ANCIENT CHARIOT. 275 



from profefTor Scheffer de Re Fechiculari ; this form is con- 

 firmed by feveral palTages defciibing it. The end next 

 to the axle-tree is therefore called the furca, or, in 

 Greek, Xrn^h^ and ^iirXh ^vXov. The other end, which 

 lay upon the yoke, was called d)(pog *, and by Curtius, 

 fummns teino ; that the temo was inferted into the axle- 

 tree, is plain from Ovid f defcribing the wreck of 

 Phaeton's chariot. 



IlUc frana jacent, illic tetnone revulfus, 

 Axis . 



The body of the chariot was fixed upon this part where 

 the axis and the temo united, and fo ftrongly were all 

 compa6led together, that while we frequently read of 

 the yokes being torn oflf from the temo by the violence 

 of accidents, yet we never meet with an account of 

 the temo being wrenched off from the axis, except in 

 the one inftance of the chariot of the fun driven by 

 Phaeton. 



At the other end, there was either a hole through the 

 folid body of the pole (or a ring affixed to it) through 

 which a pin (fet eredl in the middle of the yoke) pafT- 

 ed in the harnefiing the horfes by this yoke to the 

 chariot, as will be feen prefently. This hole or ring, 

 (<rin/^. A,) is called by Homer, Iliad xxiv. 272, y.pixav. 

 In the original ufe of thefe chariots, each pair or yoke 



* Iliad, V. 729. f Metamorph. lib. iii. 



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