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ἐκ τῶν Αιβυσσέων. H. as usual (cf. ii. pass.) assigns a foreign origin to Greek usages; here he derives the dress of the Palladia. the ‘cry’ in worship, and the use of four-horse chariots from Libyan sources. The only argument advanced (§ 2) is etymological, and the only point that can be accepted is that there had been much intermixture, and so mutual influence, between Greek settlers and Libyans (cf. c. 145 n.). ἐσθής, as distinguished from αἰγίς, is the πέπλος; H. is probably right in saying the Libyan women wore this, and modern travellers speak of ‘leather’ as frequently worn among the desert tribes, e. g. Lyon (p. 110) of the shirts and kaftans of the Tuaricks (sic). It is also not improbable that the snakes of the αἰλίς were originally ‘tassels’. But the resemblance between the Palladia and αἱ Αιβυσσαί was purely accidental, and the etymology is worthless. It is very uncertain whether the connexion between αἰγίς and αἴξ is more than popular, and in any case the word αἰγέη is not Libyan, and goats were common elsewhere than in Libya. H. ignores the fact that Zeus (Il. iv. 167) and Apollo (xv. 229), as well as Athene (v. 738), wear the αἰγίς. τὰ δὲ ἄλλα κτλ.: translate ‘all other points are arranged in the same way’ (in the dress of the Libyan women and of Athene).
ἐρευθεδάνῳ. H.'s observation is better than his archaeology; ‘vermilion’ is still a favourite colour in North Africa.
The ὀλολυγή (which is onomatopoetic, cf. Hallelu-jah) was the women's cry, especially in the worship of Athena; cf. Il. vi. 301 “αἱ δ᾽ ὀλολυγῇ πᾶσαι Ἀθήνῃ χεῖρας ἀνέσχον”, and Xen. An. iv. 3. 19 the women συνωλόλυζον to the soldiers' παιάν. If the Greeks borrowed this anywhere, it would have been from the East; but the ritual cry is a natural instinct of mankind. τέσσερας ἵππους συζευγνύναι. The statement that the Greeks borrowed the four-horse chariot from Libya has been thought to contradict Homer (Il. viii. 185, xi. 699, and Od. xiii. 81) and Pausanias (v. 8. 7), who puts the first Olympic chariot victory 680 B. C.; but H. may mean that the Greeks learned the practice before 630, when Cyrene was founded.
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