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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Homer and His Age + +Author: Andrew Lang + + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7972] +[This file was first posted on June 8, 2003] +Last Updated: April 9, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMER AND HIS AGE *** + + + + +Produced by David Moynihan, Lee Dawei, Miranda van de +Heijning, David Widger, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + HOMER AND HIS AGE + </h1> + <h2> + By Andrew Lang + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + To R. W. RAPER IN ALL GRATITUDE + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + {Etext Editor's note: Due to unclear typesetting of the original work, + which contains unidentifiable characters and blank spaces, it has not been + possible to capture this text completely. Where we have been unable to + recover the meaning of the text, this has been indicated by the annotation + {sic} or {blank space}. We hope that in the future a complete edition can + be found and these gaps can be filled.} + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + In <i>Homer and the Epic</i>, ten or twelve years ago, I examined the + literary objections to Homeric unity. These objections are chiefly based + on alleged discrepancies in the narrative, of which no one poet, it is + supposed, could have been guilty. The critics repose, I venture to think, + mainly on a fallacy. We may style it the fallacy of "the analytical + reader." The poet is expected to satisfy a minutely critical reader, a + personage whom he could not foresee, and whom he did not address. Nor are + "contradictory instances" examined—that is, as Blass has recently + reminded his countrymen, Homer is put to a test which Goethe could not + endure. No long fictitious narrative can satisfy "the analytical reader." + </p> + <p> + The fallacy is that of disregarding the Homeric poet's audience. He did + not sing for Aristotle or for Aristarchus, or for modern minute and + reflective inquirers, but for warriors and ladies. He certainly satisfied + them; but if he does not satisfy microscopic professors, he is described + as a syndicate of many minstrels, living in many ages. + </p> + <p> + In the present volume little is said in defence of the poet's consistency. + Several chapters on that point have been excised. The way of living which + Homer describes is examined, and an effort is made to prove that he + depicts the life of a single brief age of culture. The investigation is + compelled to a tedious minuteness, because the points of attack—the + alleged discrepancies in descriptions of the various details of existence—are + so minute as to be all but invisible. + </p> + <p> + The unity of the Epics is not so important a topic as the methods of + criticism. They ought to be sober, logical, and self-consistent. When + these qualities are absent, Homeric criticism may be described, in the + recent words of Blass, as "a swamp haunted by wandering fires, will o' the + wisps." + </p> + <p> + In our country many of the most eminent scholars are no believers in + separatist criticism. Justly admiring the industry and erudition of the + separatists, they are unmoved by their arguments, to which they do not + reply, being convinced in their own minds. But the number and perseverance + of the separatists make on "the general reader" the impression that + Homeric unity is chose <i>jugée</i>, that <i>scientia locuta est</i>, and + has condemned Homer. This is far from being the case: the question is + still open; "science" herself is subject to criticism; and new materials, + accruing yearly, forbid a tame acquiescence in hasty theories. + </p> + <p> + May I say a word to the lovers of poetry who, in reading Homer, feel no + more doubt than in reading Milton that, on the whole, they are studying a + work of one age, by one author? Do not let them be driven from their + natural impression by the statement that Science has decided against them. + The certainties of the exact sciences are one thing: the opinions of + Homeric commentators are other and very different things. Among all the + branches of knowledge which the Homeric critic should have at his command, + only philology, archaeology, and anthropology can be called "sciences"; + and they are not exact sciences: they are but skirmishing advances towards + the true solution of problems prehistoric and "proto-historic." + </p> + <p> + Our knowledge shifts from day to day; on every hand, in regard to almost + every topic discussed, we find conflict of opinions. There is no certain + scientific decision, but there is the possibility of working in the + scientific spirit, with breadth of comparison; consistency of logic; + economy of conjecture; abstinence from the piling of hypothesis on + hypothesis. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more hurtful to science than the dogmatic assumption that + the hypothesis most in fashion is scientific. + </p> + <p> + Twenty years ago, the philological theory of the Solar Myth was preached + as "scientific" in the books, primers, and lectures of popular science. + To-day its place knows it no more. The separatist theories of the Homeric + poems are not more secure than the Solar Myth, "like a wave shall they + pass and be passed." + </p> + <p> + When writing on "The Homeric House" (Chapter X.) I was unacquainted with + Mr. Percy Gardner's essay, "The Palaces of Homer" (<i>Journal of Hellenic + Studies</i>, vol. iii. pp. 264-282). Mr. Gardner says that Dasent's plan + of the Scandinavian Hall "offers in most respects not likeness, but a + striking contrast to the early Greek hall." Mr. Monro, who was not aware + of the parallel which I had drawn between the Homeric and Icelandic + houses, accepted it on evidence more recent than that of Sir George + Dasent. Cf. his <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. pp. 490-494. + </p> + <p> + Mr. R. W. Raper, of Trinity College, Oxford, has read the proof sheets of + this work with his habitual kindness, but is in no way responsible for the + arguments. Mr. Walter Leaf has also obliged me by mentioning some points + as to which I had not completely understood his position, and I have tried + as far as possible to represent his ideas correctly. I have also received + assistance from the wide and minute Homeric lore of Mr. A. Shewan, of St. + Andrews, and have been allowed to consult other scholars on various + points. + </p> + <p> + The first portion of the chapter on "Bronze and Iron" appeared in the + Revue <i>Archéologique</i> for April 1905, and the editor, Monsieur + Salomon Reinach, obliged me with a note on the bad iron swords of the + Celts as described by Polybius. + </p> + <p> + The design of men in three shields of different shapes, from a Dipylon + vase, is reproduced, with permission, from the British Museum <i>Guide to + the Antiquities of the Iron Age</i>; and the shielded chessmen from + Catalogue of Scottish Society of Antiquaries. Thanks for the two ships + with men under shield are offered to the Rev. Mr. Browne, S.J., author of + <i>Handbook of Homeric Studies</i> (Longmans). For the Mycenaean gold + corslet I thank Mr. John Murray (Schliemann's Mycenae and Tiryns), and for + all the other Mycenaean illustrations Messrs. Macmillan and Mr. Leaf, + publishers and author of Mr. Leaf's edition of the <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_TOC"> DETAILED CONTENTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES OF CHANGE IN THE "ODYSSEY" </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_CONC"> CONCLUSION </a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DETAILED CONTENTS: + </h2> + <p> + CHAPTER I: THE HOMERIC AGE <br /> CHAPTER II: HYPOTHESES AS TO THE GROWTH + OF THE EPICS <br /> CHAPTER III: HYPOTHESES OF EPIC COMPOSITION <br /> + CHAPTER IV: LOOSE FEUDALISM: THE OVER-LORD IN "ILIAD," BOOKS I. AND II. + <br /> CHAPTER V: AGAMEMNON IN THE LATER "ILIAD" <br /> CHAPTER VI: + ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE "ILIAD"—BURIAL AND CREMATION <br /> CHAPTER VII: + HOMERIC ARMOUR <br /> CHAPTER VIII: THE BREASTPLATE <br /> CHAPTER IX: + BRONZE AND IRON <br /> CHAPTER X: THE HOMERIC HOUSE <br /> CHAPTER XI: NOTES + OF CHANGE IN THE "ODYSSEY" <br /> CHAPTER XII: LINGUISTIC PROOFS OF VARIOUS + DATES <br /> CHAPTER XIII: THE "DOLONEIA"—"ILIAD," BOOK X. <br /> + CHAPTER XIV: THE INTERPOLATIONS OF NESTOR <br /> CHAPTER XV: THE + COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EARLY EPICS <br /> CHAPTER XVI: HOMER AND THE FRENCH + MEDIAEVAL EPICS <br /> CHAPTER XVII: CONCLUSION <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_LIST" id="link2H_LIST"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (not available in this file): + </h2> + <h3> + ALGONQUINS UNDER SHIELD + </h3> + <h3> + THE VASE OF ARISTONOTHOS + </h3> + <h3> + DAGGER WITH LION-HUNTERS + </h3> + <h3> + RINGS: SWORDS AND SHIELDS + </h3> + <h3> + FRAGMENTS OF WARRIOR VASE + </h3> + <h3> + FRAGMENT OF SIEGE VASE + </h3> + <h3> + ALGONQUIN CORSLET + </h3> + <h3> + GOLD CORSLET + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <h3> + THE HOMERIC AGE + </h3> + <p> + The aim of this book is to prove that the Homeric Epics, as wholes, and + apart from passages gravely suspected in antiquity, present a perfectly + harmonious picture of the entire life and civilisation of one single age. + The faint variations in the design are not greater than such as mark every + moment of culture, for in all there is some movement; in all, cases are + modified by circumstances. If our contention be true, it will follow that + the poems themselves, as wholes, are the product of a single age, not a + mosaic of the work of several changeful centuries. + </p> + <p> + This must be the case—if the life drawn is harmonious, the picture + must be the work of a single epoch—for it is not in the nature of + early uncritical times that later poets should adhere, or even try to + adhere, to the minute details of law, custom, opinion, dress, weapons, + houses, and so on, as presented in earlier lays or sagas on the same set + of subjects. Even less are poets in uncritical times inclined to + "archaise," either by attempting to draw fancy pictures of the manners of + the past, or by making researches in graves, or among old votive offerings + in temples, for the purpose of "preserving local colour." The idea of such + archaising is peculiar to modern times. To take an instance much to the + point, Virgil was a learned poet, famous for his antiquarian erudition, + and professedly imitating and borrowing from Homer. Now, had Virgil worked + as a man of to-day would work on a poem of Trojan times, he would have + represented his heroes as using weapons of bronze. {Footnote: Looking back + at my own poem, <i>Helen of Troy</i> (1883), I find that when the metal of + a weapon is mentioned the metal is bronze.} No such idea of archaising + occurred to the learned Virgil. It is "the iron" that pierces the head of + Remulus (<i>Aeneid</i>, IX. 633); it is "the iron" that waxes warm in the + breast of Antiphates (IX. 701). Virgil's men, again, do not wear the great + Homeric shield, suspended by a baldric: AEneas holds up his buckler (<i>clipeus</i>), + borne "on his left arm" (X. 26 i). Homer, familiar with no buckler worn on + the left arm, has no such description. When the hostile ranks are to be + broken, in the <i>Aeneid</i> it is "with the iron" (X. 372), and so + throughout. + </p> + <p> + The most erudite ancient poet, in a critical age of iron, does not + archaise in our modern fashion. He does not follow his model, Homer, in + his descriptions of shields, swords, and spears. But, according to most + Homeric critics, the later continuators of the Greek Epics, about 800-540 + B.C., are men living in an age of iron weapons, and of round bucklers worn + on the left arm. Yet, unlike Virgil, they always give their heroes arms of + bronze, and, unlike Virgil (as we shall see), they do not introduce the + buckler worn on the left arm. They adhere conscientiously to the use of + the vast Mycenaean shield, in their time obsolete. Yet, by the theory, in + many other respects they innovate at will, introducing corslets and + greaves, said to be unknown to the beginners of the Greek Epics, just as + Virgil innovates in bucklers and iron weapons. All this theory seems + inconsistent, and no ancient poet, not even Virgil, is an archaiser of the + modern sort. + </p> + <p> + All attempts to prove that the Homeric poems are the work of several + centuries appear to rest on a double hypothesis: first, that the later + contributors to the <i>ILIAD</i> kept a steady eye on the traditions of + the remote Achaean age of bronze; next, that they innovated as much as + they pleased. + </p> + <p> + Poets of an uncritical age do not archaise. This rule is overlooked by the + critics who represent the Homeric poems as a complex of the work of many + singers in many ages. For example, Professor Percy Gardner, in his very + interesting <i>New chapters in Greek History</i> (1892), carries neglect + of the rule so far as to suppose that the late Homeric poets, being aware + that the ancient heroes could not ride, or write, or eat boiled meat, + consciously and purposefully represented them as doing none of these + things. This they did "on the same principle on which a writer of pastoral + idylls in our own day would avoid the mention of the telegraph or + telephone." {Footnote: <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 142.} "A writer of our own + day,"—there is the pervading fallacy! It is only writers of the last + century who practise this archaeological refinement. The authors of <i>Beowulf</i> + and the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>, of the Chansons de <i>Geste</i> and of the + Arthurian romances, always describe their antique heroes and the details + of their life in conformity with the customs, costume, and armour of their + own much later ages. + </p> + <p> + But Mr. Leaf, to take another instance, remarks as to the lack of the + metal lead in the Epics, that it is mentioned in similes only, as though + the poet were aware the metal was unknown in the heroic age. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + Note on, xi. 237.} Here the poet is assumed to be a careful but + ill-informed archaeologist, who wishes to give an accurate representation + of the past. Lead, in fact, was perfectly familiar to the Mycenaean prime. + {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, p. 73.} The critical usage of supposing + that the ancients were like the most recent moderns—in their + archaeological preoccupations—is a survival of the uncritical habit + which invariably beset old poets and artists. Ancient poets, of the + uncritical ages, never worked "on the same principle as a writer in our + day," as regards archaeological precision; at least we are acquainted with + no example of such accuracy. + </p> + <p> + Let us take another instance of the critical fallacy. The age of the + Achaean warriors, who dwelt in the glorious halls of Mycenae, was + followed, at an interval, by the age represented in the relics found in + the older tombs outside the Dipylon gate of Athens, an age beginning, + probably, about 900-850 B.C. The culture of this "Dipylon age," a time of + geometrical ornaments on vases, and of human figures drawn in geometrical + forms, lines, and triangles, was quite unlike that of the Achaean age in + many ways, for example, in mode of burial and in the use of iron for + weapons. Mr. H. R. Hall, in his learned book, <i>The Oldest Civilisation + of Greece</i> (1901), supposes the culture described in the Homeric poems + to be contemporary in Asia with that of this Dipylon period in Greece. + {Footnote: Op. cit., pp. 49, 222.} He says, "The Homeric culture is + evidently the culture of the poet's own days; there is no attempt to + archaise here...." They do not archaise as to the details of life, but + "the Homeric poets consciously and consistently archaised, in regard to + the political conditions of continental Greece," in the Achaean times. + They give "in all probability a pretty accurate description" of the loose + feudalism of Mycenaean Greece. {Footnote: Op. cit., pp. 223, 225.} + </p> + <p> + We shall later show that this Homeric picture of a past political and + social condition of Greece is of vivid and delicate accuracy, that it is + drawn from the life, not constructed out of historical materials. Mr. Hall + explains the fact by "the conscious and consistent" archaeological + precision of the Asiatic poets of the ninth century. Now to any one who + knows early national poetry, early uncritical art of any kind, this theory + seems not easily tenable. The difficulty of the theory is increased, if we + suppose that the Achaeans were the recent conquerors of the Mycenaeans. + Whether we regard the Achaeans as "Celts," with Mr. Ridgeway, victors over + an Aryan people, the Pelasgic Mycenaeans; or whether, with Mr. Hall, we + think that the Achaeans were the Aryan conquerors of a non-Aryan people, + the makers of the Mycenaean civilisation; in the stress of a conquest, + followed at no long interval by an expulsion at the hands of Dorian + invaders, there would be little thought of archaising among Achaean poets. + {Footnote: Mr. Hall informs me that he no longer holds the opinion that + the poets archaised.} + </p> + <p> + A distinction has been made, it is true, between the poet and other + artists in this respect. Monsieur Perrot says, "The vase-painter + reproduces what he sees; while the epic poets endeavoured to represent a + distant past. If Homer gives swords of bronze to his heroes of times gone + by, it is because he knows that such were the weapons of these heroes of + long ago. In arming them with bronze he makes use, in his way, of what we + call 'local colour....' Thus the Homeric poet is a more conscientious + historian than Virgil!" {Footnote: La <i>Grète de l'Epopée</i>, Perrot et + Chipiez, p. 230.} + </p> + <p> + Now we contend that old uncritical poets no more sought for antique "local + colour" than any other artists did. M. Perrot himself says with truth, + "the <i>CHANSON DE ROLAND</i>, and all the <i>Gestes</i> of the same cycle + explain for us the Iliad and the Odyssey." {Footnote: op. cit., p. 5.} But + the poet of the <i>CHANSON DE ROLAND</i> accoutres his heroes of old time + in the costume and armour of his own age, and the later poets of the same + cycle introduce the innovations of their time; they do not hunt for "local + colour" in the <i>CHANSON DE ROLAND</i>. The very words "local colour" are + a modern phrase for an idea that never occurred to the artists of ancient + uncritical ages. The Homeric poets, like the painters of the Dipylon + period, describe the details of life as they see them with their own eyes. + Such poets and artists never have the fear of "anachronisms" before them. + This, indeed, is plain to the critics themselves, for they, detect + anachronisms as to land tenure, burial, the construction of houses, + marriage customs, weapons, and armour in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>. + These supposed anachronisms we examine later: if they really exist they + show that the poets were indifferent to local colour and archaeological + precision, or were incapable of attaining to archaeological accuracy. In + fact, such artistic revival of the past in its habit as it lived is a + purely modern ideal. + </p> + <p> + We are to show, then, that the Epics, being, as wholes, free from such + inevitable modifications in the picture of changing details of life as + uncritical authors always introduce, are the work of the one age which + they represent. This is the reverse of what has long been, and still is, + the current theory of Homeric criticism, according to which the Homeric + poems are, and bear manifest marks of being, a mosaic of the poetry of + several ages of change. + </p> + <p> + Till Wolf published his <i>Prolegomena</i> to {blank space} (1795) there + was little opposition to the old belief that the <i>ILIAD</i> and Odyssey + were, allowing for interpolations, the work of one, or at most of two, + poets. After the appearance of Wolfs celebrated book, Homeric critics have + maintained, generally speaking, that the <i>ILIAD</i> is either a + collection of short lays disposed in sequence in a late age, or that it + contains an ancient original "kernel" round which "expansions," made + throughout some centuries of changeful life, have accrued, and have been + at last arranged by a literary redactor or editor. + </p> + <p> + The latter theory is now dominant. It is maintained that the <i>Iliad</i> + is a work of at least four centuries. Some of the objections to this + theory were obvious to Wolf himself—more obvious to him than to his + followers. He was aware, and some of them are not, of the distinction + between reading the <i>ILIAD</i> as all poetic literature is naturally + read, and by all authors is meant to be read, for human pleasure, and + studying it in the spirit of "the analytical reader." As often as he read + for pleasure, he says, disregarding the purely fanciful "historical + conditions" which he invented for Homer; as often as he yielded himself to + that running stream of action and narration; as often as he considered the + <i>harmony</i> of <i>colour</i> and of characters in the Epic, no man + could be more angry with his own destructive criticism than himself. Wolf + ceased to be a Wolfian whenever he placed himself at the point of view of + the reader or the listener, to whom alone every poet makes his appeal. + </p> + <p> + But he deemed it his duty to place himself at another point of view, that + of the scientific literary historian, the historian of a period concerning + whose history he could know nothing. "How could the thing be possible?" he + asked himself. "How could a long poem like the <i>Iliad</i> come into + existence in the historical circumstances?" {Footnote, exact place in + paragraph unknown: Preface to Homer, p, xxii., 1794.}. Wolf was unaware + that he did not know what the historical circumstances were. We know how + little we know, but we do know more than Wolf. He invented the historical + circumstances of the supposed poet. They were, he said, like those of a + man who should build a large ship in an inland place, with no sea to + launch it upon. The <i>Iliad</i> was the large ship; the sea was the + public. Homer could have no <i>readers</i>, Wolf said, in an age that, + like the old hermit of Prague, "never saw pen and ink," had no knowledge + of letters; or, if letters were dimly known, had never applied them to + literature. In such circumstances no man could have a motive for composing + a long poem. {Footnote: <i>Prolegomena to the Iliad</i>, p. xxvi.} + </p> + <p> + Yet if the original poet, "Homer," could make "the greater part of the + songs," as Wolf admitted, what physical impossibility stood in the way of + his making the whole? Meanwhile, the historical circumstances, as + conceived of by Wolf, were imaginary. He did not take the circumstances of + the poet as described in the Odyssey. Here a king or prince has a + minstrel, honoured as were the minstrels described in the ancient Irish + books of law. His duty is to entertain the prince and his family and + guests by singing epic chants after supper, and there is no reason why his + poetic narratives should be brief, but rather he has an opportunity that + never occurred again till the literary age of Greece for producing a long + poem, continued from night to night. In the later age, in the Asiatic + colonies and in Greece, the rhapsodists, competing for prizes at feasts, + or reciting to a civic crowd, were limited in time and gave but snatches + of poetry. It is in this later civic age that a poet without readers would + have little motive for building Wolfs great ship of song, and scant chance + of launching it to any profitable purpose. To this point we return; but + when once critics, following Wolf, had convinced themselves that a long + early poem was impossible, they soon found abundant evidence that it had + never existed. + </p> + <p> + They have discovered discrepancies of which, they say, no one sane poet + could have been guilty. They have also discovered that the poems had not, + as Wolf declared, "one 'harmony of colour" (<i>unus color</i>). Each age, + they say, during which the poems were continued, lent its own colour. The + poets, by their theory, now preserved the genuine tradition of things old; + cremation, cairn and urn burial; the use of the chariot in war; the use of + bronze for weapons; a peculiar stage of customary law; a peculiar form of + semi-feudal society; a peculiar kind of house. But again, by a change in + the theory, the poets introduced later novelties; later forms of defensive + armour; later modes of burial; later religious and speculative beliefs; a + later style of house; an advanced stage of law; modernisms in grammar and + language. + </p> + <p> + The usual position of critics in this matter is stated by Helbig; and we + are to contend that the theory is contradicted by all experience of + ancient literatures, and is in itself the reverse of consistent. "The <i>artists</i> + of antiquity," says Helbig, with perfect truth, "had no idea of + archaeological studies.... They represented legendary scenes in conformity + with the spirit of their own age, and reproduced the arms and implements + and costume that they saw around them." {Footnote: <i>L'Épopée Homerique</i>, + p. 5; <i>Homerische Epos</i>, p. 4.} + </p> + <p> + Now a poet is an <i>artist</i>, like another, and he, too—no less + than the vase painter or engraver of gems—in dealing with legends of + times past, represents (in an uncritical age) the arms, utensils, costume, + and the religious, geographical, legal, social, and political ideas of his + own period. We shall later prove that this is true by examples from the + early mediaeval epic poetry of Europe. + </p> + <p> + It follows that if the <i>Iliad</i> is absolutely consistent and + harmonious in its picture of life, and of all the accessories of life, the + <i>Iliad</i> is the work of a single age, of a single stage of culture, + the poet describing his own environment. But Helbig, on the other hand, + citing Wilamowitz Moellendorff, declares that the <i>Iliad</i>—the + work of four centuries, he says—maintains its unity of colour by + virtue of an uninterrupted poetical tradition. {Footnote: <i>Homerische + Untersuchungen</i>, p. 292; <i>Homerische Epos</i>, p. I.} If so, the + poets must have archaeologised, must have kept asking themselves, "Is this + or that detail true to the past?" which artists in uncritical ages never + do, as we have been told by Helbig. They must have carefully pondered the + surviving old Achaean lays, which "were born when the heroes could not + read, or boil flesh, or back a steed." By carefully observing the earliest + lays the late poets, in times of changed manners, "could avoid + anachronisms by the aid of tradition, which gave them a very exact idea of + the epic heroes." Such is the opinion of Wilamowitz Moellendorff. He + appears to regard the tradition as keeping the later poets in the old way + automatically, not consciously, but this, we also learn from Helbig, did + not occur. The poets often wandered from the way. {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Homerische + Epos,</i> pp. 2, 3.} Thus old Mycenaean lays, if any existed, would + describe the old Mycenaean mode of burial. The Homeric poet describes + something radically different. We vainly ask for proof that in any early + national literature known to us poets have been true to the colour and + manners of the remote times in which their heroes moved, and of which old + minstrels sang. The thing is without example: of this proofs shall be + offered in abundance. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the whole theory which regards the <i>Iliad</i> as the work of + four or five centuries rests on the postulate that poets throughout these + centuries did what such poets never do, kept true to the details of a life + remote from their own, and also did not. + </p> + <p> + For Helbig does not, after all, cleave to his opinion. On the other hand, + he says that the later poets of the <i>Iliad</i> did not cling to + tradition. "They allowed themselves to be influenced by their own + environment: <i>this influence betrays ITSELF IN THE descriptions of + DETAILS</i>.... The rhapsodists," (reciters, supposed to have altered the + poems at will), "did not fail to interpolate relatively recent elements + into the oldest parts of the Epic." {Footnote: <i>Homerische Epos,</i> p. + 2.} + </p> + <p> + At this point comes in a complex inconsistency. The Tenth Book of the <i>Iliad</i>, + thinks Helbig—in common with almost all critics—"is one of the + most recent lays of the <i>Iliad</i>." But in this recent lay (say of the + eighth or seventh century) the poet describes the Thracians as on a level + of civilisation with the Achaeans, and, indeed, as even more luxurious, + wealthy, and refined in the matter of good horses, glorious armour, and + splendid chariots. But, by the time of the Persian wars, says Helbig, the + Thracians were regarded by the Greeks as rude barbarians, and their + military equipment was totally un-Greek. They did not wear helmets, but + caps of fox-skin. They had no body armour; their shields were small round + bucklers; their weapons were bows and daggers. These customs could not, at + the time of the Persian wars, be recent innovations in Thrace. {Footnote: + Herodotus, vii. 75.} + </p> + <p> + Had the poet of <i>ILIAD</i>, Book X., known the Thracians in <i>this</i> + condition, says Helbig, as he was fond of details of costume and arms, he + would have certainly described their fox-skin caps, bows, bucklers, and so + forth. He would not here have followed the Epic tradition, which + represented the Thracians as makers of great swords and as splendidly + armed charioteers. His audience had met the Thracians in peace and war, + and would contradict the poet's description of them as heavily armed + charioteers. It follows, therefore, that the latest poets, such as the + author of Book X., did not introduce recent details, those of their own + time, but we have just previously been told that to do so was their custom + in the description of details. + </p> + <p> + Now Studniczka {Footnote: <i>Homerische Epos, pp. 7-11, cf.</i> Note I; <i>Zeitschrift + fur die Oestern Gymnasien</i>, 1886, p. 195.} explains the picture of the + Thracians in <i>Iliad</i>, Book X., on Helbig's <i>other</i> principle, + namely, that the very late author of the Tenth Book merely conforms to the + conventional tradition of the Epic, adheres to the model set in ancient + Achaean, or rather ancient Ionian times, and scrupulously preserved by the + latest poets—that is, when the latest poets do not bring in the new + details of their own age. But Helbig will not accept his own theory in + this case, whence does it follow that the author of the Tenth Book must, + in his opinion, have lived in Achaean times, and described the Thracians + as they then were, charioteers, heavily armed, not light-clad archers? If + this is so, we ask how Helbig can aver that the Tenth Book is one of the + latest parts of the <i>Iliad?</i> + </p> + <p> + In studying the critics who hold that the <i>Iliad</i> is the growth of + four centuries—say from the eleventh to the seventh century B.C.—no + consistency is to be discovered; the earth is never solid beneath our + feet. We find now that the poets are true to tradition in the details of + ancient life—now that the poets introduce whatever modern details + they please. The late poets have now a very exact knowledge of the past; + now, the late poets know nothing about the past, or, again, some of the + poets are fond of actual and very minute archaeological research! The + theory shifts its position as may suit the point to be made at the moment + by the critic. All is arbitrary, and it is certain that logic demands a + very different method of inquiry. If Helbig and other critics of his way + of thinking mean that in the <i>Iliad</i> (1) there are parts of genuine + antiquity; other parts (2) by poets who, with stern accuracy, copied the + old modes; other parts (3) by poets who tried to copy but failed; with + passages (4) by poets who deliberately innovated; and passages (5) by + poets who drew fanciful pictures of the past "from their inner + consciousness," while, finally (6), some poets made minute antiquarian + researches; and if the argument be that the critics can detect these six + elements, then we are asked to repose unlimited confidence in critical + powers of discrimination. The critical standard becomes arbitrary and + subjective. + </p> + <p> + It is our effort, then, in the following pages to show that the <i>unus</i> + color of Wolf does pervade the Epics, that recent details are not often, + if ever, interpolated, that the poems harmoniously represent one age, and + that a brief age, of culture; that this effect cannot, in a thoroughly + uncritical period, have been deliberately aimed at and produced by + archaeological learning, or by sedulous copying of poetic tradition, or by + the scientific labours of an editor of the sixth century B.C. We shall + endeavour to prove, what we have already indicated, that the hypotheses of + expansion are not self-consistent, or in accordance with what is known of + the evolution of early national poetry. The strongest part, perhaps, of + our argument is to rest on our interpretation of archaeological evidence, + though we shall not neglect the more disputable or less convincing + contentions of literary criticism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <h3> + HYPOTHESES AS TO THE GROWTH OF THE EPICS + </h3> + <p> + A theorist who believes that the Homeric poems are the growth of four + changeful centuries, must present a definite working hypothesis as to how + they escaped from certain influences of the late age in which much of them + is said to have been composed. We must first ask to what manner of + audiences did the poets sing, in the alleged four centuries of the + evolution of the Epics. Mr. Leaf, as a champion of the theory of ages of + "expansion," answers that "the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> are + essentially, and above all, Court poems. They were composed to be sung in + the palaces of a ruling aristocracy ... the poems are aristocratic and + courtly, not popular." {Footnote: Companion to the <i>Iliad</i>, pp. 2,8. + 1892.} They are not <i>Volkspoesie</i>; they are not ballads. "It is now + generally recognised that this conception is radically false." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +These opinions, in which we heartily agree—there never was such a +thing as a "popular" Epic—were published fourteen years ago. Mr. +Leaf, however, would not express them with regard to "our" <i>Iliad</i> and +Odyssey, because, in his view, a considerable part of the <i>Iliad</i>, as +it stands, was made, not by Court bards in the Achaean courts of Europe, +not for an audience of noble warriors and dames, but by wandering +minstrels in the later Ionian colonies of Asia. They did not chant for a +military aristocracy, but for the enjoyment of town and country folk at +popular festivals. {Footnote: Iliad, vol. i. p. xvi. 1900.} The poems +were <i>begun</i>, indeed, he thinks, for "a wealthy aristocracy living +on the product of their lands," in European Greece; were begun by +contemporary court minstrels, but were continued, vastly expanded, and +altered to taste by wandering singers and reciting rhapsodists, who +amused the holidays of a commercial, expansive, and bustling Ionian +democracy. {Footnote: <i>Companion to the Iliad</i>, p. II.} + + We must suppose that, on this theory, the later poets pleased a +commercial democracy by keeping up the tone that had delighted an old +land-owning military aristocracy. It is not difficult, however, to admit +this as possible, for the poems continued to be admired in all ages of +Greece and under every form of society. The real question is, would the +modern poets be the men to keep up a tone some four or five centuries +old, and to be true, if they were true, to the details of the heroic +age? "It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some part of the +most primitive <i>Iliad</i> may have been actually sung by the court minstrel +in the palace whose ruins can still be seen in Mycenae." {Footnote: +Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. xv.} But, by the expansionist theory, even +the oldest parts of our <i>Iliad</i> are now full of what we may call quite +recent Ionian additions, full of late retouches, and full, so to speak, +of omissions of old parts. +</pre> + <p> + Through four or five centuries, by the hypothesis, every singer who could + find an audience was treating as much as he knew of a vast body of ancient + lays exactly as he pleased, adding here, lopping there, altering + everywhere. Moreover, these were centuries full of change. The ancient + Achaean palaces were becoming the ruins which we still behold. The old art + had faded, and then fallen under the disaster of the Dorian conquest. A + new art, or a recrudescence of earlier art, very crude and barbaric, had + succeeded, and was beginning to acquire form and vitality. The very scene + of life was altered: the new singers and listeners dwelt on the Eastern + side of the Aegean. Knights no longer, as in Europe, fought from chariots: + war was conducted by infantry, for the most part, with mounted + auxiliaries. With the disappearance of the war chariot the huge Mycenaean + shields had vanished or were very rarely used. The early vase painters do + not, to my knowledge, represent heroes as fighting from war chariots. They + had lost touch with that method. Fighting men now carried relatively small + round bucklers, and iron was the metal chiefly employed for swords, + spears, and arrow points. Would the new poets, in deference to tradition, + abstain from mentioning cavalry, or small bucklers, or iron swords and + spears? or would they avoid puzzling their hearers by speaking of obsolete + and unfamiliar forms of tactics and of military equipment? Would they + therefore sing of things familiar—of iron weapons, small round + shields, hoplites, and cavalry? We shall see that confused and + self-contradictory answers are given by criticism to all these questions + by scholars who hold that the Epics are not the product of one, but of + many ages. + </p> + <p> + There were other changes between the ages of the original minstrel and of + the late successors who are said to have busied themselves in adding to, + mutilating, and altering his old poem. Kings and courts had passed away; + old Ionian myths and religious usages, unknown to the Homeric poets, had + come out into the light; commerce and pleasure and early philosophies were + the chief concerns of life. Yet the poems continued to be aristocratic in + manners; and, in religion and ritual, to be pure from recrudescences of + savage poetry and superstition, though the Ionians "did not drop the more + primitive phases of belief which had clung to them; these rose to the + surface with the rest of the marvellous Ionic genius, and many an ancient + survival was enshrined in the literature or mythology of Athens which had + long passed out of all remembrance at Mycenas." {Footnote: <i>Companion to + the Iliad</i>, p. 7.} + </p> + <p> + Amazing to say, none of these "more primitive phases of belief," none of + the recrudescent savage magic, was intruded by the late Ionian poets into + the Iliad which they continued, by the theory. Such phases of belief were, + indeed, by their time popular, and frequently appeared in the Cyclic poems + on the Trojan war; continuations of the <i>ILIAD</i>, which were composed + by Ionian authors at the same time as much of the <i>ILIAD</i> itself (by + the theory) was composed. The authors of these Cyclic poems—authors + contemporary with the makers of much of the <i>ILIAD</i>—<i>were</i> + eminently "un-Homeric" in many respects. {Footnote: <i>Cf</i>. Monro, <i>The + Cyclic Poets; Odyssey</i>, vol. ii, pp. 342-384.} They had ideas very + different from those of the authors of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>ODYSSEY</i>, + as these ideas have reached us. + </p> + <p> + Helbig states this curious fact, that the Homeric poems are free from many + recent or recrudescent ideas common in other Epics composed during the + later centuries of the supposed four hundred years of Epic growth. + {Footnote: <i>Homerische Epos</i>, p. 3.} Thus a signet ring was mentioned + in the <i>Ilias Puma</i>, and there are no rings in <i>Iliad</i> or <i>Odyssey</i>. + But Helbig does not perceive the insuperable difficulty which here + encounters his hypothesis. He remarks: "In certain poems which were + grouping themselves around the <i>Iliad and </i>Odyssey, we meet data + absolutely opposed to the conventional style of the Epic." He gives three + or four examples of perfectly un-Homeric ideas occurring in Epics of the + eighth to seventh centuries, B.C., and a large supply of such cases can be + adduced. But Helbig does not ask how it happened that, if poets of these + centuries had lost touch with the Epic tradition, and had wandered into a + new region of thought, as they had, examples of their notions do not occur + in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>. By his theory these poems were + being added to and altered, even in their oldest portions, at the very + period when strange fresh, or old and newly revived fancies were + flourishing. If so, how were the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, unlike + the Cyclic poems, kept uncontaminated, as they confessedly were, by the + new romantic ideas? + </p> + <p> + Here is the real difficulty. Cyclic poets of the eighth and seventh + centuries had certainly lost touch with the Epic tradition; their poems + make that an admitted fact. Yet poets of the eighth to seventh centuries + were, by the theory, busily adding to and altering the ancient lays of the + <i>Iliad</i>. How did <i>they</i> abstain from the new or revived ideas, + and from the new <i>genre</i> of romance? Are we to believe that one set + of late Ionian poets—they who added to and altered the Iliad—were + true to tradition, while another contemporary set of Ionian poets, the + Cyclics—authors of new Epics on Homeric themes—are known to + have quite lost touch with the Homeric taste, religion, and ritual? The + reply will perhaps be a Cyclic poet said, "Here I am going to compose + quite a new poem about the old heroes. I shall make them do and think and + believe as I please, without reference to the evidence of the old poems." + But, it will have to be added, the rhapsodists of 800-540 B.C., and the + general editor of the latter date, thought, <i>we</i> are continuing an + old set of lays, and we must be very careful in adhering to manners, + customs, and beliefs as described by our predecessors. For instance, the + old heroes had only bronze, no iron,—and then the rhapsodists + forgot, and made iron a common commodity in the <i>Iliad</i>. Again, the + rhapsodists knew that the ancient heroes had no corslets—the old + lays, we learn, never spoke of corslets—but they made them wear + corslets of much splendour. {Footnote: The reader must remember that the + view of the late poets as careful adherents of tradition in usages and + ideas only obtains <i>sometimes</i>; at others the critics declare that + archaeological precision is <i>not</i> preserved, and that the Ionic + continuators introduced, for example, the military gear of their own + period into a poem which represents much older weapons and equipments.} + This theory does not help us. In an uncritical age poets could not discern + that their genre of romance and religion was alien from that of Homer. + </p> + <p> + To return to the puzzle about the careful and precise continuators of the + <i>Iliad</i>, as contrasted with their heedless contemporaries, the + authors of the Cyclic poems. How "non-Homeric" the authors of these Cyclic + poems were, before and after 660 B.C., we illustrate from examples of + their left hand backslidings and right hand fallings off. They introduced + (1) The Apotheosis of the Dioscuri, who in Homer (<i>Iliad</i>, III. 243) + are merely dead men (<i>Cypria</i>). (2) Story of Iphigenia <i>Cypria</i>. + (3) Story of Palamedes, who is killed when angling by Odysseus and Diomede + (Cypria). + </p> + <p> + Homer's heroes never fish, except in stress of dire necessity, in the + Odyssey, and Homer's own Diomede and Odysseus would never stoop to + assassinate a companion when engaged in the contemplative man's + recreation. We here see the heroes in late degraded form as on the Attic + stage. (4) The Cyclics introduce Helen as daughter of Nemesis, and + describe the flight of Nemesis from Zeus in various animal forms, a + Märchen of a sort not popular with Homer; an Ionic Märchen, Mr. Leaf would + say. There is nothing like this in the Iliad and Odyssey. (5) They call + the son of Achilles, not Neoptolemus, as Homer does, but Pyrrhus. (6) They + represent the Achaean army as obtaining supplies through three magically + gifted maidens, who produce corn, wine, and oil at will, as in fairy + tales. Another Ionic non-Achaean Märchen! They bring in ghosts of heroes + dead and buried. Such ghosts, in Homer's opinion, were impossible if the + dead had been cremated. All these non-Homeric absurdities, save the last, + are from the Cypria, dated by Sir Richard Jebb about 776 B.C., long before + the Odyssey was put into shape, namely, after 660 B. C. in his opinion. + Yet the alleged late compiler of the Odyssey, in the seventh century, + never wanders thus from the Homeric standard in taste. What a skilled + archaeologist he must have been! The author of the Cypria knew the Iliad, + {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. p. 354.} but his knowledge could not + keep him true to tradition. (7) In the AEthiopis (about 776 B.C.) men are + made immortal after death, and are worshipped as heroes, an idea foreign + to Iliad and Odyssey. (8) There is a savage ritual of purification from + blood shed by a homicide (compare Eumenides, line 273). This is unheard of + in Iliad and Odyssey, though familiar to Aeschylus. (9) Achilles, after + death, is carried to the isle of Leuke. (10) The fate of Ilium, in the + Cyclic Little <i>Iliad</i>, hangs on the Palladium, of which nothing is + known in <i>Iliad</i> or <i>Odyssey</i>. The <i>Little Iliad</i> is dated + about 700 B.C. (11) The <i>Nostoi</i> mentions Molossians, not named by + Homer (which is a trifle); it also mentions the Asiatic city of Colophon, + an Ionian colony, which is not a trivial self-betrayal on the part of the + poet. He is dated about 750 B.C. + </p> + <p> + Thus, more than a century before the <i>Odyssey</i> received its final + form, after 660 B.C., from the hands of one man (according to the theory), + the other Ionian poets who attempted Epic were betraying themselves as + non-Homeric on every hand. {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. pp. + 347-383.} + </p> + <p> + Our examples are but a few derived from the brief notices of the Cyclic + poets' works, as mentioned in ancient literature; these poets probably, in + fact, betrayed themselves constantly. But their contemporaries, the makers + of late additions to the <i>Odyssey</i>, and the later mosaic worker who + put it together, never betrayed themselves to anything like the fatal + extent of anachronism exhibited by the Cyclic poets. How, if the true + ancient tone, taste, manners, and religion were lost, as the Cyclic poets + show that they were, did the contemporary Ionian poets or rhapsodists know + and preserve the old manner? + </p> + <p> + The best face we can put on the matter is to say that all the Cyclic poets + were recklessly independent of tradition, while all men who botched at the + <i>Iliad</i> were very learned, and very careful to maintain harmony in + their pictures of life and manners, except when they introduced changes in + burial, bride-price, houses, iron, greaves, and corslets, all of them + things, by the theory, modern, and when they sang in modern grammar. + </p> + <p> + Yet despite this conscientiousness of theirs, most of the many authors of + our <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> were, by the theory, strolling + irresponsible rhapsodists, like the later <i>jongleurs</i> of the + thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in mediaeval France. How could these + strollers keep their modern Ionian ideas, or their primitive, recrudescent + phases of belief, out of their lays, as far as they <i>did</i> keep them + out, while the contemporary authors of the <i>Cypria</i>, <i>The Sack of + Ilios</i>, and other Cyclic poets were full of new ideas, legends, and + beliefs, or primitive notions revived, and, save when revived, quite + obviously late and quite un-Homeric in any case? + </p> + <p> + The difficulty is the greater if the Cyclic poems were long poems, with + one author to each Epic. Such authors were obviously men of ambition; they + produced serious works <i>de longue haleine</i>. It is from them that we + should naturally expect conservative and studious adhesion to the + traditional models. From casual strollers like the rhapsodists and + chanters at festivals, we look for nothing of the sort. <i>They</i> might + be expected to introduce great feats done by sergeants and privates, so to + speak—men of the nameless {Greek: laos}, the host, the foot men—who + in Homer are occasionally said to perish of disease or to fall under the + rain of arrows, but are never distinguished by name. The strollers, it + might be thought, would also be the very men to introduce fairy tales, + freaks of primitive Ionian myth, discreditable anecdotes of the princely + heroes, and references to the Ionian colonies. + </p> + <p> + But it is not so; the serious, laborious authors of the long Cyclic poems + do such un-Homeric things as these; the gay, irresponsible strolling + singers of a lay here and a lay there—lays now incorporated in the + <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>—scrupulously avoid such faults. They + never even introduce a signet ring. These are difficulties in the theory + of the <i>Iliad</i> as a patchwork by many hands, in many ages, which + nobody explains; which, indeed, nobody seems to find difficult. Yet the + difficulty is insuperable. Even if we take refuge with Wilamowitz in the + idea that the Cyclic and Homeric poems were at first mere protoplasm of + lays of many ages, and that they were all compiled, say in the sixth + century, into so many narratives, we come no nearer to explaining why the + tone, taste, and ideas of two such narratives—Illiad and Odyssey—are + confessedly distinct from the tone, taste, and ideas of all the others. + The Cyclic poems are certainly the production of a late and changed age? + {Footnote: For what manner of audience, if not for readers, the Cyclic + poems were composed is a mysterious question.} The <i>Iliad</i> is not in + any degree—save perhaps in a few interpolated passages—touched + by the influences of that late age. It is not a complex of the work of + four incompatible centuries, as far as this point is concerned—the + point of legend, religion, ritual, and conception of heroic character. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <h3> + HYPOTHESES OF EPIC COMPOSITION + </h3> + <p> + Whosoever holds that the Homeric poems were evolved out of the lays of + many men, in many places, during many periods of culture, must present a + consistent and logical hypothesis as to how they attained their present + plots and forms. These could not come by accident, even if the plots are + not good—as all the world held that they were, till after Wolf's day—but + very bad, as some critics now assert. Still plot and form, beyond the + power of chance to produce, the poems do possess. Nobody goes so far as to + deny that; and critics make hypotheses explanatory of the fact that a + single ancient "kernel" of some 2500 lines, a "kernel" altered at will by + any one who pleased during four centuries, became a constructive whole. If + the hypotheses fail to account for the fact, we have the more reason to + believe that the poems are the work of one age, and, mainly, of one man. + </p> + <p> + In criticising Homeric criticism as it is to-day, we cannot do better than + begin by examining the theories of Mr. Leaf which are offered by him + merely as "a working hypothesis." His most erudite work is based on a wide + knowledge of German Homeric speculation, of the exact science of Grammar, + of archaeological discoveries, and of manuscripts. {Footnote: The Iliad. + Macmillan & Co. 1900, 1902.} His volumes are, I doubt not, as they + certainly deserve to be, on the shelves of every Homeric student, old or + young, and doubtless their contents reach the higher forms in schools, + though there is reason to suppose that, about the unity of Homer, + schoolboys remain conservative. + </p> + <p> + In this book of more than 1200 pages Mr. Leaf's space is mainly devoted to + textual criticism, philology, and pure scholarship, but his Introductions, + Notes, and Appendices also set forth his mature ideas about the Homeric + problem in general. He has altered some of his opinions since the + publication of his <i>Companion to the Iliad</i>(1892), but the main lines + of his old system are, except on one crucial point, unchanged. His theory + we shall try to state and criticise; in general outline it is the current + theory of separatist critics, and it may fairly be treated as a good + example of such theories. + </p> + <p> + The system is to the following effect: Greek tradition, in the classical + period, regarded the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> as the work of one + man, Homer, a native of one or other of the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor. + But the poems show few obvious signs of origin in Asia. They deal with + dwellers, before the Dorian invasion (which the poet never alludes to), on + the continent of Europe and in Crete. {Footnote: If the poet sang after + the tempest of war that came down with the Dorians from the north, he + would probably have sought a topic in the Achaean exploits and sorrows of + that period. The Dorians, not the Trojans, would have been the foes. The + epics of France of the eleventh and twelfth centuries dwell, not on the + real victories of the remote Charlemagne so much as on the disasters of + Aliscans and Roncesvaux—defeats at Saracen hands, Saracens being the + enemies of the twelfth-century poets. No Saracens, in fact, fought at + Roncesvaux.} The lays are concerned with "good old times"; presumably + between 1500 and 1100 B.C. Their pictures of the details of life harmonise + more with what we know of the society of that period from the evidence of + buildings and recent excavations, than with what we know of the life and + the much more rude and barbaric art of the so-called "Dipylon" period of + "geometrical" ornament considerably later. In the Dipylon age though the + use of iron, even for swords (made on the lines of the old bronze sword), + was familiar, art was on a most barbaric level, not much above the Bed + Indian type, as far, at least, as painted vases bear witness. The human + figure is designed as in Tommy Traddles's skeletons; there is, however, + some crude but promising idea of composition. + </p> + <p> + The picture of life in the Homeric poems, then, is more like that of, say, + 1500-1100 B.C. than of, say, 1000-850 B.C. in Mr. Leaf's opinion. + Certainly Homer describes a wealthy aristocracy, subject to an Over-Lord, + who rules, by right divine, from "golden Mycenae." We hear of no such + potentate in Ionia. Homer's accounts of contemporary art seem to be + inspired by the rich art generally dated about 1500-1200. Yet there are + "many traces of apparent anachronism," of divergence from the more antique + picture of life. In these divergences are we to recognise the picture of a + later development of the ancient existence of 1500-1200 B.C.? Or have + elements of the life of a much later age of Greece (say, 800-550 B.C.) + been consciously or unconsciously introduced by the late poets? Here Mr. + Leaf recognises a point on which we have insisted, and must keep + insisting, for it is of the first importance. "It is <i>a priori</i> the + most probable" supposition that, "in an uncritical age," poets do <i>not</i> + "reproduce the circumstances of the old time," but "only clothe the old + tale in the garb of their own days." Poets in an uncritical age always, in + our experience, "clothe old tales with the garb of their own time," but + Mr. Leaf thinks that, in the case of the Homeric poems, this idea "is not + wholly borne out by the facts." + </p> + <p> + In fact, Mr. Leaf's hypothesis, like Helbig's, exhibits a come-and-go + between the theory that his late poets clung close to tradition and so + kept true to ancient details of life, and the theory that they did quite + the reverse in many cases. Of this frequent examples will occur. He + writes, "The Homeric period is certainly later than the shaft tombs" + (discovered at Mycenae by Dr. Schliemann), "but it does not necessarily + follow that it is post-Mycenaean. It is quite possible that certain + notable differences between the poems and the monuments" (of Mycenae) "in + burial, for instance, and in women's dress may be due to changes which + arose within the Mycenaean age itself, in that later part of it of which + our knowledge is defective—almost as defective as it is of the + subsequent 'Dipylon' period. On the whole, the resemblance to the typical + Mycenaean culture is more striking than the difference." {Footnote: Leaf, + Iliad, vol. i. pp. xiii.-xv. 1900.} + </p> + <p> + So far Mr. Leaf states precisely the opinion for which we argue. The + Homeric poems describe an age later than that of the famous tombs—so + rich in relics—of the Mycenaean acropolis, and earlier than the + tombs of the Dipylon of Athens. The poems thus spring out of an age of + which, except from the poems themselves, we know little or nothing, + because, as is shown later, no cairn burials answering to the frequent + Homeric descriptions have ever been discovered—so relics + corroborating Homeric descriptions are to seek. But the age attaches + itself in many ways to the age of the Mycenaean tombs, while, in our + opinion, it stands quite apart from the post-Dorian culture. + </p> + <p> + Where we differ from Mr. Leaf is in believing that the poems, as wholes, + were composed in that late Mycenaean period of which, from material + remains, we know very little; that "much new" was not added, as he thinks, + in "the Ionian development" which lasted perhaps "from the ninth century + B.C. to the seventh." We cannot agree with Mr. Leaf, when he, like Helbig, + thinks that much of the detail of the ancient life in the poems had early + become so "stereotyped" that no continuator, however late, dared + "intentionally to sap" the type, "though he slipped from time to time into + involuntary anachronism." Some poets are also asserted to indulge in <i>voluntary</i> + anachronism when, as Mr. Leaf supposes, they equip the ancient warriors + with corslets and greaves and other body armour of bronze such as, in his + opinion, the old heroes never knew, such as never were mentioned in the + oldest parts or "kernel" of the poems. Thus the traditional details of + Mycenaean life sometimes are regarded as "stereotyped" in poetic + tradition; sometimes as subject to modern alterations of a sweeping and + revolutionary kind. + </p> + <p> + As to deliberate adherence to tradition by the poets, we have proved that + the Cyclic epic poets of 800-660 B.C. wandered widely from the ancient + models. If, then, every minstrel or rhapsodist who, anywhere, added at + will to the old "kernel" of the <i>Achilles</i> was, so far as he was + able, as conscientiously precise in his stereotyped archaeological details + as Mr. Leaf sometimes supposes, the fact is contrary to general custom in + such cases. When later poets in an uncritical age take up and rehandle the + poetic themes of their predecessors, they always give to the stories "a + new costume," as M. Gaston Paris remarks in reference to thirteenth + century dealings with French epics of the eleventh century. But, in the + critics' opinion, the late rehandlers of old Achaean lays preserved the + archaic modes of life, war, costume, weapons, and so forth, with + conscientious care, except in certain matters to be considered later, when + they deliberately did the very reverse. Sometimes the late poets devoutly + follow tradition. Sometimes they deliberately innovate. Sometimes they + pedantically "archaise," bringing in genuine, but by their time forgotten, + Mycenaean things, and criticism can detect their doings in each case. + </p> + <p> + Though the late continuators of the <i>Iliad</i> were able, despite + certain inadvertencies, to keep up for some four centuries in Asia the + harmonious picture of ancient Achaean life and society in Europe, critics + can distinguish four separate strata, the work of many different ages, in + the <i>Iliad</i>. Of the first stratum composed in Europe, say about + 1300-1150 B.C. (I give a conjectural date under all reserves), the topic + was <i>THE Wrath of ACHILLES</i>. Of this poem, in Mr. Leaf's opinion, (a) + the First Book and fifty lines of the Second Book remain intact or, + perhaps, are a blend of two versions. (b) The <i>Valour of Agamemnon</i> + and <i>Defeat of THE Achaeans</i>. Of this there are portions in Book XI., + but they were meddled with, altered, and generally doctored, "down to the + latest period," namely, the age of Pisistratus in Athens, the middle of + the sixth century B.C. (c) The fight in which, after their defeat, the + Achaeans try to save the ships from the torch of Hector, and the <i>Valour + of Patroclus</i> (but some critics do not accept this), with his death + (XV., XVI. in parts). (d) Some eighty lines on the <i>ARMING OF ACHILLES</i> + (XIX.). (e) Perhaps an incident or two in Books XX., XXI. (f) The <i>Slaying + HECTOR</i> by Achilles, in Books XXI., XXII. (but some of the learned will + not admit this, and we shall, unhappily, have to prove that, if Mr. Leaf's + principles be correct, we really know nothing about the <i>SLAYING OF + HECTOR</i> in its original form). + </p> + <p> + Of these six elements only did the original poem consist, Mr. Leaf thinks; + a rigid critic will reject as original even the <i>Valour of Patroclus</i> + and the <i>DEATH OF HECTOR</i>, but Mr. Leaf refuses to go so far as that. + The original poem, as detected by him, is really "the work of a single + poet, perhaps the greatest in all the world's history." If the original + poet did no more than is here allotted to him, especially if he left out + the purpose of Zeus and the person of Thetis in Book I., we do not quite + understand his unapproachable greatness. He must certainly have drawn a + rather commonplace Achilles, as we shall see, and we confess to preferring + the <i>Iliad</i> as it stands. + </p> + <p> + The brief narrative cut out of the mass by Mr. Leaf, then, was the genuine + old original poem or "kernel." What we commonly call the <i>ILIAD</i>, on + the other hand, is, by his theory, a thing of shreds and patches, combined + in a manner to be later described. The blend, we learn, has none of the + masterly unity of the old original poem. Meanwhile, as criticism of + literary composition is a purely literary question, critics who differ + from Mr. Leaf have a right to hold that the <i>Iliad</i> as it stands + contains, and always did contain, a plot of masterly perfection. We need + not attend here so closely to Mr. Leaf's theory in the matter of the First + Expansions, (2) and the Second Expansions, (3) but the latest Expansions + (4) give the account of <i>The EMBASSY</i> to <i>Achilles</i> with his + refusal of <i>Agamemnon's APOLOGY</i>(Book IX.), the {blank space} (Book + XXIV.), the <i>RECONCILIATION OF ACHILLES AND Agamemnon, AND the FUNERAL + Games</i> of <i>Patroclus</i> (XXIII.). In all these parts of the poem + there are, we learn, countless alterations, additions, and expansions, + with, last of all, many transitional passages, "the work of the editor + inspired by the statesman," that is, of an hypothetical editor who really + by the theory made our <i>ILIAD</i>, being employed to that end by + Pistratus about 540 B.C. {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. pp. x., + xiv. 1900.}. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf and critics who take his general view are enabled to detect the + patches and tatters of many ages by various tests, for example, by + discovering discrepancies in the narrative, such as in their opinion no + one sane poet could make. Other proofs of multiplex authorship are + discovered by the critic's private sense of what the poem ought to be, by + his instinctive knowledge of style, by detection of the poet's supposed + errors in geography, by modernisms and false archaisms in words and + grammar, and by the presence of many objects, especially weapons and + armour, which the critic believes to have been unknown to the original + minstrel. + </p> + <p> + Thus criticism can pick out the things old, fairly old, late, and quite + recent, from the mass, evolved through many centuries, which is called the + <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + If the existing <i>ILIAD</i> is a mass of "expansions," added at all sorts + of dates, in any number of places, during very different stages of + culture, to a single short old poem of the Mycenaean age, science needs an + hypothesis which will account for the <i>ILIAD</i> "as it stands." + Everybody sees the need of the hypothesis, How was the medley of new songs + by many generations of irresponsible hands codified into a plot which used + to be reckoned fine? How were the manners, customs, and characters, <i>unus + color</i>, preserved in a fairly coherent and uniform aspect? How was the + whole Greek world, throughout which all manner of discrepant versions and + incongruous lays must, by the theory, have been current, induced to accept + the version which has been bequeathed to us? Why, and for what audience or + what readers, did somebody, in a late age of brief lyrics and of + philosophic poems, take the trouble to harmonise the body of discrepant + wandering lays, and codify them in the <i>Iliad</i>? + </p> + <p> + An hypothesis which will answer all these questions is the first thing + needful, and hypotheses are produced. + </p> + <p> + Believers like Mr. Leaf in the development of the <i>Iliad</i> through the + changing revolutionary centuries, between say 1200 and 600 B.C., + consciously stand in need of a working hypothesis which will account, + above all, for two facts: first, the relatively correct preservation of + the harmony of the picture of life, of ideas political and religious, of + the characters of the heroes, of the customary law (such as the + bride-price in marriage), and of the details as to weapons, implements, + dress, art, houses, and so forth, when these are not (according to the + theory) deliberately altered by late poets. + </p> + <p> + Next, the hypothesis must explain, in Mr. Leafs own words, how a single + version of the <i>Iliad</i> came to be accepted, "where many rival + versions must, from the necessity of the case, have once existed side by + side." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. xviii. 1900.} + </p> + <p> + Three hypotheses have, in fact, been imagined: the first suggests the + preservation of the original poems in very early written texts; not, of + course, in "Homer's autograph." This view Mr. Leaf, we shall see, + discards. The second presents the notion of one old sacred college for the + maintenance of poetic uniformity. Mr. Leaf rejects this theory, while + supposing that there were schools for professional reciters. + </p> + <p> + Last, there is the old hypothesis of Wolf: "Pisistratus" (about 540 B.C.) + "was the first who had the Homeric poems committed to writing, and brought + into that order in which we now possess them." + </p> + <p> + This hypothesis, now more than a century old, would, if it rested on good + evidence, explain how a single version of the various lays came to be + accepted and received as authorised. The Greek world, by the theory, had + only in various places various sets of incoherent chants <i>orally</i> + current on the Wrath of The public was everywhere a public of listeners, + who heard the lays sung on rare occasions at feasts and fairs, or whenever + a strolling rhapsodist took up his pitch, for a day or two, at a street + corner. There was, by the theory, no reading public for the Homeric + poetry. But, by the time of Pisistratus, a reading public was coming into + existence. The tyrant had the poems collected, edited, arranged into a + continuous narrative, primarily for the purpose of regulating the recitals + at the Panathenaic festival. When once they were written, copies were + made, and the rest of Hellas adopted these for their public purposes. + </p> + <p> + On a small scale we have a case analogous. The old songs of Scotland + existed, with the airs, partly in human memory, partly in scattered + broadsheets. The airs were good, but the words were often silly, more + often they were Fescennine—"more dirt than wit." Burns rewrote the + words, which were published in handsome volumes, with the old airs, or + with these airs altered, and his became the authorised versions, while the + ancient anonymous chants were almost entirely forgotten. + </p> + <p> + The parallel is fairly close, but there are points of difference. Burns + was a great lyric poet, whereas we hear of no great epic poet in the age + of Pisistratus. The old words which Burns's songs superseded were wretched + doggerel; not such were the ancient Greek heroic lays. The old Scottish + songs had no sacred historic character; they did not contain the history + of the various towns and districts of Scotland. The heroic lays of Greece + were believed, on the other hand, to be a kind of Domesday book of ancient + principalities, and cities, and worshipped heroes. Thus it was much easier + for a great poet like Burns to supersede with his songs a mass of + unconsidered "sculdudery" old lays, in which no man or set of men had any + interest, than for a mere editor, in the age of Pisistratus, to supersede + a set of lays cherished, in one shape or another, by every State in + Greece. This holds good, even if, prior to Pisistratus, there existed in + Greece no written texts of Homer, and no reading public, a point which we + shall show reasons for declining to concede. + </p> + <p> + The theory of the edition of Pisistratus, if it rested on valid evidence, + would explain "how a single version of the poems came to be accepted," + namely, because the poem was now <i>written</i> for the first time, and + oral versions fell out of memory. But it would not, of course, explain + how, before Pisistratus, during four or five centuries of change, the new + poets and reciters, throughout the Greek world, each adding such fresh + verses as he pleased, and often introducing such modern details of life as + he pleased, kept up the harmony of the Homeric picture of life, and + character, and law, as far as it confessedly exists. + </p> + <p> + To take a single instance: the poems never allude to the personal armorial + bearings of the heroes. They are unknown to or unnamed by Homer, but are + very familiar on the shields in seventh century and sixth century vases, + and AEschylus introduces them with great poetic effect in {blank space}. + How did late continuators, familiar with the serpents, lions, bulls' + heads, crabs, doves, and so forth, on the contemporary shields, keep such + picturesque and attractive details out of their new rhapsodies? In + mediaeval France, we shall show, the epics (eleventh to thirteenth + centuries) deal with Charlemagne and his peers of the eighth century A.D. + But they provide these heroes with the armorial bearings which came in + during the eleventh to twelfth century A.D. The late Homeric rhapsodists + avoided such tempting anachronisms. + </p> + <p> + Wolf's theory, then, explains "how a single version came to be accepted." + It was the first <i>WRITTEN</i> version; the others died out, like the old + Scots orally repeated songs, when Burns published new words to the airs. + But Wolf's theory does not explain the harmony of the picture of life, the + absence of post-Homeric ideas and ways of living, in the first written + version, which, practically, is our own version. + </p> + <p> + In 1892 (<i>COMPANION TO THE Iliad</i>) Mr. Leaf adopted a different + theory, the hypothesis of a Homeric "school" "which busied itself with the + tradition of the Homeric poetry," for there must have been some central + authority to preserve the text intact when it could not be preserved in + writing. Were there no such body to maintain a fixed standard, the poems + must have ended by varying indefinitely, according to the caprice of their + various reciters. This is perfectly obvious. + </p> + <p> + Such a school could keep an eye on anachronisms and excise them; in fact, + the Maori priests, in an infinitely more barbarous state of society, had + such schools for the preservation of their ancient hymns in purity. The + older priests "insisted on a critical and verbatim rehearsal of all the + ancient lore." Proceedings were sanctioned by human sacrifices and many + mystic rites. We are not told that new poems were produced and criticised; + it does not appear that this was the case. Pupils attended from three to + five years, and then qualified as priests or <i>tohunga</i> {Footnote: + White, <i>THE Ancient HISTORY OF THE Maori, VOL.</i> i. pp. 8-13.}. + Suppose that the Asiatic Greeks, like the Maoris and Zuñis, had Poetic + Colleges of a sacred kind, admitting new poets, and keeping them up to the + antique standard in all respects. If this were so, the relative rarity of + "anachronisms" and of modernisms in language in the Homeric poems is + explained. But Mr. Leaf has now entirely and with a light heart abandoned + his theory of a school, which is unsupported by evidence, he says.' + </p> + <p> + "The great problem," he writes, "for those who maintain the gradual growth + of the poems by a process of crystallisation has been to understand how a + single version came to be accepted, where many rival versions must, from + the necessity of the case, have once existed side by side. The assumption + of a school or guild of singers has been made," and Mr. Leaf, in 1892, + made the assumption himself: "as some such hypothesis we are bound to make + in order to explain the possibility of any theory" (1892). {Footnote: <i>COMPANION + TO THE Iliad, pp. 20, 21.</i>} + </p> + <p> + But now (1900) he says, after mentioning "the assumption of a school or + guild of singers," that "the rare mention of {Greek: Homeridai} in Chios + gives no support to this hypothesis, which lacks any other confirmation." + {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. xviii. p. xix.} He therefore now adopts + the Wolfian hypothesis that "an official copy of Homer was made in Athens + at the time of Solon or Pisistratus," from the rhapsodies existing in the + memory of reciters. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. xix.} But Mr. Leaf + had previously said {Footnote: <i>COMPANION TO THE Iliad</i>, p. 190.} + that "the legend which connects his" (Pisistratus's) "name with the + Homeric poems is itself probably only conjectural, and of late date." Now + the evidence for Pisistratus which, in 1892, he thought "conjectural and + of late date," seems to him a sufficient basis for an hypothesis of a + Pisistratean editor of the Iliad, while the evidence for an Homeric school + which appeared to him good enough for an hypothesis in 1892 is rejected as + worthless, though, in each case, the evidence itself remains just what it + used to be. + </p> + <p> + This is not very satisfactory, and the Pisistratean hypothesis is much + less useful to a theorist than the former hypothesis of an Homeric school, + for the Pisistratean hypothesis cannot explain the harmony of the + characters and the details in the <i>Iliad</i>, nor the absence of such + glaring anachronisms as the Cyclic poets made, nor the general + "pre-Odyssean" character of the language and grammar. By the Pisistratean + hypothesis there was not, what Mr. Leaf in 1892 justly deemed essential, a + school "to maintain a fixed standard," throughout the changes of four + centuries, and against the caprice of many generations of fresh reciters + and irresponsible poets. The hypothesis of a school <i>was</i> really that + which, of the two, best explained the facts, and there is no more valid + evidence for the first making and writing out of our <i>Iliad</i> under + Pisistratus than for the existence of a Homeric school. + </p> + <p> + The evidence for the <i>Iliad</i> edited for Pisistratus is examined in a + Note at the close of this chapter. Meanwhile Mr. Leaf now revives Wolf's + old theory to account for the fact that somehow "a single version" (of the + Homeric poems) "came to be accepted." His present theory, if admitted, + does account for the acceptation of a single version of the poems, the + first standard <i>written</i> version, but fails to explain how "the + caprice of the different reciters" (as he says) did not wander into every + variety of anachronism in detail and in diction, thus producing a chaos + which no editor of about 540 A.D. could force into its present uniformity. + </p> + <p> + Such an editor is now postulated by Mr. Leaf. If his editor's edition, as + being <i>written</i>, was accepted by Greece, then we "understand how a + single version came to be accepted." But we do not understand how the + editor could possibly introduce a harmony which could only have + characterised his materials, as Mr. Leaf has justly remarked, if there was + an Homeric school "to maintain a fixed standard." But now such harmony in + the picture of life as exists in the poems is left without any + explanation. We have now, by the theory, a crowd of rhapsodists, many + generations of uncontrolled wandering men, who, for several centuries, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Rave, recite, and madden through the land," +</pre> + <p> + with no written texts, and with no "fixed body to maintain a standard." + Such men would certainly not adhere strictly to a stereotyped early + tradition: <i>that</i> we cannot expect from them. + </p> + <p> + Again, no editor of about 540 B.C. could possibly bring harmony of + manners, customs, and diction into such of their recitals as he took down + in writing. + </p> + <p> + Let us think out the supposed editor's situation. During three centuries + nine generations of strollers have worked their will on one ancient short + poem, <i>The Wrath</i> of <i>Achilles</i>. This is, in itself, an + unexampled fact. Poets turn to new topics; they do not, as a rule, for + centuries embroider one single situation out of the myriads which heroic + legend affords. Strolling reciters are the least careful of men, each + would recite in the language and grammar of his day, and introduce the + newly evolved words and idioms, the new and fashionable manners, costume, + and weapons of his time. When war chariots became obsolete, he would bring + in cavalry; when there was no Over-Lord, he would not trouble himself to + maintain correctly the character and situation of Agamemnon. He would + speak of coined money, in cases of buying and selling; his European + geography would often be wrong; he would not ignore the Ionian cities of + Asia; most weapons would be of iron, not bronze, in his lays. Ionian + religious ideas could not possibly be excluded, nor changes in customary + law, civil and criminal. Yet, we think, none of these things occurs in + Homer. + </p> + <p> + The editor of the theory had to correct all these anachronisms and + discrepancies. What a task in an uncritical age! The editor's materials + would be the lays known to such strollers as happened to be gathered, in + Athens, perhaps at the Panathenaic festival. The <i>répertoire</i> of each + stroller would vary indefinitely from those of all the others. One man + knew this chant, as modified or made by himself; other men knew others, + equally unsatisfactory. + </p> + <p> + The editor must first have written down from recitation all the passages + that he could collect. Then he was obliged to construct a narrative + sequence containing a plot, which he fashioned by a process of selection + and rejection; and then he had to combine passages, alter them, add as + much as he thought fit, remove anachronisms, remove discrepancies, + accidentally bring in fresh discrepancies (as always happens), weave + transitional passages, look with an antiquarian eye after the too manifest + modernisms in language and manners, and so produce the {blank space}. + That, in the sixth century B.C., any man undertook such a task, and + succeeded so well as to impose on Aristotle and all the later Greek + critics, appears to be a theory that could only occur to a modern man of + letters, who is thinking of the literary conditions of his own time. The + editor was doing, and doing infinitely better, what Lönnrot, in the + nineteenth century, tried in vain to achieve for the Finnish <i>Kalewala</i>. + {Footnote: See Comparetti, <i>The Kalewala</i>.} + </p> + <p> + Centuries later than Pisistratus, in a critical age, Apollonius Rhodius + set about writing an epic of the Homeric times. We know how entirely he + failed, on all hands, to restore the manner of Homer. The editor of 540 + B.C. was a more scientific man. Can any one who sets before himself the + nature of the editor's task believe in him and it? To the master-less + floating jellyfish of old poems and new, Mr. Leaf supposes that "but small + and unimportant additions were made after the end of the eighth century or + thereabouts," especially as "the creative and imaginative forces of the + Ionian race turned to other forms of expression," to lyrics and to + philosophic poems. But the able Pisistratean editor, after all, we find, + introduced quantities of new matter into the poems—in the middle of + the sixth century; that kind of industry, then, did not cease towards the + end of the eighth century, as we have been told. On the other hand, as we + shall learn, the editor contributed to the <i>Iliad</i>, among other + things, Nestor's descriptions of his youthful adventures, for the purpose + of flattering Nestor's descendant, the tyrant Pisistratus of Athens. + </p> + <p> + One hypothesis, the theory of an Homeric school—which would answer + our question, "How was the harmony of the picture of life in remote ages + preserved in poems composed in several succeeding ages, and in totally + altered conditions of life?"—Mr. Leaf, as we know, rejects. We might + suggest, again, that there were written texts handed down from an early + period, and preserved in new copies from generation to generation. Mr. + Leaf states his doubt that there were any such texts. "The poems were all + this time handed down orally only by tradition among the singers (<i>sic</i>), + who used to wander over Greece reciting them at popular festivals. Writing + was indeed known through the whole period of epic development" (some four + centuries at least), "but it is in the highest degree unlikely that it was + ever employed to form a standard text of the Epic or <i>ANY</i> part of + it. There can hardly have been any standard text; at best there was a + continuous tradition of those parts of the poems which were especially + popular, and the knowledge of which was a valuable asset to the + professional reciter." + </p> + <p> + Now we would not contend for the existence of any {blank space} text much + before 600 B.C., and I understand Mr. Leaf not to deny, now, that there + may have been texts of the <i>ODYSSEY</i> and <i>Iliad</i> before, say, + 600-540 B.C. If cities and reciters had any ancient texts, then texts + existed, though not "standard" texts: and by this means the harmony of + thought, character, and detail in the poems might be preserved. We do not + think that it is "in the highest degree unlikely" that there were no + texts. Is this one of the many points on which every savant must rely on + his own sense of what is "likely"? To this essential point, the almost + certain existence of written texts, we return in our conclusion. + </p> + <p> + What we have to account for is not only the relative lack of anachronisms + in poems supposed to have been made through a period of at least four + hundred years, but also the harmony of the <i>CHARACTERS</i> in subtle + details. Some of the characters will be dealt with later; meanwhile it is + plain that Mr. Leaf, when he rejects both the idea of written texts prior + to 600-540 B.C., and also the idea of a school charged with the duty of + "maintaining a fixed standard," leaves a terrible task to his supposed + editor of orally transmitted poems which, he says—if unpreserved by + text or school—"must have ended by varying infinitely according to + the caprice of their various reciters." {Footnote: <i>Companion to the + Iliad, p. 21.</i>} + </p> + <p> + On that head there can be no doubt; in the supposed circumstances no + harmony, no <i>unus</i> color, could have survived in the poems till the + days of the sixth century editor. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is another difficulty in the path of the theory that the <i>Iliad</i> + is the work of four centuries. If it was, we are not enabled to understand + how it came to be what it is. No editor could possibly tinker it into the + whole which we possess; none could steer clear of many absurd + anachronisms. These are found by critics, but it is our hope to prove that + they do not exist. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + NOTE +</pre> + <h3> + THE LEGEND OF THE MAKING OF THE "ILIAD" UNDER PISISTRATOS + </h3> + <p> + It has been shown in the text that in 1892 Mr. Leaf thought the story + about the making of the <i>Iliad</i> under Pisistratus, a legend without + authority, while he regarded the traditions concerning an Homeric school + as sufficient basis for an hypothesis, "which we are bound to make in + order to explain the possibility of any theory." In 1900 he entirely + reversed his position, the school was abandoned, and the story of + Pisistratus was accepted. One objection to accepting any of the various + legends about the composing and writing out, for the first time, of the <i>Iliad</i>, + in the sixth century, the age of Pisistratus, was the silence of + Aristarchus on the subject. He discussed the authenticity of lines in the + <i>Iliad</i> which, according to the legend, were interpolated for a + political purpose by Solon or Pisistratus, but, as far as his comments + have reached us in the scholia, he never said a word about the tradition + of Athenian interpolation. Now Aristarchus must, at least, have known the + tradition of the political use of a disputed line, for Aristotle writes (<i>Rhetoric</i>, + i. 15) that the Athenians, early in the sixth century, quoted <i>Iliad</i>, + II. 558, to prove their right to Salamis. Aristarchus also discussed <i>Iliad</i>, + II. 553, 555, to which the Spartans appealed on the question of supreme + command against Persia (Herodotus, vii. 159). Again Aristarchus said + nothing, or nothing that has reached us, about Athenian interpolation. + Once more, Odyssey, II. 631, was said by Hereas, a Megarian writer, to + have been interpolated by Pisistratus (Plutarch.) But "the scholia that + represent the teaching of Aristarchus" never make any reference to the + alleged dealings of Pisistratus with the <i>Iliad</i>. The silence of + Aristarchus, however, affords no safe ground of argument to believers or + disbelievers in the original edition written out by order of Pisistratus. + </p> + <p> + It can never be proved that the scholiasts did not omit what Aristarchus + said, though we do not know why they should have done so; and it can never + be proved that Aristarchus was ignorant of the traditions about + Pisistratus, or that he thought them unworthy of notice. All is matter of + conjecture on these points. Mr. Leaf's conversion to belief in the story + that our <i>Iliad</i> was practically edited and first committed to + writing under Pisistratus appears to be due to the probability that + Aristarchus must have known the tradition. But if he did, there is no + proof that he accepted it as historically authentic. There is not, in + fact, any proof even that Aristarchus must have known the tradition. He + had probably read Dieuchidas of Megara, for "Wilamowitz has shown that + Dieuchidas wrote in the fourth century." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. + p. xix.} But, unluckily, we do not know that Dieuchidas stated that the <i>Iliad</i> + was made and first committed to writing in the sixth century B.C. No + mortal knows what Dieuchidas said: and, again, what Dieuchidas said is not + evidence. He wrote as a partisan in a historical dispute. + </p> + <p> + The story about Pisistratus and his editor, the practical maker of the <i>Iliad</i>, + is interwoven with a legend about an early appeal, in the beginning of the + sixth century B.C., to Homer as an historical authority. The Athenians and + Megarians, contending for the possession of the island of Salamis, the + home of the hero Aias, are said to have laid their differences before the + Spartans (<i>cir.</i> 600-580 B.C.). Each party quoted Homer as evidence. + Aristotle, who, as we saw, mentions the tale (Rhetoric, i. 15), merely + says that the Athenians cited <i>Iliad</i>, II. 558: "Aias led and + stationed his men where the phalanxes of the Athenians were posted." + Aristarchus condemned this line, not (as far as evidence goes) because + there was a tradition that the Athenians had interpolated it to prove + their point, but because he thought it inconsistent with <i>Iliad</i>, + III. 230; IV. 251, which, if I may differ from so great a critic, it is + not; these two passages deal, not with the position of the camps, but of + the men in the field on a certain occasion. But if Aristarchus had thought + the tradition of Athenian interpolation of II. 558 worthy of notice, he + might have mentioned it in support of his opinion. Perhaps he did. No + reference to his notice has reached us. However this may be, Mr. Leaf + mainly bases his faith in the Pisistratean editor (apparently, we shall + see, an Asiatic Greek, residing in Athens), on a fragmentary passage of + Diogenes Laertius (third century A.D.), concerned with the tale of Homer's + being cited about 600-580 B.C. as an authority for the early ownership of + Salamis. In this text Diogenes quotes Dieuchidas as saying something about + Pisistratus in relation to the Homeric poems, but what Dieuchidas really + said is unknown, for a part has dropped out of the text. + </p> + <p> + The text of Diogenes Laertius runs thus (Solon, i. 57): "He (Solon) + decreed that the Homeric poems should be recited by rhapsodists {Greek + text: ex hypobolaes}" (words of disputed sense), so that where the first + reciter left off thence should begin his successor. It was rather Solon, + then, than Pisistratus who brought Homer to light ({Greek text: + ephotisen}), as Diogenes says in the Fifth Book of his <i>Megarica</i>. + And <i>the lines</i> were <i>especially these</i>: "They who held Athens," + &c. (<i>Iliad</i>, II. 546-558), the passage on which the Athenians + rested in their dispute with the Megarians. + </p> + <p> + And <i>what</i> "lines were especially these"? Mr. Leaf fills up the gap + in the sense, after "Pisistratus" thus, "for it was he" (Solon) "who + interpolated lines in the <i>Catalogue</i>, and not Pisistratus." He says: + "The natural sense of the passage as it stands" (in Diogenes Laertius) "is + this: It was not Peisistratos, as is generally supposed, but Solon <i>who + collected the scattered Homer</i> of <i>his</i> day, for he it was who + interpolated the lines in the <i>Catalogue of the Ships</i>".... But + Diogenes neither says for himself nor quotes from Dieuchidas anything + about "collecting the scattered Homer of his day." That Pisistratus did so + is Mr. Leafs theory, but there is not a hint about anybody collecting + anything in the Greek. Ritschl, indeed, conjecturally supplying the gap in + the text of Diogenes, invented the words, "Who <i>collected</i> the + Homeric poems, and inserted some things to please the Athenians." But Mr. + Leaf rejects that conjecture as "clearly wrong." Then why does he adopt, + as "the natural sense of the passage," "it was not Peisistratos but Solon + who <i>collected</i> the scattered Homer of his day?" {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. i. p. xviii.} The testimony of Dieuchidas, as far as we can see in + the state of the text, "refers," as Mr. Monro says, "to the <i>interpolation</i> + that has just been mentioned, and need not extend further back." + "Interpolation is a process that postulates a text in which the additional + verses can be inserted," whereas, if I understand Mr. Leaf, the very first + text, in his opinion, was that compiled by the editor for Pisistratus. + {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. pp. 400 410, especially pp. 408-409.} + Mr. Leaf himself dismisses the story of the Athenian appeal to Homer for + proof of their claim as "a fiction." If, so, it does not appear that + ancient commentaries on a fiction are of any value as proof that + Pisistratus produced the earliest edition of the <i>Iliad</i>. {Footnote: + Mr. Leaf adds that, except in one disputed line (<i>Iliad</i>, II. 558) + Aias "is not, in the <i>Iliad</i>, encamped next the Athenians." His + proofs of this odd oversight of the fraudulent interpolator, who should + have altered the line, are <i>Iliad</i>, IV. 327 ff, and XII. 681 ff. In + the former passage we find Odysseus stationed next to the Athenians. But + Odysseus would have neighbours on either hand. In the second passage we + find the Athenians stationed next to the Boeotians and Ionians, but the + Athenians, too, had neighbours on either side. The arrangement was, on the + Achaean extreme left, Protesilaus's command (he was dead), and that of + Aias; then the Boeotians and Ionians, with "the picked men of the + Athenians"; and then Odysseus, on the Boeotolono-Athenian right; or so the + Athenians would read the passage. The texts must have seemed favourable to + the fraudulent Athenian interpolator denounced by the Megarians, or he + would have altered them. Mr. Leaf, however, argues that line 558 of Book + II. "cannot be original, as is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest + of the <i>Iliad</i> is not encamped next the Athenians" (see IV. 327; + XIII. 681). The Megarians do not seem to have seen it, or they would have + cited these passages. But why argue at all about the Megarian story if it + be a fiction? Mr. Leaf takes the brief bald mention of Aias in <i>Iliad</i>, + II. 558 as "a mocking cry from Athens over the conquest of the island of + the Aiakidai." But as, in this same <i>Catalogue</i>, Aias is styled "by + far the best of warriors" after Achilles (II. 768), while there is no more + honourable mention made of Diomede than that he had "a loud war cry" (II. + 568), or of Menelaus but that he was also sonorous, and while Nestor, the + ancestor of Pisistratus, receives not even that amount of praise (line + 601), "the mocking cry from Athens" appears a vain imagination.} + </p> + <p> + The lines disputed by the Megarians occur in the <i>Catalogue</i>, and, as + to the date and original purpose of the <i>Catalogue</i>, the most various + opinions prevail. In Mr. Leaf's earlier edition of the <i>Iliad</i> (vol. + i. p. 37), he says that "nothing convincing has been urged to show" that + the <i>Catalogue</i> is "of late origin." We know, from the story of Solon + and the Megarians, that the <i>Catalogue</i> "was considered a classical + work—the Domesday Book of Greece, at a very early date"—say + 600-580 B.C. "It agrees with the poems in being pre-Dorian" (except in + lines 653-670). + </p> + <p> + "There seems therefore to be no valid reason for doubting that it, like + the bulk of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, was composed in Achaean + times, and carried with the emigrants to the coast of Asia Minor...." + </p> + <p> + In his new edition (vol. ii. p. 86), Mr. Leaf concludes that the <i>Catalogue</i> + "originally formed an introduction to the whole Cycle," the compiling of + "the whole Cycle" being of uncertain date, but very late indeed, on any + theory. The author "studiously preserves an ante-Dorian standpoint. It is + admitted that there can be little doubt that some of the material, at + least, is old." + </p> + <p> + These opinions are very different from those expressed by Mr. Leaf in + 1886. He cannot now give "even an approximate date for the composition of + the <i>Catalogue</i>" which, we conceive, must be the latest thing in + Homer, if it was composed "for that portion of the whole Cycle which, as + worked up in a separate poem, was called the <i>Kypria</i>" for the <i>Kypria</i> + is obviously a very late performance, done as a prelude to the <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + I am unable to imagine how this mutilated passage of Diogenes, even if + rightly restored, proves that Dieuchidas, a writer of the fourth century + B.C., alleged that Pisistratus made a collection of scattered Homeric + poems—in fact, made "a standard text." + </p> + <p> + The Pisistratean hypothesis "was not so long ago unfashionable, but in the + last few years a clear reaction has set in," says Mr. Leaf. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + i. p. XIX.} + </p> + <p> + The reaction has not affected that celebrated scholar, Dr. Blass, who, + with Teutonic frankness, calls the Pisistratean edition "an absurd + legend." {Footnote: Blass, Die <i>Interpolationen</i> in der <i>Odyssee</i>, + pp. I, 2. Halle, 1904.} Meyer says that the Alexandrians rejected the + Pisistratean story "as a worthless fable," differing here from Mr. Leaf + and Wilamowitz; and he spurns the legend, saying that it is incredible + that the whole Greek world would allow the tyrants of Athens to palm off a + Homer on them. {Footnote: Meyer, <i>Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, ii. + 390, 391. 1893.} + </p> + <p> + Mr. T. W. Allen, an eminent textual scholar, treats the Pisistratean + editor with no higher respect. In an Egyptian papyrus containing a + fragment of Julius Africanus, a Christian chronologer, Mr. Allen finds him + talking confidently of the Pisistratidae. They "stitched together the rest + of the epic," but excised some magical formulae which Julius Africanus + preserves. Mr. Allen remarks: "The statements about Pisistratus belong to + a well-established category, that of Homeric mythology.... The anecdotes + about Pisistratus and the poet himself are on a par with Dares, who 'wrote + the <i>Iliad</i> before Homer.'" {Footnote: <i>Classical Review</i> xviii. + 148.} + </p> + <p> + The editor of Pisistratus is hardly in fashion, though that is of no + importance. Of importance is the want of evidence for the editor, and, as + we have shown, the impossible character of the task allotted to him by the + theory. + </p> + <p> + As I suppose Mr. Leaf to insinuate, "fashion" has really nothing to do + with the question. People who disbelieve in written texts must, and do, + oscillate between the theory of an Homeric "school" and the Wolfian theory + that Pisistratus, or Solon, or somebody procured the making of the first + written text at Athens in the sixth century—a theory which fails to + account for the harmony of the picture of life in the poems, and, as Mr. + Monro, Grote, Nutzhorn, and many others argue, lacks evidence. + </p> + <p> + As Mr. Monro reasons, and as Blass states the case bluntly, "Solon, or + Pisistratus, or whoever it was, put a stop, at least as far as Athens was + concerned, to the mangling of Homer" by the rhapsodists or reciters, each + anxious to choose a pet passage, and not going through the whole <i>Iliad</i> + in due sequence. "But the unity existed before the mangling. That this has + been so long and so stubbornly misunderstood is no credit to German + scholarship: blind uncritical credulity on one side, limitless and + arbitrary theorising on the other!" We are not solitary sceptics when we + decline to accept the theory of Mr. Leaf. It is neither bottomed on + evidence nor does it account for the facts in the case. That is to say, + the evidence appeals to Mr. Leaf as valid, but is thought worse than + inadequate by other great scholars, such as Monro and Blass; while the + fact of the harmony of the picture of life, preserved through four or five + centuries, appears to be left without explanation. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf holds that, in order to organise recitations in due sequence, the + making of a text, presenting, for the first time, a due sequence, was + necessary. His opponents hold that the sequence already existed, but was + endangered by the desultory habits of the rhapsodists. We must here judge + each for himself; there is no court of final appeal. + </p> + <p> + I confess to feeling some uncertainty about the correctness of my + statement of Mr. Leaf's opinions. He and I both think an early Attic + "recension" probable, or almost certain. But (see' "Conclusion") I regard + such recension as distinct from the traditional "edition" of Pisistratus. + Mr. Leaf, I learn, does not regard the "edition" as having "made" the <i>Iliad</i>; + yet his descriptions of the processes and methods of his Pisistratean + editor correspond to my idea of the "making" of our <i>Iliad</i> as it + stands. See, for example, Mr. Leaf's Introduction to <i>Iliad</i>, Book + II. He will not even insist on the early Attic as the first <i>written</i> + text; if it was not, its general acceptance seems to remain a puzzle. He + discards the idea of one Homeric "school" of paramount authority, but + presumes that, as recitation was a profession, there must have been + schools. We do not hear of them or know the nature of their teaching. The + Beauvais "school" of <i>jongleurs</i> in Lent (fourteenth century A.D.) + seems to have been a holiday conference of strollers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <h3> + LOOSE FEUDALISM: THE OVER-LORD IN "ILIAD," BOOKS I. AND II. + </h3> + <p> + We now try to show that the Epics present an historical unity, a complete + and harmonious picture of an age, in its political, social, legal, and + religious aspects; in its customs, and in its military equipment. A long + epic can only present an unity of historical ideas if it be the work of + one age. Wandering minstrels, living through a succession of incompatible + ages, civic, commercial, democratic, could not preserve, without flaw or + failure, the attitude, in the first place, of the poet of feudal princes + towards an Over-Lord who rules them by undisputed right divine, but rules + weakly, violently, unjustly, being subject to gusts of arrogance, and + avarice, and repentance. Late poets not living in feudal society, and + unfamiliar alike with its customary law, its jealousy of the Over-Lord, + its conservative respect for his consecrated function, would inevitably + miss the proper tone, and fail in some of the many {blank space} of the + feudal situation. This is all the more certain, if we accept Mr. Leaf's + theory that each poet-rhapsodist's <i>répertoire</i> varied from the <i>répertoires</i> + of the rest. There could be no unity of treatment in their handling of the + character and position of the Over-Lord and of the customary law that + regulates his relations with his peers. Again, no editor of 540 B.C. could + construct an harmonious picture of the Over-Lord in relation to the + princes out of the fragmentary <i>répertoires</i> of strolling + rhapsodists, which now lay before him in written versions. If the editor + could do this, he was a man of Shakespearian genius, and had minute + knowledge of a dead society. This becomes evident when, in place of + examining the <i>Iliad</i> through microscopes, looking out for + discrepancies, we study it in its large lines as a literary whole. The + question being, Is the <i>Iliad</i> a literary whole or a mere literary + mosaic? we must ask "What, taking it provisionally as a literary whole, + are the qualities of the poet as a painter of what we may call feudal + society?" + </p> + <p> + Choosing the part of the Over-Lord Agamemnon, we must not forget that he + is one of several analogous figures in the national poetry and romance of + other feudal ages. Of that great analogous figure, Charlemagne, and of his + relations with his peers in the earlier and later French mediaeval epics + we shall later speak. Another example is Arthur, in some romances "the + blameless king," in others <i>un roi fainéant</i>. + </p> + <p> + The parallel Irish case is found in the Irish saga of Diarmaid and + Grainne. We read Mr. O'Grady's introduction on the position of Eionn Mac + Cumhail, the legendary Over-Lord of Ireland, the Agamemnon of the Celts. + "Fionn, like many men in power, is variable; he is at times magnanimous, + at other times tyrannical and petty. Diarmaid, Oisin, Oscar, and Caoilte + Mac Rohain are everywhere the {Greek: kaloi kachotoi} of the Fenians; of + them we never hear anything bad." {Footnote: <i>Transactions of the + Ossianic</i> Society, vol. iii. p. 39.} + </p> + <p> + Human nature eternally repeats itself in similar conditions of society, + French, Norse, Celtic, and Achaean. "We never hear anything bad" of + Diomede, Odysseus, or Aias, and the evil in Achilles's resentment up to a + certain point is legal, and not beyond what the poet thinks natural and + pardonable in his circumstances. + </p> + <p> + The poet's view of Agamemnon is expressed in the speeches and conduct of + the peers. In Book I. we see the bullying truculence of Agamemnon, wreaked + first on the priest of Apollo, Chryses, then in threats against the + prophet Chalcas, then in menaces against any prince on whom he chooses to + avenge his loss of fair Chryseis, and, finally, in the Seizure of Briseis + from Achilles. + </p> + <p> + This part of the First Book of the <i>Iliad</i> is confessedly original, + and there is no varying, throughout the Epic, from the strong and delicate + drawing of an historical situation, and of a complex character. Agamemnon + is truculent, and eager to assert his authority, but he is also possessed + of a heavy sense of his responsibilities, which often unmans him. He has a + legal right to a separate "prize of honour" (geras) after each capture of + spoil. Considering the wrath of Apollo for the wrong done in refusing his + priest's offered ransom for his daughter, Agamemnon will give her back, + "if that is better; rather would I see my folks whole than perishing." + {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, I. 115-117.} + </p> + <p> + Here we note points of feudal law and of kingly character. The giving and + taking of ransom exists as it did in the Middle Ages; ransom is refused, + death is dealt, as the war becomes more fierce towards its close. + Agamemnon has sense enough to waive his right to the girlish prize, for + the sake of his people, but is not so generous as to demand no + compensation. But there are no fresh spoils to apportion, and the + Over-Lord threatens to take the prize of one of his peers, even of + Achilles. + </p> + <p> + Thereon Achilles does what was frequently done in the feudal age of + western Europe, he "renounces his fealty," and will return to Phthia. He + adds insult, "thou dog-face!" The whole situation, we shall show, recurs + again and again in the epics of feudal France, the later epics of feudal + discontent. Agamemnon replies that Achilles may do as he pleases. "I have + others by my side that shall do me honour, and, above all, Zeus, Lord of + Counsel" (I. 175). He rules, literally, by divine right, and we shall see + that, in the French feudal epics, as in Homer, this claim of divine right + is granted, even in the case of an insolent and cowardly Over-Lord. + Achilles half draws "his great sword," one of the long, ponderous + cut-and-thrust bronze swords of which we have actual examples from Mycenae + and elsewhere. He is restrained by Athene, visible only to him. "With + words, indeed," she says, "revile him .... hereafter shall goodly gifts + come to thee, yea, in threefold measure...." + </p> + <p> + Gifts of atonement for "surquedry," like that of Agamemnon, are given and + received in the French epics, for example, in the {blank space}. The <i>Iliad</i> + throughout exhibits much interest in such gifts, and in the customary law + as to their acceptance, and other ritual or etiquette of reconciliation. + This fact, it will be shown, accounts for a passage which critics reject, + and which is tedious to our taste, as it probably was tedious to the age + of the supposed late poets themselves. (Book XIX.). But the taste of a + feudal audience, as of the audience of the Saga men, delighted in + "realistic" descriptions of their own customs and customary law, as in + descriptions of costume and armour. This is fortunate for students of + customary law and costume, but wearies hearers and readers who desire the + action to advance. Passages of this kind would never be inserted by late + poets, who had neither the knowledge of, nor any interest in, the + subjects. + </p> + <p> + To return to Achilles, he is now within his right; the moral goddess + assures him of that, and he is allowed to give the reins to his tongue, as + he does in passages to which the mediaeval epics offer many parallels. In + the mediaeval epics, as in Homer, there is no idea of recourse to a duel + between the Over-Lord and his peer. Achilles accuses Agamemnon of + drunkenness, greed, and poltroonery. He does not return home, but swears + by the sceptre that Agamemnon shall rue his <i>outrecuidance</i> when + Hector slays the host. By the law of the age Achilles remains within his + right. His violent words are not resented by the other peers. They tacitly + admit, as Athene admits, that Achilles has the right, being so grievously + injured, to "renounce his fealty," till Agamemnon makes apology and gives + gifts of atonement. Such, plainly, is the unwritten feudal law, which + gives to the Over-Lord the lion's share of booty, the initiative in war + and council, and the right to command; but limits him by the privilege of + the peers to renounce their fealty under insufferable provocation. In no + Book is Agamemnon so direfully insulted as in the First, which is admitted + to be of the original "kernel." Elsewhere the sympathy of the poet + occasionally enables him to feel the elements of pathos in the position of + the over-tasked King of Men. + </p> + <p> + As concerns the apology and the gifts of atonement, the poet has feudal + customary law and usage clearly before his eyes. He knows exactly what is + due, and the limits of the rights of Over-Lord and prince, matters about + which the late Ionian poets could only pick up information by a course of + study in constitutional history—the last thing they were likely to + attempt—unless we suppose that they all kept their eyes on the + "kernel," and that steadily, through centuries, generations of strollers + worked on the lines laid down in that brief poem. + </p> + <p> + Thus the poet of Book IX.—one of "the latest expansions,"—thoroughly + understands the legal and constitutional situation, as between Agamemnon + and Achilles. Or rather all the poets who collaborated in Book IX., which + "had grown by a process of accretion," {Footnote: Leaf, Iliad, vol. i. p. + 371.} understood the legal situation. + </p> + <p> + Returning to the poet's conception of Agamemnon, we find in the character + of Agamemnon himself the key to the difficulties which critics discover in + the Second Book. The difficulty is that when Zeus, won over to the cause + of Achilles by Thetis, sends a false Dream to Agamemnon, the Dream tells + the prince that he shall at once take Troy, and bids him summon the host + to arms. But Agamemnon, far from doing that, summons the host to a + peaceful assembly, with the well-known results of demoralisation. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf explains the circumstances on his own theory of expansions + compiled into a confused whole by a late editor. He thinks that probably + there were two varying versions even of this earliest Book of the poem. In + one (A), the story went on from the quarrel between Agamemnon and + Achilles, to the holding of a general assembly "to consider the altered + state of affairs." This is the Assembly of Book H, but debate, in version + A, was opened by Thersites, not by Agamemnon, and Thersites proposed + instant flight! That was probably the earlier version. + </p> + <p> + In the other early version (B), after the quarrel between the chiefs, the + story did not, as in A, go on straight to the Assembly, but Achilles + appealed to his mother, the fair sea-goddess, as in our Iliad, and she + obtained from Zeus, as in the actual <i>Iliad</i>, his promise to honour + Achilles by giving victory, in his absence, to the Trojans. The poet of + version B, in fact, created the beautiful figure of Thetis, so essential + to the development of the tenderness that underlies the ferocity of + Achilles. The other and earliest poet, who treated of the Wrath of the + author of version A, neglected that opportunity with all that it involved, + and omitted the purpose of Zeus, which is mentioned in the fifth line of + the Epic. The editor of 540 B.C., seeing good in both versions, A and B, + "combined his information," and produced Books I. and II. of the <i>ILIAD</i> + as they stand. {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 47.} + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf suggests that "there is some ground for supposing that the oldest + version of the Wrath of Achilles did not contain the promise of Zeus to + Thetis; it was a tale played exclusively on the earthly stage." {Footnote: + <i>Ibid</i>, vol. i. p. xxiii.} In that case the author of the oldest form + (A) must have been a poet very inferior indeed to the later author of B + who took up and altered his work. In <i>his</i> version, Book I. does not + end with the quarrel of the princes, but Achilles receives, with all the + courtesy of his character, the unwelcome heralds of Agamemnon, and sends + Briseis with them to the Over-Lord. He then with tears appeals to his + goddess-mother, Thetis of the Sea, who rose from the grey mere like a + mist, leaving the sea deeps where she dwelt beside her father, the ancient + one of the waters. Then sat she face to face with her son as he let the + tears down fall, and caressed him, saying, "Child, wherefore weepest thou, + for what sorrow of heart? Hide it not, tell it to me; that I may know it + as well as thou." Here the poet strikes the keynote of the character of + Achilles, the deadly in war, the fierce in council, who weeps for his lost + lady and his wounded honour, and cries for help to his mother, as little + children cry. + </p> + <p> + Such is the Achilles of the <i>Iliad</i> throughout and consistently, but + such he was not to the mind of Mr. Leaf's probably elder poet, the author + of version A. Thetis, in version B, promises to persuade Zeus to honour + Achilles by making Agamemnon rue his absence, and, twelve days after the + quarrel, wins the god's consent. + </p> + <p> + In Book II. Zeus reflects on his promise, and sends a false Dream to + beguile Agamemnon, promising that now he shall take Troy. Agamemnon, while + asleep, is full of hope; but when he wakens he dresses in mufti, in a soft + doublet, a cloak, and sandals; takes his sword (swords were then worn as + part of civil costume), and the ancestral sceptre, which he wields in + peaceful assemblies. Day dawns, and "he bids the heralds...." A break here + occurs, according to the theory. + </p> + <p> + Here (<i>Iliad</i>, Book II., line 50) the kernel ceases, Mr. Leaf says, + and the editor of 540 B.C. plays his pranks for a while. + </p> + <p> + The kernel (or one of the <i>two</i> kernels), we are to take up again at + Book II., 443-483, and thence "skip" to XI. 56, and now "we have a + narrative masterly in conception and smooth in execution," {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. i. p. 47.} says Mr. Leaf. This kernel is kernel B, probably the later + kernel of the pair, that in which Achilles appeals to his lady mother, who + wins from Zeus the promise to cause Achaean defeat, till Achilles is duly + honoured. The whole Epic turns on this promise of Zeus, as announced in + the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines of the very first Book. If kernel A is + the first kernel, the poet left out the essence of the plot he had + announced. However, let us first examine probable kernel B, reading, as + advised, Book II. 1-50, {blank space}; XI. 56 ff. + </p> + <p> + We left Agamemnon (though the Dream bade him summon the host to arms) + dressed in <i>civil costume</i>. His ancestral sceptre in his hand, he is + going to hold a deliberative assembly of the unarmed host. His attire + proves that fact ({Greek: <i>prepodaes de ae stolae to epi Boulaen exionti</i>}, + says the scholiast). Then if we skip, as advised, to II. 443-483 he bids + the heralds call the host not to peaceful council, for which his costume + is appropriate, but to <i>war</i>! The host gathers, "and in their midst + the lord Agamemnon,"—still in civil costume, with his sceptre (he + has not changed his attire as far as we are told)—"in face and eyes + like Zeus; in waist like Ares" (god of war); "in breast like Poseidon,"—yet, + for all that we are told, entirely unarmed! The host, however, were + dressed "in innumerable bronze," "war was sweeter to them than to depart + in their ships to their dear native land,"—so much did Athene + encourage them. + </p> + <p> + But nobody had been speaking of flight, in THE KERNEL B: THAT proposal was + originally made by Thersites, in kernel A, and was attributed to Agamemnon + in the part of Book II. where the editor blends A and B. This part, at + present, Mr. Leaf throws aside as a very late piece of compilation. + Turning next, as directed, to XI. 56, we find the Trojans deploying in + arms, and the hosts encounter with fury—Agamemnon still, for all + that appears, in the raiment of peace, and with the sceptre of + constitutional monarchy. "In he rushed, first of all, and slew Bienor," + and many other gentlemen of Troy, not with his sceptre! + </p> + <p> + Clearly all this is the reverse of "a narrative masterly in conception and + smooth in execution:" it is an impossible narrative. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf has attempted to disengage one of two forms of the old original + poem from the parasitic later growths; he has promised to show us a smooth + and masterly narrative, and the result is a narrative on which no Achasan + poet could have ventured. In II. 50 the heralds are bidden {Greek: <i>kurussein</i>}, + that is to summon the host—to <i>what</i>? To a peaceful assembly, + as Agamemnon's costume proves, says the next line (II. 51), but that is + excised by Mr. Leaf, and we go on to II. 443, and the reunited passage now + reads, "Agamemnon bade the loud heralds" (II. 50) "call the Achaeans to + battle" (II. 443), and they came, in harness, but their leader—when + did he exchange chiton, cloak, and sceptre for helmet, shield, and spear? + A host appears in arms; a king who set out with sceptre and doublet is + found with a spear, in bronze armour: and not another word is said about + the Dream of Agamemnon. + </p> + <p> + It is perfectly obvious and certain that the two pieces of the broken + kernel B do not fit together at all. Nor is this strange, if the kernel + was really broken and endured the insertion of matter enough to fill nine + Books (IL-XL). If kernel B really contained Book II., line 50, as Mr. Leaf + avers, if Agamemnon, as in that line (50) "bade the clear-voiced heralds + do...." something—what he bade them do was, necessarily, as his + peaceful costume proves, to summon the peaceful assembly which he was to + moderate with his sceptre. At such an assembly, or at a preliminary + council of Chiefs, he would assuredly speak of his Dream, as he does in + the part excised. Mr. Leaf, if he will not have a peaceful assembly as + part of kernel B, must begin his excision at the middle of line 42, in + II., where Agamemnon wakens; and must make him dress not in mufti but in + armour, and call the host of the Achaeans to arm, as the Dream bade him + do, and as he does in II. 443. Perhaps we should then excise II. 45 2, 45 + 3, with the reference to the plan of retreat, for <i>THAT</i> is part of + kernel A where there was no promise of Zeus, and no Dream sent to + Agamemnon. Then from II. 483, the description of the glorious armed aspect + of Agamemnon, Mr. Leaf may pass to XI. 56, the account of the Trojans + under Hector, of the battle, of the prowess of Agamemnon, inspired by the + Dream which he, contrary to Homeric and French epic custom, has very + wisely mentioned to nobody—that is, in the part not excised. + </p> + <p> + This appears to be the only method by which Mr. Leaf can restore the + continuity of his kernel B. + </p> + <p> + Though Mr. Leaf has failed to fit Book XI. to any point in Book II., of + course it does not follow that Book XI. cannot be a continuation of the + original <i>Wrath</i> of <i>Achilles</i> (version B). If so, we understand + why Agamemnon plucks up heart, in Book XI., and is the chief cause of a + temporary Trojan reverse. He relies on the Dream sent from Zeus in the + opening lines of Book II., the Dream which was not in kernel A; the Dream + which he communicated to nobody; the Dream conveying the promise that he + should at once take Troy. This is perhaps a tenable theory, though + Agamemnon had much reason to doubt whether the host would obey his command + to arm, but an alternative theory of why and wherefore Agamemnon does + great feats of valour, in Book XI., will later be propounded. Note that + the events of Books XL.-XVIII., by Mr. Leaf's theory, all occur on the + very day after Thetis (according to kernel B)' {79} obtains from Zeus his + promise to honour Achilles by the discomfiture of the Achaeans; they have + suffered nothing till that moment, as far as we learn, from the absence of + Achilles and his 2500 men: allowing for casualties, say 2000. + </p> + <p> + So far we have traced—from Books I. and II. to Book XI.—the + fortunes of kernel B, of the supposed later of two versions of the opening + of the <i>Iliad</i>. But there may have been a version (A) probably + earlier, we have been told, in which Achilles did not appeal to his + mother, nor she to Zeus, and Zeus did not promise victory to the Trojans, + and sent no false Dream of success to Agamemnon. What were the fortunes of + that oldest of all old kernels? In this version (A) Agamemnon, having had + no Dream, summoned a peaceful assembly to discuss the awkwardness caused + by the mutiny of Achilles. The host met (<i>Iliad,</i> II. 87-99). Here we + pass from line 99 to 212-242: Thersites it is who opens the debate, (in + version A) insults Agamemnon, and advises flight. The army rushed off to + launch the ships, as in II. 142-210, and were brought back by Odysseus, + who made a stirring speech, and was well backed by Agamemnon, urging to + battle. + </p> + <p> + Version A appears to us to have been a version that no heroic audience + would endure. A low person like Thersites opens a debate in an assembly + called by the Over-Lord; this could not possibly pass unchallenged among + listeners living in the feudal age. When a prince called an assembly, he + himself opened the debate, as Achilles does in Book I. 54-67. That a lewd + fellow, the buffoon and grumbler of the host, of "the people," nameless + and silent throughout the Epic, should rush in and open debate in an + assembly convoked by the Over-Lord, would have been regarded by feudal + hearers, or by any hearers with feudal traditions, as an intolerable + poetical license. Thersites would have been at once pulled down and + beaten; the host would not have rushed to the ships on <i>his</i> motion. + Any feudal audience would know better than to endure such an + impossibility; they would have asked, "How could Thersites speak—without + the sceptre?" + </p> + <p> + As the poem stands, and ought to stand, nobody less than the Over-Lord, + acting within his right, ({Greek: ae themis esti} II. 73), could suggest + the flight of the host, and be obeyed. + </p> + <p> + It is the absolute demoralisation of the host, in consequence of the + strange test of their Lord, Agamemnon, making a feigned proposal to fly, + and it is their confused, bewildered return to the assembly under the + persuasions of Odysseus, urged by Athene, that alone, in the poem, give + Thersites his unique opportunity to harangue. When the Over-Lord had + called an assembly the first word, of course, was for to speak, as he does + in the poem as it stands. That Thersifes should rise in the arrogance bred + by the recent disorderly and demoralised proceedings is one thing; that he + should open the debate when excitement was eager to hear Agamemnon, and + before demoralisation set in, is quite another. We never hear again of + Thersites, or of any one of the commonalty, daring to open his mouth in an + assembly. Thersites sees his one chance, the chance of a life time, and + takes it; because Agamemnon, by means of the test—a proposal to flee + homewards—which succeeded, it is said, in the case of Cortès,—has + reduced the host, already discontented, to a mob. + </p> + <p> + Before Agamemnon thus displayed his ineptitude, as he often does later, + Thersites had no chance. All this appears sufficiently obvious, if we put + ourselves at the point of view of the original listeners. Thersites merely + continues, in full assembly, the mutinous babble which he has been pouring + out to his neighbours during the confused rush to launch the ships and + during the return produced by the influence of Odysseus. The poet says so + himself (<i>Iliad</i>, II. 212). "The rest sat down ... only Thersites + still chattered on." No original poet could manage the situation in any + other way. + </p> + <p> + We have now examined Mr. Leaf's two supposed earliest versions of the + beginning of the <i>Iliad</i>. His presumed earlier version (A), with no + Thetis, no promise of Zeus, and no Dream, and with Thersites opening + debate, is jejune, unpoetical, and omits the gentler and most winning + aspect of the character of Achilles, while it could not possibly have been + accepted by a feudal audience for the reasons already given. His presumed + later version (B), with Thetis, Zeus, and the false Dream, cannot be, or + certainly has not been, brought by Mr. Leaf into congruous connection with + Book XI., and it results in the fighting of the <i>unarmed</i> Agamemnon, + which no poet could have been so careless as to invent. Agamemnon could + not go into battle without helmet, shield, and spears (the other armour we + need not dwell upon here), and Thersites could not have opened a debate + when the Over-Lord had called the Assembly, nor could he have moved the + chiefs to prepare for flight, unless, as in the actual <i>Iliad</i>, they + had already been demoralised by the result of the feigned proposal of + flight by Agamemnon, and its effect upon the host. Probably every reader + who understands heroic society, temper, and manners will, so far, agree + with us. + </p> + <p> + Our own opinion is that the difficulties in the poem are caused partly by + the poet's conception of the violent, wavering, excitable, and unstable + character of Agamemnon; partly by some accident, now indiscoverable, save + by conjecture, which has happened to the text. + </p> + <p> + The story in the actual <i>Iliad</i> is that Zeus, planning disaster for + the Achaeans, in accordance with his promise to Thetis, sends a false + Dream, to tell Agamemnon that he will take Troy instantly. He is bidden by + the Dream to summon the host to arms. Agamemnon, <i>still asleep</i>, "has + in his mind things not to be fulfilled: Him seemeth that he shall take + Priam's town that very day" (II. 36, 37). "Then he awoke" (II. 41), and, + obviously, was no longer so sanguine, once awake! + </p> + <p> + Being a man crushed by his responsibility, and, as commander-in-chief, + extremely timid, though personally brave, he disobeys the Dream, dresses + in civil costume, and summons the host to a <i>peaceful</i> assembly, not + to war, as the Dream bade him do. Probably he thought that the host was + disaffected, and wanted to argue with them, in place of commanding. + </p> + <p> + Here it is that the difficulty comes in, and our perplexity is increased + by our ignorance of the regular procedure in Homeric times. Was the host + not in arms and fighting every day, when there was no truce? There seems + to have been no armistice after the mutiny of Achilles, for we are told + that, in the period between his mutiny and the day of the Dream of + Agamemnon, Achilles "was neither going to the Assembly, nor into battle, + but wasted his heart, abiding there, longing for war and the slogan" (I. + 489, 492). Thus it seems that war went on, and that assemblies were being + held, in the absence of Achilles. It appears, however, that the fighting + was mere skirmishing and raiding, no general onslaught was attempted; and + from Book II. <i>73</i>, 83 it seems to have been a matter of doubt, with + Agamemnon and Nestor, whether the army would venture a pitched battle. + </p> + <p> + It also appears, from the passage cited (I. 489, 492) that assemblies were + being regularly held; we are told that Achilles did not attend them. Yet, + when we come to the assembly (II. 86-100) it seems to have been a special + and exciting affair, to judge by the brilliant picture of the crowds, the + confusion, and the cries. Nothing of the sort is indicated in the meeting + of the assembly in I. <i>54-5</i> 8. Why is there so much excitement at + the assembly of Book II.? Partly because it was summoned <i>at</i> dawn, + whereas the usual thing was for the host to meet in arms before fighting + on the plain or going on raids; assemblies were held when the day's work + was over. The host, therefore, when summoned to an assembly <i>at dawn</i>, + expects to hear of something out of the common—as the mutiny of + Achilles suggests—and is excited. + </p> + <p> + We must ask, then, why does Agamemnon, after the Dream has told him merely + to summon the host to arm—a thing of daily routine—call a + deliberative morning assembly, a thing clearly not of routine? If + Agamemnon is really full of confidence, inspired by the Dream, why does he + determine, not to do what is customary, call the men to arms, but as + Jeanne d'Arc said to the Dauphin, to "hold such long and weary councils"? + Mr. Jevons speaks of Agamemnon's "confidence in the delusive dream" as at + variance with his proceedings, and would excise II. 35-41, "the only lines + which represent Agamemnon as confidently believing in the Dream." + {Footnote: <i>Journal</i> of <i>Hellenic</i> Studies, vol. vii. pp. 306, + 307.} But the poet never once says that Agamemnon, awake, did believe + confidently in the Dream! Agamemnon dwelt with hope <i>while</i> asleep; + when he wakened—he went and called a peaceful morning assembly, + though the Dream bade him call to arms. He did not dare to risk his + authority. This was exactly in keeping with his character. The poet should + have said, "When he woke, the Dream appeared to him rather poor security + for success" (saying so in poetic language, of course), and then there + would be no difficulty in the summoning of an assembly at dawn. But either + the poet expected us to understand the difference between the hopes of + Agamemnon sleeping, and the doubts of Agamemnon waking to chill realities—an + experience common to all of us who dream—or some explanatory lines + have been dropped out—one or two would have cleared up the matter. + </p> + <p> + If I am right, the poet has not been understood. People have not observed + that Agamemnon hopes while asleep, and doubts, and acts on his doubt, when + awake. Thus Mr. Leaf writes: "Elated by the dream, as we are led to + suppose, Agamemnon summons the army—to lead them into battle? + Nothing of the sort; he calls them to assembly." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. p. 46.} But we ought not to have been led to suppose that the + waking Agamemnon was so elated as the sleeping Agamemnon. He was + "disillusioned" on waking; his conduct proves it; he did not know what to + think about the Dream; he did not know how the host would take the Dream; + he doubted whether they would fight at his command, so he called an + assembly. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Jevons very justly cites a parallel case. Grote has remarked that in + Book VII. of Herodotus, "The dream sent by the Gods to frighten Xerxes + when about to recede from his project," has "a marked parallel in the <i>Iliad</i>." + Thus Xerxes, after the defection of Artabanus, was despondent, like + Agamemnon after the mutiny of Achilles, and was about to recede from his + project. To both a delusive dream is sent urging them to proceed. Xerxes + calls an assembly, however, and says that he will not proceed. Why? + Because, says Herodotus, "when day came, he thought nothing of his dream." + Agamemnon, once awake, thought doubtfully of <i>his</i> dream; he called a + Privy Council, told the princes about his dream—of which Nestor had + a very dubious opinion—and said that he would try the temper of the + army by proposing instant flight: the chiefs should restrain the men if + they were eager to run away. + </p> + <p> + Now the epic prose narrative of Herodotus is here clearly based on <i>Iliad</i>, + II., which Herodotus must have understood as I do. But in Homer there is + no line to say—and one line or two would have been enough—that + Agamemnon, when awake, doubted, like Xerxes, though Agamemnon, when + asleep, had been confident. The necessary line, for all that we know, + still existed in the text used by Herodotus. Homer may lose a line as well + as Dieuchidas of Megara, or rather Diogenes Laertius. Juvenal lost a whole + passage, re-discovered by Mr. Winstedt in a Bodleian manuscript. If Homer + expected modern critics to note the delicate distinction between Agamemnon + asleep and Agamemnon awake, or to understand Agamemnon's character, he + expected too much. {Footnote: Cf. Jevons, <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, + vol. vii. pp. 306, 307.} The poet then treats the situation on these + lines: Agamemnon, awake and free from illusion, does not obey the dream, + does <i>not</i> call the army to war; he takes a middle course. + </p> + <p> + In the whole passage the poet's main motive, as Mr. Monro remarks with + obvious truth, is "to let his audience become acquainted with the temper + and spirit of the army as it was affected by the long siege ... and by the + events of the First Book." {Footnote: Monro, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. + 261.} The poet could not obtain his object if Agamemnon merely gave the + summons to battle; and he thinks Agamemnon precisely the kind of waverer + who will call, first the Privy Council of the Chiefs, and then an + assembly. Herein the homesick host will display its humours, as it does + with a vengeance. Agamemnon next tells his Dream to the chiefs (if he had + a dream of this kind he would most certainly tell it), and adds (as has + been already stated) that he will first test the spirit of the army by a + feigned proposal of return to Greece, while the chiefs are to restrain + them if they rush to launch the ships. Nestor hints that there is not much + good in attending to dreams; however, this is the dream of the Over-Lord, + who is the favoured of Zeus. + </p> + <p> + Agamemnon next, addressing the assembly, says that posterity will think it + a shameful thing that the Achaeans raised the siege of a town with a + population much smaller than their own army; but allies from many cities + help the Trojans, and are too strong for him, whether posterity + understands that or not. "Let us flee with our ships!" + </p> + <p> + On this the host break up, in a splendid passage of poetry, and rush to + launch the ships, the passion of <i>nostalgie</i> carrying away even the + chiefs, it appears—a thing most natural in the circumstances. But + Athene finds Odysseus in grief: "neither laid he any hand upon his ship," + as the others did, and she encouraged him to stop the flight. This he + does, taking the sceptre of Agamemnon from his unnerved hand. + </p> + <p> + He goes about reminding the princes "have we not heard Agamemnon's real + intention in council?" (II. 188-197), and rating the common sort. The + assembly meets again in great confusion; Thersites seizes the chance to be + insolent, and is beaten by Odysseus. The host then arms for battle. + </p> + <p> + The poet has thus shown Agamemnon in the colours which he wears + consistently all through the <i>Iliad</i>. He has, as usual, contrasted + with him Odysseus, the type of a wise and resolute man. This contrast the + poet maintains without fail throughout. He has shown us the temper of the + weary, home-sick army, and he has persuaded us that he knows how subtle, + dangerous, and contagious a thing is military panic. Thus, at least, I + venture to read the passage, which, thus read, is perfectly intelligible. + Agamemnon is no personal coward, but the burden of the safety of the host + overcomes him later, and he keeps suggesting flight in the ships, as we + shall see. Suppose, then, we read on from II. 40 thus: "The Dream left him + thinking of things not to be, even that on this day he shall take the town + of Priam.... But he awoke from sleep with the divine voice ringing in his + ears. (<i>Then it seemed him that some dreams are true and</i> some <i>false, + for all do</i> not <i>come through the Gate of</i> Horn.) So he arose and + sat up and did on his soft tunic, and his great cloak, and grasped his + ancestral sceptre ... and bade the clear-voiced heralds summon the + Achaeans of the long locks to the deliberative assembly." He then, as in + II. 53-75 told his Dream to the preliminary council, and proposed that he + should try the temper of the host by proposing flight—which, if it + began, the chiefs were to restrain—before giving orders to arm. The + test of the temper of the host acted as it might be expected to act; all + rushed to launch the ships, and the princes were swept away in the tide of + flight, Agamemnon himself merely looking on helpless. The panic was + contagious; only Odysseus escaped its influence, and redeemed the honour + of the Achaeans, as he did again on a later day. + </p> + <p> + The passage certainly has its difficulties. But Erhardt expresses the + proper state of the case, after giving his analysis. "The hearer's + imagination is so captured, first by the dream, then by the brawling + assembly, by the rush to the ships, by the intervention of Odysseus, by + the punishment of Thersites—all these living pictures follow each + other so fleetly before the eyes that we have scarcely time to make + objections." {Footnote: <i>Die Enstehung der Homerische Gedichte</i>, p. + 29.}. The poet aimed at no more and no less effect than he has produced, + and no more should be required by any one, except by that anachronism—"the + analytical reader." <i>He</i> has "time to make objections": the poet's + audience had none; and he must be criticised from their point of view. + Homer did not sing for analytical readers, for the modern professor; he + could not possibly conceive that Time would bring such a being into + existence. + </p> + <p> + To return to the character of Agamemnon. In moments of encouragement + Agamemnon is a valiant fighter, few better spearmen, yet "he attains not + to the first Three," Achilles, Aias, Diomede. But Agamemnon is unstable as + water; again and again, as in Book II., the lives and honour of the + Achaeans are saved in the Over-Lord's despite by one or other of the + peers. The whole <i>Iliad</i>, with consistent uniformity, pursues the + scheme of character and conduct laid down in the two first Books. It is + guided at once by feudal allegiance and feudal jealousy, like the <i>Chansons + de Geste</i> and the early sagas or romances of Ireland. A measure of + respect for Agamemnon, even of sympathy, is preserved; he is not degraded + as the kings and princes are often degraded on the Attic stage, and even + in the Cyclic poems. Would wandering Ionian reciters at fairs have + maintained this uniformity? Would the tyrant Pisistratus have made his + literary man take this view? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <h3> + AGAMEMNON IN THE LATER "ILIAD" + </h3> + <p> + In the Third Book, Agamemnon receives the compliments due to his + supremacy, aspect, and valour from the lips of Helen and Priam. There are + other warriors taller by a head, and Odysseus was shorter than he by a + head, so Agamemnon was a man of middle stature. He is "beautiful and + royal" of aspect; "a good king and a mighty spearman," says Helen. + </p> + <p> + The interrupted duel between Menelaus and Paris follows, and then the + treacherous wounding of Menelaus by Pandarus. One of Agamemnon's most + sympathetic characteristics is his intense love of his brother, for whose + sake he has made the war. He shudders on seeing the arrow wound, but + consoles Menelaus by the certainty that Troy will fall, for the Trojans + have broken the solemn oath of truce. Zeus "doth fulfil at last, and men + make dear amends." But with characteristic inconsistency he discourages + Menelaus by a picture of many a proud Trojan leaping on his tomb, while + the host will return home-an idea constantly present to Agamemnon's mind. + He is always the first to propose flight, though he will "return with + shame" to Mycenae. Menelaus is of much better cheer: "Be of good courage, + {blank space} ALL THE HOST OF THE {misprint}"—a thing which + Agamemnon does habitually, though he is not a personal poltroon. As + Menelaus has only a slight flesh wound after all, and as the Trojans are + doomed men, Agamemnon is now "eager for glorious battle." He encourages + the princes, but, of all men, rebukes Odysseus as "last at a fray and + first at a feast": such is his insolence, for which men detest him. + </p> + <p> + This is highly characteristic in Agamemnon, who has just been redeemed + from ruin by Odysseus. Rebuked by Odysseus, he "takes back his word" as + usual, and goes on to chide Diomede as better at making speeches than at + fighting! But Diomede made no answer, "having respect to the chiding of + the revered King." He even rebukes the son of Capaneus for answering + Agamemnon haughtily. Diomede, however, does not forget; he bides his time. + He now does the great deeds of his day of valour (Book V.). Agamemnon + meanwhile encourages the host. + </p> + <p> + During Books V., VI. Agamemnon's business is "to bid the rest keep + fighting." When Hector, in Book VII., challenges any Achaean, nobody + volunteers except Menelaus, who has a strong sense of honour. Agamemnon + restrains him, and lots are cast: the host pray that the lot may fall on + Aias, Diomede, or Agamemnon (VII. 179-180). Thus the Over-Lord is + acknowledged to be a man of his hands, especially good at hurling the + spear, as we see again in Book XXIII. + </p> + <p> + A truce is proposed for the burial of the dead, and Paris offers to give + up the wealth that he brought to Troy, and more, if the Achaeans will go + home, but Helen he will not give up. We expect Agamemnon to answer as + becomes him. But no! All are silent, till Diomede rises. They will not + return, he says, even if Helen be restored, for even a fool knows that + Troy is doomed, because of the broken oath. The rest shout acquiescence, + and Agamemnon refuses the compromise. Apparently he would not have + disdained it, but for Diomede's reply. + </p> + <p> + On the following day the Trojans have the better in the battle, and + Agamemnon "has no heart to stand," nor have some of his peers. But Diomede + has more courage, and finally Agamemnon begins to call to the host to + fight, but breaks down, weeps, and prays to Zeus "that we ourselves at + least flee and escape;" he is not an encouraging commander-in-chief! Zeus, + in pity, sends a favourable omen; Aias fights well; night falls, and the + Trojans camp on the open plain. + </p> + <p> + Agamemnon, in floods of tears, calls an assembly, and proposes to "return + to Argos with dishonour." "Let us flee with our ships to our dear native + land, for now shall we never take wide-wayed Troy," All are silent, till + Diomede rises and reminds Agamemnon that "thou saidst I was no man of war, + but a coward." (In Book V.; we are now in Book IX.) "Zeus gave thee the + honour of the sceptre above all men, but valour he gave thee not.... Go + thy way; thy way is before thee, and thy ships stand beside the sea. But + all the other flowing-haired Achaeans will tarry here until we waste + Troy." + </p> + <p> + Nestor advises Agamemnon to set an advanced guard, which that martialist + had never thought of doing, and to discuss matters over supper. A force of + 700 men, under Meriones and the son of Nestor, was posted between the foss + and the wall round the camp; the council met, and Nestor advised Agamemnon + to approach Achilles with gentle words and gifts of atonement. Agamemnon, + full of repentance, acknowledges his folly and offers enormous atonement. + Heralds and three ambassadors are sent; and how Achilles received them, + with perfect courtesy, but with absolute distrust of Agamemnon and refusal + of his gifts, sending the message that he will fight only when fire comes + to his own ships, we know. + </p> + <p> + Achilles is now entirely in the wrong, and the Over-Lord is once more + within his right. He has done all, or more than all, that customary law + demands. In Book IX. Phoenix states the case plainly. "If Agamemnon + brought thee not gifts, and promised thee more hereafter, ... then were I + not he that should bid thee cast aside thine anger, and save the + Argives...." (IX. 515-517). The case so stands that, if Achilles later + relents and fights, the gifts of atonement will no longer be due to him, + and he "will not be held in like honour" (IX. 604). + </p> + <p> + The poet knows intimately, and, like his audience, is keenly interested in + the details of the customary law. We cannot easily suppose this frame of + mind and this knowledge in a late poet addressing a late Ionian audience. + </p> + <p> + The ambassadors return to Agamemnon; their evil tidings are received in + despairing silence. But Diomede bids Agamemnon take heart and fight next + day, with his host arrayed "before the ships" (IX. 708). This appears to + counsel defensive war; but, in fact, and for reasons, when it comes to + fighting they do battle in the open. + </p> + <p> + The next Book (X.) is almost universally thought a late interpolation; an + opinion elsewhere discussed (see {blank space}). Let us, then, say with + Mr. Leaf that the Book begins with "exaggerated despondency" and ends with + "hasty exultation," in consequence of a brilliant camisade, wherein + Odysseus and Diomede massacre a Thracian contingent. Our point is that the + poet carefully (see <i>The Doloneia</i>) continues the study of Agamemnon + in despondency, and later, by his "hasty exultation," preludes to the + valour which the Over-Lord displays in Book XI. + </p> + <p> + The poet knows that something in the way of personal valour is due to + Agamemnon's position; he fights brilliantly, receives a flesh wound, + retires, and is soon proposing a general flight in his accustomed way. + When the Trojans, in Book XIV., are attacking the ships, Agamemnon remarks + that he fears the disaffection of his whole army (XIV. 49, 51), and, as + for the coming defeat, that he "knew it," even when Zeus helped the + Greeks. They are all to perish far from Argos. Let them drag the ships to + the sea, moor them with stones, and fly, "For there is no shame in fleeing + from ruin, even in the night. Better doth he fare who flees from trouble + than he that is overtaken." It is now the turn of Odysseus again to save + the honour of the army. "Be silent, lest some other of the Achaeans hear + this word, that no man should so much as suffer to pass through his + mouth.... And now I wholly scorn thy thoughts, such a word hast thou + uttered." On this Agamemnon instantly repents. "Right sharply hast thou + touched my heart with thy stern reproof:" he has not even the courage of + his nervousness. + </p> + <p> + The combat is now in the hands of Aias and Patroclus, who is slain. + Agamemnon, who is wounded, does not reappear till Book XIX., when + Achilles, anxious to fight and avenge Patroclus at once, without + formalities of reconciliation, professes his desire to let bygones be + bygones. Agamemnon excuses his insolence to Achilles as an inspiration of + Ate: a predestined fault—"Not I am the cause, but Zeus and Destiny." + </p> + <p> + Odysseus, to clinch the reunion and fulfil customary law, advises + Agamemnon to bring out the gifts of atonement (the gifts prepared in Book + IX.), after which the right thing is for him to give a feast of + reconciliation, "that Achilles may have nothing lacking of his right." + {Footnote: Book XIX. 179, 180.} The case is one which has been provided + for by customary law in every detail. Mr. Leaf argues that all this part + must be late, because of the allusion to the gifts offered in Book IX. But + we reply, with Mr. Monro, that the Ninth Book is "almost necessary to any + Achilleis." The question is, would a late editor or poet know all the + details of customary law in such a case as a quarrel between Over-Lord and + peer? would a feudal audience have been satisfied with a poem which did + not wind the quarrel up in accordance with usage? and would a late poet, + in a society no longer feudal, know how to wind it up? Would he find any + demand on the part of his audience for a long series of statements, which + to a modern seem to interrupt the story? To ourselves it appears that a + feudal audience desired the customary details; to such an audience they + were most interesting. + </p> + <p> + This is a taste which, as has been said, we find in all early poetry and + in the sagas; hence the long "runs" of the Celtic sagas, minutely repeated + descriptions of customary things. The Icelandic saga-men never weary, + though modern readers do, of legal details. For these reasons we reckon + the passages in Book XIX. about the reconciliation as original, and think + they can be nothing else. It is quite natural that, in a feudal society of + men who were sticklers for custom, the hearers should insist on having all + things done duly and in order—the giving of the gifts and the feast + of reconciliation—though the passionate Achilles himself desires to + fight at once. Odysseus insists that what we may call the regular routine + shall be gone through. It is tedious to the modern reader, but it is + surely much more probable that a feudal poet thus gratified his peculiar + audience (he looked for no other) than that a late poet, with a different + kind of audience, thrust the Reconciliation in as an "after-thought." + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. 317.} The right thing must be + done, Odysseus assures Achilles, "for I was born first, and know more + things." It is not the right thing to fight at once, unfed, and before the + solemn sacrifice by the Over-Lord, the prayer, the Oath of Agamemnon, and + the reception of the gifts by Achilles; only after these formalities, and + after the army has fed, can the host go forth. "I know more than you do; + you are a younger man," says Odysseus, speaking in accordance with feudal + character, at the risk of wearying later unforeseen generations. + </p> + <p> + This is not criticism inspired by mere "literary feeling," for "literary + feeling" is on the side of Achilles, and wishes the story to hurry to his + revenge. But ours is {blank space} criticism; we must think of the poet in + relation to his audience and of their demands, which we can estimate by + similar demands, vouched for by the supply, in the early national poetry + of other peoples and in the Icelandic sagas. + </p> + <p> + We hear no more of Agamemnon till, in Book XXIII, 35-38, after the slaying + of Hector, Achilles "was brought to noble Agamemnon" (for that, as + Odysseus said, was the regular procedure) "by the Achaean chiefs, hardly + persuading him thereto, for his heart was wroth for his comrade." Here + they feast, Achilles still full of grief and resentment. He merely goes + through the set forms, much against his will. It does appear to us that + the later the poet the less he would have known or cared about the forms. + An early society is always much interested in forms and in funerals and + funeral games, so the poet indulges their taste with the last rites of + Patroclus. The last view of Agamemnon is given when, at the end of the + games, Achilles courteously presents him with the flowered <i>lebes</i>, + the prize for hurling the spear, without asking him to compete, since his + superior skill is notorious. This act of courtesy is the real + reconciliation; previously Achilles had but gone reluctantly through the + set forms in such cases provided. Even when Agamemnon offered the gifts of + atonement, Achilles said, "Give them, as is customary, or keep them, as + you please" (XIX. 146, 148). Achilles, young and passionate, cares nothing + for the feudal procedure. + </p> + <p> + This rapid survey seems to justify the conclusion that the poet presents + an uniform and historically correct picture of the Over-Lord and of his + relations with his peers, a picture which no late editor could have pieced + together out of the widely varying <i>repertoires</i> of late strolling + reciters. Such reciters would gladly have forgotten, and such an editor + would gladly have "cut" the "business" of the reconciliation. They would + also, in a democratic spirit, have degraded the Over-Lord into the tyrant, + but throughout, however low Agamemnon may fall, the poet is guided by the + knowledge that his right to rule is <i>jure divino</i>, that he has + qualities, that his responsibilities are crushing, "I, whom among all men + Zeus hath planted for ever among labours, while my breath abides within + me, and my limbs move," says the Over-Lord (X. Sg, go.{sic}). In short, + the poet's conception of the Over-Lord is throughout harmonious, is a + contemporary conception entertained by a singer who lives among peers that + own, and are jealous of, and obey an Over-Lord. The character and + situation of Agamemnon are a poetic work of one age, one moment of + culture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <h3> + ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE "ILIAD". BURIAL AND CREMATION + </h3> + <p> + In archaeological discoveries we find the most convincing proofs that the + <i>Iliad</i>, on the whole, is the production of a single age, not the + patchwork of several changeful centuries. This may seem an audacious + statement, as archaeology has been interpreted of late in such a manner as + to demand precisely the opposite verdict. But if we can show, as we think + we can, that many recent interpretations of the archaeological evidence + are not valid, because they are not consistent, our contention, though + unexpected, will be possible. It is that the combined testimony of + archaeology and of the Epic proves the <i>Iliad</i> to represent, as + regards customs, weapons, and armour, a definite moment of evolution; a + period between the age recorded in the art of the Mycenaean shaft graves + and the age of early iron swords and the "Dipylon" period. + </p> + <p> + Before the discoveries of the material remains of the "Mycenzean" times, + the evidence of archaeology was seldom appropriately invoked in + discussions of the Homeric question. But in the thirty years since + Schliemann explored the buried relics of the Mycenzean Acropolis, his + "Grave of Agamemnon," a series of excavations has laid bare the + interments, the works of art, and the weapons and ornaments of years long + prior to the revolution commonly associated with the "Dorian Invasion" of + about 1100-1000 B.C. The objects of all sorts which have been found in + many sites of Greece and the isles, especially of Cyprus and Crete, in + some respects tally closely with Homeric descriptions, in others vary from + them widely. Nothing can be less surprising, if the heroes whose legendary + feats inspired the poet lived centuries before his time, as Charlemagne + and his Paladins lived some three centuries before the composition of the + earliest extant <i>Chansons de Geste</i> on their adventures. There was, + in such a case, time for much change in the details of life, art, weapons + and implements. Taking the relics in the graves of the Mycenaean Acropolis + as a starting-point, some things would endure into the age of the poet, + some would be modified, some would disappear. + </p> + <p> + We cannot tell how long previous to his own date the poet supposes the + Achaean heroes to have existed. He frequently ascribes to them feats of + strength which "no man of such as now are" could perform. This gives no + definite period for the interval; he might be speaking of the great + grandfathers of his own generation. But when he regards the heroes as + closely connected by descent of one or two generations with the gods, and + as in frequent and familiar intercourse with gods and goddesses, we must + suppose that he did not think their period recent. The singers of the <i>Chansons + de Geste</i> knew that angels' visits were few and far between at the + period, say, of the Norman Conquest; but they allowed angels to appear in + epics dealing with the earlier time, almost as freely as gods intervene in + Homer. In short, the Homeric poet undeniably treats the age of his heroes + as having already, in the phrase of Thucydides, "won its way to the + mythical," and therefore as indefinitely remote. + </p> + <p> + It is impossible here to discuss in detail the complex problems of + Mycenaean chronology. If we place the Mycenaean "bloom-time" from "the + seventeenth or sixteenth to the twelfth century B.C.," {Footnote: Tsountas + and Manatt, p. 322.} it is plain that there is space to spare, between the + poet's age and that of his heroes, for the rise of changes in war, + weapons, and costume. Indeed, there are traces enough of change even in + the objects and art discovered in the bloom-time, as represented by the + Mycenaean acropolis itself and by other "Mycenaean" sites. The art of the + fragment of a silver vase in a grave, on which a siege is represented, is + not the art, the costumes are not the costumes, of the inlaid bronze + dagger-blade. The men shown on the vase and the lion-hunters on the dagger + both have their hair close cropped, but on the vase they are naked, on the + dagger they wear short drawers. On the Vaphio cups, found in a <i>tholos</i> + chamber-tomb near Amyclae, the men are "long-haired Achaeans," with heavy, + pendent locks, like the man on a pyxis from Knossos, published by Mr. + Evans; they are of another period than the close-cropped men of the vase + and dagger. {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vol. xvi. p. + 102.} Two of the men on the silver vase are covered either with shields of + a shape and size elsewhere unknown in Mycenaean art, or with cloaks of an + unexampled form. The masonry of the city wall, shown on the vase in the + Mycenaean grave, is not the ordinary masonry of Mycenae itself. On the + vase the wall is "isodomic," built of cut stones in regular layers. Most + of the Mycenaean walls, on the other hand, are of "Cyclopean" style, in + large irregular blocks. + </p> + <p> + Art, good and very bad, exists in many various stages in Mycenaean relics. + The drawing of a god, with a typical Mycenaean shield in the form of a + figure 8, on a painted sarcophagus from Milato in Crete, is more crude and + savage than many productions of the Australian aboriginals, {Footnote: <i>Journal + of Hellenic Studies, vol. xvi. </i>p.<i> 174, fig. 50.</i> Grosse. <i>Les + Debuts de l'Art,</i> pp. 124-176.} the thing is on the level of Red Indian + work. Meanwhile at Vaphio, Enkomi, Knossos, and elsewhere the art is often + excellent. + </p> + <p> + In one essential point the poet describes a custom without parallel among + the discovered relics of the Mycenaean age—namely, the disposal of + the bodies of the dead. They are neither buried with their arms, in + stately <i>tholos</i> tombs nor in shaft graves, as at Mycenae: whether + they be princes or simple oarsmen, they are cremated. A pyre of wood is + built; on this the warrior's body is laid, the pyre is lighted, the body + is reduced to ashes, the ashes are placed in a vessel or box of gold, + wrapped round with precious cloths (no arms are buried, as a general + rule), and a mound, howe, barrow, or tumulus is raised over all. Usually a + <i>stele</i> or pillar crowns the edifice. This method is almost uniform, + and, as far as cremation and the cairn go, is universal in the <i>Iliad</i> + and <i>Odyssey</i> whenever a burial is described. Now this mode of + interment must be the mode of a single age in Greek civilisation. It is + confessedly not the method of the Mycenaeans of the shaft grave, or of the + latter <i>tholos</i> or stone beehive-shaped grave; again, the Mycenaeans + did not burn the dead; they buried. Once more, the Homeric method is not + that of the Dipylon period (say 900-750 B.C.) represented by the tombs + outside the Dipylon gate of Athens. The people of that age now buried, now + burned, their dead, and did not build cairns over them. Thus the Homeric + custom comes between the shaft graves and the latter <i>tholos</i> graves, + on the one hand, and the Dipylon custom of burning or burying, with sunk + or rock-hewn graves, on the other. + </p> + <p> + The Homeric poets describe the method of their own period. They assuredly + do not adhere to an older epic tradition of shaft graves or <i>tholos</i> + graves, though these must have been described in lays of the period when + such methods of disposal of the dead were in vogue. The altar above the + shaft-graves in Mycenae proves the cult of ancestors in Mycenae; of this + cult in the <i>Iliad</i> there is no trace, or only a dim trace of + survival in the slaughter of animals at the funeral. The Homeric way of + thinking about the state of the dead, weak, shadowy things beyond the + river Oceanus, did not permit them to be worshipped as potent beings. Only + in a passage, possibly interpolated, of the <i>Odyssey</i>, do we hear + that Castor and Polydeuces, brothers of Helen, and sons of Tyndareus, + through the favour of Zeus have immortality, and receive divine honours. + {Footnote: Odyssey, XI. 298-304.} + </p> + <p> + These facts are so familiar that we are apt to overlook the strangeness of + them in the history of religious evolution. The cult of ancestral spirits + begins in the lowest barbarism, just above the level of the Australian + tribes, who, among the Dieri, show some traces of the practice, at least, + of ghost feeding. {Footnote: Howitt, <i>Native Tribes of South-Eastern + Australia,</i> p. 448. There are also traces of propitiation in Western + Australia (MS. of Mrs. Bates).} Sometimes, as in many African tribes, + ancestor worship is almost the whole of practical cult. Usually it + accompanies polytheism, existing beside it on a lower plane. It was + prevalent in the Mycenae of the shaft graves; in Attica it was + uninterrupted; it is conspicuous in Greece from the ninth century onwards. + But it is unknown to or ignored by the Homeric poets, though it can hardly + have died out of folk custom. Consequently, the poems are of one age, an + age of cremation and of burial in barrows, with no ghost worship. + Apparently some revolution as regards burial occurred between the age of + the graves of the Mycenaean acropolis and the age of Homer. That age, + coming with its form of burning and its absence of the cult of the dead, + between two epochs of inhumation, ancestor worship, and absence of cairns, + is as certainly and definitely an age apart, a peculiar period, as any + epoch can be. + </p> + <p> + Cremation, with cairn burial of the ashes, is, then, the only form of + burial mentioned by Homer, and, as far as the poet tells us, the period + was not one in which iron was used for swords and spears. At Assarlik + (Asia Minor) and in Thera early graves, prove the use of cremation, but + also, unlike Homer, of iron weapons. {Footnote: Paton, Journal <i>of + Hellenic Studies,</i> viii. 64<i>ff</i>. For other references, cf. + Poulsen, <i>Die Dipylongräben</i>, p. 2, Notes. Leipzig 1905.} In these + graves the ashes are inurned. There are examples of the same usage in + Salamis, without iron. In Crete, in graves of the period of geometrical + ornament ("Dipylon"), burning is more common than inhumation. Cremation is + attested in a <i>tholos</i> or beehive-shaped grave in Argos, where the + vases were late Mycenaean. Below this stratum was an older shaft grave, as + is usual in <i>tholos</i> interments; it had been plundered? {Footnote: + Poulsen, p.2.} + </p> + <p> + The cause of the marked change from Mycenaean inhumation to Homeric + cremation is matter of conjecture. It has been suggested that burning was + introduced during the migrations after the Dorian invasion. Men could + carry the ashes of their friends to the place where they finally settled. + {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Homerische Epos,</i> p.83} The question may, + perhaps, be elucidated by excavation, especially in Asia Minor, on the + sites of the earliest Greek colonies. At Colophon are many cairns + unexplored by science. Mr. Ridgeway, as is well known, attributes the + introduction of cremation to a conquering northern people, the Achaeans, + his "Celts." It is certain that cremation and urn burial of the ashes + prevailed in Britain during the Age of Bronze, and co-existed with + inhumation in the great cemetery of Hallstatt, surviving into the Age of + Iron. {Footnote: Cf. <i>Guide to Antiquities of Early Iron Age,</i> + British Museum, 1905, by Mr. Reginald A. Smith, under direction of Mr. + Charles H. Read, for a brief account of Hallstatt culture.} Others suppose + a change in Achaean ideas about the soul; it was no longer believed to + haunt the grave and grave goods and be capable of haunting the living, but + to be wholly set free by burning, and to depart for ever to the House of + Hades, powerless and incapable of hauntings. + </p> + <p> + It is never easy to decide as to whether a given mode of burial is the + result of a definite opinion about the condition of the dead, or whether + the explanation offered by those who practise the method is an + afterthought. In Tasmania among the lowest savages, now extinct, were + found monuments over cremated human remains, accompanied with "characters + crudely marked, similar to those which the aborigines tattooed on their + forearms." In one such grave was a spear, "for the dead man to fight with + when he is asleep," as a native explained. Some Tasmanian tribes burned + the dead and carried the ashes about in amulets; others buried in hollow + trees; others simply inhumed. Some placed the dead in a hollow tree, and + cremated the body after lapse of time. Some tied the dead up tightly (a + common practice with inhumation), and then burned him. Some buried the + dead in an erect 'posture. The common explanation of burning was that it + prevented the dead from returning, thus it has always been usual to burn + the bodies of vampires. Did a race so backward hit on an idea unknown to + the Mycenaean Greeks? {Footnote: Ling Roth., <i>The Tasmanians</i>, pp. + 128-134. Reports of Early Discoverers.} If the usual explanation be + correct—burning prevents the return of the dead—how did the + Homeric Greeks come to substitute burning for the worship and feeding of + the dead, which had certainly prevailed? How did the ancient method + return, overlapping and blent with the method of cremation, as in the + early Dipylon interments? We can only say that the Homeric custom is + definite and isolated, and that but slight variations occur in the methods + of Homeric burial. + </p> + <p> + (1)In <i>Iliad</i>, VI, 4 I 6 <i>ff</i>, Andromache <i>SAYS</i> that + Achilles slew her father, "yet he despoiled him not, for his soul had + shame of that; but he burnt him in his inlaid armour, and raised a barrow + over him." We are not told that the armour was interred with the ashes of + Eetion. This is a peculiar case. We always hear in the that the dead are + burned, and the ashes of princes are placed in a vessel of gold within an + artificial hillock; but we do not hear, except in this passage, that they + are burned in their armour, or that it is burned, or that it is buried + with the ashes of the dead. The invariable practice is for the victor, if + he can, to despoil the body of the fallen foe; but Achilles for some + reason spared that indignity in the case of Eetion. {Footnote: German + examples of burning the amis of the cremated dead and then burying them + are given by Mr. Ridgeway, <i>Early Age of Greece,</i> vol. i. pp. 498, + 499.} + </p> + <p> + (2) <i>ILIAD,</i> VII. 85. Hector, in his challenge to a single combat, + makes the conditions that the victor shall keep the arms and armour of the + vanquished, but shall restore his body to his friends. The Trojans will + burn him, if he falls; if the Achaean falls, the others will do something + expressed by the word {Greek: tarchuchosi} probably a word surviving from + an age of embalment. {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Homerische Epos,</i> pp. 55, + 56.} It has come to mean, generally, to do the funeral rites. The hero is + to have a barrow or artificial howe or hillock built over him, "beside + wide Hellespont," a memorial of him, and of Hector's valour. + </p> + <p> + On the River Helmsdale, near Kildonan, on the left bank, there is such a + hillock which has never, it is believed, been excavated. It preserves the + memory of its occupant, an early Celtic saint; whether he was cremated or + not it is impossible to say. But his memory is not lost, and the howe, + cairn, or hillock, in Homer is desired by the heroes as a MEMORIAL. + </p> + <p> + On the terms proposed by Hector the arms of the dead could not be either + burned or buried with him. + </p> + <p> + (3) Iliad, IX. 546. Phoenix says that the Calydonian boar "brought many to + the mournful pyre." All were cremated. + </p> + <p> + (4) <i>Iliad</i>, XXII 50-55. Andromache in her dirge (the <i>regret</i> + of the French mediaeval epics) says that Hector lies unburied by the ships + and naked, but she will burn raiment of his, "delicate and fair, the work + of women ... to thee no profit, since thou wilt never lie therein, yet + this shall be honour to thee from the men and women of Troy." Her meaning + is not very clear, but she seems to imply that if Hector's body were in + Troy it would be clad in garments before cremation. + </p> + <p> + Helbig appears to think that to clothe the dead in <i>garments</i> was an + Ionian, not an ancient epic custom. But in Homer the dead always wear at + least one garment, the {Greek: pharos}, a large mantle, either white or + purple, such as Agamemnon wears in peace (Iliad, II 43), except when, like + Eetion and Elpenor in the Odyssey, they are burned in their armour. In <i>Iliad,</i> + XXIII. 69 <i>ff</i>., the shadow of the dead unburned Patroclus appears to + Achilles in his sleep asking for "his dues of fire." The whole passage, + with the account of the funeral of Patroclus, must be read carefully, and + compared with the funeral rites of Hector at the end of Book XXIV. Helbig, + in an essay of great erudition, though perhaps rather fantastic in its + generalisations, has contrasted the burials of the two heroes. Patroclus + is buried, he says, in a true portion of the old Aeolic epic (Sir Richard + Jebb thought the whole passage "Ionic"), though even into this the late + Ionian <i>bearbeiter</i> (a spectral figure), has introduced his Ionian + notions. But the Twenty-fourth Book itself is late and Ionian, Helbig + says, not genuine early Aeolian epic poetry. {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Zu den + Homerischen Bestattungsgebraüchen</i>. Aus den Sitzungsberichten der + philos. philol. und histor. Classe der Kgl. bayer. Academie der + Wissenschaften. 1900. Heft. ii. pp. 199-299.} The burial of Patroclus, + then, save for Ionian late interpolations, easily detected by Helbig, is, + he assures us, genuine "kernel," {Footnote: 2 Op. <i>laud.</i>, p. 208.} + while Hector's burial "is partly Ionian, and describes the destiny of the + dead heroes otherwise than as in the old Aeolic epos." + </p> + <p> + Here Helbig uses that one of his two alternate theories according to which + the late Ionian poets do not cling to old epic tradition, but bring in + details of the life of their own date. By Helbig's other alternate theory, + the late poets cling to the model set in old epic tradition in their + pictures of details of life. + </p> + <p> + Disintegrationists differ: far from thinking that the late Ionian poet who + buried Hector varied from the AEolic minstrel who buried Patroclus (in + Book XXIII.), Mr. Leaf says that Hector's burial is "almost an abstract" + of that of Patroclus. {Footnote: Leaf, Iliad, XXII Note to 791.} He adds + that Helbig's attempts "to distinguish the older AEolic from the newer and + more sceptical 'Ionic' faith seem to me visionary." {Footnote: Iliad, vol. + ii. p. 619. Note 2} Visionary, indeed, they do seem, but they are examples + of the efforts made to prove that the Iliad bears marks of composition + continued through several centuries. We must remember that, according to + Helbig, the Ionians, colonists in a new country, "had no use for ghosts." + A fresh colony does not produce ghosts. "There is hardly an English or + Scottish castle without its spook (<i>spuck</i>). On the other hand, you + look in vain for such a thing in the United States"—spiritualism + apart. {Footnote: Op. <i>laud.</i>, p. 204.} + </p> + <p> + This is a hasty generalisation! Helbig will, if he looks, find ghosts + enough in the literature of North America while still colonial, and in + Australia, a still more newly settled country, sixty years ago Fisher's + ghost gave evidence of Fisher's murder, evidence which, as in another + Australian case, served the ends of justice. {Footnote: See, in <i>The</i> + Valet's Tragedy (A. L.): "Fisher's Ghost."} More recent Australian ghosts + are familiar to psychical research. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +This colonial theory is one of Helbig's too venturous generalisations. +He studies the ghost, or rather dream-apparition, of Patroclus after +examining the funeral of Hector; but we shall begin with Patroclus. +Achilles (XXIII. 4-16) first hails his friend "even in the House of +Hades" (so he believes that spirits are in Hades), and says that he +has brought Hector "raw for dogs to devour," and twelve Trojans of good +family "to slaughter before thy pyre." That night, when Achilles is +asleep (XXIII. 65) the spirit ({Greek: psyche}) of Patroclus appears to +him, says that he is forgotten, and begs to be burned at once, that he +may pass the gates of Hades, for the other spirits drive him off and +will not let him associate with them "beyond the River," and he wanders +vaguely along the wide-gated dwelling of Hades. "Give me thy hand, for +never more again shall I come back from Hades, when ye have given me my +due of fire." Patroclus, being newly discarnate, does not yet know +that a spirit cannot take a living man's hand, though, in fact, tactile +hallucinations are not uncommon in the presence of phantasms of the +dead. "Lay not my bones apart from thine ... let one coffer" ({Greek: +soros}) "hide our bones." + + {Greek: Soros}, like <i>larnax</i>, is a coffin (<i>Sarg</i>), or +what the Americans call a "casket," in the opinion of Helbig: {Footnote: +OP. <i>laud</i>., p.217.} it is an oblong receptacle of the bones and dust. +Hector was buried in a <i>larnax</i>; SO will Achilles and Patroclus be +when Achilles falls, but the dust of Patroclus is kept, meanwhile, in a +golden covered cup (phialae) in the quarters of Achilles; it is not laid +in howe after his cremation (XXIII. 243). +</pre> + <p> + Achilles tries to embrace Patroclus, but fails, like Odysseus with the + shade of his mother in Hades, in the <i>ODYSSEY</i>. He exclaims that + "there remaineth then even in the House of Hades a spirit and phantom of + the dead, albeit the life" (or the wits) "be not anywise therein, for all + night hath the spirit of hapless Patroclus stood over me...." + </p> + <p> + In this speech Helbig detects the hand of the late Ionian poet. What goes + before is part of the genuine old Epic, the kernel, done at a time when + men believed that spooks could take part in the affairs of the upper + world. Achilles therefore (in his dream), thought that he could embrace + his friend. It was the sceptical Ionian, in a fresh and spookless colony, + who knew that he could not; he thinks the ghost a mere dream, and + introduces his scepticism in XXIII. 99-107. He brought in "the ruling + ideas of his own period." The ghost, says the Ionian <i>bearbeiter</i>, is + intangible, though in the genuine old epic the ghost himself thought + otherwise—he being new to the situation and without experience. This + is the first sample of the critical Ionian spirit, later so remarkable in + philosophy and natural science, says Helbig. {Footnote: Op. laud., pp. + 233,234.} + </p> + <p> + We need not discuss this acute critical theory. The natural interpretation + of the words of Achilles is obvious; as Mr. Leaf remarks, the words are + "the cry of sudden personal conviction in a matter which has hitherto been + lazily accepted as an orthodox dogma." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. + p. 620.} Already, as we have seen, Achilles has made promises to Patroclus + in the House of Hades, now he exclaims "there really is something in the + doctrine of a feeble future life." + </p> + <p> + It is vain to try to discriminate between an old epic belief in + able-bodied ghosts and an Ionian belief in mere futile <i>shades</i>, in + the Homeric poems. Everywhere the dead are too feeble to be worth + worshipping after they are burned; but, as Mr. Leaf says with obvious + truth, and with modern instances, "men are never so inconsistent as in + their beliefs about the other world." We ourselves hold various beliefs + simultaneously. The natives of Australia and of Tasmania practise, or did + practise, every conceivable way of disposing of the dead—burying, + burning, exposure in trees, carrying about the bodies or parts of them, + eating the bodies, and so forth. If each such practice corresponded, as + archaeologists believe, to a different opinion about the soul, then all + beliefs were held together at once, and this, in fact, is the case. There + is not now one and now another hard and fast orthodoxy of belief about the + dead, though now we find ancestor worship prominent and now in the shade. + </p> + <p> + After gifts of hair and the setting up of jars full of oil and honey, + Achilles has the body laid on the top of the pyre in the centre. Bodies of + sheep and oxen, two dogs and four horses, are strewed around: why, we know + not, for the dead is not supposed to need food: the rite may be a + survival, for there were sacrifices at the burials of the Mycenaean shaft + graves. Achilles slays also the twelve Trojans, "because of mine anger at + thy slaying," he says (XXIII. 23). This was his reason, as far as he + consciously had any reason, not that his friend might have twelve thralls + in Hades. After the pyre is alit Achilles drenches it all night with wine, + and, when the flame dies down, the dead hero's bones are collected and + placed in the covered cup of gold. The circle of the barrow is then marked + out, stones are set up round it (we see them round Highland tumuli), and + earth is heaped up; no more is done; the tomb is empty; the covered cup + holding the ashes is in the hut of Achilles. + </p> + <p> + We must note another trait. After the body of Patroclus was recovered, it + was washed, anointed, laid on a bier, and covered from head to foot + {Greek: heano liti}, translated by Helbig, "with a linen sheet" (cf. + XXIII. 254). The golden cup with the ashes is next wrapped {Greek: heano + liti}; here Mr. Myers renders the words "with a linen veil." Scottish + cremation burials of the Bronze Age retain traces of linen wrappings of + the urn. {Footnote: <i>Proceedings of the Scottish society of Antiquaries</i>, + 1905, p. 552. For other cases, <i>cf.</i> Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, XXIV. 796. + Note.} Over all a white {Greek: pharos} (mantle) was spread. In <i>Iliad</i>, + XXIV. 231, twelve {Greek: pharea} with chitons, single cloaks, and other + articles of dress, are taken to Achilles by Priam as part of the ransom of + Hector's body. Such is the death-garb of Patroclus; but Helbig, looking + for Ionian innovations in Book XXIV., finds that the death-garb of Hector + is not the same as that of Patroclus in Book XXIII. One difference is that + when the squires of Achilles took the ransom of Hector from the waggon of + Priam, they left in it two {Greek: pharea} and a well-spun chiton. The + women washed and anointed Hector's body; they clad him in the chiton, and + threw one {Greek: pharos} over it; we are not told what they did with the + other. Perhaps, as Mr. Leaf says, it was used as a cover for the bier, + perhaps it was not, but was laid under the body (Helbig). All we know is + that Hector's body was restored to Priam in a chiton and a {Greek: + pharos}, which do not seem to have been removed before he was burned; + while Patroclus had no chiton in death, but a {Greek: pharos} and, + apparently, a linen sheet. + </p> + <p> + To the ordinary reader this does not seem, in the circumstances, a strong + mark of different ages and different burial customs. Priam did not bring + any linen sheet—or whatever {Greek: heanos lis} may be—in the + waggon as part of Hector's ransom; and it neither became Achilles to give + nor Priam to receive any of Achilles's stuff as death-garb for Hector. The + squires, therefore, gave back to Priam, to clothe his dead son, part of + what he had brought; nothing can be more natural, and there, we may say, + is an end on't. They did what they could in the circumstances. But Helbig + has observed that, in a Cean inscription of the fifth century B.C., there + is a sumptuary law, forbidding a corpse to wear more than three white + garments, a sheet under him, a chiton, and a mantle cast over him. + {Footnote: op. <i>laud</i>., p. 209.} He supposes that Hector wore the + chiton, and had one {Greek: pharos} over him and the other under him, + though Homer does not say that. The Laws of Solon also confined the dead + man to three articles of dress. {Footnote: Plutarch, Solon, 21.} In doing + so Solon sanctioned an old custom, and that Ionian custom, described by + the author of Book XXIV., bewrays him, says Helbig, for a late Ionian <i>bearbeiter</i>, + deserting true epic usages and inserting those of his own day. But in some + Attic Dipylon vases, in the pictures of funerals, we see no garments or + sheets over the corpses. + </p> + <p> + Penelope also wove a {Greek: charos} against the burial of old Laertes, + but surely she ought to have woven for him; on Helbig's showing Hector had + <i>two</i>, Patroclus had only one; Patroclus is in the old epic, Hector + and Laertes are in the Ionian epics; therefore, Laertes should have had + two {Greek: charea} but we only hear of one. Penelope had to finish the + {Greek: charos} and show it; {Footnote: Odyssey, XXIV. 147.} now if she + wanted to delay her marriage, she should have begun the second {Greek: + charos} just as necessary as the first, if Hector, with a pair of {Greek: + charea} represents Ionian usage. But Penelope never thought of what, had + she read Helbig, she would have seen to be so obvious. She thought of no + funeral garments for the old man but one shroud {Greek: speiron} (Odyssey, + II. 102; XIX. 147); yet, being, by the theory, a character of late Ionian, + not of genuine old AEolic epic, she should have known better. It is + manifest that if even the acuteness and vast erudition of Helbig can only + find such invisible differences as these between the manners of the + genuine old epic and the late Ionian innovations, there is really no + difference, beyond such trifles as diversify custom in any age. + </p> + <p> + Hector, when burned and when his ashes have been placed in the casket, is + laid in a {Greek: kapetos}, a ditch or trench (<i>Iliad</i>, XV. 356; + XVIII. 564); but here (XXIV. 797) {Greek: kapetos} is a chamber covered + with great stones, within the howe, the casket being swathed with purple + robes, and this was the end. The ghost of Hector would not revisit the + sun, as ghosts do freely in the Cyclic poems, a proof that the Cyclics are + later than the Homeric poems. {Footnote: Helbig, op. <i>laud</i>., pp. + 240, 241.} + </p> + <p> + If the burning of the weapons of Eetion and Elpenor are traces of another + than the <i>old</i> AEolic epic faith, {Footnote: Ibid., p. 253.} they are + also traces of another than the late <i>Ionic</i> epic faith, for no + weapons are burned with Hector. In the <i>Odyssey</i> the weapons of + Achilles are not burned; in the <i>Iliad</i> the armour of Patroclus is + not burned. No victims of any kind are burned with Hector: possibly the + poet was not anxious to repeat what he had just described (his last book + is already a very long book); possibly the Trojans did not slay victims at + the burning. + </p> + <p> + The howes or barrows built over the Homeric dead were hillocks high enough + to be good points of outlook for scouts, as in the case of the barrow of + AEsyetes (<i>Iliad</i>, II. 793) and "the steep mound," the howe of lithe + Myrine (II. 814). We do not know that women were usually buried in howe, + but Myrine was a warrior maiden of the Amazons. We know, then, minutely + what the Homeric mode of burial was, with such variations as have been + noted. We have burning and howe even in the case of an obscure oarsman + like Elpenor. It is not probable, however, that every peaceful mechanic + had a howe all to himself; he may have had a small family cairn; he may + not have had an expensive cremation. + </p> + <p> + The interesting fact is that no barrow burial precisely of the Homeric + kind has ever been discovered in Greek sites. The old Mycenaeans buried + either in shaft graves or in a stately <i>tholos</i>; and in rock + chambers, later, in the town cemetery: they did not burn the bodies. The + people of the Dipylon period sometimes cremated, sometimes inhumed, but + they built no barrow over the dead. {Footnote: <i>Annal. de l'Inst.,</i> + 1872, pp. 135, 147, 167. Plausen, <i>ut supra</i>.} The Dipylon was a + period of early iron swords, made on the lines of not the best type of + bronze sword. Now, in Mr. Leaf's opinion, our Homeric accounts of burial + "are all late; the oldest parts of the poems tell us nothing." {Footnote: + <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. 619. Note 2. While Mr. Leaf says that "the + oldest parts of the poems tell us nothing" of burial, he accepts XXII. + 342, 343 as of the oldest part. These lines describe cremation, and Mr. + Leaf does not think them borrowed from the "later" VII. 79, 80, but that + VII. 79, 80 are "perhaps borrowed" from XXII. 342, 343. It follows that + "the oldest parts of the poems" do tell us of cremation.} We shall show, + however, that Mr. Leaf's "kernel" alludes to cremation. What is "late"? In + this case it is not the Dipylon period, say 900-750 B.C. It is not any + later period; one or two late barrow burials do not answer to the Homeric + descriptions. The "late" parts of the poems, therefore, dealing with + burials, in Books VI., VII., XIX., XXIII., XXIV., and the Odyssey, are of + an age not in "the Mycenaean prime," not in the Dipylon period, not in any + later period, say the seventh or sixth centuries B.C., and, necessarily, + not of any subsequent period. Yet nobody dreams of saying that the poets + describe a purely fanciful form of interment. They speak of what they know + in daily life. If it be argued that the late poets preserve, by sheer + force of epic tradition, a form of burial unknown in their own age, we + ask, "Why did epic tradition not preserve the burial methods of the + Mycenaean prime, the shaft grave, or the <i>tholos</i>, without + cremation?" + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf's own conclusion is that the people of Mycenae were "spirit + worshippers, practising inhumation, and partial mummification;" the second + fact is dubious. "In the post-Mycenaean 'Dipylon' period, we find + cremation and sepulture practised side by side. In the interval, + therefore, two beliefs have come into conflict. {Footnote: All conceivable + beliefs, we have said, about the dead are apt to coexist. For every + conceivable and some rather inconceivable contemporary Australian modes of + dealing with the dead, see Howitt, <i>Native Tribes of South-East + Australia</i>; Spencer and Gillen, <i>Northern Tribes of Central Australia</i>.} + It seems that the Homeric poems mark this intermediate point...." + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. 622.} In that case the Homeric + poems are of one age, or, at least, all of them save "the original kernel" + are of one age, namely, a period subsequent to the Mycenaean prime, but + considerably prior to the Dipylon period, which exhibits a mixture of + custom; cremation and inhumation coexisting, without barrows or howes. + </p> + <p> + We welcome this conclusion, and note that (whatever may be the case with + the oldest parts of the poems which say nothing about funerals) the latest + expansions must be of about 1100-1000 B.C. (?). The poem is so early that + it is prior to hero worship and ancestor worship; or it might be more + judicious to say that the poem is of an age that did not, officially, + practise ancestor worship, whatever may have occurred in folk-custom. The + Homeric age is one which had outgrown ancestor and hero worship, and had + not, like the age of the Cyclics, relapsed into it. <i>Enfin</i>, unless + we agree with Helbig as to essential variations of custom, the poems are + the work of one age, and that a brief age, and an age of peculiar customs, + cremation and barrow burial; and of a religion that stood, without spirit + worship, between the Mycenzean period and the ninth century. That seems as + certain as anything in prehistoric times can be, unless we are to say, + that after the age of shaft graves and spirit worship came an age of + cremation and of no spirit worship; and that late poets consciously and + conscientiously preserved the tradition of <i>this</i> period into their + own ages of hero worship and inhumation, though they did not preserve the + tradition of the shaft-grave period. We cannot accept this theory of + adherence to stereotyped poetical descriptions, nor can any one + consistently adopt it in this case. + </p> + <p> + The reason is obvious. Mr. Leaf, with many other critics, distinguishes + several successive periods of "expansion." In the first stratum we have + the remains of "the original kernel." Among these remains is The Slaying + of Hector (XXII. 1-404), "with but slight additions." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. p. xi.} In the Slaying of Hector that hero indicates cremation as + the mode of burial. "Give them my body back again, that the Trojans and + Trojans' wives grant me my due of fire after my death." Perhaps this + allusion to cremation, in the "original kernel" in the Slaying of Hector, + may be dismissed as a late borrowing from Book VII. 79, 80, where Hector + makes conditions that the fallen hero shall be restored to his friends + when he challenges the Achaeans to a duel. But whoever knows the curious + economy by way of repetition that marks early national epics has a right + to regard the allusion to cremation (XXII, 342,343) as an example of this + practice. Compare <i>La Chancun de Williame</i>, lines 1041-1058 with + lines 1140-1134. In both the dinner of a knight who has been long deprived + of food is described in passages containing many identical lines. The + poet, having found his formula, uses it whenever occasion serves. There + are several other examples in the same epic. {Footnote: <i>Romania</i>, + xxxiv. PP. 245, 246.} Repetitions in Homer need not indicate late + additions; the artifice is part of the epic as it is of the ballad manner. + If we are right, cremation is the mode of burial even in "the original + kernel." Hector, moreover, in the kernel (XXII. 256-259) makes, before his + final fight with Achilles, the same proposal as he makes in his challenge + to a duel (VII. 85 et <i>seqq</i>.). The victor shall give back the body + of the vanquished to his friends, but how the friends are to bury it + Hector does not say—in this place. When dying, he does say (XXII. + 342, 343). + </p> + <p> + In the kernel and all periods of expansion, funeral rites are described, + and in all the method is cremation, with a howe or a barrow. Thus the + method of cremation had come in as early as the "kernel," The Slaying of + Hector, and as early as the first expansions, and it lasted till the + period of the latest expansions, such as Books XXIII., XXIV. + </p> + <p> + But what is the approximate date of the various expansions of the original + poem? On that point Mr. Leaf gives his opinion. The Making of the Arms of + Achilles (Books XVIII., XIX. 1-39) is, with the Funeral of Patroclus + (XXIII. 1-256), in the second set of expansions, and is thus two removes + later than the original "kernel." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. + p. xii.} Now this is the period—the Making of the Shield for + Achilles is, at least, in touch with the period—of "the eminently + free and naturalistic treatment which we find in the best Mycenaean work, + in the dagger blades, in the siege fragment, and notably in the Vaphio + cups," (which show long-haired men, not men close-cropped, as in the + daggers and siege fragment). {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p, + 606.} The poet of the age of the second expansions, then,' is at least in + touch with the work of the shaft grave and ages. He need not be + contemporary with that epoch, but "may well have had in his mind the work + of artists older than himself." It is vaguely possible that he may have + seen an ancient shield of the Mycenaean prime, and may be inspired by + that. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. ii. pp. 606, 607.} + </p> + <p> + Moreover, and still more remarkable, the ordinary Homeric form of + cremation and howe-burial is even older than the period which, if not + contemporary with, is clearly reminiscent of, the art of the shaft graves. + For, in the period of the first expansions (VII. 1-3 I 2), the form of + burial is cremation, with a barrow or tumulus. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., + vol. ii. p. xi. and pp. 606, 607.} Thus Mr. Leaf's opinion might lead us + to the conclusion that the usual Homeric form of burial occurs in a period + <i>PRIOR</i> to an age in which the poet is apparently reminiscent of the + work of two early epochs—the epoch of shaft graves and that of <i>THOLOS</i> + graves. If this be so, cremation and urn burial in cairns may be nearly as + old as the Mycenaean shaft graves, or as old as the <i>THOLOS</i> graves, + and they endure into the age of the latest expansions. + </p> + <p> + We must not press, however, opinions founded on the apparent technical + resemblance of the free style and coloured metal work on the shield of + Achilles, to the coloured metal work and free design on the daggers of the + Mycenaean shaft graves. It is enough for us to note that the passages + concerning burial, from the "kernel" itself, and also from the earliest to + the latest expansions, are all perfectly harmonious, and of a single age—unless + we are convinced by Helbig's objections. That age must have been brief, + indeed, for, before it arrives, the period of <i>tholos</i> graves, as at + Vaphio, must expire, on one hand, while the blending of cremation with + inhumation, in the Dipylon age, must have been evolved after the cremation + age passed, on the other. That brief intervening age, however, was the age + of the <i>ILIAD</i> and Odyssey. This conclusion can only be avoided by + alleging that late poets, however recent and revolutionary, carefully + copied the oldest epic model of burial, while they innovated in almost + every other point, so we are told. We can go no further till we find an + unrifled cairn burial answering to Homeric descriptions. We have, indeed, + in Thessaly, "a large tumulus which contained a silver urn with burned + remains." But the accompanying pottery dated it in the second century B.C. + {Footnote: Ridgeway, <i>Early Age Of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 491; <i>Journal + of Hellenic Studies, vol. xx</i>. pp. 20-25.} It is possible enough that + all tumuli of the Homeric period have been robbed by grave plunderers in + the course of the ages, as the Vikings are said to have robbed the cairns + of Sutherlandshire, in which they were not likely to find a rich reward + for their labours. A conspicuous howe invites robbery—the heroes of + the Saga, like Grettir, occasionally rob a howe—and the fact is + unlucky for the Homeric archaeologist. + </p> + <p> + We have now tried to show that, as regards (1) to the absence from Homer + of new religious and ritual ideas, or of very old ideas revived in Ionia, + (2) as concerns the clear conception of a loose form of feudalism, with an + Over-Lord, and (3) in the matter of burial, the <i>Iliad</i> and Odyssey + are self-consistent, and bear the impress of a single and peculiar moment + of culture. + </p> + <p> + The fact, if accepted, is incompatible with the theory that the poets both + introduced the peculiar conditions of their own later ages and also, on + other occasions, consciously and consistently "archaised." Not only is + such archaising inconsistent with the art of an uncritical age, but a + careful archaiser, with all the resources of Alexandrian criticism at his + command, could not archaise successfully. We refer to Quintus Smyrnaeus, + author of the <i>Post Homerica</i>, in fourteen books. Quintus does his + best; but we never observe in him that <i>naïf</i> delight in describing + weapons and works of art, and details of law and custom which are so + conspicuous in Homer and in other early poets. He does give us + Penthesilea's great sword, with a hilt of ivory and silver; but of what + metal was the blade? We are not told, and the reader of Quintus will + observe that, though he knows {Greek: chalkos}, bronze, as a synonym for + weapons, he scarcely ever, if ever, says that a sword or spear or + arrow-head was of bronze—a point on which Homer constantly insists. + When he names the military metal Quintus usually speaks of iron. He has no + interest in the constitutional and legal sides of heroic life, so + attractive to Homer. + </p> + <p> + Yet Quintus consciously archaises, in a critical age, with Homer as his + model. Any one who believes that in an uncritical age rhapsodists + archaised, with such success as the presumed late poets of the <i>ILIAD</i> + must have done, may try his hand in our critical age, at a ballad in the + style of the Border ballads. If he succeeds in producing nothing that will + at once mark his work as modern, he will be more successful than any poet + who has made the experiment, and more successful than the most ingenious + modern forgers of gems, jewels, and terra-cottas. They seldom deceive + experts, and, when they do, other experts detect the deceit. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <h3> + HOMERIC ARMOUR + </h3> + <p> + Tested by their ideas, their picture of political society, and their + descriptions of burial rites, the presumed authors of the alleged + expansions of the <i>Iliad</i> all lived in one and the same period of + culture. But, according to the prevalent critical theory, we read in the + <i>Iliad</i> not only large "expansions" of many dates, but also briefer + interpolations inserted by the strolling reciters or rhapsodists. "Until + the final literary redaction had come," says Mr. Leaf—that is about + 540 B.C.—"we cannot feel sure that any details, even of the oldest + work, were secure from the touch of the latest poet." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. p. ix.} + </p> + <p> + Here we are far from Mr. Leaf's own opinion that "the whole scenery of the + poems, the details of armour, palaces, dress, decoration ... had become + stereotyped, and formed a foundation which the Epic poet dared not + intentionally sap...." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. i. p. xv.} We now + find {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. ii. p. ix.} that "the latest poet" saps + as much as he pleases down to the middle of the sixth century B.C. + Moreover, in the middle of the sixth century B.C., the supposed editor + employed by Hsistratus made "constant additions of transitional passages," + and added many speeches by Nestor, an ancestor of Pisistratus. + </p> + <p> + Did these very late interlopers, down to the sixth century, introduce + modern details into the picture of life? did they blur the <i>unus</i> + color? We hope to prove that, if they did so at all, it was but slightly. + That the poems, however, with a Mycenaean or sub-Mycenaean basis of actual + custom and usage, contain numerous contaminations from the usage of + centuries as late as the seventh, is the view of Mr. Leaf, and Reichel and + his followers. {Footnote: Homerische Waffen. Von Wolfgang Reichel. Wien, + 1901.} + </p> + <p> + Reichel's hypothesis is that the heroes of the original poet had no + defensive armour except the great Mycenaean shields; that the ponderous + shield made the use of chariots imperatively necessary; that, after the + Mycenaean age, a small buckler and a corslet superseded the unwieldy + shield; that chariots were no longer used; that, by the seventh century + B.C., a warrior could not be thought of without a breastplate; and that + new poets thrust corslets and greaves into songs both new and old. + </p> + <p> + How the new poets could conceive of warriors as always in chariots, + whereas in practice they knew no war chariots, and yet could not conceive + of them without corslets which the original poet never saw, is Reichel's + secret. The new poets had in the old lays a plain example to follow. They + did follow it as to chariots and shields; as to corslets and greaves they + reversed it. Such is the Reichelian theory. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + THE SHIELD +</pre> + <p> + As regards armour, controversy is waged over the shield, corslet, and + bronze greaves. In Homer the shield is of leather, plated with bronze, and + of bronze is the corslet. No shields of bronze plating and no bronze + corslets have been found in Mycenaean excavations. + </p> + <p> + We have to ask, do the Homeric descriptions of shields tally with the + representations of shields in works of art, discovered in the graves of + Mycenae, Spata in Attica, Vaphio in Sparta, and elsewhere? If the + descriptions in Homer vary from these relics, to what extent do they vary? + and do the differences arise from the fact that the poet describes + consistently what he sees in his own age, or are the variations caused by + late rhapsodists in the Iron Age, who keep the great obsolete shields and + bronze weapons, yet introduce the other military gear of their day, say + 800-600 B.C.—gear unknown to the early singers? + </p> + <p> + It may be best to inquire, first, what does the poet, or what do the + poets, say about shields? and, next, to examine the evidence of + representations of shields in Mycenaean art; always remembering that the + poet does not pretend to live, and beyond all doubt does not live, in the + Mycenaean prime, and that the testimony of the tombs is liable to be + altered by fresh discoveries. + </p> + <p> + In <i>Iliad</i>, II. 388, the shield (<i>aspis</i>) is spoken of as + "covering a man about" ({Greek: <i>amphibrotae</i>}), while, in the heat + of battle, the baldric (<i>telamon</i>), or belt of the shield, "shall be + wet with sweat." The shield, then, is not an Ionian buckler worn on the + left arm, but is suspended by a belt, and covers a man, or most of him, + just as Mycenaean shields are suspended by belts shown in works of art, + and cover the body and legs. This (II. 388) is a general description + applying to the shields of all men who fight from chariots. Their great + shield answers to the great mediaeval shield of the knights of the twelfth + century, the "double targe," worn suspended from the neck by a belt. Such + a shield covers a mounted knight's body from mouth to stirrup in an ivory + chessman of the eleventh to twelfth century A.D., {Footnote: <i>Catalogue + of Scottish National Antiquities</i>, p. 375.} so also in the Bayeux + tapestry, {Footnote: Gautier, <i>Chanson de Roland</i>. Seventh edition, + pp. 393, 394.} and on seals. Dismounted men have the same shield (p. 132). + </p> + <p> + The shield of Menelaus (III. 348) is "equal in all directions," which we + might conceive to mean, mathematically "circular," as the words do mean + that. A shield is said to have "circles," and a spear which grazes a + shield—a shield which was <i>{Greek: panton eesae}</i>, "every way + equal"—rends both circles, the outer circle of bronze, and the inner + circle of leather (<i>Iliad</i>, XX. 273-281). But the passage is not + unjustly believed to be late; and we cannot rely on it as proof that Homer + knew circular shields among others. The epithet <i>{Greek: eukuklykos}</i>, + "of good circle," is commonly given to the shields, but does not mean that + the shield was circular, we are told, but merely that it was "made of + circular plates." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 573.} As for + the shield of Menelaus, and other shields described in the same words, + "every way equal," the epithet is not now allowed to mean "circular." Mr. + Leaf, annotating <i>Iliad</i>, I. 306, says that this sense is + "intolerably mathematical and prosaic," and translates <i>{Greek: panton + eesae}</i> as "well balanced on every side." Helbig renders the epithets + in the natural sense, as "circular." {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Homerische Epos</i>, + p. 315; cf., on the other hand, p. 317, Note I.} + </p> + <p> + To the rendering "circular" it is objected that a circular shield of, say, + four feet and a half in diameter, would be intolerably heavy and + superfluously wide, while the shields represented in Mycenaean art are not + circles, but rather resemble a figure of eight, in some cases, or a + section of a cylinder, in others, or, again, a door (Fig. 5, p. 130). + </p> + <p> + What Homer really meant by such epithets as "equal every way," "very + circular," "of a good circle," cannot be ascertained, since Homeric + epithets of the shield, which were previously rendered "circular," "of + good circle," and so on, are now translated in quite other senses, in + order that Homeric descriptions may be made to tally with Mycenaean + representations of shields, which are never circular as represented in + works of art. In this position of affairs we are unable to determine the + shape, or shapes, of the shields known to Homer. + </p> + <p> + A scholar's rendering of Homer's epithets applied to the shield is obliged + to vary with the variations of his theory about the shield. Thus, in 1883, + Mr. Leaf wrote, "The poet often calls the shield by names which seem to + imply that it was round, and yet indicates that it was large enough to + cover the whole body of a man.... In descriptions the round shape is + always implied." The words which indicated that the shield (or one shield) + "really looked like a tower, and really reached from neck to ankles" (in + two or three cases), were "received by the poet from the earlier Achaean + lays." "But to Homer the warriors appeared as using the later small round + shield. His belief in the heroic strength of the men of old time made it + quite natural to speak of them as bearing a shield which at once combined + the later circular shape and the old heroic expanse...." {Footnote: <i>Journal + of Hellenic Studies, iv. pp.</i> 283-285.} + </p> + <p> + Here the Homeric words which naturally mean "circular" or "round" are + accepted as meaning "round" or "circular." Homer, it is supposed, in + practice only knows the round shields of the later age, 700 B.C., so he + calls shields "round," but, obedient to tradition, he conceives of them as + very large. + </p> + <p> + But, after the appearance of Reichel's speculations, the Homeric words for + "round" and "circular" have been explained as meaning something else, and + Mr. Leaf, in place of maintaining that Homer knew no shields but round + shields, now writes (1900), "The small circular shield of later times...is + equally unknown to Homer, with a very few curious exceptions," which + Reichel discovered—erroneously, as we shall later try to show. + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 575.} + </p> + <p> + Thus does science fluctuate! Now Homer knows in practice none but light + round bucklers, dating from about 700 B.C.; again, he does not know them + at all, though they were habitually used in the period at which the later + parts of his Epic were composed. We shall have to ask, how did small round + bucklers come to be unknown to late poets who saw them constantly? + </p> + <p> + Some scholars, then, believe that the old original poet always described + Mycenaean shields, which are of various shapes, but never circular in + Mycenaean art. If there are any circular shields in the poems, these, they + say, must have been introduced by poets accustomed, in a much later age, + to seeing circular bucklers. Therefore Homeric words, hitherto understood + as meaning "circular," must now mean something else—even if the + reasoning seems circular. + </p> + <p> + Other scholars believe that the poet in real life saw various types of + shields in use, and that some of them were survivals of the Mycenaean + shields, semi-cylindrical, or shaped like figures of 8, or like a door; + others were circular; and these scholars presume that Homer meant + "circular" when he said "circular." Neither school will convert the other, + and we cannot decide between them. We do not pretend to be certain as to + whether the original poet saw shields of various types, including the + round shape, in use, though that is possible, or whether he saw only the + Mycenaean types. + </p> + <p> + As regards size, Homer certainly describes, in several cases, shields very + much larger than most which we know for certain to have been common after, + say, 700 B.C. He speaks of shields reaching from neck to ankles, and + "covering the body of a man about." Whether he was also familiar with + smaller shields of various types is uncertain; he does not explicitly say + that any small bucklers were used by the chiefs, nor does he explicitly + say that all shields were of the largest type. It is possible that at the + time when the Epic was composed various types of shield were being tried, + while the vast ancient shield was far from obsolete. + </p> + <p> + To return to the <i>size</i> of the shield. In a feigned tale of Odysseus + (Odyssey, XIV. 474-477), men in a wintry ambush place their shields over + their shoulders, as they lie on the ground, to be a protection against + snow. But any sort of shield, large or small, would protect the shoulders + of men in a recumbent position. Quite a large shield may seem to be + indicated in <i>Iliad</i>, XIII. 400-405, where Idomeneus curls up his + whole person behind his shield; he was "hidden" by it. Yet, as any one can + see by experiment, a man who crouched low would be protected entirely by a + Highland targe of less than thirty inches in diameter, so nothing about + the size of the shield is ascertained in this passage. On a black-figured + vase in the British Museum (B, 325) the entire body of a crouching warrior + is defended by a large Boeotian buckler, oval, and with <i>échancrures</i> + in the sides. The same remark applies to <i>Z&ad</i>{sic}, XXII. + 273-275. Hector watches the spear of Achilles as it flies; he crouches, + and the spear flies over him. Robert takes this as an "old Mycenaean" + dodge—to duck down to the bottom of the shield. {Footnote: <i>Studien + zur Ilias</i>, p. 21.} The avoidance by ducking can be managed with no + shield, or with a common Highland targe, which would cover a man in a + crouching posture, as when Glenbucket's targe was peppered by bullets at + Clifton (746), and Cluny shouted "What the devil is this?" the assailants + firing unexpectedly from a ditch. A few moments of experiment, we repeat, + prove that a round targe can protect a man in Hector's attitude, and that + the Homeric texts here throw no light on the <i>size</i> of the shield. + </p> + <p> + The shield of Hector was of black bull's-hide, and as large and long as + any represented in Mycenaean art, so that, as he walked, the rim knocked + against his neck and ankles. The shape is not mentioned. Despite its size, + he <i>walked</i> under it from the plain and field of battle into Troy (<i>Iliad</i>, + VI. 116-118). This must be remembered, as Reichel {Footnote: Reichel, 38, + 39. Father Browne (<i>Handbook</i>, p. 230) writes, "In <i>Odyssey</i>, + XIV 475, Odysseus says he slept within the shield." He says "under arms" (<i>Odyssey</i>, + XIV. 474, but <i>cf</i>. XIV. 479).} maintains that a man could not walk + under shield, or only for a short way; wherefore the war chariot was + invented, he says, to carry the fighting man from point to point (Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. i. p. 573). Mr. Leaf elaborates these points: "Why did not the + Homeric heroes ride? Because no man could carry such a shield on + horseback." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 573.} We reply that men + could and did carry such shields on horseback, as we know on the evidence + of works of art and poetry of the eleventh to twelfth centuries A.D. Mr. + Ridgeway has explained the introduction of chariots as the result of + horses too small to carry a heavy and heavily-armed man as a cavalier. + </p> + <p> + The shield ({Greek: aspis}), we are told by followers of Reichel, was only + worn by princes who could afford to keep chariots, charioteers, and + squires of the body to arm and disarm them. But this can scarcely be true, + for all the comrades of Diomede had the shield ({Greek: aspis}, <i>Iliad</i>, + X. 152), and the whole host of Pandarus of Troy, a noted bowman, were + shield-bearers ({Greek: aspistaon laon}, <i>Iliad</i>, IV. 90), and some + of them held their shields ({Greek: sakae}) in front of Pandarus when he + took a treacherous shot at Menelaus (IV. 113). The whole host could not + have chariots and squires, we may presume, so the chariot was not + indispensable to the <i>écuyer</i> or shield-bearing man. + </p> + <p> + The objections to this conjecture of Reichel are conspicuous, as we now + prove. + </p> + <p> + No Mycenaean work of art shows us a shielded man in a chariot; the men + with the monstrous shields are always depicted on foot. The only modern + peoples who, to our knowledge, used a leather shield of the Mycenaean size + and even of a Mycenaean shape had no horses and chariots, as we shall + show. The ancient Eastern peoples, such as the Khita and Egyptians, who + fought from chariots, carried <i>small</i> shields of various forms, as in + the well-known picture of a battle between the Khita, armed with spears, + and the bowmen of Rameses II, who kill horse and man with arrows from + their chariots, and carry no spears; while the Khita, who have no bows, + merely spears, are shot down as they advance. {Footnote: Maspero, <i>Hist. + Ancienne</i>, ii. p. 225.}. Egyptians and Khita, who fight from chariots, + use <i>small</i> bucklers, whence it follows that war chariots were not + invented, or, at least, were not retained in use, for the purpose of + giving mobility to men wearing gigantic shields, under which they could + not hurry from point to point. War chariots did not cease to be used in + Egypt, when men used small shields. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, Homeric warriors can make marches under shield, while there is + no mention of chariots to carry them to the point where they are to lie in + ambush (Odyssey, XIV. 470-510). If the shield was so heavy as to render a + chariot necessary, would Homer make Hector trudge a considerable distance + under shield, while Achilles, under shield, sprints thrice round the whole + circumference of Troy? Helbig notices several other cases of long runs + under shield. Either Reichel is wrong, when he said that the huge shield + made the use of the war chariot necessary, or the poet is "late"; he is a + man who never saw a large shield like Hector's, and, though he speaks of + such shields, he thinks that men could walk and run under them. When men + did walk or run under shield, or ride, if they ever rode, they would hang + it over the left side, like the lion-hunters on the famous inlaid dagger + of Mycenae, {Footnote: For the chariots, <i>cf</i>. Reichel, <i>Homerische + Waffen</i>, 120<i>ff</i>. Wien, 1901.} or the warrior on the chessman + referred to above (p. 111). + </p> + <p> + Aias, again, the big, brave, stupid Porthos of the <i>Iliad</i>, has the + largest shield of all, "like a tower" (this shield cannot have been + circular), and is recognised by his shield. But he never enters a chariot, + and, like Odysseus, has none of his own, because both men come from rugged + islands, unfit for chariot driving. Odysseus has plenty of shields in his + house in Ithaca, as we learn from the account of the battle with the + Wooers in the <i>Odyssey;</i> yet, in Ithaca, as at Troy, he kept no + chariot. Here, then, we have nations who fight from chariots, yet use + small shields, and heroes who wear enormous shields, yet never own a + chariot. Clearly, the great shield cannot have been the cause of the use + of the war chariot, as in the theory of Reichel. + </p> + <p> + Aias and his shield we meet in <i>Iliad</i>, VII. 206-220. "He clothed + himself upon his flesh in <i>all</i> his armour" ({Greek: teuchea}), to + quote Mr. Leaf's translation; but the poet only <i>describes</i> his + shield: his "towerlike shield of bronze, with sevenfold ox-hide, that + Tychius wrought him cunningly; Tychius, the best of curriers, that had his + home in Hyle, who made for him his glancing shield of sevenfold hides of + stalwart bulls, and overlaid the seven with bronze." + </p> + <p> + The shield known to Homer then is, in this case, so tall as to resemble a + tower, and has bronze plating over bull's hide. By tradition from an age + of leather shields the Currier is still the shield-maker, though now the + shield has metal plating. It is fairly clear that Greek tradition regarded + the shield of Aias as of the kind which covered the body from chin to + ankles, and resembled a bellying sail, or an umbrella unfurled, and drawn + in at the sides in the middle, so as to offer the semblance of two + bellies, or of one, pinched in at or near the centre. This is probable, + because the coins of Salamis, where Aias was worshipped as a local hero of + great influence, display this shield as the badge of the AEginetan + dynasty, claiming descent from Aias. The shield is bossed, or bellied out, + with two half-moons cut in the centre, representing the <i>waist</i>, or + pinched—in part, of the ancient Mycenaean shield; the same device + occurs on a Mycenaean ring from AEgina in the British Museum. {Footnote: + Evans, <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, xiii. 213-216.} + </p> + <p> + In a duel with Aias the spear of Hector pierced the bronze and six layers + of hide on his shield, but stuck in the seventh. The spear of Aias went + through the circular (or "every way balanced") huge shield of Hector, and + through his corslet and <i>chiton</i>, but Hector had doubled himself up + laterally ({Greek: eklinthae}, VII. 254), and was not wounded. The next + stroke of Aias pierced his shield, and wounded his neck; Hector replied + with a boulder that lighted on the centre of the shield of Aias, "on the + boss," whether that means a mere ornament or knob, or whether it was the + genuine boss—which is disputed. Aias broke in the shield of Hector + with another stone; and the gentle and joyous passage of arms was stopped. + </p> + <p> + The shield of Agamemnon was of the kind that "cover all the body of a + man," and was "every way equal," or "circular." It was plated with twelve + circles of bronze, and had twenty {Greek: omphaloi}, or ornamental knobs + of tin, and the centre was of black cyanus (XI. 31-34). There was also a + head of the Gorgon, with Fear and Panic. The description is not + intelligible, and I do not discuss it. + </p> + <p> + A man could be stabbed in the middle of the belly, "under his shield" (XI. + 424-425), not an easy thing to do, if shields covered the whole body to + the feet; but, when a hero was leaping from his chariot (as in this case), + no doubt a spear could be pushed up under the shield. The ancient Irish + romances tell of a <i>gae bulg</i>, a spear held in the warrior's toes, + and jerked up under the shield of his enemy! Shields could be held up on + high, in an attack on a wall garrisoned by archers (XII. 139), the great + Norman shield, also, could be thus lifted. + </p> + <p> + The Locrians, light armed infantry, had no shields, nor bronze helmets, + nor spears, but slings and bows (XIII. 714). Mr. Leaf suspects that this + is a piece of "false archaism," but we do not think that early poets in an + uncritical age are ever archaeologists, good or bad. The poet is aware + that some men have larger, some smaller shields, just as some have longer + and some shorter spears (XIV. 370-377); but this does not prove that the + shields were of different types. A tall man might inherit the shield of a + short father, or <i>versa</i>. + </p> + <p> + A man in turning to fly might trip on the rim of his shield, which proves + how large it was: "it reached to his feet." This accident of tripping + occurred to Periphetes of Mycenae, but it might have happened to Hector, + whose shield reached from neck to ankles. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XV. + 645-646.} + </p> + <p> + Achilles must have been a large man, for he knew nobody whose armour would + fit him when he lost his own (though his armour fitted Patroclus), he + could, however, make shift with the tower-like shield of Aias, he said. + </p> + <p> + {Illustration 1: "THE VASE OF ARISTONOTHOS"} + </p> + <p> + The evidence of the Iliad, then, is mainly to the effect that the heroes + carried huge shields, suspended by belts, covering the body and legs. If + Homer means, by the epithets already cited, "of good circle" and "every + way equal," that some shields of these vast dimensions were circular, we + have one example in early Greek art which corroborates his description. + This is "the vase of Aristonothos," signed by that painter, and supposed + to be of the seventh century (Fig. 1). On one side, the companions of + Odysseus are boring out the eye of the Cyclops; on the other, a galley is + being rowed to the attack of a ship. On the raised deck of the galley + stand three warriors, helmeted and bearing spears. The artist has + represented their shields as covering their right sides, probably for the + purpose of showing their devices or blazons. <i>Their</i> shields are + small round bucklers. On the ship are three warriors whose shields, though + circular, <i>cover THE BODY from CHIN TO ANKLES</i>, as in Homer. One + shield bears a bull's head; the next has three crosses; the third blazon + is a crab. {Footnote: Mon. <i>dell</i>. Inst., is. pl. 4.} + </p> + <p> + Such personal armorial bearings are never mentioned by Homer. It is not + usually safe to argue, from his silence, that he is ignorant of anything. + He never mentions seals or signet rings, yet they cannot but have been + familiar to his time. Odysseus does not seal the chest with the Phaeacian + presents; he ties it up with a cunning knot; there are no rings named + among the things wrought by Hephaestus, nor among the offerings of the + Wooers of Penelope. {Footnote: Helbig citing Odyssey, VIII. 445-448; <i>Iliad</i>, + XVIII. 401; Odyssey, xviii. 292-301.} + </p> + <p> + But, if we are to admit that Homer knew not rings and seals, which lasted + to the latest Mycenaean times, through the Dipylon age, to the very late + AEginetan treasure (800 B.C.) in the British Museum, and appear again in + the earliest dawn of the classical age and in a Cyclic poem, it is plain + that all the expansionists lived in one, and that a most peculiar <i>ringless</i> + age. This view suits our argument to a wish, but it is not credible that + rings and seals and engraved stones, so very common in Mycenaean and later + times, should have vanished wholly in the Homeric time. The poet never + mentions them, just as Shakespeare never mentions a thing so familiar to + him as tobacco. How often are finger rings mentioned in the whole mass of + Attic tragic poetry? We remember no example, and instances are certainly + rare: Liddell and Scott give none. Yet the tragedians were, of course, + familiar with rings and seals. + </p> + <p> + Manifestly, we cannot say that Homer knew no seals, because he mentions + none; but armorial blazons on shields could be ignored by no poet of war, + if they existed. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the shields of the warriors on the vase, being circular and + covering body and legs, answer most closely to Homer's descriptions. + Helbig is reduced to suggest, first, that these shields are worn by men + aboard ship, as if warriors had one sort of shield when aboard ship and + another when fighting on land, and as if the men in the other vessel were + not equally engaged in a sea fight. No evidence in favour of such + difference of practice, by sea and land, is offered. Again, Helbig does + not trust the artist, in this case, though the artist is usually trusted + to draw what he sees; and why should he give the men in the other ship or + boat small bucklers, genuine, while bedecking the warriors in the adverse + vessel with large, purely imaginary shields? {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Das + Homerische Epos</i>, ii. pp. 313-314.} It is not in the least "probable," + as Helbig suggests, that the artist is shirking the trouble of drawing the + figure. + </p> + <p> + Reichel supposes that round bucklers were novelties when the vase was + painted (seventh century), and that the artist did not understand how to + depict them. {Footnote: <i>Homerische Waffen</i>, p. 47.} But he depicted + them very well as regards the men in the galley, save that, for obvious + aesthetic reasons, he chose to assume that the men in the galley were + left-handed and wore their shields on their right arms, his desire being + to display the blazons of both parties. {Footnote: See the same + arrangement in a Dipylon vase. Baumeister, <i>Denkmaler</i>, iii. p. + 1945.} We thus see, if the artist may be trusted, that shields, which both + "reached to the feet" and were circular, existed in his time (the seventh + century), so that possibly they may have existed in Homer's time and + survived into the age of small bucklers. Tyrtaeus (late seventh century), + as Helbig remarks, speaks of "a <i>wide</i> shield, covering thighs, + shins, breast, and shoulders." {Footnote: <i>Tyrtaeus</i>, xi. 23; Helbig, + <i>Das Homerische Epos</i>, ii. p. 315, Note 2.} + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more like the large shields of the vase of Aristonothos. + Thus the huge circular shield seems to have been a practicable shield in + actual use. If so, when Homer spoke of large circular shields he may have + meant large circular shields. On the Dodwell pyxis of 650 to 620 B.C., a + man wears an oval shield, covering him from the base of the neck to the + ankles. He wears it on his left arm. {Footnote: Walters, <i>Ancient + Pottery</i>, p. 316.} + </p> + <p> + Of shields certainly small and light, worn by the chiefs, there is not a + notice in the <i>Iliad</i>, unless there be a hint to that effect in the + accounts of heroes running, walking considerable distances, and "stepping + lightly" under shields, supposed, by the critics, to be of crushing + weight. In such passages the poet may be carried away by his own <i>verve</i>, + or the heroes of ancient times may be deemed capable of exertions beyond + those of the poet's contemporaries, as he often tells us that, in fact, + the old heroes were. A poet is not a scientific military writer; and in + the epic poetry of all other early races very gross exaggeration is + permitted, as in the {blank space} the old Celtic romances, and, of + course, the huge epics of India. In Homer "the skill of the poet makes + things impossible convincing," Aristotle says; and it is a critical error + to insist on taking Homer absolutely and always <i>au pied de la lettre</i>. + He seems, undeniably, to have large body-covering shields present to his + mind as in common use. + </p> + <p> + Small shields of the Greek historic period are "unknown to Homer," Mr. + Leaf says, "with a very few curious exceptions," {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. i. p. 575.} detected by Reichel in Book X. 15 {Footnote: <i>Ibid,</i> + vol. i. p. 569, fig. 2.}, where Diomede's men sleep with their heads + resting on their shields, whereas a big-bellied Mycenaean shield rises, he + says, too high for a pillow. But some Mycenzean shields were perfectly + flat; while, again, nothing could be more comfortable, as a head-rest, + than the hollow between the upper and lower bulges of the Mycenzean huge + shield. The Zulu wooden head-rest is of the same character. Thus this + passage in Book X. does not prove that small circular shields were known + to Homer, nor does X. 5 13. 526-530, an obscure text in which it is + uncertain whether Diomede and Odysseus ride or drive the horses of Rhesus. + They <i>could</i> ride, as every one must see, even though equipped with + great body-covering shields. True, the shielded hero could neither put his + shield at his back nor in front of him when he rode; but he could hang it + sidewise, when it would cover his left side, as in the early Middle Ages + (1060-1160 A.D.). + </p> + <p> + The taking of the shield from a man's shoulders (XI. 374) does not prove + the shield to be small; the shield hung by the belt (<i>telamon</i>) from + the shoulder. {Footnote: On the other side, see Reichel, <i>Homerische + Waffen</i>, pp. 40-44. Wien, 1901. We have replied to his arguments + above.} + </p> + <p> + So far we have the results that Homer seems most familiar with vast + body-covering shields; that such shields were suspended by a baldric, not + worn on the left arm; that they were made of layers of hide, plated with + bronze, and that such a shield as Aias wore must have been tall, doubtless + oblong, "like a tower," possibly it was semi-cylindrical. Whether the + epithets denoting roundness refer to circular shields or to the double <i>targe</i>, + g-shaped, of Mycenaean times is uncertain. + </p> + <p> + We thus come to a puzzle of unusual magnitude. If Homer does not know + small circular shields, but refers always to huge shields, whereas, from + the eighth century B.C. onwards, such shields were not in use + (disregarding Tyrtaeus, and the vase of Aristonothos on which they appear + conspicuously, and the Dodwell pyxis), where are we? Either we have a + harmonious picture of war from a very ancient date of large shields, or + late poets did not introduce the light round buckler of their own period. + Meanwhile they are accused of introducing the bronze corslets and other + defensive armour of their own period. Defensive armour was unknown, we are + told, in the Mycenaean prime, which, if true, does not affect the + question. Homer did not live in or describe the Mycenaean prime, with its + stone arrow-tips. Why did the late poets act so inconsistently? Why were + they ignorant of small circular shields, which they saw every day? Or why, + if they knew them, did they not introduce them in the poems, which, we are + told, they were filling with non-Mycenaean greaves and corslets? + </p> + <p> + This is one of the dilemmas which constantly arise to confront the + advocates of the theory that the <i>Iliad</i> is a patchwork of many + generations. "Late" poets, if really late, certainly in every-day life + knew small parrying bucklers worn on the left arm, and huge body-covering + shields perhaps they rarely saw in use. They also knew, and the original + poet, we are told, did not know bronze corslets and greaves. The theory of + critics is that late poets introduced the bronze corslets and greaves with + which they were familiar into the poems, but scrupulously abstained from + alluding to the equally familiar small shields. Why are they so recklessly + anachronistic and "up-to-date" with the corslets and greaves, and so + staunchly but inconsistently conservative about keeping the huge shields? + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf explains thus: "The groundwork of the Epos is Mycenaean, in the + arrangement of the house, in the prevalence of copper" (as compared with + iron), "and, as Reichel has shown, in armour. Yet in many points the poems + are certainly later than the prime, at least, of the Mycenaean age"—which + we are the last to deny. "Is it that the poets are deliberately trying to + present the conditions of an age anterior to their own? or are they + depicting the circumstances by which they are surrounded—circumstances + which slowly change during the period of the development of the Epos? + Cauer decides for the latter alternative, <i>the only one which is really + conceivable</i> {Footnote: Then how is the alleged archaeology of the poet + of Book X. conceivable?} in an age whose views are in many ways so naïve + as the poems themselves prove them to have been." {Footnote: <i>Classical + Review, ix. pp. 463, 464.</i>} + </p> + <p> + Here we entirely side with Mr. Leaf. No poet, no painter, no sculptor, in + a naïf, uncritical age, ever represents in art anything but what he sees + daily in costume, customs, weapons, armour, and ways of life. Mr. Leaf, + however, on the other hand, occasionally chides pieces of deliberate + archaeological pedantry in the poets, in spite of his opinion that they + are always "depicting the circumstances by which they are surrounded." But + as huge man-covering shields are <i>not</i> among the circumstances by + which the supposed late poets were surrounded, why do they depict them? + Here Mr. Leaf corrects himself, and his argument departs from the + statement that only one theory is "conceivable," namely, that the poets + depict their own surroundings, and we are introduced to a new proposition. + "Or rather we must recognise everywhere a compromise between two opposing + principles: the singer, on the one hand, has to be conservatively + tenacious of the old material which serves as the substance of his song; + on the other hand, he has to be vivid and actual in the contributions + which he himself makes to the common stock." {Footnote: <i>Ibid.</i>, ix. + pp. 463, 464.} + </p> + <p> + The conduct of such singers is so weirdly inconsistent as not to be easily + credible. But probably they went further, for "it is possible that the + allusions" to the corslet "may have been introduced in the course of + successive modernisation such as the oldest parts of the <i>Iliad</i> seem + in many cases to have passed through. But, in fact, <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 234 + is the only mention of a corslet in any of the oldest strata, so far as we + can distinguish them, and here Reichel translates <i>thorex</i> 'shield.'" + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 578.} Mr. Leaf's statement we + understand to mean that, when the singer or reciter was delivering an + ANCIENT lay he did not introduce any of the military gear—light + round bucklers, greaves, and corslets—with which his audience were + familiar. But when the singer delivers a new lay, which he himself has + added to "the kernel," then he is "vivid and actual," and speaks of + greaves and corslets, though he still cleaves in his new lay to the + obsolete chariot, the enormous shield, and, in an age of iron, to weapons + of bronze. He is a sadly inconsistent new poet! + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, sixteen allusions to the corslet "can be cut out," as probably + "some or all these are additions to the text made at a time when it seemed + absurd to think of a man in full armour without a corslet." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>, + vol. i. p. 577.} Thus the reciters, after all, did not spare "the old + material" in the matter of corslets. The late singers have thus been + "conservatively tenacious" in clinging to chariots, weapons of bronze, and + obsolete enormous shields, while they have also been "vivid and actual" + and "up to date" in the way of introducing everywhere bronze corslets, + greaves, and other armour unknown, by the theory, in "the old material + which is the substance of their song." By the way, they have not even + spared the shield of the old material, for it was of leather or wood (we + have no trace of metal plating on the old Mycenaean shields), and the + singer, while retaining the size of it, has added a plating of bronze, + which we have every reason to suppose that Mycenaean shields of the prime + did not present to the stone-headed arrow. + </p> + <p> + This theory of singers, who are at once "conservatively tenacious" of the + old and impudently radical in pushing in the new, appears to us to be + logically untenable. We have, in Chapter I, observed the same + inconsistency in Helbig, and shall have occasion to remark again on its + presence in the work of that great archaeologist. The inconsistency is + inseparable from theories of expansion through several centuries. "Many a + method," says Mr. Leaf, "has been proposed which, up to a certain point, + seemed irresistible, but there has always been a residuum which returned + to plague the inventor." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. X.} This is + very true, and our explanation is that no method which starts from the + hypothesis that the poems are the product of several centuries will work. + The "residuum" is the element which cannot be fitted into any such + hypothesis. But try the hypothesis that the poems are the product of a + single age, and all is harmonious. There is no baffling "residuum." The + poet describes the details of a definite age, not that of the Mycenaean + bloom, not that of 900-600 A.D. + </p> + <p> + We cannot, then, suppose that many generations of irresponsible reciters + at fairs and public festivals conservatively adhered to the huge size of + the shield, while altering its material; and also that the same men, for + the sake of being "actual" and up to date, dragged bronze corslets and + greaves not only into new lays, but into passages of lays by old poets who + had never heard of such things. Consequently, the poetic descriptions of + arms and armour must be explained on some other theory. If the poet, + again, as others suppose—Mr. Ridgeway for one—knew such + bronze-covered circular shields as are common in central and western + Europe of the Bronze Age, why did he sometimes represent them as extending + from neck to ankles, whereas the known bronze circular shields are not of + more than 2 feet 2 inches to 2 feet 6 inches in diameter? {Footnote: + Ridgeway, <i>Early Age of Greece, vol. i pp. 453, 471.</i>} Such a shield, + without the wood or leather, weighed 5 lbs. 2 ozs., {Footnote: <i>Ibid., + vol.</i> i. p. 462.} and a strong man might walk or run under it. Homer's + shields would be twice as heavy, at least, though, even then, not too + heavy for a Hector, or an Aias, or Achilles. I do not see that the round + bronze shields of Limerick, Yetholm, Beith, Lincolnshire, and Tarquinii, + cited by Mr. Ridgeway, answer to Homer's descriptions of huge shields. + They are too small. But it is perfectly possible, or rather highly + probable, that in the poet's day shields of various sizes and patterns + coexisted. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SHIELDS +</pre> + <p> + Turning to archaeological evidence, we find no remains in the graves of + the Mycenaean prime of the bronze which covered the ox-hides of Homeric + shields, though we do find gold ornaments supposed to have been attached + to shields. There is no evidence that the Mycenaean shield was plated with + bronze. But if we judge from their shape, as represented in works of + Mycenaean art, some of the Mycenaean shields were not of wood, but of + hide. In works of art, such as engraved rings and a bronze dagger (Fig. 2) + with pictures inlaid in other metals, the shield, covering the whole body, + is of the form of a bellying sail, or a huge umbrella "up," and pinched at + both sides near the centre: or is like a door, or a section of a cylinder; + only one sort of shield resembles a big-bellied figure of 8. Ivory models + of shields indicate the same figure. {Footnote: Schuchardt, <i>Schliemann's + Excavations</i>, p. 192.} A gold necklet found at Enkomi, in Cyprus, + consists of a line of models of this Mycenaean shield. {Footnote: <i>Excavations + in Cyprus</i>, pl. vii. fig. 604. A. S. Murray, 1900.} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 2. DAGGER WITH LION-HUNTERS} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 3.} + </p> + <p> + There also exists a set of small Mycenaean relics called Palladia, found + at Mycenae, Spata and in the earliest strata of the Acropolis at Athens. + They resemble "two circles joined together so as to intersect one another + slightly," or "a long oval pinched in at the middle." They vary in size + from six inches to half an inch, and are of ivory, glazed ware, or glass. + Several such shields are engraved on Mycenaean gems; one, in gold, is + attached to a silver vase. The ornamentation shown on them occurs, too, on + Mycenaean shields in works of art; in short, these little objects are + representations in miniature of the big double-bellied Mycenaean shield. + Mr. Ernest Gardner concludes that these objects are the "schematised" + reductions of an armed human figure, only the shield which covered the + whole body is left. They are talismans symbolising an armed divinity, + Pallas or another. A Dipylon vase (Fig. 3) shows a man with a shield, + possibly evolved out of this kind, much scooped out at the waist, and + reaching from neck to knees. The shield covers his side, not his back or + front. {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vol. xiii. pp. + 21-24.} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 4.} + </p> + <p> + One may guess that the original pinch at the waist of the Mycenaean shield + was evolved later into the two deep scoops to enable the warrior to use + his arms more freely, while the shield, hanging from his neck by a belt, + covered the front of his body. Fig. 4 shows shields of 1060-1160 A.D. + equally designed to cover body and legs. Men wore shields, if we believe + the artists of Mycenae, when lion-hunting, a sport in which speed of foot + is desirable; so they cannot have been very weighty. The shield then was + hung over one side, and running was not so very difficult as if it hung + over back or front (<i>cf.</i> Fig. 5). The shields sometimes reach only + from the shoulders to the calf of the leg. {Footnote: Reichel, p. 3, fig. + 5, Grave III. at Mycenae.} The wearer of the largest kind could only be + got at by a sword-stab over the rim into the throat {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., + p. 2, fig. 2.} (Fig. 5). Some shields of this shape were quite small, if + an engraved rock-crystal is evidence; here the shield is not half so high + as an adjacent goat, but it may be a mere decoration to fill the field of + the gem. {Footnote: Reichel, p. 3, fig. 7.} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 5. RINGS: SWORDS AND SHIELDS} + </p> + <p> + Other shields, covering the body from neck to feet, were sections of + cylinders; several of these are represented on engraved Mycenaean ring + stones or on the gold; the wearer was protected in front and flank + {Footnote: <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 4, fig II, 12; p. I, fig I.} (Fig. 5). + </p> + <p> + In a "maze of buildings" outside the precincts of the graves of Mycenae, + Dr. Schliemann found fragments of vases much less ancient than the + contents of the sepulchres. There was a large amphora, the "Warrior Vase" + (Fig. 6). The men wear apparently a close-fitting coat of mail over a + chiton, which reaches with its fringes half down the thigh. The shield is + circular, with a half-moon cut out at the bottom. The art is infantile. + Other warriors carry long oval shields reaching, at least, from neck to + shin. {Footnote: Schuchardt, <i>Schliemann's</i> Excavations, pp. + 279-285.} They wear round leather caps, their enemies have helmets. On a + Mycenaean painted <i>stele</i>, apparently of the same relatively late + period, the costume is similar, and the shield—oval—reaches + from neck to knee. {Footnote: Ridgeway, vol. i. p. 314.} The Homeric + shields do not answer to the smaller of these late and ugly + representations, while, in their bronze plating, Homeric shields seem to + differ from the leather shields of the Mycenaean prime. + </p> + <p> + Finally, at Enkomi, near Salamis, in Cyprus, an ivory carving (in the + British Museum) shows a fighting man whose perfectly circular shield + reaches from neck to knee; this is one of several figures in which Mr. + Arthur Evans finds "a most valuable illustration of the typical Homeric + armour." {Footnote: <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxx. + pp. 209-214, figs. 5, 6, 9.</i>} The shield, however, is not so huge as + those of Aias, Hector, and Periphetes. + </p> + <p> + I can only conclude that Homer describes intermediate types of shield, as + large as the Mycenaean but plated with bronze, for a reason to be given + later. This kind of shield, the kind known to Homer, was not the invention + of late poets living in an age of circular bucklers, worn on the left arm, + and these supposed late poets never introduce into the epics such + bucklers. + </p> + <p> + What manner of military needs prompted the invention of the great + Mycenaean shields which, by Homer's time, were differentiated by the + addition of metal plating? + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 6. FRAGMENTS OF WARRIOR VASE} + </p> + <p> + The process of evolution of the huge Mycenaean shields, and of the Homeric + shields covering the body from chin to ankles, can easily be traced. The + nature of the attack expected may be inferred from the nature of the + defence employed. Body-covering shields were, obviously, at first, <i>defences + against showers of arrows</i> tipped with stone. "In the earlier Mycenaean + times the arrow-head of obsidian alone appears," as in Mycenaean Grave IV. + In the upper strata of Mycenae and in the later tombs the arrow-head is + usually of bronze. {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, p. 206.} No man going + into battle naked, without body armour, like the Mycenaeans (if they had + none), could protect himself with a small shield, or even with a round + buckler of twenty-six inches in diameter, against the rain of shafts. In a + fight, on the other hand, where man singled out man, and spears were the + missiles, and when the warriors had body armour, or even when they had + not, a small shield sufficed; as we see among the spear-throwing Zulus and + the spear-throwing aborigines of Australia (unacquainted with bows and + arrows), who mainly use shields scarcely broader than a bat. On the other + hand, the archers of the Algonquins in their wars with the Iroquois, about + 1610, used clubs and tomahawks but no spears, no missiles but arrows, and + their leather shield was precisely the {Greek: amphibrotae aspis} of + Homer, "covering the whole of a man." It is curious to see, in + contemporary drawings (1620), Mycenaean shields on Red Indian shoulders! + </p> + <p> + In Champlain's sketches of fights between French and Algonquins against + Iroquois (1610-1620), we see the Algonquins outside the Iroquois stockade, + which is defended by archers, sheltering under huge shields shaped like + the Mycenaean "tower" shield, though less cylindrical; in fact, more like + the shield of the fallen hunter depicted on the dagger of Mycenae. These + Algonquin shields partially cover the sides as well as the front of the + warrior, who stoops behind them, resting the lower rim of the shield on + the ground. The shields are oblong and rounded at the top, much like that + of Achilles {Footnote: Iliad, vol. ii p. 605} in Mr. Leaf's restoration? + The sides curve inward. Another shield, oval in shape and flat, appears to + have been suspended from the neck, and covers an Iroquois brave from chin + to feet. The Red Indian shields, like those of Mycenae, were made of + leather; usually of buffalo hide, {Footnote: <i>Les Voyages de Sr. de + Champlain</i>, Paris, 1620, f. 22: "rondache de cuir bouili, qui est d'un + animal, comme le boufle."} good against stone-tipped arrows. The braves + are naked, like the unshielded archers on the Mycenaean silver vase + fragment representing a siege (Fig. 7). The description of the Algonquin + shields by Champlain, when compared with his drawings, suggests that we + cannot always take artistic representations as exact. In his designs only + a few Algonquins and one Iroquois carry the huge shields; the unshielded + men are stark naked, as on the Mycenaean silver vase. But in his text + Champlain says that the Iroquois, like the Algonquins, "carried + arrow-proof shields" and "a sort of armour woven of cotton thread"—Homer's + {Greek: linothoraex} (<i>Iliad</i>, II. 259, 850). These facts appear in + only one of Champlain's drawings {Footnote: Dix's <i>Champlain</i>, p. + 113. Appleton, New York, 1903. Laverdière's <i>Champlain</i>, vol. iv., + plate opposite p. 85 (1870).} (Fig. 8). + </p> + <p> + These Iroquois and Algonquin shields are the armour of men exposed, not to + spears, but to a hail of flint-tipped arrows. As spears came in for + missiles in Greek warfare, arrows did not wholly go out, but the noble + warriors preferred spear and sword. {Footnote: Cf. Archilochus, 3.} Mr. + Ridgeway erroneously says that "no Achaean warrior employs the bow for + war." {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, i. 301.} Teucer, frequently, + and Meriones use the bow; like Pandarus and Paris, on the Trojan side, + they resort to bow or spear, as occasion serves. Odysseus, in <i>Iliad</i>, + Book X., is armed with the bow and arrows of Meriones when acting as a + spy; in the <i>Odyssey</i> his skill as an archer is notorious, but he + would not pretend to equal famous bowmen of an older generation, such as + Heracles and Eurytus of OEchalia, whose bow he possessed but did not take + to Troy. Philoctetes is his master in archery. {Footnote: Odyssey, VIII. + 219-222.} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 7. FRAGMENT OF SIEGE VASE} + </p> + <p> + The bow, however, was little esteemed by Greek warriors who desired to + come to handstrokes, just as it was despised, to their frequent ruin, by + the Scots in the old wars with England. Dupplin, Falkirk, Halidon Hill and + many another field proved the error. + </p> + <p> + There was much need in Homeric warfare for protection against heavy + showers of arrows. Mr. Monro is hardly correct when he says that, in + Homer, "we do not hear of <i>BODIES</i> of archers, of arrows darkening + the air, as in descriptions of oriental warfare." {Footnote: <i>Ibid.</i>, + vol. ii. 305.} These precise phrases are not used by Homer; but, + nevertheless, arrows are flying thick in his battle pieces. The effects + are not often noticed, because, in Homer, helmet, shield, corslet, <i>zoster</i>, + and greaves, as a rule prevent the shafts from harming the well-born, + well-armed chiefs; the nameless host, however, fall frequently. When + Hector came forward for a parley (<i>Iliad</i>, III. 79), the Achaens + "kept shooting at him with arrows," which he took unconcernedly. Teucer + shoots nine men in <i>Iliad</i>, VIII. 297-304. In XI. <i>85</i> the + shafts ({Greek: belea}) showered and the common soldiers fell—{misprint} + being arrows as well as thrown spears. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, IV. 465; + XVI. 668, 678.} Agamemnon and Achilles are as likely, they say, to be hit + by arrow as by spear (XI. 191; XXI. 13). Machaon is wounded by an arrow. + Patroclus meets Eurypylus limping, with an arrow in his thigh—archer + unknown. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 809, 810.} Meriones, though an + Achaean paladin, sends a bronze-headed arrow through the body of Harpalion + (XIII. <i>650</i>). The light-armed Locrians are all bowmen and slingers + (XIII. 716). Acamas taunts the Argives as "bowmen" (XIV. 479). "The + war-cry rose on both sides, and the arrows leaped from the bowstrings" + (XV. 313). Manifestly the arrows are always on the wing, hence the need + for the huge Homeric and Mycenaean shields. Therefore, as the Achaeans in + Homer wore but flimsy corslets (this we are going to prove), the great + body-covering shield of the Mycenaean prime did not go out of vogue in + Homer's time, when bronze had superseded stone arrow-heads, but was + strengthened by bronze plating over the leather. In a later age the bow + was more and more neglected in Greek warfare, and consequently large + shields went out, after the close of the Mycenaean age, and round parrying + bucklers came into use. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks appear never to have been great archers, for some vases show + even the old heroes employing the "primary release," the arrow nock is + held between the thumb and forefinger—an ineffectual release. + {Footnote: C. J. Longman, <i>Archery</i>. Badminton Series.} The archers + in early Greek art often stoop or kneel, unlike the erect archers of old + England; the bow is usually small—a child's weapon; the string is + often drawn only to the breast, as by Pandarus in the <i>Iliad</i> (IV. i + 23). By 730 B.C. the release with three fingers, our western release, had + become known. {Footnote: Leaf <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 585.} + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 8.—ALGONQUIN CORSLET. From Laverdiere, <i>Oeuvres + de Champlain</i>, vol. iv. fol. 4. Quebec, 1870.} + </p> + <p> + The course of evolution seems to be: (1) the Mycenaean prime of much + archery, no body armour (?); huge leather "man-covering" shields are used, + like those of the Algonquins; (2) the same shields strengthened with + metal, light body armour-thin corslets—and archery is frequent, but + somewhat despised (the Homeric age); (3) the parrying shield of the latest + Mycenaean age (infantry with body armour); (4) the Ionian hoplites, with + body armour and small circular bucklers. + </p> + <p> + It appears, then, that the monstrous Mycenaean shield is a survival of an + age when bows and arrows played the same great part as they did in the + wars of the Algonquins and Iroquois. The celebrated picture of a siege on + a silver vase, of which fragments were found in Grave IV., shows archers + skirmishing; there is an archer in the lion hunt on the dagger blade; + thirty-five obsidian arrow-heads were discovered in Grave IV., while "in + the upper strata of Mycenae and in the later tombs the arrow-head is + usually of bronze, though instances of obsidian still occur." In 1895 Dr. + Tsountas found twenty arrow-heads of bronze, ten in each bundle, in a + Mycenaean chamber tomb. Messrs. Tsountas and Manatt say, "In the Acropolis + graves at Mycenae... the spear-heads were but few... arrow-heads, on the + contrary, are comparatively abundant." They infer that "picked men used + shield and spear; the rank and file doubtless fought simply with bow and + sling." {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, zog. {sic}}. The great Mycenaean + shield was obviously evolved as a defence against arrows and sling-stones + flying too freely to be parried with a small buckler. What other purpose + could it have served? But other defensive armour was needed, and was + evolved, by Homer's men, as also, we shall see, by the Algonquins and + Iroquois. The Algonquins and Iroquois thus prove that men who thought + their huge shields very efficient, yet felt the desirableness of the + protection afforded by corslets, for they wore, in addition to their + shields, such corslets as they were able to manufacture, made of cotton, + and corresponding to the Homeric {Greek: linothoraex}. {Footnote: In the + interior of some shields, perhaps of all, were two {Greek: kanones} (VIII + 193; XIII. 407). These have been understood as meaning a brace through + which the left arm went, and another brace which the left hand grasped. + Herodotus says that the Carians first used shield grips, and that + previously shields were suspended by belts from the neck and left shoulder + (Herodotus, i. 171). It would be interesting to know how he learned these + facts-perhaps from Homer; but certainly the Homeric shield is often + described as suspended by a belt. Mr. Leaf used to explain the {Greek: + kanones} (XIII. 407) as "serving to attach the two ends of the baldrick to + the shield" (<i>Hellenic</i> Society's <i>Journal</i>, iv. 291), as does + Mr. Ridgeway. But now he thinks that they were two pieces of wood, + crossing each other, and making the framework on which the leather of the + shield was stretched. The hero could grasp the cross-bar, at the centre of + gravity, in his left hand, rest the lower rim of the shield on the ground, + and crouch behind it (XI. 593; XIII 157). In neither passage cited is + anything said about resting the lower rim "on the ground," and in the + second passage the warrior is actually advancing. In this attitude, + however-grounding the lower rim of the great body-covering shield, and + crouching behind it—we see Algonquin warriors of about 1610 in + Champlain's drawings of Red Indian warfare.} + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf, indeed, when reviewing Reichel, says that "the use of the + Mycenaean shield is inconsistent with that of the metal breastplate; 'the + shield' covers the wearer in a way which makes a breastplate an useless + encumbrance; or rather, it is ignorance of the breastplate which alone can + explain the use of such frightfully cumbrous gear as the huge shield." + {Footnote: <i>Classical Review</i>, ix. p. 55. 1895.} + </p> + <p> + But the Algonquins and Iroquois wore such breastplates as they could + manufacture, though they also used shields of great size, suspended, in + Mycenaean fashion, from the neck and shoulder by a <i>telamon</i> or belt. + The knights of the eleventh century A.D., in addition to very large + shields, wore ponderous hauberks or byrnies, as we shall prove presently. + As this combination of great shield with corslet was common and natural, + we cannot agree with Mr. Leaf when he says, "it follows that the Homeric + warriors wore no metal breastplate, and that all the passages where the + {Greek: thoraes} is mentioned are either later interpolations or refer to + some other sort of armour," which, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, would itself be + superfluous, given the body-covering shield. + </p> + <p> + Shields never make corslets superfluous when men can manufacture corslets. + </p> + <p> + The facts speak for themselves: the largest shields are not exclusive, so + to speak, of corslets; the Homeric warriors used both, just as did Red + Indians and the mediaeval chivalry of Europe. The use of the aspis in + Homer, therefore, throws no suspicion on the concomitant use of the + corslet. The really surprising fact would be if late poets, who knew only + small round bucklers, never introduced them into the poems, but always + spoke of enormous shields, while they at the same time did introduce + corslets, unknown to the early poems which they continued. Clearly + Reichel's theory is ill inspired and inconsistent. This becomes plain as + soon as we trace the evolution of shields and corslets in ages when the + bow played a great part in war. The Homeric bronze-plated shield and + bronze corslet are defences of a given moment in military evolution; they + are improvements on the large leather shield of Mycenaean art, but, as the + arrows still fly in clouds, the time for the small parrying buckler has + not yet come. + </p> + <p> + By the age of the Dipylon vases with human figures, the shield had been + developed into forms unknown to Homer. In Fig. 3 (p. 131) we see one + warrior with a fantastic shield, slim at the waist, with horns, as it + were, above and below; the greater part of the shield is expended + uselessly, covering nothing in particular. In form this targe seems to be + a burlesque parody of the figure of a Mycenaean shield. The next man has a + short oblong shield, rather broad for its length—perhaps a reduction + of the Mycenaean door-shaped shield. The third warrior has a round + buckler. All these shields are manifestly post-Homeric; the first type is + the most common in the Dipylon art; the third survived in the + eighth-century buckler. + </p> + <p> + {Illustration: FIG. 9.-GOLD CORSLET} + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <h3> + THE BREASTPLATE + </h3> + <p> + No "practicable" breastplates, hauberks, corslets, or any things of the + kind have so far been discovered in graves of the Mycenaean prime. A + corpse in Grave V. at Mycenae had, however, a golden breastplate, with + oval bosses representing the nipples and with prettily interlaced spirals + all over the remainder of the gold (Fig. 9). Another corpse had a plain + gold breastplate with the nipples indicated. {Footnote: Schuchardt, <i>Schliemann's</i> + Excavations, pp. 254-257, fig. 256.} These decorative corslets of gold + were probably funereal symbols of practicable breastplates of bronze, but + no such pieces of armour are worn by the fighting-men on the gems and + other works of art of Mycenae, and none are found in Mycenaean graves. But + does this prove anything? Leg-guards, broad metal bands clasping the leg + below the knee, are found in the Mycenaean shaft graves, but are never + represented in Mycenaean art. {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. + 575.} Meanwhile, bronze corslets are very frequently mentioned in the + "rarely alluded to," says Mr. Leaf, {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. + 576.} but this must be a slip of the pen. Connected with the breastplate + or <i>thorex</i> ({Greek: thoraex}) is the verb {Greek: thoraesso, + thoraessethai}, which means "to arm," or "equip" in general. + </p> + <p> + The Achaeans are constantly styled in the <i>ILIAD</i> and in the <i>ODYSSEY</i> + "<i>chalkochitones</i>," "with bronze chitons." epics have therefore + boldly argued that by "bronze chitons" the poet pleasantly alludes to + shields. But as the Mycenaeans seem scarcely to have worn any <i>CHITONS</i> + in battle, as far as we are aware from their art, and are not known to + have had any bronze shields, the argument evaporates, as Mr. Ridgeway has + pointed out. Nothing can be less like a <i>chiton</i> or smock, loose or + tight, than either the double-bellied huge shield, the tower-shaped + cylindrical shield, or the flat, doorlike shield, covering body and legs + in Mycenaean art. "The bronze <i>chiton</i>," says Helbig, "is only a + poetic phrase for the corslet." + </p> + <p> + Reichel and Mr. Leaf, however, think that "bronze chitoned" is probably "a + picturesque expression... and refers to the bronze-covered shield." + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, i. 578.} The breastplate covered the upper + part of the <i>chiton</i>, and so might be called a "bronze <i>chiton</i>," + above all, if it had been evolved, as corselets usually have been, out of + a real <i>chiton</i>, interwoven with small plates or rings of bronze. The + process of evolution might be from a padded linen <i>chiton</i> ({Greek: + linothooraes}) worn by Teucer, and on the Trojan side by Amphius (as by + nervous Protestants during Oates's "Popish Plot"), to a leathern <i>chiton</i>, + strengthened by rings, or studs, or scales of bronze, and thence to + plates. {Footnote: Ridgeway, <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, vol. i. pp. 309, + 310.} Here, in this armoured <i>chiton</i>, would be an object that a poet + might readily call "a <i>chiton</i> of bronze." But that, if he lived in + the Mycenaean age, when, so far as art shows, <i>CHITONS</i> were not worn + at all, or very little, and scarcely ever in battle, and when we know + nothing of bronze-plating on shields, the poet should constantly call a + monstrous double-bellied leather shield, or any other Mycemean type of + shield, "a <i>bronze chiton</i>," seems almost unthinkable. "A leather + cloak" would be a better term for such shields, if cloaks were in fashion. + </p> + <p> + According to Mr. Myres (1899) the "stock line" in the <i>Iliad</i>, about + piercing a {Greek: poludaidalos thoraex} or corslet, was inserted "to + satisfy the practical criticisms of a corslet-wearing age," the age of the + later poets, the Age of Iron. But why did not such practical critics + object to the constant presence in the poems of bronze weapons, in their + age out of date, if they objected to the absence from the poems of the + corslets with which they were familiar? Mr. Myres supposes that the line + about the {Greek: poludaidalos} corslet was already old, but had merely + meant "many-glittering body clothing"—garments set with the golden + discs and other ornaments found in Mycemean graves. The bronze corslet, he + says, would not be "many glittering," but would reflect "a single star of + light." {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies.</i> 1899} Now, first, + even if the star were a single star, it would be as "many glittering" when + the warrior was in rapid and changeful motion as the star that danced when + Beatrix was born. Secondly, if the contemporary corslets of the Iron Age + were NOT "many glittering," practical corslet-wearing critics would ask + the poet, "why do you call corslets 'many glittering'?" Thirdly, {Greek: + poludaidalos} may surely be translated "a thing of much art," and Greek + corslets were incised with ornamental designs. Thus Messrs. Hogarth and + Bosanquet report "a very remarkable 'Mycemean' bronze breastplate" from + Crete, which "shows four female draped figures, the two central ones + holding a wreath over a bird, below which is a sacred tree. The two outer + figures are apparently dancing. It is probably a ritual scene, and may + help to elucidate the nature of early AEgean cults." {Footnote: <i>Journal + of Hellenic Studies, vol. xx</i>. p. 322. 1899.} Here, {Greek: + poludaidalos}—if that word means "artistically wrought." Helbig + thinks the Epics silent about the gold spangles on dresses. {Footnote: + Helbig, p. 71.} + </p> + <p> + Mr. Myres applauds Reichel's theory that {blank space} first meant a man's + chest. If <i>thorex</i> means a man's breast, then <i>THOREX</i> in a + secondary sense, one thinks, would mean "breastplate," as waist of a woman + means, first, her waist; next, her blouse (American). But Mr. Myres and + Reichel say that the secondary sense of <i>THOREX</i> is not breastplate + but "body clothing," as if a man were all breast, or wore only a breast + covering, whereas Mycenaean art shows men wearing nothing on their + breasts, merely drawers or loin-cloths, which could not be called <i>THOREX</i>, + as they cover the antipodes of the breast. + </p> + <p> + The verb {Greek: thoraesestai}, the theory runs on, merely meant "to put + on body clothing," which Mycenaeans in works of art, if correctly + represented, do not usually put on; they fought naked or in bathing + drawers. Surely we might as well argue that a "waistcoat" might come to + mean "body clothing in general," as that a word for the male breast + became, first, a synonym for the covering of the male buttocks and for + apparel in general, and, next, for a bronze breastplate. These arguments + appear rather unconvincing, {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, + vol. xx. pp. 149, 150.} nor does Mycenaean art instruct us that men went + into battle dressed in body clothing which was thickly set with many + glittering gold ornaments, and was called "a many-glittering <i>thorex</i>." + </p> + <p> + Further, if we follow Reichel and Mr. Leaf, the Mycenaeans wore <i>chitons</i> + and called them <i>chitons</i>. They also used bronze-plated shields, + though of this we have no evidence. Taking the bronze-plated (?) shield to + stand poetically for the <i>chiton</i>, the poet spoke of "<i>the + bronze-chitoned Achaeans</i>" But, if we follow Mr. Myres, the Mycenaeans + also applied the word <i>thorex</i> to body clothing at large, in place of + the word <i>chiton</i>; and when a warrior was transfixed by a spear, they + said that his "many-glittering, gold-studded <i>thorex</i>," that is, his + body clothing in general, was pierced. It does seem simpler to hold that + <i>chiton</i> meant <i>chiton</i>; that <i>thorex</i> meant, first, + "breast," then "breastplate," whether of linen, or plaited leather, or + bronze, and that to pierce a man through his {Greek: poludaidalos thoraex} + meant to pierce him through his handsome corslet. No mortal ever dreamt + that this was so till Reichel tried to make out that the original poet + describes no armour except the large Mycenaean shield and the <i>mitrê</i>, + and that all corslets in the poems were of much later introduction. + Possibly they were, but they had plenty of time wherein to be evolved long + before the eighth century, Reichel's date for corslets. + </p> + <p> + The argument is that a man with a large shield needs no body armour, or + uses the shield because he has no body armour. + </p> + <p> + But the possession and use of a large shield did not in the Middle Ages, + or among the Iroquois and Algonquins, make men dispense with corslets, + even when the shield was worn, as in Homer, slung round the neck by a <i>telamon</i> + (<i>guige</i> in Old French), belt, or baldric. + </p> + <p> + We turn to a French <i>Chanson de Geste—La Chancun de Willem</i>—of + the twelfth century A.D., to judge by the handwriting. One of the heroes, + Girard, having failed to rescue Vivien in battle, throws down his weapons + and armour, blaming each piece for having failed him. Down goes the heavy + lance; down goes the ponderous shield, suspended by a <i>telamon: + "Ohitarge grant cume peises al col</i>!" down goes the plated byrnie, "<i>Ohi + grant broine cum me vas apesant</i>" {Footnote: <i>La Chancun de Willame</i>, + lines 716-726.} + </p> + <p> + The mediaeval warrior has a heavy byrnie as well as a great shield + suspended from his neck. It will be remarked also that the Algonquins and + Iroquois of the beginning of the seventeenth century, as described by + Champlain, give us the whole line of Mycenaean evolution of armour up to a + certain point. Not only had they arrow-proof, body-covering shields of + buffalo hide, but, when Champlain used his arquebus against the Iroquois + in battle, "they were struck amazed that two of their number should have + been killed so promptly, seeing that they wore a sort of armour, woven of + cotton thread, and carried arrow-proof shields." We have already alluded + to this passage, but must add that Parkman, describing from French + archives a battle of Illinois against Iroquois in 1680, speaks of + "corslets of tough twigs interwoven with cordage." {Footnote: <i>Discovery + of the Great IV</i>, {misprint} 1869.} Golden, in his <i>Five Nations</i>, + writes of the Red Indians as wearing "a kind of cuirass made of pieces of + wood joined together." {Footnote: Dix, <i>Champlion</i> {misprint}} + </p> + <p> + To the kindness of Mr. Hill Tout I also owe a description of the armour of + the Indian tribes of north-west America, from a work of his own. He says: + "For protective purposes in warfare they employed shields and coat-armour. + The shields varied in form and material from tribe to tribe. Among the + Interior Salish they were commonly made of wood, which was afterwards + covered with hide. Sometimes they consisted of several thicknesses of hide + only. The hides most commonly used were those of the elk, buffalo, or + bear. After the advent of the Hudson's Bay Co. some of the Indians used to + beat out the large copper kettles they obtained from the traders and make + polished circular shields of these. In some centres long rectangular + shields, made from a single or double hide, were employed. These were + often from 4 to 5 feet in length and from 3 to 4 feet in width—large + enough to cover the whole body. Among the Déné tribes (Sikanis) the shield + was generally made of closely-woven wicker-work, and was of an ovaloid + form (exact size not given). + </p> + <p> + "The coat armour was <i>everywhere used</i>, and varied in form and style + in almost every centre. There were two ways in which this was most + commonly made. One of these was the slatted cuirass or corslet, which was + formed of a series of narrow slats of wood set side by side vertically and + fastened in place by interfacings of raw hide. It went all round the body, + being hung from the shoulders with straps. The other was a kind of shirt + of double or treble elk hide, fastened at the side with thongs. Another + kind of armour, less common than that just described, was the long + elk-hide tunic, which reached to and even <i>below the knees and was + sleeved to the elbow."</i> + </p> + <p> + Mr. Hill Tout's minute description, with the other facts cited, leaves no + doubt that even in an early stage, as in later stages of culture, the use + of the great shield does not exclude the use of such body armour as the + means of the warriors enable them to construct. To take another instance, + Pausanias describes the corslets of the neolithic Sarmatae, which he saw + dedicated in the temple of Asclepius at Athens. Corslets these bowmen and + users of the lasso possessed, though they did not use the metals. They + fashioned very elegant corslets out of horses' hoofs, cutting them into + scales like those of a pine cone, and sewing them on to cloth. {Footnote: + Pausanias, i. 211. {misprint} 6.} + </p> + <p> + Certain small, thin, perforated discs of stone found in Scotland have been + ingeniously explained as plates to be strung together on a garment of + cloth, a neolithic <i>chiton</i>. However this may be, since Iroquois and + Algonquins and Déné had some sort of woven, or plaited, or wooden, or buff + corslet, in addition to their great shields, we may suppose that the + Achaeans would not be less inventive. They would pass from the {Greek: + linothoraex} (answering to the cotton corslet of the Iroquois) to a sort + of jack or <i>jaseran</i> with rings, scales, or plates, and thence to + bronze-plate corslets, represented only by the golden breastplates of the + Mycenaean grave. Even if the Mycenaeans did not evolve the corslet, there + is no reason why, in the Homeric times, it should not have been evolved. + </p> + <p> + For linen corslets, such as Homer mentions, in actual use and represented + in works of art we consult Mr. Leaf on <i>The Armour</i> of <i>Homeric</i> + Heroes.' He finds Memnon in a white corslet, on a black-figured vase in + the British Museum. There is another white corsleted {Footnote: <i>Journal</i> + of <i>Hellenic</i> Studies, vol. iv. pp. 82, 83, 85.} Memnon figured in + the <i>Vases Peints</i> of the Duc de Luynes (plate xii.). Mr. Leaf + suggests that the white colour represents "a corslet not of metal but of + linen," and cites <i>Iliad</i>, II. 529, 5 30. "Xenophon mentions linen + corslets as being worn by the Chalybes" (<i>Anabasis</i>, iv. 15). Two + linen corslets, sent from Egypt to Sparta by King Amasis, are recorded by + Herodotus (ii. 182; iii. 47). The corslets were of linen, embroidered in + cotton and gold. Such a piece of armour or attire might easily develop + into the {Greek: streptos chitoon} of <i>Iliad</i>, V. 113, in which + Aristarchus appears to have recognised chain or scale armour; but we find + no such object represented in Mycenaean art, which, of course, does not + depict Homeric armour or costume, and it seems probable that the bronze + corslets mentioned by Homer were plate armour. The linen corslet lasted + into the early sixth century B.C. In the poem called <i>Stasiotica</i>, + Alcaeus (<i>No</i>. 5) speaks of his helmets, bronze greaves and corslets + of linen ({Choorakes te neoi linoo}) as a defence against arrows. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile a "bronze <i>chiton</i>" or corslet would turn spent arrows and + spent spears, and be very useful to a warrior whose shield left him + exposed to shafts shot or spears thrown from a distance. Again, such a + bronze <i>chiton</i> might stop a spear of which the impetus was spent in + penetrating the shield. But Homeric corslets did not, as a rule, avail to + keep out a spear driven by the hand at close quarters, or powerfully + thrown from a short distance. Even the later Greek corslets do not look as + if they could resist a heavy spear wielded by a strong hand. + </p> + <p> + I proceed to show that the Homeric corslet did not avail against a spear + at close quarters, but could turn an arrow point (once), and could + sometimes turn a spear which had perforated a shield. So far, and not + further, the Homeric corslet was serviceable. But if a warrior's breast or + back was not covered by the shield, and received a thrust at close + quarters, the corslet was pierced more easily than the pad of paper which + was said to have been used as secret armour in a duel by the Master of + Sinclair (1708). {Footnote: <i>Proceedings in Court Marshal held upon + John, Master of Sinclair</i>. Sir Walter Scott. Roxburghe Club. (Date of + event, 1708.)} It is desirable to prove this feebleness of the corslet, + because the poet often says that a man was smitten with the spear in + breast or back when unprotected by the shield, without mentioning the + corslet, whence it is argued by the critics that corslets were not worn + when the original lays were fashioned, and that they have only been + sporadically introduced, in an after age when the corslet was universal, + by "modernising" later rhapsodists aiming at the up-to-date. + </p> + <p> + A weak point is the argument that Homer says back or breast was pierced, + without mentioning the corslet, whence it follows that he knew no + corslets. Quintus Smyrnaeus does the same thing. Of course, Quintus knew + all about corslets, yet (Book I. 248, 256, 257) he makes his heroes drive + spear or sword through breast or belly without mentioning the resistance + of the corslet, even when (I. 144, 594) he has assured us that the victim + was wearing a corslet. These facts are not due to inconsistent + interpolation of corslets into the work of this post-Christian poet + Quintus. {Footnote: I find a similar omission in the <i>Chanson de Roland</i>.} + </p> + <p> + Corslets, in Homer, are flimsy; that of Lycaon, worn by Paris, is pierced + by a spear which has also perforated his shield, though the spear came + only from the weak hand of Menelaus (<i>Iliad</i>, III. 357, 358). The + arrow of Pandarus whistles through the corslet of Menelaus (IV. 136). The + same archer pierces with an arrow the corslet of Diomede (V. 99, 100). The + corslet of Diomede, however, avails to stop a spear which has traversed + his shield (V. 281). The spear of Idomeneus pierces the corslet of + Othryoneus, and the spear of Antilochus perforates the corslet of a + charioteer (XIII. 371, 397). A few lines later Diomede's spear reaches the + midriff of Hypsenor. No corslet is here mentioned, but neither is the + shield mentioned (this constantly occurs), and we cannot argue that + Hypsenor wore no corslet, unless we are also to contend that he wore no + shield, or a small shield. Idomeneus drives his spear through the "<i>bronze + chiton</i>" of Alcathöus (XIII. 439, 440). Mr. Leaf reckons these lines + "probably an interpolation to turn the linen <i>chiton</i>, the rending of + which is the sign of triumph, into a bronze corslet." But we ask why, if + an editor or rhapsodist went through the <i>Iliad</i> introducing + corslets, he so often left them out, where the critics detect their + absence because they are not mentioned? + </p> + <p> + The spear of Idomeneus pierces another feeble corslet over the victim's + belly (XIII. 506-508). It is quite a surprise when a corslet does for once + avail to turn an arrow (XIII. 586-587). But Aias drives his spear through + the corslet of Phorcys, into his belly (XVII 311-312). Thus the corslet + scarcely ever, by itself, protects a hero; it never protects him against + an unspent spear; even when his shield stands between his corslet and the + spear both are sometimes perforated. Yet occasionally the corslet saves a + man when the spear has gone through the shield. The poet, therefore, + sometimes gives us a man pierced in a part which the corslet covers, + without mentioning the flimsy article that could not keep out a spear. + </p> + <p> + Reichel himself came to see, before his regretted death, that he could not + explain away the <i>thorex</i> or corslet, on his original lines, as a + mere general name for "a piece of armour"; and he inclined to think that + jacks, with metal plates sewn on, did exist before the Ionian corslet. + {Footnote: <i>Homerische Waffen</i>, pp. 93-94. 1901.} The gold + breastplates of the Mycenaean graves pointed in this direction. But his + general argument is that corslets were interpolated into the old lays by + poets of a corslet-wearing age; and Mr. Leaf holds that corslets may have + filtered in, "during the course of successive modernisation, such as the + oldest parts of the <i>Iliad</i> seem in many cases to have passed + through," {Footnote: Leaf, Iliad, i. p. 578.} though the new poets were, + for all that, "conservatively tenacious of the old material." We have + already pointed out the difficulty. + </p> + <p> + The poets who did not introduce the new small bucklers with which they + were familiar, did stuff the <i>Iliad</i> full of corslets unknown, by the + theory, to the original poet, but familiar to rhapsodists living centuries + later. Why, if they were bent on modernising, did they not modernise the + shields? and how, if they modernised unconsciously, as all uncritical + poets do, did the shield fail to be unconsciously "brought up to date"? It + seems probable that Homer lived at a period when both huge shield and + rather feeble corslet were in vogue. + </p> + <p> + We shall now examine some of the passages in which Mr. Leaf, mainly + following Reichel, raises difficulties about corslets. We do not know + their mechanism; they were composed of {Greek: guala}, presumed to be a + backplate and a breastplate. The word <i>gualon</i> appears to mean a + hollow, or the converse, something convex. We cannot understand the + mechanism (see a young man putting on a corslet, on an amphora by + Euthymides. Walter, vol. ii. p. 176); but, if late poets, familiar with + such corslets, did not understand how they worked, they were very dull + men. When their descriptions puzzle us, that is more probably because we + are not at the point of view than because poets interpolated mentions of + pieces of armour which they did not understand, and therefore cannot have + been familiar with, and, in that case, would not introduce. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf starts with a passage in the <i>Iliad</i> (III. 357-360)—it + recurs in another case: "Through the bright shield went the ponderous + spear, and through the inwrought" (very artfully wrought), {Greek: + poludaidalou} "breastplate it pressed on, and straight beside his flank it + rent the tunic, but he swerved and escaped black death." Mr. Leaf says, + "It is obvious that, after a spear has passed through a breastplate, there + is no longer any possibility for the wearer to bend aside and so to avoid + the point...." But I suppose that the wearer, by a motion very natural, + doubled up sideways, so to speak, and so the spear merely grazed his + flesh. That is what I suppose the poet to intend. The more he knew of + corslets, the less would he mention an impossible circumstance in + connection with a corslet. + </p> + <p> + Again, in many cases the late poets, by the theory—though it is they + who bring the corslets in—leave the corslets out! A man without + shield, helmet, and spear calls himself "naked." Why did not these late + poets, it is asked, make him take off his corslet, if he had one, as well + as his shield? The case occurs in XXII. 111-113,124-125. Hector thinks of + laying aside helmet, spear, and shield, and of parleying with Achilles. + "But then he will slay me naked," that is, unarmed. "He still had his + corslet," the critics say, "so how could he be naked? or, if he had no + corslet, this is a passage uncontaminated by the late poets of the corslet + age." Now certainly Hector <i>was</i> wearing a corslet, which he had + taken from Patroclus: that is the essence of the story. He would, however, + be "naked" or unprotected if he laid aside helmet, spear, and shield, + because Achilles could hit him in the head or neck (as he did), or lightly + drive the spear through the corslet, which, we have proved, was no sound + defence against a spear at close quarters, though useful against chance + arrows, and occasionally against spears spent by traversing the shield. + </p> + <p> + We next learn that no corslet occurs in the <i>Odyssey</i>, or in <i>Iliad</i>, + Book X., called "very late": Mr. Leaf suggests that it is of the seventh + century B.C. But if the Odyssey and Iliad, Book X., are really very late, + their authors and interpolators were perfectly familiar with Ionian + corslets. Why did they leave corslets out, while their predecessors and + contemporaries were introducing them all up and down the <i>Iliad</i>? In + fact, in Book X, no prince is regularly equipped; they have been called up + to deliberate in the dead of night, and when two go as spies they wear + casual borrowed gear. It is more important that no corslet is mentioned in + Nestor's arms in his tent. But are we to explain this, and the absence of + mention of corslets in the Odyssey (where there is little about regular + fighting), on the ground that the author of <i>Iliad</i>, Book X., and all + the many authors and editors of the <i>Odyssey</i> happened to be profound + archaeologists, and, unlike their contemporaries, the later poets and + interpolators of the <i>Iliad</i>, had formed the theory that corslets + were not known at the time of the siege of Troy and therefore must not be + mentioned? This is quite incredible. No hypothesis can be more improbable. + We cannot imagine late Ionian rhapsodists listening to the <i>Iliad</i>, + and saying, "These poets of the <i>Iliad</i> are all wrong: at the date of + the Mycenaean prime, as every educated man knows, corslets were not yet in + fashion. So we must have no corslets in the <i>Odyssey</i>?" + </p> + <p> + A modern critic, who thinks this possible, is bringing the practice of + archaising poets of the late nineteenth century into the minds of + rhapsodists of the eighth century before Christ. Artists of the middle of + the sixteenth century always depict Jeanne d'Arc in the armour and costume + of their own time, wholly unlike those of 1430. This is the regular rule. + Late rhapsodists would not delve in the archaeology of the Mycenaean + prime. Indeed, one does not see how they could discover, in Asia, that + corslets were not worn, five centuries earlier, on the other side of the + sea. + </p> + <p> + We are told that Aias and some other heroes are never spoken of as wearing + corslets. But Aias certainly did put on a set of pieces of armour, and did + not trust to his shield alone, tower-like as it was. The description runs + thus: The Achaeans have disarmed, before the duel of Aias and Hector. Aias + draws the lucky lot; he is to 'meet Hector, and bids the others pray to + Zeus "while I clothe me in my armour of battle." While they prayed, Aias + "arrayed himself in flashing bronze. And when he had now clothed upon his + flesh <i>all</i> his pieces of armour" ({Greek: panta teuchae}) "he went + forth to fight." If Aias wore only a shield, as on Mr. Leaf's hypothesis, + he could sling it on before the Achaeans could breathe a <i>pater noster</i>. + His sword he would not have taken off; swords were always worn. What, + then, are "all his pieces of armour"? (VII. 193, 206). + </p> + <p> + Carl Robert cites passages in which the {Greek: teuchea}, taken from the + shoulders, include corslets, and are late and Ionian, with other passages + which are Mycenaean, with no corslet involved. He adds about twenty more + passages in which {Greek: teuchea} include corslets. Among these + references two are from the <i>Doloneia</i> (X. 254, 272), where Reichel + finds no mention of corslets. How Robert can tell {Greek: teuchea}, which + mean corslets, from {Greek: teuchea}, which exclude corslets, is not + obvious. But, at all events, he does see corslets, as in VII. 122, where + Reichel sees none, {Footnote: Robert, <i>Studien zur Ilias</i>, pp. + 20-21.} and he is obviously right. + </p> + <p> + It is a strong point with Mr. Leaf that "we never hear of the corslet in + the case of Aias...." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 576.} + Robert, however, like ourselves, detects the corslet among "<i>al</i> the + {Greek: teuchea}" which Aias puts on for his duel with Hector (Iliad, VII. + 193, 206-207). + </p> + <p> + In the same Book (VII. 101-103, 122) the same difficulty occurs. Menelaus + offers to fight Hector, and says, "I will put on my harness" {Greek: + thooraxomai}, and does "put on his fair pieces of armour" {Greek: teuchea + kala}, Agamemnon forbids him to fight, and his friends "joyfully take his + pieces of armour" {Greek: teuchea} "from his shoulders" (<i>Iliad</i>, + VII. 206-207). They take off pieces of armour, in the plural, and a shield + cannot be spoken of in the plural; while the sword would not be taken off—it + was worn even in peaceful costume. + </p> + <p> + Idomeneus is never named as wearing a corslet, but he remarks that he has + plenty of corslets (XIII. 264); and in this and many cases opponents of + corslets prove their case by cutting out the lines which disprove it. + Anything may be demonstrated if we may excise whatever passage does not + suit our hypothesis. It is impossible to argue against this logical + device, especially when the critic, not satisfied with a clean cut, + supposes that some late enthusiast for corslets altered the prayer of + Thetis to Hephaestus for the very purpose of dragging in a corslet. + {Footnote: Leaf, Note to <i>Iliad</i>, xviii. 460, 461.} If there is no + objection to a line except that a corslet occurs in it, where is the logic + in excising the line because one happens to think that corslets are later + than the oldest parts of the <i>Iliad</i>? + </p> + <p> + Another plan is to maintain that if the poet does not in any case mention + a corslet, there was no corslet. Thus in V. 99, an arrow strikes Diomede + "hard by the right shoulder, the plate of the corslet." Thirteen lines + later (V. 112, 113) "Sthenelus drew the swift shaft right through out of + Diomede's shoulder, and the blood darted up through the pliant <i>chiton</i>." + We do not know what the word here translated "pliant" {Greek: streptos} + means, and Aristarchus seems to have thought it was "a coat of mail, + chain, or scale armour." If so, here is the corslet, but in this case, if + a corslet or jack with intertwisted small plates or scales or rings of + bronze be meant, <i>gualon</i> cannot mean a large "plate," as it does. + Mr. Ridgeway says, "It seems certain that {Greek: streptos chitoon} means, + as Aristarchus held, a shirt of mail." {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, + vol. i. p, 306.} Mr. Leaf says just the reverse. As usual, we come to a + deadlock; a clash of learned opinion. But any one can see that, in the + space of thirteen lines, no poet or interpolator who wrote V. i 12, i 13 + could forget that Diomede was said to be wearing a corslet in V. 99; and + even if the poet could forget, which is out of the question, the editor of + 540 B.C. was simply defrauding his employer, Piaistratus, if he did not + bring a remedy for the stupid fault of the poet. When this or that hero is + not specifically said to be wearing a corslet, it is usually because the + poet has no occasion to mention it, though, as we have seen, a man is + occasionally smitten, in the midriff, say, without any remark on the + flimsy piece of mail. + </p> + <p> + That corslets are usually taken for granted as present by the poet, even + when they are not explicitly named, seems certain. He constantly + represents the heroes as "stripping the pieces of mail" {Greek: teuchea}, + when they have time and opportunity, from fallen foes. If only the shield + is taken, if there is nothing else in the way of bronze body armour to + take, why have we the plural, {Greek: teuchea}? The corslet, as well as + the shield, must be intended. The stripping is usually "from the + shoulders," and it is "from his shoulders" that Hector hopes to strip the + corslet of Diomede (Iliad, VIII. 195) in a passage, to be sure, which the + critics think interpolated. However this may be, the stripping of the + (same Greek characters), cannot be the mere seizure of the shield, but + must refer to other pieces of armour: "all the pieces of armour." So other + pieces of defensive armour besides the shield are throughout taken for + granted. If they were not there they could not be stripped. It is the + chitons that Agamemnon does something to, in the case of two fallen foes (<i>Iliad</i>, + XI. 100), and Aristarchus thought that these <i>chitons</i> were corslets. + But the passage is obscure. In <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 373, when Diomede strips + helmet from head, shield from shoulder, corslet from breast of + Agastrophus, Reichel was for excising the corslet, because it was not + mentioned when the hero was struck on the hip joint. I do not see that an + inefficient corslet would protect the hip joint. To do that, in our + eighteenth century cavalry armour, was the business of a <i>zoster</i>, as + may be seen in a portrait of the Chevalier de St. George in youth. It is a + thick ribbed <i>zoster</i> that protects the hip joints of the king. + </p> + <p> + Finally, Mr. Evans observes that the western invaders of Egypt, under + Rameses III, are armed, on the monuments, with cuirasses formed of a + succession of plates, "horizontal, or rising in a double curve," while the + Enkomi ivories, already referred to, corroborate the existence of corslet, + <i>zoster</i>, and <i>zoma</i> as articles of defensive armour. {Footnote: + <i>Journal of Anthropological Institute</i>, xxx. p. 213.} "Recent + discoveries," says Mr. Evans, "thus supply a double corroboration of the + Homeric tradition which carries back the use of the round shield and the + cuirass or {Greek: thoraex} to the earlier epic period... With such a + representation before us, a series of Homeric passages on which Dr. + Reichel... has exhausted his powers of destructive criticism, becomes + readily intelligible." {Footnote: Ibid., p. 214.} + </p> + <p> + Homer, then, describes armour <i>later</i> than that of the Mycenaean + prime, when, as far as works of art show, only a huge leathern shield was + carried, though the gold breastplates of the corpses in the grave suggest + that corslets existed. Homer's men, on the other hand, have, at least in + certain cases quoted above, large bronze-plated shields and bronze + cuirasses of no great resisting power, perhaps in various stages of + evolution, from the byrnie with scales or small plates of bronze to the + breastplate and backplate, though the plates for breast and back certainly + appear to be usually worn. + </p> + <p> + It seems that some critics cannot divest themselves of the idea that "the + original poet" of the "kernel" was contemporary with them who slept in the + shaft graves of Mycenae, covered with golden ornaments, and that for body + armour he only knew their monstrous shields. Mr. Leaf writes: "The armour + of Homeric heroes corresponds closely to that of the Mykenaean age as we + learn it from the monuments. The heroes wore no breastplate; their only + defensive armour was the enormous Mykenaean shield...." + </p> + <p> + This is only true if we excise all the passages which contradict the + statement, and go on with Mr. Leaf to say, "by the seventh century B.C., + or thereabouts, the idea of a panoply without a breastplate had become + absurd. By that time the epic poems had almost ceased to grow; but they + still admitted a few minor episodes in which the round shield" (where (?) + "and corslet played a part, as well as the interpolation of a certain + number of lines and couplets in which the new armament was mechanically + introduced into narratives which originally knew nothing of it." + {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 568.} + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, Mr. Leaf says that "the small circular shield of later + times is unknown to Homer," with "a very few curious exceptions," in which + the shields are not said to be small or circular. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. i. p, 575.} + </p> + <p> + Surely this is rather arbitrary dealing! We start from our theory that the + original poet described the armour of "the monuments" though <i>they</i> + are "of the prime," while he professedly lived long after the prime—lived + in an age when there must have been changes in military equipment. We then + cut out, as of the seventh century, whatever passages do not suit our + theory. Anybody can prove anything by this method. We might say that the + siege scene on the Mycenaean silver vase represents the Mycenaean prime, + and that, as there is but one jersey among eight men otherwise stark + naked, we must cut out seven-eighths of the <i>chitons</i> in the <i>Iliad</i>, + these having been interpolated by late poets who did not run about with + nothing on. We might call the whole poem late, because the authors know + nothing of the Mycenaean bathing-drawers so common on the "monuments." The + argument compels Mr. Leaf to assume that a shield can be called {Greek: + teuchea} in the plural, so, in <i>Iliad</i>, VII. 122, when the squires of + Menelaus "take the {Greek: teuchea} from his shoulders," we are assured + that "the shield (aspis) was for the chiefs alone" (we have seen that all + the host of Pandarus wore shields), "for those who could keep a chariot to + carry them, and squires to assist them in taking off this ponderous + defence" (see VII 122). {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 583.} + </p> + <p> + We do "see VII. 122," and find that not a <i>single</i> shield, but pieces + of gear in the plural number were taken off Menelaus. The feeblest warrior + without any assistance could stoop his head and put it through the belt of + his shield, as an angler takes off his fishing creel, and there he was, + totally disarmed. No squire was needed to disarm him, any more than to + disarm Girard in the <i>Chancun de Willame</i>. Nobody explains why a + shield is spoken of as a number of things, in the plural, and that + constantly, and in lines where, if the poet means a shield, prosody + permits him to <i>say</i> a shield, {Greek: therapontes ap oopoon aspid + elonto}. + </p> + <p> + It really does appear that Reichel's logic, his power of visualising + simple things and processes, and his knowledge of the evolution of + defensive armour everywhere, were not equal to his industry and classical + erudition. Homer seems to describe what he saw: shields, often of great + size, made of leather, plated with bronze, and suspended by belts; and, + for body armour, feeble bronze corslets and <i>zosters</i>. There is + nothing inconsistent in all this: there was no more reason why an Homeric + warrior should not wear a corslet as well as a shield than there was + reason why a mediaeval knight who carried a <i>targe</i> should not also + wear a hauberk, or why an Iroquois with a shield should not also wear his + cotton or wicker-work armour. Defensive gear kept pace with offensive + weapons. A big leather shield could keep out stone-tipped arrows; but as + bronze-tipped arrows came in and also heavy bronze-pointed spears, + defensive armour was necessarily strengthened; the shield was plated with + bronze, and, if it did not exist before, the bronze corslet was developed. + </p> + <p> + To keep out stone-tipped arrows was the business of the Mycenaean wooden + or leather shield. "Bronze arrow-heads, so common in the <i>Iliad</i>, are + never found," says Schuchardt, speaking of Schliemann's Mycenaean + excavations. {Footnote: Schuchardt, p. 237.} + </p> + <p> + There was thus, as far as arrows went, no reason why Mycenaean shields + should be plated with bronze. If the piece of wood in Grave V. was a + shield, as seems probable, what has become of its bronze plates, if it had + any? {Footnote: Schuchardt, p. 269} Gold ornaments, which could only + belong to shields, {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., p. 237.} were found, but + bronze shield plates never. The inference is certain. The Mycenaean + shields of the prime were originally wooden or leather defences against + stone-headed arrows. Homer's shields are bronze-plated shields to keep out + bronze-headed or even, perhaps, iron-pointed arrows of primitive + construction (IV. 123). Homer describes armour based on Mycenaean lines + but developed and advanced as the means of attack improved. + </p> + <p> + Where everything is so natural it seems fantastic to explain the + circumstances by the theory that poets in a late age sometimes did and + sometimes did not interpolate the military gear of four centuries + posterior to the things known by the original singer. These rhapsodists, + we reiterate, are now said to be anxiously conservative of Mycenaean + detail and even to be deeply learned archaeologists. {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. p. 629.} At other times they are said to introduce recklessly + part of the military gear of their own age, the corslets, while sternly + excluding the bucklers. All depends on what the theory of very late + developments of the Epic may happen to demand at this or that moment. + </p> + <p> + Again, Mr. Leaf informs us that "the first rhapsodies were born in the + bronze age, in the day of the ponderous Mycenaean shield; the last in the + iron age, when men armed themselves with breastplate and light round + buckler." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. ii. p. x.} We cannot guess how he + found these things out, for corslets are as common in one "rhapsody" as in + another when circumstances call for the mention of corslets, and are + entirely unnamed in the Odyssey (save that the Achaeans are + "bronze-chitoned"), while the Odyssey is alleged to be much later than the + <i>Iliad</i>. As for "the iron age," no "rhapsodist" introduces so much as + one iron spear point. It is argued that he speaks of bronze in deference + to tradition. Then why does he scout tradition in the matter of greaves + and corslets, while he sometimes actually goes behind tradition to find + Mycenaean things unknown to the original poets? + </p> + <p> + These theories appear too strangely inconsistent; really these theories + cannot possibly be accepted. The late poets, of the theory, are in the + iron age, and are, of course, familiar with iron weapons; yet, in + conservative deference to tradition, they keep them absolutely out of + their rhapsodies. They are equally familiar with bronze corslets, so, + reckless this time of tradition, they thrust them even into rhapsodies + which are centuries older than their own day. They are no less familiar + with small bucklers, yet they say nothing about them and cling to the + traditional body-covering shield. The source of the inconsistent theories + which we have been examining is easily discovered. The scholars who hold + these opinions see that several things in the Homeric picture of life are + based on Mycenaean facts; for example, the size of the shields and their + suspension by baldrics. But the scholars also do steadfastly believe, + following the Wolfian tradition, that there could be no <i>long</i> epic + in the early period. Therefore the greater part, much the greater part of + the <i>Iliad</i>, must necessarily, they say, be the work of continuators + through several centuries. Critics are fortified in this belief by the + discovery of inconsistencies in the Epic, which, they assume, can only be + explained as the result of a compilation of the patchwork of ages. But as, + on this theory, many men in many lands and ages made the Epic, their + contributions cannot but be marked by the inevitable changes in manners, + customs, beliefs, implements, laws, weapons, and so on, which could not + but arise in the long process of time. Yet traces of change in law, + religion, manners, and customs are scarcely, if at all, to be detected; + whence it logically follows that a dozen generations of irresponsible + minstrels and vagrant reciters were learned, conscientious, and staunchly + conservative of the archaic tone. Their erudite conservatism, for example, + induced them, in deference to the traditions of the bronze age, to + describe all weapons as of bronze, though many of the poets were living in + an age of weapons of iron. It also prompted them to describe all shields + as made on the far-away old Mycenaean model, though they were themselves + used to small circular bucklers, with a bracer and a grip, worn on the + left arm. + </p> + <p> + But at this point the learning and conservatism of the late poets deserted + them, and into their new lays, also into the old lays, they eagerly + introduced many unwarrantable corslets and greaves—things of the + ninth to seventh centuries. We shall find Helbig stating, on the same + page, that in the matter of usages "the epic poets shunned, as far as + possible, all that was recent," and also that for fear of puzzling their + military audiences they did the reverse: "they probably kept account of + the arms and armour of their own day." {Footnote: La <i>Question + Mycénienne</i>, p. 50. <i>Cf</i>. Note I.} Now the late poets, on this + showing, must have puzzled warriors who used iron weapons by always + speaking of bronze weapons. They pleased the critical warriors, on the + other hand, by introducing the corslets and greaves which every military + man of their late age possessed. But, again, the poets startled an + audience which used light bucklers, worn on the left arm, by talking of + enormous <i>targes</i>, slung round the neck. + </p> + <p> + All these inconsistencies of theory follow from the assumption that the <i>Iliad</i> + <i>must</i> be a hotch-potch of many ages. If we assume that, on the + whole, it is the work of one age, we see that the poet describes the + usages which obtained in his own day. The dead are cremated, not, as in + the Mycenaean prime, inhumed. The shield has been strengthened to meet + bronze, not stone-tipped, arrows by bronze plates. Corslets and greaves + have been elaborated. Bronze, however, is still the metal for swords and + spears, and even occasionally for tools and implements, though these are + often of iron. In short, we have in Homer a picture of a transitional age + of culture; we have not a medley of old and new, of obsolete and modern. + The poets do not describe inhumation, as they should do, if they are + conservative archaeologists. In that case, though they burn, they would + have made their heroes bury their dead, as they did at Mycenas. They do + not introduce iron swords and spears, as they must do, if, being late + poets, they keep in touch with the armament of their time. If they speak + of huge shields only because they are conservative archaeologists, then, + on the other hand, they speak of corslets and greaves because they are + also reckless innovators. + </p> + <p> + They cannot be both at once. They are depicting a single age, a single + "moment in culture." That age is certainly sundered from the Mycenaean + prime by the century or two in which changing ideas led to the superseding + of burial by burning, or it is sundered from the Mycenaean prime by a + foreign conquest, a revolution, and the years in which the foreign + conquerors acquired the language of their subjects. + </p> + <p> + In either alternative, and one or other must be actual, there was time + enough for many changes in the culture of the Mycenaean prime to be + evolved. These changes, we say, are represented by the descriptions of + culture in the Iliad. That hypothesis explains, simply and readily, all + the facts. The other hypothesis, that the <i>Iliad</i> was begun near the + Mycenaean prime and was continued throughout four or five centuries, + cannot, first, explain how the <i>Iliad</i> was <i>composed</i>, and, + next, it wanders among apparent contradictories and through a maze of + inconsistencies. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + THE ZOSTER, ZOMA, AND MITRE + + We are far from contending that it is always possible to +understand Homer's descriptions of defensive armour. But as we have +never seen the actual objects, perhaps the poet's phrases were clear +enough to his audience and are only difficult to us. I do not, for +example, profess to be sure of what happened when Pandarus shot at +Menelaus. The arrow lighted "where the golden buckles of the <i>zoster</i> +were clasped, and the doubled breastplate met them. So the bitter arrow +alighted upon the firm <i>zoster</i>; through the wrought <i>zoster</i> it sped, +and through the curiously wrought breastplate it pressed on, and through +the <i>mitre</i> he wore to shield his flesh, a barrier against darts; and +this best shielded him, yet it passed on even through this," and grazed +the hero's flesh (<i>Iliad</i>, IV. I 32 seq.). Menelaus next says that "the +glistering <i>zoster</i> in front stayed the dart, and the <i>zoma</i> beneath, +and the <i>mitrê</i> that the coppersmiths fashioned" (IV. 185-187). Then the +surgeon, Machaon, "loosed the glistering <i>zoster</i> and the <i>zoma</i>, and +the <i>mitrê</i> beneath that the coppersmiths fashioned" (IV. 215, 216). +</pre> + <p> + Reading as a mere student of poetry I take this to mean that the corslet + was of two pieces, fastening in the middle of the back and the middle of + the front of a man (though Mr. Monro thinks that the plates met and the <i>zoster</i> + was buckled at the side); that the <i>zoster</i>, a mailed belt, buckled + just above the place where the plates of the corslet met; that the arrow + went through the meeting-place of the belt buckles, through the place + where the plates of the corslet met, and then through the <i>mitrê</i>, a + piece of bronze armour worn under the corslet, though the nature of this + <i>mitrê</i> and of the <i>zoma</i> I do not know. Was the <i>mitrê</i> a + separate article or a continuation of the breastplate, lower down, struck + by a dropping arrow? + </p> + <p> + In 1883 Mr. Leaf wrote: "I take it that the <i>zoma</i> means the waist of + the cuirass which is covered by the <i>zoster</i>, and has the upper edge + of the <i>mitrê</i> or plated apron beneath it fastened round the + warrior's body. ... This view is strongly supported by all the archaic + vase paintings I have been able to find." {Footnote: <i>Journal of + Hellenic studies, vol. iv. pp. 74,75</i>.} We see a "corslet with a + projecting rim"; that rim is called zoma and holds the <i>zoster</i>. "The + hips and upper part of the thighs were protected either by a belt of + leather, sometimes plated, called the <i>mitrê</i>, or else only by the + lower part of the <i>chiton</i>, and this corresponds exactly with Homeric + description." {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic</i> Studies, <i>pp. 76, 77</i>.} + </p> + <p> + At this time, in days before Reichel, Mr. Leaf believed in bronze + corslets, whether of plates or plated jacks; he also believed, we have + seen, that the huge shields, as of Aias, were survivals in poetry; that + "Homer" saw small round bucklers in use, and supposed that the old + warriors were muscular enough to wear circular shields as great as those + in the vase of Aristonothos, already described. {Footnote: <i>Ibid., vol. + iv p. 285</i>.} + </p> + <p> + On the corslet, as we have seen, Mr. Leaf now writes as a disciple of + Reichel. But as to the <i>mitrê</i>, he rejects Helbig's and Mr. + Ridgeway's opinion that it was a band of metal a foot wide in front and + very narrow behind. Such things have been found in Euboea and in Italy. + Mr. Ridgeway mentions examples from Bologna, Corneto, Este, Hallstatt, and + Hungary. {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece, p. 31 I</i>.} The <i>zoster</i> + is now, in Mr. Leaf's opinion, a "girdle" "holding up the waist-cloth (<i>zoma</i>), + so characteristic of Mycenaean dress!" Reichel's arguments against + corslets "militate just as strongly against the presence of such a <i>mitrê</i>, + which is, in fact, just the lower half of a corslet.... The conclusion is + that the metallic <i>mitrê</i> is just as much an intruder into the + armament of the <i>Epos</i> as the corslet." The process of evolution was, + Mr. Leaf suggests, first, the abandonment of the huge shield, with the + introduction of small round bucklers in its place. Then, second, a man + naturally felt very unprotected, and put on "the metallic <i>mitrê</i>" of + Helbig (which covered a foot of him in front and three inches behind). + "Only as technical skill improved could the final stage, that of the + elaborate cuirass, be attained." + </p> + <p> + This appears to us an improbable sequence of processes. While arrows were + flying thick, as they do fly in the <i>Iliad</i>, men would not reject + body-covering shields for small bucklers while they were still wholly + destitute of body armour. Nor would men arm only their stomachs when, if + they had skill enough to make a metallic <i>mitrê</i>, they could not have + been so unskilled as to be unable to make corslets of some more or less + serviceable type. Probably they began with huge shields, added the <i>linothorex</i> + (like the Iroquois cotton <i>thorex</i>), and next, as a rule, superseded + that with the bronze <i>thorex</i>, while retaining the huge shield, + because the bronze <i>thorex</i> was so inadequate to its purpose of + defence. Then, when archery ceased to be of so much importance as coming + to the shock with heavy spears, and as the bronze <i>thorex</i> really + could sometimes keep out an arrow, they reduced the size of their shields, + and retained surface enough for parrying spears and meeting point and edge + of the sword. That appears to be a natural set of sequences, but I cannot + pretend to guess how the corslet fastened or what the <i>mitrê</i> and <i>zoster</i> + really were, beyond being guards of the stomach and lower part of the + trunk. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + HELMETS, GREAVES, SPEARS + + No helmets of metal, such as Homer mentions, have been found in +Mycenaean graves. A quantity of boars' teeth, sixty in all, were +discovered in Grave V. and may have adorned and strengthened leather +caps, now mouldered into dust. An ivory head from Mycenae shows a +conical cap set with what may be boars' tusks, with a band of the same +round the chin, and an earpiece which was perhaps of bronze? Spata and +the graves of the lower town of Mycenae and the Enkomi ivories show +similar headgear. {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, pp. 196, 197.} +</pre> + <p> + This kind of cap set with boars' tusks is described in <i>Iliad</i>, Book + X., in the account of the hasty arraying of two spies in the night of + terror after the defeat and retreat to the ships. The Trojan spy, Dolon, + also wears a leather cap. The three spies put on no corslets, as far as we + can affirm, their object being to remain inconspicuous and unburdened with + glittering bronze greaves and corslets. The Trojan camp was brilliantly + lit up with fires, and there may have been a moon, so the less bronze the + better. In these circumstances alone the heroes of the Iliad are + unequipped, certainly, with bronze helmets, corslets, and bronze greaves. + {Dislocated Footnote: Evans, <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute, + xxx. pp.</i> 209-215.} {Footnote: <i>Iliad, X.</i> 255-265.} + </p> + <p> + The author of Book X. is now regarded as a precise archaeologist, who knew + that corslets and bronze helmets were not used in Agamemnon's time, but + that leather caps with boars' tusks were in fashion; while again, as we + shall see, he is said to know nothing about heroic costume (cf. The <i>Doloneia</i>). + As a fact, he has to describe an incident which occurs nowhere else in + Homer, though it may often have occurred in practice—a hurried + council during a demoralised night, and the hasty arraying of two spies, + who wish to be lightfooted and inconspicuous. The author's evidence as to + the leather cap and its garnishing of boars' tusks testifies to a survival + of such gear in an age of bronze battle-helmets, not to his own minute + antiquarian research. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + GREAVES + + Bronze greaves are not found, so far, in Mycenaean tombs in +Greece, and Reichel argued that the original Homer knew none. The +greaves, {Greek: kunmides} "were gaiters of stuff or leather"; the one +mention of bronze greaves is stuff and nonsense interpolated (VII. 41). +But why did men who were interpolating bronze corslets freely introduce +bronze so seldom, if at all, as the material of greaves? +</pre> + <p> + Bronze greaves, however, have been found in a Cypro-Mycenaean grave at + Enkomi (Tomb XV.), <i>accompanied</i> by <i>an early type</i> of <i>bronze</i> + dagger, while bronze greaves adorned with Mycenaean ornament are + discovered in the Balkan peninsula at Glassinavç. {Footnote: Evans, <i>Journal + of the Anthropological Institute,</i> pp. 214, 215, figs. 10, 11.} Thus + all Homer's description of arms is here corroborated by archaeology, and + cannot be cut out by what Mr. Evans calls "the Procrustean method" of Dr. + Reichel. + </p> + <p> + A curious feature about the spear may be noticed. In Book X. while the men + of Diomede slept, "their spears were driven into the ground erect on the + spikes of the butts" (X. 153). Aristotle mentions that this was still the + usage of the Illyrians in his day. {Footnote: <i>Poctica</i>, 25.} Though + the word for the spike in the butt (<i>sauroter</i>) does not elsewhere + occur in the <i>Iliad</i>, the practice of sticking the spears erect in + the ground during a truce is mentioned in III. 135: "They lean upon their + shields" (clearly large high shields), "and the tall spears are planted by + their sides." No butt-spikes have been found in graves of the Mycenaean + prime. The <i>sauroter</i> was still used, or still existed, in the days + of Herodotus. {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, p. 205; Ridgeway, vol. i. + pp. 306, 307.} + </p> + <p> + On the whole, Homer does not offer a medley of the military gear of four + centuries—that view we hope to have shown to be a mass of + inconsistencies—but describes a state of military equipment in + advance of that of the most famous Mycenaean graves, but other than that + of the late "warrior vase." He is also very familiar with some uses of + iron, of which, as we shall see, scarcely any has been found in Mycenaean + graves of the central period, save in the shape of rings. Homer never + mentions rings of any metal. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX + </h2> + <h3> + BRONZE AND IRON + </h3> + <p> + Taking the Iliad and Odyssey just as they have reached us they give, with + the exception of one line, an entirely harmonious account of the + contemporary uses of bronze and iron. Bronze is employed in the making of + weapons and armour (with cups, ornaments, &c.); iron is employed (and + bronze is also used) in the making of tools and implements, such as + knives, axes, adzes, axles of a chariot (that of Hera; mortals use an axle + tree of oak), and the various implements of agricultural and pastoral + life. Meanwhile, iron is a substance perfectly familiar to the poets; it + is far indeed from being a priceless rarity (it is impossible to trace + Homeric stages of advance in knowledge of iron), and it yields epithets + indicating strength, permanence, and stubborn endurance. These epithets + are more frequent in the Odyssey and the "later" Books of the Iliad than + in the "earlier" Books of the Iliad; but, as articles made of iron, the + Odyssey happens to mention only one set of axes, which is spoken of ten + times—axes and adzes as a class—and "iron bonds," where "iron" + probably means "strong," "not to be broken." {Footnote: In these + circumstances, it is curious that Mr. Monro should have written thus: "In + Homer, as is well known, iron is rarely mentioned in comparison with + bronze, but the proportion is greater in the Odyssey (25 iron, 80 bronze) + than in the Iliad" (23 iron, 279 bronze).—Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. + p. 339. These statistics obviously do not prove that, at the date of the + composition of the Odyssey, the use of iron was becoming more common, or + that the use of bronze was becoming more rare, than when the <i>Iliad</i> + was put together. Bronze is, in the poems, the military metal: the <i>Iliad</i> + is a military poem, while the <i>Odyssey</i> is an epic of peace; + consequently the <i>Iliad</i> is much more copious in references to bronze + than the <i>Odyssey</i> has any occasion to be. Wives are far more + frequently mentioned in the Odyssey than in the <i>Iliad</i>, but nobody + will argue that therefore marriage had recently come more into vogue. + Again, the method of counting up references to iron in the Odyssey is + quite misleading, when we remember that ten out of the twenty references + are only <i>one</i> reference to one and the same set of iron tools-axes. + Mr. Monro also proposed to leave six references to iron in the <i>Iliad</i> + out of the reckoning, "as all of them are in lines which can be omitted + without detriment to the sense." Most of the six are in a recurrent epic + formula descriptive of a wealthy man, who possesses iron, as well as + bronze, gold, and women. The existence of the formula proves familiarity + with iron, and to excise it merely because it contradicts a theory is + purely arbitrary.—Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. p. 339.}. The statement + of facts given here is much akin to Helbig's account of the uses of bronze + and iron in Homer. {Footnote: Helbig, <i>Das Homerischi Epos</i>, pp. 330, + 331. <i>1887</i>.} Helbig writes: "It is notable that in the Epic there is + much more frequent mention of iron <i>implements</i> than of iron <i>weapons + of war</i>." He then gives examples, which we produce later, and + especially remarks on what Achilles says when he offers a mass of iron as + a prize in the funeral games of Patroclus. The iron, says Achilles, will + serve for the purposes of the ploughman and shepherd, "a surprising speech + from the son of Peleus, from whom we rather expect an allusion to the + military uses of the metal." Of course, if iron weapons were not in vogue + while iron was the metal for tools and implements, the words of Achilles + are appropriate and intelligible. + </p> + <p> + The facts being as we and Helbig agree in stating them, we suppose that + the Homeric poets sing of the usages of their own time. It is an age when + iron, though quite familiar, is not yet employed for armour, or for swords + or spears, which must be of excellent temper, without great weight in + proportion to their length and size. Iron is only employed in Homer for + some knives, which are never said to be used in battle (not even for + dealing the final stab, like the mediaeval poniard, the <i>miséricorde</i>), + for axes, which have a short cutting edge, and may be thick and weighty + behind the edge, and for the rough implements of the shepherd and + ploughman, such as tips of ploughshares, of goads, and so forth. + </p> + <p> + As far as archaeological excavations and discoveries enlighten us, these + relative uses of bronze and iron did not exist in the ages of Mycenaean + culture which are represented in the <i>tholos</i> of Vaphio and the + graves, earlier and later, of Mycenae. Even in the later Mycenaean graves + iron is found only in the form of finger rings (iron rings were common in + late Greece). {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, pp. 72, 146, 165.} Iron was + scarce in the Cypro-Mycenaean graves of Enkomi. A small knife with a + carved handle had left traces of an iron blade. A couple of lumps of iron, + one of them apparently the head of a club, were found in Schliemann's + "Burned City" at Hissarlik; for the rest, swords, spear-heads, knives, and + axes are all of bronze in the age called "Mycenaean." But we do not know + whether iron <i>implements</i> may not yet be found in the sepulchres of + <i>Thetes</i>, and other poor and landless men. The latest discoveries in + Minoan graves in Crete exhibit tools of bronze. + </p> + <p> + Iron, we repeat, is in the poems a perfectly familiar metal. Ownership of + "bronze, gold, and iron, which requires much labour" (in the smithying or + smelting), appears regularly in the recurrent epic formula for describing + a man of wealth. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, VI. 48; IX. 365-366; X. 379; XI. + 133; <i>Odyssey</i>, XIV. 324; XXI. 10.} Iron, bronze, slaves, and hides + are bartered for sea-borne wine at the siege of Troy? {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + VII. 472-475.} Athene, disguised as Mentes, is carrying a cargo of iron to + Temesa (Tamasus in Cyprus?), to barter for copper. The poets are certainly + not describing an age in which only a man of wealth might indulge in the + rare and extravagant luxury of an iron ring: iron was a common commodity, + like cattle, hides, slaves, bronze, and other such matters. Common as it + was, Homer never once mentions its use for defensive armour, or for swords + and spears. + </p> + <p> + Only in two cases does Homer describe any weapon as of iron. There is to + be sure the "iron," the knife with which Antilochus fears Achilles will + cut his own throat. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i> XVIII. 34.} But no knife is + ever used as a weapon of war: knives are employed in cutting the throats + of victims (see <i>Iliad</i>, III. 271 and XXIII. 30); the knife is said + to be of iron, in this last passage; also Patroclus uses the knife to cut + the arrow-head out of the flesh of a wounded friend. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + XI. 844.} It is the <i>knife</i> of Achilles that is called "the iron," + and on "the iron" perish the cattle in <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 30. Mr. Leaf + says that by "the usual use, the metal" (iron) "is confined to tools of + small size." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 30, Note.} This is + incorrect; the Odyssey speaks of <i>great axes</i> habitually made of + iron. {Footnote: Odyssey, IX. 391.} But we do find a knife of bronze, that + of Agamemnon, used in sacrificing victims; at least so I infer from Iliad, + III. 271-292. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The only two specimens of <i>weapons</i> named by Homer as of iron are one +arrow-head, used by Pandarus, {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, IV. 123.} and one +mace, borne, before Nestor's time, by Areithöus. To fight with an iron +mace was an amiable and apparently unique eccentricity of Areithbus, and +caused his death. On account of his peculiar practice he was named "The +Mace man." {Footnote: Iliad, VII. 141.} The case is mentioned by Nestor +as curious and unusual. + + Mr. Leaf gets rid of this solitary iron <i>casse tête</i> in a +pleasant way. Since he wrote his <i>Companion to the Iliad</i>, 1902, he has +become converted, as we saw, to the theory, demolished by Mr. Monro, +Nutzhorn, and Grote, and denounced by Blass, that the origin of our +Homer is a text edited by some literary retainer of Pisistratus of +Athens (about 560-540 B.C.). The editor arranged current lays, "altered" +freely, and "wrote in" as much as he pleased. Probably he wrote this +passage in which Nestor describes the man of the iron mace, for "the +tales of Nestor's youthful exploits, all of which bear the mark of late +work, are introduced with no special applicability to the context, but +rather with the intention of glorifying the ancestor of Pisistratus." +{Footnote: Iliad (1900), VII. 149, Note.} If Pisistratus was pleased +with the ancestral portrait, nobody has a right to interfere, but we +need hardly linger over this hypothesis (cf. pp. 281-288). + + Iron axes are offered as prizes by Achilles, {Footnote: Iliad, +XXIII. 850.} and we have the iron axes of Odysseus, who shot an arrow +through the apertures in the blades, at the close of the Odyssey. +But all these axes, as we shall show, were not weapons, but <i>peaceful +implements</i>. + + As a matter of certain fact the swords and spears of Homer's +warriors are invariably said by the poet to be of bronze, not of iron, +in cases where the metal of the weapons is specified. +</pre> + <p> + Except for an arrow-head (to which we shall return) and the one iron mace, + noted as an eccentricity, no weapon in Homer is ever said to be of iron. + </p> + <p> + The richest men use swords of bronze. Not one chooses to indulge in a + sword said to be of iron. The god, Hephaestus, makes a bronze sword for + Achilles, whose own bronze sword was lent to Patroclus, and lost by him to + Hector. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i> XVI. 136; XIX. 372-373.} This bronze + sword, at least, Achilles uses, after receiving the divine armour of the + god. The sword of Paris is of bronze, as is the sword of Odysseus in the + Odyssey. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, III. 334-335} Bronze is the sword which + he brought from Troy, and bronze is the sword presented to him by Euryalus + in Phaeacia, and bronze is the spear with which he fought under the walls + of Ilios. {Footnote: <i>Odyssey</i>, X. 162, 261-262} There are other + examples of bronze swords, while spears are invariably said to be of + bronze, when the metal of the spear is specified. + </p> + <p> + Here we are on the ground of solid certainty: we see that the Homeric + warrior has regularly spear and sword of bronze. If any man used a spear + or sword of iron, Homer never once mentions the fact. If the poets, in an + age of iron weapons, always spoke of bronze, out of deference to + tradition, they must have puzzled their iron-using military patrons. + </p> + <p> + Thus, as regards weapons, the Homeric heroes are in the age of bronze, + like them who slept in the tombs of the Mycenaean age. When Homer speaks + of the use of cutting instruments of iron, he is always concerned, except + in the two cases given, not with {blank space} but with <i>implements</i>, + which really were of iron. The wheelwright fells a tree "with the iron," + that is, with an axe; Antilochus fears that Achilles "will cut his own + throat with the iron," that is, with his knife, a thing never used in + battle; the cattle struggle when slain with "the iron," that is, the + butcher's knife; and Odysseus shoots "through the iron," that is, through + the holes in the blade of the iron axes. {Footnote: For this peculiar kind + of Mycenaean axe with holes in the blade, see the design of a bronze + example from Vaphio in Tsountas and Manatt, <i>The Mycenaean Age</i>, p. + 207, fig. 94.} Thus Homer never says that this or that was done "with the + iron" in the case of any but one weapon of war. Pandarus "drew the + bow-string to his breast and to the bow." {Footnote: Iliad, W. 123.} + Whoever wrote that line was writing in an age, we may think, when + arrow-heads were commonly of iron; but in Homer, when the metal of the + arrow-head is mentioned, except, in this one case, it is always bronze. + The iron arrow-tip of Pandarus was of an early type, the shaft did not run + into the socket of the arrow-head; the tang of the arrow-head, on the + other hand, entered the shaft, and was whipped on with sinew. {<i>Iliad</i>, + IV. 151.} Pretty primitive this method, still the iron is an advance on + the uniform bronze of Homer. The line about Pandarus and the iron + arrow-head may really be early enough, for the arrow-head is of a + primitive kind—socketless—and primitive is the attitude of the + archer: he "drew the arrow to his breast." On the Mycenaean silver bowl, + representing a siege, the archers draw to the breast, in the primitive + style, as does the archer on the bronze dagger with a representation of a + lion hunt. The Assyrians and Khita drew to the ear, as the monuments + prove, and so does the "Cypro-Mycenaean" archer of the ivory draught-box + from Enkomi. {Footnote: Evans, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, + vol. xxx. p. 210.} In these circumstances we cannot deny that the poet may + have known iron arrow-heads. + </p> + <p> + We now take the case of axes. We never hear from Homer of the use of an + iron axe in battle, and warlike use of an axe only occurs twice. In <i>Iliad</i>, + XV. 711, in a battle at and on the ships, "they were fighting with sharp + axes and battle-axes" ({Greek text: axinai}) "and with great swords, and + spears armed at butt and tip." At and on the ships, men would set hand to + whatever tool of cutting edge was accessible. Seiler thinks that only the + Trojans used the battle-axe; perhaps for damaging the ships: he follows + the scholiast. {Greek text: Axinae}, however, {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + XIII. 611.} may perhaps be rendered "battle-axe," as a Trojan, Peisandros, + fights with an {Greek text: Axinae}, and this is the only place in the <i>Iliad</i>, + except XV. 711, where the thing is said to be used as a weapon. But it is + not an <i>iron</i> axe; it is "of fine bronze." Only one bronze <i>battle-axe</i>, + according to Dr. Joseph Anderson, is known to have been found in Scotland, + though there are many bronze heads of axes which were tools. + </p> + <p> + Axes ({Greek text: pelekeis}) were <i>implements</i>, tools of the + carpenter, woodcutter, shipwright, and so on; they were not weapons of war + of the Achaeans. + </p> + <p> + As implements they are, with very rare exceptions, of iron. The + wheelwright fells trees "with the gleaming iron," iron being a synonym for + axe and for knife. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, IV. 485} In <i>Iliad</i>, + XIII. 391, the shipwrights cut timber with axes. In <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. + 114, woodcutters' axes are employed in tree-felling, but the results are + said to be produced {Greek text: tanaaekei chalcho}, "by the long-edged + bronze," where the word {Greek text: tanaaekaes} is borrowed from the + usual epithet of swords; "the long edge" is quite inappropriate to a + woodcutter's axe. On Calypso's isle Calypso gives to Odysseus a bronze axe + for his raft-making. Butcher's work is done with an axe. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + XVII. 520; Odyssey, III. 442-449.} The axes offered by Achilles as a prize + for archers and the axes through which Odysseus shot are <i>implements</i> + of iron. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 850; Odyssey, XXI. 3, 81, 97.} + </p> + <p> + In the Odyssey, when the poet describes the process of tempering iron, we + read, "as when a smith dips a great axe or an adze in chill water, for + thus men temper iron." {Footnote: Odyssey, IX. 391-393.} He is not using + iron to make a sword or spear, but a tool-adze or axe. The poet is + perfectly consistent. There are also examples both of bronze axes and, + apparently, of bronze knives. Thus, though the woodcutter's or carpenter's + axe is of bronze in two passages cited, iron is the usual material of the + axe or adze. Again we saw, when Achilles gives a mass of iron as a prize + in the games, he does not mean the armourer to fashion it into sword or + spear, but says that it will serve the shepherd or ploughman for domestic + implements, {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i> (1902), XXIII. line 30, Note.} + so that the men need not, on an upland farm, go to the city for iron + implements. In commenting upon this Mr. Leaf is scarcely at the proper + point of view. He says, {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 835, Note.} "the + idea of a state of things when the ploughman and shepherd forge their own + tools from a lump of raw iron has a suspicious appearance of a deliberate + attempt to represent from the inner consciousness an archaic state of + civilisation. In Homeric times the {Greek: chalceus} is already + specialised as a worker in metals...." However, Homer does not say that + the ploughman and shepherd "forge their own tools." A Homeric chief, far + from a town, would have his own smithy, just as the laird of Runraurie + (now Urrard) had his smithy at the time of the battle of Killicrankie + (1689). Mackay's forces left their <i>impedimenta</i> "at the laird's + smithy," says an eye-witness. {Footnote: Napier's <i>Life</i> Of <i>Dundee</i>, + iii. p. 724.} + </p> + <p> + The idea of a late Homeric poet trying to reconstruct from his fancy a + prehistoric state of civilisation is out of the question. Even historical + novelists of the eighteenth century A.D. scarcely attempted such an + effort. + </p> + <p> + This was the regular state of things in the Highlands during the + eighteenth century, when many chiefs, and most of the clans, lived far + from any town. But these rural smiths did not make sword-blades, which + Prince Charles, as late as 1750, bought on the Continent. The Andrea + Ferrara-marked broadsword blades of the clans were of foreign manufacture. + The Highland smiths did such rough iron work as was needed for rural + purposes. Perhaps the Homeric chief may have sometimes been a craftsman + like the heroes of the Sagas, great sword-smiths. Odysseus himself, + notably an excellent carpenter, may have been as good a sword-smith, but + every hero was not so accomplished. + </p> + <p> + In searching with microscopes for Homeric discrepancies and + interpolations, critics are apt to forget the ways of old rural society. + </p> + <p> + The Homeric poems, whether composed in one age or throughout five + centuries, are thus entirely uniform in allotting bronze as the material + for all sorts of warlike gear, down to the solitary battle-axe mentioned; + and iron as the usual metal for heavy tools, knives, carpenters' axes, + adzes, and agricultural implements, with the rare exceptions which we have + cited in the case of bronze knives and axes. Either this distinction—iron + for tools and implements; bronze for armour, swords, and spears—prevailed + throughout the period of the Homeric poets or poet; or the poets invented + such a stage of culture; or poets, some centuries later, deliberately kept + bronze for weapons only, while introducing iron for implements. In that + case they were showing archaeological conscientiousness in following the + presumed earlier poets of the bronze age, the age of the Mycenaean graves. + </p> + <p> + Now early poets are never studious archaeologists. Examining the {blank + space} certainly based on old lays and legends which survive in the Edda, + we find that the poets of the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> introduce chivalrous + and Christian manners. They do not archaeologise. The poets of the French + <i>Chansons de Geste</i> (eleventh to thirteenth centuries) bring their + own weapons, and even armorial bearings, into the 'remote age of + Charlemagne, which they know from legends and <i>cantilènes</i>. Again, + the later <i>remanieurs</i> of the earliest <i>Chansons de Geste</i> + modernise the details of these poems. But, <i>per impossibile</i>, and for + the sake of argument, suppose that the later interpolators and + continuators of the Homeric lays were antiquarian precisians, or, on the + other hand, "deliberately attempted to reproduce from their inner + consciousness an archaic state of civilisation." Suppose that, though they + lived in an age of iron weapons, they knew, as Hesiod knew, that the old + heroes "had warlike gear of bronze, and ploughed with bronze, and there + was no black iron." {Footnote: Hesiod, <i>Works and Days</i>, pp. 250, + 251.} In that case, why did the later interpolating poets introduce iron + as the special material of tools and implements, knives and axes, in an + age when they knew that there was no iron? Savants such as, by this + theory, the later poets of the full-blown age of iron were, they must have + known that the knives and axes of the old heroes were made of bronze. In + old votive offerings in temples and in any Mycenaean graves which might be + opened, the learned poets of 800-600 B.C. saw with their eyes knives and + axes of bronze. {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, i. 413-416.} The + knife of Agamemnon ({Greek: machaira}), which hangs from his girdle, + beside his sword, {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, III. 271; XIX. 252.} + corresponds to the knives found in Grave IV. at Mycenae; the handles of + these dirks have a ring for suspension. {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, p. + 204.} But these knives, in Mycenaean graves, are of bronze, and of bronze + are the axes in the Mycenaean deposits and the dagger of Enkomi. + {Footnote: <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 145, 207, 208, 256. <i>Evans, Journal of the + Anthropological Institute</i>, vol xxx. p, 214.} + </p> + <p> + Why, then, did the late poetic interpolators, who knew that the spears and + swords of the old warriors were of bronze, and who describe them as of + bronze, not know that their knives and axes were also of bronze? Why did + they describe the old knives and axes as of iron, while Hesiod knew, and + could have told them—did tell them, in fact—that they were of + bronze? Clearly the theory that Homeric poets were archaeological + precisians is impossible. They describe arms as of bronze, tools usually + as of iron, because they see them to be such in practice. + </p> + <p> + The poems, in fact, depict a very extraordinary condition of affairs, such + as no poets could invent and adhere to with uniformity. We are accustomed + in archaeology to seeing the bronze sword pass by a gradual transition + into the iron sword; but, in Homer, people with abundance of iron never, + in any one specified case, use iron sword blades or spears. The greatest + chiefs, men said to be rich in gold and iron, always use swords and spears + of <i>bronze</i> in <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>. + </p> + <p> + The usual process of transition from bronze to iron swords, in a + prehistoric European age, is traced by Mr. Ridgeway at Hallstatt, "in the + heart of the Austrian Alps," where a thousand old graves have been + explored. The swords pass from bronze to iron with bronze hilts, and, + finally, are wholly of iron. Weapons of bronze are fitted with iron edges. + Axes of iron were much more common than axes of bronze. {Footnote: <i>Early + Age of Greece</i>, i. 413-416.} The axes were fashioned in the old shapes + of the age of bronze, were not of the <i>bipennis</i> Mycenaean model—the + double axe—nor of the shape of the letter D, very thick, with two + round apertures in the blade, like the bronze axe of Vaphio. {Footnote: + Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. 176.} Probably the axes through which Odysseus + shot an arrow were of this kind, as Mr. Monro, and, much earlier, Mr. + Butcher and I have argued. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>. (1901), vol. ii. Book + XIX. line 572. Note. Butcher and Lang, Odyssey, Appendix (1891).} + </p> + <p> + At Hallstatt there was the <i>normal</i> evolution from bronze swords and + axes to iron swords and axes. Why, then, had Homer's men in his time not + made this step, seeing that they were familiar with the use of iron? Why + do they use bronze for swords and spears, iron for tools? The obvious + answer is that they could temper bronze for military purposes much better + than they could temper iron. Now Mr. Ridgeway quotes Polybius (ii. 30; ii. + 33) for the truly execrable quality of the iron of the Celtic invaders of + Italy as late as 225 B.C. Their swords were as bad as, or worse than, + British bayonets; they <i>always</i> "doubled up." "Their long iron swords + were easily bent, and could only give one downward stroke with any effect; + but after this the edges got so turned and the blades so bent that, unless + they had time to straighten them with the foot against the ground, they + could not deliver a second blow." {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, + vol. i. 408.} If the heroes in Homer's time possessed iron as badly + tempered as that of the Celts of 225 B.C., they had every reason to + prefer, as they did, excellent bronze for all their military weapons, + while reserving iron for pacific purposes. A woodcutter's axe might have + any amount of weight and thickness of iron behind the edge; not so a sword + blade or a spear point. {Footnote: Monsieur Salomon Reinach suggests to me + that the story of Polybius may be a myth. Swords and spear-heads in graves + are often found doubled up; possibly they are thus made dead, like the + owner, and their spirits are thus set free to be of use to his spirit. + Finding doubled up iron swords in Celtic graves, the Romans, M. Beinach + suggests, may have explained their useless condition by the theory that + they doubled up in battle, leaving their owners easy victims, and this + myth was accepted as fact by Polybius. But he was not addicted to myth, + nor very remote from the events which he chronicles. Again, though bronze + grave-weapons in our Museum are often doubled up, the myth is not told of + the warriors of the age of bronze. We later give examples of the doubling + up, in battle, of Scandinavian iron swords as late as 1000 A.D.} + </p> + <p> + In the <i>Iliad</i> we hear of swords breaking at the hilt in dealing a + stroke at shield or helmet, a thing most incident to bronze swords, + especially of the early type, with a thin bronze tang inserted in a hilt + of wood, ivory, or amber, or with a slight shelf of the bronze hilt + riveted with three nails on to the bronze blade. + </p> + <p> + Lycaon struck Peneleos on the socket of his helmet crest, "and his sword + brake at the hilt." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XVI. 339.} The sword of + Menelaus broke into three or four pieces when he smote the helmet ridge of + Paris. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, III. 349, 380.} Iron of the Celtic sort + described by Polybius would have bent, not broken. There is no doubt on + that head: if Polybius is not romancing, the Celtic sword of 225 B.C. + doubled up at every stroke, like a piece of hoop iron. But Mr. Leaf tells + us that, "by primitive modes of smelting," iron is made "hard and brittle, + like cast iron." If so, it would be even less trustworthy for a sword than + bronze. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i> (1900), Book VI, line 48, Note.} Perhaps + the Celts of 225 B.C. did not smelt iron by primitive methods, but + discovered some process for making it not hard and brittle, but flabby. + </p> + <p> + The swords of the Mycenaean graves, we know, were all of bronze, and, in + three intaglios on rings from the graves, the point, not the edge, is + used, {Footnote: Tsountas and Manatt, p. 199.} once against a lion, once + over the rim of a shield which covers the whole body of an enemy, and once + at too close quarters to permit the use of the edge. It does not follow + from these three cases (as critics argue) that no bronze sword could be + used for a swashing blow, and there are just half as many thrusts as + strokes with the bronze sword in the <i>Iliad</i>. {Footnote: Twenty-four + cuts to eleven lunges, in the <i>Iliad</i>.} As the poet constantly dwells + on the "long edge" of the <i>bronze</i> swords and makes heroes use both + point and edge, how can we argue that Homeric swords were of iron and ill + fitted to give point? The Highlanders at Clifton (1746) were obliged, + contrary to their common practice, to use the point against Cumberland's + dragoons. They, like the Achaeans, had heavy cut and thrust swords, but + theirs were of steel. + </p> + <p> + If the Achaeans had thoroughly excellent bronze, and had iron as bad as + that of the Celts a thousand years later, their preference for bronze over + iron for weapons is explained. In Homer the fighters do not very often + come to sword strokes; they fight mainly with the spear, except in + pursuit, now and then. But when they do strike, they cleave heads and cut + off arms. They could not do this with bronze rapiers, such as those with + which men give point over the rim of the shield on two Mycenaean gems. But + Mr. Myres writes, "From the shaft graves (of Mycenae) onwards there are + two types of swords in the Mycenaean world—one an exaggerated dagger + riveted into the front end of the hilt, the other with a flat flanged tang + running the whole length of the hilt, and covered on either face by + ornamental grip plates riveted on. This sword, though still of bronze, can + deal a very effective cut; and, as the Mycenaeans had no armour for body + or head," (?) "the danger of breaking or bending the sword on a cuirass or + helmet did not arise." {Footnote: <i>Classical Review</i>, xvi. 72.} The + danger did exist in Homer's time, as we have seen. But a bronze sword, + published by Tsountas and Manatt (<i>Mycenaean Age</i>, p. 199, fig. 88), + is emphatically meant to give both point and edge, having a solid handle—a + continuation of the blade—and a very broad blade, coming to a very + fine point. Even in Grave V. at Mycenae, we have a sword blade so massive + at the top that it was certainly capable of a swashing blow. {Footnote: + Schuchardt, <i>Schliemann's Excavations</i>, p. <i>265, fig.</i> 269.} The + sword of the charioteer on the <i>stêlê</i> of Grave V. is equally good + for cut and thrust. A pleasanter cut and thrust bronze sword than the one + found at Ialysus no gentleman could wish to handle. {Footnote: Furtwängler + und Loeschke, <i>Myk. Va.</i> Taf. D.} Homer, in any case, says that his + heroes used bronze swords, well adapted to strike. If his age had really + good bronze, and iron as bad as that of the Celts of Polybius, a thousand + years later, their preference of bronze over iron for weapons needs no + explanation. If their iron was not so bad as that of the Celts, their + military conservatism might retain bronze for weapons, while in civil life + they often used iron for implements. + </p> + <p> + The uniform evidence of the Homeric poems can only be explained on the + supposition that men had plenty of iron; but, while they used it for + implements, did not yet, with a natural conservatism, trust life and + victory to iron spears and swords. Unluckily, we cannot test the temper of + the earliest known iron swords found in Greece, for rust hath consumed + them, and I know not that the temper of the Mycenaean bronze swords has + been tested against helmets of bronze. I can thus give no evidence from + experiment. + </p> + <p> + There is just one line in Homer which disregards the distinction—iron + for implements, bronze for weapons; it is in <i>Odyssey</i>, XVI. 294; + XIX. 13. Telemachus is told to remove the warlike harness of Odysseus from + the hall, lest the wooers use it in the coming fray. He is to explain the + removal by saying that it has been done, "Lest you fall to strife in your + cups, and harm each other, and shame the feast, and <i>this</i> wooing; <i>for + iron of himself draweth a man to him</i>." The proverb is manifestly of an + age when iron was almost universally used for weapons, and thus was, as in + Thucydides, synonymous with all warlike gear; but throughout the poems no + single article of warlike gear is of iron except one eccentric mace and + one arrow-head of primitive type. The line in the Odyssey must therefore + be a very late addition; it may be removed without injuring the sense of + the passage in which it occurs. {Footnote: This fact, in itself, is of + course no proof of interpolation. <i>Cf.</i> Helbig, <i>op</i>. cit., p. + 331. He thinks the line very late.} If, on the other hand, the line be as + old as the oldest parts of the poem, the author for once forgets his usual + antiquarian precision. + </p> + <p> + We are thus led to the conclusion that either there was in early Greece an + age when weapons were all of bronze while implements were often of iron, + or that the poet, or crowd of poets, invented that state of things. Now + early poets never invent in this way; singing to an audience of warriors, + critical on such a point, they speak of what the warriors know to be + actual, except when, in a recognised form of decorative exaggeration, they + introduce + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Masts of the beaten gold + And sails of taffetie." +</pre> + <p> + Our theory is, then, that in the age when the Homeric poems were composed, + iron, though well known, was on its probation. Men of the sword preferred + bronze for all their military purposes, just as fifteenth-century soldiers + found the long-bow and cross-bow much more effective than guns, or as the + Duke of Wellington forbade the arming of all our men with rifles in place + of muskets ... for reasons not devoid of plausibility. + </p> + <p> + Sir John Evans supposes that, in the seventh century, the Carian and + Ionian invaders of Egypt were still using offensive arms of bronze, not of + iron. {Footnote: Ancient <i>Bronze Implements</i>, p. 8 (1881), citing + Herodotus, ii. c. 112. Sir John is not sure that Achaean spear-heads were + not of copper, for they twice double up against a shield. <i>Iliad</i>, + III. 348; VII. 259; Evans, p. 13.} Sir John remarks that "for a + considerable time after the Homeric period, bronze remained in use for + offensive weapons," especially for "spears, lances, and arrows." Hesiod, + quite unlike his contemporaries, the "later" poets of Iliad and <i>Odyssey</i>, + gives to Heracles an iron helmet and sword. {Footnote: <i>Scutum Herculis</i>, + pp. 122-138.} Hesiod knew better, but was not a consistent archaiser. Sir + John thinks that as early as 500 or even 600 B.C. iron and steel were in + common use for weapons in Greece, but not yet had they altogether + superseded bronze battle-axes and spears. {Footnote: Evans, p. 18.} By Sir + John's showing, iron for offensive weapons superseded bronze very slowly + indeed in Greece; and, if my argument be correct, it had not done so when + the Homeric poems were composed. Iron merely served for utensils, and the + poems reflect that stage of transition which no poet could dream of + inventing. + </p> + <p> + These pages had been written before my attention was directed to M. + Bérard's book, <i>Les Pheniciens et l'Odyssée</i> (Paris, 1902). M. Bérard + has anticipated and rather outrun my ideas. "I might almost say," he + remarks, "that iron is the popular metal, native and rustic... the + shepherd and ploughman can extract and work it without going to the town." + The chief's smith could work iron, if he had iron to work, and this iron + Achilles gave as a prize. "With rustic methods of working it iron is + always impure; it has 'straws' in it, and is brittle. It may be the metal + for peace and for implements. In our fields we see the reaper sit down and + repair his sickle. In war is needed a metal less hard, perhaps, but more + tough and not so easily broken. You cannot sit down in the field of + battle, as in a field of barley, to beat your sword straight...." + {Footnote: Bérard, i. 435.} + </p> + <p> + So the Celts found, if we believe Polybius. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, iron swords did supersede bronze swords in the long + run. Apparently they had not done so in the age of the poet, but iron had + certainly ceased to be "a precious metal"; knives and woodcutters' axes + are never made of a metal that is precious and rare. I am thus led, on a + general view, to suppose that the poems took shape when iron was very well + known, but was not yet, as in the "Dipylon" period in Crete, commonly used + by sword-smiths. + </p> + <p> + The ideas here stated are not unlike those of Paul Cauer. {Footnote: <i>Grundfrager + des Homerkritik,</i> pp. 183-187. Leipsic, 1895.} I do not, however, find + the mentions of iron useful as a test of "early" and "late" lays, which it + is his theory that they are. Thus he says:— + </p> + <p> + (1) Iron is often mentioned as part of a man's personal property, while we + are not told how he means to use it. It is named with bronze, gold, and + girls. The poet has no definite picture before his eyes; he is vague about + iron. But, we reply, his picture of iron in these passages is neither more + nor less definite than his mental picture of the other commodities. He + calls iron "hard to smithy," "grey," "dark-hued"; he knows, in fact, all + about it. He does not tell us what the owner is going to do with the gold + and the bronze and the girls, any more than he tells us what is to be done + with the iron. Such information was rather in the nature of a luxury than + a necessity. Every hearer knew the uses of all four commodities. This does + not seem to have occurred to Cauer. + </p> + <p> + (2) Iron is spoken of as an emblem of hard things, as, to take a modern + example, in Mr. Swinburne's "armed and iron maidenhood "—said of + Atalanta. Hearts are "iron," strength is "iron," flesh is not "iron," an + "iron" noise goes up to the heaven of bronze. It may not follow, Cauer + thinks, from these phrases that iron was used in any way. Men are supposed + to marvel at its strange properties; it was "new and rare." I see no + ground for this inference. + </p> + <p> + (3) We have the "iron gates" of Tartarus, and the "iron bonds" in which + Odysseus was possibly lying; it does not follow that chains or gates were + made of iron any more than that gates were of chrysoprase in the days of + St. John. + </p> + <p> + (4) Next, we have mention of implements, not weapons, of iron—a + remarkable trait of culture. Greek ploughs and axes were made of iron + before spears and swords were of iron. + </p> + <p> + (5) We have mention of iron weapons, namely, the unique iron mace of + Areithous and the solitary iron arrow-head of Pandarus, and what Cauer + calls the iron swords (more probably knives) of Achilles and others. It is + objected to the "iron" of Achilles that Antilochus fears he will cut his + throat with it on hearing of the death of Patroclus, while there is no + other mention of suicide in the <i>Iliad</i>. It does not follow that + suicide was unheard of; indeed, Achilles may be thinking of suicide + presently, in XIII. 98, when he says to his mother: "Let me die at once, + since it was not my lot to succour my comrade." + </p> + <p> + (6) We have the iron-making spoken of in Book IX. 393 of the <i>Odyssey</i>. + </p> + <p> + It does not appear to us that the use of iron as an epithet bespeaks an + age when iron was a mysterious thing, known mainly by reputation, "a + costly possession." The epithets "iron strength," and so on, may as + readily be used in our own age or any other. If iron were at first a + "precious" metal, it is odd that Homeric men first used it, as Cauer sees + that they did, to make points to ploughshares and "tools of agriculture + and handiwork." "Then people took to working iron for weapons." Just so, + but we cannot divide the <i>Iliad</i> into earlier and later portions in + proportion to the various mentions of iron in various Books. These + statistics are of no value for separatist purposes. It is impossible to + believe that men when they spoke of "iron strength," "iron hearts," "grey + iron," "iron hard to smithy," did so because iron was, first, an almost + unknown legendary mineral, next, "a precious metal," then the metal of + drudgery, and finally the metal of weapons. + </p> + <p> + The real point of interest is, as Cauer sees, that domestic preceded + military uses of iron among the Achaeans. He seems, however, to think that + the confinement of the use of bronze to weapons is a matter of traditional + style. {Footnote: "Nur die Sprache der Dichter hielt an dem Gebrauch der + Bronze fest, die in den Jahrhunderten, während deren der Epische Stil + erwachsen war, allein geherrscht hatte."} But, in the early days of the + waxing epics, tools as well as weapons were, as in Homer they occasionally + are, of bronze. Why, then, do the supposed late continuators represent + tools, not weapons, as of iron? Why do they not cleave to the traditional + term—bronze—in the case of tools, as the same men do in the + case of weapons? + </p> + <p> + Helbig offers an apparently untenable explanation of this fact. He has + proposed an interpretation of the uses of bronze and iron in the poems + entirely different from that which I offer. {Footnote: <i>Sur la Question + Mycénienne</i>. 1896.} Unfortunately, one can scarcely criticise his + theory without entering again into the whole question of the construction + of the Epics. He thinks that the origin of the poems dates from "the + Mycenaean period," and that the later continuators of the poems retained + the traditions of that remote age. Thus they thrice call Mycenae "golden," + though, in the changed economic conditions of their own period, Mycenae + could no longer be "golden"; and I presume that, if possible, the city + would have issued a papyrus currency without a metallic basis. However + this may be, "in the description of customs the epic poets did their best + to avoid everything modern." Here we have again that unprecedented + phenomenon—early poets who are archaeologically precise. + </p> + <p> + We have first to suppose that the kernel of the <i>Iliad</i> originated in + the Mycenaean age, the age of bronze. We are next to believe that this + kernel was expanded into the actual Epic in later and changed times, but + that the later poets adhered in their descriptions to the Mycenaean + standard, avoiding "everything modern." That poets of an uncritical + period, when treating of the themes of ancient legend or song, carefully + avoid everything modern is an opinion not warranted by the usage of the + authors of the <i>Chansons de Geste</i>, of <i>Beowulf</i>, and of the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>. + These poets, we must repeat, invariably introduce in their chants + concerning ancient days the customs, costume, armour, religion, and + weapons of their own time. Dr. Helbig supposes that the late Greek poets, + however, who added to the <i>Iliad</i>, carefully avoided doing what other + poets of uncritical ages have always done. {Footnote: <i>La Question + Mycénienne</i>, p. 50.} + </p> + <p> + This is his position in his text (p. 50). In his note 1 to page 50, + however, he occupies the precisely contrary position. "The epic poems were + chanted, as a rule, in the houses of more or less warlike chiefs. It is, + then, <i>à priori</i> probable that the later poets took into account the + <i>contemporary</i> military state of things. Their audience would have + been much perturbed (<i>bien chequés</i>) if they had heard the poet + mention nothing but arms and forms of attack and defence to which they + were unaccustomed." If so, when iron weapons came in the poets would + substitute iron for bronze, in lays new and old, but they never do. + However, this is Helbig's opinion in his note. But in his text he says + that the poets, carefully avoiding the contemporary, "the modern," make + the heroes fight, not on horseback, but from chariots. Their listeners, + according to his note, must have been <i>bien chequés</i>, for there came + a time when <i>they</i> were not accustomed to war chariots. + </p> + <p> + Thus the poets who, in Dr. Helbig's text, "avoid as far as possible all + that is modern," in his note, on the same page, "take account of the + contemporary state of things," and are as modern as possible where weapons + <i>are</i> concerned. Their audience would be sadly put out (<i>bien + chequés</i>) "if they heard talk only of arms ... to which they were + unaccustomed"; talk of large suspended shields, of uncorsleted heroes, and + of bronze weapons. They had to endure it, whether they liked it or not, <i>teste</i> + Reichel. Dr. Helbig seems to speak correctly in his note; in his text his + contradictory opinion appears to be wrong. Experience teaches us that the + poets of an uncritical age—Shakespeare, for example—introduce + the weapons of their own period into works dealing with remote ages. + Hamlet uses the Elizabethan rapier. + </p> + <p> + In his argument on bronze and iron, unluckily, Dr. Helbig deserts the + judicious opinions of his note for the opposite theory of his text. His + late poets, in the age of iron, always say that the weapons of the heroes + are made of bronze. {Footnote: <i>Op. laud</i>., p. 51.} They thus, "as + far as possible avoid what is modern." But, of course, warriors of the age + of iron, when they heard the poet talk only of weapons of bronze, "<i>aurient + été bien choqués</i>" (as Dr. Helbig truly says in his note), on hearing + of nothing but "<i>armes auxquels ils n'étaient pas habitués,</i>"—arms + always of bronze. + </p> + <p> + Though Dr. Helbig in his text is of the opposite opinion, I must agree + entirely with the view which he states so clearly in his note. It follows + that if a poet speaks invariably of weapons of bronze, he is living in an + age when weapons are made of no other material. In his text, however, Dr. + Helbig maintains that the poets of later ages "as far as possible avoid + everything modern," and, therefore, mention none but bronze weapons. But, + as he has pointed out, they do mention iron tools and implements. Why do + they desert the traditional bronze? Because "it occasionally happened that + a poet, when thinking of an entirely new subject, wholly emancipated + himself from traditional forms," {Footnote: <i>Op. laud</i>., pp. 51, 52} + </p> + <p> + The examples given in proof are the offer by Achilles of a lump of iron as + the prize for archery—the iron, as we saw, being destined for the + manufacture of pastoral and agricultural implements, in which Dr. Helbig + includes the lances of shepherds and ploughmen, though the poet never says + that they were of iron. {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 826, 835; Odyssey, + XIV. 531; XIII. 225.} There are also the axes through which Odysseus + shoots his arrow. {Footnote: <i>Odyssey</i>, XIX. 587; XXI. 3, X, 97, 114, + 127, 138; XXIV. 168, 177; cf. XXI. 61.} "The poet here treated an entirely + new subject, in the development of which he had perfect liberty." So he + speaks freely of iron. "But," we exclaim, "tools and implements, axes and + knives, are not a perfectly new subject!" They were extremely familiar to + the age of bronze, the Mycenaean age. Examples of bronze tools, + arrow-heads, and implements are discovered in excavations on Mycenaean + sites. There was nothing new about bronze tools and implements. Men had + bronze tips to their ploughshares, bronze knives, bronze axes, bronze + arrow-heads before they used iron. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps we are to understand that feats of archery, non-military contests + in bowmanship, are <i>un sujet à fait nouveau</i>: a theme so very modern + that a poet, in singing of it, could let himself go, and dare to speak of + iron implements. But where was the novelty? All peoples who use the bow in + war practise archery in time of peace. The poet, moreover, speaks of + bronze tools, axes and knives, in other parts of the <i>Iliad</i>; neither + tools nor bronze tools constitute <i>un sujet tout à fait nouveau</i>. + There was nothing new in shooting with a bow and nothing new in the + existence of axes. Bows and axes were as familiar to the age of stone and + to the age of bronze as to the age of iron. Dr. Helbig's explanation, + therefore, explains nothing, and, unless a better explanation is offered, + we return to the theory, rejected by Dr. Helbig, that implements and tools + were often, not always, of iron, while weapons were of bronze in the age + of the poet. Dr. Helbig rejects this opinion. He writes: "We cannot in any + way admit that, at a period when the socks of the plough, the lance points + of shepherds" (which the poet never describes as of iron), "and axe-heads + were of iron, warriors still used weapons of bronze." {Footnote: op. <i>laud.</i>, + p. 53.} But it is logically possible to admit that this was the real state + of affairs, while it is logically impossible to admit that bows and tools + were "new subjects"; and that late poets, when they sang of military gear, + "<i>tenaient compte de l'armement contemporain,</i>" carefully avoiding + the peril of bewildering their hearers by speaking of antiquated arms, + and, at the same time, spoke of nothing but antiquated arms—weapons + of bronze—and of war chariots, to fighting men who did not use war + chariots and did use weapons of iron. + </p> + <p> + These logical contradictions beset all arguments in which it is maintained + that "the late poets" are anxious archaisers, and at the same time are + eagerly introducing the armour and equipment of their own age. The critics + are in the same quandary as to iron and bronze as traps them in the case + of large shields, small bucklers, greaves, and corslets. They are obliged + to assign contradictory attitudes to their "late poets." It does not seem + possible to admit that a poet, who often describes axes as of iron in + various passages, does so in his account of a peaceful contest in + bowmanship, because contests in bowmanship are <i>UN sujet TOUT à FAIT + NOUVEAU;</i> and so he feels at liberty to describe axes as of iron, while + he adheres to bronze as the metal for weapons. He, or one of the Odyssean + poets, had already asserted (Odyssey, IX. 391) that iron <i>was</i> the + metal for adzes and axes. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Helbig's argument {Footnote: <i>La Question Mycénienne</i>, p. 54.} + does not explain the facts. The bow of Eurytus and the uses to which + Odysseus is to put it have been in the poet's mind all through the conduct + of his plot, and there is nothing to suggest that the exploit of + bowmanship is a very new lay, tacked on to the Odyssey. + </p> + <p> + After writing this chapter, I observed that my opinion had been + anticipated by S. H. Naber. {Footnote: <i>Quaestiones Homericae</i>, p. + 60. Amsterdam. Van der Post, 1897.} "Quod Herodoti diserto testimonio + novimus, Homeri restate ferruminatio nondum inventa erat necdum bene + noverant mortales, uti opinor, <i>acuere</i> ferrum. Hinc pauperes homines + ubi possunt, ferro utuntur; sed in plerisque rebus turn domi turn militiae + imprimis coguntur uti aere...." + </p> + <p> + The theory of Mr. Ridgeway as to the relative uses of iron and bronze is + not, by myself, very easily to be understood. "The Homeric warrior ... has + regularly, as we have seen, spear and sword of iron." {Footnote: <i>Early + Age of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 301.} As no spear or sword of iron is ever + mentioned in the <i>Iliad</i> or Odyssey, as both weapons are always of + bronze when the metal is specified, I have not "seen" that they are + "regularly," or ever, of iron. In proof, Mr. Ridgeway cites the axes and + knives already mentioned—which are not spears or swords, and are + sometimes of bronze. He also quotes the line in the Odyssey, "Iron of + itself doth attract a man." But if this line is genuine and original, it + does not apply to the state of things in the <i>Iliad</i>, while it + contradicts the whole Odyssey, in which swords and spears are <i>ALWAYS</i> + of bronze when their metal is mentioned. If the line reveals the true + state of things, then throughout the Odyssey, if not throughout the <i>Iliad</i>, + the poets when they invariably speak of bronze swords and spears + invariably say what they do not mean. If they do this, how are we to know + when they mean what they say, and of what value can their evidence on + points of culture be reckoned? They may always be retaining traditional + terms as to usages and customs in an age when these are obsolete. + </p> + <p> + If the Achaeans were, as in Mr. Ridgeway's theory, a northern people—"Celts"—who + conquered with iron weapons a Pelasgian bronze-using Mycenaean people, it + is not credible to me that Achaean or Pelasgian poets habitually used the + traditional Pelasgian term for the metal of weapons, namely, bronze, in + songs chanted before victors who had won their triumph with iron. The + traditional phrase of a conquered bronze-using race could not thus survive + and flourish in the poetry of an outlandish iron-using race of conquerors. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ridgeway cites the Odyssey, wherein we are told that "Euryalus, the + Phaeacian, presented to Odysseus a bronze sword, though, as we have seen" + (Mr. Ridgeway has seen), "the usual material for all such weapons is iron. + But the Phoeacians both belonged to the older race and lived in a remote + island, and therefore swords of bronze may well have continued in use in + such out-of-the-world places long after iron swords were in use everywhere + else in Greece. The man who could not afford iron had to be satisfied with + bronze." {Footnote: <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, p. 305.} Here the poet is + allowed to mean what he says. The Phaeacian sword is really of bronze, + with silver studs, probably on the hilt (Odyssey, VIII. 401-407), which + was of ivory. The "out-of-the-world" islanders could afford ivory, not + iron. But when the same poet tells us that the sword which Odysseus + brought from Troy was "a great silver-studded bronze sword" (Odyssey, X. + 261, 262), then Mr. Ridgeway does not allow the poet to mean what he says. + The poet is now using an epic formula older than the age of iron swords. + </p> + <p> + That Mr. Ridgeway adopts Helbig's theory—the poet says "bronze," by + a survival of the diction of the bronze age, when he means iron—I + infer from the following passage: "<i>Chalkos</i> is the name for the + older metal, of which cutting weapons were made, and it thus lingered in + many phrases of the Epic dialect; 'to smite with the <i>chalkos</i>' was + equivalent to our phrase 'to smite with the steel.'" {Footnote: <i>Early + Age of Greece</i>, i. 295.} But we certainly do smite with the steel, + while the question is, "<i>DID</i> Homer's men smite with the iron?" Homer + says not; he does not merely use "an epic phrase" "to smite with the <i>CHALKOS</i>," + but he carefully describes swords, spears, and usually arrow-heads as + being of bronze (<i>CHALKOS</i>), while axes, adzes, and knives are + frequently described by him as of iron. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ridgeway has an illustrative argument with some one, who says: "The + dress and weapons of the Saxons given in the lay of <i>Beowulf</i> fitted + exactly the bronze weapons in England, for they had shields, and spears, + and battle-axes, and swords." If you pointed out to him that the Saxon + poem spoke of these weapons as made of iron, he would say, "I admit that + it is a difficulty, but the resemblances are so many that the + discrepancies may be jettisoned." {Footnote: <i>Ridgeway,</i> i. 83, 84.} + </p> + <p> + Now, if the supposed controversialist were a Homeric critic, he would not + admit any difficulty. He would say, "Yes; in <i>Beowulf</i> the weapons + are said to be of iron, but that is the work of the Christian <i>remanieur,</i> + or <i>bearbeiter,</i> who introduced all the Christian morality into the + old heathen lay, and who also, not to puzzle his iron-using audience, + changed the bronze into iron weapons." + </p> + <p> + We may prove anything if we argue, now that the poets retain the tradition + of obsolete things, now that they modernise as much as they please. Into + this method of reasoning, after duly considering it, I am unable to come + with enthusiasm, being wedded to the belief that the poets say what they + mean. Were it otherwise, did they not mean what they say, their evidence + would be of no value; they might be dealing throughout in terms for things + which were unrepresented in their own age. To prove this possible, it + would be necessary to adduce convincing and sufficient examples of early + national poets who habitually use the terminology of an age long prior to + their own in descriptions of objects, customs, and usages. Meanwhile, it + is obvious that my whole argument has no archaeological support. We may + find "Mycenaean" corslets and greaves, but they are not in cremation + burials. No Homeric cairn with Homeric contents has ever been discovered; + and if we did find examples of Homeric cairns, it appears, from the poems, + that they would very seldom contain the arms of the dead. + </p> + <p> + Nowhere, again, do we find graves containing bronze swords and iron axes + and adzes. I know nothing nearer in discoveries to my supposed age of + bronze weapons and iron tools than a grave of the early iron and + geometrical ornament age of Crete—a <i>tholos</i> tomb, with a + bronze spear-head and a set of iron tools, among others a double axe and a + pick of iron. But these were in company with iron swords? To myself the + crowning mystery is, what has become of the Homeric tumuli with their + contents? One can but say that only within the last thirty years have we + found, or, finding, have recognised Mycenaean burial records. As to the + badness of the iron of the North for military purposes, and the probable + badness of all early iron weapons, we have testimony two thousand years + later than Homer and some twelve hundred years later than Polybius. In the + Eyrbyggja Saga (Morris and Maguússon, chap, xxiv.) we read that Steinthor + "was girt with a sword that was cunningly wrought; the hilts were white + with silver, and the grip wrapped round with the same, but the strings + thereof were gilded." This was a splendid sword, described with the + Homeric delight in such things; but the battle-cry arises, and then "the + fair-wrought sword bit not when it smote armour, and Steinthor must <i>straighten + it under</i> his <i>foot.</i>" Messrs. Morris and Maguússon add in a note: + "This is a very common experience in Scandinavian weapons, and for the + first time heard of at the battle of Aquae Sextiae between Marius and the + Teutons." {Footnote: The reference is erroneous.} "In the North + weapon-smiths who knew how to forge tempered or steel-laminated weapons + were, if not unknown, at least very rare." When such skill was unknown or + rare in Homer's time, nothing was more natural than that bronze should + hold its own, as the metal for swords and spears, after iron was commonly + used for axes and ploughshares. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X + </h2> + <h3> + THE HOMERIC HOUSE + </h3> + <p> + If the Homeric poems be, as we maintain, the work of a peculiar age, the + Homeric house will also, in all likelihood, be peculiar. It will not be + the Hellenic house of classical times. Manifestly the dwelling of a + military-prince in the heroic age would be evolved to meet his needs, + which were not the needs of later Hellenic citizens. In time of peace the + later Greeks are weaponless men, not surrounded by and entertaining + throngs of armed retainers, like the Homeric chief. The women of later + Greece, moreover, are in the background of life, dwelling in the women's + chambers, behind those of the men, in seclusion. The Homeric women also, + at least in the house of Odysseus, have their separate chambers, which the + men seem not to enter except on invitation, though the ladies freely + honour by their presence the hall of the warriors. The circumstances, + however, were peculiar—Penelope being unprotected in the absence of + her lord. + </p> + <p> + The whole domestic situation in the Homeric poems—the free equality + of the women, the military conditions, the life of the chiefs and + retainers—closely resembles, allowing for differences of climate, + that of the rich landowners of early Iceland as described in the sagas. + There can be no doubt that the house of the Icelandic chief was analogous + to the house of the Homeric prince. Societies remarkably similar in mode + of life were accommodated in dwellings similarly arranged. Though the + Icelanders owned no Over-Lord, and, indeed, left their native Scandinavia + to escape the sway of Harold Fairhair, yet each wealthy and powerful chief + lived in the manner of a Homeric "king." His lands and thralls, horses and + cattle, occupied his attention when he did not chance to be on Viking + adventure—"bearing bane to alien men." He always carried sword and + spear, and often had occasion to use them. He entertained many guests, and + needed a large hall and ample sleeping accommodation for strangers and + servants. His women were as free and as much respected as the ladies in + Homer; and for a husband to slap a wife was to run the risk of her deadly + feud. Thus, far away in the frosts of the north, the life of the chief was + like that of the Homeric prince, and their houses were alike. + </p> + <p> + It is our intention to use this parallel in the discussion of the Homeric + house. All Icelandic chiefs' houses in the tenth and eleventh centuries + were not precisely uniform in structure and accommodation, and saga + writers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, living more comfortably + than their forefathers, sometimes confuse matters by introducing the + arrangements of their own into the tale of past times. But, in any case, + one Icelandic house of the tenth or eleventh century might differ from + another in certain details. It is not safe, therefore, to argue that + difference of detail in Homer's accounts of various houses means that the + varying descriptions were composed in different ages. In the <i>Odyssey</i> + the plot demands that the poet must enter into domestic details much more + freely than he ever has occasion to do in the Iliad. He may mention upper + chambers freely, for example; it will not follow that in the <i>Iliad</i> + upper chambers do not exist because they are only mentioned twice in that + Epic. + </p> + <p> + It is even more important to note that in the house of Odysseus we have an + unparalleled domestic situation. The lady of the house is beset by more + than a hundred wooers—"sorning" on her, in the old Scots legal + phrase—making it impossible for her to inhabit her own hall, and + desirable to keep the women as much as possible apart from the men. Thus + the Homeric house of which we know most, that of Odysseus, is a house in a + most abnormal condition. + </p> + <p> + For the sake of brevity we omit the old theory that the Homeric house was + practically that of historical Greece, with the men's hall approached by a + door from the courtyard; while a door at the upper end of the men's hall + yields direct access to the quarters where the women dwelt apart, at the + rear of the men's hall. + </p> + <p> + That opinion has not survived the essay by Mr. J. L. Myres on the "Plan of + the Homeric House." {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vol. + XX, 128-150.} Quite apart from arguments that rest on the ground plans of + palaces at Mycenae and Tiryns, Mr. Myres has proved, by an exact reading + of the poet's words, that the descriptions in the <i>Odyssey</i> cannot be + made intelligible on the theory that the poet has in his mind a house of + the Hellenic pattern. But in his essay he hardly touches on any Homeric + house except that of Odysseus, in which the circumstances were unusual. A + later critic, Ferdinand Noack, has demonstrated that we must take other + Homeric houses into consideration. {Footnote: <i>Homerische Paläste</i>. + Teubner. Leipzig, 1903.} The prae-Mycenaean house is, according to Mr. + Myres, on the whole of the same plan as the Hellenic house of historic + days; between these comes the Mycenaean and Homeric house; "so that the + Mycenaean house stands out <i>as an intrusive phenomenon</i>, of + comparatively late arrival <i>and short of duration</i>..." {Footnote: + Myres, <i>Journal</i> of <i>Hellenic</i> Studies, vol. xx. p. 149.} Noack + goes further; he draws a line between the Mycenaean houses on one hand and + the houses described by Homer on the other; while he thinks that the "<i>late</i> + Homeric house," that of the closing Books of the Odyssey, is widely + sundered from the Homeric house of the <i>Iliad</i> and from the houses of + Menelaus and Alcinous in earlier Books of the <i>Odyssey.</i> {Footnote: + Noack, p. 73.} + </p> + <p> + In this case the Iliadic and earlier Odyssean houses are those of a single + definite age, neither Mycenaean of the prime, nor Hellenic—a fact + which entirely suits our argument. But it is not so certain, that the + house of Odysseus is severed from the other Homeric houses by the later + addition of an upper storey, as Noack supposes, and of women's quarters, + and of separate sleeping chambers for the heads of the family. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Iliad,</i> save in two passages, and earlier Books of the <i>Odyssey</i> + may not mention upper storeys because they have no occasion, or only rare + occasion, to do so; and some houses may have had upper sleeping chambers + while others of the same period had not, as we shall prove from the + Icelandic parallel. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Myres's idea of the Homeric house, or, at least, of the house of + Odysseus, is that the women had a <i>meguron,</i> or common hall, apart + from that of the men, with other chambers. These did not lie to the direct + rear of the men's hall, nor were they entered by a door that opened in the + back wall of the men's hall. Penelope has a chamber, in which she sleeps + and does woman's work, upstairs; her connubial chamber, unoccupied during + her lord's absence, is certainly on the ground floor. The women's rooms + are severed from the men's hall by a courtyard; in the courtyard are + chambers. Telemachus has his {Greek: Thalamos}, or chamber, in the men's + courtyard. All this appears plain from the poet's words; and Mr. Myres + corroborates, by the ground plans of the palaces of Tiryns and Mycenae, a + point on which Mr. Monro had doubts, as regards Tiryns, while he accepted + it for Mycenae. {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, ii. 497; <i>Journal of Hellenic + Studies</i>, xx. 136.} + </p> + <p> + Noack {Footnote: Noack, p. 39.} does not, however, agree. + </p> + <p> + There appears to be no doubt that in the centre of the great halls of + Tiryns and of Mycenae, as of the houses in Homer, was the hearth, with two + tall pillars on each side, supporting a <i>louvre</i> higher than the rest + of the roof, and permitting some, at least, of the smoke of the fire to + escape. Beside the fire were the seats of the master and mistress of the + house, of the minstrel, and of honoured guests. The place of honour was + not on a dais at the inmost end of the hall, like the high table in + college halls. Mr. Myres holds that in the Homeric house the {Greek: + prodomos}, or "forehouse," was a chamber, and was not identical with the + {Greek: aethousa}, or portico, though he admits that the two words "are + used indifferently to describe the sleeping place of a guest." {Footnote: + <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, xx. 144, 155.} This was the case at + Tiryns; and in the house of the father of Phoenix, in the <i>Iliad</i>, + the <i>prodomos</i>, or forehouse, and the <i>aethousa</i>, or portico, + are certainly separate things (Iliad, IX. 473). Noack does not accept the + Tiryns evidence for the Homeric house. + </p> + <p> + On Mr. Myres's showing, the women in the house of Odysseus had distinct + and separate quarters into which no man goes uninvited. Odysseus when at + home has, with his wife, a separate bedroom; and in his absence Penelope + sleeps upstairs, where there are several chambers for various purposes. + </p> + <p> + Granting that all this is so, how do the pictures of the house given in + the final part of the <i>Odyssey</i> compare with those in the {Blank + space} and with the accounts of the dwellings of Menelaus and Alcinous in + the Odyssey? Noack argues that the house of Odysseus is unlike the other + Homeric houses, because in these, he reasons, the women have no separate + quarters, and the lord and lady of the house sleep in the great hall, and + have no other bedroom, while there are no upper chambers in the houses of + the <i>Iliad</i>, except in two passages dismissed as "late." + </p> + <p> + If all this be so, then the Homeric period, as regards houses and domestic + life, belongs to an age apart, not truly Mycenaean, and still less later + Hellenic. + </p> + <p> + It must be remembered that Noack regards the Odyssey as a composite and in + parts very late mosaic (a view on which I have said what I think in <i>Homer + and the Epic</i>). According to this theory (Kirchhoff is the exponent of + a popular form thereof) the first Book of the Odyssey belongs to "the + latest stratum," and is the "copy" of the general "worker-up," whether he + was the editor employed by Pisistratus or a laborious amateur. This theory + is opposed by Sittl, who makes his point by cutting out, as + interpolations, whatever passages do not suit his ideas, and do suit + Kirchhoff's—this is the regular method of Homeric criticism. The + whole cruise of Telemachus (Book IV.) is also regarded as a late addition: + on this point English scholars hitherto have been of the opposite opinion. + {Footnote: Cf. Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. 313-317.} + </p> + <p> + The method of all parties is to regard repetitions of phrases as examples + of borrowing, except, of course, in the case of the earliest poet from + whom the others pilfer, and in other cases of prae-Homeric surviving epic + formulae. Critics then dispute as to which recurrent passage is the + earlier, deciding, of course, as may happen to suit their own general + theory. In our opinion these passages are traditional formulae, as in our + own old ballads and in the <i>Chansons de Geste</i>, and Noack also takes + this view every now and then. They may well be older, in many cases, than + <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>; or the poet, having found his own + formula, economically used it wherever similar circumstances occurred. + Such passages, so considered, are no tests of earlier composition in one + place, of later composition in another. + </p> + <p> + We now look into Noack's theory of the Homeric house. Where do the lord + and lady sleep? <i>Not</i>, he says, as Odysseus and Penelope do (when + Odysseus is at home), in a separate chamber (<i>thalamos</i>) on the + ground floor, nor, like Gunnar and Halgerda (Njal's Saga), in an upper + chamber. They sleep <i>mucho domou</i>; that is, not in a separate recess + in the <i>house</i>, but in a recess of the great hall or <i>megaron</i>. + Thus, in the hall of Alcinous, the whole space runs from the threshold to + the <i>muchos</i>, the innermost part (<i>Odyssey</i>, VII. 87-96). In the + hall of Odysseus, the Wooers retreat to the <i>muchos</i>, "the innermost + part of the hall" (<i>Odyssey</i>, XXII. 270). "The <i>muchos</i>, in + Homer, never denotes a separate chamber." {Footnote: Noack, p. 45. <i>Cf</i>. + Monro, Note to Odyssey, XXII. 270.} + </p> + <p> + In Odyssey, XI. 373, Alcinous says it is not yet time to sleep <i>ev + megaro</i>, "in the hall." Alcinous and Arete, his wife, sleep "in the + recess of the lofty <i>domos</i>," that is, in the recess of the <i>hall</i>, + not of "the house" (Odyssey, VII. 346). The same words are used of Helen + and Menelaus (Odyssey, IV. 304). But when Menelaus goes forth next + morning, he goes <i>ek thalamoio</i>, "out of his <i>chamber</i>" (<i>Odyssey</i>, + IV. 310). But this, says Noack, is a mere borrowing of Odyssey, II 2-5, + where the same words are used of Telemachus, leaving his chamber, which + undeniably was a separate chamber in the court: Eurycleia lighted him + thither at night (Odyssey, I. 428). In Odyssey, IV. 121, Helen enters the + hall "from her fragrant, lofty chamber," so she <i>had</i> a chamber, not + in the hall. But, says Noack, this verse "is not original." The late poet + of <i>Odyssey</i>, IV. has cribbed it from the early poet who composed <i>Odyssey, + XIX. 53.</i> In that passage Penelope "comes from her chamber, like + Artemis or golden Aphrodite." Penelope <i>had</i> a chamber—being "a + lone lorn woman," who could not sleep in a hall where the Wooers sat up + late drinking—and the latest poet transfers this chamber to Helen. + But however late and larcenous he may have been, the poet of IV. 121 + certainly did not crib the words of the poet of XIX. 53, for he says, + "Helen came out of her <i>fragrant, high-roofed</i> chamber." The <i>hall</i> + was not precisely "fragrant"! However, Noack supposes that the late poet + of Book IV. let Helen have a chamber apart, to lead up to the striking + scene of her entry to the hall where her guests are sitting. May Helen not + even have a boudoir? In <i>Odyssey</i>, IV. 263, Helen speaks remorsefully + of having abandoned her "chamber," and husband, and child, with Paris; but + the late poet says this, according to Noack, because he finds that he is + in for a chamber, so to speak, at all events, as a result of his having + previously cribbed the word "chamber" from Odyssey, XIX. 53. Otherwise, we + presume Helen would have said that she regretted having left "the recess + of the lofty hall" where she really did sleep. {Footnote: Noack, pp. + 47-48} + </p> + <p> + The merit of this method of arguing may be left to the judgment of the + reader, who will remark that wedded pairs are not described as leaving the + hall when they go to bed; they sleep in "a recess of the lofty house," the + innermost part. Is this the same as the "recess of the <i>hall</i>" or is + it an innermost part of the <i>house?</i> Who can be certain? + </p> + <p> + The bridal chamber, built so cunningly, with the trunk of a tree for the + support of the bed, by Odysseus (odyssey, XXIII. 177-204), is, according + to Noack, an exception, a solitary freak of Odysseus. But we may reply + that the <i>thalamos</i>, the separate chamber, is no freak; the freak, by + knowledge of which Odysseus proves his identity, is the use of the tree in + the construction of the bed. {blank space} was highly original. + </p> + <p> + That separate chambers are needed for grown-up children, <i>BECAUSE</i> + the parents sleep in the hall, is no strong argument. If the parents had a + separate chamber, the young people, unless they slept in the hall, would + still need their own. The girls, of course, could not sleep in the hall; + and, in the absence of both Penelope and Odysseus from the hall, ever + since Telemachus was a baby, Telemachus could have slept there. But it + will be replied that the Wooers did not beset the hall, and Penelope did + not retire to a separate chamber, till Telemachus was a big boy of + sixteen. Noack argues that he had a separate chamber, though the hall was + free, <i>tradition</i>. {Footnote: Noack, p. 49.} + </p> + <p> + Where does Noack think that, in a normal Homeric house, the girls of the + family slept? <i>They</i> could not sleep in the hall, and on the two + occasions when the <i>Iliad</i> has to mention the chambers of the young + ladies they are "upper chambers," as is natural. But as Noack wants to + prove the house of Odysseus, with its upper chambers, to be a late + peculiar house, he, of course, expunges the two mentions of girls' upper + chambers in the <i>Odyssey</i>. The process is simple and easy. + </p> + <p> + We find (<i>Iliad</i>, XVII. 36) that a son, wedding in his father's and + mother's life-time, has a <i>thalamos</i> built for him, and a <i>muchos</i> + in the <i>THALAMOS</i>, where he leaves his wife when he goes to war. This + dwelling of grown-up married children, as in the case of the sons of + Priam, has a <i>thalamos</i>, or <i>doma</i>, and a courtyard—is a + house, in fact (<i>Iliad</i>, VI. 3 16). Here we seem to distinguish the + bed-chamber from the <i>doma</i>, which is the hall. Noack objects that + when Odysseus fumigates his house, after slaying the Wooers, he thus + treats the <i>megaron</i>, <i>AND</i> the <i>doma</i>, <i>AND</i> the + courtyard. Therefore, Noack argues, the <i>megaron</i>, or hall, is one + thing; the <i>doma</i> is another. Mr. Monro writes, "<i>doma</i> usually + means <i>megaron</i>," and he supposes a slip from another reading, <i>thalamon</i> + for <i>megaron</i>, which is not satisfactory. But if <i>doma</i> here be + not equivalent to <i>megaron</i>, what room can it possibly be? Who was + killed in another place? what place therefore needed purification except + the hall and courtyard? No other places needed purifying; there is + therefore clearly a defect in the lines which cannot be used in the + argument. + </p> + <p> + Noack, in any case, maintains that Paris has but one place to live in by + day and to sleep in by night—his {Greek: talamos}. There he sleeps, + eats, and polishes his weapons and armour. There Hector finds him looking + to his gear; Helen and the maids are all there (<i>Iliad,</i> VI. + 321-323). Is this quite certain? Are Helen and the maids in the {Greek: + talamos}, where Paris is polishing his corslet and looking to his bow, or + in an adjacent room? If not in another room, why, when Hector is in the + room talking to Paris, does Helen ask him to "come in"? (<i>Iliad,</i> VI. + 354). He is in, is there another room whence she can hear him? + </p> + <p> + The minuteness of these inquiries is tedious! + </p> + <p> + In <i>Iliad,</i> III. 125, Iris finds Helen "in the hall" weaving. She + summons her to come to Priam on the gate. Helen dresses in outdoor + costume, and goes forth "from the chamber," {Greek: talamos} (III. + 141-142). Are hall and chamber the same room, or did not Helen dress "in + the chamber"? In the same Book (III. 174) she repents having left the + {Greek: talamos} of Menelaus, not his hall: the passage is not a + repetition in words of her speech in the Odyssey. + </p> + <p> + The gods, of course, are lodged like men. When we find that Zeus has + really a separate sleeping chamber, built by Hephaestus, as Odysseus has (<i>Iliad,</i> + XIV. 166-167), we are told that this is a late interpolation. Mr. Leaf, + who has a high opinion of this scene, "the Beguiling of Zeus," places it + in the "second expansions"; he finds no "late Odyssean" elements in the + language. In <i>Iliad,</i> I. 608-611, Zeus "departed to his couch"; he + seems not to have stayed and slept in the hall. + </p> + <p> + Here a quaint problem occurs. Of all late things in the Odyssey the latest + is said to be the song of Demodocus about the loves of Ares and Aphrodite + in the house of Hephaestus. {Footnote: Odyssey, VIII. 266-300.} We shall + show that this opinion is far from certainly correct. Hephaestus sets a + snare round the bed in his {Greek: talamos} and catches the guilty lovers. + <i>Now</i>, was his {Greek: talamos} or bedroom, also his dining-room? If + so, the author of the song, though so "late," knows what Noack knows, and + what the poets who assign sleeping chambers to wedded folks do not know, + namely, that neither married gods nor married men have separate bedrooms. + This is plain, for he makes Hephaestus stand at the front door of his + house, and shout to the gods to come and see the sinful lovers. {Footnote: + Ibid., VI. 304-305} They all come and look on <i>from the front door</i> (<i>Odyssey</i>, + VII. 325), which leads into the {Greek: megaron}, the hall. If the lovers + are in bed in the hall, then hall and bedroom are all one, and the + terribly late poet who made this lay knows it, though the late poets of + the <i>Odyssey</i> and <i>Iliad</i> do not. + </p> + <p> + It would appear that the author of the lay is not "late," as we shall + prove in another case. + </p> + <p> + Noack, then, will not allow man or god to have a separate wedding chamber, + nor women, before the late parts of the <i>Odyssey</i>, to have separate + quarters, except in the house of Odysseus. Women's chambers do not exist + in the Homeric house. {Footnote: Noack, p. 50.} If so, how remote is the + true Homeric house from the house of historical Greece! + </p> + <p> + As for upper chambers, those of the daughter of the house (<i>Iliad,</i> + II. 514; XVI. 184), both passages are "late," as we saw (Noack, p.{blank + space}). In the <i>Odyssey</i> Penelope both sleeps and works at the + shroud in an upper chamber. But the whole arrangement of upper chambers as + women's apartments is as late, says Noack, as the time of the poets and + "redactors" (whoever they may have been) of the Odyssey, XXI., XXII., + XXIII. {Footnote: Noack, p. 68.} At the earliest these Books are said to + be of the eighth century B.C. Here the late poets have their innings at + last, and do modernise the Homeric house. + </p> + <p> + To prove the absence of upper rooms in the <i>Iliad</i> we have to abolish + II. 514, where Astyoche meets her divine lover in her upper chamber, and + XVI. 184, where Polymêlê celebrates her amour with Hermes "in the upper + chambers." The places where these two passages occur, <i>Catalogue</i> + (Book II.) and the <i>Catalogue</i> of the <i>Myrmidons</i> (Book XVI.) + are, indeed, both called "late," but the author of the latter knows the + early law of bride-price, which is supposed to be unknown to the authors + of "late" passages in the Odyssey (XVI. 190). + </p> + <p> + Stated briefly, such are the ideas of Noack. They leave us, at least, with + permission to hold that the whole of the Epics, except Books XXI., XXII., + and XXIII. of the Odyssey, bear, as regards the house, the marks of a + distinct peculiar age, coming between the period of Mycenae and Tiryns on + one hand and the eighth century B.C. on the other. + </p> + <p> + This is the point for which we have contended, and this suits our argument + very well, though we are sorry to see that Odyssey, Books XXI., XXII., and + XXIII., are no older than the eighth century B.C. But we have not been + quite convinced that Helen had not her separate chamber, that Zeus had not + his separate chamber, and that the upper chambers of the daughters of the + house in the Iliad are "late." Where, if not in upper chambers, did the + young princesses repose? Again, the marked separation of the women in the + house of Odysseus may be the result of Penelope's care in unusual + circumstances, though she certainly would not build a separate hall for + them. There are over a hundred handsome young scoundrels in her house all + day long and deep into the night; she would, vainly, do her best to keep + her girls apart. + </p> + <p> + It stands to reason that young girls of princely families would have + bedrooms in the house, not in the courtyard-bedrooms out of the way of + enterprising young men. What safer place could be found for them than in + upper chambers, as in the Iliad? But, if their lovers were gods, we know + that none "can see a god coming or going against his will." The + arrangements of houses may and do vary in different cases in the same age. + </p> + <p> + As examples we turn to the parallel afforded by the Icelandic sagas and + their pictures of houses of the eleventh century B.C. The present author + long ago pointed out the parallel of the houses in the sagas and in Homer. + {Footnote: <i>The</i> House. Butcher and Lang. Translation of the + Odyssey.} He took his facts from Dasent's translation of the Njal Saga + (1861, vol. i. pp. xcviii., ciii., with diagrams). As far as he is aware, + no critic looked into the matter till Mr. Monro (1901), being apparently + unacquainted with Dasent's researches, found similar lore in works by Dr. + Valtyr Gudmundsson {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. pp. 491-495; <i>cf</i>. + Gudmundsson, <i>Der Islandske Bottg i Fristats Tiden</i>, 1894; <i>cf</i>. + Dasent, <i>Oxford</i> Essays, 1858.} The roof of the hall is supported by + four rows of columns, the two inner rows are taller, and between them is + the hearth, with seats of honour for the chief guests and the lord. The + fire was in a kind of trench down the hall; and in very cold weather, we + learn from Dasent, long fires could be lit through the extent of the hall. + The chief had a raised seat; the guests sat on benches. The high seats + were at the centre; not till later times on the dais, as in a college + hall. The tables were relatively small, and, as in Homer, could be removed + after a meal. The part of the hall with the dais in later days was + partitioned off as a <i>stofa</i> or parlour. In early times cooking was + done in the hall. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Gudmundsson, if I understand him, varies from Dasent in some respects. + I quote an abstract of his statement. + </p> + <p> + "About the year 1000 houses generally consisted of, at least, four rooms; + often a fifth was added, the so-called bath-room. The oldest form for + houses was that of one long line or row of separate rooms united by wooden + or clay corridors or partitions, and each covered with a roof. Later, this + was considered unpractical, and they began building some of the houses or + rooms behind the others, which facilitated the access from one to another, + and diminished the number of outer doors and corridors." + </p> + <p> + "Towards the latter part of the tenth century the <i>skaal</i> was used as + common sleeping-room for the whole family, including servants and serfs; + it was fitted up in the same way as the hall. Like this, it was divided in + three naves by rows of wooden pillars; the middle floor was lower than + that of the two side naves. In these were placed the so-called <i>saet</i> + or bed-places, not running the whole length of the {blank space} from + gable to gable, but sideways, filling about a third part. Each <i>saet</i> + was enclosed by broad, strong planks joined into the pillars, but not + nailed on, so they might easily be taken out. These planks, called <i>SATTESTOKKE</i>, + could also be turned sideways and used as benches during the day; they + were often beautifully carved, and consequently highly valued." + </p> + <p> + "When settling abroad the people took away with them these planks, and put + them up in their new home as a symbol of domestic happiness. The <i>saet</i> + was occupied by the servants of the farm as sleeping-rooms; generally it + was screened by hangings and low panels, which partitioned it off like + huge separate boxes, used as beds." + </p> + <p> + "All beds were filled with hay or straw; servants and serfs slept on this + without any bedclothes, sometimes a sleeping-bag was used, or they covered + themselves with deerskins or a mantle. The family had bed-clothes, but + only in very wealthy houses were they also provided for the servants. + Moveable beds were extremely rare, but are sometimes mentioned. Generally + two people slept in each bed." + </p> + <p> + "In the further end of the <i>skaal</i>, facing the door, opened out one + or several small bedrooms, destined for the husband with wife and + children, besides other members of the family, including guests of a + higher standing. These small dormitories were separated by partitions of + planks into bedrooms with one or several beds, and shut away from the + outer <i>SKAAL</i> either by a sliding-door in the wall or by an ordinary + door shutting with a hasp. Sometimes only a hanging covered the opening." + </p> + <p> + "In some farms were found underground passages, leading from the master's + bedside to an outside house, or even as far as a wood or another sheltered + place in the neighbourhood, to enable the inhabitants to save themselves + during a night attack. For the same reason each man had his arms suspended + over his bed." + </p> + <p> + "<i>Ildhus</i> or fire-house was the kitchen, often used besides as a + sleeping-room when the farms were very small. This was quite abolished + after the year 1000." + </p> + <p> + "<i>Buret</i> was the provision house." + </p> + <p> + "The bathroom was heated from a stone oven; the stones were heated red-hot + and cold water thrown upon them, which developed a quantity of vapour. As + the heat and the steam mounted, the people—men and women—crawled + up to a shelf under the roof and remained there as in a Turkish bath." + </p> + <p> + "In large and wealthy houses there was also a women's room, with a + fireplace built low down in the middle, as in the hall, where the women + used to sit with their handiwork all day. The men were allowed to come in + and talk to them, also beggar-women and other vagabonds, who brought them + the news from other places. Towards evening and for meals all assembled + together in the hall." + </p> + <p> + On this showing, people did not sleep in cabins partitioned off the + dining-hall, but in the <i>skaale</i>; and two similar and similarly + situated rooms, one the common dining-hall, the other the common + sleeping-hall, have been confused by writers on the sagas. {Footnote: + Gudmundsson, p, 14, Note I.} Can there be a similar confusion in the uses + of <i>megaron</i>, <i>doma</i>, and <i>domos</i>? + </p> + <p> + In the Eyrbyggja Saga we have descriptions of the "fire-hall," <i>skáli</i> + or <i>eldhús</i>. "The fire-hall was the common sleeping-room in Icelandic + homesteads." Guests and strangers slept there; not in the portico, as in + Homer. "Here were the lock-beds." There were butteries; one of these was + reached by a ladder. The walls were panelled. {Footnote: <i>The Ere + Dwellers</i>, p. 145.} Thorgunna had a "berth," apparently partitioned + off, in the hall. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., 137-140.} As in Homer the hall + was entered from the courtyard, in which were separate rooms for stores + and other purposes. In the courtyard also, in the houses of Gunnar of + Lithend and Gisli at Hawkdale, and doubtless in other cases, were the <i>dyngfur</i>, + or ladies' chambers, their "bowers" (<i>Thalamos</i>, like that of + Telemachus in the courtyard), where they sat spinning and gossiping. The + <i>dyngja</i> was originally called <i>búr</i>, our "bower"; the ballads + say "in bower and hall." In the ballad of <i>MARGARET</i>, her parents are + said to put her in the way of deadly sin by building her a bower, + apparently separate from the main building; she would have been safer in + an upper chamber, though, even there, not safe—at least, if a god + wooed her! It does not appear that all houses had these chambers for + ladies apart from the main building. You did not enter the main hall in + Iceland from the court directly in front, but by the "man's door" at the + west side, whence you walked through the porch or outer hall (<i>prodomos</i>, + <i>aithonsa</i>), in the centre of which, to the right, were the doors of + the hall. The women entered by the women's door, at the eastern extremity. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +Guests did not sleep, as in Homer, in the <i>prodomos</i>, or the +portico—the climate did not permit it—but in one or other hall. The +hall was wainscotted; the walls were hung with shields and weapons, +like the hall of Odysseus. The heads of the family usually slept in the +aisles, in chambers entered through the wainscot of the hall. Such a +chamber might be called <i>muchos</i>; it was private from the hall though +under the same roof. It appears not improbable that some Homeric halls +had sleeping places of this kind; such a <i>muchos</i> in Iceland seems to +have had windows. {Footnote: Story of Burnt <i>Njal</i>, i. 242.} + + Gunnar himself, however, slept with his wife, Halegerda, in an +upper chamber; his mother, who lived with him, also had a room upstairs. +</pre> + <p> + In Njal's house, too, there was an upper chamber, wherein the foes of Njal + threw fire. {Footnote:<i>Ibid</i>., ii. 173.} But Njal and Bergthora, his + wife, when all hope was ended, went into their own bride-chamber in the + separate aisle of the hall "and gave over their souls into God's hand." + Under a hide they lay; and when men raised up the hide, after the fire had + done its work, "they were unburnt under it. All praised God for that, and + thought it was a <i>GREAT</i> token." In this house was a weaving room for + the women. {Footnote:<i>Ibid</i>, ii. 195.} + </p> + <p> + It thus appears that Icelandic houses of the heroic age, as regards + structural arrangements, were practically identical with the house of + Odysseus, allowing for a separate sleeping-hall, while the differences + between that and other Homeric houses may be no more than the differences + between various Icelandic dwellings. The parents might sleep in + bedchambers off the hall or in upper chambers. Ladies might have bowers in + the courtyard or might have none. The {Greek: laurae}—each passage + outside the hall—yielded sleeping rooms for servants; and there were + store-rooms behind the passage at the top end of the hall, as well as + separate chambers for stores in the courtyard. Mr. Leaf judiciously + reconstructs the Homeric house in its "public rooms," of which we hear + most, while he leaves the residential portion with "details and limits + probably very variable." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. pp. 586-589, + with diagram based on the palace of Tiryns.} + </p> + <p> + Given variability, which is natural and to be expected, and given the + absence of detail about the "residential portion" of other houses than + that of Odysseus in the poems, it does not seem to us that this house is + conspicuously "late," still less that it is the house of historical + Greece. Manifestly, in all respects it more resembles the houses of Njal + and Gunnar of Lithend in the heroic age of Iceland. + </p> + <p> + In the house, as in the uses of iron and bronze, the weapons, armour, + relations of the sexes, customary laws, and everything else, Homer gives + us an harmonious picture of a single and peculiar age. We find no stronger + mark of change than in the Odyssean house, if that be changed, which we + show reason to doubt. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES OF CHANGE IN THE "ODYSSEY" + </h2> + <p> + If the Homeric descriptions of details of life contain anachronisms, + points of detail inserted in later progressive ages, these must be + peculiarly conspicuous in the Odyssey. Longinus regarded it as the work of + Homer's advanced life, the sunset of his genius, and nobody denies that it + assumes the existence of the <i>Iliad</i> and is posterior to that epic. + In the Odyssey, then, we are to look, if anywhere, for indications of a + changed society. That the language of the <i>Odyssey</i>, and of four + Books of the <i>Iliad</i> (IX., X., XXIII., XXIV.), exhibits signs of + change is a critical commonplace, but the language is matter for a + separate discussion; we are here concerned with the ideas, manners, + customary laws, weapons, implements, and so forth of the Epics. + </p> + <p> + Taking as a text Mr. Monro's essay, <i>The Relation of the Odyssey to the + Iliad</i>, {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. pp. 324, <i>seqq</i>.} we + examine the notes of difference which he finds between the twin Epics. As + to the passages in which he discovers "borrowing or close imitation of + passages" in the <i>Iliad</i> by the poet of the <i>Odyssey</i>, we shall + not dwell on the matter, because we know so little about the laws + regulating the repetition of epic formulae. It is tempting, indeed, to + criticise Mr. Monro's list of twenty-four Odyssean "borrowings," and we + might arrive at some curious results. For example, we could show that the + <i>Klôthes</i>, the spinning women who "spae" the fate of each new-born + child, are not later, but, as less abstract, are if anything earlier than + "the simple <i>Aisa</i> of the <i>Iliad</i>." {Footnote: <i>Odyssey</i>, + VII. 197; <i>Iliad</i>, xx. 127.} But our proof would require an excursion + into the beliefs of savage and barbaric peoples who have their <i>Klôthes</i>, + spae-women attending each birth, but who are not known to have developed + the idea of <i>Aisa</i> or Fate. + </p> + <p> + We might also urge that "to send a spear through the back of a stag" is + not, as Mr. Monro thought, "an improbable feat," and that a man wounded to + death as Leiocritus was wounded, would not, as Mr. Monro argued, fall + backwards. He supposes that the poet of the <i>Odyssey</i> borrowed the + forward fall from a passage in the <i>Iliad</i>, where the fall is in + keeping. But, to make good our proof, it might be necessary to spear a + human being in the same way as Leiocritus was speared. {Footnote: Monro, + odyssey, vol. ii. pp. 239, 230.} + </p> + <p> + The repetitions of the Epic, at all events, are not the result of the + weakness of a poet who had to steal his expressions like a schoolboy. They + have some other cause than the indolence or inefficiency of a <i>cento</i>—making + undergraduate. Indeed, a poet who used the many terms in the <i>Odyssey</i> + which do not occur in the <i>Iliad</i> was not constrained to borrow from + any predecessor. + </p> + <p> + It is needless to dwell on the Odyssean novelties in vocabulary, which + were naturally employed by a poet who had to sing of peace, not of war, + and whose epic, as Aristotle says, is "ethical," not military. The poet's + rich vocabulary is appropriate to his novel subject, that is all. + </p> + <p> + Coming to Religion (I) we find Mr. Leaf assigning to his original <i>Achilleis</i>—"the + kernel"—the very same religious ideas as Mr. Monro takes to be marks + of "lateness" and of advance when he finds them in the Odyssey! + </p> + <p> + In the original oldest part of the <i>Iliad</i>, says Mr. Leaf, "the gods + show themselves just so much as to let us know what are the powers which + control mankind from heaven.... Their interference is such as becomes the + rulers of the world, not partisans in the battle." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. pp. xii., xiii.} It is the later poets of the <i>Iliad</i>, in + Mr. Leaf's view, who introduce the meddlesome, undignified, and extremely + unsportsmanlike gods. The original early poet of the <i>Iliad</i> had the + nobler religious conceptions. + </p> + <p> + In that case—the <i>Odyssey</i> being later than the original kernel + of the Iliad—the <i>Odyssey</i> ought to give us gods as undignified + and unworthy as those exhibited by the later continuators of the <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + But the reverse is the case. The gods behave fairly well in Book XXIV. of + the <i>Iliad</i>, which, we are to believe, is the latest, or nearly the + latest, portion. They are all wroth with the abominable behaviour of + Achilles to dead Hector (XXIV. 134). They console and protect Priam. As + for the <i>Odyssey</i>, Mr. Monro finds that in this late Epic the gods + are just what Mr. Leaf proclaims them to have been in his old original + kernel. "There is now an Olympian concert that carries on something like a + moral government of the world. It is very different in the <i>Iliad</i>...." + {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, ii. 335.} + </p> + <p> + But it was not very different; it was just the same, in Mr. Leaf's genuine + old original germ of the <i>Iliad</i>. In fact, the gods are "very much + like you and me." When their <i>ichor</i> is up, they misbehave as we do + when our blood is up, during the fury of war. When Hector is dead and when + the war is over, the gods give play to their higher nature, as men do. + There is no difference of religious conception to sever the <i>Odyssey</i> + from the later but not from the original parts of the <i>Iliad</i>. It is + all an affair of the circumstances in each case. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Odyssey</i> is calmer, more reflective, more <i>religious</i> than + the <i>Iliad</i>, being a poem of peace. The <i>Iliad</i>, a poem of war, + is more <i>mythological</i> than the <i>Odyssey</i>: the gods in the <i>Iliad</i> + are excited, like the men, by the great war and behave accordingly. That + neither gods nor men show any real sense of the moral weakness of + Agamemnon or Achilles, or of the moral superiority of Hector, is an + unacceptable statement. {Footnote: Monro, Odyssey, vol. ii. p. 336.} Even + Achilles and Agamemnon are judged by men and by the poet according to + their own standard of ethics and of customary law. There is really no + doubt on this point. Too much (2) is made of the supposed different views + of Olympus—a mountain in Thessaly in the <i>Iliad</i>; a snowless, + windless, supra-mundane place in <i>Odyssey</i>, V. 41-47. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., + ii. 396.} Of the Odyssean passage Mr. Merry justly says, "the actual + description is not irreconcilable with the general Homeric picture of + Olympus." It is "an idealised mountain," and conceptions of it vary, with + the variations which are essential to and inseparable from all + mythological ideas. As Mr. Leaf says, {Footnote: Note to <i>Iliad</i>, V. + 750.} "heaven, <i>ouranos</i> and Olympus, if not identical, are at least + closely connected." In V. 753, the poet "regarded the summit of Olympus as + a half-way stage between heaven and earth," thus "departing from the + oldest Homeric tradition, which made the earthly mountain Olympus, and not + any aerial region, the dwelling of the gods." But precisely the same + confusion of mythical ideas occurs among a people so backward as the + Australian south-eastern tribes, whose All Father is now seated on a + hill-top and now "above the sky." In <i>ILIAD</i>, VIII. 25, 26, the poet + is again said to have "entirely lost the real Epic conception of Olympus + as a mountain in Thessaly," and to "follow the later conception, which + removed it from earth to heaven." In <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 184, "from heaven" + means "from the summit of Olympus, which, though Homer does not identify + it with <i>oupavos</i>, still, as a mountain, reached into heaven" (Leaf). + The poet of Iliad, XI. 184, says plainly that Zeus descended "<i>from</i> + heaven" to Mount Ida. In fact, all that is said of Olympus, of heaven, of + the home of the gods, is poetical, is mythical, and so is necessarily + subject to the variations of conception inseparable from mythology. This + is certain if there be any certainty in mythological science, and here no + hard and fast line can be drawn between <i>ODYSSEY</i> and <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + (3) The next point of difference is that, "we hear no more of Iris as the + messenger of Zeus;" in the Odyssey, "the agent of the will of Zeus is now + Hermes, as in the Twenty-fourth Book of the <i>Iliad</i>," a late + "Odyssean" Book. But what does that matter, seeing that <i>ILIAD</i>, Book + VIII, is declared to be one of the latest additions; yet in Book VIII. + Iris, not Hermes, is the messenger (VIII. 409-425). If in late times + Hermes, not Iris, is the messenger, why, in a very "late" Book (VIII.) is + Iris the messenger, not Hermes? <i>Iliad</i>, Book XXIII., is also a late + "Odyssean" Book, but here Iris goes on her messages (XXIII. 199) moved + merely by the prayers of Achilles. In the late Odyssean Book (XXIV.) of + the <i>Iliad</i>, Iris runs on messages from Zeus both to Priam and to + Achilles. If Iris, in "Odyssean" times, had resigned office and been + succeeded by Hermes, why did Achilles pray, not to Hermes, but to Iris? + There is nothing in the argument about Hermes and Iris. There is nothing + in the facts but the variability of mythical and poetical conceptions. + Moreover, the conception of Iris as the messenger certainly existed + through the age of the Odyssey, and later. In the Odyssey the beggar man + is called "Irus," a male Iris, because he carries messages; and Iris does + her usual duty as messenger in the Homeric Hymns, as well as in the + so-called late Odyssean Books of the <i>Iliad</i>. The poet of the Odyssey + knew all about Iris; there had arisen no change of belief; he merely + employed Hermes as messenger, not of the one god, but of the divine + Assembly. + </p> + <p> + (4) Another difference is that in the <i>Iliad</i> the wife of Hephaestus + is one of the Graces; in the Odyssey she is Aphrodite. {Footnote: Monro, + <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 336.} This is one of the inconsistencies which + are the essence of mythology. Mr. Leaf points out that when Hephaestus is + about exercising his craft, in making arms for Achilles, Charis "is made + wife of Hephaestus by a more transparent allegory than we find elsewhere + in Homer," whereas, when Aphrodite appears in a comic song by Demodocus + (Odyssey, VIII. 266-366), "that passage is later and un-Homeric." + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. 246.} + </p> + <p> + Of this we do not accept the doctrine that the lay is un-Homeric. The + difference comes to no more than <i>that;</i> the accustomed discrepancy + of mythology, of story-telling about the gods. But as to the lay of + Demodocus being un-Homeric and late, the poet at least knows the regular + Homeric practice of the bride-price, and its return by the bride's father + to the husband of an adulterous wife (Odyssey, VIII. 318, 319). The poet + of this lay, which Mr. Merry defends as Homeric, was intimately familiar + with Homeric customary law. Now, according to Paul Cauer, as we shall see, + other "Odyssean" poets were living in an age of changed law, later than + that of the author of the lay of Demodocus. All these so-called + differences between <i>Iliad</i> and Odyssey do not point to the fact that + the <i>Odyssey</i> belongs to a late and changed period of culture, of + belief and customs. There is nothing in the evidence to prove that + contention. + </p> + <p> + There (5) are two references to local oracles in the <i>Odyssey,</i> that + of Dodona (XIV. 327; XIX. 296) and that of Pytho (VIII. 80). This is the + old name of Delphi. Pytho occurs in <i>Iliad,</i> IX. 404, as a very rich + temple of Apollo—the oracle is not named, but the oracle brought in + the treasures. Achilles (XVI. 233) prays to Pelasgian Zeus of Dodona, + whose priests were thickly tabued, but says nothing of the oracle of + Dodona. Neither when in leaguer round Troy, nor when wandering in fairy + lands forlorn, had the Achaeans or Odysseus much to do with the local + oracles of Greece; perhaps not, in Homer's time, so important as they were + later, and little indeed is said about them in either Epic. + </p> + <p> + (6) "The geographical knowledge shown in the Odyssey goes beyond that of + the <i>Iliad</i> ... especially in regard to Egypt and Sicily." But a poet + of a widely wandering hero of Western Greece has naturally more occasion + than the poet of a fixed army in Asia to show geographical knowledge. + Egyptian Thebes is named, in <i>ILIAD</i>, IX., as a city very rich, + especially in chariots; while in the <i>ODYSSEY</i> the poet has occasion + to show more knowledge of the way to Egypt and of Viking descents from + Crete on the coast (Odyssey, III. 300; IV. 351; XIV. 257; XVII. 426). + Archaeology shows that the Mycenaean age was in close commercial relation + with Egypt, and that the Mycenaean civilisation extended to most + Mediterranean lands and islands, and to Italy and Sicily. {Footnote: + Ridgeway, <i>Early Age of Greece</i>, i. 69.} There is nothing suspicious, + as "late," in the mention of Sicily by Odysseus in Ithaca (Odyssey, XX. + 383; XXIV. 307). In the same way, if the poet of a western poem does not + dilate on the Troad and the people of Asia Minor as the poet of the <i>ILIAD</i> + does, that is simply because the scene of the <i>ILIAD</i> is in Asia and + the scene of the Odyssey is in the west, when it is not in No Man's land. + From the same cause the poet of sea-faring has more occasion to speak of + the Phoenicians, great sea-farers, than the poet of the Trojan leaguer. + </p> + <p> + (7) We know so little about land tenure in Homeric times—and, + indeed, early land tenure is a subject so complex and obscure that it is + not easy to prove advance towards separate property in the <i>Odyssey</i>—beyond + what was the rule in the time of the <i>ILIAD</i>. In the Making of the + Arms (XVIII. 541-549) we find many men ploughing a field, and this may + have been a common field. But in what sense? Many ploughs were at work at + once on a Scottish runrig field, and each farmer had his own strip on + several common fields, but each farmer held by rent, or by rent and + services, from the laird. These common fields were not common property. In + XII. 422 we have "a common field," and men measuring a strip and + quarrelling about the marking-stones, across the "baulk," but it does not + follow that they are owners; they may be tenants. Such quarrels were + common in Scotland when the runrig system of common fields, each man with + his strip, prevailed. {Footnote: Grey Graham, <i>Social Life in Scotland + in the Eighteenth Century</i>, i. 157.} + </p> + <p> + A man had a {Greek: klaeros} or lot (<i>ILIAD</i>, XV. 448), but what was + a "lot"? At first, probably, a share in land periodically shifted-& <i>partage + noir</i> of the Russian peasants. Kings and men who deserve public + gratitude receive a {Greek: temenos} a piece of public land, as + Bellerophon did from the Lycians (VI. 194). In the case of Melager such an + estate is offered to him, but by whom? Not by the people at large, but by + the {Greek: gerontes} (IX. 574). + </p> + <p> + Who are the {Greek: gerontes}? They are not ordinary men of the people; + they are, in fact, the gentry. In an age so advanced from tribal + conditions as is the Homeric time—far advanced beyond ancient tribal + Scotland or Ireland—we conceive that, as in these countries during + the tribal period, the {Greek: gerontes} (in Celtic, the <i>Flaith</i>) + held in POSSESSION, if not in accordance with the letter of the law, as + property, much more land than a single "lot." The Irish tribal freeman had + a right to a "lot," redistributed by rotation. Wealth consisted of cattle; + and a <i>bogire</i>, a man of many kine, let <i>them</i> out to tenants. + Such a rich man, a <i>flatha</i>, would, in accordance with human nature, + use his influence with kineless dependents to acquire in possession + several lots, avoid the partition, and keep the lots in possession though + not legally in property. Such men were the Irish <i>flaith</i>, gentry + under the <i>RI</i>, or king, his {Greek: gerontes}, each with his <i>ciniod</i>, + or near kinsmen, to back his cause. + </p> + <p> + "<i>Flaith</i> seems clearly to mean land-owners," or squires, says Sir + James Ramsay. {Footnote: <i>Foundations of England</i>, i. 16, Note 4.} If + land, contrary to the tribal ideal, came into private hands in early + Ireland, we can hardly suppose that, in the more advanced and settled + Homeric society, no man but the king held land equivalent in extent to a + number of "lots." The {Greek: gerontes}, the gentry, the chariot-owning + warriors, of whom there are hundreds not of kingly rank in Homer (as in + Ireland there were many <i>flaith</i> to one <i>Ri</i>) probably, in an + informal but tight grip, held considerable lands. When we note their + position in the <i>Iliad</i>, high above the nameless host, can we imagine + that they did not hold more land than the simple, perhaps periodically + shifting, "lot"? There were "lotless" men (Odyssey, XL 490), lotless <i>freemen</i>, + and what had become of their lots? Had they not fallen into the hands of + the {Greek: gerontes} or the <i>flaith</i>? + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ridgeway in a very able essay {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic + Studies</i>, vi. 319-339.} holds different opinions. He points out that + among a man's possessions, in the <i>Iliad</i>, we hear only of personal + property and live stock. It is in one passage only in the Odyssey (XIV. + 211) that we meet with men holding several lots of land; but <i>they</i>, + we remark, occur in Cretean isle, as we know, of very advanced + civilisation from of old. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ridgeway also asks whether the lotless men may not be "outsiders," + such as are attached to certain villages of Central and Southern India; + {Footnote: Maine, <i>Village Communities</i>, P. 127.} or they may answer + to the <i>Fuidhir</i>, or "broken men," of early Ireland, fugitives from + one to another tribe. They would be "settled on the waste lands of a + community." If so, they would not be lotless; they would have new lots. + {Footnote: <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vi. 322, 323.} + </p> + <p> + Laertes, though a king, is supposed to have won his farm by his own + labours from the waste (Odyssey, XXIV. 207). Mr. Monro says, "the land + having thus been won from the wastes (the {Greek: gae aklaeros te kai + aktitos} of <i>H., Ven.</i> 123), was a {Greek: temenos} or separate + possession of Laertes." The passage is in the rejected conclusion of the + Odyssey; and if any man might go and squat in the waste, any man might + have a lot, or better than one lot. In <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 832-835, + Achilles says that his offered prize of iron will be useful to a man + "whose rich fields are very remote from any town," Teucer and Meriones + compete for the prize: probably they had such rich remote fields, not each + a mere lot in a common field. These remote fields they are supposed to + hold in perpetuity, apart from the <i>temenos</i>, which, in Mr. + Ridgeway's opinion, reverted, on the death of each holder, to the + community, save where kingship was hereditary. Now, if {Greek: klaeros} + had come to mean "a lot of land," as we say "a building lot," obviously + men like Teucer and Meriones had many lots, rich fields, which at death + might sometimes pass to their heirs. Thus there was separate landed + property in the <i>Iliad</i>; but the passage is denounced, though not by + Mr. Ridgeway, as "late." + </p> + <p> + The absence of enclosures ({Greek: herkos arouraes}) proves nothing about + absence of several property in land. In Scotland the laird's lands were + unenclosed till deep in the eighteenth century. + </p> + <p> + My own case for land in private possession, in Homeric times, rests mainly + on human nature in such an advanced society. Such possession as I plead + for is in accordance with human nature, in a society so distinguished by + degrees of wealth as is the Homeric. + </p> + <p> + Unless we are able to suppose that all the gentry of the <i>Iliad</i> held + no "rich fields remote from towns," each having but one rotatory lot + apiece, there is no difference in Iliadic and Odyssean land tenure, though + we get clearer lights on it in the <i>Odyssey</i>. + </p> + <p> + The position of the man of several lots may have been indefensible, if the + ideal of tribal law were ever made real, but wealth in growing societies + universally tends to override such law. Mr. Keller {Footnote: Homeric + Society, p. 192. 1902.} justly warns us against the attempt "to apply + universally certain fixed rules of property development. The passages in + Homer upon which opinions diverge most are isolated ones, occurring in + similes and fragmentary descriptions. Under such conditions the + formulation of theories or the attempt rigorously to classify can be + little more than an intellectual exercise." + </p> + <p> + We have not the materials for a scientific knowledge of Homeric real + property; and, with all our materials in Irish law books, how hard it is + for us to understand the early state of such affairs in Ireland! But does + any one seriously suppose that the knightly class of the <i>Iliad</i>, the + chariot-driving gentlemen, held no more land—legally or by permitted + custom—than the two Homeric swains who vituperate each other across + a baulk about the right to a few feet of a strip of a runrig field? + Whosoever can believe that may also believe that the practice of adding + "lot" to "lot" began in the period between the finished composition of the + <i>Iliad</i> (or of the parts of it which allude to land tenure) and the + beginning of the <i>Odyssey</i> (or of the parts of it which refer to land + tenure). The inference is that, though the fact is not explicitly stated + in the <i>Iliad</i>, there were men who held more "lots" than one in + Iliadic times as well as in the Odyssean times, when, in a solitary + passage of the Odyssey, we do hear of such men in Crete. But whosoever has + pored over early European land tenures knows how dim our knowledge is, and + will not rush to employ his lore in discriminating between the date of the + <i>Iliad</i> and the date of the Odyssey. + </p> + <p> + Not much proof of change in institutions between Iliadic and Odyssean + times can be extracted from two passages about the ethna, or bride-price + of Penelope. The rule in both <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> is that the + wooer gives a bride-price to the father of the bride, ethna. This was the + rule known even to that painfully late and un-Homeric poet who made the + Song of Demodocus about the loves of Ares and Aphrodite. In that song the + injured husband, Hephaestus, claims back the bride-price which he had paid + to the father of his wife, Zeus. {Footnote: Odyssey, VIII. 318.} This is + the accepted custom throughout the <i>Odyssey</i> (VI. 159; XVI. 77; XX. + 335; XXI. 162; XV. 17, &c.). So far there is no change of manners, no + introduction of the later practice, a dowry given with the bride, in place + of a bride-price given to the father by the bridegroom. But Penelope was + neither maid, wife, nor widow; her husband's fate, alive or dead, was + uncertain, and her son was so anxious to get her out of the house that he + says he offered gifts <i>with</i> her (XX. 342). In the same way, to buy + back the goodwill of Achilles, Agamemnon offers to give him his daughter + without bride-price, and to add great gifts (<i>Iliad</i>, IX. l47)—the + term for the gifts is {Greek: mailia}. People, of course, could make their + own bargain; take as much for their daughter as they could get, or let the + gifts go from husband to bride, and then return to the husband's home with + her (as in Germany in the time of Tacitus, <i>Germania</i>, 18), or do + that, and throw in more gifts. But in Odyssey, II. 53, Telemachus says + that the Wooers shrink from going to the house of Penelope's father, + Icarius, who would endow (?) his daughter ({Greek: eednoosaito}) And again + (<i>Odyssey</i>, I. 277; II. 196), her father's folk will furnish a bridal + feast, and "array the {Greek: heedna}, many, such as should accompany a + dear daughter." Some critics think that the gifts here are <i>dowry</i>, a + later institution than bride-price; others, that the father of the dear + daughter merely chose to be generous, and returned the bride-price, or its + equivalent, in whole or part. {Footnote: Merry, Odyssey, vol. i. p. 50. + Note to Book I 277.} If the former view be correct, these passages in + Odyssey, I., II. are later than the exceedingly "late" song of Demodocus. + If the latter theory be correct the father is merely showing goodwill, and + doing as the Germans did when they were in a stage of culture much earlier + than the Homeric. + </p> + <p> + The position of Penelope is very unstable and legally perplexing. Has her + father her marriage? has her son her marriage? is she not perhaps still a + married woman with a living husband? Telemachus would give much to have + her off his hands, but he refuses to send her to her father's house, where + the old man might be ready enough to return the bride-price to her new + husband, and get rid of her with honour. For if Telemachus sends his + mother away against her will he will have to pay a heavy fine to her + father, and to thole his mother's curse, and lose his character among men + (odyssey, II. 130-138). The Icelanders of the saga period gave dowries + with their daughters. But when Njal wanted Hildigunna for his foster-son, + Hauskuld, he offered to give {Greek: hedna}. "I will lay down as much + money as will seem fitting to thy niece and thyself," he says to Flosi, + "if thou wilt think of making this match." {Footnote: Story of <i>Burnt + Njal</i>, ii. p. 81.} + </p> + <p> + Circumstances alter cases, and we must be hard pressed to discover signs + of change of manners in the Odyssey as compared with the <i>Iliad</i> if + we have to rely on a solitary mention of "men of many lots" in Crete, and + on the perplexed proposals for the second marriage of Penelope. {Footnote: + For the alleged "alteration of old customs" see Cauer, <i>Grundfragen der + Homerkritik</i>, pp. 193-194.} We must not be told that the many other + supposed signs of change, Iris, Olympus, and the rest, have "cumulative + weight." If we have disposed of each individual supposed note of change in + beliefs and manners in its turn, then these proofs have, in each case, no + individual weight and, cumulatively, are not more ponderous than a + feather. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII + </h2> + <h3> + LINGUISTIC PROOFS OF VARIOUS DATES + </h3> + <p> + The great strength of the theory that the poems are the work of several + ages is the existence in them of various strata of languages, earlier and + later. + </p> + <p> + Not to speak of differences of vocabulary, Mr. Monro and Mr. Leaf, with + many scholars, detect two strata of earlier and later <i>grammar</i> in + Iliad and Odyssey. In the <i>Iliad</i> four or five Books are infected by + "the later grammar," while the Odyssey in general seems to be + contaminated. Mr. Leafs words are: "When we regard the Epos in large + masses, we see that we can roughly arrange the inconsistent elements + towards one end or the other of a line of development both linguistic and + historical. The main division, that of <i>Iliad</i> and Odyssey, shows a + distinct advance along this line; and the distinction is still more marked + if we group with the <i>Odyssey</i> four Books of the <i>Iliad</i> whose + Odyssean physiognomy is well marked. Taking as our main guide the + dissection of the plot as shown in its episodes, we find that marks of + lateness, though nowhere entirely absent, group themselves most numerously + in the later additions ..." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. ii. p. X.} We + are here concerned with <i>linguistic</i> examples of "lateness." The + "four Books whose Odyssean physiognomy" and language seem "well marked," + are IX., X., XXIII., XXIV. Here Mr. Leaf, Mr. Monro, and many authorities + are agreed. But to these four Odyssean Books of the <i>Iliad</i> Mr. Leaf + adds <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 664-772: "probably a later addition," says Mr. + Monro. "It is notably Odyssean in character," says Mr. Leaf; and the + author "is ignorant of the geography of the Western Peloponnesus. No doubt + the author was an Asiatic Greek." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. pp. + 465-466. Note on Book XI. 756.} The value of this discovery is elsewhere + discussed (see <i>The Interpolations of Nestor</i>). + </p> + <p> + The Odyssean notes in this passage of a hundred lines (<i>Iliad</i>, XI. + 670-762) are the occurrence of "a purely Odyssean word" (677), an Attic + form of an epic word, and a "forbidden trochaic caesura in the fourth + foot"; an Odyssean word for carving meat, applied in a <i>non</i>-Odyssean + sense (688), a verb for "insulting," not elsewhere found in the <i>Iliad</i> + (though the noun is in the <i>Iliad</i>) (695), an Odyssean epithet of the + sun, "four times in the <i>Odyssey</i>" (735). It is also possible that + there is an allusion to a four-horse chariot (699). + </p> + <p> + These are the proofs of Odyssean lateness. + </p> + <p> + The real difficulty about Odyssean words and grammar in the <i>Iliad</i> + is that, if they were in vigorous poetic existence down to the time of + Pisistratus (as the Odysseanism of the Asiatic editor proves that they + were), and if every rhapsodist could add to and alter the materials at the + disposal of the Pisistratean editor at will, we are not told how the + fashionable Odysseanisms were kept, on the whole, out of twenty Books of + the Iliad. + </p> + <p> + This is a point on which we cannot insist too strongly, as an argument + against the theory that, till the middle of the sixth century B.C., the <i>Iliad</i> + scarcely survived save in the memory of strolling rhapsodists. If that + were so, all the Books of the <i>Iliad</i> would, in the course of + recitation of old and composition of new passages, be equally contaminated + with late Odyssean linguistic style. It could not be otherwise; all the + Books would be equally modified in passing through the lips of modern + reciters and composers. Therefore, if twenty out of twenty-four Books are + pure, or pure in the main, from Odysseanisms, while four are deeply + stained with them, the twenty must not only be earlier than the four, but + must have been specially preserved, and kept uncontaminated, in some + manner inconsistent with the theory that all alike scarcely existed save + in the memory or invention of late strolling reciters. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +How the twenty Books relatively pure "in grammatical forms, in syntax, +and in vocabulary," could be kept thus clean without the aid of written +texts, I am unable to imagine. If left merely to human memory and at +the mercy of reciters and new poets, they would have become stained with +"the defining article"—and, indeed, an employment of the article which +startles grammarians, appears even in the eleventh line of the First +Book of the <i>Iliad</i>? {Footnote (exact placing uncertain): Cf. Monro and +Leaf, on Iliad, I. 11-12.} + + Left merely to human memory and the human voice, the twenty more +or less innocent Books would have abounded, like the Odyssey, in +{Greek: amphi} with the dative meaning "about," and with {Greek: ex} "in +consequence of," and "the extension of the use of {Greek: ei} clauses +as final and objective clauses," and similar marks of lateness, so +interesting to grammarians. {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, ii. pp. +331-333.} But the twenty Books are almost, or quite, inoffensive in +these respects. +</pre> + <p> + Now, even in ages of writing, it has been found difficult or impossible to + keep linguistic novelties and novelties of metre out of old epics. We + later refer (<i>Archaeology of the Epic</i>) to the <i>Chancun de Willame</i>, + of which an unknown benefactor printed two hundred copies in 1903. Mr. + Raymond Weeks, in <i>Romania</i>, describes <i>Willame</i> as taking a + place beside the <i>Chanson de Roland</i> in the earliest rank of <i>Chansons + de Geste</i>. If the text can be entirely restored, the poem will appear + as "the most primitive" of French epics of the eleventh and twelfth + centuries. But it has passed from copy to copy in the course of + generations. The methods of versification change, and, after line 2647, + "there are traces of change in the language. The word <i>ço</i>, followed + by a vowel, hitherto frequent, never again reappears. The vowel <i>i</i>, + of <i>li</i>, nominative masculine of the article" (<i>li Reis</i>, "the + king"), "never occurs in the text after line 2647. Up to that point it is + elided or not at pleasure.... There is a progressive tendency towards + hiatus. After line 1980 the system of assonance changes. <i>An</i> and en + have been kept distinct hitherto; this ceases to be the case." {Footnote: + <i>Romania</i>, xxxiv. pp. 240-246.} + </p> + <p> + The poem is also notable, like the <i>Iliad</i>, for textual repetition of + passages, but that is common to all early poetry, which many Homeric + critics appear not to understand. In this example we see how apt novelties + in grammar and metre are to steal into even written copies of epics, + composed in and handed down through uncritical ages; and we are confirmed + in the opinion that the relatively pure and orthodox grammar and metre of + the twenty Books must have been preserved by written texts carefully + 'executed. The other four Books, if equally old, were less fortunate. + Their grammar and metre, we learn, belong to a later stratum of language. + </p> + <p> + These opinions of grammarians are not compatible with the hypothesis that + <i>all</i> of the <i>Iliad</i>, even the "earliest" parts, are loaded with + interpolations, forced in at different places and in any age from 1000 + B.C. to 540 B.C.; for if that theory were true, the whole of the <i>Iliad</i> + would equally be infected with the later Odyssean grammar. According to + Mr. Monro and Sir Richard Jebb, it is not. + </p> + <p> + But suppose, on the other hand, that the later Odyssean grammar abounds + all through the whole <i>Iliad</i>, then that grammar is not more Odyssean + than it is Iliadic. The alleged distinction of early Iliadic grammar, late + Odyssean grammar, in that case vanishes. Mr. Leaf is more keen than Mr. + Monro and Sir Richard Jebb in detecting late grammar in the <i>Iliad</i> + beyond the bounds of Books IX., X., XXIII., XXIV. But he does not carry + these discoveries so far as to make the late grammar no less Iliadic than + Odyssean. In Book VIII. of the <i>Iliad</i>, which he thinks was only made + for the purpose of introducing Book IX., {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. + p. 332. 1900.} we ought to find the late Odyssean grammar just as much as + we do in Book IX., for it is of the very same date, and probably by one or + more of the same authors as Book IX. But we do not find the Odyssean + grammar in Book VIII. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf says, "The peculiar character" of Book VIII. "is easily + understood, when we recognise the fact that Book VIII. is intended to + serve only as a means for the introduction of Book IX...." which is "late" + and "Odyssean." Then Book VIII., intended to introduce Book IX., must be + at least as late as Book IX. and might be expected to be at least as + Odyssean, indeed one would think it could not be otherwise. Yet it is not + so. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf's theory has thus to face the difficulty that while the whole <i>Iliad</i>, + by his view, for more than four centuries, was stuffed with late + interpolations, in the course of oral recital through all Greek lands, and + was crammed with original "copy" by a sycophant of Pisistratus about 540 + B.C., the late grammar concentrated itself in only some four Books. Till + some reasonable answer is given to this question—how did twenty + Books of the Iliad preserve so creditably the ancient grammar through + centuries of change, and of recitation by rhapsodists who used the + Odyssean grammar, which infected the four other Books, and the whole of + the <i>Odyssey?</i>—it seems hardly worth while to discuss this + linguistic test. + </p> + <p> + Any scholar who looks at these pages knows all about the proofs of grammar + of a late date in the <i>Odyssey</i> and the four contaminated Books of + the <i>Iliad</i>. But it may be well to give a few specimens, for the + enlightenment of less learned readers of Homer. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The use of {Greek: amfi}, with the dative, meaning "about," when +<i>thinking</i> or <i>speaking</i> "about" Odysseus or anything else, is peculiar +to the <i>Odyssey</i>. But how has it not crept into the four Odyssean +contaminated Books of the <i>Iliad</i>? + + {Greek: peri}, with the genitive, "follows verbs meaning to speak +or know <i>about</i> a person," but only in the <i>Odyssey</i>. What preposition +follows such verbs in the <i>Iliad</i>? +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +Here, again, we ask: how did the contaminated Books of the <i>Iliad</i> +escape the stain of {Greek: peri}, with the genitive, after verbs +meaning to speak or know? What phrase do they use in the <i>Iliad</i> for +speaking or asking <i>about</i> anybody? {Footnote (exact placing uncertain): +Monro, Homeric <i>Grammar</i>. See Index, under <i>Iliad</i>, p. 339.} + + {Greek: meta}, with the genitive, meaning "among" or "with," +comes twice in the Odyssey (X. 320; XVI. 140) and thrice in the <i>Iliad</i> +(XIII. 700; XXI. 458; XXIV. 400); but all these passages in the <i>Iliad</i> +are disposed of as "late" parts of the poem. + + {Greek: epi}, with the accusative, meaning <i>towards</i> a +person, comes often in the <i>Iliad</i>; once in the Odyssey. But it comes +four times in <i>Iliad</i>, Book X., which almost every critic scouts as very +"late" indeed. If so, why does the "late" <i>Odyssey</i> not deal in this +grammatical usage so common in the "late" Book X. of the <i>Iliad</i>? + + {Greek: epi}, with the accusative, "meaning <i>extent</i> +(without <i>motion</i>)," is chiefly found in the <i>Odyssey</i>, and in the +Iliad, IX., X., XXIV. On consulting grammarians one thinks that there is +not much in this. + + {Greek: proti} with the dative, meaning "in addition to," occurs +only once (<i>Odyssey, X. 68</i>). If it occurs only once, there is little to +be learned from the circumstance. + + {Greek: ana} with the genitive, is only in <i>Odyssey</i>, only +thrice, always of going on board a ship. There are not many ship-farings +in the <i>Iliad</i>. Odysseus and his men are not described as going on board +their ship, in so many words, in <i>Iliad</i>, Book I. The usage occurs in +the poem where the incidents of seafaring occur frequently, as is to be +expected? It is not worth while to persevere with these tithes of mint +and cummin. If "Neglect of Position" be commoner—like "Hiatus in the +Bucolic Diaeresis"—in the <i>Odyssey</i> and in <i>Iliad</i>, XXIII., XXIV., why +do the failings not beset <i>Iliad</i>, IX., X., these being such extremely +"late" books? As to the later use of the Article in the <i>Odyssey</i> and +the Odyssean Books of the <i>Iliad</i>, it appears to us that Book I. of the +<i>Iliad</i> uses the article as it is used in Book X.; but on this topic we +must refer to a special treatise on the language of <i>Iliad</i>, Book X., +which is promised. +</pre> + <p> + Turning to the vocabulary: "words expressive of civilisation" are bound to + be more frequent, as they are, in the Odyssey, a poem of peaceful life, + than in a poem about an army in action, like the <i>Iliad</i>. Out of all + this no clue to the distance of years dividing the two poems can be found. + As to words concerning religion, the same holds good. The Odyssey is more + frequently <i>religious</i> (see the case of Eumaeus) than the <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + In morals the term {Greek: dikaios} is more used in the <i>Odyssey</i>, + also {Greek: atemistos} ("just" and "lawless"). But that is partly because + the Odyssey has to contrast civilised ("just") with wild outlandish people—Cyclopes + and Laestrygons, who are "lawless." The <i>Iliad</i> has no occasion to + touch on savages; but, as the {Greek: hybris} of the Wooers is a standing + topic in the Odyssey (an ethical poem, says Aristotle), the word {Greek: + hybris} is of frequent occurrence in the <i>Odyssey</i>, in just the same + sense as it bears in <i>Iliad</i>, I 214—the insolence of Agamemnon. + Yet when Achilles has occasion to speak of Agamemnon's insolence in <i>Iliad</i>, + Book IX., he does not use the <i>word</i> {Greek: hybris}, though Book IX. + is so very "late" and "Odyssean." It would be easy to go through the words + for moral ideas in the <i>Odyssey</i>, and to show that they occur in the + numerous moral situations which do not arise, or arise much less + frequently, in the <i>Iliad</i>. There is not difference enough in the + moral standard of the two poems to justify us in assuming that centuries + of ethical progress had intervened between their dates of composition. If + the <i>Iliad</i>, again, were really, like the <i>Odyssey</i>, a thing of + growth through several centuries, which overlapped the centuries in which + the <i>Odyssey</i> grew, the moral ideas of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> + would necessarily be much the same, would be indistinguishable. But, as a + matter of fact, it would be easy to show that the moral standard of the <i>Iliad</i> + is higher, in many places, than the moral standard of the <i>Odyssey</i>; + and that, therefore, by the critical hypothesis, the <i>Iliad</i> is the + later poem of the twain. For example, the behaviour of Achilles is most + obnoxious to the moralist in <i>Iliad</i>, Book IX., where he refuses + gifts of conciliation. But by the critical hypothesis this is not the + fault of the <i>Iliad</i>, for Book IX. is declared to be "late," and of + the same date as late parts of the <i>Odyssey</i>. Achilles is not less + open to moral reproach in his abominable cruelty and impiety, as shown in + his sacrifice of prisoners of war and his treatment of dead Hector, in <i>Iliad</i>, + XXIII., XXIV. But these Books also are said to be as late as the <i>Odyssey</i>. + </p> + <p> + The solitary "realistic" or "naturalistic" passage in Homer, with which a + lover of modern "problem novels" feels happy and at home, is the story of + Phoenix, about his seduction of his father's mistress at the request of + his mother. What a charming situation! But that occurs in an "Odyssean" + Book of the <i>Iliad</i>, Book IX.; and thus Odyssean seems lower, not + more advanced, than Iliadic taste in morals. To be sure, the poet + disapproves of all these immoralities. + </p> + <p> + In the Odyssey the hero, to the delight of Athene, lies often and freely + and with glee. The Achilles of the <i>Iliad</i> hates a liar "like the + gates of Hades"; but he says so in an "Odyssean" Book (Book IX.), so there + were obviously different standards in Odyssean ethics. + </p> + <p> + As to the Odyssey being the work of "a milder age," consider the hanging + of Penelope's maids and the abominable torture of Melanthius. There is no + torturing in the {blank space} for the <i>Iliad</i> happens not to deal + with treacherous thralls. + </p> + <p> + <i>Enfin</i>, there is no appreciable moral advance in the <i>ODYSSEY</i> + on the moral standard of the <i>ILIAD</i>. It is rather the other way. + Odysseus, in the <i>ODYSSEY</i>, tries to procure poison for his + arrow-heads. The person to whom he applies is too moral to oblige him. We + never learn that a hero of the <i>Iliad</i> would use poisoned arrows. The + poet himself obviously disapproves; in both poems the poet is always on + the side of morality and of the highest ethical standard of his age. The + standard in both Epics is the same; in both some heroes fall short of the + standard. + </p> + <p> + To return to linguistic tests, it is hard indeed to discover what Mr. + Leaf's opinion of the value of linguistic tests of lateness really is. "It + is on such fundamental discrepancies"—as he has found in Books IX., + XVI.—"that we can depend, <i>AND ON THESE ALONE</i>, when we come to + dissect the <i>ILIAD</i> ... Some critics have attempted to base their + analysis on evidences from language, but I do not think they are + sufficient to bear the super-structure which has been raised on them." + {Footnote: <i>Companion,</i> p. 25.} + </p> + <p> + He goes on, still placing a low value on linguistic tests alone, to say: + "It is on the broad grounds of the construction and motives of the poem, + <i>AND NOT ON ANY MERELY linguistic CONSIDERATIONS</i>, that a decision + must be sought." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., p. x.} + </p> + <p> + But he contradicts these comfortable words when he comes to "the latest + expansions," such as Books XXIII., XXIV. "The latest expansions are + thoroughly in the spirit of those which precede, <i>them ON ACCOUNT OF + linguistic EVIDENCE,</i> which definitely classes them with the <i>ODYSSEY</i> + rather than the rest of the <i>ILIAD</i>." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. + ii. p. xiv.} + </p> + <p> + Now as Mr. Leaf has told us that we must depend on "fundamental + discrepancies," "on these alone," when we want to dissect the <i>ILIAD;</i> + as he has told us that linguistic tests alone are "not sufficient to bear + the superstructure," &c., how can we lop off two Books "only on + account of linguistic evidence"? It would appear that on this point, as on + others, Mr. Leaf has entirely changed his mind. But, even in the <i>Companion</i> + (p. 388), he had amputated Book XXIV. for no "fundamental discrepancy," + but because of "its close kinship to the <i>ODYSSEY</i>, as in the whole + language of the Book." + </p> + <p> + Here, as in many other passages, if we are to account for discrepancies by + the theory of multiplex authorship, we must decide that Mr. Leaf's books + are the work of several critics, not of one critic only. But there is + excellent evidence to prove that here we would be mistaken. + </p> + <p> + Confessedly and regretfully no grammarian, I remain unable, in face of + what seem contradictory assertions about the value of linguistic tests, to + ascertain what they are really worth, and what, if anything, they really + prove. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Monro allows much for "the long insensible influence of Attic + recitation upon the Homeric text;" ... "many Attic peculiarities may be + noted" (so much so that Aristarchus thought Homer must have been an + Athenian!). "The poems suffered a gradual and unsystematic because + generally unconscious process of modernising, the chief agents in which + were the rhapsodists" (reciters in a later democratic age), "who wandered + over all parts of Greece, and were likely to be influenced by all the + chief forms of literature." {Footnote: Monro, <i>Homeric Grammar</i>, pp + 394-396. 1891} + </p> + <p> + Then, wherefore insist so much on tests of language? + </p> + <p> + Mr. Monro was not only a great grammarian; he had a keen appreciation of + poetry. Thus he was conspicuously uneasy in his hypothesis, based on words + and grammar, that the two last Books of the <i>Iliad</i> are by a late + hand. After quoting Shelley's remark that, in these two Books, "Homer + truly begins to be himself," Mr. Monro writes, "in face of such testimony + can we say that the Book in which the climax is reached, in which the last + discords of the <i>Iliad</i> are dissolved in chivalrous pity and regret, + is not the work of the original poet, but of some Homerid or rhapsodist?" + </p> + <p> + Mr. Monro, with a struggle, finally voted for grammar, and other + indications of lateness, against Shelley and against his own sense of + poetry. In a letter to me of May 1905, Mr. Monro sketched a theory that + Book IX. (without which he said that he deemed an <i>Achilleis</i> hardly + possible) might be a <i>remanié</i> representative of an earlier lay to + the same general effect. Some Greek Shakespeare, then, treated an older + poem on the theme of Book IX. as Shakespeare treated old plays, namely, as + a canvas to work over with a master's hand. Probably Mr. Monro would not + have gone <i>so</i> far in the case of Book XXIV., <i>The Repentance</i> + of Achilles. He thought it in too keen contrast with the brutality of Book + XXII. (obviously forgetting that in Book XXIV. Achilles is infinitely more + brutal than in Book XXII.), and thought it inconsistent with the refusal + of Achilles to grant burial at the prayer of the dying Hector, and with + his criminal treatment of the dead body of his chivalrous enemy. But in + Book XXIV. his ferocity is increased. Mr. Leaf shares Mr. Monro's view; + but Mr. Leaf thinks that a Greek audience forgave Achilles, because he was + doing "the will of heaven," and "fighting the great fight of Hellenism + against barbarism." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad,</i> vol.-ii. p. 429. 1902.} + But the Achzeans were not Puritans of the sixteenth century! Moreover, the + Trojans are as "Hellenic" as the Achzeans. They converse, clearly, in the + same language. They worship the same gods. The Achzeans cannot regard them + (unless on account of the breach of truce, by no Trojan, but an ally) as + the Covenanters regarded "malignants," their name for loyal cavaliers, + whom they also styled "Amalekites," and treated as Samuel treated Agag. + The Achaeans to whom Homer sang had none of this sanguinary Pharisaism. + </p> + <p> + Others must decide on the exact value and import of Odyssean grammar as a + test of lateness, and must estimate the probable amount of time required + for the development of such linguistic differences as they find in the <i>Odyssey</i> + and <i>Iliad</i>. In undertaking this task they may compare the literary + language of America as it was before 1860 and as it is now. The language + of English literature has also been greatly modified in the last forty + years, but our times are actively progressive in many directions; + linguistic variations might arise more slowly in the Greece of the Epics. + We have already shown, in the more appropriate instance of the <i>Chancun + de Willame</i>, that considerable varieties in diction and metre occur in + a single MS. of that poem, a MS. written probably within less than a + century of the date of the poem's composition. + </p> + <p> + We can also trace, in <i>remaniements</i> of the <i>Chanson DE ROLAND</i>, + comparatively rapid and quite revolutionary variations from the oldest—the + Oxford—manuscript. Rhyme is substituted for assonance; the process + entails frequent modernisations, and yet the basis of thirteenth-century + texts continues to be the version of the eleventh century. It may be worth + the while of scholars to consider these parallels carefully, as regards + the language and prosody of the Odyssean Books of the <i>Iliad</i>, and to + ask themselves whether the processes of alteration in the course of + transmission, which we know to have occurred in the history of the Old + French, may not also have affected the <i>ILIAD</i>, though why the effect + is mainly confined to four Books remains a puzzle. It is enough for us to + have shown that if Odyssean varies from Iliadic language, in all other + respects the two poems bear the marks of the same age. Meanwhile, a + Homeric scholar so eminent as Mr. T. W. Allen, says that "the linguistic + attack upon their age" (that of the Homeric poems) "may be said to have at + last definitely failed, and archaeology has erected an apparently + indestructible buttress for their defence." {Footnote: <i>Classical + Review, May</i> 1906, p. 194.} + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII + </h2> + <h3> + THE "DOLONEIA" + </h3> + <h3> + "ILIAD," BOOK X. + </h3> + <p> + Of all Books in the {blank space} Book X., called the <i>Doloneia</i>, is + most generally scouted and rejected. The Book, in fact, could be omitted, + and only a minutely analytic reader would perceive the lacuna. He would + remark that in Iliad, IX. 65-84, certain military preparations are made + which, if we suppress Book X., lead up to nothing, and that in <i>Iliad</i>, + XIV. 9-11, we find Nestor with the shield of his son, Thrasymedes, while + Thrasymedes has his father's shield, a fact not explained, though the poet + certainly meant something by it. The explanation in both cases is found in + Book X., which may also be thought to explain why the Achaeans, so + disconsolate in Book IX., and why Agamemnon, so demoralised, so gaily + assume the offensive in Book XI. Some ancient critics, Scholiast T and + Eustathius, attributed the <i>DOLONEIA</i> to Homer, but supposed it to + have been a separate composition of his added to the <i>Iliad</i> by + Pisistratus. This merely proves that they did not find any necessity for + the existence of the <i>DOLONEIA</i>. Mr. Allen, who thinks that "it + always held its present place," says, "the <i>DOLONEIA</i> is persistently + written down." {Footnote: <i>Classical Review</i>, May 1906, p. 194} + </p> + <p> + To understand the problem of the <i>DOLONEIA</i>, we must make a summary + of its contents. In Book IX. 65-84, at the end of the disastrous fighting + of Book VIII, the Achaeans, by Nestor's advice, station an advanced guard + of "<i>the young men</i>" between the fosse and wall; 700 youths are + posted there, under Meriones, the squire of Idomeneus, and Thrasymedes, + the son of Nestor. All this is preparation for Book X., as Mr. Leaf + remarks, {Footnote: <i>Companion</i>, p. 174.} though in any case an + advanced guard was needed. Their business is to remain awake, under arms, + in case the Trojans, who are encamped on the plain, attempt a night + attack. At their station the young men will be under arms till dawn; they + light fires and cook their provisions; the Trojans also surround their own + watchfires. + </p> + <p> + The Achaean chiefs then hold council, and Agamemnon sends the embassy to + Achilles. The envoys bring back his bitter answer; and all men go to sleep + in their huts, deeply discouraged, as even Odysseus avowed. + </p> + <p> + Here the Tenth Book begins, and it is manifest that the poet is thoroughly + well acquainted with the Ninth Book. Without the arrangements made in the + Ninth Book, and without the despairing situation of that Book, his lay is + impossible. It will be seen that critics suppose him, alternately, to have + "quite failed to realise the conditions of life of the heroes of whom he + sang" (that is, if certain lines are genuine), and also to be a peculiarly + learned archaeologist and a valuable authority on weapons. He is addicted + to introducing fanciful "touches of heroic simplicity," says Mr. Leaf, and + is altogether a puzzling personage to the critics. + </p> + <p> + The Book opens with the picture of Agamemnon, sleepless from anxiety, + while the other chiefs, save Menelaus, are sleeping. He "hears the music + of the joyous Trojan pipes and flutes" and sees the reflected glow of + their camp-fires, we must suppose, for he could not see the fires + themselves through the new wall of his own camp, as critics very wisely + remark. He tears out his hair before Zeus; no one else does so, in the <i>Iliad</i>, + but no one else is Agamemnon, alone and in despair. + </p> + <p> + He rises to consult Nestor, throwing a lion's skin over his <i>chiton</i>, + and grasping a spear. Much noise is made about the furs, such as this + lion's pelt, which the heroes, in Book X., throw about their shoulders + when suddenly aroused. That sportsmen like the heroes should keep the + pelts of animals slain by them for use as coverlets, and should throw on + one of the pelts when aroused in a hurry, is a marvellous thing to the + critics. They know that fleeces were used for coverlets of beds (IX. 661), + and pelts of wild animals, slain by Anchises, cover his bed in the Hymn to + Aphrodite. + </p> + <p> + But the facts do not enlighten critics. Yet no facts could be more + natural. A scientific critic, moreover, never reflects that the poet is + dealing with an unexampled situation—heroes wakened and called into + the cold air in a night of dread, but not called to battle. Thus Reichel + says: "The poet knows so little about true heroic costume that he drapes + the princes in skins of lions and panthers, like giants.... But about a + corslet he never thinks." {Footnote: Reichel, p.70.} + </p> + <p> + The simple explanation is that the poet has not hitherto had to tell us + about men who are called up, not to fight, on a night that must have been + chilly. In war they do not wear skins, though Paris, in archer's + equipment, wears a pard's skin (III. 17). Naturally, the men throw over + themselves their fur coverlets; but Nestor, a chilly veteran, prefers a <i>chiton</i> + and a wide, double-folded, fleecy purple cloak. The cloak lay ready to his + hand, for such cloaks were used as blankets (XXIV. 646; Odyssey, III. 349, + 351; IV. 299; II. 189). We hear more of such bed-coverings in the Odyssey + than in the merely because in the <i>ODYSSEY</i> we have more references + to beds and to people in bed. That a sportsman may have (as many folk have + now) a fur coverlet, and may throw it over him as a kind of dressing-gown + or "bed-gown," is a simple circumstance which bewilders the critical mind + and perplexed Reichel. + </p> + <p> + If the poet knew so little as Reichel supposed his omission of corslets is + explained. Living in an age of corslets (seventh century), he, being a + literary man, knew nothing about corslets, or, as he is also an acute + archaeologist, he knew too much; he knew that they were not worn in the + Mycenaean prime, so he did not introduce them. The science of this + remarkable ignoramus, in <i>this</i> view, accounts for his being aware + that pelts of animals were in vogue as coverlets, just as fur + dressing-gowns were worn in the sixteenth century, and he introduces them + precisely as he leaves corslets out, because he knows that pelts of fur + were in use, and that, in the Mycenaean prime, corslets were not worn. + </p> + <p> + In speaking to Nestor, Agamemnon awakens sympathy: "Me, of all the + Achaeans, Zeus has set in toil and labour ceaselessly." They are almost + the very words of Charlemagne in the <i>Chanson de Roland: "Deus, Dist li + Reis, si peneuse est ma vie."</i> The author of the <i>Doloneia</i> + consistently conforms to the character of Agamemnon as drawn in the rest + of the <i>Iliad</i>. He is over-anxious; he is demoralising in his fits of + gloom, but all the burden of the host hangs on him—sipeneuse <i>est + ma via</i>. + </p> + <p> + To turn to higher things. Menelaus, too, was awake, anxious about the + Argives, who risked their lives in his cause alone. He got up, put on a + pard's skin and a bronze helmet (here the poet forgets, what he ought to + have known, that no bronze helmets have been found in the Mycenaean + graves). Menelaus takes a spear, and goes to look for Agamemnon, whom he + finds arming himself beside his ship. He discovers that Agamemnon means to + get Nestor to go and speak to the advanced guard, as his son is their + commander, and they will obey Nestor. Agamemnon's pride has fallen very + low! He tells Menelaus to waken the other chief with all possible formal + courtesy, for, brutally rude when in high heart, at present Agamemnon + cowers to everybody. He himself finds Nestor in bed, his <i>shield</i>, + two spears, and helmet beside him, also his glittering <i>zoster</i>. His + corslet is not named; perhaps the poet knew that the <i>zoster</i>, or + broad metallic belt, had been evolved, but that the corslet had not been + invented; or perhaps he "knows so little about the costume of the heroes" + that he is unaware of the existence of corslets. Nestor asks Agamemnon + what he wants; and Agamemnon says that his is a toilsome life, that he + cannot sleep, that his knees tremble, and that he wants Nestor to come and + visit the outposts. + </p> + <p> + There is really nothing absurd in this. Napoleon often visited his + outposts in the night before Waterloo, and Cromwell rode along his lines + all through the night before Dunbar, biting his lips till the blood + dropped on his linen bands. In all three cases hostile armies were arrayed + within striking distance of each other, and the generals were careworn. + </p> + <p> + Nestor admits that it is an anxious night, and rather blames Menelaus for + not rousing the other chiefs; but Agamemnon explains and defends his + brother. Nestor then puts on the comfortable cloak already described, and + picks up a spear, {blank space} <i>in HIS QUARTERS</i>. + </p> + <p> + As for Odysseus, he merely throws a shield over his shoulders. The company + of Diomede are sleeping with their heads on their shields. Thence Reichel + (see "The Shield") infers that the late poet of Book X. gave them small + Ionian round bucklers; but it has been shown that no such inference is + legitimate. Their spears were erect by their sides, fixed in the ground by + the <i>sauroter</i>, or butt-spike, used by the men of the late "warrior + vase" found at Mycenae. To arrange the spears thus, we have seen, was a + point of drill that, in Aristotle's time, survived among the Illyrians. + {Footnote: <i>Poetics</i>, XXV.} The practice is also alluded to in <i>Iliad</i>, + III 135. During a truce "the tall spears are planted by their sides." The + poet, whether ignorant or learned, knew that point of war, later obsolete + in Greece, but still extant in Illyria. + </p> + <p> + Nestor aroused Diomede, whose night apparel was the pelt of a lion; he + took his spear, and they came to the outposts, where the men were awake, + and kept a keen watch on all movements among the Trojans. Nestor praised + them, and the princes, taking Nestor's son, Thrasymedes, and Meriones with + them, went out into the open in view of the Trojan camp, sat down, and + held a consultation. + </p> + <p> + Nestor asked if any one would volunteer to go as a spy among the Trojans + and pick up intelligence. His reward will be "a black ewe with her lamb at + her foot," from their chiefs—"nothing like her for value"—and + he will be remembered in songs at feasts, <i>or</i> will be admitted to + feasts and wine parties of the chiefs. {Footnote: Leaf, Note on X. 215.} + The proposal is very odd; what do the princes want with black ewes, while + at feasts they always have honoured places? Can Nestor be thinking of + sending out any brave swift-footed young member of the outpost party, to + whom the reward would be appropriate? + </p> + <p> + After silence, Diomede volunteers to go, with a comrade, though this kind + of work is very seldom undertaken in any army of any age by a chief, and + by his remark about admission to wine parties it is clear that Nestor was + not thinking of a princely spy. Many others volunteer, but Agamemnon bids + Diomede choose his own companion, with a very broad hint not to take + Menelaus. <i>HIS</i> death, Agamemnon knows, would mean the disgraceful + return of the host to Greece; besides he is, throughout the <i>ILIAD</i>, + deeply attached to his brother. + </p> + <p> + The poet of Book X., however late, knows the <i>ILIAD</i> well, for he + keeps up the uniform treatment of the character of the Over-Lord. As he + knows the <i>ILIAD</i> well, how can he be ignorant of the conditions of + life of the heroes? How can he dream of "introducing a note of heroic + simplicity" (Mr. Leaf's phrase), when he must be as well aware as we are + of the way in which the heroes lived? We cannot explain the black ewes, if + meant as a princely reward, but we do not know everything about Homeric + life. + </p> + <p> + Diomede chooses Odysseus, "whom Pallas Athene loveth"; she was also the + patroness of Diomede himself, in Books V., VI. + </p> + <p> + As they are unarmed—all of the chiefs hastily aroused were unarmed, + save for a spear there or a sword here—Thrasymedes gives to Diomede + his two-edged sword, <i>his</i> shield, and "a helm of bull's hide, + without horns or crest, that is called a skull-cap (knap-skull), and keeps + the heads of strong young men." All the advanced guard were young men, as + we saw in Book IX. 77. Obviously, Thrasymedes must then send back to camp, + though we are not told it, for another shield, sword, and helmet, as he is + to lie all night under arms. We shall hear of the shield later. + </p> + <p> + Meriones, who is an archer (XIII. 650), lends to Odysseus his bow and + quiver and a sword. He also gives him "a helm made of leather; and with + many a thong it was stiffly wrought within, while without the white teeth + of a boar of flashing tusks were arrayed, thick set on either side well + and cunningly... ." Here Reichel perceives that the ignorant poet is + describing a piece of ancient headgear represented in Mycenaean art, while + the boars' teeth were found by Schliemann, to the number of sixty, in + Grave IV. at Mycenae. Each of them had "the reverse side cut perfectly + flat, and with the borings to attach them to some other object." They were + "in a veritable funereal armoury." The manner of setting the tusks on the + cap is shown on an ivory head of a warrior from Mycenae. {Footnote: + Tsountas and Manatt, 196-197.} + </p> + <p> + Reichel recognises that the poet's description in Book X. is excellent, "<i>ebenso + klar als eingehend</i>." He publishes another ivory head from Spata, with + the same helmet set with boars' tusks. {Footnote: Reichel, pp. 102-104} + Mr. Leaf decides that this description by the poet, wholly ignorant of + heroic costume, as Reichel thinks him, must be "another instance of the + archaic and archaeologising tendency so notable in Book X." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, + vol. ii. p. 629.} + </p> + <p> + At the same time, according to Reichel and Mr. Leaf, the poet of Book X. + introduces the small round Ionian buckler, thus showing his utter + ignorance of the great Mycenaean shield. The ignorance was most unusual + and quite inexcusable, for any one who reads the rest of the <i>Iliad</i> + (which the poet of Book X. knew well) is aware that the Homeric shields + were huge, often covering body and legs. This fact the poet of Book X. did + not know, in Reichel's opinion. {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. + 575} + </p> + <p> + How are we to understand this poet? He is such an erudite archaeologist + that, in the seventh century, he knows and carefully describes a helmet of + the Mycenaean prime. Did he excavate it? and had the leather interior + lasted with the felt cap through seven centuries? Or did he see a sample + in an old temple of the Mycenaean prime, or in a museum of his own period? + Or had he heard of it in a lost Mycenaean poem? Yet, careful as he was, so + pedantic that he must have puzzled his seventh-century audience, who never + saw such caps, the poet knew nothing of the shields and costumes of the + heroes, though he might have found out all that is known about them in the + then existing Iliadic lays with which he was perfectly familiar—see + his portrait of Agamemnon. He was well aware that corslets were, in + Homeric poetry, anachronisms, for he gave Nestor none; yet he fully + believed, in his ignorance, that small Ionian bucklers loveth; (which need + the aid of corslets badly) were the only wear among the heroes! + </p> + <p> + Criticism has, as we often observe, no right to throw the first stone at + the inconsistencies of Homer. As we cannot possibly believe that one poet + knew so much which his contemporaries did not know (and how, in the + seventh century, could he know it?), and that he also knew so little, knew + nothing in fact, we take our own view. The poet of Book X. sings of <i>a</i> + fresh topic, a confused night of dread; of young men wearing the headgear + which, he says, young men <i>do</i> wear; of pelts of fur such as suddenly + wakened men, roused, but not roused for battle, would be likely to throw + over their bodies against the chill air. He describes things of his own + day; things with which he is familiar. He is said to "take quite a + peculiar delight in the minute description of dress and weapons." + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 423.} We do not observe that he + does describe weapons or shields minutely; but Homer always loves to + describe weapons and costume—scores of examples prove it—and + here he happens to be describing such costume as he nowhere else has + occasion to mention. By an accident of archaeological discovery, we find + that there were such caps set with boars' tusks as he introduces. They had + survived, for young men on night duty, into the poet's age. We really + cannot believe that a poet of the seventh century had made excavations in + Mycenaean graves. If he did and put the results into his lay, his audience—not + wearing boars' tusks—would have asked, "What nonsense is the man + talking?" + </p> + <p> + Erhardt, remarking on the furs which the heroes throw over their shoulders + when aroused, says that this kind of wrap is very late. It was Peisander + who, in the second half of the seventh century, clothed Herakles in a + lion's skin. Peisander brought this costume into poetry, and the author of + the <i>Doloneia</i> knew no better than to follow Peisander. {Footnote: <i>Die + Enstehung der Homerischen Gedichte</i>, pp. 163-164.} The poet of the <i>Doloneia</i> + was thus much better acquainted with Peisander than with the Homeric lays, + which could have taught him that a hero would never wear a fur coverlet + when aroused—not to fight—from slumber. Yet he knew about + leathern caps set with boars' tusks. He must have been an erudite + excavator, but, in literature, a reader only of recent minor poetry. + </p> + <p> + Having procured arms, without corslets (<i>with</i> corslets, according to + Carl Robert)—whether, if they had none, because the poet knew that + corslets were anachronisms, or because spies usually go as lightly + burdened as possible—Odysseus and Diomede approach the Trojan camp. + The hour is the darkest hour before dawn. They hear, but do not see, a + heron sent by Athene as an omen, and pray to the goddess, with promise of + sacrifice. + </p> + <p> + In the Trojan camp Hector has called a council, and asked for a volunteer + spy to seek intelligence among the Achaeans. He offers no black ewes as a + reward, but the best horses of the enemy. This allures Dolon, son of a + rich Trojan, "an only son among five sisters," a poltroon, a weak lad, + ugly, but swift of foot, and an enthusiastic lover of horses. He asks for + the steeds of Achilles, which Hector swears to give him; and to be lightly + clad he takes merely spear and bow and a cap of ferret skin, with the pelt + of a wolf for covering. Odysseus sees him approach; he and Diomede lie + down among the dead till Dolon passes, then they chase him towards the + Achaean camp and catch him. He offers ransom, which before these last days + of the war was often accepted. Odysseus replies evasively, and asks for + information. Dolon, thinking that the bitterness of death is past, + explains that only the Trojans have watch-fires; the allies, more + careless, have none. At the extreme flank of the host sleep the newly + arrived Thracians, under their king, Rhesus, who has golden armour, and + "the fairest horses that ever I beheld" (the ruling passion for horses is + strong in Dolon), "and the greatest, whiter than snow, and for speed like + the winds." + </p> + <p> + Having learned all that he needs to know, Diomede ruthlessly slays Dolon. + Odysseus thanks Athene, and hides the poor spoils of the dead, marking the + place. They then creep into the dark camp of the sleeping Thracians, and + as Diomede slays them Odysseus drags each body aside, to leave a clear + path for the horses, that they may not plunge and tremble when they are + led forth, "for they were not yet used to dead men." No line in Homer + shows more intimate knowledge and realisation of horses and of war. + Odysseus drives the horses of Rhesus out of the camp with the bow of + Meriones; he has forgotten to take the whip from the chariot. Diomede, + having slain King Rhesus asleep, thinks whether he shall lift out the + chariot (war chariots were very light) or drag it by the pole; but Athene + warns him to be going. He "springs upon the steeds," and they make for + their camp. It is not clearly indicated whether they ride or drive (X., 5 + I 3, 527-528, 541); but, suppose that they ride, are we to conclude that + the fact proves "lateness"? The heroes always drive in Homer, but it is + inconceivable that they could not ride in cases of necessity, as here, if + Diomede has thought it wiser not to bring out the chariot and harness the + horses. Riding is mentioned in <i>Iliad</i>, XV. 679, in a simile; again, + in a simile, <i>Odyssey</i>, V. 37 I. It is not the custom for heroes to + ride; the chariot is used in war and in travelling, but, when there are + horses and no chariot, men could not be so imbecile as not to mount the + horses, nor could the poet be so pedantic as not to make them do so. + </p> + <p> + The shields would cause no difficulty; they would be slung sideways, like + the shields of knights in the early Middle Ages. The pair, picking up + Dolon's spoils as they pass, hurry back to the chiefs, where Nestor + welcomes them. The others laugh and are encouraged (to encourage them and + his audience is the aim of the poet); while the pair go to Diomede's + quarters, wash off the blood and sweat from their limbs in the sea, and + then "enter the polished baths," common in the <i>Odyssey</i>, unnamed in + the Iliad. But on no other occasion in the Iliad are we admitted to view + this part of heroic toilette. Nowhere else, in fact, do we accompany a + hero to his quarters and his tub after the day's work is over. Achilles, + however, refuses to wash, after fighting, in his grief for Patroclus, + though plenty of water was being heated for the purpose, and it is to be + presumed that a bath was ready for the water (<i>Iliad</i>, XXIII. 40). + See, too, for Hector's bath, XXII. 444. + </p> + <p> + The two heroes then refresh themselves; breakfast, in fact, and drink, as + is natural. By this time the dawn must have been in the sky, and in Book + XI. men are stirring with the dawn. Such is the story of Book X. The + reader may decide as to whether it is "<i>Very</i> late; barely Homeric," + or a late and deliberate piece of burlesque, {Footnote: Henry, <i>Classical + Review</i>. March 1906.} or whether it is very Homeric, though the whole + set of situations—a night of terror, an anxious chief, a nocturnal + adventure—are unexampled in the poem. + </p> + <p> + The poet's audience of warriors must have been familiar with such + situations, and must have appreciated the humorous, ruthless treatment of + Dolon, the spoiled only brother of five sisters. Mr. Monro admitted that + Dolon is Shakespearian, but added, "too Shakespearian for Homer." One may + as well say that Agincourt, in Henry V., is "too Homeric for Shakespeare." + </p> + <p> + Mr. Monro argued that "the Tenth Book comes in awkwardly after the Ninth." + Nitzsche thinks just the reverse. The patriotic warrior audience would + delight in the <i>Doloneia</i> after the anguish of Book IX.; would laugh + with Odysseus at the close of his adventure, and rejoice with the other + Achaeans (X. 505). + </p> + <p> + "The introductory part of the Book is cumbrous," says Mr. Monro. To us it + is, if we wish to get straight to the adventure, just as the customary + delays in Book XIX., before Achilles is allowed to fight, are tedious to + us. But the poet's audience did not necessarily share our tastes, and + might take pleasure (as I do) in the curious details of the opening of + Book X. The poet was thinking of his audience, not of modern professors. + </p> + <p> + "We hear no more of Rhesus and his Thracians." Of Rhesus there was no more + to hear, and his people probably went home, like Glenbuckie's Stewarts + after the mysterious death of their chief in Amprior's house of Leny + before Prestonpans (1745). Glenbuckie was mysteriously pistolled in the + night. "The style and tone is unlike that of the Iliad ... It is rather + akin to comedy of a rough farcical kind." But it was time for "comic + relief." If the story of Dolon be comic, it is comic with the practical + humour of the sagas. In an isolated nocturnal adventure and massacre we + cannot expect the style of an heroic battle under the sunlight. Is the + poet not to be allowed to be various, and is the scene of the Porter in <i>Macbeth</i>, + "in style and tone," like the rest of the drama? (<i>Macbeth</i>, Act ii. + sc. 3). Here, of course, Shakespeare indulges infinitely more in "comedy + of a rough practical kind" than does the author of the <i>Doloneia</i>. + </p> + <p> + The humour and the cruelty do not exceed what is exhibited in many of the + <i>gabes</i>, or insulting boasts of heroes over dead foes in other parts + of the <i>Iliad</i>; such as the taunting comparison of a warrior falling + from his chariot to a diver after oysters, or as "one of the Argives hath + caught the spear in his flesh, and leaning thereon for a staff, methinks + that he will go down within the house of Hades" (XIV. 455-457). The <i>Iliad</i>, + like the sagas, is rich in this extremely practical humour. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Leaf says that the Book "must have been composed before the <i>Iliad</i> + had reached its present form, for it cannot have been meant to follow on + Book IX. It is rather another case of a parallel rival to that Book, + coupled with it only in the final literary redaction," which Mr. Leaf + dates in the middle of the sixth century. "The Book must have been + composed before the <i>Iliad</i> had reached its present form," {Footnote: + <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 424.} It is not easy to understand this decision; + for, as Mr. Leaf had previously written, about Book IX. 60-68, "the + posting of the watch is at least not necessary to the story, and it has a + suspicious air of being merely a preparation for the next Book, which is + much later, and which turns entirely upon a visit to the sentinels." + {Footnote: <i>Companion,</i> p.174.} + </p> + <p> + Now a military audience would not have pardoned the poet of Book IX. if, + in the circumstances of defeat, with a confident enemy encamped within + striking distance, he had not made the Achaeans throw forth their + outposts. The thing was inevitable and is not suspicious; but the poet + purposely makes the advanced guard consist of young men under Nestor's son + and Meriones. He needs them for Book X. Therefore the poet of Book IX. is + the poet of Book X. preparing his effect in advance; or the poet of Book + X. is a man who cleverly takes advantage of Book IX., or he composed his + poem of "a night of terror and adventure," "in the air," and the editor of + 540 B.C., having heard it recited and copied it out, went back to Book IX. + and inserted the advanced guard, under Thrasymedes and Meriones, to lead + up to Book X. + </p> + <p> + On Mr. Leafs present theory, {Footnote: Iliad, vol. i. p.424.} Book X., we + presume, was meant, not to follow Book IX., but to follow the end of Book + VII, being an alternative to Book VIII. (composed, he says, to lead up to + Book IX.) and Book IX. But Book VII. closes with the Achaean refusal of + the compromise offered by Paris—the restoration of the property but + not of the wife of Menelaus. The Trojans and Achaeans feast all night; the + Trojans feast in the city. There is therefore no place here for Book X. + after Book VII, and the Achaeans cannot roam about all night, as they are + feasting; nor can Agamemnon be in the state of anxiety exhibited by him in + Book X. + </p> + <p> + Book X. could not exist without Book IX., and <i>must</i> have been "meant + to follow on it." Mr. Leaf sees that, in his preface to Book IX., + {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 371.} "The placing of sentinels" (in + Book IX. 80, 84) "is needed as an introduction to Book X. but has nothing + to do with this Book" (IX.). But, we have said, it was inevitable, given + the new situation in Book IX. (an Achaean repulse, and the enemy camped in + front), that an advanced guard must be placed, even if there proved to be + no need of their services. We presume that Mr. Leaf's literary editor, + finding that Book X. existed and that the advanced guard was a necessity + of its action, went back to Book IX. and introduced an advanced guard of + young men, with its captains, Thrasymedes and Meriones. Even after this + the editor had much to do, if Book IX. originally exhibited Agamemnon as + not in terror and despair, as it now does. + </p> + <p> + We need not throw the burden of all this work on the editor. As Mr. Leaf + elsewhere writes, in a different mind, the Tenth Book "is obviously + adapted to its present place in the <i>Iliad</i>, for it assumes a moment + when Achilles is absent from the field, and when the Greeks are in deep + dejection from a recent defeat. These conditions are exactly fulfilled by + the situation at the end of Book IX." {Footnote: <i>Companion</i>, p. + 190.} + </p> + <p> + This is certainly the case. The Tenth Book could not exist without the + Ninth; yet Mr. Leaf's new opinion is that it "cannot have been meant to + follow on Book IX." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 424.} He was + better inspired when he held the precisely opposite opinion. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Adolf Kiene {Footnote: Die <i>Epen des Homer, Zweiter Theil,</i> pp. + 90-94. Hanover, 1884.} accepts Book XI. as originally composed to fill its + present place in the <i>Iliad.</i> He points out the despondency of the + chiefs after receiving the reply of Achilles, and supposes that even + Diomede (IX. 708) only urges Agamemnon to "array before the ships thy folk + and horsemen," for defensive battle. But, encouraged by the success of the + night adventure, Agamemnon next day assumes the offensive. To consider + thus is perhaps to consider too curiously. But it is clear that the + Achaeans have been much encouraged by the events of Book X., especially + Agamemnon, whose character, as Kiene observes, is very subtly and + consistently treated, and "lies near the poet's heart." This is the point + which we keep urging. Agamemnon's care for Menelaus is strictly preserved + in Book X. + </p> + <p> + Nitzsche (I 897) writes, "Between Book IX. and Book XI there is a gap; + that gap the <i>Doloneia</i> fills: it must have been composed to be part + of the <i>ILIAD</i>." But he thinks that the <i>Doloneia</i> has taken the + place of an earlier lay which filled the gap. {Footnote: Die <i>Echtheit + der Doloneia,</i> p. 32. Programme des K. K. Staats Gymnasium zu Marburg, + 1877.} That the Book is never referred to later in the <i>Iliad</i>, even + if it be true, is no great argument against its authenticity. For when + later references are made to Book IX., they are dismissed as clever late + interpolations. If the horses of Rhesus took part, as they do not, in the + sports at the funeral of Patroclus, the passage would be called a clever + interpolation: in fact, Diomede had better horses, divine horses to run. + However, it is certainly remarkable that the interpolation was not made by + one of the interpolators of critical theory. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile there is, we think, a reference to Book X. in Book XIV. + {Footnote: This was pointed out to me by Mr. Shewan, to whose great + knowledge of Homer I am here much indebted.} + </p> + <p> + In <i>Iliad</i>, XIV. 9-11, we read that Nestor, in his quarters with the + wounded Machaon, on the day following the night of Dolon's death, hears + the cry of battle and goes out to see what is happening. "He took the + well-wrought shield of his son, horse-taming Thrasymedes, which was lying + in the hut, all glistening with bronze, but <i>the son had the shield of + his father</i>." + </p> + <p> + Why had Thrasymedes the shield of his father? At about 3 A.M. before dawn + the shield of Nestor was lying beside him in his own bedroom (Book X. 76), + and at the same moment his son Thrasymedes <i>was</i> on outpost duty, and + had his own shield with him (Book IX. 81). + </p> + <p> + When, then, did father and son exchange shields, and why? Mr. Leaf says, + "It is useless to inquire why father and son had thus changed shields, as + the scholiasts of course do." + </p> + <p> + The scholiasts merely babble. Homer, of course, meant <i>something</i> by + this exchange of shields, which occurred late in the night of Book IX. or + very early in the following day, that of Books XI-XVI. + </p> + <p> + Let us follow again the sequence of events. On the night before the day + when Nestor had Thrasymedes' shield and Thrasymedes had Nestor's, + Thrasymedes was sent out, with shield and all, in command of one of the + seven companies of an advanced guard, posted between fosse and wall, in + case of a camisade by the Trojans, who were encamped on the plain (IX. + 81). With him in command were Meriones and five other young men less + notable. They had supplies with them and whatever was needed: they cooked + supper in bivouac. + </p> + <p> + In the <i>Doloneia</i> the wakeful princes, after inspecting the advanced + guard, go forward within view of the Trojan ranks and consult. With them + they take Nestor's son, Thrasymedes, and Meriones (X. 196). The two young + men, being on active service, are armed; the princes are not. Diomede, + having been suddenly roused out of sleep, with no intention to fight, + merely threw on his dressing-gown, a lion's skin. Nestor wore a thick, + double, purple dressing-gown. Odysseus had cast his shield about his + shoulders. It was decided that Odysseus and Diomede should enter the + Trojan camp and "prove a jeopardy." Diomede had no weapon but his spear; + so Thrasymedes, who is armed as we saw, lends him his bull's-hide cap, + "that keeps the heads of stalwart youths," his sword (for that of Diomede + "was left at the ships"), and his shield. + </p> + <p> + Diomede and Odysseus successfully achieve their adventure and return to + the chiefs, where they talk with Nestor; and then they go to Diomede's hut + and drink. The outposts remain, of course, at their stations. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, Thrasymedes, having lent his shield to Diomede, has none of his + own. Naturally, as he was to pass the night under arms, he would send to + his father's quarters for the old man's shield, a sword, and a helmet. He + would remain at his post (his men had provisions) till the general <i>reveillez</i> + at dawn, and would then breakfast at his post and go into the fray. + Nestor, therefore, missing his shield, would send round to Diomede's + quarters for the shield of Thrasymedes, which had been lent overnight to + Diomede, would take it into the fight, and would bring it back to his own + hut when he carried the wounded Machaon thither out of the battle. When he + arms to go out and seek for information, he picks up the shield of + Thrasymedes. + </p> + <p> + Nothing can be more obvious; the poet, being a man of imagination, not a + professor, sees it all, and casually mentions that the son had the + father's and the father had the son's shield. His audience, men of the + sword, see the case as clearly as the poet does: only we moderns and the + scholiasts, almost as modern as ourselves, are puzzled. + </p> + <p> + It may also be argued, though we lay no stress on it, that in Book XI. + 312, when Agamemnon has been wounded, we find Odysseus and Diomede alone + together, without their contingents, because they have not separated since + they breakfasted together, after returning from the adventure of Book X., + and thus they have come rather late to the field. They find the Achaeans + demoralised by the wounding of Agamemnon, and they make a stand. "What + ails us," asks Odysseus, "that we forget our impetuous valour?" The + passage appears to take up the companionship of Odysseus and Diomede, who + were left breakfasting together at the end of Book X. and are not + mentioned till we meet them again in this scene of Book XI., as if they + had just come on the field. + </p> + <p> + As to the linguistic tests of lateness "there are exceptionally numerous + traces of later formation," says Mr. Monro; while Fick, tout <i>contraire,</i> + writes, "clumsy Ionisms are not common, and, as a rule, occur in these + parts which on older grounds show themselves to be late interpolations." + "The cases of agreement" (between Fick and Mr. Monro), "are few, and the + passages thus condemned are not more numerous in the <i>Doloneia</i> than + in any average book." {Footnote: Jevons, <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, + vii. p. 302.} The six examples of "a post-Homeric use of the article" do + not seem so very post-Homeric to an ordinary intelligence—parallels + occur in Book I.—and "Perfects in {Greek: ka} from derivative verbs" + do not destroy the impression of antiquity and unity which is left by the + treatment of character; by the celebrated cap with boars' tusks, which no + human being could archaeologically reconstruct in the seventh century; and + by the Homeric vigour in such touches as the horses unused to dead men. As + the <i>Iliad</i> certainly passed through centuries in which its language + could not but be affected by linguistic changes, as it could not escape + from <i>remaniements</i>, consciously or unconsciously introduced by + reciters and copyists, the linguistic objections are not strongly felt by + us. An unphilological reader of Homer notes that Duntzer thinks the <i>Doloneia</i> + "older than the oldest portion of the Odyssey," while Gemoll thinks that + the author of the <i>Doloneia</i>. was familiar with the <i>Odyssey</i>. + {Footnote: Duntzer, <i>Homer. Abhanglungen</i>, p. 324. Gemoll, <i>Hermes</i>, + xv. 557 ff.} + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, one thing seems plain to us: when the author of Book IX. posted + the guards under Thrasymedes, he was deliberately leading up to Book X.; + while the casual remark in Book XIV. about the exchange of shields between + father and son, Nestor and Thrasymedes, glances back at Book X. and + possibly refers to some lost and more explicit statement. + </p> + <p> + It is not always remembered that, if things could drop into the + interpolations, things could also drop out of the <i>ILIAD,</i> causing <i>lacunae</i>, + during the dark backward of its early existence. + </p> + <p> + If the <i>Doloneia</i> be "barely Homeric," as Father Browne holds, this + opinion was not shared by the listeners or readers of the sixth century. + The vase painters often illustrate the <i>Doloneia;</i> but it does not + follow that "the story was fresh" because it was "popular," as Mr. Leaf + suggests, and "was treated as public property in a different way" (namely, + in a comic way) "from the consecrated early legends" (<i>Iliad,</i> II + 424, 425). The sixth century vase painters illustrated many passages in + Homer, not the <i>Doloneia</i> alone. The "comic way" was the ruthless + humour of two strong warriors capturing one weak coward. Much later, wild + caricature was applied in vase painting to the most romantic scenes in the + Odyssey, which were "consecrated" enough. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV + </h2> + <h3> + THE INTERPOLATIONS OF NESTOR + </h3> + <p> + That several of the passages in which Nestor speaks are very late + interpolations, meant to glorify Pisistratus, himself of Nestor's line, is + a critical opinion to which we have more than once alluded. The first + example is in <i>Iliad,</i> II. 530-568. This passage "is meant at once to + present Nestor as the leading counsellor of the Greek army, and to + introduce the coming <i>Catalogue</i>." {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad,</i> + vol. i. p. 70.} Now the <i>Catalogue</i> "originally formed an + introduction to the whole Cycle." {Footnote: Ibid., vol. i. p. 87.} But, + to repeat an earlier observation, surely the whole Cycle was much later + than the period of Pisistratus and his sons; that is, the compilation of + the Homeric and Cyclic poems into one body of verse, named "The Cycle," is + believed to have been much later. + </p> + <p> + It is objected that Nestor's advice in this passage, "Separate thy + warriors by tribes and clans" ({Greek: phyla, phraetras}), "is out of + place in the last year of the war"; but this suggestion for military + reorganisation may be admitted as a mere piece of poetical perspective, + like Helen's description of the Achaean chiefs in Book III, or Nestor may + wish to return to an obsolete system of clan regiments. The Athenians had + "tribes" and "clans," political institutions, and Nestor's advice is noted + as a touch of late Attic influence; but about the nature and origin of + these social divisions we know so little that it is vain to argue about + them. The advice of Nestor is an appeal to the clan spirit—a very + serviceable military spirit, as the Highlanders have often proved—but + we have no information as to whether it existed in Achaean times. Nestor + speaks as the aged Lochiel spoke to Claverhouse before Killiecrankie. Did + the Athenian army of the sixth century fight in clan regiments? The device + seems to belong to an earlier civilisation, whether it survived in sixth + century Athens or not. It is, of course, notorious that tribes and clans + are most flourishing among the most backward people, though they were + welded into the constitution of Athens. The passage, therefore, cannot + with any certainty be dismissed as very late, for the words for "tribe" + and "clan" could not be novel Athenian inventions, the institutions + designated being of prehistoric origin. + </p> + <p> + Nestor shows his tactics again in IV. 303-309, offers his "inopportune + tactical lucubrations, doubtless under Athenian (Pisistratean) influence." + The poet is here denied a sense of humour. That a veteran military + Polonius should talk as inopportunely about tactics as Dugald Dalgetty + does about the sconce of Drumsnab is an essential part of the humour of + the character of Nestor. This is what Nestor's critics do not see; the + inopportune nature of his tactical remarks is the point of them, just as + in the case of the laird of Drumthwacket, "that should be." Scott knew + little of Homer, but coincided in the Nestorian humour by mere congruity + of genius. The Pisistratidze must have been humourless if they did not see + that the poet smiled as he composed Nestor's speeches, glorifying old + deeds of his own and old ways of fighting. He arrays his Pylians with + chariots in front, footmen in the rear. In the {blank space} the princely + heroes dismounted to fight, the chariots following close behind them. + {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, XI. 48-56.} In the same way during the Hundred + Years' War the English knights dismounted and defeated the French chivalry + till, under Jeanne d'Arc and La Hire, the French learned the lesson, and + imitated the English practice. On the other hand, Egyptian wall-paintings + show the Egyptian chariotry advancing in neat lines and serried squadrons. + According to Nestor these had of old been the Achaean tactics, and he + preferred the old way. Nestor's advice in Book IV. is <i>not</i> to + dismount or break the line of chariots; these, he says, were the old + tactics: "Even so is the far better way; thus, moreover, did men of old + time lay low cities and walls." There was to be no rushing of individuals + from the ranks, no dismounting. Nestor's were not the tactics of the + heroes—they usually dismount and do single valiances; but Nestor, + commanding his local contingent, recommends the methods of the old school, + {Greek: hoi pretoroi}. What can be more natural and characteristic? + </p> + <p> + The poet's meaning seems quite clear. He is not flattering Pisistratus, + but, with quiet humour, offers the portrait of a vain, worthy veteran. It + is difficult to see how this point can be missed; it never was missed + before Nestor's speeches seemed serviceable to the Pisistratean theory of + the composition of the <i>ILIAD</i>. In his first edition Mr. Leaf + regarded the interpolations as intended "to glorify Nestor" without + reference to Pisistratus, whom Mr. Leaf did not then recognise as the + master of a sycophantic editor. The passages are really meant to display + the old man's habit of glorifying himself and past times. Pisistratus + could not feel flattered by passages intended to exhibit his ancestor as a + conceited and inopportune old babbler. I ventured in 1896 to suggest that + the interpolator was trying to please Pisistratus, but this was said in a + spirit of mockery. + </p> + <p> + Of all the characters in Homer that of Nestor is most familiar to the + unlearned world, merely because Nestor's is a "character part," very + broadly drawn. + </p> + <p> + The third interpolation of flattery to Pisistratus in the person of Nestor + is found in VII. 125-160. The Achaean chiefs are loath to accept the + challenge of Hector to single combat. Only Menelaus rises and arms + himself, moved by the strong sense of honour which distinguishes a warrior + notoriously deficient in bodily strength. Agamemnon refuses to let him + fight; the other peers make no movement, and Nestor rebukes them. It is + entirely in nature that he should fall back on his memory of a similar + situation in his youth; when the Arcadian champion, Ereuthalion, + challenged any prince of the Pylians, and when "no man plucked up heart" + to meet him except Nestor himself. Had there never been any Pisistratus, + any poet who created the part of a worthy and wordy veteran must have made + Nestor speak just as he does speak. Ereuthalion "was the tallest and + strongest of men that I have slain!" and Nestor, being what he is, offers + copious and interesting details about the armour of Ereuthalion and about + its former owners. The passage is like those in which the Icelandic + sagamen dwelt lovingly on the history of a good sword, or the Maoris on + the old possessors of an ancient jade <i>patu</i>. An objection is now + taken to Nestor's geography: he is said not to know the towns and burns of + his own country. He speaks of the swift stream Keladon, the streams of + Iardanus, and the walls of Pheia. Pheia "is no doubt the same as Pheai" + {Footnote: Monro, Note on Odyssey, XV. 297.} (Odyssey, XV. 297), "but that + was a maritime town not near Arkadia. There is nothing known of a Keladon + or Iardanus anywhere near it." Now Didymus (Schol. A) "is said to have + read {Greek: Phaeraes} for {Greek: Pheias}," following Pherekydes. + {Footnote: Leaf, <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. 308.} M. Victor Bérard, who has + made an elaborate study of Elian topography, says that "Pheia is a cape, + not a town," and adopts the reading "Phera," the {Greek: Pherae} of the + journey of Telemachus, in the Odyssey. He thinks that the {Greek: Pherae} + of Nestor is the Aliphera of Polybius, and believes that the topography of + Nestor and of the journey of Telemachus is correct. The Keladon is now the + river or burn of Saint Isidore; the Iardanus is at the foot of Mount + Kaiapha. Keladon has obviously the same sense as the Gaelic Altgarbh, "the + rough and brawling stream." Iardanus is also a stream in Crete, and Mr. + Leaf thinks it Semitic—"<i>Yarden</i>, from yarad to flow"; but the + Semites did not give the <i>Yar</i> to the <i>Yarrow</i> nor to the + Australian <i>Yarra Yarra</i>. + </p> + <p> + The country, says M. Bérard, is a network of rivers, burns, and rivulets; + and we cannot have any certainty, we may add, as the same river and burn + names recur in many parts of the same country; {Footnote: Bérard, <i>Les + Phéniciens et L'Odyssée,</i> 108-113, 1902} many of them, in England, are + plainly prae-Celtic. + </p> + <p> + While the correct geography may, on this showing, be that of Homer, we + cannot give up Homer's claim to Nestor's speech. As to Nestor's tale about + the armour of Ereuthalion, it is manifest that the first owner of the + armour of Ereuthalion, namely Are'ithous, "the Maceman," so called because + he had the singularity of fighting with an iron <i>casse-tête,</i> as + Nestor explains (VII. 138-140), was a famous character in legendary + history. He appears "as Prince Areithous, the Maceman," father (or + grand-father?) of an Areithous slain by Hector (VII. 8-10). In Greece, it + was not unusual for the grandson to bear the grandfather's name, and, if + the Maceman was grand-father of Hector's victim, there is no chronological + difficulty. The chronological difficulty, in any case, if Hector's victim + is the son of the Maceman, is not at all beyond a poetic narrator's + possibility of error in genealogy. If Nestor's speech is a late + interpolation, if its late author borrowed his vivid account of the + Maceman and his <i>casse-tête</i> from the mere word "maceman" in VII. 9, + he must be credited with a lively poetic imagination. + </p> + <p> + Few or none of these reminiscences of Nestor are really "inapplicable to + the context." Here the context demands encouragement for heroes who shun a + challenge. Nestor mentions an "applicable" and apposite instance of + similar want of courage, and, as his character demands, he is the hero of + his own story. His brag, or <i>gabe,</i> about "he was the tallest and + strongest of all the men I ever slew," is deliciously in keeping, and + reminds us of the college don who said of the Czar, "he is the nicest + emperor I ever met." The poet is sketching an innocent vanity; he is not + flattering Pisistratus. + </p> + <p> + The next case is the long narrative of Nestor to the hurried Patroclus, + who has been sent by Achilles to bring news of the wounded Machaon (XI. + 604-702). Nestor on this occasion has useful advice to give, namely, that + Achilles, if he will not fight, should send his men, under Patroclus, to + turn the tide of Trojan victory. But the poet wishes to provide an + interval of time and of yet more dire disaster before the return of + Patroclus to Achilles. By an obvious literary artifice he makes Nestor + detain the reluctant Patroclus with a long story of his own early feats of + arms. It is a story of a "hot-trod," so called in Border law; the Eleians + had driven a <i>creagh</i> of cattle from the Pylians, who pursued, and + Nestor killed the Eleian leader, Itymoneus. The speech is an Achaean + parallel to the Border ballad of "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead," in + editing which Scott has been accused of making a singular and most obvious + and puzzling blunder in the topography of his own sheriffdom of the + Forest. On Scott's showing the scene of the raid is in upper Ettrickdale, + not, as critics aver, in upper Teviotdale; thus the narrative of the + ballad would be impossible. {Footnote: In fact both sites on the two + Dodburns are impossible; the fault lay with the ballad-maker, not with + Scott.} + </p> + <p> + The Pisistratean editor is accused of a similar error. "No doubt he was an + Asiatic Greek, completely ignorant of the Peloponnesus." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>. + Note to XI. 756, and to the <i>Catalogue</i>, II. 615-617.} It is + something to know that Pisistratus employed an editor, or that his editor + employed a collaborator who was an Asiatic Greek! + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, nothing is less secure than arguments based on the <i>Catalogue</i>. + We have already shown how Mr. Leaf's opinions as to the date and + historical merits of the <i>Catalogue</i> have widely varied, while M. + Bérard appears to have vindicated the topography of Nestor. Of the <i>Catalogue</i> + Mr. Allen writes, "As a table, according to regions, of Agamemnon's forces + it bears every mark of venerable antiquity," showing "a state of things + which never recurred in later history, and which no one had any interest + to invent, or even the means for inventing." He makes a vigorous defence + of the <i>Catalogue,</i> as regards the dominion of Achilles, against Mr. + Leaf. {Footnote: <i>Classical Review,</i> May 1906, pp. x94-201.} Into the + details we need not go, but it is not questions of Homeric topography, + obscure as they are, that can shake our faith in the humorous portrait of + old Nestor, or make us suppose that the sympathetic mockery of the poet is + the sycophantic adulation of the editor to his statesman employer, + Pisistratus. If any question may be left to literary discrimination it is + the authentic originality of the portrayal of Nestor. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV + </h2> + <h3> + THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EARLY EPICS + </h3> + <p> + Though comparison is the method of Science, the comparative study of the + national poetry of warlike aristocracies, its conditions of growth and + decadence, has been much neglected by Homeric critics. Sir Richard Jebb + touched on the theme, and, after devoting four pages to a sketch of + Sanskrit, Finnish, Persian, and early Teutonic heroic poetry and <i>SAGA,</i> + decided that "in our country, as in others, we fail to find any true + parallel to the case of the Homeric poems. These poems must be studied in + themselves, without looking for aid, in this sense, to the comparative + method." {Footnote: <i>Homer</i>, p. 135.} Part of this conclusion seems + to us rather hasty. In a brief manual Sir Richard had not space for a + thorough comparative study of old heroic poetry at large. His quoted + sources are: for India, Lassen; for France, Mr. Saintsbury's Short History + of <i>FRENCH LITERATURE</i> (sixteen pages on this topic), and a work + unknown to me, by "M. Paul"; for Iceland he only quoted <i>THE + Encyclopedia BRITANNICA</i> (Mr. Edmund Gosse); for Germany, Lachmann and + Bartsch; for the Finnish <i>Kalewala,</i> the <i>ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA</i> + (Mr. Sime and Mr. Keltie); and for England, a <i>PRIMER OF ENGLISH + LITERATURE</i> by Mr. Stopford Brooke. + </p> + <p> + These sources appear less than adequate, and Celtic heroic romance is + entirely omitted. A much deeper and wider comparative criticism of early + heroic national poetry is needed, before any one has a right to say that + the study cannot aid our critical examination of the Homeric problem. Many + peoples have passed through a stage of culture closely analogous to that + of Achaean society as described in the <i>Iliad</i> and Odyssey. Every + society of this kind has had its ruling military class, its ancient + legends, and its minstrels who on these legends have based their songs. + The similarity of human nature under similar conditions makes it certain + that comparison will discover useful parallels between the poetry of + societies separated in time and space but practically identical in + culture. It is not much to the credit of modern criticism that a topic so + rich and interesting has been, at least in England, almost entirely + neglected by Homeric scholars. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, it is perfectly correct to say, as Sir Richard observes, that + "we fail to find any true parallel to the case of the Homeric poems," for + we nowhere find the legends of an heroic age handled by a very great poet—the + greatest of all poets—except in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>. + But, on the other hand, the critics refuse to believe that, in the <i>Iliad</i> + and <i>Odyssey,</i> we possess the heroic Achaean legends handled by one + great poet. They find a composite by many hands, good and bad, and of many + ages, they say; sometimes the whole composition and part of the poems are + ascribed to a late <i>littérateur</i>. Now to that supposed state of + things we do find several "true parallels," in Germany, in Finland, in + Ireland. But the results of work by these many hands in many ages are + anything but "a true parallel" to the results which lie before us in the + <i>Iliad</i> and <i>ODYSSEY</i>. Where the processes of composite + authorship throughout many <i>AGES</i> certainly occur, as in Germany and + Ireland, there we find no true parallel to the Homeric poems. It follows + that, in all probability, no such processes as the critics postulate + produced the <i>Iliad</i> and Odyssey, for where the processes existed, + beyond doubt they failed egregiously to produce the results. + </p> + <p> + Sir Richard's argument would have been logical if many efforts by many + hands, in many ages, in England, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, and Germany + did actually produce true parallels to the Achaean epics. They did not, + and why not? Simply because these other races had no Homer. All the other + necessary conditions were present, the legendary material, the heroic + society, the Court minstrels, all—except the great poet. In all the + countries mentioned, except Finland, there existed military aristocracies + with their courts, castles, and minstrels, while the minstrels had rich + material in legendary history and in myth, and <i>Märchen</i>, and old + songs. But none of the minstrels was adequate to the production of an + English, German, or Irish <i>ILIAD</i> or <i>ODYSSEY</i>, or even of a + true artistic equivalent in France. + </p> + <p> + We have tried to show that the critics, rejecting a Homer, have been + unable to advance any adequate hypothesis to account for the existence of + the <i>ILIAD</i> and <i>ODYSSEY</i>. Now we see that, where such + conditions of production as they postulate existed but where there was no + great epic genius, they can find no true parallels to the Epics. Their + logic thus breaks down at both ends. + </p> + <p> + It may be replied that in non-Greek lands one condition found in Greek + society failed: the succession of a reading age to an age of heroic + listeners. But this is not so. In France and Germany an age of readers + duly began, but they did not mainly read copies of the old heroic poems. + They turned to lyric poetry, as in Greece, and they recast the heroic + songs into modern and popular forms in verse and prose, when they took any + notice of the old heroic poems at all. + </p> + <p> + One merit of the Greek epics is a picture of "a certain phase of early + civilisation," and that picture is "a naturally harmonious whole," with + "unity of impression," says Sir Richard Jebb. {Footnote: Homer, p. 37.} + Certainly we can find no true parallel, on an Homeric scale, to this + "harmonious picture" in the epics of Germany and England or in the early + literature of Ireland. Sir Richard, for England, omits notice of <i>Beowulf</i>; + but we know that <i>Beowulf</i>, a long heroic poem, is a mass of + anachronisms—a heathen legend in a Christian setting. The hero, that + great heathen champion, has his epic filled full of Christian allusions + and Christian morals, because the clerical redactor, in Christian England, + could not but intrude these things into old pagan legends evolved by the + continental ancestors of our race. He had no "painful anxiety," like the + supposed Ionic continuators of the Achaean poems (when they are not said + to have done precisely the reverse), to preserve harmony of ancient ideas. + Such archaeological anxieties are purely modern. + </p> + <p> + If we take the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>, {Footnote: See chapter on the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> + in Homer <i>AND the Epic</i>, pp. 382-404.} we find that it is a thing of + many rehandlings, even in existing manuscripts. For example, the Greeks + clung to the hexameter in Homer. Not so did the Germans adhere to old + metres. The poem that, in the oldest MS., is written in assonances, in + later MSS. is reduced to regular rhymes and is retouched in many essential + respects. The matter of the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> is of heathen origin. We + see the real state of heathen affairs in the Icelandic versions of the + same tale, for the Icelanders were peculiar in preserving ancient lays; + and, when these were woven into a prose saga, the archaic and heathen + features were retained. Had the post-Christian prose author of the <i>Volsunga</i> + been a great poet, we might find in his work a true parallel to the <i>Iliad</i>. + But, though he preserves the harmony of his picture of pre-Christian + princely life (save in the savage beginnings of his story), he is not a + poet; so the true parallel to the Greek epic fails, noble as is the saga + in many passages. In the German <i>Nibelungenlied</i> all is modernised; + the characters are Christian, the manners are chivalrous, and <i>Märchen</i> + older than Homer are forced into a wandering mediaeval chronicle-poem. The + Germans, in short, had no early poet of genius, and therefore could not + produce a true parallel to <i>ILIAD</i> or Odyssey. The mediaeval poets, + of course, never dreamed of archaeological anxiety, as the supposed Ionian + continuators are sometimes said to have done, any more than did the French + and late Welsh handlers of the ancient Celtic Arthurian materials. The + late German <i>bearbeiter</i> of the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> has no idea of + unity of plot—<i>enfin</i>, Germany, having excellent and ancient + legendary material for an epic, but producing no parallel to <i>ILIAD</i> + and Odyssey, only proves how absolutely essential a Homer was to the Greek + epics. + </p> + <p> + "If any inference could properly be drawn from the Edda" (the Icelandic + collection of heroic lays), says Sir Richard Jebb, "it would be that short + separate poems on cognate subjects can long exist as a collection <i>without</i> + coalescing into such an artistic whole as the Iliad or the Odyssey." + {Footnote: Homer, p. 33.} + </p> + <p> + It is our own argument that Sir Richard states. "Short separate poems on + cognate subjects" can certainly co-exist for long anywhere, but they + cannot automatically and they cannot by aid of an editor become a long + epic. Nobody can stitch and vamp them into a poem like the <i>ILIAD</i> or + Odyssey. To produce a poem like either of these a great poetic genius must + arise, and fuse the ancient materials, as Hephaestus fused copper and tin, + and then cast the mass into a mould of his own making. A small poet may + reduce the legends and lays into a very inartistic whole, a very + inharmonious whole, as in the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>, but a controlling + poet, not a mere redactor or editor, is needed to perform even that feat. + </p> + <p> + Where a man who is not a poet undertakes to produce the coalescence, as + Dr. Lönnrot (1835-1849) did in the case of the peasant, not courtly, lays + of Finland, he "fails to prove that mere combining and editing can form an + artistic whole out of originally distinct songs, even though concerned + with closely related themes," says Sir Richard Jebb. {Footnote: Homer, p. + 134-135.} + </p> + <p> + This is perfectly true; much as Lönnrot botched and vamped the Finnish + lays he made no epic out of them. But, as it is true, how did the late + Athenian drudge of Pisistratus succeed where Lönnrot failed? "In the + dovetailing of the <i>ODYSSEY</i> we see the work of one mind," says Sir + Richard. {Footnote: Homer, p. 129.} This mind cannot have been the + property of any one but a great poet, obviously, as the <i>Odyssey</i> is + confessedly "an artistic whole." Consequently the disintegrators of the + Odyssey, when they are logical, are reduced to averring that the poem is + an exceedingly inartistic whole, a whole not artistic at all. While Mr. + Leaf calls it "a model of skilful construction," Wilamowitz Mollendorff + denounces it as the work of "a slenderly-gifted botcher," of about 650 + B.C., a century previous to Mr. Leaf's Athenian editor. + </p> + <p> + Thus we come, after all, to a crisis in which mere literary appreciation + is the only test of the truth about a work of literature. The Odyssey is + an admirable piece of artistic composition, or it is the very reverse. + Blass, Mr. Leaf, Sir Richard Jebb, and the opinion of the ages declare + that the composition is excellent. A crowd of German critics and Father + Browne, S.J., hold that the composition is feeble. The criterion is the + literary taste of each party to the dispute. Kirchhoff and Wilamowitz + Möllendorff see a late bad patchwork, where Mr. Leaf, Sir Richard Jebb, + Blass, Wolf, and the verdict of all mankind see a masterpiece of excellent + construction. The world has judged: the <i>Odyssey</i> is a marvel of + construction: therefore is not the work of a late botcher of disparate + materials, but of a great early poet. Yet Sir Richard Jebb, while + recognising the <i>Odyssey</i> as "an artistic whole" and an harmonious + picture, and recognising Lönnrot's failure "to prove that mere combining + and editing can form an artistic whole out of originally distinct songs, + even though concerned with closely related themes," thinks that Kirchhoff + has made the essence of his theory of late combination of distinct strata + of poetical material from different sources and periods, in the <i>Odyssey</i>, + "in the highest degree probable." {Footnote: Homer, p. 131.} + </p> + <p> + It is, of course, possible that Mr. Leaf, who has not edited the <i>Odyssey,</i> + may now, in deference to his belief in the Pisistratean editor, have + changed his opinion of the merits of the poem. If the <i>Odyssey,</i> like + the <i>Iliad</i>, was, till about 540 B.C., a chaos of lays of all ages, + variously known in various <i>répertoires</i> of the rhapsodists, and + patched up by the Pisistratean editor, then of two things one—either + Mr. Leaf abides by his enthusiastic belief in the excellency of the + composition, or he does not. If he does still believe that the composition + of the <i>Odyssey</i> is a masterpiece, then the Pisistratean editor was a + great master of construction. If he now, on the other hand, agrees with + Wilamowitz Möllendorff that the <i>Odyssey</i> is cobbler's work, then his + literary opinions are unstable. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI + </h2> + <h3> + HOMER AND THE FRENCH MEDIAEVAL EPICS + </h3> + <p> + Sir Richard Jebb remarks, with truth, that "before any definite solution + of the Homeric problem could derive scientific support from such + analogies" (with epics of other peoples), "it would be necessary to show + that the particular conditions under which the Homeric poems appear in + early Greece had been reproduced with sufficient closeness elsewhere." + {Footnote: Homer, pp. 131, 132.} Now we can show that the particular + conditions under which the Homeric poems confessedly arose were + "reproduced with sufficient closeness elsewhere," except that no really + great poet was elsewhere present. + </p> + <p> + This occurred among the Germanic aristocracy, "the Franks of France," in + the eleventh, twelfth, and early thirteenth centuries of our era. The + closeness of the whole parallel, allowing for the admitted absence in + France of a very great and truly artistic poet, is astonishing. + </p> + <p> + We have first, in France, answering to the Achaean aristocracy, the + Frankish noblesse of warriors dwelling in princely courts and strong + castles, dominating an older population, owing a practically doubtful + fealty to an Over-Lord, the King, passing their days in the chace, in + private war, or in revolt against the Over-Lord, and, for all literary + entertainment, depending on the recitations of epic poems by <i>jongleurs</i>, + who in some cases are of gentle birth, and are the authors of the poems + which they recite. + </p> + <p> + "This national poetry," says M. Gaston Paris, "was born and mainly + developed among the warlike class, princes, lords, and their courts.... At + first, no doubt, some of these men of the sword themselves composed and + chanted lays" (like Achilles), "but soon there arose a special class of + poets ... They went from court to court, from castle ... Later, when the + townsfolk began to be interested in their chants, they sank a degree, and + took their stand in public open places ..." {Footnote: <i>Literature + Française au Moyen Age</i>, pp. 36, 37. 1898.} + </p> + <p> + In the <i>Iliad</i> we hear of no minstrels in camp: in the <i>Odyssey</i> + a prince has a minstrel among his retainers—Demodocus, at the court + of Phaeacia; Phemius, in the house of Odysseus. In Ionia, when princes had + passed away, rhapsodists recited for gain in marketplaces and at fairs. + The parallel with France is so far complete. + </p> + <p> + The French national epics, like those of the Achaeans, deal mainly with + legends of a long past legendary age. To the French authors the greatness + and the fortunes of the Emperor Charles and other heroic heads of great + Houses provide a theme. The topics of song are his wars, and the prowess + and the quarrels of his peers with the Emperor and among themselves. These + are seen magnified through a mist of legend; Saracens are substituted for + Gascon foes, and the great Charles, so nobly venerable a figure in the + oldest French epic (the <i>Chanson de Roland, circ.</i> 1050-1070 in its + earliest extant form), is more degraded, in the later epics, than + Agamemnon himself. The "machinery" of the gods in Homer is replaced by the + machinery of angels, but the machinery of dreams is in vogue, as in the + Iliad and <i>Odyssey</i>. The sources are traditional and legendary. + </p> + <p> + We know that brief early lays of Charles and other heroes had existed, and + they may have been familiar to the French epic poets, but they were not + merely patched into the epics. The form of verse is not ballad-like, but a + series of <i>laisses</i> of decasyllabic lines, each <i>laisse</i> + presenting one assonance, not rhyme. As time went on, rhyme and + Alexandrine lines were introduced, and the old epics were expanded, + altered, condensed, <i>remaniés</i>, with progressive changes in taste, + metre, language, manners, and ways of life. + </p> + <p> + Finally, an age of Cyclic poems began; authors took new characters, whom + they attached by false genealogies to the older heroes, and they chanted + the adventures of the sons of the former heroes, like the Cyclic poet who + sang of the son of Odysseus by Circe. All these conditions are undeniably + "true parallels" to "the conditions under which the Homeric poems + appeared." The only obvious point of difference vanishes if we admit, with + Sir Richard Jebb and M. Salomon Reinach, the possibility of the existence + of written texts in the Greece of the early iron age. + </p> + <p> + We do not mean texts prepared for a <i>reading</i> public. In France such + a public, demanding texts for reading, did not arise till the decadence of + the epic. The oldest French texts of their epics are small volumes, each + page containing some thirty lines in one column. Such volumes were carried + about by the <i>jongleurs</i>, who chanted their own or other men's + verses. They were not in the hands of readers. {Footnote: <i>Épopées + Françaises</i>, Léon Gautier, vol. i. pp. 226-228. 1878.} + </p> + <p> + An example of an author-reciter, Jendeus de Brie (he was the maker of the + first version of the <i>Bataille Loquifer</i>, twelfth century) is + instructive. Of Jendeus de Brie it is said that "he wrote the poem, kept + it very carefully, taught it to no man, made much gain out of it in Sicily + where he sojourned, and left it to his son when he died." Similar + statements are made in <i>Renaus de Montauban</i> (the existing late + version is of the thirteenth century) about Huon de Villeneuve, who would + not part with his poem for horses or furs, or for any price, and about + other poets. {Footnote: <i>Épopées Françaises, Léon Gautier</i>, vol. i. + p. 215, Note I.} + </p> + <p> + These early <i>jongleurs</i> were men of position and distinction; their + theme was the <i>gestes</i> of princes; they were not under the ban with + which the Church pursued vulgar strollers, men like the Greek rhapsodists. + Pindar's story that Homer wrote the <i>Cypria</i> {Footnote: <i>Pindari + Opera</i>, vol. iii. p. 654. Boeckh.} and gave the copy, as the dowry of + his daughter, to Stasinus who married her, could only have arisen in + Greece in circumstances exactly like those of Jendeus de Brie. Jendeus + lived on his poem by reciting it, and left it to his son when he died. The + story of Homer and Stasinus could only have been invented in an age when + the possession of the solitary text of a poem was a source of maintenance + to the poet. This condition of things could not exist, either when there + were no written texts or when such texts were multiplied to serve the + wants of a reading public. + </p> + <p> + Again, a poet in the fortunate position of Jendeus would not teach his + Epic in a "school" of reciters unless he were extremely well paid. In + later years, after his death, his poem came, through copies good or bad, + into circulation. + </p> + <p> + Late, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we hear of a "school" of + <i>jongleurs</i> at Beauvais. In Lent they might not ply their profession, + so they gathered at Beauvais, where they could learn <i>cantilenae</i>, + new lays. {Footnote: <i>Épopées Françaises</i>, Léon Gautier, vol. ii. pp. + 174, 175.} But by that time the epic was decadent and dying? + </p> + <p> + The audiences of the <i>jongleurs</i>, too, were no longer, by that time, + what they had been. The rich and great, now, had library copies of the + epics; not small <i>jongleurs'</i> copies, but folios, richly illuminated + and bound, with two or three columns of matter on each page. {Footnote: + Ibid., vol. i. p. 228. See, too, photographs of an illuminated, + double-columned library copy in <i>La Chancun de Willame</i>., London, + 1903.} + </p> + <p> + The age of recitations from a text in princely halls was ending or ended; + the age of a reading public was begun. The earlier condition of the <i>jongleur</i> + who was his own poet, and carefully guarded his copyright in spite of all + temptations to permit the copying of his MS., is regarded by Sir Richard + Jebb as quite a possible feature of early Greece. He thinks that there was + "no wide circulation of writings by numerous copies for a reading public" + before the end of the fifth century B.C. As Greek mercenaries could write, + and write well, in the seventh to sixth centuries, I incline to think that + there may then, and earlier, have been a reading public. However, long + before that a man might commit his poems to writing. "Wolf allows that + some men did, as early at least as 776 B.C. The verses might never be read + by anybody except himself" (the author) "or those to whom he privately + bequeathed them" (as Jendeus de Brie bequeathed his poem to his son), "but + his end would have been gained." {Footnote: <i>Homer</i>, p. 113.} + </p> + <p> + Recent discoveries as to the very early date of linear non-Phoenician + writing in Crete of course increase the probability of this opinion, which + is corroborated by the story of the <i>Cypria</i>, given as a dowry with + the author's daughter. Thus "the particular conditions under which the + Homeric poems appeared" "been reproduced with sufficient closeness" in + every respect, with surprising closeness, in the France of the eleventh to + thirteenth centuries. The social conditions are the same; the legendary + materials are of identical character; the method of publication by + recitation is identical; the cyclic decadence occurs in both cases, the <i>monomanie + cyclique</i>. In the Greece of Homer we have the four necessary conditions + of the epic, as found by M. Léon Gautier in mediaeval France. We have:— + </p> + <p> + (1) An uncritical age confusing history by legend. + </p> + <p> + (2) We have a national <i>milieu</i> with religious uniformity. + </p> + <p> + (3) We have poems dealing with— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Old unhappy far-off things + And battles long ago." +</pre> + <p> + (4) We have representative heroes, the Over-Lord, and his peers or + paladins. {Footnote: <i>Épopées Françaises</i>, Léon Gautier, vol. i. pp. + 6-9} + </p> + <p> + It may be added that in Greece, as in France, some poets adapt into the + adventures of their heroes world-old <i>Märchen</i>, as in the Odyssey, + and in the cycle of the parents of Charles. + </p> + <p> + In the French, as in the Greek epics, we have such early traits of poetry + as the textual repetition of speeches, and the recurring epithets, + "swift-footed Achilles," "Charles of the white beard," "blameless heroes" + (however blamable). Ladies, however old, are always "of the clear face." + Thus the technical manners of the French and Greek epics are closely + parallel; they only differ in the exquisite art of Homer, to which no + approach is made by the French poets. + </p> + <p> + The French authors of epic, even more than Homer, abound in episodes much + more distracting than those of the <i>Iliad</i>. Of blood and wounds, of + course, both the French and the Greek are profuse: they were writing for + men of the sword, not for modern critics. Indeed, the battle pieces of + France almost translate those of Homer. The Achaean "does on his goodly + corslet"; the French knight "<i>sur ses espalles son halberc li colad</i>." + The Achaean, with his great sword, shears off an arm at the shoulder. The + French knight— + </p> + <p> + "<i>Trenchad le braz, Parmi leschine sun grant espee li passe</i>." + </p> + <p> + The huge shield of Aias becomes <i>cele grant targe duble</i> in France, + and the warriors boast over their slain in France, as in the <i>Iliad</i>. + In France, as in Greece, a favourite epic theme was "The Wrath" of a hero, + of Achilles, of Roland, of Ganelon, of Odysseus and Achilles wrangling at + a feast to the joy of Agamemnon, "glad that the bravest of his peers were + at strife." {Footnote: Odyssey, VIII. 75-7s {sic}.} + </p> + <p> + Of all the many parallels between the Greek and French epics, the most + extraordinary is the coincidence between Charles with his peers and + Agamemnon with his princes. The same historical conditions occurred, at an + interval of more than two thousand years. Agamemnon is the Bretwalda, the + Over-Lord, as Mr. Freeman used to say, of the Achaeans: he is the + suzerain. Charles in the French epics holds the same position, but the + French poets regard him in different lights. In the earliest epic, the <i>Chanson</i> + de Roland, a divinity doth hedge the famous Emperor, whom Jeanne d'Arc + styled "St. Charlemagne." He was, in fact, a man of thirty-seven at the + date of the disaster of Roncesvaux, where Roland fell (778 A.D.). But in + the tradition that has reached the poet of the <i>chanson</i> he is a + white-bearded warrior, as vigorous as he is venerable. As he rules by + advice of his council, he bids them deliberate on the proposals of the + Paynim King, Marsile—to accept or refuse them. Roland, the + counterpart of Achilles in all respects (Oliver is his Patroclus), is for + refusing: Ganelon appears to have the rest with him when he speaks in + favour of peace and return to France out of Spain. So, in the <i>Iliad</i> + (II.), the Achaeans lend a ready ear to Agamemnon when he proposes the + abandonment of the siege of Troy. Each host, French and Achaean, is + heartily homesick. + </p> + <p> + Ganelon's advice prevailing, it is necessary to send an envoy to the + Saracen court. It is a dangerous mission; other envoys have been sent and + been murdered. The Peers, however, volunteer, beginning with the aged + Naismes, the Nestor of the Franks. His offer is not accepted, nor are + those of Oliver, Roland, and Turpin. Roland then proposes that Ganelon + shall be sent; and hence arises the Wrath of Ganelon, which was the ruin + of Roland and the peers who stood by him. The warriors attack each other + in speeches of Homeric fury. Charles preserves his dignity, and Ganelon + departs on his mission. He deliberately sells himself, and seals the fate + of the peers whom he detests: the surprise of the rearguard under Roland, + the deadly battle, and the revenge of Charles make up the rest of the + poem. Not even in victory is Charles allowed repose; the trumpet again + summons him to war. He is of those whom Heaven has called to endless + combat— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Their whole lives long to be winding + Skeins of grievous wars, till every soul of them perish," +</pre> + <p> + in the words of Diomede. + </p> + <p> + Such is the picture of the imperial Charles in one of the oldest of the + French epics. The heart of the poet is with the aged, but unbroken and + truly imperial, figure of St. Charlemagne—wise, just, and brave, a + true "shepherd of the people," regarded as the conqueror of all the known + kingdoms of the world. He is, among his fierce paladins, like "the + conscience of a knight among his warring members." "The greatness of + Charlemagne has entered even into his name;" but as time went on and the + feudal princes began the long struggle against the French king, the poets + gratified their patrons by degrading the character of the Emperor. They + created a second type of Charles, and it is the second type that on the + whole most resembles the Agamemnon of the <i>Iliad.</i> + </p> + <p> + We ask why the widely ruling lord of golden Mycenae is so skilfully and + persistently represented as respectable, indeed, by reason of his office, + but detestable, on the whole, in character? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The answer is that just as the second type of Charles is the result of +feudal jealousies of the king, so the character of Agamemnon reflects +the princely hatreds of what we may call the feudal age of Greece. The +masterly portrait of Agamemnon could only have been designed to win +the sympathies of feudal listeners, princes with an Over-Lord whom they +cannot repudiate, for whose office they have a traditional reverence, +but whose power they submit to with no good will, and whose person and +character some of them can barely tolerate. + + {blank space} <i>an historical unity.</i> The poem deals with +what may be called a feudal society, and the attitudes of the Achaean +Bretwalda and of his peers are, from beginning to end of the <i>Iliad</i> and +in every Book of it, those of the peers and king in the later <i>Chansons +de Geste</i>. +</pre> + <p> + Returning to the decadent Charles of the French epics, we lay no stress on + the story of his incest with his sister, Gilain, "whence sprang Roland." + The House of Thyestes, whence Agamemnon sprang, is marked by even blacker + legends. The scandal is mythical, like the same scandal about the King + Arthur, who in romance is so much inferior to his knights, a reflection of + feudal jealousies and hatreds. In places the reproaches hurled by the + peers at Charles read like paraphrases of those which the Achaean princes + cast at Agamemnon. Even Naismes, the Nestor of the French epics, cries: + "It is for you that we have left our lands and fiefs, our fair wives and + our children ... But, by the Apostle to whom they pray in Rome, were it + not that we should be guilty before God we would go back to sweet France, + and thin would be your host." {Footnote: <i>Chevalerie Ogier</i>, + 1510-1529. <i>Épopées Françaises</i>, Léon Gautier, vol. iii. pp. + 156-157.} In the lines quoted we seem to hear the voice of the angered + Achilles: "We came not hither in our own quarrel, thou shameless one, but + to please thee! But now go I back to Phthia with my ships—the better + part." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, I. 158-169.} + </p> + <p> + Agamemnon answers that Zeus is on his side, just as even the angry Naismes + admits that duty to God demands obedience to Charles. There cannot be + parallels more close and true than these, between poems born at a distance + from each other of more than two thousand years, but born in similar + historical conditions. + </p> + <p> + In Guide <i>Bourgogne,</i> a poem of the twelfth century, Ogier cries, + "They say that Charlemagne is the conqueror of kingdoms: they lie, it is + Roland who conquers them with Oliver, Naismes of the long beard, and + myself. As to Charles, he eats." Compare Achilles to Agamemnon, "Thou, + heavy with wine, with dog's eyes and heart of deer, never hast thou dared + to arm thee for war with the host ..." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, I. 227, + 228. <i>Gui de Bourgogne</i>, pp. 37-41.} It is Achilles or Roland who + stakes his life in war and captures cities; it is Agamemnon or Charles who + camps by the wine. Charles, in the <i>Chanson de Saisnes</i>, abases + himself before Herapois, even more abjectly than Agamemnon in his offer of + atonement to Achilles. {Footnote: <i>Épopées Françaises</i>, Léon Gautier, + vol. iii. p. 158.} Charles is as arrogant as Agamemnon: he strikes Roland + with his glove, for an uncommanded victory, and then he loses heart and + weeps as copiously as the penitent Agamemnon often does when he rues his + arrogance. {Footnote: <i>Entrée en Espagne</i>.} + </p> + <p> + The poet of the <i>Iliad</i> is a great and sober artist. He does not make + Agamemnon endure the lowest disgraces which the latest French epic poets + heap on Charles. But we see how close is the parallel between Agamemnon + and the Charles of the decadent type. Both characters are reflections of + feudal jealousy of the Over-Lord; both reflect real antique historical + conditions, and these were the conditions of the Achaeans in Europe, not + of the Ionians in Asia. + </p> + <p> + The treatment of Agamemnon's character is harmonious throughout. It is not + as if in "the original poem" Agamemnon were revered like St. Charlemagne + in the <i>Chanson de Roland</i>, and in the "later" parts of the <i>Iliad</i> + were reduced to the contemptible estate of the Charles of the decadent <i>Chanson + de Geste</i>. In the <i>Iliad</i> Agamemnon's character is consistently + presented from beginning to end, presented, I think, as it could only be + by a great poet of the feudal Achaean society in Europe. The Ionians—"democratic + to the core," says Mr. Leaf—would either have taken no interest in + the figure of the Over-Lord, or would have utterly degraded him below the + level of the Charles of the latest <i>Chansons</i>. Or the late + rhapsodists, in their irresponsible lays, would have presented a wavering + and worthless portrait. + </p> + <p> + The conditions under which the <i>Chansons</i> arose were truly parallel + to the conditions under which the Homeric poems arose, and the poems, + French and Achaean, are also true parallels, except in genius. The French + have no Homer: <i>cared vate sacro</i>. It follows that a Homer was + necessary to the evolution of the Greek epics. + </p> + <p> + It may, perhaps, be replied to this argument that our <i>Iliad</i> is only + a very late <i>remaniement</i>, like the fourteenth century <i>Chansons de + Geste</i>, of something much earlier and nobler. But in France, in the age + of <i>remaniement</i>, even the versification had changed from assonance + to rhyme, from the decasyllabic line to the Alexandrine in the decadence, + while a plentiful lack of seriousness and a love of purely fanciful + adventures in fairyland take the place of the austere spirit of war. + Ladies "in a coming on humour" abound, and Charles is involved with his + Paladins in <i>gauloiseries</i> of a Rabelaisian cast. The French language + has become a new thing through and through, and manners and weapons are of + a new sort; but the high seriousness of the <i>Iliad</i> is maintained + throughout, except in the burlesque battle of the gods: the versification + is the stately hexameter, linguistic alterations are present, extant, but + inconspicuous. That the armour and weapons are uniform in character + throughout we have tried to prove, while the state of society and of + religion is certainly throughout harmonious. Our parallel, then, between + the French and the Greek national epics appears as perfect as such a thing + can be, surprisingly perfect, while the great point of difference in + degree of art is accounted for by the existence of an Achaean poet of + supreme genius. Not such, certainly, were the composers of the Cyclic + poems, men contemporary with the supposed later poets of the <i>Iliad</i>. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_CONC" id="link2H_CONC"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONCLUSION + </h2> + <p> + The conclusion at which we arrive is that the <i>Iliad</i>, as a whole, is + the work of one age. That it has reached us without interpolations and <i>lacunae</i> + and <i>remaniements</i> perhaps no person of ordinary sense will allege. + But that the mass of the Epic is of one age appears to be a natural + inference from the breakdown of the hypotheses which attempt to explain it + as a late mosaic. We have also endeavoured to prove, quite apart from the + failure of theories of expansion and compilation, that the <i>Iliad</i> + presents an historical unity, unity of character, unity of customary law, + and unity in its archaeology. If we are right, we must have an opinion as + to how the Epic was preserved. + </p> + <p> + If we had evidence for an Homeric school, we might imagine that the Epic + was composed by dint of memory, and preserved, like the Sanskrit Hymns of + the Rig Veda, and the Hymns of the Maoris, the Zuñis, and other peoples in + the lower or middle stage of barbarism, by the exertions and teaching of + schools. But religious hymns and mythical hymns—the care of a + priesthood—are one thing; a great secular epic is another. Priests + will not devote themselves from age to age to its conservation. It cannot + be conserved, with its unity of tone and character, and, on the whole, + even of language, by generations of paid strollers, who recite new lays of + their own, as well as any old lays that they may remember, which they + alter at pleasure. + </p> + <p> + We are thus driven back to the theory of early written texts, not intended + to meet the wants of a reading public, but for the use of the poet himself + and of those to whom he may bequeath his work. That this has been a method + in which orally published epics were composed and preserved in a + non-reading age we have proved in our chapter on the French Chansons <i>de + Geste</i>. Unhappily, the argument that what was done in mediaeval France + might be done in sub-Mycenaean Greece, is based on probabilities, and + these are differently estimated by critics of different schools. All seems + to depend on each individual's sense of what is "likely." In that case + science has nothing to make in the matter. Nitzsche thought that writing + might go back to the time of Homer. Mr. Monro thought it "probable enough + that writing, even if known at the time of Homer, was not used for + literary purposes." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. xxxv.} Sir Richard + Jebb, as we saw, took a much more favourable view of the probability of + early written texts. M. Salomon Reinach, arguing from the linear written + clay tablets of Knossos and from a Knossian cup with writing on it in ink, + thinks that there may have existed whole "Minoan" libraries—manuscripts + executed on perishable materials, palm leaves, papyrus, or parchment. + {Footnote: <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, vol. xv, pp. 292, 293.} Mr. Leaf, while + admitting that "writing was known in some form through the whole period of + epic development," holds that "it is in the highest degree unlikely that + it was ever employed to form a standard text of the Epic or any portion of + it.... At best there was a continuous tradition of those portions of the + poems which were especially popular ..." {Footnote: <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. + pp. xvi., xvii.} Father Browne dates the employment of writing for the + preservation of the Epic "from the sixth century onwards." {Footnote: <i>Handbook + of Homeric Study</i>, p. 134.} He also says that "it is difficult to + suppose that the Mycenaeans, who were certainly in contact with this form + of writing" (the Cretan linear), "should not have used it much more freely + than our direct evidence warrants us in asserting." He then mentions the + Knossian cup "with writing inscribed on it apparently in pen and ink ... + The conclusion is that ordinary writing was in use, but that the + materials, probably palm leaves, have disappeared." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., + pp. 258, 259.} + </p> + <p> + Why it should be unlikely that a people confessedly familiar with writing + used it for the preservation of literature, when we know that even the Red + Indians preserve their songs by means of pictographs, while West African + tribes use incised characters, is certainly not obvious. Many sorts of + prae-Phoenician writing were current during the Mycenaean age in Asia, + Egypt, Assyria, and in Cyprus. As these other peoples used writing of + their own sort for literary purposes, it is not easy to see why the + Cretans, for example, should not have done the same thing. Indeed, Father + Browne supposes that the Mycenaeans used "ordinary writing," and used it + freely. Nevertheless, the Epic was not written, he says, till the sixth + century B.C. Cauer, indeed, remarks that "the Finnish epic" existed + unwritten till Lbnnrot, its Pisistratus, first collected it from oral + recitation. {Footnote: <i>Grundfragen der Homerkritik</i>, p. 94.} But + there is not, and never was, any "Finnish epic." There were cosmogonic + songs, as among the Maoris and Zuñis—songs of the beginnings of + things; there were magical songs, songs of weddings, a song based on the + same popular tale that underlies the legend of the Argonauts. There were + songs of the Culture Hero, songs of burial and feast, and of labour. + Lönnrot collected these, and tried by interpolations to make an epic out + of them; but the point, as Comparetti has proved, is that he failed. There + is no Finnish epic, only a mass of <i>Volkslieder.</i> Cauer's other + argument, that the German popular tales, Grimm's tales, were unwritten + till 1812, is as remote from the point at issue. Nothing can be less like + an epic than a volume of <i>Märchen.</i> + </p> + <p> + As usual we are driven back upon a literary judgment. Is the <i>Iliad</i> + a patchwork of metrical <i>Märchen</i> or is it an epic nobly constructed? + If it is the former, writing was not needed; if it is the latter, in the + absence of Homeric guilds or colleges, only writing can account for its + preservation. + </p> + <p> + It is impossible to argue against a critic's subjective sense of what is + likely. Possibly that sense is born of the feeling that the Cretan linear + script, for example, or the Cyprian syllabary, looks very odd and + outlandish. The critic's imagination boggles at the idea of an epic + written in such scripts. In that case his is not the scientific + imagination; he is checked merely by the unfamiliar. Or his sense of + unlikelihood may be a subconscious survival of Wolf's opinion, formed by + him at a time when the existence of the many scripts of the old world was + unknown. + </p> + <p> + Our own sense of probability leads us to the conclusion that, in an age + when people could write, people wrote down the Epic. If they applied their + art to literature, then the preservation of the Epic is explained. Written + first in a prae-Phoenician script, it continued to be written in the Greek + adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet. There was not yet, probably, a + reading public, but there were a few clerkly men. + </p> + <p> + That the Cretans, at least, could write long before the age of Homer, Mr. + Arthur Evans has demonstrated by his discoveries. Prom my remote + undergraduate days I was of the opinion which he has proved to be correct, + starting, like him, from what I knew about savage pictographs. {Footnote: + Cretan <i>Pictographs</i> and <i>Prae-Phoenician</i> Script. London, 1905. + Annual of British <i>School</i> of Athens, 1900-1901, p. 10. Journal of <i>Hellenic + Studies,</i> 1897, pp. 327-395.} + </p> + <p> + M. Reinach and Mr. Evans have pointed out that in this matter tradition + joins hands with discovery. Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the Cretan Zeus + and probably on Cretan authority, says: "As to those who hold that the + Syrians invented letters, from whom the Phoenicians received them and + handed them on to the Greeks, ... and that for this reason the Greeks call + letters 'Phoenician,' some reply that the Phoenicians did not {blank + space} letters, but merely modified (transposed 3) the forms of the + letters, and that most men use this form of script, and thus letters came + to be styled 'Phoenician.'" {Footnote: Diodorus Siculus, v. 74. <i>L'Anthropologie,</i> + vol. xi. pp. 497-502.} In fact, the alphabet is a collection of signs of + palaeolithic antiquity and of vast diffusion. {Footnote: Origins of the + Alphabet. A. L. Fortnightly Review, 1904, pp. 634-645} + </p> + <p> + Thus the use of writing for the conservation of the Epic cannot seem to me + to be unlikely, but rather probable; and here one must leave the question, + as the subjective element plays so great a part in every man's sense of + what is likely or unlikely. That writing cannot have been used for this + literary purpose, that the thing is impossible, nobody will now assert. + </p> + <p> + My supposition is, then, that the text of the Epic existed in AEgean + script till Greece adapted to her own tongue the "Phoenician letters," + which I think she did not later than the ninth to eighth centuries; "at + the beginning of the ninth century," says Professor Bury. {Footnote: <i>History + of Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 78. 1902.} This may seem an audaciously early + date, but when we find vases of the eighth to seventh centuries bearing + inscriptions, we may infer that a knowledge of reading and writing was + reasonably common. When such a humble class of hirelings or slaves as the + pot-painters can sign their work, expecting their signatures to be read, + reading and writing must be very common accomplishments among the more + fortunate classes. + </p> + <p> + If Mr. Gardner is right in dating a number of incised inscriptions on + early pottery at Naucratis before the middle of the seventh century, we + reach the same conclusion. In fact, if these inscriptions be of a century + earlier than the Abu Simbel inscriptions, of date 590 B.C., we reach 690 + B.C. Wherefore, as writing does not become common in a moment, it must + have existed in the eighth century B.C. We are not dealing here with a + special learned class, but with ordinary persons who could write. + {Footnote: <i>The Early Ionic Alphabet: Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, + vol. vii. pp. 220-239. Roberts, <i>Introduction to Greek Epigraphy</i>, + pp. 31, 151, 159, 164, 165-167} + </p> + <p> + Interesting for our purpose is the verse incised on a Dipylon vase, found + at Athens in 1880. It is of an ordinary cream-jug shape, with a neck, a + handle, a spout, and a round belly. On the neck, within a zigzag + "geometrical" pattern, is a doe, feeding, and a tall water-fowl. On the + shoulder is scratched with a point, in very antique Attic characters + running from right to left, {Greek: os nun orchaeston panton hatalotata + pais ei, tou tode}. "This is the jug of him who is the most delicately + sportive of all dancers of our time." The jug is attributed to the eighth + century. {Footnote: Walters, <i>History of Ancient Pottery</i>, vol. ii. + p, 243; Kretschmer, <i>Griechischen Vasen inschriften</i>, p. 110, 1894, + of the seventh century. H. von Rohden, <i>Denkmaler</i>, iii. pp. 1945, + 1946: "Probably dating from the seventh century." Roberts, op. cit., vol. + i. p. 74, "at least as far back as the seventh century," p. 75.} + </p> + <p> + Taking the vase, with Mr. Walters, as of the eighth century, I do not + suppose that the amateur who gave it to a dancer and scratched the + hexameter was of a later generation than the jug itself. The vase may have + cost him sixpence: he would give his friend a <i>new</i> vase; it is + improbable that old jugs were sold at curiosity shops in these days, and + given by amateurs to artists. The inscription proves that, in the eighth + to seventh centuries, at a time of very archaic characters (the Alpha is + lying down on its side, the aspirate is an oblong with closed ends and a + stroke across the middle, and the Iota is curved at each end), people + could write with ease, and would put verse into writing. The general + accomplishment of reading is taken for granted. + </p> + <p> + Reading is also taken for granted by the Gortyn (Cretan) inscription of + twelve columns long, <i>boustro-phedon</i> (running alternately from left + to right, and from right to left). In this inscribed code of laws, incised + on stone, money is not mentioned in the more ancient part, but fines and + prices are calculated in "chalders" and "bolls" ({Greek: lebaetes} and + {Greek: tripodes}), as in Scotland when coin was scarce indeed. Whether + the law contemplated the value of the vessels themselves, or, as in + Scotland, of their contents in grain, I know not. The later inscriptions + deal with coined money. If coin came in about 650 B.C., the older parts of + the inscription may easily be of 700 B.C. + </p> + <p> + The Gortyn inscription implies the power of writing out a long code of + laws, and it implies that persons about to go to law could read the public + inscription, as we can read a proclamation posted up on a wall, or could + have it read to them. {Footnote: Roberts, vol. i. pp. 52-55.} + </p> + <p> + The alphabets inscribed on vases of the seventh century (Abecedaria), with + "the archaic Greek forms of every one of the twenty-two Phoenician letters + arranged precisely in the received Semitic order," were, one supposes, + gifts for boys and girls who were learning to read, just like our English + alphabets on gingerbread. {Footnote: For Abecedaria, cf. Roberts, vol. i. + pp. 16-21.} + </p> + <p> + Among inscriptions on tombstones of the end of the seventh century, there + is the epitaph of a daughter of a potter. {Footnote: Roberts, vol. i. p. + 76.} These writings testify to the general knowledge of reading, just as + much as our epitaphs testify to the same state of education. The Athenian + potter's daughter of the seventh century B.C. had her epitaph, but the + grave-stones of highlanders, chiefs or commoners, were usually uninscribed + till about the end of the eighteenth century, in deference to custom, + itself arising from the illiteracy of the highlanders in times past. + {Footnote: Ramsay, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen</i>, ii. p. 426. 1888.} I find + no difficulty, therefore, in supposing that there were some Greek readers + and writers in the eighth century, and that primary education was common + in the seventh. In these circumstances my sense of the probable is not + revolted by the idea of a written epic, in {blank space} characters, even + in the eighth century, but the notion that there was no such thing till + the middle of the sixth century seems highly improbable. All the + conditions were present which make for the composition and preservation of + literary works in written texts. That there were many early written copies + of Homer in the eighth century I am not inclined to believe. The Greeks + were early a people who could read, but were not a reading people. Setting + newspapers aside, there is no such thing as a reading <i>people</i>. + </p> + <p> + The Greeks preferred to listen to recitations, but my hypothesis is that + the rhapsodists who recited had texts, like the <i>jongleurs</i>' books of + their epics in France, and that they occasionally, for definite purposes, + interpolated matter into their texts. There were also texts, known in + later times as "city texts" ({Greek: ai kata poleis}), which Aristarchus + knew, but he did not adopt the various readings. {Footnote: Monro, + Odyssey, vol. ii. p, 435.} + </p> + <p> + Athens had a text in Solon's time, if he entered the decree that the whole + Epic should be recited in due order, every five years, at the Panathenaic + festival. {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. ii. p. 395.} "This implies the + possession of a complete text." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., vol. ii. p. 403.} + </p> + <p> + Cauer remarks that the possibility of "interpolation" "began only after + the fixing of the text by Pisistratus." {Footnote: <i>Grundfragen</i>, p. + 205.} But surely if every poet and reciter could thrust any new lines + which he chose to make into any old lays which he happened to know, that + was interpolation, whether he had a book of the words or had none. Such + interpolations would fill the orally recited lays which the supposed + Pisistratean editor must have written down from recitation before he began + his colossal task of making the <i>Iliad</i> out of them. If, on the other + hand, reciters had books of the words, they could interpolate at pleasure + into <i>them</i>, and such books may have been among the materials used in + the construction of a text for the Athenian book market. But if our theory + be right, there must always have been a few copies of better texts than + those of the late reciters' books, and the effort of the editors for the + book market would be to keep the parts in which most manuscripts were + agreed. + </p> + <p> + But how did Athens, or any other city, come to possess a text? One can + only conjecture; but my conjecture is that there had always been texts—copied + out in successive generations—in the hands of the curious; for + example, in the hands of the Cyclic poets, who knew our <i>Iliad</i> as + the late French Cyclic poets knew the earlier <i>Chansons de Geste</i>. + They certainly knew it, for they avoided interference with it; they worked + at epics which led up to it, as in the <i>Cypria;</i> they borrowed <i>motifs</i> + from hints and references in the <i>Iliad</i>, {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, + vol. ii. pp. 350, 351.} and they carried on the story from the death of + Hector, in the <i>AEthiopis</i> of Arctinus of Miletus. This epic ended + with the death of Achilles, when <i>The Little Iliad</i> produced the tale + to the bringing in of the wooden horse. Arctinus goes on with his <i>Sack</i> + of <i>Ilios</i>, others wrote of <i>The Return</i> of <i>the Heroes,</i> + and the <i>Telegonia</i> is a sequel to the Odyssey. The authors of these + poems knew the <i>Iliad</i>, then, as a whole, and how could they have + known it thus if it only existed in the casual <i>repertoire</i> of + strolling reciters? The Cyclic poets more probably had texts of Homer, and + themselves wrote their own poems—how it paid, whether they recited + them and collected rewards or not, is, of course, unknown. + </p> + <p> + The Cyclic poems, to quote Sir Richard Jebb, "help to fix the lowest limit + for the age of the Homeric poems. {Footnote: <i>Homer</i>, pp. 151, 154.} + The earliest Cyclic poems, dating from about 776 B.C., presuppose the <i>Iliad</i>, + being planned to introduce or continue it.... It would appear, then, that + the <i>Iliad</i> must have existed in something like its present compass + as early as 800 B.C.; indeed a considerably earlier date will seem + probable, if due time is allowed for the poem to have grown into such fame + as would incite the effort to continue it and to prelude to it." + </p> + <p> + Sir Richard then takes the point on which we have already insisted, + namely, that the Cyclic poets of the eighth century B.C. live in an age of + ideas, religions, ritual, and so forth which are absent from the <i>Iliad</i> + {Footnote: Homer, pp. 154, 155.} + </p> + <p> + Thus the <i>Iliad</i> existed with its characteristics that are prior to + 800 B.C., and in its present compass, and was renowned before 800 B.C. As + it could not possibly have thus existed in the <i>repertoire</i> of + irresponsible strolling minstrels and reciters, and as there is no + evidence for a college, school, or guild which preserved the Epic by a + system of mnemonic teaching, while no one can deny at least the + possibility of written texts, we are driven to the hypothesis that written + texts there were, whence descended, for example, the text of Athens. + </p> + <p> + We can scarcely suppose, however, that such texts were perfect in all + respects, for we know how, several centuries later, in a reading age, + papyrus fragments of the <i>Iliad</i> display unwarrantable interpolation. + {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. pp. 422-426.} But Plato's + frequent quotations, of course made at an earlier date, show that + "whatever interpolated texts of Homer were then current, the copy from + which Plato quoted was not one of them." {Footnote: <i>Ibid</i>., p. 429} + Plato had something much better. + </p> + <p> + When a reading public for Homer arose—and, from the evidences of the + widespread early knowledge of reading, such a small public may have come + into existence sooner than is commonly supposed—Athens was the + centre of the book trade. To Athens must be due the prae-Alexandrian + Vulgate, or prevalent text, practically the same as our own. Some person + or persons must have made that text—not by taking down from + recitation all the lays which they could collect, as Herd, Scott, Mrs. + Brown, and others collected much of the <i>Border Minstrelsy</i>, and not + by then tacking the lays into a newly-composed whole. They must have done + their best with such texts as were accessible to them, and among these + were probably the copies used by reciters and rhapsodists, answering to + the MS. books of the mediaeval <i>jongleurs.</i> + </p> + <p> + Mr. Jevons has justly and acutely remarked that "we do not know, and there + is no external evidence of any description which leads us to suppose, that + the <i>Iliad</i> was ever expanded" (<i>J. H. S</i>, vii. 291-308). + </p> + <p> + That it was expanded is a mere hypothesis based on the idea that "if there + was an <i>Iliad</i> at all in the ninth century, its length must have been + such as was compatible with the conditions of an oral delivery,"—"a + poem or poems short enough to be recited at a single sitting." + </p> + <p> + But we have proved, with Mr. Jevons and Blass, and by the analogy of the + Chansons that, given a court audience (and a court audience is granted), + there were no such narrow limits imposed on the length of a poem orally + recited from night to night. + </p> + <p> + The length of the <i>Iliad</i> yields, therefore, no argument for + expansions throughout several centuries. That theory, suggested by the + notion that the original poem <i>MUST</i> have been short, is next + supposed to be warranted by the inconsistencies and discrepancies. But we + argue that these are only visible, as a rule, to "the analytical reader," + for whom the poet certainly was not composing; that they occur in all long + works of fictitious narrative; that the discrepancies often are not + discrepancies; and, finally, that they are not nearly so glaring as the + inconsistencies in the theories of each separatist critic. A theory, in + such matter as this, is itself an explanatory myth, or the plot of a story + which the critic invents to account for the facts in the case. These + critical plots, we have shown, do not account for the facts of the case, + for the critics do not excel in constructing plots. They wander into + unperceived self-contradictions which they would not pardon in the poet. + These contradictions are visible to "the analytical reader," who concludes + that a very early poet may have been, though Homer seldom is, as + inconsistent as a modern critic. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, though we have no external evidence that the <i>Iliad</i> was + ever expanded—that it was expanded is an explanatory myth of the + critics—"we do know, on good evidence," says Mr. Jevons, "that the + <i>Iliad</i> was rhapsodised." The rhapsodists were men, as a rule, of one + day recitations, though at a prolonged festival at Athens there was time + for the whole <i>Iliad</i> to be recited. "They chose for recitation such + incidents as could be readily detached, were interesting in themselves, + and did not take too long to recite." Mr. Jevons suggests that the many + brief poems collected in the Homeric hymns are invocations which the + rhapsodists preluded to their recitals. The practice seems to have been + for the rhapsodist first to pay his reverence to the god, "to begin from + the god," at whose festival the recitation was being given (the short + proems collected in the Hymns pay this reverence), "and then proceed with + his rhapsody"—with his selected passage from the <i>Iliad</i>, + "Beginning with thee" (the god of the festival), "I will go on to another + lay," that is, to his selection from the Epic. Another conclusion of the + proem often is, "I will be mindful both of thee and of another lay," + meaning, says Mr. Jevons, that "the local deity will figure in the + recitation from Homer which the rhapsodist is about to deliver." + </p> + <p> + These explanations, at all events, yield good sense. The invocation of + Athene (Hymns, XI., XXVIII.) would serve as the proem of invocation to the + recital of <i>Iliad</i>, V., VI. 1-311, the day of valour of Diomede, + spurred on by the wanton rebuke of Agamemnon, and aided by Athene. The + invocation of Hephaestus (Hymn XX.), would prelude to a recital of the <i>Making + of the Awns of Achilles</i>, and so on. + </p> + <p> + But the rhapsodist may be reciting at a festival of Dionysus, about whom + there is practically nothing said in the <i>Iliad</i>; for it is a proof + of the antiquity of the <i>Iliad</i> that, when it was composed, Dionysus + had not been raised to the Olympian peerage, being still a folk-god only. + The rhapsodist, at a feast of Dionysus in later times, has to introduce + the god into his recitation. The god is not in his text, but he adds him. + {Footnote:<i>Ibid</i>., VI. 130-141} + </p> + <p> + Why should any mortal have made this interpolation? Mr. Jevons's theory + supplies the answer. The rhapsodist added the passages to suit the + Dionysus feast, at which he was reciting. + </p> + <p> + The same explanation is offered for the long story of the <i>Birth</i> of + {blank space} which Agamemnon tells in his speech of apology and + reconciliation. {Footnote:<i>Ibid</i>., XIX. 136.} There is an invocation + to Heracles (Hymns, XV.), and the author may have added this speech to his + rhapsody of the Reconciliation, recited at a feast of Heracles. Perhaps + the remark of Mr. Leaf offers the real explanation of the presence of this + long story in the speech of Agamemnon: "Many speakers with a bad case take + refuge in telling stories." Agamemnon shows, says Mr. Leaf, "the peevish + nervousness of a man who feels that he has been in the wrong," and who + follows a frank speaker like Achilles, only eager for Agamemnon to give + the word to form and charge. So Agamemnon takes refuge in a long story, + throwing the blame of his conduct on Destiny. + </p> + <p> + We do not need, then, the theory of a rhapsodist's interpolation, but it + is quite plausible in itself. + </p> + <p> + Local heroes, as well as gods, had their feasts in post-Homeric times, and + a reciter at a feast of AEneas, or of his mother, Aphrodite, may have + foisted in the very futile discourse of Achilles and AEneas, {Footnote:<i>Ibid</i>., + XX. 213-250.} with its reference to Erichthonius, an Athenian hero. + </p> + <p> + In other cases the rhapsodist rounded off his selected passage by a few + lines, as in <i>Iliad</i>, XIII. 656-659, where a hero is brought to + follow his son's dead body to the grave, though the father had been killed + in <i>V. 576</i>. "It is really such a slip as is often made by authors + who write," says Mr. Leaf; and, in <i>Esmond</i>, Thackeray makes similar + errors. The passage in XVI. 69-80, about which so much is said, as if it + contradicted Book IX. (<i>The Embassy to Achilles</i>), is also, Mr. + Jevons thinks, to be explained as "inserted by a rhapsodist wishing to + make his extract complete in itself." Another example—the confusion + in the beginning of Book II.—we have already discussed (see Chapter + IV.), and do not think that any explanation is needed, when we understand + that Agamemnon, once wide-awake, had no confidence in his dream. However, + Mr. Jevons thinks that rhapsodists, anxious to recite straight on from the + dream to the battle, added II. 35-41, "the only lines which represent + Agamemnon as believing confidently in his dream." We have argued that he + only believed <i>till he awoke</i>, and then, as always, wavered. + </p> + <p> + Thus, in our way of looking at these things, interpolations by rhapsodists + are not often needed as explanations of difficulties. Still, granted that + the rhapsodists, like the <i>jongleurs</i>, had texts, and that these were + studied by the makers of the Vulgate, interpolations and errors might + creep in by this way. As to changes in language, "a poetical dialect... is + liable to be gradually modified by the influence of the ever-changing + colloquial speech. And, in the early times, when writing was little used, + this influence would be especially operative." {Footnote: Monro, <i>Odyssey</i>, + vol. ii. p. 461.} + </p> + <p> + To conclude, the hypothesis of a school of mnemonic teaching of the <i>Iliad</i> + would account for the preservation of so long a poem in an age destitute + of writing, when memory would be well cultivated. There may have been such + schools. We only lack evidence for their existence. But against the + hypothesis of the existence of early texts, there is nothing except the + feeling of some critics that it is not likely. "They are dangerous guides, + the feelings." + </p> + <p> + In any case the opinion that the <i>Iliad</i> was a whole, centuries + before Pisistratus, is the hypothesis which is by far the least fertile in + difficulties, and, consequently, in inconsistent solutions of the problems + which the theory of expansion first raises, and then, like an unskilled + magician, fails to lay. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Homer and His Age, by Andrew Lang + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMER AND HIS AGE *** + +***** This file should be named 7972-h.htm or 7972-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/7/7972/ + +Produced by David Moynihan, Lee Dawei, Miranda van de +Heijning, David Widger, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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