Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/83

61 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 61 it is difficult and hazardous to raise upon this foundation any definite conclusions as to the person and age of the poet. With the exception of the anger of Poseidon, who always works unseen in the obscure distance; the gods appear in a milder form ; they act in unison, without dissension or contest, for the relief of mankind, not, as is so often the case in the Iliad, for their destruction. It is, however, true, that the subject afforded far less occasion for describing the violent and angry passions and vehe- ment combats of the gods. At the same time the gods all appear a step higher above the human race ; they are not represented as descending in a bodily form from their dwellings on Mount Olympus, and mixing in the tumult of the battle, but they go about in human forms, only dis- cernible by their superior wisdom and prudence, in the company of the adventurous Ulysses and the intelligent Telemachus. But the chief cause of this difference is to be sought in the nature of the story, and, we may add, in the fine tact of the poet, who knew how to preserve unity of subject and harmony of tone in his picture, and to exclude every thing of which the character did not agree. The attempt of many learned writers to discover a different religion and mythology for the Iliad and the Odyssey leads to the most arbitrary dissection of the two poems*; above all, it ought to have been made clear how the fable of the Iliad could have been treated by a professor of this supposed religion of the Odyssey, without introducing quarrels, battles, and vehement excitement among the gods; in which there would have been no diffi- culty, if the difference of character in the gods of the two poems were introduced by the poet, and did not grow out of the subject. On the other hand, the human race appears in the houses of Nestor, Menelaus, and especially of Alcinous, in a far more agreeable state, and one of far greater comfort t and luxury than in the Iliad. But where could the enjoyments, to which the Atridae, in their native palace, and the peace- able Phaiacians could securely abandon themselves, find a place in the rough camp? Granting, however, that a different taste and feeling is shown in the choice of the subject, and in the whole arrangement of the poem, yet there is not a greater difference than is often found in the inclinations of the same man in the prime of life and in old age ; and, to speak candidly, we know no other argument adduced by the Chorizordes^ both of ancient and modern times, for attributing the wonderful genius of Homer to two different individuals. It is certain that the Odyssey, in respect of its plan and the conception of its chief characters, of Ulysses has been forced to go this length, as he distinguishes Irois espices de mythologie in the Homeric poems, and determines from them the age of the different parts. f The Greek word for this is ««,«<?»' ; which, in the Iliad, is only used for the care of horses, but in the Odyssey signifies human conveniences and luxuries, among which hot baths may be particularly mentioned. See Od. iii. 4')0. Those Greek grammarians who attributed the Iliad and Odyssey to different authors were called ti %ao%<»ri}, " The Separaters."
 * Benjamin Constant, in particular, in his celebrated work, De la Religion, torn. iii.