Note 850 — Chapter XI · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE: HOMER; HESIOD AND HERODOTUS: MYCENÆ.

Demmin (p. 106, &c.) tells us that ‘the Greeks had not even a term to denote the action of riding on horseback’; and that ‘even in French a proper verb does not exist, as the expression chevaucher means rather to stroll (flâner) on horseback.’ As his English translator remarks, the assertion is hardly admissible in the face of such words as ἱππεύειν (equitare), cavalcare, to ride the horse; ἱππεία (riding), ἱππεὺς and ἱππότης (a rider, a knight), and ἐπιβεβηκώς, mounted (scil. on horseback). His interpretation of chevaucher is equally erroneous. Chevaucher, a fine old word, now only too rare, exactly expresses our ‘to ride’: Il chevaucha aux parties d’occident, is quoted from a French MS. (early fourteenth century) by Colonel Yule in his preface to Marco Polo; and the word occurs twice in the same sentence with the same sense.