TIME-KEEPING IN GREECE AND ROME. 393 



iustauce of it; probably for all time, was in the Tower of tlie Winds, 

 which, tifty years before our era, was erected in the market-place in that 

 city. A running stream kept at a constant level the water in an upper 

 vessel, the discharge from which raised a float in a lower one, like that 

 in the Chinese water-clock before described. This was the public time- 

 l)iece of Athens, and its indications could always be compared with 

 those of the sun-dials on the frieze of the octagonal building by which 

 it was inclosed. At the top of the roof was a weather-vane in the form 

 of a Triton, who pointed with his trident towards the prevailing wind. 

 This institution served for Athens the combined purpose of a naval 

 observatory and a weather bureau. 



With time-keeping so generally observed, and with a fair degree of 

 accuracy secured by means of mechanical contrivances, tliis history 

 closes, but in reciting it I have omitted or only incidentally touched 

 upon the growth of the idea of dividing the day into hours and the me- 

 chanical elaboration of what — in its perfected form — is properly termed 

 the water-clock. These elements, in the coin.plete history, are too im- 

 portant to be omitted. 



Since we are only concerning ourselves with time-keeping in common 

 life, we need not go back to Egypt or Babylon, where there is no evi- 

 dence that it was known except to the initiated few. Whatever ideas 

 are conveyed to us by the twelve divisions of the day known to the 

 Babylonians, or by the graduated dial set up by the Hebrew king in his 

 palace, it is evident that if the Greek philosophers derived from their 

 Eastern contemporaries any notions of common or domestic time-keep- 

 ing, these failed to take root in their soil until Greece, by her own pro- 

 gress, had prepared it to receive them. 



The divisions of the day known to Homer were three: r;w<j, for the 

 period from sunrise till noon ; fiiaov ijixap^ for mid-day 5 and deiX-q, for 

 afternoon till sunset. These divisions were employed in Greece to the 

 latest period and long after others more exact were in use. Even with 

 our nice observance of time we have similar general expressions for 

 parts of the day, such as morning, mid-day, afternoon, and many others 

 often having only local use. 



If the Babylonian " twelve parts " of the day were made known to 

 the Greeks, as Herodotus tells us, it was a knowledge for which they 

 had no use at that period. With the introduction of the gnomon they 

 began to observe time more closely, but they had no names for its arbi- 

 trary divisions. 



Wheu the shadow was 6 feet long it was time to bathe; when twice 

 that length it was time to sup. It is not even certain, to my mind, that 

 they clearly appreciated the varying length of the day. There is no 

 possibility of setting a summer and winter day side by side and com- 

 paring them, and the difference between them can only be determined 

 by some means of measuring time (piite distinct from observation of 

 the suu or shadows. The great difference between the days of winter 



