoupot) . 



In the Odyssey the house of Menelaos at Sparta, of 

 Alkinoos in Phaeakia, of Odusseus in Ithaka, are described ; 

 but this circumstantial detail is omitted : a point which, taken 

 with other considerations, goes to show that the social life of 

 the Iliad is remote from that of the Odyssey. 



This common house points to common land ; and there is 

 a fine passage in II. xviii. -541, to which attention may now^ be 

 directed : 



€V 6' iTLdrj veLov jjLaXaKijv, TvUipav apovpav, 

 eipelav rptVoXoi', k.t.A. 



The poet is describing the Scutum Acliillis, and says the 

 craftsman wrought into it " a loamy rich land, fallow, broad, 

 and thrice ploughed (TptVoAoi') ; and many ploughmen in the 

 fallow drove their teams up and down, turning at the head- 

 land; and when they had done their turn, and had reached the 

 top of the land, a man came forward, and gave to each into 

 his hands a stoup of rich wine, while others w'ere doing their 

 turn up the furrows and were driving to reach the headland of 

 the deep-soiled field." 



This is the famous Ploughing of the Fallow in the Scutum, 

 and the conjecture is reasonable that it indicates a ploughing 

 of the common land simultaneously by all interested on a day 

 fixed by authority or custom. Doubtless the labour was 

 begun by all at once, at an annual date, such as was, among 

 our forefathers, Plough Monday. 



The word rpi-n-oXov is bracketed into the text above, as 

 deserving some consideration in detail. The customary trans- 

 lation "thrice ploughed" has been used ; but this translation 



