Meaning of ἱππῆας in LSJ vs Cunliffe/Autenrieth

Greek Learning Greek
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Hi everyone,

First of all, Happy New Year!

I wanted to ask a question about what dictionary to go with when a Homeric word has other meanings in other dictionaries. The word I am looking at now, which motivated me to create this post, is ἱππῆας in the following line about Nestor’s tactics in Agamemnon’s Epipolesis:

IL.4.297 ἱππῆας μὲν πρῶτα σὺν ἵπποισιν καὶ ὄχεσφιν,
IL.4.297 hippêas men prôta sun hippoisin kai ochesphin,
IL.4.297 First he ranged the mounted men with their horses and chariots.

Cunliffe explians hippeas as charioteer, one who fights from/with aid of a chariot. Autenrieth is pretty much the same. The LSJ however states “one who fights from a chariot, Hom. (only in Il.), opp. πεζός, 2.810; either of the driver or of the hero who fights, 12.66, 15.270; also of one who drives in a chariot-race, 23.262.”

My confusion comes from the LSJ’s explanation: “..of the driver”. If hippeas can mean the warrior (i.e the armored one that ultimately steps down to fight hand to hand), then the line is clear to me. But if the word can also mean the driver of the chariot (normally an attendant of the warrior on board) then the line is a little different in meaning, subtle but different nonetheless.

Is my understanding of the LSJ’s two potential meanings correct? If so, how do I reconcile this with Cunliffe and Autenrieth ? Which source should I default to in similar situations?

background: I do not have any education in Ancient Greek. It is just my hobby to read and think thru the lines of the Iliad and almost always I have to look up meaning of Greek words directly. I used to exclusively use LSJ (thru tufts or lsj.gr), then discovered logeion.uchicago.edu. After a while, I realized that any entry I can find under Autenrieth and/or Cunliffe tends to be easier to understand.

Thank you in advance,
Kal

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Without looking spefically up those passages or doing any deeper research into this, apparently it’s not quite that specific and can have either meaning depending on context? Like English ”flyer” can mean both pilot and passanger (I think).

One thing to note about chariots in Homer is that they (just like the use of bronze instead of steel) were an archaism at the time when the poem was composed. The poet knew that his heroes were supposed to use chariots, but he didn’t exactly know how chariot warfare worked, because in his own time armies already had cavalry. (Just like a modern historical films don’t have a clue about how ancient battles were fought.) Basically, Homer’s chariots are just taxis: the driver gives a ride to the hero and takes him to the front of the battle, where the hero dismounts and fights on foot. So all in all, as the poet doesn’t seem to understand the specifics of chariot warfare, I wouldn’t expect him to be very specific about the vocabulary either.

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The german Homer-Dictionary of Capelle ( Vollständiges Wörterbuch über die Gedichte des Homeros und der Homeriden : zum Schul- und Privat-Gebrauch nach dem früheren Seiler'schen Homer-Wörterbuch : Seiler, Ernst Eduard, 1810- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive ) has for ιππευς=warrior on Chariot (in most cases, ones it seems to be the driver, Iliad 11:51,52); ηνιοχος=driver of Chariot;

In Cunliffe you should also look up ηνιοχος (=driver) and παρα(ι)βα(ι)της (=Warrior/Passenger, Iliad 23:132 Hapax in Homeric Texts, some Scholars think this line is not authentic).

Herodot and Xenophon have for “driver” ηνιοχος; ιππευς then is a Horseman (Cavalry). Arrian has ηνιοχεω=holding the reins;

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As for Homer not having a clue: He seems to have had a strange impresssion of a battle-Field: The Hero arrives on his Charriot, looking around for some Hero-opponent (no Hero ever fights an ordinary private soldier), he walks to this Enemy-Hero, they have some short conversation, one kills the other, the survivor takes the Gear of the Killed one, walks back to his charriot (hey, the Taximeter is on!) and leaves the battlefield. Homer’s picture of a battlefield is the picture of a war-game, not of any reality.

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Yes, Jean is right: ἡνίοχος is the standard word for “driver” in Homer (it actually means “reins-holder”).

Let me quote the entry for ἱππεύς in Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos (LfgrE) (the most authoritative dictionary on early hexameter poetry) (which I take the liberty to abridge):

‘horseman’, charioteer, Wagenkämpfer, usu. (24 our of 28x) pl. word of common use from living language (not markedly formulaic) as opp. to archaic, strongly formulaic ἱππηλάτα ἱππότα.
[…]
pl.: mostly in martial context, of that part of the army (in Il. both of Greeks and Trojans; often expl. opposed to πέζοι, see pcps.) using chariots (ref. always to use of chariot [the norm in Hom.[…]), as clear from close [e.g. Δ297, 322, Λ51, 151] or remoter [Β810 (see e.g. Β838, Γ113, E20) = Θ59 (see e.g. Θ88f., 260. 503f.), Ο258. 270. (see e.g. Ο3. 354)] context […]); usu. app. ref. in general to occupants, users of chariots (who w. πέζοι constitute army), i.e. including both warriors (παραβάται), who generally dismount to fight, and their ἡνίοχοι, θεράποντες.
[…]
[ἱππεύς] prim. ref. prob. always to warrior owner, master of horses and chariot, ἱππεύς connoting wealth and status [all major heroes on both sides in Il., exc. Od. and Aias […] among the ἱππἢες; […] L720f. Nestor still ranks himself among the ἱππεῦσι, though temporarily without a chariot […] and 2 below the dismounted Patr. still ἱππεῦ[…]
[…]
Λ51.52. [applied] to ἡνίοχοι (see v. 47) alone (opp. to dismounted warriors advancing πρυλέες, v.49).

So emerging picture is that ἱππεύς means anyone using chariots and especially in martial contexts, applied to both warriors (παραβάται) and drivers (ἡνίοχοι), but since the word has a connotation of wealth and status, it’s more often used of the warrior. Someone with hero status can be called ἱππεύς even if not riding a chariot at the present moment.

In later times, ἱππεύς means cavalry horseman, when war chariots were no longer used. Homer doesn’t feature horse riding at all, except in the 10th book of the Iliad, if I remember correctly. But that book is a later addition by a different poet (the tone is wholly different and you could take it out without noticing).