Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/132

120 120 within, any wills except those of a tent. These examples will show that mere statistics of the occurrence of words prove little, and that we must begin by looking to the sub ject and character of each poem. When we do so, we at once find ourselves in the presence of differences of the broadest kind. The Iliad is much more historical in tone and character. The scene of the poem is a real place, and the poet sings (as Ulysses says of Demodocus) as though he had been present himself, or had heard from one who hid been. The supernatural element is confined to an interference of the gods, which to the common eye hardly disturbs the natural current of affairs. The Odyssey, on the contrary, is full of the magical and romantic &quot; speciosa mirncula,&quot; as Horace called them. Moreover, these marvels which in their original form are doubtless as old as any thing in the Iliad, since in fact they are part of the vast stock of popular tales (Marcheii) diffused all over the world are mixed up in the Odyssey with the heroes of the Trojan war. This has been especially noticed in the case of the story of Polyphemus, one that is found in many countries, and in versions which cannot all be derived from Homer. W. Grimm has pointed out that the behaviour of Ulysses in that story is senseless and foolhardy, utterly beneath the wise and much-enduring Ulysses of the Trojan war. The reason is simple; lie is not the same Ulysses, but a being of the same world as Polyphemus himself the world of giants and ogres. The question then is How long must the name of Ulysses have been familiar in the legend (Sage} of Troy before it marie its way into the tales of giants and ogres (Marchen), where the poet of the Odyssey found it? Again, the Trojan legend has itself received some exten- siou between the time of the Iliad and that of the Odyssey. The story of the Wooden Horse is not only unknown to the Iliad, but is of a kind which we can hardly imagine the poet of the Iliad admitting. The part taken by Neopto- Ismus seems also to be a later addition. The tendency to amplify and complete the story shows itself still more in the Cyclic poets. Between the Iliad and these poets the Odyssey often occupies an intermediate position. This great and significant change in the treatment of the heroic legends is accompanied by numerous minor differ ences (such as ths ancients remarked) in belief, in manners and institutions, and in language. These differences bear out the inference tint the Odyssey is of a later age. The progress of reflexion is especially shown in the higher ideas entertained regarding the gods. The turbulent Olympian court has almost disappeared. Zeus has acquired the character of a supreme moral ruler ; and although Athene and Poseidon are adverse influences in the poem, the notion of a direct contest between them is scrupulously avoided. The advance of morality is shown in the more frequent use of terms such as &quot;just&quot; (StWos), &quot;piety&quot; (60-177), &quot;inso lence&quot; (u/fyts), &quot;god-fearing&quot; (0eou8r/s), &quot;pure&quot; (ayvos) ; aid also in th-3 plot of the story, which is distinctly a con test between right and wrong. In matters bearing upon the arts of life it is unsafe to press the silence of the Iliad. We may note, however, the difference between the house of Priam, surrounded by distinct dwellings for his many sons and daughters, and the houses of Ulysses and Alcinous, with many chambers under a single roof. The singer, too, who is so prominent a figure in the Odyssey can hardly be thought to be absent from the Iliad merely because the scene is laid in a camp. Style of Homo: A few^words remain to be said on the style and general character of the Homeric poems, and on the comparisons which may be made between Homer and analogous poetry in other countries. The cardinal qualities of the style of Homer have been pointed out once for all by Mr Matthew Arnold. &quot; The translator of Homer,&quot; he says, &quot; should above all be pene trated by a sense of four qualities of his author that he is eminently rapid ; that he is eminently plain and direct, both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words ; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas ; and finally, that he is eminently noble&quot; (On Translating Homer, p. 9). The peculiar rapidity of Homer is due in great measure to his use of the hexameter verse. It is characteristic of early literature that the evolution of the thought that is, the grammatical form of the sentence is guided by the structure of the verse ; and the correspondence which con sequently obtains between the rhythm and the grammar the thought being given out in lengths, as it were, and these again divided by tolerably uniform pauses produces a swift flowing movement, such as is rarely found when the periods have been constructed without direct reference to the metre. That Homer possesses this rapidity without falling into the corresponding faults that is, without becoming either &quot;jerky &quot;or monotonous is perhaps the best proof of his unequalled poetical skill. The plainness and directness, both of thought and of expression, which characterize Homer were doubtless qualities of his age ; but the author of the Iliad (like Voltaire, to whom Mr Arnold happily compares him) must have possessed the national gift in a surpassing degree. The Odyssey is in this respect perceptibly below the level of the Iliad. Rapidity or ease of movement, plainness of expression,, and plainness of thought, these are not the distinguishing qualities of the great epic poets Virgil, Dante, Milton. On the contrary, they belong rather to the humbler epico- lyrical school for which Homer has been so often claimed. The proof that Homer does not belong to that school that his poetry is not in any true sense &quot; ballad-poetry - is furnished by the higher artistic structure of his poems (already discussed), and as regards style by the fourth of the qualities distinguished by Mr Arnold the quality of nobleness. It is his noble and powerful style, sustained through every change of idea and subject, that finally separates Homer from all forms of &quot; ballad-poetry &quot; and &quot;popular epic.&quot; * But while we are on our guard against a once common error, we may recognize the historical connexion between the Iliad and Odyssey and the &quot;ballad&quot; literature which undoubtedly preceded them in Greece. It may even be admitted that the swift-flowing movement, and the simpli city of thought and style, which we admire in the Iliad are an inheritance from the earlier &quot; lays &quot;the KA.c a dvSpuv such as Achilles and Patroclus sang to the lyre in their tent. Even the metre the hexameter verse maybe assigned to them. But between these lays and Homer we must place the cultivation of epic poetry as an art. 2 The pre-Homeric lays doubtless furnished the elements of such a poetry the alphabet, so to speak, of the art ; but they must have been refined and transmuted before they formed poems like the Iliad and Odyssey. A single example will illustrate this. In the scene on the walls of Troy, in the third book of the Iliad, after Helen has pointed out Agamemnon, Ulysses, and Ajax in answer to Priam s questions, she goes on unasked to name Idomeneus. Lachmann, whose mind is full of the ballad manner, fastens upon this as an irregularity. &quot; The unskil- &quot; As a poet Homer must be acknowledged to excel Shakespeare in the truth, the harmony, the sustained grandeur, the satisfying com pleteness of his images&quot; (Shelley, fissays, &c., vol. i. p. 51, ed. 1852). &quot; The old English balladist may stir Sir Philip Sidney s heart like a trumpet, and this is much ; hut Homer, but the few artists in the grand style, can do more they can refine the raw natural man, they can transmute him &quot; (On Translating Homer, p. 61).