HKB
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Often appears with: tribal military organization · the passions and the emotions · strategy and the aims of war · strategy and discipline · species, variation, and descent · oaths and covenant · military discipline and training · justice as a virtue · human animal descent · fate, destiny, and necessity · evolutionary ancestry · divine signs
Usually: narrative (1) · reflection (1) · censure (1) · curiosity (1) · exhortation (1)
“It reveals his animal descent; for no one, even if rolling on the ground in a deadly grapple with an enemy, and attempting to bite him, would try to use his canine teeth more than his other teeth.” Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals · insight
Nestor condemns the talkers and urges Agamemnon to lead to battle, demanding the men divide by tribes, promises Jove’s signs, and warns that delay tests whether failure is heavenly or cowardice.
tenth shall take the town.’ This was what he said, and now it is all coming true. Stay here, therefore, all of you, till we take the city of Priam.” On this the Argives raised a shout, till the ships rang again with the uproar. Nestor, knight of Gerene, then addressed them. “Shame on you,” he cried, “to stay talking here like children, when you should fight like men. Where are our covenants now, an…
He concludes that the one-sided canine expression is especially “curious,” linking it to human animal descent, arguing that early human ancestors used large canines in battle or threatening, even when not really attacking.
an attack. Whether the adult anthropomorphous apes, in the males of whom the canines are much larger than in the females, uncover them when prepared to fight, is not known. The expression here considered, whether that of a playful sneer or ferocious snarl, is one of the most curious which occurs in man. It reveals his animal descent; for no one, even if rolling on the ground in a deadly grapple with an enemy, and at…