xlii

convenience of containing the spears in an upright position 1 .The illustrations of the word given by Suidas, Hesychius, andPollux 2 , are perfectly consistent with the interpretation herestated, and afford not the slightest intimation of an architecturalorigin. If the true meaning of the passage were less obviousthan it really is, however ingenious the conjecture, therewould still be strong presumption against its accuracy. Thatan operose contrivance should have been resorted to for thissimple and useful purpose seems so highly improbable, that,even if aotpoaokh must be considered as connected with, andin manner forming part of the column, the explaining it tomean some substance fixed to the column, and so fashionedas to receive and support the spears, would surely describea more natural invention than that of twenty channelslaboriously cut around it, and which, at the same time,presented a place of deposit for the weapons much lesssecure and commodious. The very epithet of c well-polished,’or c well wrought,’ which is applied to the word, is so entirelydissimilar from all those used in describing the columns,that it must be considered as alluding to something of amore ornamental construction, whatever may have been thesubstance of which it was composed 3 . The spear-holder

1 Eustath. in Loc.

or* SovgoSoKy) eri Sogdrcuy xiovst$y$ y frctXet$ xlovcc

syysyKv^svvj, hv yj 7^05- oc^o'-njra Sonata fravro.

2 Said, in Loc. Hesych. in Loc. Poll. 1. i. c. JO. 1. vii. c. 33. 1. x. c. 33.

3 Achilles withdraws his spear from the long sheath, or case, (trt/fiyyo*) in whichit had been preserved. (II. xix. 387.) The Homeric spear was nearly seventeenfeet long (II. viii. 494.), so that Mr. Knight, who admits the massive proportion ofcolumns to be regulated by their comparative antiquity, can scarcely expect, in thevery first ages of the art, to find them of a height, which, with the capital, wouldgive a diameter of nearly five feet.