Note 276 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
De bello Gallico L. v. c. 17.
Ἑρμοῦ Ἐνοδίου καὶ Ἡγεμονίου. “Deum maximè Mercurium colunt,” says Cæsar of the Gauls or Celts: “hujus sunt plurima simulacra; hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt; hunc viarum atque itinerum ducem; hunc ad quæstus pecuniæ mercaturasque habere vim maximam arbitrantur.” Being the god of every species of gain, and the dog being sacred to him, we have additional reasons for the injunction of the text. He was calledLexicon Antiq. V. ii. 186. Ἐνόδιος or “vialis” according to Pitiscus, “qui viarum præses, in biviis, et compitis ponebatur ad semitas monstrandas:” in which capacity his statues are, what are commonly called Terminal,—that seemingly imperfect, ugly, awkward-looking shape, to which a worthless Roman nobleman, Rubellius Plancus, is assimilated by the satirist of Aquinum;
Juvenal. Sat. viii. 52.
at tu Nil nisi Cecropides, truncoque simillimus Hermæ. Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine, quàm quòd Illi marmoreum caput est, tua vivit imago.
A Greek medal is extant of Arrian’s native city, of the reign of Antoninus Pius, bearing the impress of the god Terminus. See Nummophylacium Reginæ Christinæ, Tab. lvii.
The old herdsman of Theocritus, with the title εἰνόδιος, affords the reason of its use:
Idyll. xxv. 3.
ἔκ τοι ξεῖνε πρόφρων μυθήσομαι ὅσσ’ ἐρεείνεις, Ἑρμέω ἁζόμενος δεινὴν ὄπιν εἰνοδίοιο. τὸν γὰρ φασὶ μέγιστον ἐπουρανίων κεχολῶσθαι, εἴ κεν ὁδοῦ ζαχρεῖον ἀνῄνηταί τις ὁδίτην.
See Eustathius ad Homeri Odyss. xvi. and Ouzelius ad M. Minuc. Felic. Octavium, p. 109.
In his character of guide or conductor, (Ἡγεμόνιος,) amongst many others, the wily god volunteers his services to Cario, in the Plutus of Aristophanes:
Act. v. sc. i.
ΕΡ. ἀλλ’ ἡγεμόνιον. ΚΑ. ἀλλ’ ὁ θεὸς ἤδη βλέπει. ὥσθ’ ἡγεμόνος οὐδὲν δεησόμεσθ’ ἔτι.
Though the messenger of the gods, and supremely Διὸς ἄγγελος, he seems to have been a willing itinerant on earth (ὁδοιπόρος) in the cause of humanity. See Iliad xxiv.
Guard of our life, and partner of our way!