Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/63

41 LJTEIUTUKE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 41 CHAPTER V. § 1. Opinions on the birthplace and country of Homer. — $ 2. Homer probably a Smyrnaean : early history of Smyrna. — § 3. Union ofy55olian and Ionian cha- racteristics in Homer. — § 4. Novelty of Homer's choice of subjects for his two poems. — § 5. Subject of the Iliad : the anger of Achilles. — § 6. Enlargement of the subject by introducing the events of the entire war. — § 7. and by dwelling on the exploits of the Grecian heroes. — § 8. Change of tone in the Iliad in its pro- gress. — § 9. The Catalogue of Ships. — § 10. The later books, and the conclusion of the Iliad. — § 11. Subject of the Odyssey: the return of Ulysses. — § 12. Inter- polations in the Odyssey. — § 13. The Odyssey posterior to the Iliad; but both poems composed by the same person. — § 14. Preservation of the Homeric poems by rhapsodists, and manner of their recitation. § 1. The only accounts which have been preserved respecting' the life of Homer are a few popular traditions, together with conjectures of the grammarians founded on inferences from different passages of his poems ; yet even these, if examined with patience and candour, furnish some mate- rials for arriving at probable results. With regard to the native country ot Homer, the traditions do not differ so much as might at first sight appear to be the case. Although seven cities contended for the honour of having: given birth to the great poet, the claims of many of them were only indirect. Thus the Athenians only laid claim to Homer, as having been the founders of Smyrna*, and the opinion of Aristarchus, the Alexandrine critic, which admitted their claim, was probably qualified with the same explanation +. Even Chios cannot establish its right to be considered as the original source of the Homeric poetry, although the claims of this Ionic island are supported by the high authority of the lyric poet Simonides J. It is true that in Chios lived the race of the Homerids§ ; who, from the analogy of other yevrj, are to be considered not as a family, but as a society of persons, who followed the same art, and therefore worshipped the same gods, and placed at their head a vol. ii. p. 708. T£i; pi Tv^ayy/itrtxyra.  iv Oi.wi; ' A^nvaluv, Ka) rot; irrtiyeiyiTo, Toy /Aiyav y GauXjj Hutritrrpcirov, o; rev' Ojj.no/iv rjgoicra., trTo/ioiotiv <ro •r^iv aiihopiyoy. npcirieo; ycco xuvos o xgittrio; vv ToXirirn;, uori^ ' A6-/ivcc7ot 2ftvgva.v aTuxiva/Aiv. t The opinion of Aristarchus is briefly stated by Pseudo-Plutarch Vita Homeri ii. 2. lis foundation may be seen by comparing, for example, the Schol. Venet. on Iliad xiii. 197, e cod. A, which, according to recent investigations, contain extracts from Aristarchus. { Simonides in Pseudo-Plutarch, ii. 2, and others. Compare Theocritus, vii. 17. § Concerning this yivos, see the statements in Harpocration in 'O^/'Sa;, and Bek- ker's Anecdota, p. 28s!, which in part are derived from the logographers. Another and different use of the word 'Oftngftcu occurs in Plato, Isocrates, and otlicr writers, according to which it means the admirers of Homer.
 * This is clearly expressed in the epigram on Pisistratus, in Bekker's Anecdota,