Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/139

 EPIC CYCLE. 12J5 by antiquity nor by excellence of the compositions themselves, but by the supposed sequence of narrative/ so that the whole taken together constituted a readable aggregate of epical an- tiquity. Much obscurity 1 exists, and many different opinions have been expressed, respecting this Epic Cycle : I view it, not as an ex- clusive canon, but simply as an all-comprehensive classification, with a new edition founded thereupon. It would include all the epic poems in the library older than the Telegonia, and apt for continuous narrative ; it would exclude only two classes, first, the recent epic poets, such as Panyasis and Antimachus ; next, the genealogical and desultory poems, such as the Catalogue of Women, the Eoiai, and others, which could not be made to fit in to any chronological sequence of events. 2 Both the Iliad and tions put in order and corrected by skilful hands, and then carefully copied for the use of the library. Such copy constitutes the cyclic edition : they might perhaps cause or permit duplicates to be made, but the endoaii; or edition was complete without them. 1 Respecting the great confusion in which the Epic Cycle is involved, sec the striking declaration of Buttmann, Addenda ad Scholia in Odysseum, p 575 : compare the opinions of the different critics, as enumerated at the end of Welcker's treatise, Episch. Kyk. pp. 420-453. 2 Our information respecting the Epic Cycle is derived from Eutychius Proclus. a literary man of Sicca during the second century of the Christian era, and tutor of Marcus Antoninus (Jul. Capitolin. Vit. Marc. c. 2), not from Proclus, called Diadochus, the new- Platonic philosopher of the fifth century, as Heyne, Mr. Clinton, and others have imagined. The fragments from his work called Chrestomathia, give arguments of several of the lost cyclic poems connected with the Siege of Troy, communicating the import ant fact that the Iliad and Odyssey were included in the cycle, and giving the following description of the principle upon which it was arranged : Aiahafipuvfi 6e irepi TOV fa-yo/ievov ITUK.OV KVK^OV, df up^e^at fj.lv IK rjyj Oijdvov Kai Tf/f 6/j.o^.oyovfj.evrif /ufeuc KOI TreparovTai 6 Kt'/c/lof, IK diaQopuv ITOIIJTUV ffv/jtir/iTipovftEvof, fJ.%P l T W uirofluaeuc 'Qd Aeyei 6e (if TOV F.IUKOV KVK^OV TO. xoif]fj.aTa dtaau&Tai KOI &7ai rotf 7ro^.Ao?f oi>x OVTU dtii TTJV apeTjjv, wf dia TTJV aKO/,ov9iav T ui- iv aiiTij Trpayndruv (ap. Photium, cod. 239). This much-commented passage, while it clearly marks out the cardinal principle of the Epic Cycle (uKoXovdia Trpaypdruv), neither affirms nor de- nies anything respecting the excellence of the constituent poems. Proclus speaks of the taste common in his own time (anovdu&-at rol<; 7ro/U.oZf): there was not much relish in his time for these poems as such, hnt people