a Mechanical and Physiological point of view. 25 



He said, and noosing a strong galley rope 

 To a huge column, led the cord around 

 The spacious dome, suspended so aloft, 

 That none with quivering feet might reach the floor. 

 As when a flight of doves entering the copse, 

 Or broad-winged thrushes, strike against the net 

 Within; ill rest, entangled, there they find; 

 So they, suspended by the neck, expired 

 All in one line together. Death abhorred ! 

 With restless feet awhile they beat the air, 

 Then ceased." 



^n? ap 1 6<j)7], real ireiafia veb<; KvavoirpoopoLo 

 klovos i^dyjra*; fieyaXr)^ 7repif3a\\e 66\oio, 

 vyjroo-' inrevTavvaas, iirjTis irocrlv ovSas lkolto. 

 a>9 8 } orav rj Ki^at ravvaiirTepoL rje ireXeiai, 

 ep/cei ivnrkr)%(6<TL, rod'' earrjicei ivl Odfjuvw 

 aiikiv eaiifxevai, GTwyepo? B } viroBe^aro koItos, 

 a><? avy efet?7? fce<pa\,a<; €%ov, afj,(f)L Be Trdaai? 

 Beipfjcri /3p6%0L rjaav, oVa)? olktlgtcl Odvoiev 

 tfairatpov Be iroBeaaL fiLvvvOd irep, ovti /jidXa BrjV. 



Od. xxii. 465-473. 



There are two ways in which we may conceive the execution 

 to have been effected. 



1. Telemachus, with the aid of Eumseus and Philcetius, having 

 fastened one end of the rope to one of the main pillars of the 

 hall, made slipknots (/3p6^ot) upon it, which were placed round 

 the necks of the twelve women, and having passed the other, or 

 free end of the rope, round the top of the vaulted kitchen, they 

 then all pulled together, in sailor fashion, on the rope, and 

 hoisted the women into the air, so as to form a funicular poly- 

 gon, in which some of them necessarily hung nearer to the 

 ground than others — /jliJtls iroalv ovBas lkolto. 



2. The ship-rope, with one end fastened to the pillar, w r as 

 carried round the vaulted dome of the kitchen {irepL^aXke 

 OoXolo) and made fast upon itself; from this rope were then 

 suspended smaller ropes with slipknots or nooses (fSpo^oL), which 

 were passed round the necks of the women, who must have been 

 lifted up one by one for the purpose, so as to swing clear of the 

 ground. The simile of fieldfares* and wood-pigeons caught in 



* It is a very remarkable confirmation of the minute accuracy with which 

 Homer describes every phenomenon of nature, that fieldfares (Turdus pila- 

 ris) are now commonly caught by falconers as food for their hawks by a 

 contrivance almost identical with that here described. A stick or rope is 

 placed in front of either a hawthorne, or mountain ash, covered with ber- 

 ries, and from it are suspended running nooses at equal intervals. The 



