Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/65

43 LITERATURE OP ANCIENT GREECE. 43 Smyrnaean river Meles*; secondly, that by assuming Smyrna as the central point of Homer's life and celebrity, the claims of all the other cities which rest on good authority (as of the Athenians, already men- tioned, of the CumaGans, attested by Ephorus, himself a Cumseanf, of the Colophonians, supported by Antimachus of Colophon J), may be ex- plained and reconciled in a simple and natural manner. With this view, the history of Smyrna is of great importance in connexion with Homer, but from the conflicting interests of different tribes and the partial accounts of native authorities, is doubtful and obscure : the followino- account is, at least, the result of careful investigation. There were two traditions and opinions with respect to the foundation or first occupa- tion of Smyrna by a Greek people : the one was the Io?iic ; according to which it was founded from Ephesus, or from an Ephesian village called Smyrna, which really existed under that name § ; this colony was also called an Athenian one, the lonians having settled Ephesus under the command of Androclus, the son of Codrus||. According to the other, the JEolian account, the iEolians of Cyme, eighteen years after their own city was founded, took possession of Smyrna 6 ^, and, in con- nexion with this event, accounts of the leaders of the colony are given, which agree well with other mythical statements**. As the Ionic settlement was fixed by the Alexandrine chronologists at the year 140 after the destruction of Troy, and the foundation of Cyme is placed at the year 150 after the same epoch (which is in perfect harmony with the succession of the /Eolic colonies), the two races met at about the same time in Smyrna, although, perhaps, it may be allowed that the lonians had somewhat the precedence in point of time, as the name of the town was derived from them. It is credible, although it is not distinctly stated, that for a long time the two populations occupied Smyrna jointly. The .-Eolians, however, appear to have predominated, Smyrna, according to Herodotus, being one of the twelve cities of the AJe/esigenes, can hardly be of late date, but must have descended from the early epic poets. f See Pseudo-Plutarch, ii. 2. Ephorus was likewise, evidently, the chief autho- rity followed by the author of the life of Homer, which goes by the name of Hero- dotus. J Pseudo-Plutarch, ii. 2. The connexion between the Smyrnaean and Colophonian origin of Homer is intimated in the epigram, Ibid. i. 4, which calls Homer the son of Meles, and at the same time makes Colophon his native country. 'Til 'MtX>i'ro;,"Ofi-/!^s, n Qnxa.; iv aidiov. § See Strabo's detailed explanation, xiv. p. G33 — A. was derived from Rhamnus in Attica. The rhetorician Aristides gives many fabu- lous accounts of the Athenian colony at Smyrna in several places. % Pseudo-Herodot. Vit. Horn. c. 2, 38. Bcendant of Eumelus of Phera? ; according to Parthenius, 5, the same family of Admetus the Phersean founded Magnesia on the Meander j and Cyme, the mother- city of Smyrna, had also received inhabitants from Magnesia. Pseudo-Herod, c. 2.
 * Mentioned in all the different lives of Homer. The name or epithet of Homer,
 * Strabo, xiv. p. 632 — 3. Doubtless, likewise the Smyrnaean worship of Nemesis
 * The ox.iTTr,; was, according to Pseudo-Herod, c. 2, a certain Theseus, the o.e-