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Les cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent etra filmis A dea taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est film* A partir da Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droita. et de haut an bas. en prenant la nombra d'imagea nAcassaire. Las diagrammes suivants illustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 4 5 6 MKtOCOrV nsoWTION TBT CHAIT (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No. 2) A /APPLIED IM^OE Inc ■r. ^6&3 Cast Uoirt SirMi ^ Roch«l#f, N««* YjTk 14609 USA (?'«) ♦«2-03O0 -PhofW (716) 2M-5M9-Fo» i ,(jicA.t ^ J'/ Itrty^ /J^>U«r** c/^*A Vifc Ctnm^ e^^-^is^^^ THE AGE OF HOMER By GOLDVVIN SMITH REPKIMEO FROM THE ^mmcan liiisitonrttt ^tx\m VOL. VII No. I OCTOBER igoi .mm TlIK AGK OF lUniKR ABOVI'! all other works of poetic art, in tiic full sense of that term, are tlie dramas of Shakespeare ami the poems of I lomer. In what other poems, except in Shakespeare's tlranias, shall we find such a fjalaxy of characters, so varied and so sustained as we find in the H'uui and Oiiysuy'^ In the -iiv/./V/ there can hardly be said to be more than one character, while that one is wantinj^ in in- terest. In Dante the characters are historical. In I'nraiiisi- Lost there is but one, which represents the majesty of evil. The deity is abstract deity ; the angels are aii-^'ls ; the pictures of Adam and Eve, however beautifal in their way, are pictures of perfect innocence. Where else shall we find such a wealth of vignettes in the form of similes? Where such a picture of conjugal love as the p;irting of Hector and Andromache ? Where such a fairy-tale as the Oiiyssi}' with the Isle of Calypso, Circe, the Sir-w, the I.otus-eaters, the hall of Aeolus, the Phaeacians ? How co.ipletely have these crea- tions of a poet of the dawn taken hold on the imagination of the world ! The least artistic passages in appearance are the recur- rences of commonplace descriptions of commonplace matters, such as navigation, sacrifice and feasting ; yet even these have more the air of refrain than of careless repetition. Moral blemishes, such as the repulsive character of Athene, or the atrocities ascribed to Achilles, arc faults of primitive ethics or national prejudices, not failures of art. Wonderfully close Homer comes to us across the ages. Modern pathos can go no deeper than Andromache lament- ing that her Hector, slain by Achilles, will not from his death-bed stretch out his arms to her and say that pregnant word {n'jxn.in> iTToz), on which she might brood amidst her tears for the rest of her days. Sentimental appreciation of the picturesque we do not expect in a primitive and unspiritual age, any more than we expect romantic love ; but the Homeric descriptions of the sea. the storm, the calm. C^'i'.i.'.A.VA Gold'icin Smith tlic star-lit heavens, imply on the part of the writer .soinethin}r at kast of the cmoii iti which they awaken in us. The descriptions of the dreamer's sensations ' and of the play of the wanderer's memory are wonderfully nvMJern in their refinement and subtlety. Nor, if our ears tell us true, in spite of probable differences of pro- nunciation, is the metrical art in these |]ocms inferior to theii poetic excellence. Instances without numb»T might be cited of what sounds to us the happy adaptation of the music of a passage to its sense. The lines describing Jupiter's nod of assent ' is one of them. To find a time and place before recorded civilization at which poetic art can have reached a height only once afterwards attained, is the I lomeric problem, very interesting, and at the same time very tantalizing, since means of a chronological solution we have none. \Ve can only hoix,- to determine the political, sociil and aesthetic date. The single authcship of the Odyssey is not much contested, and that of the Iliad seems to me hardly contestable. The patch- work theory, started by Wolf and carried to an extreme length by Lachmann, was the offspring of a Germany whose learning at that time w as greater than her taste and judgment. The theory of Grote, who regards the Iliad as a nucleus with superadditions, is not the result of original investigation but is the Wolf- Lachmann theory in full retreat. Kditorial patching in places there may have been. This was likely enough in the course of transmission and revision. It must surely be .seen that the unity of the Iliad is not mechanical but organic ; that the parts would bleed if torn asunder. Did one poe* sing the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, another its consequences, and a third th, reconciliation > Did one poet write the part in which the Greeks were defeated, and another balance it by their success ? Did one poet produce the Andromache of the sixth Iliad, and another re-produce her in the last ? If the unity of the Odyssey is admitted, if it is impossible to suppose that one poet described Ulysses in Calypso's Isle yearning for his home, and that other poets carried him through a series of adventures to the fulfilment of his desire, why should we think a multiplicity of poets necessary to the production of the Iliad ' I almost as thoroughly believe in the common authorship of the 'wo poems. The theme of the Odyssey is more romantic and less heroic than that of the Iliad, and the style is suiti'ble to the subject. In the ! ist books there is undoubtedly a falling off, which might be the natural consequence of exhaustion or old age. But even Iiere such passages as the meeting of Ulysses with his dog Argos, and • /AV/i/, XXII. 199-201. « Iliad, I. 528-530. .APR14i9es if i The Age of Hotner 3 the comparison of the flitting; «>f the /.mis of the suitors to thi 'it- ting of bats disturbed in their cranny ' benpeak the peerless hand. There are, no doubt, nisi frius objections lo the common author- ship. But poetry is not judiciable in the court of ww/ //-/><.»■. Ii is passing strange, no doubt, that after a ten years' siege I'riam should be asking I leicn to point out to hiia the chiefs of the fjesieging army. Hut it is not I'riam, it is the reatier or hearer of tho bard who wants the information. It is passing str.mge that in Sophocles Oedipus should have sat so long on his throne without seeking to know what had become of his preileccssor. It is passing strange that in Paradise Lost Omnipotence, having shut up Satan in hell, should fail to keep him thi re, and that Omniscience should lie ignorant of his flight. There are discrcpincies in the I lomeric poems about the age of Neoptolcmus, anil the chronology of Telomachus' voyage of inquiry after his father, which might be damaging ui. li 1 l" "-ensic cross-examin.ition. The strongest point again * the idcnti*.\ of the author of the Odyfs,y and the author ..f the . ad is the < ' crqian ibout the wife of \ lephaestus, who in the 0,l\ y she is Aphrodite and the heroine )mer makes pretty free with his pantheon. in the 1) auce against agreement in the s-irki 1 kI )mplex character such as ! il ulentity of thought, .sentiment, , at, surely, would be the ch ces fcr.nt writers of two poems ei .1 in s ,uul harmonizing in details as have •rks of the same hand. Inferior epic pre.id themselves over a wide canvas, lie ii -^tory of the Trojan war from rase ' *hc Iliad and that of the V ca; ill the Iliad, a single // .' is Chans while of a queer stor\ Hiii What an these thii - delineation of a strop that of Ulysses ; or .t manner, and vcrsiftca agains. the production scale and .so uniform in \_ been generally taken f<^i writers of the Cycle cviii^ taking as their theme tlv Leda's egg. But alike in Odyssey, the writer prefei -i ; incident of the siege of Troy , the adventures of Ulysse:! ; lli^ character, in dialogue, and in ful: for common authorship might al tion an! treatment. However, wii same author or not, there can be 1 porary and products of the same scli by the identity of language, and tli ard phrases in them both. Herodotus, whose authority a comn >nly accepted, puts Homer ' Odysiey, XXIV. 6-9. Ill Wi icy. X limited portion of '\iii n c.ircful painting of (kt.iil. The case irniity of selec- ins are by the ney are contcm- ■^iciently proved . -^ame st snd- ^itc of tl \ four \ ■ms IS years mmmm Goldwin Smith and not more before his own time. Herodotus is a charming writer ; he gives us an inestimable picture of G -';k life ; but of critical accuracy as to facw he ha; been f ndan' f shown to be destitute. To give one more instance, he malv s th fleet of Xcr.xes lose up- wards of seven hundred sail by battle or storm between its arrival at Sepi.is Aktc and its arrival at I'haleruni Vet he tells us that the lo.ss was made up by contingents from C.instus in Kuboc.i, Andros. Tcnos, and the other Cyclades ; .so that the number of the fleet at Fhalerum was about what it had been on its arrival at Sepias Aktc. Seven hundred .sail from a little town and a few petty islands ! T!ie numbers of the army of Xerxes pass belief ; the details of his march are cvidentl)- poetic, and the narrative of the battle of Mara- thon bewilders the commentators and will bewilder them to the end of time. Yet the invasion of Greece by Xerxes fe" .vithin the his- torian's life-time, and he must have had abundant dv jess to con- temporary information. Four centuries seems a wide gap to be spanned. Conip.iriig the language of Herodotus with that of Homer, and mak.i^ due allowance for poetic form and license, it appea s .ilikcly ih, ■ lisre should have been so wide an interval between wo. Thc.^ are perhaps in Homer from ., .Ive to twenty words which are so archaic, that it puzzles the acumen of Buttmann to determine their meaning. There are peculiarities of inflec in and syntax of which it would be difficult to .say what proportions are archaic, poetic, or idiosyn- cratic. As to the use of the digamma, Monro seems doubtful. But the language is in all respects vitally the same as that of Ionian writers, and we can use the Homeric poems in our schools and col- leges as a text-book of poetic Greek. That there should have been any great tribal cataclysm after the composition of the poems seems therefore hardly possible. From the time of Homer to that of Pisistratus the continuity of .ace and langu.iLje must apparently have remained unbroken. This it can hardly have done for four hundred years. Had a tribal cataclysm taken place, the invading tribe would hardly have adopted the heroes, legends, and ballads of the conqueror. That the art of poetry, or any art, should have reached perfection, an unapproachable perfection, at a bound is incredible. There must have been a considerable period of preparation ; and if we throw the date of Homer back to the dawn of Greek nationality, where is this period to be found ? Some assume that Homer does not mention writing, ii' hence infer that he lived before its invention. Had he any occasion to mention it? He surely, however, does mention it plainly enough. The Age of ffomcr I He says' that Bcllcrophon was chargcil hy Proctus with fr.ldcd tablets wherein Proetus had written things full • "■ deadly import. That such poems as the Ilitui and the Oiiys.uy might have been transmitted by memory is undeniable. Memory, it is t" '/ said, would be stronger before the gcr-iral u.se of writing; ami even in our day we have hnd a man who could .say by heart a <»rcat number of the plays of Shakespeare. The difficulty would be, not n. the transmission without writing, but in the composition. How could the adjustment of parts, the elaboration of the plot, the touching and retouching w'.ich a w .rk of high art implies, be performed without means of keeping the work before the composer's mind ? Milton was blind when he composed Paratiise Lost, but it would be written down from his dictation and read over to him for improvement and revision Th .jolitical era of the Hind is plainly fi.ved. It is the era of democracy lifting its head against n'^bility and hereditary rule. Thersites is the democratic agitator, haled by the bard who sings in royal or aristocratic halls, and who paints him a monster of ugliness most hateful to a race which a^ red beauty, as well as a paragon of moral vileness ; exults in the chastisement inflicted on him. and makes the people sympathize with the chieftain who inflict.s it, as he undoubtedly wishes the crowd in the agora would do. The passage is in spirit cognate to one in Theognis. It is not likely that the course of political events shoulu have twic travelled the same round. The chiefs preside in the public a.ssembly d lead, > laps dictate, its councils ; but there is a public assembly and the need of popular assent is felt. Public opinion is repeatedly personified by u , as in the IliadW. 271: " luSt iit rr; ttztaxtn iiiiou i; rr^irwi^ dXko],." Telem- achus in the assembly of Ithaca summoned by him makes a direct appeal to the people. All this bespeaks a transition from monarchy and aristocracy to democracy, such as the Greek colonies in Asia Minor evidently underwent, and probably from their maritime and adventurous character, their novelty, and the volatile spirit which in Herodotus they exhibit, more rapidly than it was undergone by the communities of old Greece. Oratory is greatly valued and has reached high perfection, which, without a popular audience, it could hardly have donr. The de- scription of Ulysses as an orator" indicates cureful study of the art. Law is, like the Brehon law, traditional not statutory; justice is rudimentary, being administered by chiefs or elders who are jury- men as well as judges. But the Greeks never showed much apti- • ///W, VI. lOg. • //>aii>ixo;, a scape-goat, shows that it had not been unknown at Athens. The license of piracy when exercised against foreign ships was prolonged well into historic times.- Alexander, the much adored, not only ' ft/iM/c, I. lo. 'Herodotus, I. i66. ,v The Age of I/oiner :) I emulated but greatly surpassed the atrociof freatment of Hector's body by Achilles, when he dragged .>. living Hatis, with holes bored through his feet, behind a chariot driven by himself amidst the acclamations of his army. The relation of the Greeks in the ///(/(/ to the Trojans antl their Asiatic allies is remarkable. The Asiatics are enemies, and they are inferior to the Greeks in military di.sciplinc : but they are not barbarous or objects of contempt; far from it. Priam, Hector, Aeneas are perfectly on a par with their Greek counterparts. The parting of a Trojan chief from his wife is the subject of the mo.st beautiful picture in the Iliait Troy is the peculiar object of regard to the Hellenic Zeus. Athene is worshipped in Troy. language is no barrier between the Greek and the Trojan chiefs. Paris, the guilty author of the war, is a gay Lothario, rather contemptible but not hateful, on the contrary amusing and attractive in his way. The Greek Diomed and the Asiatic Glaucus are bound by an an- cestral tie of friendship to each other. This would .seem to accord pretty well with the relation of the Greeks to the I.ydian dynasties as depicted by Herodotus. Two chiefs of the Trojan alliance, Aeneas, chief of the Dardanians and Sarpedon, chief of the I._\cians, arc sons of Hellenic deities ; Aeneas of Aphrodite, Sarpedon of Zeus. In the Dardanian dynasty Homer evidently felt a local interest. Fiom Strabo's account of the Lycian Confederation it would seem that the Lycians were Hellenized. This could hardly have taken place in a very prehi-storic age. It has been said that iron is scarce in Homer and that he there- fore belongs to the copper age. Copper is the prevalent metal and the material of armor; but iron does not appear to be very scarce.' The proverbial phrase " iron heart"- seems also to show familiarity with iron. The axles of the chariots are of iron ; the clash of battle is described as " tnor^into; oinnayoo;." ^ Little, therefore, can be based in this case on the metallic distinction of eras. Homer tells you distinctly that his story belongs not to his own age but to an heroic age that is passed. The men of his own time are degenerate ; they cannot wield such weapons as the heroes wielded or hurl such stones as the heroes hurled.' To what extent the reproduction of the past goes we can hardly divine. IJut the war of single combats is pretty clearly a part of it. In Virgil, tl rough the descriptions of the camp of Aeneas, Roman ca.strame- tation is seen. In the ///V.-r/, beside the chivalrous war of single •//;W, .XXIII. SJ4. ' //ill,/, XXIV. 205, 501 .mil el.-twliere. »//;Vi,/, XVII. 424. « J/i.iJ, V. 304 and XIX. 389. 8 Goldwin Smith combats, we see the republican phalanx marshalled and moving in serried order to battle, though when brought upon the field it seems for the most part to stand at gaze while the chieftains on both sides come forward, in the fashion of an age of chivalry, to encounter each other. Perhaps the Gargantuan feasts with their enormous masses of meat, strongly contrasted with "light Attic fare," belong also to the heroic past. The prediction that the descendants of Aeneas should reign in Dardania' is evidently history in the guise of proph- ecy and throws back the heroic founder of the Ime to an age far anterior to that of the poet. Homer's ships are more intensely real than his horses. About the horses there is a good deal that is mythical. Some of them are of divine lineage. They talk and weep. Andromache gives Hector's horses wine as if it were a familiar practice. The ships on the other hand are intensely real. Homer evidently revels in everything nautical ; in the details of ship-building, in the handling of the galley, in the even sweep of her oars, in her bounding over the dark blue wave which roars round her as she speeds upon her way. " £v o iKifiu; zofftit), futroi, :(TTcoi/, dfufi slr^; )" is distinguished from the swift galley showing an advanced state of naval construc- tion. The descriptions of the sea and nautical similes are always full of intense life. This designates the writer as a native of one of the maritime colonies in Asia Minor. It would seem that religious faith in Homer's time was in an advanced stage of decay, and was giving way to a light scepticism which permitted fun to be made of the deities. We are prepared for a good deal in the way of sincere anthropomorphism, as well as of moral obliquities in gods made by man after his own image. But can we suppose that an intellect of such depth as that of Homer is not making fun of the deities when he represents Zeus as gaily re- counting to Here his wandering loves, and as challenging the whole pantheon to a " tug of war "; when he makes gods cuff each other or be wounded by men ; when he tells us the story of Ares and Aph- rodite committing crim. con. and being captured by the injured Hephaestus amid the general laughter of Olympus ? Formal rev- erence is still paid to the gods, and they are acknowledged as up- > Jtiad, XX. 308. 'Iliad, I. 481-483 'Odyssey, V. 250. ■J The Age of Homer 9 holders of the right and avengers of wrong. The bch'ef in omens still prevails, and is used for a poetic purpose ; but Hector is made to say that he cares little for them and that the best of all omens is to be fighting for one's country. The freedom of personification which produces such beings as Ate, l-Iris, and Litai (pra)crs) also looks like a sign of a mind little trammelled by belief in the pan- theon. Here again we surely find ourselves in contact with an age of thought far from primeval, as well as with the light and sceptical spirit of the Asiatic Greek. The Catalogue of the Ships, as it is called, remains a puzzle on any hypothesis, and a puzzle on any hypothesis it is likely to remain. Of all passages in the Iliad it is the one most easily detached, and the one the authenticity of which is mo.st questioned, though its char- acter seems to mcto be Homeric. The ])oct appeals to the muses for his knowledge of the facts, and the mu.ses onh- could have im- parted to him the mythical muster-roll of the mythical fleet of Agamemnon. Its ethnography extends to the Asiatics as well as to the Greeks. It describes the I'eloponnesus as it was before the Dorian invasion, a group of old Greek principalities under a sort of suzerainty of the Lords of Mycenae, without Dorian ascendancy or he Dorian Sparta. Whether its ethnography is correct or is as loose as Homer's topography of the Troad, wc have no means of ascertaining. He was not a cartographer, but a highly imaginative poet. A refugee from the Dorian invasion might naturally speak of the land of his origin as it was before the conquest. lUit on this point we are in the dark and in the dark we are likely to remain. All dates before the first Olympiad {"J^d H. C.) are uncertain, among the re.st that of the Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus, dis- lodged by which, and perhaps by other tribal disturbances, Greeks, carrying with them the civilization which has left its monuments at Mycenae, emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor and there founded little maritime commonwealths. There can be no doubt that the author of the Iliad was a deni- zen of the north coast of Asia Minor. The north and west winds blow to him from Thrace.' He plainly claims a personal knowledge of the Troad : l(i-t lis Tt; zi>or:(iiiutHi zo?.io; uizsTu xo/.o'ii'r^.' The perpetuation of the dynasty of Aeneas seems also, as has been .said, to be a local touch. In the Odjssej', speaking of Ithaca and the adjacent islands, Homer is evidently beyond the range of his geo- graphical knowledge. His slighting mention of Miletus as in the I //