Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/495

 A Note on Greek Anthropology. 431

Design. Aristotle, {Part. An., iv., 10. 8), with his usual teleology, says that man is upright because his nature and essence is divine. Often the reason assigned for this opOoTrj? is that man may gaze on the heaven ; see Cicero {Laws, i. 26, Nat. Deor. ii. 40) and Ovid {Met. i. 84 et seq.). Prometheus gave man his upright position at birth {j^ et seq.) ; Vitr. (ii. i), Seneca {Ot. Sap., 32), Lactantius {De op., 8), and other passages quoted by Mayor on Juvenal, xv. 147.

In supporting Prof. Mair's belief that the idea of man going on all fours is un-Greek, I am conscious of the difficulty which always attends the proof of a negative, and the fallacy of the argumentum a silentio may easily be quoted on the other side. If, however, the above argu- ments are correct, it would appear that the onus of proof should be shifted to those who doubt Prof. Mair's belief. I have at least tried to show that, not only would such a conspiracy of silence be very remarkable, but that there is an actual reason why Prof. Mair seems to be right ; i.e. that the evolutionary ideas inherent in the theory of four-footed man were outside the range of Greek thought.

It only remains to add that, in my opinion. Prof. Mair is right in rejecting Dr. Adam's interpretation of Hesiod, Op. 113, and Plato, Symp. 189 E. With regard to Hesiod, Prof. Mair's explanation of the words 7ro(5a? Kai xeipa<i OJJ.0I0L as a test of perpetual youth is quite conclusive. The androgynous man imagined (according to Plato) by Aristophanes may " travel by a series of somersaults," but certainly does not go on all fours ; indeed, Plato distinctly specifies his carriage as upright, — eiropevero Se kui opOov wairep vvv oiroTepwae (BouXtjOeir]. The two pairs of legs serve the creature in walking either way. Finally, the comparison of Aeschylus between men, who burrow underground for their dwellings {Karwpvx^?), and ants, is surely pertinent as it stands ; it is a simple poetical siviile, which, in default of other evidence, cannot be pressed beyond its obvious application. E. E. SiKES.