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 HOMER from the Homeric text the spurious verses, and accounting for the probable causes of the in- terpolations. Those who believe in the origi- nal unity of the poems are, however, not unwil- ling to admit that in the long period of the preservation of the Homeric text numerous in- terpolations may have been made. These in- terpolations, as they are admitted by the con- servative school, have been ranged in five groups in Rammer's work entitled DieEinheit der Odyssee nach Widerlegung der Ansichten von Lachmann-Steinthal, Kochly, Hennings und Kirchhoff dargestellt (1873). The first group comprises those which carry out the original plan, but nevertheless modify it by ad- ditions and introductions of new themes ; they are the largest of all, mostly found in the sec- ond part of the Odyssey, and in part have a high poetical value. The second group consists of those which extend the poem, but have lit- tle or no poetical value. The third are edito- rial interpolations which attempt to establish a stronger connection between a loose theme and the preceding portions by introducing prepara- tory verses; the fourth, interpolations which enlarge on certain scenes, and are probably due to the loquacity of rhapsodists, but are out of taste and poor in thought; the fifth, interpola- tions due to a thoughtless introduction of Ho- meric verses in a wrong connection. Grote supposes that the Iliad consisted originally of a comparatively small poem on the exploits of Achilles, which he calls the Achilleid, and that the other portions of the Iliad were not inclu- ded in the first plan of it. He sums up the controversy with a statement which probably all critics of the Homeric poems are ready to accept: " For, in truth, our means of knowl- edge are so limited, that no man can produce arguments sufficiently cogent to contend against opposing preconceptions. . . . We have noth- ing to teach us the history of these poems ex- cept the poems themselves. Not only do we possess no collateral information respecting them or their authors, but we have no one to describe to us the age in which they origina- ted ; our knowledge respecting contemporary Homeric society is collected exclusively from the Homeric compositions themselves. We are ignorant whether any other or what other poems preceded them, or divided with them the public favor ; nor have we anything better than conjecture to determine either the cir- cumstances under which they were brought before the hearers, or the conditions which a bard of that day was required t6 satisfy. "- Recent works on the grammar and vocabulary of the Homeric text are : Forstemann, Bemer- Tcungen uber den Gebrauch des Artikels bei Ho- mer (Salzwedel, 1861) ; Buttmann, Lexilogus, oder Beitrdge zur griechischen Worterlcltirung, hauptsdchlich fur Homer und Hesiod (2 vols., 6th ed., Berlin, 1864); Classen, Beobach- tungen fur den homerischen Sprachgebrauch (Frankfort, 1867) ; Seiler, Vollstdndiges Grie- chisch-Deutsches Worterbuch uber die Gedichte HOMESTEAD 781 des Homeros und der Homeriden (7th ed., Leip- sic, 1872). Critical works on questions con- nected with the origin and contents of the Ho- meric poems are : Nitzsch, Die Sagenpoesie der Griechen (Brunswick, 1852) ; Hoffmann, Ho- merische Untersuchungen (Clausthal, 1857-'9); Kochly, De Iliadis Carminibus Dissertationes (Zurich, 1857-'9), and De Odyssey Carmini- bus Dissertations (1862-'3) ; Kirchhoff, Die homerische Odyssee und ihre Entstehung, Text und Erlduterungen (Berlin, 1859); Bergk, Emendationes Homeric (Halle, 1859-61); Na- gelsbach, Homerische Theologie (2d ed., Nu- remberg, 1861), and AnmerTcungen zur Ilias (3d ed., 1864) ; Bonitz, Ueber den Ursprung homerischer Gedichte (2d ed., Vienna, 1864); Lachmann, Betrachtungen uber Homers Ilias, mit Zusdtzen von Moritz Haupt (Berlin, 1865) ; La Roche, Die homerische Textkritik im Alter- thum (Leipsic, 1866) ; Baletta, 'Orfpov Bfof /cat UoL^ara (London, 1867) ; O. Meyer, Quastiones Homeric (Bonn, 1868) ; Diintzer, Die Home- rischen Fragen (Paderborn, 1874). Several of these works have been translated into English. As the Homeric poems are considered not only a principal source of the Grecian mythology, but also of the earliest history of the Greeks, and as their influence upon the general culture of that people was immense, they are fully dis- cussed in the histories of Greece by Thirhvall, Grote, Curtius, and Cox ; and also in works on the history of Greek literature, as those by Mure, K. O. Mtiller, and Nicolai. As poetical productions and models of the epic art, they have been treated and liberally borrowed from by eminent writers of all civilized nations. Among the best editions of the Homeric poems are those of Heyne, Wolf, and Bothe. More re- cent editions have been published by Biirmlein (Leipsic, 1854), Sengebusch (Leipsic, 1855- 1 6), Bekker (Bonn, 1858), Charles Anthon (New York, 1858), Baumeister (Leipsic, 1860), Hoff- mann (Clausthal, 1864), Ameis (Leipsic, 1865- '8), F. A. Paley (London, 1866), Hermann (Leip- sic, 1866), Duntzer (Paderborn, 1866-'7), Faesi (Berlin, 1867), La Roche (Leipsic, 1867-'8), Hayman (London, 1867), G. Dindorf (Paris, 1868), and V.-H. Koch (Hanover, 1868-'9). Among translations of Homeric poems may be mentioned those in German by Voss (first published in 1780, in constant demand; last ed., 1873), Uschner (Berlin, .1862), Ehrenthal (Hildburghausen, 1865), Carlo witz (Dresden, 1868), and Wiedasch (Stuttgart, 1869); in French by Dugas-Montbel (Paris, 1853), Big- nan (1853), Pessonneaux (1861), and Feillet (1865); in English by Chapman, Pope, Cow- per, Munford (1846), Newman (1856), Wors- ley and Conington (1861-'5), Dean Alford (1861), Simcox (1865), Lord Derby (1865), Herschel (1866), Merivale (1869), and W. C. Bryant (1870-'71). HOMESTEAD, the place where one's dwelling By this is meant the home itself, with the outbuildings connected with it, and a portion of the land, as the garden, and it may be some