A diverse idea is illustrated by the like secondary significance of the Greek σκαιός, left, or on the left hand; but also used as “west,” or “westward,” as in the _Iliad_, iii. 149, σκαιαὶ πύλαι, the west gate of Troy. The Greek augur, turning as he did his face to the north, had the left--the sinister, ill-omened, unlucky side,--on the west. Hence the metaphorical significance of ἀριστερός, ominous, boding ill. But the Greeks had also that other mode of expressing the _right and left_ already referred to, derived from their mode of bearing arms. Ancient sculpture, the paintings on tombs and fictile ware, Egyptian, Assyrian, and classic statuary, all illustrate the methods of carrying the shield, and of wielding the sword or spear. Hence the shield-hand became synonymous with the left. The word ἀριστερός has also been interpreted as “the shield-bearing arm.” Among the Romans we may trace some survival of the ancient practice of worshipping towards the east, as in Livy, i. 18, where the augurs are said to turn the right side to the south, and the left side to the north. But the original significance of turning to the east had then been lost sight of; and the particular quarter of the heavens towards which the Roman augur was to look appears to have been latterly very much at the will of the augur himself. It was, at any rate, variable. Livy indicates the east, but Varro assigns the south, and Frontinus the west. Probably part of the augur’s professional skill consisted in selecting the aspect of the heavens suited to the occasion. But this done, the flight of birds and other appearances on the right or on the left determined the will of the gods. “Why,” asks Cicero, himself an augur, “why should the raven on the right and the crow on the left make a confirmatory augury?” “Cur a dextra corvus, a sinistra cornix faciat ratum?” (_De Divin._ i.) The left was the side on which the thunder was declared to be heard which confirmed the inauguration of a magistrate, and in other respects the augur regarded it with special awe. But still the right side was, in all ordinary acceptance, the propitious one, as in the address to Hercules (_Æn._ viii. 302)-- Salve, vera Jovis proles, pecus addite divis; Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.