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See also:HOME See also:OFFICE , a See also:principal See also:government See also:department in the See also:United See also:Kingdom, the creation of which See also:dates from 1782, when the conduct of See also:foreign affairs, which had previously been divided between the See also:northern and See also:southern secretaries, was handed over to the northern department (see FOREIGN OFFICE). The home department retained See also:control of Irish and colonial affairs, and of See also:war business until 1794, when an additional secretary of See also:state was re-appointed. In 18or the colonial business was transferred from the home department, which now attends only to domestic affairs. The See also:head of the department, the principal secretary of state for home affairs, or home secretary, is a member of the government for the See also:time being, and of the See also:cabinet, receiving a See also:salary of £Soon a See also:year. He is the proper See also:medium of communication between the See also:sovereign and the ' subject, and receives petitions addressed to the See also:crown. He is responsible for the See also:maintenance of the See also: See also:Herodotus (ii. 53) maintains that See also:Hesiod and Homer lived not more than 400 years ' This See also:article was thoroughly revised by Dr D. B. See also:Monro before his See also:death in 1905; a few points have since been added by Mr. T. W. See also:Allen. before his own time, consequently not much before 85o a.c. From the controversial See also:tone in which he expresses himself it is evident that others had made Homer more ancient; and accordingly the dates given by later authorities, though very various, generally fall within the loth and See also:firth centuries B.C. But none of these statements has any claim to the See also:character of See also:external See also:evidence. The extant lives of Homer (edited in Westermann's Vilarum S(riptores Geaeci minores) are eight in number, including the piece called the Contest of Hesiod and Homer. The longest is written in the Ionic See also:dialect, and bears the name of Herodotus, but is certainly See also:spurious. In all See also:probability it belongs to the time which was fruitful beyond all others in See also:literary forgeries, viz, the and See also:century of our era.' The other lives are certainly not more ancient. Their See also:chief value consists in the curious See also:short poems or fragments of See also:verse which they have preserved—the so-called Epigrams, which used to be printed at the end of See also:editions of Homer. These are easily recognized as " Popular Rhymes," a See also:form of folk-See also:lore to be met with in most countries, treasured by the See also:people as a See also:kind of See also:proverbs.' In the Homeric epigrams the See also:interest turns sometimes on the characteristics of particular localities—See also:Smyrna and Cyme (Epigr. iv.), See also:Erythrae (Epigr. vi., vii.), Mt See also:Ida (Epigr. x.), Neon Teichos (Epigr. i.); others relate to certain trades or occupations—potters (Epigr. xiv.), sailors, fishermen, See also:goat herds, &c. Some may be fragments of longer poems, but evidently they are not the See also:work of any one poet. The fact that they were all ascribed to Homer merely means that they belong to a See also:period in the See also:history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when " Homer " was a name which See also:drew to itself all ancient and popular verse. Again, comparing the " epigrams " with the legends and anecdotes told in the Lives of Homer, we can hardly doubt that they were the chief source from which these Lives were derived. Thus in Epigr. iv. we find a See also:blind poet. a native of Aeolian Smyrna, through which flows the See also:water of the sacred Meles. Here is doubtless the source of the chief incident of the Herodotean See also:Life—the See also:birth of Homer " Son of the Meles." The epithet Aeolian implies high antiquity, inasmuch as according to Herodotus Smyrna became Ionian about 688 E.C. Naturally the See also:Ionians had their own version of the See also:story—a version which made Homer come out with the first Athenian colonists. The same See also:line of See also:argument may be extended to the Hymns, and even to some of the lost works of the See also:post-Homeric or so-called " Cyclic " poets. Thus: i. The hymn to the Delian See also:Apollo ends with an address of the poet to his See also:audience. When any stranger comes and asks who is the sweetest See also:singer, they are to See also:answer with one See also:voice, the " blind See also:man that dwells in rocky See also:Chios; his songs deserve the See also:prize for all time to come." See also:Thucydides, who quotes this passage to show the ancient character of the Delian festival, seems to have no doubt of the Homeric authorship of the hymn. Hence we may most naturally See also:account for the belief that Homer was a Chian. 2. The .liargiles—a humorous poem which kept its ground as the reputed work of Homer down to the time of See also:Aristotle—began with the words, " There came to See also:Colophon an old man, a divine singer, servant of the See also:Muses and Apollo." Hence doubtless the claim of Colophon to be the native See also:city of Homer—a claim supported in the See also:early times of Homeric learning by the Colophonian poet and grammarian See also:Antimachus. 3. The poem called the Cypria was said to have been given by Homer to See also:Stasinus of See also:Cyprus as a daughter's See also:dowry. The connexion with Cyprus appears further in the predominance given in the poem to See also:Aphrodite. 4. The Little Iliad and the Phocais, according to the Herodotean life, were composed by Homer when he lived at See also:Phocaea with a certain Thestorides, who carried them off to Chios and there gained fame by reciting them as his own. The name Thestorides occurs in Epigr. v. See a See also:paper in the Hiss. Philol. Halenses, 97-219. z Compare the Popular Rhymes of See also:Scotland, published by See also:Robert See also:Chambers. 5. A similar story was told about the poem called the Taking of Oechalia (OixaXiar "AAwots), the subject of which was one of the exploits of Heracles. It passed under the name of See also:Creophylus, a friend or (as some said) a son-in-law of Homer; but it was generally believed to have been in fact the work of the poet himself. 6. Finally the Thebaid always counted as the work of Homer. As to the See also:Epigoni, which carried on the Theban story, some doubt seems to have been See also:felt. These indications render it probable that the stories connecting Homer with different cities and islands See also:grew up after his poems had become known and famous, especially in the new and flourishing colonies of See also:Aeolis and See also:Ionia. The contention for Homer, in short, began at a. time when his real history was lost, and he had become a sort of mythical figure, an " See also:eponymous See also:hero," or personification of a great school of See also:poetry. An interesting See also:confirmation of this view from the negative See also:side is furnished by the city which ranked as chief among the See also:Asiatic colonies of Greece, viz. See also:Miletus. No See also:legend claims for Miletus even a visit from Homer, or a See also:share in the authorship of any Homeric poem. Yet See also:Arctinus of Miletus was said to have been a " See also:disciple of Homer," and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the " Cyclic " poets. His Aethiopis was composed as a sequel to the Iliad; and the structure and See also:general character of his poems show that he took the Iliad as his See also:model. Yet in his See also:case we find no trace of the disputed authorship which is so See also:common with other " Cyclic " poems. How has this come about? Why have the works of Arctinus escaped the attraction which drew to the name of Homer such epics as the Cypria, the Little Iliad, the Thebaid, the Epigoni, the Taking of Oechalia and the Phocais. The most obvious account of the See also:matter is that Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute. We seem through him to obtain a glimpse of an early post-Homeric See also:age in Ionia, when the immediate disciples and successors of Homer were distinct figures in a trustworthy tradition—when they had not yet merged their individuality in the legendary " Homer " of the Epic See also:Cycle. Recitation of the Poems.—The recitation of epic poetry was called in See also:historical times " rhapsody " (past ybia). The word pati(rwhhs is post-Homeric, but was known to See also:Pindar, who gives two different explanations of it—" singer of stitched verse " (paarrc v ilriwv aoihoi), and " singer with the wand " (pa,3S6s), Of these the first is etymologically correct (except that it should rather be " stitcher of verse "); the second was suggested by the fact, for which there is early evidence, that the reciter was accustomed to hold a wand in his See also:hand—perhaps, like the See also:sceptre in the Homeric See also:assembly, as a See also:symbol of the right to a See also:hearing.3 The first See also:notice of rhapsody meets us at See also:Sicyon, in the reign of See also:Cleisthenes (600-56o B.C.), who " put down the rhapsodists on account of the poems of Homer, because they are all about See also:Argos and the Argives " (Hdt. v. 67). This description applies very well to the Iliad, in which Argos and Argives occur on almost every See also:page. It may have suited the Thebaid still better, but there is no need to understand it only of that poem, as See also:Grote does. The incident shows that the poems of the Ionic Homer had gained in the 6th century B.C., and in the Doric parts of the See also:Peloponnesus, the ascendancy, the See also:national importance and the almost canonical character which they ever afterwards retained. At See also:Athens there was a law that the Homeric poems should be recited (patG'SeivOar) on every occasion of the See also:Panathenaea. This law is appealed to as an especial See also:glory of Athens by the orator See also:Lycurgus (Leocr. See also:roe). Perhaps therefore the custom of public recitation was exceptional,4 and unfortunately we do not know when or by whom it was introduced. The Platonic See also:dialogue See also:Hipparchus attributes it to Hipparchus, son of See also:Peisistratus. This, however, is See also:part of the historical See also:romance of Compare the See also:branch of See also:myrtle at an Athenian feast (Aristoph., Nub., 1364). The Iliad was also recited at the festival of the Brauronia, at Brauron in See also:Attica (Hesych. s.v. Ppaepcevlocs). which the dialogue mainly consists. The author makes (perhaps "singer" (Itot&s), who does not carry a wand or See also:laurel-branch, wilfully) all the mistakes about the See also:family of Peisistratus which Thucydides notices in a well-known passage (vi. 54-59). In one point, however, the writer's testimony is valuable. He tells us that the law required the rhapsodists to recite " taking each other up in See also:order (EE inroXip/sews Eri5eEi7s), as they still do." This recurs in a different form in the statement of See also:Diogenes Laertius (i. 2. 57) that See also:Solon made a law that the poems should be recited " with prompting " (E uaoi3oXp7s). The question as between Solon and Hipparchus cannot be settled; but it is at least clear that a due order of recitation was secured by the presence of a See also:person charged to give the rhapsodists their cue (uao$&XXecv). It was necessary, of course, to See also:divide the poem to be recited into parts, and to compel each contending See also:rhapsodist to take the part assigned to him. Otherwise they would have chosen favourite or show passages. The practice of poets or rhapsodists contending for the prize at the great religious festivals is of considerable antiquity, though apparently post-Homeric. It is brought vividly before us in the Hymn to Apollo (see the passage mentioned above), and in two Hymns to Aphrodite (v. and ix.). The latter of these may evidently be taken to belong to See also:Salamis in Cyprus and the festival of the See also:Cyprian Aphrodite, in the same way that the Hymn to Apollo belongs to See also:Delos and the Delian gathering. The earliest trace of such contests is to be found in the story of Thamyris, the Thracian singer, who boasted that he could conquer even the Muses in See also:song (Il. ii. 594 ff.). Much has been made in this part of the subject of a family or See also:clan (yfvos) of Homeridae in the See also:island of Chios. On the one hand, it seemed to follow from the existence of such a family that Homer was a See also:mere "eponymus," or mythical ancestor; on the other hand, it became easy to imagine the Homeric poems handed down orally in a family whose hereditary occupation it was to recite them, possibly to add new episodes from time to time, or to combine their materials in new ways, as their poetical gifts permitted. But, although there is no See also:reason to doubt the existence of a family of " Homeridae," it is far from certain that they had anything to do with Homeric poetry. The word occurs first in Pindar (Nem. 2. 2), who applies it to the rhapsodists (` Oµ17PLSau paurrwv 7zit.ev aou3oi). On this a scholiast says that the name "Homeridae" denoted originally descendants of Homer, who sang his poems in See also:succession, but afterwards was applied to rhapsodists who did not claim descent from him. He adds that there was a famous rhapsodist, Cynaethus of Chios, who was said to be the author of the Hymn to Apollo, and to have first recited Homer at See also:Syracuse about the 69th See also:Olympiad. Nothing here connects the Homeridae with Chios. The statement of the scholiast is evidently a mere inference from the patronymic form of the word. If it proves anything, it proves that Cynaethus, who was a Chian and a rhapsodist, made no claim to Homeric descent. On the other hand our knowledge of Chian Homeridae comes chiefly from the See also:lexicon of See also:Harpocration, where we are told that Acusilaus and See also:Hellanicus said that they were so called from the poet; whereas Seleucus pronounced this to be an See also:error. See also:Strabo also says that the Chians put forward the Homeridae as an argument in support of their claim to Homer. These Homeridae, then, belonged to Chios, but there is no indication of their being rhapsodists. On the contrary, See also:Plato and other See also:Attic writers use the word to include interpreters and admirers—in short, the whole " spiritual kindred "—of Homer. And although we hear of " descendants of Creophylus " as in See also:possession of the Homeric poems, there is no similar story about descendants of Homer himself. Such is the evidence on which so many inferences are based. The result of the notices now collected is to show that the early history of epic recitation consists of (r) passages in the Homeric hymns showing that poets contended for the prize at the great festivals, (2) the passing mention in Herodotus of rhapsodists at Sicyon, and (3) a law at Athens, of unknown date, regulating the recitation at the Panathenaea. Let us now compare these data with the account given in the Homeric poems. The word " rhapsode " does not yet exist; we hear only of the but the See also:lyre (cbop,utyE), with which he accompanies his "song." In the Iliad even the epic " singer " is not met with. It is See also:Achilles himself who sings the stories of heroes (rcXia &n3pwv) in his See also:tent, and Patroclus is waiting (respondere paratus), to take up the song in his turn (Il. ix. 191). Again we do not hear of poetical contests (except in the story of Thamyris already mentioned) or of recitation of epic poetry at festivals. The Odyssey gives us pictures of two great houses, and, each has its singer. The song is on a subject taken from the Trojan war, at some point chosen by the singer himself, or by his hearers. Phemius pleases the suitors by singing of the calamitous return of the Greeks; Demodocus sings of a See also:quarrel between Ulysses and Achilles, and afterwards of the wooden See also:horse and the See also:capture of See also:Troy. It may be granted that the author of the Odyssey can hardly have been just such a singer as he himself describes. The songs of Phemius and Demodocus are too short, and have too much the character of improvisations. Nor is it necessary to suppose that epic poetry, at the time to which the picture in the Odyssey belongs, was confined to the one type represented. Yet in several respects the conditions under which the singer finds himself in the See also:house of a chieftain like See also:Odysseus or See also:Alcinous are more in See also:harmony with the character of Homeric poetry than those of the later rhapsodic contests. The subdivision of a poem like the Iliad or Odyssey among different and necessarily unequal performers must have been injurious to the effect. The highly theatrical manner of recitation which was fostered by the spirit of competition, and by the example of the See also:stage, cannot have done justice to the even See also:movement of the epic See also:style. It is not certain indeed that the practice of reciting a See also:long poem by the agency of several competitors was ancient, or that it prevailed elsewhere than at Athens; but as rhapsodists were numerous, and popular favour throughout Greece became more and more confined to one or two great works, it must have become almost a See also:necessity. That it was the mode of recitation contemplated by the author of the Iliad or Odyssey it is impossible to believe. The difference made by substituting the wand or branch of laurel for the lyre of the Homeric singer is a slighter one, though not without significance. The recitation of the Hesiodic poems was from the first unaccompanied by the lyre, i.e. they were confessedly said, not sung; and it was natural that the example should be extended to Homer. For it is difficult to believe that the Homeric poems were ever " sung " in the strict sense of the word. We .can only suppose that the lyre in the hands of the epic poet or reciter was in reality a piece of See also:convention, a " survival " from the stage in which narrative poetry had a lyrical character. Probably the poets of the Homeric school—that which dealt with war and See also:adventure—were the genuine descend-ants of minstrels whose " See also:lays " or " See also:ballads " were the amusement of the feasts in an earlier heroic age; whereas the Hesiodic compositions were non-lyrical from the first, and were only in verse because that was the universal form of literature. It seems, then, that if we imagine Homer as a singer in a royal house of the Homeric age, but with more freedom regarding the limits of his subject, and a more tranquil audience than is allowed him in the rapid movement of the Odyssey, we shall probably not be far from the truth. Time and See also:Place of Homer.—The See also:oldest See also:direct references to the Iliad and Odyssey are in Herodotus, who quotes from both poems (ii. 53). The See also:quotation from the Iliad_ is of interest because it is made in order to show that Homer supported the story of the travels of See also:Paris to See also:Egypt and See also:Sidon (whereas the Cyclic poem called the Cypria ignored them), and also because the part of the Iliad from which it comes is cited as the "Aristeia of Diomede." This was therefore a recognized part of the poem. The earliest mention of the name of Homer is found in a fragment of the philosopher See also:Xenophanes (of the 6th century B.C., or possibly earlier), who complains of the false notions implanted through the teaching of Homer. The passage shows, not merely that Homer was well known at Colophon in the time of Xenophanes, but also that the great advance in moral and sacredness. There were ruling families, laying claim to divine descent, from whom the king was naturally chosen, but his own fitness is the essence of his See also:title. The aged Laertes is set aside; the See also:young See also:Telemachus does not succeed as a matter of course. Nor are any very definite rights attached to the office. Each tribe in the See also:army before Troy was commanded by its own king (or See also:kings); but See also:Agamemnon was supreme, and was "more a king" (BavcXeirepor) than any other. The assembly is summoned on all See also:critical occasions, and its approval is the ultimate See also:sanction. A king therefore stands in almost as much need of See also:oratory as of warlike skill and prowess. Even the See also:division of the spoil is not made in the Iliad by Agamemnon, but by " the See also:Achaeans " (11. i. 162, 368). The taking ,of Briseis from Achilles was an arbitrary See also:act, and against all See also:rule and custom. The See also:council is more difficult to understand. The "elders" (14povres) of the Iliad are the same as the subordinate "kings "; they are summoned by Agamemnon to his tent, and form a small council of nine or ten persons. In Troy we hear of elders of the people (6twoyEpovres) who are with See also:Priam, and are men past the military age. So in See also:Ithaca there are elders who have not gone to Troy with the army. It would seem therefore that the See also:meeting in Agamemnon's tent was only a copy or See also:adaptation of the true constitutional "council of elders," which indeed was essentially unfitted for the purposes of military service. The king's See also:palace, if we may See also:judge from See also:Tiryns and See also:Mycenae, was usually in a strong situation on an "See also:acropolis." In the later times of See also:democracy the acropolis was reserved for the temples of the principal gods. Priesthood in Homer is found in the case of particular temples, where an officer is naturally wanted to take See also:charge of the sacred See also:inclosure and the sacrifices offered within it. It is perhaps an See also:accident that we do not hear of priests in Ithaca. Agamemnon performs See also:sacrifice himself, not because a priestly character was attached to the kingly office, but simply because he was " See also:master in his own house." The conception of " law " is foreign to Homer. The later words for it (vb tos, See also:Air pa) are unknown, and the terms which he uses (binn and 6 us) mean merely " custom." Judicial functions are in the hands of the elders, who " have to do with suits " (bucar1roXoc), and " uphold judgments " (O )atcras eipvarat). On such matters as the See also:compensation in cases of See also:homicide, it is evident that there were no rules, but merely a feeling, created by use and wont, that the relatives of the slain man should be willing to accept See also:payment. The sense of anger which follows a violation of custom has the name of " See also:Nemesis " —righteous displeasure. As there is no law in Homer, so there is no morality. That is to say, there are no general principles of See also:action, and no words which indicate that acts have been classified as See also:good or See also:bad, right or wrong. Moral feeling, indeed, existed and was denoted by " Aidos " ; but the numerous meanings of this word—shame, veneration, pity—show how rudimentary the See also:idea was. And when we look to practice we find that cruel and even treacherous deeds are spoken of without the least sense that they deserve censure. The heroes of Homer are hardly more moral agents than the giants and enchanters of a See also:fairy See also:tale. The religious ideas of Homer differ in some important points from those of later Greece. The Apollo of the Iliad has the character of a See also:local Asiatic deity—" ruler of Chryse and goodly See also:Cilia and Tenedos." He may be compared with the Clarian and the Lycian See also:god, but he is unlike the Apollo of Dorian times, the " deliverer " and giver of oracles. Again, the See also:worship of See also:Dionysus, and of See also:Demeter and Persephone, is mainly or wholly post-Homeric. The greatest difference, however, lies in the See also:absence of hero-worship from the Homeric order of things. See also:Castor and Polydeuces, for instance, are simply See also:brothers of See also:Helen who died before the expedition to Troy (Il. iii. 243.) The military See also:tactics of Homer belong to the age when the See also:chariot was the principal See also:engine of warfare. See also:Cavalry is unknown, and the battles are mainly decided by the prowess of the chiefs. The use of the See also:trumpet is also later. It has been supposed indeed that the See also:art of See also:riding was known in Homer's own time, because it occurs in comparisons. But the riding which he religious ideas which forced Plato to banish Homer from his See also:republic had made itself felt in the days of the early Ionic philosophers. Failing external testimony, the time and place of the Homeric poems can only be determined (if at all) by internal evidence. This is of two See also:main kinds: (a) evidence of history, consisting in a comparison of the See also:political and social See also:condition, the See also:geography, the institutions, the See also:manners, arts and ideas of Homer with those of other times; (b) evidence of See also:language, consisting in a comparison with later dialects, in respect of See also:grammar and vocabulary. To these may be added, as occasion-ally of value, (c) much evidence of the direct See also:influence of Homer upon the subsequent course of literature and art. (a) The political condition of Greece in the earliest times known to history is separated from the Greece of Homer by an See also:interval which can hardly be overestimated. The great national names are different: instead of Achaeans, Argives, Danai, we find Hellenes, subdivided into See also:Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians—names either unknown to Homer, or mentioned in terms more significant than silence. At the See also:dawn of See also:Greek history Mycenae is no longer the seat of See also:empire; new empires, polities and civilizations have grown up—See also:Sparta with its military discipline, See also:Delphi with its religious supremacy, Miletus with its See also:commerce and numberless colonies, Aeolis and Ionia, See also:Sicily and Magna Graecia. While the political centre of Homeric Greece is at Mycenae, the real centre is rather to be found in See also:Boeotia. The See also:Catalogue of the See also:Ships begins with Boeotia; the See also:list of Boeotian towns is much the longest; and they See also:sail, not from the See also:bay of Argos, but from the Boeotian See also:harbour of See also:Aulis. This position is not due to its chiefs, who are all of inferior See also:rank. The importance of Boeotia for Greek See also:civilization is further shown by the ancient worship of the Muses on See also:Mount See also:Helicon, and the fact that the oldest poet whose birthplace was known was the Boeotian Hesiod. Next to Boeotia and the neighbouring countries, it appears that the Peloponnesus, See also:Crete and See also:Thessaly were the most important seats of Greek See also:population. In the Peloponnesus the See also:face of things was completely altered by the Dorian See also:conquest, no trace of which is found in Homer. The only Dorians known in Homer are those that the Odyssey (xix. 177) places in Crete. It is difficult to connect them with the Dorians of history. The eastern shores of the See also:Aegean, which the earliest historical records represent to us as the seat of a brilliant civilization, giving way before the advance of the great military empires (See also:Lydia and afterwards See also:Persia), are almost a See also:blank in Homer's See also:map. The line of settlements can be traced in the Catalogue from Crete to See also:Rhodes, and embraces the neighbouring islands of See also:Cos and Calymnos. The colonization of Rhodes by Tlepolemus is related (II. ii. 66r ff.), and seems to See also:mark the farthest point reached in the Homeric age. Between Rhodes and the See also:Troad Homer knows of but one city, Miletus—which is a Carian ally of Troy—and the mouth of one See also:river, the Cayster. Even the See also:Cyclades—See also:Naxos, See also:Paros, Melos—are unknown to the Homeric See also:world. The disposition of the Greeks to look to the See also:west for the centres of religious feeling appears in the mention of See also:Dodona and the Dodonacan See also:Zeus, put in the mouth of the Thessalian Achilles. To the See also:north we find the Thracians, known from the stories of Thamyris the singer (Il. ii. 595), and Lycurgus, the enemy of the young god Dionysus (ii. vi. 130). Here the Trojan empire begins. It does not appear, however, that the Trojans are thought of as people of a different language. As this is expressly said of the Carians, and of the Trojan See also:allies who were " summoned from afar," the contrary rather is implied regarding Troy itself.
The mixed type of government described by Homer—consisting of a king guided by a council of elders, and bringing all important resolutions before the assembly of the fighting men—does not seem to have been universal in Indo-See also:European communities, but to have grown up in many different parts of the world under the stress of similar conditions. The king is the See also:commander in war, and the office probably owed its existence to military necessities. It is not surrounded with any special
describes (Il. xv. 699) is a mere See also:exhibition of skill, such as we may see in a See also:modern See also:circus. And though he mentions the trumpet (Il. xviii. 219), there is nothing to show that it was used, as in historical times, to give the See also:signal for the charge.
The chief See also:industries of Homeric times are those of the See also:carpenter (TEKTWY),. the worker in See also:leather (0'KUTOrolAOS), the See also: See also: It may be that down to comparatively See also:late times poetry was not commonly read, but was recited from memory. But the question is—From what time are we to suppose that the preservation of long poems was generally secured by the existence of written copies? Now, without counting the Homeric poems—which doubtless had exceptional advantages in their fame and popularity—we find a See also:body of literature dating from the 8th century B.C. to which the theory of oral transmission is surely inapplicable. In the Trojan cycle alone we know of the two epics of Arctinus, the Little Iliad of See also:Lesches, the Cypria, the Nostoi. The Theban cycle is represented by the Thebaid (which See also:Callinus, who was of the 7th century, ascribed to Homer) and the Epigoni. Other ancient epics—ancient enough to have passed under the name of Homer—are the Taking of Oechalia, and the Phocais. Again, there are the numerous works attributed to Hesiod and other ' Contemporary See also:Review, vol. See also:xxiii. p. 218 if. 2 The fact that the Phoenician Vau (F) was retained in the Greek alphabets, and the vowel v added, shows that when the alphabet was introduced the See also:sound denoted by F was still in full vigour. Other-See also:wise F would have been used for the vowel v, just as the Phoenician consonant Vod became the vowel L. But in the Ionic dialect the sound of F died out soon after Homer's time, if indeed it was still pronounced then. It seems probable therefore that the introduction of the alphabet is not later than the composition of the Homeric poems.poets of the didactic, mythological and quasi-historical schools--Eumelus of See also:Corinth, Cinaethon of Sparta, Agias of Troezen, and many more. The preservation of this vast See also:mass can only be attributed to writing, which must therefore have been in use for two centuries or more before there was any considerable prose literature. Nor is this in itself improbable. The further question, whether the Iliad and Odyssey were originally written, is much more difficult. External evidence does not reach back so far, and the internal evidence is curiously indecisive. The only passage which can be interpreted as a reference to writing occurs in the story of See also:Bellerophon, told by See also:Glaucus in the See also:sixth See also:book of the Iliad. Proetus, king of Corinth, sent Bellerophon to his See also:father-in-law the king of See also:Lycia, and gave him " baneful tokens " (vinaara Xt rypa, i.e. tokens which were messages of death), " scratching on a folded tablet many spirit-destroying things, and bade him show this to his father-in-law, that he might perish." The king of Lycia asked duly (on the tenth See also:day from the See also:guest's coming) for a token (pme cri ut i8EQ8at), and then knew what Proetus wished to be done. In this account there is nothing to show exactly how the See also:message of Proetus was expressed. The use of writing for the purpose of the token between " guest-See also:friends " (tessera hospitalis) is certainly very ancient. See also:Mommsen (Rom. Forsch. 338 ff.) aptly compares the use in treaties, which are the oldest See also:species of public documents. But we may suppose that tokens of some kind—like the marks which the Greek chiefs make on the lots (Il. vii. 175 ff.)—were in use before writing was known. In any See also:system of signs there were doubtless means of recommending a friend, or giving warning of the presence of an enemy. There is no difficulty, therefore, in understanding the message of Proetus without alphabetical writing. But, on the other hand, there is no reason for so understanding it. If the language of Homer is so ambiguous where the use of writing would naturally be mentioned, we cannot expect to find more decisive references elsewhere. Arguments have been founded upon the descriptions of the blind singers in the Odyssey, with their songs inspired directly by the Muse; upon the appeals of the poet to the Muses, especially in such a place as the opening of the Catalogue; upon the Catalogue itself, which is a kind of historical document put into verse to help the memory; upon the shipowner in the Odyssey, who has " a good memory for his See also:cargo," &c. It may be answered, however, that much of this is traditional, handed down from the time when all poetry was unwritten. Moreover it is one thing to recognize that a literature is essentially oral in its form, characteristic of an age which was one of hearing rather than of See also:reading, and quite another to hold that the same literature was preserved entirely by oral trans-See also:mission. The result of these various considerations seems to be that the age which we may See also:call the Homeric—the age which is brought before us in vivid outlines in the Iliad and Odyssey—lies beyond the earliest point to which history enables us to penetrate. And so far as we can draw any conclusion as to the author (or authors) of the two poems, it is that the whole debate between the cities of Aeolis and Ionia was wide of the mark. The author of the Iliad, at least, was evidently a European Greek who lived before the colonization of See also:Asia See also:Minor; and the claims of the Asiatic cities mean no more than that in the days of their prosperity these were the chief seats of the fame of Homer. This is perhaps the place to consider whether the poems are to be regarded as possessing in any degree the character of historical record. The question is one which in the absence of satisfactory. criteria will generally be decided by See also:taste and predilection. A few suggestions, however, may be made. 1. The events of the Iliad take place in a real locality, the general features of which are kept steadily in view. There is no doubt about Sigeum and Rhoeteum, or the river Scamander, or the islands fmhros, See also:Lemnos and Tenedos. It is at least remarkable that a legend of the national interest of the " tale of Troy " should be so definitely localized, and that in a See also:district, which was never famous as a seat of Greek population. It may be urged, too, that the story of the used ' is singularly See also:free from the exaggerated and marvellous character which belongs as a rule to the legends of See also:primitive peoples. The .See also:apple of discord, the arrows of See also:Philoctetes, the invulnerability of i Achilles, and similar fancies, are the additions of later poets. This sobriety, however, belongs not to the whole Iliad, but to the events afterwards lost, viz. that which is written in some Greek alphabets and characters of the war. Such figures as Bellerophon, See also:Niobe, the See also:Amazons, which are thought of as traditions from an earlier See also:generation, show the marvellous See also:element at work. 2. Certain persons and events in the story have a distinctly mythical See also:stamp. Helen is a figure of this kind. There was another story according to which she was carried off by See also:Theseus, and re-covered by her brothers the Dioscuri, There are even traces of a third version, in which the Messenian twins, See also:Idas and Lynceus, appear. 3. The See also:analogy of the See also:French epic, the Chanson de See also:Roland, favours the belief that there was some See also:nucleus of fact. The defeat of Roncevaux was really suffered by a part of See also:Charlemagne's army. But the Saracen army is purely mythical, the true enemy having been the Gascons. I'f similarly we leave, as historical, the See also:plain of Troy, and the name Agamemnon, we shall perhaps not be far wrong. (b) The dialect of Homer is an early or " primitive " form of the language which we know as that of Attica in the classical age of Greek literature. The See also:proof of this proposition is to be obtained chiefly by comparing the grammatical formation and the syntax of Homer with those of Attic. The comparison of the vocabulary is in the nature of things less conclusive on the question of date. It would be impossible co 'give the evidence in full without writing a Homeric grammar, but a few specimens may be of interest. i. The first See also:aorist in Greek being a " weak " tense, i.e. formed by a suffix (-ail), whereas the second aorist is a " strong " tense, distinguished by the form of the See also:root-syllable, we expect to find a See also:constant tendency to diminish the number of second aorists in use. No new second aorists, we may be sure, were formed any more than new " strong " tenses, such as came or sang, can be formed in See also:English. Now in Homer there are upwards of 8o second aorists (not reckoning aorists of " Verbs in pc," such as &rim, gfi'liv), whereas in all Attic prose not more than 3C are found. In this point therefore the Homeric language is manifestly older. In Attic poets, it is true, the number of such aorists is much larger than in prose. But here again we find that they See also:bear See also:witness to Homer. Of the poetical aorists in Attic the larger part are also Homeric. Others are not really Attic at all, but borrowed from earlier Aeolic and Doric poetry. It is plain, in short, that the later poetical vocabulary was separated from that of prose mainly by the forms which the influence of Homer had saved from being forgotten. 2. While the whole class of " strong " aorists diminished, certain smaller See also:groups in the class disappeared altogether. Thus we find in Homer, but not in the later language: (a) The second aorist See also:middle without the " thematic " e or o: as i$Xi-ro, was struck; 140c-ro, perished; as-ro, leaped. (b) The aorist formed by reduplication: as See also:Mace, taught; tie). aOiai9ac, to seize. These constitute a distinct formation, generally with a " causative " meaning; the solitary Attic specimen is fjyayov. 3. It had long been known that the subjunctive in Homer often takes a short vowel (e.g. in the plural, -See also:ogee, -ere instead of -See also:awe, -sjre, and in the See also:Mid. -opac, &c. instead of -wpac, &c.). This was generally said to be done by " poetic See also:licence," or metri gratia. In fact, however, the Homeric subjunctive is almost quite " See also:regular," though the rule which it obeys is a different one from the Attic. It may be summed up by saying that the subjunctive takes co or n when the indicative has o or e, and not otherwise. Thus Homer has i- ssv, we go. i-o-pep, let us go. The later I- e-See also:pew was at first a solecism, an See also:attempt to conjugate a " verb in pe " like the " verbs in w." It will be evident that under this rule the perfect and first aorist subjunctive should always take a short vowel; and this accordingly is the case, with very few exceptions. 4. The article (o, ro) in Homer is chiefly used as an See also:independent pronoun (he, she, it), a use which in Attic appears only in a few combinations (such as o pEV . . . o 6i, the one . . . the other). This difference is parallel to the relation between the Latin ille and the article of the Romance See also:languages. 5. The prepositions offer several points of comparison. What the grammarians called " tmesis," the separation of the preposition from the verb with which it is compounded, is See also:peculiar to Homer. The true account of the matter is that in Homer the place of the pre-position is not rigidly fixed, as it was afterwards. Again, " with " is in Homer abv (with the See also:dative), in Attic prose µera with the genitive. Here Attic poetry is intermediate; the use of a-6v is retained as a piece of poetical tradition. 6. In addition to the particle Ay, Homer has another, KW, hardly distinguishable in meaning. The Homeric uses of 7cv and Kev are different in several respects from the Attic, the general result being that the Homeric syntax is more elastic. And yet it is perfectly definite and precise. Homer uses no constructions loosely or without corresponding See also:differences of meaning. His rules are equally strict with those of the later language, but they are not the same rules. And they differ chiefly in this, that the less common combinations of the earlier period were disused altogether in the later. 7. In the vocabulary the most striking difference is that many words appear from the See also:metre to have contained a sound which they by the " digamma " F. Thus the words ava3, See also:tiara, pyov, giros, and many others must .have been written at one time Favaf, Faorv, F€pyov, F€lros. This See also:letter, however, died out earlier in Ionic than in most dialects, and there is no proof that the Homeric poems were ever written with it. These are not, speaking generally, the differences that are produced by the See also:gradual divergence of dialects in a language. They are rather to be classed with those which we find between the earlier and the later stages of every language which has had a long history. The Homeric dialect has passed into New Ionic and Attic by gradual but ceaseless development of the same kind as that which brought about the See also:change from Vedic to classical See also:Sanskrit, or from old high See also:German to the See also:present dialects of See also:Germany. The points that have been mentioned, to which many others might be added, make it clear that the Homeric and Attic dialects are separated by differences which affect the whole structure of the language, and require a considerable time for their development. At the same time there is hardly one of these differences which cannot be accounted for by the natural growth of the language. It has been thought indeed that the Homeric dialect was a mixed one, mainly Ionic, but containing Aeolic and even Doric forms; this, however, is a mistaken view of the processes of language. There are doubtless many Homeric forms which were unknown to the later Ionic and Attic, and which are found in Aeolic or other dialects. In general, however, these are older forms, which must have existed in Ionic at one time, and may very well have belonged to the Ionic of Homer's time. So too the digamma is called ` Aeolic " by grammarians, and is found on Aeolic and Doric inscriptions. But the letter was one of the See also:original alphabet, and was retained universally as a See also:numeral. It can only have fallen into disuse by degrees, as the sound which it denoted ceased to be pronounced. The fact that there are so many traces of it in Homer is a strong proof of the antiquity of the poems, but no proof of admixture with Aeolic. There is one sense, however, in which an admixture of dialects may be recognized. It is clear that the variety of forms in Homer is too great for any actual spoken dialect. To take a single instance: it is impossible that the genitives in -ow and in -ov should both have been in everyday use together. The form in -ow must have been poetical or literary, like the old English forms that survive in the language of the See also:Bible. The origin of such See also:double forms is not far to seek. The effect of dialect on style was always recognized in Greece, and the dialect which had once been adopted by a particular kind of poetry was ever afterwards adhered to. The Epic of Homer was doubt-less formed originally from a spoken variety of Greek, but became literary and conventional with time. It is Homer himself who tells us, in a striking passage (Il. iv. 437) that all the Greeks spoke the same language—that is to say, that they understood one another, in spite of the inevitable local differences. Experience shows how some one dialect in a country gains a literary supremacy to which the whole nation yields. So Tuscan became the type of See also:Italian, and Anglian of English. But as soon as the dialect is adopted, it begins to diverge from the colloquial form. Just as modern poetical Italian uses many older grammatical forms peculiar to itself, so the language of poetry, even in Homeric times, had formed a See also:deposit (so to speak) of archaic grammar. There were doubtless poets before Homer, as well as brave men before Agamemnon; and indeed the formation of a poetical dialect such as the Homeric must have been the work of several generations. The use of that dialect (instead of Aeolic) by the Boeotian poet Hesiod, in a kind of poetry which was not of the Homeric type, tends to the conclusion that the literary ascendancy of the epic dialect was anterior to the Iliad and Odyssey, and independent of the influence exercised by these poems. What then was the original language of Homer? Where and when was it spoken? [The answer given to this question by Aug. Fick (in' 1883) and still held, with modifications, by some European scholars can no longer be maintained. Fick's original statement was that in or about the 6th century B.C. the poems, which had originally worn an Aeolic See also:dress, were transposed into Ionic. To this it is easily answered that such an event is not only unique in history, but contrary to all that we know of the Greek See also:genius. At the period in question an Aeolic literature, the lyrics of See also:Sappho and See also:Alcaeus, were in existence. If it was found necessary to transpose the Aeolic Homer, why did the Aeolic lyric verse See also:escape? If, however, as is the view of some of Fick's followers, the transposition took place several centuries earlier, before species of literature had appropriated particular dialects, then the linguistic facts upon which Fick relied to distinguish the " Aeolic " and " Ionic " elements in Homer disappear. We have no means of knowing what the Aeolic and Ionic of say the 9th century were, or if there were such dialects at all. Certain prominent historical differences between Aeolic and Ionic (the digamma and a) are known to be unoriginal. The view that Homer underwent at any time a passage from one dialect to another may be dismissed. The tendency of modern dialectologists is to divide the Greek dialects into Dorian and non-Dorian. The non-Dorian dialects, Ionic, Attic and the various forms of Aeolic, are regarded as relatively closely akin, and go by the common name " Achaean." They formed the common language of Greece before the Doric invasion. As the See also:scene which Homer depicts is prae-Dorian Greece, it is reasonable to call his language Achaean. The historical divergences of Achaean into Aeolian and Ionic were later than the See also:Migration, and were due to the well-known effects of change of See also:soil and air. To what local variety of Achaean Homeric Greek belonged it is idle to ask. Thessaly, Boeotia and Mycenae have equal claims. It seems clearer that when once this local variety of Achaean had been used by poets of See also:eminence as their vehicle for national history, it established its right to be considered the one poetical language of Hellas. As the dialect of the See also:Arno in See also:Italy, of Castille in See also:Spain, by the virtue of the genius of the singers who used them, became literary " Italian " and " See also:Spanish," so this variety of Achaean elevated itself to the position of the volgare illustre of Greece.'] (T. W. A.) (c) The influence of Homer upon the subsequent course of Greek literature is a large subject, even if we restrict it to the centuries which immediately followed the Homeric age. It will be enough to observe that in the earliest elegiac poets, such as See also:Archilochus, See also:Tyrtaeus and Theognis, reminiscences of Homeric language and thought meet us on every page. If the same cannot be said of the ancient epic poems, that is because of the extreme scantiness of the existing fragments. Much, however, is to be gathered from the arguments of the Trojan part of the Epic Cycle (preserved in the Codex Venetus of the Iliad, a full discussion of which will be found in the See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1884, pp. 1-40). An examination of these arguments throws See also:light on two chief aspects of the relation between Homer and his " cyclic " successors. 1. The later poets sought to See also:complete the story of the Trojan war by supplying the parts which did not fall within the Iliad and Odyssey—the so-called ante-homerica and post-homerica. They did so largely from hints and passing references in Homer. Thus the successive episodes of the See also:siege related at length in the Little Iliad, and ending with the story of the Wooden Horse, are nearly all taken from passages in the Odyssey. Much the same may be said of the Nosti. 2. With this See also:process of expansion and development (so to speak) of Homeric themes is combined the addition of new characters. Such, in the Little Iliad (e.g.), are the story of the See also:Palladium and of the treachery of Sinon. Such, too, in the Cypria are the new legendary figures—See also:Palamedes, Iphigenia, Telephus, See also:Laocoon. These new elements in the narrative are evidently due not only to the natural growth of legend in a people highly endowed with See also:imagination, but in a large proportion also to the new ' See D. B. Monro's Homer's Odyssey, books xiii.–See also:xxiv. (See also:Oxford, 1901, P. 455 sqq.), and the abstract of his paper on the Homeric Dialect read to the See also:Congress of Historical Sciences at See also:Rome, 1903: Atti del Congresso internazionale di See also:science storiche, ii. 152, 153, 1905, " Il Dialetto omerico,"races and countries with which the Greeks came into contact, as well as to their own rapid advance in See also:wealth and civilization. It will be observed that the two poems of Arctinus are remarkable for the proportion of new matter of the latter kind. The Aethiopis shows us the allies of Troy reinforced by two peoples that are evidently creations of See also:oriental See also:fancy, the Amazons and See also:Memnon with his Aethiopians. The Iliu See also:Persis, again, was the oldest authority for the story of Laocoon and of the consequent escape of See also:Aeneas—a story which connected a surviving branch of the house of Priam with the later inhabitants of the Troad. On the other hand the See also:fate of Creusa (sed me magna deum genetrix his detinet oris) is a See also:link with the worship of See also:Cybele. The See also:journey of See also:Calchas to Colophon and his death there, as told in the Nosti, is another instance of the kind. These facts point to a familiarity with the Greek colonies in Asia which contrasts strongly with the silence of the Iliad and Odyssey. Study of Homer.—The Homeric Question.—The critical study of Homer began in Greece almost with the beginning of prose writing. The first name is that of Theagenes of Rhegium, contemporary of See also:Cambyses (525 B.C.), who is said to have founded the " new grammar " (the older " grammar " being the art of reading and writing), and to have been the inventor of the allegorical interpretations by which it was sought to reconcile the Homeric See also:mythology with the morality and speculative ideas of the 6th century six. The same attitude in the " ancient quarrel of poetry and See also:philosophy " was soon afterwards taken by Anaxagoras; and after him by his See also:pupil See also:Metrodorus of See also:Lampsacus, who explained away all the gods, and even the heroes, as elementary substances and forces (Agamemnon as the upper air, &c.).
The next writers on Homer of the " grammatical " type were Stesimbrotus of See also:Thasos (contemporary with See also:Cimon) and Antimachus of Colophon, himself an epic poet of mark. The Thebaid of Antimachus, however, was not popular, and seems to have been a great storehouse of mythological learning rather than a poem of the Homeric school.
Other names of the pre-Socratic and Socratic times are mentioned by See also:Xenophon, Plato and Aristotle. These were the "ancient Homerics " (oi hpxaiot 'OµgpLKci), who busied themselves much with the hidden meanings of Homer; of whom Aristotle says, with his profound insight, that they see the small likenesses and overlook the great ones (Metaph. xii.).
The See also:text of Homer must have attracted some See also:attention when Antimachus came to be known as the " corrector " (SLopOwriis) of a distinct edition (i'KSOO LS). Aristotle is said himself to have made a recension for the use of See also: In this way the great Alexandrian school of Homeric criticism began with See also:Zenodotus, the first chief of the museum, and was continued by See also:Aristophanes and See also:Aristarchus. In Aristarchus ancient See also:philology culminated, as philosophy had done in See also:Socrates. All earlier learning either passed into his writings, or was lost; all subsequent See also:research turned upon his critical and grammatical work. The means of forming a See also:judgment of the Alexandrine criticism are scanty. The literary form which preserved the works of the great historians was unfortunately wanting, or was not sufficiently valued, in the case of the grammarians. Abridgments and newer See also:treatises soon drove out the writings of Aristarchus and other founders of the science. Moreover, a recension could not be reproduced without new errors soon creeping in. Thus we find that See also:Didymus, writing in the time of See also:Cicero, does not quote the readings of Aristarchus as we should quote a textus receptus. Indeed, the See also:object of his work seems to have been to determine what those readings were. Enough, however, remains to show that Aristarchus had a clear notion of the chief problems of philology (except perhaps those concerning See also:etymology). He saw, for example, that it was not enough to find a meaning for the archaic words (the -yXwvoai,ae they were called), but that common words (such as Provos, 460os) had their Homeric uses, which were to be gathered by due See also:induction. In the same spirit he looked upon the ideas and beliefs of Homer as a consistent whole, which might be determined from the evidence of the poems. He noticed especially the difference between the stories known to Homer and those given by later poets, and made many comparisons between Homeric and later manners, arts and institutions. Again, he was sensible of the See also:paramount value of See also:manuscript authority, and appears to have introduced no readings from mere conjecture. The frequent mention in the Scholia of " better " and "` inferior " texts may indicate a See also:classification made by him or by the general See also:opinion of critics. His use of the " obelus " to distinguish spurious verses, which made so large a part of his fame in antiquity, has rather told against him with modern scholars.' It is chiefly interesting as a proof of the confusion in which the text must have been before the Alexandrian times; for it is impossible to understand the readiness of Aristarchus to suspect the genuineness of. verses unless the state of the copies had pointed to the existence of numerous interpolations. On this matter, however, we are See also:left to conjecture. Our knowledge of Alexandrian criticism is derived almost wholly from a single document, the famous Iliad of the library of St Mark in See also:Venice (Codex Venetus 454, or Ven. A), first published by the French See also:scholar See also:Villoison in 1788 (Scholia antiquissima ad Homer% Iliadem). This manuscript, written in the loth century, contains (1) the best text of the Iliad, (2) the critical marks of Aristarchus and (3) Scholia, consisting mainly of extracts from four grammatical works, viz. Didymus (contemporary of Cicero) on the recension of Aristarchus, See also:Aristonicus (fl. 24 B.c.) on the critical marks of Aristarchus, Herodian (fl. A.D. 160) on the accentuation, and See also:Nicanor (fl. A.D. 127) on the See also:punctuation, of the Iliad. These extracts present themselves in two distinct forms. One See also:series of scholia is written in the usual way, on a margin reserved for the purpose. The other consists of brief scholia, written in very small characters (but of the same period) on the narrow space left vacant See also:round the text. Occasionally a scholium of this kind gives the substance of one of the longer extracts; but as a rule they are distinct. It would seem, therefore, that after the manuscript was finished the " marginal scholia " were discovered to be extremely defective, and a new series of extracts was added in a form which interfered as little as possible with the appearance of the book .2 The mention of the Venetian Scholia leads us at once to the Homeric controversy; for the immortal Prolegomena of F. A. Wolf appeared a few years after Villoison's publication, and was founded in great measure upon the fresh and abundant materials which it furnished. Not that the " Wolfian theory " of the Homeric poems is directly supported by anything in the Scholia; the immediate object of the Prolegomena was not to put forward that theory, but to elucidate the new and remarkable conditions under which the text of Homer had to be settled, viz. the See also:discovery of an apparatus criticus of the 2nd century B.C. The questions regarding the original structure and early history of the poems were raised (forced upon him, it may be said) by the critical problem; but they were really originated by facts and ideas of a wholly different order. The 18th century, in which the spirit of classical correctness had the most See also:absolute dominion,did not come to an end before a powerful reaction set in, which affected not only literature but also See also:speculation and politics. In this movement the leading ideas were concentrated in the word Nature. The natural condition of society, natural law, natural See also:religion, the poetry of nature, gained a singular hold, first on the English philosophers from See also:Hume onwards, and then (through See also: Wolf shows how the question of the date of writing meets us on the See the See also:chapter in See also:Cobet's Miscellanea critica, pp. 225-239. 2 The existence of two groups of the Venetian Scholia was first noticed by See also:Jacob La See also:Roche, and they were first distinguished in the edition of W. See also:Dindorf (Oxford, 1875). There is also a See also:group of Scholia, chiefly exegetical, a collection of which was published by Villoison from a MS. Ven. 453 (s. xi.) in his edition of 1788, and has been again edited by W. Dindorf (Oxford, 1877). The most important collection of this group is contained in the Codex Townleianus (See also:Burney 86 s. xi.) of the See also:British Museum, edited by E. Maass, (Oxford, 1887–1888). The vast commentary of See also:Eustathius (of the 12th century) marks a third stage in the progress of ancient Homeric learning. Prolegomena ad Homerum, sire de operum Homericorum prisca et genuine forma variisque mutationibus et probabili ratione emendandi. x'ripstt F i id. Aug. Wolfius, volumen i. (1790.See also:threshold of the textual criticism of Homer and accordingly enters into a full discussion, first of the external evidence, then of the indications furnished by the poems. Having satisfied himself that writing was unknown to Homer, he is led to consider the real mode of transmission, and finds this in the Rhapsodists, of whom the Homeridae were an hereditary school. And then comes the conclusion to which all this has been tending: "the See also:die is See also:cast "—the Iliad and Odyssey cannot have been composed in the form in which we know them without the aid of writing. They must therefore have been, as See also:Bentley had said, " a sequel of songs and rhapsodies," " loose songs not collected together in the form of an epic poem till about 500 years after." This conclusion he then supports by the character attributed to the " Cyclic " poems (whose want of unity showed that the structure of the Iliad and Odyssey must be the work of a later time), by one or two indications of imperfect connexion, and by the doubts of ancient critics as to the genuineness of certain parts. These, however, are matters of conjecture. " Historia loquitur." The voice of antiquity is unanimous in declaring that " Peisistratus first committed the poems of Homer to writing, and reduced them to the order in which we now read them." The See also:appeal of Wolf to the " voice of all antiquity " is by no means See also:borne out by the different statements on the subject. According to Heraclides Ponticus (pupil of Plato), the poetry of Homer was first brought to the Peloponnesus by Lycurgus, who obtained it from the descendants of Creophylus (Polit. fr. 2). See also:Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus (c. 4) repeats this story, with the addition that there was already a faint See also:report of the poems in Greece, and that certain detached fragments were in the possession of a few persons. Again, the Platonic dialogue Hipparchus (which though not genuine is probably earlier than the Alexandrian times) asserts that Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus, first brought the poems to Athens, and obliged the rhapsodists at the Panathenaea to follow the order of the text, " as they still do," instead of reciting portions chosen at will. The earliest authority for attributing any work of the kind to Peisistratus is the well-known passage of Cicero (De Oral. 3. 34: Quis doctior eisdem temporibus illis, See also:aut cujus eloquentia litteris instructior fuisse traditur quam Pisistrati ? qui See also:primus Homeri libros, confusos antea, sic disposuisse dicitur ut nunc habemus "). To the same effect See also:Pausanias (vii. p.594) says that the change of the name Donoessa to Gonoessa (in Il. ii. 573) was thought to have been made by Peisistratus or one of his companions," when he collected the poems, which were then in a fragmentary condition. Finally, Diogenes Laertius (i. 57) says that Solon made a law that the poems should be recited with the help of a prompter so that each rhapsodist should begin where the last left off; and he argues from this that Solon did more than Peisistratus to make Homer known. The argument is directed against a certain Dieuchidas of See also:Megara, who appears to have maintained that the verses about Athens in the Catalogue (Il. ii. 546-556) were interpolated by Peisistratus. The passage is unfortunately corrupt, but it is at least clear that in the time of Solon, according to Diogenes, there were complete copies of the poems, such as could be used to control the recitations. Hence the account of Diogenes is quite irreconcilable with the notices on which Wolf relied. It is. needless to examine the attempts which have been made to harmonize these accounts. Such attempts usually start with the tacit See also:assumption that each of the persons concerned—Lycurgus, Solon, Peisistratus, Hipparchus—must have done something for the text of Homer, or for the regulation of the rhapsodists. But we have first to consider whether any of the accounts come to us on such evidence that we are See also:bound to consider them as containing a nucleus of truth. In the first place, the statement that Lycurgus obtained the poems from descendants of Creophylus must be admitted to be purely mythical. But if we reject it, have we any better reason for believing the parallel assertion in the Platonic Hipparchus? It is true that Hipparchus is undoubtedly a real person. On the other hand it is evident that the Peisistratidae soon became the subject of many fables. Thucydides notices as a popular See also:mistake the belief that Hipparchus was the eldest son of Peisistratus, and that consequently he was the reigning " See also:tyrant " when he was killed by Aristogiton. The Platonic Hipparchus follows this erroneous version, and may therefore be regarded as representing (at best) mere local tradition. We may reasonably go further, and see in this part of the dialogue a piece of historical romance, designed to put the " tyrant " family in a,favourable light, as patrons of literature and learning. Again, the account of the Hipparchus is contradicted by Diogenes Laertius, who says that Solon provided for the due recitation of the Homeric poems. The only good authorities as to this point are the orators Lycurgus and Isocrates, who mention the law prescribing the recitation, but do not say when or by whom it was enacted. The inference seems a See also:fair one, that the author of the law was really unknown. With regard to the statements which attribute some work in connexion with Homer to Peisistratus, it was noticed by Wolf that Cicero, Pausanias and the others who mention the matter do so nearly in the same words, and, therefore, appear to have drawn from a common source. This source was in all probability an See also:epigram quoted in two of the short lives of Homer, and there said to have been inscribed en the statue of Peisistratus at Athens. In it Peisistratus is made to say of himself that he "collected 'joiner, who was formerly su o in fragments, for the golden poet was a See also:citizen of ours, since we Athenians founded Smyrna." The other statements repeat these words with various minor additions, chiefly intended to explain how the poems had been reduced to this fragmentary condition, and how Peisistratus set to work to restore them. Thus all the authority for the work of Peisistratus " reduces itself to the testimony of a single See also:anonymous inscription " (Nutzhorn p. 40). Now, what is the value of that testimony? It is impossible of course to believe that a statue of Peisistratus was set up at Athens in the time of the free republic. The epigram is almost certainly a mere literary exercise. And what exactly does it say? Only that Homer was recited in fragments by the rhapsodists, and that these partial recitations were made into a continuous whole by Peisistratus; which does not necessarily mean more than that Peisistratus did what other authorities ascribe to Solon and Hipparchus, viz. regulated the recitation. Against the theory which See also:sees in Peisistratus the author of the first complete text of Homer we have to set the absolute silence of Herodotus, Thucydides, the orators and the Alexandrian grammarians. And it can hardly be thought that their silence is accidental. Herodotus and Thucydides seem to tell us all that they know of Peisistratus. The orators Lycurgus and Isocrates make a great See also:deal of the recitation of Homer at the Panathenaea, but know nothing of the poems having been collected and arranged at Athens, a fact which would have redounded still more to the See also:honour of the city. Finally, the Scholia of the Vets. A contain no reference or allusion to the story of Peisistratus. As these Scholia are derived in substance from the writings of Aristarchus, it seems impossible to believe that the story was known to him. The circumstance that it is referred to in the Scholia Townleiana and in Eustathius, gives additional See also:weight to this argument. The result of these considerations seems to be that nothing rests on good evidence beyond the fact that Homer was recited by law at the Panathenaic festival. The See also:rest of the story is probably the result of gradual expansion and See also:accretion. It was inevitable that later writers should speculate about the authorship of such a law, and that it should be attributed with more or less confidence to Solon or Peisistratus or Hipparchus. The choice would be deter-See also:mined in great measure by political feeling. It is probably not an accident that Dieuchidas, who attributed so much to Peisistratus, was a Megarian. The author of the Hipparchus is evidently influenced by the See also:anti-democratical tendencies in which he only followed Plato. In the times to which the story of Peisistratus can be traced, the 1st century s.c., the substitution of the " tyrant " for the legislator was extremely natural. It was equally natural that the importance of his work as regards the text of Homer should be exaggerated. The splendid patronage of letters by the successors of Alexander, and especially the great institutions which had been founded at See also:Alexandria and See also:Pergamum, had made an impression on the imagination of learned men which was reflected in the current notions of the ancient despots. It may even be suspected that anecdotes in praise of Peisistratus and Hipparchus were a delicate form of flattery addressed to the reigning See also:Ptolemy. Under these influences the older stories of Lycurgus bringing Homer to the Peloponnesus, and Solon providing for the recitation at Athens, were thrown into the shade. In the later See also:Byzantine times it was believed that Peisistratus was aided by seventy grammarians, of whom Zenodotus and Aristarchus were the chief. The great Alexandrian grammarians had become figures in a new mythology. It is true that See also:Tzetzes, one of the writers from whom we have this story, gives a better version, according to which Peisistratus employed four men, viz. See also:Onomacritus, Zopyrus of See also:Heraclea, See also:Orpheus of Croton, and one whose name is corrupt (written ErucOyKUXOS). Many scholars (among them See also:Ritschl) accept this account as probable. Yet it rests upon no better evidence than the other. The effect of Wolf's Prolegomena was so overwhelming that, although a few protests were made at the time, the true Homeric controversy did not begin till after Wolf's death (1824). His speculations were thoroughly in harmony with the ideas and sentiment of the time, and his historical arguments, especially his long See also:array of testimonies to the work of Peisistratus, were hardly challenged. The first considerable antagonist of the Wolfian school was G. W. See also:Nitzsch, whose writings See also:cover the years 1828–1862, and deal with every side of the controversy. In the earlier part of his Meletemata (183o) he took up the question of written or unwritten literature, on which Wolf's whole argument turned, and showed that the art of writing must be anterior to Peisistratus. In the later part of the same series of discussions (1837), and in his chief work (Die Sagenpoesie der Griechen, 1852), he investigated the structure of the Homeric poems, and their relation to the other epics of the Trojan cycle. These epics had meanwhile been made the subject of a work which for exhaustive learning and delicacy of See also:artistic See also:perception has few rivals in the history of philology, tho Epic Cycle of F. G. Weleker. The confusion which previous scholars had made between the ancient post-Homeric poets (Arctinus, Lesches, ac.) and the learned mythological writers (such as the " scriptor cyclicus " of See also:Horace) was first cleared up by See also:Welcker. Wolf had argued that if the cyclic writers had known the Iliad and Odyssey which we possess, they would have imitated the unity of structure which distinguishes these two poems. The result of \Vcicker's labours was to show thatthe Homeric poems had influenced both the form and the substance of epic poetry.
In this way there arose a conservative school who admitted more or less freely the absorption of pre-existing lays in the formation of the Iliad and Odyssey, and also the existence of considerable interpolations, but assigned the main work of formation to prehistoric times, and to the genius of a great poet. Whether the two epics were by the same author remained an open question; the tendency of this group of scholars was decidedly towards separation. Regarding the use of writing, too, they were not unanimous. K. O. See also: The first book, for instance, consists of a See also:lay on the anger of Achilles (1-347), and two continuations, the return of Chryseis (430-492) and the scenes in See also:Olympus (348-429, 493-611). The second book forms a second lay, but several passages,. among them the speech of Ulysses (278-332), are interpolated. In the third book the scenes in which Helen and Priam take part (including the making of the truce) are pronounced to be interpolations; and so on. Regarding the evidence on which these sweeping results are founded, opinions will vary. The degree of smoothness or consistency which is to be expected on the hypothesis of a single author will be determined by taste rather than argument. The See also:dissection of the first book, for instance, turns partly on a See also:chronological in-accuracy which might well escape the poet as well as his hearers. In examining such points we are See also:apt to forget that the contradictions by which a story is shown to be untrue are quite different from those by which a confessedly untrue story would be shown to be the work of different authors. Structure of the Iliad. The subject of the Iliad, as the first line proclaims, is the " anger of Achilles." The manner in which this subject is worked out will appear from the following See also:summary in which we distinguish (1) the See also:plot, i.e. the story of the quarrel, (2) the main course of the war, which forms a sort of underplot, and (3) subordinate episodes. I. Quarrel of Achilles with Agamemnon and the Greek army —Agamemnon, having been compelled to give up his prize Chryseis, takes Briseis from Achilles—Thereupon Achilles appeals to his See also:mother See also:Thetis, who obtains from Zeus a promise that he will give victory to the Trojans until the Greeks pay due honour to her son—Meanwhile Achilles takes no part in the war. II. Agamemnon is persuaded by a See also:dream sent from Zeus to take the See also: (312–529) Visit of Hector to Paris—to See also:Andromache. Duel of See also:Ajax and Hector. Truce for See also:burial of dead. The Greeks build a See also:wall round their See also:camp. IX. Agamemnon sends an See also:embassy by See also:night, offering Achilles restitution and full amends—Achilles refuses. X. Doloneia—Night expedition of Odysseus and Diomede (in all probability added later). XI. Aristeia of Agamemnon—he is wounded—Wounding of Diomede and Odysseus. Achilles sends See also:Antilochus to inquire about Machaon. XI I. Storming of the wall—the Trojans reach the ships. XV. Zeus awakened—Restores the See also:advantage to the Trojans—Ajax alone defends the ships. XV I I. Battle for the body of Patroclus–Aristeia of See also:Menelaus. The See also:shield of Achilles described. XX. The gods come down to the plain—Combat of Achilles with Aeneas and 1-See also:lector, who escape. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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