The point from which Wolf started was, single epitaph, nor any other inscription, is men-
as we have said, the idea that the Homeric poems tioned ; the tombs of the heroes are rude mounds
were originally not written.
as we have said, the idea that the Homeric poems tioned ; the tombs of the heroes are rude mounds
were originally not written.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - b
1-
and sent him to Aristagoras, after the hair had 5, 26—30 ; Polyaen. i. 24 ; 'Tzetz. Chil. iii. 512.
grown, with the direction to shave it off again. ix. 228 ; Gell. xvii. 9. )
[C. E. P. ]
A revolution in Ionia might lead, he hoped, to his HI'STORIS ('lotop s), a daughter of Teiresias,
release : and his design succeeded. It is un and engaged in the service of Alcmene. By her
accountable that Dareius should have been 80 cry that Alcmene had already given birth, she
easily deceived: yet be suffered Histiaeus to de induced the Pharmacides to withdraw, and thus
part, on his engaging to reduce Ionia, and to make enabled her mistress to give birth to Heracles.
Sardinia, which he described as an important (Paus. ix. 11. & 2. ) Some attribute this friendly
island, tributary to the Persiang.
act to Galinthias, the daughter of Proetus of Thebes.
On bis arrival at Sardis he found that the revolt (GALINTHIAS. )
(L. S. ]
had not succeeded : the Athenians had declined to HOLMUS ("Onuos), a son of Sisyphus, and
send fresh succour, and the lonian cities were | father of Minyas. He was believed to have
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500
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS
founded the town of Holmones or Halmones, in the Smyrna, which from henceforth was a purely Ionic
neighbourhood of Orchomenus. (Paus. ix. 24. § 3; city. The Aeolians were originally in possession
Steph. Byz. 8. o. )
(L. S. ] of the traditions of the Trojan war, which their
HOMAGY'RIUS ('Ouayópos), i. e. the god of ancestors had waged, and in which no lonians had
the assembly or league, a surname of Zene under taken part. (Müller, Aeginet. p. 25, Orchom. p. 367. )
which he was worshipped at Aegium, on the north- Homer therefore, himself an Ionian, who had come
western coast of Peloponnesus, where Agamemnon from Ephesus, received these traditions from the
was believed to have assembled the Greek chiefs, new Aeolian settlers, and when the Ionians were
to deliberate on the war against Troy. Under this driven out of Smyma either he himself fled to
name Zeus was also worshipped, as the protector of Chios, or his descendants or disciples settled there,
the Achaean league. (Paus. vii. 24. & 1. ) [L. S. ] and formed the famous family of Homerids. Thus
HOMERUS (Ounpos). The poems of Homer we may unite the claims of Smyrna and Chios, and
formed the basis of Greek literature. Every Greek explain the peculiarities of the Homeric dialect,
who had received a liberal education was per- which is different from the pure lonic, and bas a
fectly well acquainted with them from his child large mixture of Aeolic elements. According to
hood, and had learnt them by heart at school ; but this computation, Homer would have fourished
nobody could state any thing certain about their shortly after the time of the Ionian migration, a
author. In fact, the several biographies of Homer time best attested, as we have seen, by the au-
which are now extant afford very little or nothing thorities of Aristotle and Aristarchus. But this
of an authentic history. The various dates as- result seems not to be reconcilable with the follow-
signed to Homer's age offer no less a diversity ing considerations :- 1. Placing Homer more than
than 500 years (from B. c. 1184-684). Crates a century and a half after the Trojan war, we have
and Eratosthenes state, that he lived within a long period which is apparently quite destituto
the first century after the Trojan war ; Aristotle of poetical exertions. Is it likely that the heroes
and Aristarchus make him a contemporary of the should not have found a bard for their deeds till more
Ionian migration, 140 years after the war; the than a hundred and fifty years after their death ?
chronologist, Apollodorus, gives the year 210, Por And how could the knowledge of these deeds be
phyrius 275, the Parian Marble 277, Herodotus preserved without poetical traditions and epic songs,
400 after that event; and Theopompus even makes the only chronicles of an illiterate age? 2. In
him a contemporary of Gyges, king of Lydia. addition to this, there was a stirring active time
(Nitzsch, Melet. de Histor. Hom. fasc. ii. p. 2, de between the Asiatic settlements of the Greeks and
Hist. Hom. p. 78. ) The most important point to the war with Troy. Of the exploits of this time,
be determined is, whether we are to place Homer certainly nowise inferior to the exploits of the
before or after the Ionian migration. The latter is heroic age itself, we should expect to find something
supported by the best authors, and by the general mentioned or alluded to in the work of a poet who
opinion of antiquity, according to which Homer lived during or shortly after it. But of this there is
was by birth an Ionian of Asia Minor. There not a trace to be found in Homer. 3. The mythology
were indeed more than seven cities which claimed and the poems of Homer could not have originated
Homer as their countryman ; for if we number all in Asia. It is the growth of a long period, during
those that we find mentioned in different passages which the ancient Thracian bards, who lived partly
of ancient writers, we have seventeen or nineteen in Thessaly, round Mount Olympus, and partly in
cities mentioned as the birth-places of Homer ; but Boeotia, near Helicon, consolidated all the different
the claims of most of these are so suspicious and and various local mythologies into one great my-
feeble, that they easily vanish before a closer ex-thological system. If Homer had made the my-
amination. Athens, for instance, alleged that she thology of the Greeks, as Herodotus (ii. 53)
was the metropolis of Smyrna, and could therefore affirms, he would not hare represented the Thes-
number Homer amongst her citizens. (Bekker, salian Olympus as the seat of his gods, but some
Anecdot. vol. ii. p. 768. ) Many other poems were mountain of Asia Minor ; his Muses would not
attributed to Homer besides the Iliad and Odyssey. have been those of Olympus, but they would have
The real authors of these poems were forgotten, dwelt on Ida or Gargaros. Homer, if his works
but their fellow-citizens pretended that Homer, the had first originated in Asia, would not have com-
supposed author, had lived or been born among pared Nausicaa to Artemis walking on Tuygetus
them. The claims of Cyme and Colophon will not or Eryanthus (Od. vi. 102); and a great many
seem entitled to much consideration, because they other allusions to European countries, which show
are preferred by Ephorus and Nicander, who were the poet's familiar acquaintance with them, could
citizens of those respective towns. After sifting have found no place in the work of an Asiatic.
the authorities for all the different statements, the It is evident that Homer was far better ac-
claims of Smyrna and Chios remain the most plau- quainted with European Greece than he was with
sible, and between these two we have to decide. Asia Minor, and even the country round Troy.
Smyrna is supported by Pindar, Scylax, and Ste- (Comp. Spohn, de Agro Trojano, p. 27. ) Sir W.
simbrotus ; Chios by Simonides, Acusilaus, Hel- Gell, and other modern travellers, were astonished
Janicus, Thucydides, the tradition of a family of at the accuracy with which Homer has described
Homerids at Chios, and the local worship of a places in Peloponnesus, and particularly the island
hero, Homeros. The preference is now generally of Ithaca. It has been observed, that nobody could
given to Smyrna. (Welcker, Epische Cyclus, p. 153; | have given these descriptions, except one who bad
Müller, Hist. of Greck Lit. p. 41, &c. ) Smyrna seen the country himself. How shall we, with all
was first founded by Ionians from Ephesus, who this, maintain our proposition, that Homer was an
were followed, and afterwards expelled, by Aeolians Ionian of Asia Minor? It is indispensable, in
from Cyme: the expelled Ionians fled to Colophon, order to clear up this point, to enter more at large
and Smyrna thus became Aeolic. Subsequently into the discussion concerning the origin of the
the Colophonians drove out the Aeolians from Homeric poems.
## p. 501 (#517) ############################################
HOMERUS.
501
HOMERUS.
c. The whole of antiquity unanimously viewed the Greeks. Wood, lead, brass; stone, are not proper
Iliad and the Odyssey as the productions of a cer- materials for writing down poems consisting of
tain individual, called Homer. No doubt of this fact twenty-four books. Even hides, which were used
ever entered the mind of any of the ancients ; and by the Ionians, seem too clumsy for this purpose,
even a large number of other poems were attributed and, besides, we do not know when they were first
to the same author. This opinion continued unshaken in use. (Herod. v. 58. ) It was not before the
down to the year 1795, when F. A. Wolf wrote sixth century, . c. that papyrus became easily
his famous Prolegomena, in which he endeavoured accessible to the Greeks, through the king Ama-
to show that the Iliad and Odyssey were not two sis, who first opened Egypt to Greek trders.
complete poems, but small, separate, independent The laws of Lycurgus were not committed to
epic songs, celebrating single exploits of the heroes, writing ; those of Zaleucus, in Locri Epizephyrii,
and that these lays were for the first time written in the 29th Ol. (B. C. 664), are particularly re-
down and united, as the Iliad and Odyssey, by corded as the first laws that were written down.
Peisistratus, the tyrant of Athens. This opinion, (Scymn. Perieg. 313; Strab. vi. p. 259. ) The laws
.
startling and paradoxical as it seemed, was not en- of Solon, seventy years later, were written on wood
tirely new. Casaubon had already doubted the and Bovotpoombóv. Wolf allows that all these con-
common opinion regarding Homer, and the great siderations do not prove that no use at all was
Bentley had said expressly " that Homer wrote a made of the art of writing as early as the seventh
bequel of songs and rhapsodies. These loose songs and eighth centuries B. c. , which would be par-
were not collected together in the form of an ticularly improbable in the case of the lyric poets,
epic poem till about 500 years after. " (Letter such as Archilochus, Alcman, Pisander, and Arion,
by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, $ 7. ) Some French but that before the time of the seven sages, that is,
writers, Perrault and Hedelin, and the Italian the time when prose writing first originated, the art
Vico, had made similar conjectures, but all these was not so common that we can suppose it to have
were forgotten and overborne by the common been employed for such extensive works as the
and general opinion, and the more easily, as these poems of Homer. Wolf (Prol. p. 77) alleges the
bold conjectures had been thrown out almost at testimony of Josephus (c. Apion. i. 2): 'Oye kad
hazard, and without sound arguments to support | μόλις έγνωσαν οι Έλληνες φύσιν γραμμάτων. . . Και
them. When therefore Wolf's Prolegomena ap- paow oude TOÛTOV (i. e. Homerum) èv ypáupaon
peared, the whole literary world was startled by την αυτού ποίησιν καταλιπείν, αλλά διαμνημονευο-
the boldness and novelty of his positions. His | μένην εκ των ασμάτων ύστερον συντεθήναι. (Be-
book, of course, excited great opposition, but no sides Schol. ap. Villois. Anecd. Gr. ii. p. 182. ) But
one has to this day been able to refute the principal Wolf draws still more convincing arguments from
arguments of that great critic, and to re-establish the poems themselves. In Il. vii. 175, the Grecian
the old opinion, which he overthrew. His views, heroes decide by lot who is to fight with Hector.
however, have been materially modified by pro- The lots are marked by each respective hero, and
tracted discussions, so that now we can almost all thrown into a helmet, which is shaken till one
venture to say that the question is settled. We lot is jerked out. This is handed round by the
will first state Wolf's principal arguments, and the herald till it reaches Ajax, who recognises the
chief objections of his opponents, and will then en- mark he had made on it as his own. If this mark
deavour to discover the most probable result of all had been any thing like writing, the herald would
these inquiries.
have read it at once, and not have handed it round,
In 1770, R. Wood published a book on the ori- | In I. vi. 168, we have the story of Bellerophon,
ginal Genius of Homer, in which he mooted the whom Proetus sends to Lycia,
question whether the Homeric poems had originally
πόρεν δ' όγε σήματα λυγρά,
been written or not. This idea was caught up by
Γράψας εν πίνακι πτυκτώ θυμοφθόρα πολλά
Wolf, and proved the foundation of all his inquiries.
But the most important assistance which he ob-
Δείξαι δ' ήνώγει η πενθερώ, όφρ' απόλoιτο.
tained was from the discovery and publication of Wolf shows that onuara Auspá are a kind of con-
the famous Venetian scholia by Villoison (1788). ventional marks, and not letters, and that this story
These valuable scholia, in giving us some insight into is far from proving the existence of writing.
the studies of the Alexandrine critics, furnished Throughout the whole of Homer every thing is cal-
materials and an historical basis for Wolf's in- culated to be heard, nothing to be read. Not a
quiries.
The point from which Wolf started was, single epitaph, nor any other inscription, is men-
as we have said, the idea that the Homeric poems tioned ; the tombs of the heroes are rude mounds
were originally not written. To prove this, he of earth; coins are unknown. In Od. viii. 163, an
entered into a minute and accurate discussion con- overseer of a ship is mentioned, who, instead of
cerning the age of the art of writing. He set aside, having a list of the cargo, must remember it; he is
as groundless fables, the traditions which ascribed poptou uvouw. All this seemed to prove, without
the invention or introduction of this art to Cadmus, the possibility of doubt, that the art of writing was
Cecrops, Orpheus, Linus, or Palamedes. Then, entirely unknown at the time of the Trojan war,
allowing that letters were known in Greece at a and could not have been common at the time when
very early period, he justly insists upon the great the poems were composed.
difference which exists between the knowledge of Among the opponents of Wolf, there is none
the letters and their general rese for works of lite superior to Greg. W. Nitzsch, in zeal, perseverance,
rature. Writing is first applied to public monu- learning, and acuteness. He wrote a series of
ments, inscriptions, and religious purposes, centuries monographies (Quaestion. Homeric. Specim, i. 1824;
before it is employed for the common purposes of Indagandae per Odyss. Interpolutionis Praepuratio,
social life. This is still more certain to be the case 1828 ; De Hist. Homeri, fascic. i. 1830 ; De
when the common ordinary materials for writing Aristotele contra Wolfianos, 1831; Patria et Aetas
are wanting, as they were among the ancient | Hom. ) to refute Wolf and his supporters, and he
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## p. 502 (#518) ############################################
602
- HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
has done a great deal towards establishing a solid | down a single syllable, and have preserved them
and well-founded view of this complicated question. faithfully in their memory, before committing them
Nitzsch opposed Wolf's conclusions concerning the to writing. And how much more easily could this
later date of written documents. He denies that have been done in the time anterior to the use of
the laws of Lycurgus were transmitted by oral writing, when all those faculties of the mind, which
tradition alone, and were for this purpose set to had to dispense with this artificial assistance, were
music by Terpander and Thaletas, as is generally powerfully developed, trained, and exercised. We
believed, on the authority of Plutarch (de Mus. 3). must not look upon the old bards as amateurs, who
The Spartan vbuoi, which those two musicians are amused themselves in leisure hours with poetical
said to have composed, Nitzsch declares to have compositions, as is the fashion now-a-days. Com-
been hymns and not laws, although Strabo calls position was their profession. All their thoughts
Thaletas και νομοθετικός ανήρ (by a mistake, as were concentrated on this one point, in wbich and
Nitzsch ventures to say). Writing materials were, for which they lived. Their composition was,
according to Nitzsch, not wanting at a very early moreover, facilitated by their having no occasion to
period. lle maintains that wooden tablets, and the invent complicated plots and wonderful stories ; the
hides (8190épai) of the Ionians were employed, simple traditions, on which they founded their
and that even papyrus was known and used by songs, were handed down to them in a form already
the Greeks long before the time of Amasis, and adapted to poetical purposes. If now, in spite of
brought into Greece by Phoenician merchants. all these advantages, the composition of the Iliad
Amasis, according to Nitzsch, only rendered the and Odyssey was no easy task, we must attribute
use of papyrus more general (6th century B. c. ), some superiority to the genius of Homer, which
whereas formerly its use had been confined to a caused his name and his works to acquire eternal
few. Thus Nitzsch arrives at the conclusion that glory, and covered all his innumerable predecessors,
writing was common in Greece full one hundred contemporaries, and followers, with oblivion.
years before the time which Wolf had supposed, The second conclusion of Wolf is of more
namely, about the beginning of the Olympiads (8th weight and importance. When people neither
century B. c. ), and that this is the time in which wrote nor read, the only way of publishing poems
the Homeric poems were committed to writing. If was by oral recitation. The bards therefore of
this is granted, it does not follow that the poems the heroic age, as we see from Homer himself,
were also composed at this time. Nitzsch cannot used to entertain their hearers at banquets, festivals,
prove that the age of Homer was so late as the and similar occasions. On such occasions they
eighth century. "The best authorities, as we have certainly could not recite more than one or two
seen, place Homer much earlier, so that we again rhapsodies. Now Wolf asks what could have in-
come to the conclusion that the Homeric poems duced any one to compose a poem of such a length,
were composed and handed down for a long time that it could not be heard at once ? All the charms
without the assistance of writing. In fact, this of an artificial and poetical unity, varied by epi-
point seems indisputable. The nature of the Ho- sodes, but strictly observed through many books,
meric language is alone a sufficient argument, but must certainly be lost, if only fragments of the poem
into this consideration Nitzsch never entered. could be heard at once. To refute this argument,
(Hermann, Opusc. vi. 1, 75; Giese, d. Aeol. Dia- the opponents of Wolf were obliged to seek for
lect. p. 154. ) The Homeric dialect could never occasions which afforded at least a possibility of
have attained that softness and flexibility, which reciting the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey. Ban-
render it so well adapted for versification—that quets and small festivals were not sufficient; but
variety of longer and shorter forms, which existed there were musical contests (årêves), connected with
together--that freedom in contracting and resolving great national festivals, at which thousands assem-
vowels, and of forming the contractions into two bled, anxious to hear and patient to listen. “If,"
syllables—if the practice of writing had at that says Müller (Hist. of Greek Lit. p. 62), “ the Athe-
time exercised the power, which it necessarily pos- nians could at one festival hear in succession about
Besses, of fixing the forms of a language. (Müller, nine tragedies, three satyric dramas, and as many co-
Hist. of Gr. Lit. p. 38. ) The strongest proof is the medies, without ever thinking that it might be better
Aeolic Digamma, a sound which existed at the to distribute this enjoyment over the whole year,
time of the composition of the poems, and had en- why should not the Greeks of earlier times have
tirely vanished from the language when the first been able to listen to the Iliad and Odyssey, and
copies were made.
perhaps other poems, at the same festival? Let us
It is necessary therefore to admit Wolf's first beware of measuring by our loose and desultory
position, that the Homeric poems were originally reading the intention of mind with which a people
not comunitted to writing. We proceed to examine enthusiastically devoted to such enjoyments, hung
the conclusions which he draws from these pre- with delight on the flowing strains of the minstrel.
mises.
In short, there was a time when the Greek people,
However great the genius of Homer may have not indeed at meals, but at festivals, and under the
been, says Wolf, it is quite incredible that, without patronage of their hereditary princes, heard and
the assistance of writing, he could have conceived enjoyed these and other less excellent poems, as
in his mind and executed such extensive works. they were intended to be heard and enjoyed, viz.
This assertion is very bold. “Who can determine,” as complete wholes. ” This is credible enough, but
says Müller ( Hist. of Greek Lit. p. 62), “ how many it is not quite so easy to prove it. We know that,
thousand verses a person thoroughly impregnated in the historical times, the Homeric poems were
with his subject, and absorbed in the contemplation recited at Athens at the festival of the Panathenaea
of it, might produce in a year, and confide to the (Lycurg. c. Leocr. p. 161); and that there were
faithful memory of disciples devoted to their master likewise contests of rhapsodists at Sicyon in the
and his art ? " We have instances of modern poets, time of the tyrant Cleisthenes (Herod. v. 67), in
who have composed long poems without writing Syracuse, Epidaurus, Orchomenus, Thespiae, Acrae
## p. 503 (#519) ############################################
S.
503
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
Dave preserved ja
Eore cogmittar
zore early could
terior to the use
as of the mind,
Ecial assistance, a
and exercised
rds as amatear, TB
bours with press
DOF-a-darsCom
All their thout
Test
point, in which ai
eir composition a
having no occasion
onderful stones; the
they founded tse
hem in a form already
If now, in piedi
mposition of the la
usk, we must attri
nius of Homer,
orks to acquire eterna
numerable predecesses
3 with oblinien
of Wolf is of Dir
When people netbar
ay of publishing pent
Che hards therefore
from Homer bisset
13 at banquets
, fesures
Dsuch occasions they
more than obe the
ks what could bare i
puern of such a lart
i ouce? All the cars
units, varied by
d through many boots
y fragments of the poem
o refute this ancient
ere obliged to see fire
at least a possibility of
iad and Odrsker. Det
fere not suficient; but
phia, Chios, Teos, Olympia. (See the authors cited except Ulysses. The last adventures of Ulysses
by Müller, Ibid. p. 32. ) Hesiod mentions musical after his return to Ithaca were treated in the Tele-
contests (Op. 652, and Frag. 456), at which he gonia of Eugammon. All these poems were grouped
gained a tripod. Such contests seem to have round those of Homer, as their common centre.
been ever anterior to the time of Homer, and “It is credible,” says Müller (Ibid. p. 64) " that
are alluded to in the Homeric description of the their authors were Homeric rhapsodists by pro-
Thracian bard Thamyris (ll. ii. 594), who on his fession (so also Nitzsch, Hall. Encyc. s. v. Odyss.
road from Eurytus, the powerful ruler of Oechalia, pp. 400, 401), to whom the constant recitation of
was struck blind at Dorium by the Muses, and the ancient Homeric poems would naturally suggest
deprived of his entire art, because he had boasted the notion of continuing them by essays of their
of his ability to contend even with the Muses. own in a similar tone. Hence too it would be
(Comp. Diog. Laert. ix. 1. ) It is very likely that more likely to occur that these poems, when they
at the great festival of Panionium in Asia Minor were sung by the same rhapsodists, would gradually
such contests took place (Heyne, Exc. ad 1. vol. acquire themselves the name of Homeric epics. "
viii. p. 796 ; Welcker, Ep. Cycl. p. 371; Heinrich, Their object of completing and spinning out the
Epimenides, p. 142); but stil, in order to form an poems of Homer is obvious. It is necessary there-
idea of the possible manner in which such poems as fore to suppose that the Iliad and Odyssey existed
the Iliad and Odyssey were recited, we must have entire, i. e. comprehending the same series of events
recourse to hypotheses, which have at best only which they now comprehend, at least in the time
internal probability, but no external authority. from the first to the tenth Olympiad, when Arcti-
Such is the inference drawn from the later custom nus, Agias (Thiersch, Act. Monac. ii. 583), and
at Athens, that several rhapsodists followed one probably Stasinus, lived. This was a time when
another in the recitation of the same poem (Welcker, nobody yet thought of reading such poems. There-
Ep. Cyd. p. 371), and the still bolder hypothesis of fore there must have been an opportunity of reciting
Nitzsch, that the recitation lasted more than one in some way or another, not only the Homeric
day. (Vort. z. Anm. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 21. ) But, poems, but those of the Cyclic poets also, which
although the obscurity of those times prevents us were of about equal length. (Nitzsch, Vort. z. An-
from obtaining a certain and positive result as to merk. vol. ii. p. 24. ) The same result is obtained
the way in which such long poems were recited, from comparing the manner in which Homer and
yet we cannot be induced by this circumstance to these Cyclic poets treat and view mythical objects.
doubt that the Iliad and Odyssey, and other poems A wide difference is observable on this point,
of equal length, were recited as complete wholes, which justifies the conclusion, that as early as the
because they certainly existed at a time anterior to period of the composition of the first of the Cyclic
the use of writing. That such was the case follows poems, viz. before the tenth Olympiad, the Homeric
of necessity from what we know of the Cyclic poets. poems had attained a fixed form, and were no
(See Proclus, Chrestomathia in Gaisford's Hephaes- longer, as Wolf supposes, in a state of growth and
tion. ) The Iliad and Odyssey contained only a development, or else they would have been exposed
small part of the copious traditions concerning the to the influence of the different opinions which then
Trojan war. A great number of poets undertook prevailed respecting mythical subjects. This is the
to øll up by separate poems the whole cycle of the only inference we can draw from an inquiry into
events of this war, from which circumstance they the Cyclic poets. Wolf, however, who denied the
are commonly styled the Cyclic poets. The poem existence of long epic poets previous to the use of
Cypria, most probably by Stasinus, related all the writing, because he thought they could not be re-
events which preceded the beginning of the Iliad cited as wholes, and who consequently denied that
from the birth of Helen to the ninth year of the the lliad and Odyssey possessed an artificial or
war. The Aethiopia and Iliupersis of Arctinus poetical unity, thought to find a proof of this pro-
continued the narrative after the death of Hector, position in the Cyclic poems, in which he professed
and related the arrival of the Amazons, whose to see no other unity than that which is afforded
queen, Penthesileia, is slain by Achilles, the death by the natural sequence of events. Now we are
and burial of Thersites, the arrival of Memnon almost unable to form an accurate opinion of the
with the Aethiopians, who kills Antilochus, and is poetical merits of those poems, of which we pos-
killed in return by Achilles, the death of Achilles sess only dry prosaic extracts ; but, granting that
himself by Paris, and the quarrel between Ajax they did not attain a high degree of poetical per-
and Ulysses about his arms. The poem of Arc- fection, and particularly, that they were destitute
tinus then related the death of Ajax, and all that of poetical unity, still we are not on this account
intervened between this and the taking of Troy, at liberty to infer that the poems of Homer, their
which formed the subject of his second poem, the great example, are likewise destitute of this unity.
Niupersis. These same events were likewise partly But this is the next proposition of Wolf, which
treated by Lesches, in his Little Ilias, with some therefore we must now proceed to discuss.
differences in tone and form. In this was told the Wolf observes that Aristotle first derived the
arrival of Philoctetes, who kills Paris, that of laws of epic poetry from the examples which
Neoptolemus, the building of the wooden horse, the he found laid down in the Iliad and Odyssey.
capture of the palladium by Ulysses and Diomede, It was for this reason, says Wolf, that people
and, finally, the taking of Troy itself. The interval never thought of suspecting that those examples
between the war and the subject of the Odyssey is themselves were destitute of that poetical unity
filled up by the return of the different heroes
. This which Aristotle, from a contemplation of them,
furnished the subject for the Nostoi by Agias, a drew up as a principal requisite for this kind of
poem distinguished by great excellencies of com- poetry. It was transmitted, says Wolf, by old
position. The misfortunes of the two Atreidae traditions, how once Achilles withdrew from the
formed the main part, and with this were artfully battle ; how, in consequence of the absence of the
interwoven the adventures of all the other heroes, great hero, who alone awed the Trojans, the Greeks
кк 4
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(arances)
, connected with
which thousands zet
patient to listen "IL"
& Lit. p. 62), the Athe
hear in succession about
cdramas, and as E2ETC
ing that it might be beczne
et over the whole remis
ks of earlier time har
: lijad and Odysses, and
e same festival? Let
our loose and desukary
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ig strains of the mining
e when the Greek peppe
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itary princes, beard and
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e heard and en pred vik
is is credible enough, but
prove it. We know that
the Homeric poems were
festival of the Panatteras
1); and that tbere vete
psodists at Sicron in the
thenes (Herod v. 67), i
homenus
, Thespese, Acre
## p. 504 (#520) ############################################
504
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
were worsted ; how Achilles at last allowed his crisis of the action, and his scanty revelations with
friend Patroclus to protect the Greeks ; and how, respect to the plan of the entire work, he shows a
finally, be revenged the death of Patroclus by kill- maturity of knowledge which is astonishing for so
ing Hector. This simple course of the story Wolf early an age. To all appearance, the poet, arter
thinks would have been treated by any other poet certain obstacles have been first overcome, tends
in very much the same manner as we now read it only to one point, viz. to increase perpetually the
in the Iliad ; and he maintains that there is no disasters of the Greeks, which they have drawn on
unity in it except a chronological one, in so far themselves by the injury offered to Achilles ; and
as we have a narration of the events of several Zeus himself, at the beginning, is made to pro-
days in succession. Nay, he continues, if we ex- nounce, as coming from himself, the vengeance and
amine closely the six last books, we shall find that consequent exaltation of the son of Thetis. At the
they have nothing to do with what is stated in the same time, however, the poet plainly shows his
introduction as the object of the poem,-namely, wish to excite, in the feelings of an attentive hearer,
the wrath of Achilles.
and sent him to Aristagoras, after the hair had 5, 26—30 ; Polyaen. i. 24 ; 'Tzetz. Chil. iii. 512.
grown, with the direction to shave it off again. ix. 228 ; Gell. xvii. 9. )
[C. E. P. ]
A revolution in Ionia might lead, he hoped, to his HI'STORIS ('lotop s), a daughter of Teiresias,
release : and his design succeeded. It is un and engaged in the service of Alcmene. By her
accountable that Dareius should have been 80 cry that Alcmene had already given birth, she
easily deceived: yet be suffered Histiaeus to de induced the Pharmacides to withdraw, and thus
part, on his engaging to reduce Ionia, and to make enabled her mistress to give birth to Heracles.
Sardinia, which he described as an important (Paus. ix. 11. & 2. ) Some attribute this friendly
island, tributary to the Persiang.
act to Galinthias, the daughter of Proetus of Thebes.
On bis arrival at Sardis he found that the revolt (GALINTHIAS. )
(L. S. ]
had not succeeded : the Athenians had declined to HOLMUS ("Onuos), a son of Sisyphus, and
send fresh succour, and the lonian cities were | father of Minyas. He was believed to have
KK 2
## p. 500 (#516) ############################################
500
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS
founded the town of Holmones or Halmones, in the Smyrna, which from henceforth was a purely Ionic
neighbourhood of Orchomenus. (Paus. ix. 24. § 3; city. The Aeolians were originally in possession
Steph. Byz. 8. o. )
(L. S. ] of the traditions of the Trojan war, which their
HOMAGY'RIUS ('Ouayópos), i. e. the god of ancestors had waged, and in which no lonians had
the assembly or league, a surname of Zene under taken part. (Müller, Aeginet. p. 25, Orchom. p. 367. )
which he was worshipped at Aegium, on the north- Homer therefore, himself an Ionian, who had come
western coast of Peloponnesus, where Agamemnon from Ephesus, received these traditions from the
was believed to have assembled the Greek chiefs, new Aeolian settlers, and when the Ionians were
to deliberate on the war against Troy. Under this driven out of Smyma either he himself fled to
name Zeus was also worshipped, as the protector of Chios, or his descendants or disciples settled there,
the Achaean league. (Paus. vii. 24. & 1. ) [L. S. ] and formed the famous family of Homerids. Thus
HOMERUS (Ounpos). The poems of Homer we may unite the claims of Smyrna and Chios, and
formed the basis of Greek literature. Every Greek explain the peculiarities of the Homeric dialect,
who had received a liberal education was per- which is different from the pure lonic, and bas a
fectly well acquainted with them from his child large mixture of Aeolic elements. According to
hood, and had learnt them by heart at school ; but this computation, Homer would have fourished
nobody could state any thing certain about their shortly after the time of the Ionian migration, a
author. In fact, the several biographies of Homer time best attested, as we have seen, by the au-
which are now extant afford very little or nothing thorities of Aristotle and Aristarchus. But this
of an authentic history. The various dates as- result seems not to be reconcilable with the follow-
signed to Homer's age offer no less a diversity ing considerations :- 1. Placing Homer more than
than 500 years (from B. c. 1184-684). Crates a century and a half after the Trojan war, we have
and Eratosthenes state, that he lived within a long period which is apparently quite destituto
the first century after the Trojan war ; Aristotle of poetical exertions. Is it likely that the heroes
and Aristarchus make him a contemporary of the should not have found a bard for their deeds till more
Ionian migration, 140 years after the war; the than a hundred and fifty years after their death ?
chronologist, Apollodorus, gives the year 210, Por And how could the knowledge of these deeds be
phyrius 275, the Parian Marble 277, Herodotus preserved without poetical traditions and epic songs,
400 after that event; and Theopompus even makes the only chronicles of an illiterate age? 2. In
him a contemporary of Gyges, king of Lydia. addition to this, there was a stirring active time
(Nitzsch, Melet. de Histor. Hom. fasc. ii. p. 2, de between the Asiatic settlements of the Greeks and
Hist. Hom. p. 78. ) The most important point to the war with Troy. Of the exploits of this time,
be determined is, whether we are to place Homer certainly nowise inferior to the exploits of the
before or after the Ionian migration. The latter is heroic age itself, we should expect to find something
supported by the best authors, and by the general mentioned or alluded to in the work of a poet who
opinion of antiquity, according to which Homer lived during or shortly after it. But of this there is
was by birth an Ionian of Asia Minor. There not a trace to be found in Homer. 3. The mythology
were indeed more than seven cities which claimed and the poems of Homer could not have originated
Homer as their countryman ; for if we number all in Asia. It is the growth of a long period, during
those that we find mentioned in different passages which the ancient Thracian bards, who lived partly
of ancient writers, we have seventeen or nineteen in Thessaly, round Mount Olympus, and partly in
cities mentioned as the birth-places of Homer ; but Boeotia, near Helicon, consolidated all the different
the claims of most of these are so suspicious and and various local mythologies into one great my-
feeble, that they easily vanish before a closer ex-thological system. If Homer had made the my-
amination. Athens, for instance, alleged that she thology of the Greeks, as Herodotus (ii. 53)
was the metropolis of Smyrna, and could therefore affirms, he would not hare represented the Thes-
number Homer amongst her citizens. (Bekker, salian Olympus as the seat of his gods, but some
Anecdot. vol. ii. p. 768. ) Many other poems were mountain of Asia Minor ; his Muses would not
attributed to Homer besides the Iliad and Odyssey. have been those of Olympus, but they would have
The real authors of these poems were forgotten, dwelt on Ida or Gargaros. Homer, if his works
but their fellow-citizens pretended that Homer, the had first originated in Asia, would not have com-
supposed author, had lived or been born among pared Nausicaa to Artemis walking on Tuygetus
them. The claims of Cyme and Colophon will not or Eryanthus (Od. vi. 102); and a great many
seem entitled to much consideration, because they other allusions to European countries, which show
are preferred by Ephorus and Nicander, who were the poet's familiar acquaintance with them, could
citizens of those respective towns. After sifting have found no place in the work of an Asiatic.
the authorities for all the different statements, the It is evident that Homer was far better ac-
claims of Smyrna and Chios remain the most plau- quainted with European Greece than he was with
sible, and between these two we have to decide. Asia Minor, and even the country round Troy.
Smyrna is supported by Pindar, Scylax, and Ste- (Comp. Spohn, de Agro Trojano, p. 27. ) Sir W.
simbrotus ; Chios by Simonides, Acusilaus, Hel- Gell, and other modern travellers, were astonished
Janicus, Thucydides, the tradition of a family of at the accuracy with which Homer has described
Homerids at Chios, and the local worship of a places in Peloponnesus, and particularly the island
hero, Homeros. The preference is now generally of Ithaca. It has been observed, that nobody could
given to Smyrna. (Welcker, Epische Cyclus, p. 153; | have given these descriptions, except one who bad
Müller, Hist. of Greck Lit. p. 41, &c. ) Smyrna seen the country himself. How shall we, with all
was first founded by Ionians from Ephesus, who this, maintain our proposition, that Homer was an
were followed, and afterwards expelled, by Aeolians Ionian of Asia Minor? It is indispensable, in
from Cyme: the expelled Ionians fled to Colophon, order to clear up this point, to enter more at large
and Smyrna thus became Aeolic. Subsequently into the discussion concerning the origin of the
the Colophonians drove out the Aeolians from Homeric poems.
## p. 501 (#517) ############################################
HOMERUS.
501
HOMERUS.
c. The whole of antiquity unanimously viewed the Greeks. Wood, lead, brass; stone, are not proper
Iliad and the Odyssey as the productions of a cer- materials for writing down poems consisting of
tain individual, called Homer. No doubt of this fact twenty-four books. Even hides, which were used
ever entered the mind of any of the ancients ; and by the Ionians, seem too clumsy for this purpose,
even a large number of other poems were attributed and, besides, we do not know when they were first
to the same author. This opinion continued unshaken in use. (Herod. v. 58. ) It was not before the
down to the year 1795, when F. A. Wolf wrote sixth century, . c. that papyrus became easily
his famous Prolegomena, in which he endeavoured accessible to the Greeks, through the king Ama-
to show that the Iliad and Odyssey were not two sis, who first opened Egypt to Greek trders.
complete poems, but small, separate, independent The laws of Lycurgus were not committed to
epic songs, celebrating single exploits of the heroes, writing ; those of Zaleucus, in Locri Epizephyrii,
and that these lays were for the first time written in the 29th Ol. (B. C. 664), are particularly re-
down and united, as the Iliad and Odyssey, by corded as the first laws that were written down.
Peisistratus, the tyrant of Athens. This opinion, (Scymn. Perieg. 313; Strab. vi. p. 259. ) The laws
.
startling and paradoxical as it seemed, was not en- of Solon, seventy years later, were written on wood
tirely new. Casaubon had already doubted the and Bovotpoombóv. Wolf allows that all these con-
common opinion regarding Homer, and the great siderations do not prove that no use at all was
Bentley had said expressly " that Homer wrote a made of the art of writing as early as the seventh
bequel of songs and rhapsodies. These loose songs and eighth centuries B. c. , which would be par-
were not collected together in the form of an ticularly improbable in the case of the lyric poets,
epic poem till about 500 years after. " (Letter such as Archilochus, Alcman, Pisander, and Arion,
by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, $ 7. ) Some French but that before the time of the seven sages, that is,
writers, Perrault and Hedelin, and the Italian the time when prose writing first originated, the art
Vico, had made similar conjectures, but all these was not so common that we can suppose it to have
were forgotten and overborne by the common been employed for such extensive works as the
and general opinion, and the more easily, as these poems of Homer. Wolf (Prol. p. 77) alleges the
bold conjectures had been thrown out almost at testimony of Josephus (c. Apion. i. 2): 'Oye kad
hazard, and without sound arguments to support | μόλις έγνωσαν οι Έλληνες φύσιν γραμμάτων. . . Και
them. When therefore Wolf's Prolegomena ap- paow oude TOÛTOV (i. e. Homerum) èv ypáupaon
peared, the whole literary world was startled by την αυτού ποίησιν καταλιπείν, αλλά διαμνημονευο-
the boldness and novelty of his positions. His | μένην εκ των ασμάτων ύστερον συντεθήναι. (Be-
book, of course, excited great opposition, but no sides Schol. ap. Villois. Anecd. Gr. ii. p. 182. ) But
one has to this day been able to refute the principal Wolf draws still more convincing arguments from
arguments of that great critic, and to re-establish the poems themselves. In Il. vii. 175, the Grecian
the old opinion, which he overthrew. His views, heroes decide by lot who is to fight with Hector.
however, have been materially modified by pro- The lots are marked by each respective hero, and
tracted discussions, so that now we can almost all thrown into a helmet, which is shaken till one
venture to say that the question is settled. We lot is jerked out. This is handed round by the
will first state Wolf's principal arguments, and the herald till it reaches Ajax, who recognises the
chief objections of his opponents, and will then en- mark he had made on it as his own. If this mark
deavour to discover the most probable result of all had been any thing like writing, the herald would
these inquiries.
have read it at once, and not have handed it round,
In 1770, R. Wood published a book on the ori- | In I. vi. 168, we have the story of Bellerophon,
ginal Genius of Homer, in which he mooted the whom Proetus sends to Lycia,
question whether the Homeric poems had originally
πόρεν δ' όγε σήματα λυγρά,
been written or not. This idea was caught up by
Γράψας εν πίνακι πτυκτώ θυμοφθόρα πολλά
Wolf, and proved the foundation of all his inquiries.
But the most important assistance which he ob-
Δείξαι δ' ήνώγει η πενθερώ, όφρ' απόλoιτο.
tained was from the discovery and publication of Wolf shows that onuara Auspá are a kind of con-
the famous Venetian scholia by Villoison (1788). ventional marks, and not letters, and that this story
These valuable scholia, in giving us some insight into is far from proving the existence of writing.
the studies of the Alexandrine critics, furnished Throughout the whole of Homer every thing is cal-
materials and an historical basis for Wolf's in- culated to be heard, nothing to be read. Not a
quiries.
The point from which Wolf started was, single epitaph, nor any other inscription, is men-
as we have said, the idea that the Homeric poems tioned ; the tombs of the heroes are rude mounds
were originally not written. To prove this, he of earth; coins are unknown. In Od. viii. 163, an
entered into a minute and accurate discussion con- overseer of a ship is mentioned, who, instead of
cerning the age of the art of writing. He set aside, having a list of the cargo, must remember it; he is
as groundless fables, the traditions which ascribed poptou uvouw. All this seemed to prove, without
the invention or introduction of this art to Cadmus, the possibility of doubt, that the art of writing was
Cecrops, Orpheus, Linus, or Palamedes. Then, entirely unknown at the time of the Trojan war,
allowing that letters were known in Greece at a and could not have been common at the time when
very early period, he justly insists upon the great the poems were composed.
difference which exists between the knowledge of Among the opponents of Wolf, there is none
the letters and their general rese for works of lite superior to Greg. W. Nitzsch, in zeal, perseverance,
rature. Writing is first applied to public monu- learning, and acuteness. He wrote a series of
ments, inscriptions, and religious purposes, centuries monographies (Quaestion. Homeric. Specim, i. 1824;
before it is employed for the common purposes of Indagandae per Odyss. Interpolutionis Praepuratio,
social life. This is still more certain to be the case 1828 ; De Hist. Homeri, fascic. i. 1830 ; De
when the common ordinary materials for writing Aristotele contra Wolfianos, 1831; Patria et Aetas
are wanting, as they were among the ancient | Hom. ) to refute Wolf and his supporters, and he
KK 3
## p. 502 (#518) ############################################
602
- HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
has done a great deal towards establishing a solid | down a single syllable, and have preserved them
and well-founded view of this complicated question. faithfully in their memory, before committing them
Nitzsch opposed Wolf's conclusions concerning the to writing. And how much more easily could this
later date of written documents. He denies that have been done in the time anterior to the use of
the laws of Lycurgus were transmitted by oral writing, when all those faculties of the mind, which
tradition alone, and were for this purpose set to had to dispense with this artificial assistance, were
music by Terpander and Thaletas, as is generally powerfully developed, trained, and exercised. We
believed, on the authority of Plutarch (de Mus. 3). must not look upon the old bards as amateurs, who
The Spartan vbuoi, which those two musicians are amused themselves in leisure hours with poetical
said to have composed, Nitzsch declares to have compositions, as is the fashion now-a-days. Com-
been hymns and not laws, although Strabo calls position was their profession. All their thoughts
Thaletas και νομοθετικός ανήρ (by a mistake, as were concentrated on this one point, in wbich and
Nitzsch ventures to say). Writing materials were, for which they lived. Their composition was,
according to Nitzsch, not wanting at a very early moreover, facilitated by their having no occasion to
period. lle maintains that wooden tablets, and the invent complicated plots and wonderful stories ; the
hides (8190épai) of the Ionians were employed, simple traditions, on which they founded their
and that even papyrus was known and used by songs, were handed down to them in a form already
the Greeks long before the time of Amasis, and adapted to poetical purposes. If now, in spite of
brought into Greece by Phoenician merchants. all these advantages, the composition of the Iliad
Amasis, according to Nitzsch, only rendered the and Odyssey was no easy task, we must attribute
use of papyrus more general (6th century B. c. ), some superiority to the genius of Homer, which
whereas formerly its use had been confined to a caused his name and his works to acquire eternal
few. Thus Nitzsch arrives at the conclusion that glory, and covered all his innumerable predecessors,
writing was common in Greece full one hundred contemporaries, and followers, with oblivion.
years before the time which Wolf had supposed, The second conclusion of Wolf is of more
namely, about the beginning of the Olympiads (8th weight and importance. When people neither
century B. c. ), and that this is the time in which wrote nor read, the only way of publishing poems
the Homeric poems were committed to writing. If was by oral recitation. The bards therefore of
this is granted, it does not follow that the poems the heroic age, as we see from Homer himself,
were also composed at this time. Nitzsch cannot used to entertain their hearers at banquets, festivals,
prove that the age of Homer was so late as the and similar occasions. On such occasions they
eighth century. "The best authorities, as we have certainly could not recite more than one or two
seen, place Homer much earlier, so that we again rhapsodies. Now Wolf asks what could have in-
come to the conclusion that the Homeric poems duced any one to compose a poem of such a length,
were composed and handed down for a long time that it could not be heard at once ? All the charms
without the assistance of writing. In fact, this of an artificial and poetical unity, varied by epi-
point seems indisputable. The nature of the Ho- sodes, but strictly observed through many books,
meric language is alone a sufficient argument, but must certainly be lost, if only fragments of the poem
into this consideration Nitzsch never entered. could be heard at once. To refute this argument,
(Hermann, Opusc. vi. 1, 75; Giese, d. Aeol. Dia- the opponents of Wolf were obliged to seek for
lect. p. 154. ) The Homeric dialect could never occasions which afforded at least a possibility of
have attained that softness and flexibility, which reciting the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey. Ban-
render it so well adapted for versification—that quets and small festivals were not sufficient; but
variety of longer and shorter forms, which existed there were musical contests (årêves), connected with
together--that freedom in contracting and resolving great national festivals, at which thousands assem-
vowels, and of forming the contractions into two bled, anxious to hear and patient to listen. “If,"
syllables—if the practice of writing had at that says Müller (Hist. of Greek Lit. p. 62), “ the Athe-
time exercised the power, which it necessarily pos- nians could at one festival hear in succession about
Besses, of fixing the forms of a language. (Müller, nine tragedies, three satyric dramas, and as many co-
Hist. of Gr. Lit. p. 38. ) The strongest proof is the medies, without ever thinking that it might be better
Aeolic Digamma, a sound which existed at the to distribute this enjoyment over the whole year,
time of the composition of the poems, and had en- why should not the Greeks of earlier times have
tirely vanished from the language when the first been able to listen to the Iliad and Odyssey, and
copies were made.
perhaps other poems, at the same festival? Let us
It is necessary therefore to admit Wolf's first beware of measuring by our loose and desultory
position, that the Homeric poems were originally reading the intention of mind with which a people
not comunitted to writing. We proceed to examine enthusiastically devoted to such enjoyments, hung
the conclusions which he draws from these pre- with delight on the flowing strains of the minstrel.
mises.
In short, there was a time when the Greek people,
However great the genius of Homer may have not indeed at meals, but at festivals, and under the
been, says Wolf, it is quite incredible that, without patronage of their hereditary princes, heard and
the assistance of writing, he could have conceived enjoyed these and other less excellent poems, as
in his mind and executed such extensive works. they were intended to be heard and enjoyed, viz.
This assertion is very bold. “Who can determine,” as complete wholes. ” This is credible enough, but
says Müller ( Hist. of Greek Lit. p. 62), “ how many it is not quite so easy to prove it. We know that,
thousand verses a person thoroughly impregnated in the historical times, the Homeric poems were
with his subject, and absorbed in the contemplation recited at Athens at the festival of the Panathenaea
of it, might produce in a year, and confide to the (Lycurg. c. Leocr. p. 161); and that there were
faithful memory of disciples devoted to their master likewise contests of rhapsodists at Sicyon in the
and his art ? " We have instances of modern poets, time of the tyrant Cleisthenes (Herod. v. 67), in
who have composed long poems without writing Syracuse, Epidaurus, Orchomenus, Thespiae, Acrae
## p. 503 (#519) ############################################
S.
503
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
Dave preserved ja
Eore cogmittar
zore early could
terior to the use
as of the mind,
Ecial assistance, a
and exercised
rds as amatear, TB
bours with press
DOF-a-darsCom
All their thout
Test
point, in which ai
eir composition a
having no occasion
onderful stones; the
they founded tse
hem in a form already
If now, in piedi
mposition of the la
usk, we must attri
nius of Homer,
orks to acquire eterna
numerable predecesses
3 with oblinien
of Wolf is of Dir
When people netbar
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Che hards therefore
from Homer bisset
13 at banquets
, fesures
Dsuch occasions they
more than obe the
ks what could bare i
puern of such a lart
i ouce? All the cars
units, varied by
d through many boots
y fragments of the poem
o refute this ancient
ere obliged to see fire
at least a possibility of
iad and Odrsker. Det
fere not suficient; but
phia, Chios, Teos, Olympia. (See the authors cited except Ulysses. The last adventures of Ulysses
by Müller, Ibid. p. 32. ) Hesiod mentions musical after his return to Ithaca were treated in the Tele-
contests (Op. 652, and Frag. 456), at which he gonia of Eugammon. All these poems were grouped
gained a tripod. Such contests seem to have round those of Homer, as their common centre.
been ever anterior to the time of Homer, and “It is credible,” says Müller (Ibid. p. 64) " that
are alluded to in the Homeric description of the their authors were Homeric rhapsodists by pro-
Thracian bard Thamyris (ll. ii. 594), who on his fession (so also Nitzsch, Hall. Encyc. s. v. Odyss.
road from Eurytus, the powerful ruler of Oechalia, pp. 400, 401), to whom the constant recitation of
was struck blind at Dorium by the Muses, and the ancient Homeric poems would naturally suggest
deprived of his entire art, because he had boasted the notion of continuing them by essays of their
of his ability to contend even with the Muses. own in a similar tone. Hence too it would be
(Comp. Diog. Laert. ix. 1. ) It is very likely that more likely to occur that these poems, when they
at the great festival of Panionium in Asia Minor were sung by the same rhapsodists, would gradually
such contests took place (Heyne, Exc. ad 1. vol. acquire themselves the name of Homeric epics. "
viii. p. 796 ; Welcker, Ep. Cycl. p. 371; Heinrich, Their object of completing and spinning out the
Epimenides, p. 142); but stil, in order to form an poems of Homer is obvious. It is necessary there-
idea of the possible manner in which such poems as fore to suppose that the Iliad and Odyssey existed
the Iliad and Odyssey were recited, we must have entire, i. e. comprehending the same series of events
recourse to hypotheses, which have at best only which they now comprehend, at least in the time
internal probability, but no external authority. from the first to the tenth Olympiad, when Arcti-
Such is the inference drawn from the later custom nus, Agias (Thiersch, Act. Monac. ii. 583), and
at Athens, that several rhapsodists followed one probably Stasinus, lived. This was a time when
another in the recitation of the same poem (Welcker, nobody yet thought of reading such poems. There-
Ep. Cyd. p. 371), and the still bolder hypothesis of fore there must have been an opportunity of reciting
Nitzsch, that the recitation lasted more than one in some way or another, not only the Homeric
day. (Vort. z. Anm. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 21. ) But, poems, but those of the Cyclic poets also, which
although the obscurity of those times prevents us were of about equal length. (Nitzsch, Vort. z. An-
from obtaining a certain and positive result as to merk. vol. ii. p. 24. ) The same result is obtained
the way in which such long poems were recited, from comparing the manner in which Homer and
yet we cannot be induced by this circumstance to these Cyclic poets treat and view mythical objects.
doubt that the Iliad and Odyssey, and other poems A wide difference is observable on this point,
of equal length, were recited as complete wholes, which justifies the conclusion, that as early as the
because they certainly existed at a time anterior to period of the composition of the first of the Cyclic
the use of writing. That such was the case follows poems, viz. before the tenth Olympiad, the Homeric
of necessity from what we know of the Cyclic poets. poems had attained a fixed form, and were no
(See Proclus, Chrestomathia in Gaisford's Hephaes- longer, as Wolf supposes, in a state of growth and
tion. ) The Iliad and Odyssey contained only a development, or else they would have been exposed
small part of the copious traditions concerning the to the influence of the different opinions which then
Trojan war. A great number of poets undertook prevailed respecting mythical subjects. This is the
to øll up by separate poems the whole cycle of the only inference we can draw from an inquiry into
events of this war, from which circumstance they the Cyclic poets. Wolf, however, who denied the
are commonly styled the Cyclic poets. The poem existence of long epic poets previous to the use of
Cypria, most probably by Stasinus, related all the writing, because he thought they could not be re-
events which preceded the beginning of the Iliad cited as wholes, and who consequently denied that
from the birth of Helen to the ninth year of the the lliad and Odyssey possessed an artificial or
war. The Aethiopia and Iliupersis of Arctinus poetical unity, thought to find a proof of this pro-
continued the narrative after the death of Hector, position in the Cyclic poems, in which he professed
and related the arrival of the Amazons, whose to see no other unity than that which is afforded
queen, Penthesileia, is slain by Achilles, the death by the natural sequence of events. Now we are
and burial of Thersites, the arrival of Memnon almost unable to form an accurate opinion of the
with the Aethiopians, who kills Antilochus, and is poetical merits of those poems, of which we pos-
killed in return by Achilles, the death of Achilles sess only dry prosaic extracts ; but, granting that
himself by Paris, and the quarrel between Ajax they did not attain a high degree of poetical per-
and Ulysses about his arms. The poem of Arc- fection, and particularly, that they were destitute
tinus then related the death of Ajax, and all that of poetical unity, still we are not on this account
intervened between this and the taking of Troy, at liberty to infer that the poems of Homer, their
which formed the subject of his second poem, the great example, are likewise destitute of this unity.
Niupersis. These same events were likewise partly But this is the next proposition of Wolf, which
treated by Lesches, in his Little Ilias, with some therefore we must now proceed to discuss.
differences in tone and form. In this was told the Wolf observes that Aristotle first derived the
arrival of Philoctetes, who kills Paris, that of laws of epic poetry from the examples which
Neoptolemus, the building of the wooden horse, the he found laid down in the Iliad and Odyssey.
capture of the palladium by Ulysses and Diomede, It was for this reason, says Wolf, that people
and, finally, the taking of Troy itself. The interval never thought of suspecting that those examples
between the war and the subject of the Odyssey is themselves were destitute of that poetical unity
filled up by the return of the different heroes
. This which Aristotle, from a contemplation of them,
furnished the subject for the Nostoi by Agias, a drew up as a principal requisite for this kind of
poem distinguished by great excellencies of com- poetry. It was transmitted, says Wolf, by old
position. The misfortunes of the two Atreidae traditions, how once Achilles withdrew from the
formed the main part, and with this were artfully battle ; how, in consequence of the absence of the
interwoven the adventures of all the other heroes, great hero, who alone awed the Trojans, the Greeks
кк 4
0
(arances)
, connected with
which thousands zet
patient to listen "IL"
& Lit. p. 62), the Athe
hear in succession about
cdramas, and as E2ETC
ing that it might be beczne
et over the whole remis
ks of earlier time har
: lijad and Odysses, and
e same festival? Let
our loose and desukary
nind with which a popis
o such enjoyments
, bars
ig strains of the mining
e when the Greek peppe
It festivals, and under the
itary princes, beard and
less ercellent poess, as
e heard and en pred vik
is is credible enough, but
prove it. We know that
the Homeric poems were
festival of the Panatteras
1); and that tbere vete
psodists at Sicron in the
thenes (Herod v. 67), i
homenus
, Thespese, Acre
## p. 504 (#520) ############################################
504
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
were worsted ; how Achilles at last allowed his crisis of the action, and his scanty revelations with
friend Patroclus to protect the Greeks ; and how, respect to the plan of the entire work, he shows a
finally, be revenged the death of Patroclus by kill- maturity of knowledge which is astonishing for so
ing Hector. This simple course of the story Wolf early an age. To all appearance, the poet, arter
thinks would have been treated by any other poet certain obstacles have been first overcome, tends
in very much the same manner as we now read it only to one point, viz. to increase perpetually the
in the Iliad ; and he maintains that there is no disasters of the Greeks, which they have drawn on
unity in it except a chronological one, in so far themselves by the injury offered to Achilles ; and
as we have a narration of the events of several Zeus himself, at the beginning, is made to pro-
days in succession. Nay, he continues, if we ex- nounce, as coming from himself, the vengeance and
amine closely the six last books, we shall find that consequent exaltation of the son of Thetis. At the
they have nothing to do with what is stated in the same time, however, the poet plainly shows his
introduction as the object of the poem,-namely, wish to excite, in the feelings of an attentive hearer,
the wrath of Achilles.
