Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/212

 196 HISTORY OF GREECE. Now, the case made out against single-headed authorship of the Odyssey, appears to me very weak ; and those who dispute it, are guided more by their d priori rejection of ancient epical unity, than by any positive evidence which the poem itself affords. It is otherwise with regard to the Iliad. Whatever presumptions a disjointed structure, several apparent inconsistencies of parts, and large excrescence of actual matter beyond the opening promise, can sanction, may reasonably be indulged against the supposition that this poem all proceeds from a single author.' There is a difference of opinion on the subject among the best critics, which is, probably, not destined to be adjusted, since so much depends partly upon critical feeling, partly upon the general reasonings, in respect to ancient epical unity, with which a man sits down to the study. For the champions of unity, such as Mr, Payne Knight, are very ready to strike out numerous and often considerable passages as interpolations, thus meeting the objec- tions raised against unity of authorship, on the ground of special inconsistencies. Hermann and Boeckh, though not going the length of Lachmann in maintaining the original theory of Wolf, agree with the latter in recognizing diversity of authors in the poem, to an extent overpassing the limit of what can fairly be called interpolation. Payne Knight and Nitzsch are equally per- suaded of the contrary. Here, then, is a decided contradiction among critics, all of whom have minutely studied the poems since the Wolfian question was raised. And it is such critics alone who can be said to constitute authority ; for the cursory reader, who dwells upon the parts simply long enough to relish their poetical beauty, is struck only by that general sameness of coloring which Wolf himself admits to pervade the poem. 1 Having already intimated that, in my judgment, no theory of the structure of the poem is admissible which does not admit an original and preconcerted Achilleis, a stream which begins at the first book and ends with the death of Hector, in the twenty- second, although the higher parts of it now remain only in the condition of two detached lakes, the first book and the eighth, I reason upon the same basis with respect to the authorship. 1 Wolf, Prolegdm. p. cxxxviii. " Quippe in universum idem sonns csl omnibus libris ; idem habitus sententiarum, orationis, nnmerorum," etc.