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( êÝíôñïí )
This was a pole about 8 ft. in length, carried by Eastern plough men. Armed at one end with a spike and at the other with a chisel-shaped blade, it was used now to urge the yoked beasts to move faster, now to clean the share. Only one hand being required to hold and guide the light plough, the other was free to wield the goad. The Kicking of oxen against the goad (Authorized Version the pricks) suggested a popular metaphor for futile and painful resistance- óêëçñüí óïé ðñὸò êÝíôñá ëáêôßæåéí (Act_26:14; all uncials omit these words in 9:5). The same figure is found in Pind. Pyth. ii. 173; aesch. Prom. 323; Eurip. Bacch. 795; Terence, Phorm. i. ii. 28.
James Strahan.