April 21, 1887] 



NA TURE 



587 



from heaven breakelh open the infinite air, and all stars 

 are seen, and the shepherd s heart is ghid ; even in like 

 multitude between the ships and the streams of Xanthos 

 appeared the watch-fires that the Trojans kindled in front 

 of Ilios." 1 



Here, as elsewhere, the simile no sooner presents itself 

 than the poet's imagination seizes upon and develops' 

 it without overmuch regard to the illustrative fitness of its 

 details. The multitudinous effect of a thousand fires 

 blazing together on the plain inevitably suggested the 

 stars. But with the stars came the complete nocturnal 

 scene in its profound and breathless tranquillity. The 

 " rejoicing shepherd," meantime, who was part of it, 

 would hive been ill-pleased with the darkness required 

 for the innumerable stellar display first thought of. And 

 since, to the untutored sense, landscape is delightful only 

 so far as it gives promise of utility, briUiant moonlight 

 was added, for his satisfaction and the safety of his flock, 

 as well as for the perfecting of that scenic beauty felt to 

 be deficient where hum.n needs were left uncared for. 

 Just in proportion, however, as rocks, and peaks, and 

 wooied glens appeared distinct, the lesser lights ot 

 heaven, and with them the fundamental idea of the com- 

 paris jn, must ha\e become effaced ; and the poet, 

 accordingly, as if with a misgiving that the fervour of 

 his fancy had led him to stray from the rigid line of his 

 purpose, volunteered the assurance that " all the stars 

 were visible " — as, to his mind and eye, they doubtless 

 were. 



Of the " vivid planets '' thrown in by Pope there is no 

 trace in the original. Nor could there be; since Homer 

 was totally ignorant that such a class of bodies existed. 

 This curious fact aftbrds (if it were needed) conclusive 

 proof of the high antiquity of the Homeric poems. Not 

 the faintest suspicion manifests itself in them that 

 Hesperus, "fairest of all stars set in heaven,' is but 

 another aspect of Phosphorus, herald of light upon the 

 earth, "the star that safiron-mantled Dawn cometh after, 

 and spreadeth over the salt sea " (" Iliad," xxiii. 226-27). 

 The identification is said by Diogenes Laertius to have 

 been first made by Pythagoras ; and it may at any rate 

 be assumed with some confidence that this elementary 

 piece of astronomical knowledge came to the Greeks 

 from the East, with others of a like nature, in the course 

 of the si.xth or seventh century v,.c. Astonishing as it 

 seems that they should not ha\e made the discovery for 

 themselves, there is no evidence that they did so. 

 Hesiod appears equally unconscious with Homer of 

 the distinction between "fixed" and "wandering" 

 stars. According to his genealogical information. 

 Phosphorus, like the rest of the stellar multitude, 

 sprang from the union of Astrasus with the Dawn 

 {"Theogony," 3SO, but no hint is given of any generic 

 dift'erence between them. 



There is a single passage in the '' Iliad," and a parallel 

 one in the " Odyssey," in which the constellations are 

 formally enumerated by name. Hephsestus, we are told, 

 made for the son of Thetis a shield great and strong, 

 whereon, by his exceeding skill, a multitude of objects 

 were figured. 



" There wrought he the earth, and the heavens, and 

 the sea, and the unwearying sun, and the moon waxing to 

 the full, and the signs every one wherewith the heavens 

 are croivned, Pleiads, and Hyads, and Orion's might, 

 and the Bear that men call also the Wain, her that turneth 

 in her place, and watcheth Orion, and alone hath no part 

 in the baths of Ocean" (" Iliad," xviii. 4S3-S9). 



The corresponding lines in the " Odyssey " occur in the 

 course of describing Ulysses' voyage from the isle of 

 Calypso to the land of the Phreacians. Alone, on the 

 raft he had constructed of Ogygian pine-wood, he sat 

 during seventeen days, " and cunningly guided the craft 



■ " Ilbd," viii. 551-57- 

 employed" throughout this 



with the helm ; nor did sleep fall upon his eyelids, as he 

 viewed the Pleiads and Bootes, that setteth late, and the 

 Bear, which they likewise call the Wain, which turneth 

 ever in one place, and keepeth watch upon Orion, and 

 alone hath no part in the baths of Ocean" (" Odyssey," v 



271-75)- 



The saihng-directions of the goddess were to keep the 

 Bear always on the left — that is, to steer due east. 



It is clear that one of these passages is an adaptation 

 from the other ; nor is there reason for hesitation in 

 deciding which was the model. Independently of 

 extrinsic evidence, the verses in the "Iliad" have the 

 strong spontaneous ring of originality, while the Odyssean 

 lines betray excision and interpolation. The " Hyads and 

 Orion's might " are suppressed for the sake of introducing 

 Bootes. Variety was doubtless aimed at in the change ; 

 and the conjecture is at least a plausible one, that the 

 added constellation may have been known to the poet of 

 the " Odyssey " (admitting the hypothesis of a divided 

 authorship), though not to the poet of the " Iliad," 

 Known, that is, in the sense that the stars comprising the 

 figure of the celestial Husbandman had not yet, at the 

 time and place of origin of the " Iliad," become separated 

 from the anonymous throng circling in the "murk of 

 night." 



The constellation Bootes was invented to drive the 

 Wain, as .-\rctophylax to guard the Bear, the same group 

 in each case going by a double name. For the brightest 

 of the stars thus designated we still preserve the appella- 

 tion Arcturus (from ark/os, bear, ouros, guardian), first 

 used by Hesiod, who fi.xed upon its acronychal rising, sixty 

 days after the winter solstice, as the signal for pruning 

 the vines ("Works and Days," 564-70). It is not unlikely 

 that the star received its name long before the constella- 

 tion was thought of, forming the nucleus of a subsequently 

 formed group. This was undoubtedly the course of events 

 elsewhere ; the Great and Little Dogs, for instance, the 

 Twins, and the Eagle (the last with two minute com- 

 panions) having been individualised as stars previous to 

 their re;ognition as asterisms. 



There is reason to believe that the stars enumerated in 

 the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" constituted the whole of 

 those known by name to the early Greeks. This view is 

 strongly favoured by the identity of the Homeric and 

 Hesiodic stars. It is difficult to believe that, had there 

 been room for choice, the same list precisely would have 

 been picked out for presentation in poems so widely 

 diverse in scope and origin as the " Iliad " and 

 " Odyssey" on the one side, and the "Works and Days" 

 on the other. As regards the polar constellations, we 

 have positive proof that none besides Ursa Major had 

 been distinguished. For the statement repeated in both 

 the Homeric epics, that the Bear alone was without part 

 in the baths of Ocean, implies, not that the poet verit- 

 ably ignored the unnumbered stars revolving within the 

 circle traced out round the pole by the seven of the 

 Plough, but that they still remained a nameless crowd, 

 unassociated with any terrestrial object, and therefore 

 attracting no popular observation. 



The Greeks, according to a well-attested tradition, 

 made acquaintance with the Lesser Bear through Phoe- 

 nician communication, of which Thales was the medium 

 Hence the designation of the group as Phoinikc. .Aratus 

 (who versified the prose of Eudoxus) has accordingly two 

 Bears, lying (in sailors' phrase) "heads and points" on 

 the sphere ; while he expressly states that the Greeks still 

 (about 270 B.C.) continued to steer by Helikc (the 

 Twister, Ursa Major), while the expert Phcenicians 

 directed their course by the less mobile Kynosoura (LIrsa 

 Minor). The absence of any mention of a Pole-star 

 seems at first sight surprising. Even the Iroquois 

 Indians directed their wanderings from of old by the one 

 celestial luminary of which the position remained sensibly 

 invariable (Lafitau, " IMceurs des Sauvages Amdricains," 



