No More Learning

With this process of aesthetic separation, the
conception of Homer gradually became narrower:
the old material meaning of the name " Homer"


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164 HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY.
as the father of the heroic epic poem, was changed
into the aesthetic meaning of Homer, the father of
poetry in general, and likewise its original proto-
type. This transformation was contemporary
with the rationalistic criticism which made Homer
the magician out to be a possible poet, which
vindicated the material and formal traditions of
those numerous epics as against the unity of the
poet, and gradually removed that heavy load of
cyclical epics from Homer's shoulders.
So Homer, the poet of the Iliad and the
Odyssey, is an aesthetic judgment. It is, however,
by no means affirmed against the poet of these
epics that he was merely the imaginary being of
an aesthetic impossibility, which can be the opinion
of only very few philologists indeed. The majority
contend that a single individual was responsible
for the general design of a poem such as the
Iliad, and further that this individual was Homer.
The first part of this contention may be admitted;
but, in accordance with what I have said, the
latter part must be denied. And I very much
doubt whether the majority of those who adopt
the first part of the contention have taken the
following considerations into account.
The design of an epic such as the Iliad is not
an entire whole, not an organism; but a number
of pieces strung together, a collection of reflections
arranged in accordance with aesthetic rules. It is
certainly the standard of an artist's greatness to
note what he can take in with a single glance and
set out in rhythmical form. The infinite profusion
of images and incidents in the Homeric epic must


## p. 165 (#185) ############################################

HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY. 165
force us to admit that such a wide range of vision
is next to impossible. Where, however, a poet is
unable to observe artistically with a single glance,
he usually piles conception on conception, and
endeavours to adjust his characters according to a
comprehensive scheme.
He will succeed in this all the better the more
he is familiar with the fundamental principles of
aesthetics: he will even make some believe that he
made himself master of the entire subject by a
single powerful glance.
The Iliad is not a garland, but a bunch of
flowers. As many pictures as possible are crowded
on one canvas; but the man who placed them
there was indifferent as to whether the grouping
of the collected pictures was invariably suitable
and rhythmically beautiful. He well knew that
no one would ever consider the collection as a
whole; but would merely look at the individual
parts. But that stringing together of some pieces
as the manifestations of a grasp of art which was
not yet highly developed, still less thoroughly
comprehended and generally esteemed, cannot
have been the real Homeric deed, the real Homeric
epoch-making event. On the contrary, this design
is a later product, far later than Homer's celebrity.
Those, therefore, who look for the "original and
perfect design" are looking for a mere phantom;
for the dangerous path of oral tradition had reached
its end just as the systematic arrangement appeared
on the scene; the disfigurements which were
caused on the way could not have affected
the design, for this did not form part of the


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166 HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY.
material handed down from generation to
generation.
The relative imperfection of the design must
not, however, prevent us from seeing in the
designer a different personality from the real
poet. It is not only probable that everything
which was created in those times with conscious
aesthetic insight, was infinitely inferior to the
songs that sprang up naturally in the poet's mind
and were written down with instinctive power:
we can even take a step further. If we include
the so-called cyclic poems in this comparison,
there remains for the designer of the Iliad and the
Odyssey the indisputable merit of having done
something relatively great in this conscious
technical composing: a merit which we might
have been prepared to recognise from the begin-
ning, and which is in my opinion of the very first
order in the domain of instinctive creation. We
may even be ready to pronounce this synthetisa-
tion of great importance. All those dull passages
and discrepancies—deemed of such importance,
but really only subjective, which we usually look
upon as the petrified remains of the period of
tradition—are not these perhaps merely the almost
necessary evils which must fall to the lot of the
poet of genius who undertakes a composition
virtually without a parallel, and, further, one
which proves to be of incalculable difficulty?
Let it be noted that the insight into the most
diverse operations of the instinctive and the
conscious changes the position of the Homeric
problem; and in my opinion throws light upon it.


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HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY. \6j
We believe in a great poet as the author of the
Iliad and the Odyssey—but not that Homer was
this poet.
The decision on this point has already been
given. The generation that invented those
numerous Homeric fables, that poetised the myth
of the contest between Homer and Hesiod, and
looked upon all the poems of the epic cycle as
Homeric, did not feel an aesthetic but a material
singularity when it pronounced the name " Homer. "
This period regards Homer as belonging to the
ranks of artists like Orpheus, Eumolpus, Daedalus,
and Olympus, the mythical discoverers of a new
branch of art, to whom, therefore, all the later
fruits which grew from the new branch were
thankfully dedicated.
And that wonderful genius to whom we owe
the Iliad and the Odyssey belongs to this thank-
ful posterity: he, too, sacrificed his name on the
altar of the primeval father of the Homeric epic,
Homeros.
Up to this point, gentlemen, I think I have
been able to put before you the fundamental
philosophical and aesthetic characteristics of the
problem of the personality of Homer, keeping all
minor details rigorously at a distance, on the
supposition that the primary form of this wide-
spread and honeycombed mountain known as the
Homeric question can be most clearly observed
by looking down at it from a far-off height. But
I have also, I imagine, recalled two facts to those
friends of antiquity who take such delight in
accusing us philologists of lack of piety for great


## p. 168 (#188) ############################################

168 HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY.
conceptions and an unproductive zeal for destruc-
tion. In the first place, those " great" conceptions
—such, for example, as that of the indivisible and
inviolable poetic genius, Homer—were during the
pre-Wolfian period only too great, and hence in-
wardly altogether empty and elusive when we
now try to grasp them. If classical philology
goes back again to the same conceptions, and
once more tries to pour new wine into old bottles,
it is only on the surface that the conceptions are
the same: everything has really become new;
bottle and mind, wine and word. We everywhere
find traces of the fact that philology has lived in
company with poets, thinkers, and artists for the
last hundred years: whence it has now come
about that the heap of ashes formerly pointed to
as classical philology is now turned into fruitful
and even rich soil. *
And there is a second fact which I should like
to recall to the memory of those friends of antiquity
who turn their dissatisfied backs on classical
philology. You honour the immortal masterpieces
of the Hellenic mind in poetry and sculpture, and
think yourselves so much more fortunate than
preceding generations, which had to do without
them; but you must not forget that this whole
fairyland once lay buried under mountains of
prejudice, and that the blood and sweat and
arduous labour of innumerable followers of our
science were all necessary to lift up that world
* Nietzsche perceived later on that this statement was,
unfortunately, not justified. —Tr.


## p. 169 (#189) ############################################

HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY. 169
from the chasm into which it had sunk. We grant
that philology is not the creator of this world,
not the composer of that immortal music; but
is it not a merit, and a great merit, to be a mere
virtuoso, and let the world for the first time hear
that music which lay so long in obscurity, despised
and undecipherable? Who was Homer previously
to Wolfs brilliant investigations? A good old
man, known at best as a " natural genius," at all
events the child of a barbaric age, replete with
faults against good taste and good morals. Let
us hear how a learned man of the first rank writes
about Homer even so late as 1783: "Where does
the good man live? Why did he remain so long
incognito? Apropos, can't you get me a
silhouette of him? "
We demand thanks—not in our own name, for
we are but atoms—but in the name of philology
itself, which is indeed neither a Muse nor a Grace,
but a messenger of the gods: and just as the
Muses descended upon the dull and tormented
Boeotian peasants, so Philology comes into a
world full of gloomy colours and pictures, full of
the deepest, most incurable woes; and speaks
to men comfortingly of the beautiful and
godlike figure of a distant, rosy, and happy
fairyland.
It is time to close; yet before I do so a
few words of a personal character must be
added, justified, I hope, by the occasion of this
lecture.
It is but right that a philologist should describe
his end and the means to it in the short formula


## p. 170 (#190) ############################################

170 HOMER AND CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY.
of a confession of faith; and let this be done in
the saying of Seneca which I thus reverse—
"Philosophia facta est quae philologia fuit. "
By this I wish to signify that all philological
activities should be enclosed and surrounded by a
philosophical view of things, in which everything
individual and isolated is evaporated as something
detestable, and in which great homogeneous views
alone remain. Now, therefore, that I have enunci-
ated my philological creed, I trust you will give
me cause to hope that I shall no longer be a
stranger among you: give me the assurance that
in working with you towards this end I am worthily
fulfilling the confidence with which the highest
authorities of this community have honoured me.
A


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THE WORKS OF
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.
First Complete and Authorised English Translation, in 18 Volumes.
Edited by Dr. OSCAR LEVY.
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The Case of Wagner; Nietzsche contra Wagner;
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We Philologists, etc.
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Ecce Homo. (The celebrated Autobiography. )
T. N. FOULIS, 15 Frederick Street, Edinburgh; and
21 Paternoster Square, London, E. C.


## p. (#192) ################################################

OTHER NIETZSCHE AN LITERATURE
ON THE TRACKS OF LIFE:
THE IMMORALITY OF MORALITY.
Translated from the Italian of Leo G. Sera by
J. M. Kennedy.
With an Introduction by Dr. Oscar Levy.
7*. 6d. net.
(John Lane. )
Dr. Sera is a physician who has deeply studied literature
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of social life on its original basis. " The author adduces
many new and startling theories in regard to the questions he
treats of in support of his views. He holds that the diffusion
of democratic principles is vulgarising science and art, and
that present social conditions, especially work and Christian
teaching, are leading to the intellectual and moral degen-
eration of the race. Stimulating chapters on Stendhal,
Nietzsche, Goethe, The Origin of Society, Work, and the
Aristocratic Ideal, show current opinions of Genius, Aristo-
cracy, Democracy, Sport, and Sexuality in a new light.
Scientific thought is put upon a new basis more in conformity
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thing, his philosophy is based on what men really do and think, as
apart from their professions. "—Sunday Times.
"Written with a vigour and freshness rarely met with in works of
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lectual quickening and expansion. —Western Morning News.
"A vigorously written bit of work, packed full of shrewd
thinking. ' —Birmingham Post.
'' The volume contains many obiter dicta of great shrewdness,
and of particular value to our own race. "—Globe.


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OTHER NIETZSCHEAN LITERATURE
WHO IS TO BE MASTER OF
THE WORLD?
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche,
By A. M. LUDOVICI.
With a Preface by Dr. Oscar Levy.
Crown 8vo, 216 pages, 2s. 6d. net.
(T. N. Foulis. )
In this book the author has made a plain and lucid
statement of Nietzsche's views. The work embodies the
Three Lectures recently given at University College,
London, and other matter besides—together with copious
references to the numerous philosophers, historians, and
scientists who may be said to have led up to Friedrich
Nietzsche's position.
"The lectures are well worth reading, as showing what Nietzsche-
anism really means. "—Glasgow Herald.
"If this little book does not impel some young and gallant spirits
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"The ablest exposition of Nietzscheanism that has yet appeared. "
—Manchester Guardian.
"Here we see the philosophy of Nietzsche put into a concentrated
form, and set forth by a clever and biting pen. "—Glasgow Herald.


## p. (#194) ################################################

OTHER NIETZSCHEAN LITERATURE
THE QUINTESSENCE OF
NIETZSCHE.
By J. M. KENNEDY.
37° PP-i 6*- net-
(T. Werner Laurie. )
This book is valuable as giving not only the first full
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dealing with Nietzsche's life, studies, travels, etc. , ample
use has been made of the new'/ issued autobiography,
"Ecce Homo," from which several quotations are given.
The volume is tastefully illustrated, and is further pro-
vided with a short bibliography and a full index.
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as. 6d. net. (T. N. Founs. )
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Orage. With Portrait. 83 pages. Crown 8vo, boards,,is. net. (T. N.
Foulis. )
"This little book on Nietzsche is badly wanted in England . . . very inter-
esting and readable. "—Fabian News.


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