near the shore of the island of Ios, by his companions, and those citizens who had visited him during his illness. Many years after, when his poems, become public, were admired by all, the inhabitants of Ios inscribed these elegiacs on his tomb; they are certainly not composed by himself. "THE EARTH HERE COVERS THE HEAD OF DIVINE HOMER, WHOSE POETRY HAS IMMORTALIZED HEROES."71 XXXVII. It may be seen from what I have said, that Homer was neither a Dorian, nor of the island of Ios, but an olian.72 This may also be conjectured from the great poet only speaking of [what he thinks] the most admirable customs, and he would naturally suppose those of his own country to be the best.73 It may be judged from these verses: "They raise the heads of the oxen toward heaven, cut their throats, and sever them in pieces; they separate the thighs, and place over them a double layer of fat, and bleeding morsels from every part of the victim.74 The kidneys are not men "He was warned by an oracle to beware of the young men's riddle. The meaning of this remained long unexplained to him, till he arrived at the island of Ios; there, as he sat conversing with the fishermen, some of them proposed a riddle in verse to him, and, not comprehending it, he died of grief." Pope, in his Introductory Essay, says, "The story refutes itself, by carrying superstition at one end, and folly at the other. It seems conceived with an air of derision, to lay a great man in the dust after a foolish manner." This completely sets the question of the authenticity of this Life at rest, since the writer plainly refers to this idle tale, recorded by an author of so much later date. "The translation of Grotius is as follows: "Ista tegit tellum sacrum caput illud Homeri 72 Simonides of Kêos calls Homer a Chian. Fragm. 69, ed. Schneidewin. 73 Exactly the idea of Herodotus, iii. 33. 74 Il. i. 459, and ii. 422. Victims were variously sacrificed. In 9acrificing to the celestial deities they raised the heads of the victims, while they immolated them to the infernal gods with their heads down. The Grecian ceremonies differed widely from the Jewish, br't much resem. tioned here, the Eolians being the only people of Greece who do not burn them. Homer also shows his Æolian descent in the following verses, there again describing the customs of that country: "The elder burns the sacrifice on the wood of the altar, pouring over it libations of wine. The youths stand around holding five-barred gridirons." 75 The Æolians are the only people of Greece who roast the entrails on five-barred gridirons, those of the other Greeks having but three. The Folians also say πέμπε for πέντε [five]. XXXVIII. I have now concluded that which concerns the birth, life, and death of Homer. It remains for me to determine the time at which he lived. This is most easily done in the following manner. The island of Lesbos was not colonized 78 till the hundred and thirtieth year after the Trojan war, and eighteen years subsequently Smyrna was built by the CumaAt this time Homer was born.77 From the birth of the poet to the passage of Xerxes into Greece, six hundred and twenty-two years elapsed. The course of time may easily be calculated by a reference to the Archonships. It is thus proved that Homer was born one hundred and sixty-eight years after the taking of Troy. ans. bled the Roman, of which they formed the basis. The thighs and small pieces "from every part," were burnt, the rest roasted in slices like the Oriental Kabobs. See Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. 75 Il. i. 463. 76 It was not, however, destitute of inhabitants, for the Pelasgi, driven from Thessaly (B. c. 1540) by Deucalion, settled there. Dionys. Halicarn. Antiq. Roman. i. § 18. The Æolians arrived B. c. 1140, and as the Pelasgi lived in wandering tribes, they were soon reduced. 11 See Clinton Fasti Hellen. vol. iii. p. 146. Conf. Grote's Animadver sions on Clinton, Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. part i. chap. xix. pp. 47—78. In an assembly of the gods it is determined that Ulysses shall be sent to Ithaca, from the island of Calypso. Minerva then goes to Ithaca to Telemachus, assuming the figure of Mentes, king of the Taphians, an old friend of Ulysses. Entering into conversation with Telemachus, she advises him to go to Pylos, to Nestor, and to Menelaus, at Sparta, to make inquiries about his father, whether he is still alive; after which she departs, giving manifest proofs of her divinity. Telemachus rebukes his mother Penelope, and desires her to go up-stairs: and then, during a banquet, threatens the suitors that he will be revenged on them for their insolent conduct. O MUSE,1 sing to me of the man full of resources, who wandered very much after he had destroyed the sacred city of Troy, and saw the cities of many men, and learned their manners.2 Many griefs also in his mind did he suffer on the sea, although seeking to preserve his own life, and the return of his companions; but not even thus, although anxious, did he extricate his companions: for they perished by their own infatuation, fools! who devoured the oxen of the Sun who jour 1 Thus rendered by Horace, A. P. 141, "Dic mihi, Musa, virum, captæ post monia Troje Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes." See Schrader on Mus. p. 121, sq. = ? I have translated vóov" manners," on the authority of Horace. 3 Tép quando participiis postponitur, reddi potest per quamvis. Loewe. · ἄρνυμαι expeto, anxie requiro. Clarke. There is a sort of zeugma, seeking to ransom or buy off his own life, and [to procure] a return for is companions." Hor. Epist. i. 2. 18, "Dum sibi, dum socii reditum parat." Literally, "to draw away." See Buttmann Lexil. p. 303-308, Fishlake's Translation. 8 9 neys on high; but he deprived them of their return. O goddess, daughter of Jove, relate to us also some of these things. Now all the others, as many as had escaped from utter destruction, were at home, having escaped both the war and the sea. But him alone, anxious for a return [home], and for his wife, the venerable nymph Calypso, a divine one of the goddesses, detained in her hollow grot, desiring him to be her husband. But when, after revolving years, the time had now arrived, in which the gods destined him to return home to Ithaca, not even then was he freed from labours, although amongst his own friends. But all the gods pitied him except Neptune; but he was unceasingly angry with godlike Ulysses, before he arrived in his own land. But he [Neptune] had gone to the Ethiopians who dwell afar off, (the Ethiopians who are divided into two parts, the most distant of men, some at the setting of the sun, others at the rising,) in order to obtain 10 a hecatomb of bulls and lambs. There sitting down he was delighted with a feast; but the other [gods] were assembled together in the palace of Olympian Jove. And unto them the father of men and of gods began discourse; for he remembered in his mind the noble Ægisthus, whom far-famed Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, slew and remembering him, he spoke [these] words to the immortals. "Alas! How, forsooth, do mortals reproach the gods! For they say that their evils are from us: whereas they themselves, through their own infatuation, suffer griefs beyond what is destined. Thus even now Ægisthus, contrary to the degrees of fate, married the wedded wife of Atrides, and slew him on his return, although aware that utter destruction [awaited himself]; since we forewarned him, (having sent the trusty Mercury, the slayer of Argus,) neither to kill him, nor to woo his wife; for from Orestes revenge shall 12 follow • Literally, "the day of return." 66 · ἀμόθεν, ποθέν, Hesych. " ab aliqua parte.” i. e. of the Grecian princes. This is the genitive absolute, and so translated by Virgil's "volventibus annis." 10 avriówv is the Attic future, as shown by Buttm. Lexil. p. 142. 11 A word used by the Dryopians and Scythians to signify gods, (cf. Alberti on Hesych. s. v.,) and hence used as a term of surprise or deprecation. σχετλιαστ τὸν ἐπίρρημα, Schol. 12 Jove quotes the very words of Mercury, which accounts for the bold change of tense. See Ernesti. for Atrides, when he grows to man's estate, and longs for his country. Thus spoke Mercury: but although he gave good advice, he did not persuade the mind of Ægisthus; but now has he at once atoned for all these things." The blue-eyed 13 goddess Minerva then answered him: "O father mine, thou son of Saturn, highest of kings, of a truth he has perished by a fitting destruction; so too may another perish who perpetrates such deeds. But my heart burns 14 for the prudent 15 ill-fated Ulysses, who, away from his friends for a long time, is suffering calamities in a sea-girt island, where is the centre 16 of the sea, a woody island: and in her mansion a goddess dwells, the daughter of all-wise Atlas, who kens the depths of the whole sea, and holds up the lofty columns which separate the earth and the heaven; but his daughter detains [Ulysses] unhappy, lamenting and she continually soothes him with soft and winning words, that he may forget Ithaca. But Ulysses, longing to behold even the smoke leaping up from his own land, desires to die. Nor does thy heart, O Olympian [Jove], at all turn towards him. Did not then Ulysses gratify thee, performing sacrifices in spacious Troy near the ships of the Argives? Why then, O Jove, art thou so angry with him?" But her the cloud-compelling Jove in answer addressed: "My child, what word has escaped thy lips? 17 How could I forget divine Ulysses, who excels amongst mortals in understanding, and has abundantly given sacrifice to the immortal gods, who possess the wide heaven? But earth-possessing Neptune is for ever immovably angry on account of the Cyclops, 18 whose eye he blinded, the godlike Polyphemus, whose power is greatest amongst all the Cyclops: him the nymph Thöosa brought forth, the daughter of Phorcys, ruler of the barren sea, embraced by Neptune in a hollow cave. 13 This translation is rather conventional than correct. The true meaning of yλavkoi, for which we have no direct equivalent in English, is" cæsii, quales sunt felis, leonis, et noctuæ oculi," according to Plin. H. N. viii. 21. See Loewe. 14 So Virgil, "talia flammato secum dea corde volutans." 15 I have followed Butmann, p. 211, who says that daippwv must bear this sense throughout the Odyssey. In the Iliad it almost always means "warlike." |