Whenever
a naturally led either to explain and recommend or
god inflicts punishment or bestows protection in the to oppose and refute the moral principles and reli-
Odyssey, it is for some moral desert ; not as in the gious doctrines contained in the heroic tales.
god inflicts punishment or bestows protection in the to oppose and refute the moral principles and reli-
Odyssey, it is for some moral desert ; not as in the gious doctrines contained in the heroic tales.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - b
).
The Athe-
tiquity ascribed to him the merit of having collected nians were generally believed to bave had no part
the disjointed and confused poems of Homer, and in the Trojan war; therefore II. ii. 547, 552—554,
of having first committed them to writing. (Cic. de were marked by the Alexandrine critics as spurious,
Or. iï. 34 ; Paus. vii. 26 ; Joseph, c. Ap. i. 2 ; and for similar reasons Od. vii. 80, 81, and Od. ii.
Aelian, V. K. xiii. 14 ; Liban. Paneg. in Julian 308. But how unimportant are these alterations
;
i p. 170, Reisk. &c. )*
in comparison with the long interpolations which
In what light Wolf viewed this tradition has been must be attributed to the rhapsodists previous to
already mentioned. He held it to have been the first Peisistratus ! It must be confessed that these four
step that was taken in order to connect the loose and men accomplished their task, on the whole, with
incoherent songs into continued and uninterrupted great accuracy. However inclined we may be to
stories, and to preserve the union which he had attribute this accuracy less to their critical investiga-
thus imparted to these poems by first committing tions and conscientiousness, than to the impossi-
them to writing. Pausanias mentions associates bility of making great changes on account of the
(Taipoi) of Peisistratus, who assisted him in his general knowledge of what was genuine, through
undertaking. These associates Wolf thought to the number of existing copies ; and although we
have been the diad Kevadtal mentioned sometimes may, on the whole, be induced, after Wolf's ex-
in the Scholia ; but in this he was evidently aggerations, to think little of the merits of Peisis-
mistaken. Als Kevaotaí are, in the phraseology tratus, still we must allow that the praise be-
of the Scholia, interpolators, and not arrangers. stowed on Peisistratus by the ancient writers is
(Heinrich, de Diask. Homericis ; Lehrs, Aris too great and too general to allow us to admit of
tarchi siud. Hom. p. 349. ) Another weak point | Nitzsch's opinion, that he only compared and ex-
in Wolf's reasoning is, that he says that Peisis amined various MSS. If, then, it does not follow,
tratus was the first who committed the Homeric as Wolf thought, that the Homeric poems never
poems to writing ; this is expressly stated by formed a whole before Peisistratus, it is at the same
none of the ancient writers. On the contrary, it is time undeniable that to Peisistratus we owe the first
not unlikely that before Peisistratus, persons began written text of the whole of the poems, which,
in various parts of Greece, and particularly in without his care, would most likely now exist only
Asia Minor, which was far in advance of the in a few disjointed fragments. Some traditions at-
tributed to Hipparchus, the son and successor of
* It is ridiculous to what absurdity this tra- Peisistratus, regulations for the recital of the Ho-
dition has been spun out by the iguorance of later meric poems of a kind similar to those which had
scholiasts. Diomedes (Villois. Anecd. Gr. ii. p. been already made by Solon. (Plat. Hipp. p. 228.
182) tells a long story, how that at one time the 6. ) He is said to have obliged the rhapsodists
Homeric poems were partially destroyed either by | εξ υπολήψεως εφεξής τα 'Ομήρου διϊέναι. The
fire or water or earthquakes, and parts were scat- meaning of the words è unohíbews, and their
tered here and there ; so that some persons had difference from ÚToboxñs, which was the manner
one hundred verses, others two hundred, others a of recitation, ordained by Solon, has given rise to
thousand. He further states that Peisistratus col- a long controversy between Böckh and Hermann
lected all the persons who were in possession of (comp Nitzsch, Alelet. ii. p. 132); to enter into
Homeric verses, and paid them for each verse ; and which would be foreign to the purpose of this
that he then ordered seventy grammarians to ar-
article.
range these verses, which task was best performed Having taken this general survey of the most
by Zenodotus and Aristarchus.
important arguments for and against Wolfs hypo-
## p. 508 (#524) ############################################
508
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
!
1
thesis concerning the origin of the poems of Homer, p. 47; see also Nitzsch, Anm. vol. ii. p. 26),
the following may be regarded as the most probable is not improbable, that Homer first undertook to
conclusion. There can be no doubt that the seed combine into one great unity the scattered and
of the Homeric poems was scattered in the time of fragmentary poems of earlier bards, and that it
the heroic exploits which they celebrate, and in the was a task which established his great renown.
land of the victorious Achaeans, that is, in European We can now judge of the probability that Homer
Greece. An abundance of heroic lays preserved was an lonian, who in Smyrna, where Ionians
the records of the Trojan war. It was a puerile and Aeolians were mixed, became acquainted with
idea, which is now completely exploded, that the the subject of his poems, and moulded them
events are fictitious on which the Iliad and Odys- into the form which was suited to the taste of
sey are based, that a Trojan war never was waged, his Ionian countrymen. But as a faithful pre-
and so forth. Whoever would make such a con- servation of these long works was impossible
clusion from the intermixture of gods in the battles in an age unacquainted with, or at least not
of men, would forget what the Muses say (Hes. versed in the art of writing, it was a natural
Theog. 27)
consequence, that in the lapse of ages the poems
Ίδμεν ψεύδεα πολλά λέγειν ετυμοισιν ομοία,
should not only lose the purity with which they
"Ιδμεν δ', εύτ' εθέλωμεν, αληθέα μυθήσασθαι:
proceeded from the mind of the poet, but should
also become more and more dismembered, and thus
and he would overlook the fact, that these songs return into their original state of loose independent
were handed down a long time before they attained songs. Their public recitation became more and
that texture of truth and fiction which forms one more fragmentary, and the time at festivals and
of their peculiar charms. Europe must necessarily musical contests formerly occupied by epic rhapso-
have been the country where these songs originated, dists exclusively was encroached upon by the rising
both because here the victorious heroes dwelt, and lyrical performances and players of the fute and
because so many traces in the poems still point to lyre. Yet the knowledge of the unity of the dif-
these regions. (See above, p. 500, b. ) It was here ferent Homeric rhapsodies was not entirely lost.
that the old Thracian bards had effected that Solon, himself a poet, directed the attention of his
unity of mythology which, spreading all over countrymen towards it ; and Peisistratus at last
Greece, bad gradually absorbed and obliterated the raised a lasting monument to his high merits, in
discrepancies of the old local myths, and sub-fixing the genuine Homeric poems by the indelible
stituted one general mythology for the whole marks of writing, as far as was possible in his time
nation, with Zeus as the supreme ruler, dwelling and with his means. That previous to the famous
on the snowy heights of Olympus. Impregnated edition of Peisistratus parts of Homer, or the en-
with this European mythology, the heroic lays tire poems, were committed to writing in other
were brought to Asia Minor by the Greek colonies, towns of Greece or Asia Minor is not improbable,
which left the mother-country about three ages after but we do not possess sufficient testimonies to
the Trojan war. In European Greece a new race prove it. We can therefore safely affirm that from
gained the ascendancy, the Dorians, foreign to the time of Peisistratus, the Greeks had a written
those who gloried in having the old heroes among Homer, a regular text, the source and foundation
their ancestors. The heroic songs, therefore, died of all subsequent editions.
away more and more in Europe ; but in Asia the Having established the fact, that there was a
Aeolians fought, conquered, and settled nearly in Homer, who must be considered as the author of
the same regions in which their fathers had sig- the Homeric poems, there naturally arises another
nalised themselves by immortal exploits, the glory question, viz. which poems are Homeric? We
of which was celebrated, and their memory still have seen already that a great number of cyclic
preserved by their national bards. Their dwelling poems were attributed to the great bard of the
in the same locality not only kept alive the re- Anger of Achilles. Stasinus, the author of the
membrance of the deeds of their fathers, but gave a Cypria, was said to have received this poem from
new impulse to their poetry, just as in the middle Homer as a dowry for his daughter, whom he mar-
ages in Germany the foundation of the kingdom of ried. Creophylus is placed in a similar connection
the Hungarians in the East, and their destructive with Homer. But these traditions are utterly
invasions, together with the origin of a new empire groundless ; they were occasioned by the authors
of the Burgundians in the West, awakened the of the cyclic poems being at the same time rhapso-
old songs of the Niebelungen, after a slumber of dists of the Homeric poems, which they recited
centuries. (Gervinus, Poetical Lit. of Germ. vol. i. along with their own. Nor are the hymns, which
p. 108. )
still bear the name of Homer, more genuine pro-
Now the Homeric poems advanced a step ductions of the poet of the Iliad than the cyclic
further. From unconnected songs, they were, for poems. They were called by the ancients a poolus,
the first time, united by a great genius, who, i. e. overtures or preludes, and were sung by the
whether he was really called Homer, or whether rhapsodists as introductions to epic poems at the
the name be of later origin and significant of his festivals of the respective gods, to whom they are
work of uniting songs (Welcker, Ep. Cycl. pp. 125, addressed. To these rhapsodists the hymns most
128 ; Ilgen, Hymn. Hoin. praef
. p. 23; Heyne, ad probably owe their origin. “They exhibit such a
Il. vol. viii
. p. 795), was the one individual who diversity of language and poetical tone, that in all
conceived in his mind the lofty idea of that poetical probability they contain fragments from every
unity which we cannot help acknowledging and century from the time of Homer to the Persian
admiring. What were the peculiar excellencies war. ” (Müller, Ibid. p. 74. ) Still most of them
which distinguished this one Homer among a great were reckoned to be Homeric productions by those
number of contemporary poets, and saved his works who lived in a time when Greek literature still
alone from oblivion, we do not renture to deter- flourished. This is easily accounted for ; being
mine ; but the conjecture of Müller (Greek Lit. recited in connection with Homeric poems, they
1
## p. 509 (#525) ############################################
HOMERUS.
309
HOMERUS.
were gradually attributed to the same author, and Mice (Suid. s. p. ; Plut. de Malign. Flerod. 43),
continued to be so regarded more or less genemlly, a poem frequently ascribed by the ancients to
till critics, and particularly those of Alexandria, Homer. It is a harmless playful tale, without a
discovered the differences between their style and marked tendency to sarcasm and satire, amusing as
that of Homer. At Alexandria they were never a parody, but without any great poetical merit
reckoned genuine, which accounts for the circum- which could justify its being ascribed to Homer.
stance that none of the great critics of that school Besides these poems, there are a great many
is known to have made a regular collection of them. more, most of which we know only by name, and
(Wolf, Proleg. p. 266. ) Of the hymns now extant which we find attributed to Homer with more or
five deserve particular attention on account of their less confidence. But we have good reasons for
greater length and mythological contents; they are doubting all such statements concerning lost poems,
those addressed to the Delian and Pythian Apollo, whose claims we cannot examine, when we see
to Hermes, Demeter, and Aphrodite. The hymn that even Thucydides and Aristotle considered as
to the Delian Apollo, formerly regarded as part of genuine not only such poems as the Margites and
the one to the Pythian Apollo, is the work of a some of the hymns, but also all those passages of
Homerid of Chios, and approaches so nearly to the the Iliad and Odyssey which are evidently inter-
true Homeric tone, that the author, who calls him- polated, and which at the present day nobody
self the blind poet, who lived in the rocky Chios, would dream of ascribing to their reputed author.
was held even by Thucydides to be Homer himself. (Nitzsch, Anm. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 40. ) The time in
It narrates the birth of Apollo in Delos, but a great which Greek literature flourished was not adapted
part of it is lost. The hymn to the Pythian for tracing out the poems which were spurious and
Apollo contained the foundation of the Pythian interpolated. People enjoyed all that was beautiful,
sanctuary by the god himself, who slays the dragon, without caring who was the author. The task of
and, in the form of a dolphin, leads Čretan men to sifting and correcting the works of literature was
Crissa, whom he established as priests of his temple. left to the age in which the faculties of the Greek
The hymn to Hermes, which, on account of its mind had ceased to produce original works, and
mentioning the seven-stringed lyre, the invention has turned to scrutinise and preserve former pro-
of Terpander, cannot have been composed before ductions. Then it was not only discovered that
the 30th olympiad, relates the tricks of the new- the cyclic poems and the hymns had no title to be
born Hermes, who, having left his cradle, drove styled “ Homeric,” but the question was mooted
away the cattle of Apollo from their pastures in and warmly discussed, whether the Odyssey was
Pieria to Pylos, there killed them, and then in- to be attributed to the author of the Iliad. Of the
vented the lyre, made of a tortoise-shell, with existence of this interesting controversy we had
which he pacified the anger of Apollo. The hymn only a slight indication in Seneca (de Brerit. l'itae,
to Aphrodite celebrates the birth of Aeneas in a 13) before the publication of the Venetian Scholin.
style not very different from that of Homer. The From these we know now that there was a regular
hymn to Demeter, first discovered 1778, in Mos- party of critics, who assigned the Iliad and Odyssey
ców, by Mathaei, and first published by Ruhnken, to two different authors, and were therefore called
1780, gives an account of Demeter's search after Chorizontes (x«pícovtes), the Separaters. (Granert,
her daughter, Persephone, who had been carried üb d. Hom. Choriz. Rhcin. Mus. vol. i. ) Their
away by Hades. The goddess obtains from Zeus, arguments were probably not very convincing, and
that her daughter should pass only one third part might fairly be considered to be entirely refuted
of the year with Hades, and return to her for the by such reasonings as Longinus made use of, who
rest of the year. With this symbolical description affirmed (just as if he had heard it from Homer
of the corn, which, when sown, remains for some himself) that the Iliad was composed by Homer in
time under ground, and then springs up, the poet the vigour of life, and the Odyssey in his old age.
has connected the mythology of the Eleusinians, With this decision all critics were satisfied for
who hospitably received the goddess on ber wan- centuries, till, in modern times, the question has
derings, afterwards built her a temple, and were been opened again. Traces have been discovered
rewarded by instruction in the mysterious rites of in the Odyssey which seemed to indicate a later
Demeter.
time ; and although this is a difficult and doubtful
Beside the cyclic epics and the hymns, we find point, because we do not know in many cases
poems of quite a different nature erroneously whether the discrepancies in the two poems are to
ascribed to Homer. Such was the case with the be considered as genuine parts or as interpolations,
Margiles, a poem, which Aristotle regarded as the yet there is so mucb in the one poem which cannot
source of comedy, just as he called the Iliad and be reconciled with the whole tenor of the other,
Odyssey the fountain of all tragic poetry. From that a later origin of the Odyssey seems very pro-
this view of Aristotle, we may judge of the nature bable. (Nitzsch in Hall. Encycl. p. 405 a. ) We
of the poem. It ridiculed a man who was said " to cannot lay much stress on the observation, that the
know many things, and to know all badly. ” The state of social life in the Odyssey appears more ad-
subject was nearly related to the scurrilous and vanced in refinement, comfort, and art, than in the
satirical poetry of Archilochus and other contem- Iliad, because this may be regarded as the result of
porary iambographers, although in versification, the different nature of the subjects. The magnifi-
epic tone, and language, it imitated the Iliad. The cent palaces of Menelaus and Alcinous, and the
iambic verses which are quoted from it by gram- peaceful enjoyments of the Phaeacians, could find
marians were most likely interspersed by Pigres, no place in the rough camp of the heroes before Troy.
brother of Artemisia, who is also called the author But a great and essential difference, which per-
of this poem, and who interpolated the Iliad with rades the whole of the two poems, is observable in
pentameters in a similar manner.
the notions that are entertained respecting the gods.
The same Pigres was perhaps the author of the In the Iliad the men are better than the gods ; in
Batrachomyomachia, the Battle of the Frogs and the Odyssey it is the reverse.
In the latter poem
## p. 510 (#526) ############################################
510
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
:
no mortal dares to resist, much less to attack and (Plut Alcib. p. 194, d. ) Homer became a port
wound a. god; Olympus does not resound with of ground-work for a liberal education, and as his
everlasting quarrels ; Athene consults humbly the influence over the minds of the people thus became
will of Zeus, and forbears offending Poseidon, her still stronger, the philosophers of that age were
uncle, for the sake of a mortal man.
Whenever a naturally led either to explain and recommend or
god inflicts punishment or bestows protection in the to oppose and refute the moral principles and reli-
Odyssey, it is for some moral desert ; not as in the gious doctrines contained in the heroic tales. (Grä-
Iliad, through mere caprice, without any consider- fenhan, Gesch. der Philologie, vol. i. p. 202. ) It
ation of the good or bad qualities of the individual. was with this practical view that Pythagoras,
In the Iliad Zeus sends a dream to deceive Aga- Xenophanes, and Heracleitus, condemned Homer
inemnon ; Athene, after a general consultation of as one who uttered falsehoods and degraded the
the gods, prompts Pandarus to his treachery ; majesty of the gods; whilst Theagenes, Metrodorus,
Paris, the violator of the sacred laws of hos- Anaxagoras, and Stesimbrotus, expounded the
pitality, is never upbraided with his crime by deep wisdom of Homer, which was disguised from
the gods ; whereas, in the Odyssey, they ap- the eyes of the common observer under the veil of
pear as the awful avengers of those who do not an apparently insignificant tale. So old is the
respect the laws of the hospitable Zeus. The gods allegurical explanation, a folly at which the sober
of the Iliad live on Mount Olympus ; those of Socrats smiled, which Plato refuted, and Ari-
the Odyssey are further removed from the earth ; starchus opposed with all his might, but which,
they inhabit the wide heaven. There is nothing nevertheless, outlived the sound critical study of
which obliges us to think of the Mount Olympus. Homer among the Greeks, and has thriven luxu-
In the Iliad the gods are visible to every one riantly eren down to the present day.
except when they surround themselves with a A more scientific study was bestowed on Homer
cloud ; in the Odyssey they are usually invisible, by the sophists of Pericles' age, Prodicus, Prota-
unless they take the shape of men. In short, as goras, Hippias, and others. There are even traces
Benjamin Constant has well observed (de la Relig. which seem to indicate that the droplai and Aucers,
iii. ), there is more mythology in the Iliad, and such favourite themes with the Alexandrian critics,
more religion in the Odyssey. If we add to all originated with these sophists. Thus the study of
this the differences that exist between the two Homer increased, and the copies of his works must
poems in language and tone, we shall be obliged to naturally have been more and more multiplied.
admit, that the Odyssey is of considerably later We may suppose that not a few of the literary
date than the Iliad. Every one who admires the men of that age carefully compared the best MSS.
bard of the Iliad, with whom are connected all the within their reach, and choosing what they thought
associations of ideas which have been formed re- best made new editions (8. 0p WEIS). The task of
specting Homer, feels naturally inclined to gire these first editors was not an easy one. It may be
him credit for having composed the Odyssey also, concluded from the nature of the case, and it is
and is unwilling to fancy another person to be the known by various testimonies, that the text of those
author who would be quite an imaginary and un- days offered enormous discrepancies, not paralleled
interesting personage. It is no doubt chiefly owing in the text of any other classical writer. There
to these feelings that many scholars have tried in were passages left out, transposed, added, or so
various ways to prove that the same Homer is the altered, as not easily to be recognised ; nothing, in
author of both the poems, although there seem short, like a smooth vulgate existed before the time
sufficient reasons to establish the contrary. Thus of the Alexandrine critics. This state of the text
Müller (Ibid. p. 62) says: “ If the completion of must have presented immense difficulties to the
the Iliad and Odyssey seems too vast a work for first editors in the infancy of criticism. Yet these
the lifetime of one man, we may perhaps have re- early editions were valuable to the Alexandrians,
course to the supposition, that Homer, after having as being derived from good and ancient sources.
sung the Iliad in the vigour of his youthful years, Two only are known to us through the scholia, one
in his old age communicated to some devoted dis of the poet Antimachus, and the famous one of
ciple the plan of the Odyssey, which had long been Aristotle (v éx Toù váponkos), which Alexander
working in his mind, and left it to him for com- the Great used to carry about with him in a
pletion. ” Nitzsch (Anmerk. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 26) splendid case (vápont) on all his expeditions.
has found out another expedient. He thinks, that Besides these editions, called in the scholia ai kat'
in the Iliad Homer has followed more closely the avôpa, there were several other old drop do eis at
old traditions, which represented the former and Alexandria, under the name of ai kata tónes, or
ruder state of society ; whilst, in the Odyssey, he ai ék rólewy, or ai politikal. We know six of
was more original, and imprinted upon his own them, those of Massilia, Chios, Argos, Sinope,
inventions his own ideas concerning the gods. Cyprus, and Crete. It is hardly likely that they
The history of the Homeric poems may be were made by public authority in the different
divided conveniently into two great periods : one states, whose names they bear ; on the contrary,
in which the text was transmitted by oral tradi- as the persons who had made them were unknown,
tion, and the other of the written text after Peisis- they were called, just as manuscripts are now,
Of the former we have already spoken: it from the places where they had been found. We
therefore only remains to treat of the latter. The are acquainted with two more editions, the aloun,
epoch from Peisistratus down to the establishment brought most likely from some Aeolian town, and
of the first critical school at Alexandria, i. e. to the Kukliń, which seems to have been the copy of
Zenodotus, presents very few facts concerning the Homer which formed part of the series of cyclic
Homeric poems. Oral tradition still prevailed over poems in the Alexandrian library.
writing for a long time; though in the days of Alci- All these editions, however, were only prepara-
bindes it was expected that every schoolmaster would | tory to the establishment of a regular and systematic
have a copy of Homer with which to teach his boys. I criticism and interpretation of Homer, which began
1
1
tratus,
## p. 511 (#527) ############################################
COMERUS
611
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
d. ) Homer because a
a liberal education, and a
rds of the people thus bent
ailosophers of that are a
• explain and recesede
che moral principles and te
ned in the beroic tales com
tidore, rol i R 32) i
cal new tha: Prikaza
acleitus condemned lisad
ulseboods and degraded to
ailst Theagenes
, Vendas
simbroios, exposuded
-, which was dixoeding
observer under the team
cant ale So old in the
3 follr at which the aber
Plato related, and 1
all his might, but stil
de sound critical state
<s, and has thuirea lair
present dar.
Fas besto red ca Him
es' age, Prodias. P. 33
There are eren 2
the crop. ai and Aires
the Alexandra sta
ists. Thus the state
copies of his surks ETS
and more pelapid
I a few of the liza
compared the best la
asing what they can
ορθώσεις)The asia
with Zenodotris at Alexandria. For such a task | tion, spiritus, and the like. 4. Nicanor, Depl
the times after Alexander were quite fit Life otiquís, on the stoppings. On Aristarchus we
bad fled from the literature of the Greeks ; it was need not say much here (ARISTARCHUS): we will
become a dead body, and was very properly carried only add, that the obelos, one of the critical marks
into Egypt, there to be embalmed and safely pre- used by Aristarchus, and invented, like the accents,
served for many ensuing centuries. It was the by his master, Aristophanes, was used for the dllé
task of men, who, like Aristarchus, could judge of nois, i. e. to mark those verses which scemed im-
poctry without being able to write any themselves, proper and detrimental to the beauty of the poem,
to preserve carefully that which was extant, to but which Aristarchus dared not throw out of the
clear it froin all stains and corruptions, and to ex- text, as it was impossible to determine whether they
plain what was no longer rooted in and connected were to be ascribed to an accidental carelessness of
with the institutions of a free political life, and the author, or to interpolations of rhapsodists.
therefore was become unintelligible to all but the Those verses which Aristarchus was convinced to
learned. Three men, who stand in the relation of be spurious he left out of his edition altogether.
masters and pupils, were at the head of a numerous Aristarchus was in constunt opposition to Crates of
host of scholars, who directed their attention either Mallus, the founder of the Pergamene school of
occasionally or exclusively to the study and criti- grammar. This Crates had the merit of trans-
cism of the Homeric poems. Zenodotus (Zexu- planting the study of literature to Rome. With
DOTUS] laid the foundation of systematic criticism, regard to Homer, he zealously defended the alle-
by establishing two rules for purifying the corrupted gorical explication against his rival Aristarchus.
text. He threw out, Ist, whatever was contra- Crates. ] In the time of Augustus the great
dictory to, or not necessarily connected with, the compiler, Didymus, wrote most comprehensive
whole of the work ; 2d, what seemed unworthy of commentaries on Homer, copying mostly the works
the genius of the author. To these two rules his of preceding Alexandrian grammarians, which had
followers, Aristophanes and Aristarchus, added two swollen to an enormous extent. Under Tiberius,
more ; they rejected, 3d, what was contrary or Apollonius Sophista lived, whose lexicon Homeri-
foreign to the customs of the Homeric age, and 4th, cum is very valuable (ed. Bekker, 1833). Apion,
what did not agree with the epic language and a pupil of Didymus, was of much less importance
versification. It is not to be wondered at that than is generally believed, chiefly on the authority
Zenodotus, in his first attempt, did not reach the of Wolf: he was a great quack, and an impu-
summit of perfection. The manner in which he cut dent boaster. (Lehrs, Quacst. Epicae, 1837 ; see
ont long passages; arbitrarily altered others, trans Aplon. ) Longinus and his pupil
, Porphyrius, of
posed and, in short, corrected Homer's text as he whom we possess some tolerably good scholia, were
would have done his own, seemed shocking to all of more value. The Homeric scholia are dispersed
sober critics of later times, and would have proved in various MSS. Complete collections do not exist,
very injurious to the text had not Aristo nes, nor are they desirable, as many of them are utterly
and still more Aristarchus, acted on sounder prin- useless. The most valuable scholia on the Iliad
ciples, and thus put a stop to the arbitrary system are those which have been referred to above, which
of Zenodotus. Aristophanes of Byzantium (ARIS were published by Villoison from a MS. of the
TOPHANES), a man of vast learning, seems to have tenth century in the library of St. Mark at Venice,
been more occupied with the other parts of the together with the scholia to the Iliad previously
Greek literature, particularly the comic poets, than published, Ven. 1788, fol. These scholia were
with Homer. He inserted in his edition many of reprinted with additions, edited by I. Bekker,
the verses which had been thrown out by Zeno- Berlin, 1825, 2 vols. 4to. , with an appendix, 1826,
dotus, and in many respects laid the foundations which collection contains all that is worth reading.
for what his pupil Aristarchus executed. The re- A few additions are to be found in Bachmann's
putation of the latter as the prince of grammarians Scholia ad Homeri Iliudem, Lips. 1835. The
was so great throughout the whole of antiquity, most valuable scholia to the Odyssey are those
that before the publication of the Venetian scholia published by Buttmann, Berl. 1821, mostly taken
by Villoison, we hardly knew how to account for from the scholia originally published by A. Mai
it. But these excellent scholia, which have chiefly from a MS. at Milan in 1819. The extensive com-
enabled us to understand the origin of the Honeric mentary of Eustathius is a compilation destitute of
poems, teach us also to appreciate their great and judgment and of taste, but which contains much
anrivalled interpreter, and have now generally led valuable information from sources which are now
to the conclusion, that the highest aim of the am- lost. (Eustathius, No. 7. ) The old editions of
bition of modern critics with respect to Homer is Homer, as well as the MSS. , are of very little im-
to restore the edition of Aristarchus, an under- portance for the restoration of the text, for which
taking which is believed to be possible by one of we must apply to the scholia. The Editio Princeps
the most competent judges, chiefly through the by Demetrius Chalcondylas, Flor. 1488, fol. , was
assistance afforded by these scholia. (Lehrs, de the first large work printed in Greek (one psalm
Aristarchi Studiis Homericis, 1833. ) Lehrs has only and the Batrachomyomachia having preceded).
discovered the sources from which these scholia are This edition was frequently reprinted. Wolf reckone
derived. 1. Aristonicus, nepi onueiwv Tô tñs scarcely seven critical editions from the Editio Prin-
'Indoos kal 'oouooelas. These onueia are the ceps to his time. That of H. Stephanus, in Poet.
critical marks of Aristarchus, so that from Aristo- Graec. Princ. her. Carm. , Paris, 1566, fol. , was one
nicus we learn a great many of the readings of of the best. In England the editions of Barnes,
Aristarchus. 2. Didymus, Tepl tais 'Apotápxov Cantab. , 1711, 2 vols. 4to. , and of Clarke, who
opsoews. 3. Herodian, Tipoowola 'Oumpika : the published the Iliad in 1729, and the Odyssey in
word prosody contained, according to the use of 1740, were generally used for a long time, and
those grammarians, not merely what is called pro often reprinted. The latter was published with
sody now, but the rules of accentuation, contrac- | additions by Ernesti, Lips. 1759–1764, 5 vuls.
:
a east one. It may be
of the case, and 1 D
s, that the text of this
pancies, Dei pazieked
assical writer. There
sposed, added as
cognised; pothing
sisted before the time
This state of the rest
e dificulties to be
criticism fet ciest
to the Alendriaa
und ancient sources
ogh the school
the famous se
, which leave
ut with him in a
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the scholia si i
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ei kata terçar
He koraa
3 Arges, Siaures
likely that azer
in tbe diversi
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z vere en DOP
cripts are wa,
en found. We
ons the city
olian 1031, 204
been the coord
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T, snich bato
## p. 512 (#528) ############################################
512
HOMERUS.
HONORATUS.
11
1
1
g
8vo. This edition was reprinted at Glasgow, with | He was one of the seven poets who formed the
Wolf's Prolegomena, in 1814, and again at Leipzig tragic Peilad. The number of his dramas is differ-
in 1824.
ently stated at 45, 47, and 57. His statue stood
A new period began with Wolf's second edition in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Byzantium.
(Homeri ei Homeridarum Op. et Rel. Halis, 1794), His poems are entirely lost, with the exception of
the first edition (1784 and 1785) being merely a one title, Eurypyleia. (Suid. s. vv. Ourpos, Mupué;
copy of the vulgaie. Along with the second edition Tzetz. Chil. xii. 209, ad Lycophr. p. 204, ed. Mül-
were published the Prolegomena. A third edition ler ; Diog. Laërt. ix. 113; Christodor. Eephrasis,
was published from 1801-1807. It is very much 407—+13, ap. Brunck. Anul. vol. ii. p. 471;
to be regretted that the editions of Wolf are with Fabric. Bill. Grucc vol. ii. p. 307 ; Welcker, die
out commentaries or critical notes, so that it is im- | Griech. Tragöd. pp. 1251-2. )
possible to know in many cases on what grounds 2. A grammarian, surnamed Sellius, who wrote
he adopted his readings, which differ from the vul- hymns and sportive and other poems, and in prose
gate. Heyne began in 1802 to publish the Iliad, repl Tŵ KWWIK@ TPOOwnwv, and summaries (6-
which was finished in eight volumes, and was most poxas) of the comedies of Menander. (Suid.
severely and unsparingly reviewed by Wolf, Voss, s. rv. "Oumpos and Simlos ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
and Eichstädt, in the Jenuer Literatur Zeitung, vol. ii. p 451. )
[P. S. ]
1803. A ninth volume, containing the Indices, HOMOLOÉUS ('Ouolweús), a son of Amphion,
was published by Gräfenhan in 1822. A curious from whom the Homoloian gate of Thebes was be-
and most ridiculous attempt was made by Payne lieved to have derived its name.
tiquity ascribed to him the merit of having collected nians were generally believed to bave had no part
the disjointed and confused poems of Homer, and in the Trojan war; therefore II. ii. 547, 552—554,
of having first committed them to writing. (Cic. de were marked by the Alexandrine critics as spurious,
Or. iï. 34 ; Paus. vii. 26 ; Joseph, c. Ap. i. 2 ; and for similar reasons Od. vii. 80, 81, and Od. ii.
Aelian, V. K. xiii. 14 ; Liban. Paneg. in Julian 308. But how unimportant are these alterations
;
i p. 170, Reisk. &c. )*
in comparison with the long interpolations which
In what light Wolf viewed this tradition has been must be attributed to the rhapsodists previous to
already mentioned. He held it to have been the first Peisistratus ! It must be confessed that these four
step that was taken in order to connect the loose and men accomplished their task, on the whole, with
incoherent songs into continued and uninterrupted great accuracy. However inclined we may be to
stories, and to preserve the union which he had attribute this accuracy less to their critical investiga-
thus imparted to these poems by first committing tions and conscientiousness, than to the impossi-
them to writing. Pausanias mentions associates bility of making great changes on account of the
(Taipoi) of Peisistratus, who assisted him in his general knowledge of what was genuine, through
undertaking. These associates Wolf thought to the number of existing copies ; and although we
have been the diad Kevadtal mentioned sometimes may, on the whole, be induced, after Wolf's ex-
in the Scholia ; but in this he was evidently aggerations, to think little of the merits of Peisis-
mistaken. Als Kevaotaí are, in the phraseology tratus, still we must allow that the praise be-
of the Scholia, interpolators, and not arrangers. stowed on Peisistratus by the ancient writers is
(Heinrich, de Diask. Homericis ; Lehrs, Aris too great and too general to allow us to admit of
tarchi siud. Hom. p. 349. ) Another weak point | Nitzsch's opinion, that he only compared and ex-
in Wolf's reasoning is, that he says that Peisis amined various MSS. If, then, it does not follow,
tratus was the first who committed the Homeric as Wolf thought, that the Homeric poems never
poems to writing ; this is expressly stated by formed a whole before Peisistratus, it is at the same
none of the ancient writers. On the contrary, it is time undeniable that to Peisistratus we owe the first
not unlikely that before Peisistratus, persons began written text of the whole of the poems, which,
in various parts of Greece, and particularly in without his care, would most likely now exist only
Asia Minor, which was far in advance of the in a few disjointed fragments. Some traditions at-
tributed to Hipparchus, the son and successor of
* It is ridiculous to what absurdity this tra- Peisistratus, regulations for the recital of the Ho-
dition has been spun out by the iguorance of later meric poems of a kind similar to those which had
scholiasts. Diomedes (Villois. Anecd. Gr. ii. p. been already made by Solon. (Plat. Hipp. p. 228.
182) tells a long story, how that at one time the 6. ) He is said to have obliged the rhapsodists
Homeric poems were partially destroyed either by | εξ υπολήψεως εφεξής τα 'Ομήρου διϊέναι. The
fire or water or earthquakes, and parts were scat- meaning of the words è unohíbews, and their
tered here and there ; so that some persons had difference from ÚToboxñs, which was the manner
one hundred verses, others two hundred, others a of recitation, ordained by Solon, has given rise to
thousand. He further states that Peisistratus col- a long controversy between Böckh and Hermann
lected all the persons who were in possession of (comp Nitzsch, Alelet. ii. p. 132); to enter into
Homeric verses, and paid them for each verse ; and which would be foreign to the purpose of this
that he then ordered seventy grammarians to ar-
article.
range these verses, which task was best performed Having taken this general survey of the most
by Zenodotus and Aristarchus.
important arguments for and against Wolfs hypo-
## p. 508 (#524) ############################################
508
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
!
1
thesis concerning the origin of the poems of Homer, p. 47; see also Nitzsch, Anm. vol. ii. p. 26),
the following may be regarded as the most probable is not improbable, that Homer first undertook to
conclusion. There can be no doubt that the seed combine into one great unity the scattered and
of the Homeric poems was scattered in the time of fragmentary poems of earlier bards, and that it
the heroic exploits which they celebrate, and in the was a task which established his great renown.
land of the victorious Achaeans, that is, in European We can now judge of the probability that Homer
Greece. An abundance of heroic lays preserved was an lonian, who in Smyrna, where Ionians
the records of the Trojan war. It was a puerile and Aeolians were mixed, became acquainted with
idea, which is now completely exploded, that the the subject of his poems, and moulded them
events are fictitious on which the Iliad and Odys- into the form which was suited to the taste of
sey are based, that a Trojan war never was waged, his Ionian countrymen. But as a faithful pre-
and so forth. Whoever would make such a con- servation of these long works was impossible
clusion from the intermixture of gods in the battles in an age unacquainted with, or at least not
of men, would forget what the Muses say (Hes. versed in the art of writing, it was a natural
Theog. 27)
consequence, that in the lapse of ages the poems
Ίδμεν ψεύδεα πολλά λέγειν ετυμοισιν ομοία,
should not only lose the purity with which they
"Ιδμεν δ', εύτ' εθέλωμεν, αληθέα μυθήσασθαι:
proceeded from the mind of the poet, but should
also become more and more dismembered, and thus
and he would overlook the fact, that these songs return into their original state of loose independent
were handed down a long time before they attained songs. Their public recitation became more and
that texture of truth and fiction which forms one more fragmentary, and the time at festivals and
of their peculiar charms. Europe must necessarily musical contests formerly occupied by epic rhapso-
have been the country where these songs originated, dists exclusively was encroached upon by the rising
both because here the victorious heroes dwelt, and lyrical performances and players of the fute and
because so many traces in the poems still point to lyre. Yet the knowledge of the unity of the dif-
these regions. (See above, p. 500, b. ) It was here ferent Homeric rhapsodies was not entirely lost.
that the old Thracian bards had effected that Solon, himself a poet, directed the attention of his
unity of mythology which, spreading all over countrymen towards it ; and Peisistratus at last
Greece, bad gradually absorbed and obliterated the raised a lasting monument to his high merits, in
discrepancies of the old local myths, and sub-fixing the genuine Homeric poems by the indelible
stituted one general mythology for the whole marks of writing, as far as was possible in his time
nation, with Zeus as the supreme ruler, dwelling and with his means. That previous to the famous
on the snowy heights of Olympus. Impregnated edition of Peisistratus parts of Homer, or the en-
with this European mythology, the heroic lays tire poems, were committed to writing in other
were brought to Asia Minor by the Greek colonies, towns of Greece or Asia Minor is not improbable,
which left the mother-country about three ages after but we do not possess sufficient testimonies to
the Trojan war. In European Greece a new race prove it. We can therefore safely affirm that from
gained the ascendancy, the Dorians, foreign to the time of Peisistratus, the Greeks had a written
those who gloried in having the old heroes among Homer, a regular text, the source and foundation
their ancestors. The heroic songs, therefore, died of all subsequent editions.
away more and more in Europe ; but in Asia the Having established the fact, that there was a
Aeolians fought, conquered, and settled nearly in Homer, who must be considered as the author of
the same regions in which their fathers had sig- the Homeric poems, there naturally arises another
nalised themselves by immortal exploits, the glory question, viz. which poems are Homeric? We
of which was celebrated, and their memory still have seen already that a great number of cyclic
preserved by their national bards. Their dwelling poems were attributed to the great bard of the
in the same locality not only kept alive the re- Anger of Achilles. Stasinus, the author of the
membrance of the deeds of their fathers, but gave a Cypria, was said to have received this poem from
new impulse to their poetry, just as in the middle Homer as a dowry for his daughter, whom he mar-
ages in Germany the foundation of the kingdom of ried. Creophylus is placed in a similar connection
the Hungarians in the East, and their destructive with Homer. But these traditions are utterly
invasions, together with the origin of a new empire groundless ; they were occasioned by the authors
of the Burgundians in the West, awakened the of the cyclic poems being at the same time rhapso-
old songs of the Niebelungen, after a slumber of dists of the Homeric poems, which they recited
centuries. (Gervinus, Poetical Lit. of Germ. vol. i. along with their own. Nor are the hymns, which
p. 108. )
still bear the name of Homer, more genuine pro-
Now the Homeric poems advanced a step ductions of the poet of the Iliad than the cyclic
further. From unconnected songs, they were, for poems. They were called by the ancients a poolus,
the first time, united by a great genius, who, i. e. overtures or preludes, and were sung by the
whether he was really called Homer, or whether rhapsodists as introductions to epic poems at the
the name be of later origin and significant of his festivals of the respective gods, to whom they are
work of uniting songs (Welcker, Ep. Cycl. pp. 125, addressed. To these rhapsodists the hymns most
128 ; Ilgen, Hymn. Hoin. praef
. p. 23; Heyne, ad probably owe their origin. “They exhibit such a
Il. vol. viii
. p. 795), was the one individual who diversity of language and poetical tone, that in all
conceived in his mind the lofty idea of that poetical probability they contain fragments from every
unity which we cannot help acknowledging and century from the time of Homer to the Persian
admiring. What were the peculiar excellencies war. ” (Müller, Ibid. p. 74. ) Still most of them
which distinguished this one Homer among a great were reckoned to be Homeric productions by those
number of contemporary poets, and saved his works who lived in a time when Greek literature still
alone from oblivion, we do not renture to deter- flourished. This is easily accounted for ; being
mine ; but the conjecture of Müller (Greek Lit. recited in connection with Homeric poems, they
1
## p. 509 (#525) ############################################
HOMERUS.
309
HOMERUS.
were gradually attributed to the same author, and Mice (Suid. s. p. ; Plut. de Malign. Flerod. 43),
continued to be so regarded more or less genemlly, a poem frequently ascribed by the ancients to
till critics, and particularly those of Alexandria, Homer. It is a harmless playful tale, without a
discovered the differences between their style and marked tendency to sarcasm and satire, amusing as
that of Homer. At Alexandria they were never a parody, but without any great poetical merit
reckoned genuine, which accounts for the circum- which could justify its being ascribed to Homer.
stance that none of the great critics of that school Besides these poems, there are a great many
is known to have made a regular collection of them. more, most of which we know only by name, and
(Wolf, Proleg. p. 266. ) Of the hymns now extant which we find attributed to Homer with more or
five deserve particular attention on account of their less confidence. But we have good reasons for
greater length and mythological contents; they are doubting all such statements concerning lost poems,
those addressed to the Delian and Pythian Apollo, whose claims we cannot examine, when we see
to Hermes, Demeter, and Aphrodite. The hymn that even Thucydides and Aristotle considered as
to the Delian Apollo, formerly regarded as part of genuine not only such poems as the Margites and
the one to the Pythian Apollo, is the work of a some of the hymns, but also all those passages of
Homerid of Chios, and approaches so nearly to the the Iliad and Odyssey which are evidently inter-
true Homeric tone, that the author, who calls him- polated, and which at the present day nobody
self the blind poet, who lived in the rocky Chios, would dream of ascribing to their reputed author.
was held even by Thucydides to be Homer himself. (Nitzsch, Anm. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 40. ) The time in
It narrates the birth of Apollo in Delos, but a great which Greek literature flourished was not adapted
part of it is lost. The hymn to the Pythian for tracing out the poems which were spurious and
Apollo contained the foundation of the Pythian interpolated. People enjoyed all that was beautiful,
sanctuary by the god himself, who slays the dragon, without caring who was the author. The task of
and, in the form of a dolphin, leads Čretan men to sifting and correcting the works of literature was
Crissa, whom he established as priests of his temple. left to the age in which the faculties of the Greek
The hymn to Hermes, which, on account of its mind had ceased to produce original works, and
mentioning the seven-stringed lyre, the invention has turned to scrutinise and preserve former pro-
of Terpander, cannot have been composed before ductions. Then it was not only discovered that
the 30th olympiad, relates the tricks of the new- the cyclic poems and the hymns had no title to be
born Hermes, who, having left his cradle, drove styled “ Homeric,” but the question was mooted
away the cattle of Apollo from their pastures in and warmly discussed, whether the Odyssey was
Pieria to Pylos, there killed them, and then in- to be attributed to the author of the Iliad. Of the
vented the lyre, made of a tortoise-shell, with existence of this interesting controversy we had
which he pacified the anger of Apollo. The hymn only a slight indication in Seneca (de Brerit. l'itae,
to Aphrodite celebrates the birth of Aeneas in a 13) before the publication of the Venetian Scholin.
style not very different from that of Homer. The From these we know now that there was a regular
hymn to Demeter, first discovered 1778, in Mos- party of critics, who assigned the Iliad and Odyssey
ców, by Mathaei, and first published by Ruhnken, to two different authors, and were therefore called
1780, gives an account of Demeter's search after Chorizontes (x«pícovtes), the Separaters. (Granert,
her daughter, Persephone, who had been carried üb d. Hom. Choriz. Rhcin. Mus. vol. i. ) Their
away by Hades. The goddess obtains from Zeus, arguments were probably not very convincing, and
that her daughter should pass only one third part might fairly be considered to be entirely refuted
of the year with Hades, and return to her for the by such reasonings as Longinus made use of, who
rest of the year. With this symbolical description affirmed (just as if he had heard it from Homer
of the corn, which, when sown, remains for some himself) that the Iliad was composed by Homer in
time under ground, and then springs up, the poet the vigour of life, and the Odyssey in his old age.
has connected the mythology of the Eleusinians, With this decision all critics were satisfied for
who hospitably received the goddess on ber wan- centuries, till, in modern times, the question has
derings, afterwards built her a temple, and were been opened again. Traces have been discovered
rewarded by instruction in the mysterious rites of in the Odyssey which seemed to indicate a later
Demeter.
time ; and although this is a difficult and doubtful
Beside the cyclic epics and the hymns, we find point, because we do not know in many cases
poems of quite a different nature erroneously whether the discrepancies in the two poems are to
ascribed to Homer. Such was the case with the be considered as genuine parts or as interpolations,
Margiles, a poem, which Aristotle regarded as the yet there is so mucb in the one poem which cannot
source of comedy, just as he called the Iliad and be reconciled with the whole tenor of the other,
Odyssey the fountain of all tragic poetry. From that a later origin of the Odyssey seems very pro-
this view of Aristotle, we may judge of the nature bable. (Nitzsch in Hall. Encycl. p. 405 a. ) We
of the poem. It ridiculed a man who was said " to cannot lay much stress on the observation, that the
know many things, and to know all badly. ” The state of social life in the Odyssey appears more ad-
subject was nearly related to the scurrilous and vanced in refinement, comfort, and art, than in the
satirical poetry of Archilochus and other contem- Iliad, because this may be regarded as the result of
porary iambographers, although in versification, the different nature of the subjects. The magnifi-
epic tone, and language, it imitated the Iliad. The cent palaces of Menelaus and Alcinous, and the
iambic verses which are quoted from it by gram- peaceful enjoyments of the Phaeacians, could find
marians were most likely interspersed by Pigres, no place in the rough camp of the heroes before Troy.
brother of Artemisia, who is also called the author But a great and essential difference, which per-
of this poem, and who interpolated the Iliad with rades the whole of the two poems, is observable in
pentameters in a similar manner.
the notions that are entertained respecting the gods.
The same Pigres was perhaps the author of the In the Iliad the men are better than the gods ; in
Batrachomyomachia, the Battle of the Frogs and the Odyssey it is the reverse.
In the latter poem
## p. 510 (#526) ############################################
510
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
:
no mortal dares to resist, much less to attack and (Plut Alcib. p. 194, d. ) Homer became a port
wound a. god; Olympus does not resound with of ground-work for a liberal education, and as his
everlasting quarrels ; Athene consults humbly the influence over the minds of the people thus became
will of Zeus, and forbears offending Poseidon, her still stronger, the philosophers of that age were
uncle, for the sake of a mortal man.
Whenever a naturally led either to explain and recommend or
god inflicts punishment or bestows protection in the to oppose and refute the moral principles and reli-
Odyssey, it is for some moral desert ; not as in the gious doctrines contained in the heroic tales. (Grä-
Iliad, through mere caprice, without any consider- fenhan, Gesch. der Philologie, vol. i. p. 202. ) It
ation of the good or bad qualities of the individual. was with this practical view that Pythagoras,
In the Iliad Zeus sends a dream to deceive Aga- Xenophanes, and Heracleitus, condemned Homer
inemnon ; Athene, after a general consultation of as one who uttered falsehoods and degraded the
the gods, prompts Pandarus to his treachery ; majesty of the gods; whilst Theagenes, Metrodorus,
Paris, the violator of the sacred laws of hos- Anaxagoras, and Stesimbrotus, expounded the
pitality, is never upbraided with his crime by deep wisdom of Homer, which was disguised from
the gods ; whereas, in the Odyssey, they ap- the eyes of the common observer under the veil of
pear as the awful avengers of those who do not an apparently insignificant tale. So old is the
respect the laws of the hospitable Zeus. The gods allegurical explanation, a folly at which the sober
of the Iliad live on Mount Olympus ; those of Socrats smiled, which Plato refuted, and Ari-
the Odyssey are further removed from the earth ; starchus opposed with all his might, but which,
they inhabit the wide heaven. There is nothing nevertheless, outlived the sound critical study of
which obliges us to think of the Mount Olympus. Homer among the Greeks, and has thriven luxu-
In the Iliad the gods are visible to every one riantly eren down to the present day.
except when they surround themselves with a A more scientific study was bestowed on Homer
cloud ; in the Odyssey they are usually invisible, by the sophists of Pericles' age, Prodicus, Prota-
unless they take the shape of men. In short, as goras, Hippias, and others. There are even traces
Benjamin Constant has well observed (de la Relig. which seem to indicate that the droplai and Aucers,
iii. ), there is more mythology in the Iliad, and such favourite themes with the Alexandrian critics,
more religion in the Odyssey. If we add to all originated with these sophists. Thus the study of
this the differences that exist between the two Homer increased, and the copies of his works must
poems in language and tone, we shall be obliged to naturally have been more and more multiplied.
admit, that the Odyssey is of considerably later We may suppose that not a few of the literary
date than the Iliad. Every one who admires the men of that age carefully compared the best MSS.
bard of the Iliad, with whom are connected all the within their reach, and choosing what they thought
associations of ideas which have been formed re- best made new editions (8. 0p WEIS). The task of
specting Homer, feels naturally inclined to gire these first editors was not an easy one. It may be
him credit for having composed the Odyssey also, concluded from the nature of the case, and it is
and is unwilling to fancy another person to be the known by various testimonies, that the text of those
author who would be quite an imaginary and un- days offered enormous discrepancies, not paralleled
interesting personage. It is no doubt chiefly owing in the text of any other classical writer. There
to these feelings that many scholars have tried in were passages left out, transposed, added, or so
various ways to prove that the same Homer is the altered, as not easily to be recognised ; nothing, in
author of both the poems, although there seem short, like a smooth vulgate existed before the time
sufficient reasons to establish the contrary. Thus of the Alexandrine critics. This state of the text
Müller (Ibid. p. 62) says: “ If the completion of must have presented immense difficulties to the
the Iliad and Odyssey seems too vast a work for first editors in the infancy of criticism. Yet these
the lifetime of one man, we may perhaps have re- early editions were valuable to the Alexandrians,
course to the supposition, that Homer, after having as being derived from good and ancient sources.
sung the Iliad in the vigour of his youthful years, Two only are known to us through the scholia, one
in his old age communicated to some devoted dis of the poet Antimachus, and the famous one of
ciple the plan of the Odyssey, which had long been Aristotle (v éx Toù váponkos), which Alexander
working in his mind, and left it to him for com- the Great used to carry about with him in a
pletion. ” Nitzsch (Anmerk. z. Od. vol. ii. p. 26) splendid case (vápont) on all his expeditions.
has found out another expedient. He thinks, that Besides these editions, called in the scholia ai kat'
in the Iliad Homer has followed more closely the avôpa, there were several other old drop do eis at
old traditions, which represented the former and Alexandria, under the name of ai kata tónes, or
ruder state of society ; whilst, in the Odyssey, he ai ék rólewy, or ai politikal. We know six of
was more original, and imprinted upon his own them, those of Massilia, Chios, Argos, Sinope,
inventions his own ideas concerning the gods. Cyprus, and Crete. It is hardly likely that they
The history of the Homeric poems may be were made by public authority in the different
divided conveniently into two great periods : one states, whose names they bear ; on the contrary,
in which the text was transmitted by oral tradi- as the persons who had made them were unknown,
tion, and the other of the written text after Peisis- they were called, just as manuscripts are now,
Of the former we have already spoken: it from the places where they had been found. We
therefore only remains to treat of the latter. The are acquainted with two more editions, the aloun,
epoch from Peisistratus down to the establishment brought most likely from some Aeolian town, and
of the first critical school at Alexandria, i. e. to the Kukliń, which seems to have been the copy of
Zenodotus, presents very few facts concerning the Homer which formed part of the series of cyclic
Homeric poems. Oral tradition still prevailed over poems in the Alexandrian library.
writing for a long time; though in the days of Alci- All these editions, however, were only prepara-
bindes it was expected that every schoolmaster would | tory to the establishment of a regular and systematic
have a copy of Homer with which to teach his boys. I criticism and interpretation of Homer, which began
1
1
tratus,
## p. 511 (#527) ############################################
COMERUS
611
HOMERUS.
HOMERUS.
d. ) Homer because a
a liberal education, and a
rds of the people thus bent
ailosophers of that are a
• explain and recesede
che moral principles and te
ned in the beroic tales com
tidore, rol i R 32) i
cal new tha: Prikaza
acleitus condemned lisad
ulseboods and degraded to
ailst Theagenes
, Vendas
simbroios, exposuded
-, which was dixoeding
observer under the team
cant ale So old in the
3 follr at which the aber
Plato related, and 1
all his might, but stil
de sound critical state
<s, and has thuirea lair
present dar.
Fas besto red ca Him
es' age, Prodias. P. 33
There are eren 2
the crop. ai and Aires
the Alexandra sta
ists. Thus the state
copies of his surks ETS
and more pelapid
I a few of the liza
compared the best la
asing what they can
ορθώσεις)The asia
with Zenodotris at Alexandria. For such a task | tion, spiritus, and the like. 4. Nicanor, Depl
the times after Alexander were quite fit Life otiquís, on the stoppings. On Aristarchus we
bad fled from the literature of the Greeks ; it was need not say much here (ARISTARCHUS): we will
become a dead body, and was very properly carried only add, that the obelos, one of the critical marks
into Egypt, there to be embalmed and safely pre- used by Aristarchus, and invented, like the accents,
served for many ensuing centuries. It was the by his master, Aristophanes, was used for the dllé
task of men, who, like Aristarchus, could judge of nois, i. e. to mark those verses which scemed im-
poctry without being able to write any themselves, proper and detrimental to the beauty of the poem,
to preserve carefully that which was extant, to but which Aristarchus dared not throw out of the
clear it froin all stains and corruptions, and to ex- text, as it was impossible to determine whether they
plain what was no longer rooted in and connected were to be ascribed to an accidental carelessness of
with the institutions of a free political life, and the author, or to interpolations of rhapsodists.
therefore was become unintelligible to all but the Those verses which Aristarchus was convinced to
learned. Three men, who stand in the relation of be spurious he left out of his edition altogether.
masters and pupils, were at the head of a numerous Aristarchus was in constunt opposition to Crates of
host of scholars, who directed their attention either Mallus, the founder of the Pergamene school of
occasionally or exclusively to the study and criti- grammar. This Crates had the merit of trans-
cism of the Homeric poems. Zenodotus (Zexu- planting the study of literature to Rome. With
DOTUS] laid the foundation of systematic criticism, regard to Homer, he zealously defended the alle-
by establishing two rules for purifying the corrupted gorical explication against his rival Aristarchus.
text. He threw out, Ist, whatever was contra- Crates. ] In the time of Augustus the great
dictory to, or not necessarily connected with, the compiler, Didymus, wrote most comprehensive
whole of the work ; 2d, what seemed unworthy of commentaries on Homer, copying mostly the works
the genius of the author. To these two rules his of preceding Alexandrian grammarians, which had
followers, Aristophanes and Aristarchus, added two swollen to an enormous extent. Under Tiberius,
more ; they rejected, 3d, what was contrary or Apollonius Sophista lived, whose lexicon Homeri-
foreign to the customs of the Homeric age, and 4th, cum is very valuable (ed. Bekker, 1833). Apion,
what did not agree with the epic language and a pupil of Didymus, was of much less importance
versification. It is not to be wondered at that than is generally believed, chiefly on the authority
Zenodotus, in his first attempt, did not reach the of Wolf: he was a great quack, and an impu-
summit of perfection. The manner in which he cut dent boaster. (Lehrs, Quacst. Epicae, 1837 ; see
ont long passages; arbitrarily altered others, trans Aplon. ) Longinus and his pupil
, Porphyrius, of
posed and, in short, corrected Homer's text as he whom we possess some tolerably good scholia, were
would have done his own, seemed shocking to all of more value. The Homeric scholia are dispersed
sober critics of later times, and would have proved in various MSS. Complete collections do not exist,
very injurious to the text had not Aristo nes, nor are they desirable, as many of them are utterly
and still more Aristarchus, acted on sounder prin- useless. The most valuable scholia on the Iliad
ciples, and thus put a stop to the arbitrary system are those which have been referred to above, which
of Zenodotus. Aristophanes of Byzantium (ARIS were published by Villoison from a MS. of the
TOPHANES), a man of vast learning, seems to have tenth century in the library of St. Mark at Venice,
been more occupied with the other parts of the together with the scholia to the Iliad previously
Greek literature, particularly the comic poets, than published, Ven. 1788, fol. These scholia were
with Homer. He inserted in his edition many of reprinted with additions, edited by I. Bekker,
the verses which had been thrown out by Zeno- Berlin, 1825, 2 vols. 4to. , with an appendix, 1826,
dotus, and in many respects laid the foundations which collection contains all that is worth reading.
for what his pupil Aristarchus executed. The re- A few additions are to be found in Bachmann's
putation of the latter as the prince of grammarians Scholia ad Homeri Iliudem, Lips. 1835. The
was so great throughout the whole of antiquity, most valuable scholia to the Odyssey are those
that before the publication of the Venetian scholia published by Buttmann, Berl. 1821, mostly taken
by Villoison, we hardly knew how to account for from the scholia originally published by A. Mai
it. But these excellent scholia, which have chiefly from a MS. at Milan in 1819. The extensive com-
enabled us to understand the origin of the Honeric mentary of Eustathius is a compilation destitute of
poems, teach us also to appreciate their great and judgment and of taste, but which contains much
anrivalled interpreter, and have now generally led valuable information from sources which are now
to the conclusion, that the highest aim of the am- lost. (Eustathius, No. 7. ) The old editions of
bition of modern critics with respect to Homer is Homer, as well as the MSS. , are of very little im-
to restore the edition of Aristarchus, an under- portance for the restoration of the text, for which
taking which is believed to be possible by one of we must apply to the scholia. The Editio Princeps
the most competent judges, chiefly through the by Demetrius Chalcondylas, Flor. 1488, fol. , was
assistance afforded by these scholia. (Lehrs, de the first large work printed in Greek (one psalm
Aristarchi Studiis Homericis, 1833. ) Lehrs has only and the Batrachomyomachia having preceded).
discovered the sources from which these scholia are This edition was frequently reprinted. Wolf reckone
derived. 1. Aristonicus, nepi onueiwv Tô tñs scarcely seven critical editions from the Editio Prin-
'Indoos kal 'oouooelas. These onueia are the ceps to his time. That of H. Stephanus, in Poet.
critical marks of Aristarchus, so that from Aristo- Graec. Princ. her. Carm. , Paris, 1566, fol. , was one
nicus we learn a great many of the readings of of the best. In England the editions of Barnes,
Aristarchus. 2. Didymus, Tepl tais 'Apotápxov Cantab. , 1711, 2 vols. 4to. , and of Clarke, who
opsoews. 3. Herodian, Tipoowola 'Oumpika : the published the Iliad in 1729, and the Odyssey in
word prosody contained, according to the use of 1740, were generally used for a long time, and
those grammarians, not merely what is called pro often reprinted. The latter was published with
sody now, but the rules of accentuation, contrac- | additions by Ernesti, Lips. 1759–1764, 5 vuls.
:
a east one. It may be
of the case, and 1 D
s, that the text of this
pancies, Dei pazieked
assical writer. There
sposed, added as
cognised; pothing
sisted before the time
This state of the rest
e dificulties to be
criticism fet ciest
to the Alendriaa
und ancient sources
ogh the school
the famous se
, which leave
ut with him in a
7 bis especiosa
the scholia si i
old daptates
ei kata terçar
He koraa
3 Arges, Siaures
likely that azer
in tbe diversi
on the coor77,
z vere en DOP
cripts are wa,
en found. We
ons the city
olian 1031, 204
been the coord
series of creze
onls premero
and ststeuzi
T, snich bato
## p. 512 (#528) ############################################
512
HOMERUS.
HONORATUS.
11
1
1
g
8vo. This edition was reprinted at Glasgow, with | He was one of the seven poets who formed the
Wolf's Prolegomena, in 1814, and again at Leipzig tragic Peilad. The number of his dramas is differ-
in 1824.
ently stated at 45, 47, and 57. His statue stood
A new period began with Wolf's second edition in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Byzantium.
(Homeri ei Homeridarum Op. et Rel. Halis, 1794), His poems are entirely lost, with the exception of
the first edition (1784 and 1785) being merely a one title, Eurypyleia. (Suid. s. vv. Ourpos, Mupué;
copy of the vulgaie. Along with the second edition Tzetz. Chil. xii. 209, ad Lycophr. p. 204, ed. Mül-
were published the Prolegomena. A third edition ler ; Diog. Laërt. ix. 113; Christodor. Eephrasis,
was published from 1801-1807. It is very much 407—+13, ap. Brunck. Anul. vol. ii. p. 471;
to be regretted that the editions of Wolf are with Fabric. Bill. Grucc vol. ii. p. 307 ; Welcker, die
out commentaries or critical notes, so that it is im- | Griech. Tragöd. pp. 1251-2. )
possible to know in many cases on what grounds 2. A grammarian, surnamed Sellius, who wrote
he adopted his readings, which differ from the vul- hymns and sportive and other poems, and in prose
gate. Heyne began in 1802 to publish the Iliad, repl Tŵ KWWIK@ TPOOwnwv, and summaries (6-
which was finished in eight volumes, and was most poxas) of the comedies of Menander. (Suid.
severely and unsparingly reviewed by Wolf, Voss, s. rv. "Oumpos and Simlos ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
and Eichstädt, in the Jenuer Literatur Zeitung, vol. ii. p 451. )
[P. S. ]
1803. A ninth volume, containing the Indices, HOMOLOÉUS ('Ouolweús), a son of Amphion,
was published by Gräfenhan in 1822. A curious from whom the Homoloian gate of Thebes was be-
and most ridiculous attempt was made by Payne lieved to have derived its name.
