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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22a4a19 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65000 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65000) diff --git a/old/65000-0.txt b/old/65000-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7c75cee..0000000 --- a/old/65000-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9246 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Familiar Studies in Homer, by Agnes Mary -Clerke - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Familiar Studies in Homer - -Author: Agnes Mary Clerke - -Release Date: April 05, 2021 [eBook #65000] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Fay Dunn, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER *** - - - - - FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PRINTED BY - SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE - LONDON - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - _FAMILIAR STUDIES_ - - - IN - - - _HOMER_ - - - - BY - - AGNES M. CLERKE - - - - - - - ------- - - AB HOMERO OMNE PRINCIPIUM - - ------- - - - - - LONDON - _LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO._ - AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16^{th} STREET - 1892 - - - - All rights reserved - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFACE. - - -HOMERIC archæology has, within the last few years, finally left the -groove of purely academic discussion to advance along the new route laid -down for it by practical methods of investigation. The results are full -of present interest, and of future promise. They already imply a -reconstruction of the Hellenic past; they vitalise the Homeric world, -bringing it into definite relations with what went before, and with what -came after, and transforming it from a poetical creation into an -historical reality. Excavations and explorations in Greece, Egypt, and -Asia Minor, have thus entirely changed the aspect of the perennial -Homeric problem, and afford reasonable hope of providing it with a -satisfactory solution. - - -These remarkable, and promptly-gathered fruits of an experimental system -of inquiry deserve the attention, not of scholars alone, but of every -educated person; nevertheless, their value has as yet been realised by a -very limited class. The following chapters may then, it is hoped, -usefully serve to illustrate some of them for the benefit of the general -reading public, while making no pretension to discuss, formally or -exhaustively, the wide subject of Homeric antiquities. For the proper -discharge of that task, indeed, qualifications would be needed to which -the writer lays no claim. The object of the present little work will be -attained if it contribute to stir a wider interest in the topics it -discusses; above all, should it in any degree help to promote a -non-erudite study of the noble poetical monuments it is concerned with. -Greek enough to read the Iliad and Odyssey in the original can be -learned with comparative ease; and what trouble there may be in its -acquisition meets an ample reward in mental profit and enjoyment of a -high order. These ancient epics have a unique freshness about them; they -are still open founts of animating pleasure for all who choose to apply -to them; one cannot, then, but regret that so few have intellectual -energy to do so. - - -The author’s best thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan, and to Messrs. -Hodder and Stoughton, for their courteous permission to reprint the -chapters entitled ‘Homeric Astronomy,’ ‘Homer’s Magic Herbs,’ and ‘The -Dog in Homer,’ originally published in the pages of _Nature_, -_Macmillan’s Magazine_, and the _British Quarterly Review_ respectively. - - -In quoting illustrative passages from the Homeric poems, considerable -use has been made of the admirable prose version of the Iliad by Messrs. -Lang, Leaf, and Myers, and of the Odyssey by Messrs. Butcher and Lang. -With the object, however, of securing a certain variety of effect, -versified translations have also been resorted to, their authors being -duly specified in foot-notes. The citations of Helbig’s valuable work, -_Das Homerische Epos aus den Denkmälern erläutert_, refer to the second -enlarged edition published in 1887. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. HOMER AS A POET AND AS A PROBLEM 1 - - II. HOMERIC ASTRONOMY 30 - - III. THE DOG IN HOMER 58 - - IV. HOMERIC HORSES 84 - - V. HOMERIC ZOOLOGY 116 - - VI. TREES AND FLOWERS IN HOMER 150 - - VII. HOMERIC MEALS 176 - - VIII. HOMER’S MAGIC HERBS 207 - - IX. THE METALS IN HOMER 231 - - X. HOMERIC METALLURGY 258 - - XI. AMBER, IVORY, AND ULTRAMARINE 283 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - HOMER AS A POET AND AS A PROBLEM. - - -THE perennial youth of the Homeric poems is without a parallel in the -history of art. No other imaginative works have so nearly succeeded in -bidding defiance to the ‘tooth of time.’ Like the golden watch-dogs of -Alcinous, they seem destined to be ‘deathless and ageless all their -days.’ Nor is theirs the faded immortality of Tithonus—the bare -preservation of a material form emptied of the glow of vitality, and -grown out of harmony with its environment. Their survival is not even -that of an ‘Attic shape’ whose undeniable beauty has, in our eyes, -assumed somewhat of a recondite coldness, very different from the -loveliness of old, when connoisseurship was not needed for appreciation. -The Iliad and Odyssey are still auroral. They have the charm of an -‘unpremeditated lay,’ springing from the very source of our own life; -they appeal alike to rude sensibilities and to cultivated tastes; their -splendour and pathos, their powerful vitality, the strength and -swiftness of their numbers, require to be accentuated by no critical -notes of admiration; they strike of themselves the least tutored native -perception. These vigorous growths out of the deep soil of humanity have -not yet been transported from the open air of indiscriminate enjoyment -into the greenhouse of æstheticism; delight in them lays hold of any -schoolboy capable of reading them fluently in the original as naturally -as enthralment with ‘Cinderella’ or ‘Jack the Giant-Killer’ commands the -unreflecting nursery. For they combine, as no other primitive poetry -does, imaginative energy with sobriety of thought and diction. The _ne -quid nimis_ regulates all their scenes. They are simple without being -archaic, fervid without extravagance, fanciful, yet never grotesque. The -strict proprieties of classic form effectually restrain in them the -exuberance of romantic invention. Not that any such distinctions in the -mode of composition had then begun to be thought of. The poet was -unconsciously a ‘law unto himself.’ Indeed the very potency of his -creative faculty prescribed retrenchment and moderation; the images -conjured up by it with much of the plastic reality of sculpture -subjecting themselves spontaneously to the laws of sculpturesque -fitness. Clear-cut and firm of outline, they move in the transparent -ether of definite thought. Projected into the vaporous atmosphere of a -riotous fancy, they might show vaster, but they could hardly be equally -impressive. - -But these matchless productions are not merely the ‘wood-notes wild’ of -untrained inspiration. They imply a long course of free development -under favourable conditions. The vehicle of expression used in them -might alone well be the product of centuries of pre-literary culture. -Greek hexameter verse was by no means an obvious contrivance. It is an -exceedingly subtle structure, depending for its effect—nay, for its -existence—upon unvarying obedience to a complex set of metrical rules. -These could not have originated all at once, by the decree of some -poetical law-giver. They must have been arrived at more or less -tentatively by repeated experiments, the recognised success of which -led, in the slow course of time, to their general adoption. - -Moreover, the legendary materials of the Epics were not dug straight out -of the mine of popular fancy and tradition. They had doubtless been -elaborated and manipulated, before Homer took them in hand, by -generations of singers and reciters. The ‘tale of Troy divine’ was -already a full-leaved tree when he plucked from it and planted the -branches destined to flourish through the ages. His verses display or -betray acquaintance with many ‘other stories’ of public notoriety -besides those completely unfolded in them. The fate of Agamemnon, the -death of Achilles, the madness of Ajax, the advent of Neoptolemus, the -slaying of Memnon, son of the Morning, the ambush in the Wooden Horse, -the mysterious wanderings of Helen, the last journey of Odysseus, -furnished themes of surpassing interest, all or most of which had been -made into songs for the pastime of lordly feasters and the solace of -noble dames, before the wrath of Achilles suggested a more adventurous -flight. Inexhaustible, indeed, was the store of romantic adventure -furnished by the famous ten years’ siege. - - A castle built in cloudland, or at most - A crumbling clay-fort on a windy hill, - Where needy men might flee a robber-host, - This, this was Troy! and yet she holds us still.[1] - -Footnote 1: - - Lang’s _Helen of Troy_, vi. 21. - -But the saga-literature of the Greeks did not begin with the mustering -of the fleet at Aulis. The ‘ante-Troica’ were not neglected. Many a -ballad was chanted about the doings of those ‘strong men’ who ‘lived -before Agamemnon,’ although it was not their fortune to be commemorated -by a supreme singer. That supreme singer, however, knew much concerning -the Argonauts, the War of Thebes, the Calydonian Boar-hunt, the sorrows -of Niobe, and the betrayal of Bellerophon; ante-Trojan lays served as -parables for the instruction of Clytemnestra, and the recreation of -Achilles in that disastrous interval when he doffed his armour and -strung his lyre. And a small but privileged class of the community was -devoted, under the presumed tuition of the Muses, to the perfecting and -perpetuation of these treasures of poetic lore. - -Homer was accordingly no unprepared phenomenon. He rose in a sky already -luminous. The flowering of his genius, indeed, marked the close of an -epoch. His achievements were of the definitive and synthetic kind; they -summed up and surpassed what had previously been accomplished; they were -the outcome—although not the necessary outcome—of a multitude of minor -performances. - -Now it is impossible to admit the prevalence of such sustained poetical -activity as the Homeric Epics by their very nature postulate, apart from -the existence of a tolerably widespread and well-regulated social -organisation. They besides describe a polity which was certainly not -imaginary, and thus lead us back to a pre-Hellenic world, different in -many ways from historical Greece, and separated from it by several blank -and silent centuries. The people who moved and suffered, and nurtured -their loves and grudges in it, were called ‘Achæans’—the ethnical title -given by Homer to his countrymen from all parts of the Greek peninsula -and its adjacent islands. Homer himself was evidently an Achæan; -Achilles, Agamemnon, and Odysseus, Helen and Penelope, sprang from the -same race, which was an offshoot from the general Hellenic stock. They -were a seafaring people, but not much given to commerce; active, -energetic, sensitive, highly imaginative, they showed, nevertheless, -receptivity rather than inventiveness as regards the practical arts of -life. Their great national exploit was probably that bellicose -expedition to the Troad upon which the Ilian legend, with all its -mythical accretions, was founded; and some records of attacks by them on -Egypt have been deciphered on hieroglyphically-inscribed monuments; but -they can claim no assured place in history. As a nation, they ceased -indeed to exist before the dim epoch of fables came to an end; the -Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus brought about their political -annihilation and social disintegration, impelling them, nevertheless, to -establish new settlements in Asia Minor, and thus setting on foot the -long process by which Greek culture became cosmopolitan. - -Homeric conditions do not then represent simply an initial stage in -classic Greek civilisation. There was no continuous progress from the -one state of things to the other. Development was interrupted by -revolution. Hence, much irretrievable loss and prolonged seething -confusion; until, out of the chaos, a renovated order emerged, and the -Greece of the Olympiads comes to view in the year 776 B.C. - -For this reason Homeric Greece is strange to history; the relative -importance of the states included in it, the centre of gravity of its -political power, the modes of government and manners of men it displays, -are all very different from what they had become in the time of -Herodotus. But it is only of late that these differences have come to -have an intelligible meaning. Until expounded by archæological research, -they were a source of unmixed perplexity to the learned. The state of -society described by Homer could certainly not be regarded as -fictitious; yet it hung suspended, as it were, in the air, without -definite limitations of time or place. These uncertainties have now been -removed. The excavations at Mycenæ, undertaken by Dr. Schliemann in -1876, may be said to have had for their upshot the rediscovery of the -old Achæan civilisation, the material relics of which have been brought -to light from the ‘shaft-tombs’ of Agamemnon’s citadel, the ‘bee-hive -tombs’ of the lower city, in the palaces and other coeval buildings of -Tiryns, Mycenæ, and Orchomenos. The points of agreement between Homeric -delineations and Mycenæan antiquities are, in fact, too numerous to -permit the entertainment of any reasonable doubt that the poet’s -experience lay in the daily round of Mycenæan life—of life, that is to -say, governed by the same ideas and carried on under approximately the -same conditions with those prevailing through the ancient realm of the -sons of Atreus. - -The detection of this close relationship has lent a totally new aspect -to what is called the Homeric Question, widening its scope at the same -time that it provides a sure basis for its discussion. For this can no -longer be disconnected from inquiries into the status and fortunes of -the great confederacy, out of the wreck of which the splendid fabric of -Hellenic society arose. The civilisation centred at Mycenæ covered a -wide range; how wide we do not yet fully know: the results of future -explorations must be awaited before its limits can be fixed. It -undoubtedly spread, however, beyond Greece proper through the Sporades -to Crete, Rhodes, the coasts of Asia Minor, and even to Egypt. The -traces left behind by it in Egypt are of particular importance.[2] From -the Mycenæan pottery discovered in the Fayûm, tangible proof has been -derived that the Græco-Libyan assaults upon that country were to some -extent effective, and that the seafaring people who took part in them -were no other than the Homeric Achæans, then in an early stage of their -career. The fact of their having secured a foothold in the Nile Valley -accounts, too, for the strong Egyptian element in Mycenæan art; and the -evidence of habitual intercourse is further curiously strengthened by -the presence of an ostrich egg amid the other antique remains in the -Myceneæan citadel graves.[3] Above all, the Egypto-Mycenæan pottery, -from its association with other objects of known dates, is determinable -as to time. And it appears, as the outcome of Mr. Flinders Petrie’s -careful comparisons, that one class of vases, adorned with linear -patterns, goes back to about 1400 B.C., while those exhibiting -naturalistic designs were freely manufactured in 1100. The culminating -period, however, of pre-Hellenic fictile art is placed considerably -earlier, in 1500-1400 B.C., and there are indications that its -development had occupied several previous centuries. Mr. Petrie, indeed, -finds himself compelled to believe that the Græco-Libyan league was -already active in or before the year 2000 B.C. Achæan predominance may, -then, very well have boasted a millennium of antiquity when the Dorians -crossed the Gulf of Corinth. Its subversion drove many of the leading -native families over the Ægean, where they found seats already doubtless -familiar to them through their own and their ancestors’ maritime and -piratical adventures, and the colonising impulse once given, did not -soon cease to promote the enlargement of the Greek domain. But the mass -of the Achæan people lived on in their old homes, in a state of -subjection resembling that of the Saxons in England after the Norman -Conquest. They were designated ‘Periœci’ by their Dorian rulers. - -Footnote 2: - - Flinders Petrie, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vols. xi. p. 271; xii. - p. 199. - -Footnote 3: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 268. - -Archæological discoveries have thus shown the largeness of the -historical issues embraced in the Homeric Question; they also afford the -possibility, and still more, the promise, of satisfactorily answering -it. The problem is threefold. It includes the consideration of where, -when, and how the great Epics were composed. - -Seven cities— - - Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenæ— - -competed for the honour of having given birth to their author. Wherever, -in short, their study was localised by the foundation of a school of -‘Homerids,’ there was asserted to be the native place of the eponymous -bard. The truth is that no really authentic tradition regarding him -reached posterity. The very name of ‘Homer,’ or the ‘joiner together,’ -is obviously rather typical than personal; and it gradually came to -aggregate round it all that was antique and unclaimed in the way of -verse. The aggregation, it is true, was presumably formed in Asiatic -Ionia; the ‘Cyclic Poems,’ supplementary to the Iliad, were mainly the -work of Ionic poets; and the Epic was substantially an Ionic dialect. -Yet the inference of an Asiatic origin thence naturally arising now -clearly appears to be invalid. The linguistic argument, to begin with, -has been completely disposed of by Fick’s remarkable demonstration that -the Iliad and Odyssey underwent an early process of Ionicisation.[4] So -far as metrical considerations permitted, they were actually translated -from the Æolic, or rather Achæan tongue, in which they were composed, -into the current idiom of Colophon and Miletus. Objections urged from -this side against their production in Europe have accordingly lost their -force; and the reasons favouring it, always strong, have of late grown -to be well-nigh irresistible. Some of the more cogent were briefly -stated by Mr. D. B. Monro in 1886;[5] and others might now be added. One -only, but one surely conclusive, need here be mentioned. It is this. -Homer could not have been an Asiatic Greek, because Asiatic Greece did -not exist in Homer’s time. He was aware of no Achæan settlements in Asia -Minor; not one of the twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy emerges in -the Catalogue, Miletus only excepted, and Miletus with a special note of -‘barbarian’ habitation attached to it.[6] The Ionian name is, in the -Iliad, once applied to the Athenians[7] (presumably), but does not occur -at all in the Odyssey; where, on the other hand, Dorians, unknown in the -Iliad, are casually named as forming an element in the mixed population -of Crete.[8] The reputed birthplaces of Homer, then, on the eastern -coast of the Ægean, were, when he had reached his singing prime, still -occupied by Carians and Mæonians; and we must accordingly look for his -origin in the West. There is no escape from this conclusion except by -the subterfuge of imagining the geography of the Epics to be -artificially archaic. They related to a past time, it might be said, -they should then reproduce the conditions of the past. But this is a -notion essentially modern. No primitive poet ever troubled himself about -such scruples of congruity. Nor if he did, could the requisite detailed -information by possibility be at his command, while his painful care to -avoid what we call anachronisms would cause nothing but perplexity to -his unsophisticated audience. Homer’s map of Greece must accordingly be -accepted as a true picture of what came under his personal observation. -It is, indeed, as Mr. Freeman says, ‘so different from the map of Greece -at any later time that it is inconceivable that it can have been -invented at any later time.’[9] Since, however, it affords the Greek -race no Asiatic standing ground, it follows of necessity that Homer was -a European. - -Footnote 4: - - _Die Homerische Odyssee in der ursprünglichen Sprachforme - wiedergestellt_, 1883. - -Footnote 5: - - _English Historical Review_, January, 1886. - -Footnote 6: - - _Iliad_, ii. 868. - -Footnote 7: - - _Ib._ xiii. 685. - -Footnote 8: - - _Od._ xix. 177. - -Footnote 9: - - _Historical Geography_, p. 25. - -This same consideration helps to determine the age in which he lived. -Homeric geography is entirely pre-Dorian. Total unconsciousness of any -such event as the Dorian invasion reigns both in the Iliad and Odyssey. -Not a hint betrays acquaintance with the fact that the polity described -in them had, in the meantime, been overturned by external violence. A -silence so remarkable can be explained only by the simple supposition -that when they were composed, the revolution in question had not yet -occurred. Other circumstances confirm this view. Practical explorations -have shown pre-Hellenic Greece to have been the seat of a rich, -enterprising, and cultivated nation. They have hence removed objections -on the score of savagery, inevitably to be encountered, formerly urged -against pushing the age of Homer very far back into the past. The life -carried on at Mycenæ, in fact, twelve or thirteen centuries before the -Christian era, was in many respects more refined than that depicted in -the poems. It was known to their author only after it had lost something -of its pristine splendour. But the Mycenæan civilisation of his -experience, if a trifle decayed, was complete and dominant; and this it -never was subsequently to the Dorian conquest. To have collected, -however, into an imaginary organic whole the fragments into which it had -been shattered by that catastrophe, would assuredly have been a task -beyond his powers. Nothing remains, then, but to admit that he lived in -the pre-Dorian Greece which he portrayed. Moreover, the state of -seething unrest ensuing upon the overthrow of the Mycenæan order must -have been absolutely inconsistent with the development of a great school -of poetry. If Homer, then, was a European—as appears certain—the -inference is irresistible that he flourished before the society to which -he belonged was thrown by foreign invaders into irredeemable -disarray—that is, at some section of the Mycenæan epoch. - -There are many convincing reasons for holding that section to have been -a late one. One of the principal is the familiar use of iron in the -poems, although none has been met with in the old shaft-tombs within the -citadel of Mycenæ, and only small quantities in the less distinguished -graves below. It is, to be sure, conceivable that a substance introduced -as a vulgar novelty devoid of traditional or ancestral associations -might have been employed for the ordinary purposes of everyday life long -before it was allowed to form part of sepulchral equipments; a similar -motive prescribing its virtual exclusion from the Homeric Olympus. -Still, the discrepancy can hardly be explained away without the -concession of some lapse of time as well. - -The Homeric and Mycenæan modes of burial, too, were different. Cremation -is practised throughout the Epics; the Mycenæan dead were preserved -intact. ‘The contrast,’ Dr. Leaf remarks,[10] ‘is a striking one; but it -is easy to lay too much stress upon it. It may well be that the -conditions of sepulture on a campaign were perforce different from those -usual in times of peace at home. The mummifying of the body and the -carrying of it to the ancestral burying-place in the royal citadel were -not operations such as could be easily effected amidst the hurry of -marches or the privations of a siege; least of all after the slaughter -of a pitched battle. It is therefore quite conceivable that two methods -of sepulture may of necessity have been in use at the same time. And for -this assumption the Iliad itself gives us positive grounds. One warrior -who falls is taken home to be buried; for to a dead son of Zeus means of -carriage and preservation can be supplied which are not for common men. -Sarpedon is cleansed by Apollo, and borne by Death and Sleep to his -distant home in Lycia, not that his body may be burnt, but that his -brethren and kinsfolk may _preserve_ it ‘with a tomb and gravestone, for -such is the due of the dead.’ - -Footnote 10: - - Introduction to _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 26. - - He said; obedient to his father’s words, - Down to the battle-field Apollo sped - From Ida’s height; and from amid the spears - Withdrawn, he bore Sarpedon far away, - And lav’d his body in the flowing stream; - Then with divine ambrosia all his limbs - Anointing, cloth’d him in immortal robes; - To two swift bearers gave him then in charge, - To Sleep and Death, twin brothers; in their arms - They bore him safe to Lycia’s widespread plains.[11] - -Footnote 11: - - _Iliad_, xvi. 676-88 (Lord Derby’s translation). - -The Mycenæan custom of embalming corpses was not, then, strange to -Homer; and the Homeric custom of burning them has _perhaps_—for the -evidence is indecisive—left traces in the more recent graves of the -Mycenæan people. What is certain is that simple interment was everywhere -primitively in use, and that the pyre was a subsequent innovation, at -first only partially adopted, and perhaps nowhere exclusively in vogue. - -The plastic art of Mycenæ seems to have been on the decline when the -‘sovran poet’ arose. This can be inferred from the wondering admiration -displayed in his verses for what must once have been its ordinary -performances, as well as from the marked superiority assigned in them to -foreign over native artists. They include besides no allusion to the -signet-rings so plentiful at Mycenæ, no notice, in any connexion, of the -art of gem-engraving, nor of the indispensable luxury—to ladies of high -degree—of toilet-mirrors. Active intercourse with Egypt, again, had -evidently ceased long prior to the Homeric age. The Nile is, in the -poems, not even known by name, but only as the ‘river of Egypt;’ and the -country is reached, not in the ordinary course of navigation, but -through recklessness or ill-luck, by adventurers or castaways. - -We can now gather the following indications regarding the date of the -Homeric poems. They must have originated during the interval between the -Trojan War—which, in some shape, may be accepted as an historical -event—and the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus. They probably -originated not very long before the latter event, when the Mycenæan -monarchy was of itself tottering towards a fall precipitated by the -frequently repeated incursions of ruder tribes from the north. The -generally accepted date for the final event is eighty years after the -taking of Troy, or 1104 B.C. But this rests on no authentic -circumstance, and may very well be a century or more in error. A -preferable chronological arrangement would place Homer’s flourishing in -the eleventh century, and the overthrow of Mycenæ near its close. -Difficulties of sundry kinds can thus be, in a measure, evaded or -conciliated, without encroaching overmuch on the voiceless centuries -available for the unrecorded readjustment of the disturbed elements of -Greek polity. - -As to the mode of origin of the two great poems which have come down to -us from so remote an age, much might be said; but a few words must here -suffice. It is a topic on which the utmost diversity of opinion has -prevailed since F. A. Wolf published, in 1795, his famous ‘Prolegomena,’ -and as to which unity of views seems now for ever unattainable. For -demonstrative evidence is naturally out of the question, and estimates -of opposing probabilities are apt to be strongly tinctured with -‘personality.’ Prepossessions of all kinds warp the judgment, even in -purely literary matters, and, in this case especially, have led to the -learned advocacy of extreme opinions. Thus, partisans of destructive -criticism have carried the analysis of the Homeric poems to the verge of -annihilation; while ultra-conservatives insist upon a seamless whole, -and regard the Iliad and the Odyssey as the work of Homer, in the same -sense and with the same implicit confidence that they hold the Æneid and -the Eclogues to be Virgilian, or ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Samson Agonistes’ -to be Miltonic productions. Between these widely diverging paths, -however, there is a middle way laid down by common sense, which it is -tolerably safe to follow. A few simple considerations may help us to -find it. - -We must remember, in the first place, that the Homeric poems were -composed, not to be privately read, but to be publicly recited. They -remained unwritten during at least a couple of centuries, flung on the -waves of unaided human memory. Oral tradition alone preserved them; and -not the punctilious oral tradition of a sacerdotal caste like the -Brahmins, but that of a bold and innovating class of ‘rhapsodes,’ -themselves aspiring to some share in the Muse’s immediate favours, and -prompt to flatter the local vanities and immemorial susceptibilities of -their varied audiences. Within very wide limits, they were free to -‘improve’ what long training had enabled them to appropriate. Their -licence infringed no literary property; there was no authorised text to -be corrupted; one man’s version was as good as another’s. It is not, -then, surprising that the primitive order of the Epics became here and -there disarranged, or that interpolated and substituted passages usurped -positions from which they could not afterwards easily be expelled. -Expository efforts have, indeed, sometimes succeeded only in adding -fresh knots to the already tangled skein. Pisistratus, however, did good -service by for the first time _editing_ the Homeric poems.[12] Scattered -manuscripts of them had doubtless existed long previously; but it was -their collection and collation at Athens, and the disposal in a -determinate succession of the still disjointed materials they afforded, -which placed the Greek people in the earliest full possession of their -epical inheritance. - -Footnote 12: - - German critics doubt the fact. See Niese, _Die Entwickelung der - Homerischen Poesie_, p. 5. - -As the general result of a century of Homeric controversy, instinctive -appreciation may be said broadly to have got the better of verbal -criticism. Not but that the latter has done valuable work; but it is now -pretty plainly seen to have been, in some quarters, carried considerably -too far. The triumphs enjoyed by German advocates of the -‘Kleinliedertheorie’—of the disjunction, that is to say, of the Epics -into numerous separate lays—are generally recognised to have been merely -temporary. A large body of opinion was, at the outset, captivated by -their arguments; it has of late tended to swing back towards some -approximation to the old orthodoxy. There is, indeed, much difficulty in -conceiving the profound and essential unity apparent to unprejudiced -readers of the Iliad and Odyssey to be illusory; nor should it be -forgotten that the evoking of a cosmos from a chaos implies a single -regulative intelligence. And a cosmos each poem might very well be -called; while the ‘embryon atoms’ from which they sprang, of legends, -stories, myths, and traditions, constituted scarcely less than an - - Ocean without bound, - Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth, - And time, and place, are lost. - -The Odyssey and the Iliad, however, stand in this respect by no means on -the same footing. In the former, fundamental unity is obvious; the -development of the plot is logical and continuous; there are no -considerable redundancies, no superfluous adventures, no oblivious -interludes; the sense of progress towards a purposed end pervades the -whole. Careful scrutiny, it is true, detects, in the details of the -narrative, some few trifling discrepancies; but attempts to remove them -by tampering with the general plan of its structure lead at once to -intolerable anomalies. So much cannot be said for the Iliad. Here the -component strata are manifestly dislocated, and some intruded masses can -be clearly identified. Thus the Tenth Book at once detaches itself both -in substance and style from the remaining cantos. It narrates an -adventure wholly disconnected from the main action unfolded in them, and -narrates it with a coolness and easy fluency very unlike the rush and -glow of genuine Iliadic verse. Few, accordingly, are the critics who -venture to claim the episode, brilliant and interesting though it be, as -an integral part of the original poem. Yet even when it has been set -aside, things do not go altogether straight. The basis of the story is -furnished by the wrath of Achilles and its direful consequences; but -while the hero sulks in his tent, a good deal of miscellaneous and -largely irrespective fighting proceeds, during which he sinks out of -sight, and is only transiently kept in mind. Zeus himself is allowed to -forget his solemn promise to Thetis of avenging, through the defeat of -the Greeks, the injury done to her son by Agamemnon; and the Olympian -machinery generally works in an ill-regulated and haphazard fashion. -Moreover, the embassy of conciliation in the Ninth Book is ignored later -on; while the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Books, devoted mainly to -the obsequies of Patroclus and Hector, have by some critics been deemed -superfluous, by others inconsistent with an exordium announcing—as Pope -has it— - - The wrath that hurled to Pluto’s gloomy reign - The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain, - Whose limbs unburied by the naked shore, - Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore. - -Through the weight of these objections, Mr. Grote felt compelled to -dissever the Iliad into a primitive part, which he called the Achilleid, -and a mass of accessional poetry, most likely of diverse origin and -date. And a similar view still prevails. Only that the Achilleid has -been cut down, by further retrenchments, to the compass of a somewhat -prolix Lay, treating, as its express subject, of the ‘Wrath’ of -Achilles. Dr. Leaf indeed accentuates the separation by upholding the -probable origin, on opposite sides of the Ægean, of the nuclear and -adventitious portions of the Epic. - -The force of some of the arguments urging to this analysis cannot be -denied, yet there are others, perhaps of a higher order of importance, -which indicate the former predominance of a partially destroyed entirety -of design through by far the larger portion of this wonderful -prehistoric work. Speaking broadly, an identical spirit pervades the -whole. The Tenth Book, and a few notoriously interpolated passages, such -as the feeble and futile Theomachy, make the sole exceptions to this -rule of ethical homogeneity. Elsewhere, from beginning to end, we meet -the same spontaneous fervour of expression, the same magnificent energy -kept in hand like a spirited steed; an unfailing sense of the splendour -of heroic achievement, and a glowing joy in human existence, tempered by -the heart-thrilling remembrance of its pathetic mystery of sorrow. This -prevalent uniformity in manner and spirit is certainly unfavourable to -the hypothesis of divided authorship. - -The marvellous beauty and power of those sections of the poem believed -to be adventitious is also a circumstance to be considered. They include -many of its most famous scenes—the parting of Hector and Andromache, the -arming of Athene, the meeting of Glaucus and Diomed, and the whole vivid -interlude of Diomed’s prowess, the orations in the tent of Achilles, the -chariot-race, the reception of Priam as his suppliant by the fierce -slayer of his son. To them exclusively, above all, belongs the personal -presentation of Helen; outside their limits, she has no place in the -Iliad. - -These same accretions are not merely magnificent in themselves, and rich -in shining incidents, but they add incalculably to the general effect of -the Epic. They contribute, in fact, a great part of its dramatic force -and the whole of its moral purport. Without them it would be a bald and -unfinished performance—the abortive realisation of a sublime conception. -The arming of Agamemnon, for instance, and his feats of private valour, -could never have been designed as the immediate sequel to the Promise of -Zeus; while they constitute a most fitting climax to the series of the -baffled Greek efforts for victory. They are admirably prepared for by -the stories of the duel between Menelaus and Paris, of the broken pact, -of the prowess of Diomed, of the nocturnal embassy to Achilles. -Moreover, the irresistible might of Pelides is brought with tenfold -impressiveness on the scene after the fighting powers of each of the -other Achæan chiefs have been fully displayed, and proved fruitless. -Above all, the Achillean drama itself would lose its profound -significance by the retrenchment of the Ninth and two closing Books. For -it was the implacability of the ‘swift-footed’ hero that was justly -punished by the calamity of the death of Patroclus; and he showed -himself implacable only when he haughtily rejected a formal offer of -ample reparation.[13] At that point he became culpable; and might only -win revenge at the cost of the acutest anguish of which his nature was -capable. The Ninth Book, in short, constitutes the ethical crisis of the -Iliad; and the moralising at second-hand, to the innermost core of its -structure, of a work purporting to be already complete, is certainly a -unique, if not an impossible phenomenon. - -Footnote 13: - - Mr. A. Lang urges this point with great effect in an article on ‘Homer - and the Higher Criticism’ (_National Review_, Feb. 1892), published - after the present Chapter had been sent to press. - -Nor is it easily credible that the ransom of the body of Hector made no -part of its fundamental plan. Greek feelings of propriety would have -been outraged—and outraged in the most distasteful way—by disregard of -the dying petition of so spotless and disinterested a champion, albeit -of a lost cause, and by the abandonment of his body as carrion to -unclean beasts and birds. And Achilles, without the elevating traits of -his courtesies in the Games, and his pity for Priam, would have remained -colossal only in brutality, a blind instrument of fury, an example of -the triumph of ignoble instincts. But such a presentation of his -character could never have been purposed by the author of the First -Iliad. Not of this base stamp was the hero whom Thetis rose from the sea -to comfort. For even in the first rush of his tremendous passion, he -still saw the radiant eyes and listened to the voice of Athene; he did -not wholly desert celestial wisdom; and celestial wisdom could never -have suffered the balance of his stormy soul to be finally overthrown. -But just the needed compensatory touches are supplied by his noble -bearing in the Patroclean celebration, and far more, by his chivalrous -compassion for the hapless old king of Troy. They could not have been -omitted by a poet of supreme genius—could not, since the imagination has -its logical necessities, among which may be reckoned that of -_equilibration_. There is accordingly no possibility of founding a truly -great poem, wholly, or mainly, on the crude brutalities of actual -warfare. Humanity revolts from them in the long run; and humanity -prescribes its laws to art. The slaughtering rage of Achilles demands a -corresponding height of generosity and depth of pity; it would else be -atrocious. His wrath, in fact, postulates his tenderness; and hence the -great difficulty in believing that the singer of the First Book failed -to insert the Ninth, or stopped short at the Twenty-second Book of the -Iliad. - -The upshot of our little discussion, then, is to assign both to the -Iliad and Odyssey a European origin, in the pre-Dorian time, when Mycenæ -was the political centre of the Achæan world. Provisionally, they may be -said to date from the eleventh century B.C. Moreover, the Odyssey in its -essential integrity, and the Iliad in large part, are each the work of -one master-mind. The Iliad, none the less, can no longer be said to -present a poem ‘of one projection’; it shows seams, and junctures, and -discrepancies; its mass has, perhaps, been broken up and awkwardly -pieced together again; it is a building, in fact, which has suffered -extensive restoration. - -The further question remains as to the united or divided authorship of -these antique monuments, regarded as separate wholes. Are they -twin-productions, or did they spring up independently, favoured by the -same prevailing climate, from a soil similarly prepared? The answer may -be left to the dispassionate judgment of any ordinary, uncritical -reader. Supposing his mind, _per impossibile_, a blank on the point, it -would certainly not occur to him to attribute the two poems to a single -individual. They are probably as unlike in style as, under the -circumstances, it was possible for them to be. A great deal, indeed, -belongs to them in common. They were rooted in the same traditions; they -arose under the same sky and in the same ideal atmosphere; the -inexhaustible storehouse of their legendary raw material was the same. -Strictly analogous conditions of politics and society are depicted in -them; they were addressed to similarly constituted audiences; their -verses were constructed on the same rhythmical model. Moreover, the -author of one was familiar with the grand example set him by the other. -Yet the temper and spirit of each are profoundly different. In the -Iliad, a magnificent ardour prevails; the singer is aflame with his -theme; his words glow; vivid impressions crowd upon his mind; it takes -all the power of his genius to restrain their riotous audacity and -marshal them into orderly succession. The author of the Odyssey, on the -other hand, is in no danger of being swept away by the impetuosity of -his thoughts. He is always collected and at leisure; he has even -_esprit_, which implies a low mental temperature; he can stand by with a -smile, and look on, while his characters unfold themselves; his passion -never blazes; it is smouldering and sustained, like that of his -protagonist. - -Numerous small discrepancies, besides, seem to betray a personal -diversity of origin. So Iris, the frequent, indeed the all but -invariable messenger of the gods in the Iliad, drops into oblivion in -the Odyssey, and is replaced by Hermes; Charis is the wife of Hephæstus -in the Iliad, Aphrodite in the Odyssey; Neleus has twelve sons in the -Iliad, three in the Odyssey; Pylos is a district in the Iliad, a town in -the Odyssey; the oracle of the Dodonæan Zeus is located in Thessaly in -the Iliad, in Epirus in the Odyssey, and so on.[14] The Odyssey, -moreover, is obviously junior to the Iliad. It gives evidence of an -appreciable development of the arts of life relatively to their state in -the rival poem; the processes of verbal contraction have advanced in the -interval; the ethical standard has become more refined; while formulaic -and other expressions common to both are unmistakably ‘in place,’ as -geologists say, in the Iliad, ‘erratic,’ or ‘transported,’ in the -Odyssey. - -Footnote 14: - - See an article on the ‘Doctrine of the Chorizontes,’ in the _Edinburgh - Review_, vol. 133. - -A difference in the place of origin, perhaps, helps to accentuate the -effect due to a difference of time. The thread of tradition regarding -these extraordinary works is indeed hopelessly broken. Their prehistoric -existence is divided from their historical visibility by the chasm -opened when the civilisation of which they were the choicest flowers was -subverted by the irrepressible Dorians. The Iliad, however, contains -strong internal evidence of owning Thessaly as its native region. The -vast pre-eminence of the local hero, the Olympian seat of the gods, the -partiality displayed for the horse, intimacy with Thessalian traditions -and topography, all suggest the relationship. The name of Thessaly, it -is true, does not occur either in the Iliad or in the Odyssey; nor had -the semi-barbarous Thessalians, when they were composed, as yet crossed -the mountains from Thesprotia to trample down the Achæan culture of the -land of Achilles. It thus became, after Homer’s time, the scene of a -revolution analogous in every respect to that which overwhelmed the -Peloponnesus. - -The Homer of the Odyssey, who was not improbably of Peloponnesian birth, -must have travelled widely. He had undeniably some personal acquaintance -with Ithaca, his topographical indications, apart from the gross blunder -of planting the little island west, instead of east of Cephalonia, -corresponding on the whole quite closely with reality. And he knew -something besides of most parts of the mainland of Greece, of Crete, -Delos, Chios, and the Ionian coast of Asia Minor. The experience of the -Iliadic bard was doubtless somewhat, though not greatly, more limited. -Its range extended, at any rate, from ‘Pelasgic Argos’ to the Troad, -familiarity with which is shown in all sections of the Trojan epic. The -cosmopolitan character of both poets is only indeed what might have been -expected. The privileged members of an Achæan community must have -enjoyed wide opportunities of observation. For Mycenæan culture was -strongly eclectic. Elements from many quarters were amalgamated in it, -Asiatic influences, however, predominating. The men of genius who acted -as the interpreters of its typical ideas would hence have been unfit for -their task unless they had personally tried and proved all such elements -and influences. They were presumably to some extent adventurers by sea -and land. But, further than this, their individuality remains shrouded -in the impenetrable veil of their silence. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - HOMERIC ASTRONOMY. - - -THE Homeric ideas regarding the heavenly bodies were of the simplest -description. They stood, in fact, very much on the same level with those -entertained by the North American Indians, when first brought into -European contact. What knowledge there was in them was of that ‘broken’ -kind which (in Bacon’s phrase) is made up of wonder. Fragments of -observation had not even begun to be pieced in one with the other, and -so fitted, ill or well, into a whole. In other words, there was no -faintest dawning of a celestial science. - -But surely, it may be urged, a poet is not bound to be an astronomer. -Why should it be assumed that the author (or authors) of the Iliad and -Odyssey possessed information co-extensive on all points with that of -his fellow-countrymen? His profession was not science, but song. The -argument, however, implies a reflecting backward of the present upon the -past. Among unsophisticated peoples, specialists, unless in the matter -of drugs or spells, or some few practical processes, do not exist. The -scanty stock of gathered knowledge is held, it might be said, in common. -The property of one is the property of all. - -More especially of the poet. His power over his hearers depends upon his -presenting vividly what they already perceive dimly. It was part of the -poetical faculty of the Ithacan bard Phemius that he ‘knew the works of -gods and men.’[15] His special function was to render them famous by his -song. What he had heard concerning them he repeated; adding, of his own, -the marshalling skill, the vital touch, by which they were perpetuated. -He was no inventor: the actual life of men, with its transfiguring -traditions and baffled aspirations, was the material he had to work -with. But the life of men was very different then from what it is now. -It was lived in closer contact with Nature; it was simpler, more -typical, consequently more susceptible of artistic treatment. - -Footnote 15: - - _Odyssey_, i. 338. - -It was accordingly looked at and portrayed as a whole; and it is this -very _wholeness_ which is one of the principal charms of primitive -poetry—an irrecoverable charm; for civilisation renders existence a -labyrinth of which it too often rejects the clue. In olden times, -however, its ways were comparatively straight, and its range limited. It -was accordingly capable of being embraced with approximate entirety. -Hence the encyclopædic character of the early epics. _Humani nihil -alienum._ Whatever men thought, and knew, and did, in that morning of -the world when they spontaneously arose, found a place in them. - -Now, some scheme of the heavens must always accompany and guide human -existence. There is literally no choice for man but to observe the -movements, real or apparent, of celestial objects, and to regulate his -actions by the measure of time they mete out to him. Nor had he at first -any other means of directing his wanderings upon the earth save by -regarding theirs in the sky. They are thus to him standards of reference -and measurement as regards both the fundamental conditions of his -being—time and space. - -This intimate connexion, and, still more, the idealising influence of -the remote and populous skies, has not been lost upon the poets in any -age. It might even be possible to construct a tolerably accurate -outline-sketch of the history of astronomy in Europe without travelling -outside the limits of their works. But our present concern is with -Homer. - -To begin with his mode of reckoning time. This was by years, months, -days, and hours.[16] The week of seven days was unknown to him; but in -its place we find[17] the triplicate division of the month used by -Hesiod and the later Attics, implying a month of thirty, and a year of -360 days, corrected, doubtless, by some rude process of intercalation. -These ten-day intervals were perhaps borrowed at an early stage of -Achæan civilisation from Egypt, where they correspond to the Chaldean -‘decans’—thirty-six minor astral divinities presiding over as many -sections of the Zodiac.[18] But no knowledge of the Signs accompanied -the transfer. A similar apportionment of the hours of night into three -watches (as amongst the Jews before the Captivity), and of the hours of -day into three periods or stages, prevails in both the Iliad and -Odyssey. The seasons of the year, too, were three—spring, summer, and -winter—like those of the ancient Egyptians and of our Anglo-Saxon -forefathers;[19] for the Homeric _Opora_ was not, properly speaking, an -autumnal season, but merely an aggravation of summer heat and drought, -heralded by the rising of Sirius towards the close of July. It, in fact, -strictly matched our ‘dog-days,’ the _dies caniculares_ of the Romans. -The first direct mention of autumn is in a treatise of the time of -Alcibiades ascribed to Hippocrates.[20] This rising of the dog-star is -the only indication in the Homeric poems of the use of a stellar -calendar such as we meet full-grown in Hesiod’s Works and Days. The same -event was the harbinger of the Nile-flood to the Egyptians, serving to -mark the opening of their year as well as to correct the estimates of -its length. - -Footnote 16: - - _Odyssey_, x. 469; xi. 294. - -Footnote 17: - - _Ib._ xix. 307. - -Footnote 18: - - Brugsch, _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, - Bd. ix. p. 513. - -Footnote 19: - - Lewis, _Astronomy of the Ancients_, p. 11. Tacitus says of the - Germans, ‘Autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur’ (_Germania_, cap. - xxvi.) - -Footnote 20: - - Smith’s _Dictionary of Antiquities_, article ‘Astronomy.’ - -The annual risings of stars had formerly, in the absence of more -accurate means of observation, an importance they no longer possess. -Mariners and husbandmen, accustomed to watch, because at the mercy of -the heavens, could hardly fail no less to be struck with the successive -effacements by, and re-emergences from, the solar beams, of certain -well-known stars, as the sun pursued his yearly course amongst them, -than to note the epochs of such events. Four stages in these periodical -fluctuations of visibility were especially marked by primitive -observers. The first perceptible appearance of a star in the dawn was -known as its ‘heliacal rising.’ This brief glimpse extended gradually as -the star increased its seeming distance from the sun, the interval of -precedence in rising lengthening by nearly four minutes each morning. At -the end of close upon six months occurred its ‘acronycal rising,’ or -last visible ascent from the eastern horizon after sunset. Its -conspicuousness was then at the maximum, the whole of the dark hours -being available for its shining. To these two epochs of rising succeeded -and corresponded two epochs of setting—the ‘cosmical’ and the -‘heliacal.’ A star set cosmically when, for the first time each year, it -reached the horizon long enough before break of day to be still -distinguishable; it set heliacally on the last evening when its rays -still detached themselves from the background of illuminated western -sky, before getting finally immersed in twilight. The round began again -when the star had arrived sufficiently far on the other side of the sun -to show in the morning—in other words, to rise heliacally. - -Wide plains and clear skies gave opportunities for closely and -continually observing these successive moments in the revolving -relations of sun and stars, which were soon found to afford a very -accurate index to the changes of the seasons. By them, for the most -part, Hesiod’s prescriptions for navigation and agriculture are timed; -and although Homer, in conformity with the nature of his subject, is -less precise, he was still fully aware of the association. - -His sun is a god—Helios—as yet unidentified with Apollo, who wears his -solar attributes unconsciously. Helios is also known as Hyperion, ‘he -who walks on high,’ and Elector, ‘the shining one.’ Voluntarily he -pursues his daily course in the sky, and voluntarily he sinks to rest in -the ocean-stream—subject, however, at times to a higher compulsion; for, -just after the rescue of the body of Patroclus, Heré favours her Achæan -clients by precipitating at a critical juncture the descent of a still -unwearied and unwilling luminary.[21] On another occasion, however, -Helios memorably asserts his independence, when, incensed at the -slaughter of his sacred cattle by the self-doomed companions of Ulysses, -he threatens to ‘descend into Hades, and shine among the dead.’[22] And -Zeus, in promising the required satisfaction, virtually admits his power -to abdicate his office as illuminator of gods and men. - -Footnote 21: - - _Iliad_, xviii, 239. - -Footnote 22: - - _Odyssey_, xii. 383. - -Once only, the solstice is alluded to in Homeric verse. The swineherd -Eumæus, in describing the situation of his native place, the Island of -Syriê, states that it is over against Ortygia (Delos), ‘where are the -turning-places of the sun.’[23] The phrase was probably meant to -indicate that Delos lay just so much south of east from Ithaca as the -sun lies at rising on the shortest day of winter. But it must be -confessed that the direction was not thus very accurately laid down, the -comprised angle being 15⅓°, instead of 23½°.[24] To those early students -of nature, the travelling to and fro of the points of sunrise and sunset -furnished the most obvious clue to the yearly solar revolution; so that -an expression, to us somewhat recondite, conveyed a direct and -unmistakable meaning to hearers whose narrow acquaintance with the -phenomena of the heavens was vivified by immediate personal experience -of them. And in point of fact, the idea in question is precisely that -conveyed by the word ‘tropic.’ - -Footnote 23: - - _Ib._ xv. 404. - -Footnote 24: - - Sir W. Geddes believes that the solstitial place of the setting sun, - as viewed from the Ionic coast, is that used to define the position of - Ortygia.—_Problem of the Homeric Poems_, p. 294. - -Selene first takes rank as a divine personage in the pseudo-Homeric -Hymns. No moon-goddess is recognised in the Iliad or Odyssey. Nor does -the orbed ruler of ‘ambrosial night,’ regarded as a mere light-giver or -time-measurer, receive all the attention that might have been expected. -A full moon is, however, represented with the other ‘heavenly signs’ on -the shield of Achilles, and figures somewhat superfluously in the -magnificent passage where the Trojan watch-fires are compared to the -stars in a cloudless sky: - - As when in heaven the stars about the moon - Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, - And every height comes out, and jutting peak - And valley, and the immeasurable heavens - Break open to their highest, and all the stars - Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart: - So many a fire between the ships and stream - Of Xanthus blazed before the towers of Troy, - A thousand on the plain; and close by each - Sat fifty in the blaze of burning fire; - And eating hoary grain and pulse, the steeds, - Fixt by their cars, waited the golden dawn.[25] - -Footnote 25: - - _Iliad_, viii. 551-61 (Tennyson’s translation). - -Here, as elsewhere, the simile no sooner presents itself than the poet’s -imagination seizes upon and develops it without overmuch regard to the -illustrative fitness of its details. The multitudinous effect of a -thousand fires blazing together on the plain inevitably suggested the -stars. But with the stars came the complete nocturnal scene in its -profound and breathless tranquillity. The ‘rejoicing shepherd,’ -meantime, who was part of it, would have been ill-pleased with the -darkness required for the innumerable stellar display first thought of. -And since, to the untutored sense, landscape is delightful only so far -as it gives promise of utility, brilliant moonlight was added, for his -satisfaction and the safety of his flock, as well as for the perfecting -of that scenic beauty felt to be deficient where human needs were left -uncared for. Just in proportion, however, as rocks, and peaks, and -wooded glens appeared distinct, the lesser lights of heaven, and with -them the fundamental idea of the comparison, must have become effaced; -and the poet, accordingly, as if with a misgiving that the fervour of -his fancy had led him to stray from the rigid line of his purpose, -volunteered the assurance that ‘all the stars were visible’—as, to his -mind’s eye, they doubtless were. - -Of the ‘vivid planets’ thrown in by Pope there is no more trace in the -original, than of the ‘glowing pole.’ Nor could there be; since Homer -was totally ignorant that such a class of bodies existed. This curious -fact affords (if it were needed) conclusive proof of the high antiquity -of the Homeric poems. Not the faintest suspicion manifests itself in -them that Hesperus, ‘fairest of all stars set in heaven,’ is but another -aspect of Phosphorus, herald of light upon the earth, ‘the star that -saffron-mantled Dawn cometh after, and spreadeth over the salt sea.’[26] -The identification is said by Diogenes Laertius to have been first made -by Pythagoras; and it may at any rate be assumed with some confidence -that this elementary piece of astronomical knowledge came to the Greeks -from the East, with others of a like nature, in the course of the -seventh or sixth century B.C. Astonishing as it seems that they should -not have made the discovery for themselves, there is no evidence that -they did so. Hesiod appears equally unconscious with Homer of the -distinction between ‘fixed’ and ‘wandering’ stars. According to his -genealogical information, Phosphorus, like the rest of the stellar -multitude, sprang from the union of Astræus with the Dawn,[27] but no -hint is given of any generic difference between them. - -Footnote 26: - - _Iliad_, xxiii. 226-27. - -Footnote 27: - - _Theogony_, 381. - -There is a single passage in the Iliad, and a parallel one in the -Odyssey, in which the constellations are formally enumerated by name. -Hephæstus, we are told, made for the son of Thetis a shield great and -strong, whereon, by his exceeding skill, a multitude of objects were -figured. - -‘There wrought he the earth, and the heavens, and the sea, and the -unwearying sun, and the moon waxing to the full, and the signs every one -wherewith the heavens are crowned, Pleiads, and Hyads, and Orion’s -might, and the Bear that men call also the Wain, her that turneth in her -place, and watcheth Orion, and alone hath no part in the baths of -Ocean.’[28] - -Footnote 28: - - _Iliad_, xviii. 483-89. - -The corresponding lines in the Odyssey occur in the course of describing -the hero’s voyage from the isle of Calypso to the land of the Phæacians. -Alone, on the raft he had constructed of Ogygian pine-wood, he sat -during seventeen days, ‘and cunningly guided the craft with the helm; -nor did sleep fall upon his eyelids, as he viewed the Pleiads and -Boötes, that setteth late, and the Bear, which they likewise call the -Wain, which turneth ever in one place, and keepeth watch upon Orion, and -alone hath no part in the baths of Ocean.’[29] - -Footnote 29: - - _Odyssey_, v. 271-75. - -The sailing-directions of the goddess were to keep the Bear always on -the left—that is, to steer due east. - -It is clear that one of these passages is an adaptation from the other; -nor is there reason for hesitation in deciding which was the model. -Independently of extrinsic evidence, the verses in the Iliad have the -strong spontaneous ring of originality, while the Odyssean lines betray -excision and interpolation. The ‘Hyads and Orion’s might’ are suppressed -for the sake of introducing Boötes. Variety was doubtless aimed at in -the change; and the conjecture is at least a plausible one, that the -added constellation may have been known to the poet of the Odyssey -(admitting the hypothesis of a divided authorship), though not to the -poet of the Iliad—known, that is, in the sense that the stars comprising -the figure of the celestial Husbandman had not yet, at the time and -place of origin of the Iliad, become separated from the anonymous throng -circling in the ‘murk of night.’ - -The constellation Boötes—called ‘late-setting,’ probably from the -perpendicular position in which it descends below the horizon—was -invented to drive the Wain, as Arctophylax to guard the Bear, the same -group in each case going by a double name. For the brightest of the -stars thus designated we still preserve the appellation Arcturus (from -_arktos_, bear, _oûros_, guardian), first used by Hesiod, who fixed upon -its acronycal rising, sixty days after the winter solstice, as the -signal for pruning the vines.[30] It is not unlikely that the star -received its name long before the constellation was thought of, forming -the nucleus of a subsequently formed group. This was undoubtedly the -course of events elsewhere; the Great and Little Dogs, for instance, the -Twins, and the Eagle (the last with two minute companions) having been -individualised as stars previous to their recognition as asterisms. - -Footnote 30: - - _Works and Days_, 564-70. - -There is reason to believe that the stars enumerated in the Iliad and -Odyssey constituted the whole of those known by name to the early -Greeks. This view is strongly favoured by the identity of the Homeric -and Hesiodic stars. It is difficult to believe that, had there been room -for choice, the same list _precisely_ would have been picked out for -presentation in poems so widely diverse in scope and origin as the Iliad -and Odyssey on the one side, and the Works and Days on the other. As -regards the polar constellations, we have positive proof that none -besides Ursa Major had been distinguished. For the statement repeated in -both the Homeric epics, that the Bear _alone_ was without part in the -baths of Ocean, implies, not that the poet veritably ignored the -unnumbered stars revolving within the circle traced out round the pole -by the seven of the Plough, but that they still remained a nameless -crowd, unassociated with any terrestrial object, and therefore -attracting no popular observation. - -The Greeks, according to a well-attested tradition, made acquaintance -with the Lesser Bear through Phœnician communication, of which Thales -was the medium. Hence the designation of the group as _Phoinike_. Aratus -(who versified the prose of Eudoxus) has accordingly two Bears, lying -(in sailors’ phrase) ‘heads and points’ on the sphere; while he -expressly states that the Greeks still (about 270 B.C.) continued to -steer by _Helike_ (the Twister, Ursa Major), while the expert Phœnicians -directed their course by the less mobile _Kynosoura_ (Ursa Minor). The -absence of any mention of a Pole-star seems at first sight surprising. -Even the Iroquois Indians directed their wanderings from of old by the -one celestial luminary of which the position remained sensibly -invariable.[31] Yet not the gods themselves, in Homer’s time, were aware -of such a guide. It must be remembered, however, that the axis of the -earth’s rotation pointed, 2800 years ago, towards a considerably -different part of the heavens from that now met by its imaginary -prolongation. The precession of the equinoxes has been at work in the -interval, slowly but unremittingly shifting the situation of this point -among the stars. Some 600 years before the Great Pyramid was built, it -was marked by the close vicinity of the brightest star in the Dragon. -But this in the course of ages was left behind by the onward-travelling -pole, and further ages elapsed before the star at the tip of the Little -Bear’s tail approached its present position. Thus the entire millennium -before the Christian era may count for an interregnum as regards -Pole-stars. Alpha Draconis had ceased to exercise that office; -Alruccabah had not yet assumed it. - -Footnote 31: - - Lafitau, _Mœurs des Sauvages Américains_, p. 240. - -The most ancient of all the constellations is probably that which Homer -distinguishes as never-setting (it then lay much nearer to the pole than -it now does). In his time, as in ours, it went by two appellations—the -Bear and the Wain. Homer’s Bear, however, included the same seven bright -stars constituting the Wain, and no more; whereas our Great Bear -stretches over a sky-space of which the Wain is only a small part, three -of the striding monster’s far-apart paws being marked by the three pairs -of stars known to the Arabs as the ‘gazelle’s springs.’ How this -extension came about, we can only conjecture; but there is evidence that -it was fairly well established when Aratus wrote his description of the -constellations. Aratus, however, copied Eudoxus, and Eudoxus used -observations made—doubtless by Accad or Chaldean astrologers—above 2000 -B.C.[32] We infer, then, that the Babylonian Bear was no other than the -modern Ursa Major.[33] - -Footnote 32: - - According to Mr. Proctor’s calculation. See R. Brown, _Eridanus: River - and Constellation_, p. 3. - -Footnote 33: - - See Houghton, _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ vol. v. p. 333. - -But the primitive asterism—the Seven Rishis of the old Hindus, the -Septem Triones of the Latins, the Arktos of Homer—included no more than -seven stars. And this is important as regards the origin of the name. -For it is impossible to suppose a likeness to any animal suggested by -the more restricted group. Scarcely the acquiescent fancy of Polonius -could find it ‘backed like a weasel,’ or ‘very like a whale.’ Yet a -weasel or a whale would match the figure equally well with, or better -than, a bear. Probably the growing sense of incongruity between the name -and the object it signified may have induced the attempt to soften it -down by gathering a number of additional stars into a group presenting a -distant resemblance to a four-legged monster. - -The name of the Bear, this initial difficulty notwithstanding, is -prehistoric and quasi-universal. It was traditional amongst the -American-Indian tribes, who, however, sensible of the absurdity of -attributing a conspicuous protruding tail to an animal almost destitute -of such an appendage, turned the three stars composing it into three -pursuing hunters. No such difficulty, however, presented itself to the -Aztecs. They recognised in the seven ‘Arctic’ stars the image of a -Scorpion,[34] and named them accordingly. No Bear seems to have -bestridden their sky. - -Footnote 34: - - Bollaert, _Memoirs Anthrop. Society_, vol. i. p. 216. - -The same constellation figures, under a divinified aspect, with the -title _Otawa_, in the great Finnish epic, the ‘Kalevala.’ Now, although -there is no certainty as to the original meaning of this word, which has -no longer a current application to any terrestrial object, it is -impossible not to be struck with its resemblance to the Iroquois term -_Okowari_, signifying ‘bear,’ both zoologically and astronomically.[35] -The inference seems justified that _Otawa_ held the same two meanings, -and that the Finns knew the great northern constellation by the name of -the old Teutonic king of beasts. - -Footnote 35: - - Lafitau, _op. cit._ p. 236. - -It was (as we have seen) similarly designated on the banks of the -Euphrates; and a celestial she-bear, doubtfully referred to in the -Rig-Veda, becomes the starting-point of an explanatory legend in the -Râmâyana.[36] Thus, circling the globe from the valley of the Ganges to -the great lakes of the New World, we find ourselves confronted with the -same sign in the northern skies, the relic of some primeval association -of ideas, long since extinct. - -Footnote 36: - - Gubernatis, _Zoological Mythology_, vol. ii. p. 109. - -Extinct even in Homer’s time. For the myth of Callisto (first recorded -in a lost work by Hesiod) was a subsequent invention—an effect, not a -cause—a mere embroidery of Hellenic fancy over a linguistic fact, the -true origin of which was lost in the mists of antiquity. - -There is, on the other hand, no difficulty in understanding how the -Seven Stars obtained their second title of the Wain, or Plough, or Bier. -Here we have a plain case of imitative name-giving—a suggestion by -resemblance almost as direct as that which established in our skies a -Triangle and a Northern Crown. Curiously enough, the individual -appellations still current for the stars of the Plough, include a -reminiscence of each system of nomenclature—the legendary and the -imitative. The brightest of the seven, _α_ Ursæ Majoris, the Pointer -nearest the Pole, is designated _Dubhe_, signifying, in Arabic, ‘bear’; -while the title _Benetnasch_—equivalent to _Benât-en-Nasch_, ‘daughters -of the bier’—of the furthest star in the plough-handle, perpetuates the -lugubrious fancy, native in Arabia, by which the group figures as a -corpse attended by three mourners. - -Turning to the second great constellation mentioned in both Homeric -epics, we again meet traces of remote and unconscious tradition: yet -less remote, probably, than that concerned with the Bear—certainly less -inscrutable; for recent inquiries into the lore and language of ancient -Babylon have thrown much light on the relationships of the Orion fable. - -There seems no reason to question the validity of Mr. Robert Brown’s -interpretation of the word by the Accadian _Ur-ana_, ‘light of -heaven.’[37] But a proper name is significant only where it originates. -Moreover, it is considered certain that the same brilliant star-group -known to Homer no less than to us as Orion, was termed by -Chaldeo-Assyrian peoples ‘Tammuz,’[38] a synonym of Adonis. Nor is it -difficult to divine how the association came to be established. For, -about 2000 B.C., when the Euphratean constellations assumed their -definitive forms, the belt of Orion began to be visible before dawn in -the month of June, called ‘Tammuz,’ because the death of Adonis was then -celebrated. It is even conceivable that the heliacal rising of the -asterism may originally have given the signal for that celebration. We -can at any rate scarcely doubt that it received the name of ‘Tammuz’ -because its annual emergence from the solar beams coincided with the -period of mystical mourning for the vernal sun. - -Footnote 37: - - _Myth of Kirke_, p. 146. - -Footnote 38: - - Lenormant, _Origines de l’Histoire_, t. 1. p. 247. - -Orion, too, has solar connexions. In the Fifth Odyssey (121-24), Calypso -relates to Hermes how the love for him of Aurora excited the jealousy of -the gods, extinguished only when he fell a victim to it, slain by the -shafts of Artemis in Ortygia. Obviously, a sun-and-dawn myth slightly -modified from the common type. The post-Homeric stories, too, of his -relations with Œnopion of Chios, and of his death by the bite of a -scorpion (emblematical of darkness, like the boar’s tusk in the Adonis -legend), confirm his position as a luminous hero.[39] Altogether, the -evidence is strongly in favour of considering Orion as a variant of -Adonis, imported into Greece from the East at an early date, and there -associated with the identical group of stars which commemorated to the -Accads of old the fate of Dumuzi (_i.e._ Tammuz), the ‘Only Son of -Heaven.’ - -Footnote 39: - - R. Brown, _Archælogia_, vol. xlvii. p. 352; _Great Dionysiak Myth_, - chap. x. § v. - -It is remarkable that Homer knows nothing of stellar mythology. He -nowhere attempts to account for the names of the stars. He has no -stories at his fingers’ ends of translations to the sky as a ready means -of exit from terrestrial difficulties. The Orion of his acquaintance—the -beloved of the Dawn, the mighty hunter, surpassing in beauty of person -even the divinely-born Aloidæ—died and descended to Hades like other -mortals, and was there seen by Ulysses, a gigantic shadow ‘driving the -wild beasts together over the mead of asphodel, the very beasts which he -himself had slain on the lonely hills, with a strong mace all of bronze -in his hand, that is ever unbroken.’[40] His stellar connexion is -treated as a fact apart. The poet does not appear to feel any need of -bringing it into harmony with the Odyssean vision. - -Footnote 40: - - _Odyssey_, xi. 572-75. - -The brightest star in the heavens is termed by Homer the ‘dog of Orion.’ -The name _Seirios_ (significant of sparkling), makes its _début_ in the -verses of Hesiod. To the singer of the Iliad the dog-star is a sign of -fear, its rising giving presage to ‘wretched mortals’ of the -intolerable, feverish blaze of late summer (_opora_). The deadly gleam -of its rays hence served the more appropriately to exemplify the lustre -of havoc-dealing weapons. Diomed, Hector, Achilles, ‘all furnish’d, all -in arms,’ are compared in turn, by way of prelude to an ‘_aristeia_,’ or -culminating epoch of distinction in battle, to the same brilliant but -baleful object. Glimmering fitfully across clouds, it not inaptly -typifies the evanescent light of the Trojan hero’s fortunes, no less -than the flashing of his armour, as he moves restlessly to and fro.[41] -Of Achilles it is said: - -Footnote 41: - - _Iliad_, xi. 62-66. - - Him the old man Priam first beheld, as he sped across the plain, - blazing as the star that cometh forth at harvest-time, and plain - seen his rays shine forth amid the host of stars in the darkness - of night, the star whose name men call Orion’s Dog. Brightest of - all is he, yet for an evil sign is he set, and bringeth much - fever upon hapless men. Even so on Achilles’ breast the bronze - gleamed as he ran.[42] - -Footnote 42: - - _Iliad_, xxii. 25-32. - -In the corresponding passage relating to Diomed (v. 4-7), the _naïve_ -literalness with which the ‘baths of Ocean’ are thought of is conveyed -by the hint that the star shone at rising with increased brilliancy -through having newly washed in them. - -Abnormal celestial appearances are scarcely noticed in the Homeric -poems. Certain portentous darknesses, reinforcing the solemnity of -crises of battle, or impending doom,[43] are much too vaguely defined to -be treated as indexes to natural phenomena of any kind. Nevertheless, -Professor Stockwell finds that, by a curious coincidence, Ajax’s Prayer -to Father Zeus for death—if death was decreed—in the light, might very -well have been uttered during a total eclipse of the sun, the lunar -shadow having passed centrally over the Hellespont at 2h. 21 min. P.M. -on August 28, 1184 B.C.[44] Comets, however, have left not even the -suspicion of a trace in these early songs; nor do they embody any -tradition of a star shower, or of a display of Northern Lights. The rain -of blood, by which Zeus presaged and celebrated the death of -Sarpedon,[45] might, it is true, be thought to embody a reminiscence of -a crimson aurora, frequently, in early times, chronicled under that -form; but the portent indicated is more probably an actual shower of -rain tinged red by a microscopic alga. An unmistakable meteor, however, -furnishes one of the glowing similes of the Iliad. By its help the -irresistible swiftness and unexpectedness of Athene’s descent from -Olympus to the Scamandrian plain are illustrated. - -Footnote 43: - - _Iliad_, xv. 668; xvii. 366; _Odyssey_, xx. 356. - -Footnote 44: - - _Astronomical Journal_, Nos. 220, 221. - -Footnote 45: - - _Iliad_, xvi. 459; also xi. 53. - - Even as the son of Kronos the crooked counsellor sendeth a star, - a portent for mariners or a wide host of men, bright shining, - and therefrom are scattered sparks in multitude; even in such - guise sped Pallas Athene to earth, and leapt into their - midst.[46] - -Footnote 46: - - _Iliad_, iv. 75-79. - -In the Homeric verses the Milky Way—the ‘path of souls’ of -prairie-roving Indians, the mediæval ‘way of pilgrimage’[47]—finds no -place. Yet its conspicuousness, as seen across our misty air, gives an -imperfect idea of the lustre with which it spans the translucent vault -which drew the wondering gaze of the Achæan bard. - -Footnote 47: - - To Compostella. The popular German name for the Milky Way is still - _Jakobsstrasse_, while the three stars of Orion’s belt are designated, - in the same connexion, _Jakobsstab_, staff of St James. - -The point of most significance about Homer’s scanty astronomical notions -is that they were of home growth. They are precisely such as would arise -among a people in an incipient stage of civilisation, simple, direct, -and childlike in their mode of regarding natural phenomena, yet -incapable of founding upon them any close or connected reasoning. Of -Oriental mysticism there is not a vestige. No occult influences rain -from the sky. Not so much as a square inch of foundation is laid for the -astrological superstructure. It is true that Sirius is a ‘baleful star’; -but it is in the sense of being a harbinger of hot weather. Possibly, or -probably, it is regarded as a concomitant cause, no less than as a sign -of the August droughts; indeed the _post hoc_ and the _propter hoc_ -were, in those ages, not easily separable; the effect, however, in any -case, was purely physical, and so unfit to become the starting-point of -a superstition. - -The Homeric names of the stars, too, betray common reminiscences rather -than foreign intercourse. They are all either native, or naturalised on -Greek soil. The transplanted fable of Orion has taken root and -flourished there. The cosmopolitan Bear is known by her familiar Greek -name. Boötes is a Greek husbandman, variously identified with Arcas, son -of Callisto, or with Icarus, the luckless mandatory of Dionysus. The -Pleiades and the Hyades are intelligibly designated in Greek. The former -word is usually derived from _pleîn_, to sail; the heliacal rising of -the ‘tangled’ stars in the middle of May having served, from the time of -Hesiod, to mark the opening of the season safe for navigation, and their -cosmical setting, at the end of October, its close. But this etymology -was most likely an after-thought. Long before rules for navigating the -Ægean came to be formulated, the ‘sailing-stars’ must have been -designated by name amongst the Achæan tribes. Besides, Homer is ignorant -of any such association. Now in Arabic the Pleiades are called _Eth -Thuraiyâ_, from _therwa_, copious, abundant. The meaning conveyed is -that of many gathered into a small space; and it is quite similar to -that of the Biblical _kîmah_, a near connexion of the Assyrian _kimtu_, -family.[48] Analogy, then, almost irresistibly points to the -interpretation of Pleiades by the Greek _pleiones_, many, or _pleîos_, -full; giving to the term, in either case, the obvious signification of a -‘cluster.’ - -Footnote 48: - - R. Brown, _Phainomena of Aratus_, p. 9; Delitzsch, _The Hebrew - Language_, p. 69. - -Of the Hyades, similarly, the ‘rainy’ association seems somewhat -far-fetched. They rise and set respectively about four days later than -the Pleiades; so that, as prognostics of the seasons, it would be -difficult to draw a permanent distinction between the two groups; yet -one was traditionally held to bring fair, the other foul weather. There -can be little doubt that an etymological confusion lay at the bottom of -this inconsistency. ‘To rain,’ in Greek is _huein_; but _hus_ (cognate -with ‘sow’) means a ‘pig.’ Moreover, in old Latin, the Hyades were -called _Suculæ_ (‘little pigs’); although the misapprehension which he -supposed to be betrayed by the term was rebuked by Cicero.[49] Possibly -the misapprehension was the other way. It is quite likely that ‘Suculæ’ -preserved the original meaning of ‘Hyades,’ and that the pluvious -derivation was invented at a later time, when the conception of the -seven stars in the head of the Bull as a ‘litter of pigs’ had come to -appear incongruous and inelegant. It has, nevertheless, just that -character of _naïveté_ which stamps it as authentic. Witness the popular -names of the sister-group—the widely-diffused ‘hen and chickens,’ Sancho -Panza’s ‘las siete cabrillas,’ met and discoursed with during his famous -aërial voyage on the back of Clavileño, the Sicilian ‘seven -dovelets,’—all designating the Pleiades. Still more to the purpose is -the Anglo-Saxon ‘boar-throng,’ which, by a haphazard identification, has -been translated as Orion, but which Grimm, on better grounds, suggests -may really apply to the Hyades.[50] It is scarcely credible that any -other constellation can be indicated by a term so manifestly reproducing -the ‘Suculæ’ of Latin and Sabine husbandmen. - -Footnote 49: - - _De Naturâ Deorum_, lib. ii. cap. 43. - -Footnote 50: - - _Teutonic Mythology_ (Stallybrass), vol. ii. p. 729. - -The Homeric scheme of the heavens, then (such as it is), was produced at -home. No stellar lore had as yet been imported from abroad. An original -community of ideas is just traceable in the names of some of the stars; -that is all. The epoch of instruction by more learned neighbours was -still to come. The Signs of the Zodiac were certainly unknown to Homer, -yet their shining array had been marshalled from the banks of the -Euphrates at least 2000 years before the commencement of the Christian -era. Their introduction into Greece is attributed to Cleostratus of -Tenedos, near, or shortly after, the end of the sixth century B.C. By -that time, too, acquaintance had been made with the ‘Phœnician’ -constellation of the Lesser Bear, and with the wanderings of the -planets. Astronomical communications, in fact, began to pour into Hellas -from Egypt, Babylonia, and Phœnicia about the seventh century B.C. Now, -if there were any reasonable doubt that ‘blind Melesigenes’ lived at a -period anterior to this, it would be removed by the consideration of -what he lets fall about the heavenly bodies. For, though he might have -ignored formal astronomy, he could not have remained unconscious of such -striking and popular facts as the identity of Hesperus and Phosphorus, -the Sidonian pilots’ direction of their course by the ‘Cynosure,’ or the -mapping-out of the sun’s path among the stars by a series of luminous -figures of beasts and men. - -Thus the hypothesis of a late origin for the Iliad and Odyssey is -negatived by the astronomical ignorance betrayed in them. It has, -however, gradations; whence some hints as to the relative age of the two -epics may be derived. The differences between them in this respect are, -it is true, small, and they both stand approximately on the same -astronomical level with the poems of Hesiod. Yet an attentive study of -what they have to tell us about the stars affords some grounds for -placing the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Works and Days in a descending -series as to time. - -In the first place, the division of the month into three periods of ten -days each is unknown in the Iliad, is barely hinted at in the Odyssey, -but is brought into detailed notice in the Hesiodic calendar. Further, -the ‘turning-points of the sun’ are unmentioned in the Iliad, but serve -in the Odyssey, by their position on the horizon, to indicate direction; -while the winter solstice figures as a well-marked epoch in the Works -and Days. Hesiod, moreover, designates the dog-star (not expressly -mentioned in the Odyssey) by a name of which the author of the Iliad was -certainly ignorant. Besides which an additional constellation (Boötes) -to those named in the Iliad appears in the Odyssey and the Works and -Days; while the title ‘Hyperion,’ applied substantively to the sun in -the Odyssey, is used only adjectivally in the Iliad. Finally, stellar -mythology begins with Hesiod; Homer (whether the Iliadic or the -Odyssean) takes the names of the stars as he finds them, without seeking -to connect them with any sublunary occurrences. - -To be sure, differences of place and purpose might account for some of -these discrepancies, yet their cumulative effect in fixing relative -epochs is considerable; and, even apart from chronology, it is something -to look towards the skies with the ‘most high poet,’ and to retrace, -with the aid of our own better knowledge, the simple meanings their -glorious aspect held for him. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE DOG IN HOMER. - - -TWO sets of strongly contrasted, nay, one might beforehand have thought -mutually exclusive qualities, go to make up the canine character. In all -ages, and amongst all nations, the dog has become a byword for its -uncleanly habits, disgusting voracity, its quarrelsome and aggressive -selfishness. The cynic, or ‘dog-like’ philosopher, is a type of what is -unamiable in human nature. Growling, snarling, whining, barking, -snapping and biting, crouching and fawning, constitute a vocabulary -descriptive of canine deportment conveying none but repulsive and odious -associations. Our language pursues the animal through its different -varieties and stages of existence in order to find varying epithets of -contumely and reproach. The universal and almost prehistoric term of -abuse formed by the simple patronymic—so to speak—has lost little of its -pristine favour, and none of its pristine force; while amongst ourselves -‘hound,’ ‘puppy,’ ‘cur,’ ‘whelp,’ and ‘cub,’ come in as harmonics of the -fundamental note of insult. - -On the other hand, some millenniums of experience have constituted the -dog a type of incorruptible fidelity, patient abnegation, devoted -attachment reaching unto and beyond the grave. Many animals have been -made the slaves and victims of man; some have been found capable of -becoming his willing allies; none, save the dog, affords to his master a -true and intelligent companionship. Other members of the brute creation -are subdued by domestication; the dog is, it might be said, transfigured -by it. A new nature awakes in him. A higher ideal presents itself to -him. His dormant affections are kindled; his latent intelligence -develops. The overwhelming fascination of humanity submerges his native -ignoble instincts, evokes virtues which man himself admires rather than -practises, engages a pathetic confidence, inspires an indomitable love. -Literature teems with instances of canine constancy and self-devotion. -The long life-in-death of ‘Grey Friars Bobby’ forms no prodigy in the -history of his race. From the dog of Colophon to the dog of Bairnsdale, -man’s four-footed friend has been found capable of the supreme sacrifice -which one living creature can make for another. Even in the dim dawnings -of civilisation this animal was chosen as the symbol of watchful -attendance and untiring subordination. The bright star Sirius, owing to -its close waiting on the ‘giant’ of the skies, was from the earliest -time known as the ‘dog of Orion.’ A brace of hounds typified to the -ardent imagination of the Vedic poets the inseparable association with -the sun of the morning and evening twilight. Æschylus elevates and -enlarges the idea of divine companionship in the eagle by calling it the -‘winged dog of Zeus.’[51] Clytemnestra, in her hypocritical -protestations before the elders of Argos, could find no more striking -image of fidelity than that of a house-dog left by its master to guard -his hearth and possessions.[52] - -Footnote 51: - - _Agamemnon_, 133; and _Prometheus_, 1057. - -Footnote 52: - - _Agamemnon_, 520. - -Two opposing currents of sentiment regarding the animal have thus from -the first set strongly in—one of repulsion verging towards abhorrence, -the other of sympathy touched by the yearning pity which a superior -being cannot choose but feel towards an inferior laying at his feet the -priceless gift of love. But since his higher qualities develop, as it -would seem, exclusively under the stimulation of human influence, it -might have been anticipated, and it is actually the case, that in those -countries where the dog is neglected, he is also despised, as by an -inevitable reaction it must follow that where he is despised, he will -also be neglected. It is accordingly among peoples whose pursuits repel -his co-operation that the sinister view prevails, while in hunting and -pastoral regions his credit grows as his faculties are cultivated, and -from the minister and delegate, he creeps by insensible gradations into -the place of canine beatitude as the friend of man. The attitude of -repulsion is, as is well known, general amongst Mahometan populations, -and may be described—although with notable exceptions, such as of the -ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, the modern Parsees and Japanese—as the -Oriental position towards the species; while a benevolent sentiment is, -on the whole, characteristic of Western nations. - -Now each of these opposite views is strongly and characteristically -represented in the Homeric poems; represented not as the mere reflection -of a popular instinct, but with a certain ardour of personal feeling -which now and again seems for a moment to draw back the veil of epic -impersonality from before the living face of the poet. To the bigoted -believers in an indivisible Homer the fact is, no doubt, of most -perplexing import, and we leave them to account for it as best they may; -but to impartial inquirers it affords at once a clue and an -illumination. For the Epic of Troy is not more sharply characterised by -canine antipathy than the Song of Ulysses by canine sympathy; while, to -enhance the contrast, dislike to the dog is most remarkably associated -with a vivid and untiring enthusiasm for the horse; and deep feeling for -the dog with comparative indifference to the equine race. More -effectually than the most elaborate arguments of the Separatists, this -innate disparity of sentiment appears to shiver the long contested unity -of Homeric authorship. - -To descend, however, to particulars. Homeric dogs may be divided into -four categories. (1) Dogs used in the chace; (2) shepherds’ dogs; (3) -watch-dogs and house-dogs; (4) scavenger dogs. In the Iliad, the first -two classes occur incidentally only, either by way of illustration or in -the course of some episodical narrative, such as that of the Calydonian -boar-hunt in the Ninth Book. The plastic circumference of the Shield of -Achilles includes a cameo of dog-life; but it is noticeable that the -position there assigned to the animal is of a somewhat ignominious -character, and is indicated with a perceptible touch of contempt. The -scene is depicted in the following lines:— - - Of straight-horn’d cattle too a herd was grav’n; - Of gold and tin the heifers all were wrought; - They to the pasture from the cattle-yard, - With gentle lowings, by a babbling stream, - Where quiv’ring reed-beds rustled, slowly moved. - Four golden shepherds walk’d beside the herd, - By nine swift dogs attended; then amid - The foremost heifers sprang two lions fierce - Upon the lordly bull; he, bellowing loud, - Was dragg’d along, by dogs and youths pursu’d. - The tough bull’s hide they tore, and gorging lapp’d - Th’ intestines and dark blood; with vain attempt - The herdsmen following closely, to th’ attack - Cheer’d their swift dogs; these shunn’d the lions’ jaws, - And close around them baying, held aloof.[53] - -Footnote 53: - - _Iliad_, xviii. 573-86 (Lord Derby’s translation). For illustrations - drawn from the dog’s instinctive fear of the lion, see also v. 476; - xvii. 65-67. - -It can scarcely be maintained that a lover of the species would have -selected the incident for typical representation in his great -world-picture. - -The direct Iliadic references to dogs, on the other hand, show clearly -that they were domesticated in Troy, that they lived in the tents of the -Achæan chiefs, (probably with a guarding office), and that they roamed -the camp, devouring offal, and hideously contending with vultures and -other feathered rivals for the human remains left unburied on the field -of battle. The circumstance that in this revolting capacity they were -predominantly present to the mind of the poet unveils the secret of his -profound aversion. Not as the humble and faithful minister of man, -hearkening to his voice, hanging on his looks, holding his life at a -pin’s fee in comparison with his service, the author of the Iliad -conceived of the dog; but as a filthy and bloodthirsty beast of prey, -the foul outrager of the sanctities of death, the ravenous and -undiscriminating violator of the precious casket of the human soul. In -the tragic appeal of Priam to Hector as he awaits the onslaught of -Achilles beneath the walls of Troy, this aversion touches its darkest -depth, and obtains an almost savage completeness of expression. -Anticipating the imminent catastrophe of his house and kingdom, the -despairing old man thus portrays his own approaching doom— - - Me last, when by some foeman’s stroke or thrust - The spirit from these feeble limbs is driv’n, - Insatiate dogs shall tear at my own door; - The dogs my care has rear’d, my table fed. - The guardians of my gates shall lap my blood, - And crave and madden, crouching in the porch.[54] - -Footnote 54: - - Book xxii. 66-71. (Author.) - -Is it credible that the same mind which was capable of conjuring up this -abhorrent vision should have conceived the pathetic picture of the -faithful hound in the Odyssey? Nor can there be found, in the wide range -of the great Ilian epic, a single passage inconsistent in spirit with -the lines cited above. Throughout its cantos, in which the usefulness of -the animal is nevertheless amply recognised, and his peculiarities -sketched with graphic power and truthfulness, runs, like a dark thread, -the remembrance of his hateful office as the inflictor of the last and -most atrocious insult upon ‘miserable humanity.’[55] One of the leading -‘motives’ of the poem is, indeed, the fate of the body after death. The -overmastering importance attached to its honourable interment forms the -hinge upon which a considerable portion of the action turns. The dread -of its desecration continually haunts the imagination of the poet, and -broods alike over the ramparts of Ilium and the tents of Greece. From -the first lines almost to the last the loathsome processes of canine -sepulture stand out as the direst result of defeat—the crowning terror -of death. Among the disastrous effects of the wrath of Achilles -foreshadowed in the opening invocation, the visible and tangible horror -is afforded by ‘devouring dogs and hungry vultures’ exercising their -revolting function on the corpses of the slain; before the dying eyes of -Hector rises, like a nightmare, the horrible anticipation of becoming -the prey of ‘Achæan hounds,’[56] while his fierce adversary refuses to -impair the gloomy perfection of his vengeance by remitting that supreme -penalty;[57] next to the honours of his funeral-pyre, the chiefest -consolation offered to the Shade of Patroclus is the promise to make the -body of his slayer food for curs;[58] in her despair, Hecuba shrieks -that she brought forth her son to ‘glut swift-footed dogs,’[59] and bids -Priam not seek to avert the abhorred doom. These instances, which it -would be easy to multiply, are unmodified by a solitary expression of -tenderness towards canine nature, or a single example of canine -affection towards man. - -Footnote 55: - - Book xxii. 76. - -Footnote 56: - - _Iliad_, xxii. 339. - -Footnote 57: - - _Ib._ 348. - -Footnote 58: - - _Ib._ xxiii. 183. - -Footnote 59: - - _Ib._ xxiv. 211. - -It is true that a different view has been advocated by Sir William -Geddes, who, in his valuable work, ‘The Problem of the Homeric Poems,’ -first dwelt in detail on the contrasted treatment of the horse and dog -in those early epics. He did not, however, stop there. A theory, -designed to solve the secular puzzle of Homeric authorship, had -presented itself to him, and demanded for its support a somewhat complex -marshalling of facts. His contention was briefly this:—that the Odyssey, -with the ten books of the Iliad[60] amputated by Mr. Grote’s critical -knife from the trunk of a supposed primitive Achilleid, are the work of -one and the same author, an Ionian of Asia Minor, to whom the venerable -name of Homer properly belongs; while the fourteen books constituting -the nucleus and main substance of our Iliad are abandoned to an unknown -Thessalian bard. He has not, indeed, succeeded in engaging on his side -the general opinion of the learned, yet it cannot be denied that his -ingenious and patient analysis of the Homeric texts has served to -develop some highly suggestive minor points. The validity of his main -argument obviously depends, in the first place, upon the discovery of -striking correspondences between the Odyssey and the non-Achillean -cantos of the Iliad; in the second, upon the exposure of irreconcilable -discrepancies between the Odyssey and the Grotean Achilleid. But the -attempt is really hopeless to transplant the canine sympathy manifest in -the Odyssey to any part of the Iliad, or to localise in any particular -section of the Iliad the equine sympathies displayed throughout the -many-coloured tissue of its composition. - -Footnote 60: - - These are Books ii. to vii. inclusive, ix. x. xxiii. and xxiv. The - _Achilleid_ thus consists of Books i. viii. and xi.-xxii. - -Everywhere alike enthusiasm for the horse is evoked, vividly and -spontaneously, on all suitable occasions. Ardent admiration is uniformly -bestowed upon his powers and faculties. He is nowhere passed by with -indifference. The verses glow with a kind of rapture of enjoyment that -describe his strength and beauty, his eager spirit and fine nervous -organisation, his intelligent and disinterested participation in human -struggles and triumphs. In the region of the Iliad claimed for the -Odyssean Homer, it suffices to point to the episode of the capture by -Diomed and Sthenelus of the divinely-descended steeds of Æneas;[61] to -the careful provision of ambrosial forage for the horses of Heré along -the shores of Simoeis;[62] to the resplendent simile of Book vi.;[63] to -the gleeful zeal with which Odysseus and Diomed secure, as the fruit and -crown of their nocturnal expedition, the milk-white coursers of -Rhesus;[64] to the living fervour imported into the chariot-race at the -funeral games of Patroclus; to the tender pathos with which Achilles -describes the grief of his immortal horses for their well-loved -charioteer.[65] The enumeration of similar examples from non-Achillean -cantos might be carried much further, but where is the use of ‘breaking -in an open door’? The evidence is overwhelming as to homogeneity of -sentiment, in this important respect, through the entire Iliad. If more -than one author was concerned in its production, the coadjutors were at -least unanimous in their glowing admiration for the heroic animal of -battle. - -Footnote 61: - - _Iliad_, v. 267. - -Footnote 62: - - _Ib._ 775-77. - -Footnote 63: - - This is certainly original in book vi. It comes in as an awkward - interpolation at xv. 263. - -Footnote 64: - - _Iliad_, x. 474-569. - -Footnote 65: - - _Ib._ xxiii. 280-84. - -Nor can the search, in the same ten cantos, for indications of a -sympathetic feeling towards the dog consonant to that displayed in the -Odyssey, be pronounced successful. Certainly much stress cannot be laid, -for the purpose, upon the striking passage in the Twenty-third Book, -descriptive of the cremation of Patroclus; yet it makes the nearest -discoverable approach to the desired significance. It runs as follows in -Lord Derby’s translation: - - A hundred feet each way they built the pyre, - And on the summit, sorrowing, laid the dead. - Then many a sheep and many a slow-pac’d ox - They flay’d and dress’d around the fun’ral pyre; - Of all the beasts Achilles took the fat, - And covered o’er the dead from head to foot, - And heap’d the slaughter’d carcases around; - Then jars of honey plac’d, and fragrant oils, - Resting upon the couch; next, groaning loud, - Four pow’rful horses on the pyre he threw; - Then, of nine[66] dogs that at their master’s board - Had fed, he slaughter’d two upon his pyre; - Last, with the sword, by evil counsel sway’d, - Twelve noble youths he slew, the sons of Troy. - The fire’s devouring might he then applied, - And, groaning, on his lov’d companion call’d.[67] - -Footnote 66: - - The number _nine_ is curiously associated with the canine species. The - herdsmen’s pack on the Shield of Achilles consists of _nine_; _nine_ - were the dogs of Patroclus; and we learn from Mr. Richardson (_Dogs: - their Origin and Varieties_, p. 37), that Fingal kept _nine_ great - dogs, and _nine_ smaller game-starting dogs. - -Footnote 67: - - _Iliad_, xxiii. 164-78. - -These sanguinary rites have been thought to afford proof that canine -companionship was necessary to the happiness of a Greek hero in the -other world. For, amongst rude peoples, from the Scythians of -Herodotus[68] to the Indians of Patagonia, such sacrifices have been a -common mode of testifying respect to the dead. And it may readily be -admitted that their originally inspiring idea was that of continued -association after death with the objects most valued in life. But such -an idea appears to have been very remotely, if at all, present to the -mind of our poet. The Ghost of Patroclus, at any rate, though -sufficiently communicative, expresses no desire for canine, equine, -bovine, or ovine society, although specimens of all four species were -immolated in its honour. The purpose of Achilles in instituting the -ghastly solemnity was, as he himself expressed it, - -Footnote 68: - - Book iv. 71, 72. - - That with provision meet the dead may pass - Down to the realms of night.[69] - -Footnote 69: - - Geddes, _Problem_, &c., p. 227. - -But the motives that crowded upon his fierce soul were probably in truth -as multitudinous as the waves of passion which rolled over it. He -desired to appease the parted spirit of his friend with a sacrifice -matching his own pride and the extent of his bereavement. Still more, he -sought to glut his vengeance, and allay, if possible, the intolerable -pangs of his grief. He perhaps dimly imaged to himself a pompous funeral -throng accompanying the beloved soul even to the gates of Hades, -provision for the way being supplied by the flesh of sheep and oxen, an -escort by horses and dogs, while an air of gloomy triumph was imparted -to the shadowy procession by the hostile presence of outraged and -indignant human shades. A similar ceremony was put in practice, by -comparison recently, in Lithuania. When the still pagan Grand Duke -Gedimin died in 1341, his body was laid on a pyre and burned with two -hounds, two falcons, his horse saddled and still living, and a favourite -servant.[70] But here the disembodied company was altogether friendly, -and may have been thought of as willingly paying a last tribute of -homage to their lord. - -Footnote 70: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_, p. 417. - -The information is in any case worth having that Patroclus, like Priam, -kept a number of ‘table-dogs,’ whose presence doubtless contributed in -some degree to the stateliness of his surroundings. It is, however, -given casually, without a word of comment, as if the bard instinctively -shrank from dwelling on the intimate personal relations of the animal to -man. The son of Menœtius had a gentle soul, and we cannot doubt, -although no hint of such affection is communicated, that he loved his -dogs, and was loved by them. Of the horses accustomed to his -guidance—the immortal pair of Achilles—we indeed hear how they stood, -day after day, with drooping heads and silken manes sweeping the ground, -in sorrow for his and their lost friend; but no dog is permitted to -whine his sense of bereavement beside the body of Patroclus; no dog -misses the vanished caress of his master’s hand; no dog crouches beside -Achilles in his solitude, or offers to his unsurpassed grief the dumb -and wistful consolation of his sympathy. The privilege of sharing the -sorrows, as of winning the applause of humanity, is, in the Iliad, -reserved exclusively for the equine race. - -Turning to the Odyssey, we find ourselves in a changed world. Ships have -here become the ‘chariots of the sea’;[71] navigation usurps the honour -and interest of charioteering; a favourable breeze imparts the cheering -sense of companionship felt by a practised rider with his trusty steed. -The scenery on shore leaves this sentiment undisturbed. Rocky Ithaca, -Telemachus informs Menelaus,[72] contains neither wide tracks for -chariot-driving, nor deep meadows for horse-pasture; it is a -goat-feeding land, though more beautiful, to his mind, in its ruggedness -than even the ‘spacious plain’ of Sparta, with its rich fields of -lotus-grass, its sedgy flats, its waving tracts of ‘white barley,’ -wheat, and spelt. A suitable habitat is thus, in his native island, -wanting for the horse, who is accordingly relegated to an obscure corner -of the stage, while the foreground of animal life is occupied by his -less imposing rival in the regard of man. The dog is, in fact, the -characteristic and conspicuous animal of the Odyssey, as the horse is of -the Iliad. Xanthus and Balius, the wind-begotten steeds bestowed by -Poseidon upon the sire of Achilles, who own the sorrowful human gift of -tears, and the superhuman gift of prophetic speech, are replaced[73] by -the more homely, but not less pathetic, figure of Argus, the dog of -Odysseus, whose fidelity through a score of years we feel to be no -poetical fiction, but simply a poetical enhancement of a familiar fact. -Canine society is, indeed, placed by the author of the Odyssey on a -higher level than it occupies, perhaps, in any other work of the -imagination. When Telemachus, starting into sudden manhood under the -tutelage of Athene, goes forth to lay his wrongs before the first -Assembly convened in Ithaca since his father’s ‘hollow ships’ sailed for -Troy, we are told that he carried in his hand a brazen spear, and that -the goddess poured out upon him a divine radiance of beauty such that -the people marvelled as they gazed on him. But the most singular and -significant part of the description lies in the statement (thrice -repeated on similar occasions[74]) that he went ‘not alone; two -swift-footed dogs followed him.’ Alone indeed he was, as far as human -companionship was concerned—a helpless youth, isolated and indignant in -the midst of a riotous and overbearing crew, intent not less upon -wasting his substance than upon wooing his unwidowed mother. Comrade or -attendant he had none, but instead of both, a pair of four-footed -sympathisers, evidently regarded as adding dignity to his appearance in -public, as well as imparting the strengthening consciousness of social -support. The conjunction, as Mr. Mahaffy well remarks, shows an intense -appreciation of dog-nature. - -Footnote 71: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 708; cf. Geddes, _Problem, &c._, p. 215. - -Footnote 72: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 605. - -Footnote 73: - - Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_, pp. 57, 63. - -Footnote 74: - - _Odyssey_, ii. 11; xvii. 62; xx. 145. - -In the cottage of Eumæus the swineherd, Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, -weary with long wanderings, a stranger in peril of his life in his own -islet-kingdom, finds his first hospitable refuge. Here again we are met -by graphic and frequent sketches of canine manners and character. In the -office of guarding and governing the 960 porkers composing his herd, -Eumæus had the aid of four dogs reared by himself. They were large and -fierce, ‘like wild beasts’;[75] but the savage instincts even of these -half-reclaimed creatures are discovered to be directed towards duty, to -be subdued by affection, nay, to be elevated by a touch of supersensual -awe. If they erred, it was by excess of zeal in the cause of law and -order. For when Odysseus (it must be remembered, in extremely -disreputable guise) approached the thorn-hedged enclosure, they set upon -him together, barking furiously, and threatening to tear him to pieces -on the spot. He had not, however, edged his way between Scylla and -Charybdis to perish thus ingloriously. With unfailing presence of mind -he instantly took up an attitude of non-resistance, stood still and laid -aside his staff. This passivity doubtless produced some hesitation on -the part of his assailants, for when the swineherd hurried out to the -rescue, he was still unhurt. No small amount of compulsion, both moral -and physical—exerted by means of objurgatory remonstrance, coupled with -plentiful stone-pelting—was, however, required to calm the ardour of -such impetuous allies. - -Footnote 75: - - _Odyssey_, xiv. 21. - -Nevertheless, their ferocity is represented as far from -undiscriminating. It is, in fact, strictly limited by their official -responsibilities. They know how to suit their address to their company, -from an Olympian denizen to a homeless tramp, and get unexpected -opportunities of displaying these social accomplishments. For the rustic -dwelling of Eumæus becomes a rendezvous for the principal personages of -the story, and the demeanour of the four dogs is a leading incident, -carefully recorded, connected with the arrival of each. We have just -seen what an obstreperous reception they gave to the disguised king of -Ithaca. Telemachus, on the other hand, they rushed to welcome, fawning -and wagging their tails _without barking_,[76] as that quick-witted -vagrant, whose arrival had preceded his, was the first to observe. But -when Athene visited the farm for the purpose of bringing about the -recognition of the father by the son, which was the first step towards -retribution upon their common enemies, while Telemachus remained -unconscious of her presence—’for not to all do the gods manifest -themselves openly’—it is said, with a very remarkable coupling of man -and beast, that ‘Odysseus and the dogs saw her’;[77] and the mysterious -sense of the supernatural attributed in much folk-lore to the canine -species found vent in whimperings of fear and panic-stricken withdrawal. - -Footnote 76: - - _Odyssey_, xvi. 4-10. - -Footnote 77: - - _Odyssey_, xvi. 162. - -We are next transported to the scene of the revellings of the Suitors, -and the fortitude of Penelope. The sight of the once familiar turreted -enclosure of his palace, and the sound of the well-remembered voice and -lyre of the minstrel Phemius, proclaiming the progress of the -festivities, all but overturned the equanimity of the counterfeit -mendicant. His practised powers of dissimulation, however, came to his -aid; and grasping the hand of his unsuspecting retainer, he brought, -with a cunningly devised speech, his tell-tale emotion into harmony with -his assumed character. They advanced to the threshold, and there, on a -dung-heap, half devoured with insect parasites, lay a dog—the dog Argus. -But we must allow the poet to tell the story in his own way. - - Thus as they spake, a dog that lay apart, - Lifted his head, and pricked his list’ning ears, - Argus, whom erst Odysseus patient bred, - But use of him had none; for ere that day, - He sailed for sacred Troy; and other men - Had trained and led him forth o’er field and fell, - To chase wild goats, hares, and the pricket deer. - But now, his master gone, in foul neglect, - On dung of ox and mule he made his couch; - Fattening manure, heaped at the palace-gate, - Till spread to enrich Odysseus’ wide domain; - Thus stretched, with vermin swarming, Argus lay. - But when he saw Odysseus close approach, - He knew, and wagged his tail, and dropped his ears, - Yet could not rise to fawn upon his lord, - Who paused, and stood, and brushed aside a tear, - Hiding his grief. Then thus with crafty speech: - ‘Eumæus, sure ‘tis wonder in such plight - To see this dog, of goodly form and limbs; - But tell me did his fleetness match his shape, - Or was he such as, reared for pride and show, - Inactive at their masters’ tables feed?’ - Eumæus heard, and quickly made reply: - ‘To one who perished in a distant land - This dog belongs. But couldst thou see him now - Such as Odysseus left him, bound for Troy, - Thou well might’st wonder at his strength and speed. - ‘Mid the deep thickets of the forest glades, - No game escaped his swift pursuing feet, - Nor hound could match his prowess in the chace. - But now his days are evil, since his lord - Is dead, and careless women heed him not. - For when the master’s hand no longer rules, - Servants no longer work in order due. - Full half the virtue leaves the man condemned - By wide-eyed Zeus to drag the servile chain.’ - Thus as he spake, he crossed the stately hall, - And took his place amidst the suitors’ train. - But Argus died; for dark doom ravished him, - Greeting Odysseus after twenty years.[78] - -Footnote 78: - - _Odyssey_, xvii. 290-327 (Author’s translation). - -Surely—even thus inadequately rendered—the most poignantly pathetic -narrative of dog-life in literature! The hero, returning after a -generation of absence, in a disguise impenetrable to son, servants, nay -to the wife of his bosom, is recognised by one solitary living creature, -a dog. And to this faithful animal, unforgetting in his forlorn -decrepitude, whose affectionate gestures form his only welcome to the -home now occupied by unscrupulous foes, ready to take his life at the -first hint of his identity, he is obliged to refuse a stroke of his -hand, or so much as a glance of his eye, to soothe the fatal spasm of -his joy. A case that might well draw a tear, even from the much-enduring -son of Laertes. - -It has not escaped the acumen of Sir William Geddes[79] that the -compliment of an individual name is, in the Iliad, paid exclusively -amongst the brute creation to horses; in the Odyssey (setting aside the -mythical coursers of the Dawn, Book xxiii. 246) to a single dog. Now -this may at first sight seem to be a trifling point; but a very little -consideration will suffice to show its significance. To the author of -the Odyssey, at least, the imposition, or even the disclosure of a name, -was a matter clothed with a certain solemn importance. He lets us know -how and why his hero came to be called ‘Odysseus,’ and furnishes us, to -the best of his ability, with an etymological interpretation of that -ill-omened title.[80] How distinctively human a thing it is to have a -name we are made to feel when Alcinous conjures his mysterious guest to -reveal the designation by which he is known to his parents, -fellow-citizens, and countrymen, ‘since no man, good or bad, is -anonymous’![81] And the reply is couched in an earnest and exalted -strain, conveying at once the extent of the trust reposed, and the -momentousness of the revelation granted— - -Footnote 79: - - _Problem of the Homeric Poems_, p. 218. - -Footnote 80: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 409. - -Footnote 81: - - _Ib._ viii. 552. - - Ulysses, from Laertes sprung, am I, - Vers’d in the wiles of men, and fam’d afar.[82] - -Footnote 82: - - _Ib._ ix. 19, 20. - -The same scene, thrown into a grotesque form, is repeated in the cave of -Polyphemus, where the upshot of the adventure depends wholly upon the -prudence of the storm-tossed chieftain in responding to the monster’s -vinous enthusiasm with the mock disclosure of a _no-name_. - -These illustrations help to make it plain that, in assigning to brutes -individual appellations, we bestow upon them something essentially -human, which they have not, and cannot have of themselves, but which -marks their share in human interests, and their claim on human sympathy. -So accurately is this true, that a table showing the relative frequency -of individual nomenclature for different animals in various countries -would assuredly, on the strength of that fact alone, set forth their -relative position in the estimation of man. - -The dog Argus belonged presumably to the famous Molossian breed, the -first specimen of which was fabled to have been cast in bronze by -Hephæstus,[83] and presented by Jupiter to Cephalus, the eponymous ruler -of the island of Cephallenia. These animals were not more remarkable for -fierceness than for fidelity. To the race were assigned creatures of -such evil mythological reputation as the voracious hound of Hades, and -the barking pack of Scylla; a Molossian sent to Alexander was stated to -have brought down a lion; while, on the other hand, the canine detective -of Montargis had a rival in the army of Pyrrhus, whose funeral pile was -signalised by a desperate act of canine self-immolation; and the dog of -Eupolis (likewise a Molossian), after having torn to pieces a thieving -servant, died of grief and voluntary starvation on the grave of the -Æginetan poet.[84] These qualities are presented and perpetuated in the -four dogs of Eumæus and the neglected hound of Odysseus. - -Footnote 83: - - From this legend the poet not improbably derived the idea of the gold - and silver watch-dogs, framed by Hephæstus for Alcinous. _Odyssey_, - vii. 91-94. - -Footnote 84: - - Ælian, _De Natura Animalium_, vii. 10; x. 41. - -The Homeric poems ignore the varieties of the species— - - Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, - Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, - Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail. - -A dog is simply a dog, as a horse is a horse. But individual horses are -in the Iliad distinguished by differences of colour, while no -colour-epithet is anywhere applied to a dog. It is probable, however, -that in the shepherd-dogs of Albania an almost perfect reproduction of -the animals dear to the poet is still to be found. For in that wild and -mountainous region the Chaonian or Molossian race is said to survive -undegenerate, and, judging by the reports of travellers, its modern -representatives preserve the same vigilance in duty and alacrity in -attack which distinguished the formidable band of the Odyssean -swineherd. An English explorer, who had some serious encounters with -them, has described these fierce pastoral guardians as ‘varying in -colour from dark-brown to bright dun, their long fur being very soft, -thick, and glossy. In size they are equal to an English mastiff. They -have a long nose, delicate ears finely pointed, magnificent tail, legs -of a moderate length, with a body nicely rounded and compact.’[85] It is -added that they still possess the strength, swiftness, sagacity, and -fidelity anciently ascribed to them, showing their pedigree to be -probably unimpaired. - -Footnote 85: - - Hughes, _Travels in Albania_, vol. i. p. 483. - -The Suliot dog, or German boar-hound, comes from the same region, and -has also strong claims to the honours of Molossian descent. Some of the -breed were employed by the Turkish soldiery in the earlier part of this -century, to guard their outposts against Austrian attacks; and one -captured specimen, presented to the King of Naples, was reputed to be -the largest dog in existence.[86] Measuring nearly four feet from the -shoulder to the ground, he in fact rivalled the dimensions of a Shetland -pony. Others were secured as regimental pets, and used to make a grand -show in Brussels, marching with their respective corps to the blare of -martial music. They were fierce-natured animals, rough-coated, and -coarsely formed; mostly tan-coloured, but with blackish markings on the -back, shoulders, and round the ears. Tan-coloured, too, was probably the -immortal Argus; and we can further picture him, on the assumption that -the modern races west of Pindus reproduce many features of his aspect, -as a wolf-like hound, with a bushy tail, small, sensitive ears, and a -glance at once eager, intelligent, and wistful. Drooping ears in dogs -are, it may be remarked, a result of domestication; and varieties -distinguished by them were unknown in Europe until Alexander the Great -introduced from Asia some specimens of the mastiff kind. Consequently, -Shakespeare’s description of the pack of Theseus— - -Footnote 86: - - C. Hamilton Smith, _Naturalist’s Library_, vol. v. p. 151. - - With ears that sweep away the morning dew, - -is one among many examples of his genial disregard for archæological -detail. Argus, then, resembled ‘White-breasted Bran,’ the dog of Fingal, -in his possession of ‘an ear like a leaf.’ - -It is not too much to say that the opposed sentiments concerning the -relations of men with animals displayed in the Iliad and Odyssey suffice -in themselves to establish their diversity of origin. For they render it -psychologically impossible that they could have been the work of one -individual. The varying _prominence_ assigned respectively to the horse -and the dog might, it is true, be plausibly accounted for by the -diversified conditions of the two epics; but no shifting of scene can -explain a _reversal_ of sympathies. Such sentiments form part of the -ingrained structure of the mind. They take root before consciousness is -awake, or memory active; they live through the decades of a man’s life; -are transported with him from shore to shore; survive the enthusiasm of -friendship and the illusions of ambition; they can no more be eradicated -from the tenor of his thoughts than the type of his features can be -changed from Tartar to Caucasian, or the colour of his eyes from black -to blue. - -After all, the difficulty of separating the origin of these stupendous -productions is considerably diminished by the reflection that they are -but the surviving members of an extensive group of poems, all originally -attributed without discrimination to a single author. Not the Iliad and -Odyssey alone, but the ‘Cypria,’ the ‘Æthiopis,’ the ‘Lesser Iliad,’ and -other voluminous metrical compositions, were, in the old, uncritical, -individual sense, ‘Homeric.’ So apt is Fame to make - - A testament - As worldlings do, giving the sum of more - To that which had too much. - -The depreciatory tone of the query, ‘What’s in a name?’ should not lead -us to undervalue that indispensable requisite to sustained and -specialised existence. A name is, indeed, a power in itself. It serves, -at the least, as a peg to hang a personality upon, and not the most -‘powerful rhyme’ can sustain a reputation apart from its humble aid. But -the bard of Odysseus has long ceased to possess one. His only -appellation must remain for all time that of his hero in the Cyclops’ -cave. The jealous Muses have blotted him out from memory. We can only be -sure that he was a man who, like the protagonist of his immortal poem, -had known, and seen, and suffered many things, who had tears for the -past, and hopes for the future, had roamed far and near with a ‘hungry -heart,’ and had listened long and intently to the ‘many voices’ of the -moaning sea; who had tried his fellow-men, and found them, not all, nor -everywhere wanting; who had faith in the justice of Heaven and the -constancy of woman; who had experienced and had not disdained to cherish -in his heart the life-long fidelity of a dog. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - HOMERIC HORSES. - - -THE greater part of the Continent of Europe, including Britain, not -then, perhaps, insulated by a ‘silver streak,’ was prehistorically -overrun with shaggy ponies, large-headed and heavily-built, but shown by -their short, pointed ears and brush-tails to have been genuine _horses_, -exempt from leanings towards the asinine branch of the family. This, -indeed, would be a hazardous statement to make upon the sole evidence of -the fragmentary piles of these animals’ bones preserved in caves and -mounds; since even a complete skeleton could tell the most experienced -anatomist nothing as to the shape of their ears or the growth of hair -upon their tails. We happen, however, to be in possession of their -portraits. For the men of that time had artistic instincts, and drew -with force and freedom whatever seemed to them worthy of imitation; and -among their few subjects the contemporary wild horse was fortunately -included. With his outward aspect, then, we are, through the medium of -these diluvial _graffiti_, on bone-surfaces and stags’ antlers, -thoroughly familiar. - -It was that of a sturdy brute, thirteen or fourteen hands high, not ill -represented, on a reduced scale, by the Shetland ponies of our own time, -but untamed, and, it might have been thought, untameable. The race had -not then found its true vocation. Man was enabled, by his superior -intelligence, to make it his prey, but had not yet reached the higher -point of enlisting its matchless qualities in his service. Horses were, -accordingly, neither ridden nor driven, but hunted and eaten. Piles of -bones still attest the hippophagous habits of the ‘stone-men.’ At -Solutré, near Mâcon, a veritable equine Golgotha has been excavated; -similar accumulations were found in the recesses of Monte Pellegrino in -Sicily; and Sir Richard Owen made the curious remark that, evidently -through gastronomic selection, the osseous remains of colts and fillies -vastly predominated, in the débris from the cave of Bruniquel, over -those of full-grown horses.[87] - -Footnote 87: - - _Phil. Trans._ 1869, p. 535. - -The descent of our existing horses from the cave-animals is doubtful, -Eastern importations having at any rate greatly improved and modified -the breed. Wild horses, indeed, still at the end of the sixteenth -century roamed the slopes of the Vosges, and were hunted as game in -Poland and Lithuania;[88] but they may have been _muzins_, or runaways, -like the mustangs on the American prairies. Nowadays, certainly, the -animal is found in a state of aboriginal freedom nowhere save on the -steppes of Central Asia, in the primitive home of the race. There, in -all likelihood, the noblest of brute-forms was brought to perfection; -there it was dominated by man; and thence equestrian arts, with their -manifold results for civilisation, were propagated among the nations of -the world. They were taught to the Egyptians, it would seem, by their -shepherd conquerors, but were not learned by the Arabs until a couple of -millenniums later, the Arab contingent in Xerxes’ army having been a -‘camel-corps.’ The Persians, indeed, early picked up the habit of riding -from the example of their Tartar neighbours; yet that it was no original -Aryan accomplishment, the absence of a common Aryan word to express the -idea sufficiently shows. The relations of our primitive ancestors with -the animal had, at the most, reached what might be called the second, or -Scythian stage, when droves of half-wild horses took the place of -cattle, and mares’ milk was an important article of food. The aboriginal -cavalry of the desert belonged, on the other hand, to the wide kinship -of Attila’s Huns, who, separated from their steeds, were as helpless as -swans on shore. The war-chariot, however, was an Assyrian invention, -dating back at least to the seventeenth century B.C. It quickly reached -Egypt on one side, India on the other, and was adopted, some time before -the Dorian invasion, by the Achæans of the Peloponnesus. Mycenæan -grave-stones of about the twelfth century are engraven with battle and -hunting scenes, the actors in which are borne along in vehicles of -essentially the same construction with those brought before us in the -Iliad. They show scarcely any variation from the simple model developed -on the banks of the Tigris; yet there was no direct imitation. Homer was -profoundly unconscious of Ninevite splendours. He had no inkling of the -existence of a great Mesopotamian monarchy far away to the East, beyond -the rising-places of the sun, where one branch of his dichotomised -Ethiopians dwelt in peace. Nevertheless, the life that he knew, and that -was glorified by him, was touched with many influences from this unknown -land. If some of them filtered through Egypt on their way, acquaintance -with the art of charioteering certainly took a less circuitous route. -For the third horse of the original Assyrian team was never introduced -into Egypt, and was early discarded in Assyria itself. He figures -continually, however, in Homeric engagements, running, loosely attached, -beside the regularly yoked pair, one of whom he was destined to replace -in case of emergency. The presence, then, of this ‘silly,’ or roped -horse,[89] παρήορος ἵππος, demonstrates both the high antiquity, and the -Anatolian negotiation, of the loan which included him. - -Footnote 88: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_, pp. 38-39. - -Footnote 89: - - The word ‘silly’ thus applied is evidently cognate with the German - _Seile_ = Greek σειρὰ, a rope, from the root _swar_, to tie. So in the - _Ancient Mariner_, the ‘_silly_ buckets on the deck’ are the buckets - attached to a rope. Similarly, the third horse was sometimes called by - the Greeks σειραφόρος, ‘drawing by a rope.’ - -The fertile plains of Babylonia probably furnished the equine supplies -of Egypt and Asia Minor during some centuries before the Nisæan -stock,[90] cultivated in Media, acquired its Hellenic reputation. So far -as can be judged from ancient vase-paintings, the horses of Achilles and -Hector were of pure Oriental type. They owned the same points of -breeding—the small heads, slender yet muscular legs, and high-arching -necks, the same eager eye and proud bearing, characterising the steeds -that shared the triumphs of Asurbanipal and Shalmaneser. The same -quasi-heroic position, too, belonged to the horse in the camp before -Troy and at Nineveh. He shared, in both scenes of action, only the -nobler pursuits of man, and was exempt from the drudgery of servile -work. The beasts of burden, alike of the Iliad and of the sculptures of -Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, were mules and oxen, not horses. Equine -co-operation was reserved for war and the chace—for war alone, indeed, -by the Homeric Greeks, who appear always to have hunted on foot. This -was inevitable. Modes of conveyance, were they drawn by Sleipnir or -Areion, would have been an encumbrance in pursuing game through the -thickets of Parnassus, or over the broken skirts of Mount Ida. - -Footnote 90: - - Blakesley’s _Herodotus_, iii. 106. - -Only the chief Greek and Trojan leaders rode in chariots. Their -possession was a mark of distinction, and conferred the power of swift -locomotion, but was otherwise of no military use. Their owners alighted -from them for the serious business of fighting, although glad, if -worsted or disabled, to fall back upon the utmost speed of their horses -to carry them out of reach of their foes. This fashion of warfare, -however, had completely disappeared from Greece proper before the -historic era. Only in Cyprus, chariots are heard of among the -paraphernalia of battle in 498 B.C.[91] None figured at Marathon or -Mantineia; brigades of mounted men had taken their place. Cavalry, on -the other hand, had no share in the engagements before Troy. - -Footnote 91: - - _Herodotus_, v. 113. - -The definiteness of intention with which Homeric epithets were bestowed -is strikingly evident in the distribution of those relating to -equestrian pursuits. That they have no place worth mentioning in the -Odyssey, readers of our last chapter will be prepared to hear; nor are -they sprinkled at random through the Iliad. Thus, while the Trojans -collectively are frequently called ‘horse-tamers,’ _hippodamoi_—a -designation still appropriate to the dwellers round Hissarlik—the Greeks -collectively are never so described.[92] They could not have been, in -fact, without some degree of incongruity. For many of them, being of -insular origin and maritime habits, knew as much about hippogriffs as -about horses, unless it were the white-crested ones ruled by Poseidon. -And the poet’s close instinctive regard to such distinctions appears in -the remarkable circumstance that Odysseus and Ajax Telamon, islanders -both, are the only heroes of the first rank who invariably combat on -foot. - -Footnote 92: - - Mure, _Literature of Ancient Greece_, vol. ii. p. 87. - -The individual Greek warriors singled out for praise as ‘horse-tamers’ -are only two—Thrasymedes and Diomed. The choice had, in each case, -readily discernible motives. Thrasymedes was a son of Nestor; and -Nestor, through his father Peleus, was sprung from Poseidon, the creator -and patron of the horse. This mythical association resulted from a -natural sequence of ideas. The absence of the horse from the ‘glist’ring -zodiac’ is one of many proofs of his strangeness to Eastern mythology; -but the neglect was compensated in the West. His position in Greek -folk-lore, according to Dr. Milchhöfer,[93] indicates a primitive -confusion of thought between winds and waves as cause and effect, or -rather, perhaps, tells of the transference to the sea of the -cloud-fancies of an inland people. However this be, horse-headed -monsters are extremely prevalent on the archaic engraved stones found -numerously in the Peloponnesus and the islands of the Ægean; and these -monsters—winged, and with birds’ legs—represent, it would seem, the -original harpy-form in which early Greek imagination embodied the -storm-winds— - -Footnote 93: - - _Die Anfänge der Kunst in Griechenland_, pp. 58-61. - - Boreas and Cæcias and Argestes loud— - Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise, - Sirocco and Libecchio. - -The horse-headed Demeter, too, was one of the Erinyes, under-world -dæmonic beings of windy origin, merging indeed into the Harpies. The -Homeric Harpy Podarge, mother of the immortal steeds of Achilles, was, -moreover, of scarcely disguised equine nature; while the colts of -Ericthonius had Boreas for their sire. - - These, o’er the teeming cornfields as they flew, - Skimm’d o’er the standing ears, nor broke the haulm, - And, o’er wide Ocean’s bosom as they flew, - Skimm’d o’er the topmost spray of th’ hoary sea.[94] - -Footnote 94: - - _Iliad_, xx. 226-29 (Lord Derby’s translation). - -So Æneas related to Achilles; not perhaps without some touch of -metaphor. - -The figure of speech by which the swiftest of known animals was likened -to a rushing tempest, lay ready at hand; and a figure of speech is apt -to be treated as a statement of fact by men who have not yet learned to -make fine distinctions. Upon this particular one as a basis, a good deal -of fable was built. The northern legends, for instance, of the Wild -Huntsman, and of the rides of the blusterous Odin upon an eight-legged -charger equally at home on land and on sea; besides the story of the -strong horse Svadilfaxi, personifying the North Wind, who helped his -master, the icy Scandinavian winter, to build the castle of the Asar. -The same obvious similitude was carried out, by southern imaginations, -in the subjection of the horse to the established ruler of winds and -waves, who is even qualified by the characteristically equine epithet -‘dark-maned’ (κυανοχαίτης.)[95] The attribution, however, to Poseidon of -a more or less equine nature may have been immediately suggested by the -resemblance, palpable to unsophisticated folk, of his crested billows to -the impetuous advance of galloping steeds, whose flowing manes and -curving lineaments of changeful movement seemed to reproduce the tossing -spray and thunderous charge of the ‘earth-shaking’ element. - -Footnote 95: - - Cf. Geddes, _Problem of the Homeric Poems_, p. 207. - -In the Thirteenth Iliad, the closeness of this relationship is naïvely -brought into view. The occasion was a pressing one. Nothing less was -contemplated than the affording of surreptitious divine aid to the -hard-pressed Achæan host; and the ‘shining eyes’ of Zeus, whose -interdict was still in full force, might at any moment revert from the -Thracians and Hippomolgi to the less virtuous Greeks and Trojans. -Everything, then, depended upon promptitude, and Poseidon accordingly, -in the absence of his consort Amphitrite, did not disdain to act as his -own groom. Himself he harnessed to his brazen car the ‘bronze-hoofed’ -coursers stabled beneath the sea at Ægæ; himself wielded the golden -scourge with which he urged their rapid passage, amid the damp homage of -dutiful but dripping sea-monsters, to a submarine recess between Tenedos -and Imbros: - - And the sea’s face was parted with a smile, - And rapidly the horses sped the while.[96] - -There he himself provided ambrosial forage for their support during his -absence on the battle-field, taking the precaution, before his -departure, of attaching infrangible golden shackles to the agile feet -that might else have been tempted to stray. Yet all this pains was taken -for the mere sake of what must be called ‘swagger.’ Poseidon, calmly -seated on the Samothracian height, was already within full view of the -plain and towers of Ilium, when - - Sudden at last - He rose, and swiftly down the steep he passed, - The mountain trembled with each step he took, - The forest with the quaking mountain shook. - Three strides he made, and with the fourth he stood - At Ægæ, where is founded ‘neath the flood - His hall of glorious gold that cannot fade.[97] - -And the journey westward was deliberately made for the purpose of -fetching an equipage which proved rather an embarrassment than an -assistance to him. ‘But for the honour of the thing,’ as an Irishman -remarked of his jaunt in a bottomless sedan-chair, he ‘might just as -well have walked.’ - -Footnote 96: - - _Iliad_, xiii. 29, 30. (Translation by R. Garnett, _Universal Review_, - vol. v.) - -Footnote 97: - - _Ib._ xiii. 17-22. - -Not without reason, then, was equestrian skill associated with -Poseidonian lineage. Nestor himself was an enthusiastic horse-lover; yet -the Pylian breed was none of the best; and he anxiously warned his son -Antilochus, preparatory to the starting of the chariot-race -commemorative of Patroclus, that he must supply by finesse for the -slowness of his team. Poseidon himself, he reminded him, had been his -instructor; and no less, it may be presumed, of his brother Thrasymedes, -whose feats in this direction, however, are summed up in the laudatory -expression bestowed on him in common with Diomed. - -The connoisseurship of this latter, on the contrary, is perpetually in -evidence. As king of ‘horse-feeding Argos,’ he knew and prized what was -best in horseflesh, and counted no risk too great for the purpose of -securing it. His brilliant success accordingly, in the capture of famous -steeds, rendered the original inferiority of his own a matter of -indifference. It served, indeed, only to quicken his zeal to replace -them by force or fraud with better. And it fell out most opportunely -that, just at the conjuncture when the protection of Athene rendered him -irresistible, Æneas, temporarily allied with the Lycian archer Pandarus, -undertook the hopeless task of staying his victorious career. The -Dardanian hero was driving a matchless team, ‘the best under the dawn or -the sun’; and he found leisure, notwithstanding the celerity of their -onset, to extol their qualities to his companion, while Diomed recited -the to him familiar tale of their pedigree to his charioteer, Sthenelus. -They were of the race of those with which the ransom of Ganymede had -been paid by Zeus to Tros, King of Phrygia, his father, and were hence -known distinctively as _Trojan_ horses. Their possession was regarded as -of inestimable importance. - -That was the day of glory of the son of Tydeus, whom ‘Pallas Athene did -not permit to tremble.’ Destiny waited on his desires. His spear sent -Pandarus to the shades; Æneas was barely rescued by the maternal -intervention of Aphrodite, who came off by no means scatheless from the -adventure. Above all, the Dardanian ‘messengers of terror’ were led in -triumph across to the Achæan camp. They did not remain there idle. On -the following day, Nestor was invited to admire their paces, as they -carried him and their new master beyond the reach of Hector’s fury, the -fortune of war having by that time effectively changed sides. Their -subsequent victory in the Patroclean chariot-race was a foregone -conclusion. For their Olympian connexions would have made their defeat -by clover-cropping animals of ordinary lineage appear a gross anomaly; -and the horses of Achilles, as being immortal and invincible, were -expressly excluded from the competition. - -The night-adventure of Diomed and Odysseus, narrated in the Tenth Iliad, -is unmistakably an after-thought and interlude. To what precedes it is -in part irrelevant; with what follows it is wholly unconnected; nor is -it logically complete in itself. The interpolation is, none the less, of -respectable antiquity, going back certainly to the eighth century B.C.; -it has high merits of its own, and could ill be spared from the body of -what it is convenient to call Homeric poetry. Its admission, to be sure, -crowds into one night performances enough to occupy several, but this -superfluity of business scarcely troubles any genially disposed reader; -nor need he grudge Odysseus the three suppers—one of them perhaps better -described as a breakfast—amply earned by his indefatigable services in -the epic cause, and counterbalanced by many subsequent privations. The -point, however, to be specially noted by us here, is that in the -‘Doloneia’—as the tenth book is designated—equestrian interests, its -extraneous origin notwithstanding, are paramount. - -The opening situation is that magnificently described at the close of -the eighth book, when the ‘dark-ribbed ships’ by the Hellespont seemed -to cower before the menacing camp-fires of the victorious Trojans. -Indeed, most of those who lay in their shadow would gladly have grasped, -before it was too late, at the means of escape they offered. Agamemnon’s -fluctuating mind, too, might easily have been brought to that inglorious -decision; but for the moment, he relieved his restless anxiety by -hastily summoning to a nocturnal council a few of the most prominent -Achæan chiefs. The somewhat inadequate result of their deliberations was -the despatch of a scouting party to the Trojan quarters, Diomed and -Odysseus being inevitably chosen for the discharge of the perilous -office—inevitably, since in the legend of Troy, these two are again and -again coupled in the performance of venturesome, if not questionable, -exploits.[98] They had sallied forth unarmed on the sudden summons of -the ‘king of men,’ but collected from the sympathetic bystanders a -scratch-lot of weapons; and Meriones lent to Odysseus for the emergency -a peculiar head-piece of leather lined with felt, and strengthened with -rows of boars’ teeth,[99] the like of which, judging from the profusion -of sliced tusks met with in Mycenæan graves, was probably familiar of -old in the Peloponnesus. - -Footnote 98: - - Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_, Bd. ii. p. 405, 3te Auflage. - -Footnote 99: - - _Iliad_, x. 261-71. - -It was pitch dark as the adventurers traversed the marshy land about the -Simoeis; but the rise, with heavy wing-flappings, of a startled heron on -their right, dispelled their misgivings, and evoked their pious -rejoicings at the assurance it afforded of Athene’s protection. Their -next encounter was with Hector’s emissary, the luckless Dolon, a poor -creature beyond doubt, vain, feather-headed, unstable, pusillanimous, -yet piteous to us even now in the sanguine loquacity that merged into a -death-shriek as the fierce blade of Diomed severed the tendons of his -throat. He had served his purpose, and was contemptuously, nay -treacherously, dismissed from life. But the temptation suggested by him -was irresistible. Instincts of cupidity, keen in both heroes, had been -fully roused by his account of the splendid and unguarded equipment of -the newly-arrived leader of a Thracian contingent to the Trojan army. As -he told them: - - King Rhesus, Eionëus’ son, commands them, who hath steeds, - More white than snow, huge, and well shaped; their fiery pace exceeds - The winds in swiftness; these I saw, his chariot is with gold - And pallid silver richly framed, and wondrous to behold; - His great and golden armour is not fit a man should wear, - But for immortal shoulders framed.[100] - -Footnote 100: - - _Iliad_, x. 435-41 (Chapman’s trans.). - -Now Odysseus and Diomed both loved plunder; each in his own way was of a -reckless and dare-devil disposition; and one at any rate was a -passionate admirer of equine beauty. They accordingly did not hesitate -to follow up Dolon’s indications, which proved quite accurate. The -followers of Rhesus were weary from their recent journey; Diomed had no -difficulty in slaying a dozen of them in ranks as they slept, and so -reaching the king, whose premonitory nightmare of destruction was -abruptly dissolved by its realisation. The coveted horses tethered -alongside having been meanwhile secured by Odysseus, swiftly conveyed -the exultant raiders back to the Achæan ships. - -But in what manner? On their backs or drawn behind them in the -glittering Thracian chariot? Opinions are divided. Euripides assumed -that the latter formed part of the booty,[101] yet the Homeric -expressions rather imply that it was left _in statu quo_. They are not, -on the other hand, easily reconciled with the supposition of an escape -on horseback from the scene of carnage. This, none the less, was almost -certainly what the poet meant to convey, and his unfamiliarity with the -art of riding was doubtless the cause of his conveying it badly.[102] -Homeric heroes, as a rule infringed only by this one exception, never -mounted their steeds; they used them solely in light draught. Equitation -was indeed known of as a branch in which special skill might be -acquired; but for the ignoble purpose of popular, perhaps venal, -display. Thus the performance of leaping from one to the other of four -galloping horses, brought in to illustrate the agility with which Ajax -strode from deck to deck of the menaced Thessalian ships,[103] excites -indeed astonishment, but astonishment of the inferior kind raised by the -feats of a clown or a circus-rider. The passage has found a curious -commentary in a faded painting on a wall of the ancient palace at -Tiryns, representing an acrobat springing on the back of a rushing -bull.[104] He is unmistakably a specimen of the class of performer to -which the nimble equestrian of the Iliad belonged. - -Footnote 101: - - _Rhesos_, 797. - -Footnote 102: - - Eyssenhardt, _Jahrbuch für Philologie_, Bd. cix. p. 598; Ameis’s - _Iliad_, Heft iv. p. 38. - -Footnote 103: - - _Iliad_, xv. 679. - -Footnote 104: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 119. - -The animated story of the Doloneia, however, originated most likely in a -primitive nature-parable, symbolising, in one of its innumerable forms, -the ever-renewed struggle of darkness with light. The prize carried off -by Diomed and Odysseus was, this being so, nothing less than the -equipage of the sun; yet the solar horses are, mythologically, scarcely -separable from the vehicle attached to them. Our bard, it is true, being -wholly intent upon the concrete aspect of the tale he had to tell, felt -no incongruity in the disjunction; and he certainly took no pains to -perpetuate the traditional shape of his materials. Unconsciously, -however, he has allowed some vestiges of solar relationships to survive -among the less fortunate actors in his little drama. They can be traced -in the wrath of Apollo at the exploit achieved, while he was off his -guard, through the assistance of the predatory Athene;[105] and perhaps -in the costume of Dolon, who clothed himself, we are told, for his -disastrous expedition in ‘the skin of a grey wolf.’ Now the wolf became -early entangled, in Aryan folk-lore, with luminous associations. At -first, possibly through contrast and antagonism, exemplified in the -hostile pursuit, by the Scandinavian animal, of the sun and moon; later, -through capricious identification. The lupine connexions of the Hellenic -Apollo may be thus explained. They were, at any rate, strongly -accentuated; and Dolon wore, in some sense, albeit ignobly, ‘the livery -of the burnished sun.’ - -Footnote 105: - - It is worth notice that in the Euripidean tragedy _Rhesos_, ‘Phœbos’ - is the watchword for that night. - -Manifestly solar, on the other hand, are the snowy horses from across -the Hellespont. Nestor, who, characteristically enough, first caught the -sound of their galloping approach to the Greek outposts, demanded of -their captors in amazement: - - How have you made this horse your prize? Pierced you the dangerous - host, - Where such gems stand? Or did some god your high attempts accost, - And honoured you with this reward? Why, they be like the rays - The sun effuseth.[106] - -Footnote 106: - - _Iliad_, x. 545-47 (Chapman’s trans.). - -The Thracian pair, moreover, are the only _white_ horses mentioned in -the Iliad. All the rest were chestnut, bay, or brown. One of those reft -from Æneas by Diomed, was sorrel, with a white crescent on the -forehead;[107] Achilles, or Patroclus for him, drove a chestnut and a -piebald; a pair of rufous bays drew the chariot of Asius. No black horse -appears on the scene; nor can we be sure that the ‘dark-maned,’ mythical -Areion was really understood to be of sable tint. Admiration for white -horses was not spontaneous among the Greeks. It sprang up in the East as -a consequence of their figurative association with the sun. The Iranian -fable of the solar chariot drawn by spotless coursers, carried -everywhere with it, in its diffusion west, south, and north, an -imaginative impression of the sacredness of such animals.[108] They were -chosen out for the Magian sacrifices;[109] they were tended in -Scandinavian temple-enclosures, and their neighings oracularly -interpreted;[110] a white horse was dubiously reported by Strabo to be -periodically immolated by the Veneti in commemoration of Diomed’s -fabulous sovereignty over the Adriatic;[111] and it became a recognised -mythological principle that superhuman beings should be, like the Wild -Huntsman of the Black Forest, _Schimmelreiter_. ‘White as snow’ were the -steeds of the Great Twin Brethren; white as snow the ‘horse with the -terrible rider’ in Raphael’s presentation of the Vision that vindicated -the sanctity of the Jewish Temple; Odin thundered over the mountain-tops -on a pallid courser; and it was deemed scandalous presumption in -Camillus to have his triumphal chariot drawn to the Capitol after the -fall of Veii by a milk-white team, fit only for the transport of an -immortal god. - -Footnote 107: - - _Ib._ xxiii. 454. - -Footnote 108: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_, pp. 53-54. - -Footnote 109: - - _Herodotus_, vii. 114. - -Footnote 110: - - Weinhold, _Altnordisches Leben_, p. 49. - -Footnote 111: - - _Geography_, lib. v. cap. i. sect. 9. - -Such, too, were the horses of Rhesus; and their evanescent appearance in -Homeric narrative tallies with their unsubstantial nature. They sink -into complete oblivion after the scene of their nocturnal abduction. -Their quondam master could lay claim to scarcely a more solid core of -existence. Euripides’ account of his parentage is that he was the son of -the River Strymon and of the muse Terpsichore; which, being interpreted, -means that he personified a local stream.[112] He obtained, however, -posthumous reputation and honours, as a prophet at Amphipolis, as a -rider and hunter at Rhodope. - -Footnote 112: - - Preller, _Griech. Myth._ Bd. ii. p. 428. - -The relations of men and horses are, in every part of the Iliad, -systematically regulated and consistently maintained. There is nothing -casual about them. Thus, Paris’s lack of a conveyance serves to -emphasise his inferiority in the field. He was a craven at close -quarters, though formidable as a bow-man, despatching his arrows from -the safe shelter of the ranks. For the adventurous sallies rendered -possible only by the aid of fleet steeds, he had neither taste nor -aptitude. - -Hector, on the contrary, was distinguished above all other Homeric -warriors by driving four horses abreast—above all Homeric gods and -goddesses even, since Poseidon himself, Ares, Heré, and Eos, were -content each with a pair. In their case, however, the seeming deficiency -was a point of real superiority. For no more than two horses can have -been in effective employment in drawing Hector’s chariot, the remaining -two being held in reserve against accidents. But Olympian coursers were -presumably exempt from mortal casualties, and there was hence no need to -provide for the emergency of their disablement. Critics, nevertheless, -of the ultra-strict school, taking offence at the unexpected -introduction of a four-in-hand, have proclaimed the entire enshrining -passage spurious. Perhaps on insufficient grounds; yet as to this there -may be two opinions; there can be only one as to its being stirring and -splendid. - -The formal introduction of the only horses on the Trojan side dignified -with proper names, makes an impressive exordium to the lay of Trojan -victory after Diomed’s audacious resistance had been turned to flight by -the thunder-bolt of Zeus. Hector’s fiery incitements were addressed no -less earnestly to his equine servants than to his Lycian and Dardanian -allies. - - Then cherished he his famous horse: O Xanthus now, said he, - And thou Podargus, Æthon, too, and Lampus, dear to me, - Make me some worthy recompense for so much choice of meat - Given you by fair Andromache; bread of the purest wheat, - And with it for your drink mixed wine, to make ye wished cheer, - Still serving you before myself, her husband young and dear.[113] - -He went on to represent to them the glorious fruits and triumphs of -victory, but gave no hint of a penalty for defeat. The absence of any -such savage threat as Antilochus hurled at his slow-paced steeds in the -chariot-race marks his innate gentleness of soul. He urged only the -nobler motives for exertion appropriate to conscious intelligence. Trust -in equine sympathy is, indeed, widespread in legend and romance. Even -the cruel Mezentius, wounded and doomed, made a final appeal to the -pride and valour of his faithful Rhœbus; to say nothing of ‘Auld -Maitland’s’ son’s call upon his ‘Gray,’ of the stirrup-rhetoric of -Reynaud de Montauban, of Marko, the Cid of Servia, of the Eddic Skirnir -starting for Jotunheim, or other imperilled owners of renowned steeds. - -Footnote 113: - - _Iliad_, viii. 184-190 (Chapman’s trans.). - -These, now and then, are enabled to respond; but speaking horses should -be reserved for emergencies. They occur, for instance, with undue -profusion in modern Greek folk-songs. Not every notorious klepht lurking -in the thickets of Pindus, but only some hero towering to the clouds of -fancy, should, rightly considered, possess an animal so exceptionally -endowed. The lesson is patent in the Iliad. Homer’s instinctive -self-restraint and supreme mastery over the secrets of artistic effect -are nowhere more conspicuous than in his treatment of the horses of -Achilles. - -‘Thessalian steeds and Lacedæmonian women’ were declared by an oracle to -be the best Greek representatives of their respective kinds. In Thessaly -was the legendary birthplace of the horse; there lived the Lapiths—if -Virgil is to be believed—the first horse-breakers: - - Fræna Pelethronii Lapithæ, gyrosque dedere - Impositi dorso, atque equitem docuere sub armis - Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos.[114] - -There, too, the Centaurs were at home; the Thessalian cavalry became -historically famous; the Thessalian marriage ceremony long included the -presentation to the bride by the bridegroom, of a fully caparisoned -horse;[115] and the noble equine type of the Parthenon marbles is still -reproduced along the fertile banks of the Peneus.[116] Thence, too, of -old to Troy - - Fair Pheretiades - The bravest mares did bring by much; Eumelus managed these, - Swift of their feet as birds of wings, both of one hair did shine, - Both of an age, both of a height, as measured by a line, - Whom silver-bowed Apollo bred in the Pierian mead, - Both slick and dainty, yet were both in war of wondrous dread.[117] - -Footnote 114: - - _Georg._ iii. 115-17. - -Footnote 115: - - Geddes, _Problem of the Homeric Poems_, p. 247. - -Footnote 116: - - Dodwell, _Tour in Greece_, vol. i. p. 339. - -Footnote 117: - - _Iliad_, ii. 764-67 (Chapman’s trans.). - -Only, indeed, a fraud on the part of Athene prevented the mares of -Eumelus from winning the chariot-race against the heaven-descended -‘Trojan’ horses of Diomed; and the Muse, solemnly invoked as arbitress -of equine excellence, declared them the goodliest of all ‘the steeds -that followed the sons of Atreus to war,’ save, of course, the -incomparable Pelidean pair. - -Xanthus and Balius were the wedding-gift of Poseidon to Peleus. The -sea-god himself had been a suitor for the hand of the bride, the -silver-footed Thetis; but, on its becoming known that the son to be born -of her marriage was destined to surpass the strength of his father, -something of an Olympian panic prevailed, and a mortal bridegroom was, -by the common determination of the alarmed Immortals, forced upon the -reluctant goddess. Of this unequal and unhappy marriage, the far-famed -Achilles was the ill-starred offspring. - -So intense is the Homeric realisation of the hero’s superhuman powers, -that they scarcely excite surprise. And his belongings are on the scale -of his qualities. None but himself could wield his spear; his armour was -forged in Olympus; his shield was a panorama of human life; his horses -would obey only his guidance, or that of his delegates. Not for common -handling, indeed, were the ‘wind-swift’ coursers born of Zephyr and the -Harpy on the verge of the dim Ocean-stream. Themselves deathless and -invulnerable, they were destined, nevertheless, to share the pangs of -‘brief mortality.’ - - Sunt lachrymæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt. - -For they had a yoke-fellow of a different strain from their own, -captured by Achilles at the sack of the Cilician Thebes, and killed by -Sarpedon in the course of his duel with Patroclus. And they had to -endure worse than the loss of Pedasus. Patroclus, whose gentle touch and -voice they had long ago learned to love, fell in the same fight, and -they stood paralysed with grief, and unheeding alike the blows and the -blandishments of their authorised driver, Automedon. - - They neither to the Hellespont would bear him, nor the fight, - But still as any tombstone lays his never-stirréd weight - On some good man or woman’s grave, for rites of funeral, - So unremovéd stood these steeds, their heads to earth let fall, - And warm tears gushing from their eyes with passionate desire - Of their kind manager; their manes, that flourished with the fire - Of endless youth allotted them, fell through the yoky sphere, - Ruthfully ruffled and defiled.[118] - -Footnote 118: - - _Iliad_, xvii. 432-40 (Chapman’s trans.). - -A northern companion-picture is furnished by Grani mourning the death of -Sigurd, whom he had borne to the lair of Fafnir, and through the flames -to woo Brynhild, and now survived only to be immolated on his pyre. The -tears, however, of the weeping horses in the Ramayana and Mahabharata -flow rather through fear than through sorrow. - -The final appearance of the Pelidean steeds upon the scene of the Iliad -reaches a tragic height, probably unequalled in the whole cycle of -poetical delineations from the lower animal-world. Achilles, roused at -last to battle, and gleaming in his new-wrought armour, cried with a -terrible voice as he leaped into his car— - - Xanthus and Balius, far-famed brood of Podargê’s strain, - Take heed that in other sort to the Danæan host again, - Ye bring your chariot-lord, when ourselves from the battle refrain, - And not, as ye left Patroclus, leave us yonder slain.[119] - -The sting of the reproach, and the favour of Heré, together effected a -prodigy, and Xanthus spoke thus to his angry lord: - - Yea, mighty Achilles, safe this day will we bear back thee; - Yet nigh is the day of thy doom. Not guilty thereof be we, - But a mighty God, and the overmastering Doom shall be cause. - For not by our slowness of foot, neither slackness of will it was - That the Trojans availed from Patroclus’ shoulders thine armour to - tear; - Nay, but a God most mighty, whom fair-tressed Lêto bare, - Slew him in forefront of fight, giving Hector the glory meed. - But for us, we twain as the blast of the West-wind fleetly could speed, - Which they name for the lightest-winged of the winds; but for thee - indeed, - Even thee, is it doomed that by might of a God and a man shalt thou - fall.[120] - -Footnote 119: - - _Iliad_, xix. 400-403 (Way’s trans.). - -Footnote 120: - - _Ib._ xix. 408-17 (Way’s trans.). - -But here the Erinyes, guardians of the natural order, interposed, and -Xanthus’s brief burst of eloquence was brought to a close. The arrested -prophecy, however, was only too intelligible; it could not deter, but it -exasperated; and provoked the ensuing fiery rejoinder—a ‘passionate -outcry of a soul in pain,’ if ever there was one— - - Xanthus, why bodest thou death unto me? Thou needest not so. - Myself well know my weird, in death to be here laid low, - Far-off from my dear loved sire, from the mother that bare me afar; - Yet cease will I not till I give to the Trojans surfeit of war. - He spake, and with shouts sped onward the thunder-foot steeds of his - car.[121] - -Footnote 121: - - _Iliad_, xix. 420-24 (Way’s trans.). - -The aged Peleus was, indeed, destined to leave unredeemed his vow of -flinging to the stream of the Spercheus the yellow locks of his -safely-returned son; they were laid instead on the pyre of Patroclus. -Nor was their wearer ever to revisit the forest fastnesses of Pelion, -where he had learned from Chiron to draw the bow and cull healing herbs; -yet of the short time allotted to him for vengeance not a moment should -be lost. - -Although Homer tells us nothing as to the eventual fate of Xanthus and -Balius, supplementary legends fill up the blank left by his silence. It -appears hence that they were divinely restrained from carrying out their -purpose of retiring, after the death of Achilles, to their birthplace by -the Ocean-stream, and awaited instead the arrival of Neoptolemus at -Troy.[122] For he was their appointed charioteer on the Elysian plains, -which they may scour to this day, for anything that is known to the -contrary, in friendly emulation with Pegasus, the hippogriff, and - - rutilæ manifestus Arion - Igne jubæ: - -with the last above all, whose ‘insatiate ardour’ of speed saved -Adrastus from Theban pursuit, and brought him in the original mythical -winner in the Nemæan games; whose sympathy, moreover, with human -miseries broke down, as in their own case, the barriers of nature, and -accomplished the portent of speech and tears. Their quasi-immortality is -shared by Bayard, heard to neigh, it is said, every Mid-summer-night, -along the leafy aisles of the Forest of Ardennes;[123] and by Sharats, -who still crops the moss of the cavern where sleeps his long-accustomed -rider, Marko, waiting, like other hibernating heroes, for the dawn of -better days. - -Footnote 122: - - Quintus Smyrnæus, iii. 743. - -Footnote 123: - - Grimm and Stallybrass, _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 666. - -Prophetic horses of the Xanthus type have been heard of in many lands. -They are a commonplace of Esthonian folk-lore; Dulcefal, the charger of -Hreggvid, king of Gardariki in Old Russia, could infallibly forecast the -issue of a campaign; the coursers of the Indian Râvana had a just -presentiment of his fate;[124] and Cæsar’s indomitable horse was -reported—credibly or otherwise—to have wept during three days before the -stroke of Brutus fell. Even the remains of the dead animals were of high -importance in Teutonic divination. Their flesh was pre-eminently -witches’ food; horses’ hoofs made witches’ drinking-cups; the pipers at -witches’ revels played on horses’ heads, which were besides an -indispensable adjunct to many diabolical ceremonies.[125] - -Footnote 124: - - Gubernatis, _Zoological Mythology_, vol. i. p. 349. - -Homer describes the Trojans as flinging live horses into the -Scamander;[126] and the Persians in the time of Herodotus occasionally -resorted to the same barbarous means of propitiating rivers. In honour -of the sun—perhaps the legitimate claimant to such honours—horses were -immolated on the summit of Taygetus, and a team of four, with chariot -attached, was yearly sunk by the Rhodians into the sea. The Argives -worshipped Poseidon with similar rites,[127] certainly not learned from -the Phœnicians, to whom they were unknown. They were unknown as well to -the Homeric Greeks; for the slaughter on the funeral-pyre of Patroclus -belonged to a different order of ideas. Here the prompting motive was -that ingrained desire to supply the needs, moral and physical, of the -dead, which led to so many blood-stained obsequies. Horses and dogs -fell, in an especial manner, victims to its prevalence; and have -consequently a prominent place on early Greek tomb-reliefs representing -the future state.[128] - -Footnote 125: - - Grimm and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ pp. 47, 659, 1050. - -Footnote 126: - - _Iliad_, xxi. 132. - -Footnote 127: - - Pausanias, lib. iii. cap. 20, viii. 7. - -Footnote 128: - - Gardner, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. v. p. 130. - -Homer’s description of the Troad as ‘rich in horses’ has been very -scantily justified by the results of underground exploration. Few of the -animal’s bones were found at Hissarlik, none at the neighbouring -Hanai-Tepe.[129] Yet every Trojan at the present day is a born -rider.[130] Locomotion on horseback is universal, at all ages, and for -both sexes. Priam himself could scarcely now be accommodated with a -mule-cart. He should leave the Pergamus, if at all, mounted in some -fashion on the back of a steed. - -Footnote 129: - - Calvert, in Schliemann’s _Ilios_, p. 711. - -Footnote 130: - - Virchow, _Abhandlungen Berlin. Acad._ 1879, p. 62. - -The author of the Iliad, however, was no equestrian. His knowledge of -horses was otherwise acquired. But how intimate and accurate that -knowledge was, one example may suffice to show. A thunderstorm, sent by -Zeus in tardy fulfilment of his promise to Thetis, caused a panic among -the Greeks; the bravest yielded to the contagion of fear; there was a -_sauve qui peut_ to the ships. In the wild rout, - - Gerenian Nestor, aged prop of Greece, - Alone remained, and he against his will, - His horse sore wounded by an arrow shot - By godlike Paris, fair-hair’d Helen’s lord: - Just on the crown, where close behind the head - First springs the mane, the deadliest spot of all, - The arrow struck him; madden’d with the pain - He rear’d, then plunging forward, with the shaft - Fix’d in his brain, and rolling in the dust, - The other steeds in dire confusion threw.[131] - -Footnote 131: - - _Iliad_, viii. 80-86 (Lord Derby’s trans.). - -The most vulnerable point is here pointed out with anatomical -correctness.[132] Exactly where the mane begins, the bony shield of the -skull comes to an end, and the route to the brain, especially to a dart -coming, like that of Paris, from behind, lies comparatively open. The -sudden upspringing of the death-smitten creature, followed by his -struggle on the ground, is also perfectly true to nature, and suggests -personal observation of the occurrence described. - -Footnote 132: - - Buchholz, _Homer. Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 175. - -Observation, both close and sympathetic, assuredly dictated the -brilliant lines in which Paris, issuing from the Scæan gate, is compared -to a courser breaking loose from confinement to disport himself in the -open. - - As some proud steed, at well-fill’d manger fed, - His halter broken, neighing, scours the plain, - And revels in the widely-flowing stream - To bathe his sides; then tossing high his head, - While o’er his shoulders streams his ample mane, - Light borne on active limbs, in conscious pride, - To the wide pastures of the mares he flies.[133] - -The simile, less happily appropriated to Hector, is repeated in a -subsequent part of the poem;[134] and it was by Virgil transferred -bodily to the Eleventh Æneid, where it serves to adorn Turnus, the -wearer of many borrowed Iliadic plumes. They, however, it must be -admitted, make a splendid show in their new setting. - -Footnote 133: - - _Iliad_, vi. 506-11 (Lord Derby’s trans.). - -Footnote 134: - - _Ib._ xv. 263. - -The makers of the Iliad, whether few or many, were at least unanimous in -their fervid admiration for the horse. The verses glow with a kind of -rapture of enjoyment that describe his strength, beauty, and swiftness, -his eager spirit and fine nervous organisation, his docility to trusted -guidance, his intelligent participation in human contentions and -pursuits. No animal has elsewhere achieved true epic personality;[135] -no animal has been raised to so high a dignity in art. The whole Iliad -might be called an ‘Aristeia’ or eulogistic celebration of the species. - -Footnote 135: - - Cf. Milchhöfer, _Die Anfänge der Kunst_, p. 57. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - HOMERIC ZOOLOGY. - - -THE establishment of a clear distinction between men and beasts might -seem a slight effort of defining intellect, yet it has not been quite -easily made. In children the instinct of assimilation long survives the -experience of difference. A little boy of six, asked by the present -writer what profession he thought of adopting, replied with alacrity -that he ‘would like to be a bird,’ and it was only on being reminded of -the diet of grubs associated with that state of life, that he began to -waver as to its desirability. The same incapacity for drawing a -boundary-line between the realm of their own imperfect consciousness and -the mysterious encompassing region of animal life, is visible in the -grown-up children of the wilds. Hence the zoological speculations of -primitive man inevitably take the form of a sort of projection of human -faculties into animal natures. Now human faculties, released from the -control of actuality, spontaneously expand. In a vague and vaporous way, -they transcend the low level of hard fact, and become pleasantly -diffused in the ‘ampler ether’ of the unknown. Beasts thus transfigured -are incapable, it may be said, of simple rationality. The powers -transferred to them grow like Jack’s Beanstalk, beyond the range of -sight. - -Universal folk-lore, in all its tangled ramifications, bears witness to -the truth of this remark. Tutelary animals, of the Puss in Boots type, -abound and expatiate there. They are all-contriving and infallible. -Their favour leads to fortune and power. They hold the clue to the -labyrinth of human destinies. Through their protection the oppressed are -rescued, the ragged are clothed in golden raiments, the outwardly -despicable win princely honours, and have their names inscribed in the -‘Almanach de Gotha’ of fairy-land. No wonder that such beneficent -potentates, albeit feathered or furry, should have been claimed as -ancestors and hereditary protectors by human beings full of untutored -yearnings for the unattainable. To our ideas, indeed, there seems little -comfort or credit to be got out of counting kinship with a beaver, a -bear, or an opossum; but things looked differently when the world was -young; nor has it yet everywhere grown old. In Australia, black bipeds -still own themselves the cousins and clients of kangaroos. American -Indians pay homage to ‘manitous’ personally, as well as to ‘totems’ -tribally associated with them; and twilight tales are perhaps to this -hour whispered in Ireland, about a certain ‘Master of the Rats,’ whose -hostility it is eminently undesirable though lamentably easy to incur. - -Even among Greeks and Romans of the classical age, to say nothing of -Aztecs and Alemanni, belief lurked in the preternatural wisdom of -certain animals. Their formal worship, most fully elaborated in Egypt, -but diffused over ‘Tellus’ orbed ground,’ sprang from the same stock of -ideas. To a remarkable extent, the Greeks were exempt from its degrading -associations. Their partial survival on Greek soil, as in the veneration -at Phigaleia, of the horse-headed Demeter, represented, without doubt, -an under-current of aboriginal tradition, reaching back to the Pelasgic -fore-time. - -Now it might have been anticipated that the earliest literature would -have been the most deeply permeated by these primitive reminiscences. -But this is very far from being the case. Their influence is scarcely -perceptible in the two great epics of Troy and Ithaca; and indeed the -modes of thought from which they originated were completely alien to the -ethical sentiments pervading those marvellous first-fruits of Greek -genius. Neither poem includes the smallest remnant of zoolatry. The -Homeric divinities are absolutely anthropomorphic. They are men and -women, exempt from the limitations, unscathed by the ills of humanity, -and radiant with the infinite sunshine of immortal happiness. Of -infra-human relationships they exhibit no trace. They are far less -concerned with the animal kingdom than they grew to be in classical -times. Typical beasts or birds have not yet become attached to them. The -eagle, though once in the Iliad called the ‘swift messenger’ of Zeus, is -altogether detached from his throne and his thunder-bolt; Heré has not -developed her preference for the peacock—a bird introduced much later -from the East; Athene is without the companionship of her owl; no doves -flutter about the fair head of the ‘golden Aphrodite’; Artemis needs no -dogs to bring down her game. The Olympian menagerie, in short, has not -been constituted. On the ‘many-folded’ mountain of the gods, no beasts -are maintained save the half-dozen horses strictly necessary for the -purposes of divine locomotion. - -Very significant, too, is Homer’s ignorance of the semi-bestial, -semi-divine beings who figure in subsequent Greek mythology. ‘Great Pan’ -has no place in his verse; Satyrs and Tritons are equally unrecognised -by him; his Nereids are ‘silver-footed sea-nymphs,’ with no fishy -tendencies. - -Mixed natures of any kind seem, in truth, to have been little to his -taste. Even if he could have apprehended the symbolical meanings -underlying them in dim Oriental imaginations, he could scarcely have -reconciled himself to the sacrifice of beauty which they involved. Men, -horses, bulls, lions, were all separately admirable in his eyes; but to -blend, he felt instinctively, was not to heighten their perfections. -Thus, the hybrid nature of the Centaurs, if present to his mind, was -left undefined as something ‘abominable, inutterable.’ The Harpies, -realised by Hesiod as half-human fowls, remained with him barely -personified tornadoes. Neither Pegasus nor the Minotaur, neither the -bird-women of Stymphalis, nor the Griffons of the Rhipæan mountains, -found mention in his song, and he admitted—and that in a -family-legend—but one true specimen of the dragon-kind in the ‘Chimæra -dire’ slain by Bellerophon. The monstrosity of Scylla is left purposely -vague. She is a fancy-compound defying classification. She lived, too, -in the outer world of the Odyssey, where ‘things strange and rare’ -flourished in quiet disregard of laws binding elsewhere. - -In the same region of wonderland occur the oxen of the Sun—the only -sacred animals recognised by our poet. They had their pasturing-ground -in the island of Thrinakie, whither Helios retired to divert himself -with their frolics after each hard day of steady Mediterranean shining; -and so keen was his indignation at their slaughter by the famished -comrades of Odysseus, that a cosmical strike would have ensued but for -the promise of Zeus to inflict condign punishment upon the delinquents. -From the shipwreck by which this promise was fulfilled, Odysseus, alone -exempt from guilt in the matter, was the solitary survivor. - -The Homeric treatment of animals, compared with the extravagances -prevalent in other primitive literature, is eminently sane and rational. -Not through indifference to their perfections. A peculiar intensity of -sympathy with brute-nature is, on the contrary, one of the -distinguishing characteristics of the Homeric poems. But that sympathy -is based upon the appreciation of real, not upon the transference of -imaginary qualities. Beasts are, on the whole, kept strictly in their -proper places. The only genuine example of their sublimation into higher -ones is afforded by the horses of Achilles, and this during a transport -of epic excitement. Otherwise, the fabulous element admitted concerning -animals—and it is just in their regard that fable commonly runs riot—is -surprisingly small. - -In its room, we find such a wealth of acute and accurate observation, as -no poet, before or since, has had the capacity to accumulate, or the -power to employ for purposes of illustration. It is unmistakably private -property. Details appropriated at second-hand could never have fitted in -so aptly with the needs of imaginative creation. Moreover, the -conventional types of animal character were of later establishment. -There was at that early time no recognised common stock of popular or -proverbial wisdom on the subject to draw upon. The lion had not yet been -raised to regal dignity; the fox was undistinguished for craft, as the -goose for folly. Beasts and birds had their careers in literature before -them. Their reputations were still to make. They carried about with them -no formal certificates of character. The poet was accordingly unfettered -in his dealings with them by preconceived notions; whence the delightful -freshness of Homer’s zoological vignettes. The dew of morning, so to -speak, is upon them. They are limned direct from his own vivid -impressions of pastoral, maritime, and hunting scenes. - -As to the locality of those scenes, some hints, but scarcely more than -hints, can be derived. For in the course of nearly three thousand years, -the circumstances of animal distribution have been affected by changes -too considerable and too indeterminate to admit of confident argument -from the state of things now to the state of things then; while the -notices of the poet, incidental by their very nature, are of the utmost -value for what they tell, but warrant only very hesitating inferences -from what they leave untold. Thus, it does not follow that because Homer -nowhere mentions the cuckoo, he was therefore unfamiliar with its note, -which, from Hesiod’s time until now, has not failed to proclaim the -advent of spring among the olive-groves of Bœotia, and must have been -heard no less by Paris or Anchises than by the modern archæological -traveller, along the oak-clad and willow-fringed valley of Scamander. -Nor is the faintest presumption of a divided authorship supplied by the -fact that the nightingale sings in the Odyssey, but not in the Iliad. -Nevertheless, analogous considerations should not be altogether -neglected in Homeric criticism. They may possibly help towards the -answering of questions both of time and place: of time, through -allusions to domesticated animals; of place, by a comparison of the -known range of wild species with the fauna of the two great epics. And, -first, as regards domesticated animals. - -The list of these is a short one. The Greeks and Trojans of the Iliad -commanded the services of the horse in battle, of oxen and mules for -draught; dogs were their faithful allies in hunting and cattle driving, -and they kept flocks of sheep and goats. The ass appears only once, and -then indirectly, on the scene, when the lethargic obstinacy of his -behaviour serves to heighten the effect of Ajax’s stubbornness in fight. -Thus: - - And as when a lazy ass going past a field hath the better of the - boys with him, an ass that hath had many a cudgel broken about - his sides, and he fareth into the deep crop, and wasteth it, - while the boys smite him with their cudgels, and feeble is the - force of them, but yet with might and main they drive him forth - when he hath had his fill of fodder; even so did the - high-hearted Trojans and allies, called from many lands, smite - great Aias, son of Telamon, with darts on the centre of his - shield, and ever followed after him.[136] - -Footnote 136: - - _Iliad_, xi. 557-64. - -The creature’s ‘little ways’ were then already notorious, although all -mention of him or them is omitted from the Odyssey, as well as from the -Hesiodic poems. His existence is indeed implied by the parentage of the -mule. But mules were brought to the Troad _ready-made_ from -Paphlagonia.[137] It was not until later that they were systematically -bred by the Greeks. - -Footnote 137: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_, pp. 110, - 460. - -The Semitic origin of the word ‘ass’ rightly indicates the introduction -of the species into Europe from Semitic Western Asia. As to the date of -its arrival, all that can be told is that it was subsequent to the -beginning of the bronze epoch. The pile-dwellers of Switzerland and -North Italy were unacquainted with an animal fundamentally Oriental in -its habitudes. Its reluctance, for instance, to cross the smallest -streamlet attests the physical tradition of a desert home; and the white -ass of Bagdad represents to this day, the fullest capabilities of the -race.[138] Yet neither the ass nor the camel was included in the -primitive Aryan fauna. For they could not have been known, still less -domesticated, without being named, and the only widespread appellations -borne by them are derived from Semitic sources. Evidently the loan of -the words accompanied the transmission of the species. It is very -difficult, in the face of this circumstance—as Dr. Schrader has -pertinently observed[139]—to locate the Aryan cradle-land anywhere to -the east of the Bosphorus. - -Footnote 138: - - Houghton, _Trans. Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. v. p. 49. - -Footnote 139: - - _Thier- und Pflanzen-Geographie_, p. 17. - -Dr. Virchow was struck, on his visit to the Troad, in 1879, with the -similarity of the actual condition of the country to that described in -the Iliad.[140] The inhabitants seem, in fact, during the long interval, -to have halted in a transition-stage between pastoral and agricultural -life, by far the larger proportion of the land supplying pasturage for -ubiquitous multitudes of sheep, oxen, goats, horses, and asses. The -sheep, however, belong to a variety assuredly of post-Homeric -introduction, since the massive tails hampering their movements could -not well have escaped characterisation in some emphatic Homeric epithet. - -Footnote 140: - - _Beiträge zur Landeskunde der Troas_; Berlin. _Abhandlungen_, 1879, p. - 59. - -Both short and long-horned cattle, all of a dark-brown colour, may now -be seen grazing over the plain round Hissarlik, the latter probably -resembling more closely than the former those with which Homer was -acquainted. The oxen alike of the Iliad and Odyssey are ‘wine-coloured,’ -‘straight-horned,’ ‘broad-browed,’ and ‘sinuous-footed’; it was above -all through the shuffle of their gait, indicated by the last adjective, -and due to the peculiar structure of the hip-joint in the whole species, -that the poet distinctively visualised them. ‘Lowing kine,’ and -‘bellowing bulls’ are occasionally heard of, chiefly—it is curious to -remark—in later, or suspected portions of the Iliad. Sheep and goats, on -the other hand, are often described as ‘bleating,’ and the cries of -birds are called up at opportune moments; but Homer’s horses neither -whinny nor neigh; his pigs refrain from grunting; his jackals do not -howl; the tremendous roar of the lion nowhere resounds through his -forests. Homeric wild beasts are, indeed, save in the vaguely-indicated -case of one indeterminate specimen,[141] wholly dumb. - -Footnote 141: - - _Iliad_, x. 184. - -Singularly enough, a peculiar sensitiveness to sound is displayed in the -description of the Shield of Achilles. Yet plastic art is essentially -silent. Even the perpetuated cry of the Laocoön detracts somewhat from -the inherent serenity of marble. The metal-wrought creations of -Hephæstus, however, not only live and move, but make themselves audible -to a degree uncommon elsewhere in the poems. Thus, in one scene, or -compartment, a _lowing_ herd issues to the pasturing-grounds, where two -lions seize from their midst, and devour, a _loudly-bellowing_ bull, -while nine _barking_, though frightened dogs are, by the herdsmen, -vainly urged to a rescue. In the vintage-episode of the same series, -delight in melodious beauty is almost as apparent as in the so-called -‘Homeric’ hymn to Hermes. The ‘Linus-song,’ ‘sweet even as desire,’ sung -to the youthful grape-gatherers, sounds through the ages scarcely less -sweet than - - The liquid voice - Of pipes, that filled the clear air thrillingly, - -when the Muses gathered round Apollo long ago in the ethereal halls of -Olympus. - -Among the animals now variously serviceable to man by the shores of the -Hellespont, are the camel, the buffalo, and the cat, none of them known, -even by name, to the primitive Achæans. The household cat, as is well -known, remained, during a millennium or two, exclusively Egyptian; then -all at once, perhaps owing to the exigency created by the migration -westward of the rat, spread with great rapidity in the first centuries -of the Christian era, over the civilised world. Saint Gregory Nazianzen -set the first recorded European example of attachment to a cat. His pet -was kept at Constantinople about the year 360 A.D.[142] No archæological -vestiges of the species, accordingly, have been found in Asia Minor. -Cats haunt the ruins of Hissarlik, but in no case lie buried beneath -them. - -Footnote 142: - - Houghton, _Trans. Society Biblical Archæology_, vol. v. p. 63. - -The bones mixed up among the prehistoric _débris_ belong chiefly, as -might have been expected, to sheep, goats, and oxen, those of swine, -dogs, and horses being relatively scarce.[143] Hares and deer are also -represented, and of birds, mainly the goose, with scanty traces of the -swan and of a small falcon. These remains are of different epochs, yet -all without exception belong to animals mentioned in the Iliad, whether -as wild or tame. The Homeric condition of the pig and goose respectively -presents some points of interest. - -Footnote 143: - - Virchow, _loc. cit._ p. 63. - -The pig was not one of the animals primitively domesticated in the East. -The absence of Vedic or Avestan mention of swine-culture makes it -practically certain that the species was known only in a wild state to -the early Aryan colonists of Iran and India. Nor had any more intimate -acquaintance with it been developed in Babylonia; although the Swiss -pile-dwellers, at first similarly behindhand, advanced, before the stone -age had terminated, to pig-keeping.[144] Dr. Schrader, indeed, bases -upon the occurrence only in European languages of the word porcus, the -conjecture that the subjugation of the ‘full-acorned boar’ was first -accomplished in Europe;[145] and if this were so, the operations of -swine-herding would naturally come in for a larger share of notice in -the Odyssey, as the more European of the two poems, than in the Iliad. -And in fact, the swineherd of Odysseus is an important personage, and -plays a leading part in the drama of his return—pigs, moreover, figuring -extensively among the agricultural riches of Ithaca, while there is no -sign that any were possessed by Priam or Anchises. Alone among the -Greeks of the Iliad, Achilles is stated to have placed before his guests -a ‘chine of well-fed hog’; and the very few Iliadic allusions to fatted -swine are all in immediate connexion with the same hero. If this be a -result of chance, it is a somewhat grotesque one. - -Footnote 144: - - Rütimeyer, _Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten_, pp. 120-21. - -Footnote 145: - - _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans_, p. 261. - -The porcine proclivities of modern Greeks are especially strong. -Christian and Mahometan habitations were, in the days of Turkish -domination, easily distinguished by the sty-accommodation attached to -the former; while in certain villages of the Morea and the Cyclades, the -pigs no longer occupied a merely subordinate position, and odours not -Sabæan, wafted far on the breeze, announced to the still distant -traveller the nature of the harbourage in store for him.[146] - -Footnote 146: - - Gell, _A Journey in the Morea_, p. 63. - -The most antique of domesticated birds is the goose, and Homer was -acquainted with no other. Penelope kept a flock of twenty,[147] mainly, -it would seem, for purposes of diversion, since the loss of them through -the devastations of an eagle is treated from a purely sentimental point -of view. They were fed on wheat, the ‘height of good living,’ in Homeric -back-premises. The court-yard, too, of the palace of Menelaus sheltered -a cackling flock,[148] the progenitors of which Helen might have brought -with her from Egypt, where geese were prehistorically reared for the -table. That the bird occurs _only_ tame in the Odyssey, and _only_ wild -in the Iliad, constitutes a distinction between the poems which can -scarcely be without real significance. The species employed, in the -Second Iliad, to illustrate, by the tumult of their alighting on the -marshy banks of the Cayster, the clangorous march-past of the Achæan -forces, has been identified as _Anser cinereus_, numerous specimens of -which fly south, in severe winters, from the valley of the Danube to -Greece and Asia Minor. - -Footnote 147: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 536. - -Footnote 148: - - _Ib._ xv. 161. - -The familiar cocks and hens of our poultry-yards are, in the West, -post-Homeric. Their native home is in India; but through human agency -they were early transported to Iran, where the cock, as the bird that -first greets the light, acquired in the eyes of Zoroastrian devotees, a -pre-eminently sacred character. His introduction into Greece was a -result of the expansion westward of the Persian empire. No cocks are met -with on Egyptian monuments; the Old Testament leaves them unnoticed; and -the earliest mention of them in Greek literature is by Theognis of -Megara, in the middle of the sixth century B.C.[149] Pigeons, on the -other hand, are quite at home in Homeric verse. They are of two kinds. -One is the rock-pigeon, called from its slate-coloured plumage _peleia_ -(πελόs = dusky), and described as finding shelter in rocky clefts, and -evading pursuit by a rapid, undulating flight.[150] Its frequent -recurrence in similes can surprise no traveller who has observed the -extreme abundance of _Columba livia_ all round the coasts of the -Ægean.[151] The second Homeric species of _Columba_ is the ring-dove, -once referred to as the habitual victim of the hawk. Tame pigeons are -ignored, and were, indeed, first seen in Greece after the wreck of the -Persian fleet at Mount Athos in 492 B.C.[152] Yet dove-culture was -practised as far back as the oldest records lead us in Egypt and Persia. -The dove was marked out as a ‘death-bird’ by our earliest Aryan -ancestors, and figures in the Vedas as a messenger of Yama. But Homer, -unconcerned, as usual, with animal symbolism, makes no account, if he -had ever heard, of its sinister associations. - -Footnote 149: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals_, pp. 241-43. - -Footnote 150: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 120. - -Footnote 151: - - Lindermayer, _Die Vögel Griechenlands_, p. 120. - -Footnote 152: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ p. 257. - -Among Homeric wild animals, the first place incontestably belongs to the -lion, and the Iliad, in especial, gives extraordinary prominence to the -king of beasts. In savage grandeur he stalks, as it were, through the -varied scenery of its similitudes, indomitable, fiercely-despoiling, -contemptuous of lesser brute-forces. His impressive qualities receive no -gratuitous enhancement; he rouses no myth-making fancies; there is no -fabulous ‘quality of mercy’ about him, nor of magnanimity, nor of -forbearance; he is simply a ‘gaunt and sanguine beast,’ a vivid -embodiment of the energy of untamed and unsparing nature. - -He is not brought immediately upon the scene of action; the Homeric -poems nowhere provide for him a local habitation; it is only in the -comparatively late Hymn to Aphrodite that a place is specifically -assigned to him among the feral products of Mount Ida. His portraiture, -nevertheless, in the similes of the Iliad is too minute and faithful to -leave any shadow of doubt of its being based upon intimate personal -acquaintance. The poet must have witnessed with his own eyes the change -from majestic indifference to bellicose frenzy described in the -following passage; he must have caught the greenish glare of the oblique -feline eyes, noted the preparatory tail-lashings, and mentally -photographed the crouching attitude, and the yawn of deadly -significance, that preceded the fierce beast’s spring. - - And on the other side, the son of Peleus rushed to meet him, - like a lion, a ravaging lion whom men desire to slay, a whole - tribe assembled; and first he goeth his way unheeding, but when - some warrior-youth hath smitten him with a spear, then he - gathereth himself open-mouthed, and foam cometh forth about his - teeth, and his stout spirit groaneth in his heart, and with his - tail he scourgeth either side his ribs and flanks and goadeth - himself on to fight, and glaring is borne straight on them by - his passion to try whether he shall slay some man of them, or - whether himself shall perish in the forefront of the - throng.[153] - -Footnote 153: - - _Iliad_, xx. 164-73. - -Take, again, the picture of the lioness defending her young, while - - Within her the storm of her might doth rise, - And the down-drawn skin of her brows over-gloometh the fire of her - eyes.[154] - -Or this other, exemplifying, like the ‘hungry people’ simile in -‘Locksley Hall,’ the ‘imperious’ beast’s dread of fire: - - And as when hounds and countryfolk drive a tawny lion from the - mid-fold of the kine, and suffer him not to carry away the - fattest of the herd, all night they watch, and he in great - desire for the flesh maketh his onset; but takes nothing - thereby, for thick the darts fly from strong hands against him, - and the burning brands, and these he dreads for all his fury, - and in the dawn he departeth with vexed heart.[155] - -Footnote 154: - - Way’s _Iliad_, xvii. 135-36. The feminine pronouns are here introduced - to avoid incongruity. The Homeric vocabulary did not include a word - equivalent to ‘lioness.’ - -Footnote 155: - - _Iliad_, xx. 164-75. - -Scenes of leonine ravage among cattle are frequently presented. As here: - - And as when in the pride of his strength a lion mountain-reared - Hath snatched from the pasturing kine a heifer, the best of the herd, - And, gripping her neck with his strong teeth, bone from bone hath he - snapped, - And he rendeth her inwards and gorgeth her blood by his red tongue - lapped, - And around him gather the dogs and the shepherd-folk, and still - Cry long and loud from afar, howbeit they have no will - To face him in fight, for that pale dismay doth the hearts of them - fill.[156] - -We seem, in reading these lines—and there are many more like them—to be -confronted with a vivified Assyrian or Lycian bas-relief. In the antique -sculptures of the valley of the Xanthus, above all, the incident of the -slaying of an ox by a lion is of such constant recurrence[157] as almost -to suggest, in confirmation of a conjecture by Mr. Gladstone,[158] a -similarity of origin between them and the corresponding passages of the -Iliad. The lion, indeed, occupies throughout the epic a position which -can now with difficulty be conceived as having been assigned to him on -the strength of European experience alone. Still, it must not be -forgotten that the facts of the matter have radically changed within the -last three thousand years. - -Footnote 156: - - Way’s _Iliad_, xvii. 61-67. - -Footnote 157: - - Fellows’ _Travels in Asia Minor_, p. 348, ed. 1852. - -Footnote 158: - - _Studies in Homer_, vol. i. p. 183. - -In prehistoric times, the lion ranged all over Europe, from the Severn -to the Hellespont; for the _Felis spelæus_ of Britain[159] was -specifically identical with the grateful clients of Androclus and Sir -Iwain, no less than with the more savage than sagacious beasts now -haunting the Upper Nile valley, and the marshes of Guzerat and -Mesopotamia. - -Footnote 159: - - Boyd Dawkins and Sanford, _Pleistocene Mammalia_, p. 171. - -Already, however, at the early epoch of the pile-built villages by the -lake of Constance, he had disappeared from Western Europe; yet he -lingered long in Greece. Of his presence in the Peloponnesus only -legendary traces remain, although he figures largely in Mycenæan art; -but in Thrace he can lay claim to an historically attested existence. -Herodotus[160] recounts with wonder how the baggage-camels of Xerxes’ -army were attacked by lions on the march from Acanthus to Therma; and he -defines the region haunted by them as bounded towards the east by the -River Nestus, on the west by the Achelous. Some Chalcidicean coins, too, -are stamped with the favourite oriental device of a lion killing an ox; -and Xenophon _possibly_—for his expressions are dubious—includes the -lion among the wild fauna of Thrace. The statements, on the other hand, -of Polybius and Dio Chrysostom leave no doubt that he had finally -retreated from our continent before the beginning of the Christian -era.[161] - -Footnote 160: - - Lib. vii. caps. 125, 126. - -Footnote 161: - - Sir G. C. Lewis, _Notes and Queries_, vol. viii. ser. ii. p. 242. - -A Thessalian Homer might, then, quite conceivably, have beheld an -occasional predatory lion descending the arbutus-clad slopes of Pelion -or Olympus; yet the continual allusions to leonine manners and customs -pervading the Iliad show an habitual acquaintance with the animal which -is certainly somewhat surprising. It corresponds, nevertheless, quite -closely with the perpetual recurrence of his form in the plastic -representations of Mycenæ. - -The comparatively few Odyssean references to this animal can scarcely be -said to bear the stamp of visual directness unmistakably belonging to -those dispersed broadcast through the earlier epic. Yet it would -probably be a mistake to suppose them derived at second-hand. Without, -then, denying that the author of the Odyssey had actually ‘met the ravin -lion when he roared,’ we may express some wonder that he, like his -predecessor of the Iliad, left unrecorded the auditory part of the -resulting brain-impression. For the voice of the lion is assuredly the -most imposing sound of which animated nature seems capable. Casual -allusions to it in the Hymn to Aphrodite and in the (nominally) Hesiodic -‘Shield of Hercules,’ are, nevertheless, perhaps the earliest extant in -Greek literature. - -The bear figures in the Iliad and Odyssey solely as a constellation, -except that a couple of verses interpolated into the latter accord him a -place among the embossed decorations of the belt of Hercules. The living -animal, however, is still reported to lurk in the ‘clov’n ravines’ of -‘many-fountain’d Ida,’ and, according to a local tradition, was only -banished from the Thessalian Olympus through the agency of Saint -Dionysius.[162] The panther or leopard, on the contrary, although -contemporaneously with the cave-lion an inmate of Britain, disappeared -from Europe at a dim and remote epoch, while plentifully met with in -Caria and Pamphylia during Cicero’s governorship of Cilicia. Even in the -present century, indeed, leopardskins formed part of the recognised -tribute of the Pasha of the Dardanelles. The life-like scene, then, in -which the animal emerges to view in the Iliad, bears a decidedly Asiatic -character. Mr. Conington’s version of the lines runs as follows: - - As panther springs from a deep thicket’s shade - To meet the hunter, and her heart no fear - Nor terror knows, though barking loud she hear, - For though with weapon’s thrust or javelin’s throw - He wound her first, yet e’en about the spear - Writhing, her valour doth she not forego, - Till for offence she close, or in the shock lie low.[163] - -Footnote 162: - - Tozer, _Researches in the Highlands of Turkey_, vol. ii. p. 64. - -Footnote 163: - - _Iliad_, xxi. 573-78. - -Thoroughly Oriental, too, is the vision conjured up in the Third Iliad -of Paris challenging - - To mortal combat all the chiefs of Greece,[164] - -armed with a bow and sword, poising ‘two brass-tipped javelins,’ a -panther skin flung round his magnificent form. Elate with the -consciousness of strength and beauty, unsuspicious of the betrayal in -store for him by his own weak and volatile spirit, the _gaietta pelle_ -of the fierce beast might have encouraged, as it did in Dante, a -cheerful forecast of the issue; yet illusorily in each case. In the -Odyssey, the panther is only mentioned as one of the forms assumed by -Proteus. - -Footnote 164: - - _Iliad_, iii. 20 (Lord Derby’s trans.). - -The Homeric wild boar is of quite Erymanthian powers and proportions; -with more valour than discretion, he does not shrink from encountering -the lion himself— - - Being ireful, on the lion he will venture; - -and the laying-low of a single specimen is reckoned no inadequate result -of a forest-campaign by dogs and men. Such an heroic brute, worthy to -have been the emissary of enraged Artemis, succumbed, no longer ago than -in 1850, to the joint efforts, during several toilsome days, of a band -of thirty hunters.[165] The ‘chafed boar’ in the Iliad either carries -everything before him, as Ajax scattered the Trojans fighting round the -body of Patroclus; or he dies, tracked to his lair, if die he must, -fearlessly facing his foes, incarnating rage with bristles erected, -blazing eyes, and gnashing tusks. Nor was the upshot for him inevitably -fatal. Idomeneus of Crete, we are told, awaiting the onset (which proved -but partially effective) of Æneas and Deiphobus, - - Stood at bay, like a boar on the hills that trusteth to his - strength, and abides the great assailing throng of men, in a - lonely place, and he bristles up his back, and his eyes shine - with fire, while he whets his tusks, and is right eager to keep - at bay both men and hounds.[166] - -Footnote 165: - - Erhard, _Fauna der Cycladen_, p. 26. - -Footnote 166: - - _Iliad_, xiii. 471-75. - -The boar is a solitary animal. Like Hal o’ the Wynd, he fights for his -own right hand; and he was accordingly appropriated by Homer to image -the valour of individual chiefs, while the rank and file figure as -wolves and jackals, hunting in packs, pinched with hunger, bloodthirsty -and desperately eager, but formidable only collectively. Jackals still -abound in the Troad and throughout the Cyclades, and their hideous wails -and barkings enhance the desolation of the Nauplian and Negropontine -swamps.[167] Neither have wolves disappeared from those regions; and the -old dread of the animal which was at once the symbol of darkness and of -light, survives obscurely to this day in the vampire-superstitions of -Eastern Europe. The closeness of the connexion between vampires and -were-wolves is shown by a comparison of the modern Greek word -_vrykolaka_, vampire, with the Zend and Sanskrit _vehrka_, a wolf.[168] -Nor were the Greeks of classical times exempt from the persuasion that -men and wolves might temporarily, or even permanently, exchange -semblances. Many stories of the kind were related in Arcadia in -connexion with the worship of the Lycæan Zeus; and Pausanias, while -critically sceptical as regards some of these, was not too advanced a -thinker to accept, as fully credible, the penal transformation of -Lycaon, son of Pelasgus.[169] Such notions belonged, however, to a -rustic mythology of which Homer took small cognisance. His thoughts -travelled of themselves out from the sylvan gloom of primeval haunts -into the open sunshine of unadulterated nature. - - In wood or wilderness, forest or den, - -he met with no bogey-animals. For him neither beast nor bird had any -mysterious significance. He attributed to encounters with particular -species no influence, malefic or beneficial, upon human destiny. Of -themselves, they had, in his view, no concern with it, although ordinary -animal instincts might, under certain conditions, be so directed as to -be expressive to man of the will of the gods. In the Homeric scheme, -birds and serpents exclusively are so employed, without, however, any -departure from the order of nature. Thus, by night near the sedgy -Simoeis, a heron, _Ardea nycticorax_, disturbed by the approach of -Odysseus and Diomed, assured them, by casually flapping its way -eastward, that their expedition had the sanction of their -guardian-goddess.[170] The choice of the bird was plainly dictated by -zoological considerations alone; it had certainly no such recondite -motive as that suggested by Ælian,[171] who, with almost grotesque -ingenuity, argued that the owl, as the fowl of Athene’s special -predilection, could only have been deprived of the privilege of acting -as her instrument on the occasion through Homer’s consciousness of its -reputation as a bird of sinister augury— - - Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen— - -the truth being that both kinds of association—the mythological and the -superstitious—were equally remote from the poet’s mind. - -Footnote 167: - - Von der Mühle, _Beiträge zur Ornithologie Griechenlands_, p. 123; - Buchholz, _Homerische Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 202. - -Footnote 168: - - Tozer, _Researches_, vol. ii. p. 82. - -Footnote 169: - - _Descriptio Græciæ_, lib. vi. cap. 8; viii. cap. ii. - -Footnote 170: - - _Iliad_, x. 274. - -Footnote 171: - - _De Naturâ Animalium_, lib. x. fr. 37. - -Similarly, the portent of - - An eagle and a serpent wreathed in fight - -appeared such only by virtue of the critical nature of the conjuncture -at which it was displayed. Hector, relying upon what he took to be a -promise of divine help, aimed at nothing less than the capture, in the -rout of battle, of the Greek camp, and the conflagration of the Greek -ships. But every step in advance brought him nearer to the tent where -the irate epical hero lay inert, but ready to spring into action at the -last extremity; and it was fully recognised that the arming of Achilles -meant far more than the mere loss of the fruits of victory. The balance -of events, then, if the proposed _coup de main_ were persevered with, -hung upon a knife-edge of destiny; and pale fear might well invade the -eager, yet hesitating Trojan host when, just as the foremost warriors -were about to breach the Greek rampart, an eagle flying westward—that -is, towards the side of darkness and death—let fall among their ranks a -coiling and blood-stained snake.[172] - - And adown the blasts of the wind he darted with one wild scream; - Then shuddered the Trojans, beholding the serpent’s writhing gleam - In the midst of them lying, the portent of Zeus the Ægis-lord, - And to Hector the valiant Polydamas spoke with a bodeful word.[173] - -His vaticinations were defied. The Trojan leader met them with the -memorable protest: - - But thou, thou wouldst have us obey the long-winged fowl of the air! - Go to, unto these have I not respect, and nought do I care - Whether to rightward they go to the sun and the dayspring sky, - Or whether to leftward away to the shadow-gloomed west they fly. - But for us, let us hearken the counsel of Zeus most high, and obey, - Who over the deathling race and the deathless beareth sway. - One omen of all is best, that we fight for our fatherland! - -Footnote 172: - - Shelley has adopted and developed the incident in the opening stanzas - of the _Revolt of Islam_. - -Footnote 173: - - _Iliad_, xii. 207-10 (Way’s trans.). - -Magnificent, but, in the actual case, mistaken. The shabby counsel of -Polydamas really carried with it the safety of Troy. - -The eagle is virtually the Homeric king of birds. He is in the Iliad -‘the most perfect,’ as well as ‘the strongest and swiftest of flying -things’; his appearances in both poems, often expressly ordained by -Zeus, are always momentous, and are, accordingly, eagerly watched and -solicitously interpreted; moreover, they never deceive; to disregard the -warning they convey is to rush spontaneously to destruction. It is only, -however, in the Twenty-fourth Iliad, usually regarded as subsequent, in -point of composition, to the cantos embodying the primitive legend of -the ‘Wrath of Achilles,’ that the eagle begins to be marked out as the -special envoy of Zeus. Later, the companionship became so close as to -justify Æschylus in implying that the bird was in lieu of a dog to the -‘father of gods and men.’ The position, on the other hand, assigned, in -one passage of the Odyssey, to the hawk as the ‘swift messenger’ of -Apollo, was not maintained. The Hellenic Phœbus eventually disclaimed -all relationship with the hawk-headed Horus of the Nile Valley. The -rapidity, however, of the hawk’s flight, and his agility in the pursuit -of his prey, furnish our poet, again and again, with terms of -comparison. Here is an example, taken from the description of the deadly -duel outside the Scæan gate. - - As when a falcon, bird of swiftest flight, - From some high mountain top on tim’rous dove - Swoops fiercely down; she, from beneath, in fear, - Evades the stroke; he, dashing through the brake, - Shrill-shrieking, pounces on his destin’d prey; - So, wing’d with desp’rate hate, Achilles flew, - So Hector, flying from his keen pursuit, - Beneath the walls his active sinews plied.[174] - -Footnote 174: - - _Iliad_, xxii. 139-44 (Lord Derby’s trans.). - -In popular Russian parlance, too, ‘the hurricane in the field, and the -luminous hawk in the sky,’ are the favourite metaphors of -swiftness.[175] Only that Homer’s falcon has no direct relations with -light; and of those indirectly traceable in the one phrase connecting -him with Apollo, the poet himself was certainly not cognisant. - -Footnote 175: - - Gubernatis, _Zoological Mythology_, vol. ii. p. 193. - -Vultures always lurk behind the scenes, as it were, of the Homeric -battle-stage. The abandonment to their abhorrent offices of the bodies -of the slain formed one of the chief terrors of death in the field, and -presented a much-dreaded means of enhancing the penalties of defeat. The -carrion-feeding birds perpetually on the watch to descend from the -clouds upon the blood-stained plain of Ilium, are clearly -‘griffon-vultures,’ _Vultur fulvus_; but the ‘bearded vulture,’ -_Gypaëtus barbatus_, the _Lämmergeier_ of the Germans, which, like the -eagle, pursues live prey, occasionally lends, in a figure, the swoop and -impetus of its flight to vivify some incident of extermination.[176] -Both species occur in modern Greece.[177] - -Footnote 176: - - _Odyssey_, xxii. 302; _Iliad_, xvi. 428, xvii. 460. - -Footnote 177: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 134. - -One of the few bits of primitive folk-lore enshrined in the Iliad -relates to the wars of the cranes and pygmies. The passage is curious in -many ways. It contains the first notice of bird-migrations, implies the -constancy with which the ‘annual voyage’ of the ‘prudent crane’ was -steered during three thousand years,[178] and records the dim wonder -early excited by the sight and sound of that - - Aery caravan, high over seas - Flying, and over lands with mutual wing - Easing their flight. - -Footnote 178: - - Koerner, _Die Homerische Thierwelt_, pp. 62-65. - -In the Iliadic lines, the clamour of the Trojan advance, in contrast to -the determined silence of their opponents, is somewhat disdainfully -accentuated: - - When afar through the heaven cometh pealing before them the cry of the - cranes, - As they flee from the wintertide storms and the measureless deluging - rains. - Onward with screaming they fly to the streams of the ocean-flood, - Bringing down on the folk of the Pigmies battle and murder and - blood.[179] - -Footnote 179: - - Way’s _Iliad_, iii. 3-7. - -The simile is felicitously plagiarised by Virgil in his - - Quales sub nubibus atris - Strymoniæ dant signa grues, atque æthera tranant - Cum sonitu, fugiuntque Notos clamore secundo,[180] - -but with the omission of the pygmy-element, probably as too childish for -the mature taste of his Roman audience. Its origin may perhaps be sought -in obscure rumours concerning the stunted races encountered by modern -travellers in Central Africa. The association of ideas, however, by -which they were connected in a hostile sense with ‘fowls o’ the air’ is -of trackless antiquity. It partially survives in the notion, current in -Finland, that birds of passage spend their winters in dwarf-land, ‘a -dweller among birds’ meaning, in polite Finnish phrase, a dwarf; and -bird-footed mannikins have a well-marked place in German -folk-stories;[181] but the root from which these withered leaves of -fable once derived vitality has long ago perished. Aristotle described -the ‘small infantry warr’d on by cranes’ as cave-dwellers near the -sources of the Nile;[182] Pliny turned them into a kind of -pantomime-cavalry, mounted on rams and goats, locating them among the -Himalayas, and conjuring up a fantastic vision of their periodical -descents to the seacoast, to destroy the eggs and young of their winged -enemies, against whom they could no otherwise hope to make head.[183] -For such disinterested ravage as was committed on their behalf by Herzog -Ernst, a mediæval knight-errant smitten with compassion for the -miserable straits to which they were reduced by the secular feud imposed -upon them, could scarcely be of more than millennial recurrence.[184] - -Footnote 180: - - _Æneid_, x. 264-66. - -Footnote 181: - - Grimm and Stallybrass, _Teutonic Mythology_, pp. 1420, 1450. - -Footnote 182: - - _De Animal. Hist._ lib. vii. cap. ii.; lib. iii. cap. xii. - -Footnote 183: - - _Hist. Nat._ lib. vii. cap. 2. - -Footnote 184: - - _Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum_, Bd. vii. p. 232. - -The Homeric wild swan is _Cycnus musicus_, great numbers of which yearly -exchange the frozen marshes of the North for the ‘silver lakes and -rivers’ of Greece and Asia Minor. But the swan of the Epics sings no -‘sad dirge of her certain ending.’ Unmelodiously exultant, she flutters -with the rest of the fluttering denizens of the Lydian water-meadows, in -a scene full of animation. - - And as the many tribes of feathered birds, wild geese or cranes - or long-necked swans, on the Asian mead by Kaÿstros’ stream, fly - hither and thither joying in their plumage, and with loud cries - settle ever onwards, and the mead resounds; even so poured forth - the many tribes of warriors from ships and huts into the - Scamandrian plain.[185] - -Nor do the - - Smaller birds with song - Solace the woods - -of Homeric landscapes; once only, the ‘solemn nightingale’ is permitted, -in the story of the waiting of Penelope, ‘to pour her soft lays.’ ‘Even -as when the daughter of Pandareus,’ the Ithacan queen tells the -disguised Odysseus, ‘the brown bright nightingale, sings sweet in the -first season of the spring, from her place in the thick leafage of the -trees; and with many a turn and thrill she pours forth her full-voiced -music bewailing her child, dear Itylus, whom on a time she slew with the -sword unwitting, Itylus the son of Zethus the prince; even as her song, -my troubled soul sways to and fro.’[186] - -Footnote 185: - - _Iliad_, ii. 459-63. - -Footnote 186: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 518-24. - -Intense appreciation of the sentiment of sound is here unmistakable; yet -elsewhere in the Homeric poems we hear of the sharp cry of the swallow, -of the screams of contending vultures, the piercing shriek of the eagle, -the wild pæan of the hawk, the clamorous vociferations of his terrified -victims, but nothing of the tender notes of thrush, lark, or linnet, -though deliciously audible throughout Greece - - In spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides. - -Even in the island of Calypso, where delights are imaginable at will, -the poplars and cypresses house only such harsh-voiced birds as owls, -hawks, and cormorants—perhaps in order to leave the uncontested palm for -sweet singing to the nymph herself. The power of song does not, indeed, -appear to be, in Homer’s view, ‘an excellent thing in woman.’ It is not -included among the gifts of Athene, or even among the graces of -Aphrodite. None of his noble or admirable heroines possess it. It is -reserved, as part of a baleful dower of fascination, for enchantresses -who lure men to oblivion or ruin—for Calypso, Circe, and the Sirens. - -The Odyssey being essentially a sea-story, the prevalence in its fauna -of marine species is not surprising. Seals frequently present -themselves; coots and cormorants, laughing gulls and sea-mews, dive and -play amid the surges that beat upon its magic shores; ospreys call and -cry; a cuttle-fish is limned to the life; Scylla has been supposed to -represent a magnified and monstrous cephalopod. Dolphins are common to -the Iliad and Odyssey, and frequent the Ægean nowadays as of old.[187] -Their mythical associations in post-Homeric literature are, indeed, -forgotten; but the direction in which they travel, collected into -shoals, helps the fishermen of Syra and Melos to a rude forecast of the -set of impending winds. - -Footnote 187: - - Erhard, _Fauna der Cycladen_, p. 27. - -The only significant zoological novelty, then, in the Odyssey may be -said to lie in its recognition of the goose as a domesticated bird. The -prominence given by it to swine-keeping, only incidentally mentioned in -the Iliad, is also noteworthy. A dissimilarity, on the other hand, in -the ethical sentiment towards animals displayed in the two poems—above -all, as regards the horse and dog—cannot fail to strike a dispassionate -reader; but this has been sufficiently dwelt upon in a separate chapter. -The remark need only here be added that the conception of the dog Argos -seems no less thoroughly European than that of the horses of Rhesus is -Asiatic. Both, it is true, may have had a local origin on the same side -of the Hellespont, but, from the point of view of moral geography, they -undoubtedly belong to different continents. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - TREES AND FLOWERS IN HOMER. - - -IF we can accept as tolerably complete the view of early Achæan beliefs -presented to us in the Iliad and Odyssey, they included but few -legendary associations with vegetable growths. The treatment of the -Homeric flora, like that of the Homeric fauna, is essentially simple and -direct. One magic herb has a place in it, and the ‘enchanted stem’ of -the lotus bears fruit of inexplicable potency over the subtly compounded -human organism; but tree-worship is as remote from the poet’s thoughts -as animal-worship, and flower-myths seem equally beyond his ken. He knew -of no ‘love-lies-bleeding’ stories interpreting the passionate glow of -scarlet petals; nor of ‘forget-me-not’ stories fitted to the more tender -sentiment of azure blooms; nor of delicate calyxes nurtured by -goddesses’ tears; nor of any other of the wistful human fancies -endlessly intertwined with the beautiful starry apparitions of -spring-tide on the blossoming earth. The simplicity of his admiration -for them might, indeed, almost have incurred the disapprobation of -ultra-Wordsworthians. With the ‘yellow primrose’ he never had an -opportunity of making acquaintance, by ‘the river’s brim’ or elsewhere; -but crocuses or hyacinths, violets or poppies, drew him into no -reveries; no mystical meanings clung about the images of them in his -mind; he looked at them with open eyes of delight, and went his way. - -The oak has been called the king of the forest, as the lion the king of -beasts. But its supremacy is largely a thing of the past. To the early -undivided Aryans, it was the tree of trees. Their common name for it, -which survived with its original special meaning in Celtic and Greek, -came, in other languages, to denote the generalised conception of a -tree, showing the oak to have been pre-eminent in their common ancestral -home. Traces of this shifting of the linguistic standpoint are preserved -in some Homeric phrases. Thus, _drûs_—etymologically identical with the -English _tree_—means, not only an oak, but, most probably, the -particular kind of oak familiar to us in England—_Quercus robur_, ‘the -unwedgeable and gnarled oak’ of Shakespeare. But the generic -significance gradually infused into the specific term comes to the front -in several of its compounds. A wood-cutter, for instance, is, in the -Iliad, literally an ‘oak-cutter,’ and the ‘solemn shade’ round Circe’s -dwelling was afforded, etymologically, by an oaken grove, although the -meaning really conveyed by the word _drûma_ was that of a collection of -forest-trees of undetermined and various kinds. In later Greek, too, we -find a woodpecker styled an ‘oakpecker’; and the Dryades, while in name -‘oak-nymphs,’ were, in point of fact, unrestricted in their choice of an -arboreal dwelling-place. By a curious survival of associations, the name -in modern Greek of this antique forest-constituent is _dendron_, a tree; -yet it is now by no means common in Greece. Homer’s oaks were -mountain-reared, sturdy, proof against most contingencies of climate. Of -similar nature were Leonteus and Polypœtes, of the rugged Lapith race, -who indomitably held the way into the Greek camp against the mighty -Asius. ‘These twain,’ we are told, ‘stood in front of the lofty gates, -like high-crested oak-trees in the hills, that for ever abide the wind -and rain, firm fixed with roots great and long.’[188] - -Footnote 188: - - _Iliad_, xii. 131-34. - -The species of oak at present dominant both in Greece and the Troad is -the ‘oak of Bashan,’ _Quercus ægilops_. Its fruit, the valonia in -commercial demand for tanning purposes, was made serviceable, within -Homer’s experience, under the almost identical name of _balanoi_, only -as food for pigs. Homer’s name for this fine tree—extended, perhaps, to -the closely allied _Quercus esculus_—is _phegos_, signifying ‘edible,’ -and denoting, in other European languages, the beech. How, then, did it -come to be transferred, south of the Ceraunian mountains, to a totally -different kind of tree? The explanation is simple. No beeches grew in -the Hellenic peninsula when the first Aryan settlers entered it. A word -was hence left derelict, and was naturally claimed by a conspicuous -forest-tree, until then anonymous, because unknown further north, which -shared with the beech its characteristic quality—so the necessities of -hunger caused it to be esteemed—of producing fruit capable, after a -fashion, of supporting life.[189] So, in the United States, the English -names ‘robin,’ ‘hemlock,’ ‘maple,’ and probably many others, were -unceremoniously handed on to strange species, on the strength of some -casual or superficial resemblances.[190] The tradition of acorn-eating -connected with the rustic Arcadians applied evidently to the fruit of -the valonia-oak, or one of its nearest congeners;[191] and the oracular -oak of Dodona, to which Odysseus pretended to have hied for counsel, -appears to have been of the same description; as was certainly the tree -of Zeus before the Scæan gate, whence Apollo and Athene watched the -single combat between Hector and Ajax, and beneath which the spear of -Tlepolemus was wrenched from the flesh of the fainting Sarpedon. These -two are the only trees divinely appropriated in Homeric verse, and they -command but a small share of the reverence paid by Celts and Teutons to -their sacred oaks. - -Footnote 189: - - Schrader and Jevons, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans_, p. 273. - -Footnote 190: - - Taylor, _Origin of the Aryans_, p. 27. - -Footnote 191: - - Kruse, _Hellas_, Th. i. p. 350; Fraas, _Synopsis_, p. 252. - -The beech is an encroaching tree. Wherever it is capable of thriving, it -tends to replace the oak, which has lost, apparently, a great part of -its old propagative energy. Possibly its exposure to the attacks of -countless insect-enemies, from which the beech enjoys immunity, may -account for its comparative helplessness in the battle for life. The -beech is, at any rate, now the typical tree of central Europe; it has -aided in the extirpation of the ancient oak-forests of Jutland, and has -established itself, within the historic period, in Scotland and -Ireland.[192] Its habitat is, however, bounded to the east by a line -drawn from Königsberg on the Baltic to the Caucasus; it is not found in -the Troad, or in Greece south of a track crossing the peninsula from the -Gulf of Arta to the Gulf of Volo. It grows freely, however, on the -slopes of the Mysian Olympus, as well as on Mount Pelion in Thessaly. At -the beginning of the Macedonian era, too, Dicæarchus[193] described the -thick foliage of Pelion as prevalently beechen, though cypresses, silver -firs, junipers, and maples, also abounded, the last three kinds of tree -having since disappeared, while the beech seems to have only just held -its ground.[194] Its relative importance, then, five hundred years -earlier, is not likely to have been very different; yet Homer, who -certainly knew a good deal about Pelion, whether by report, or from -observation, never mentions the beech. It is true that we cannot argue -with any confidence from omission to ignorance. An epic is not an -encyclopædia. The illustrations employed in it are not necessarily -exhaustive of all that the poet’s world contains. We can, then, be -certain of nothing more than that Homer’s idea of a typical forest did -not include the beech. Its appearance, then, in the following spirited -lines from Mr. Way’s excellent translation of the Iliad, has no warrant -in the original, where the third kind of tree mentioned is the _phegos_, -or valonia-oak. - - And as when the East-wind and South-wind in stormy contention strive - In the glens of a mountain, a deep dark forest to rend and rive, - Scourging the smooth-stemmed cornel-tree, and the beech and the ash, - While against each other their far-spreading branches swing and dash - With unearthly din, and ever the shattering limbs of them crash.[195] - -Footnote 192: - - Selby, _History of British Forest Trees_, pp. 309, 319. - -Footnote 193: - - Müller, _Geographi Græci minores_, t. i. p. 106. - -Footnote 194: - - Tozer, _Researches in the Highlands of Turkey_, vol. ii. pp. 122-23. - -Footnote 195: - - Way’s _Iliad_, xvi. 765-69. - -The ash, on the other hand, though abundant on many Greek mountains, no -longer waves along the ridgy heights of Pelion. Yet it was here that the -ashen shaft of the great Pelidean spear was cut by the Centaur Chiron. -For in the Homeric account of the arming of Patroclus, after we have -been told of his equipment with the shield, cuirass, and formidably -nodding helmet of Achilles, it is recounted: - - Then seized he two strong lances that fitted his grasp, only he - took not the spear of the noble son of Aiakos, heavy, and huge, - and stalwart, that none other of the Achaians could wield, but - Achilles alone availed to wield it: even the ashen Pelian spear - that Chiron gave to his father dear, from the crown of Pelion, - to be the bane of heroes.[196] - -The shaft in question could certainly have been hewn nowhere else; the -fact of the Centaur’s residence being attested, to this day, by the -visibility of the cavern inhabited by him, dilapidated, it is true, but -undeniable.[197] Here, surely, is evidence to convince the most -sceptical. Its conclusive force is scarcely inferior to that of the -testimony borne by the graves of Hamlet and Ophelia at Elsinore to the -reality of the tragic endings of those distraught personages. - -Footnote 196: - - _Iliad_, xvi. 139-44. - -Footnote 197: - - Tozer, _Researches_, vol. ii. p. 126. - -The Homeric epithet, ‘quivering with leaves,’ is fully justified, Mr. -Tozer informs us,[198] by the dense clothing of all the heights and -hollows of Chiron’s mountain with beech and oak, chestnut and -plane-trees, besides evergreen _under-garments_ of myrtle, arbutus, and -laurel-bushes. Yet the ash, as we have said, is missing, nor have the -pines felled to build the good ship ‘Argo’[199] left, it would seem, any -representatives. - -Footnote 198: - - _Ib._ p. 122. - -Footnote 199: - - _Medea_, 3. - -In the Iliad and Odyssey, too, pine-wood is the approved material for -nautical constructions. It was probably derived from the mountain-loving -silver-fir, some grand specimens of which grew nevertheless conveniently -near the sea-shore in remote Ogygia, and provided ‘old Laertes’ son’ -with material for his rapidly and skilfully built raft. Homer -distinguishes, in a loose way, at least two species of pine, but their -identification in particular cases is to a great extent arbitrary. The -trees, for instance, employed in conjunction with ‘high-crested’ oaks, -to fence round the court-yard of Polyphemus, may have been the -picturesque stonepines of South Italy, but they may just as well, or -better, have been maritime pines, such as spring up everywhere along the -sandy flats of modern Greece.[200] The stone-pine was sacred to -Cybele.[201] Her husband, Atys, was transformed into one, with the -result of bringing her as near the verge of madness as might be -consistent with her venerable dignity; for actually bereft of reason a -goddess presumably cannot be. This, however, was a post-Homeric legend, -and a post-Homeric association. - -Footnote 200: - - Daubeny, _Trees of the Ancients_, p. 19. - -Footnote 201: - - Dierbach, _Flora Mythologica_, p. 42. - -What might be called the ornamental part of the Ogygian groves consisted -of black poplars, aromatic cypresses, and alders. Indigenous there, -likewise, although heard of only as supplying perfumed firewood, were -the ‘cedar’ and ‘_thuon_,’ split logs of which blazed within the -fragrant cavern where Calypso was found by Hermes tunefully singing -while she plied the shuttle. The cedar here mentioned, however, was no -‘cedar of Lebanon,’ but a description of juniper which attains the full -dimensions of a tree in the lands bordering on the Levant.[202] The -resinous wood yielded by it was highly valued by the Homeric Greeks for -its ‘grateful smell’; store-rooms for precious commodities, and the -‘perfumed apartments’ of noble ladies were constructed of it. This, at -least, is expressly stated of Hecuba’s chamber, and can be inferred of -Helen’s and Penelope’s. The _thuon_, or ‘wood of sacrifice,’ burnt with -cedar-wood on Calypso’s hearth, was identified by Pliny with the African -_citrus_, extravagantly prized for decorative furniture in Imperial -Rome, and thought to be represented by a coniferous tree called _Thuya -articulata_, now met with in Algeria.[203] - -Footnote 202: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 232. - -Footnote 203: - - Daubeny, _op. cit._ pp. 40-42. - -The trees shadowing, in the Odyssey, the entrance by the ‘deep-flowing -Ocean’ to the barren realm of death,[204] appear to have been selected -for that position owing to a supposed incapacity for ripening fruit. The -grove in question was composed of ‘lofty poplars’ and ‘seed-shedding -willows’; and poplars and willows were alike deemed sterile and, because -sterile, of evil omen.[205] Even among ourselves, the willow retains a -dismal significance, and it is prominent in Chinese funeral rites.[206] -The black poplar continued to the end sacred to Persephone; but its -connexion with Hades, in the traditions of historic Greece, was less -explicit than that of the white poplar (_Populus alba_). This last tree, -called by Homer _acheroïs_, had its especial habitat on the shores of -the Acheron in Thesprotia, whence, as Pausanias relates,[207] it was -brought to the Peloponnesus by Hercules; and the same hero, in a variant -of the story, returned crowned with poplar from his successful -expedition to Hades. In the Odyssey the white poplar does not occur, and -in the Iliad only in a simile employed to render more impressive, first -the collapse of Asius under the stroke of Idomeneus, and again the -overthrow of Sarpedon by Patroclus. ‘And he fell, as an oak falls, or a -poplar, or tall pine tree, that craftsmen have felled on the hills, with -new-whetted axes.’[208] - -Footnote 204: - - _Odyssey_, x. 510. - -Footnote 205: - - Hayman’s ed. of the _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 174; Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ - xvi. 46. - -Footnote 206: - - Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, t. ii. p. 337. - -Footnote 207: - - _Descriptio Græciæ_, v. 14. - -Footnote 208: - - _Iliad_, xiii. 389; xvi. 482-84. - -The author of the Iliad ascribes no under-world relationships either to -the white or to the black poplar. His sole funereal tree is the elm. -Relating the misfortunes of her family, Andromache says: - - Fell Achilles’ hand - My sire Aetion slew, what time his arms - The populous city of Cilicia raz’d, - The lofty-gated Thebes; he slew indeed, - But stripp’d him not; he reverenc’d the dead; - And o’er his body, with his armour burnt, - A mound erected, and the mountain-nymphs, - The progeny of ægis-bearing Jove, - Planted around his tomb a grove of elms.[209] - -Now the elm, like the poplar and willow, had, from of old, the -not-unfounded reputation of partial sterility, and was for this reason -made the legendary abode of dreams[210]—things without progeny or -purpose, that passing ‘leave not a rack behind.’ Virgil’s giant elm in -the vestibule of Orcus, - - Quam sedem Somnia vulgo - Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent, - -is the literary embodiment of this popular idea. Evidently, then, the -trees of mourning in the Iliad and Odyssey were singled out owing to -their possession of a common, though by no means obvious peculiarity; -yet their selection in each poem is different. This is the more -remarkable because associations of the sort, once established, are -almost ineradicable from what we may call tribal consciousness. -Cypresses have no share in them, so far as Homer is concerned. Their -appointment to the office of mourning the dead would seem to have been -subsequently resolved upon. The connexion was, at any rate, well -established before the close of the classic age, when funeral-pyres were -made by preference of cypress wood, the tree itself being consecrated to -the hated Dis.[211] And Pausanias met with groves of cypresses -surrounding the tomb of Laïs near Corinth, and of Alcmæon, son of the -ill-fated seer Amphiaraus, at Psophis in Arcadia.[212] The tradition -survives, nowadays in the East, in the planting of Turkish cemeteries. - -Footnote 209: - - Lord Derby’s _Iliad_, vi. 414-20. - -Footnote 210: - - Dierbach, _Flora Mythologica_, p. 34. - -Footnote 211: - - _Ib._ p. 49. - -Footnote 212: - - _Descriptio Græciæ_, ii. 2, viii. 24. - -The vegetation along the shores of the Scamander (now the Mendereh) has -undergone, so far as can be judged, singularly little alteration during -nearly three thousand years. Homer sings of - - the willows, elms, and tamarisk shrubs, - The lotus, and the reeds, and galingal, - Which by the lovely river grew profuse.[213] - -And there they have continued to grow. The swampy district below -Hissarlik bristles with reeds and bulrushes; the whole plain is thick -with trefoil (the ‘lotus’ of the Iliad); while the banks of the famous -stream, once choked with Trojan dead, are fringed—Dr. Virchow -relates—with double rows of willows intermixed with tamarisks and young -elms. If no such robust trunk is now to be seen as that of the elm-tree, -by the help of which Achilles struggled out of the raging torrent, the -deficiency is accidental, not inherent. Potential trees are kept -perpetually in the twig stage by the unsparing ravages of camels and -browsing goats. To judge of the former sylvan state of the Troad, one -must ascend the valley of the Thymbrius—the modern Kimar Su.[214] There -the valonia-oak, the ilex, the plane, and the hornbeam, attain a fine -stature; pine-groves clothe the declivities; hazel-bushes and arbutus, -hops and wild vines, trail over the rocks, and cluster in the hollows. -Along the Asmak, dense growths of asphodel send up flower-stalks -reaching a horse’s withers; the elm-bushes are entangled with roses and -arums; the turf is sprinkled with coronilla, dandelion, starry trefoil, -red silene; fields are sheeted white with the blossoms of the -water-ranunculus; the ‘flowery Scamandrian plain’ that gladdened the -eyes of the ancient bard is still visibly spread out before the -traveller of to-day. Homer, indeed, as Dr. Virchow remarks, knew a good -deal more about the Troad than most of his critics, even if he did, on -occasions, subordinate topographical accuracy to poetical exigency. - -Footnote 213: - - Lord Derby’s _Iliad_, xxi. 350-52. - -Footnote 214: - - _Berlin. Abhandlungen_, 1879, p. 71. - -The plane-tree nowhere shows to more splendid advantage than in Greece -and Asia Minor; but the only specimen commemorated in the Greek epics -grew at Aulis, and sheltered the altar upon which the hecatombs of the -expeditionary force were offered during the time of waiting terminated -by the sacrifice of Iphigenia. It was the scene, too, of a portent; for -one day, in full view of the astonished Achæans, a serpent crept up its -trunk to devour the nine callow inmates of a sparrow’s nest among its -branches, and on the completion of a sufficiently ample meal by the -deglutition of the mother-bird, was then and there turned into -stone.[215] The decade of consumed sparrows—mother and chicks—signified, -according to the interpretation of Calchas, the ten years of the siege -of Troy; and the reality of the event was attested to later generations -by the display, in the temple of Artemis at Aulis, of some wood from the -identical tree within the living compass of whose branches it had -occurred.[216] Had the petrified snake been producible as well, the -evidence would have been complete. - -Footnote 215: - - _Iliad_, ii. 305-29. - -Footnote 216: - - Pausanias, ix. 20. - -The legendary plane-tree had, however, when Pausanias visited Aulis, -been replaced by a group of palms imported from Syria, the nearest home -of the species, whence the Phœnicians had not failed to transport it -westward. It accordingly, as being derived from the same prolific source -of novelties, shared the name ‘Phœnix’ with the brilliant colour -produced by the Tyrian dye. But its introduction seems to belong to the -later Achæan age. For the palm is unknown in the Iliad, and emerges only -once in the Odyssey,[217] although then with particular emphasis. The -individual tree seen by Homer was probably the first planted on Greek -soil. It spread its crown of leaves above the shrine of Apollo, at -Delos. And when the storm-tossed Odysseus set his wits to work to win -the protection of Nausicaa—a matter of life or death to him at the -moment—he could think of no more flattering comparison for the youthful -stateliness of her aspect, than to the vivid upspringing grace of the -tall, arboreal exotic. A tradition, not reported by Homer, who nowhere -localises the birth of a god, asserted Apollo to have come into the -world beneath that very tree, or one of its predecessors in the same -spot; and it still had successors in the Augustan age.[218] - -Footnote 217: - - _Odyssey_, vi. 162. - -Footnote 218: - - Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. i. p. 226. - -The laurel, although exceedingly common in Greece, is found only in one -of the semi-fabulous regions of the Homeric world. The entrance to the -cavern of Polyphemus was shaded by its foliage, not as yet sacred to the -sun-god. Equally detached from relationship to Athene is the olive, with -which, however, acquaintance is implied both in its wild and cultivated -varieties. The latter Pindar asserts to have been introduced into his -native country, from the ‘dark sources of the Ister,’ by Hercules,[219] -who showed unexpected skill in the difficult art of acclimatisation; and -the value in which it was held can readily be gathered from the -following beautiful simile: - -Footnote 219: - - _Olymp._ iii. 25-32. - - As when a man reareth some lusty sapling of an olive in a clear - space where water springeth plenteously, a goodly shoot - fair-growing; and blasts of all winds shake it, yet it bursteth - into white blossom; then suddenly cometh the wind of a great - hurricane and wresteth it out of its abiding-place and - stretcheth it out upon the earth; even so lay Panthoös’ son, - Euphorbos of the good ashen spear, when Menelaos, Atreus’ son, - had slain him, and despoiled him of his arms.[220] - -Footnote 220: - - _Iliad_, xvii. 53-60. - -Olive-wood was the favourite material for axe-handles and clubs; and the -bed of Odysseus was carved by himself out of an olive-tree still rooted -within a chamber of his palace.[221] In the modern Ithaca, the olive -alone of all the trees that once flourished there has resisted -extirpation, and everywhere in the Ionian Islands attains a size -entitling its assemblages to rank as forests, rather than as mere -groves.[222] Thus, the olive planted at the head of the bay where -Odysseus landed after his long wanderings, was ‘wide-spreading’ in point -of simple fact, needing no poetical licence to make it so. Olive-oil -does not appear to have been then in culinary employment; its chief use -was for anointing the body after bathing. This indispensable luxury was -provided for, in opulent establishments, by laying up a goodly stock of -oil among such household treasures as were entrusted by Penelope to the -care of Eurycleia.[223] - -Footnote 221: - - _Odyssey_, xxiii. 190. - -Footnote 222: - - Schliemann, quoted in Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. iii. p. 15. - -Footnote 223: - - _Odyssey_, ii. 339. - -The Homeric poems contain no allusion to the perfume of either flowers -or fruit. This is the more surprising from the extreme sensitiveness -betrayed in them to olfactory impressions of other kinds. We hear of -‘scented apartments,’ ‘sweet-smelling garments,’ of the aromatic quality -of the cypress, of the spicy air wafted through Calypso’s island from -the juniper and citron-logs serving her for fuel, even of the barely -appreciable fragrance of olive-oil. Offensive odours excite -corresponding horror. Menelaus and his comrades were utterly unable to -endure, without the solace of an ambrosial antidote, the ‘ancient and -fish-like smell’ of the sealskins disguised in which they lay in wait -for Proteus, under the tutelary guidance of the sea-nymph Eidothea, his -scarcely dutiful daughter. The Spartan king, relating the incident to -Telemachus, was confident of meeting with fellow-feeling when he said: - - There would our ambush have been most terrible, for the deadly - stench of the sea-bred seals distressed us sore; nay, who would - lay him down by a beast of the sea? But herself she wrought - deliverance, and devised a great comfort. She took ambrosia of a - very sweet savour, and set it beneath each man’s nostril, and - did away with the stench of the beast.[224] - -Footnote 224: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 441-46, and Hayman’s notes. - -As we read, the tradition that Homer’s last days were prolonged by the -perfume of an apple, grows intelligible. And yet the balmy breath of -Pierian violets and Cilician crocuses drew no comment from him! - -The flowers distinctively noticed by him are: poppies, hyacinths, -crocuses, violets, and, by implication, roses and white lilies. And it -is somewhat remarkable that, while all the items of this not very long -list can be collected from the Iliad, only two of them recur in any -shape in the Odyssey. The former poem recognises the artificial -cultivation of the poppy, probably, as we shall see, for gastronomic -purposes, since there could be no question at that epoch, in Greece or -Asia Minor, of the preparation of opium. The death, by an arrow-shot -from the bow of Teucrus, of the youthful Gorgythion, son of Priam and -Castianeira, is thus described. - - Even as in a garden a poppy droopeth its head aside, being heavy - with fruit and the showers of spring, so bowed he aside his head - laden with his helm.[225] - -Footnote 225: - - _Iliad_, viii. 306-308. - -Crimson poppies now bloom freely along the Mendereh valley; they were -symbolical, in classical Greece, of fruitfulness, love, and death, and -were associated with the cult of Demeter.[226] Their fabled origin from -the tears of Aphrodite for the death of Adonis, was shared with -anemones. - -Footnote 226: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 250. - -Mount Gargarus, the loftiest peak of Ida, blossomed, according to the -Iliad, with hyacinths, crocuses, and lotus. This last term designates, -however, not the lily of the Nile, but a kind of clover, much relished -by the steeds, not only of heroic, but of immortal owners. The fragrant -yellow flowers borne by it are not expressly adverted to; the function -of the Homeric lotus-grass was rather to supply herbage than to evoke -delight. - -The identification of the hyacinth of Mount Ida has employed much -learning and ingenuity, and the result of learned discussions is not -always unanimity of opinion. The case in point is indeed very nearly one -of _quot homines, tot sententiæ_. The gladiolus, larkspur, iris, the -Martagon lily, the common hyacinth, have all had advocates, each of whom -considers his case to be of convincing, not to say, of irresistible -strength. The last-mentioned and most obvious solution of the problem is -that favoured by Buchholz,[227] - -Footnote 227: - - _Loc. cit._ p. 219. - -and he supports it with the reasonable surmise that the epithet -‘hyacinthine,’ applied to the locks of Odysseus, referred, not to -colour, but to form, their closely-set curls recalling forcibly enough -the _ringleted_ effect of the congregated flowerets. The dry soil of -Greece is particularly suitable to the hyacinth, sundry kinds of -which—one of them so deeply blue as to be nearly black—are found all -over the Peloponnesus, in the Ionian islands, and high up on the -outlying bulwarks of Olympus.[228] The ‘flower of Ajax,’ legibly -inscribed with an interjection of woe, sprang up for the first time in -Salamis, it was said, just after the hero it commemorated had met his -tragic fate.[229] Another story connected it similarly with the death of -Hyacinthus; and it was probably identical with the scarlet gladiolus -(_Gladiolus byzantinus_), almost certainly with the _suave rubens -hyacinthus_ of the Third Eclogue, but not with the Homeric hyacinth, -which is undistinguished in folk-lore. - -Footnote 228: - - Kruse, _Hellas_, Th. i. p. 359. - -Footnote 229: - - Pausanias, i. 35. - -The ‘violet-crowned’ Athenians of old, could they recross the Styx to -wander by the Ilissus, would be struck with at least one unwelcome -change. For violets no longer grow in Attica. They are nevertheless -found, although sparingly, in most other parts of Greece, and up to an -elevation of two thousand feet on the slopes of Parnassus. Homer often -mentions them allusively, but introduces them directly only once, and -then, as Fraas has remarked, in the incongruous company of the -marsh-loving wild parsley (_Apium palustre_).[230] Unjustifiable from a -botanical point of view, the conjunction may have had an æsthetic -motive. In the festal garlands of classic Greece, violets and parsley -were commonly associated, and their association was perhaps dictated by -a survival of the taste displayed in the embellishment of Calypso’s -well-watered meadow. - -Footnote 230: - - _Synopsis Plantarum_, p. 114; Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. i. p. 175. - -Homeric violets, at any rate, flourished nowhere else ostensibly; but -from their modest retirement within the poet’s mind supplied him with a -colour-epithet, which he employed, one might make bold to say, without -over-nice discrimination. The sea might indeed, under certain aspects, -be fitly so described; but iron makes a very distant approach to the hue -indicated; and Nature must have been in her most sportive mood when she -clothed the flock of Polyphemus in violet fleeces. Polyphemus, to be -sure, lived in a semi-fabulous world, where it has been suggested[231] -that wool might conceivably _grow dyed_, as in the restored Saturnian -kingdom imagined by Virgil;[232] and the dark-blue material attached to -Helen’s golden distaff[233] was evidently a far-travelled rarity, such -as might be produced by the use of a foreign dye. But there is no -evidence of primitive acquaintance with a blue dye; indeed, if one had -been known, it is practically certain that the colour due to it would -have been named, either, like indigo, from the substance affording it, -or, like ‘Tyrian’ purple, from its place of origin. The hue of the -violet, however, as it appeared to Homer, does not bear to be more -distinctly defined than as dusky, while with Virgil it was frankly -_black_. - - Et nigræ violæ sunt, et vaccinia nigra. - -Not preternaturally blue, but naturally black sheep, may then be -concluded to have been tended by the Cyclops. - -Footnote 231: - - Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 116. - -Footnote 232: - - _Ecl._ iv. 42. - -Footnote 233: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 135. - -The crocus of Mount Ida—the crocus that ‘brake like fire’ at the feet of -the three Olympian competitors for the palm of beauty—was the splendid -golden flower (_Crocus sativus_) yielding, through its orange-coloured -stigmas, a dye once deemed magnificent, a perfume ranked amongst the -choicest luxuries of Rome, and a medicine in high ancient and mediæval -repute. But its vogue has passed. Saffron slippers are no longer an -appanage of supreme dignity; the ‘saffron wings’ of Iris are folded; the -‘saffron robes’ of the Dawn retain the glamour only of what they -signify; to the chymist and the cook, the antique floral ingredient, so -long and so extravagantly prized, is of very subordinate importance. - -Both the word ‘crocus’ and its later equivalent ‘saffron,’ are of -Semitic origin. Witness the Hebrew form _karkom_ of the first,[234] the -Arabic _sahafaran_ of the second, developed out of _assfar_, yellow, and -represented by the Spanish _azafran_, whence our ‘saffron.’ The plant -was widely and profitably cultivated under Moorish rule in Spain, and -was probably introduced by the Phœnicians into Greece, though the common -vernal crocus is certainly indigenous there, its white and purple cups -begemming all the declivities of ‘Hellas and Argos.’ The saffron-crocus, -too, now grows wild in such dry and chalky soil as Sunium and Hymettus -afford;[235] yet its name betrays its foreign affinities. Saffron-tinted -garments had perhaps never, down to Homer’s time, been seen in Greece -itself; he was beyond doubt unacquainted with the actual use of the dye, -and distributed with the utmost parsimony the splendour conferred by it. -Not only were mere mortals excluded from a share in it, neither Hecuba -nor Helen owning a crocus-bordered peplos, but none such set off the -formidable charms of the goddess-hostesses of Odysseus, in the fairy -isles where he lingered, home-sick amid strange luxury. Saffron robes -are, in fact, assigned by the poet of the Iliad, exclusively to Eos, the -Dawn, while in the Odyssey, the crocus is never referred to, directly or -indirectly. - -Footnote 234: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ p. 199; De Candolle, however, - inclines to believe that carthamine, not saffron, is indicated by the - Hebrew _karkom_ (_Origin of Cultivated Plants_, p. 166). - -Footnote 235: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 220. - -Some centuries after the material part of Homer had been reduced to - - A drift of white - Dust in a cruse of gold, - -crocus-coloured tresses came poetically into fashion. The daughters of -Celeus, in the Hymn to Demeter, were endowed with them; Ariadne at -Naxos, too, besides other mythical maidens. And Roman ladies realised -the idea of employing saffron as a hair-dye, the stern disapproval of -Tertullian and Saint Jerome notwithstanding.[236] The scent of the -crocus was made part of the pleasures of the amphitheatre by the -diffusion among the audience of saffron-wine in the finest possible -spray, and Heliogabalus habitually bathed in saffron-water. The flower, -too, was noted by Pliny with the rose, lily, and violet, for its -delicious fragrance,[237] Homer’s apparent insensibility to which may -well suggest a doubt whether, after all, he knew the late-blooming, -golden crocus otherwise than by reputation. - -Footnote 236: - - Syme, _English Botany_, vol. ix. p. 151. - -Footnote 237: - - _Hist. Nat._ xxi. 17. - -As regards the rose and the lily, the doubt becomes wellnigh certainty. -Both gave rise to Homeric epithets; neither takes in the Homeric poems a -concrete form. The Iranic derivation of their Greek names, _rhodon_ and -_leirion_, shows the native home of each of these matchless blossoms to -have been in Persia.[238] Thence, according to M. Hehn, they travelled -through Armenia and Phrygia into Thrace, and eventually, by that -circuitous route, reached Greece proper. Commemorative myths strewed the -track of their progressive transmissions. Thus, the mountain Rhodope in -Thrace took its name from a ‘rosy-footed’ attendant upon Persephone, in -the ‘crocus-purple hour’ of her capture by ‘gloomy Dis;’ and in the same -vicinity were located the Nysæan Fields—the scene of the disaster—then, -for a snare of enticement to the damsel, ablaze with roses and lilies, -‘a marvel to behold,’ with narcissus, crocuses, violets, and -hyacinths.[239] Moreover, roses, each with sixty leaves, and highly -perfumed, were said to blossom spontaneously in the Emathian gardens of -King Midas;[240] Theophrastus places near Philippi the original habitat -of the hundred-leaved rose; and roses were profusely employed in the -rites of Phrygian nature-worship. - -Footnote 238: - - Hehn, _op. cit._ p. 189. - -Footnote 239: - - _Hymn to Demeter._ - -Footnote 240: - - Herodotus, viii. 138. - -Dim rumours of their loveliness spread among the Homeric Greeks. The -standing Odyssean designation of Eos as ‘rosy-fingered,’ alternating, in -the Iliad, with ‘saffron-robed,’ heralded, it might be said, the -European advent of the flower itself. For rose-gardens can have lain -only just below the Homeric horizon. Their ambrosial products did not -indeed come within mortal reach, but were at the disposal of the gods. -By the application of oil of roses, Aphrodite kept the body of Hector -fresh and fair during the twelve days of its savage maltreatment by -Achilles; and oil of roses was later an accredited antiseptic. -Archilochus seems to have been the first Greek poet to make living -acquaintance with the blushing flower of Dionysus and Aphrodite, which -became known likewise only to the writers of the later books of -Scripture. The ‘Rose of Sharon’ is accordingly believed to have been a -narcissus. - -Allusions to the lily do not occur in the Odyssey, and are vague and -ill-defined in the Iliad. The flesh of Ajax might intelligibly, if not -appropriately, be designated ‘lily-like’; but the same term applied to -sounds conveys little or no meaning to our minds. Even if we admit a -far-fetched analogy between the song of the Muses, as something uncommon -and tenderly beautiful, and a fragile white flower, we have to confess -ourselves bewildered by the extension of the comparison to the shrill -voices of cicadas, rasping out their garrulous contentment amidst summer -foliage. - -The slenderness, then, of Homer’s acquaintance with the finer kinds of -bloom introduced gradually from the East, is apparent from his seeming -ignorance of their ravishing perfumes, no less than from the inadequacy -of his hints as to their beauty of form and colour. His love of flowers -was in the instinctive stage; it had not come to the maturity of -self-consciousness. They obtained recognition from him neither as -symbols of feeling, nor as accessories to enjoyment. Nausicaa wove no -garlands; the cultivation of flowers in the gardens of Alcinous is left -doubtful; Laertes pruned his pear-trees, and dug round his vines, but -reared for his solace not so much as a poppy. No display of living -jewellery aided the seductions of Circe’s island; Calypso was content to -plant the unpretending violet; Aphrodite herself was without a floral -badge; floral decorations of every kind were equally unthought of. -Flowers, in fact, had not yet been brought within the sphere of human -sentiment; they had not yet acquired significance as emblems of human -passion; they had not yet been made partners with humanity in the -sorrows of death, and the transient pleasures of a troubled and -ephemeral existence. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - HOMERIC MEALS. - - -HEROIC appetites were strong and simple. They craved ‘much meat,’ and -could be completely appeased with nothing else; but they demanded little -more. They needed no savoury caresses or spicy blandishments. Occasion -indeed to stimulate them there was none, though much difficulty might -arise about satisfying them. For they disdained paltry subterfuges. -Fish, game, and vegetables they accepted in lieu of more substantial -prey; but under protest. Hunger, in consenting to receive such trifles, -merely compounded for a partial settlement of her claim. - -The Homeric bill of fare was concise, and admitted of slight -diversification. Day after day, and at meal after meal, roast meat, -bread, and wine were set before perennially eager guests, in whose -esteem any fundamental change in the materials of the banquet would -certainly have been for the worse. Variety, in fact, was in the inverse -ratio of abundance. Want alone counselled departures from the beaten -track of opulent feasting, and compelled the reluctant adoption of -inadequate expedients for silencing the imperative outcries of famine. -Nevertheless it cannot be supposed that the epical setting forth of -Achæan culinary resources was as exhaustive as the menu of a Guildhall -dinner. For where would be the ‘swiftness’ of a narrative which could -not leave so much as a dish of beans to the imagination? Homeric -criticism is indeed everywhere complicated by the necessity of admitting -wide gaps of silence; and in this particular department, so much -evidently remains in those gaps, that our list of comestibles must be to -a great extent inferential. - -‘Butcher’s meat’ (as we call it) was the staple food of Greek heroes. -Oxen, however, were not recklessly slaughtered. ‘Great meals of beef’ -usually honoured solemn occasions. The fat beasts, reckoned to be in -their prime at five years old, met their fate for the most part in -connexion with some expiatory ceremony, as that employed to stay the -pestilence in the First Iliad, or as the sacrifice for victory offered -by Agamemnon in the Second Iliad. The gods were then served first with -tit-bits wrapped in fat, and reduced by fire to ashes and steamy odours, -peculiarly grateful to immortal nostrils. Portions of the haunches were -often chosen for this purpose; the tongue might be added; while at other -times, samples of the whole carcass at large seemed preferable. What -remained was cut up into small pieces after a fashion still prevailing -in Albania,[241] and these, having been filed upon spits, were rapidly -grilled. Thickly strewn with barley-meal, they were then distributed by -a steward, and eaten with utensils of nature’s providing. Specially -honoured guests had pieces from the chine—‘_perpetui tergo -bovis_’—allotted to them; and they might, if they chose, share their -‘booty’ (so it was designated) with any other to whom they desired to -pass on the compliment, as Odysseus did to Demodocus at the Phæacian -feast. The glad recipients of these greasy favours were obviously exempt -from modern fastidiousness. - -Footnote 241: - - E. F. Knight, _Albania_, p. 225, 1880. - -Sheep and goats were prepared for table precisely in the same way with -oxen, and so likewise were pigs, save that they were not divested of -their skins. ‘Cracklings’ were already appreciated. Roast pork appears, -in the Iliad, only on the hospitable board of Achilles; but is less -exclusively apportioned in the Odyssey. A brace of sucking-pigs were -instantly killed and cooked by Eumæus, the swineherd of Odysseus, on the -arrival of his disguised master. Yet he was very far from estimating at -their true value the tender merits of the dish celebrated by Elia as -perfectly ‘satisfactory to the criticalness of the censorious palate,’ -actually apologising for it as ‘servants’ fare,’ wholly unacceptable to -the haughty Suitors, for whose profuse entertainment a full-grown porker -had to be daily sacrificed. Each man, however, despatched his pig, and -was shortly ready for more. And so captivated was Eumæus, by the time -his four underlings returned from the fields for supper, with his -outwardly sorry guest, that, enlarging the bounds of his liberality, he -ordered the slaughter of a noble hog, whose adipose perfections had been -ripening during full five years of life. His cooking was promptly -executed, and one share having been set aside for the local nymphs, the -six men fell to, and left only such scraps as served for an early -breakfast next morning. The performance would have been creditable in -modern Somaliland. - -Every Homeric hero was an accomplished butcher, and no despicable cook. -Both offices were, indeed, too closely connected with religious ritual -to have any note of degradation attached to them. Thus, animals were -habitually understood to be ‘sacrificed,’ not killed in the purely -carnal sense, and the preparation of their flesh for table was -formalised as part of the ceremony of worship. The Suitors were marked -out as a reckless and impious crew by discarding all sacerdotal -functions from their meal-time operations; yet they reserved to -themselves, as if it belonged to their superior station, the pleasing -duty of cutting the throats of the beasts they were about to devour, -passing with the least possible delay from the shambles to the -banqueting-hall. - -Homeric culinary art perhaps really covered a wider range than is -attributed to it in the Poems, where it is designedly represented under -a quasi-ritualistic aspect. Although meat, for instance, so far as can -be learned from direct statement, was invariably roast or grilled, it by -no means follows that it was never eaten boiled or stewed. The contrary -inference is indeed fairly warranted by the frequent conjunction of -pots, water, and fire; and was thought by Athenæus to derive support -from the use as a missile, aimed at Odysseus in unprovoked savagery by -Ctesippus, one of the Suitors, of an ox’s foot, which happened to be -lying conveniently at hand in a bread-basket.[242] For who, asked the -gastronomical sophist, ever thought of roasting an ox’s foot?[243] The -casual display, too, in a simile of the Iliad, of a caldron of boiling -lard,[244] assures us that some kind of frying process was familiar to -the poet. - -Footnote 242: - - _Odyssey_, xx. 299. - -Footnote 243: - - Potter, _Archæologia Græca_, vol. ii. p. 360. - -Footnote 244: - - _Iliad_, xxi. 362. - -Among the few secondary articles of diet specified by him was a -sausage-like composition, of so irredeemably coarse a character, that -‘ears polite’ cannot fail to be offended at its literal description. It -consisted, to speak plainly, of the stomach or intestines of a goat, -stuffed with blood and fat, and kept revolving before a hot fire until -thoroughly done. The Suitors, of noble lineage though they were, -occasionally supped off this seductive viand, which may, nevertheless, -be concluded to have engaged chiefly plebeian patronage. - -No quality of game is known to have been rejected through prejudice or -superstition by the Homeric Greeks. But even venison ranked in the -second line after beef, mutton, and pork. It was sheer hunger that made -the ‘sequestered stag’ brought down by Odysseus in Ææa a real godsend to -his disconsolate crew; and hunger again reduced them, in the island of -Thrinakie, to the necessity of supporting life with fish and birds, both -kinds of prey equally being taken by means of baited hooks.[245] But -they set about their capture only when the exhaustion of the ship’s -store of flour and wine warned them to bestir themselves; and the -regimen their ingenuity provided was so distasteful, and fell so little -short, in their opinion and sensations, of absolute starvation, that the -fatal temptation to seek criminal relief at the expense of the oxen of -the Sun, proved irresistible. They succumbed to it, and perished. - -Footnote 245: - - _Odyssey_, xii. 332. - -Small birds were, however, beyond doubt habitually eaten by the poor. -The snaring of pigeons and fieldfares is alluded to in the Odyssey,[246] -and was practised, we may be sure, in the interests of the appetite. Nor -can we suppose that Penelope and the ‘divine Helen’ entirely abstained -from tasting the geese reared by them, although curiosity and amusement -may have been the chief motives for the care bestowed upon them. Poultry -of other kinds, as we have seen in another chapter, there was none. But -hares must have been used for food, since, like roebucks and wild goats, -they were hunted with dogs,[247] certainly not for the mere sake of -sport. As regards boars, the case stands somewhat differently. For their -destructiveness imposed their slaughter as a necessity. The subsequent -consumption of their flesh is left to conjecture. The remains of the -Calydonian brute seem to have been contended for rather through -arrogance than through appetite, Meleager and the sons of Thestius -standing forth as the champions of antagonistic claims to the trophies -of the chace. That the boar sacrificed in attestation of the oath of -Agamemnon in the Nineteenth Iliad was afterwards flung by Talthybius far -into the sea to be ‘food for fishes,’ is without significance on the -point of edibility. Victims thus immolated never furnished the material -for feasts; they belonged to the subterranean powers, and fell under the -shadow of their inauspicious influence. - -Footnote 246: - - _Odyssey_, xxii. 468. - -Footnote 247: - - _Odyssey_, xvii. 295. - -The fish-eating tastes of the Greeks were of comparatively late -development. Homeric prepossessions were decidedly against ‘fins and -shining scales’ of every variety. Eels were ranked apart. Etymological -evidence shows them to have been primitively classified with -serpents,[248] and they appeared, from this point of view, not merely -unacceptable, but absolutely inadmissible, as food. The resemblance was -thus protective, not by the design of nature, but through the -misapprehension of man, and the ingenuity of hunger was diverted from -seeming watersnakes to less repulsive prey. This was found in the -silvery shoals and ‘fry innumerable’ inhabiting the same element, but -differentiated from their congeners by the more obvious possession, and -more active use of fins. The Homeric fishermen, however, were not -enthusiastic in their vocation. Its meditative pleasures made no appeal -to them, and they were very sensible of the unsatisfied gastronomic -cravings which survived the utmost success in its pursuit. Nets or hooks -were employed as occasion required. A heavy haul from the deep is -recalled by the gruesome spectacle of the piled-up corpses in the -banqueting-hall at Ithaca. - -Footnote 248: - - Skeat, _Etymological Dictionary_. Ἔγχελυς, an eel, is equivalent to - _anguilla_, diminutive of _anguis_, a snake; cf. Buchholz, _Realien_, - Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 107. - - But he found all the sort of them fallen in their blood in the - dust, like fishes that the fishermen have drawn forth in the - meshes of the net into a hollow of the beach from out the grey - sea, and all the fish, sore longing for the salt sea-waves, are - heaped upon the sand, and the sun shines forth and takes their - life away; so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.[249] - -We do not elsewhere hear of net-fishing;[250] but rod-and-line similes -occur twice in the Iliad, and once in the Odyssey. So Patroclus, after -the manner of an angler, hooked Thestor, son of Enops. - -Footnote 249: - - _Odyssey_, xxii. 383-89. - -Footnote 250: - - Either birds or fishes might be understood to be taken in the net - mentioned in _Iliad_, v. 487. - - And Patroclus caught hold of the spear and dragged him over the - rim of the car, as when a man sits on a jutting rock, and drags - a sacred fish forth from the sea, with line and glittering hook - of bronze; so on the bright spear dragged he Thestor gaping from - the chariot, and cast him down on his face, and life left him as - he fell.[251] - -Footnote 251: - - _Iliad_, xvi. 406-410. - -So too, Scylla exercised her craft: - - As when a fisher on a jutting rock, - With long and taper rod, to lesser fish - Casts down the treacherous bait, and in the sea - Plunges his tackle with its oxhorn guard; - Then tosses out on land a gasping prey; - So gasping to the cliff my men were raised.[252] - -Footnote 252: - - _Odyssey_, xii. 251-55 (W. C. Green’s translation in _Similes of the - Iliad_, p. 259). - -Spearing, not rod-fishing, is thought by some commentators to be here -indicated; but a weighted line is plainly described where the -‘storm-swift Iris’ plunges into the ‘black sea’ on the errand of Zeus to -Thetis. - - Like to a plummet, which the fisherman - Lets fall, encas’d in wild bull’s horn, to bear - Destruction to the sea’s voracious tribes.[253] - -Footnote 253: - - _Iliad_, xxiv. 80-82. (Lord Derby.) - -River-fishing is passed over in silence. Yet it was doubtless practised, -since the finny denizens of Scamander are remembered with pity for the -discomfort ensuing to them from the fight between Achilles and the -River; and the admixture of perch with tunny and hake-bones in the -prehistoric waste-heaps at Hissarlik[254] makes it clear that -fresh-water fish were not neglected by the early inhabitants of the -Troad. - -Footnote 254: - - Virchow, _Berlin. Abh._ 1879, p. 63. - -Homeric seafarers did not resort to fishing as a means of diversifying -the monotony, either of their occupations or of their commissariat. They -got out their hooks and lines when famine was at hand, and never -otherwise. Menelaus accordingly, recounting the story of his detention -at Pharos, vivified the impression of his own distress, and the hunger -of his men, by the mention of the piscatorial pursuits they were reduced -to.[255] And Odysseus, in his narrative to Alcinous, similarly -emphasised a similar experience. Fishermen by profession, it can hence -be inferred, belonged to the poorest and rudest of the community. Among -them were to be found divers for oysters. Patroclus, mocking the fall of -Cebriones, exclaims: - -Footnote 255: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 368. - - Out on it, how nimble a man, how lightly he diveth! Yea, if - perchance he were on the teeming deep, this man would satisfy - many by seeking for oysters, leaping from the ship, even if it - were stormy weather; so lightly now he diveth from the chariot - into the plain. Verily among the Trojans too there be diving - men.[256] - -The trade was then well known, and the molluscs it dealt in constituted, -it is equally plain to be seen, a familiar article of diet. Their -provision for the dead, in the graves of Mycenæ,[257] emphasises this -inference all the more strongly from the absence of any other evidence -of Mycenæan fish-eating. - -Footnote 256: - - _Iliad_, xvi. 745-50. - -Footnote 257: - - Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, p. 332. - -Neither fish nor flesh was, in the Homeric world, preserved by means of -salt or otherwise as a resource against future need. The distribution of -superfluity was not better understood in time than in space. Meat, as we -have seen, was killed and eaten on the spot; and the husbanding of -fish-supplies was still less likely to be thought of. Salt was, however, -regularly used as a condiment; it was sprinkled over roast meat,[258] -and a pinch of salt was a proverbial expression for the indivisible -atom, so to speak, of charity.[259] Only the marine stores of the -commodity were drawn upon; those concealed by the earth remained -unexplored—a circumstance in itself marking the great antiquity of the -poems; and it was accordingly regarded as characteristic of an inland -people to eat no salt with their food.[260] Its efficacy for ritual -purification was fully recognised; and the ceremonial of sacrifice -probably involved some use of it; but this is not fully -ascertained.[261] - -Footnote 258: - - _Iliad_, ix. 214. - -Footnote 259: - - _Odyssey_, xvii. 455. - -Footnote 260: - - _Odyssey_, xi. 123, with Hayman’s note. - -Footnote 261: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 294. - -The farinaceous part of Homeric diet was furnished, according to -circumstances, either by barley-meal, or by wheaten flour. The former -was lauded as the ‘marrow of men’; ship-stores consisted mainly of it; -and it was probably eaten boiled with water into a kind of porridge, -corresponding perhaps by its prominence in Achæan rustic economy, to the -_polenta_ of the Lombard peasantry. Barley is called by Pliny ‘the most -antique form of food,’ and its antiquity lent it sacredness. Hence the -preliminary sprinkling with barley-groats, alike of the victim, and of -the altar upon which it was about to be sacrificed. So essential to the -validity of the offering was this part of the ceremony, that the guilty -comrades of Odysseus, in default of barley, had recourse to shred -oakleaves, in their futile attempt at bribing the immortal gods with a -share of the spoil, to condone their transgression against the solar -herds. - -The favourite Homeric epithet for barley was ‘white,’ and the quality of -whiteness is also conveyed by the name, _alphiton_, of barley-meal.[262] -But our word ‘wheat’ has the same meaning, while the Homeric _puros_ was -a yellow grain.[263] Nor can there be much doubt that it was a different -variety, identical, presumably, with the small, otherwise unknown kind -unearthed at Hissarlik. As the finest cereal then extant, its repute -nevertheless stood high; its taste was called ‘honey-sweet’; its -consumption was plainly a privilege of the well-to-do classes. Our poet -is not likely to have ‘spoken by the card’ when he included wheat among -the spontaneous products of the island of the Cyclops; yet the assertion -of its indigenous growth there was repeated by Diodorus Siculus,[264] -who had better opportunities for knowing the truth, and had taken out no -official licence for its embellishment. Nevertheless there is much -difficulty in believing that wheat had its native home elsewhere than in -Mesopotamia and Western India. - -Footnote 262: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ p. 431. - -Footnote 263: - - _Odyssey_, vii. 104; Buchholz, _op. cit._ p. 118. - -Footnote 264: - - De Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, p. 357. - -Bakers were as little known as butchers to Homeric folk, whose -bread-making was of the elementary description practised by the -pile-dwellers of Robenhausen and Mooseedorf. The corn was first ground -in hand-mills[265] worked by female slaves, of whom fifty were thus -exclusively employed in the palace of Alcinous.[266] The loaves or -cakes, for which the material was thus laboriously provided, were -probably baked on stones, like those fragmentarily preserved during -millenniums beneath Swiss lacustrine deposits of peat and mud.[267] Only -wheaten flour was so employed in Achæan households; but wheaten bread -was indispensable to every well-furnished table, and was neatly served -round in baskets placed at frequent intervals. Barley-bread was the -invention of a later age; the word _maza_, by which it is signified, -does not occur in the Epics. - -Footnote 265: - - Blümner, _Technologie und Terminologie bei Griechen und Römern_, Bd. - i. p. 24. - -Footnote 266: - - _Odyssey_, vii. 104. - -Footnote 267: - - Heer, _Die Pflanzen der Pfahlbauten_, p. 9. - -They include, however, the mention of two additional kinds of grain, -varieties, it is supposed, of spelt. And of these one, _olura_, is -limited to the Iliad, the other, _zeia_, belongs properly to the -Odyssey, occurring in the Iliad only in the traditional phrase -‘zeia-giving soil.’ The expression doubtless enshrined the memory of -spelt-eating days, as did, among the Romans, the appropriation of this -species of corn for the _mola_ of sacrifices.[268] But neither _zeia_ -nor _olura_ served within Homer’s experience for human food; both were -left to horses, whose fodder was moreover enriched by the addition of -‘white barley’ and clover, nay, in exceptional cases, of wheat and wine. -With these restoring dainties the steeds of Hector were pampered by -Andromache on their return from battle; while the snowy team of Rhesus -shared with the ‘Trojan’ horses of Æneas, the generous wheaten diet -provided for them in the opulent stables of their new master, the -intrepid king of Argos. - -Footnote 268: - - Potter, _Archæologia Græca_, vol. i. p. 215. - -One of the unaccountable Egyptian perversities enumerated by -Herodotus[269] was that of rejecting wheat and barley as bread-stuffs, -and adopting spelt (_olura_). The grain indicated, however, must have -been either rice or millet, since spelt does not thrive in hot -countries.[270] Millet, too, which was unknown in primitive Greece, was -specially favoured by Celts, Iberians, and other tribes.[271] It was -also cultivated with barley and several kinds of wheat, by the -amphibious villagers of Robenhausen. And the discovery of caraway and -poppy seeds mingled in the _débris_ of their food[272] suggests that -varied flavourings were in prehistoric request. It suggests further a -non-æsthetic, hence a probable, motive for the cultivation of the poppy -by the early Achæans.[273] The flower was in fact actually grown in -classical times for the sake of its seeds, which were roasted and strewn -on slices of bread, to be eaten with honey after meals as a sort of -dessert.[274] - -Footnote 269: - - Lib. ii. cap. 36. - -Footnote 270: - - De Candolle, _Cultivated Plants_, p. 363. - -Footnote 271: - - Hehn, _op. cit._ pp. 439-40. - -Footnote 272: - - Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, pp. 293, 301. - -Footnote 273: - - _Iliad_, viii. 306; cf. _ante_, p. 166. - -Footnote 274: - - Dierbach, _Flora Mythologica_, p. 117. - -Vegetables figured very scantily, if at all, at Achæan feasts. One -species only is expressly apportioned for heroic consumption. Nestor and -Machaon were avowedly guilty of eating onions as a relish with -wine.[275] Some degree of refinement has indeed been vindicated for -their tastes on the plea that the Oriental onion is of infinitely -superior delicacy to our objectionable bulb; but we scarcely wrong the -Pylian sage by admitting the likelihood of his preference for the -stronger flavour; nor can we raise high the gustatory standard according -to which wine compounded with goats’ cheese and honey was esteemed the -most refreshing and delightful of drinks. The same root, moreover, in -its crudest form, seems to have recommended itself to refined Phæacian -palates. There is persuasive, if indirect evidence, that ‘the rank and -guilty garlic’ was privileged to flourish in the sunny gardens of -Alcinous.[276] Socrates, indeed, eulogised the onion, whereas Plutarch -contemned it as vulgar, and Horace did not willingly permit onion-eaters -to come ‘between the wind and his nobility.’ The company of Nestor would -not, then, have been agreeable to him. - -Footnote 275: - - _Iliad_, xi. 629. - -Footnote 276: - - Buchholz, _Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 216. - -Peas and beans keep out of sight in the Odyssey, but are just glanced at -in the Iliad. The following simile explains itself: - - As from the spreading fan leap out the peas - Or swarthy beans o’er all the spacious floor, - Urged by the whistling wind and winnower’s force; - So then from noble Menelaus’ mail, - Bounding aside far flew the biting shaft.[277] - -Here there is evidently no thought of green vegetables. The elastic and -agile pellets cleansed by winnowing were fully ripe. They can be -identified as chick-peas and broad-beans—species, both of them, -abundantly produced in modern Greece. The former even retain in Crete -their Homeric name of _erebinthoi_, ground down, however, by phonetic -decay to _rebithi_.[278] They afforded, under the designation ‘_frictum -cicer_,’ a staple article of food to the poorer inhabitants of Latium; -and, as the Spanish _garbanzo_, they derive culinary importance from the -part assigned to them in every properly constituted _olla podrida_.[279] -Beans were the first pod-fruit cultivated. They are mentioned in the -Bible, and have been excavated at Hissarlik. Some pea-like grains, -however, found in the same spot, proved on examination to be -lentils.[280] These, too, were presumably in common use when Homer -lived, as they certainly were some centuries later, yet he makes no -allusion to them. More significant, possibly, is his silence on the -subject of chestnuts. Although the tree covers wide tracts of modern -Greece, it is held by some eminent authorities to have been introduced -there from Pontic Asia Minor at a comparatively late period.[281] And -the fact that the rural wisdom of Hesiod completely ignores the chestnut -certainly inclines the balance towards the opinion of its arrival -subsequent to the composition of the ‘Works and Days.’ - -Footnote 277: - - _Iliad_, xiii. 588-92 (trans. by W. C. Green). - -Footnote 278: - - Buchholz, _loc. cit._ p. 269. - -Footnote 279: - - Rhind, _Hist. of the Vegetable Kingdom_, p. 315. - -Footnote 280: - - Virchow, _Berlin. Abh._ 1879, p. 69. - -Footnote 281: - - Hehn, _op. cit._ p. 294. - -Grapes and olives are the only fruits of which the cultivation is -recorded in the Iliad; but the list is greatly extended in the Odyssey. -Alcinous had at perennial command, besides apples and pears, figs and -pomegranates. Within the precincts of his palace, Odysseus cast his -exploratory glances round ‘a great garden of four plough-gates,’ hedged -round on either side. - - ‘And there grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and - pomegranates, and apple-trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs - and olives in their bloom. The fruit of these trees never - perisheth neither faileth, winter nor summer, enduring through - all the year. Evermore the west wind blowing brings some fruits - to birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and apple - on apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and - fig upon fig. There too hath he a fruitful vineyard planted, - whereof the one part is being dried by the heat, a sunny spot on - level ground, while other grapes men are gathering, and yet - others they are treading in the wine-press. In the foremost row - are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there be - that are growing black to vintaging. There, too, skirting the - furthest line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, - and that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two fountains of - water.’[282] - -Footnote 282: - - _Odyssey_, vii. 112-29. - -The same fruits, the grape excepted, as being too low-growing to fulfil -the required conditions, hung suspended above the head of Tantalus in -his dusky abode, where alone the olive seems to be classed as food. They -claimed, moreover, all but the pomegranate, the care of Laertes, -occupying his chagrined leisure during the absence of his son from -Ithaca. - -Apples and pears are alike indigenous in Greece, and their discovery, -dried and split longitudinally, among the winter-stores of the Swiss and -Italian lake-dwellers, suggests that they may have been similarly -treated, with a similar end in view, by Achæan housewives. The apple -evidently excited Homer’s particular admiration; he, in fact, made it -his representative fruit. That it should have been so considered in the -North, where competition for the place of honour was small, is less -surprising; and apples, accordingly, of an etherealised and paradisaical -kind, served to restore youth to the aging gods of Asaheim.[283] - -Footnote 283: - - Grimm and Stallybrass, _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 319. - -The pomegranate is believed to have been the ‘apple’ of Paris. Known to -the Greeks by the Semitic name _roia_, it may hence be safely classed -among Phœnician gifts to the West. And its associations were besides -characteristically Oriental. The fruit, called from the Sun-god Rimmon, -had a prominent place in Syrian religious rites; Aphrodite introduced it -into Cyprus, and eventually transferred to Demeter her claims to the -symbolical ownership of it.[284] But with its mythological history, the -poet of the Odyssey did not concern himself. - -Footnote 284: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ p. 180. - -The wild fig-tree is native in Greece, and is mentioned both in the -Iliad and Odyssey. But the cultured fig occurs only in the latter poem, -the author doubtless having made its acquaintance somewhere on the -Anatolian seaboard, whither it would naturally have been conveyed from -Phrygia. For Phrygia was in those days more renowned for its figs than -Attica became later. Those of Paros were celebrated by Archilochus about -700 B.C.;[285] but none, it would seem, were produced on the mainland of -Greece when Hesiod’s homely experiences took metrical form at -Orchomenus. The ripe figs contributed by his garden to the frugal -repasts of Laertes were then an anachronism to the full as glaring as -turkeys in England, when Falstaff and Poins took purses ‘as in a castle, -cock-sure,’ on Gadshill. The very idea, indeed, of archæological -accuracy was foreign to the mind of either poet; nor could it, without -detriment to the vigour and freedom of their conceptions, have been -introduced. - -Footnote 285: - - _Ib._ p. 86. - -The pastoral section of the Achæan people drew their subsistence -immediately, and almost exclusively from their flocks and herds. The -commodities directly at hand were supplemented to a very slight extent, -if at all, through the secondary channels of sale or barter. Milk and -cheese hence formed the staple of their food, and were mainly the -produce of sheep and goats. Cow’s milk never found favour in Greece; -Homer ignored the possibility of its use; Aristotle depreciated its -quality; and it is now no more thought of as an article of consumption -than ewe’s milk in Great Britain or Ireland.[286] Those early herdsmen -differed from us, too, in liking their simple beverage well watered. The -part played occasionally by the pump in our London milk-supply would -have met with their full approbation—unless, indeed, they might have -preferred to add the qualifying ingredient at their own discretion. But -the native strength of milk was, at any rate, too much for them. Only -Polyphemus, a giant and a glutton, was voracious enough to swallow the -undiluted contents of his pails. To him, as to his curious visitors from -over the sea, butter-making was an unknown art, cheese being the sole -modified product of Homeric dairies. That the first step towards its -preparation consisted in the curdling of fresh milk with the sap of the -fig-tree, we learn from the following allusion: - - Soon as liquid milk - Is curdled by the fig-tree’s juice, and turns - In whirling flakes, so soon was heal’d the wound.[287] - -Footnote 286: - - Kruse, _Hellas_, Bd. i. p. 368. - -Footnote 287: - - _Iliad_, v. 902-904. (Lord Derby.) - -The patient on this occasion was Ares himself, and the rapid closing of -the gash inflicted by the audacious Diomed was brought about by the -application of Pæonian simples, unavailable, it can readily be imagined, -outside of Olympus. - -Although the keeping of bees was strange to Homer’s experience, the -product of their industry was pleasantly familiar to him. The ideal of -deliciousness was furnished by honey, and Homeric palates reached their -acme of gratification with things ‘honey-sweet.’ But Homeric bees were -still in a state of nature, their ‘roofs of gold’ getting built in -hollow trees or rocky clefts. Artificial dwellings were provided for -them, by interested human agency, considerably later. The use of -bee-hives in Greece is first attested in the Hesiodic Theogony; and in -Russia and Lithuania, wild honey was still gathered in the woods little -more than a century and a half ago.[288] Alike in the Iliad and Odyssey, -honey figures in a manner totally inconsistent with our notions of -gastronomic harmony. We, in our unregenerate condition, should seek to -be excused from partaking of the semi-ambrosial diet of cheese, honey, -and sweet wine supplied by Aphrodite to the divinely brought-up -daughters of Pandareus;[289] nor do we envy to ‘Gerenian Nestor’ and his -wounded companion the posset brewed for them on their return from the -battle-field by the skilful Hecamede. The palates indeed must have been -hardy, and the constitutions robust, of those upon whom it acted as an -agreeable restorative. The process of its preparation was as follows. In -a bowl of such noble capacity that an ordinary man’s strength scarcely -availed to raise it brimming to his lips, - - Their goddess-like attendant first - A gen’rous measure mixed of Pramnian wine; - Then with a brazen grater shredded o’er - The goatsmilk cheese, and whitest barley-meal, - And of the draught compounded bade them drink.[290] - -Nothing loath, they obeyed, nor did they shrink from adding piquancy to -the liquid concoction by simultaneously devouring a dozen or so of raw -onions! A precisely similar drink, designed as a vehicle for the ‘evil -drugs’ mingled with it, was treacherously served round by Circe to her -guests, and imbibed with the debasing and transforming results one has -heard of.[291] Only the onions were absent, and with good reason, the -crafty sorceress being fully aware of their antidotal power against -malign influences. The practice of sweetening and thickening wine was -handed on from heroic to classic times. Old Thasian especially was -considered, when tempered with honey and meal, to be of most refreshing -quality in the heats of summer; and Athenæus relates, without surprise -or disapproval, that the islanders of Thera preferred, for the purpose -of making porridge of their wine, ground pease or lentils to -barley.[292] The tolerant motto, _De gustibus_, needs now and then, as -we study the past of gastronomy, to be recalled to mind. - -Footnote 288: - - Hehn and Stallybrass, _op. cit._ p. 463. - -Footnote 289: - - _Odyssey_, xx. 69. - -Footnote 290: - - _Iliad_, xi. 637-40. (Lord Derby.) - -Footnote 291: - - _Odyssey_, x. 234. - -Footnote 292: - - Athenæus, x. 40. - -Honey is now, to a great extent, a superannuated article of food. The -sugar-cane has usurped its place and its importance. But to the -ancients, its value, as the chief saccharine ingredient at their -disposal, was enormous. It could not then be expected that the -myth-making faculty should remain idle in regard to it. The nectar of -the earth was accordingly believed to drop down from heaven into the -calyxes of half-opened flowers; it fell from the rising stars, or, at -any rate, near the places, so Aristotle averred,[293] whence they rose, -and was distilled from rainbows upon the blossoming plains they seemed -to touch. Nature’s winged agents, too, for the collection of what must -have seemed to the first rude experimenters in diet, an almost -supersensual dainty, had a niche assigned to them in the edifice of -fancy. Bees were connected with poetry, music, and eloquence; as -_Musarum volucres_, they brought the gift of song to the sleeping -Pindar; they were themselves nymphs and priestesses, intertwined more -especially with the worship of Demeter and Cybele.[294] The germ of some -of these imaginative shoots and sprays seems to be laid bare in the -simple Homeric metaphor by which the discourse of Nestor was said to -flow with more than the sweetness of honey from his lips.[295] The same -idea—a very obvious one—is embodied in the English word _mellifluous_. -But a figure, in older times, was often only the beginning of a fable; -and hence the hovering of bees about the lips of the infant Plato, and -round the head of Krishna, when he expounded the nature of the divinity. -A genuine Homeric trace, moreover, of the legendary associations of bees -is supplied by their installation in the Nymphs’ Grotto at Ithaca,[296] -where they gathered honey for the local divinities, ministering to them -as Melissa, the Nymph-bee _par excellence_, ministered to the young Zeus -on Ida. - -Footnote 293: - - _De Animal._ lib. v. cap. 22. - -Footnote 294: - - Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_, Bd. i. p. 105, 3te Auflage. - -Footnote 295: - - _Iliad_, i. 249. - -Footnote 296: - - _Odyssey_, xiii. 106. - -Homer was fully acquainted with the virtue of honey for propitiating the -dead. A vase of honey was placed by Achilles on the pyre of -Patroclus,[297] and Odysseus poured a due libation of milk and honey as -part of his apparatus of enticement to the shade of Tiresias. Subsequent -experience showed this beverage to be acceptable even to the Erinyes; -nor was Cerberus proof against a lure of honey-cakes. Luckily for -himself, however, Odysseus escaped an encounter with the Dog of Hades, -for whom he brought no pacifying recipe. - -Footnote 297: - - _Iliad_, xxiii. 170. - -The earliest European intoxicant was made from honey, but was in Greece -quickly and completely discarded on the introduction of vine-culture. -Floating reminiscences of its primitive use, however, were preserved by -Plutarch and Aristotle,[298] and survived unconsciously in the tolerably -frequent substitution, by Homer, of the word ‘mead,’ under the form -μέθυ, for ‘wine.’ The survival was indeed linguistic only. No mental -association with honey clung to the term ‘mead.’ The fermented juice of -the grape is the sole Homeric stimulant, and excites a fully -corresponding amount of Homeric enthusiasm. From the old epics, -accordingly, Pindaric praises of water are wholly absent. The crystal -spring occupies in them a strictly subordinate place. The merits allowed -to it are purely relative. That is to say, it exercises, like the -nitrogen of our atmosphere, a qualifying function. The exuberant energy -of a more fiery element is modified by its innocuous presence, and it -helps to neutralise some of the heady virtue inherent in the ‘subtle -blood of the grape.’ - -Footnote 298: - - Lippmann, _Geschichte des Zuckers_, p. 6. - -A draught of clear water was a luxury unappreciated by the early Greeks. -On the other hand, they freely watered their wine, counting its full -strength scarcely less redoubtable than that of raw spirits appears to -ordinary Englishmen. Polyphemus alone drank—in post-Homeric -phraseology—’like a Scythian’—that is, swallowed his liquor ‘neat’; and -he plunged thereby into disastrous drunkenness. The wine provided for -him, it is true, was of unusual and overweening potency. Of Thracian -growth, it was supplied to Odysseus by Maron, a priest of Apollo at -Ismarus, in grateful acknowledgment of protection afforded during the -Odyssean sack of the Ciconian metropolis. The secret of its manufacture -was jealously guarded in the Maronian family;[299] its bouquet was -irresistible; its power against sobriety formidable. Even if the -statement that it required, or at least tolerated, a twenty-fold -admixture of water, be taxed as hyperbolical, we can still fall back -upon Pliny’s assurance that the Maronian wine of his epoch was commonly -diluted with eight measures of water;[300] and the proportion of -twenty-five to one of Thasian wine from the same neighbourhood was -recommended by Hippocrates for invalids.[301] - -Footnote 299: - - _Odyssey_, ix. 205. - -Footnote 300: - - _Hist. Nat._ xiv. 6. - -Footnote 301: - - Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 96. - -Red wines only were quaffed by Homeric heroes. ‘Golden,’ or ‘white’ -kinds were unknown to them; and it may be suspected that the pleasure of -sharing their potations would have been qualified, to modern -connoisseurs, by strong gustatory disapproval. We do not know that the -practice of using turpentine in the preparation of wine prevailed so -early, but it was in full force when Plutarch wrote, and it subsisted -too long for the comfort of Mr. Dodwell, who warmly protested his -preference of sour English beer to the resinous wines of Patra and -Libadia.[302] Some of their worst qualities were probably shared by the -famous ‘Pramnian,’ described by Galen as ‘black and austere.’[303] This -was the leading component of the draught administered by Hecamede and -Circe; but traditions as to its local origin are obscure and -contradictory. The credit of its production was now assigned to a -mountain in Caria, now to the Icarian Isle, or to some favoured section -of Lesbian territory. Others again held that its distinction resided, -not in the place of its growth, but in the method of its manufacture. A -particular variety of grape perhaps yielded it; at any rate, Dioscorides -says that it was a _prototropum_—that is, a product of the first running -of self-expressed juice, making it, among wines, what a proof before -letters is among engravings. It took rank, however this might have been, -as a choice vintage, meet for the refreshment of heroes, and strictly -reserved for exceptional use; while the ordinary demand of the army -before Troy was met by the importation of Lemnian and Thracian wines of -commonplace quality, brought in ships to the shores of the Hellespont, -and purchased with the spoils of war—copper and iron, cattle and -slaves.[304] A night’s carouse might sometimes ensue upon the arrival of -a wine-fleet; but temperance was the rule of old Achæan life. Excess was -reprobated, and often figured as the cause of misfortune. Thus, the -‘Drunken Assembly,’ held immediately after the sack of Troy, was the -first link in the long chain of disasters incurred by the returning -Achæans;[305] Elpenor, one of the crew of Odysseus, preceded him to -Hades ‘on foot,’ as it is quaintly said, having broken his neck by a -fall from a roof-top when overcome with wine in the house of Circe; the -ungovernable rage of Achilles could find no more opprobrious epithet -than ‘wine-laden’ to be hurled, in lieu of a javelin, at Agamemnon; and -in Polyphemus, vinous excess assuredly took on its least inviting -aspect. The Homeric ideal of life was indeed a festive one, but the -conviviality it included was kept within the bounds of moderation and -decorum. Moreover, the pleasures of the table, however keenly -appreciated, were redeemed from grossness by the finer touches of social -sympathy and æsthetic enjoyment. Minstrelsy formed a regular part of a -well ordered entertainment, and the rhythmical movements of the dance -accompanied, on occasions, or alternated with chanted narratives of -adventure. - -Footnote 302: - - _Classical Tour_, vol. i. p. 212. - -Footnote 303: - - Leaf’s _Iliad_, xi. 639. - -Footnote 304: - - _Iliad_, vii. 467; ix. 72. - -Footnote 305: - - Cf. Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 73; Gladstone’s _Studies in - Homer_, vol. ii. p. 447. - -In the palace of Ithaca, guests were served at separate small tables; -but this may not have been the case everywhere. An erect posture was -maintained by them. The Roman fashion of reclining at meals came in much -later. An opening formality of ablution was designed for ceremonial -purification; in the interests of corporeal cleanliness, a repetition of -the process after the meal was concluded would have been desirable, but -appears to have been neglected. As regards the food-supply, a -stewardess, or housekeeper, brought round bread in a basket; a carver -sliced and distributed the grilled meat; a herald filled the goblets in -orderly succession; and good appetites did the rest. Women habitually -ate apart. So Penelope sat by, spinning and silent, though feverish with -eagerness for news of her absent lord, until Telemachus and Theoclymenus -had concluded their repast; and Nausicaa supped in retirement while her -father feasted with the Phæacian elders. But the rule of seclusion -appears to have had no application to nymphs and goddesses. Wine, -however, was freely allowed to women and children. Arêtê, the mother of -Nausicaa, supplied a goat’s skin full for her pic-nic by the seashore; -and it was with wine that the tunic of Phœnix was wont to be soiled as -he fed the infant Achilles upon his knee. - -Three meals a day made the full Homeric complement, reduced, -nevertheless, to two under frequently recurring circumstances. -Breakfast—_ariston_—was not always insisted upon, and we hear only twice -of its formal preparation. It consisted ordinarily, there is reason to -believe, of nothing more than bread soaked in wine; but Eumæus, who, for -all his vigilant husbandry, loved talk and good cheer, offered better -fare to his wily, unknown guest. A fire was lit in his hut at dawn; some -cold pork, left from supper the night before, got re-broiled, and was -barely hot when Telemachus made an appearance more welcome than looked -for, having run the gauntlet of the Suitors’ sea-ambuscade on his return -from Pylos. Hence a considerable amount of weeping for joy was -indispensable before they could all three—seeming beggar, prince, and -swineherd—sit down comfortably to breakfast together. - -But when life ran out of its accustomed groove, and opportunities for -eating became precarious, breakfast and dinner—_ariston_ and -_deipnon_—were apt to coalesce. Noon, the regular dinner-hour, might, -under such circumstances, be anticipated. Thus, when Telemachus and -Pisistratus were setting out from Sparta towards Pylos, Menelaus, who -was the soul of hospitality, ordered a _deipnon_ to be hastily got -ready, and it had certainly been preceded by no lighter repast. The -third Homeric meal—_dorpon_—was taken at, or after sundown. Its status -fluctuated. Of primary importance to those busily engaged in out-of-door -occupations, it counted for relatively little with idle folk like the -Suitors, whose feasts and diversions might be prolonged, if they so -willed it, from dawn to dusk. Supper, on the other hand, was naturally -the chief meal of soldiers and sailors. ‘Perils will be paid with -pleasures,’ says Verulam; and when the rage of battle was spent, or the -ship brought safely into port, a banquet was spread with every available -luxury, and enjoyed to the utmost. At sea, cooking was reduced to a -minimum, even to zero, the probability being small that fires were ever -kindled on shipboard. So that the hardships of long voyages were very -great, if rarely incurred. When possible, land was made by nightfall, -the vessel moored, and the crew disembarked. - - Ac magno telluris amore - Egressi, optata potiuntur Troes arena. - -Supper followed, and sleep. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - HOMER’S MAGIC HERBS. - - -THERE are certain low-lying districts in southern Spain where the -branched lily, or king’s spear, blooms in such profusion that whole -acres, seen from a distance towards the end of March, show as if densely -strewn with new-fallen snow. Just such in aspect must have been the -abode of the Odyssean dead. There, along boundless asphodel plains, -Odysseus watched Orion, a spectral huntsman pursuing spectral game: -there Agamemnon denounced the treachery of Clytemnestra: there Ajax -still nursed his wrath at the award of the Argive kings: there Achilles -gnawed a shadowy heart in longing, on any terms, for action and the -upper air: thither Hermes conducted the delinquent souls of the suitors -of Penelope. A tranquil dwelling-place: where the stagnant air of apathy -was stirred only by sighs of inane regret. - -Homer’s asphodel grows only in the under-world, yet it is no mythical -plant. It can be quite clearly identified with the _Asphodelus -ramosus_,[306] now extensively used in Algeria for the manufacture of -alcohol, and cultivated in our gardens for the sake of its tall spikes -of beautiful flowers, pure white within and purple-streaked without -along each of the six petals uniting at the base to form a -deeply-indented starry corolla. The continual visits of pilfering bees -attest a goodly store of honey; while the perfume spread over the -northern shores of the Gulf of Corinth by the abundant growth of -asphodel was said to have given their name, in some far-off century, to -the Ozolians of Locris. - -Footnote 306: - - The daffodil has no other connexion with the asphodel than having - unaccountably appropriated its name, through the old French - _affodille_. It is a kind of narcissus, while the asphodel belongs to - the lily tribe. - -Introduced into England about 1551, it was succeeded, after forty-five -years, by the yellow asphodel (_Asphodelus luteus_), of which already in -1633 Gerard in his Herbal reports ‘great plenty in our London gardens.’ -Hence Pope’s familiarity with this kind, and his consequent -matter-of-course identification of it with the classical flower in the -lines, - - By those happy souls who dwell - On yellow meads of asphodel: - -wherein he has entirely missed what may with some reason be called the -local colouring of Hades. - -In order to explain the lugubrious associations of the branched -asphodel, we must go back to an early stage of thought regarding the -condition of the dead. - -Instinctively man assumes that his existence will, in some form, be -continued beyond the grave. Only a few of the most degraded savages, or -a handful of the most enlightened sceptics, accept death with stolid -indifference as an absolute end. The almost universally prevalent belief -is that it is a change, not a close. Humanity, as a whole, never has -admitted and never can apostatise from its innate convictions by -admitting that its destiny is mere blank corruption. Apart from the -body, however, life can indeed be conceived, but cannot be imagined; -since imagination works only with familiar materials. Recourse was then -inevitably had to the expedient of representing the under-world as a -shadowy reflection of the upper. Disembodied spirits were supposed to -feel the same needs, to cherish the same desires, as when clothed in the -flesh; but they were helpless to supply the first or to gratify the -second. Their opulence or misery in their new abode depended solely upon -the pitying care of those who survived them. This mode of thinking -explains the savage rites of sacrifice attendant upon primitive funeral -ceremonies: it converted the tombs of ancient kings into the -treasure-houses of modern archæologists; and it suggested a system of -commissariat for the dead, traces of which still linger in many parts of -the world. - -Here we find the clue we are in search of. It is afforded by the simple -precautions adopted by unsophisticated people against famine in the -realm of death. Amongst the early Greeks, the roots of the branched lily -were a familiar article of diet. The asphodel has even been called the -potato of antiquity. It indeed surpassed the potato in fecundity, though -falling far below it in nutritive qualities. Pliny, in his ‘Natural -History,’ states that about eighty tubers, each the size of an average -turnip, were often the produce of a single plant; and the French -botanist Charles de l’Écluse, travelling across Portugal in 1564-5, saw -the plough disclose fully two hundred attached to the same stalk, and -together weighing, he estimated, some fifty pounds. Moreover, the tubers -so plentifully developed are extremely rich in starch and sugar, so that -the poorer sort, who possessed no flocks or herds to supply their table -with fat pork, loins of young oxen, roasted goats’ tripe, or similar -carnal delicacies, were glad to fall back upon the frugal fare of mallow -and asphodel lauded by Hesiod. Theophrastus tells us that the roasted -stalk, as well as the seed of the asphodel served for food; but chiefly -its roots, which, bruised up with figs, were in extensive use. Pliny -seems to prefer them cooked in hot ashes, and eaten with salt and oil; -but it may be doubted whether he spoke from personal experience. - -Their consumption, however, was recommended by the example of -Pythagoras, and was said to have helped to lengthen out the fabulous -years of Epimenides. Yet, such illustrious examples notwithstanding, the -degenerate stomachs of more recent times have succeeded ill in -accommodating themselves to such spare sustenance. When about the middle -of last century the Abate Alberto Fortis was travelling in Dalmatia, he -found inhabitants of the village of Bossiglina, near Traù, so poor as to -be reduced to make their bread of bruised asphodel roots, which proving -but an indifferent staff of life, digestive troubles and general -debility ensued. This is the last recorded experiment of the kind. The -needs of the human economy are far better, more widely, and almost as -cheaply subserved by the tuber brought by Raleigh from Virginia. The -plant of Persephone is left for Apulian sheep to graze upon. - -Asphodel roots, accordingly, rank with acorns as a prehistoric, but now -discarded article of human food. They were, it is likely, freely -consumed by the earliest inhabitants of Greece, before the cultivation -of cereals had been introduced from the East. There is little fear of -error in assuming that the later Achæan immigrants found them already -consecrated by traditional usage to the sustenance of the dead—perhaps -because the immemorial antiquity of their dietary employment imparted to -them an idea of sacredness; or, possibly, because the slightness of the -nourishment they afforded was judged suitable to the maintenance of the -unsubstantial life of ghosts. At any rate, the custom became firmly -established of planting graves with asphodel, with a view to making -provision for their silent and helpless, yet still needy inmates. With -changed associations the custom still exists in Greece, and, very -remarkably, has been found to prevail in Japan, where a species of -asphodel is stated to be cultivated in cemeteries, and placed, blooming -in pots, on grave-stones. We can scarcely doubt that the same train of -thought, here as in Greece, originally prompted its selection for -sepulchral uses. Unquestionably some of the natives of the Congo -district plant manioc on the graves of their dead, with no other than a -provisioning design.[307] The same may be said of the cultivation of -certain fruit-trees in the burying-grounds of the South Sea Islanders. -One of these is the _Cratæva religiosa_, bearing an insipid but eatable -fruit, and held sacred in Otaheite under the name of ‘Purataruru.’ The -_Terminalia glabrosa_ fills (or filled a century ago) an analogous -position in the Society Islands. It yields a nut resembling an almond, -doubtless regarded as acceptable to phantasmal palates. - -Footnote 307: - - Unger, _Die Pflanze als Todtenschmuck_, p. 23. - -We now see quite clearly why the Homeric shades dwell in meadows of -asphodel. These were, in the fundamental conception, their -harvest-fields. From them, in some unexplained subsensual way, the -attenuated nutriment they might require must have been derived. But this -primitive idea does not seem to have been explicitly present to the -poet’s mind. It had already, before his time, we can infer, been to a -great extent lost sight of. It was enough for him that the plant was -popularly associated with the dusky regions out of sight of the sun. He -did not stop to ask why, his business being to see, and to sing of what -he saw, not to reason. He accordingly made his Hades to bloom for all -time with the tall white flowers of the king’s spear, and so perpetuated -a connexion he was not concerned to explain. - -Homer cannot be said to have attained to any real conception of the -immortality of the soul. The shade which flitted to subterranean spaces -when the breath left the body, resembled an animal principle of life -rather than a true spiritual essence. Disinherited, exiled from its -proper abode, without function, sense, or memory, it survived, a -vaporous image, a mere castaway residuum of what once had been a man. -Tiresias, the Theban soothsayer, alone, by special privilege of -Persephone, retained the use of reason: the rest were vain appearances, -escaping annihilation by a scarcely perceptible distinction. No wonder -that life should have been darkened by the prospect of such a destiny—or -worse. For there were, in the Homeric world to come, awful possibilities -of torment, though none—for the common herd—of blessedness. Deep down in -Tartarus, those who had sinned against the gods—Sisyphus, Ixion, -Tantalus—were condemned to tremendous, because unending, punishment; -while the haunting sense of loss, which seems to have survived every -other form of consciousness, giving no rest, nor so much as exemption -from fear, pursued good and bad alike. Nowhere does the utter need of -mankind for the hope brought by Christianity appear with such startling -clearness as in the verses of Homer, from the contrast of the vivid -pictures of life they present with the appalling background of despair -upon which they are painted. - -Its relation to the unseen world naturally brought to the asphodel a -host of occult or imaginary qualities. Of true medicinal properties it -may be said to be devoid, and it accordingly finds no place in the -modern pharmacopœia. Anciently, however, it was known, from its manifold -powers, as the ‘heroic’ herb. It was sovereign against witchcraft, and -was planted outside the gates of villas and farmhouses to ward off -malefic influences. It restored the wasted strength of the consumptive: -it was an antidote to the venom of serpents and scorpions: it entered as -an ingredient into love-potions, and was invincible by evil spirits: -children round whose necks it was hung cut their teeth without pain, and -the terrors of the night flew from its presence. Briefly, its faculties -were those of (in Zoroastrian phraseology) a ‘smiter of fiends’; yet -from it we moderns distil alcohol! Of a truth it has gone over to the -enemy. - - Sweet is moly, but his root is ill, - -wrote Spenser in one of his sonnets. But it may be doubted whether he -would have committed himself to this sentiment had he realised that the -gift of Hermes was neither more nor less than a clove of garlic. - -Odysseus approaching the house of Circe in search of his companions -(already, as he found out later, transformed into swine), was met on the -road by the crafty son of Maia, and by him forewarned and forearmed -against the wiles of the enchantress. Skilled in drugs as she was, a -more potent herb than any known to her had been procured by the -messenger of the gods. ‘Therewith,’ the hero continued in his narrative -to the Phæacian king, ‘the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had -plucked from the ground, and he showed me the nature thereof. It was -black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. The gods call it -moly, but it is hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit, with the gods all -things are possible.’ It is thus evident that the Homeric moly is -compounded of two elements—a botanical, so to speak, and a mythological. -A substratum of fact has received an embellishment of fable. Before the -mind’s eye of the poet, when he described the white flowers and black -root of the vegetable snatched from the reluctant earth by Hermes, was a -specific plant, which he chose to associate, or which had already become -associated, with floating legendary lore, widely and anciently diffused -among our race. The identification of that plant has often been -attempted, and not unsuccessfully. - -The earliest record of such an effort is contained in Theophrastus’s -‘History of Plants.’ He there asserts the moly of the Odyssey to have -been a kind of garlic (_Allium nigrum_, according to Sprengel), growing -on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia (the birthplace, be it observed, of Hermes), -and of supreme efficacy as an antidote to poisons; but he, unlike Homer, -adds that there is no difficulty in plucking it. We shall see presently -that this difficulty was purely mythical. The language of Theophrastus -suggests that the association of moly with the Arcadian garlic was -traditional in his time; and the tradition has been perpetuated in the -modern Greek name, _molyza_, of a member of the same family. - -John Gerard in his Herbal, calls moly (of which he enumerates several -species) the ‘Sorcerer’s garlic,’ and describes as follows the -Theophrastian, assumed as identical with the epic, kind. - - Homer’s moly hath very thick leaves, broad toward the bottom, - sharp at the point, and hollowed like a trough or gutter, in the - bosom of which leaves near unto the bottom cometh forth a - certain round bulb or ball of a green colour; which being ripe - and set in the ground, groweth and becometh a fair plant, such - as is the mother. Among those leaves riseth up a naked, smooth, - thick stalk of two cubits high, as strong as is a small - walking-staff. At the top of the stalk standeth a bundle of fair - whitish flowers, dashed over with a wash of purple colour, - smelling like the flowers of onions. When they be ripe there - appeareth a black seed wrapt in a white skin or husk. - - The root is great and bulbous, covered with a blackish skin on - the outside, and white within, and of the bigness of a great - onion. - -So much for the question in its matter-of-fact aspect. We may now look -at it from its fabulous side. - -And first, it is to be remembered that moly was not a charm, but a -counter-charm. Its powers were defensive, and presupposed an attack. It -was as a shield against the thrust of a spear. Now if any clear notion -could be attained regarding the kind of weapon of which it had efficacy -thus to blunt the point, we should be perceptibly nearer to its -individualisation. But we are only told that the magic draught of Circe, -the effects of which it had power to neutralise, contained pernicious -drugs. The poet either did not know, or did not care to tell more. - -There is, however, a plant round which a crowd of strange beliefs -gathered from the earliest times. This is the _Atropa mandragora_, or -mandrake, probably identical with the _Dudaim_ of Scripture, and called -by classical writers _Circæa_, from its supposed potency in philtres. -The rude resemblance of its bifurcated root to the lower half of the -human frame started its career as an object of credulity and an -instrument of imposture. It was held to be animated with a life -transcending the obscure vitality of ordinary vegetable existence, and -occult powers of the most remarkable kind were attributed to it. The -little images, formed of the mandrake root, consulted as oracles in -Germany under the name of _Alrunen_, and imported with great commercial -success into this country during the reign of Henry VIII., were credited -with the power of multiplying money left in their charge, and generally -of bringing luck to their possessors, especially when their original -seat had been at the foot of a gallows, and their first vesture a -fragment of a winding-sheet. But privilege, as usual, was here also -fraught with peril. The operation of uprooting a mandrake was a critical -one, formidable consequences ensuing upon its clumsy or negligent -execution. These could only be averted by a strict observance of forms -prescribed by the wisdom of a very high antiquity. According to Pliny, -three circles were to be drawn round the plant with a sword, within -which the digger stood, facing west. This position had to be combined, -as best it might, with an approach from the windward side, upon his -formidable prey. Through the pages of Josephus the device gained its -earliest publicity, of employing a dog to receive the death penalty, -attendant, in his belief, on eradication. It was widely adopted, and by -mediæval sagacity fortified with the additional prescriptions that the -canine victim should be black without a white hair, that the deed should -be done before dawn on a Friday, and that the ears of the doer should be -carefully stuffed with cotton-wool. For, at the instant of leaving its -parent-earth, a fearful sound, which no mortal might hear and sanely -survive, issued from the uptorn root. This superstition was familiar in -English literature down to the seventeenth century. - -Thus Suffolk alleging the futility of bad language in apology for the -backwardness in its use with which he has just been reproached by the -ungentle queen of Henry VI., exclaims, - - Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake’s groan, - I would invent as bitter-searching terms, - As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear, - Deliver’d strongly through my fixed teeth, - With full as many signs of deadly hate, - As lean-fac’d Envy in her loathsome cave. - -And poor Juliet enumerates among the horrors of the charnel-house, - - Shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth, - That living mortals hearing them, run mad. - -The persuasion was, moreover, included amongst the Vulgar Errors gravely -combated by Sir Thomas Browne. - -Mandragora, then, is the most ancient and the most widely famous of all -magic herbs; and the old conjecture is at least a plausible one that -from its exclusive possession were derived the evil powers employed to -the detriment of her wind-borne guests by the inhospitable daughter of -Perse. - -Moly, on the other hand, must be sought for amongst the herbaceous -antidotes of fable. Perhaps the best known of these is the plant -repugnant to the fine senses of Horace, and equally abominable to the -nostrils of Elizabethan gallants. The name of garlic in Sanskrit -signifies ‘slayer of monsters.’ Juvenal ridiculed the Egyptians for -paying it reverence as a divinity. - - Porrum et cepe nefas violare ac frangere morsu. - O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis - Numina! - -The Eddic valkyr, Sigurdrifa, sang of its unassailable virtue. As a sure -preservative from witchcraft it was, by mediæval Teutons, infused in the -drink of cattle and horses, hung up in lonely shepherds’ huts, and -buried under thresholds. It was laid on beds against nightmare: planted -on cottage roofs to keep off lightning: it cured the poisoned bites of -reptiles: it was eaten to avert the evil effects of digging hellebore; -while, in Cuba, immunity from jaundice was secured by wearing, during -thirteen days, a collar consisting of thirteen cloves of garlic, and -throwing it away at a cross-road, without looking behind, at midnight on -the expiration of that term. The occult properties of this savoury root -originated, no doubt, as M. Hehn conceives,[308] in its pungent taste -and smell. Substances strongly impressive to the senses are apt to -acquire the reputation of being distasteful to ‘spirits of vile sort.’ -Witness sulphur, employed from of old, in ceremonial purification. But -this may have been owing to its association, through the ‘sulphurous’ -smell of ozone, with the sacred thunder-bolt. - -Footnote 308: - - _Wanderings of Plants_, p. 158. - -All the magic faculties of garlic, it may be remarked, are directed to -beneficent purposes; whereas those of the mandrake (regarded as an herb, -not as an idol) are purely maleficent. Later folk-lore, however, has not -brought them into direct competition. Each is thought of as supreme in -its own line. Only in the Odyssey (on the supposition here adopted) they -were permitted to meet, with the result of signal defeat for the powers -of evil. - -Thus we see that the identification of moly with garlic is countenanced -by whatever scraps of botanical evidence are at hand, fortified by a -constant local tradition, no less than by the fantastic prescriptions of -superstitious popular observance. The difficulty or peril of uprooting, -which made the prophylactic plant obtained by Hermes all but -unattainable to mortals, is a common feature in vegetable mythology. It -figures as the price to be paid for something rarely precious, enhancing -its value and at the same time affixing a scarcely tolerable penalty to -its possession. It belonged, for instance, in varying degrees, to -hellebore and mistletoe, as well as to mandragora. With the last it most -likely originated, and from it was transferred by Homer, in the exercise -of his poetical licence, to moly. - -From the adventure in the Ææan isle, as from so many others, Odysseus -came out unscathed. But it was not without high moral necessity that he -passed through them. The leading motive of his character is, in fact, -found in his multiform experience. He is appointed to see and to suffer -all that comes within the scope of Greek humanity. No vicissitudes, no -perils are spared him. Protection from the extremity of evil must and -does content him. For his keen curiosity falls in with the design of his -celestial patroness, in urging him to drink to the dregs the costly -draught of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet it is to be noted that -from the house of the enchantress there is no exit save through the -gates of hell. - -Within the spacious confines of the universe there is perhaps but one -race of beings whose implanted instincts and whose visible destiny are -irreconcilably at war. Man is born to suffer; but suffering has always -for him the poignancy of surprise. The long record of multiform -tribulation which he calls his history, has been moulded, throughout its -many vicissitudes, by a keen and ceaseless struggle for enjoyment. Each -man and woman born into the world looks afresh round the horizon of life -for pleasure, and meets instead the ever fresh outrage of pain. Our -planet is peopled with souls disinherited of what they still feel to be -an inalienable heritage of happiness. No wonder, then, that -quack-medicines for the cure of the ills of life should always have been -popular. Of such nostrums, the famous Homeric drug nepenthes is an early -example, and may serve for a type. - -We read in the Odyssey that Telemachus had no sooner reached man’s -estate than he set out from Ithaca for Pylos and Lacedæmon, in order to -seek news of his father from Nestor and Menelaus, the two most eminent -survivors of the expedition against Troy. But he learned only that -Odysseus had vanished from the known world. The disappointment was -severe, even to tears, notwithstanding that the banquet was already -spread in the radiant palace of the Spartan king. The remaining guests, -including the illustrious host and hostess, caught the infection of -grief, and the pleasures of the table were over-clouded. - - Then Helena the child of Zeus strange things - Devised, and mixed a philter in their wine, - Which so cures heartache and the inward stings, - That men forget all sorrow wherein they pine. - He who hath tasted of the draught divine - Weeps not that day, although his mother die - And father, or cut off before his eyne - Brother or child beloved fall miserably, - Hewn by the pitiless sword, he sitting silent by. - - Drugs of such virtue did she keep in store, - Given her by Polydamna, wife of Thôn, - In Egypt, where the rich glebe evermore - Yields herbs in foison, some for virtue known, - Some baneful. In that climate each doth own - Leech-craft beyond what mortal minds attain; - Since of Pæonian stock their race hath grown. - She the good philter mixed to charm their pain, - And bade the wine outpour, and answering spake again.[309] - -Footnote 309: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 219-32 (Worsley’s translation). - -Such is the story which has formed the basis of innumerable conjectures. -The name of the drug administered by Helen signifies the negation of -sorrow; and we learn that it grew in Egypt, and that its administration -was followed by markedly soothing effects. Let us see whither these -scanty indications as to its nature will lead us. - -Many of the ancients believed nepenthes to have been a kind of bugloss, -the leaves of which, infused in wine, were affirmed by Dioscorides, -Galen, and other authorities, to produce exhilarating effects. It is -certain that in Plutarch’s time the hilarity of banquets was constantly -sought to be increased by this means. But this was done in avowed -imitation of Helen’s hospitable expedient. It was, in other words, a -revival, not a survival, and possesses for us, consequently, none of the -instructiveness of an unbroken tradition. - -A new idea was struck out by the Roman traveller Pietro della Valle, who -visited Persia and Turkey early in the seventeenth century. He suspected -the true nepenthean draught to have been coffee! From Egypt, according -to the antique narrative, it was brought by Helen; and by way of Egypt -the best Mocha reached Constantinople, where it served to recreate the -spirits, and pass the heavy hours, of the subjects of Achmet. Of this -hypothesis we may say, in the phrase of Sir Thomas Browne, that it is -‘false below confute.’ The next, that of honest Petrus la Seine, has -even less to recommend it. His erudite conclusion was that in nepenthes -the long-sought _aurum potabile_, the illusory ornament of the -Paracelsian pharmacopœia, made its first historical appearance! Egypt, -he argued, was the birthplace of chemistry, and the great chemical -desideratum from the earliest times had been the production of a -drinkable solution of the most perfect among metals. Nay, its supreme -worth had lent its true motive to the famous Argonautic expedition, -which had been fitted out for the purpose of securing, not a golden -fleece in the literal sense, but a parchment upon which the invaluable -recipe was inscribed. The virtues of the elixir were regarded by the -learned dissertator as superior to proof or discussion, in which exalted -position we willingly leave them. - -More enthusiastic than critical, Madame Dacier looked at the subject -from a point of view taken up, many centuries earlier, by Plutarch. -Nepenthes, according to both these authorities, had no real existence. -The effects ascribed to it were merely a figurative way of expressing -the charms of Helen’s conversation. - -But this was to endow the poet with a subtlety which he was very far -from possessing. Simple and direct in thought, he invariably took the -shortest way open to him in expression; and circuitous routes of -interpretation will invariably lead astray from his meaning. It is clear -accordingly that a real drug, of Egyptian origin, was supposed to have -soothed and restored appetite to the guests of Menelaus—a drug quite -possibly known to Homer only by the rumour of its qualities, which he -ingeniously turned to account for the purposes of his story. Now, since -those qualities were undoubtedly narcotic, the field of our choice is a -narrow one. We have only to inquire whether any, and, if so, what, -preparations of the kind were anciently in use by the inhabitants of the -Nile valley. - -Unfortunately our information does not go very far back. A certain -professor of botany from Padua, however, named Prosper Alpinus, has left -a remarkable account of his personal observations on the point towards -the close of the sixteenth century. The vulgar pleasures of intoxication -appear to have been (as was fitting in a Mohammedan country) little in -request: among all classes their place was taken by the raptures of -solacing dreams and delightful visions artificially produced. The means -employed for the purpose were threefold. There was first an electuary of -unknown composition imported from India called _bernavi_. But this may -at once be put aside, since the ‘medicine for a mind diseased’ given by -Polydamna to Helen was, as we have seen, derived from a home-grown -Egyptian herb. There remain of the three soothing drugs mentioned by -Alpinus, hemp and opium. Each was extensively consumed; and the practice -of employing each as a road to pleasurable sensations was already, in -1580, of immemorial antiquity. One of them was almost certainly the true -Homeric nepenthes. We have only to decide which. - -The first, as being the cheaper form of indulgence, was mainly resorted -to, our Paduan informant tells us, amongst the lower classes. From the -leaves of the herb _Cannabis sativa_ was prepared a powder known as -_assis_, made up into boluses and swallowed, with the result of inducing -a lethargic state of dreamy beatitude. _Assis_ was fundamentally the -same with the Indian _bhang_, the Arabic _hashish_—one of the mainstays -of Oriental sensual pleasure. - -The earliest mention of hemp is by Herodotus. He states that it grew in -the country of the Scythians, that from its fibres garments scarcely -distinguishable in texture from linen were woven in Thrace, and that the -fumes from its burning seeds furnished the nomad inhabitants of what is -now Southern Russia, with vapour-baths, serving them as a substitute for -washing. Marked intoxicating effects attended this peculiar mode of -ablution. - -In China, from the beginning of the third century of our era, if not -earlier, a preparation of hemp was used (it was said, with perfect -success) as an anæsthetic; and it is mentioned as a remedy under the -name of _b’hanga_, in Hindu medical works of probably still earlier -date. Its identity with nepenthes was first suggested in 1839, and has -since been generally acquiesced in. But there are two objections. - -The practice of eating or smoking hemp, for the sake of its exalting -effects upon consciousness, appears to have originated on the slopes of -the Himalayas, to have spread thence to Persia, and to have been -transmitted farther west by Arab agency. It was not, then, primitively -an Egyptian custom, and was assuredly unknown to the wife of Thôn. -Moreover, hemp is not indigenous on the banks of the Nile. It came -thither as an immigrant, most probably long after the building of the -latest pyramid. Herodotus includes no mention of it in his curious and -particular account of the country; and, which is still more significant, -no relic of its textile use survives. Not a hempen fibre has ever been -found in any of the innumerable mummy-cases examined by learned -Europeans. The ancient Egyptians, it may then be concluded, were -unacquainted with this plant, and we must look elsewhere for the chief -ingredient of the comfort-bringing draught distributed by the daughter -of Zeus. - -There is only opium left. It is legitimately reached by the ‘method of -exclusions.’ Should it fail, no substitute can be provided. But it does -not fail. No serious discrepancy starts up to shake our belief that in -recognising opium under the disguise of nepenthes we have indeed struck -the truth. All the circumstances correspond to admiration: the -identification runs ‘on all fours.’ The physical effects indicated agree -perfectly with those resulting from a sparing use of opium. They tend to -just so much elevation of spirits as would impart a roseate tinge to the -landscape of life. The intellect remains unclouded and serene. The -Nemesis of indulgence, however moderate, is still behind the scenes. The -exhibition of a soporific effect has even been seriously thought to have -been designed by the poet in the proposal of Telemachus to retire to -rest shortly after the nepenthean cup has gone round; but so bald a -piece of realism can scarcely have entered into the contemplation of an -artist of such consummate skill. - -For ages past, Thebes in Egypt has witnessed the production of opium -from the expressed juice of poppyheads. Six centuries ago, the substance -was known in Western Europe as _Opium Thebaïcum_, or the ‘Theban -tincture.’ Prosper Alpinus states that the whole of Egypt was supplied, -at the epoch of his visit, from Sajeth, on the site of the ancient -hundred-gated city. And since a large proportion of the upper classes -were undisguised opium-eaters, the demand must have been considerable. -Now it was precisely in Thebes that Helen, according to Diodorus, -received the sorrow-soothing drug from her Egyptian hostess; while the -women of Thebes, and they only, still in his time preserved the secret -of its qualities and preparation. Can we doubt that the ancient -nepenthes was in truth no other than the mediæval Theban tincture? Even -stripping from the statement of Diodorus all historical value, its -legendary significance remains. It proves, beyond question, the -existence of a tradition localising the gift of Polydamna in a spot -noted, from the date of the earliest authentic information on the -subject, for the production of a modern equivalent. The inference seems -irresistible that the two were one, and that, as De Quincey said, Homer -is rightly reputed to have known the virtues of opium. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - THE METALS IN HOMER. - - -THE undivided Aryans knew very little of the underground riches of the -earth. They transmitted to their dispersed descendants no common words -for mining, forging, or smelting, none to indicate a metal in general, -and only one designative of a metal in particular. This took in Sanskrit -the form _ayas_, in Latin, _æs_; it is represented by the German _Erz_, -equivalent to the English _ore_; and, after drifting through a Celtic -channel, took a new meaning and form as _Eisen_, or _iron_.[310] The -original signification of the term was _copper_; and copper seems, in -general, to have been the first metal to engage the attention of -primitive man. This is easily accounted for. Copper is widely -distributed; it frequently occurs in the native state, when its strong -colour at once catches the eye; it is easily worked, and displays a -luminous glow highly engaging to an unsophisticated taste for ornament. -And, because copper was at first the only substance of the kind known, -its name was used to determine those of other related substances. Thus, -in Sanskrit, iron was called ‘dark blue _ayas_,’ _ayas_ having come to -mean metal in general; and a specific sign (possibly that for -_hardness_) added, in the Egyptian inscriptions, to the hieroglyph for -copper, causes it to denote iron.[311] But in South Africa these -positions are exchanged. There iron ranks as the fundamental metal; gold -being known to at least one Kafir tribe as ‘yellow,’ silver as ‘white,’ -copper as ‘red’ iron.[312] And to these linguistic facts corresponds the -exceptional circumstance, due probably to early intercourse with Egypt, -that the stone-age in South Africa yielded immediately to an iron-age. - -Footnote 310: - - Much, _Die Kupferzeit in Europa_, p. 173; Schrader and Jevons, - _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans_, p. 188; Taylor, _Origin of - the Aryans_, p. 138. - -Footnote 311: - - Lepsius, _Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes_, p. 55. - -Footnote 312: - - Schrader and Jevons, _op. cit._ p. 154; Rougemont, _L’Âge de Bronze_, - p. 14. - -In Asia, gold was discovered next after copper, the Massagetæ, described -by Herodotus, exemplifying this stage of progress; silver, or ‘white -gold’ succeeded, bringing lead in its train; then, little by little, tin -crept into use; while iron, destined to predominate, came last. All the -six, however, are enumerated in a Khorsabad inscription;[313] they were -familiar to the ancient Egyptians, to the Israelites of the Exodus, and -to the Homeric Greeks. - -Footnote 313: - - Lenormant, _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Archæology_, vol. vi. p. 345. - -Gold was with Homer supreme among terrestrial substances. It represented -to him beauty, splendour, power, wealth, incorruption. It was the metal -of the gods, and mortals by its profuse employment, borrowed something -of divine glory. Its availability for them had, nevertheless, narrow -limitations unfelt supernally. For the visionary metal of Olympus might -be dispensed at will without restrictions either as to quantity or -qualities. Inexhaustible stores of it lay at command; and it could be -rendered infrangible and impenetrable by some mythical process unknown -to sublunary metallurgists. Hence the golden hobbles with which Poseidon -secured his coursers might have proved less satisfactory for the -restraint of commonplace Thracian or Thessalian horses; the golden sword -of Apollo would surely have bent in the hand of Hector; the golden -mansion of the sea-god built for aye in the blue depths of the Ægean, -could not have supported its own weight for an hour on realistic dry -land; nor would the process of lifting earth to heaven by hauling on a -rope have been facilitated by making that rope (as Zeus proposed to do -for the purpose in question) of gold. Of gold, too, were the garments of -the gods, their thrones, utensils, implements, appurtenances; the -pavement of their courts was ‘trodden gold’; golden were the wings of -Iris, golden was the beauty of Aphrodite. No doubt, all these -attributions were half consciously metaphorical, but their main design -was to set off immortal existence by decorating it with an enhanced -degree of the same kind of magnificence marking the dignity of mortal -potentates. - -It is remarkable that the Olympian gold in the Shield of Achilles -retained some part of the occult virtue properly belonging to it only in -that elevated sphere. Of the five metallic layers composing the great -buckler, the middle and most precious one gets the whole credit of -having arrested the quivering spears of Æneas and Asteropæus.[314] The -verses, to be sure, recording its superior efficacy are held to be -spurious, and the inclusion of a hidden stratum of gold does indeed seem -without reason, as it is certainly without precedent. Yet the original -poet would not have altogether disavowed the inspiring idea of the -passage; and the alleged impenetrability of the gold-mail of -Masistius[315] may be held to imply that traces of its old mystical -faculty of resistance lingered about the metal so late as when Xerxes -invaded Greece. - -Footnote 314: - - _Iliad_, xx. 268; xxi. 165; and Leaf’s annotations. - -Footnote 315: - - Herodotus, ix. 22. - -The metallic treasures allotted to the gods in the Iliad are confiscated -for human enrichment in the Odyssey. For the golden automata of -Hephæstus are substituted the golden watch-dogs and torch-bearers of -Alcinous; resplendent dwellings are erected, no longer on Olympus or at -Ægæ, but in Sparta and Phæacia; Helen shares with Artemis in the Odyssey -the golden distaff exclusively attributed to the latter in the Iliad; -the ‘dreams of avarice,’ in short, are tangibly realised, in the Epic of -adventure, only by human possessions; they shrink for the most part into -shadowy epithets where divine surroundings are concerned. Nor is this -diversity accidental or unmeaning. It indicates a genuine shifting of -the mythological point of view—an advance, slight yet significant, -towards a more spiritualised conception of deity. - -Oriental contact first stirred the _auri sacra fames_ in the Greek mind. -That this was so the Greek language itself tells plainly. For _chrusos_, -gold, is a Semitic loanword, closely related to the Hebrew _chârûz_, but -taken immediately, there can be no reasonable doubt, from the Phœnician. -The restless treasure-seekers from Tyre were, indeed, as the -Græco-Semitic term _metal_ intimates,[316] the original subterranean -explorers of the Balkan peninsula. As early, probably, as the fifteenth -century B.C. they ‘digged out ribs of gold’ on the islands of Thasos and -Siphnos, and on the Thracian mainland at Mount Pangæum; and the fables -of the Golden Fleece, and of Arimaspian wars with gold-guarding -griffins, prove the hold won by the ‘precious bane’ over the popular -imagination. Asia Minor was, however, the chief source of prehistoric -supply, the native mines lying long neglected after the Phœnicians had -been driven from the scene. Midas was a typical king in a land where the -mountains were gold-granulated, and the rivers ran over sands of gold. -And it was in fact from Phrygia that Pelops was traditionally reported -to have brought the treasures which made Mycenæ the golden city of the -Achæan world. - -Footnote 316: - - Schrader and Jevons, _Antiquities of the Aryans_, p. 155; Much, _Die - Kupferzeit in Europa_, p. 147. - -The Epic affluence in gold was not wholly fictitious. From the -sepulchres of Mycenæ alone about one hundred pounds Troy weight of the -metal have been disinterred; freely at command even in the lowest -stratum of the successive habitations at Hissarlik, it was lavishly -stored, and highly wrought in the picturesquely-named ‘treasure of -Priam;’ and has been found, in plates and pearls, beneath twenty metres -of volcanic debris, in the Cycladic islands Thera and Therapia.[317] -This plentifulness contrasts strangely with the extreme scarcity of gold -in historic Greece. It persisted, however, mainly owing to the vicinity -of the auriferous Ural Mountains, in the Milesian colony of Panticapæum, -near Kertch, where graves have been opened containing corpses shining -‘like images’ in a complete clothing of gold-leaf, and equipped with -ample supplies of golden vessels and ornaments. - -Footnote 317: - - Much, _Die Kupferzeit_, p. 41. - -Silver[318] was, at the outset, a still rarer substance than gold. Not -that there is really less of it. The ocean alone is estimated to contain -nearly ten thousand million tons, and the mines yielding it, though few, -are rich. But it occurs less obviously, and is less easy to obtain pure. -Accordingly, in some very early Egyptian inscriptions, silver, by -heading the list of metals, claims a supremacy over them which proved -short-lived. It terminated for ever with the scarcity that had produced -it, when the Phœnicians began to pour the flood of Spanish silver into -the markets and treasure-chambers of the East. Armenia constituted -another tolerably copious source of supply; and it was in this quarter -that Homer located the ‘birthplace of silver.’[319] Alybé, on the coast -of the Euxine east of Paphlagonia, whence the Halizonians came to Troy, -was identified by Strabo with Chalybe, a famous mining district.[320] -The people there, indeed, as Xenophon recorded, lived mostly by digging -iron; and their name was preserved in the Greek _chalups_, steel, and -survives with ourselves in _chalybeate_ waters. The district has, -however, in modern times, again become known as argentiferous. The -Homeric tradition receives countenance from the discovery, in the -neighbourhood of Tripoli, of antique, half obliterated silver-workings; -and from the existence, not far off, of a ‘Silver-town’ (Gunnish-kana), -and a ‘Silver-mountain’ (Gunnish-dagh), whence a large tribute in silver -still flowed, a few years ago, into the leaky coffers of Turkey.[321] - -Footnote 318: - - Blümner, _Technologie der Gewerbe_, Bd. iv. pp. 28-32. - -Footnote 319: - - _Iliad_, ii. 857. - -Footnote 320: - - _Geog._ xii. 3. - -Footnote 321: - - Rougemont, _L’Âge de Bronze_, p. 169; Riedenauer, _Handwerk und - Handwerker_, p. 101. - -The word _silver_ (Gothic, _silubr_) has even been conjecturally -associated with the Homeric Alybé;[322] while other philologists prefer -to regard it as equivalent to the Assyrian _sarpu_.[323] All that is -certain is the absence of a general Aryan name for the metal, showing -that the Aryans collectively made no acquaintance with it. Thus, the -Greek _arguros_ and the Latin _argentum_, although closely related, are -really different words. That is to say, they were formed independently -from the common root, _ark_, to shine, modified into _arg_, white. Its -whiteness, in fact, has supplied the designations of this metal in all -parts of the world. Silver is the ‘white iron’ of the Kaffirs, the -‘white gold’ of the Afghans, the ‘white copper’ of the Vedic Indians; -and the antique Accadians and Egyptians defined it by the same obvious -quality.[324] The Greek _arguros_ is, then, a comparatively late word, -formed, perhaps, after the Achæan tribes were already settled in their -Hellenic home, when their first supplies of silver began to come in from -Pontic Asia Minor. - -Footnote 322: - - Hehn, _Wanderings of Plants_, p. 443. - -Footnote 323: - - Taylor, _Origin of the Aryans_, p. 143. - -Footnote 324: - - Schrader and Jevons, _Antiquities of the Aryans_, pp. 154, 180-82. - -The subsequence of its invention to the adoption into the Greek language -of _chrusos_, gold, can be inferred from the relative paucity of proper -and placenames compounded with it. Homer has only four such, while his -‘golden’ appellations number thirteen. Take as specimens the series -Chryse, Chryses, and Chryseïs, designating a place in the Troad, the -priest of Apollo in that place, and his daughter, all memorably -connected with the tragic Wrath of Achilles. The nomenclature, no doubt, -took its rise from solar associations; yet the typical relationship -between gold and the sun, silver and the moon, is nowhere in the Epics -directly recognised. Helios is never decorated with the epithet -‘golden’; Apollo, if he wears a golden sword, is more strongly -characterised by his silver bow. Lunar mythology is ignored; nor is the -ready metaphor of the ‘silver moon’ to be found in Homeric verse. The -‘apparent queen’ of the nocturnal sky does not there, as elsewhere in -poetry and folk-lore, ‘throw her silver mantle o’er the dark.’ The -metallic sheen, on the other hand, of water rippling in sunshine, -produces its due effect in the generation of epithets; rivers being -habitually called ‘silver-eddying,’ and Thetis, the Undine of the Iliad, -wearing a specific badge as ‘silver-footed.’ - -For the concrete purposes of actual decoration, the metal was in -constant Homeric demand. Heré’s chariot and the car of Rhesus shone with -its delicate radiance; the chair of Penelope was spirally inwrought with -silver and ivory; the greaves of Paris were silver clasped, and the -sheath of his sword silver-studded; a silver hilt adorned the weapon of -Achilles, and the strings of his lyre were attached to a silver -yoke.[325] Of silver, too, was the tool-chest of Hephæstus; the guests -of Circe ate off silver tables; the guests of Menelaus, if particularly -favoured, might have bathed in silver tubs, two of which were presented -to him in Egypt; and from golden ewers water was poured into silver -basins for the ablutions before meals in every establishment of some -pretension. The fittings shared the splendours of the furniture in -Odyssean palaces. In the great hall of Alcinous, the door-posts and -lintel were of silver, and golden and silver hounds, fashioned by -Hephæstus, kept watch beside its golden gates. And the courts of -Menelaus were resplendent with gold, bronze, silver, and electrum. - -Footnote 325: - - _Iliad_, i. 219; ix. 187; Buchholz, _Homerische Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. - ii. p. 316. - -The term ‘electrum,’ however, is a somewhat ambiguous one. In classical -Greek, it denotes two perfectly distinct substances, one metallic, the -other of organic origin—the latter, indeed, chiefly; the word came to be -applied almost exclusively to _amber_. Or it may be that two primarily -distinct words coalesced with time into one. Lepsius has urged the -probability that the name of the metal was of the masculine form -_elektros_, while amber was designated by the neuter _elektron_.[326] -Nor is it unlikely that these words had separate genealogies, the first -being derived from an Aryan root signifying ‘to shine,’ the second from -a Semitic name for resin. Phœnician inscriptions may eventually throw -light upon a point which must otherwise remain unsettled, by acquainting -us with the Phœnician mode of designating amber. - -Footnote 326: - - _Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes_, p. 60. - -The metallic electrum was an alloy of gold with about twenty per cent. -of silver. It occurs naturally, but was produced artificially as well, -especially in Egypt, where _asem_, as it was called, came into favour -long before any of the pyramids were built. It was in the Nile valley -thought fit for goddesses’ wear, its pale radiance suggesting feminine -refinement; and stores of it were laid up in the treasures of all the -early kings. The first Lydian coinage was of electrum; many of the -utensils and ornaments discovered at Hissarlik and Mycenæ prove to be -similarly composed; and electrum continued in favour down to a -particularly late date in the Græco-Scythic settlements on the Black -Sea. It made one of its few historical appearances in the ‘white gold’ -offered by Crœsus at Delphi;[327] and there are two instances of its -epical employment. The ground of the Hesiodic Shield of Hercules was -inlaid, the walls of the banqueting-hall of Menelaus were overlaid, with -gold, electrum, and ivory. Although, in two other passages of the -Odyssey, the same word undoubtedly designates amber, it is safe to -affirm that here, where mural incrustations are in question, a metallic -substance, none other than the immemorial _asem_ of Egypt, should be -understood. Egyptian analogies, as Lepsius many years ago pointed out, -strongly support this supposition, above all where Egyptian associations -are so marked as in the Odyssean description of the Spartan court. -Electrum is unknown in the Iliad. The word occurs only in the form -_elektor_, signifying ‘the beaming sun.’ - -Footnote 327: - - Herodotus, i. 50. - -The third Homeric metal, and the most important of all, is _chalkos_. -But what does _chalkos_ mean? Copper or bronze? The question is not one -to be answered off-hand or categorically. It has been long and learnedly -debated; and admits, perhaps, of no decision more absolute than the -cautious arbitrament of Sir Roger de Coverley. - -No help towards clearing up the point in dispute has been derived from -etymological inquiries. The word _chalkos_ is without Aryan equivalents, -and can best be explained by means of the Semitic _hhalaq_, signifying -‘metal worked with a hammer.’[328] Its primitive meaning, thus left -conjectural, was most probably ‘copper.’ For, from all parts of Europe, -evidence has gradually accumulated that the transition from the use of -stone to the use of bronze was through a ‘copper age,’ which, though -perhaps of short duration, has left relics impossible to be ignored. -Indications are even forthcoming among the prehistoric ‘finds’ at -Hissarlik, of the tentative processes by which copper was improved into -bronze.[329] The lower strata of ruins on the site of ancient Troy -contained articles and implements of approximately pure copper; nearer -the surface, a sensible ingredient of tin was added, augmented, here and -there, to the normal proportion for bronze of about twelve per cent. At -Mycenæ, domestic vessels were fabricated of copper, weapons and -ornamental objects of bronze; and a copper saw, dug from beneath the -lavas of Santorin, gives corroborative evidence of the early Greek use -of the unalloyed metal. - -Footnote 328: - - Lenormant, _Antiquités de la Troade_, p. 11. - -Footnote 329: - - _Ib._ p. 10. - -_Chalkos_, then, must, to begin with, have denoted copper, and indeed it -partially preserves that sense in the Homeric poems. The cargo, for -example, taken on board at Temesé, in Cyprus, by the Taphian king -Mentes,[330] must have been of pure copper, the distinctively ‘Cyprian’ -metal. The port of Temesé, afterwards Tamassos, be it observed, was a -Phœnician establishment, and bore a Phœnician name denoting -‘smelting-house,’ both instructive circumstances as regards the agency -by which metallic supplies were transmitted westward.[331] Again, when -Achilles enumerated with gold and ‘grey iron,’ red _chalkos_ as forming -part of his wealth,[332] he could have meant nothing but unadulterated -copper. The colour-adjective does not recur, but its employment this -once strongly supports the inference that the unwrought _chalkos_, -frequently spoken of as stored for future use or barter, was without -sensible admixture of tin. - -Footnote 330: - - _Odyssey_, i. 184. - -Footnote 331: - - Schrader and Jevons, _op. cit._ p. 196; Buchholz, _Homer. Real._ Bd. - i. Abth. ii. p. 326. - -Footnote 332: - - _Iliad_, ix. 365. - -This inference, however, cannot reasonably be carried further. Homeric -armour was altogether of _chalkos_, and it would be absurd to suppose -that the ‘well-greaved Greeks’ went into action copper-clad. This on two -grounds. In the first place, archæological research has proved to -demonstration that bronze was fully and freely available in the late -Mycenæan age, when Homer, there is good reason to believe, flourished. -Articles composed of it must have been continually before his eyes and -within his grasp. Unless he deliberately elected, which is -inconceivable, to exclude from his poems all mention of a material of -primary importance to the known arts, his _chalkos_ was a term -sufficiently comprehensive to embrace _both_ bronze and copper. In the -second place, pure copper could not have played the part assigned to it. -Its inadequacy as a material for weapons or armour should promptly have -led to its rejection. Assuredly it could neither have sustained, nor -been the means of inflicting, the heavy blows and buffets exchanged by -the heroes of the Trojan War. The mere fact of the shattering of -Menelaus’s sword against the helmet of Paris[333] is conclusive as to -its having been made of a less yielding substance than copper;[334] and -the hardening process, by sudden cooling, imagined with the view to -removing the difficulty, has been pronounced, on the authority of -experts, impracticable.[335] The rigidity and occasional brittleness of -the Homeric _chalkos_ was imparted to it, we may be quite sure, by the -tin mixed with it. - -Footnote 333: - - _Iliad_, iii. 363. - -Footnote 334: - - Riedenauer, _Handwerk und Handwerker_, p. 103. - -Footnote 335: - - Blümner, _Technologie_, Bd. iv. p. 51. - -Moreover, it is incredible that the Homeric Greeks, although acquainted -with iron, had no share in the bronze-culture flourishing, then and -previously, along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The -persistence, anywhere in that region, of so late, and so extraordinarily -developed a copper age, would indeed be a glaring anomaly. Already,[336] -in the third millennium B.C., bronze tools were used in Egypt; and under -the name _zabar_, whence the Arabic _zifr_, bronze was fabricated by -Sumero-Accadian metallurgists at the very outset of Mesopotamian -civilisation.[337] It was, in fact, probably from Mesopotamia that -knowledge of the art and its attendant advantages was carried westward -by Sidonian traffickers. Customers, then, who, like the Achæans, -procured from them plentiful supplies of copper, and a smaller quantity -of tin, could not long have remained ignorant of the vast superiority of -their alloyed over their separate condition. The conclusion is -inevitable that _chalkos_, like the corresponding Hebrew term -_nechosheth_, and the Egyptian _chomt_, was a word of some elasticity of -meaning, designating ordinarily bronze, but occasionally copper. The -translation, it need hardly be said, of any of the three by the English -_brass_ involves a gross error. Copper was not systematically alloyed -with zinc until about the second century B.C.[338] - -Footnote 336: - - Perrot et Chipiez, _Histoire de l’Art_, t. i. p. 829; Beck (_Gesch. - des Eisens_, p. 79) considers, however, that no Egyptian bronzes yet - analysed go back beyond the eighteenth dynasty, about 1700 B.C. - -Footnote 337: - - Lenormant, _Trans. Soc. Bibl, Archæology_, vol. vi. p. 344. - -Footnote 338: - - Blümner, _Technologie_, Bd. iv. p. 199. - -But the bronze industry of old must have been seriously hampered in its -growth and spread by the scarcity of tin. This metal is of most -restricted distribution. The reservoirs of it held by the earth are few -and far apart. The two principal, in Cornwall and the Malaccan peninsula -respectively, are ‘wide as the poles asunder.’ Yet its discovery goes -back to a hoar antiquity, and its prehistoric use was extensive and -continuous. This wide dispersion of so scarce an article gives cogent -proof of unexpectedly early intercourse between remote populations, and -strikingly illustrates the effectiveness of those gradual processes of -primitive trade by which desirable commodities permeated continents, and -reached the least accessible markets. - -The earliest historical source of tin was in the Cassiterides, or -‘tin-islands’ of Britain; and there can be no doubt, geographical -mystifications notwithstanding, that the tin thence derived came, -directly or indirectly, from Cornwall. Not improbably, the staple of the -Phœnician tin-trade was in the Isle of Wight, which accordingly became -the representative tin-island.[339] But this is questionable. What is -certain is, that the metal was transported overland to the Gulf of Lyons -long before the Phœnicians passed the Pillars of Hercules, and was -available, much earlier still, in Egypt and Assyria. The Cornish was -not, then, the first source of supply to be opened, nor was the -Malaccan. Tin was, in fact, an article of export from Alexandria to -India down to the beginning of the Christian era. The modern discovery, -however, of tin-mines in Khorassan, the ancient Drangiana, irresistibly -suggests that the primitive bronze-workers derived the less plentiful -material of their industry from the Paropamisus, and tends to confirm -the Turanian lineage imputed to them by Lenormant.[340] - -Footnote 339: - - Blümner, _Technologie_, Bd. iv. p. 86. - -Footnote 340: - - Von Baer, _Archiv für Anthropologie_, Bd. ix. p. 266; Blümner, - _Technologie_, Bd. iv. p. 84. - -The Homeric name for tin, _kassiteros_, is at any rate clearly of -Oriental origin. The Greeks adopted it from the Phœnicians; the -Phœnicians _may_, it is thought, have picked it up from Accadian -bronze-smiths along the shores of the Persian Gulf. It survives in the -Arabic _kasdîr_, and under the form _kastîra_ made its way into -Sanskrit, on the occasion of Alexander’s invasion of the Punjâb. Pure -tin ranked with Homer almost as a precious metal. Its scarcity gave it -prestige; but he had evidently very little acquaintance with its -qualities. As Helbig remarks,[341] difficulties of interpretation arise -wherever _kassiteros_ is brought on the scene. A good deal of critical -discomfort, for instance, has been created by the statement that greaves -of tin were included in the warlike outfit supplied to Achilles from -Olympus. And bewilderment is heightened later on by the defensive power -they are made to exhibit in the hardest trials of actual battle. In -point of fact, they would have been as ineffective as papier-maché -against the thrust of Agenor’s spear; and their clattering would -scarcely have produced the awe-inspiring effect ascribed to it in the -following passage. - -Footnote 341: - - _Das Homerische Epos_, p. 285. - - He [Agenor] said, and hurled his sharp spear with weighty hand, - and smote him [Achilles] on the leg beneath the knee, nor missed - his mark, and the greave of new-wrought tin rang terribly on - him; but the bronze bounded back from him it smote, nor pierced - him, for the god’s gift drave it back.[342] - -Footnote 342: - - _Iliad_, xxi. 591-94; cf. Blümner, _Technologie_, Bd. iv. p. 53. - -Elsewhere in the Iliad, tin is employed ornamentally, as it was on the -pottery of the ancient pile-dwellers of Savoy.[343] But the poet is much -more sparing of it than he is of either gold or silver. Even his -imaginary stores appear to be strictly limited. ‘Relucent tin,’ however, -bordered the breastplate presented by Achilles to Eumelus as a -consolation-prize in the Patroclean games; the chariot of Diomed was -‘overlaid with gold and tin’;[344] the cuirass of Agamemnon was inlaid -with parallel stripes, and the buckler of Agamemnon decorated with -bosses of tin. - -Footnote 343: - - Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, p. 402. - -Footnote 344: - - _Iliad_, xxiii. 503. - -The metal was also turned to account by Hephæstus for the purpose of -adding to the effect and variety of his delineations on the Shield of -Achilles. But we get no hint as to how it came into Achæan hands; no -rich man’s treasure contains it; and it drops completely out of sight in -the Odyssey. - -Tin corrodes so readily that its extreme archæological rarity is not -surprising. None has been found, either at Mycenæ or in any part of the -stratified débris at Hissarlik.[345] Lead, on the other hand, has been -disinterred from all the Trojan cities, and was in use at Mycenæ, both -pure, and alloyed with silver. Among the objects brought to light there -was a leaden figure of Aphrodite, doubtless an idol,[346] and a vessel -in stag-shape composed of silver mixed with half its weight of -lead.[347] The latter substance is unmentioned in the Odyssey, but is -twice familiarly alluded to in the Iliad. Its cheapness and commonness -can be gathered from the circumstance incidentally disclosed, that poor -fishermen attached pieces of it as weights to their lines.[348] Its -quality of softness comes in to illustrate the ease with which the spear -of Iphidamas was turned by the silver in the belt of Agamemnon.[349] - -Footnote 345: - - Schliemann, _Troy_, pp. 31, 162. - -Footnote 346: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _op. cit._ p. 67. - -Footnote 347: - - Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, p. 257. - -Footnote 348: - - _Iliad_, xxiv. 80. - -Footnote 349: - - _Ib._ xi. 237. - -Tin and lead made part of the booty taken in the land of Midian by the -Israelites, as well as of the Asiatic tribute paid to early Egyptian -conquerors. But the lead disposed of by the Achæans of the Iliad was -most likely brought by the Phœnicians from southern Spain; and the -surmise is plausible that the Homeric word, _molubdos_—lead—-otherwise -isolated and unexplained, may have been transferred, by the same agency, -from the perishing Iberian to the vigorous Greek tongue.[350] - -Footnote 350: - - Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities_, p. 217. - -The Greek name for iron, _sideros_, is equally destitute of known -affinities. It has, indeed, sometimes been deemed cognate with the Latin -_sidus_, a star, on the ground that meteoric, or star-sent iron was the -earliest form of the metal made available for human purposes; but modern -philologists do not see their way to admitting the connexion. The -coincidence is impressive, yet may, none the less, be wholly misleading. - -The Homeric poems testify to everyday experience of the powers and -faculties of iron. In the Iliad, knives are made of it, and rustic -implements of all sorts; iron-tipped arrows are sped from tough bows; -iron axes perform the rough work of the forest and farm-yard. The -Odyssean functions of the metal cover a still wider range. The iron age, -just beginning in the first Epic, has pretty well made good its footing -in the second. Thus, Beloch[351] has pointed out that, while _chalkos_ -is mentioned 279, _sideros_ only 23 times in the Iliad, the proportion -has become, in the Odyssey, 80 to 29; and his detailed analysis -partially supports the conclusion that iron comes most prominently into -view in the latest portions of both poems. Yet no amount of skill in -critical carving can divide off a section of either in which ignorance -of the metal prevails. The differences are only in degrees of -acquaintanceship. - -Footnote 351: - - _Rivista di Filologia_, t. ii. p. 55. - -The diversity in this respect between the Odyssey and Iliad can be -perceived at a glance by contrasting the weapons Odysseus left behind -him at Ithaca with those he wielded before Troy. The first set were of -iron, probably of steel, the existence of which is implied in the -practice of tempering by immersion in cold water, referred to in -connexion with the feat of plunging a hot stake into the vast orbit of -the Cyclops’ solitary eye. - - And from the burning eye-ball the fierce steam - Singed all his brows, and the deep roots of sight - Crackled with fire. As when in the cold stream - Some smith the axe untempered, fiery white, - Dips hissing; for thence comes the iron’s might; - So did his eye hiss, and he roared again.[352] - -Footnote 352: - - _Odyssey_, ix. 391-95 (Worsley’s trans.). - -Iron or steel has even reached, in the Odyssey, the stage of proverbial -familiarity as the material for arms. _Sideros_ stands for sword in a -maxim which may be translated ‘Cold steel masters the man,’[353] -signifying that when weapons are at hand, bloodshed is not far off. In -the Iliad, on the contrary, swords and spears are invariably of bronze; -and the commentators’ _caveat_ marks the lines presenting the -iron-headed arrow of Pandarus, and the iron mace of Areithöus. The -passage, too, is not exempt from their suspicions, in which Achilles -offers, as prizes in the Funeral Games, a ‘massy clod’ of -freshly-smelted iron, and two sets of iron axe-heads. - -Footnote 353: - - _Ib._ xvi. 294. - -The scanty use made of _sideros_ in the compounding of Homeric -epithets,[354] no less than its total neglect in the formation of proper -names, is a further argument for the comparatively late introduction of -the metal. More especially when the plentifulness of derivatives from -_chalkos_ is taken into consideration. Nevertheless, a good deal of -allowance has to be made, in this matter, for what may be called -ethnical caprice. So the Teutons excluded copper from among the elements -of their local and personal appellations, while admitting gold and iron; -those of the Slavs were coined from gold, silver, and iron; the Celts -excluding from employment for the purpose all the metals except -iron.[355] More decisive is the designation of a smith as _chalkeus_, -irrespective of the particular metal wrought by him, showing that the -term had been fixed when neither gold nor iron, but only copper or -bronze, was welded in Achæan forges. _Nam prior æris fuit quam ferri -cognitus usus._ - -Footnote 354: - - Beloch, _loc. cit._ p. 50. - -Footnote 355: - - Schrader and Jevons, _op. cit._ p. 194. - -Iron, copper, and gold served as the Homeric media of exchange. -Definitions of value, however, are always by head of oxen. The golden -armour of Glaucus, for instance, was worth one hundred, the bronze -equipment of Diomed, inconsiderately taken in exchange by the chivalrous -Lycian, no more than nine oxen,[356] and the figures may be considered -to represent the proportionate value of those two metals. Iron probably -occupied an intermediate position. It must, however, have been much -cheaper in Ithaca than in the Troad. For, since the Taphians are said to -have conveyed it in ships to Cyprus, where they bartered it for copper, -it was evidently mined and smelted in notable quantities on the mainland -of Epirus. - -Footnote 356: - - _Iliad_, vi. 235. - -Iron has no decorative function in the Homeric Poems. It contributes -nothing to the polymetallic splendours of the palaces of Menelaus and -Alcinous, of the Shield of Achilles, or of the Breastplate of Agamemnon. -Except where it furnishes an axletree for the chariot of Heré, it is -never employed in purposeful combination with any other substance. -Esteem, rather than admiration, seems, in fact, to be considered its -due. Its colour is described, usually as grey, sometimes as violet; and -the distinction may possibly, as has been supposed,[357] mark the -observed difference between the hoary appearance of newly fractured -iron, and the bluish gleam of steel blades. Nevertheless, an arbitrary -element in Homeric tints has often to be admitted. Iron is, however, -chiefly characterised in the Iliad and Odyssey—and with indisputable -justice—as ‘hard to work.’ It demands, indeed, far more strenuous -treatment than its ancient rival, copper; and the difficulties connected -with its production and working long retarded the prevalence of its use. -Metallurgy advanced but slowly to the point of being dominated by its -influence. - -Footnote 357: - - Buchholz, _Homer. Realien_, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 335. - -This was probably first reached in Mesopotamia. Some Chaldean graves -have been found to contain immense quantities of iron, of the best -quality, and wrought with the finest skill.[358] One, opened by Place at -Khorsabad, was a veritable magazine of chains and implements, still -recognisable, though of course partly devoured by rust. They dated from -about the eighth century B.C.; but the metal had been in some degree -available for ages previously. In Egypt, although _men_ (iron) may have -been known under the early Memphite dynasties, the nature of the -hieroglyph employed to denote it proves that copper had the precedence. -Utensils of iron were enumerated among the spoils of Thothmes III., in -the seventeenth century, B.C.;[359] _barzel_ has a place in the Books of -Moses, and was wrought at Tyre in the days of king Hiram, and no doubt -indefinitely earlier. The Latin _ferrum_, indeed (equivalent to the -Semitic _barezum_) testifies, it is held, to the Phœnician introduction -of the metal to Italy in the twelfth century, B.C.[360] - -Footnote 358: - - Perrot et Chipiez, _Hist. de l’Art dans l’Antiquité_, t. ii. p. 720. - -Footnote 359: - - Lepsius, _Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes_, p. _missing - page_ See this transcriber note. - -Footnote 360: - - Taylor, _Origin of the Aryans_, p. 145. - -Its still earlier diffusion through Greece is only, then, what might -have been expected: and the complete acquaintance with it manifested in -the Homeric poems conveys, in itself, no presumption of lateness in -their origin. But there are archæological difficulties. Prehistoric iron -is unaccountably scarce in the neighbourhood of the Ægean. True, it is -of a perishable nature; but where not even a ferruginous stain survives, -it is difficult to believe that objects made out of iron once existed. -Until lately, iron was believed to be entirely absent from the ruins -both at Hissarlik and Mycenæ, as well as from those of Orchomenos and -Tiryns. But in 1890, Dr. Schliemann, in clearing the foundations of a -building on the Trojan Pergamus, came upon two lumps of the missing -substance; and some finger-rings composed of it are among the trophies -of the recent excavations carried on in the lower city of Mycenæ, under -the auspices of the Greek Archæological Society.[361] But the metal was -then evidently very rare, although the ‘bee-hive tombs,’ where it was -discovered, belong to a later stage of Mycenæan history than the -‘shaft-graves’ of the citadel. Still, the gap previously supposed to -divide, at this point, the Homeric from the Mycenæan world, has to a -certain extent been bridged; and other discrepancies may, in like -manner, be qualified, if not removed, by further research. - -Footnote 361: - - Schuchhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 332, 296. - -The metals chiefly employed in Homeric verse to typify abstract -qualities are bronze and iron. The Shakespearian use of ‘golden’ to -convey delightfulness of almost any kind, as in the expressions -‘_golden_ cadence of poesy,’ ‘a _golden_ mind,’ ‘_golden_ joys,’ -‘_golden_ sleep,’ and so on, is paralleled only by the Homeric ‘_golden_ -Aphrodite.’ Lead does not exemplify, with the Greek poet, heaviness and -sloth, nor silver the gentle ripple of sweet sounds. But death, as ‘a -sleep of bronze,’ comes before us in all its unrelenting sternness; -Stentor has a ‘voice of bronze;’ a ‘memory of bronze’ was needed for -exceptional feats of recitation; and the ‘iron noise’ of battle went up -to a ‘bronzen sky’ during the struggle ensuing upon the fall of -Patroclus. In the Odyssey, the sky is alternately of bronze and of iron, -the same idea of stability—of a ‘brave, o’erhanging firmament’ being -conveyed by both epithets.[362] Moreover, iron is there the recognised -symbol of pitilessness, strength of mind, and self-command. Odysseus -listens, masked in an ‘aspect of iron,’ while Penelope, strangely -touched by his still unrecognised presence, recites the weary story of -her sorrows. A heart _steeled_—as we should say—against pity was said to -be ‘of iron,’ as was that of Achilles against Hector in the days of his -‘iron indignation’ at the slaying of his loved comrade; and silence and -secrecy, even in a woman, were represented by the rigidity of that -unbending metal. Such metaphors occur, it is true, more frequently in -the Odyssey than in the Iliad; but the conception upon which they are -founded is present throughout the whole sphere of Homeric thought. There -are, nevertheless, as we have seen, clearly definable differences, in -the matter of metallic acquisitions, between the two great Epics. The -Iliad knows six, while the Odyssey refers only to four of these -substances, tin and lead not chancing to be noticed in its cantos; and -iron, in their record, has made a considerable advance upon its Iliadic -status. This is unquestionably a circumstance to be taken into account -in attempting to deal with the Homeric problem. - -Footnote 362: - - Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. i. p. 63. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - HOMERIC METALLURGY. - - -MAN is a tool-shaping animal. He alone infuses matter with purpose, and -so makes it effective for widening and strengthening his wonderful -dominion over physical nature. What is more, his thoughts themselves -grow with the means at his command, and their growth in turn inspires a -further restless seeking after instruments of fresh conquests. The first -metal-workers, accordingly, crossed a gulf destined to divide the ages. -It was not for nothing that legendary honours were paid to them; they -were the vague recognition of a really momentous advance. Its importance -consisted, not so much in the immediate gain of power, as in the -implication of what was to come. For metallurgy is an art which does not -easily stand still. Even in its crudest stages it demands some technical -skill; and technical skill cannot be attained without division of -labour, differentiation of classes, and development of intelligence by -its direction into special channels, and towards feasible ends. There -are, then, few better tests of civilisation than the degree of command -acquired over the metals. - -The wide compass of metallic qualities was in itself stimulating to -ingenuity. There was always something new to be found out about them, -and they lent themselves with facility to every variety of treatment. -This versatility contrasted strongly with the rigid and impracticable -nature of the stony substances they tended to supersede. Thus, the six -primitive metals not only presented, at first sight, a great number of -diverse characteristics, but those characteristics proved, on the most -elementary trials, highly susceptible of change. They could be -surprisingly modified, for instance, by mutual admixtures, and, in a -lesser degree, by differences of manipulation. Secrets of the craft -hence multiplied, and invited, as they continue to invite, further -experiments and research. - -Of still greater consequence to civilisation at large was the -comparatively recondite occurrence of the metals. They are not to be met -with, like flints or pebbles, strewing the bed of every stream; their -distribution is defined and restricted. The demand for them could, for -this reason, only be supplied by opening long lines of communication; it -led to extended intercourse between nations, and created wants -stimulating to traffic. - -Metals, besides, present themselves only by exception in the native -state; they are commonly disguised under some form of ore, -subterraneanly bestowed. Nature holds them concealed in her bosom, or at -most attracts the eye with niggardly samples of her treasures. The very -word _metal_, indeed, records a ‘quest,’ a searching for something -hidden; and it is remarkable that these substances have been least -effective for promoting culture just where they have come most readily -to hand. By the shores of Lake Superior pure copper can be quarried like -sandstone; and it was, in fact, cut away and hammered into axes and -knives by Indian tribes long before they came into contact with -Europeans. A similar use has been made of meteoric iron by the -Esquimaux. But no development of ingenuity resulted in either case. And -for this reason among others, that the metal was used _cold_. It -received essentially the treatment of stone, and made very much the same -kind of response. Because smelting processes were not needed, forging -processes were not thought of. The furnace was absent, and with it the -power of rendering metals plastic to human wants and purposes. There -was, then, good warrant for the figuring, as the arch-metallurgist of -mythology, of the incorporated element of fire. - -Hephæstus was the Homeric Wayland Smith. He embodied the antique, -universal notion of magic metallurgy, but embodied it after a dignified -manner suitable to the grand epical standard. Homer was not given to -repeating folk-stories current among the lower strata of—shall we -say?—Pelasgian society. His associations were with courts and camps, his -sympathies with heroic achievements and maritime adventures in distant, -perhaps fabulous, countries. There, indeed, grotesque aboriginal fancies -might be permitted to flourish; but they were excluded as much as -possible from the sunlit spaces of the Hellenic world. Even here they -crept in unbidden, for the Homeric theology is by no means exempt from -the influence of rustic persuasions. But these were only admitted after -passing through the alembic of fine fancy or ennobling thought. Thus, -Hephæstus, although he has not wholly put off the semblance of the -‘drudging goblin’ of caves and cairns, stands for a formidable -nature-power, and possesses the capability of being sublime. Panting, -perspiring, shaggy, and limping, he is still no dubious divinity, but a -genuine Olympian. His dwelling is on the mountain of the gods; he shares -their councils; his operations are at the command of none; he is -self-directed and self-inspired with his art, having taken to the hammer -and anvil as spontaneously as the infant Hermes took to music and -thievery. Indeed, the ill-used, yet not ill-natured, son of Heré -surpasses his progenitors in one important respect. He is the only one -of the Homeric gods in whom some remnant of creative power remains -active. He alone commands a glimmer of the Promethean spark, half-hidden -though it be in the ashes of material conceptions. Not, indeed, life in -any true sense, but faculties of perception and animation are his to -give to the works of his hands. His forge can turn out intelligent -automata. Among its products are golden handmaidens,[363] conscious -without being self-conscious, endowed with all the useful attributes, -while devoid of the inconveniences of personality. Their efficiency was -purely altruistic; they acted, but neither sought nor suffered. The -bellows, too, of the great Iliadic armourer could be left to blow at -discretion; and his wheeled tripods repaired to, and withdrew from, the -assembly of the gods, at fit times, unsummoned and undismissed. This -lingering of the creative tradition, completely dissociated from the -mighty Zeus, about the misshapen nursling of Thetis, illustrates his -connexion with Pthah, the creative and at the same time the -metallurgical deity of the Nile-valley. - -Footnote 363: - - Ilmarine, the Finnish Hephæstus, made himself a wife of gold. - -The Teutonic Wieland sprang from the same mythological stock. He could, -however, lay claim to no trait of divinity, but was merely an artist of -supreme skill, taught by subterranean pygmies. He was lamed by King -Nidung, an early art-patron, eager for a monopoly of his services; but -eventually escaped by means of a flying-apparatus of his own -construction, his maladroit brother Ægil barely escaping the fate of -Icarus. Here, then, Wieland merges into Dædalus, who is only once -mentioned by Homer, and that as a builder. In a passage full of the -‘local colour’ of Crete, he is said to have constructed the ‘chorus,’ or -dancing-place of Ariadne.[364] The dream of a levitative art lurked -nowhere within the Homeric field of view. Least of all had it been -mastered by the ‘eternal smith’ of Olympus, who owed his life-long -infirmity to the want of a parachute. His ‘summer’s day’ fall from the -‘crystal battlements’ of Olympus ‘on Lemnos, th’ Ægean isle,’ crippled -him incurably; and his return thither was effected by other than -aeronautic means. But the story of his alliance with Dionysus is not -Homeric, so we have nothing to do with it. - -Footnote 364: - - _Iliad_, xviii. 592. - -Still less Homeric is the comparatively late account of his localisation -in the Lipari Islands: - - Vulcani domus, et Vulcania nomine tellus. - -And yet it is worth recalling, as evidence that the prime metallurgists -of Northern and Southern Europe were offshoots from the same stem. Every -one knows that, in the days of old, travellers’ horses were wont to be -privily shod, ‘for a consideration,’ at a cromlech at Ashbury in -Berkshire,[365] by a certain ‘Wayland Smith,’ who had no doubt his own -reasons for eschewing public observation. It seems, however, from the -testimony of Pytheas, a Massilian Greek of Alexander’s epoch, that the -Liparine Hephæstus conducted himself in just the same kind of way.[366] -He worked invisibly, but could be hired to do any given job. This shows -a marked decline from his palmy Iliadic days, when his services might by -exception be had for love, but never for money. From the position of a -god, he had sunk to that of a mere mercenary troll or kobold. - -Footnote 365: - - Wright, _Archæologia_, vol. xxxii. p. 315. - -Footnote 366: - - Scholium to Apoll. Rhod. _Argonautica_, iv. 761. - -Among the Achæans at the time of the siege of Troy, works in metal[367] -of traditional repute were ascribed to Hephæstus no less freely than -swords and cuirasses in the Middle Ages to Wieland or his French -equivalent, Galand, or than fiddles in later days to Straduarius. A -Wieland’s sword, first brandished by Alexander the Great, was said to -have been transmitted successively to Ptolemy, Judas Maccabæus, and -Vespasian; Charlemagne’s ‘Durandal’ and Taillefer’s ‘Durissima’ were -from his master-hand, which armed as well the prowess of Julius Cæsar, -and Godfrey of Bouillon. Part at least of the armour of Beowulf was also -from the cavernous northern workshop which reproduced the forge on Mount -Olympus, where the behest of Thetis was carried into execution; and to -this day in Kurdistan King David is believed to labour, in a desolate -sepulchre among the hills, at hauberks, greaves, and cuirasses.[368] - - Never on earthly anvil - Did such rare armour gleam, - -as that supplied by Hephæstus to Achilles, after his original outfit had -been stript by Hector from the dead body of Patroclus. Only the shield, -however, is described in detail. It was a world-picture—a succession of -typical scenes of human life: - - All various, each a perfect whole - From living Nature— - -wrought in gold, silver, tin, and enamel on a bronze surface. The -implements at hand were hammer, anvil, tongs, and bellows. A -self-supporting furnace—we hear of no fuel—contained crucibles, in which -the metals were rendered plastic by heat, but not, it would appear, -melted. The bronze used was presumably ready-made.[369] Processes of -alloying, like processes of mining and smelting, are ignored in the -Homeric poems. They seem to have lain outside the range of ordinary -Achæan experience, and can have been carried on only to a very limited -extent on Greek soil, and there, perhaps, by foreigners. No part of the -‘clypei non enarrabile textum’ was cast. Forged throughout, inlaid and -embossed, it was a piece of work of which the great Mulciber had no -reason to be ashamed. - -Footnote 367: - - Besides some of mixed materials, such as the Ægis of Zeus and the - Sceptre of Agamemnon. - -Footnote 368: - - Mrs. Bishop’s _Travels in Persia_, vol. i. p. 85. - -Footnote 369: - - Beck, _Geschichte des Eisens_, p. 383. - -The technique employed by him has, within the last few years, received a -curiously apposite illustration. The Homeric description is of a series -of vignettes depicted by means of polymetallic combinations, in a manner -wholly alien to the practice of historic antiquity. But now prehistoric -antiquity has come to the rescue of the commentators’ perplexity. From -the graves at Mycenæ were dug out some rusty dagger-blades, which -proved, on being cleaned and polished at Athens, to be skilfully -ornamented in coloured metallic intarsiatura. The ground is of bronze, -prepared with a kind of black enamel for the reception of figures cut -out of gold-leaf tinted of various shades, from silvery-white to -copper-red, the details being brought out with a graver.[370] Groups of -men and animals, mostly in rapid motion, are thus depicted with -considerable vigour, and forcibly recall the naturalistic effects -suggested by the plastic power of the poet. ‘On these blades,’ Mr. -Gardner remarks,[371] ‘we find fishes of dark gold swimming in a stream -of pale gold; drops of blood are represented by inserted spots of red -gold; in some cases silver is used. What could be nearer to Homer’s -golden vines with silver props, or his oxen of gold and tin?’ - -Footnote 370: - - Koehler, _Mitth. Deutsch. Archäol. Institut_, Bd. vii. p. 241; - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 229. - -Footnote 371: - - _Macmillan’s Magazine_, vol. liv. p. 377. - -This peculiar kind of damascening work was completely forgotten before -the classical age. It seems to have originated in Egypt at least as -early as 1600 B.C.[372] and Egyptian influences are palpable both in the -decorative designs on the Mycenæan blades and in the mode of their -execution. The papyrus, for instance, is conspicuous in a riverside -scene. Nevertheless, these remarkable objects were certainly not -imported. They were wrought by native artists inspired by Egyptian -models. The freedom and boldness with which the subjects chosen for -portrayal are treated make this practically certain. A specimen of the -same style of work, brought from the island of Thera (now Santorin) to -the Museum of Copenhagen, suffices to show that acquaintance with it was -at one time pretty widely diffused through the Ægean archipelago, and -hence cannot serve to localise the origin of the Homeric poems. - -Footnote 372: - - ‘A sword exactly in the style of the Mycenæan blades was taken from - the grave of Aa Hotep, the mother of Ah Mose, who freed Egypt, about - 1600 B.C., from the Hyksos.’—Schuchhardt, _op. cit._ p. 316. - -In its entirety, the Shield of Achilles was beyond doubt an ideal -creation. The poet described something imaginatively apprehended as the -_chef-d’œuvre_ of a superhuman artist, but claiming no existence out of -the shining realm of fancy. Only the elements of the creation were taken -from reality. The idea dominating its construction, of moulding a work -of art into a comprehensive world-picture, is eminently Oriental. It -recurs in the mantle of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and, more or less -abortively, in various Indian and Moorish embroideries. And the -arrangement of the sequence of scenes in concentric circles on the ‘vast -circumference’ of the ‘orbed shield’ was certainly copied from -Assyrio-Phœnician models. - -In its manufacture no iron was employed; and this was quite in -accordance with Homeric usage. The latest metallic acquisition of the -fore-time boasted no traditional consecration; it could impart neither -beauty nor splendour; the part its nature assigned to it was one of -prosaic usefulness. It is accordingly excluded from the Mycenæan scheme -of ornament imitated in the Shield, and may, indeed, have been unknown -to the artists by whom that scheme was elaborated. The Olympian -Demiurgus, at any rate, was acquainted with no such substance; but then -the gods of Greece were never quick to adopt new improvements. So far as -Homer tells us, the only Olympian use of iron was in the chariot of -Heré, thus described in the Fifth Iliad: - - And Hebe quickly put to the car the curved wheels of bronze, - eight-spoked, upon their axletree of iron. Golden is their - felloe, imperishable, and tires of bronze are fitted thereover, - a marvel to look upon; and the naves are of silver, to turn - about on either side. And the car is plaited tight with gold and - silver thongs, and two rails run round about it. And the silver - pole stood out therefrom; upon the end bound she the fair golden - yoke, and set thereon the fair breast-straps of gold.[373] - -Footnote 373: - - _Iliad_, v. 722-31. - -This passage shows, as Dr. Leaf points out,[374] that the chariots of -those times, being very light, were, in the intervals of use, taken to -pieces and laid by on stands. That they were then covered with linen -cloths is told to us elsewhere in the Iliad. Not all were furnished with -eight-spoked wheels. The emphasis laid upon the fact as regards the -goddess’s car indicates that it was exceptional; and the indication is -confirmed by the four-spoked wheels of every vehicle in the Mycenæan -reliefs. As to the iron axletree, it was plainly meant, not for show, -but for strength; yet its introduction, even in that humble capacity, -among the appurtenances of a divine being, can scarcely have been -warranted by prescription, and may have appeared a no less daring -innovation than the serving-out of gunpowder to the infernal host in -‘Paradise Lost.’ - -Footnote 374: - - Leaf’s _Iliad_, vol. i. p. 186. - -Homeric archæology has assumed a new aspect since the opening of the -prehistoric graves at Mycenæ. The doubts of centuries have now at last -met a criterion of truth; the debates of centuries are in many cases -already virtually closed. And this is only a beginning. If the spade be -the best commentator, it will hardly be laid aside until further light -has been thrown upon still twilight places in Homeric controversy. What -has been done is indeed surprising enough. Not very rarely, what might -pass—allowing for some slight poetical amplification—for the originals -of implements or utensils described in the Epics, have been unearthed in -the course of the excavations begun by Dr. Schliemann. Among them is an -excellent model, on a reduced scale, of Nestor’s Cup, an acquisition -almost as surprising as would have been the recovery of Jason’s Mantle, -or Penelope’s Web. - -The Pramnian beverage prepared by the skilled Hecamede for the -refreshment of Nestor and Machaon was served in ‘a right goodly cup that -the old man brought from home, embossed with studs of gold, and four -handles there were to it; and round each two golden doves were feeding; -and to the cup were two feet below.’[375] - -Footnote 375: - - _Iliad_, xi. 631-39. - -The golden beaker now, after three millenniums of sepulture, exhibited -in the Polytechnicon at Athens,[376] has two, instead of two pairs of -dove-surmounted handles; but the support of each by a separate prop -riveted on to the base, corresponds strictly to the construction with -‘two feet below’ (πυθμένες), as described in the Iliad. The real and -imagined objects unmistakably belong to the same class and epoch, and -their agreement is in itself strong evidence of coherence between -Homeric and Mycenæan civilisation. The ‘studs of gold’ embossing the -Nestorean drinking-cup were doubtless the ornamental heads of the nails -used as rivets. The art of soldering, in the proper sense, was a later -discovery;[377] but the Mycenæan goldsmith sometimes had recourse to a -cement of borax for fastening pieces of gold together. In general, -however, decorative adjuncts were separately cast, and afterwards -attached with rivets to the objects they were intended to embellish. In -this way, probably, the purely ornamental use of metallic knobs and -bosses grew up. The Homeric epithets ‘silver-studded’ and ‘bossy,’ -applied to sword-sheaths, chairs, and shields, have been copiously -illustrated by the discovery at Mycenæ of innumerable gold, or rather -gilt, discs and buttons, which had evidently once formed the adornment -of the sheaths and shields lying alongside.[378] At Olympia, too, bronze -sheathings have been found set with rows of solid silver nails,[379] by -means of which they may have been fastened to chairs of the exact type -of those described in the Iliad. - -Footnote 376: - - Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, p. 236; Helbig, _Das Homerische Epos aus den - Denkmälern erläutert_, p. 371; Schuchhardt and Sellers _Schliemann’s - Excavations_, p. 241. - -Footnote 377: - - Riedenauer, _Handwerk und Handwerker in den Homerischen Zeiten_, p. - 122. - -Footnote 378: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _op. cit._ p. 237, &c. - -Footnote 379: - - Furtwängler, _Bronzefünde aus Olympia_, p. 102. - -For his effects of palatial splendour, Homer relied all but exclusively -on the metals. Upholstery was for him non-existent. Small carpets for -placing under the feet of distinguished persons, and rugs for their -beds, were the utmost luxuries known to him in this line, and they were -mere individual appurtenances. But for producing general effects, his -means were exceedingly limited. He could dispose neither of rich -draperies, nor of silken hangings. Polished and rare woods lay outside -his acquaintance; the marbles of Paros and Pentelicus had not yet been -quarried; porphyry, jasper, alabaster, and all other kinds of ornamental -stones seem to have been strange to him. Not so much as a coat of -plaster, or a dash of distemper, clothed the bareness of his walls. -Floors of trodden earth, rafters blackened with smoke, chimneyless and -windowless apartments, belonged even to the royal residences of his -time, at least in Ithaca. But in a few of the more opulent houses of the -Peloponnesus, something was done to dispel this sordid aspect by means -of metallic incrustations; and the possibility was made the most of by -the poet. Nor need the looks of Mammon have been ‘always downward bent’ -in the radiant dwellings imagined by him, since their riches lay on -every side. They are, in the Iliad, appropriated exclusively to the -gods, and are vaguely characterised as ‘golden,’ or ‘of bronze,’ all -details of construction being omitted. But the terrene magnificence of -the Odyssey is more distinctly realised. - - ‘Son of Nestor, delight of my heart!’ [exclaimed Telemachus, - entering the ‘megaron’ or banqueting-saloon of Menelaus], ‘mark - the flashing of bronze through the echoing halls, and the - flashing of gold and of amber,[380] and of silver and of ivory. - Suchlike, methinks, is the court of Olympian Zeus within, for - the world of things that are here; wonder comes over me as I - look thereon.’[381] - -Footnote 380: - - See _supra_, p. 241. - -Footnote 381: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 71-75. - -His experienced sire was little less astonished at the pomp surrounding -the Phæacian king. All the ‘cities of men’ visited by him in the -progress of his long wanderings had not prepared him for the dazzling -effect of those stately halls. - - ‘Meanwhile,’ it is said, ‘Odysseus went to the famous palace of - Alcinous, and his heart was full of many thoughts as he stood - there, or ever he had reached the threshold of bronze. For there - was a gleam as it were of sun or moon through the high-roofed - hall of great-hearted Alcinous. Brazen were the walls which ran - this way and that from the threshold to the inmost chamber, and - round them was a frieze of blue, and golden were the doors that - closed in the good house. Silver were the doorposts that were - set on the brazen threshold, and silver the lintel thereupon, - and the hook of the door was of gold. And on either side stood - golden hounds and silver, which Hephæstus wrought by his - cunning, to guard the palace of great-hearted Alcinous, being - free from death and age all their days.... Yea, and there were - youths fashioned in gold, standing on firm-set bases, with - flaming torches in their hands, giving light through the night - to the feasters in the palace.’[382] - -Footnote 382: - - _Odyssey_, vii. 81-102. - -Both here, and at Sparta, besides perhaps some gilding of smaller -surfaces with overlaid gold-leaf, the stone and woodwork of the houses -can be understood to have been coated with metal plates—a mode of -decoration usual in Mesopotamia from a very early date. Thus, the temple -of Bel at Babylon had its walls covered with silver and ivory, while the -shimmer of gold came from pavement and roof.[383] The fashion was -adopted in Egypt, and spread to Asia Minor, perhaps through the -conquests of Ramses II., who built at Abydos a temple to Osiris, plated -with ‘silver-gold.’ It was diffused as well among the pre-Dorian Greeks. -Both the so-called ‘Treasury of Minyas’ at Orchomenus, and the ‘Treasury -of Atreus’ at Mycenæ, bear evident traces of having once been -scale-plated with bronze, not, it is thought, uniformly, but in fixed -patterns.[384] So, here again, archæological research supplies the most -instructive gloss upon the Homeric text. Metallic incrustations lost -their charm when tinted marbles and manifold draperies had become fully -available; but a glint of their traditional splendour was introduced by -Plato into his Atlantis, where the temple of Poseidon was lined -interiorly with the semi-mythical ‘orichalcum’ (later identified with -brass), dug up appropriately in great profusion from the soil of a -fabulous island.[385] - -Footnote 383: - - Helbig, _op. cit._ p. 436. - -Footnote 384: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _op. cit._ p. 147. - -Footnote 385: - - _Critias_, 116; Jowett’s _Plato_, vol. iii. p. 697. - -The watch-dogs of Alcinous find analogues in the pairs of sphinxes, -winged bulls, or other nondescript monsters, guarding Egyptian and -Assyrian portals. There is nothing to show that they possessed automatic -powers. In those unsophisticated times, works of consummate imitative -skill would readily take rank as samples of magic metallurgy; and what -was life-like so inevitably suggested animation, that the distinction -could scarcely be drawn very clearly. Similarly, the torch-bearers in -the banqueting-hall may be regarded as poetical anticipations of the -Greek art of statuary, then still unborn, or at most in -swaddling-clothes. - -One of the rarities brought by Helen with her from Egypt to Sparta was a -silver basket, mounted on wheels, for holding the wool which she -industriously span into thread.[386] Now wheeled utensils were -presumably a Phœnician invention, since they are mentioned among the -furniture of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings vii.). Their occurrence in -prehistoric Greece is hence one of many proofs of Oriental influence. -The Iliad knows them as the handiwork of Hephæstus, who facilitated by -means of subjacent wheels, the movements of his intelligent tripods; and -Homeric indications have been substantiated by the unearthing, in the -Altis at Olympia, of remnants of objects belonging, apparently, to the -same category.[387] Others, probably incense-pans, were found, a quarter -of a century ago, in tombs of great antiquity at Præneste, Veii, and -Cære.[388] - -Footnote 386: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 125. - -Footnote 387: - - Furtwängler, _Die Bronzefünde aus Olympia_, p. 440. - -Footnote 388: - - Garrucci, _Archæologia_, vol. xi. p. 206. - -Helen’s silver workbasket was gilt round the edges, like the ‘crater,’ -or mixing-bowl, presented by Menelaus as a ‘guest-gift’ to -Telemachus.[389] The latter was a work of Hephæstus, and had been -presented to Menelaus by the king of Sidon, when he was driven thither -on his way back from Troy. The process of gilding, however, is well -known in the Odyssey, and was practised by native craftsmen. In the -scene of Nestor’s sacrifice at Pylos,[390] the goldsmith Laerkes is -summoned to gild the horns of the victim, which he evidently did by the -simple expedient of overlaying them with gold-leaf. Fusion had indeed -not yet been resorted to for the purpose; nevertheless the art of -plating silver with gold, to which is compared the beautifying action of -Athene upon Odysseus, in order to his advantageous appearance before -Nausicaa,[391] excites the extreme personal admiration of the poet, and -is regarded as a direct fruit of divine tuition. And it is noticeable -that the artists of Mycenæ, although in most respects far above the -Homeric standard, found the operation of plating silver directly with -gold so difficult that they commonly interposed a layer of copper to -receive the more precious metal.[392] - -Footnote 389: - - _Odyssey_, iv. 615. - -Footnote 390: - - _Ib._ iii. 425. - -Footnote 391: - - _Odyssey_, vi. 232. - -Footnote 392: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _op. cit._ p. 249. - -No gilt objects are expressly mentioned in the Iliad,[393] but the -delineative inlaying of the Shield of Achilles involved the same sort of -process as that required for producing them. The Iliadic Hephæstus, -however, was somewhat behind his time. For the ‘latest thing out,’ one -would be inclined to look elsewhere. He was, as we have seen, -unacquainted with iron, and his models were often a trifle archaic. From -the very outset of his career, when, as an infant and a foundling, he -was cared for by Thetis and Eurynome, the divine artificer appears to -have been more dexterous than inventive. - -Footnote 393: - - In the adventitious Tenth Book, v. 294, the practice of gilding the - horns of victims for sacrifice is, however, alluded to. - - ‘Nine years,’ he himself afterwards related, ‘with them I - wrought much cunning work of bronze; brooches, and spiral - armbands, and cups and necklaces, in the hollow cave; while - around me the stream of ocean with murmuring foam flowed - infinite.’[394] - -Footnote 394: - - _Iliad_, xviii. 400-403. - -But these ornaments were already of obsolete forms. Three of the four -kinds mentioned find no place elsewhere in Homeric descriptions, and -would probably have struck Homeric ladies as quaint and old-fashioned. -They can, however, be more or less plausibly identified with compound -spiral brooches and other decorative objects from pre-Hellenic, -pre-Etruscan, and Scandinavian tombs.[395] - -Footnote 395: - - Gerlach, _Philologus_, Bd. xxx. p. 491; Helbig, _op. cit._ p. 279. - -The armour of Agamemnon was of foreign manufacture. Cinyras, king of -Cyprus, of semi-mythical fame as a metallurgist, had sent it to him, -perhaps as a pledge of benevolent neutrality,[396] at any rate, more -through fear than love. It was of a highly decorative character, being -inlaid and embossed with gold and tin, silver and enamel. Fundamentally, -of course, it was, like all Homeric armour, of bronze. Something further -will be said about it in the next Chapter. - -Footnote 396: - - Cf. Gladstone, _Studies in Homer_, vol. i. p. 189. - -The Baldric of Hercules, seen by Odysseus in Hades, constituted, one -must admit, an incongruously substantial article of equipment for the -thin remnant of a hero owning the sway of Persephone. Yet the horrified -and shrinking glance with which it is regarded brings it wonderfully -into harmony with the sombre vision of the great _eidolon_, pursuing, in -the under-world, a career of shadowy destruction. The golden -shoulder-belt in question was from the hand of an unknown but -exceptionally gifted artist. It was of chased, or repoussé work, and -showed no diversity of colouring or material. - - Also a wondrous sword-belt, all of gold, - Gleamed like a fire athwart his ample breast, - Whereon were shapes of creatures manifold, - Boar, bear, and lion sparkling-eyed, expressed, - With many a bloody deed and warlike gest. - Whoso by art that wondrous zone achieved, - Let him for ever from art’s labours rest.[397] - -Footnote 397: - - _Odyssey_, xi. 609-14 (Worsley’s trans.). Many critics regard the - passage as spurious. Yet it makes part of a splendidly impressive - picture. - -The design indicated seems to be that of an animal frieze fencing in a -series of fighting episodes[398]—an arrangement met with on Rhodian and -Etruscan vases, and adopted in productions of the needle or the loom, -from the Peplum of Alcisthenes to the Bayeux Tapestry. It does not -appear to have made its way into pre-Hellenic Greece; and the Belt of -Hercules bears, accordingly, a completely exotic stamp. - -Footnote 398: - - Gardner, _Macmillan’s Magazine_, vol. liv. p. 378. - -The Brooch of Odysseus, on the other hand, might have been wrought -within the Achæan realm. It was besides in his possession before his -foreign wanderings began, and we are not told that it was procured from -abroad. At his setting out from Ithaca for Troy, it is said that: - - Goodly Odysseus wore a thick purple mantle, twofold, which had a - brooch fashioned in gold, with a double covering for the pins, - and on the face of it was a curious device; a hound in his - forepaws held a dappled fawn and gazed on it as it writhed. And - all men marvelled at the workmanship, how, wrought as they were - in gold, the hound was gazing on the fawn and strangling it, and - the fawn was writhing with his feet and striving to flee.[399] - -Footnote 399: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 225-31. - -The brooch, it is to be observed, was duplex. Two pins were received -into two confronting tubes, opening opposite ways. The mechanism is -exemplified in the ‘pin and tube’ fastening of some golden diadems from -Mycenæ;[400] and, still more perfectly, in certain brooches exhumed at -Præneste and Cære, each provided with two pins running into a pair of -tubular sheaths, a kind of hook-and-eye arrangement behind serving to -retain them in that position.[401] These were associated with a -multitude of articles, known to be of Phœnician manufacture, imported -into Etruria during the sixth century B.C.; but the stolid sphinxes -surmounting them were replaced, in the Ithacan ornament, by a life-like -representation, conceived in the true Greek spirit, although deriving -its motive from the typical Oriental group of a lion tearing an ox, or -deer.[402] This, however, had become so naturalised in Mycenæan art as -by no means in itself to imply a foreign origin; and the same remark -applies to the mechanism of the Odyssean fibula. The poet certainly -regarded it as a rare specimen of superlative skill; but the like of it -may not improbably yet be unearthed from Greek soil. - -Footnote 400: - - Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, p. 156. - -Footnote 401: - - Helbig, _op. cit._ p. 277. - -Footnote 402: - - _Ib._ p. 387. - -Smiths are not included among the Homeric _demiurgi_. The class of -persons specially distinguished for their serviceableness to the -community is made up of physicians, soothsayers, carpenters, and poets. -Nevertheless, there were metal-workers in Ithaca who might have competed -in general utility with the best of the native wizards. A smithy, -described as a place of common resort, was situated close to the -Odyssean palace; and the demand for spears, swords, axes, and knives -must have been continual, and was certainly met by a local supply. There -is much doubt, however, as to whether objects claiming an artistic -character were produced in Ithaca. It seems more likely, on the whole, -that the few existing there had been imported from the Peloponnesus. -There, presumably, Nestor’s Cup, stated to have been brought by him from -Pylos to Troy, was manufactured; and the Brooch of Odysseus might very -well have been turned out from the same workshop. It is true that a -Peloponnesian origin is never expressly attributed to objects for which -particular admiration is sought to be enlisted. Such are either left -undetermined, claimed for Hephæstus, or said to have come from Egypt, -Sidon, or Cyprus. Achæan was thus plainly ranked below foreign industry. -And this in itself indicates a falling off from the ‘golden prime’ of -Mycenæ, when Achæan craftsmen were, to say the least, not utterly below -compare with those of lands earlier illuminated by the rising sun of -civilisation. Hence, products of everyday familiarity to Agamemnon had -become strange and wonderful to his _sacer vates_; yet the abounding -vitality has not left them. They come before us in his songs, animated -with the energy of his thought, fragments of palpitating life, true -prognostics of the perfect art which the future was to bring to Greece. - -Homeric metallurgy thus plainly represents a declining stage of Mycenæan -metallurgy; and this again included conspicuous elements from Egyptian, -Phœnician, and Phrygian sources. Of the two first springs of influence, -our poet shows full consciousness, but none of the last; since his -admiration for spiral patterns, derived, according to the best -authorities, from the banks of the Sangarius, came to him at second-hand -from Mycenæ. The metallurgical traditions of Phrygia find, moreover, no -place in his verses. The dæmonic artificers of Asia Minor—the -hammer-and-anvil goblins, sons or servants of Hephæstus, who of old -intangibly colonised the shores and islands of the Levant, make no -figure in the Iliad or Odyssey. Cabiri, Curetes, Corybantes, Idæan -Dactyls, Rhodian Telchines, are all equally ignored in the Homeric -world. Hephæstus there works alone. He has neither aides-de-camp nor -coadjutors, apart from his spontaneously helpful bellows. His -predilection for Lemnos was obviously due to the existence there of an -active volcano; for Mosychlus did not become extinct until about the -time of Alexander the Great. He, however, consulted perhaps in the -choice rather his primitive elemental character than his derived -industrial function. The establishment of Cyclopean forges in the -craters of volcanoes seems to have been a mythological after-thought. -Its appropriateness did not at any rate strike Homer. He indeed betrays -no direct acquaintance with subterranean fires. His Island of the -Cyclops is entirely devoid of volcanic associations, and indeed the -genealogy of Polyphemus was scarcely consistent with any such -relationship. He sprang from Poseidon; and Poseidon’s wrath at the evil -entreatment by Odysseus of his amiable offspring was a main factor in -the development of the subsequent narrative. For the resentment of the -sea-god was not to be trifled with by hero or mariner who had slipped -unawares into that outer region of much sea and little land, where he -reigned supreme. _Hinc illæ lachrymæ._ - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - AMBER, IVORY, AND ULTRAMARINE. - - -MANY ages ago, in early Tertiary times, a great forest of conifers -covered the bed of the present Baltic Sea. Their copious gummy -exudations had the leisure of perhaps some hundreds of centuries to -accumulate, and have in fact furnished the greater part of the amber -brought into commerce from before the dawn of history until now. The -value set on the commodity probably gave the first impulse to the -establishment of systematic relations between the north and south of -Europe; and supplied means for the diffusion, far up towards the Arctic -circle, of many of the secrets of Mediterranean culture. Scandinavia -exchanged her amber for bronze, and the improvements that the use of -bronze implied and introduced. They travelled in opposite directions, -one as the correlative of the other, from the mouth of the Elbe to the -mouth of the Rhone,[403] the ever-ready Phœnicians carrying the prized -Eocene product eastward. There, much inequality in its distribution was -prescribed by variety of tastes. In Egypt and Assyria, it had no great -vogue; it is not mentioned in the Bible; but it found a ready market -among the younger communities by the Ægean, just then eagerly -appropriating the elements and ornaments of civilisation. In the -Odyssey, the crafty Phœnician traders who kidnapped Eumæus when a child -in the island of Syriê, are represented as diverting attention from -their plot by the chaffering sale of ‘a golden chain strung here and -there with amber beads’; and ‘a golden chain of curious work, strung -with amber beads, shining like the sun,’ was presented by the suitor -Eurymachus to Penelope.[404] To critics of an earlier generation, it -seemed indeed incredible that a material of such remote and exclusive -origin should have been familiar in the Levant nine centuries before the -Christian era. But recent experience has enforced, as well as qualified, -the maxim _Ab Homero omne principium_[405]: enforced it, by frequent -archæological verifications; qualified it, by the disclosure of a -pre-Hellenic world, by no means completely reflected in the Homeric -Epics. - -Footnote 403: - - Genthe, _Ueber den Etruskischen Tauschhandel nach dem Norden_, p. 102. - -Footnote 404: - - _Odyssey_, xv. 460; xviii. 295. - -Footnote 405: - - Scheins, _De Electro Veterum metallico_, p. 17. - -For here once more Mycenæ teaches an object-lesson. Innumerable amber -beads, of varied sizes, the largest nearly an inch and half in diameter, -were found in the graves there. All were perforated, and they had -manifestly once been connected together to form necklaces. And the -remains of amber necklaces have likewise been disinterred from the -archaic tombs of Præneste and Veii,[406] from British barrows, and from -a prehistoric necropolis at Hallstadt in Austria. The earliest Italian -amber seems to have been conveyed from the Gulf of Lyons along the -Ligurian coast; but a subsequent and more lasting stream of supply -flowed directly to the Po-delta from near the site of Dantzic. Among the -early Italian specimens, are some neck-pendants carved into the forms of -apes, necessarily from Oriental models in a different material—most -likely, ivory. - -Footnote 406: - - _Archæologia_, vol. xli. p. 205. - -The particular and widespread preference for amber as a means of -decorating the throat had a superstitious motive. An idea somehow -originated that the substance, thus worn, was potent against malefic -agencies, and the persuasion doubtless accompanied it on its travels, -and added to its popularity. There is, to be sure, no sign that Homer, -though he only employs amber in the fitting shape for its exercise, had -any knowledge of this prophylactic power; but then his indifference to -rustic lore has repeatedly come to our notice. Penelope, however, and -the ladies of Mycenæ, may have been less unconcerned on the point, and -perhaps gave some credence to the rumours of mysterious virtue that -enhanced the value of the beautiful shining substance from the dim -North. That their amber was truly hyberborean has been chemically -demonstrated. Fragments of Mycenæan beads, analysed for Dr. Schliemann -by Dr. O. Helm, of Dantzic, proved to contain no less than 6 per cent. -of succinic acid; and the presence of succinic acid is distinctive, for -‘there has been no instance hitherto,’ Dr. Helm states, ‘of a product -physically and chemically identical with the Baltic amber being found in -another spot.’[407] The characteristic ingredient in question, for -instance, is wholly wanting in Sicilian amber, a fact strongly -confirmatory of the historically attested insignificance, in -Mediterranean traffic, of small local supplies. Tin and amber thus agree -in testifying to the wide extension, westward and northward, of -prehistoric trade; yet the first of these far-travelled materials occurs -in the Iliad, and is absent from the Odyssey, while the second figures -in the Odyssey, but has no place in the Iliad. - -Footnote 407: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 196. - -The Greek name for amber, _elektron_, might be freely translated -‘sun-stone,’ a meaning partially preserved in the Latin term _lapis -ardens_, Teutonicised into _Brennstein_, or _Bernstein_. The English -_amber_ is a loan from the Arabic, negotiated at the time of the -Crusades; but the original Achæan word survives in _electricity_ and its -derivatives. For the first production of that still mysterious agency -was by rubbing a piece of amber, the endowment of which thereby with an -attractive faculty for light objects was noted with no particular -emphasis by Thales, the sage of Miletus. - -The ‘Electrides Insulæ,’ or ‘amber-islands,’ of the ancients, -corresponded, in vagueness of geographical position, with the -Cassiterides or ‘tin-islands,’ of which the Phœnicians long kept the -secret. The former were eventually located in the Adriatic, whither the -historical Greeks succeeded in tracing the Baltic product, transported -in those later days, along a second overland route from the Vistula to -the Danube, and thence, by intermediary Venetian tribes, to the Istrian -shore. Yet Herodotus was without any definite notion as to the -derivation of amber, one of his spasmodical fits of scepticism -forbidding him to admit its reported origin from a river called the -Eridanus, said to flow into the sea somewhere at the back of the North -wind.[408] The Eridanus, in fact, had a ‘name’ long before it had a -‘local habitation.’ Æschylus was doubtfully inclined to identify it with -the Rhone, showing that he was chiefly acquainted with amber shipped at -Massilia;[409] Pherecydes, knowing more of Adriatic supplies, -established the ‘fluviorum rex Eridanus,’ in the bed of the Po, where it -has remained. The myth of the Heliadæ, or sun-maidens, who, after their -merciful transformation into poplars, continued to weep tears of amber -for the fate of their brother, the lucklessly ambitious Phaethon, took -definite shape in the hands of the Attic tragedians. Homer gives no hint -of acquaintance with it. - -Footnote 408: - - Lib. iii. cap. 115. - -Footnote 409: - - Helbig, _Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei_, t. i. p, 422, ser. iii. - -The decorative use of amber disappeared from classical Greece. It had -been adopted from the East, as part of a semi-barbaric system of -ornament, and was abandoned on the development of a purer taste. The -substance was, indeed, as Helbig has remarked,[410] ill-adapted for the -expression of artistic ideas, and so had little value for those who -directed towards the achievement of such expression their best efforts -for the ennoblement and refinement of life. No amber, then, is found in -the tombs of the Hellenic Greeks, nor in those of the Cimmerian -Bosphorus, where the Milesian colony Panticapæum held the primacy. Even -in Italy, the once prized product was left to be largely appropriated by -Gallic barbarians and Istrian and Umbrian peasants. But the ‘whirligig -of time,’ as usual, ‘brought about its revenges.’ As artistic feeling -decayed, the favour of amber returned, and it grew under the Empire to a -higher pitch than it had ever before attained. Whereupon a cavalier was -despatched from Nero’s court on an exploratory expedition to the -original and genuine home of the article; direct trade was opened with -the Baltic, and the morning mists which had so long enveloped the origin -of the ‘sun-stone’ were at length dispersed. Nevertheless, Pausanias, -who saw an amber statue of Augustus at Olympia in the second century -A.D., still believed the rare substance composing it to have been -collected from the sands of Eridanus.[411] Traditional errors possess -strong vitality. - -Footnote 410: - - Helbig, _Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei_, t. i. p. 425. - -Footnote 411: - - _Descriptio Græciæ_, v. 12. - -Both in the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer shows perfect familiarity with -ivory. But he is entirely unconscious of its source. No rumour of the -elephant had reached him. He would surely, if it had, have shared the -surprising intelligence with his hearers. In the judicious words of -Pausanias,[412] he would never have passed by an elephant to discourse -of cranes and pygmies. The _début_ in Europe of the strange great beast -ensued, in point of fact, only upon the Indian campaign of Alexander. -His tusks were, however, in prehistoric demand all through the East; and -the relations of archaic Greeks were almost exclusively Oriental. -Assyrian ivory-carvings enjoyed a just celebrity; the palaces of Nineveh -and Babylon were softly splendid with the subdued lustre of their costly -material. Solomon’s ivory throne, and Ahab’s ivory house exemplify its -profuse availability in Palestine; Tyrian galleys were fitted with -ivory-bound cross-benches; musical instruments were ivory-dight and -wrought; ebony and ivory furniture made part of the tribute of Ethiopia -to Egypt; and the spoils of Indian elephants were in demand in Italy -before the Etruscans had penetrated the Cisalpine plain. Thus, gold, -silver, amber, ivory, and coloured glass combined with beautiful effect -in a kind of so-called ‘Tyrrhene’ ornaments, extant specimens of which -have been taken from the Regulini-Galassi tomb, and other coeval -repositories.[413] In Troy and Mycenæ, ivory was relatively plentiful. -Pins and buckles were made of it, and perhaps the handles of knives and -daggers.[414] Ivory plates, round and rectangular, and perforated, in -some cases, for attachment to wood or leather, have been, in both spots, -sifted out from surrounding _débris_, and may be imaginatively supposed -to have once enriched the horse-trappings of Hector or one of the -Pelopides. The art of carving in ivory, however, was in both these -places in a rude stage, and appears unfamiliar to Homer. He barely -recognises the use of the material in substantive constructions, while -availing himself of it freely for veneering and inlaying. The only piece -of solid ivory met with in the poems is the handle of the ‘key of -bronze’ with which Penelope opened the upper chamber to take thence the -fateful bow of Odysseus.[415] For the sheath of the silver-hilted dagger -given to the Ithacan stranger by the Phæacian Euryalus,[416] was -assuredly not _formed_ of ivory, although spirally decorated with it. -This can be gathered from the re-application, in the Iliad, of the same -phrase to designate the ornamentation with tin laid on in a curving -pattern, of the cuirass of Asteropæus;[417] and it recurs, undoubtedly -in a similar sense, in the following passage of the Odyssey: - -Footnote 412: - - _Ib._ i. 12. - -Footnote 413: - - Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, p. 82. - -Footnote 414: - - Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, pp. 152, 359. - -Footnote 415: - - _Odyssey_, xxi. 7. - -Footnote 416: - - _Ib._ viii. 404. - -Footnote 417: - - _Iliad_, xxiii. 560; cf. Leaf’s annotations, vols. i. p. 110; ii. 413. - - Now forth from her chamber came the wise Penelope, like Artemis - or golden Aphrodite, and they set a chair for her hard by the - fire, where she was wont to sit, a chair deftly turned and - wrought with ivory and silver, which on a time the craftsman - Icmalius had fashioned, and had joined thereto a footstool, that - was part of the chair, whereon a great fleece was wont to be - laid.[418] - -Footnote 418: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 53-59. - -The word rendered in English as ‘turned,’ however, does not refer to -‘turning’ with a lathe, as the earlier commentators followed by the -translators supposed, but to such helical designs as Mycenæan artwork -exemplifies to superfluity. And it was in the same style that Odysseus -beautified his couch at Ithaca—the couch wrought of a still rooted olive -tree. He reminds his queen, as yet dubious of his identity, how - - Thence beginning, I the bed did mould - Shapely and perfect, and the whole inlaid - With ivory and silver and rich gold.[419] - -Footnote 419: - - _Ib._ xxiii. 199-200 (Worsley’s trans.). - -The chest of Cypselus must have been an analogous piece of work, though -more highly elaborated; and the ‘beds of ivory,’ denounced by the -Prophet with the rest of the ostentatious luxury in which Jerusalem -attempted to vie with haughty Tyre, may have displayed similar -ornamental designs. In the Homeric palace of Menelaus, an ideal of -splendour exotic in the West, but fitting in naturally with Oriental -surroundings, was sought to be realised. Some such model doubtless -floated before the eyes of the poet as the house of Ahab, magnificent -with panellings of that loveliest of organic substances bartered by the -‘men of Dedan’ for the finely-wrought bronze, the purple-dyed and -embroidered cloths of Phœnicia. _Domus Indo dente nitescit._ - -The door of deceptive dreams imagined by Penelope, may possibly, on the -other hand, have had a Mycenæan prototype. - - Two diverse gates there are of bodiless dreams, - These of sawn ivory, and those of horn. - Such dreams as issue where the ivory gleams - Fly without fate, and turn our hopes to scorn. - But dreams which issue through the burnished horn, - What man soe’er beholds them on his bed, - These work with virtue, and of truth are born.[420] - -It has been conjectured that the imperfect transparency of laminæ, -whether of horn or ivory, caused those materials to be associated with -the shadowy forms of dreamland; but the apportionment of their -respective offices was plainly determined by a play of words -unintelligible except in the original Greek.[421] And it must be -admitted that scarcely a worse pair of puns could be produced from the -whole of Shakespeare’s plays than those perpetrated by our ‘bonus -Homerus’ in a passage replete, none the less, with poetical suggestions -largely turned to account by his successors. - -Footnote 420: - - _Odyssey_, xix. 562-67 (Worsley’s trans.). - -Footnote 421: - - See Hayman’s _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 361. - -It is scarcely likely that complete tusks ever found their way to -archaic Greece, yet the comparison—used twice in the Odyssey—of purely -white objects to ‘fresh-cut ivory,’ decidedly proves a working -acquaintance with the material. Its creamy tint was, in Egypt and -Assyria, constantly set off by skilful intermixture with ebony; but -ebony formed no part of the Homeric stock-in-trade. - -One cannot but be struck by finding that, in the Iliad, ivory is -employed _only_ for embellishing equine accoutrements, but in the -Odyssey, _only_ for purposes of domestic decoration. So far as it goes, -this circumstance tends to reinforce the contrast of sentiment towards -the horse apparent in the two poems. Thus, a species of art practised, -we are given to understand, exclusively by foreigners, helps to conjure -up more vividly the effect of the rush of crimson blood over the white -skin of the fair-haired Menelaus: ‘As when some woman of Maionia or -Karia staineth ivory with purple to make a cheek-piece for horses, and -it is laid up in the treasure-chamber, though many a horseman prayeth to -wear it; but it is laid up to be a king’s boast, alike an adornment for -his horse, and a glory for his charioteer.’[422] And the simile was -adopted by Virgil to expound a blush. - -Footnote 422: - - _Iliad_, iv. 141-45. - - Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro - Si quis ebur. - -Ivory-staining does not seem to have been in vogue outside of Asia -Minor. Tablets of ivory were, at Nineveh, often inlaid with lapis -lazuli, and ornaments of ivory were gilt; but there are no surviving -signs of the application to them of colouring matters. - -The second mention of ivory in the Iliad is in connexion with the -slaying, by Menelaus, of Pylæmenes, chief of the ‘bucklered -Paphlagonians,’ when it is said that Antilochus simultaneously smote his -charioteer Mydon with a great stone on the elbow, and ‘the reins, white -with ivory, fell from his hands to earth, even into the dust.’[423] The -overlaying, in a decorative design, of leathern bands with small slips -and rosettes of ivory, may here doubtless be understood; and a similar -fashion of lending splendour to horse-trappings can, as already pointed -out, plausibly be inferred to have prevailed at Hissarlik. - -Footnote 423: - - _Iliad_, v. 583. - -Homer’s name for ivory is identical with ours for the beast producing it -for our benefit. And the word _elephant_ is held to be cognate with the -Hebrew _aleph_, an ox. Hence the designation came to the Greeks almost -certainly from a Semitic source. It was exported, we may unhesitatingly -say, from Phœnicia with the wares it served to label. - -No Homeric crux has been more satisfactorily disposed of by actual -exploration than that relating to the identity of ‘cyanus,’ or ‘kuanos.’ -In later Greek, the term was of perfectly clear import. It signified -lapis lazuli, either genuine or counterfeit. But the simple hypothesis -of a continuity of meaning was met by difficulties of two kinds. The -first regarded colour, always a perplexed subject in the Homeric poems. -For uniformly, throughout their course, ‘cyanean’ betokens darkness of -hue, if not absolute blackness. The epithet frequently recurs, and only -once with a possible, though doubtful suggestion of _blueness_. It is -never used to qualify the summer sea, a serene sky, the eyes of a fair -woman, or the flowers of spring. Usually, the idea of sombreness, pure -and simple, is unequivocally attached to it. As when Thetis, in sign of -mourning, covers herself with a cyanus-coloured robe, ‘than which no -blacker raiment existed.’[424] Invisibility and the shade of approaching -death are each typified as a ‘cyanean cloud’; the brows of Zeus and -Heré, the waving locks of Poseidon, the mane of the Poseidonian steed -Areion, the gathering tempest of war, are of ‘cyanean’ darkness; the -beard of Odysseus, the raven curls of Hector, bear the same adjective, -which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a poetic equivalent for -_black_. Nor is there any ground for supposing that it meant to convey -any special shade or quality of blackness. Fine-drawn distinctions of -every kind are totally alien to the spirit of Homeric diction. - -Footnote 424: - - _Iliad_, xxiv. 94. - -The second objection to identifying cyanus with lapis lazuli or -ultramarine related to function. The uses to which it is put in the -Iliad and Odyssey seemed, to anxious interpreters, inconsistent with its -being either of a stony or of a glassy nature. ‘Cyanus ordinarily enters -into the composition of the polymetallic works described in their -verses. It forms, for instance, a dark trench round the tin-fence of the -vineyard represented on the shield of Achilles; and it is especially -prominent in the decoration of the armour of Agamemnon. Cinyras, king of -Cyprus, was the donor of this magnificent equipment; not through pure -friendship. Intimidated by the Greek armament, he probably dreaded being -compelled to take an active share in the enterprise it aimed at -accomplishing, and purchased with a personal gift to its supreme chief, -liberty to retain his passive attitude of ‘benevolent neutrality.’ The -breastplate alone was a ransom for royalty. - - Therein were ten courses of black cyanus, and twelve of gold, - and twenty of tin, and dark blue[425] snakes writhed up towards - the neck, three on either side, like rainbows that the son of - Kronos hath set in the clouds, a marvel of the mortal tribes of - men.[426] - -Footnote 425: - - The original has simply ‘of cyanus.’ - -Footnote 426: - - _Iliad_, xi. 24-28. - -The comparison of the snakes to rainbows may possibly refer only to -their arching shapes; it is not easy to connect iridescence with a -substance just previously noted expressly as _black_. The shield of -Agamemnon resembled his cuirass in workmanship, but was diversified as -to pattern. - - ‘And he took,’ we are informed, ‘the richly-dight shield of his - valour that covereth all the body of a man, a fair shield, and - round about it were twenty white bosses of tin, and one in the - midst of black cyanus. And thereon was embossed the Gorgon fell - of aspect, glaring terribly; and about her were Dread and - Terror. And from the shield was hung a baldric of silver, and - thereon was curled a snake of cyanus; three heads interlaced had - he growing out of one neck.’[427] - -Footnote 427: - - _Iliad_, xi. 32-40. - -The Mycenæan method of inlaying bronze was followed in the construction -of both articles. But the arrangement of the contrasted metals on the -cuirass in alternating vertical stripes, although rendered perfectly -intelligible by Helbig’s learned discussion,[428] has not been -illustrated by any actual ‘find.’ The bosses of tin and cyanus -diversifying the shield, on the other hand, correspond strictly to a -Mycenæan plan of ornament,[429] and are reproduced in the round knobs of -gold and silver attached to the bronze surface of certain Phœnician -dishes dug up from the ruins of Nineveh.[430] The Gorgon’s Head, -however, does not appear in Greek art until the seventh century -B.C.;[431] yet the suspicion of spuriousness thence attaching to the -lines in which it is mentioned may prove to be unfounded. The emblem -was, at least, a favourite one in Cyprus, having been introduced -thither, according to some archæologists, from Egypt. Judging by the -evidence of Cyprian terracottas, it figured, surrounded with serpents, -very much as on the breastplate of Agamemnon, on the corslets of priests -and kings; and it seems to have been specially appropriated by a -priestly caste named ‘Cinyrades’[432] to signify their supposed descent -from Agamemnon’s dubious ally. The Cyprian partiality thus manifested -for the dread device goes far towards proving that genuine products of -Cyprian metallurgy were limned in the passages just quoted. - -Footnote 428: - - _Das Homerische Epos_, p. 382. - -Footnote 429: - - Schuchhardt and Sellers, _Schliemann’s Excavations_, p. 237. - -Footnote 430: - - Rawlinson, _Phœnicia_, p. 288. - -Footnote 431: - - Furtwängler in Roscher’s _Lexikon der Griech. Myth._; art. - ‘Gorgoneion.’ - -Footnote 432: - - Ohnefalsch-Richter, ‘Cypern, die Bibel, und Homer,’ _Das Ausland_, - Nos. 28, 29, 1891. - -Cyanus is, then, in the Iliad employed exclusively as an adjunct to the -metallic inlaying of armour, and it is made similarly available in the -Hesiodic poems. But in the Odyssey its sole actual use is in a frieze -surmounting the bronze-clad walls of the Phæacian banqueting-hall. Hence -many futile debates and perplexities. The Homeric ‘cyanus,’ most critics -asserted, could not, since it was uniformly described as _black_, be a -mineral of cærulean hue, such as the cyanus of Theophrastus -unquestionably was; and it must be presumed to have been a metal, as -obtaining a place among metals in the decorative industry of the time. -It was hence variously held to be steel, bronze, even lead, while Mr. -Gladstone at one time thought of native blue carbonate of copper,[433] -later, however, preferring bronze. Lepsius alone recognised what is now -generally admitted to be the truth—namely, that the word retained its -significance unchanged from the time of Agamemnon to the time of -Theophrastus. - -Footnote 433: - - _Studies in Homer_, vol. iii. p. 496. - -The Assyrians fabricated out of lapis lazuli, not only personal, but -architectural ornaments. Bactria was its sole available source, and -thence through the Mesopotamian channel it reached Egypt. Among the -Babylonian spoils of Thothmes III. were a necklace of ‘true’ -_chesbet_, and a gold staff jewelled with the same beautiful -mineral. Artificial _chesbet_ was manufactured in Egypt from about -the fourteenth century B.C. It was composed of a kind of glassy -paste, tinted blue with salts of copper or cobalt, and it lay piled, -like bricks for building, in the storehouses of successive -monarchs.[434] Clay-bricks, too, were enamelled with it for use in -decorative constructions, still exemplified in the entrance to a -chamber in the Sakkarah pyramid; and the same fashion prevailed in -Chaldea and Assyria.[435] The Egyptian admiration for _chesbet_ -spread to the Peloponnesus, where an architectural function was -assigned to it agreeing most curiously with the Odyssean use of -cyanus. The spade has, on this point, surpassed itself as an engine -of research; nothing is left to speculation; we seem to find at -Tiryns the very arrangement which caught the quick eye of the -eminent castaway in Phæacia. For in the palace[436] explored by Dr. -Schliemann within the citadel of Perseus, fragments of an alabaster -frieze, inlaid with dark blue smalt, were found strewn over the -floor of a vestibule, having fallen from their place on its walls; -and the smalt appears to be of precisely the same nature with the -manufactured _chesbet_ of Thothmes III., and the Cyprian and -Egyptian cyanus described by Theophrastus.[437] That it was also -identical with the substance turned to just the same architectural -account in the palace of Alcinous, may be taken as certain; and the -discovery constitutes one of the most telling verifications of -Homeric archæology. The particular prominence of cyanus, besides, in -the Cyprian armour of Agamemnon falls in admirably with what is -known of the history of imitation lapis lazuli; Cyprus, owing to the -abundant presence of the needful ores of copper, having become early -celebrated for its production. In addition to some tubes of -cobalt-glass, blue smalt trinkets in large quantities have been -brought to light at Mycenæ. But if Homer took no notice of such -small objects, it was probably because he deemed them too common for -association with the noble or divine heroines of his song. - -Footnote 434: - - Lepsius, _Les Métaux_, &c. p. 61. - -Footnote 435: - - Helbig, _Das Homerische Epos_, p. 81. - -Footnote 436: - - Schuchhardt, _op. cit._ p. 117. - -Footnote 437: - - _De Lapidibus_, lv. The Scythian kind of cyanus was genuine lapis - lazuli. - -That the Homeric cyanus was really a kind of ultramarine enamel, seems, -then, thoroughly established. And it is the only form of glass -recognised in the poems. Yet the colour-difficulty survives. Our poet -remains under the imputation of inability to distinguish black from -blue—unless, indeed, we admit with Helbig that the word ‘cyanus’ -comprised a jetty as well as an azure smalt. There is a good deal to be -said for the opinion. Theophrastus plainly distinguishes a dark and a -light variety, and even speaks of one of the derived pigments as being -_black_; and a black enamel formed part of the materials for the -Mycenæan inlaid-work. The stripes of Agamemnon’s cuirass were, according -to this hypothesis, of black, the curling snakes on either side of blue -cyanus. And this might help to explain the comparison of the latter to -rainbows. Not, to be sure, altogether satisfactorily, since the likening -to a simply blue object of the brilliant arch - - Mille trahens varios adverso sole colores, - -strikes the modern sense as absolutely inappropriate. Nevertheless, we -have to make allowance in Homer, above all as regards chromatic -estimates, for an _aliter visum_. And it happens that the sole -colour-epithet bestowed by him on the rainbow is _porphureos_, -signifying purple of a peculiarly sombre shade. The ‘crocus wings’ of -Iris were, then, less conspicuous to him than her violet sandals. - -Amber, ivory, and cyanus, or ultramarine-enamel, are the only -non-metallic precious substances with which Homer shows himself -familiar. Precious stones of all kinds lay apparently outside his sphere -of cognisance. Mother of pearl, coral, and rock crystal are equally -strange to him. He takes no notice of the engraved gems of Mycenæ, no -more than of the porphyry, agate, onyx, and alabaster, there variously -employed to diversify the framework of life. No distinctions are made in -his verses between one kind of stone and another. White jade, brought -from the furthest confines of Asia, though in some request at Hissarlik, -may not have struck him as essentially different from any vulgar piece -of flint picked up by the shore of the Hellespont. Or, if it did, his -vocabulary was too scanty to allow of his expressing the sentiment. -Homeric mineralogy thus embraced exceedingly few species. - - - - - PRINTED BY - SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE - LONDON - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ On page 236 there was a footnote for “_Blümner, Technologie der - Gewerbe_” but there was no anchor in the text. Those pages in - Blümner are a description to the use of silver in antiquity, so - the anchor was attached to the word “silver” in the text. - ○ On page 255 the footnote for “Lepsius, _Les Métaux dans les - Inscriptions Égyptiennes_” is missing a page number, but page 52 - contains hieroglyphics referring to iron. See Google Books for - scans of the pages. - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); - text that was bold by “equal” signs (=bold=). - ○ The use of a caret (^) before a letter, or letters, shows that the - following letter or letters was intended to be a superscript, as - in S^t Bartholomew or 10^{th} Century. - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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} - body {width:80%; margin:auto; font-size: 14pt; } - .tnbox {background-color:#E3E4FA;border:1px solid silver;padding: 0.5em; - margin:2em 10% 0 10%; } - h1 {font-size: 2em } - </style> - </head> - <body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Familiar Studies in Homer, by Agnes Mary Clerke</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Familiar Studies in Homer</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Agnes Mary Clerke</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 05, 2021 [eBook #65000]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Fay Dunn, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER ***</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='small'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div> - <h1 class='c001'>FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER</h1> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='small'>PRINTED BY</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>LONDON</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><em class='gesperrt'><span class='c004'>FAMILIAR STUDIES</span></em></div> - <div class='c005'>IN</div> - <div class='c005'><span class='c004'><em class='gesperrt'>HOMER</em></span></div> - <div class='c006'>BY</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='c007'>AGNES M. CLERKE</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c008' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>AB HOMERO OMNE PRINCIPIUM</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c009' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div>LONDON</div> - <div><em class='gesperrt'><span class='large'>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</span></em></div> - <div>AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16<b>th</b> STREET</div> - <div>1892</div> - <div class='c006'><i>All rights reserved</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c010'>PREFACE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Homeric</span> archæology has, within the last few years, -finally left the groove of purely academic discussion -to advance along the new route laid down for it by -practical methods of investigation. The results are -full of present interest, and of future promise. They -already imply a reconstruction of the Hellenic past; -they vitalise the Homeric world, bringing it into -definite relations with what went before, and with -what came after, and transforming it from a poetical -creation into an historical reality. Excavations and -explorations in Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor, have -thus entirely changed the aspect of the perennial -Homeric problem, and afford reasonable hope of -providing it with a satisfactory solution.</p> -<p class='c011'>These remarkable, and promptly-gathered fruits -of an experimental system of inquiry deserve the attention, -not of scholars alone, but of every educated -person; nevertheless, their value has as yet been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>realised by a very limited class. The following chapters -may then, it is hoped, usefully serve to illustrate -some of them for the benefit of the general reading -public, while making no pretension to discuss, formally -or exhaustively, the wide subject of Homeric -antiquities. For the proper discharge of that task, -indeed, qualifications would be needed to which the -writer lays no claim. The object of the present little -work will be attained if it contribute to stir a wider -interest in the topics it discusses; above all, should -it in any degree help to promote a non-erudite study -of the noble poetical monuments it is concerned with. -Greek enough to read the Iliad and Odyssey in the -original can be learned with comparative ease; and -what trouble there may be in its acquisition meets an -ample reward in mental profit and enjoyment of a -high order. These ancient epics have a unique freshness -about them; they are still open founts of -animating pleasure for all who choose to apply to -them; one cannot, then, but regret that so few have -intellectual energy to do so.</p> -<p class='c011'>The author’s best thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan, -and to Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, for -their courteous permission to reprint the chapters -entitled ‘Homeric Astronomy,’ ‘Homer’s Magic -Herbs,’ and ‘The Dog in Homer,’ originally published -in the pages of <i>Nature</i>, <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, and -the <i>British Quarterly Review</i> respectively.</p> -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>In quoting illustrative passages from the Homeric -poems, considerable use has been made of the admirable -prose version of the Iliad by Messrs. Lang, Leaf, -and Myers, and of the Odyssey by Messrs. Butcher -and Lang. With the object, however, of securing a -certain variety of effect, versified translations have -also been resorted to, their authors being duly specified -in foot-notes. The citations of Helbig’s valuable -work, <i>Das Homerische Epos aus den Denkmälern -erläutert</i>, refer to the second enlarged edition published -in 1887.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='74%' /> -<col width='12%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c012'><span class='xsmall'>CHAPTER</span></td> - <td class='c013'> </td> - <td class='c014'><span class='xsmall'>PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>I.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMER AS A POET AND AS A PROBLEM</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch01'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>II.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMERIC ASTRONOMY</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch02'>30</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>III.</td> - <td class='c013'>THE DOG IN HOMER</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch03'>58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>IV.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMERIC HORSES</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch04'>84</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>V.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMERIC ZOOLOGY</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch05'>116</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>VI.</td> - <td class='c013'>TREES AND FLOWERS IN HOMER</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch06'>150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>VII.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMERIC MEALS</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch07'>176</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMER’S MAGIC HERBS</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch08'>207</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>IX.</td> - <td class='c013'>THE METALS IN HOMER</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch09'>231</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>X.</td> - <td class='c013'>HOMERIC METALLURGY</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch10'>258</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c012'>XI.</td> - <td class='c013'>AMBER, IVORY, AND ULTRAMARINE</td> - <td class='c014'><a href='#ch11'>283</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span><span class='c004'>FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 id='ch01' class='c010'>CHAPTER I.<br /> <br />HOMER AS A POET AND AS A PROBLEM.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>The</span> perennial youth of the Homeric poems is without -a parallel in the history of art. No other imaginative -works have so nearly succeeded in bidding -defiance to the ‘tooth of time.’ Like the golden -watch-dogs of Alcinous, they seem destined to be -‘deathless and ageless all their days.’ Nor is theirs -the faded immortality of Tithonus—the bare preservation -of a material form emptied of the glow of -vitality, and grown out of harmony with its environment. -Their survival is not even that of an ‘Attic -shape’ whose undeniable beauty has, in our eyes, -assumed somewhat of a recondite coldness, very -different from the loveliness of old, when connoisseurship -was not needed for appreciation. The Iliad -and Odyssey are still auroral. They have the -charm of an ‘unpremeditated lay,’ springing from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>the very source of our own life; they appeal alike -to rude sensibilities and to cultivated tastes; their -splendour and pathos, their powerful vitality, the -strength and swiftness of their numbers, require to -be accentuated by no critical notes of admiration; -they strike of themselves the least tutored native -perception. These vigorous growths out of the -deep soil of humanity have not yet been transported -from the open air of indiscriminate enjoyment -into the greenhouse of æstheticism; delight in them -lays hold of any schoolboy capable of reading them -fluently in the original as naturally as enthralment -with ‘Cinderella’ or ‘Jack the Giant-Killer’ commands -the unreflecting nursery. For they combine, -as no other primitive poetry does, imaginative energy -with sobriety of thought and diction. The <i>ne quid -nimis</i> regulates all their scenes. They are simple -without being archaic, fervid without extravagance, -fanciful, yet never grotesque. The strict proprieties -of classic form effectually restrain in them the exuberance -of romantic invention. Not that any such -distinctions in the mode of composition had then -begun to be thought of. The poet was unconsciously -a ‘law unto himself.’ Indeed the very potency of his -creative faculty prescribed retrenchment and moderation; -the images conjured up by it with much of the -plastic reality of sculpture subjecting themselves spontaneously -to the laws of sculpturesque fitness. Clear-cut -and firm of outline, they move in the transparent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>ether of definite thought. Projected into the vaporous -atmosphere of a riotous fancy, they might show -vaster, but they could hardly be equally impressive.</p> - -<p class='c015'>But these matchless productions are not merely -the ‘wood-notes wild’ of untrained inspiration. They -imply a long course of free development under favourable -conditions. The vehicle of expression used in -them might alone well be the product of centuries of -pre-literary culture. Greek hexameter verse was by -no means an obvious contrivance. It is an exceedingly -subtle structure, depending for its effect—nay, -for its existence—upon unvarying obedience to a -complex set of metrical rules. These could not have -originated all at once, by the decree of some poetical -law-giver. They must have been arrived at more or -less tentatively by repeated experiments, the recognised -success of which led, in the slow course of time, -to their general adoption.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Moreover, the legendary materials of the Epics -were not dug straight out of the mine of popular -fancy and tradition. They had doubtless been elaborated -and manipulated, before Homer took them in -hand, by generations of singers and reciters. The -‘tale of Troy divine’ was already a full-leaved tree -when he plucked from it and planted the branches -destined to flourish through the ages. His verses -display or betray acquaintance with many ‘other -stories’ of public notoriety besides those completely -unfolded in them. The fate of Agamemnon, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>death of Achilles, the madness of Ajax, the advent of -Neoptolemus, the slaying of Memnon, son of the -Morning, the ambush in the Wooden Horse, the -mysterious wanderings of Helen, the last journey of -Odysseus, furnished themes of surpassing interest, -all or most of which had been made into songs for -the pastime of lordly feasters and the solace of noble -dames, before the wrath of Achilles suggested a more -adventurous flight. Inexhaustible, indeed, was the -store of romantic adventure furnished by the famous -ten years’ siege.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A castle built in cloudland, or at most</div> - <div class='line in2'>A crumbling clay-fort on a windy hill,</div> - <div class='line'>Where needy men might flee a robber-host,</div> - <div class='line in2'>This, this was Troy! and yet she holds us still.<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c017'><b>[1]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f1'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. </span>Lang’s <i>Helen of Troy</i>, vi. 21.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>But the saga-literature of the Greeks did not begin -with the mustering of the fleet at Aulis. The ‘ante-Troica’ -were not neglected. Many a ballad was -chanted about the doings of those ‘strong men’ who -‘lived before Agamemnon,’ although it was not their -fortune to be commemorated by a supreme singer. -That supreme singer, however, knew much concerning -the Argonauts, the War of Thebes, the Calydonian -Boar-hunt, the sorrows of Niobe, and the betrayal of -Bellerophon; ante-Trojan lays served as parables for -the instruction of Clytemnestra, and the recreation -of Achilles in that disastrous interval when he doffed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>his armour and strung his lyre. And a small but -privileged class of the community was devoted, under -the presumed tuition of the Muses, to the perfecting -and perpetuation of these treasures of poetic lore.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Homer was accordingly no unprepared phenomenon. -He rose in a sky already luminous. The -flowering of his genius, indeed, marked the close of -an epoch. His achievements were of the definitive -and synthetic kind; they summed up and surpassed -what had previously been accomplished; they were -the outcome—although not the necessary outcome—of -a multitude of minor performances.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Now it is impossible to admit the prevalence of -such sustained poetical activity as the Homeric Epics -by their very nature postulate, apart from the existence -of a tolerably widespread and well-regulated -social organisation. They besides describe a polity -which was certainly not imaginary, and thus lead us -back to a pre-Hellenic world, different in many ways -from historical Greece, and separated from it by -several blank and silent centuries. The people who -moved and suffered, and nurtured their loves and -grudges in it, were called ‘Achæans’—the ethnical -title given by Homer to his countrymen from all -parts of the Greek peninsula and its adjacent islands. -Homer himself was evidently an Achæan; Achilles, -Agamemnon, and Odysseus, Helen and Penelope, -sprang from the same race, which was an offshoot -from the general Hellenic stock. They were a seafaring -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>people, but not much given to commerce; -active, energetic, sensitive, highly imaginative, they -showed, nevertheless, receptivity rather than inventiveness -as regards the practical arts of life. Their -great national exploit was probably that bellicose -expedition to the Troad upon which the Ilian legend, -with all its mythical accretions, was founded; and -some records of attacks by them on Egypt have -been deciphered on hieroglyphically-inscribed monuments; -but they can claim no assured place in -history. As a nation, they ceased indeed to exist -before the dim epoch of fables came to an end; the -Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus brought about -their political annihilation and social disintegration, -impelling them, nevertheless, to establish new settlements -in Asia Minor, and thus setting on foot the -long process by which Greek culture became cosmopolitan.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Homeric conditions do not then represent simply -an initial stage in classic Greek civilisation. There -was no continuous progress from the one state of -things to the other. Development was interrupted -by revolution. Hence, much irretrievable loss and -prolonged seething confusion; until, out of the chaos, -a renovated order emerged, and the Greece of the -Olympiads comes to view in the year 776 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span></p> - -<p class='c015'>For this reason Homeric Greece is strange to -history; the relative importance of the states included -in it, the centre of gravity of its political power, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>modes of government and manners of men it displays, -are all very different from what they had -become in the time of Herodotus. But it is only of -late that these differences have come to have an intelligible -meaning. Until expounded by archæological -research, they were a source of unmixed perplexity to -the learned. The state of society described by Homer -could certainly not be regarded as fictitious; yet it -hung suspended, as it were, in the air, without -definite limitations of time or place. These uncertainties -have now been removed. The excavations at -Mycenæ, undertaken by Dr. Schliemann in 1876, -may be said to have had for their upshot the rediscovery -of the old Achæan civilisation, the material -relics of which have been brought to light from the -‘shaft-tombs’ of Agamemnon’s citadel, the ‘bee-hive -tombs’ of the lower city, in the palaces and other -coeval buildings of Tiryns, Mycenæ, and Orchomenos. -The points of agreement between Homeric delineations -and Mycenæan antiquities are, in fact, too -numerous to permit the entertainment of any reasonable -doubt that the poet’s experience lay in the daily -round of Mycenæan life—of life, that is to say, -governed by the same ideas and carried on under -approximately the same conditions with those prevailing -through the ancient realm of the sons of Atreus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The detection of this close relationship has lent a -totally new aspect to what is called the Homeric -Question, widening its scope at the same time that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>it provides a sure basis for its discussion. For this -can no longer be disconnected from inquiries into the -status and fortunes of the great confederacy, out of -the wreck of which the splendid fabric of Hellenic -society arose. The civilisation centred at Mycenæ -covered a wide range; how wide we do not yet fully -know: the results of future explorations must be -awaited before its limits can be fixed. It undoubtedly -spread, however, beyond Greece proper through the -Sporades to Crete, Rhodes, the coasts of Asia Minor, -and even to Egypt. The traces left behind by it in -Egypt are of particular importance.<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c017'><b>[2]</b></a> From the -Mycenæan pottery discovered in the Fayûm, tangible -proof has been derived that the Græco-Libyan assaults -upon that country were to some extent effective, and -that the seafaring people who took part in them were -no other than the Homeric Achæans, then in an -early stage of their career. The fact of their having -secured a foothold in the Nile Valley accounts, too, for -the strong Egyptian element in Mycenæan art; and -the evidence of habitual intercourse is further curiously -strengthened by the presence of an ostrich egg -amid the other antique remains in the Myceneæan -citadel graves.<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c017'><b>[3]</b></a> Above all, the Egypto-Mycenæan -pottery, from its association with other objects of -known dates, is determinable as to time. And it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>appears, as the outcome of Mr. Flinders Petrie’s careful -comparisons, that one class of vases, adorned with -linear patterns, goes back to about 1400 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, while -those exhibiting naturalistic designs were freely manufactured -in 1100. The culminating period, however, -of pre-Hellenic fictile art is placed considerably earlier, -in 1500-1400 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, and there are indications that its -development had occupied several previous centuries. -Mr. Petrie, indeed, finds himself compelled to believe -that the Græco-Libyan league was already active in -or before the year 2000 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> Achæan predominance -may, then, very well have boasted a millennium of antiquity -when the Dorians crossed the Gulf of Corinth. -Its subversion drove many of the leading native -families over the Ægean, where they found seats -already doubtless familiar to them through their own -and their ancestors’ maritime and piratical adventures, -and the colonising impulse once given, did not -soon cease to promote the enlargement of the Greek -domain. But the mass of the Achæan people lived -on in their old homes, in a state of subjection resembling -that of the Saxons in England after the Norman -Conquest. They were designated ‘Periœci’ by their -Dorian rulers.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f2'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. </span>Flinders Petrie, <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vols. xi. p. 271; -xii. p. 199.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f3'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 268.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Archæological discoveries have thus shown the -largeness of the historical issues embraced in the -Homeric Question; they also afford the possibility, -and still more, the promise, of satisfactorily answering -it. The problem is threefold. It includes the consideration -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>of where, when, and how the great Epics -were composed.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Seven cities—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenæ—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>competed for the honour of having given birth to -their author. Wherever, in short, their study was -localised by the foundation of a school of ‘Homerids,’ -there was asserted to be the native place of the eponymous -bard. The truth is that no really authentic -tradition regarding him reached posterity. The -very name of ‘Homer,’ or the ‘joiner together,’ -is obviously rather typical than personal; and it -gradually came to aggregate round it all that was -antique and unclaimed in the way of verse. The -aggregation, it is true, was presumably formed in -Asiatic Ionia; the ‘Cyclic Poems,’ supplementary -to the Iliad, were mainly the work of Ionic poets; -and the Epic was substantially an Ionic dialect. -Yet the inference of an Asiatic origin thence naturally -arising now clearly appears to be invalid. The linguistic -argument, to begin with, has been completely -disposed of by Fick’s remarkable demonstration that -the Iliad and Odyssey underwent an early process of -Ionicisation.<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c017'><b>[4]</b></a> So far as metrical considerations permitted, -they were actually translated from the Æolic, -or rather Achæan tongue, in which they were composed, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>into the current idiom of Colophon and -Miletus. Objections urged from this side against -their production in Europe have accordingly lost -their force; and the reasons favouring it, always -strong, have of late grown to be well-nigh irresistible. -Some of the more cogent were briefly stated by Mr. -D. B. Monro in 1886;<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c017'><b>[5]</b></a> and others might now be -added. One only, but one surely conclusive, need -here be mentioned. It is this. Homer could not -have been an Asiatic Greek, because Asiatic Greece -did not exist in Homer’s time. He was aware of no -Achæan settlements in Asia Minor; not one of the -twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy emerges in the -Catalogue, Miletus only excepted, and Miletus with a -special note of ‘barbarian’ habitation attached to it.<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c017'><b>[6]</b></a> -The Ionian name is, in the Iliad, once applied to the -Athenians<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c017'><b>[7]</b></a> (presumably), but does not occur at all in -the Odyssey; where, on the other hand, Dorians, -unknown in the Iliad, are casually named as forming -an element in the mixed population of Crete.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c017'><b>[8]</b></a> The -reputed birthplaces of Homer, then, on the eastern -coast of the Ægean, were, when he had reached his -singing prime, still occupied by Carians and Mæonians; -and we must accordingly look for his origin in -the West. There is no escape from this conclusion -except by the subterfuge of imagining the geography -of the Epics to be artificially archaic. They related -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>to a past time, it might be said, they should then -reproduce the conditions of the past. But this is a -notion essentially modern. No primitive poet ever -troubled himself about such scruples of congruity. -Nor if he did, could the requisite detailed information -by possibility be at his command, while his painful -care to avoid what we call anachronisms would cause -nothing but perplexity to his unsophisticated audience. -Homer’s map of Greece must accordingly be accepted -as a true picture of what came under his personal -observation. It is, indeed, as Mr. Freeman says, ‘so -different from the map of Greece at any later time -that it is inconceivable that it can have been invented -at any later time.’<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c017'><b>[9]</b></a> Since, however, it affords the -Greek race no Asiatic standing ground, it follows of -necessity that Homer was a European.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f4'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. </span><i>Die Homerische Odyssee in der ursprünglichen Sprachforme -wiedergestellt</i>, 1883.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f5'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. </span><i>English Historical Review</i>, January, 1886.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f6'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ii. 868.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f7'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xiii. 685.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f8'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. </span><i>Od.</i> xix. 177.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f9'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. </span><i>Historical Geography</i>, p. 25.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>This same consideration helps to determine the -age in which he lived. Homeric geography is entirely -pre-Dorian. Total unconsciousness of any -such event as the Dorian invasion reigns both in the -Iliad and Odyssey. Not a hint betrays acquaintance -with the fact that the polity described in them had, in -the meantime, been overturned by external violence. -A silence so remarkable can be explained only by the -simple supposition that when they were composed, -the revolution in question had not yet occurred. -Other circumstances confirm this view. Practical explorations -have shown pre-Hellenic Greece to have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>been the seat of a rich, enterprising, and cultivated -nation. They have hence removed objections on the -score of savagery, inevitably to be encountered, formerly -urged against pushing the age of Homer very -far back into the past. The life carried on at -Mycenæ, in fact, twelve or thirteen centuries before -the Christian era, was in many respects more refined -than that depicted in the poems. It was known to -their author only after it had lost something of its -pristine splendour. But the Mycenæan civilisation -of his experience, if a trifle decayed, was complete -and dominant; and this it never was subsequently to -the Dorian conquest. To have collected, however, -into an imaginary organic whole the fragments into -which it had been shattered by that catastrophe, -would assuredly have been a task beyond his powers. -Nothing remains, then, but to admit that he lived in -the pre-Dorian Greece which he portrayed. Moreover, -the state of seething unrest ensuing upon the -overthrow of the Mycenæan order must have been -absolutely inconsistent with the development of a -great school of poetry. If Homer, then, was a European—as -appears certain—the inference is irresistible -that he flourished before the society to which he -belonged was thrown by foreign invaders into irredeemable -disarray—that is, at some section of the -Mycenæan epoch.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There are many convincing reasons for holding -that section to have been a late one. One of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>principal is the familiar use of iron in the poems, -although none has been met with in the old shaft-tombs -within the citadel of Mycenæ, and only small -quantities in the less distinguished graves below. It -is, to be sure, conceivable that a substance introduced -as a vulgar novelty devoid of traditional or -ancestral associations might have been employed for -the ordinary purposes of everyday life long before it -was allowed to form part of sepulchral equipments; -a similar motive prescribing its virtual exclusion from -the Homeric Olympus. Still, the discrepancy can -hardly be explained away without the concession of -some lapse of time as well.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric and Mycenæan modes of burial, too, -were different. Cremation is practised throughout -the Epics; the Mycenæan dead were preserved intact. -‘The contrast,’ Dr. Leaf remarks,<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c017'><b>[10]</b></a> ‘is a striking one; -but it is easy to lay too much stress upon it. It may -well be that the conditions of sepulture on a campaign -were perforce different from those usual in -times of peace at home. The mummifying of the -body and the carrying of it to the ancestral burying-place -in the royal citadel were not operations such as -could be easily effected amidst the hurry of marches -or the privations of a siege; least of all after the -slaughter of a pitched battle. It is therefore quite -conceivable that two methods of sepulture may of -necessity have been in use at the same time. And -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>for this assumption the Iliad itself gives us positive -grounds. One warrior who falls is taken home to be -buried; for to a dead son of Zeus means of carriage -and preservation can be supplied which are not for -common men. Sarpedon is cleansed by Apollo, and -borne by Death and Sleep to his distant home in -Lycia, not that his body may be burnt, but that his -brethren and kinsfolk may <i>preserve</i> it ‘with a tomb -and gravestone, for such is the due of the dead.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f10'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. </span>Introduction to <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 26.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>He said; obedient to his father’s words,</div> - <div class='line'>Down to the battle-field Apollo sped</div> - <div class='line'>From Ida’s height; and from amid the spears</div> - <div class='line'>Withdrawn, he bore Sarpedon far away,</div> - <div class='line'>And lav’d his body in the flowing stream;</div> - <div class='line'>Then with divine ambrosia all his limbs</div> - <div class='line'>Anointing, cloth’d him in immortal robes;</div> - <div class='line'>To two swift bearers gave him then in charge,</div> - <div class='line'>To Sleep and Death, twin brothers; in their arms</div> - <div class='line'>They bore him safe to Lycia’s widespread plains.<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c017'><b>[11]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f11'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 676-88 (Lord Derby’s translation).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>The Mycenæan custom of embalming corpses was -not, then, strange to Homer; and the Homeric custom -of burning them has <i>perhaps</i>—for the evidence is indecisive—left -traces in the more recent graves of the -Mycenæan people. What is certain is that simple -interment was everywhere primitively in use, and -that the pyre was a subsequent innovation, at first -only partially adopted, and perhaps nowhere exclusively -in vogue.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The plastic art of Mycenæ seems to have been -on the decline when the ‘sovran poet’ arose. This -can be inferred from the wondering admiration displayed -in his verses for what must once have been its -ordinary performances, as well as from the marked -superiority assigned in them to foreign over native -artists. They include besides no allusion to the -signet-rings so plentiful at Mycenæ, no notice, in any -connexion, of the art of gem-engraving, nor of the -indispensable luxury—to ladies of high degree—of -toilet-mirrors. Active intercourse with Egypt, again, -had evidently ceased long prior to the Homeric age. -The Nile is, in the poems, not even known by name, -but only as the ‘river of Egypt;’ and the country is -reached, not in the ordinary course of navigation, -but through recklessness or ill-luck, by adventurers -or castaways.</p> - -<p class='c015'>We can now gather the following indications regarding -the date of the Homeric poems. They must -have originated during the interval between the -Trojan War—which, in some shape, may be accepted -as an historical event—and the Dorian invasion of -the Peloponnesus. They probably originated not -very long before the latter event, when the Mycenæan -monarchy was of itself tottering towards a fall -precipitated by the frequently repeated incursions of -ruder tribes from the north. The generally accepted -date for the final event is eighty years after the -taking of Troy, or 1104 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> But this rests on no -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>authentic circumstance, and may very well be a century -or more in error. A preferable chronological arrangement -would place Homer’s flourishing in the -eleventh century, and the overthrow of Mycenæ near -its close. Difficulties of sundry kinds can thus be, -in a measure, evaded or conciliated, without encroaching -overmuch on the voiceless centuries available for -the unrecorded readjustment of the disturbed elements -of Greek polity.</p> - -<p class='c015'>As to the mode of origin of the two great poems -which have come down to us from so remote an age, -much might be said; but a few words must here -suffice. It is a topic on which the utmost diversity -of opinion has prevailed since F. A. Wolf published, -in 1795, his famous ‘Prolegomena,’ and as to which -unity of views seems now for ever unattainable. For -demonstrative evidence is naturally out of the question, -and estimates of opposing probabilities are apt -to be strongly tinctured with ‘personality.’ Prepossessions -of all kinds warp the judgment, even in -purely literary matters, and, in this case especially, -have led to the learned advocacy of extreme opinions. -Thus, partisans of destructive criticism have carried -the analysis of the Homeric poems to the verge of -annihilation; while ultra-conservatives insist upon a -seamless whole, and regard the Iliad and the Odyssey -as the work of Homer, in the same sense and with -the same implicit confidence that they hold the Æneid -and the Eclogues to be Virgilian, or ‘Paradise Lost’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>and ‘Samson Agonistes’ to be Miltonic productions. -Between these widely diverging paths, however, there -is a middle way laid down by common sense, which -it is tolerably safe to follow. A few simple considerations -may help us to find it.</p> - -<p class='c015'>We must remember, in the first place, that the -Homeric poems were composed, not to be privately -read, but to be publicly recited. They remained unwritten -during at least a couple of centuries, flung on -the waves of unaided human memory. Oral tradition -alone preserved them; and not the punctilious oral -tradition of a sacerdotal caste like the Brahmins, but -that of a bold and innovating class of ‘rhapsodes,’ -themselves aspiring to some share in the Muse’s immediate -favours, and prompt to flatter the local -vanities and immemorial susceptibilities of their -varied audiences. Within very wide limits, they were -free to ‘improve’ what long training had enabled -them to appropriate. Their licence infringed no literary -property; there was no authorised text to be corrupted; -one man’s version was as good as another’s. -It is not, then, surprising that the primitive order of -the Epics became here and there disarranged, or -that interpolated and substituted passages usurped -positions from which they could not afterwards easily -be expelled. Expository efforts have, indeed, sometimes -succeeded only in adding fresh knots to the -already tangled skein. Pisistratus, however, did good -service by for the first time <i>editing</i> the Homeric -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>poems.<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c017'><b>[12]</b></a> Scattered manuscripts of them had doubtless -existed long previously; but it was their collection -and collation at Athens, and the disposal in -a determinate succession of the still disjointed -materials they afforded, which placed the Greek -people in the earliest full possession of their epical -inheritance.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f12'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. </span>German critics doubt the fact. See Niese, <i>Die Entwickelung -der Homerischen Poesie</i>, p. 5.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>As the general result of a century of Homeric -controversy, instinctive appreciation may be said -broadly to have got the better of verbal criticism. -Not but that the latter has done valuable work; but -it is now pretty plainly seen to have been, in some -quarters, carried considerably too far. The triumphs -enjoyed by German advocates of the ‘Kleinliedertheorie’—of -the disjunction, that is to say, of the -Epics into numerous separate lays—are generally recognised -to have been merely temporary. A large -body of opinion was, at the outset, captivated by their -arguments; it has of late tended to swing back -towards some approximation to the old orthodoxy. -There is, indeed, much difficulty in conceiving the -profound and essential unity apparent to unprejudiced -readers of the Iliad and Odyssey to be illusory; nor -should it be forgotten that the evoking of a cosmos -from a chaos implies a single regulative intelligence. -And a cosmos each poem might very well be called; -while the ‘embryon atoms’ from which they sprang, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>of legends, stories, myths, and traditions, constituted -scarcely less than an</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in26'>Ocean without bound,</div> - <div class='line'>Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth,</div> - <div class='line'>And time, and place, are lost.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>The Odyssey and the Iliad, however, stand in this -respect by no means on the same footing. In the -former, fundamental unity is obvious; the development -of the plot is logical and continuous; there are -no considerable redundancies, no superfluous adventures, -no oblivious interludes; the sense of progress -towards a purposed end pervades the whole. Careful -scrutiny, it is true, detects, in the details of the -narrative, some few trifling discrepancies; but attempts -to remove them by tampering with the general -plan of its structure lead at once to intolerable anomalies. -So much cannot be said for the Iliad. Here -the component strata are manifestly dislocated, and -some intruded masses can be clearly identified. Thus -the Tenth Book at once detaches itself both in substance -and style from the remaining cantos. It narrates -an adventure wholly disconnected from the -main action unfolded in them, and narrates it with a -coolness and easy fluency very unlike the rush and -glow of genuine Iliadic verse. Few, accordingly, are -the critics who venture to claim the episode, brilliant -and interesting though it be, as an integral part -of the original poem. Yet even when it has been set -aside, things do not go altogether straight. The basis -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>of the story is furnished by the wrath of Achilles and -its direful consequences; but while the hero sulks in -his tent, a good deal of miscellaneous and largely -irrespective fighting proceeds, during which he sinks -out of sight, and is only transiently kept in mind. -Zeus himself is allowed to forget his solemn promise -to Thetis of avenging, through the defeat of the -Greeks, the injury done to her son by Agamemnon; -and the Olympian machinery generally works in an -ill-regulated and haphazard fashion. Moreover, the -embassy of conciliation in the Ninth Book is ignored -later on; while the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth -Books, devoted mainly to the obsequies of Patroclus -and Hector, have by some critics been deemed superfluous, -by others inconsistent with an exordium announcing—as -Pope has it—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The wrath that hurled to Pluto’s gloomy reign</div> - <div class='line'>The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain,</div> - <div class='line'>Whose limbs unburied by the naked shore,</div> - <div class='line'>Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>Through the weight of these objections, Mr. Grote -felt compelled to dissever the Iliad into a primitive -part, which he called the Achilleid, and a mass of accessional -poetry, most likely of diverse origin and -date. And a similar view still prevails. Only that -the Achilleid has been cut down, by further retrenchments, -to the compass of a somewhat prolix -Lay, treating, as its express subject, of the ‘Wrath’ -of Achilles. Dr. Leaf indeed accentuates the separation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>by upholding the probable origin, on opposite -sides of the Ægean, of the nuclear and adventitious -portions of the Epic.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The force of some of the arguments urging to this -analysis cannot be denied, yet there are others, perhaps -of a higher order of importance, which indicate -the former predominance of a partially destroyed -entirety of design through by far the larger portion -of this wonderful prehistoric work. Speaking -broadly, an identical spirit pervades the whole. The -Tenth Book, and a few notoriously interpolated passages, -such as the feeble and futile Theomachy, make -the sole exceptions to this rule of ethical homogeneity. -Elsewhere, from beginning to end, we meet the same -spontaneous fervour of expression, the same magnificent -energy kept in hand like a spirited steed; an -unfailing sense of the splendour of heroic achievement, -and a glowing joy in human existence, tempered -by the heart-thrilling remembrance of its -pathetic mystery of sorrow. This prevalent uniformity -in manner and spirit is certainly unfavourable -to the hypothesis of divided authorship.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The marvellous beauty and power of those sections -of the poem believed to be adventitious is also a -circumstance to be considered. They include many -of its most famous scenes—the parting of Hector and -Andromache, the arming of Athene, the meeting of -Glaucus and Diomed, and the whole vivid interlude -of Diomed’s prowess, the orations in the tent of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>Achilles, the chariot-race, the reception of Priam as -his suppliant by the fierce slayer of his son. To them -exclusively, above all, belongs the personal presentation -of Helen; outside their limits, she has no place -in the Iliad.</p> - -<p class='c015'>These same accretions are not merely magnificent -in themselves, and rich in shining incidents, but they -add incalculably to the general effect of the Epic. -They contribute, in fact, a great part of its dramatic -force and the whole of its moral purport. Without -them it would be a bald and unfinished performance—the -abortive realisation of a sublime conception. -The arming of Agamemnon, for instance, and his -feats of private valour, could never have been designed -as the immediate sequel to the Promise of Zeus; -while they constitute a most fitting climax to the -series of the baffled Greek efforts for victory. They -are admirably prepared for by the stories of the duel -between Menelaus and Paris, of the broken pact, of -the prowess of Diomed, of the nocturnal embassy to -Achilles. Moreover, the irresistible might of Pelides -is brought with tenfold impressiveness on the scene -after the fighting powers of each of the other Achæan -chiefs have been fully displayed, and proved fruitless. -Above all, the Achillean drama itself would -lose its profound significance by the retrenchment of -the Ninth and two closing Books. For it was the -implacability of the ‘swift-footed’ hero that was justly -punished by the calamity of the death of Patroclus; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>and he showed himself implacable only when he -haughtily rejected a formal offer of ample reparation.<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c017'><b>[13]</b></a> -At that point he became culpable; and might only -win revenge at the cost of the acutest anguish of -which his nature was capable. The Ninth Book, in -short, constitutes the ethical crisis of the Iliad; and -the moralising at second-hand, to the innermost core -of its structure, of a work purporting to be already -complete, is certainly a unique, if not an impossible -phenomenon.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f13'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. </span>Mr. A. Lang urges this point with great effect in an article on -‘Homer and the Higher Criticism’ (<i>National Review</i>, Feb. 1892), -published after the present Chapter had been sent to press.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Nor is it easily credible that the ransom of the -body of Hector made no part of its fundamental plan. -Greek feelings of propriety would have been outraged—and -outraged in the most distasteful way—by disregard -of the dying petition of so spotless and disinterested -a champion, albeit of a lost cause, and by the -abandonment of his body as carrion to unclean beasts -and birds. And Achilles, without the elevating traits -of his courtesies in the Games, and his pity for -Priam, would have remained colossal only in brutality, -a blind instrument of fury, an example of the -triumph of ignoble instincts. But such a presentation -of his character could never have been purposed by -the author of the First Iliad. Not of this base stamp -was the hero whom Thetis rose from the sea to comfort. -For even in the first rush of his tremendous passion, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>he still saw the radiant eyes and listened to the voice -of Athene; he did not wholly desert celestial wisdom; -and celestial wisdom could never have suffered the -balance of his stormy soul to be finally overthrown. -But just the needed compensatory touches are supplied -by his noble bearing in the Patroclean celebration, -and far more, by his chivalrous compassion for -the hapless old king of Troy. They could not have -been omitted by a poet of supreme genius—could not, -since the imagination has its logical necessities, among -which may be reckoned that of <i>equilibration</i>. There -is accordingly no possibility of founding a truly great -poem, wholly, or mainly, on the crude brutalities of -actual warfare. Humanity revolts from them in the -long run; and humanity prescribes its laws to art. -The slaughtering rage of Achilles demands a corresponding -height of generosity and depth of pity; it -would else be atrocious. His wrath, in fact, postulates -his tenderness; and hence the great difficulty -in believing that the singer of the First Book failed -to insert the Ninth, or stopped short at the Twenty-second -Book of the Iliad.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The upshot of our little discussion, then, is to assign -both to the Iliad and Odyssey a European origin, -in the pre-Dorian time, when Mycenæ was the political -centre of the Achæan world. Provisionally, they -may be said to date from the eleventh century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> -Moreover, the Odyssey in its essential integrity, and -the Iliad in large part, are each the work of one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>master-mind. The Iliad, none the less, can no longer -be said to present a poem ‘of one projection’; it -shows seams, and junctures, and discrepancies; its -mass has, perhaps, been broken up and awkwardly -pieced together again; it is a building, in fact, which -has suffered extensive restoration.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The further question remains as to the united -or divided authorship of these antique monuments, -regarded as separate wholes. Are they twin-productions, -or did they spring up independently, -favoured by the same prevailing climate, from a -soil similarly prepared? The answer may be left -to the dispassionate judgment of any ordinary, -uncritical reader. Supposing his mind, <i>per impossibile</i>, -a blank on the point, it would certainly not -occur to him to attribute the two poems to a single -individual. They are probably as unlike in style as, -under the circumstances, it was possible for them to -be. A great deal, indeed, belongs to them in common. -They were rooted in the same traditions; -they arose under the same sky and in the same ideal -atmosphere; the inexhaustible storehouse of their -legendary raw material was the same. Strictly analogous -conditions of politics and society are depicted -in them; they were addressed to similarly constituted -audiences; their verses were constructed on the same -rhythmical model. Moreover, the author of one was -familiar with the grand example set him by the other. -Yet the temper and spirit of each are profoundly different. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>In the Iliad, a magnificent ardour prevails; -the singer is aflame with his theme; his words glow; -vivid impressions crowd upon his mind; it takes all -the power of his genius to restrain their riotous audacity -and marshal them into orderly succession. The -author of the Odyssey, on the other hand, is in no -danger of being swept away by the impetuosity of his -thoughts. He is always collected and at leisure; he -has even <i>esprit</i>, which implies a low mental temperature; -he can stand by with a smile, and look on, -while his characters unfold themselves; his passion -never blazes; it is smouldering and sustained, like -that of his protagonist.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Numerous small discrepancies, besides, seem to -betray a personal diversity of origin. So Iris, the -frequent, indeed the all but invariable messenger of -the gods in the Iliad, drops into oblivion in the Odyssey, -and is replaced by Hermes; Charis is the wife of -Hephæstus in the Iliad, Aphrodite in the Odyssey; -Neleus has twelve sons in the Iliad, three in the -Odyssey; Pylos is a district in the Iliad, a town in -the Odyssey; the oracle of the Dodonæan Zeus is -located in Thessaly in the Iliad, in Epirus in the -Odyssey, and so on.<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c017'><b>[14]</b></a> The Odyssey, moreover, is obviously -junior to the Iliad. It gives evidence of an -appreciable development of the arts of life relatively -to their state in the rival poem; the processes of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>verbal contraction have advanced in the interval; the -ethical standard has become more refined; while formulaic -and other expressions common to both are -unmistakably ‘in place,’ as geologists say, in the -Iliad, ‘erratic,’ or ‘transported,’ in the Odyssey.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f14'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. </span>See an article on the ‘Doctrine of the Chorizontes,’ in the -<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, vol. 133.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>A difference in the place of origin, perhaps, helps -to accentuate the effect due to a difference of time. -The thread of tradition regarding these extraordinary -works is indeed hopelessly broken. Their prehistoric -existence is divided from their historical visibility by -the chasm opened when the civilisation of which they -were the choicest flowers was subverted by the irrepressible -Dorians. The Iliad, however, contains -strong internal evidence of owning Thessaly as its -native region. The vast pre-eminence of the local -hero, the Olympian seat of the gods, the partiality -displayed for the horse, intimacy with Thessalian -traditions and topography, all suggest the relationship. -The name of Thessaly, it is true, does not -occur either in the Iliad or in the Odyssey; nor had -the semi-barbarous Thessalians, when they were composed, -as yet crossed the mountains from Thesprotia -to trample down the Achæan culture of the land of -Achilles. It thus became, after Homer’s time, the -scene of a revolution analogous in every respect to -that which overwhelmed the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homer of the Odyssey, who was not improbably -of Peloponnesian birth, must have travelled -widely. He had undeniably some personal acquaintance -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>with Ithaca, his topographical indications, apart -from the gross blunder of planting the little island -west, instead of east of Cephalonia, corresponding on -the whole quite closely with reality. And he knew -something besides of most parts of the mainland of -Greece, of Crete, Delos, Chios, and the Ionian coast -of Asia Minor. The experience of the Iliadic bard -was doubtless somewhat, though not greatly, more -limited. Its range extended, at any rate, from -‘Pelasgic Argos’ to the Troad, familiarity with which -is shown in all sections of the Trojan epic. The cosmopolitan -character of both poets is only indeed what -might have been expected. The privileged members -of an Achæan community must have enjoyed wide -opportunities of observation. For Mycenæan culture -was strongly eclectic. Elements from many -quarters were amalgamated in it, Asiatic influences, -however, predominating. The men of genius who -acted as the interpreters of its typical ideas would -hence have been unfit for their task unless they had -personally tried and proved all such elements and -influences. They were presumably to some extent -adventurers by sea and land. But, further than this, -their individuality remains shrouded in the impenetrable -veil of their silence.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span> - <h2 id='ch02' class='c010'>CHAPTER II.<br /> <br />HOMERIC ASTRONOMY.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>The</span> Homeric ideas regarding the heavenly bodies -were of the simplest description. They stood, in fact, -very much on the same level with those entertained -by the North American Indians, when first brought -into European contact. What knowledge there was -in them was of that ‘broken’ kind which (in Bacon’s -phrase) is made up of wonder. Fragments of observation -had not even begun to be pieced in one with -the other, and so fitted, ill or well, into a whole. In -other words, there was no faintest dawning of a celestial -science.</p> - -<p class='c015'>But surely, it may be urged, a poet is not bound -to be an astronomer. Why should it be assumed -that the author (or authors) of the Iliad and Odyssey -possessed information co-extensive on all points -with that of his fellow-countrymen? His profession -was not science, but song. The argument, however, -implies a reflecting backward of the present upon the -past. Among unsophisticated peoples, specialists, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>unless in the matter of drugs or spells, or some few -practical processes, do not exist. The scanty stock -of gathered knowledge is held, it might be said, -in common. The property of one is the property -of all.</p> - -<p class='c015'>More especially of the poet. His power over his -hearers depends upon his presenting vividly what they -already perceive dimly. It was part of the poetical -faculty of the Ithacan bard Phemius that he ‘knew -the works of gods and men.’<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c017'><b>[15]</b></a> His special function -was to render them famous by his song. What he -had heard concerning them he repeated; adding, of -his own, the marshalling skill, the vital touch, by -which they were perpetuated. He was no inventor: -the actual life of men, with its transfiguring traditions -and baffled aspirations, was the material he had to -work with. But the life of men was very different -then from what it is now. It was lived in closer -contact with Nature; it was simpler, more typical, -consequently more susceptible of artistic treatment.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f15'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, i. 338.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It was accordingly looked at and portrayed as a -whole; and it is this very <i>wholeness</i> which is one of -the principal charms of primitive poetry—an irrecoverable -charm; for civilisation renders existence a -labyrinth of which it too often rejects the clue. In -olden times, however, its ways were comparatively -straight, and its range limited. It was accordingly -capable of being embraced with approximate entirety. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>Hence the encyclopædic character of the early epics. -<i>Humani nihil alienum.</i> Whatever men thought, -and knew, and did, in that morning of the world -when they spontaneously arose, found a place in -them.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Now, some scheme of the heavens must always -accompany and guide human existence. There is -literally no choice for man but to observe the movements, -real or apparent, of celestial objects, and to -regulate his actions by the measure of time they mete -out to him. Nor had he at first any other means of -directing his wanderings upon the earth save by -regarding theirs in the sky. They are thus to him -standards of reference and measurement as regards -both the fundamental conditions of his being—time -and space.</p> - -<p class='c015'>This intimate connexion, and, still more, the idealising -influence of the remote and populous skies, has -not been lost upon the poets in any age. It might -even be possible to construct a tolerably accurate -outline-sketch of the history of astronomy in Europe -without travelling outside the limits of their works. -But our present concern is with Homer.</p> - -<p class='c015'>To begin with his mode of reckoning time. This -was by years, months, days, and hours.<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c017'><b>[16]</b></a> The week -of seven days was unknown to him; but in its place -we find<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c017'><b>[17]</b></a> the triplicate division of the month used by -Hesiod and the later Attics, implying a month of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>thirty, and a year of 360 days, corrected, doubtless, -by some rude process of intercalation. These ten-day -intervals were perhaps borrowed at an early stage of -Achæan civilisation from Egypt, where they correspond -to the Chaldean ‘decans’—thirty-six minor -astral divinities presiding over as many sections of -the Zodiac.<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c017'><b>[18]</b></a> But no knowledge of the Signs accompanied -the transfer. A similar apportionment of -the hours of night into three watches (as amongst the -Jews before the Captivity), and of the hours of day -into three periods or stages, prevails in both the -Iliad and Odyssey. The seasons of the year, too, -were three—spring, summer, and winter—like those -of the ancient Egyptians and of our Anglo-Saxon -forefathers;<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c017'><b>[19]</b></a> for the Homeric <i>Opora</i> was not, properly -speaking, an autumnal season, but merely an aggravation -of summer heat and drought, heralded by the -rising of Sirius towards the close of July. It, in fact, -strictly matched our ‘dog-days,’ the <i>dies caniculares</i> -of the Romans. The first direct mention of autumn -is in a treatise of the time of Alcibiades ascribed to -Hippocrates.<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c017'><b>[20]</b></a> This rising of the dog-star is the only -indication in the Homeric poems of the use of a -stellar calendar such as we meet full-grown in Hesiod’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>Works and Days. The same event was the harbinger -of the Nile-flood to the Egyptians, serving to -mark the opening of their year as well as to correct -the estimates of its length.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f16'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, x. 469; xi. 294.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f17'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xix. 307.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f18'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. </span>Brugsch, <i>Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft</i>, -Bd. ix. p. 513.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f19'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. </span>Lewis, <i>Astronomy of the Ancients</i>, p. 11. Tacitus says of the -Germans, ‘Autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur’ (<i>Germania</i>, -cap. xxvi.)</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f20'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. </span>Smith’s <i>Dictionary of Antiquities</i>, article ‘Astronomy.’</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The annual risings of stars had formerly, in the -absence of more accurate means of observation, an -importance they no longer possess. Mariners and -husbandmen, accustomed to watch, because at the -mercy of the heavens, could hardly fail no less to be -struck with the successive effacements by, and re-emergences -from, the solar beams, of certain well-known -stars, as the sun pursued his yearly course -amongst them, than to note the epochs of such events. -Four stages in these periodical fluctuations of visibility -were especially marked by primitive observers. -The first perceptible appearance of a star in the dawn -was known as its ‘heliacal rising.’ This brief glimpse -extended gradually as the star increased its seeming -distance from the sun, the interval of precedence in -rising lengthening by nearly four minutes each morning. -At the end of close upon six months occurred -its ‘acronycal rising,’ or last visible ascent from the -eastern horizon after sunset. Its conspicuousness -was then at the maximum, the whole of the dark -hours being available for its shining. To these two -epochs of rising succeeded and corresponded two -epochs of setting—the ‘cosmical’ and the ‘heliacal.’ -A star set cosmically when, for the first time each -year, it reached the horizon long enough before break -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>of day to be still distinguishable; it set heliacally -on the last evening when its rays still detached -themselves from the background of illuminated -western sky, before getting finally immersed in twilight. -The round began again when the star had -arrived sufficiently far on the other side of the sun -to show in the morning—in other words, to rise -heliacally.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Wide plains and clear skies gave opportunities for -closely and continually observing these successive -moments in the revolving relations of sun and stars, -which were soon found to afford a very accurate index -to the changes of the seasons. By them, for the most -part, Hesiod’s prescriptions for navigation and agriculture -are timed; and although Homer, in conformity -with the nature of his subject, is less precise, he was -still fully aware of the association.</p> - -<p class='c015'>His sun is a god—Helios—as yet unidentified with -Apollo, who wears his solar attributes unconsciously. -Helios is also known as Hyperion, ‘he who walks on -high,’ and Elector, ‘the shining one.’ Voluntarily -he pursues his daily course in the sky, and voluntarily -he sinks to rest in the ocean-stream—subject, however, -at times to a higher compulsion; for, just after -the rescue of the body of Patroclus, Heré favours her -Achæan clients by precipitating at a critical juncture -the descent of a still unwearied and unwilling luminary.<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c017'><b>[21]</b></a> -On another occasion, however, Helios memorably -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>asserts his independence, when, incensed at the -slaughter of his sacred cattle by the self-doomed companions -of Ulysses, he threatens to ‘descend into -Hades, and shine among the dead.’<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c017'><b>[22]</b></a> And Zeus, in -promising the required satisfaction, virtually admits -his power to abdicate his office as illuminator of gods -and men.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f21'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xviii, 239.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f22'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xii. 383.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Once only, the solstice is alluded to in Homeric -verse. The swineherd Eumæus, in describing the -situation of his native place, the Island of Syriê, states -that it is over against Ortygia (Delos), ‘where are the -turning-places of the sun.’<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c017'><b>[23]</b></a> The phrase was probably -meant to indicate that Delos lay just so much -south of east from Ithaca as the sun lies at rising on -the shortest day of winter. But it must be confessed -that the direction was not thus very accurately laid -down, the comprised angle being 15⅓°, instead of -23½°.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c017'><b>[24]</b></a> To those early students of nature, the travelling -to and fro of the points of sunrise and sunset -furnished the most obvious clue to the yearly solar -revolution; so that an expression, to us somewhat -recondite, conveyed a direct and unmistakable meaning -to hearers whose narrow acquaintance with the -phenomena of the heavens was vivified by immediate -personal experience of them. And in point of fact, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>the idea in question is precisely that conveyed by the -word ‘tropic.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f23'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xv. 404.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f24'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. </span>Sir W. Geddes believes that the solstitial place of the setting -sun, as viewed from the Ionic coast, is that used to define the position -of Ortygia.—<i>Problem of the Homeric Poems</i>, p. 294.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Selene first takes rank as a divine personage in -the pseudo-Homeric Hymns. No moon-goddess is -recognised in the Iliad or Odyssey. Nor does the -orbed ruler of ‘ambrosial night,’ regarded as a mere -light-giver or time-measurer, receive all the attention -that might have been expected. A full moon is, however, -represented with the other ‘heavenly signs’ on -the shield of Achilles, and figures somewhat superfluously -in the magnificent passage where the Trojan -watch-fires are compared to the stars in a cloudless -sky:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As when in heaven the stars about the moon</div> - <div class='line'>Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid,</div> - <div class='line'>And every height comes out, and jutting peak</div> - <div class='line'>And valley, and the immeasurable heavens</div> - <div class='line'>Break open to their highest, and all the stars</div> - <div class='line'>Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart:</div> - <div class='line'>So many a fire between the ships and stream</div> - <div class='line'>Of Xanthus blazed before the towers of Troy,</div> - <div class='line'>A thousand on the plain; and close by each</div> - <div class='line'>Sat fifty in the blaze of burning fire;</div> - <div class='line'>And eating hoary grain and pulse, the steeds,</div> - <div class='line'>Fixt by their cars, waited the golden dawn.<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c017'><b>[25]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f25'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, viii. 551-61 (Tennyson’s translation).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Here, as elsewhere, the simile no sooner presents -itself than the poet’s imagination seizes upon and -develops it without overmuch regard to the illustrative -fitness of its details. The multitudinous effect of a -thousand fires blazing together on the plain inevitably -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>suggested the stars. But with the stars came the -complete nocturnal scene in its profound and breathless -tranquillity. The ‘rejoicing shepherd,’ meantime, -who was part of it, would have been ill-pleased -with the darkness required for the innumerable stellar -display first thought of. And since, to the untutored -sense, landscape is delightful only so far as it gives -promise of utility, brilliant moonlight was added, for -his satisfaction and the safety of his flock, as well as -for the perfecting of that scenic beauty felt to be deficient -where human needs were left uncared for. -Just in proportion, however, as rocks, and peaks, and -wooded glens appeared distinct, the lesser lights of -heaven, and with them the fundamental idea of the -comparison, must have become effaced; and the poet, -accordingly, as if with a misgiving that the fervour of -his fancy had led him to stray from the rigid line of -his purpose, volunteered the assurance that ‘all the -stars were visible’—as, to his mind’s eye, they -doubtless were.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Of the ‘vivid planets’ thrown in by Pope there is -no more trace in the original, than of the ‘glowing -pole.’ Nor could there be; since Homer was totally -ignorant that such a class of bodies existed. This -curious fact affords (if it were needed) conclusive -proof of the high antiquity of the Homeric poems. -Not the faintest suspicion manifests itself in them -that Hesperus, ‘fairest of all stars set in heaven,’ is -but another aspect of Phosphorus, herald of light -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>upon the earth, ‘the star that saffron-mantled Dawn -cometh after, and spreadeth over the salt sea.’<a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c017'><b>[26]</b></a> The -identification is said by Diogenes Laertius to have -been first made by Pythagoras; and it may at any -rate be assumed with some confidence that this -elementary piece of astronomical knowledge came to -the Greeks from the East, with others of a like nature, -in the course of the seventh or sixth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> -Astonishing as it seems that they should not have -made the discovery for themselves, there is no evidence -that they did so. Hesiod appears equally unconscious -with Homer of the distinction between -‘fixed’ and ‘wandering’ stars. According to his -genealogical information, Phosphorus, like the rest -of the stellar multitude, sprang from the union of -Astræus with the Dawn,<a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c017'><b>[27]</b></a> but no hint is given of any -generic difference between them.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f26'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 226-27.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f27'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. </span><i>Theogony</i>, 381.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>There is a single passage in the Iliad, and a -parallel one in the Odyssey, in which the constellations -are formally enumerated by name. Hephæstus, -we are told, made for the son of Thetis a shield great -and strong, whereon, by his exceeding skill, a multitude -of objects were figured.</p> - -<p class='c015'>‘There wrought he the earth, and the heavens, -and the sea, and the unwearying sun, and the moon -waxing to the full, and the signs every one wherewith -the heavens are crowned, Pleiads, and Hyads, and -Orion’s might, and the Bear that men call also the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>Wain, her that turneth in her place, and watcheth -Orion, and alone hath no part in the baths of -Ocean.’<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c017'><b>[28]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f28'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xviii. 483-89.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The corresponding lines in the Odyssey occur in -the course of describing the hero’s voyage from the -isle of Calypso to the land of the Phæacians. Alone, -on the raft he had constructed of Ogygian pine-wood, -he sat during seventeen days, ‘and cunningly guided -the craft with the helm; nor did sleep fall upon his -eyelids, as he viewed the Pleiads and Boötes, that -setteth late, and the Bear, which they likewise call -the Wain, which turneth ever in one place, and keepeth -watch upon Orion, and alone hath no part in the -baths of Ocean.’<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c017'><b>[29]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f29'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, v. 271-75.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The sailing-directions of the goddess were to keep -the Bear always on the left—that is, to steer due -east.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It is clear that one of these passages is an adaptation -from the other; nor is there reason for hesitation -in deciding which was the model. Independently of -extrinsic evidence, the verses in the Iliad have the -strong spontaneous ring of originality, while the -Odyssean lines betray excision and interpolation. -The ‘Hyads and Orion’s might’ are suppressed for -the sake of introducing Boötes. Variety was doubtless -aimed at in the change; and the conjecture is at -least a plausible one, that the added constellation -may have been known to the poet of the Odyssey -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>(admitting the hypothesis of a divided authorship), -though not to the poet of the Iliad—known, that -is, in the sense that the stars comprising the figure of -the celestial Husbandman had not yet, at the time -and place of origin of the Iliad, become separated -from the anonymous throng circling in the ‘murk of -night.’</p> - -<p class='c015'>The constellation Boötes—called ‘late-setting,’ -probably from the perpendicular position in which it -descends below the horizon—was invented to drive -the Wain, as Arctophylax to guard the Bear, the same -group in each case going by a double name. For the -brightest of the stars thus designated we still preserve -the appellation Arcturus (from <i>arktos</i>, bear, -<i>oûros</i>, guardian), first used by Hesiod, who fixed upon -its acronycal rising, sixty days after the winter -solstice, as the signal for pruning the vines.<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c017'><b>[30]</b></a> It is -not unlikely that the star received its name long -before the constellation was thought of, forming the -nucleus of a subsequently formed group. This was -undoubtedly the course of events elsewhere; the Great -and Little Dogs, for instance, the Twins, and the -Eagle (the last with two minute companions) having -been individualised as stars previous to their recognition -as asterisms.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f30'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. </span><i>Works and Days</i>, 564-70.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>There is reason to believe that the stars -enumerated in the Iliad and Odyssey constituted -the whole of those known by name to the early Greeks. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>This view is strongly favoured by the identity of the -Homeric and Hesiodic stars. It is difficult to believe -that, had there been room for choice, the same list -<i>precisely</i> would have been picked out for presentation -in poems so widely diverse in scope and origin as the -Iliad and Odyssey on the one side, and the -Works and Days on the other. As regards the -polar constellations, we have positive proof that none -besides Ursa Major had been distinguished. For the -statement repeated in both the Homeric epics, that -the Bear <i>alone</i> was without part in the baths of -Ocean, implies, not that the poet veritably ignored -the unnumbered stars revolving within the circle -traced out round the pole by the seven of the Plough, -but that they still remained a nameless crowd, unassociated -with any terrestrial object, and therefore -attracting no popular observation.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Greeks, according to a well-attested tradition, -made acquaintance with the Lesser Bear through -Phœnician communication, of which Thales was the -medium. Hence the designation of the group as -<i>Phoinike</i>. Aratus (who versified the prose of Eudoxus) -has accordingly two Bears, lying (in sailors’ phrase) -‘heads and points’ on the sphere; while he expressly -states that the Greeks still (about 270 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>) continued -to steer by <i>Helike</i> (the Twister, Ursa Major), while -the expert Phœnicians directed their course by the -less mobile <i>Kynosoura</i> (Ursa Minor). The absence -of any mention of a Pole-star seems at first sight surprising. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Even the Iroquois Indians directed their -wanderings from of old by the one celestial luminary -of which the position remained sensibly invariable.<a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c017'><b>[31]</b></a> -Yet not the gods themselves, in Homer’s time, were -aware of such a guide. It must be remembered, -however, that the axis of the earth’s rotation pointed, -2800 years ago, towards a considerably different part -of the heavens from that now met by its imaginary -prolongation. The precession of the equinoxes -has been at work in the interval, slowly but unremittingly -shifting the situation of this point among -the stars. Some 600 years before the Great Pyramid -was built, it was marked by the close vicinity -of the brightest star in the Dragon. But this in -the course of ages was left behind by the onward-travelling -pole, and further ages elapsed before the -star at the tip of the Little Bear’s tail approached -its present position. Thus the entire millennium -before the Christian era may count for an interregnum -as regards Pole-stars. Alpha Draconis had -ceased to exercise that office; Alruccabah had not yet -assumed it.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f31'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. </span>Lafitau, <i>Mœurs des Sauvages Américains</i>, p. 240.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The most ancient of all the constellations is -probably that which Homer distinguishes as never-setting -(it then lay much nearer to the pole than it -now does). In his time, as in ours, it went by two -appellations—the Bear and the Wain. Homer’s Bear, -however, included the same seven bright stars constituting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>the Wain, and no more; whereas our Great -Bear stretches over a sky-space of which the Wain is -only a small part, three of the striding monster’s far-apart -paws being marked by the three pairs of stars -known to the Arabs as the ‘gazelle’s springs.’ How -this extension came about, we can only conjecture; -but there is evidence that it was fairly well established -when Aratus wrote his description of the constellations. -Aratus, however, copied Eudoxus, and Eudoxus -used observations made—doubtless by Accad -or Chaldean astrologers—above 2000 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r32' /><a href='#f32' class='c017'><b>[32]</b></a> We infer, -then, that the Babylonian Bear was no other than the -modern Ursa Major.<a id='r33' /><a href='#f33' class='c017'><b>[33]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f32'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. </span>According to Mr. Proctor’s calculation. See R. Brown, <i>Eridanus: -River and Constellation</i>, p. 3.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f33'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. </span>See Houghton, <i>Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch.</i> vol. v. p. 333.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>But the primitive asterism—the Seven Rishis of -the old Hindus, the Septem Triones of the Latins, -the Arktos of Homer—included no more than seven -stars. And this is important as regards the origin of -the name. For it is impossible to suppose a likeness -to any animal suggested by the more restricted group. -Scarcely the acquiescent fancy of Polonius could find -it ‘backed like a weasel,’ or ‘very like a whale.’ Yet -a weasel or a whale would match the figure equally -well with, or better than, a bear. Probably the -growing sense of incongruity between the name and -the object it signified may have induced the attempt -to soften it down by gathering a number of additional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>stars into a group presenting a distant resemblance to -a four-legged monster.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The name of the Bear, this initial difficulty notwithstanding, -is prehistoric and quasi-universal. It -was traditional amongst the American-Indian tribes, -who, however, sensible of the absurdity of attributing -a conspicuous protruding tail to an animal almost -destitute of such an appendage, turned the three -stars composing it into three pursuing hunters. No -such difficulty, however, presented itself to the -Aztecs. They recognised in the seven ‘Arctic’ stars -the image of a Scorpion,<a id='r34' /><a href='#f34' class='c017'><b>[34]</b></a> and named them accordingly. -No Bear seems to have bestridden their -sky.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f34'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. </span>Bollaert, <i>Memoirs Anthrop. Society</i>, vol. i. p. 216.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The same constellation figures, under a divinified -aspect, with the title <i>Otawa</i>, in the great Finnish epic, -the ‘Kalevala.’ Now, although there is no certainty -as to the original meaning of this word, which has no -longer a current application to any terrestrial object, -it is impossible not to be struck with its resemblance -to the Iroquois term <i>Okowari</i>, signifying ‘bear,’ both -zoologically and astronomically.<a id='r35' /><a href='#f35' class='c017'><b>[35]</b></a> The inference seems -justified that <i>Otawa</i> held the same two meanings, and -that the Finns knew the great northern constellation -by the name of the old Teutonic king of beasts.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f35'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. </span>Lafitau, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 236.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It was (as we have seen) similarly designated on -the banks of the Euphrates; and a celestial she-bear, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>doubtfully referred to in the Rig-Veda, becomes the -starting-point of an explanatory legend in the Râmâyana.<a id='r36' /><a href='#f36' class='c017'><b>[36]</b></a> -Thus, circling the globe from the valley of -the Ganges to the great lakes of the New World, we -find ourselves confronted with the same sign in the -northern skies, the relic of some primeval association -of ideas, long since extinct.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f36'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. </span>Gubernatis, <i>Zoological Mythology</i>, vol. ii. p. 109.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Extinct even in Homer’s time. For the myth of -Callisto (first recorded in a lost work by Hesiod) was -a subsequent invention—an effect, not a cause—a -mere embroidery of Hellenic fancy over a linguistic -fact, the true origin of which was lost in the mists of -antiquity.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There is, on the other hand, no difficulty in understanding -how the Seven Stars obtained their second -title of the Wain, or Plough, or Bier. Here we have -a plain case of imitative name-giving—a suggestion -by resemblance almost as direct as that which established -in our skies a Triangle and a Northern Crown. -Curiously enough, the individual appellations still -current for the stars of the Plough, include a reminiscence -of each system of nomenclature—the legendary -and the imitative. The brightest of the seven, <i>α</i> Ursæ -Majoris, the Pointer nearest the Pole, is designated -<i>Dubhe</i>, signifying, in Arabic, ‘bear’; while the title -<i>Benetnasch</i>—equivalent to <i>Benât-en-Nasch</i>, ‘daughters -of the bier’—of the furthest star in the plough-handle, -perpetuates the lugubrious fancy, native in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>Arabia, by which the group figures as a corpse attended -by three mourners.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Turning to the second great constellation mentioned -in both Homeric epics, we again meet traces of -remote and unconscious tradition: yet less remote, -probably, than that concerned with the Bear—certainly -less inscrutable; for recent inquiries into the -lore and language of ancient Babylon have thrown -much light on the relationships of the Orion fable.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There seems no reason to question the validity of -Mr. Robert Brown’s interpretation of the word by the -Accadian <i>Ur-ana</i>, ‘light of heaven.’<a id='r37' /><a href='#f37' class='c017'><b>[37]</b></a> But a proper -name is significant only where it originates. Moreover, -it is considered certain that the same brilliant -star-group known to Homer no less than to us as -Orion, was termed by Chaldeo-Assyrian peoples -‘Tammuz,’<a id='r38' /><a href='#f38' class='c017'><b>[38]</b></a> a synonym of Adonis. Nor is it difficult -to divine how the association came to be established. -For, about 2000 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, when the Euphratean constellations -assumed their definitive forms, the belt of -Orion began to be visible before dawn in the month -of June, called ‘Tammuz,’ because the death of -Adonis was then celebrated. It is even conceivable -that the heliacal rising of the asterism may originally -have given the signal for that celebration. We -can at any rate scarcely doubt that it received the -name of ‘Tammuz’ because its annual emergence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>from the solar beams coincided with the period of -mystical mourning for the vernal sun.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f37'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. </span><i>Myth of Kirke</i>, p. 146.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f38'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. </span>Lenormant, <i>Origines de l’Histoire</i>, t. 1. p. 247.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Orion, too, has solar connexions. In the Fifth -Odyssey (121-24), Calypso relates to Hermes how the -love for him of Aurora excited the jealousy of the -gods, extinguished only when he fell a victim to it, -slain by the shafts of Artemis in Ortygia. Obviously, -a sun-and-dawn myth slightly modified from the common -type. The post-Homeric stories, too, of his -relations with Œnopion of Chios, and of his death by -the bite of a scorpion (emblematical of darkness, like -the boar’s tusk in the Adonis legend), confirm his -position as a luminous hero.<a id='r39' /><a href='#f39' class='c017'><b>[39]</b></a> Altogether, the evidence -is strongly in favour of considering Orion as a variant -of Adonis, imported into Greece from the East at an -early date, and there associated with the identical -group of stars which commemorated to the Accads of -old the fate of Dumuzi (<i>i.e.</i> Tammuz), the ‘Only Son -of Heaven.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f39'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. </span>R. Brown, <i>Archælogia</i>, vol. xlvii. p. 352; <i>Great Dionysiak -Myth</i>, chap. x. § v.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It is remarkable that Homer knows nothing of -stellar mythology. He nowhere attempts to account -for the names of the stars. He has no stories at his -fingers’ ends of translations to the sky as a ready -means of exit from terrestrial difficulties. The Orion -of his acquaintance—the beloved of the Dawn, the -mighty hunter, surpassing in beauty of person even -the divinely-born Aloidæ—died and descended to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>Hades like other mortals, and was there seen by -Ulysses, a gigantic shadow ‘driving the wild beasts -together over the mead of asphodel, the very beasts -which he himself had slain on the lonely hills, with -a strong mace all of bronze in his hand, that is -ever unbroken.’<a id='r40' /><a href='#f40' class='c017'><b>[40]</b></a> His stellar connexion is treated as -a fact apart. The poet does not appear to feel any -need of bringing it into harmony with the Odyssean -vision.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f40'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xi. 572-75.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The brightest star in the heavens is termed by -Homer the ‘dog of Orion.’ The name <i>Seirios</i> (significant -of sparkling), makes its <i>début</i> in the verses of -Hesiod. To the singer of the Iliad the dog-star is -a sign of fear, its rising giving presage to ‘wretched -mortals’ of the intolerable, feverish blaze of late -summer (<i>opora</i>). The deadly gleam of its rays hence -served the more appropriately to exemplify the lustre -of havoc-dealing weapons. Diomed, Hector, Achilles, -‘all furnish’d, all in arms,’ are compared in turn, by -way of prelude to an ‘<i>aristeia</i>,’ or culminating epoch -of distinction in battle, to the same brilliant but baleful -object. Glimmering fitfully across clouds, it not -inaptly typifies the evanescent light of the Trojan -hero’s fortunes, no less than the flashing of his -armour, as he moves restlessly to and fro.<a id='r41' /><a href='#f41' class='c017'><b>[41]</b></a> Of Achilles -it is said:</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f41'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 62-66.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>Him the old man Priam first beheld, as he sped across the -plain, blazing as the star that cometh forth at harvest-time, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>plain seen his rays shine forth amid the host of stars in the -darkness of night, the star whose name men call Orion’s Dog. -Brightest of all is he, yet for an evil sign is he set, and bringeth -much fever upon hapless men. Even so on Achilles’ breast the -bronze gleamed as he ran.<a id='r42' /><a href='#f42' class='c017'><b>[42]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f42'> -<p class='c023'><span class='label'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxii. 25-32.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>In the corresponding passage relating to Diomed -(v. 4-7), the <i>naïve</i> literalness with which the ‘baths -of Ocean’ are thought of is conveyed by the hint -that the star shone at rising with increased brilliancy -through having newly washed in them.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Abnormal celestial appearances are scarcely noticed -in the Homeric poems. Certain portentous darknesses, -reinforcing the solemnity of crises of battle, or impending -doom,<a id='r43' /><a href='#f43' class='c017'><b>[43]</b></a> are much too vaguely defined to be -treated as indexes to natural phenomena of any kind. -Nevertheless, Professor Stockwell finds that, by a -curious coincidence, Ajax’s Prayer to Father Zeus for -death—if death was decreed—in the light, might very -well have been uttered during a total eclipse of the -sun, the lunar shadow having passed centrally over -the Hellespont at 2h. 21 min. <span class='fss'>P.M.</span> on August 28, 1184 -<span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r44' /><a href='#f44' class='c017'><b>[44]</b></a> Comets, however, have left not even the suspicion -of a trace in these early songs; nor do they embody -any tradition of a star shower, or of a display -of Northern Lights. The rain of blood, by which -Zeus presaged and celebrated the death of Sarpedon,<a id='r45' /><a href='#f45' class='c017'><b>[45]</b></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>might, it is true, be thought to embody a reminiscence -of a crimson aurora, frequently, in early times, chronicled -under that form; but the portent indicated is -more probably an actual shower of rain tinged red by -a microscopic alga. An unmistakable meteor, however, -furnishes one of the glowing similes of the -Iliad. By its help the irresistible swiftness and unexpectedness -of Athene’s descent from Olympus to -the Scamandrian plain are illustrated.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f43'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xv. 668; xvii. 366; <i>Odyssey</i>, xx. 356.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f44'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. </span><i>Astronomical Journal</i>, Nos. 220, 221.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f45'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 459; also xi. 53.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>Even as the son of Kronos the crooked counsellor sendeth a -star, a portent for mariners or a wide host of men, bright shining, -and therefrom are scattered sparks in multitude; even in -such guise sped Pallas Athene to earth, and leapt into their -midst.<a id='r46' /><a href='#f46' class='c017'><b>[46]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f46'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, iv. 75-79.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the Homeric verses the Milky Way—the ‘path -of souls’ of prairie-roving Indians, the mediæval -‘way of pilgrimage’<a id='r47' /><a href='#f47' class='c017'><b>[47]</b></a>—finds no place. Yet its conspicuousness, -as seen across our misty air, gives an -imperfect idea of the lustre with which it spans the -translucent vault which drew the wondering gaze of -the Achæan bard.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f47'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. </span>To Compostella. The popular German name for the Milky -Way is still <i>Jakobsstrasse</i>, while the three stars of Orion’s belt are -designated, in the same connexion, <i>Jakobsstab</i>, staff of St James.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The point of most significance about Homer’s -scanty astronomical notions is that they were of home -growth. They are precisely such as would arise -among a people in an incipient stage of civilisation, -simple, direct, and childlike in their mode of regarding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>natural phenomena, yet incapable of founding -upon them any close or connected reasoning. Of -Oriental mysticism there is not a vestige. No occult -influences rain from the sky. Not so much as a -square inch of foundation is laid for the astrological -superstructure. It is true that Sirius is a ‘baleful -star’; but it is in the sense of being a harbinger of -hot weather. Possibly, or probably, it is regarded -as a concomitant cause, no less than as a sign of -the August droughts; indeed the <i>post hoc</i> and the -<i>propter hoc</i> were, in those ages, not easily separable; -the effect, however, in any case, was purely -physical, and so unfit to become the starting-point of -a superstition.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric names of the stars, too, betray common -reminiscences rather than foreign intercourse. -They are all either native, or naturalised on Greek -soil. The transplanted fable of Orion has taken root -and flourished there. The cosmopolitan Bear is -known by her familiar Greek name. Boötes is a -Greek husbandman, variously identified with Arcas, -son of Callisto, or with Icarus, the luckless mandatory -of Dionysus. The Pleiades and the Hyades are -intelligibly designated in Greek. The former word is -usually derived from <i>pleîn</i>, to sail; the heliacal rising -of the ‘tangled’ stars in the middle of May having -served, from the time of Hesiod, to mark the opening -of the season safe for navigation, and their cosmical -setting, at the end of October, its close. But this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>etymology was most likely an after-thought. Long -before rules for navigating the Ægean came to be -formulated, the ‘sailing-stars’ must have been designated -by name amongst the Achæan tribes. Besides, -Homer is ignorant of any such association. Now in -Arabic the Pleiades are called <i>Eth Thuraiyâ</i>, from -<i>therwa</i>, copious, abundant. The meaning conveyed is -that of many gathered into a small space; and it is -quite similar to that of the Biblical <i>kîmah</i>, a near -connexion of the Assyrian <i>kimtu</i>, family.<a id='r48' /><a href='#f48' class='c017'><b>[48]</b></a> Analogy, -then, almost irresistibly points to the interpretation -of Pleiades by the Greek <i>pleiones</i>, many, or <i>pleîos</i>, -full; giving to the term, in either case, the obvious -signification of a ‘cluster.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f48'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. </span>R. Brown, <i>Phainomena of Aratus</i>, p. 9; Delitzsch, <i>The Hebrew -Language</i>, p. 69.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Of the Hyades, similarly, the ‘rainy’ association -seems somewhat far-fetched. They rise and set respectively -about four days later than the Pleiades; so -that, as prognostics of the seasons, it would be difficult -to draw a permanent distinction between the two -groups; yet one was traditionally held to bring fair, -the other foul weather. There can be little doubt -that an etymological confusion lay at the bottom of -this inconsistency. ‘To rain,’ in Greek is <i>huein</i>; but -<i>hus</i> (cognate with ‘sow’) means a ‘pig.’ Moreover, -in old Latin, the Hyades were called <i>Suculæ</i> (‘little -pigs’); although the misapprehension which he supposed -to be betrayed by the term was rebuked by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>Cicero.<a id='r49' /><a href='#f49' class='c017'><b>[49]</b></a> Possibly the misapprehension was the other -way. It is quite likely that ‘Suculæ’ preserved the -original meaning of ‘Hyades,’ and that the pluvious -derivation was invented at a later time, when the -conception of the seven stars in the head of the Bull -as a ‘litter of pigs’ had come to appear incongruous -and inelegant. It has, nevertheless, just that character -of <i>naïveté</i> which stamps it as authentic. Witness -the popular names of the sister-group—the widely-diffused -‘hen and chickens,’ Sancho Panza’s ‘las -siete cabrillas,’ met and discoursed with during -his famous aërial voyage on the back of Clavileño, -the Sicilian ‘seven dovelets,’—all designating the -Pleiades. Still more to the purpose is the Anglo-Saxon -‘boar-throng,’ which, by a haphazard identification, -has been translated as Orion, but which -Grimm, on better grounds, suggests may really apply -to the Hyades.<a id='r50' /><a href='#f50' class='c017'><b>[50]</b></a> It is scarcely credible that any other -constellation can be indicated by a term so manifestly -reproducing the ‘Suculæ’ of Latin and Sabine -husbandmen.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f49'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. </span><i>De Naturâ Deorum</i>, lib. ii. cap. 43.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f50'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. </span><i>Teutonic Mythology</i> (Stallybrass), vol. ii. p. 729.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric scheme of the heavens, then (such -as it is), was produced at home. No stellar lore had -as yet been imported from abroad. An original community -of ideas is just traceable in the names of some -of the stars; that is all. The epoch of instruction by -more learned neighbours was still to come. The Signs -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>of the Zodiac were certainly unknown to Homer, yet -their shining array had been marshalled from the -banks of the Euphrates at least 2000 years before -the commencement of the Christian era. Their introduction -into Greece is attributed to Cleostratus of -Tenedos, near, or shortly after, the end of the sixth -century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> By that time, too, acquaintance had -been made with the ‘Phœnician’ constellation of the -Lesser Bear, and with the wanderings of the planets. -Astronomical communications, in fact, began to pour -into Hellas from Egypt, Babylonia, and Phœnicia -about the seventh century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> Now, if there were -any reasonable doubt that ‘blind Melesigenes’ lived -at a period anterior to this, it would be removed by -the consideration of what he lets fall about the -heavenly bodies. For, though he might have ignored -formal astronomy, he could not have remained unconscious -of such striking and popular facts as the -identity of Hesperus and Phosphorus, the Sidonian -pilots’ direction of their course by the ‘Cynosure,’ or -the mapping-out of the sun’s path among the stars -by a series of luminous figures of beasts and men.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Thus the hypothesis of a late origin for the Iliad -and Odyssey is negatived by the astronomical ignorance -betrayed in them. It has, however, gradations; -whence some hints as to the relative age of the two -epics may be derived. The differences between them -in this respect are, it is true, small, and they both -stand approximately on the same astronomical level -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>with the poems of Hesiod. Yet an attentive study of -what they have to tell us about the stars affords some -grounds for placing the Iliad, the Odyssey, and -the Works and Days in a descending series as to -time.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In the first place, the division of the month into -three periods of ten days each is unknown in the -Iliad, is barely hinted at in the Odyssey, but is -brought into detailed notice in the Hesiodic calendar. -Further, the ‘turning-points of the sun’ are unmentioned -in the Iliad, but serve in the Odyssey, by -their position on the horizon, to indicate direction; -while the winter solstice figures as a well-marked -epoch in the Works and Days. Hesiod, moreover, -designates the dog-star (not expressly mentioned in -the Odyssey) by a name of which the author of the -Iliad was certainly ignorant. Besides which an -additional constellation (Boötes) to those named in -the Iliad appears in the Odyssey and the Works -and Days; while the title ‘Hyperion,’ applied substantively -to the sun in the Odyssey, is used only -adjectivally in the Iliad. Finally, stellar mythology -begins with Hesiod; Homer (whether the Iliadic or -the Odyssean) takes the names of the stars as he finds -them, without seeking to connect them with any sublunary -occurrences.</p> - -<p class='c015'>To be sure, differences of place and purpose might -account for some of these discrepancies, yet their -cumulative effect in fixing relative epochs is considerable; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>and, even apart from chronology, it is something -to look towards the skies with the ‘most high -poet,’ and to retrace, with the aid of our own better -knowledge, the simple meanings their glorious aspect -held for him.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span> - <h2 id='ch03' class='c010'>CHAPTER III.<br /> <br />THE DOG IN HOMER.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Two</span> sets of strongly contrasted, nay, one might beforehand -have thought mutually exclusive qualities, -go to make up the canine character. In all ages, and -amongst all nations, the dog has become a byword for -its uncleanly habits, disgusting voracity, its quarrelsome -and aggressive selfishness. The cynic, or ‘dog-like’ -philosopher, is a type of what is unamiable in -human nature. Growling, snarling, whining, barking, -snapping and biting, crouching and fawning, constitute -a vocabulary descriptive of canine deportment -conveying none but repulsive and odious associations. -Our language pursues the animal through its different -varieties and stages of existence in order to find -varying epithets of contumely and reproach. The -universal and almost prehistoric term of abuse formed -by the simple patronymic—so to speak—has lost little -of its pristine favour, and none of its pristine force; -while amongst ourselves ‘hound,’ ‘puppy,’ ‘cur,’ -‘whelp,’ and ‘cub,’ come in as harmonics of the -fundamental note of insult.</p> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>On the other hand, some millenniums of experience -have constituted the dog a type of incorruptible -fidelity, patient abnegation, devoted attachment reaching -unto and beyond the grave. Many animals have -been made the slaves and victims of man; some have -been found capable of becoming his willing allies; -none, save the dog, affords to his master a true and -intelligent companionship. Other members of the -brute creation are subdued by domestication; the -dog is, it might be said, transfigured by it. A new -nature awakes in him. A higher ideal presents itself -to him. His dormant affections are kindled; his -latent intelligence develops. The overwhelming -fascination of humanity submerges his native ignoble -instincts, evokes virtues which man himself admires -rather than practises, engages a pathetic confidence, -inspires an indomitable love. Literature teems with -instances of canine constancy and self-devotion. The -long life-in-death of ‘Grey Friars Bobby’ forms no -prodigy in the history of his race. From the dog of -Colophon to the dog of Bairnsdale, man’s four-footed -friend has been found capable of the supreme sacrifice -which one living creature can make for another. -Even in the dim dawnings of civilisation this animal -was chosen as the symbol of watchful attendance and -untiring subordination. The bright star Sirius, owing -to its close waiting on the ‘giant’ of the skies, was -from the earliest time known as the ‘dog of Orion.’ -A brace of hounds typified to the ardent imagination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>of the Vedic poets the inseparable association with the -sun of the morning and evening twilight. Æschylus -elevates and enlarges the idea of divine companionship -in the eagle by calling it the ‘winged dog of -Zeus.’<a id='r51' /><a href='#f51' class='c017'><b>[51]</b></a> Clytemnestra, in her hypocritical protestations -before the elders of Argos, could find no more -striking image of fidelity than that of a house-dog left -by its master to guard his hearth and possessions.<a id='r52' /><a href='#f52' class='c017'><b>[52]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f51'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. </span><i>Agamemnon</i>, 133; and <i>Prometheus</i>, 1057.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f52'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. </span><i>Agamemnon</i>, 520.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Two opposing currents of sentiment regarding the -animal have thus from the first set strongly in—one -of repulsion verging towards abhorrence, the other -of sympathy touched by the yearning pity which a -superior being cannot choose but feel towards an -inferior laying at his feet the priceless gift of love. -But since his higher qualities develop, as it would -seem, exclusively under the stimulation of human -influence, it might have been anticipated, and it is -actually the case, that in those countries where the -dog is neglected, he is also despised, as by an inevitable -reaction it must follow that where he is -despised, he will also be neglected. It is accordingly -among peoples whose pursuits repel his co-operation -that the sinister view prevails, while in hunting and -pastoral regions his credit grows as his faculties are -cultivated, and from the minister and delegate, he -creeps by insensible gradations into the place of -canine beatitude as the friend of man. The attitude -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>of repulsion is, as is well known, general amongst -Mahometan populations, and may be described—although -with notable exceptions, such as of the -ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, the modern Parsees -and Japanese—as the Oriental position towards the -species; while a benevolent sentiment is, on the -whole, characteristic of Western nations.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Now each of these opposite views is strongly and -characteristically represented in the Homeric poems; -represented not as the mere reflection of a popular -instinct, but with a certain ardour of personal feeling -which now and again seems for a moment to draw -back the veil of epic impersonality from before the -living face of the poet. To the bigoted believers in -an indivisible Homer the fact is, no doubt, of most -perplexing import, and we leave them to account for -it as best they may; but to impartial inquirers it -affords at once a clue and an illumination. For the -Epic of Troy is not more sharply characterised by -canine antipathy than the Song of Ulysses by canine -sympathy; while, to enhance the contrast, dislike -to the dog is most remarkably associated with a vivid -and untiring enthusiasm for the horse; and deep -feeling for the dog with comparative indifference to -the equine race. More effectually than the most -elaborate arguments of the Separatists, this innate -disparity of sentiment appears to shiver the long contested -unity of Homeric authorship.</p> - -<p class='c015'>To descend, however, to particulars. Homeric -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>dogs may be divided into four categories. (1) Dogs -used in the chace; (2) shepherds’ dogs; (3) watch-dogs -and house-dogs; (4) scavenger dogs. In the Iliad, the -first two classes occur incidentally only, either by way -of illustration or in the course of some episodical -narrative, such as that of the Calydonian boar-hunt -in the Ninth Book. The plastic circumference of the -Shield of Achilles includes a cameo of dog-life; but it -is noticeable that the position there assigned to the -animal is of a somewhat ignominious character, and -is indicated with a perceptible touch of contempt. -The scene is depicted in the following lines:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Of straight-horn’d cattle too a herd was grav’n;</div> - <div class='line'>Of gold and tin the heifers all were wrought;</div> - <div class='line'>They to the pasture from the cattle-yard,</div> - <div class='line'>With gentle lowings, by a babbling stream,</div> - <div class='line'>Where quiv’ring reed-beds rustled, slowly moved.</div> - <div class='line'>Four golden shepherds walk’d beside the herd,</div> - <div class='line'>By nine swift dogs attended; then amid</div> - <div class='line'>The foremost heifers sprang two lions fierce</div> - <div class='line'>Upon the lordly bull; he, bellowing loud,</div> - <div class='line'>Was dragg’d along, by dogs and youths pursu’d.</div> - <div class='line'>The tough bull’s hide they tore, and gorging lapp’d</div> - <div class='line'>Th’ intestines and dark blood; with vain attempt</div> - <div class='line'>The herdsmen following closely, to th’ attack</div> - <div class='line'>Cheer’d their swift dogs; these shunn’d the lions’ jaws,</div> - <div class='line'>And close around them baying, held aloof.<a id='r53' /><a href='#f53' class='c017'><b>[53]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f53'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xviii. 573-86 (Lord Derby’s translation). For illustrations -drawn from the dog’s instinctive fear of the lion, see also v. -476; xvii. 65-67.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It can scarcely be maintained that a lover of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>species would have selected the incident for typical -representation in his great world-picture.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The direct Iliadic references to dogs, on the other -hand, show clearly that they were domesticated in -Troy, that they lived in the tents of the Achæan chiefs, -(probably with a guarding office), and that they -roamed the camp, devouring offal, and hideously contending -with vultures and other feathered rivals for -the human remains left unburied on the field of -battle. The circumstance that in this revolting capacity -they were predominantly present to the mind of -the poet unveils the secret of his profound aversion. -Not as the humble and faithful minister of man, -hearkening to his voice, hanging on his looks, holding -his life at a pin’s fee in comparison with his service, -the author of the Iliad conceived of the dog; but as a -filthy and bloodthirsty beast of prey, the foul outrager -of the sanctities of death, the ravenous and undiscriminating -violator of the precious casket of the -human soul. In the tragic appeal of Priam to Hector -as he awaits the onslaught of Achilles beneath the -walls of Troy, this aversion touches its darkest depth, -and obtains an almost savage completeness of expression. -Anticipating the imminent catastrophe of his -house and kingdom, the despairing old man thus -portrays his own approaching doom—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Me last, when by some foeman’s stroke or thrust</div> - <div class='line'>The spirit from these feeble limbs is driv’n,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>Insatiate dogs shall tear at my own door;</div> - <div class='line'>The dogs my care has rear’d, my table fed.</div> - <div class='line'>The guardians of my gates shall lap my blood,</div> - <div class='line'>And crave and madden, crouching in the porch.<a id='r54' /><a href='#f54' class='c017'><b>[54]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f54'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. </span>Book xxii. 66-71. (Author.)</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Is it credible that the same mind which was -capable of conjuring up this abhorrent vision should -have conceived the pathetic picture of the faithful -hound in the Odyssey? Nor can there be found, in -the wide range of the great Ilian epic, a single passage -inconsistent in spirit with the lines cited above. -Throughout its cantos, in which the usefulness of the -animal is nevertheless amply recognised, and his -peculiarities sketched with graphic power and truthfulness, -runs, like a dark thread, the remembrance of -his hateful office as the inflictor of the last and most -atrocious insult upon ‘miserable humanity.’<a id='r55' /><a href='#f55' class='c017'><b>[55]</b></a> One -of the leading ‘motives’ of the poem is, indeed, the -fate of the body after death. The overmastering importance -attached to its honourable interment forms -the hinge upon which a considerable portion of the -action turns. The dread of its desecration continually -haunts the imagination of the poet, and broods -alike over the ramparts of Ilium and the tents of -Greece. From the first lines almost to the last the -loathsome processes of canine sepulture stand out as -the direst result of defeat—the crowning terror of -death. Among the disastrous effects of the wrath of -Achilles foreshadowed in the opening invocation, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>visible and tangible horror is afforded by ‘devouring -dogs and hungry vultures’ exercising their revolting -function on the corpses of the slain; before the dying -eyes of Hector rises, like a nightmare, the horrible -anticipation of becoming the prey of ‘Achæan hounds,’<a id='r56' /><a href='#f56' class='c017'><b>[56]</b></a> -while his fierce adversary refuses to impair the gloomy -perfection of his vengeance by remitting that supreme -penalty;<a id='r57' /><a href='#f57' class='c017'><b>[57]</b></a> next to the honours of his funeral-pyre, -the chiefest consolation offered to the Shade of Patroclus -is the promise to make the body of his slayer -food for curs;<a id='r58' /><a href='#f58' class='c017'><b>[58]</b></a> in her despair, Hecuba shrieks that -she brought forth her son to ‘glut swift-footed dogs,’<a id='r59' /><a href='#f59' class='c017'><b>[59]</b></a> -and bids Priam not seek to avert the abhorred doom. -These instances, which it would be easy to multiply, -are unmodified by a solitary expression of tenderness -towards canine nature, or a single example of canine -affection towards man.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f55'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. </span>Book xxii. 76.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f56'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxii. 339.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f57'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> 348.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f58'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xxiii. 183.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f59'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xxiv. 211.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It is true that a different view has been advocated -by Sir William Geddes, who, in his valuable work, -‘The Problem of the Homeric Poems,’ first dwelt in -detail on the contrasted treatment of the horse and -dog in those early epics. He did not, however, stop -there. A theory, designed to solve the secular puzzle -of Homeric authorship, had presented itself to him, -and demanded for its support a somewhat complex -marshalling of facts. His contention was briefly -this:—that the Odyssey, with the ten books of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Iliad<a id='r60' /><a href='#f60' class='c017'><b>[60]</b></a> amputated by Mr. Grote’s critical knife from -the trunk of a supposed primitive Achilleid, are the -work of one and the same author, an Ionian of Asia -Minor, to whom the venerable name of Homer properly -belongs; while the fourteen books constituting -the nucleus and main substance of our Iliad are -abandoned to an unknown Thessalian bard. He has -not, indeed, succeeded in engaging on his side the -general opinion of the learned, yet it cannot be denied -that his ingenious and patient analysis of the Homeric -texts has served to develop some highly suggestive -minor points. The validity of his main argument -obviously depends, in the first place, upon the discovery -of striking correspondences between the -Odyssey and the non-Achillean cantos of the Iliad; -in the second, upon the exposure of irreconcilable discrepancies -between the Odyssey and the Grotean -Achilleid. But the attempt is really hopeless to -transplant the canine sympathy manifest in the -Odyssey to any part of the Iliad, or to localise in -any particular section of the Iliad the equine sympathies -displayed throughout the many-coloured tissue -of its composition.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f60'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. </span>These are Books ii. to vii. inclusive, ix. x. xxiii. and xxiv. The -<i>Achilleid</i> thus consists of Books i. viii. and xi.-xxii.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Everywhere alike enthusiasm for the horse is -evoked, vividly and spontaneously, on all suitable -occasions. Ardent admiration is uniformly bestowed -upon his powers and faculties. He is nowhere passed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>by with indifference. The verses glow with a kind of -rapture of enjoyment that describe his strength and -beauty, his eager spirit and fine nervous organisation, -his intelligent and disinterested participation in human -struggles and triumphs. In the region of the Iliad -claimed for the Odyssean Homer, it suffices to point -to the episode of the capture by Diomed and Sthenelus -of the divinely-descended steeds of Æneas;<a id='r61' /><a href='#f61' class='c017'><b>[61]</b></a> to -the careful provision of ambrosial forage for the -horses of Heré along the shores of Simoeis;<a id='r62' /><a href='#f62' class='c017'><b>[62]</b></a> to the -resplendent simile of Book vi.;<a id='r63' /><a href='#f63' class='c017'><b>[63]</b></a> to the gleeful zeal -with which Odysseus and Diomed secure, as the fruit -and crown of their nocturnal expedition, the milk-white -coursers of Rhesus;<a id='r64' /><a href='#f64' class='c017'><b>[64]</b></a> to the living fervour imported -into the chariot-race at the funeral games of -Patroclus; to the tender pathos with which Achilles -describes the grief of his immortal horses for their -well-loved charioteer.<a id='r65' /><a href='#f65' class='c017'><b>[65]</b></a> The enumeration of similar -examples from non-Achillean cantos might be carried -much further, but where is the use of ‘breaking in an -open door’? The evidence is overwhelming as to -homogeneity of sentiment, in this important respect, -through the entire Iliad. If more than one author -was concerned in its production, the coadjutors were -at least unanimous in their glowing admiration for -the heroic animal of battle.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f61'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, v. 267.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f62'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> 775-77.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f63'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. </span>This is certainly original in book vi. It comes in as an awkward -interpolation at xv. 263.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f64'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 474-569.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f65'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xxiii. 280-84.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>Nor can the search, in the same ten cantos, for -indications of a sympathetic feeling towards the dog -consonant to that displayed in the Odyssey, be pronounced -successful. Certainly much stress cannot be -laid, for the purpose, upon the striking passage in the -Twenty-third Book, descriptive of the cremation of -Patroclus; yet it makes the nearest discoverable -approach to the desired significance. It runs as -follows in Lord Derby’s translation:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A hundred feet each way they built the pyre,</div> - <div class='line'>And on the summit, sorrowing, laid the dead.</div> - <div class='line'>Then many a sheep and many a slow-pac’d ox</div> - <div class='line'>They flay’d and dress’d around the fun’ral pyre;</div> - <div class='line'>Of all the beasts Achilles took the fat,</div> - <div class='line'>And covered o’er the dead from head to foot,</div> - <div class='line'>And heap’d the slaughter’d carcases around;</div> - <div class='line'>Then jars of honey plac’d, and fragrant oils,</div> - <div class='line'>Resting upon the couch; next, groaning loud,</div> - <div class='line'>Four pow’rful horses on the pyre he threw;</div> - <div class='line'>Then, of nine<a id='r66' /><a href='#f66' class='c017'><b>[66]</b></a> dogs that at their master’s board</div> - <div class='line'>Had fed, he slaughter’d two upon his pyre;</div> - <div class='line'>Last, with the sword, by evil counsel sway’d,</div> - <div class='line'>Twelve noble youths he slew, the sons of Troy.</div> - <div class='line'>The fire’s devouring might he then applied,</div> - <div class='line'>And, groaning, on his lov’d companion call’d.<a id='r67' /><a href='#f67' class='c017'><b>[67]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f66'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. </span>The number <i>nine</i> is curiously associated with the canine species. -The herdsmen’s pack on the Shield of Achilles consists of <i>nine</i>; -<i>nine</i> were the dogs of Patroclus; and we learn from Mr. Richardson -(<i>Dogs: their Origin and Varieties</i>, p. 37), that Fingal kept <i>nine</i> -great dogs, and <i>nine</i> smaller game-starting dogs.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f67'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r67'>67</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 164-78.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>These sanguinary rites have been thought to -afford proof that canine companionship was necessary -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>to the happiness of a Greek hero in the other world. -For, amongst rude peoples, from the Scythians of -Herodotus<a id='r68' /><a href='#f68' class='c017'><b>[68]</b></a> to the Indians of Patagonia, such sacrifices -have been a common mode of testifying respect -to the dead. And it may readily be admitted that -their originally inspiring idea was that of continued -association after death with the objects most valued -in life. But such an idea appears to have been very -remotely, if at all, present to the mind of our -poet. The Ghost of Patroclus, at any rate, though -sufficiently communicative, expresses no desire for -canine, equine, bovine, or ovine society, although -specimens of all four species were immolated in its -honour. The purpose of Achilles in instituting the -ghastly solemnity was, as he himself expressed it,</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f68'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r68'>68</a>. </span>Book iv. 71, 72.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>That with provision meet the dead may pass</div> - <div class='line'>Down to the realms of night.<a id='r69' /><a href='#f69' class='c017'><b>[69]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f69'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r69'>69</a>. </span>Geddes, <i>Problem</i>, &c., p. 227.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>But the motives that crowded upon his fierce soul -were probably in truth as multitudinous as the waves -of passion which rolled over it. He desired to appease -the parted spirit of his friend with a sacrifice matching -his own pride and the extent of his bereavement. -Still more, he sought to glut his vengeance, and allay, -if possible, the intolerable pangs of his grief. He -perhaps dimly imaged to himself a pompous funeral -throng accompanying the beloved soul even to the -gates of Hades, provision for the way being supplied -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>by the flesh of sheep and oxen, an escort by horses -and dogs, while an air of gloomy triumph was imparted -to the shadowy procession by the hostile -presence of outraged and indignant human shades. A -similar ceremony was put in practice, by comparison -recently, in Lithuania. When the still pagan Grand -Duke Gedimin died in 1341, his body was laid on -a pyre and burned with two hounds, two falcons, -his horse saddled and still living, and a favourite -servant.<a id='r70' /><a href='#f70' class='c017'><b>[70]</b></a> But here the disembodied company was -altogether friendly, and may have been thought of -as willingly paying a last tribute of homage to their -lord.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f70'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r70'>70</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>Wanderings of Plants and Animals</i>, p. 417.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The information is in any case worth having that -Patroclus, like Priam, kept a number of ‘table-dogs,’ -whose presence doubtless contributed in some degree -to the stateliness of his surroundings. It is, however, -given casually, without a word of comment, as if the -bard instinctively shrank from dwelling on the intimate -personal relations of the animal to man. The -son of Menœtius had a gentle soul, and we cannot -doubt, although no hint of such affection is communicated, -that he loved his dogs, and was loved by them. -Of the horses accustomed to his guidance—the immortal -pair of Achilles—we indeed hear how they -stood, day after day, with drooping heads and silken -manes sweeping the ground, in sorrow for his and -their lost friend; but no dog is permitted to whine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>his sense of bereavement beside the body of Patroclus; -no dog misses the vanished caress of his master’s -hand; no dog crouches beside Achilles in his solitude, -or offers to his unsurpassed grief the dumb and -wistful consolation of his sympathy. The privilege -of sharing the sorrows, as of winning the applause of -humanity, is, in the Iliad, reserved exclusively for the -equine race.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Turning to the Odyssey, we find ourselves in a -changed world. Ships have here become the ‘chariots -of the sea’;<a id='r71' /><a href='#f71' class='c017'><b>[71]</b></a> navigation usurps the honour and interest -of charioteering; a favourable breeze imparts -the cheering sense of companionship felt by a practised -rider with his trusty steed. The scenery on shore -leaves this sentiment undisturbed. Rocky Ithaca, -Telemachus informs Menelaus,<a id='r72' /><a href='#f72' class='c017'><b>[72]</b></a> contains neither wide -tracks for chariot-driving, nor deep meadows for -horse-pasture; it is a goat-feeding land, though more -beautiful, to his mind, in its ruggedness than even -the ‘spacious plain’ of Sparta, with its rich fields -of lotus-grass, its sedgy flats, its waving tracts of -‘white barley,’ wheat, and spelt. A suitable habitat -is thus, in his native island, wanting for the horse, -who is accordingly relegated to an obscure corner -of the stage, while the foreground of animal life is -occupied by his less imposing rival in the regard of -man. The dog is, in fact, the characteristic and conspicuous -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>animal of the Odyssey, as the horse is of the -Iliad. Xanthus and Balius, the wind-begotten steeds -bestowed by Poseidon upon the sire of Achilles, who -own the sorrowful human gift of tears, and the superhuman -gift of prophetic speech, are replaced<a id='r73' /><a href='#f73' class='c017'><b>[73]</b></a> by the -more homely, but not less pathetic, figure of Argus, -the dog of Odysseus, whose fidelity through a score of -years we feel to be no poetical fiction, but simply a -poetical enhancement of a familiar fact. Canine -society is, indeed, placed by the author of the Odyssey -on a higher level than it occupies, perhaps, in any -other work of the imagination. When Telemachus, -starting into sudden manhood under the tutelage of -Athene, goes forth to lay his wrongs before the first -Assembly convened in Ithaca since his father’s ‘hollow -ships’ sailed for Troy, we are told that he carried in -his hand a brazen spear, and that the goddess poured -out upon him a divine radiance of beauty such that -the people marvelled as they gazed on him. But the -most singular and significant part of the description -lies in the statement (thrice repeated on similar -occasions<a id='r74' /><a href='#f74' class='c017'><b>[74]</b></a>) that he went ‘not alone; two swift-footed -dogs followed him.’ Alone indeed he was, as far as -human companionship was concerned—a helpless -youth, isolated and indignant in the midst of a riotous -and overbearing crew, intent not less upon wasting -his substance than upon wooing his unwidowed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>mother. Comrade or attendant he had none, but -instead of both, a pair of four-footed sympathisers, -evidently regarded as adding dignity to his appearance -in public, as well as imparting the strengthening -consciousness of social support. The conjunction, as -Mr. Mahaffy well remarks, shows an intense appreciation -of dog-nature.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f71'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r71'>71</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 708; cf. Geddes, <i>Problem, &c.</i>, p. 215.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f72'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r72'>72</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 605.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f73'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r73'>73</a>. </span>Mahaffy, <i>Social Life in Greece</i>, pp. 57, 63.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f74'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r74'>74</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, ii. 11; xvii. 62; xx. 145.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the cottage of Eumæus the swineherd, Odysseus, -disguised as a beggar, weary with long wanderings, a -stranger in peril of his life in his own islet-kingdom, -finds his first hospitable refuge. Here again we are -met by graphic and frequent sketches of canine -manners and character. In the office of guarding -and governing the 960 porkers composing his herd, -Eumæus had the aid of four dogs reared by himself. -They were large and fierce, ‘like wild beasts’;<a id='r75' /><a href='#f75' class='c017'><b>[75]</b></a> but -the savage instincts even of these half-reclaimed -creatures are discovered to be directed towards duty, -to be subdued by affection, nay, to be elevated by a -touch of supersensual awe. If they erred, it was by -excess of zeal in the cause of law and order. For -when Odysseus (it must be remembered, in extremely -disreputable guise) approached the thorn-hedged enclosure, -they set upon him together, barking furiously, -and threatening to tear him to pieces on the spot. -He had not, however, edged his way between Scylla -and Charybdis to perish thus ingloriously. With -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>unfailing presence of mind he instantly took up an -attitude of non-resistance, stood still and laid aside -his staff. This passivity doubtless produced some -hesitation on the part of his assailants, for when the -swineherd hurried out to the rescue, he was still unhurt. -No small amount of compulsion, both moral -and physical—exerted by means of objurgatory remonstrance, -coupled with plentiful stone-pelting—was, -however, required to calm the ardour of such -impetuous allies.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f75'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r75'>75</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xiv. 21.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Nevertheless, their ferocity is represented as far -from undiscriminating. It is, in fact, strictly limited -by their official responsibilities. They know how to -suit their address to their company, from an Olympian -denizen to a homeless tramp, and get unexpected -opportunities of displaying these social accomplishments. -For the rustic dwelling of Eumæus becomes -a rendezvous for the principal personages of the -story, and the demeanour of the four dogs is a leading -incident, carefully recorded, connected with the -arrival of each. We have just seen what an obstreperous -reception they gave to the disguised king of -Ithaca. Telemachus, on the other hand, they rushed -to welcome, fawning and wagging their tails <i>without -barking</i>,<a id='r76' /><a href='#f76' class='c017'><b>[76]</b></a> as that quick-witted vagrant, whose arrival -had preceded his, was the first to observe. But -when Athene visited the farm for the purpose of -bringing about the recognition of the father by the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>son, which was the first step towards retribution -upon their common enemies, while Telemachus remained -unconscious of her presence—’for not to all -do the gods manifest themselves openly’—it is said, -with a very remarkable coupling of man and beast, -that ‘Odysseus and the dogs saw her’;<a id='r77' /><a href='#f77' class='c017'><b>[77]</b></a> and the -mysterious sense of the supernatural attributed in -much folk-lore to the canine species found vent in -whimperings of fear and panic-stricken withdrawal.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f76'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r76'>76</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xvi. 4-10.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f77'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r77'>77</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xvi. 162.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>We are next transported to the scene of the revellings -of the Suitors, and the fortitude of Penelope. -The sight of the once familiar turreted enclosure of -his palace, and the sound of the well-remembered -voice and lyre of the minstrel Phemius, proclaiming -the progress of the festivities, all but overturned the -equanimity of the counterfeit mendicant. His practised -powers of dissimulation, however, came to his -aid; and grasping the hand of his unsuspecting retainer, -he brought, with a cunningly devised speech, -his tell-tale emotion into harmony with his assumed -character. They advanced to the threshold, and there, -on a dung-heap, half devoured with insect parasites, -lay a dog—the dog Argus. But we must allow the -poet to tell the story in his own way.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thus as they spake, a dog that lay apart,</div> - <div class='line'>Lifted his head, and pricked his list’ning ears,</div> - <div class='line'>Argus, whom erst Odysseus patient bred,</div> - <div class='line'>But use of him had none; for ere that day,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>He sailed for sacred Troy; and other men</div> - <div class='line'>Had trained and led him forth o’er field and fell,</div> - <div class='line'>To chase wild goats, hares, and the pricket deer.</div> - <div class='line'>But now, his master gone, in foul neglect,</div> - <div class='line'>On dung of ox and mule he made his couch;</div> - <div class='line'>Fattening manure, heaped at the palace-gate,</div> - <div class='line'>Till spread to enrich Odysseus’ wide domain;</div> - <div class='line'>Thus stretched, with vermin swarming, Argus lay.</div> - <div class='line'>But when he saw Odysseus close approach,</div> - <div class='line'>He knew, and wagged his tail, and dropped his ears,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet could not rise to fawn upon his lord,</div> - <div class='line'>Who paused, and stood, and brushed aside a tear,</div> - <div class='line'>Hiding his grief. Then thus with crafty speech:</div> - <div class='line'>‘Eumæus, sure ‘tis wonder in such plight</div> - <div class='line'>To see this dog, of goodly form and limbs;</div> - <div class='line'>But tell me did his fleetness match his shape,</div> - <div class='line'>Or was he such as, reared for pride and show,</div> - <div class='line'>Inactive at their masters’ tables feed?’</div> - <div class='line'>Eumæus heard, and quickly made reply:</div> - <div class='line'>‘To one who perished in a distant land</div> - <div class='line'>This dog belongs. But couldst thou see him now</div> - <div class='line'>Such as Odysseus left him, bound for Troy,</div> - <div class='line'>Thou well might’st wonder at his strength and speed.</div> - <div class='line'>‘Mid the deep thickets of the forest glades,</div> - <div class='line'>No game escaped his swift pursuing feet,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor hound could match his prowess in the chace.</div> - <div class='line'>But now his days are evil, since his lord</div> - <div class='line'>Is dead, and careless women heed him not.</div> - <div class='line'>For when the master’s hand no longer rules,</div> - <div class='line'>Servants no longer work in order due.</div> - <div class='line'>Full half the virtue leaves the man condemned</div> - <div class='line'>By wide-eyed Zeus to drag the servile chain.’</div> - <div class='line'>Thus as he spake, he crossed the stately hall,</div> - <div class='line'>And took his place amidst the suitors’ train.</div> - <div class='line'>But Argus died; for dark doom ravished him,</div> - <div class='line'>Greeting Odysseus after twenty years.<a id='r78' /><a href='#f78' class='c017'><b>[78]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f78'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r78'>78</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xvii. 290-327 (Author’s translation).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>Surely—even thus inadequately rendered—the -most poignantly pathetic narrative of dog-life in -literature! The hero, returning after a generation -of absence, in a disguise impenetrable to son, servants, -nay to the wife of his bosom, is recognised by -one solitary living creature, a dog. And to this -faithful animal, unforgetting in his forlorn decrepitude, -whose affectionate gestures form his only welcome -to the home now occupied by unscrupulous -foes, ready to take his life at the first hint of his -identity, he is obliged to refuse a stroke of his hand, -or so much as a glance of his eye, to soothe the fatal -spasm of his joy. A case that might well draw a -tear, even from the much-enduring son of Laertes.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It has not escaped the acumen of Sir William -Geddes<a id='r79' /><a href='#f79' class='c017'><b>[79]</b></a> that the compliment of an individual name -is, in the Iliad, paid exclusively amongst the brute -creation to horses; in the Odyssey (setting aside the -mythical coursers of the Dawn, Book xxiii. 246) to a -single dog. Now this may at first sight seem to be a -trifling point; but a very little consideration will -suffice to show its significance. To the author of the -Odyssey, at least, the imposition, or even the disclosure -of a name, was a matter clothed with a certain -solemn importance. He lets us know how and -why his hero came to be called ‘Odysseus,’ and -furnishes us, to the best of his ability, with an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>etymological interpretation of that ill-omened title.<a id='r80' /><a href='#f80' class='c017'><b>[80]</b></a> -How distinctively human a thing it is to have a -name we are made to feel when Alcinous conjures -his mysterious guest to reveal the designation by -which he is known to his parents, fellow-citizens, and -countrymen, ‘since no man, good or bad, is anonymous’!<a id='r81' /><a href='#f81' class='c017'><b>[81]</b></a> -And the reply is couched in an earnest -and exalted strain, conveying at once the extent of -the trust reposed, and the momentousness of the -revelation granted—</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f79'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r79'>79</a>. </span><i>Problem of the Homeric Poems</i>, p. 218.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f80'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r80'>80</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 409.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f81'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r81'>81</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> viii. 552.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ulysses, from Laertes sprung, am I,</div> - <div class='line'>Vers’d in the wiles of men, and fam’d afar.<a id='r82' /><a href='#f82' class='c017'><b>[82]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f82'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r82'>82</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> ix. 19, 20.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The same scene, thrown into a grotesque form, is -repeated in the cave of Polyphemus, where the upshot -of the adventure depends wholly upon the prudence -of the storm-tossed chieftain in responding to -the monster’s vinous enthusiasm with the mock disclosure -of a <i>no-name</i>.</p> - -<p class='c015'>These illustrations help to make it plain that, in -assigning to brutes individual appellations, we bestow -upon them something essentially human, which they -have not, and cannot have of themselves, but which -marks their share in human interests, and their -claim on human sympathy. So accurately is this -true, that a table showing the relative frequency -of individual nomenclature for different animals in -various countries would assuredly, on the strength -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>of that fact alone, set forth their relative position in -the estimation of man.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The dog Argus belonged presumably to the famous -Molossian breed, the first specimen of which was fabled -to have been cast in bronze by Hephæstus,<a id='r83' /><a href='#f83' class='c017'><b>[83]</b></a> and presented -by Jupiter to Cephalus, the eponymous ruler of -the island of Cephallenia. These animals were not -more remarkable for fierceness than for fidelity. To the -race were assigned creatures of such evil mythological -reputation as the voracious hound of Hades, and -the barking pack of Scylla; a Molossian sent to -Alexander was stated to have brought down a lion; -while, on the other hand, the canine detective of -Montargis had a rival in the army of Pyrrhus, whose -funeral pile was signalised by a desperate act of -canine self-immolation; and the dog of Eupolis (likewise -a Molossian), after having torn to pieces a -thieving servant, died of grief and voluntary starvation -on the grave of the Æginetan poet.<a id='r84' /><a href='#f84' class='c017'><b>[84]</b></a> These -qualities are presented and perpetuated in the four -dogs of Eumæus and the neglected hound of Odysseus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f83'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r83'>83</a>. </span>From this legend the poet not improbably derived the idea of -the gold and silver watch-dogs, framed by Hephæstus for Alcinous. -<i>Odyssey</i>, vii. 91-94.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f84'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r84'>84</a>. </span>Ælian, <i>De Natura Animalium</i>, vii. 10; x. 41.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric poems ignore the varieties of the -species—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,</div> - <div class='line'>Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,</div> - <div class='line'>Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>A dog is simply a dog, as a horse is a horse. But -individual horses are in the Iliad distinguished by -differences of colour, while no colour-epithet is anywhere -applied to a dog. It is probable, however, that -in the shepherd-dogs of Albania an almost perfect -reproduction of the animals dear to the poet is still to -be found. For in that wild and mountainous region -the Chaonian or Molossian race is said to survive -undegenerate, and, judging by the reports of travellers, -its modern representatives preserve the same -vigilance in duty and alacrity in attack which distinguished -the formidable band of the Odyssean swineherd. -An English explorer, who had some serious -encounters with them, has described these fierce pastoral -guardians as ‘varying in colour from dark-brown -to bright dun, their long fur being very soft, -thick, and glossy. In size they are equal to an -English mastiff. They have a long nose, delicate ears -finely pointed, magnificent tail, legs of a moderate -length, with a body nicely rounded and compact.’<a id='r85' /><a href='#f85' class='c017'><b>[85]</b></a> -It is added that they still possess the strength, swiftness, -sagacity, and fidelity anciently ascribed to them, -showing their pedigree to be probably unimpaired.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f85'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r85'>85</a>. </span>Hughes, <i>Travels in Albania</i>, vol. i. p. 483.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Suliot dog, or German boar-hound, comes -from the same region, and has also strong claims to -the honours of Molossian descent. Some of the breed -were employed by the Turkish soldiery in the earlier -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>part of this century, to guard their outposts against -Austrian attacks; and one captured specimen, presented -to the King of Naples, was reputed to be the -largest dog in existence.<a id='r86' /><a href='#f86' class='c017'><b>[86]</b></a> Measuring nearly four feet -from the shoulder to the ground, he in fact rivalled -the dimensions of a Shetland pony. Others were -secured as regimental pets, and used to make a grand -show in Brussels, marching with their respective -corps to the blare of martial music. They were -fierce-natured animals, rough-coated, and coarsely -formed; mostly tan-coloured, but with blackish markings -on the back, shoulders, and round the ears. -Tan-coloured, too, was probably the immortal Argus; -and we can further picture him, on the assumption -that the modern races west of Pindus reproduce -many features of his aspect, as a wolf-like hound, -with a bushy tail, small, sensitive ears, and a glance -at once eager, intelligent, and wistful. Drooping ears -in dogs are, it may be remarked, a result of domestication; -and varieties distinguished by them were -unknown in Europe until Alexander the Great introduced -from Asia some specimens of the mastiff kind. -Consequently, Shakespeare’s description of the pack -of Theseus—</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f86'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r86'>86</a>. </span>C. Hamilton Smith, <i>Naturalist’s Library</i>, vol. v. p. 151.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>With ears that sweep away the morning dew,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>is one among many examples of his genial disregard -for archæological detail. Argus, then, resembled -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>‘White-breasted Bran,’ the dog of Fingal, in his possession -of ‘an ear like a leaf.’</p> -<p class='c015'>It is not too much to say that the opposed sentiments -concerning the relations of men with animals -displayed in the Iliad and Odyssey suffice in themselves -to establish their diversity of origin. For they -render it psychologically impossible that they could -have been the work of one individual. The varying -<i>prominence</i> assigned respectively to the horse and the -dog might, it is true, be plausibly accounted for by -the diversified conditions of the two epics; but no -shifting of scene can explain a <i>reversal</i> of sympathies. -Such sentiments form part of the ingrained structure -of the mind. They take root before consciousness is -awake, or memory active; they live through the decades -of a man’s life; are transported with him from -shore to shore; survive the enthusiasm of friendship -and the illusions of ambition; they can no more be -eradicated from the tenor of his thoughts than the -type of his features can be changed from Tartar to -Caucasian, or the colour of his eyes from black to -blue.</p> - -<p class='c015'>After all, the difficulty of separating the origin of -these stupendous productions is considerably diminished -by the reflection that they are but the surviving -members of an extensive group of poems, all -originally attributed without discrimination to a single -author. Not the Iliad and Odyssey alone, but the -‘Cypria,’ the ‘Æthiopis,’ the ‘Lesser Iliad,’ and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>other voluminous metrical compositions, were, in the -old, uncritical, individual sense, ‘Homeric.’ So apt -is Fame to make</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>A testament</div> - <div class='line'>As worldlings do, giving the sum of more</div> - <div class='line'>To that which had too much.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>The depreciatory tone of the query, ‘What’s in a -name?’ should not lead us to undervalue that indispensable -requisite to sustained and specialised existence. -A name is, indeed, a power in itself. It serves, -at the least, as a peg to hang a personality upon, -and not the most ‘powerful rhyme’ can sustain a -reputation apart from its humble aid. But the bard -of Odysseus has long ceased to possess one. His only -appellation must remain for all time that of his -hero in the Cyclops’ cave. The jealous Muses have -blotted him out from memory. We can only be sure -that he was a man who, like the protagonist of his -immortal poem, had known, and seen, and suffered -many things, who had tears for the past, and hopes -for the future, had roamed far and near with a ‘hungry -heart,’ and had listened long and intently to the -‘many voices’ of the moaning sea; who had tried his -fellow-men, and found them, not all, nor everywhere -wanting; who had faith in the justice of Heaven and -the constancy of woman; who had experienced and -had not disdained to cherish in his heart the life-long -fidelity of a dog.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span> - <h2 id='ch04' class='c010'>CHAPTER IV.<br /> <br />HOMERIC HORSES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>The</span> greater part of the Continent of Europe, including -Britain, not then, perhaps, insulated by a ‘silver -streak,’ was prehistorically overrun with shaggy -ponies, large-headed and heavily-built, but shown by -their short, pointed ears and brush-tails to have been -genuine <i>horses</i>, exempt from leanings towards the -asinine branch of the family. This, indeed, would be -a hazardous statement to make upon the sole evidence -of the fragmentary piles of these animals’ bones preserved -in caves and mounds; since even a complete -skeleton could tell the most experienced anatomist -nothing as to the shape of their ears or the growth -of hair upon their tails. We happen, however, to be -in possession of their portraits. For the men of that -time had artistic instincts, and drew with force and -freedom whatever seemed to them worthy of imitation; -and among their few subjects the contemporary -wild horse was fortunately included. With his outward -aspect, then, we are, through the medium of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>these diluvial <i>graffiti</i>, on bone-surfaces and stags’ -antlers, thoroughly familiar.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It was that of a sturdy brute, thirteen or fourteen -hands high, not ill represented, on a reduced scale, -by the Shetland ponies of our own time, but untamed, -and, it might have been thought, untameable. The -race had not then found its true vocation. Man was -enabled, by his superior intelligence, to make it his -prey, but had not yet reached the higher point of -enlisting its matchless qualities in his service. Horses -were, accordingly, neither ridden nor driven, but -hunted and eaten. Piles of bones still attest the hippophagous -habits of the ‘stone-men.’ At Solutré, near -Mâcon, a veritable equine Golgotha has been excavated; -similar accumulations were found in the recesses -of Monte Pellegrino in Sicily; and Sir Richard -Owen made the curious remark that, evidently through -gastronomic selection, the osseous remains of colts -and fillies vastly predominated, in the débris from the -cave of Bruniquel, over those of full-grown horses.<a id='r87' /><a href='#f87' class='c017'><b>[87]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f87'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r87'>87</a>. </span><i>Phil. Trans.</i> 1869, p. 535.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The descent of our existing horses from the cave-animals -is doubtful, Eastern importations having at -any rate greatly improved and modified the breed. -Wild horses, indeed, still at the end of the sixteenth -century roamed the slopes of the Vosges, and were -hunted as game in Poland and Lithuania;<a id='r88' /><a href='#f88' class='c017'><b>[88]</b></a> but they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>may have been <i>muzins</i>, or runaways, like the mustangs -on the American prairies. Nowadays, certainly, -the animal is found in a state of aboriginal -freedom nowhere save on the steppes of Central Asia, -in the primitive home of the race. There, in all likelihood, -the noblest of brute-forms was brought to -perfection; there it was dominated by man; and -thence equestrian arts, with their manifold results for -civilisation, were propagated among the nations of -the world. They were taught to the Egyptians, it -would seem, by their shepherd conquerors, but were -not learned by the Arabs until a couple of millenniums -later, the Arab contingent in Xerxes’ army -having been a ‘camel-corps.’ The Persians, indeed, -early picked up the habit of riding from the example -of their Tartar neighbours; yet that it was no original -Aryan accomplishment, the absence of a common -Aryan word to express the idea sufficiently shows. -The relations of our primitive ancestors with the -animal had, at the most, reached what might be called -the second, or Scythian stage, when droves of half-wild -horses took the place of cattle, and mares’ milk -was an important article of food. The aboriginal -cavalry of the desert belonged, on the other hand, to -the wide kinship of Attila’s Huns, who, separated -from their steeds, were as helpless as swans on shore. -The war-chariot, however, was an Assyrian invention, -dating back at least to the seventeenth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> -It quickly reached Egypt on one side, India on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>other, and was adopted, some time before the Dorian -invasion, by the Achæans of the Peloponnesus. Mycenæan -grave-stones of about the twelfth century are -engraven with battle and hunting scenes, the actors -in which are borne along in vehicles of essentially the -same construction with those brought before us in -the Iliad. They show scarcely any variation from -the simple model developed on the banks of the Tigris; -yet there was no direct imitation. Homer was profoundly -unconscious of Ninevite splendours. He had -no inkling of the existence of a great Mesopotamian -monarchy far away to the East, beyond the rising-places -of the sun, where one branch of his dichotomised -Ethiopians dwelt in peace. Nevertheless, the -life that he knew, and that was glorified by him, was -touched with many influences from this unknown -land. If some of them filtered through Egypt on -their way, acquaintance with the art of charioteering -certainly took a less circuitous route. For the third -horse of the original Assyrian team was never introduced -into Egypt, and was early discarded in Assyria -itself. He figures continually, however, in Homeric -engagements, running, loosely attached, beside the -regularly yoked pair, one of whom he was destined to -replace in case of emergency. The presence, then, of -this ‘silly,’ or roped horse,<a id='r89' /><a href='#f89' class='c017'><b>[89]</b></a> παρήορος ἵππος, demonstrates -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>both the high antiquity, and the Anatolian -negotiation, of the loan which included him.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f88'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r88'>88</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>Wanderings of Plants and Animals</i>, pp. 38-39.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f89'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r89'>89</a>. </span>The word ‘silly’ thus applied is evidently cognate with the -German <i>Seile</i> = Greek σειρὰ, a rope, from the root <i>swar</i>, to tie. So in -the <i>Ancient Mariner</i>, the ‘<i>silly</i> buckets on the deck’ are the buckets -attached to a rope. Similarly, the third horse was sometimes called -by the Greeks σειραφόρος, ‘drawing by a rope.’</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The fertile plains of Babylonia probably furnished -the equine supplies of Egypt and Asia Minor during -some centuries before the Nisæan stock,<a id='r90' /><a href='#f90' class='c017'><b>[90]</b></a> cultivated in -Media, acquired its Hellenic reputation. So far as -can be judged from ancient vase-paintings, the horses -of Achilles and Hector were of pure Oriental type. -They owned the same points of breeding—the small -heads, slender yet muscular legs, and high-arching -necks, the same eager eye and proud bearing, characterising -the steeds that shared the triumphs of Asurbanipal -and Shalmaneser. The same quasi-heroic -position, too, belonged to the horse in the camp before -Troy and at Nineveh. He shared, in both scenes of -action, only the nobler pursuits of man, and was -exempt from the drudgery of servile work. The -beasts of burden, alike of the Iliad and of the sculptures -of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, were mules and -oxen, not horses. Equine co-operation was reserved -for war and the chace—for war alone, indeed, by the -Homeric Greeks, who appear always to have hunted -on foot. This was inevitable. Modes of conveyance, -were they drawn by Sleipnir or Areion, would have -been an encumbrance in pursuing game through the -thickets of Parnassus, or over the broken skirts of -Mount Ida.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f90'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r90'>90</a>. </span>Blakesley’s <i>Herodotus</i>, iii. 106.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>Only the chief Greek and Trojan leaders rode in -chariots. Their possession was a mark of distinction, -and conferred the power of swift locomotion, but was -otherwise of no military use. Their owners alighted -from them for the serious business of fighting, although -glad, if worsted or disabled, to fall back upon -the utmost speed of their horses to carry them out of -reach of their foes. This fashion of warfare, however, -had completely disappeared from Greece proper -before the historic era. Only in Cyprus, chariots are -heard of among the paraphernalia of battle in -498 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r91' /><a href='#f91' class='c017'><b>[91]</b></a> None figured at Marathon or Mantineia; -brigades of mounted men had taken their place. -Cavalry, on the other hand, had no share in the engagements -before Troy.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f91'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r91'>91</a>. </span><i>Herodotus</i>, v. 113.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The definiteness of intention with which Homeric -epithets were bestowed is strikingly evident in the -distribution of those relating to equestrian pursuits. -That they have no place worth mentioning in the -Odyssey, readers of our last chapter will be prepared -to hear; nor are they sprinkled at random -through the Iliad. Thus, while the Trojans collectively -are frequently called ‘horse-tamers,’ <i>hippodamoi</i>—a -designation still appropriate to the dwellers -round Hissarlik—the Greeks collectively are never -so described.<a id='r92' /><a href='#f92' class='c017'><b>[92]</b></a> They could not have been, in fact, -without some degree of incongruity. For many -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>of them, being of insular origin and maritime habits, -knew as much about hippogriffs as about horses, unless -it were the white-crested ones ruled by Poseidon. -And the poet’s close instinctive regard to such distinctions -appears in the remarkable circumstance that -Odysseus and Ajax Telamon, islanders both, are the -only heroes of the first rank who invariably combat -on foot.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f92'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r92'>92</a>. </span>Mure, <i>Literature of Ancient Greece</i>, vol. ii. p. 87.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The individual Greek warriors singled out for -praise as ‘horse-tamers’ are only two—Thrasymedes -and Diomed. The choice had, in each case, readily -discernible motives. Thrasymedes was a son of -Nestor; and Nestor, through his father Peleus, was -sprung from Poseidon, the creator and patron of the -horse. This mythical association resulted from a -natural sequence of ideas. The absence of the horse -from the ‘glist’ring zodiac’ is one of many proofs of -his strangeness to Eastern mythology; but the neglect -was compensated in the West. His position in Greek -folk-lore, according to Dr. Milchhöfer,<a id='r93' /><a href='#f93' class='c017'><b>[93]</b></a> indicates a -primitive confusion of thought between winds and -waves as cause and effect, or rather, perhaps, tells of -the transference to the sea of the cloud-fancies of an inland -people. However this be, horse-headed monsters -are extremely prevalent on the archaic engraved -stones found numerously in the Peloponnesus and -the islands of the Ægean; and these monsters—winged, -and with birds’ legs—represent, it would seem, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>original harpy-form in which early Greek imagination -embodied the storm-winds—</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f93'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r93'>93</a>. </span><i>Die Anfänge der Kunst in Griechenland</i>, pp. 58-61.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Boreas and Cæcias and Argestes loud—</div> - <div class='line'>Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise,</div> - <div class='line'>Sirocco and Libecchio.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>The horse-headed Demeter, too, was one of the -Erinyes, under-world dæmonic beings of windy origin, -merging indeed into the Harpies. The Homeric -Harpy Podarge, mother of the immortal steeds of -Achilles, was, moreover, of scarcely disguised equine -nature; while the colts of Ericthonius had Boreas -for their sire.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>These, o’er the teeming cornfields as they flew,</div> - <div class='line'>Skimm’d o’er the standing ears, nor broke the haulm,</div> - <div class='line'>And, o’er wide Ocean’s bosom as they flew,</div> - <div class='line'>Skimm’d o’er the topmost spray of th’ hoary sea.<a id='r94' /><a href='#f94' class='c017'><b>[94]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f94'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r94'>94</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xx. 226-29 (Lord Derby’s translation).</p> -</div> -<p class='c019'>So Æneas related to Achilles; not perhaps without -some touch of metaphor.</p> -<p class='c015'>The figure of speech by which the swiftest of -known animals was likened to a rushing tempest, lay -ready at hand; and a figure of speech is apt to be -treated as a statement of fact by men who have not -yet learned to make fine distinctions. Upon this -particular one as a basis, a good deal of fable was -built. The northern legends, for instance, of the -Wild Huntsman, and of the rides of the blusterous -Odin upon an eight-legged charger equally at home -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>on land and on sea; besides the story of the strong -horse Svadilfaxi, personifying the North Wind, who -helped his master, the icy Scandinavian winter, to -build the castle of the Asar. The same obvious -similitude was carried out, by southern imaginations, -in the subjection of the horse to the established -ruler of winds and waves, who is even qualified by -the characteristically equine epithet ‘dark-maned’ -(κυανοχαίτης.)<a id='r95' /><a href='#f95' class='c017'><b>[95]</b></a> The attribution, however, to Poseidon -of a more or less equine nature may have been immediately -suggested by the resemblance, palpable to -unsophisticated folk, of his crested billows to the impetuous -advance of galloping steeds, whose flowing -manes and curving lineaments of changeful movement -seemed to reproduce the tossing spray and -thunderous charge of the ‘earth-shaking’ element.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f95'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r95'>95</a>. </span>Cf. Geddes, <i>Problem of the Homeric Poems</i>, p. 207.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the Thirteenth Iliad, the closeness of this relationship -is naïvely brought into view. The occasion -was a pressing one. Nothing less was contemplated -than the affording of surreptitious divine aid to the -hard-pressed Achæan host; and the ‘shining eyes’ of -Zeus, whose interdict was still in full force, might at -any moment revert from the Thracians and Hippomolgi -to the less virtuous Greeks and Trojans. -Everything, then, depended upon promptitude, and -Poseidon accordingly, in the absence of his consort -Amphitrite, did not disdain to act as his own groom. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>Himself he harnessed to his brazen car the ‘bronze-hoofed’ -coursers stabled beneath the sea at Ægæ; -himself wielded the golden scourge with which he -urged their rapid passage, amid the damp homage of -dutiful but dripping sea-monsters, to a submarine -recess between Tenedos and Imbros:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And the sea’s face was parted with a smile,</div> - <div class='line'>And rapidly the horses sped the while.<a id='r96' /><a href='#f96' class='c017'><b>[96]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>There he himself provided ambrosial forage for their -support during his absence on the battle-field, taking -the precaution, before his departure, of attaching -infrangible golden shackles to the agile feet that might -else have been tempted to stray. Yet all this pains -was taken for the mere sake of what must be called -‘swagger.’ Poseidon, calmly seated on the Samothracian -height, was already within full view of the -plain and towers of Ilium, when</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in27'>Sudden at last</div> - <div class='line'>He rose, and swiftly down the steep he passed,</div> - <div class='line'>The mountain trembled with each step he took,</div> - <div class='line'>The forest with the quaking mountain shook.</div> - <div class='line'>Three strides he made, and with the fourth he stood</div> - <div class='line'>At Ægæ, where is founded ‘neath the flood</div> - <div class='line'>His hall of glorious gold that cannot fade.<a id='r97' /><a href='#f97' class='c017'><b>[97]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>And the journey westward was deliberately made -for the purpose of fetching an equipage which proved -rather an embarrassment than an assistance to him. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>‘But for the honour of the thing,’ as an Irishman -remarked of his jaunt in a bottomless sedan-chair, he -‘might just as well have walked.’</p> -<div class='footnote c020' id='f96'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r96'>96</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xiii. 29, 30. (Translation by R. Garnett, <i>Universal Review</i>, vol. v.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote c020' id='f97'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r97'>97</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xiii. 17-22.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>Not without reason, then, was equestrian skill associated -with Poseidonian lineage. Nestor himself -was an enthusiastic horse-lover; yet the Pylian breed -was none of the best; and he anxiously warned his -son Antilochus, preparatory to the starting of the -chariot-race commemorative of Patroclus, that he -must supply by finesse for the slowness of his team. -Poseidon himself, he reminded him, had been his -instructor; and no less, it may be presumed, of his -brother Thrasymedes, whose feats in this direction, -however, are summed up in the laudatory expression -bestowed on him in common with Diomed.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The connoisseurship of this latter, on the contrary, -is perpetually in evidence. As king of ‘horse-feeding -Argos,’ he knew and prized what was best in -horseflesh, and counted no risk too great for the purpose -of securing it. His brilliant success accordingly, -in the capture of famous steeds, rendered the original -inferiority of his own a matter of indifference. It -served, indeed, only to quicken his zeal to replace -them by force or fraud with better. And it fell out -most opportunely that, just at the conjuncture when -the protection of Athene rendered him irresistible, -Æneas, temporarily allied with the Lycian archer -Pandarus, undertook the hopeless task of staying his -victorious career. The Dardanian hero was driving a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>matchless team, ‘the best under the dawn or the sun’; -and he found leisure, notwithstanding the celerity -of their onset, to extol their qualities to his companion, -while Diomed recited the to him familiar tale of their -pedigree to his charioteer, Sthenelus. They were of -the race of those with which the ransom of Ganymede -had been paid by Zeus to Tros, King of Phrygia, his -father, and were hence known distinctively as <i>Trojan</i> -horses. Their possession was regarded as of inestimable -importance.</p> - -<p class='c015'>That was the day of glory of the son of Tydeus, -whom ‘Pallas Athene did not permit to tremble.’ -Destiny waited on his desires. His spear sent Pandarus -to the shades; Æneas was barely rescued by the -maternal intervention of Aphrodite, who came off by no -means scatheless from the adventure. Above all, the -Dardanian ‘messengers of terror’ were led in triumph -across to the Achæan camp. They did not remain -there idle. On the following day, Nestor was invited -to admire their paces, as they carried him and their -new master beyond the reach of Hector’s fury, the -fortune of war having by that time effectively changed -sides. Their subsequent victory in the Patroclean -chariot-race was a foregone conclusion. For their -Olympian connexions would have made their defeat -by clover-cropping animals of ordinary lineage appear -a gross anomaly; and the horses of Achilles, as being -immortal and invincible, were expressly excluded from -the competition.</p> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>The night-adventure of Diomed and Odysseus, -narrated in the Tenth Iliad, is unmistakably an -after-thought and interlude. To what precedes it is -in part irrelevant; with what follows it is wholly unconnected; -nor is it logically complete in itself. The -interpolation is, none the less, of respectable antiquity, -going back certainly to the eighth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>; it has -high merits of its own, and could ill be spared from -the body of what it is convenient to call Homeric -poetry. Its admission, to be sure, crowds into one -night performances enough to occupy several, but this -superfluity of business scarcely troubles any genially -disposed reader; nor need he grudge Odysseus the -three suppers—one of them perhaps better described -as a breakfast—amply earned by his indefatigable -services in the epic cause, and counterbalanced by -many subsequent privations. The point, however, to -be specially noted by us here, is that in the ‘Doloneia’—as -the tenth book is designated—equestrian -interests, its extraneous origin notwithstanding, are -paramount.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The opening situation is that magnificently described -at the close of the eighth book, when the -‘dark-ribbed ships’ by the Hellespont seemed to -cower before the menacing camp-fires of the victorious -Trojans. Indeed, most of those who lay in their -shadow would gladly have grasped, before it was too -late, at the means of escape they offered. Agamemnon’s -fluctuating mind, too, might easily have been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>brought to that inglorious decision; but for the -moment, he relieved his restless anxiety by hastily -summoning to a nocturnal council a few of the most -prominent Achæan chiefs. The somewhat inadequate -result of their deliberations was the despatch of a -scouting party to the Trojan quarters, Diomed and -Odysseus being inevitably chosen for the discharge of -the perilous office—inevitably, since in the legend of -Troy, these two are again and again coupled in the -performance of venturesome, if not questionable, -exploits.<a id='r98' /><a href='#f98' class='c017'><b>[98]</b></a> They had sallied forth unarmed on the -sudden summons of the ‘king of men,’ but collected -from the sympathetic bystanders a scratch-lot of -weapons; and Meriones lent to Odysseus for the -emergency a peculiar head-piece of leather lined with -felt, and strengthened with rows of boars’ teeth,<a id='r99' /><a href='#f99' class='c017'><b>[99]</b></a> the -like of which, judging from the profusion of sliced -tusks met with in Mycenæan graves, was probably -familiar of old in the Peloponnesus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f98'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r98'>98</a>. </span>Preller, <i>Griechische Mythologie</i>, Bd. ii. p. 405, 3te Auflage.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f99'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r99'>99</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 261-71.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>It was pitch dark as the adventurers traversed the -marshy land about the Simoeis; but the rise, with -heavy wing-flappings, of a startled heron on their -right, dispelled their misgivings, and evoked their -pious rejoicings at the assurance it afforded of -Athene’s protection. Their next encounter was with -Hector’s emissary, the luckless Dolon, a poor creature -beyond doubt, vain, feather-headed, unstable, pusillanimous, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>yet piteous to us even now in the sanguine -loquacity that merged into a death-shriek as the -fierce blade of Diomed severed the tendons of his -throat. He had served his purpose, and was contemptuously, -nay treacherously, dismissed from life. -But the temptation suggested by him was irresistible. -Instincts of cupidity, keen in both heroes, had been -fully roused by his account of the splendid and unguarded -equipment of the newly-arrived leader of a -Thracian contingent to the Trojan army. As he told -them:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>King Rhesus, Eionëus’ son, commands them, who hath steeds,</div> - <div class='line'>More white than snow, huge, and well shaped; their fiery pace exceeds</div> - <div class='line'>The winds in swiftness; these I saw, his chariot is with gold</div> - <div class='line'>And pallid silver richly framed, and wondrous to behold;</div> - <div class='line'>His great and golden armour is not fit a man should wear,</div> - <div class='line'>But for immortal shoulders framed.<a id='r100' /><a href='#f100' class='c017'><b>[100]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f100'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r100'>100</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 435-41 (Chapman’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Now Odysseus and Diomed both loved plunder; -each in his own way was of a reckless and dare-devil -disposition; and one at any rate was a passionate -admirer of equine beauty. They accordingly did not -hesitate to follow up Dolon’s indications, which proved -quite accurate. The followers of Rhesus were weary -from their recent journey; Diomed had no difficulty -in slaying a dozen of them in ranks as they slept, and -so reaching the king, whose premonitory nightmare of -destruction was abruptly dissolved by its realisation. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>The coveted horses tethered alongside having been -meanwhile secured by Odysseus, swiftly conveyed the -exultant raiders back to the Achæan ships.</p> - -<p class='c015'>But in what manner? On their backs or drawn -behind them in the glittering Thracian chariot? -Opinions are divided. Euripides assumed that the -latter formed part of the booty,<a id='r101' /><a href='#f101' class='c017'><b>[101]</b></a> yet the Homeric expressions -rather imply that it was left <i>in statu quo</i>. -They are not, on the other hand, easily reconciled -with the supposition of an escape on horseback from -the scene of carnage. This, none the less, was almost -certainly what the poet meant to convey, and his unfamiliarity -with the art of riding was doubtless the -cause of his conveying it badly.<a id='r102' /><a href='#f102' class='c017'><b>[102]</b></a> Homeric heroes, as -a rule infringed only by this one exception, never -mounted their steeds; they used them solely in light -draught. Equitation was indeed known of as a -branch in which special skill might be acquired; but -for the ignoble purpose of popular, perhaps venal, -display. Thus the performance of leaping from one to -the other of four galloping horses, brought in to illustrate -the agility with which Ajax strode from deck to -deck of the menaced Thessalian ships,<a id='r103' /><a href='#f103' class='c017'><b>[103]</b></a> excites indeed -astonishment, but astonishment of the inferior kind -raised by the feats of a clown or a circus-rider. The -passage has found a curious commentary in a faded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>painting on a wall of the ancient palace at Tiryns, representing -an acrobat springing on the back of a -rushing bull.<a id='r104' /><a href='#f104' class='c017'><b>[104]</b></a> He is unmistakably a specimen of the -class of performer to which the nimble equestrian of -the Iliad belonged.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f101'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r101'>101</a>. </span><i>Rhesos</i>, 797.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f102'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r102'>102</a>. </span>Eyssenhardt, <i>Jahrbuch für Philologie</i>, Bd. cix. p. 598; Ameis’s -<i>Iliad</i>, Heft iv. p. 38.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f103'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r103'>103</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xv. 679.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f104'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r104'>104</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 119.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The animated story of the Doloneia, however, originated -most likely in a primitive nature-parable, -symbolising, in one of its innumerable forms, the ever-renewed -struggle of darkness with light. The prize -carried off by Diomed and Odysseus was, this being -so, nothing less than the equipage of the sun; yet the -solar horses are, mythologically, scarcely separable -from the vehicle attached to them. Our bard, it is -true, being wholly intent upon the concrete aspect of -the tale he had to tell, felt no incongruity in the disjunction; -and he certainly took no pains to perpetuate -the traditional shape of his materials. Unconsciously, -however, he has allowed some vestiges of -solar relationships to survive among the less fortunate -actors in his little drama. They can be traced -in the wrath of Apollo at the exploit achieved, while -he was off his guard, through the assistance of the -predatory Athene;<a id='r105' /><a href='#f105' class='c017'><b>[105]</b></a> and perhaps in the costume of -Dolon, who clothed himself, we are told, for his disastrous -expedition in ‘the skin of a grey wolf.’ Now -the wolf became early entangled, in Aryan folk-lore, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>with luminous associations. At first, possibly through -contrast and antagonism, exemplified in the hostile -pursuit, by the Scandinavian animal, of the sun and -moon; later, through capricious identification. The -lupine connexions of the Hellenic Apollo may be thus -explained. They were, at any rate, strongly accentuated; -and Dolon wore, in some sense, albeit ignobly, -‘the livery of the burnished sun.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f105'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r105'>105</a>. </span>It is worth notice that in the Euripidean tragedy <i>Rhesos</i>, -‘Phœbos’ is the watchword for that night.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Manifestly solar, on the other hand, are the -snowy horses from across the Hellespont. Nestor, -who, characteristically enough, first caught the sound -of their galloping approach to the Greek outposts, -demanded of their captors in amazement:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>How have you made this horse your prize? Pierced you the dangerous host,</div> - <div class='line'>Where such gems stand? Or did some god your high attempts accost,</div> - <div class='line'>And honoured you with this reward? Why, they be like the rays</div> - <div class='line'>The sun effuseth.<a id='r106' /><a href='#f106' class='c017'><b>[106]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f106'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r106'>106</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 545-47 (Chapman’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Thracian pair, moreover, are the only <i>white</i> -horses mentioned in the Iliad. All the rest were -chestnut, bay, or brown. One of those reft from -Æneas by Diomed, was sorrel, with a white crescent -on the forehead;<a id='r107' /><a href='#f107' class='c017'><b>[107]</b></a> Achilles, or Patroclus for him, -drove a chestnut and a piebald; a pair of rufous bays -drew the chariot of Asius. No black horse appears -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>on the scene; nor can we be sure that the ‘dark-maned,’ -mythical Areion was really understood to be -of sable tint. Admiration for white horses was not -spontaneous among the Greeks. It sprang up in the -East as a consequence of their figurative association -with the sun. The Iranian fable of the solar chariot -drawn by spotless coursers, carried everywhere with -it, in its diffusion west, south, and north, an imaginative -impression of the sacredness of such animals.<a id='r108' /><a href='#f108' class='c017'><b>[108]</b></a> -They were chosen out for the Magian sacrifices;<a id='r109' /><a href='#f109' class='c017'><b>[109]</b></a> they -were tended in Scandinavian temple-enclosures, and -their neighings oracularly interpreted;<a id='r110' /><a href='#f110' class='c017'><b>[110]</b></a> a white -horse was dubiously reported by Strabo to be periodically -immolated by the Veneti in commemoration of -Diomed’s fabulous sovereignty over the Adriatic;<a id='r111' /><a href='#f111' class='c017'><b>[111]</b></a> -and it became a recognised mythological principle -that superhuman beings should be, like the Wild -Huntsman of the Black Forest, <i>Schimmelreiter</i>. -‘White as snow’ were the steeds of the Great Twin -Brethren; white as snow the ‘horse with the terrible -rider’ in Raphael’s presentation of the Vision that -vindicated the sanctity of the Jewish Temple; Odin -thundered over the mountain-tops on a pallid courser; -and it was deemed scandalous presumption in Camillus -to have his triumphal chariot drawn to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>Capitol after the fall of Veii by a milk-white team, fit -only for the transport of an immortal god.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f107'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r107'>107</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xxiii. 454.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f108'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r108'>108</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>Wanderings of Plants and Animals</i>, pp. -53-54.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f109'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r109'>109</a>. </span><i>Herodotus</i>, vii. 114.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f110'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r110'>110</a>. </span>Weinhold, <i>Altnordisches Leben</i>, p. 49.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f111'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r111'>111</a>. </span><i>Geography</i>, lib. v. cap. i. sect. 9.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Such, too, were the horses of Rhesus; and their -evanescent appearance in Homeric narrative tallies -with their unsubstantial nature. They sink into -complete oblivion after the scene of their nocturnal -abduction. Their quondam master could lay claim -to scarcely a more solid core of existence. Euripides’ -account of his parentage is that he was the son of the -River Strymon and of the muse Terpsichore; which, -being interpreted, means that he personified a local -stream.<a id='r112' /><a href='#f112' class='c017'><b>[112]</b></a> He obtained, however, posthumous reputation -and honours, as a prophet at Amphipolis, as a -rider and hunter at Rhodope.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f112'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r112'>112</a>. </span>Preller, <i>Griech. Myth.</i> Bd. ii. p. 428.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The relations of men and horses are, in every -part of the Iliad, systematically regulated and consistently -maintained. There is nothing casual about -them. Thus, Paris’s lack of a conveyance serves to -emphasise his inferiority in the field. He was a -craven at close quarters, though formidable as a bow-man, -despatching his arrows from the safe shelter of -the ranks. For the adventurous sallies rendered possible -only by the aid of fleet steeds, he had neither -taste nor aptitude.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Hector, on the contrary, was distinguished above -all other Homeric warriors by driving four horses -abreast—above all Homeric gods and goddesses -even, since Poseidon himself, Ares, Heré, and Eos, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>were content each with a pair. In their case, however, -the seeming deficiency was a point of real superiority. -For no more than two horses can have been -in effective employment in drawing Hector’s chariot, -the remaining two being held in reserve against accidents. -But Olympian coursers were presumably -exempt from mortal casualties, and there was hence -no need to provide for the emergency of their disablement. -Critics, nevertheless, of the ultra-strict school, -taking offence at the unexpected introduction of a -four-in-hand, have proclaimed the entire enshrining -passage spurious. Perhaps on insufficient grounds; -yet as to this there may be two opinions; there can -be only one as to its being stirring and splendid.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The formal introduction of the only horses on the -Trojan side dignified with proper names, makes an -impressive exordium to the lay of Trojan victory after -Diomed’s audacious resistance had been turned to -flight by the thunder-bolt of Zeus. Hector’s fiery incitements -were addressed no less earnestly to his equine -servants than to his Lycian and Dardanian allies.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Then cherished he his famous horse: O Xanthus now, said he,</div> - <div class='line'>And thou Podargus, Æthon, too, and Lampus, dear to me,</div> - <div class='line'>Make me some worthy recompense for so much choice of meat</div> - <div class='line'>Given you by fair Andromache; bread of the purest wheat,</div> - <div class='line'>And with it for your drink mixed wine, to make ye wished cheer,</div> - <div class='line'>Still serving you before myself, her husband young and dear.<a id='r113' /><a href='#f113' class='c017'><b>[113]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>He went on to represent to them the glorious fruits -and triumphs of victory, but gave no hint of a penalty -for defeat. The absence of any such savage threat -as Antilochus hurled at his slow-paced steeds in the -chariot-race marks his innate gentleness of soul. He -urged only the nobler motives for exertion appropriate -to conscious intelligence. Trust in equine sympathy -is, indeed, widespread in legend and romance. Even -the cruel Mezentius, wounded and doomed, made a -final appeal to the pride and valour of his faithful -Rhœbus; to say nothing of ‘Auld Maitland’s’ son’s -call upon his ‘Gray,’ of the stirrup-rhetoric of Reynaud -de Montauban, of Marko, the Cid of Servia, of -the Eddic Skirnir starting for Jotunheim, or other -imperilled owners of renowned steeds.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f113'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r113'>113</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, viii. 184-190 (Chapman’s trans.).</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>These, now and then, are enabled to respond; but -speaking horses should be reserved for emergencies. -They occur, for instance, with undue profusion in -modern Greek folk-songs. Not every notorious klepht -lurking in the thickets of Pindus, but only some hero -towering to the clouds of fancy, should, rightly considered, -possess an animal so exceptionally endowed. -The lesson is patent in the Iliad. Homer’s instinctive -self-restraint and supreme mastery over the -secrets of artistic effect are nowhere more conspicuous -than in his treatment of the horses of Achilles.</p> - -<p class='c015'>‘Thessalian steeds and Lacedæmonian women’ -were declared by an oracle to be the best Greek representatives -of their respective kinds. In Thessaly was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>the legendary birthplace of the horse; there lived -the Lapiths—if Virgil is to be believed—the first -horse-breakers:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Fræna Pelethronii Lapithæ, gyrosque dedere</div> - <div class='line'>Impositi dorso, atque equitem docuere sub armis</div> - <div class='line'>Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos.<a id='r114' /><a href='#f114' class='c017'><b>[114]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>There, too, the Centaurs were at home; the Thessalian -cavalry became historically famous; the Thessalian -marriage ceremony long included the presentation -to the bride by the bridegroom, of a fully caparisoned -horse;<a id='r115' /><a href='#f115' class='c017'><b>[115]</b></a> and the noble equine type of the Parthenon -marbles is still reproduced along the fertile banks of -the Peneus.<a id='r116' /><a href='#f116' class='c017'><b>[116]</b></a> Thence, too, of old to Troy</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in30'>Fair Pheretiades</div> - <div class='line'>The bravest mares did bring by much; Eumelus managed these,</div> - <div class='line'>Swift of their feet as birds of wings, both of one hair did shine,</div> - <div class='line'>Both of an age, both of a height, as measured by a line,</div> - <div class='line'>Whom silver-bowed Apollo bred in the Pierian mead,</div> - <div class='line'>Both slick and dainty, yet were both in war of wondrous dread.<a id='r117' /><a href='#f117' class='c017'><b>[117]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f114'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r114'>114</a>. </span><i>Georg.</i> iii. 115-17.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f115'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r115'>115</a>. </span>Geddes, <i>Problem of the Homeric Poems</i>, p. 247.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f116'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r116'>116</a>. </span>Dodwell, <i>Tour in Greece</i>, vol. i. p. 339.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f117'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r117'>117</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ii. 764-67 (Chapman’s trans.).</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>Only, indeed, a fraud on the part of Athene prevented -the mares of Eumelus from winning the -chariot-race against the heaven-descended ‘Trojan’ -horses of Diomed; and the Muse, solemnly invoked -as arbitress of equine excellence, declared them the -goodliest of all ‘the steeds that followed the sons of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>Atreus to war,’ save, of course, the incomparable -Pelidean pair.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Xanthus and Balius were the wedding-gift of Poseidon -to Peleus. The sea-god himself had been a -suitor for the hand of the bride, the silver-footed -Thetis; but, on its becoming known that the son to -be born of her marriage was destined to surpass the -strength of his father, something of an Olympian -panic prevailed, and a mortal bridegroom was, by the -common determination of the alarmed Immortals, -forced upon the reluctant goddess. Of this unequal -and unhappy marriage, the far-famed Achilles was -the ill-starred offspring.</p> - -<p class='c015'>So intense is the Homeric realisation of the hero’s -superhuman powers, that they scarcely excite surprise. -And his belongings are on the scale of his -qualities. None but himself could wield his spear; -his armour was forged in Olympus; his shield was a -panorama of human life; his horses would obey only -his guidance, or that of his delegates. Not for common -handling, indeed, were the ‘wind-swift’ coursers -born of Zephyr and the Harpy on the verge of the -dim Ocean-stream. Themselves deathless and invulnerable, -they were destined, nevertheless, to share -the pangs of ‘brief mortality.’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sunt lachrymæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>For they had a yoke-fellow of a different strain from -their own, captured by Achilles at the sack of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>Cilician Thebes, and killed by Sarpedon in the course -of his duel with Patroclus. And they had to endure -worse than the loss of Pedasus. Patroclus, whose -gentle touch and voice they had long ago learned to -love, fell in the same fight, and they stood paralysed -with grief, and unheeding alike the blows and the -blandishments of their authorised driver, Automedon.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They neither to the Hellespont would bear him, nor the fight,</div> - <div class='line'>But still as any tombstone lays his never-stirréd weight</div> - <div class='line'>On some good man or woman’s grave, for rites of funeral,</div> - <div class='line'>So unremovéd stood these steeds, their heads to earth let fall,</div> - <div class='line'>And warm tears gushing from their eyes with passionate desire</div> - <div class='line'>Of their kind manager; their manes, that flourished with the fire</div> - <div class='line'>Of endless youth allotted them, fell through the yoky sphere,</div> - <div class='line'>Ruthfully ruffled and defiled.<a id='r118' /><a href='#f118' class='c017'><b>[118]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f118'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r118'>118</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvii. 432-40 (Chapman’s trans.).</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>A northern companion-picture is furnished by -Grani mourning the death of Sigurd, whom he had -borne to the lair of Fafnir, and through the flames -to woo Brynhild, and now survived only to be immolated -on his pyre. The tears, however, of the weeping -horses in the Ramayana and Mahabharata flow -rather through fear than through sorrow.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The final appearance of the Pelidean steeds upon -the scene of the Iliad reaches a tragic height, probably -unequalled in the whole cycle of poetical delineations -from the lower animal-world. Achilles, -roused at last to battle, and gleaming in his new-wrought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>armour, cried with a terrible voice as he -leaped into his car—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Xanthus and Balius, far-famed brood of Podargê’s strain,</div> - <div class='line'>Take heed that in other sort to the Danæan host again,</div> - <div class='line'>Ye bring your chariot-lord, when ourselves from the battle refrain,</div> - <div class='line'>And not, as ye left Patroclus, leave us yonder slain.<a id='r119' /><a href='#f119' class='c017'><b>[119]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>The sting of the reproach, and the favour of Heré, -together effected a prodigy, and Xanthus spoke thus -to his angry lord:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yea, mighty Achilles, safe this day will we bear back thee;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet nigh is the day of thy doom. Not guilty thereof be we,</div> - <div class='line'>But a mighty God, and the overmastering Doom shall be cause.</div> - <div class='line'>For not by our slowness of foot, neither slackness of will it was</div> - <div class='line'>That the Trojans availed from Patroclus’ shoulders thine armour to tear;</div> - <div class='line'>Nay, but a God most mighty, whom fair-tressed Lêto bare,</div> - <div class='line'>Slew him in forefront of fight, giving Hector the glory meed.</div> - <div class='line'>But for us, we twain as the blast of the West-wind fleetly could speed,</div> - <div class='line'>Which they name for the lightest-winged of the winds; but for thee indeed,</div> - <div class='line'>Even thee, is it doomed that by might of a God and a man shalt thou fall.<a id='r120' /><a href='#f120' class='c017'><b>[120]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f119'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r119'>119</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xix. 400-403 (Way’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f120'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r120'>120</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xix. 408-17 (Way’s trans.).</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>But here the Erinyes, guardians of the natural -order, interposed, and Xanthus’s brief burst of eloquence -was brought to a close. The arrested prophecy, -however, was only too intelligible; it could -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>not deter, but it exasperated; and provoked the ensuing -fiery rejoinder—a ‘passionate outcry of a soul -in pain,’ if ever there was one—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Xanthus, why bodest thou death unto me? Thou needest not so.</div> - <div class='line'>Myself well know my weird, in death to be here laid low,</div> - <div class='line'>Far-off from my dear loved sire, from the mother that bare me afar;</div> - <div class='line'>Yet cease will I not till I give to the Trojans surfeit of war.</div> - <div class='line'>He spake, and with shouts sped onward the thunder-foot steeds of his car.<a id='r121' /><a href='#f121' class='c017'><b>[121]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f121'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r121'>121</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xix. 420-24 (Way’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The aged Peleus was, indeed, destined to leave -unredeemed his vow of flinging to the stream of the -Spercheus the yellow locks of his safely-returned son; -they were laid instead on the pyre of Patroclus. Nor -was their wearer ever to revisit the forest fastnesses -of Pelion, where he had learned from Chiron to draw -the bow and cull healing herbs; yet of the short -time allotted to him for vengeance not a moment -should be lost.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Although Homer tells us nothing as to the eventual -fate of Xanthus and Balius, supplementary legends -fill up the blank left by his silence. It appears hence -that they were divinely restrained from carrying out -their purpose of retiring, after the death of Achilles, -to their birthplace by the Ocean-stream, and awaited -instead the arrival of Neoptolemus at Troy.<a id='r122' /><a href='#f122' class='c017'><b>[122]</b></a> For -he was their appointed charioteer on the Elysian -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>plains, which they may scour to this day, for anything -that is known to the contrary, in friendly emulation -with Pegasus, the hippogriff, and</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>rutilæ manifestus Arion</div> - <div class='line'>Igne jubæ:</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>with the last above all, whose ‘insatiate ardour’ -of speed saved Adrastus from Theban pursuit, and -brought him in the original mythical winner in the -Nemæan games; whose sympathy, moreover, with -human miseries broke down, as in their own case, the -barriers of nature, and accomplished the portent of -speech and tears. Their quasi-immortality is shared -by Bayard, heard to neigh, it is said, every Mid-summer-night, -along the leafy aisles of the Forest -of Ardennes;<a id='r123' /><a href='#f123' class='c017'><b>[123]</b></a> and by Sharats, who still crops the -moss of the cavern where sleeps his long-accustomed -rider, Marko, waiting, like other hibernating heroes, -for the dawn of better days.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f122'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r122'>122</a>. </span>Quintus Smyrnæus, iii. 743.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f123'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r123'>123</a>. </span>Grimm and Stallybrass, <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, p. 666.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>Prophetic horses of the Xanthus type have been -heard of in many lands. They are a commonplace -of Esthonian folk-lore; Dulcefal, the charger of -Hreggvid, king of Gardariki in Old Russia, could -infallibly forecast the issue of a campaign; the -coursers of the Indian Râvana had a just presentiment -of his fate;<a id='r124' /><a href='#f124' class='c017'><b>[124]</b></a> and Cæsar’s indomitable horse -was reported—credibly or otherwise—to have wept -during three days before the stroke of Brutus fell. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>Even the remains of the dead animals were of high -importance in Teutonic divination. Their flesh was -pre-eminently witches’ food; horses’ hoofs made -witches’ drinking-cups; the pipers at witches’ revels -played on horses’ heads, which were besides an indispensable -adjunct to many diabolical ceremonies.<a id='r125' /><a href='#f125' class='c017'><b>[125]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f124'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r124'>124</a>. </span>Gubernatis, <i>Zoological Mythology</i>, vol. i. p. 349.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homer describes the Trojans as flinging live -horses into the Scamander;<a id='r126' /><a href='#f126' class='c017'><b>[126]</b></a> and the Persians in -the time of Herodotus occasionally resorted to the -same barbarous means of propitiating rivers. In -honour of the sun—perhaps the legitimate claimant -to such honours—horses were immolated on the -summit of Taygetus, and a team of four, with chariot -attached, was yearly sunk by the Rhodians into the -sea. The Argives worshipped Poseidon with similar -rites,<a id='r127' /><a href='#f127' class='c017'><b>[127]</b></a> certainly not learned from the Phœnicians, to -whom they were unknown. They were unknown as -well to the Homeric Greeks; for the slaughter on the -funeral-pyre of Patroclus belonged to a different order -of ideas. Here the prompting motive was that ingrained -desire to supply the needs, moral and physical, -of the dead, which led to so many blood-stained -obsequies. Horses and dogs fell, in an especial manner, -victims to its prevalence; and have consequently a -prominent place on early Greek tomb-reliefs representing -the future state.<a id='r128' /><a href='#f128' class='c017'><b>[128]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f125'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r125'>125</a>. </span>Grimm and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 47, 659, 1050.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f126'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r126'>126</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxi. 132.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f127'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r127'>127</a>. </span>Pausanias, lib. iii. cap. 20, viii. 7.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f128'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r128'>128</a>. </span>Gardner, <i>Journal of Hellenic Studies</i>, vol. v. p. 130.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>Homer’s description of the Troad as ‘rich in -horses’ has been very scantily justified by the results -of underground exploration. Few of the animal’s -bones were found at Hissarlik, none at the neighbouring -Hanai-Tepe.<a id='r129' /><a href='#f129' class='c017'><b>[129]</b></a> Yet every Trojan at the present -day is a born rider.<a id='r130' /><a href='#f130' class='c017'><b>[130]</b></a> Locomotion on horseback is -universal, at all ages, and for both sexes. Priam -himself could scarcely now be accommodated with a -mule-cart. He should leave the Pergamus, if at all, -mounted in some fashion on the back of a steed.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f129'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r129'>129</a>. </span>Calvert, in Schliemann’s <i>Ilios</i>, p. 711.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f130'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r130'>130</a>. </span>Virchow, <i>Abhandlungen Berlin. Acad.</i> 1879, p. 62.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The author of the Iliad, however, was no equestrian. -His knowledge of horses was otherwise acquired. But -how intimate and accurate that knowledge was, one -example may suffice to show. A thunderstorm, sent -by Zeus in tardy fulfilment of his promise to Thetis, -caused a panic among the Greeks; the bravest yielded -to the contagion of fear; there was a <i>sauve qui peut</i> to -the ships. In the wild rout,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gerenian Nestor, aged prop of Greece,</div> - <div class='line'>Alone remained, and he against his will,</div> - <div class='line'>His horse sore wounded by an arrow shot</div> - <div class='line'>By godlike Paris, fair-hair’d Helen’s lord:</div> - <div class='line'>Just on the crown, where close behind the head</div> - <div class='line'>First springs the mane, the deadliest spot of all,</div> - <div class='line'>The arrow struck him; madden’d with the pain</div> - <div class='line'>He rear’d, then plunging forward, with the shaft</div> - <div class='line'>Fix’d in his brain, and rolling in the dust,</div> - <div class='line'>The other steeds in dire confusion threw.<a id='r131' /><a href='#f131' class='c017'><b>[131]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f131'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r131'>131</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, viii. 80-86 (Lord Derby’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>The most vulnerable point is here pointed out -with anatomical correctness.<a id='r132' /><a href='#f132' class='c017'><b>[132]</b></a> Exactly where the -mane begins, the bony shield of the skull comes to an -end, and the route to the brain, especially to a dart -coming, like that of Paris, from behind, lies comparatively -open. The sudden upspringing of the death-smitten -creature, followed by his struggle on the -ground, is also perfectly true to nature, and suggests -personal observation of the occurrence described.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f132'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r132'>132</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Homer. Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 175.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Observation, both close and sympathetic, assuredly -dictated the brilliant lines in which Paris, issuing -from the Scæan gate, is compared to a courser breaking -loose from confinement to disport himself in the -open.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As some proud steed, at well-fill’d manger fed,</div> - <div class='line'>His halter broken, neighing, scours the plain,</div> - <div class='line'>And revels in the widely-flowing stream</div> - <div class='line'>To bathe his sides; then tossing high his head,</div> - <div class='line'>While o’er his shoulders streams his ample mane,</div> - <div class='line'>Light borne on active limbs, in conscious pride,</div> - <div class='line'>To the wide pastures of the mares he flies.<a id='r133' /><a href='#f133' class='c017'><b>[133]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>The simile, less happily appropriated to Hector, is -repeated in a subsequent part of the poem;<a id='r134' /><a href='#f134' class='c017'><b>[134]</b></a> and it -was by Virgil transferred bodily to the Eleventh -Æneid, where it serves to adorn Turnus, the wearer -of many borrowed Iliadic plumes. They, however, it -must be admitted, make a splendid show in their new -setting.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f133'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r133'>133</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, vi. 506-11 (Lord Derby’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f134'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r134'>134</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xv. 263.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>The makers of the Iliad, whether few or many, -were at least unanimous in their fervid admiration -for the horse. The verses glow with a kind of rapture -of enjoyment that describe his strength, beauty, and -swiftness, his eager spirit and fine nervous organisation, -his docility to trusted guidance, his intelligent -participation in human contentions and pursuits. -No animal has elsewhere achieved true epic personality;<a id='r135' /><a href='#f135' class='c017'><b>[135]</b></a> -no animal has been raised to so high a dignity -in art. The whole Iliad might be called an ‘Aristeia’ -or eulogistic celebration of the species.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f135'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r135'>135</a>. </span>Cf. Milchhöfer, <i>Die Anfänge der Kunst</i>, p. 57.</p> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span> - <h2 id='ch05' class='c010'>CHAPTER V.<br /> <br />HOMERIC ZOOLOGY.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>The</span> establishment of a clear distinction between men -and beasts might seem a slight effort of defining intellect, -yet it has not been quite easily made. In -children the instinct of assimilation long survives the -experience of difference. A little boy of six, asked by -the present writer what profession he thought of -adopting, replied with alacrity that he ‘would like to -be a bird,’ and it was only on being reminded of the -diet of grubs associated with that state of life, that he -began to waver as to its desirability. The same incapacity -for drawing a boundary-line between the -realm of their own imperfect consciousness and the -mysterious encompassing region of animal life, is -visible in the grown-up children of the wilds. Hence -the zoological speculations of primitive man inevitably -take the form of a sort of projection of human -faculties into animal natures. Now human faculties, -released from the control of actuality, spontaneously -expand. In a vague and vaporous way, they transcend -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>the low level of hard fact, and become pleasantly -diffused in the ‘ampler ether’ of the unknown. -Beasts thus transfigured are incapable, it may be -said, of simple rationality. The powers transferred -to them grow like Jack’s Beanstalk, beyond the range -of sight.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Universal folk-lore, in all its tangled ramifications, -bears witness to the truth of this remark. -Tutelary animals, of the Puss in Boots type, abound -and expatiate there. They are all-contriving and infallible. -Their favour leads to fortune and power. -They hold the clue to the labyrinth of human destinies. -Through their protection the oppressed are -rescued, the ragged are clothed in golden raiments, -the outwardly despicable win princely honours, and -have their names inscribed in the ‘Almanach de Gotha’ -of fairy-land. No wonder that such beneficent potentates, -albeit feathered or furry, should have been -claimed as ancestors and hereditary protectors by -human beings full of untutored yearnings for the unattainable. -To our ideas, indeed, there seems little -comfort or credit to be got out of counting kinship -with a beaver, a bear, or an opossum; but things -looked differently when the world was young; nor -has it yet everywhere grown old. In Australia, black -bipeds still own themselves the cousins and clients of -kangaroos. American Indians pay homage to ‘manitous’ -personally, as well as to ‘totems’ tribally -associated with them; and twilight tales are perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>to this hour whispered in Ireland, about a certain -‘Master of the Rats,’ whose hostility it is eminently -undesirable though lamentably easy to incur.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Even among Greeks and Romans of the classical -age, to say nothing of Aztecs and Alemanni, belief -lurked in the preternatural wisdom of certain animals. -Their formal worship, most fully elaborated in Egypt, -but diffused over ‘Tellus’ orbed ground,’ sprang from -the same stock of ideas. To a remarkable extent, the -Greeks were exempt from its degrading associations. -Their partial survival on Greek soil, as in the veneration -at Phigaleia, of the horse-headed Demeter, represented, -without doubt, an under-current of aboriginal -tradition, reaching back to the Pelasgic fore-time.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Now it might have been anticipated that the -earliest literature would have been the most deeply -permeated by these primitive reminiscences. But -this is very far from being the case. Their influence -is scarcely perceptible in the two great epics of Troy -and Ithaca; and indeed the modes of thought from -which they originated were completely alien to the -ethical sentiments pervading those marvellous first-fruits -of Greek genius. Neither poem includes the -smallest remnant of zoolatry. The Homeric divinities -are absolutely anthropomorphic. They are men -and women, exempt from the limitations, unscathed -by the ills of humanity, and radiant with the infinite -sunshine of immortal happiness. Of infra-human relationships -they exhibit no trace. They are far less -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>concerned with the animal kingdom than they grew -to be in classical times. Typical beasts or birds have -not yet become attached to them. The eagle, though -once in the Iliad called the ‘swift messenger’ of Zeus, -is altogether detached from his throne and his thunder-bolt; -Heré has not developed her preference for -the peacock—a bird introduced much later from the -East; Athene is without the companionship of her -owl; no doves flutter about the fair head of the -‘golden Aphrodite’; Artemis needs no dogs to bring -down her game. The Olympian menagerie, in short, -has not been constituted. On the ‘many-folded’ -mountain of the gods, no beasts are maintained save -the half-dozen horses strictly necessary for the purposes -of divine locomotion.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Very significant, too, is Homer’s ignorance of the -semi-bestial, semi-divine beings who figure in subsequent -Greek mythology. ‘Great Pan’ has no place -in his verse; Satyrs and Tritons are equally unrecognised -by him; his Nereids are ‘silver-footed -sea-nymphs,’ with no fishy tendencies.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Mixed natures of any kind seem, in truth, to have -been little to his taste. Even if he could have apprehended -the symbolical meanings underlying them in -dim Oriental imaginations, he could scarcely have -reconciled himself to the sacrifice of beauty which -they involved. Men, horses, bulls, lions, were all -separately admirable in his eyes; but to blend, he felt -instinctively, was not to heighten their perfections. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>Thus, the hybrid nature of the Centaurs, if present -to his mind, was left undefined as something ‘abominable, -inutterable.’ The Harpies, realised by Hesiod -as half-human fowls, remained with him barely personified -tornadoes. Neither Pegasus nor the Minotaur, -neither the bird-women of Stymphalis, nor the -Griffons of the Rhipæan mountains, found mention in -his song, and he admitted—and that in a family-legend—but -one true specimen of the dragon-kind -in the ‘Chimæra dire’ slain by Bellerophon. The -monstrosity of Scylla is left purposely vague. She -is a fancy-compound defying classification. She -lived, too, in the outer world of the Odyssey, where -‘things strange and rare’ flourished in quiet disregard -of laws binding elsewhere.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In the same region of wonderland occur the -oxen of the Sun—the only sacred animals recognised -by our poet. They had their pasturing-ground in the -island of Thrinakie, whither Helios retired to divert -himself with their frolics after each hard day of -steady Mediterranean shining; and so keen was his -indignation at their slaughter by the famished comrades -of Odysseus, that a cosmical strike would have -ensued but for the promise of Zeus to inflict condign -punishment upon the delinquents. From the shipwreck -by which this promise was fulfilled, Odysseus, -alone exempt from guilt in the matter, was the solitary -survivor.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric treatment of animals, compared with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>the extravagances prevalent in other primitive literature, -is eminently sane and rational. Not through -indifference to their perfections. A peculiar intensity -of sympathy with brute-nature is, on the contrary, -one of the distinguishing characteristics of the -Homeric poems. But that sympathy is based upon -the appreciation of real, not upon the transference of -imaginary qualities. Beasts are, on the whole, kept -strictly in their proper places. The only genuine -example of their sublimation into higher ones is -afforded by the horses of Achilles, and this during -a transport of epic excitement. Otherwise, the -fabulous element admitted concerning animals—and -it is just in their regard that fable commonly runs -riot—is surprisingly small.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In its room, we find such a wealth of acute and -accurate observation, as no poet, before or since, has -had the capacity to accumulate, or the power to employ -for purposes of illustration. It is unmistakably -private property. Details appropriated at second-hand -could never have fitted in so aptly with the -needs of imaginative creation. Moreover, the conventional -types of animal character were of later -establishment. There was at that early time no -recognised common stock of popular or proverbial -wisdom on the subject to draw upon. The lion had -not yet been raised to regal dignity; the fox was undistinguished -for craft, as the goose for folly. Beasts -and birds had their careers in literature before them. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Their reputations were still to make. They carried -about with them no formal certificates of character. -The poet was accordingly unfettered in his dealings -with them by preconceived notions; whence the -delightful freshness of Homer’s zoological vignettes. -The dew of morning, so to speak, is upon them. They -are limned direct from his own vivid impressions of -pastoral, maritime, and hunting scenes.</p> - -<p class='c015'>As to the locality of those scenes, some hints, but -scarcely more than hints, can be derived. For in the -course of nearly three thousand years, the circumstances -of animal distribution have been affected by -changes too considerable and too indeterminate to -admit of confident argument from the state of things -now to the state of things then; while the notices of -the poet, incidental by their very nature, are of the -utmost value for what they tell, but warrant only very -hesitating inferences from what they leave untold. -Thus, it does not follow that because Homer nowhere -mentions the cuckoo, he was therefore unfamiliar with -its note, which, from Hesiod’s time until now, has not -failed to proclaim the advent of spring among the -olive-groves of Bœotia, and must have been heard -no less by Paris or Anchises than by the modern -archæological traveller, along the oak-clad and willow-fringed -valley of Scamander. Nor is the faintest -presumption of a divided authorship supplied by the -fact that the nightingale sings in the Odyssey, but -not in the Iliad. Nevertheless, analogous considerations -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>should not be altogether neglected in Homeric -criticism. They may possibly help towards the -answering of questions both of time and place: of -time, through allusions to domesticated animals; -of place, by a comparison of the known range of -wild species with the fauna of the two great epics. -And, first, as regards domesticated animals.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The list of these is a short one. The Greeks and -Trojans of the Iliad commanded the services of the -horse in battle, of oxen and mules for draught; dogs -were their faithful allies in hunting and cattle driving, -and they kept flocks of sheep and goats. The ass -appears only once, and then indirectly, on the scene, -when the lethargic obstinacy of his behaviour serves -to heighten the effect of Ajax’s stubbornness in fight. -Thus:</p> - -<p class='c022'>And as when a lazy ass going past a field hath the better of the -boys with him, an ass that hath had many a cudgel broken about -his sides, and he fareth into the deep crop, and wasteth it, while -the boys smite him with their cudgels, and feeble is the force of -them, but yet with might and main they drive him forth when he -hath had his fill of fodder; even so did the high-hearted Trojans -and allies, called from many lands, smite great Aias, son of Telamon, -with darts on the centre of his shield, and ever followed -after him.<a id='r136' /><a href='#f136' class='c017'><b>[136]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f136'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r136'>136</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 557-64.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The creature’s ‘little ways’ were then already -notorious, although all mention of him or them is -omitted from the Odyssey, as well as from the Hesiodic -poems. His existence is indeed implied by the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>parentage of the mule. But mules were brought -to the Troad <i>ready-made</i> from Paphlagonia.<a id='r137' /><a href='#f137' class='c017'><b>[137]</b></a> It was -not until later that they were systematically bred by -the Greeks.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f137'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r137'>137</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>Wanderings of Plants and Animals</i>, pp. -110, 460.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Semitic origin of the word ‘ass’ rightly -indicates the introduction of the species into Europe -from Semitic Western Asia. As to the date of its -arrival, all that can be told is that it was subsequent -to the beginning of the bronze epoch. The pile-dwellers -of Switzerland and North Italy were unacquainted -with an animal fundamentally Oriental in -its habitudes. Its reluctance, for instance, to cross the -smallest streamlet attests the physical tradition of -a desert home; and the white ass of Bagdad represents -to this day, the fullest capabilities of the race.<a id='r138' /><a href='#f138' class='c017'><b>[138]</b></a> Yet -neither the ass nor the camel was included in the -primitive Aryan fauna. For they could not have been -known, still less domesticated, without being named, -and the only widespread appellations borne by them -are derived from Semitic sources. Evidently the loan -of the words accompanied the transmission of the -species. It is very difficult, in the face of this circumstance—as -Dr. Schrader has pertinently observed<a id='r139' /><a href='#f139' class='c017'><b>[139]</b></a>—to -locate the Aryan cradle-land anywhere to the east -of the Bosphorus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f138'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r138'>138</a>. </span>Houghton, <i>Trans. Society of Biblical Archæology</i>, vol. v. p. 49.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f139'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r139'>139</a>. </span><i>Thier- und Pflanzen-Geographie</i>, p. 17.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>Dr. Virchow was struck, on his visit to the Troad, -in 1879, with the similarity of the actual condition of -the country to that described in the Iliad.<a id='r140' /><a href='#f140' class='c017'><b>[140]</b></a> The inhabitants -seem, in fact, during the long interval, to -have halted in a transition-stage between pastoral -and agricultural life, by far the larger proportion of -the land supplying pasturage for ubiquitous multitudes -of sheep, oxen, goats, horses, and asses. The -sheep, however, belong to a variety assuredly of post-Homeric -introduction, since the massive tails hampering -their movements could not well have escaped -characterisation in some emphatic Homeric epithet.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f140'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r140'>140</a>. </span><i>Beiträge zur Landeskunde der Troas</i>; Berlin. <i>Abhandlungen</i>, -1879, p. 59.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Both short and long-horned cattle, all of a dark-brown -colour, may now be seen grazing over the -plain round Hissarlik, the latter probably resembling -more closely than the former those with which -Homer was acquainted. The oxen alike of the Iliad -and Odyssey are ‘wine-coloured,’ ‘straight-horned,’ -‘broad-browed,’ and ‘sinuous-footed’; it was above -all through the shuffle of their gait, indicated by the -last adjective, and due to the peculiar structure of -the hip-joint in the whole species, that the poet -distinctively visualised them. ‘Lowing kine,’ and -‘bellowing bulls’ are occasionally heard of, chiefly—it -is curious to remark—in later, or suspected -portions of the Iliad. Sheep and goats, on the other -hand, are often described as ‘bleating,’ and the cries -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>of birds are called up at opportune moments; but -Homer’s horses neither whinny nor neigh; his pigs -refrain from grunting; his jackals do not howl; the -tremendous roar of the lion nowhere resounds through -his forests. Homeric wild beasts are, indeed, save -in the vaguely-indicated case of one indeterminate -specimen,<a id='r141' /><a href='#f141' class='c017'><b>[141]</b></a> wholly dumb.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f141'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r141'>141</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 184.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Singularly enough, a peculiar sensitiveness to -sound is displayed in the description of the Shield of -Achilles. Yet plastic art is essentially silent. Even -the perpetuated cry of the Laocoön detracts somewhat -from the inherent serenity of marble. The metal-wrought -creations of Hephæstus, however, not only -live and move, but make themselves audible to a degree -uncommon elsewhere in the poems. Thus, in -one scene, or compartment, a <i>lowing</i> herd issues to -the pasturing-grounds, where two lions seize from -their midst, and devour, a <i>loudly-bellowing</i> bull, while -nine <i>barking</i>, though frightened dogs are, by the herdsmen, -vainly urged to a rescue. In the vintage-episode -of the same series, delight in melodious beauty is -almost as apparent as in the so-called ‘Homeric’ -hymn to Hermes. The ‘Linus-song,’ ‘sweet even as -desire,’ sung to the youthful grape-gatherers, sounds -through the ages scarcely less sweet than</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in22'>The liquid voice</div> - <div class='line'>Of pipes, that filled the clear air thrillingly,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>when the Muses gathered round Apollo long ago in -the ethereal halls of Olympus.</p> -<p class='c015'>Among the animals now variously serviceable to -man by the shores of the Hellespont, are the camel, -the buffalo, and the cat, none of them known, even -by name, to the primitive Achæans. The household -cat, as is well known, remained, during a millennium -or two, exclusively Egyptian; then all at -once, perhaps owing to the exigency created by the -migration westward of the rat, spread with great -rapidity in the first centuries of the Christian era, -over the civilised world. Saint Gregory Nazianzen -set the first recorded European example of attachment -to a cat. His pet was kept at Constantinople -about the year 360 <span class='fss'>A.D.</span><a id='r142' /><a href='#f142' class='c017'><b>[142]</b></a> No archæological vestiges -of the species, accordingly, have been found in Asia -Minor. Cats haunt the ruins of Hissarlik, but in no -case lie buried beneath them.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f142'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r142'>142</a>. </span>Houghton, <i>Trans. Society Biblical Archæology</i>, vol. v. p. 63.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The bones mixed up among the prehistoric <i>débris</i> -belong chiefly, as might have been expected, to sheep, -goats, and oxen, those of swine, dogs, and horses -being relatively scarce.<a id='r143' /><a href='#f143' class='c017'><b>[143]</b></a> Hares and deer are also -represented, and of birds, mainly the goose, with -scanty traces of the swan and of a small falcon. -These remains are of different epochs, yet all without -exception belong to animals mentioned in the -Iliad, whether as wild or tame. The Homeric condition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>of the pig and goose respectively presents some -points of interest.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f143'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r143'>143</a>. </span>Virchow, <i>loc. cit.</i> p. 63.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The pig was not one of the animals primitively -domesticated in the East. The absence of Vedic or -Avestan mention of swine-culture makes it practically -certain that the species was known only in a -wild state to the early Aryan colonists of Iran and -India. Nor had any more intimate acquaintance -with it been developed in Babylonia; although the -Swiss pile-dwellers, at first similarly behindhand, -advanced, before the stone age had terminated, to -pig-keeping.<a id='r144' /><a href='#f144' class='c017'><b>[144]</b></a> Dr. Schrader, indeed, bases upon the -occurrence only in European languages of the word -porcus, the conjecture that the subjugation of the ‘full-acorned -boar’ was first accomplished in Europe;<a id='r145' /><a href='#f145' class='c017'><b>[145]</b></a> -and if this were so, the operations of swine-herding -would naturally come in for a larger share of notice -in the Odyssey, as the more European of the two -poems, than in the Iliad. And in fact, the swineherd -of Odysseus is an important personage, and plays a -leading part in the drama of his return—pigs, moreover, -figuring extensively among the agricultural -riches of Ithaca, while there is no sign that any were -possessed by Priam or Anchises. Alone among the -Greeks of the Iliad, Achilles is stated to have placed -before his guests a ‘chine of well-fed hog’; and the -very few Iliadic allusions to fatted swine are all in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>immediate connexion with the same hero. If this be -a result of chance, it is a somewhat grotesque one.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f144'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r144'>144</a>. </span>Rütimeyer, <i>Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten</i>, pp. 120-21.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f145'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r145'>145</a>. </span><i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans</i>, p. 261.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The porcine proclivities of modern Greeks are -especially strong. Christian and Mahometan habitations -were, in the days of Turkish domination, -easily distinguished by the sty-accommodation attached -to the former; while in certain villages of the -Morea and the Cyclades, the pigs no longer occupied -a merely subordinate position, and odours not Sabæan, -wafted far on the breeze, announced to the still -distant traveller the nature of the harbourage in -store for him.<a id='r146' /><a href='#f146' class='c017'><b>[146]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f146'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r146'>146</a>. </span>Gell, <i>A Journey in the Morea</i>, p. 63.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The most antique of domesticated birds is the -goose, and Homer was acquainted with no other. -Penelope kept a flock of twenty,<a id='r147' /><a href='#f147' class='c017'><b>[147]</b></a> mainly, it would -seem, for purposes of diversion, since the loss of them -through the devastations of an eagle is treated from a -purely sentimental point of view. They were fed on -wheat, the ‘height of good living,’ in Homeric back-premises. -The court-yard, too, of the palace of -Menelaus sheltered a cackling flock,<a id='r148' /><a href='#f148' class='c017'><b>[148]</b></a> the progenitors -of which Helen might have brought with her from -Egypt, where geese were prehistorically reared for -the table. That the bird occurs <i>only</i> tame in the -Odyssey, and <i>only</i> wild in the Iliad, constitutes a distinction -between the poems which can scarcely be -without real significance. The species employed, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>the Second Iliad, to illustrate, by the tumult of their -alighting on the marshy banks of the Cayster, the -clangorous march-past of the Achæan forces, has been -identified as <i>Anser cinereus</i>, numerous specimens of -which fly south, in severe winters, from the valley of -the Danube to Greece and Asia Minor.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f147'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r147'>147</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 536.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f148'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r148'>148</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xv. 161.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The familiar cocks and hens of our poultry-yards -are, in the West, post-Homeric. Their native home -is in India; but through human agency they were -early transported to Iran, where the cock, as the -bird that first greets the light, acquired in the eyes -of Zoroastrian devotees, a pre-eminently sacred -character. His introduction into Greece was a result -of the expansion westward of the Persian empire. -No cocks are met with on Egyptian monuments; the -Old Testament leaves them unnoticed; and the -earliest mention of them in Greek literature is by -Theognis of Megara, in the middle of the sixth century -<span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r149' /><a href='#f149' class='c017'><b>[149]</b></a> Pigeons, on the other hand, are quite at -home in Homeric verse. They are of two kinds. One -is the rock-pigeon, called from its slate-coloured -plumage <i>peleia</i> (πελόs = dusky), and described as -finding shelter in rocky clefts, and evading pursuit -by a rapid, undulating flight.<a id='r150' /><a href='#f150' class='c017'><b>[150]</b></a> Its frequent recurrence -in similes can surprise no traveller who has -observed the extreme abundance of <i>Columba livia</i> all -round the coasts of the Ægean.<a id='r151' /><a href='#f151' class='c017'><b>[151]</b></a> The second Homeric -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>species of <i>Columba</i> is the ring-dove, once referred to -as the habitual victim of the hawk. Tame pigeons -are ignored, and were, indeed, first seen in Greece -after the wreck of the Persian fleet at Mount Athos -in 492 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r152' /><a href='#f152' class='c017'><b>[152]</b></a> Yet dove-culture was practised as far -back as the oldest records lead us in Egypt and Persia. -The dove was marked out as a ‘death-bird’ by our -earliest Aryan ancestors, and figures in the Vedas as -a messenger of Yama. But Homer, unconcerned, as -usual, with animal symbolism, makes no account, if -he had ever heard, of its sinister associations.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f149'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r149'>149</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>Wanderings of Plants and Animals</i>, -pp. 241-43.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f150'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r150'>150</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 120.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f151'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r151'>151</a>. </span>Lindermayer, <i>Die Vögel Griechenlands</i>, p. 120.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f152'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r152'>152</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 257.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Among Homeric wild animals, the first place incontestably -belongs to the lion, and the Iliad, in -especial, gives extraordinary prominence to the king of -beasts. In savage grandeur he stalks, as it were, -through the varied scenery of its similitudes, indomitable, -fiercely-despoiling, contemptuous of lesser brute-forces. -His impressive qualities receive no gratuitous -enhancement; he rouses no myth-making fancies; -there is no fabulous ‘quality of mercy’ about him, -nor of magnanimity, nor of forbearance; he is simply -a ‘gaunt and sanguine beast,’ a vivid embodiment of -the energy of untamed and unsparing nature.</p> - -<p class='c015'>He is not brought immediately upon the scene -of action; the Homeric poems nowhere provide for -him a local habitation; it is only in the comparatively -late Hymn to Aphrodite that a place is specifically -assigned to him among the feral products of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>Mount Ida. His portraiture, nevertheless, in the -similes of the Iliad is too minute and faithful to -leave any shadow of doubt of its being based upon -intimate personal acquaintance. The poet must have -witnessed with his own eyes the change from majestic -indifference to bellicose frenzy described in the following -passage; he must have caught the greenish glare -of the oblique feline eyes, noted the preparatory tail-lashings, -and mentally photographed the crouching -attitude, and the yawn of deadly significance, that -preceded the fierce beast’s spring.</p> - -<p class='c022'>And on the other side, the son of Peleus rushed to meet him, -like a lion, a ravaging lion whom men desire to slay, a whole -tribe assembled; and first he goeth his way unheeding, but -when some warrior-youth hath smitten him with a spear, then -he gathereth himself open-mouthed, and foam cometh forth -about his teeth, and his stout spirit groaneth in his heart, and -with his tail he scourgeth either side his ribs and flanks and -goadeth himself on to fight, and glaring is borne straight on -them by his passion to try whether he shall slay some man of -them, or whether himself shall perish in the forefront of the -throng.<a id='r153' /><a href='#f153' class='c017'><b>[153]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f153'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r153'>153</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xx. 164-73.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Take, again, the picture of the lioness defending -her young, while</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'>Within her the storm of her might doth rise,</div> - <div class='line'>And the down-drawn skin of her brows over-gloometh the fire of her eyes.<a id='r154' /><a href='#f154' class='c017'><b>[154]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>Or this other, exemplifying, like the ‘hungry people’ -simile in ‘Locksley Hall,’ the ‘imperious’ beast’s -dread of fire:</p> -<p class='c022'>And as when hounds and countryfolk drive a tawny lion from -the mid-fold of the kine, and suffer him not to carry away the -fattest of the herd, all night they watch, and he in great desire -for the flesh maketh his onset; but takes nothing thereby, for -thick the darts fly from strong hands against him, and the -burning brands, and these he dreads for all his fury, and in the -dawn he departeth with vexed heart.<a id='r155' /><a href='#f155' class='c017'><b>[155]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f154'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r154'>154</a>. </span>Way’s <i>Iliad</i>, xvii. 135-36. The feminine pronouns are here introduced -to avoid incongruity. The Homeric vocabulary did not -include a word equivalent to ‘lioness.’</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f155'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r155'>155</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xx. 164-75.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Scenes of leonine ravage among cattle are frequently -presented. As here:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And as when in the pride of his strength a lion mountain-reared</div> - <div class='line'>Hath snatched from the pasturing kine a heifer, the best of the herd,</div> - <div class='line'>And, gripping her neck with his strong teeth, bone from bone hath he snapped,</div> - <div class='line'>And he rendeth her inwards and gorgeth her blood by his red tongue lapped,</div> - <div class='line'>And around him gather the dogs and the shepherd-folk, and still</div> - <div class='line'>Cry long and loud from afar, howbeit they have no will</div> - <div class='line'>To face him in fight, for that pale dismay doth the hearts of them fill.<a id='r156' /><a href='#f156' class='c017'><b>[156]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>We seem, in reading these lines—and there are -many more like them—to be confronted with a vivified -Assyrian or Lycian bas-relief. In the antique sculptures -of the valley of the Xanthus, above all, the -incident of the slaying of an ox by a lion is of such -constant recurrence<a id='r157' /><a href='#f157' class='c017'><b>[157]</b></a> as almost to suggest, in confirmation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>of a conjecture by Mr. Gladstone,<a id='r158' /><a href='#f158' class='c017'><b>[158]</b></a> a similarity -of origin between them and the corresponding -passages of the Iliad. The lion, indeed, occupies -throughout the epic a position which can now with -difficulty be conceived as having been assigned to him -on the strength of European experience alone. Still, -it must not be forgotten that the facts of the matter -have radically changed within the last three thousand -years.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f156'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r156'>156</a>. </span>Way’s <i>Iliad</i>, xvii. 61-67.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f157'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r157'>157</a>. </span>Fellows’ <i>Travels in Asia Minor</i>, p. 348, ed. 1852.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f158'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r158'>158</a>. </span><i>Studies in Homer</i>, vol. i. p. 183.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In prehistoric times, the lion ranged all over -Europe, from the Severn to the Hellespont; for the -<i>Felis spelæus</i> of Britain<a id='r159' /><a href='#f159' class='c017'><b>[159]</b></a> was specifically identical -with the grateful clients of Androclus and Sir Iwain, -no less than with the more savage than sagacious -beasts now haunting the Upper Nile valley, and the -marshes of Guzerat and Mesopotamia.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f159'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r159'>159</a>. </span>Boyd Dawkins and Sanford, <i>Pleistocene Mammalia</i>, p. 171.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Already, however, at the early epoch of the pile-built -villages by the lake of Constance, he had disappeared -from Western Europe; yet he lingered long -in Greece. Of his presence in the Peloponnesus only -legendary traces remain, although he figures largely -in Mycenæan art; but in Thrace he can lay claim to -an historically attested existence. Herodotus<a id='r160' /><a href='#f160' class='c017'><b>[160]</b></a> recounts -with wonder how the baggage-camels of Xerxes’ -army were attacked by lions on the march from Acanthus -to Therma; and he defines the region haunted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>by them as bounded towards the east by the River -Nestus, on the west by the Achelous. Some Chalcidicean -coins, too, are stamped with the favourite oriental -device of a lion killing an ox; and Xenophon <i>possibly</i>—for -his expressions are dubious—includes the lion -among the wild fauna of Thrace. The statements, -on the other hand, of Polybius and Dio Chrysostom -leave no doubt that he had finally retreated from our -continent before the beginning of the Christian era.<a id='r161' /><a href='#f161' class='c017'><b>[161]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f160'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r160'>160</a>. </span>Lib. vii. caps. 125, 126.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f161'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r161'>161</a>. </span>Sir G. C. Lewis, <i>Notes and Queries</i>, vol. viii. ser. ii. p. 242.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>A Thessalian Homer might, then, quite conceivably, -have beheld an occasional predatory lion descending -the arbutus-clad slopes of Pelion or Olympus; -yet the continual allusions to leonine manners and -customs pervading the Iliad show an habitual acquaintance -with the animal which is certainly somewhat -surprising. It corresponds, nevertheless, quite -closely with the perpetual recurrence of his form in -the plastic representations of Mycenæ.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The comparatively few Odyssean references to this -animal can scarcely be said to bear the stamp of visual -directness unmistakably belonging to those dispersed -broadcast through the earlier epic. Yet it would probably -be a mistake to suppose them derived at second-hand. -Without, then, denying that the author of the -Odyssey had actually ‘met the ravin lion when he -roared,’ we may express some wonder that he, like his -predecessor of the Iliad, left unrecorded the auditory -part of the resulting brain-impression. For the voice -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>of the lion is assuredly the most imposing sound of -which animated nature seems capable. Casual allusions -to it in the Hymn to Aphrodite and in the -(nominally) Hesiodic ‘Shield of Hercules,’ are, nevertheless, -perhaps the earliest extant in Greek literature.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The bear figures in the Iliad and Odyssey solely -as a constellation, except that a couple of verses interpolated -into the latter accord him a place among -the embossed decorations of the belt of Hercules. -The living animal, however, is still reported to lurk -in the ‘clov’n ravines’ of ‘many-fountain’d Ida,’ and, -according to a local tradition, was only banished from -the Thessalian Olympus through the agency of Saint -Dionysius.<a id='r162' /><a href='#f162' class='c017'><b>[162]</b></a> The panther or leopard, on the contrary, -although contemporaneously with the cave-lion an -inmate of Britain, disappeared from Europe at a dim -and remote epoch, while plentifully met with in Caria -and Pamphylia during Cicero’s governorship of Cilicia. -Even in the present century, indeed, leopardskins -formed part of the recognised tribute of the -Pasha of the Dardanelles. The life-like scene, then, -in which the animal emerges to view in the Iliad, -bears a decidedly Asiatic character. Mr. Conington’s -version of the lines runs as follows:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As panther springs from a deep thicket’s shade</div> - <div class='line'>To meet the hunter, and her heart no fear</div> - <div class='line'>Nor terror knows, though barking loud she hear,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>For though with weapon’s thrust or javelin’s throw</div> - <div class='line'>He wound her first, yet e’en about the spear</div> - <div class='line'>Writhing, her valour doth she not forego,</div> - <div class='line'>Till for offence she close, or in the shock lie low.<a id='r163' /><a href='#f163' class='c017'><b>[163]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f162'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r162'>162</a>. </span>Tozer, <i>Researches in the Highlands of Turkey</i>, vol. ii. p. 64.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f163'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r163'>163</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxi. 573-78.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Thoroughly Oriental, too, is the vision conjured up -in the Third Iliad of Paris challenging</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>To mortal combat all the chiefs of Greece,<a id='r164' /><a href='#f164' class='c017'><b>[164]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>armed with a bow and sword, poising ‘two brass-tipped -javelins,’ a panther skin flung round his magnificent -form. Elate with the consciousness of -strength and beauty, unsuspicious of the betrayal in -store for him by his own weak and volatile spirit, the -<i>gaietta pelle</i> of the fierce beast might have encouraged, -as it did in Dante, a cheerful forecast of the issue; -yet illusorily in each case. In the Odyssey, the -panther is only mentioned as one of the forms assumed -by Proteus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f164'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r164'>164</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, iii. 20 (Lord Derby’s trans.).</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>The Homeric wild boar is of quite Erymanthian -powers and proportions; with more valour than discretion, -he does not shrink from encountering the -lion himself—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Being ireful, on the lion he will venture;</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>and the laying-low of a single specimen is reckoned -no inadequate result of a forest-campaign by dogs -and men. Such an heroic brute, worthy to have -been the emissary of enraged Artemis, succumbed, no -longer ago than in 1850, to the joint efforts, during -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>several toilsome days, of a band of thirty hunters.<a id='r165' /><a href='#f165' class='c017'><b>[165]</b></a> -The ‘chafed boar’ in the Iliad either carries everything -before him, as Ajax scattered the Trojans fighting -round the body of Patroclus; or he dies, tracked -to his lair, if die he must, fearlessly facing his foes, -incarnating rage with bristles erected, blazing eyes, -and gnashing tusks. Nor was the upshot for him -inevitably fatal. Idomeneus of Crete, we are told, -awaiting the onset (which proved but partially effective) -of Æneas and Deiphobus,</p> - -<p class='c025'>Stood at bay, like a boar on the hills that trusteth to his -strength, and abides the great assailing throng of men, in a -lonely place, and he bristles up his back, and his eyes shine with -fire, while he whets his tusks, and is right eager to keep at bay -both men and hounds.<a id='r166' /><a href='#f166' class='c017'><b>[166]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f165'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r165'>165</a>. </span>Erhard, <i>Fauna der Cycladen</i>, p. 26.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f166'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r166'>166</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xiii. 471-75.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>The boar is a solitary animal. Like Hal o’ the -Wynd, he fights for his own right hand; and he was -accordingly appropriated by Homer to image the -valour of individual chiefs, while the rank and file -figure as wolves and jackals, hunting in packs, -pinched with hunger, bloodthirsty and desperately -eager, but formidable only collectively. Jackals still -abound in the Troad and throughout the Cyclades, -and their hideous wails and barkings enhance the -desolation of the Nauplian and Negropontine swamps.<a id='r167' /><a href='#f167' class='c017'><b>[167]</b></a> -Neither have wolves disappeared from those regions; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>and the old dread of the animal which was at once -the symbol of darkness and of light, survives obscurely -to this day in the vampire-superstitions of -Eastern Europe. The closeness of the connexion -between vampires and were-wolves is shown by a -comparison of the modern Greek word <i>vrykolaka</i>, -vampire, with the Zend and Sanskrit <i>vehrka</i>, a wolf.<a id='r168' /><a href='#f168' class='c017'><b>[168]</b></a> -Nor were the Greeks of classical times exempt from -the persuasion that men and wolves might temporarily, -or even permanently, exchange semblances. -Many stories of the kind were related in Arcadia in -connexion with the worship of the Lycæan Zeus; and -Pausanias, while critically sceptical as regards some -of these, was not too advanced a thinker to accept, as -fully credible, the penal transformation of Lycaon, -son of Pelasgus.<a id='r169' /><a href='#f169' class='c017'><b>[169]</b></a> Such notions belonged, however, to -a rustic mythology of which Homer took small cognisance. -His thoughts travelled of themselves out -from the sylvan gloom of primeval haunts into the -open sunshine of unadulterated nature.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In wood or wilderness, forest or den,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>he met with no bogey-animals. For him neither -beast nor bird had any mysterious significance. He -attributed to encounters with particular species no -influence, malefic or beneficial, upon human destiny. -Of themselves, they had, in his view, no concern with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>it, although ordinary animal instincts might, under -certain conditions, be so directed as to be expressive -to man of the will of the gods. In the Homeric -scheme, birds and serpents exclusively are so employed, -without, however, any departure from the order of -nature. Thus, by night near the sedgy Simoeis, a -heron, <i>Ardea nycticorax</i>, disturbed by the approach -of Odysseus and Diomed, assured them, by casually -flapping its way eastward, that their expedition had -the sanction of their guardian-goddess.<a id='r170' /><a href='#f170' class='c017'><b>[170]</b></a> The choice -of the bird was plainly dictated by zoological considerations -alone; it had certainly no such recondite -motive as that suggested by Ælian,<a id='r171' /><a href='#f171' class='c017'><b>[171]</b></a> who, with almost -grotesque ingenuity, argued that the owl, as the fowl -of Athene’s special predilection, could only have been -deprived of the privilege of acting as her instrument -on the occasion through Homer’s consciousness of its -reputation as a bird of sinister augury—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>the truth being that both kinds of association—the -mythological and the superstitious—were equally -remote from the poet’s mind.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f167'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r167'>167</a>. </span>Von der Mühle, <i>Beiträge zur Ornithologie Griechenlands</i>, p. -123; Buchholz, <i>Homerische Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 202.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f168'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r168'>168</a>. </span>Tozer, <i>Researches</i>, vol. ii. p. 82.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f169'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r169'>169</a>. </span><i>Descriptio Græciæ</i>, lib. vi. cap. 8; viii. cap. ii.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f170'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r170'>170</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, x. 274.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f171'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r171'>171</a>. </span><i>De Naturâ Animalium</i>, lib. x. fr. 37.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Similarly, the portent of</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>An eagle and a serpent wreathed in fight</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>appeared such only by virtue of the critical nature of -the conjuncture at which it was displayed. Hector, -relying upon what he took to be a promise of divine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>help, aimed at nothing less than the capture, in the -rout of battle, of the Greek camp, and the conflagration -of the Greek ships. But every step in advance -brought him nearer to the tent where the irate epical -hero lay inert, but ready to spring into action at the -last extremity; and it was fully recognised that the -arming of Achilles meant far more than the mere loss -of the fruits of victory. The balance of events, then, -if the proposed <i>coup de main</i> were persevered with, -hung upon a knife-edge of destiny; and pale fear -might well invade the eager, yet hesitating Trojan -host when, just as the foremost warriors were about -to breach the Greek rampart, an eagle flying westward—that -is, towards the side of darkness and -death—let fall among their ranks a coiling and -blood-stained snake.<a id='r172' /><a href='#f172' class='c017'><b>[172]</b></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And adown the blasts of the wind he darted with one wild scream;</div> - <div class='line'>Then shuddered the Trojans, beholding the serpent’s writhing gleam</div> - <div class='line'>In the midst of them lying, the portent of Zeus the Ægis-lord,</div> - <div class='line'>And to Hector the valiant Polydamas spoke with a bodeful word.<a id='r173' /><a href='#f173' class='c017'><b>[173]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>His vaticinations were defied. The Trojan leader -met them with the memorable protest:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>But thou, thou wouldst have us obey the long-winged fowl of the air!</div> - <div class='line'>Go to, unto these have I not respect, and nought do I care</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>Whether to rightward they go to the sun and the dayspring sky,</div> - <div class='line'>Or whether to leftward away to the shadow-gloomed west they fly.</div> - <div class='line'>But for us, let us hearken the counsel of Zeus most high, and obey,</div> - <div class='line'>Who over the deathling race and the deathless beareth sway.</div> - <div class='line'>One omen of all is best, that we fight for our fatherland!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f172'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r172'>172</a>. </span>Shelley has adopted and developed the incident in the opening -stanzas of the <i>Revolt of Islam</i>.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f173'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r173'>173</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xii. 207-10 (Way’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Magnificent, but, in the actual case, mistaken. -The shabby counsel of Polydamas really carried with -it the safety of Troy.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The eagle is virtually the Homeric king of birds. -He is in the Iliad ‘the most perfect,’ as well as ‘the -strongest and swiftest of flying things’; his appearances -in both poems, often expressly ordained by -Zeus, are always momentous, and are, accordingly, -eagerly watched and solicitously interpreted; moreover, -they never deceive; to disregard the warning -they convey is to rush spontaneously to destruction. -It is only, however, in the Twenty-fourth Iliad, usually -regarded as subsequent, in point of composition, to -the cantos embodying the primitive legend of the -‘Wrath of Achilles,’ that the eagle begins to be -marked out as the special envoy of Zeus. Later, the -companionship became so close as to justify Æschylus -in implying that the bird was in lieu of a dog to the -‘father of gods and men.’ The position, on the other -hand, assigned, in one passage of the Odyssey, to the -hawk as the ‘swift messenger’ of Apollo, was not -maintained. The Hellenic Phœbus eventually disclaimed -all relationship with the hawk-headed Horus -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>of the Nile Valley. The rapidity, however, of the -hawk’s flight, and his agility in the pursuit of his -prey, furnish our poet, again and again, with terms of -comparison. Here is an example, taken from the description -of the deadly duel outside the Scæan gate.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As when a falcon, bird of swiftest flight,</div> - <div class='line'>From some high mountain top on tim’rous dove</div> - <div class='line'>Swoops fiercely down; she, from beneath, in fear,</div> - <div class='line'>Evades the stroke; he, dashing through the brake,</div> - <div class='line'>Shrill-shrieking, pounces on his destin’d prey;</div> - <div class='line'>So, wing’d with desp’rate hate, Achilles flew,</div> - <div class='line'>So Hector, flying from his keen pursuit,</div> - <div class='line'>Beneath the walls his active sinews plied.<a id='r174' /><a href='#f174' class='c017'><b>[174]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f174'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r174'>174</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxii. 139-44 (Lord Derby’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In popular Russian parlance, too, ‘the hurricane -in the field, and the luminous hawk in the sky,’ are -the favourite metaphors of swiftness.<a id='r175' /><a href='#f175' class='c017'><b>[175]</b></a> Only that -Homer’s falcon has no direct relations with light; -and of those indirectly traceable in the one phrase -connecting him with Apollo, the poet himself was -certainly not cognisant.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f175'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r175'>175</a>. </span>Gubernatis, <i>Zoological Mythology</i>, vol. ii. p. 193.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Vultures always lurk behind the scenes, as it were, -of the Homeric battle-stage. The abandonment to -their abhorrent offices of the bodies of the slain formed -one of the chief terrors of death in the field, and presented -a much-dreaded means of enhancing the penalties -of defeat. The carrion-feeding birds perpetually -on the watch to descend from the clouds upon the -blood-stained plain of Ilium, are clearly ‘griffon-vultures,’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span><i>Vultur fulvus</i>; but the ‘bearded vulture,’ <i>Gypaëtus -barbatus</i>, the <i>Lämmergeier</i> of the Germans, -which, like the eagle, pursues live prey, occasionally -lends, in a figure, the swoop and impetus of its flight -to vivify some incident of extermination.<a id='r176' /><a href='#f176' class='c017'><b>[176]</b></a> Both species -occur in modern Greece.<a id='r177' /><a href='#f177' class='c017'><b>[177]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f176'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r176'>176</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xxii. 302; <i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 428, xvii. 460.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f177'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r177'>177</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 134.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>One of the few bits of primitive folk-lore enshrined -in the Iliad relates to the wars of the cranes and -pygmies. The passage is curious in many ways. It -contains the first notice of bird-migrations, implies -the constancy with which the ‘annual voyage’ of the -‘prudent crane’ was steered during three thousand -years,<a id='r178' /><a href='#f178' class='c017'><b>[178]</b></a> and records the dim wonder early excited by -the sight and sound of that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>Aery caravan, high over seas</div> - <div class='line'>Flying, and over lands with mutual wing</div> - <div class='line'>Easing their flight.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f178'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r178'>178</a>. </span>Koerner, <i>Die Homerische Thierwelt</i>, pp. 62-65.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the Iliadic lines, the clamour of the Trojan advance, -in contrast to the determined silence of their -opponents, is somewhat disdainfully accentuated:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>When afar through the heaven cometh pealing before them the cry of the cranes,</div> - <div class='line'>As they flee from the wintertide storms and the measureless deluging rains.</div> - <div class='line'>Onward with screaming they fly to the streams of the ocean-flood,</div> - <div class='line'>Bringing down on the folk of the Pigmies battle and murder and blood.<a id='r179' /><a href='#f179' class='c017'><b>[179]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f179'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r179'>179</a>. </span>Way’s <i>Iliad</i>, iii. 3-7.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>The simile is felicitously plagiarised by Virgil -in his</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>Quales sub nubibus atris</div> - <div class='line'>Strymoniæ dant signa grues, atque æthera tranant</div> - <div class='line'>Cum sonitu, fugiuntque Notos clamore secundo,<a id='r180' /><a href='#f180' class='c017'><b>[180]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>but with the omission of the pygmy-element, probably -as too childish for the mature taste of his Roman -audience. Its origin may perhaps be sought in -obscure rumours concerning the stunted races encountered -by modern travellers in Central Africa. -The association of ideas, however, by which they were -connected in a hostile sense with ‘fowls o’ the air’ is -of trackless antiquity. It partially survives in the -notion, current in Finland, that birds of passage -spend their winters in dwarf-land, ‘a dweller among -birds’ meaning, in polite Finnish phrase, a dwarf; -and bird-footed mannikins have a well-marked place in -German folk-stories;<a id='r181' /><a href='#f181' class='c017'><b>[181]</b></a> but the root from which these -withered leaves of fable once derived vitality has long -ago perished. Aristotle described the ‘small infantry -warr’d on by cranes’ as cave-dwellers near the sources -of the Nile;<a id='r182' /><a href='#f182' class='c017'><b>[182]</b></a> Pliny turned them into a kind of pantomime-cavalry, -mounted on rams and goats, locating -them among the Himalayas, and conjuring up a -fantastic vision of their periodical descents to the seacoast, -to destroy the eggs and young of their winged -enemies, against whom they could no otherwise hope -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>to make head.<a id='r183' /><a href='#f183' class='c017'><b>[183]</b></a> For such disinterested ravage as -was committed on their behalf by Herzog Ernst, a -mediæval knight-errant smitten with compassion for -the miserable straits to which they were reduced by -the secular feud imposed upon them, could scarcely -be of more than millennial recurrence.<a id='r184' /><a href='#f184' class='c017'><b>[184]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f180'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r180'>180</a>. </span><i>Æneid</i>, x. 264-66.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f181'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r181'>181</a>. </span>Grimm and Stallybrass, <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, pp. 1420, 1450.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f182'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r182'>182</a>. </span><i>De Animal. Hist.</i> lib. vii. cap. ii.; lib. iii. cap. xii.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f183'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r183'>183</a>. </span><i>Hist. Nat.</i> lib. vii. cap. 2.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f184'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r184'>184</a>. </span><i>Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum</i>, Bd. vii. p. 232.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>The Homeric wild swan is <i>Cycnus musicus</i>, great -numbers of which yearly exchange the frozen marshes -of the North for the ‘silver lakes and rivers’ of -Greece and Asia Minor. But the swan of the -Epics sings no ‘sad dirge of her certain ending.’ -Unmelodiously exultant, she flutters with the rest -of the fluttering denizens of the Lydian water-meadows, -in a scene full of animation.</p> - -<p class='c022'>And as the many tribes of feathered birds, wild geese or -cranes or long-necked swans, on the Asian mead by Kaÿstros’ -stream, fly hither and thither joying in their plumage, and with -loud cries settle ever onwards, and the mead resounds; even so -poured forth the many tribes of warriors from ships and huts -into the Scamandrian plain.<a id='r185' /><a href='#f185' class='c017'><b>[185]</b></a></p> -<p class='c024'>Nor do the</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'>Smaller birds with song</div> - <div class='line'>Solace the woods</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>of Homeric landscapes; once only, the ‘solemn -nightingale’ is permitted, in the story of the waiting -of Penelope, ‘to pour her soft lays.’ ‘Even as -when the daughter of Pandareus,’ the Ithacan queen -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>tells the disguised Odysseus, ‘the brown bright nightingale, -sings sweet in the first season of the spring, -from her place in the thick leafage of the trees; and -with many a turn and thrill she pours forth her full-voiced -music bewailing her child, dear Itylus, whom -on a time she slew with the sword unwitting, Itylus -the son of Zethus the prince; even as her song, my -troubled soul sways to and fro.’<a id='r186' /><a href='#f186' class='c017'><b>[186]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f185'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r185'>185</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ii. 459-63.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f186'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r186'>186</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 518-24.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Intense appreciation of the sentiment of sound is -here unmistakable; yet elsewhere in the Homeric -poems we hear of the sharp cry of the swallow, of the -screams of contending vultures, the piercing shriek of -the eagle, the wild pæan of the hawk, the clamorous -vociferations of his terrified victims, but nothing of -the tender notes of thrush, lark, or linnet, though -deliciously audible throughout Greece</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>In spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>Even in the island of Calypso, where delights are -imaginable at will, the poplars and cypresses house -only such harsh-voiced birds as owls, hawks, and -cormorants—perhaps in order to leave the uncontested -palm for sweet singing to the nymph herself. -The power of song does not, indeed, appear to be, in -Homer’s view, ‘an excellent thing in woman.’ It is -not included among the gifts of Athene, or even -among the graces of Aphrodite. None of his noble or -admirable heroines possess it. It is reserved, as part -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>of a baleful dower of fascination, for enchantresses -who lure men to oblivion or ruin—for Calypso, Circe, -and the Sirens.</p> -<p class='c015'>The Odyssey being essentially a sea-story, the -prevalence in its fauna of marine species is not surprising. -Seals frequently present themselves; coots -and cormorants, laughing gulls and sea-mews, dive -and play amid the surges that beat upon its magic -shores; ospreys call and cry; a cuttle-fish is limned -to the life; Scylla has been supposed to represent a -magnified and monstrous cephalopod. Dolphins are -common to the Iliad and Odyssey, and frequent the -Ægean nowadays as of old.<a id='r187' /><a href='#f187' class='c017'><b>[187]</b></a> Their mythical associations -in post-Homeric literature are, indeed, forgotten; -but the direction in which they travel, collected -into shoals, helps the fishermen of Syra and -Melos to a rude forecast of the set of impending -winds.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f187'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r187'>187</a>. </span>Erhard, <i>Fauna der Cycladen</i>, p. 27.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The only significant zoological novelty, then, in -the Odyssey may be said to lie in its recognition of -the goose as a domesticated bird. The prominence -given by it to swine-keeping, only incidentally mentioned -in the Iliad, is also noteworthy. A dissimilarity, -on the other hand, in the ethical sentiment -towards animals displayed in the two poems—above -all, as regards the horse and dog—cannot fail to -strike a dispassionate reader; but this has been -sufficiently dwelt upon in a separate chapter. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>remark need only here be added that the conception -of the dog Argos seems no less thoroughly European -than that of the horses of Rhesus is Asiatic. Both, -it is true, may have had a local origin on the same -side of the Hellespont, but, from the point of view of -moral geography, they undoubtedly belong to different -continents.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span> - <h2 id='ch06' class='c010'>CHAPTER VI.<br /> <br />TREES AND FLOWERS IN HOMER.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>If</span> we can accept as tolerably complete the view of -early Achæan beliefs presented to us in the Iliad and -Odyssey, they included but few legendary associations -with vegetable growths. The treatment of the -Homeric flora, like that of the Homeric fauna, is -essentially simple and direct. One magic herb has a -place in it, and the ‘enchanted stem’ of the lotus -bears fruit of inexplicable potency over the subtly -compounded human organism; but tree-worship is as -remote from the poet’s thoughts as animal-worship, -and flower-myths seem equally beyond his ken. He -knew of no ‘love-lies-bleeding’ stories interpreting -the passionate glow of scarlet petals; nor of ‘forget-me-not’ -stories fitted to the more tender sentiment of -azure blooms; nor of delicate calyxes nurtured by -goddesses’ tears; nor of any other of the wistful -human fancies endlessly intertwined with the beautiful -starry apparitions of spring-tide on the blossoming -earth. The simplicity of his admiration for them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>might, indeed, almost have incurred the disapprobation -of ultra-Wordsworthians. With the ‘yellow -primrose’ he never had an opportunity of making -acquaintance, by ‘the river’s brim’ or elsewhere; -but crocuses or hyacinths, violets or poppies, drew -him into no reveries; no mystical meanings clung -about the images of them in his mind; he looked at -them with open eyes of delight, and went his way.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The oak has been called the king of the forest, as -the lion the king of beasts. But its supremacy is -largely a thing of the past. To the early undivided -Aryans, it was the tree of trees. Their common name -for it, which survived with its original special meaning -in Celtic and Greek, came, in other languages, to -denote the generalised conception of a tree, showing -the oak to have been pre-eminent in their common -ancestral home. Traces of this shifting of the linguistic -standpoint are preserved in some Homeric -phrases. Thus, <i>drûs</i>—etymologically identical with -the English <i>tree</i>—means, not only an oak, but, most -probably, the particular kind of oak familiar to us -in England—<i>Quercus robur</i>, ‘the unwedgeable and -gnarled oak’ of Shakespeare. But the generic significance -gradually infused into the specific term -comes to the front in several of its compounds. A -wood-cutter, for instance, is, in the Iliad, literally an -‘oak-cutter,’ and the ‘solemn shade’ round Circe’s -dwelling was afforded, etymologically, by an oaken -grove, although the meaning really conveyed by the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>word <i>drûma</i> was that of a collection of forest-trees of -undetermined and various kinds. In later Greek, too, -we find a woodpecker styled an ‘oakpecker’; and -the Dryades, while in name ‘oak-nymphs,’ were, in -point of fact, unrestricted in their choice of an arboreal -dwelling-place. By a curious survival of associations, -the name in modern Greek of this antique -forest-constituent is <i>dendron</i>, a tree; yet it is now by -no means common in Greece. Homer’s oaks were -mountain-reared, sturdy, proof against most contingencies -of climate. Of similar nature were Leonteus -and Polypœtes, of the rugged Lapith race, who indomitably -held the way into the Greek camp against -the mighty Asius. ‘These twain,’ we are told, ‘stood -in front of the lofty gates, like high-crested oak-trees -in the hills, that for ever abide the wind and rain, -firm fixed with roots great and long.’<a id='r188' /><a href='#f188' class='c017'><b>[188]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f188'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r188'>188</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xii. 131-34.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The species of oak at present dominant both in -Greece and the Troad is the ‘oak of Bashan,’ <i>Quercus -ægilops</i>. Its fruit, the valonia in commercial demand -for tanning purposes, was made serviceable, within -Homer’s experience, under the almost identical name -of <i>balanoi</i>, only as food for pigs. Homer’s name for -this fine tree—extended, perhaps, to the closely allied -<i>Quercus esculus</i>—is <i>phegos</i>, signifying ‘edible,’ and -denoting, in other European languages, the beech. -How, then, did it come to be transferred, south of the -Ceraunian mountains, to a totally different kind of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>tree? The explanation is simple. No beeches grew -in the Hellenic peninsula when the first Aryan settlers -entered it. A word was hence left derelict, and was -naturally claimed by a conspicuous forest-tree, until -then anonymous, because unknown further north, -which shared with the beech its characteristic quality—so -the necessities of hunger caused it to be esteemed—of -producing fruit capable, after a fashion, of supporting -life.<a id='r189' /><a href='#f189' class='c017'><b>[189]</b></a> So, in the United States, the English -names ‘robin,’ ‘hemlock,’ ‘maple,’ and probably many -others, were unceremoniously handed on to strange -species, on the strength of some casual or superficial -resemblances.<a id='r190' /><a href='#f190' class='c017'><b>[190]</b></a> The tradition of acorn-eating connected -with the rustic Arcadians applied evidently to -the fruit of the valonia-oak, or one of its nearest -congeners;<a id='r191' /><a href='#f191' class='c017'><b>[191]</b></a> and the oracular oak of Dodona, to -which Odysseus pretended to have hied for counsel, -appears to have been of the same description; as was -certainly the tree of Zeus before the Scæan gate, -whence Apollo and Athene watched the single combat -between Hector and Ajax, and beneath which the -spear of Tlepolemus was wrenched from the flesh of -the fainting Sarpedon. These two are the only trees -divinely appropriated in Homeric verse, and they command -but a small share of the reverence paid by Celts -and Teutons to their sacred oaks.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f189'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r189'>189</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans</i>, p. 273.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f190'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r190'>190</a>. </span>Taylor, <i>Origin of the Aryans</i>, p. 27.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f191'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r191'>191</a>. </span>Kruse, <i>Hellas</i>, Th. i. p. 350; Fraas, <i>Synopsis</i>, p. 252.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>The beech is an encroaching tree. Wherever it is -capable of thriving, it tends to replace the oak, which -has lost, apparently, a great part of its old propagative -energy. Possibly its exposure to the attacks of -countless insect-enemies, from which the beech enjoys -immunity, may account for its comparative helplessness -in the battle for life. The beech is, at any rate, -now the typical tree of central Europe; it has aided -in the extirpation of the ancient oak-forests of Jutland, -and has established itself, within the historic period, -in Scotland and Ireland.<a id='r192' /><a href='#f192' class='c017'><b>[192]</b></a> Its habitat is, however, -bounded to the east by a line drawn from Königsberg -on the Baltic to the Caucasus; it is not found in the -Troad, or in Greece south of a track crossing the -peninsula from the Gulf of Arta to the Gulf of Volo. -It grows freely, however, on the slopes of the Mysian -Olympus, as well as on Mount Pelion in Thessaly. -At the beginning of the Macedonian era, too, Dicæarchus<a id='r193' /><a href='#f193' class='c017'><b>[193]</b></a> -described the thick foliage of Pelion as prevalently -beechen, though cypresses, silver firs, junipers, -and maples, also abounded, the last three kinds of tree -having since disappeared, while the beech seems to have -only just held its ground.<a id='r194' /><a href='#f194' class='c017'><b>[194]</b></a> Its relative importance, -then, five hundred years earlier, is not likely to have -been very different; yet Homer, who certainly knew a -good deal about Pelion, whether by report, or from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>observation, never mentions the beech. It is true -that we cannot argue with any confidence from omission -to ignorance. An epic is not an encyclopædia. -The illustrations employed in it are not necessarily -exhaustive of all that the poet’s world contains. We -can, then, be certain of nothing more than that -Homer’s idea of a typical forest did not include the -beech. Its appearance, then, in the following spirited -lines from Mr. Way’s excellent translation of the Iliad, -has no warrant in the original, where the third kind -of tree mentioned is the <i>phegos</i>, or valonia-oak.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And as when the East-wind and South-wind in stormy contention strive</div> - <div class='line'>In the glens of a mountain, a deep dark forest to rend and rive,</div> - <div class='line'>Scourging the smooth-stemmed cornel-tree, and the beech and the ash,</div> - <div class='line'>While against each other their far-spreading branches swing and dash</div> - <div class='line'>With unearthly din, and ever the shattering limbs of them crash.<a id='r195' /><a href='#f195' class='c017'><b>[195]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f192'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r192'>192</a>. </span>Selby, <i>History of British Forest Trees</i>, pp. 309, 319.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f193'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r193'>193</a>. </span>Müller, <i>Geographi Græci minores</i>, t. i. p. 106.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f194'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r194'>194</a>. </span>Tozer, <i>Researches in the Highlands of Turkey</i>, vol. ii. pp. -122-23.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f195'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r195'>195</a>. </span>Way’s <i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 765-69.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The ash, on the other hand, though abundant on -many Greek mountains, no longer waves along the -ridgy heights of Pelion. Yet it was here that the -ashen shaft of the great Pelidean spear was cut by the -Centaur Chiron. For in the Homeric account of the -arming of Patroclus, after we have been told of his -equipment with the shield, cuirass, and formidably -nodding helmet of Achilles, it is recounted:</p> - -<p class='c022'>Then seized he two strong lances that fitted his grasp, only -he took not the spear of the noble son of Aiakos, heavy, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>huge, and stalwart, that none other of the Achaians could wield, -but Achilles alone availed to wield it: even the ashen Pelian -spear that Chiron gave to his father dear, from the crown of -Pelion, to be the bane of heroes.<a id='r196' /><a href='#f196' class='c017'><b>[196]</b></a></p> -<p class='c024'>The shaft in question could certainly have been hewn -nowhere else; the fact of the Centaur’s residence -being attested, to this day, by the visibility of the -cavern inhabited by him, dilapidated, it is true, -but undeniable.<a id='r197' /><a href='#f197' class='c017'><b>[197]</b></a> Here, surely, is evidence to convince -the most sceptical. Its conclusive force is scarcely -inferior to that of the testimony borne by the graves -of Hamlet and Ophelia at Elsinore to the reality of -the tragic endings of those distraught personages.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f196'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r196'>196</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 139-44.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f197'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r197'>197</a>. </span>Tozer, <i>Researches</i>, vol. ii. p. 126.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>The Homeric epithet, ‘quivering with leaves,’ is -fully justified, Mr. Tozer informs us,<a id='r198' /><a href='#f198' class='c017'><b>[198]</b></a> by the dense -clothing of all the heights and hollows of Chiron’s -mountain with beech and oak, chestnut and plane-trees, -besides evergreen <i>under-garments</i> of myrtle, -arbutus, and laurel-bushes. Yet the ash, as we have -said, is missing, nor have the pines felled to build the -good ship ‘Argo’<a id='r199' /><a href='#f199' class='c017'><b>[199]</b></a> left, it would seem, any representatives.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f198'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r198'>198</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> p. 122.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f199'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r199'>199</a>. </span><i>Medea</i>, 3.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the Iliad and Odyssey, too, pine-wood is the -approved material for nautical constructions. It was -probably derived from the mountain-loving silver-fir, -some grand specimens of which grew nevertheless conveniently -near the sea-shore in remote Ogygia, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>provided ‘old Laertes’ son’ with material for his -rapidly and skilfully built raft. Homer distinguishes, -in a loose way, at least two species of pine, but their -identification in particular cases is to a great extent -arbitrary. The trees, for instance, employed in conjunction -with ‘high-crested’ oaks, to fence round the -court-yard of Polyphemus, may have been the picturesque -stonepines of South Italy, but they may just -as well, or better, have been maritime pines, such as -spring up everywhere along the sandy flats of modern -Greece.<a id='r200' /><a href='#f200' class='c017'><b>[200]</b></a> The stone-pine was sacred to Cybele.<a id='r201' /><a href='#f201' class='c017'><b>[201]</b></a> Her -husband, Atys, was transformed into one, with the -result of bringing her as near the verge of madness -as might be consistent with her venerable dignity; -for actually bereft of reason a goddess presumably -cannot be. This, however, was a post-Homeric legend, -and a post-Homeric association.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f200'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r200'>200</a>. </span>Daubeny, <i>Trees of the Ancients</i>, p. 19.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f201'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r201'>201</a>. </span>Dierbach, <i>Flora Mythologica</i>, p. 42.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>What might be called the ornamental part of the -Ogygian groves consisted of black poplars, aromatic -cypresses, and alders. Indigenous there, likewise, -although heard of only as supplying perfumed firewood, -were the ‘cedar’ and ‘<i>thuon</i>,’ split logs of -which blazed within the fragrant cavern where -Calypso was found by Hermes tunefully singing while -she plied the shuttle. The cedar here mentioned, -however, was no ‘cedar of Lebanon,’ but a description -of juniper which attains the full dimensions of a tree -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>in the lands bordering on the Levant.<a id='r202' /><a href='#f202' class='c017'><b>[202]</b></a> The resinous -wood yielded by it was highly valued by the Homeric -Greeks for its ‘grateful smell’; store-rooms for -precious commodities, and the ‘perfumed apartments’ -of noble ladies were constructed of it. This, at least, -is expressly stated of Hecuba’s chamber, and can be -inferred of Helen’s and Penelope’s. The <i>thuon</i>, or -‘wood of sacrifice,’ burnt with cedar-wood on Calypso’s -hearth, was identified by Pliny with the African -<i>citrus</i>, extravagantly prized for decorative furniture -in Imperial Rome, and thought to be represented by -a coniferous tree called <i>Thuya articulata</i>, now met -with in Algeria.<a id='r203' /><a href='#f203' class='c017'><b>[203]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f202'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r202'>202</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 232.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f203'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r203'>203</a>. </span>Daubeny, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 40-42.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The trees shadowing, in the Odyssey, the entrance -by the ‘deep-flowing Ocean’ to the barren realm of -death,<a id='r204' /><a href='#f204' class='c017'><b>[204]</b></a> appear to have been selected for that position -owing to a supposed incapacity for ripening fruit. -The grove in question was composed of ‘lofty poplars’ -and ‘seed-shedding willows’; and poplars and willows -were alike deemed sterile and, because sterile, -of evil omen.<a id='r205' /><a href='#f205' class='c017'><b>[205]</b></a> Even among ourselves, the willow -retains a dismal significance, and it is prominent in -Chinese funeral rites.<a id='r206' /><a href='#f206' class='c017'><b>[206]</b></a> The black poplar continued -to the end sacred to Persephone; but its connexion -with Hades, in the traditions of historic Greece, was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>less explicit than that of the white poplar (<i>Populus -alba</i>). This last tree, called by Homer <i>acheroïs</i>, had -its especial habitat on the shores of the Acheron in -Thesprotia, whence, as Pausanias relates,<a id='r207' /><a href='#f207' class='c017'><b>[207]</b></a> it was -brought to the Peloponnesus by Hercules; and the -same hero, in a variant of the story, returned crowned -with poplar from his successful expedition to Hades. -In the Odyssey the white poplar does not occur, and -in the Iliad only in a simile employed to render more -impressive, first the collapse of Asius under the stroke -of Idomeneus, and again the overthrow of Sarpedon -by Patroclus. ‘And he fell, as an oak falls, or a -poplar, or tall pine tree, that craftsmen have felled on -the hills, with new-whetted axes.’<a id='r208' /><a href='#f208' class='c017'><b>[208]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f204'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r204'>204</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, x. 510.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f205'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r205'>205</a>. </span>Hayman’s ed. of the <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 174; Pliny, <i>Hist. Nat.</i> -xvi. 46.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f206'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r206'>206</a>. </span>Gubernatis, <i>Mythologie des Plantes</i>, t. ii. p. 337.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f207'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r207'>207</a>. </span><i>Descriptio Græciæ</i>, v. 14.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f208'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r208'>208</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xiii. 389; xvi. 482-84.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The author of the Iliad ascribes no under-world -relationships either to the white or to the black -poplar. His sole funereal tree is the elm. Relating -the misfortunes of her family, Andromache says:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in19'>Fell Achilles’ hand</div> - <div class='line'>My sire Aetion slew, what time his arms</div> - <div class='line'>The populous city of Cilicia raz’d,</div> - <div class='line'>The lofty-gated Thebes; he slew indeed,</div> - <div class='line'>But stripp’d him not; he reverenc’d the dead;</div> - <div class='line'>And o’er his body, with his armour burnt,</div> - <div class='line'>A mound erected, and the mountain-nymphs,</div> - <div class='line'>The progeny of ægis-bearing Jove,</div> - <div class='line'>Planted around his tomb a grove of elms.<a id='r209' /><a href='#f209' class='c017'><b>[209]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>Now the elm, like the poplar and willow, had, from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>of old, the not-unfounded reputation of partial -sterility, and was for this reason made the legendary -abode of dreams<a id='r210' /><a href='#f210' class='c017'><b>[210]</b></a>—things without progeny or purpose, -that passing ‘leave not a rack behind.’ Virgil’s -giant elm in the vestibule of Orcus,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in19'>Quam sedem Somnia vulgo</div> - <div class='line'>Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>is the literary embodiment of this popular idea. Evidently, -then, the trees of mourning in the Iliad and -Odyssey were singled out owing to their possession of -a common, though by no means obvious peculiarity; -yet their selection in each poem is different. This is -the more remarkable because associations of the sort, -once established, are almost ineradicable from what -we may call tribal consciousness. Cypresses have -no share in them, so far as Homer is concerned. -Their appointment to the office of mourning the dead -would seem to have been subsequently resolved upon. -The connexion was, at any rate, well established -before the close of the classic age, when funeral-pyres -were made by preference of cypress wood, the -tree itself being consecrated to the hated Dis.<a id='r211' /><a href='#f211' class='c017'><b>[211]</b></a> And -Pausanias met with groves of cypresses surrounding -the tomb of Laïs near Corinth, and of Alcmæon, -son of the ill-fated seer Amphiaraus, at Psophis in -Arcadia.<a id='r212' /><a href='#f212' class='c017'><b>[212]</b></a> The tradition survives, nowadays in the -East, in the planting of Turkish cemeteries.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f209'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r209'>209</a>. </span>Lord Derby’s <i>Iliad</i>, vi. 414-20.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f210'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r210'>210</a>. </span>Dierbach, <i>Flora Mythologica</i>, p. 34.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f211'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r211'>211</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> p. 49.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f212'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r212'>212</a>. </span><i>Descriptio Græciæ</i>, ii. 2, viii. 24.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>The vegetation along the shores of the Scamander -(now the Mendereh) has undergone, so far as can be -judged, singularly little alteration during nearly three -thousand years. Homer sings of</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in6'>the willows, elms, and tamarisk shrubs,</div> - <div class='line'>The lotus, and the reeds, and galingal,</div> - <div class='line'>Which by the lovely river grew profuse.<a id='r213' /><a href='#f213' class='c017'><b>[213]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>And there they have continued to grow. The -swampy district below Hissarlik bristles with reeds -and bulrushes; the whole plain is thick with trefoil -(the ‘lotus’ of the Iliad); while the banks of the -famous stream, once choked with Trojan dead, are -fringed—Dr. Virchow relates—with double rows of -willows intermixed with tamarisks and young elms. -If no such robust trunk is now to be seen as that of -the elm-tree, by the help of which Achilles struggled -out of the raging torrent, the deficiency is accidental, -not inherent. Potential trees are kept perpetually in -the twig stage by the unsparing ravages of camels and -browsing goats. To judge of the former sylvan state -of the Troad, one must ascend the valley of the -Thymbrius—the modern Kimar Su.<a id='r214' /><a href='#f214' class='c017'><b>[214]</b></a> There the -valonia-oak, the ilex, the plane, and the hornbeam, -attain a fine stature; pine-groves clothe the declivities; -hazel-bushes and arbutus, hops and wild vines, -trail over the rocks, and cluster in the hollows. Along -the Asmak, dense growths of asphodel send up flower-stalks -reaching a horse’s withers; the elm-bushes are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>entangled with roses and arums; the turf is sprinkled -with coronilla, dandelion, starry trefoil, red silene; -fields are sheeted white with the blossoms of the -water-ranunculus; the ‘flowery Scamandrian plain’ -that gladdened the eyes of the ancient bard is still -visibly spread out before the traveller of to-day. -Homer, indeed, as Dr. Virchow remarks, knew a good -deal more about the Troad than most of his critics, -even if he did, on occasions, subordinate topographical -accuracy to poetical exigency.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f213'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r213'>213</a>. </span>Lord Derby’s <i>Iliad</i>, xxi. 350-52.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f214'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r214'>214</a>. </span><i>Berlin. Abhandlungen</i>, 1879, p. 71.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The plane-tree nowhere shows to more splendid -advantage than in Greece and Asia Minor; but the -only specimen commemorated in the Greek epics -grew at Aulis, and sheltered the altar upon which the -hecatombs of the expeditionary force were offered -during the time of waiting terminated by the sacrifice -of Iphigenia. It was the scene, too, of a portent; -for one day, in full view of the astonished Achæans, a -serpent crept up its trunk to devour the nine callow -inmates of a sparrow’s nest among its branches, and -on the completion of a sufficiently ample meal by the -deglutition of the mother-bird, was then and there -turned into stone.<a id='r215' /><a href='#f215' class='c017'><b>[215]</b></a> The decade of consumed sparrows—mother -and chicks—signified, according to the interpretation -of Calchas, the ten years of the siege of -Troy; and the reality of the event was attested to later -generations by the display, in the temple of Artemis -at Aulis, of some wood from the identical tree within -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>the living compass of whose branches it had occurred.<a id='r216' /><a href='#f216' class='c017'><b>[216]</b></a> -Had the petrified snake been producible as well, the -evidence would have been complete.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f215'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r215'>215</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ii. 305-29.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f216'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r216'>216</a>. </span>Pausanias, ix. 20.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The legendary plane-tree had, however, when -Pausanias visited Aulis, been replaced by a group of -palms imported from Syria, the nearest home of the -species, whence the Phœnicians had not failed to -transport it westward. It accordingly, as being derived -from the same prolific source of novelties, shared -the name ‘Phœnix’ with the brilliant colour produced -by the Tyrian dye. But its introduction seems to -belong to the later Achæan age. For the palm is unknown -in the Iliad, and emerges only once in the -Odyssey,<a id='r217' /><a href='#f217' class='c017'><b>[217]</b></a> although then with particular emphasis. -The individual tree seen by Homer was probably the -first planted on Greek soil. It spread its crown of -leaves above the shrine of Apollo, at Delos. And when -the storm-tossed Odysseus set his wits to work to win -the protection of Nausicaa—a matter of life or death -to him at the moment—he could think of no more -flattering comparison for the youthful stateliness of -her aspect, than to the vivid upspringing grace of the -tall, arboreal exotic. A tradition, not reported by -Homer, who nowhere localises the birth of a god, -asserted Apollo to have come into the world beneath -that very tree, or one of its predecessors in the same -spot; and it still had successors in the Augustan age.<a id='r218' /><a href='#f218' class='c017'><b>[218]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f217'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r217'>217</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vi. 162.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f218'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r218'>218</a>. </span>Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. i. p. 226.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>The laurel, although exceedingly common in -Greece, is found only in one of the semi-fabulous -regions of the Homeric world. The entrance to the -cavern of Polyphemus was shaded by its foliage, not -as yet sacred to the sun-god. Equally detached from -relationship to Athene is the olive, with which, however, -acquaintance is implied both in its wild and -cultivated varieties. The latter Pindar asserts to -have been introduced into his native country, from -the ‘dark sources of the Ister,’ by Hercules,<a id='r219' /><a href='#f219' class='c017'><b>[219]</b></a> who -showed unexpected skill in the difficult art of acclimatisation; -and the value in which it was held can -readily be gathered from the following beautiful -simile:</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f219'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r219'>219</a>. </span><i>Olymp.</i> iii. 25-32.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>As when a man reareth some lusty sapling of an olive in a -clear space where water springeth plenteously, a goodly shoot -fair-growing; and blasts of all winds shake it, yet it bursteth -into white blossom; then suddenly cometh the wind of a great -hurricane and wresteth it out of its abiding-place and stretcheth -it out upon the earth; even so lay Panthoös’ son, Euphorbos of -the good ashen spear, when Menelaos, Atreus’ son, had slain -him, and despoiled him of his arms.<a id='r220' /><a href='#f220' class='c017'><b>[220]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f220'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r220'>220</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvii. 53-60.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Olive-wood was the favourite material for axe-handles -and clubs; and the bed of Odysseus was -carved by himself out of an olive-tree still rooted -within a chamber of his palace.<a id='r221' /><a href='#f221' class='c017'><b>[221]</b></a> In the modern -Ithaca, the olive alone of all the trees that once -flourished there has resisted extirpation, and everywhere -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>in the Ionian Islands attains a size entitling -its assemblages to rank as forests, rather than as -mere groves.<a id='r222' /><a href='#f222' class='c017'><b>[222]</b></a> Thus, the olive planted at the head of -the bay where Odysseus landed after his long wanderings, -was ‘wide-spreading’ in point of simple fact, -needing no poetical licence to make it so. Olive-oil -does not appear to have been then in culinary employment; -its chief use was for anointing the body after -bathing. This indispensable luxury was provided -for, in opulent establishments, by laying up a goodly -stock of oil among such household treasures as were -entrusted by Penelope to the care of Eurycleia.<a id='r223' /><a href='#f223' class='c017'><b>[223]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f221'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r221'>221</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xxiii. 190.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f222'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r222'>222</a>. </span>Schliemann, quoted in Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. iii. p. 15.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f223'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r223'>223</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, ii. 339.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric poems contain no allusion to the -perfume of either flowers or fruit. This is the more -surprising from the extreme sensitiveness betrayed -in them to olfactory impressions of other kinds. We -hear of ‘scented apartments,’ ‘sweet-smelling garments,’ -of the aromatic quality of the cypress, of the -spicy air wafted through Calypso’s island from the -juniper and citron-logs serving her for fuel, even of -the barely appreciable fragrance of olive-oil. Offensive -odours excite corresponding horror. Menelaus and -his comrades were utterly unable to endure, without -the solace of an ambrosial antidote, the ‘ancient and -fish-like smell’ of the sealskins disguised in which -they lay in wait for Proteus, under the tutelary -guidance of the sea-nymph Eidothea, his scarcely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>dutiful daughter. The Spartan king, relating the -incident to Telemachus, was confident of meeting -with fellow-feeling when he said:</p> - -<p class='c022'>There would our ambush have been most terrible, for the -deadly stench of the sea-bred seals distressed us sore; nay, who -would lay him down by a beast of the sea? But herself she -wrought deliverance, and devised a great comfort. She took -ambrosia of a very sweet savour, and set it beneath each man’s -nostril, and did away with the stench of the beast.<a id='r224' /><a href='#f224' class='c017'><b>[224]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f224'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r224'>224</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 441-46, and Hayman’s notes.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>As we read, the tradition that Homer’s last days -were prolonged by the perfume of an apple, grows -intelligible. And yet the balmy breath of Pierian -violets and Cilician crocuses drew no comment from -him!</p> - -<p class='c015'>The flowers distinctively noticed by him are: -poppies, hyacinths, crocuses, violets, and, by implication, -roses and white lilies. And it is somewhat remarkable -that, while all the items of this not very -long list can be collected from the Iliad, only two of -them recur in any shape in the Odyssey. The former -poem recognises the artificial cultivation of the poppy, -probably, as we shall see, for gastronomic purposes, -since there could be no question at that epoch, in -Greece or Asia Minor, of the preparation of opium. -The death, by an arrow-shot from the bow of Teucrus, -of the youthful Gorgythion, son of Priam and Castianeira, -is thus described.</p> - -<p class='c022'>Even as in a garden a poppy droopeth its head aside, being -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>heavy with fruit and the showers of spring, so bowed he aside -his head laden with his helm.<a id='r225' /><a href='#f225' class='c017'><b>[225]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f225'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r225'>225</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, viii. 306-308.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Crimson poppies now bloom freely along the -Mendereh valley; they were symbolical, in classical -Greece, of fruitfulness, love, and death, and were -associated with the cult of Demeter.<a id='r226' /><a href='#f226' class='c017'><b>[226]</b></a> Their fabled -origin from the tears of Aphrodite for the death of -Adonis, was shared with anemones.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f226'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r226'>226</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 250.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Mount Gargarus, the loftiest peak of Ida, blossomed, -according to the Iliad, with hyacinths, crocuses, -and lotus. This last term designates, however, not -the lily of the Nile, but a kind of clover, much -relished by the steeds, not only of heroic, but of -immortal owners. The fragrant yellow flowers borne -by it are not expressly adverted to; the function of -the Homeric lotus-grass was rather to supply herbage -than to evoke delight.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The identification of the hyacinth of Mount Ida -has employed much learning and ingenuity, and the -result of learned discussions is not always unanimity -of opinion. The case in point is indeed very nearly -one of <i>quot homines, tot sententiæ</i>. The gladiolus, -larkspur, iris, the Martagon lily, the common hyacinth, -have all had advocates, each of whom considers his -case to be of convincing, not to say, of irresistible -strength. The last-mentioned and most obvious solution -of the problem is that favoured by Buchholz,<a id='r227' /><a href='#f227' class='c017'><b>[227]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f227'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r227'>227</a>. </span><i>Loc. cit.</i> p. 219.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>and he supports it with the reasonable surmise that -the epithet ‘hyacinthine,’ applied to the locks of Odysseus, -referred, not to colour, but to form, their -closely-set curls recalling forcibly enough the <i>ringleted</i> -effect of the congregated flowerets. The dry -soil of Greece is particularly suitable to the hyacinth, -sundry kinds of which—one of them so deeply blue -as to be nearly black—are found all over the Peloponnesus, -in the Ionian islands, and high up on -the outlying bulwarks of Olympus.<a id='r228' /><a href='#f228' class='c017'><b>[228]</b></a> The ‘flower of -Ajax,’ legibly inscribed with an interjection of woe, -sprang up for the first time in Salamis, it was said, -just after the hero it commemorated had met his -tragic fate.<a id='r229' /><a href='#f229' class='c017'><b>[229]</b></a> Another story connected it similarly with -the death of Hyacinthus; and it was probably identical -with the scarlet gladiolus (<i>Gladiolus byzantinus</i>), -almost certainly with the <i>suave rubens hyacinthus</i> of -the Third Eclogue, but not with the Homeric hyacinth, -which is undistinguished in folk-lore.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f228'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r228'>228</a>. </span>Kruse, <i>Hellas</i>, Th. i. p. 359.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f229'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r229'>229</a>. </span>Pausanias, i. 35.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The ‘violet-crowned’ Athenians of old, could they -recross the Styx to wander by the Ilissus, would be -struck with at least one unwelcome change. For -violets no longer grow in Attica. They are nevertheless -found, although sparingly, in most other parts -of Greece, and up to an elevation of two thousand -feet on the slopes of Parnassus. Homer often mentions -them allusively, but introduces them directly -only once, and then, as Fraas has remarked, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>the incongruous company of the marsh-loving wild -parsley (<i>Apium palustre</i>).<a id='r230' /><a href='#f230' class='c017'><b>[230]</b></a> Unjustifiable from a botanical -point of view, the conjunction may have had -an æsthetic motive. In the festal garlands of classic -Greece, violets and parsley were commonly associated, -and their association was perhaps dictated by a survival -of the taste displayed in the embellishment of -Calypso’s well-watered meadow.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f230'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r230'>230</a>. </span><i>Synopsis Plantarum</i>, p. 114; Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. i. p. 175.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homeric violets, at any rate, flourished nowhere -else ostensibly; but from their modest retirement -within the poet’s mind supplied him with a colour-epithet, -which he employed, one might make bold to -say, without over-nice discrimination. The sea might -indeed, under certain aspects, be fitly so described; -but iron makes a very distant approach to the hue -indicated; and Nature must have been in her most -sportive mood when she clothed the flock of Polyphemus -in violet fleeces. Polyphemus, to be sure, -lived in a semi-fabulous world, where it has been suggested<a id='r231' /><a href='#f231' class='c017'><b>[231]</b></a> -that wool might conceivably <i>grow dyed</i>, as in -the restored Saturnian kingdom imagined by Virgil;<a id='r232' /><a href='#f232' class='c017'><b>[232]</b></a> -and the dark-blue material attached to Helen’s golden -distaff<a id='r233' /><a href='#f233' class='c017'><b>[233]</b></a> was evidently a far-travelled rarity, such as -might be produced by the use of a foreign dye. But -there is no evidence of primitive acquaintance with a -blue dye; indeed, if one had been known, it is practically -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>certain that the colour due to it would have -been named, either, like indigo, from the substance -affording it, or, like ‘Tyrian’ purple, from its place of -origin. The hue of the violet, however, as it appeared -to Homer, does not bear to be more distinctly defined -than as dusky, while with Virgil it was frankly <i>black</i>.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Et nigræ violæ sunt, et vaccinia nigra.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>Not preternaturally blue, but naturally black sheep, -may then be concluded to have been tended by the -Cyclops.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f231'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r231'>231</a>. </span>Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 116.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f232'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r232'>232</a>. </span><i>Ecl.</i> iv. 42.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f233'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r233'>233</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 135.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>The crocus of Mount Ida—the crocus that ‘brake -like fire’ at the feet of the three Olympian competitors -for the palm of beauty—was the splendid golden -flower (<i>Crocus sativus</i>) yielding, through its orange-coloured -stigmas, a dye once deemed magnificent, a -perfume ranked amongst the choicest luxuries of Rome, -and a medicine in high ancient and mediæval repute. -But its vogue has passed. Saffron slippers are no -longer an appanage of supreme dignity; the ‘saffron -wings’ of Iris are folded; the ‘saffron robes’ of the -Dawn retain the glamour only of what they signify; -to the chymist and the cook, the antique floral ingredient, -so long and so extravagantly prized, is of very -subordinate importance.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Both the word ‘crocus’ and its later equivalent -‘saffron,’ are of Semitic origin. Witness the Hebrew -form <i>karkom</i> of the first,<a id='r234' /><a href='#f234' class='c017'><b>[234]</b></a> the Arabic <i>sahafaran</i> of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>second, developed out of <i>assfar</i>, yellow, and represented -by the Spanish <i>azafran</i>, whence our ‘saffron.’ -The plant was widely and profitably cultivated under -Moorish rule in Spain, and was probably introduced -by the Phœnicians into Greece, though the common -vernal crocus is certainly indigenous there, its white -and purple cups begemming all the declivities of -‘Hellas and Argos.’ The saffron-crocus, too, now -grows wild in such dry and chalky soil as Sunium -and Hymettus afford;<a id='r235' /><a href='#f235' class='c017'><b>[235]</b></a> yet its name betrays its -foreign affinities. Saffron-tinted garments had perhaps -never, down to Homer’s time, been seen in -Greece itself; he was beyond doubt unacquainted -with the actual use of the dye, and distributed with -the utmost parsimony the splendour conferred by it. -Not only were mere mortals excluded from a share in -it, neither Hecuba nor Helen owning a crocus-bordered -peplos, but none such set off the formidable -charms of the goddess-hostesses of Odysseus, in the -fairy isles where he lingered, home-sick amid strange -luxury. Saffron robes are, in fact, assigned by the -poet of the Iliad, exclusively to Eos, the Dawn, while -in the Odyssey, the crocus is never referred to, directly -or indirectly.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f234'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r234'>234</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 199; De Candolle, however, -inclines to believe that carthamine, not saffron, is indicated by the -Hebrew <i>karkom</i> (<i>Origin of Cultivated Plants</i>, p. 166).</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f235'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r235'>235</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 220.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Some centuries after the material part of Homer -had been reduced to</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in21'>A drift of white</div> - <div class='line'>Dust in a cruse of gold,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>crocus-coloured tresses came poetically into fashion. -The daughters of Celeus, in the Hymn to Demeter, -were endowed with them; Ariadne at Naxos, too, -besides other mythical maidens. And Roman ladies -realised the idea of employing saffron as a hair-dye, the -stern disapproval of Tertullian and Saint Jerome notwithstanding.<a id='r236' /><a href='#f236' class='c017'><b>[236]</b></a> -The scent of the crocus was made -part of the pleasures of the amphitheatre by the diffusion -among the audience of saffron-wine in the finest -possible spray, and Heliogabalus habitually bathed in -saffron-water. The flower, too, was noted by Pliny -with the rose, lily, and violet, for its delicious fragrance,<a id='r237' /><a href='#f237' class='c017'><b>[237]</b></a> -Homer’s apparent insensibility to which may -well suggest a doubt whether, after all, he knew the -late-blooming, golden crocus otherwise than by reputation.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f236'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r236'>236</a>. </span>Syme, <i>English Botany</i>, vol. ix. p. 151.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f237'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r237'>237</a>. </span><i>Hist. Nat.</i> xxi. 17.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>As regards the rose and the lily, the doubt becomes -wellnigh certainty. Both gave rise to Homeric epithets; -neither takes in the Homeric poems a concrete -form. The Iranic derivation of their Greek names, -<i>rhodon</i> and <i>leirion</i>, shows the native home of each of -these matchless blossoms to have been in Persia.<a id='r238' /><a href='#f238' class='c017'><b>[238]</b></a> -Thence, according to M. Hehn, they travelled through -Armenia and Phrygia into Thrace, and eventually, by -that circuitous route, reached Greece proper. Commemorative -myths strewed the track of their progressive -transmissions. Thus, the mountain Rhodope in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>Thrace took its name from a ‘rosy-footed’ attendant -upon Persephone, in the ‘crocus-purple hour’ of her -capture by ‘gloomy Dis;’ and in the same vicinity -were located the Nysæan Fields—the scene of the -disaster—then, for a snare of enticement to the -damsel, ablaze with roses and lilies, ‘a marvel to -behold,’ with narcissus, crocuses, violets, and hyacinths.<a id='r239' /><a href='#f239' class='c017'><b>[239]</b></a> -Moreover, roses, each with sixty leaves, and -highly perfumed, were said to blossom spontaneously -in the Emathian gardens of King Midas;<a id='r240' /><a href='#f240' class='c017'><b>[240]</b></a> Theophrastus -places near Philippi the original habitat of -the hundred-leaved rose; and roses were profusely -employed in the rites of Phrygian nature-worship.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f238'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r238'>238</a>. </span>Hehn, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 189.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f239'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r239'>239</a>. </span><i>Hymn to Demeter.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f240'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r240'>240</a>. </span>Herodotus, viii. 138.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Dim rumours of their loveliness spread among -the Homeric Greeks. The standing Odyssean designation -of Eos as ‘rosy-fingered,’ alternating, in -the Iliad, with ‘saffron-robed,’ heralded, it might be -said, the European advent of the flower itself. For -rose-gardens can have lain only just below the Homeric -horizon. Their ambrosial products did not -indeed come within mortal reach, but were at the disposal -of the gods. By the application of oil of roses, -Aphrodite kept the body of Hector fresh and fair -during the twelve days of its savage maltreatment by -Achilles; and oil of roses was later an accredited -antiseptic. Archilochus seems to have been the first -Greek poet to make living acquaintance with the -blushing flower of Dionysus and Aphrodite, which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>became known likewise only to the writers of the later -books of Scripture. The ‘Rose of Sharon’ is accordingly -believed to have been a narcissus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Allusions to the lily do not occur in the Odyssey, -and are vague and ill-defined in the Iliad. The flesh -of Ajax might intelligibly, if not appropriately, be -designated ‘lily-like’; but the same term applied to -sounds conveys little or no meaning to our minds. -Even if we admit a far-fetched analogy between the -song of the Muses, as something uncommon and -tenderly beautiful, and a fragile white flower, we have -to confess ourselves bewildered by the extension of -the comparison to the shrill voices of cicadas, rasping -out their garrulous contentment amidst summer -foliage.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The slenderness, then, of Homer’s acquaintance -with the finer kinds of bloom introduced gradually -from the East, is apparent from his seeming ignorance -of their ravishing perfumes, no less than from the -inadequacy of his hints as to their beauty of form and -colour. His love of flowers was in the instinctive -stage; it had not come to the maturity of self-consciousness. -They obtained recognition from him -neither as symbols of feeling, nor as accessories to -enjoyment. Nausicaa wove no garlands; the cultivation -of flowers in the gardens of Alcinous is left -doubtful; Laertes pruned his pear-trees, and dug -round his vines, but reared for his solace not so much -as a poppy. No display of living jewellery aided the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>seductions of Circe’s island; Calypso was content to -plant the unpretending violet; Aphrodite herself was -without a floral badge; floral decorations of every -kind were equally unthought of. Flowers, in fact, -had not yet been brought within the sphere of human -sentiment; they had not yet acquired significance as -emblems of human passion; they had not yet been -made partners with humanity in the sorrows of death, -and the transient pleasures of a troubled and ephemeral -existence.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span> - <h2 id='ch07' class='c010'>CHAPTER VII.<br /> <br />HOMERIC MEALS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Heroic</span> appetites were strong and simple. They -craved ‘much meat,’ and could be completely appeased -with nothing else; but they demanded little -more. They needed no savoury caresses or spicy -blandishments. Occasion indeed to stimulate them -there was none, though much difficulty might arise -about satisfying them. For they disdained paltry -subterfuges. Fish, game, and vegetables they accepted -in lieu of more substantial prey; but under -protest. Hunger, in consenting to receive such trifles, -merely compounded for a partial settlement of her -claim.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric bill of fare was concise, and admitted -of slight diversification. Day after day, and at meal -after meal, roast meat, bread, and wine were set -before perennially eager guests, in whose esteem any -fundamental change in the materials of the banquet -would certainly have been for the worse. Variety, in -fact, was in the inverse ratio of abundance. Want -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>alone counselled departures from the beaten track -of opulent feasting, and compelled the reluctant -adoption of inadequate expedients for silencing the -imperative outcries of famine. Nevertheless it cannot -be supposed that the epical setting forth of -Achæan culinary resources was as exhaustive as the -menu of a Guildhall dinner. For where would be -the ‘swiftness’ of a narrative which could not leave -so much as a dish of beans to the imagination? -Homeric criticism is indeed everywhere complicated -by the necessity of admitting wide gaps of silence; -and in this particular department, so much evidently -remains in those gaps, that our list of comestibles -must be to a great extent inferential.</p> - -<p class='c015'>‘Butcher’s meat’ (as we call it) was the staple -food of Greek heroes. Oxen, however, were not recklessly -slaughtered. ‘Great meals of beef’ usually -honoured solemn occasions. The fat beasts, reckoned -to be in their prime at five years old, met their fate -for the most part in connexion with some expiatory -ceremony, as that employed to stay the pestilence in -the First Iliad, or as the sacrifice for victory offered -by Agamemnon in the Second Iliad. The gods were -then served first with tit-bits wrapped in fat, and -reduced by fire to ashes and steamy odours, peculiarly -grateful to immortal nostrils. Portions of the -haunches were often chosen for this purpose; the -tongue might be added; while at other times, -samples of the whole carcass at large seemed preferable. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>What remained was cut up into small pieces -after a fashion still prevailing in Albania,<a id='r241' /><a href='#f241' class='c017'><b>[241]</b></a> and these, -having been filed upon spits, were rapidly grilled. -Thickly strewn with barley-meal, they were then -distributed by a steward, and eaten with utensils of -nature’s providing. Specially honoured guests had -pieces from the chine—‘<i>perpetui tergo bovis</i>’—allotted -to them; and they might, if they chose, share their -‘booty’ (so it was designated) with any other to -whom they desired to pass on the compliment, as -Odysseus did to Demodocus at the Phæacian feast. -The glad recipients of these greasy favours were -obviously exempt from modern fastidiousness.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f241'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r241'>241</a>. </span>E. F. Knight, <i>Albania</i>, p. 225, 1880.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Sheep and goats were prepared for table precisely -in the same way with oxen, and so likewise were -pigs, save that they were not divested of their skins. -‘Cracklings’ were already appreciated. Roast pork -appears, in the Iliad, only on the hospitable board -of Achilles; but is less exclusively apportioned -in the Odyssey. A brace of sucking-pigs were instantly -killed and cooked by Eumæus, the swineherd -of Odysseus, on the arrival of his disguised -master. Yet he was very far from estimating at -their true value the tender merits of the dish -celebrated by Elia as perfectly ‘satisfactory to the -criticalness of the censorious palate,’ actually apologising -for it as ‘servants’ fare,’ wholly unacceptable -to the haughty Suitors, for whose profuse entertainment -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>a full-grown porker had to be daily sacrificed. -Each man, however, despatched his pig, and was -shortly ready for more. And so captivated was -Eumæus, by the time his four underlings returned -from the fields for supper, with his outwardly sorry -guest, that, enlarging the bounds of his liberality, he -ordered the slaughter of a noble hog, whose adipose -perfections had been ripening during full five years of -life. His cooking was promptly executed, and one -share having been set aside for the local nymphs, the -six men fell to, and left only such scraps as served -for an early breakfast next morning. The performance -would have been creditable in modern Somaliland.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Every Homeric hero was an accomplished butcher, -and no despicable cook. Both offices were, indeed, too -closely connected with religious ritual to have any -note of degradation attached to them. Thus, animals -were habitually understood to be ‘sacrificed,’ not -killed in the purely carnal sense, and the preparation -of their flesh for table was formalised as part of the -ceremony of worship. The Suitors were marked out -as a reckless and impious crew by discarding all -sacerdotal functions from their meal-time operations; -yet they reserved to themselves, as if it belonged to -their superior station, the pleasing duty of cutting -the throats of the beasts they were about to devour, -passing with the least possible delay from the shambles -to the banqueting-hall.</p> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>Homeric culinary art perhaps really covered a -wider range than is attributed to it in the Poems, -where it is designedly represented under a quasi-ritualistic -aspect. Although meat, for instance, so -far as can be learned from direct statement, was -invariably roast or grilled, it by no means follows -that it was never eaten boiled or stewed. The contrary -inference is indeed fairly warranted by the -frequent conjunction of pots, water, and fire; and was -thought by Athenæus to derive support from the use -as a missile, aimed at Odysseus in unprovoked savagery -by Ctesippus, one of the Suitors, of an ox’s foot, -which happened to be lying conveniently at hand in a -bread-basket.<a id='r242' /><a href='#f242' class='c017'><b>[242]</b></a> For who, asked the gastronomical -sophist, ever thought of roasting an ox’s foot?<a id='r243' /><a href='#f243' class='c017'><b>[243]</b></a> The -casual display, too, in a simile of the Iliad, of a -caldron of boiling lard,<a id='r244' /><a href='#f244' class='c017'><b>[244]</b></a> assures us that some kind of -frying process was familiar to the poet.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f242'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r242'>242</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xx. 299.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f243'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r243'>243</a>. </span>Potter, <i>Archæologia Græca</i>, vol. ii. p. 360.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f244'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r244'>244</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxi. 362.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Among the few secondary articles of diet specified -by him was a sausage-like composition, of so irredeemably -coarse a character, that ‘ears polite’ cannot -fail to be offended at its literal description. It -consisted, to speak plainly, of the stomach or intestines -of a goat, stuffed with blood and fat, and kept -revolving before a hot fire until thoroughly done. -The Suitors, of noble lineage though they were, -occasionally supped off this seductive viand, which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>may, nevertheless, be concluded to have engaged -chiefly plebeian patronage.</p> - -<p class='c015'>No quality of game is known to have been rejected -through prejudice or superstition by the Homeric -Greeks. But even venison ranked in the second line -after beef, mutton, and pork. It was sheer hunger -that made the ‘sequestered stag’ brought down by -Odysseus in Ææa a real godsend to his disconsolate -crew; and hunger again reduced them, in the island -of Thrinakie, to the necessity of supporting life with -fish and birds, both kinds of prey equally being taken -by means of baited hooks.<a id='r245' /><a href='#f245' class='c017'><b>[245]</b></a> But they set about their -capture only when the exhaustion of the ship’s store -of flour and wine warned them to bestir themselves; -and the regimen their ingenuity provided was so distasteful, -and fell so little short, in their opinion and -sensations, of absolute starvation, that the fatal -temptation to seek criminal relief at the expense of -the oxen of the Sun, proved irresistible. They -succumbed to it, and perished.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f245'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r245'>245</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xii. 332.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Small birds were, however, beyond doubt habitually -eaten by the poor. The snaring of pigeons and -fieldfares is alluded to in the Odyssey,<a id='r246' /><a href='#f246' class='c017'><b>[246]</b></a> and was -practised, we may be sure, in the interests of the -appetite. Nor can we suppose that Penelope and the -‘divine Helen’ entirely abstained from tasting the -geese reared by them, although curiosity and amusement -may have been the chief motives for the care -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>bestowed upon them. Poultry of other kinds, as we -have seen in another chapter, there was none. But -hares must have been used for food, since, like roebucks -and wild goats, they were hunted with dogs,<a id='r247' /><a href='#f247' class='c017'><b>[247]</b></a> -certainly not for the mere sake of sport. As regards -boars, the case stands somewhat differently. For -their destructiveness imposed their slaughter as a -necessity. The subsequent consumption of their flesh -is left to conjecture. The remains of the Calydonian -brute seem to have been contended for rather -through arrogance than through appetite, Meleager -and the sons of Thestius standing forth as the champions -of antagonistic claims to the trophies of the -chace. That the boar sacrificed in attestation of the -oath of Agamemnon in the Nineteenth Iliad was afterwards -flung by Talthybius far into the sea to be ‘food -for fishes,’ is without significance on the point of edibility. -Victims thus immolated never furnished the -material for feasts; they belonged to the subterranean -powers, and fell under the shadow of their inauspicious -influence.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f246'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r246'>246</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xxii. 468.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f247'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r247'>247</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xvii. 295.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The fish-eating tastes of the Greeks were of comparatively -late development. Homeric prepossessions -were decidedly against ‘fins and shining scales’ -of every variety. Eels were ranked apart. Etymological -evidence shows them to have been primitively -classified with serpents,<a id='r248' /><a href='#f248' class='c017'><b>[248]</b></a> and they appeared, from this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>point of view, not merely unacceptable, but absolutely -inadmissible, as food. The resemblance was thus protective, -not by the design of nature, but through the -misapprehension of man, and the ingenuity of hunger -was diverted from seeming watersnakes to less repulsive -prey. This was found in the silvery shoals and -‘fry innumerable’ inhabiting the same element, but -differentiated from their congeners by the more obvious -possession, and more active use of fins. The -Homeric fishermen, however, were not enthusiastic in -their vocation. Its meditative pleasures made no -appeal to them, and they were very sensible of the -unsatisfied gastronomic cravings which survived the -utmost success in its pursuit. Nets or hooks were -employed as occasion required. A heavy haul from -the deep is recalled by the gruesome spectacle of the -piled-up corpses in the banqueting-hall at Ithaca.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f248'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r248'>248</a>. </span>Skeat, <i>Etymological Dictionary</i>. Ἔγχελυς, an eel, -is equivalent to <i>anguilla</i>, diminutive of <i>anguis</i>, a -snake; cf. Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 107.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>But he found all the sort of them fallen in their blood in the -dust, like fishes that the fishermen have drawn forth in the -meshes of the net into a hollow of the beach from out the grey -sea, and all the fish, sore longing for the salt sea-waves, are -heaped upon the sand, and the sun shines forth and takes their -life away; so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.<a id='r249' /><a href='#f249' class='c017'><b>[249]</b></a></p> -<p class='c024'>We do not elsewhere hear of net-fishing;<a id='r250' /><a href='#f250' class='c017'><b>[250]</b></a> but rod-and-line -similes occur twice in the Iliad, and once in -the Odyssey. So Patroclus, after the manner of an -angler, hooked Thestor, son of Enops.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f249'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r249'>249</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xxii. 383-89.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f250'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r250'>250</a>. </span>Either birds or fishes might be understood to be taken in -the net mentioned in <i>Iliad</i>, v. 487.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>And Patroclus caught hold of the spear and dragged him -over the rim of the car, as when a man sits on a jutting rock, -and drags a sacred fish forth from the sea, with line and glittering -hook of bronze; so on the bright spear dragged he Thestor -gaping from the chariot, and cast him down on his face, and life -left him as he fell.<a id='r251' /><a href='#f251' class='c017'><b>[251]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f251'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r251'>251</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 406-410.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>So too, Scylla exercised her craft:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As when a fisher on a jutting rock,</div> - <div class='line'>With long and taper rod, to lesser fish</div> - <div class='line'>Casts down the treacherous bait, and in the sea</div> - <div class='line'>Plunges his tackle with its oxhorn guard;</div> - <div class='line'>Then tosses out on land a gasping prey;</div> - <div class='line'>So gasping to the cliff my men were raised.<a id='r252' /><a href='#f252' class='c017'><b>[252]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f252'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r252'>252</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xii. 251-55 (W. C. Green’s translation in <i>Similes of -the Iliad</i>, p. 259).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Spearing, not rod-fishing, is thought by some -commentators to be here indicated; but a weighted -line is plainly described where the ‘storm-swift Iris’ -plunges into the ‘black sea’ on the errand of Zeus to -Thetis.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Like to a plummet, which the fisherman</div> - <div class='line'>Lets fall, encas’d in wild bull’s horn, to bear</div> - <div class='line'>Destruction to the sea’s voracious tribes.<a id='r253' /><a href='#f253' class='c017'><b>[253]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f253'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r253'>253</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiv. 80-82. (Lord Derby.)</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>River-fishing is passed over in silence. Yet it -was doubtless practised, since the finny denizens of -Scamander are remembered with pity for the discomfort -ensuing to them from the fight between Achilles -and the River; and the admixture of perch with -tunny and hake-bones in the prehistoric waste-heaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>at Hissarlik<a id='r254' /><a href='#f254' class='c017'><b>[254]</b></a> makes it clear that fresh-water fish were -not neglected by the early inhabitants of the Troad.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f254'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r254'>254</a>. </span>Virchow, <i>Berlin. Abh.</i> 1879, p. 63.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homeric seafarers did not resort to fishing as a -means of diversifying the monotony, either of their -occupations or of their commissariat. They got out -their hooks and lines when famine was at hand, and -never otherwise. Menelaus accordingly, recounting -the story of his detention at Pharos, vivified the impression -of his own distress, and the hunger of his -men, by the mention of the piscatorial pursuits they -were reduced to.<a id='r255' /><a href='#f255' class='c017'><b>[255]</b></a> And Odysseus, in his narrative to -Alcinous, similarly emphasised a similar experience. -Fishermen by profession, it can hence be inferred, -belonged to the poorest and rudest of the community. -Among them were to be found divers for oysters. -Patroclus, mocking the fall of Cebriones, exclaims:</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f255'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r255'>255</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 368.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>Out on it, how nimble a man, how lightly he diveth! Yea, -if perchance he were on the teeming deep, this man would -satisfy many by seeking for oysters, leaping from the ship, even -if it were stormy weather; so lightly now he diveth from the -chariot into the plain. Verily among the Trojans too there be -diving men.<a id='r256' /><a href='#f256' class='c017'><b>[256]</b></a></p> -<p class='c024'>The trade was then well known, and the molluscs -it dealt in constituted, it is equally plain to be seen, -a familiar article of diet. Their provision for the -dead, in the graves of Mycenæ,<a id='r257' /><a href='#f257' class='c017'><b>[257]</b></a> emphasises this inference -all the more strongly from the absence of any -other evidence of Mycenæan fish-eating.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f256'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r256'>256</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xvi. 745-50.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f257'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r257'>257</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Mycenæ</i>, p. 332.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>Neither fish nor flesh was, in the Homeric world, -preserved by means of salt or otherwise as a resource -against future need. The distribution of superfluity -was not better understood in time than in space. -Meat, as we have seen, was killed and eaten on the -spot; and the husbanding of fish-supplies was still -less likely to be thought of. Salt was, however, regularly -used as a condiment; it was sprinkled over -roast meat,<a id='r258' /><a href='#f258' class='c017'><b>[258]</b></a> and a pinch of salt was a proverbial -expression for the indivisible atom, so to speak, of -charity.<a id='r259' /><a href='#f259' class='c017'><b>[259]</b></a> Only the marine stores of the commodity -were drawn upon; those concealed by the earth remained -unexplored—a circumstance in itself marking -the great antiquity of the poems; and it was accordingly -regarded as characteristic of an inland people to -eat no salt with their food.<a id='r260' /><a href='#f260' class='c017'><b>[260]</b></a> Its efficacy for ritual -purification was fully recognised; and the ceremonial -of sacrifice probably involved some use of it; but this -is not fully ascertained.<a id='r261' /><a href='#f261' class='c017'><b>[261]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f258'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r258'>258</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ix. 214.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f259'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r259'>259</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xvii. 455.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f260'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r260'>260</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xi. 123, with Hayman’s note.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f261'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r261'>261</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 294.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The farinaceous part of Homeric diet was furnished, -according to circumstances, either by barley-meal, -or by wheaten flour. The former was lauded -as the ‘marrow of men’; ship-stores consisted mainly -of it; and it was probably eaten boiled with water -into a kind of porridge, corresponding perhaps by its -prominence in Achæan rustic economy, to the <i>polenta</i> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>of the Lombard peasantry. Barley is called by Pliny -‘the most antique form of food,’ and its antiquity -lent it sacredness. Hence the preliminary sprinkling -with barley-groats, alike of the victim, and of the -altar upon which it was about to be sacrificed. So -essential to the validity of the offering was this part -of the ceremony, that the guilty comrades of Odysseus, -in default of barley, had recourse to shred oakleaves, -in their futile attempt at bribing the immortal -gods with a share of the spoil, to condone their transgression -against the solar herds.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The favourite Homeric epithet for barley was -‘white,’ and the quality of whiteness is also conveyed -by the name, <i>alphiton</i>, of barley-meal.<a id='r262' /><a href='#f262' class='c017'><b>[262]</b></a> But our word -‘wheat’ has the same meaning, while the Homeric -<i>puros</i> was a yellow grain.<a id='r263' /><a href='#f263' class='c017'><b>[263]</b></a> Nor can there be much -doubt that it was a different variety, identical, presumably, -with the small, otherwise unknown kind -unearthed at Hissarlik. As the finest cereal then -extant, its repute nevertheless stood high; its taste -was called ‘honey-sweet’; its consumption was -plainly a privilege of the well-to-do classes. Our -poet is not likely to have ‘spoken by the card’ when -he included wheat among the spontaneous products -of the island of the Cyclops; yet the assertion of its -indigenous growth there was repeated by Diodorus -Siculus,<a id='r264' /><a href='#f264' class='c017'><b>[264]</b></a> who had better opportunities for knowing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>the truth, and had taken out no official licence for its -embellishment. Nevertheless there is much difficulty -in believing that wheat had its native home elsewhere -than in Mesopotamia and Western India.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f262'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r262'>262</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 431.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f263'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r263'>263</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vii. 104; Buchholz, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 118.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f264'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r264'>264</a>. </span>De Candolle, <i>Origin of Cultivated Plants</i>, p. 357.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Bakers were as little known as butchers to -Homeric folk, whose bread-making was of the elementary -description practised by the pile-dwellers of -Robenhausen and Mooseedorf. The corn was first -ground in hand-mills<a id='r265' /><a href='#f265' class='c017'><b>[265]</b></a> worked by female slaves, of -whom fifty were thus exclusively employed in the -palace of Alcinous.<a id='r266' /><a href='#f266' class='c017'><b>[266]</b></a> The loaves or cakes, for which -the material was thus laboriously provided, were -probably baked on stones, like those fragmentarily -preserved during millenniums beneath Swiss lacustrine -deposits of peat and mud.<a id='r267' /><a href='#f267' class='c017'><b>[267]</b></a> Only wheaten flour was so -employed in Achæan households; but wheaten bread -was indispensable to every well-furnished table, and -was neatly served round in baskets placed at frequent -intervals. Barley-bread was the invention of a later -age; the word <i>maza</i>, by which it is signified, does not -occur in the Epics.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f265'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r265'>265</a>. </span>Blümner, <i>Technologie und Terminologie bei Griechen und -Römern</i>, Bd. i. p. 24.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f266'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r266'>266</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vii. 104.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f267'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r267'>267</a>. </span>Heer, <i>Die Pflanzen der Pfahlbauten</i>, p. 9.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>They include, however, the mention of two additional -kinds of grain, varieties, it is supposed, of spelt. -And of these one, <i>olura</i>, is limited to the Iliad, the -other, <i>zeia</i>, belongs properly to the Odyssey, occurring -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>in the Iliad only in the traditional phrase ‘zeia-giving -soil.’ The expression doubtless enshrined the memory -of spelt-eating days, as did, among the Romans, the -appropriation of this species of corn for the <i>mola</i> of -sacrifices.<a id='r268' /><a href='#f268' class='c017'><b>[268]</b></a> But neither <i>zeia</i> nor <i>olura</i> served within -Homer’s experience for human food; both were left -to horses, whose fodder was moreover enriched by the -addition of ‘white barley’ and clover, nay, in exceptional -cases, of wheat and wine. With these restoring -dainties the steeds of Hector were pampered by -Andromache on their return from battle; while the -snowy team of Rhesus shared with the ‘Trojan’ -horses of Æneas, the generous wheaten diet provided -for them in the opulent stables of their new master, -the intrepid king of Argos.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f268'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r268'>268</a>. </span>Potter, <i>Archæologia Græca</i>, vol. i. p. 215.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>One of the unaccountable Egyptian perversities -enumerated by Herodotus<a id='r269' /><a href='#f269' class='c017'><b>[269]</b></a> was that of rejecting -wheat and barley as bread-stuffs, and adopting spelt -(<i>olura</i>). The grain indicated, however, must have been -either rice or millet, since spelt does not thrive in hot -countries.<a id='r270' /><a href='#f270' class='c017'><b>[270]</b></a> Millet, too, which was unknown in primitive -Greece, was specially favoured by Celts, Iberians, -and other tribes.<a id='r271' /><a href='#f271' class='c017'><b>[271]</b></a> It was also cultivated with barley -and several kinds of wheat, by the amphibious villagers -of Robenhausen. And the discovery of caraway -and poppy seeds mingled in the <i>débris</i> of their food<a id='r272' /><a href='#f272' class='c017'><b>[272]</b></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>suggests that varied flavourings were in prehistoric -request. It suggests further a non-æsthetic, hence a -probable, motive for the cultivation of the poppy by -the early Achæans.<a id='r273' /><a href='#f273' class='c017'><b>[273]</b></a> The flower was in fact actually -grown in classical times for the sake of its seeds, -which were roasted and strewn on slices of bread, to -be eaten with honey after meals as a sort of dessert.<a id='r274' /><a href='#f274' class='c017'><b>[274]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f269'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r269'>269</a>. </span>Lib. ii. cap. 36.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f270'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r270'>270</a>. </span>De Candolle, <i>Cultivated Plants</i>, p. 363.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f271'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r271'>271</a>. </span>Hehn, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 439-40.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f272'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r272'>272</a>. </span>Dawkins, <i>Early Man in Britain</i>, pp. 293, 301.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f273'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r273'>273</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, viii. 306; cf. <i>ante</i>, p. 166.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f274'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r274'>274</a>. </span>Dierbach, <i>Flora Mythologica</i>, p. 117.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Vegetables figured very scantily, if at all, at -Achæan feasts. One species only is expressly apportioned -for heroic consumption. Nestor and Machaon -were avowedly guilty of eating onions as a relish with -wine.<a id='r275' /><a href='#f275' class='c017'><b>[275]</b></a> Some degree of refinement has indeed been -vindicated for their tastes on the plea that the Oriental -onion is of infinitely superior delicacy to our objectionable -bulb; but we scarcely wrong the Pylian sage -by admitting the likelihood of his preference for the -stronger flavour; nor can we raise high the gustatory -standard according to which wine compounded with -goats’ cheese and honey was esteemed the most refreshing -and delightful of drinks. The same root, -moreover, in its crudest form, seems to have recommended -itself to refined Phæacian palates. There is -persuasive, if indirect evidence, that ‘the rank and -guilty garlic’ was privileged to flourish in the sunny -gardens of Alcinous.<a id='r276' /><a href='#f276' class='c017'><b>[276]</b></a> Socrates, indeed, eulogised the -onion, whereas Plutarch contemned it as vulgar, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>Horace did not willingly permit onion-eaters to come -‘between the wind and his nobility.’ The company -of Nestor would not, then, have been agreeable to -him.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f275'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r275'>275</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 629.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f276'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r276'>276</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 216.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Peas and beans keep out of sight in the Odyssey, -but are just glanced at in the Iliad. The following -simile explains itself:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>As from the spreading fan leap out the peas</div> - <div class='line'>Or swarthy beans o’er all the spacious floor,</div> - <div class='line'>Urged by the whistling wind and winnower’s force;</div> - <div class='line'>So then from noble Menelaus’ mail,</div> - <div class='line'>Bounding aside far flew the biting shaft.<a id='r277' /><a href='#f277' class='c017'><b>[277]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>Here there is evidently no thought of green vegetables. -The elastic and agile pellets cleansed by -winnowing were fully ripe. They can be identified as -chick-peas and broad-beans—species, both of them, -abundantly produced in modern Greece. The former -even retain in Crete their Homeric name of <i>erebinthoi</i>, -ground down, however, by phonetic decay to <i>rebithi</i>.<a id='r278' /><a href='#f278' class='c017'><b>[278]</b></a> -They afforded, under the designation ‘<i>frictum cicer</i>,’ -a staple article of food to the poorer inhabitants of -Latium; and, as the Spanish <i>garbanzo</i>, they derive -culinary importance from the part assigned to them -in every properly constituted <i>olla podrida</i>.<a id='r279' /><a href='#f279' class='c017'><b>[279]</b></a> Beans -were the first pod-fruit cultivated. They are mentioned -in the Bible, and have been excavated at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>Hissarlik. Some pea-like grains, however, found in -the same spot, proved on examination to be lentils.<a id='r280' /><a href='#f280' class='c017'><b>[280]</b></a> -These, too, were presumably in common use when -Homer lived, as they certainly were some centuries -later, yet he makes no allusion to them. More significant, -possibly, is his silence on the subject of chestnuts. -Although the tree covers wide tracts of modern -Greece, it is held by some eminent authorities to have -been introduced there from Pontic Asia Minor at a -comparatively late period.<a id='r281' /><a href='#f281' class='c017'><b>[281]</b></a> And the fact that the -rural wisdom of Hesiod completely ignores the chestnut -certainly inclines the balance towards the opinion -of its arrival subsequent to the composition of the -‘Works and Days.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f277'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r277'>277</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xiii. 588-92 (trans. by W. C. Green).</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f278'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r278'>278</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>loc. cit.</i> p. 269.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f279'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r279'>279</a>. </span>Rhind, <i>Hist. of the Vegetable Kingdom</i>, p. 315.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f280'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r280'>280</a>. </span>Virchow, <i>Berlin. Abh.</i> 1879, p. 69.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f281'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r281'>281</a>. </span>Hehn, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 294.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Grapes and olives are the only fruits of which the -cultivation is recorded in the Iliad; but the list is -greatly extended in the Odyssey. Alcinous had at -perennial command, besides apples and pears, figs and -pomegranates. Within the precincts of his palace, -Odysseus cast his exploratory glances round ‘a great -garden of four plough-gates,’ hedged round on either -side.</p> - -<p class='c022'>‘And there grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and pomegranates, -and apple-trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs and -olives in their bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth -neither faileth, winter nor summer, enduring through all the -year. Evermore the west wind blowing brings some fruits to -birth and ripens others. Pear upon pear waxes old, and apple -on apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon cluster of the grape, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>fig upon fig. There too hath he a fruitful vineyard planted, -whereof the one part is being dried by the heat, a sunny spot -on level ground, while other grapes men are gathering, and yet -others they are treading in the wine-press. In the foremost -row are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there -be that are growing black to vintaging. There, too, skirting the -furthest line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, -and that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two fountains of -water.’<a id='r282' /><a href='#f282' class='c017'><b>[282]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f282'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r282'>282</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vii. 112-29.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The same fruits, the grape excepted, as being too -low-growing to fulfil the required conditions, hung -suspended above the head of Tantalus in his dusky -abode, where alone the olive seems to be classed as -food. They claimed, moreover, all but the pomegranate, -the care of Laertes, occupying his chagrined -leisure during the absence of his son from Ithaca.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Apples and pears are alike indigenous in Greece, -and their discovery, dried and split longitudinally, -among the winter-stores of the Swiss and Italian -lake-dwellers, suggests that they may have been -similarly treated, with a similar end in view, by -Achæan housewives. The apple evidently excited -Homer’s particular admiration; he, in fact, made it -his representative fruit. That it should have been so -considered in the North, where competition for the -place of honour was small, is less surprising; and -apples, accordingly, of an etherealised and paradisaical -kind, served to restore youth to the aging gods of -Asaheim.<a id='r283' /><a href='#f283' class='c017'><b>[283]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f283'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r283'>283</a>. </span>Grimm and Stallybrass, <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, p. 319.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>The pomegranate is believed to have been the -‘apple’ of Paris. Known to the Greeks by the Semitic -name <i>roia</i>, it may hence be safely classed among -Phœnician gifts to the West. And its associations -were besides characteristically Oriental. The fruit, -called from the Sun-god Rimmon, had a prominent -place in Syrian religious rites; Aphrodite introduced -it into Cyprus, and eventually transferred to Demeter -her claims to the symbolical ownership of it.<a id='r284' /><a href='#f284' class='c017'><b>[284]</b></a> But -with its mythological history, the poet of the Odyssey -did not concern himself.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f284'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r284'>284</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 180.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The wild fig-tree is native in Greece, and is mentioned -both in the Iliad and Odyssey. But the cultured -fig occurs only in the latter poem, the author -doubtless having made its acquaintance somewhere -on the Anatolian seaboard, whither it would naturally -have been conveyed from Phrygia. For Phrygia was -in those days more renowned for its figs than Attica -became later. Those of Paros were celebrated by -Archilochus about 700 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>;<a id='r285' /><a href='#f285' class='c017'><b>[285]</b></a> but none, it would seem, -were produced on the mainland of Greece when -Hesiod’s homely experiences took metrical form at -Orchomenus. The ripe figs contributed by his garden -to the frugal repasts of Laertes were then an anachronism -to the full as glaring as turkeys in England, -when Falstaff and Poins took purses ‘as in a castle, -cock-sure,’ on Gadshill. The very idea, indeed, of -archæological accuracy was foreign to the mind of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>either poet; nor could it, without detriment to the -vigour and freedom of their conceptions, have been -introduced.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f285'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r285'>285</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> p. 86.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The pastoral section of the Achæan people drew -their subsistence immediately, and almost exclusively -from their flocks and herds. The commodities directly -at hand were supplemented to a very slight extent, if -at all, through the secondary channels of sale or -barter. Milk and cheese hence formed the staple of -their food, and were mainly the produce of sheep and -goats. Cow’s milk never found favour in Greece; -Homer ignored the possibility of its use; Aristotle -depreciated its quality; and it is now no more thought -of as an article of consumption than ewe’s milk in -Great Britain or Ireland.<a id='r286' /><a href='#f286' class='c017'><b>[286]</b></a> Those early herdsmen -differed from us, too, in liking their simple beverage -well watered. The part played occasionally by the -pump in our London milk-supply would have met -with their full approbation—unless, indeed, they -might have preferred to add the qualifying ingredient -at their own discretion. But the native strength of -milk was, at any rate, too much for them. Only -Polyphemus, a giant and a glutton, was voracious -enough to swallow the undiluted contents of his pails. -To him, as to his curious visitors from over the sea, -butter-making was an unknown art, cheese being the -sole modified product of Homeric dairies. That the -first step towards its preparation consisted in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>curdling of fresh milk with the sap of the fig-tree, we -learn from the following allusion:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>Soon as liquid milk</div> - <div class='line'>Is curdled by the fig-tree’s juice, and turns</div> - <div class='line'>In whirling flakes, so soon was heal’d the wound.<a id='r287' /><a href='#f287' class='c017'><b>[287]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f286'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r286'>286</a>. </span>Kruse, <i>Hellas</i>, Bd. i. p. 368.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f287'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r287'>287</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, v. 902-904. (Lord Derby.)</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The patient on this occasion was Ares himself, -and the rapid closing of the gash inflicted by the -audacious Diomed was brought about by the application -of Pæonian simples, unavailable, it can readily -be imagined, outside of Olympus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Although the keeping of bees was strange to -Homer’s experience, the product of their industry was -pleasantly familiar to him. The ideal of deliciousness -was furnished by honey, and Homeric palates reached -their acme of gratification with things ‘honey-sweet.’ -But Homeric bees were still in a state of nature, their -‘roofs of gold’ getting built in hollow trees or rocky -clefts. Artificial dwellings were provided for them, -by interested human agency, considerably later. The -use of bee-hives in Greece is first attested in the -Hesiodic Theogony; and in Russia and Lithuania, -wild honey was still gathered in the woods little more -than a century and a half ago.<a id='r288' /><a href='#f288' class='c017'><b>[288]</b></a> Alike in the Iliad -and Odyssey, honey figures in a manner totally inconsistent -with our notions of gastronomic harmony. -We, in our unregenerate condition, should seek to be -excused from partaking of the semi-ambrosial diet of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>cheese, honey, and sweet wine supplied by Aphrodite -to the divinely brought-up daughters of Pandareus;<a id='r289' /><a href='#f289' class='c017'><b>[289]</b></a> -nor do we envy to ‘Gerenian Nestor’ and his wounded -companion the posset brewed for them on their return -from the battle-field by the skilful Hecamede. The -palates indeed must have been hardy, and the constitutions -robust, of those upon whom it acted as an -agreeable restorative. The process of its preparation -was as follows. In a bowl of such noble capacity that -an ordinary man’s strength scarcely availed to raise -it brimming to his lips,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in12'>Their goddess-like attendant first</div> - <div class='line'>A gen’rous measure mixed of Pramnian wine;</div> - <div class='line'>Then with a brazen grater shredded o’er</div> - <div class='line'>The goatsmilk cheese, and whitest barley-meal,</div> - <div class='line'>And of the draught compounded bade them drink.<a id='r290' /><a href='#f290' class='c017'><b>[290]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>Nothing loath, they obeyed, nor did they shrink -from adding piquancy to the liquid concoction by -simultaneously devouring a dozen or so of raw onions! -A precisely similar drink, designed as a vehicle for -the ‘evil drugs’ mingled with it, was treacherously -served round by Circe to her guests, and imbibed with -the debasing and transforming results one has heard -of.<a id='r291' /><a href='#f291' class='c017'><b>[291]</b></a> Only the onions were absent, and with good -reason, the crafty sorceress being fully aware of their -antidotal power against malign influences. The practice -of sweetening and thickening wine was handed on -from heroic to classic times. Old Thasian especially -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>was considered, when tempered with honey and meal, -to be of most refreshing quality in the heats of -summer; and Athenæus relates, without surprise or -disapproval, that the islanders of Thera preferred, for -the purpose of making porridge of their wine, ground -pease or lentils to barley.<a id='r292' /><a href='#f292' class='c017'><b>[292]</b></a> The tolerant motto, <i>De -gustibus</i>, needs now and then, as we study the past of -gastronomy, to be recalled to mind.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f288'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r288'>288</a>. </span>Hehn and Stallybrass, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 463.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f289'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r289'>289</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xx. 69.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f290'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r290'>290</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 637-40. (Lord Derby.)</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f291'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r291'>291</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, x. 234.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f292'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r292'>292</a>. </span>Athenæus, x. 40.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Honey is now, to a great extent, a superannuated -article of food. The sugar-cane has usurped its place -and its importance. But to the ancients, its value, -as the chief saccharine ingredient at their disposal, -was enormous. It could not then be expected that -the myth-making faculty should remain idle in regard -to it. The nectar of the earth was accordingly believed -to drop down from heaven into the calyxes of -half-opened flowers; it fell from the rising stars, or, -at any rate, near the places, so Aristotle averred,<a id='r293' /><a href='#f293' class='c017'><b>[293]</b></a> -whence they rose, and was distilled from rainbows upon -the blossoming plains they seemed to touch. Nature’s -winged agents, too, for the collection of what must -have seemed to the first rude experimenters in diet, an -almost supersensual dainty, had a niche assigned to -them in the edifice of fancy. Bees were connected -with poetry, music, and eloquence; as <i>Musarum volucres</i>, -they brought the gift of song to the sleeping -Pindar; they were themselves nymphs and priestesses, -intertwined more especially with the worship of Demeter -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>and Cybele.<a id='r294' /><a href='#f294' class='c017'><b>[294]</b></a> The germ of some of these imaginative -shoots and sprays seems to be laid bare in the -simple Homeric metaphor by which the discourse of -Nestor was said to flow with more than the sweetness -of honey from his lips.<a id='r295' /><a href='#f295' class='c017'><b>[295]</b></a> The same idea—a very -obvious one—is embodied in the English word <i>mellifluous</i>. -But a figure, in older times, was often only -the beginning of a fable; and hence the hovering of -bees about the lips of the infant Plato, and round the -head of Krishna, when he expounded the nature of the -divinity. A genuine Homeric trace, moreover, of -the legendary associations of bees is supplied by their -installation in the Nymphs’ Grotto at Ithaca,<a id='r296' /><a href='#f296' class='c017'><b>[296]</b></a> where -they gathered honey for the local divinities, ministering -to them as Melissa, the Nymph-bee <i>par excellence</i>, -ministered to the young Zeus on Ida.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f293'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r293'>293</a>. </span><i>De Animal.</i> lib. v. cap. 22.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f294'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r294'>294</a>. </span>Preller, <i>Griechische Mythologie</i>, Bd. i. p. 105, 3te Auflage.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f295'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r295'>295</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, i. 249.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f296'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r296'>296</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xiii. 106.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homer was fully acquainted with the virtue of -honey for propitiating the dead. A vase of honey -was placed by Achilles on the pyre of Patroclus,<a id='r297' /><a href='#f297' class='c017'><b>[297]</b></a> and -Odysseus poured a due libation of milk and honey as -part of his apparatus of enticement to the shade of -Tiresias. Subsequent experience showed this beverage -to be acceptable even to the Erinyes; nor was Cerberus -proof against a lure of honey-cakes. Luckily -for himself, however, Odysseus escaped an encounter -with the Dog of Hades, for whom he brought no -pacifying recipe.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f297'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r297'>297</a>. </span><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 170.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The earliest European intoxicant was made from -honey, but was in Greece quickly and completely discarded -on the introduction of vine-culture. Floating -reminiscences of its primitive use, however, were preserved -by Plutarch and Aristotle,<a id='r298' /><a href='#f298' class='c017'><b>[298]</b></a> and survived unconsciously -in the tolerably frequent substitution, by -Homer, of the word ‘mead,’ under the form μέθυ, for -‘wine.’ The survival was indeed linguistic only. No -mental association with honey clung to the term -‘mead.’ The fermented juice of the grape is the sole -Homeric stimulant, and excites a fully corresponding -amount of Homeric enthusiasm. From the old epics, -accordingly, Pindaric praises of water are wholly -absent. The crystal spring occupies in them a strictly -subordinate place. The merits allowed to it are -purely relative. That is to say, it exercises, like the -nitrogen of our atmosphere, a qualifying function. -The exuberant energy of a more fiery element is -modified by its innocuous presence, and it helps to -neutralise some of the heady virtue inherent in the -‘subtle blood of the grape.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f298'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r298'>298</a>. </span>Lippmann, <i>Geschichte des Zuckers</i>, p. 6.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>A draught of clear water was a luxury unappreciated -by the early Greeks. On the other hand, they -freely watered their wine, counting its full strength -scarcely less redoubtable than that of raw spirits -appears to ordinary Englishmen. Polyphemus alone -drank—in post-Homeric phraseology—’like a Scythian’—that -is, swallowed his liquor ‘neat’; and he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>plunged thereby into disastrous drunkenness. The -wine provided for him, it is true, was of unusual and -overweening potency. Of Thracian growth, it was -supplied to Odysseus by Maron, a priest of Apollo at -Ismarus, in grateful acknowledgment of protection -afforded during the Odyssean sack of the Ciconian -metropolis. The secret of its manufacture was jealously -guarded in the Maronian family;<a id='r299' /><a href='#f299' class='c017'><b>[299]</b></a> its bouquet -was irresistible; its power against sobriety formidable. -Even if the statement that it required, or at least -tolerated, a twenty-fold admixture of water, be taxed -as hyperbolical, we can still fall back upon Pliny’s -assurance that the Maronian wine of his epoch was -commonly diluted with eight measures of water;<a id='r300' /><a href='#f300' class='c017'><b>[300]</b></a> and -the proportion of twenty-five to one of Thasian wine -from the same neighbourhood was recommended by -Hippocrates for invalids.<a id='r301' /><a href='#f301' class='c017'><b>[301]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f299'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r299'>299</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, ix. 205.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f300'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r300'>300</a>. </span><i>Hist. Nat.</i> xiv. 6.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f301'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r301'>301</a>. </span>Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 96.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Red wines only were quaffed by Homeric heroes. -‘Golden,’ or ‘white’ kinds were unknown to them; -and it may be suspected that the pleasure of sharing -their potations would have been qualified, to modern -connoisseurs, by strong gustatory disapproval. We -do not know that the practice of using turpentine in -the preparation of wine prevailed so early, but it was -in full force when Plutarch wrote, and it subsisted too -long for the comfort of Mr. Dodwell, who warmly -protested his preference of sour English beer to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>resinous wines of Patra and Libadia.<a id='r302' /><a href='#f302' class='c017'><b>[302]</b></a> Some of -their worst qualities were probably shared by the -famous ‘Pramnian,’ described by Galen as ‘black -and austere.’<a id='r303' /><a href='#f303' class='c017'><b>[303]</b></a> This was the leading component of -the draught administered by Hecamede and Circe; -but traditions as to its local origin are obscure and -contradictory. The credit of its production was now -assigned to a mountain in Caria, now to the Icarian -Isle, or to some favoured section of Lesbian territory. -Others again held that its distinction resided, not in -the place of its growth, but in the method of its -manufacture. A particular variety of grape perhaps -yielded it; at any rate, Dioscorides says that it was a -<i>prototropum</i>—that is, a product of the first running of -self-expressed juice, making it, among wines, what a -proof before letters is among engravings. It took -rank, however this might have been, as a choice -vintage, meet for the refreshment of heroes, and -strictly reserved for exceptional use; while the ordinary -demand of the army before Troy was met by the -importation of Lemnian and Thracian wines of commonplace -quality, brought in ships to the shores of the -Hellespont, and purchased with the spoils of war—copper -and iron, cattle and slaves.<a id='r304' /><a href='#f304' class='c017'><b>[304]</b></a> A night’s carouse -might sometimes ensue upon the arrival of a wine-fleet; -but temperance was the rule of old Achæan -life. Excess was reprobated, and often figured as the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>cause of misfortune. Thus, the ‘Drunken Assembly,’ -held immediately after the sack of Troy, was the first -link in the long chain of disasters incurred by the -returning Achæans;<a id='r305' /><a href='#f305' class='c017'><b>[305]</b></a> Elpenor, one of the crew of -Odysseus, preceded him to Hades ‘on foot,’ as it is -quaintly said, having broken his neck by a fall from -a roof-top when overcome with wine in the house of -Circe; the ungovernable rage of Achilles could find -no more opprobrious epithet than ‘wine-laden’ to be -hurled, in lieu of a javelin, at Agamemnon; and in -Polyphemus, vinous excess assuredly took on its least -inviting aspect. The Homeric ideal of life was indeed -a festive one, but the conviviality it included was -kept within the bounds of moderation and decorum. -Moreover, the pleasures of the table, however keenly -appreciated, were redeemed from grossness by the -finer touches of social sympathy and æsthetic enjoyment. -Minstrelsy formed a regular part of a well -ordered entertainment, and the rhythmical movements -of the dance accompanied, on occasions, or alternated -with chanted narratives of adventure.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f302'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r302'>302</a>. </span><i>Classical Tour</i>, vol. i. p. 212.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f303'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r303'>303</a>. </span>Leaf’s <i>Iliad</i>, xi. 639.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f304'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r304'>304</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, vii. 467; ix. 72.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f305'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r305'>305</a>. </span>Cf. Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 73; Gladstone’s <i>Studies in -Homer</i>, vol. ii. p. 447.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In the palace of Ithaca, guests were served at -separate small tables; but this may not have been -the case everywhere. An erect posture was maintained -by them. The Roman fashion of reclining at meals -came in much later. An opening formality of ablution -was designed for ceremonial purification; in the interests -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>of corporeal cleanliness, a repetition of the -process after the meal was concluded would have been -desirable, but appears to have been neglected. As -regards the food-supply, a stewardess, or housekeeper, -brought round bread in a basket; a carver -sliced and distributed the grilled meat; a herald filled -the goblets in orderly succession; and good appetites -did the rest. Women habitually ate apart. So Penelope -sat by, spinning and silent, though feverish with -eagerness for news of her absent lord, until Telemachus -and Theoclymenus had concluded their repast; and -Nausicaa supped in retirement while her father feasted -with the Phæacian elders. But the rule of seclusion -appears to have had no application to nymphs and -goddesses. Wine, however, was freely allowed to -women and children. Arêtê, the mother of Nausicaa, -supplied a goat’s skin full for her pic-nic by the seashore; -and it was with wine that the tunic of Phœnix -was wont to be soiled as he fed the infant Achilles -upon his knee.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Three meals a day made the full Homeric complement, -reduced, nevertheless, to two under frequently -recurring circumstances. Breakfast—<i>ariston</i>—was -not always insisted upon, and we hear only twice of -its formal preparation. It consisted ordinarily, there -is reason to believe, of nothing more than bread -soaked in wine; but Eumæus, who, for all his vigilant -husbandry, loved talk and good cheer, offered better -fare to his wily, unknown guest. A fire was lit in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>hut at dawn; some cold pork, left from supper the -night before, got re-broiled, and was barely hot when -Telemachus made an appearance more welcome than -looked for, having run the gauntlet of the Suitors’ -sea-ambuscade on his return from Pylos. Hence a -considerable amount of weeping for joy was indispensable -before they could all three—seeming beggar, -prince, and swineherd—sit down comfortably to breakfast -together.</p> - -<p class='c015'>But when life ran out of its accustomed groove, -and opportunities for eating became precarious, breakfast -and dinner—<i>ariston</i> and <i>deipnon</i>—were apt to -coalesce. Noon, the regular dinner-hour, might, -under such circumstances, be anticipated. Thus, -when Telemachus and Pisistratus were setting out -from Sparta towards Pylos, Menelaus, who was the -soul of hospitality, ordered a <i>deipnon</i> to be hastily -got ready, and it had certainly been preceded by no -lighter repast. The third Homeric meal—<i>dorpon</i>—was -taken at, or after sundown. Its status fluctuated. -Of primary importance to those busily engaged in -out-of-door occupations, it counted for relatively little -with idle folk like the Suitors, whose feasts and diversions -might be prolonged, if they so willed it, from -dawn to dusk. Supper, on the other hand, was naturally -the chief meal of soldiers and sailors. ‘Perils -will be paid with pleasures,’ says Verulam; and when -the rage of battle was spent, or the ship brought -safely into port, a banquet was spread with every -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>available luxury, and enjoyed to the utmost. At sea, -cooking was reduced to a minimum, even to zero, the -probability being small that fires were ever kindled -on shipboard. So that the hardships of long voyages -were very great, if rarely incurred. When possible, -land was made by nightfall, the vessel moored, and -the crew disembarked.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in14'>Ac magno telluris amore</div> - <div class='line'>Egressi, optata potiuntur Troes arena.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>Supper followed, and sleep.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span> - <h2 id='ch08' class='c010'>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> <br />HOMER’S MAGIC HERBS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>There</span> are certain low-lying districts in southern -Spain where the branched lily, or king’s spear, blooms -in such profusion that whole acres, seen from a distance -towards the end of March, show as if densely -strewn with new-fallen snow. Just such in aspect -must have been the abode of the Odyssean dead. -There, along boundless asphodel plains, Odysseus -watched Orion, a spectral huntsman pursuing spectral -game: there Agamemnon denounced the treachery of -Clytemnestra: there Ajax still nursed his wrath at -the award of the Argive kings: there Achilles gnawed -a shadowy heart in longing, on any terms, for action -and the upper air: thither Hermes conducted the -delinquent souls of the suitors of Penelope. A tranquil -dwelling-place: where the stagnant air of apathy -was stirred only by sighs of inane regret.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Homer’s asphodel grows only in the under-world, -yet it is no mythical plant. It can be quite clearly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>identified with the <i>Asphodelus ramosus</i>,<a id='r306' /><a href='#f306' class='c017'><b>[306]</b></a> now extensively -used in Algeria for the manufacture of alcohol, -and cultivated in our gardens for the sake of its tall -spikes of beautiful flowers, pure white within and -purple-streaked without along each of the six petals -uniting at the base to form a deeply-indented starry -corolla. The continual visits of pilfering bees attest -a goodly store of honey; while the perfume spread -over the northern shores of the Gulf of Corinth by -the abundant growth of asphodel was said to have -given their name, in some far-off century, to the -Ozolians of Locris.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f306'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r306'>306</a>. </span>The daffodil has no other connexion with the asphodel than -having unaccountably appropriated its name, through the old French -<i>affodille</i>. It is a kind of narcissus, while the asphodel belongs to -the lily tribe.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Introduced into England about 1551, it was succeeded, -after forty-five years, by the yellow asphodel -(<i>Asphodelus luteus</i>), of which already in 1633 Gerard -in his Herbal reports ‘great plenty in our London -gardens.’ Hence Pope’s familiarity with this kind, -and his consequent matter-of-course identification of -it with the classical flower in the lines,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>By those happy souls who dwell</div> - <div class='line'>On yellow meads of asphodel:</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>wherein he has entirely missed what may with some -reason be called the local colouring of Hades.</p> -<p class='c015'>In order to explain the lugubrious associations of -the branched asphodel, we must go back to an early -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>stage of thought regarding the condition of the -dead.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Instinctively man assumes that his existence will, -in some form, be continued beyond the grave. Only -a few of the most degraded savages, or a handful of -the most enlightened sceptics, accept death with stolid -indifference as an absolute end. The almost universally -prevalent belief is that it is a change, not a close. -Humanity, as a whole, never has admitted and never -can apostatise from its innate convictions by admitting -that its destiny is mere blank corruption. Apart -from the body, however, life can indeed be conceived, -but cannot be imagined; since imagination works -only with familiar materials. Recourse was then -inevitably had to the expedient of representing the -under-world as a shadowy reflection of the upper. -Disembodied spirits were supposed to feel the same -needs, to cherish the same desires, as when clothed -in the flesh; but they were helpless to supply the -first or to gratify the second. Their opulence or -misery in their new abode depended solely upon the -pitying care of those who survived them. This mode -of thinking explains the savage rites of sacrifice attendant -upon primitive funeral ceremonies: it converted -the tombs of ancient kings into the treasure-houses of -modern archæologists; and it suggested a system of -commissariat for the dead, traces of which still linger -in many parts of the world.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Here we find the clue we are in search of. It is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>afforded by the simple precautions adopted by unsophisticated -people against famine in the realm of -death. Amongst the early Greeks, the roots of the -branched lily were a familiar article of diet. The -asphodel has even been called the potato of antiquity. -It indeed surpassed the potato in fecundity, though -falling far below it in nutritive qualities. Pliny, in -his ‘Natural History,’ states that about eighty tubers, -each the size of an average turnip, were often the -produce of a single plant; and the French botanist -Charles de l’Écluse, travelling across Portugal in -1564-5, saw the plough disclose fully two hundred -attached to the same stalk, and together weighing, he -estimated, some fifty pounds. Moreover, the tubers -so plentifully developed are extremely rich in starch -and sugar, so that the poorer sort, who possessed no -flocks or herds to supply their table with fat pork, -loins of young oxen, roasted goats’ tripe, or similar -carnal delicacies, were glad to fall back upon the -frugal fare of mallow and asphodel lauded by Hesiod. -Theophrastus tells us that the roasted stalk, as well -as the seed of the asphodel served for food; but -chiefly its roots, which, bruised up with figs, were in -extensive use. Pliny seems to prefer them cooked in -hot ashes, and eaten with salt and oil; but it may be -doubted whether he spoke from personal experience.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Their consumption, however, was recommended -by the example of Pythagoras, and was said to have -helped to lengthen out the fabulous years of Epimenides. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>Yet, such illustrious examples notwithstanding, -the degenerate stomachs of more recent times -have succeeded ill in accommodating themselves to -such spare sustenance. When about the middle of -last century the Abate Alberto Fortis was travelling -in Dalmatia, he found inhabitants of the village of -Bossiglina, near Traù, so poor as to be reduced to -make their bread of bruised asphodel roots, which -proving but an indifferent staff of life, digestive -troubles and general debility ensued. This is the -last recorded experiment of the kind. The needs of -the human economy are far better, more widely, and -almost as cheaply subserved by the tuber brought by -Raleigh from Virginia. The plant of Persephone is -left for Apulian sheep to graze upon.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Asphodel roots, accordingly, rank with acorns as -a prehistoric, but now discarded article of human -food. They were, it is likely, freely consumed by the -earliest inhabitants of Greece, before the cultivation -of cereals had been introduced from the East. There -is little fear of error in assuming that the later -Achæan immigrants found them already consecrated -by traditional usage to the sustenance of the dead—perhaps -because the immemorial antiquity of their -dietary employment imparted to them an idea of -sacredness; or, possibly, because the slightness of -the nourishment they afforded was judged suitable to -the maintenance of the unsubstantial life of ghosts. -At any rate, the custom became firmly established of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>planting graves with asphodel, with a view to making -provision for their silent and helpless, yet still needy -inmates. With changed associations the custom still -exists in Greece, and, very remarkably, has been -found to prevail in Japan, where a species of asphodel -is stated to be cultivated in cemeteries, and placed, -blooming in pots, on grave-stones. We can scarcely -doubt that the same train of thought, here as in -Greece, originally prompted its selection for sepulchral -uses. Unquestionably some of the natives of -the Congo district plant manioc on the graves of their -dead, with no other than a provisioning design.<a id='r307' /><a href='#f307' class='c017'><b>[307]</b></a> The -same may be said of the cultivation of certain fruit-trees -in the burying-grounds of the South Sea Islanders. -One of these is the <i>Cratæva religiosa</i>, bearing -an insipid but eatable fruit, and held sacred in Otaheite -under the name of ‘Purataruru.’ The <i>Terminalia -glabrosa</i> fills (or filled a century ago) an analogous -position in the Society Islands. It yields a nut -resembling an almond, doubtless regarded as acceptable -to phantasmal palates.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f307'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r307'>307</a>. </span>Unger, <i>Die Pflanze als Todtenschmuck</i>, p. 23.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>We now see quite clearly why the Homeric shades -dwell in meadows of asphodel. These were, in the -fundamental conception, their harvest-fields. From -them, in some unexplained subsensual way, the attenuated -nutriment they might require must have -been derived. But this primitive idea does not seem -to have been explicitly present to the poet’s mind. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>It had already, before his time, we can infer, been to -a great extent lost sight of. It was enough for him -that the plant was popularly associated with the -dusky regions out of sight of the sun. He did not -stop to ask why, his business being to see, and to -sing of what he saw, not to reason. He accordingly -made his Hades to bloom for all time with the tall -white flowers of the king’s spear, and so perpetuated -a connexion he was not concerned to explain.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Homer cannot be said to have attained to any -real conception of the immortality of the soul. The -shade which flitted to subterranean spaces when the -breath left the body, resembled an animal principle -of life rather than a true spiritual essence. Disinherited, -exiled from its proper abode, without function, -sense, or memory, it survived, a vaporous image, -a mere castaway residuum of what once had been a -man. Tiresias, the Theban soothsayer, alone, by -special privilege of Persephone, retained the use of -reason: the rest were vain appearances, escaping -annihilation by a scarcely perceptible distinction. -No wonder that life should have been darkened by -the prospect of such a destiny—or worse. For there -were, in the Homeric world to come, awful possibilities -of torment, though none—for the common herd—of -blessedness. Deep down in Tartarus, those who -had sinned against the gods—Sisyphus, Ixion, Tantalus—were -condemned to tremendous, because unending, -punishment; while the haunting sense of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>loss, which seems to have survived every other form -of consciousness, giving no rest, nor so much as -exemption from fear, pursued good and bad alike. -Nowhere does the utter need of mankind for the hope -brought by Christianity appear with such startling -clearness as in the verses of Homer, from the contrast -of the vivid pictures of life they present with -the appalling background of despair upon which they -are painted.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Its relation to the unseen world naturally brought -to the asphodel a host of occult or imaginary qualities. -Of true medicinal properties it may be said to -be devoid, and it accordingly finds no place in the -modern pharmacopœia. Anciently, however, it was -known, from its manifold powers, as the ‘heroic’ -herb. It was sovereign against witchcraft, and was -planted outside the gates of villas and farmhouses to -ward off malefic influences. It restored the wasted -strength of the consumptive: it was an antidote to -the venom of serpents and scorpions: it entered as -an ingredient into love-potions, and was invincible by -evil spirits: children round whose necks it was hung -cut their teeth without pain, and the terrors of the -night flew from its presence. Briefly, its faculties -were those of (in Zoroastrian phraseology) a ‘smiter -of fiends’; yet from it we moderns distil alcohol! -Of a truth it has gone over to the enemy.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sweet is moly, but his root is ill,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>wrote Spenser in one of his sonnets. But it may be -doubted whether he would have committed himself -to this sentiment had he realised that the gift of -Hermes was neither more nor less than a clove of -garlic.</p> -<p class='c015'>Odysseus approaching the house of Circe in search -of his companions (already, as he found out later, -transformed into swine), was met on the road by the -crafty son of Maia, and by him forewarned and forearmed -against the wiles of the enchantress. Skilled -in drugs as she was, a more potent herb than any -known to her had been procured by the messenger of -the gods. ‘Therewith,’ the hero continued in his -narrative to the Phæacian king, ‘the slayer of Argos -gave me the plant that he had plucked from the -ground, and he showed me the nature thereof. It -was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. -The gods call it moly, but it is hard for mortal men -to dig; howbeit, with the gods all things are possible.’ -It is thus evident that the Homeric moly is compounded -of two elements—a botanical, so to speak, -and a mythological. A substratum of fact has received -an embellishment of fable. Before the mind’s -eye of the poet, when he described the white flowers -and black root of the vegetable snatched from the -reluctant earth by Hermes, was a specific plant, which -he chose to associate, or which had already become -associated, with floating legendary lore, widely and -anciently diffused among our race. The identification -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>of that plant has often been attempted, and not -unsuccessfully.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The earliest record of such an effort is contained in -Theophrastus’s ‘History of Plants.’ He there asserts -the moly of the Odyssey to have been a kind of garlic -(<i>Allium nigrum</i>, according to Sprengel), growing on -Mount Cyllene in Arcadia (the birthplace, be it -observed, of Hermes), and of supreme efficacy as an -antidote to poisons; but he, unlike Homer, adds that -there is no difficulty in plucking it. We shall see -presently that this difficulty was purely mythical. -The language of Theophrastus suggests that the -association of moly with the Arcadian garlic was -traditional in his time; and the tradition has been -perpetuated in the modern Greek name, <i>molyza</i>, of a -member of the same family.</p> - -<p class='c015'>John Gerard in his Herbal, calls moly (of which -he enumerates several species) the ‘Sorcerer’s garlic,’ -and describes as follows the Theophrastian, assumed -as identical with the epic, kind.</p> - -<p class='c022'>Homer’s moly hath very thick leaves, broad toward the -bottom, sharp at the point, and hollowed like a trough or gutter, -in the bosom of which leaves near unto the bottom cometh -forth a certain round bulb or ball of a green colour; which -being ripe and set in the ground, groweth and becometh a fair -plant, such as is the mother. Among those leaves riseth up a -naked, smooth, thick stalk of two cubits high, as strong as is a -small walking-staff. At the top of the stalk standeth a bundle -of fair whitish flowers, dashed over with a wash of purple -colour, smelling like the flowers of onions. When they be ripe -there appeareth a black seed wrapt in a white skin or husk.</p> -<p class='c022'><span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>The root is great and bulbous, covered with a blackish skin on -the outside, and white within, and of the bigness of a great -onion.</p> - -<p class='c021'>So much for the question in its matter-of-fact -aspect. We may now look at it from its fabulous -side.</p> - -<p class='c015'>And first, it is to be remembered that moly was -not a charm, but a counter-charm. Its powers were -defensive, and presupposed an attack. It was as a -shield against the thrust of a spear. Now if any clear -notion could be attained regarding the kind of weapon -of which it had efficacy thus to blunt the point, we -should be perceptibly nearer to its individualisation. -But we are only told that the magic draught of Circe, -the effects of which it had power to neutralise, contained -pernicious drugs. The poet either did not -know, or did not care to tell more.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There is, however, a plant round which a crowd -of strange beliefs gathered from the earliest times. -This is the <i>Atropa mandragora</i>, or mandrake, probably -identical with the <i>Dudaim</i> of Scripture, and called by -classical writers <i>Circæa</i>, from its supposed potency in -philtres. The rude resemblance of its bifurcated -root to the lower half of the human frame started -its career as an object of credulity and an instrument -of imposture. It was held to be animated with -a life transcending the obscure vitality of ordinary -vegetable existence, and occult powers of the most -remarkable kind were attributed to it. The little -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>images, formed of the mandrake root, consulted as -oracles in Germany under the name of <i>Alrunen</i>, and -imported with great commercial success into this -country during the reign of Henry VIII., were -credited with the power of multiplying money left -in their charge, and generally of bringing luck to -their possessors, especially when their original seat -had been at the foot of a gallows, and their first -vesture a fragment of a winding-sheet. But privilege, -as usual, was here also fraught with peril. The -operation of uprooting a mandrake was a critical one, -formidable consequences ensuing upon its clumsy or -negligent execution. These could only be averted -by a strict observance of forms prescribed by the -wisdom of a very high antiquity. According to Pliny, -three circles were to be drawn round the plant with a -sword, within which the digger stood, facing west. -This position had to be combined, as best it might, -with an approach from the windward side, upon his -formidable prey. Through the pages of Josephus the -device gained its earliest publicity, of employing a -dog to receive the death penalty, attendant, in his -belief, on eradication. It was widely adopted, and -by mediæval sagacity fortified with the additional prescriptions -that the canine victim should be black without -a white hair, that the deed should be done before -dawn on a Friday, and that the ears of the doer -should be carefully stuffed with cotton-wool. For, at -the instant of leaving its parent-earth, a fearful -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>sound, which no mortal might hear and sanely survive, -issued from the uptorn root. This superstition -was familiar in English literature down to the seventeenth -century.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Thus Suffolk alleging the futility of bad language -in apology for the backwardness in its use with which -he has just been reproached by the ungentle queen of -Henry VI., exclaims,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake’s groan,</div> - <div class='line'>I would invent as bitter-searching terms,</div> - <div class='line'>As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,</div> - <div class='line'>Deliver’d strongly through my fixed teeth,</div> - <div class='line'>With full as many signs of deadly hate,</div> - <div class='line'>As lean-fac’d Envy in her loathsome cave.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>And poor Juliet enumerates among the horrors of the -charnel-house,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth,</div> - <div class='line'>That living mortals hearing them, run mad.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'>The persuasion was, moreover, included amongst -the Vulgar Errors gravely combated by Sir Thomas -Browne.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Mandragora, then, is the most ancient and the -most widely famous of all magic herbs; and the old -conjecture is at least a plausible one that from its -exclusive possession were derived the evil powers -employed to the detriment of her wind-borne guests -by the inhospitable daughter of Perse.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Moly, on the other hand, must be sought for -amongst the herbaceous antidotes of fable. Perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>the best known of these is the plant repugnant to -the fine senses of Horace, and equally abominable to -the nostrils of Elizabethan gallants. The name of -garlic in Sanskrit signifies ‘slayer of monsters.’ -Juvenal ridiculed the Egyptians for paying it reverence -as a divinity.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Porrum et cepe nefas violare ac frangere morsu.</div> - <div class='line'>O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis</div> - <div class='line'>Numina!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>The Eddic valkyr, Sigurdrifa, sang of its unassailable -virtue. As a sure preservative from witchcraft it -was, by mediæval Teutons, infused in the drink of -cattle and horses, hung up in lonely shepherds’ huts, -and buried under thresholds. It was laid on beds -against nightmare: planted on cottage roofs to keep -off lightning: it cured the poisoned bites of reptiles: it -was eaten to avert the evil effects of digging hellebore; -while, in Cuba, immunity from jaundice was -secured by wearing, during thirteen days, a collar -consisting of thirteen cloves of garlic, and throwing it -away at a cross-road, without looking behind, at -midnight on the expiration of that term. The occult -properties of this savoury root originated, no doubt, -as M. Hehn conceives,<a id='r308' /><a href='#f308' class='c017'><b>[308]</b></a> in its pungent taste and smell. -Substances strongly impressive to the senses are apt -to acquire the reputation of being distasteful to ‘spirits -of vile sort.’ Witness sulphur, employed from of old, -in ceremonial purification. But this may have been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>owing to its association, through the ‘sulphurous’ -smell of ozone, with the sacred thunder-bolt.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f308'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r308'>308</a>. </span><i>Wanderings of Plants</i>, p. 158.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>All the magic faculties of garlic, it may be remarked, -are directed to beneficent purposes; whereas -those of the mandrake (regarded as an herb, not as -an idol) are purely maleficent. Later folk-lore, however, -has not brought them into direct competition. -Each is thought of as supreme in its own line. Only -in the Odyssey (on the supposition here adopted) -they were permitted to meet, with the result of signal -defeat for the powers of evil.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Thus we see that the identification of moly with -garlic is countenanced by whatever scraps of botanical -evidence are at hand, fortified by a constant local -tradition, no less than by the fantastic prescriptions -of superstitious popular observance. The difficulty -or peril of uprooting, which made the prophylactic -plant obtained by Hermes all but unattainable to -mortals, is a common feature in vegetable mythology. -It figures as the price to be paid for something rarely -precious, enhancing its value and at the same time -affixing a scarcely tolerable penalty to its possession. -It belonged, for instance, in varying degrees, to hellebore -and mistletoe, as well as to mandragora. With -the last it most likely originated, and from it was -transferred by Homer, in the exercise of his poetical -licence, to moly.</p> - -<p class='c015'>From the adventure in the Ææan isle, as from so -many others, Odysseus came out unscathed. But it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>was not without high moral necessity that he passed -through them. The leading motive of his character -is, in fact, found in his multiform experience. He is -appointed to see and to suffer all that comes within -the scope of Greek humanity. No vicissitudes, no -perils are spared him. Protection from the extremity -of evil must and does content him. For his keen -curiosity falls in with the design of his celestial -patroness, in urging him to drink to the dregs the -costly draught of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet -it is to be noted that from the house of the enchantress -there is no exit save through the gates of hell.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Within the spacious confines of the universe there -is perhaps but one race of beings whose implanted -instincts and whose visible destiny are irreconcilably -at war. Man is born to suffer; but suffering has -always for him the poignancy of surprise. The long -record of multiform tribulation which he calls his -history, has been moulded, throughout its many -vicissitudes, by a keen and ceaseless struggle for enjoyment. -Each man and woman born into the world -looks afresh round the horizon of life for pleasure, -and meets instead the ever fresh outrage of pain. -Our planet is peopled with souls disinherited of what -they still feel to be an inalienable heritage of happiness. -No wonder, then, that quack-medicines for the cure of -the ills of life should always have been popular. Of -such nostrums, the famous Homeric drug nepenthes -is an early example, and may serve for a type.</p> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>We read in the Odyssey that Telemachus had no -sooner reached man’s estate than he set out from -Ithaca for Pylos and Lacedæmon, in order to seek -news of his father from Nestor and Menelaus, the -two most eminent survivors of the expedition against -Troy. But he learned only that Odysseus had vanished -from the known world. The disappointment was -severe, even to tears, notwithstanding that the banquet -was already spread in the radiant palace of the -Spartan king. The remaining guests, including the -illustrious host and hostess, caught the infection of -grief, and the pleasures of the table were over-clouded.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Then Helena the child of Zeus strange things</div> - <div class='line in2'>Devised, and mixed a philter in their wine,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Which so cures heartache and the inward stings,</div> - <div class='line in2'>That men forget all sorrow wherein they pine.</div> - <div class='line in2'>He who hath tasted of the draught divine</div> - <div class='line in2'>Weeps not that day, although his mother die</div> - <div class='line in2'>And father, or cut off before his eyne</div> - <div class='line in2'>Brother or child beloved fall miserably,</div> - <div class='line'>Hewn by the pitiless sword, he sitting silent by.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Drugs of such virtue did she keep in store,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Given her by Polydamna, wife of Thôn,</div> - <div class='line in2'>In Egypt, where the rich glebe evermore</div> - <div class='line in2'>Yields herbs in foison, some for virtue known,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Some baneful. In that climate each doth own</div> - <div class='line in2'>Leech-craft beyond what mortal minds attain;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Since of Pæonian stock their race hath grown.</div> - <div class='line in2'>She the good philter mixed to charm their pain,</div> - <div class='line'>And bade the wine outpour, and answering spake again.<a id='r309' /><a href='#f309' class='c017'><b>[309]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f309'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r309'>309</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 219-32 (Worsley’s translation).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>Such is the story which has formed the basis of -innumerable conjectures. The name of the drug -administered by Helen signifies the negation of -sorrow; and we learn that it grew in Egypt, and that -its administration was followed by markedly soothing -effects. Let us see whither these scanty indications -as to its nature will lead us.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Many of the ancients believed nepenthes to have -been a kind of bugloss, the leaves of which, infused -in wine, were affirmed by Dioscorides, Galen, and -other authorities, to produce exhilarating effects. It -is certain that in Plutarch’s time the hilarity of -banquets was constantly sought to be increased by -this means. But this was done in avowed imitation -of Helen’s hospitable expedient. It was, in other -words, a revival, not a survival, and possesses for us, -consequently, none of the instructiveness of an unbroken -tradition.</p> - -<p class='c015'>A new idea was struck out by the Roman traveller -Pietro della Valle, who visited Persia and Turkey -early in the seventeenth century. He suspected the -true nepenthean draught to have been coffee! From -Egypt, according to the antique narrative, it was -brought by Helen; and by way of Egypt the best -Mocha reached Constantinople, where it served to -recreate the spirits, and pass the heavy hours, of the -subjects of Achmet. Of this hypothesis we may say, -in the phrase of Sir Thomas Browne, that it is ‘false -below confute.’ The next, that of honest Petrus la -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>Seine, has even less to recommend it. His erudite -conclusion was that in nepenthes the long-sought -<i>aurum potabile</i>, the illusory ornament of the Paracelsian -pharmacopœia, made its first historical appearance! -Egypt, he argued, was the birthplace of -chemistry, and the great chemical desideratum from -the earliest times had been the production of a drinkable -solution of the most perfect among metals. Nay, -its supreme worth had lent its true motive to the -famous Argonautic expedition, which had been fitted -out for the purpose of securing, not a golden fleece in -the literal sense, but a parchment upon which the -invaluable recipe was inscribed. The virtues of the -elixir were regarded by the learned dissertator as -superior to proof or discussion, in which exalted position -we willingly leave them.</p> - -<p class='c015'>More enthusiastic than critical, Madame Dacier -looked at the subject from a point of view taken up, -many centuries earlier, by Plutarch. Nepenthes, -according to both these authorities, had no real existence. -The effects ascribed to it were merely a figurative -way of expressing the charms of Helen’s conversation.</p> - -<p class='c015'>But this was to endow the poet with a subtlety -which he was very far from possessing. Simple and -direct in thought, he invariably took the shortest way -open to him in expression; and circuitous routes of -interpretation will invariably lead astray from his -meaning. It is clear accordingly that a real drug, of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>Egyptian origin, was supposed to have soothed and -restored appetite to the guests of Menelaus—a drug -quite possibly known to Homer only by the rumour of -its qualities, which he ingeniously turned to account -for the purposes of his story. Now, since those qualities -were undoubtedly narcotic, the field of our choice -is a narrow one. We have only to inquire whether -any, and, if so, what, preparations of the kind -were anciently in use by the inhabitants of the Nile valley.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Unfortunately our information does not go very -far back. A certain professor of botany from Padua, -however, named Prosper Alpinus, has left a remarkable -account of his personal observations on the point -towards the close of the sixteenth century. The -vulgar pleasures of intoxication appear to have been -(as was fitting in a Mohammedan country) little in -request: among all classes their place was taken by -the raptures of solacing dreams and delightful visions -artificially produced. The means employed for the -purpose were threefold. There was first an electuary -of unknown composition imported from India called -<i>bernavi</i>. But this may at once be put aside, since -the ‘medicine for a mind diseased’ given by Polydamna -to Helen was, as we have seen, derived from -a home-grown Egyptian herb. There remain of the -three soothing drugs mentioned by Alpinus, hemp -and opium. Each was extensively consumed; and -the practice of employing each as a road to pleasurable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>sensations was already, in 1580, of immemorial -antiquity. One of them was almost certainly the -true Homeric nepenthes. We have only to decide -which.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The first, as being the cheaper form of indulgence, -was mainly resorted to, our Paduan informant tells -us, amongst the lower classes. From the leaves of -the herb <i>Cannabis sativa</i> was prepared a powder -known as <i>assis</i>, made up into boluses and swallowed, -with the result of inducing a lethargic state of dreamy -beatitude. <i>Assis</i> was fundamentally the same with -the Indian <i>bhang</i>, the Arabic <i>hashish</i>—one of the -mainstays of Oriental sensual pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The earliest mention of hemp is by Herodotus. -He states that it grew in the country of the Scythians, -that from its fibres garments scarcely distinguishable -in texture from linen were woven in Thrace, and that -the fumes from its burning seeds furnished the nomad -inhabitants of what is now Southern Russia, with -vapour-baths, serving them as a substitute for -washing. Marked intoxicating effects attended this -peculiar mode of ablution.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In China, from the beginning of the third century -of our era, if not earlier, a preparation of hemp -was used (it was said, with perfect success) as an -anæsthetic; and it is mentioned as a remedy -under the name of <i>b’hanga</i>, in Hindu medical works -of probably still earlier date. Its identity with -nepenthes was first suggested in 1839, and has since -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>been generally acquiesced in. But there are two -objections.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The practice of eating or smoking hemp, for the -sake of its exalting effects upon consciousness, appears -to have originated on the slopes of the Himalayas, to -have spread thence to Persia, and to have been transmitted -farther west by Arab agency. It was not, -then, primitively an Egyptian custom, and was assuredly -unknown to the wife of Thôn. Moreover, hemp -is not indigenous on the banks of the Nile. It came -thither as an immigrant, most probably long after -the building of the latest pyramid. Herodotus includes -no mention of it in his curious and particular -account of the country; and, which is still more -significant, no relic of its textile use survives. Not -a hempen fibre has ever been found in any of the -innumerable mummy-cases examined by learned Europeans. -The ancient Egyptians, it may then be concluded, -were unacquainted with this plant, and we -must look elsewhere for the chief ingredient of the -comfort-bringing draught distributed by the daughter -of Zeus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There is only opium left. It is legitimately -reached by the ‘method of exclusions.’ Should it -fail, no substitute can be provided. But it does not -fail. No serious discrepancy starts up to shake our -belief that in recognising opium under the disguise of -nepenthes we have indeed struck the truth. All the -circumstances correspond to admiration: the identification -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>runs ‘on all fours.’ The physical effects indicated -agree perfectly with those resulting from a -sparing use of opium. They tend to just so much -elevation of spirits as would impart a roseate tinge to -the landscape of life. The intellect remains unclouded -and serene. The Nemesis of indulgence, however -moderate, is still behind the scenes. The exhibition -of a soporific effect has even been seriously thought -to have been designed by the poet in the proposal of -Telemachus to retire to rest shortly after the nepenthean -cup has gone round; but so bald a piece of -realism can scarcely have entered into the contemplation -of an artist of such consummate skill.</p> - -<p class='c015'>For ages past, Thebes in Egypt has witnessed the -production of opium from the expressed juice of -poppyheads. Six centuries ago, the substance was -known in Western Europe as <i>Opium Thebaïcum</i>, or -the ‘Theban tincture.’ Prosper Alpinus states that -the whole of Egypt was supplied, at the epoch of his -visit, from Sajeth, on the site of the ancient hundred-gated -city. And since a large proportion of the upper -classes were undisguised opium-eaters, the demand -must have been considerable. Now it was precisely -in Thebes that Helen, according to Diodorus, received -the sorrow-soothing drug from her Egyptian hostess; -while the women of Thebes, and they only, still in -his time preserved the secret of its qualities and -preparation. Can we doubt that the ancient nepenthes -was in truth no other than the mediæval Theban -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>tincture? Even stripping from the statement of -Diodorus all historical value, its legendary significance -remains. It proves, beyond question, the existence -of a tradition localising the gift of Polydamna -in a spot noted, from the date of the earliest authentic -information on the subject, for the production of a -modern equivalent. The inference seems irresistible -that the two were one, and that, as De Quincey said, -Homer is rightly reputed to have known the virtues -of opium.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span> - <h2 id='ch09' class='c010'>CHAPTER IX.<br /> <br />THE METALS IN HOMER.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>The</span> undivided Aryans knew very little of the underground -riches of the earth. They transmitted to -their dispersed descendants no common words for -mining, forging, or smelting, none to indicate a metal -in general, and only one designative of a metal in -particular. This took in Sanskrit the form <i>ayas</i>, in -Latin, <i>æs</i>; it is represented by the German <i>Erz</i>, -equivalent to the English <i>ore</i>; and, after drifting -through a Celtic channel, took a new meaning and -form as <i>Eisen</i>, or <i>iron</i>.<a id='r310' /><a href='#f310' class='c017'><b>[310]</b></a> The original signification -of the term was <i>copper</i>; and copper seems, in general, -to have been the first metal to engage the attention -of primitive man. This is easily accounted for. -Copper is widely distributed; it frequently occurs in -the native state, when its strong colour at once -catches the eye; it is easily worked, and displays a -luminous glow highly engaging to an unsophisticated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>taste for ornament. And, because copper was at -first the only substance of the kind known, its name -was used to determine those of other related substances. -Thus, in Sanskrit, iron was called ‘dark -blue <i>ayas</i>,’ <i>ayas</i> having come to mean metal in -general; and a specific sign (possibly that for <i>hardness</i>) -added, in the Egyptian inscriptions, to the -hieroglyph for copper, causes it to denote iron.<a id='r311' /><a href='#f311' class='c017'><b>[311]</b></a> But -in South Africa these positions are exchanged. There -iron ranks as the fundamental metal; gold being -known to at least one Kafir tribe as ‘yellow,’ silver as -‘white,’ copper as ‘red’ iron.<a id='r312' /><a href='#f312' class='c017'><b>[312]</b></a> And to these linguistic -facts corresponds the exceptional circumstance, -due probably to early intercourse with Egypt, that -the stone-age in South Africa yielded immediately to -an iron-age.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f310'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r310'>310</a>. </span>Much, <i>Die Kupferzeit in Europa</i>, p. 173; Schrader and Jevons, -<i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans</i>, p. 188; Taylor, <i>Origin of -the Aryans</i>, p. 138.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f311'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r311'>311</a>. </span>Lepsius, <i>Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes</i>, p. 55.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f312'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r312'>312</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 154; Rougemont, <i>L’Âge de -Bronze</i>, p. 14.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In Asia, gold was discovered next after copper, -the Massagetæ, described by Herodotus, exemplifying -this stage of progress; silver, or ‘white gold’ succeeded, -bringing lead in its train; then, little by little, -tin crept into use; while iron, destined to predominate, -came last. All the six, however, are enumerated -in a Khorsabad inscription;<a id='r313' /><a href='#f313' class='c017'><b>[313]</b></a> they were familiar -to the ancient Egyptians, to the Israelites of the -Exodus, and to the Homeric Greeks.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f313'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r313'>313</a>. </span>Lenormant, <i>Trans. Soc. Bibl. Archæology</i>, vol. vi. p. 345.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Gold was with Homer supreme among terrestrial -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>substances. It represented to him beauty, splendour, -power, wealth, incorruption. It was the metal of -the gods, and mortals by its profuse employment, -borrowed something of divine glory. Its availability -for them had, nevertheless, narrow limitations unfelt -supernally. For the visionary metal of Olympus -might be dispensed at will without restrictions either -as to quantity or qualities. Inexhaustible stores of it -lay at command; and it could be rendered infrangible -and impenetrable by some mythical process unknown -to sublunary metallurgists. Hence the golden -hobbles with which Poseidon secured his coursers -might have proved less satisfactory for the restraint -of commonplace Thracian or Thessalian horses; the -golden sword of Apollo would surely have bent in the -hand of Hector; the golden mansion of the sea-god -built for aye in the blue depths of the Ægean, could -not have supported its own weight for an hour on -realistic dry land; nor would the process of lifting -earth to heaven by hauling on a rope have been -facilitated by making that rope (as Zeus proposed to -do for the purpose in question) of gold. Of gold, -too, were the garments of the gods, their thrones, -utensils, implements, appurtenances; the pavement -of their courts was ‘trodden gold’; golden were the -wings of Iris, golden was the beauty of Aphrodite. -No doubt, all these attributions were half consciously -metaphorical, but their main design was to set off -immortal existence by decorating it with an enhanced -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>degree of the same kind of magnificence -marking the dignity of mortal potentates.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It is remarkable that the Olympian gold in the -Shield of Achilles retained some part of the occult -virtue properly belonging to it only in that elevated -sphere. Of the five metallic layers composing the -great buckler, the middle and most precious one gets -the whole credit of having arrested the quivering -spears of Æneas and Asteropæus.<a id='r314' /><a href='#f314' class='c017'><b>[314]</b></a> The verses, to be -sure, recording its superior efficacy are held to be -spurious, and the inclusion of a hidden stratum of -gold does indeed seem without reason, as it is certainly -without precedent. Yet the original poet would -not have altogether disavowed the inspiring idea of -the passage; and the alleged impenetrability of the -gold-mail of Masistius<a id='r315' /><a href='#f315' class='c017'><b>[315]</b></a> may be held to imply that -traces of its old mystical faculty of resistance lingered -about the metal so late as when Xerxes invaded -Greece.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f314'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r314'>314</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xx. 268; xxi. 165; and Leaf’s annotations.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f315'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r315'>315</a>. </span>Herodotus, ix. 22.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The metallic treasures allotted to the gods in the -Iliad are confiscated for human enrichment in the -Odyssey. For the golden automata of Hephæstus -are substituted the golden watch-dogs and torch-bearers -of Alcinous; resplendent dwellings are erected, -no longer on Olympus or at Ægæ, but in Sparta and -Phæacia; Helen shares with Artemis in the Odyssey -the golden distaff exclusively attributed to the latter -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>in the Iliad; the ‘dreams of avarice,’ in short, are -tangibly realised, in the Epic of adventure, only by -human possessions; they shrink for the most part -into shadowy epithets where divine surroundings are -concerned. Nor is this diversity accidental or unmeaning. -It indicates a genuine shifting of the -mythological point of view—an advance, slight yet -significant, towards a more spiritualised conception -of deity.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Oriental contact first stirred the <i>auri sacra fames</i> -in the Greek mind. That this was so the Greek -language itself tells plainly. For <i>chrusos</i>, gold, is a -Semitic loanword, closely related to the Hebrew -<i>chârûz</i>, but taken immediately, there can be no -reasonable doubt, from the Phœnician. The restless -treasure-seekers from Tyre were, indeed, as the -Græco-Semitic term <i>metal</i> intimates,<a id='r316' /><a href='#f316' class='c017'><b>[316]</b></a> the original -subterranean explorers of the Balkan peninsula. As -early, probably, as the fifteenth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> they -‘digged out ribs of gold’ on the islands of Thasos -and Siphnos, and on the Thracian mainland at -Mount Pangæum; and the fables of the Golden -Fleece, and of Arimaspian wars with gold-guarding -griffins, prove the hold won by the ‘precious bane’ -over the popular imagination. Asia Minor was, however, -the chief source of prehistoric supply, the -native mines lying long neglected after the Phœnicians -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>had been driven from the scene. Midas was a typical -king in a land where the mountains were gold-granulated, -and the rivers ran over sands of gold. And it -was in fact from Phrygia that Pelops was traditionally -reported to have brought the treasures which made -Mycenæ the golden city of the Achæan world.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f316'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r316'>316</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>Antiquities of the Aryans</i>, p. 155; Much, -<i>Die Kupferzeit in Europa</i>, p. 147.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Epic affluence in gold was not wholly fictitious. -From the sepulchres of Mycenæ alone about -one hundred pounds Troy weight of the metal have -been disinterred; freely at command even in the -lowest stratum of the successive habitations at Hissarlik, -it was lavishly stored, and highly wrought in -the picturesquely-named ‘treasure of Priam;’ and -has been found, in plates and pearls, beneath twenty -metres of volcanic debris, in the Cycladic islands -Thera and Therapia.<a id='r317' /><a href='#f317' class='c017'><b>[317]</b></a> This plentifulness contrasts -strangely with the extreme scarcity of gold in historic -Greece. It persisted, however, mainly owing to the -vicinity of the auriferous Ural Mountains, in the -Milesian colony of Panticapæum, near Kertch, where -graves have been opened containing corpses shining -‘like images’ in a complete clothing of gold-leaf, and -equipped with ample supplies of golden vessels and -ornaments.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f317'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r317'>317</a>. </span>Much, <i>Die Kupferzeit</i>, p. 41.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Silver<a id='r318' /><a href='#f318' class='c017'><b>[318]</b></a> was, at the outset, a still rarer substance -than gold. Not that there is really less of it. The -ocean alone is estimated to contain nearly ten thousand -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>million tons, and the mines yielding it, though -few, are rich. But it occurs less obviously, and is -less easy to obtain pure. Accordingly, in some very -early Egyptian inscriptions, silver, by heading the -list of metals, claims a supremacy over them which -proved short-lived. It terminated for ever with the -scarcity that had produced it, when the Phœnicians -began to pour the flood of Spanish silver into the -markets and treasure-chambers of the East. Armenia -constituted another tolerably copious source of supply; -and it was in this quarter that Homer located the -‘birthplace of silver.’<a id='r319' /><a href='#f319' class='c017'><b>[319]</b></a> Alybé, on the coast of the -Euxine east of Paphlagonia, whence the Halizonians -came to Troy, was identified by Strabo with Chalybe, -a famous mining district.<a id='r320' /><a href='#f320' class='c017'><b>[320]</b></a> The people there, indeed, -as Xenophon recorded, lived mostly by digging iron; -and their name was preserved in the Greek <i>chalups</i>, -steel, and survives with ourselves in <i>chalybeate</i> waters. -The district has, however, in modern times, again -become known as argentiferous. The Homeric tradition -receives countenance from the discovery, in the -neighbourhood of Tripoli, of antique, half obliterated -silver-workings; and from the existence, not far off, -of a ‘Silver-town’ (Gunnish-kana), and a ‘Silver-mountain’ -(Gunnish-dagh), whence a large tribute in -silver still flowed, a few years ago, into the leaky -coffers of Turkey.<a id='r321' /><a href='#f321' class='c017'><b>[321]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f318'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r318'>318</a>. </span>Blümner, <i>Technologie der Gewerbe</i>, Bd. iv. pp. 28-32.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f319'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r319'>319</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ii. 857.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f320'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r320'>320</a>. </span><i>Geog.</i> xii. 3.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f321'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r321'>321</a>. </span>Rougemont, <i>L’Âge de Bronze</i>, p. 169; Riedenauer, <i>Handwerk -und Handwerker</i>, p. 101.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>The word <i>silver</i> (Gothic, <i>silubr</i>) has even been -conjecturally associated with the Homeric Alybé;<a id='r322' /><a href='#f322' class='c017'><b>[322]</b></a> -while other philologists prefer to regard it as equivalent -to the Assyrian <i>sarpu</i>.<a id='r323' /><a href='#f323' class='c017'><b>[323]</b></a> All that is certain is -the absence of a general Aryan name for the metal, -showing that the Aryans collectively made no acquaintance -with it. Thus, the Greek <i>arguros</i> and the Latin -<i>argentum</i>, although closely related, are really different -words. That is to say, they were formed independently -from the common root, <i>ark</i>, to shine, modified -into <i>arg</i>, white. Its whiteness, in fact, has supplied -the designations of this metal in all parts of the world. -Silver is the ‘white iron’ of the Kaffirs, the ‘white -gold’ of the Afghans, the ‘white copper’ of the Vedic -Indians; and the antique Accadians and Egyptians -defined it by the same obvious quality.<a id='r324' /><a href='#f324' class='c017'><b>[324]</b></a> The Greek -<i>arguros</i> is, then, a comparatively late word, formed, -perhaps, after the Achæan tribes were already settled -in their Hellenic home, when their first supplies of -silver began to come in from Pontic Asia Minor.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f322'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r322'>322</a>. </span>Hehn, <i>Wanderings of Plants</i>, p. 443.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f323'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r323'>323</a>. </span>Taylor, <i>Origin of the Aryans</i>, p. 143.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f324'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r324'>324</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>Antiquities of the Aryans</i>, pp. 154, -180-82.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The subsequence of its invention to the adoption -into the Greek language of <i>chrusos</i>, gold, can be inferred -from the relative paucity of proper and placenames -compounded with it. Homer has only four -such, while his ‘golden’ appellations number thirteen. -Take as specimens the series Chryse, Chryses, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>Chryseïs, designating a place in the Troad, the priest -of Apollo in that place, and his daughter, all memorably -connected with the tragic Wrath of Achilles. -The nomenclature, no doubt, took its rise from solar -associations; yet the typical relationship between gold -and the sun, silver and the moon, is nowhere in the -Epics directly recognised. Helios is never decorated -with the epithet ‘golden’; Apollo, if he wears a -golden sword, is more strongly characterised by his -silver bow. Lunar mythology is ignored; nor is the -ready metaphor of the ‘silver moon’ to be found in -Homeric verse. The ‘apparent queen’ of the nocturnal -sky does not there, as elsewhere in poetry and -folk-lore, ‘throw her silver mantle o’er the dark.’ -The metallic sheen, on the other hand, of water -rippling in sunshine, produces its due effect in the -generation of epithets; rivers being habitually called -‘silver-eddying,’ and Thetis, the Undine of the Iliad, -wearing a specific badge as ‘silver-footed.’</p> - -<p class='c015'>For the concrete purposes of actual decoration, -the metal was in constant Homeric demand. Heré’s -chariot and the car of Rhesus shone with its delicate -radiance; the chair of Penelope was spirally inwrought -with silver and ivory; the greaves of Paris were silver -clasped, and the sheath of his sword silver-studded; -a silver hilt adorned the weapon of Achilles, and the -strings of his lyre were attached to a silver yoke.<a id='r325' /><a href='#f325' class='c017'><b>[325]</b></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>Of silver, too, was the tool-chest of Hephæstus; -the guests of Circe ate off silver tables; the guests -of Menelaus, if particularly favoured, might have -bathed in silver tubs, two of which were presented -to him in Egypt; and from golden ewers water was -poured into silver basins for the ablutions before -meals in every establishment of some pretension. -The fittings shared the splendours of the furniture in -Odyssean palaces. In the great hall of Alcinous, the -door-posts and lintel were of silver, and golden and -silver hounds, fashioned by Hephæstus, kept watch -beside its golden gates. And the courts of Menelaus -were resplendent with gold, bronze, silver, and -electrum.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f325'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r325'>325</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, i. 219; ix. 187; Buchholz, <i>Homerische Realien</i>, Bd. i. -Abth. ii. p. 316.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The term ‘electrum,’ however, is a somewhat -ambiguous one. In classical Greek, it denotes two -perfectly distinct substances, one metallic, the other -of organic origin—the latter, indeed, chiefly; the -word came to be applied almost exclusively to <i>amber</i>. -Or it may be that two primarily distinct words -coalesced with time into one. Lepsius has urged -the probability that the name of the metal was -of the masculine form <i>elektros</i>, while amber was designated -by the neuter <i>elektron</i>.<a id='r326' /><a href='#f326' class='c017'><b>[326]</b></a> Nor is it unlikely that -these words had separate genealogies, the first being -derived from an Aryan root signifying ‘to shine,’ the -second from a Semitic name for resin. Phœnician -inscriptions may eventually throw light upon a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>point which must otherwise remain unsettled, by -acquainting us with the Phœnician mode of designating -amber.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f326'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r326'>326</a>. </span><i>Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes</i>, p. 60.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The metallic electrum was an alloy of gold with -about twenty per cent. of silver. It occurs naturally, -but was produced artificially as well, especially in -Egypt, where <i>asem</i>, as it was called, came into favour -long before any of the pyramids were built. It was -in the Nile valley thought fit for goddesses’ wear, its -pale radiance suggesting feminine refinement; and -stores of it were laid up in the treasures of all the -early kings. The first Lydian coinage was of electrum; -many of the utensils and ornaments discovered -at Hissarlik and Mycenæ prove to be similarly composed; -and electrum continued in favour down to a -particularly late date in the Græco-Scythic settlements -on the Black Sea. It made one of its few -historical appearances in the ‘white gold’ offered by -Crœsus at Delphi;<a id='r327' /><a href='#f327' class='c017'><b>[327]</b></a> and there are two instances of its -epical employment. The ground of the Hesiodic -Shield of Hercules was inlaid, the walls of the -banqueting-hall of Menelaus were overlaid, with gold, -electrum, and ivory. Although, in two other passages -of the Odyssey, the same word undoubtedly designates -amber, it is safe to affirm that here, where mural incrustations -are in question, a metallic substance, none -other than the immemorial <i>asem</i> of Egypt, should be -understood. Egyptian analogies, as Lepsius many -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>years ago pointed out, strongly support this supposition, -above all where Egyptian associations are so -marked as in the Odyssean description of the Spartan -court. Electrum is unknown in the Iliad. The word -occurs only in the form <i>elektor</i>, signifying ‘the beaming -sun.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f327'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r327'>327</a>. </span>Herodotus, i. 50.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The third Homeric metal, and the most important -of all, is <i>chalkos</i>. But what does <i>chalkos</i> mean? -Copper or bronze? The question is not one to be -answered off-hand or categorically. It has been long -and learnedly debated; and admits, perhaps, of no -decision more absolute than the cautious arbitrament -of Sir Roger de Coverley.</p> - -<p class='c015'>No help towards clearing up the point in dispute -has been derived from etymological inquiries. The -word <i>chalkos</i> is without Aryan equivalents, and can -best be explained by means of the Semitic <i>hhalaq</i>, -signifying ‘metal worked with a hammer.’<a id='r328' /><a href='#f328' class='c017'><b>[328]</b></a> Its -primitive meaning, thus left conjectural, was most -probably ‘copper.’ For, from all parts of Europe, -evidence has gradually accumulated that the transition -from the use of stone to the use of bronze was -through a ‘copper age,’ which, though perhaps of -short duration, has left relics impossible to be -ignored. Indications are even forthcoming among -the prehistoric ‘finds’ at Hissarlik, of the tentative -processes by which copper was improved into bronze.<a id='r329' /><a href='#f329' class='c017'><b>[329]</b></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>The lower strata of ruins on the site of ancient Troy -contained articles and implements of approximately -pure copper; nearer the surface, a sensible ingredient -of tin was added, augmented, here and there, to the -normal proportion for bronze of about twelve per -cent. At Mycenæ, domestic vessels were fabricated -of copper, weapons and ornamental objects of bronze; -and a copper saw, dug from beneath the lavas of -Santorin, gives corroborative evidence of the early -Greek use of the unalloyed metal.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f328'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r328'>328</a>. </span>Lenormant, <i>Antiquités de la Troade</i>, p. 11.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f329'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r329'>329</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> p. 10.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><i>Chalkos</i>, then, must, to begin with, have denoted -copper, and indeed it partially preserves that sense in -the Homeric poems. The cargo, for example, taken -on board at Temesé, in Cyprus, by the Taphian king -Mentes,<a id='r330' /><a href='#f330' class='c017'><b>[330]</b></a> must have been of pure copper, the distinctively -‘Cyprian’ metal. The port of Temesé, afterwards -Tamassos, be it observed, was a Phœnician -establishment, and bore a Phœnician name denoting -‘smelting-house,’ both instructive circumstances as -regards the agency by which metallic supplies were -transmitted westward.<a id='r331' /><a href='#f331' class='c017'><b>[331]</b></a> Again, when Achilles enumerated -with gold and ‘grey iron,’ red <i>chalkos</i> as forming -part of his wealth,<a id='r332' /><a href='#f332' class='c017'><b>[332]</b></a> he could have meant nothing but -unadulterated copper. The colour-adjective does not -recur, but its employment this once strongly supports -the inference that the unwrought <i>chalkos</i>, frequently -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>spoken of as stored for future use or barter, was -without sensible admixture of tin.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f330'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r330'>330</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, i. 184.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f331'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r331'>331</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 196; Buchholz, <i>Homer. Real.</i> -Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 326.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f332'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r332'>332</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, ix. 365.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>This inference, however, cannot reasonably be -carried further. Homeric armour was altogether of -<i>chalkos</i>, and it would be absurd to suppose that the -‘well-greaved Greeks’ went into action copper-clad. -This on two grounds. In the first place, archæological -research has proved to demonstration that -bronze was fully and freely available in the late Mycenæan -age, when Homer, there is good reason to believe, -flourished. Articles composed of it must have been -continually before his eyes and within his grasp. -Unless he deliberately elected, which is inconceivable, -to exclude from his poems all mention of a material -of primary importance to the known arts, his <i>chalkos</i> -was a term sufficiently comprehensive to embrace -<i>both</i> bronze and copper. In the second place, pure -copper could not have played the part assigned to it. -Its inadequacy as a material for weapons or armour -should promptly have led to its rejection. Assuredly -it could neither have sustained, nor been the means -of inflicting, the heavy blows and buffets exchanged -by the heroes of the Trojan War. The mere fact of -the shattering of Menelaus’s sword against the helmet -of Paris<a id='r333' /><a href='#f333' class='c017'><b>[333]</b></a> is conclusive as to its having been made of -a less yielding substance than copper;<a id='r334' /><a href='#f334' class='c017'><b>[334]</b></a> and the hardening -process, by sudden cooling, imagined with the -view to removing the difficulty, has been pronounced, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>on the authority of experts, impracticable.<a id='r335' /><a href='#f335' class='c017'><b>[335]</b></a> The -rigidity and occasional brittleness of the Homeric <i>chalkos</i> -was imparted to it, we may be quite sure, by the -tin mixed with it.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f333'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r333'>333</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, iii. 363.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f334'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r334'>334</a>. </span>Riedenauer, <i>Handwerk und Handwerker</i>, p. 103.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f335'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r335'>335</a>. </span>Blümner, <i>Technologie</i>, Bd. iv. p. 51.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Moreover, it is incredible that the Homeric Greeks, -although acquainted with iron, had no share in the -bronze-culture flourishing, then and previously, along -the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The persistence, -anywhere in that region, of so late, and so -extraordinarily developed a copper age, would indeed -be a glaring anomaly. Already,<a id='r336' /><a href='#f336' class='c017'><b>[336]</b></a> in the third millennium -<span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, bronze tools were used in Egypt; and -under the name <i>zabar</i>, whence the Arabic <i>zifr</i>, bronze -was fabricated by Sumero-Accadian metallurgists at -the very outset of Mesopotamian civilisation.<a id='r337' /><a href='#f337' class='c017'><b>[337]</b></a> It was, -in fact, probably from Mesopotamia that knowledge -of the art and its attendant advantages was carried -westward by Sidonian traffickers. Customers, then, -who, like the Achæans, procured from them plentiful -supplies of copper, and a smaller quantity of tin, could -not long have remained ignorant of the vast superiority -of their alloyed over their separate condition. -The conclusion is inevitable that <i>chalkos</i>, like the -corresponding Hebrew term <i>nechosheth</i>, and the Egyptian -<i>chomt</i>, was a word of some elasticity of meaning, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>designating ordinarily bronze, but occasionally copper. -The translation, it need hardly be said, of any of the -three by the English <i>brass</i> involves a gross error. -Copper was not systematically alloyed with zinc until -about the second century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r338' /><a href='#f338' class='c017'><b>[338]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f336'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r336'>336</a>. </span>Perrot et Chipiez, <i>Histoire de l’Art</i>, t. i. p. 829; Beck (<i>Gesch. -des Eisens</i>, p. 79) considers, however, that no Egyptian bronzes yet -analysed go back beyond the eighteenth dynasty, about 1700 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span></p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f337'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r337'>337</a>. </span>Lenormant, <i>Trans. Soc. Bibl, Archæology</i>, vol. vi. p. 344.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f338'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r338'>338</a>. </span>Blümner, <i>Technologie</i>, Bd. iv. p. 199.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>But the bronze industry of old must have been -seriously hampered in its growth and spread by the -scarcity of tin. This metal is of most restricted distribution. -The reservoirs of it held by the earth are -few and far apart. The two principal, in Cornwall -and the Malaccan peninsula respectively, are ‘wide as -the poles asunder.’ Yet its discovery goes back to a -hoar antiquity, and its prehistoric use was extensive -and continuous. This wide dispersion of so scarce -an article gives cogent proof of unexpectedly early -intercourse between remote populations, and strikingly -illustrates the effectiveness of those gradual processes -of primitive trade by which desirable commodities -permeated continents, and reached the least accessible -markets.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The earliest historical source of tin was in the -Cassiterides, or ‘tin-islands’ of Britain; and there -can be no doubt, geographical mystifications notwithstanding, -that the tin thence derived came, directly -or indirectly, from Cornwall. Not improbably, the -staple of the Phœnician tin-trade was in the Isle of -Wight, which accordingly became the representative -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>tin-island.<a id='r339' /><a href='#f339' class='c017'><b>[339]</b></a> But this is questionable. What is certain -is, that the metal was transported overland to -the Gulf of Lyons long before the Phœnicians passed -the Pillars of Hercules, and was available, much -earlier still, in Egypt and Assyria. The Cornish was -not, then, the first source of supply to be opened, nor -was the Malaccan. Tin was, in fact, an article of -export from Alexandria to India down to the beginning -of the Christian era. The modern discovery, however, -of tin-mines in Khorassan, the ancient Drangiana, -irresistibly suggests that the primitive bronze-workers -derived the less plentiful material of their industry -from the Paropamisus, and tends to confirm the -Turanian lineage imputed to them by Lenormant.<a id='r340' /><a href='#f340' class='c017'><b>[340]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f339'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r339'>339</a>. </span>Blümner, <i>Technologie</i>, Bd. iv. p. 86.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f340'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r340'>340</a>. </span>Von Baer, <i>Archiv für Anthropologie</i>, Bd. ix. p. 266; Blümner, -<i>Technologie</i>, Bd. iv. p. 84.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric name for tin, <i>kassiteros</i>, is at any rate -clearly of Oriental origin. The Greeks adopted it from -the Phœnicians; the Phœnicians <i>may</i>, it is thought, -have picked it up from Accadian bronze-smiths along -the shores of the Persian Gulf. It survives in the -Arabic <i>kasdîr</i>, and under the form <i>kastîra</i> made its -way into Sanskrit, on the occasion of Alexander’s -invasion of the Punjâb. Pure tin ranked with Homer -almost as a precious metal. Its scarcity gave it -prestige; but he had evidently very little acquaintance -with its qualities. As Helbig remarks,<a id='r341' /><a href='#f341' class='c017'><b>[341]</b></a> difficulties -of interpretation arise wherever <i>kassiteros</i> is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>brought on the scene. A good deal of critical discomfort, -for instance, has been created by the statement -that greaves of tin were included in the warlike outfit -supplied to Achilles from Olympus. And bewilderment -is heightened later on by the defensive power -they are made to exhibit in the hardest trials of -actual battle. In point of fact, they would have been -as ineffective as papier-maché against the thrust of -Agenor’s spear; and their clattering would scarcely -have produced the awe-inspiring effect ascribed to it -in the following passage.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f341'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r341'>341</a>. </span><i>Das Homerische Epos</i>, p. 285.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>He [Agenor] said, and hurled his sharp spear with weighty hand, -and smote him [Achilles] on the leg beneath the knee, nor missed -his mark, and the greave of new-wrought tin rang terribly on him; -but the bronze bounded back from him it smote, nor pierced him, -for the god’s gift drave it back.<a id='r342' /><a href='#f342' class='c017'><b>[342]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f342'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r342'>342</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxi. 591-94; cf. Blümner, <i>Technologie</i>, Bd. iv. p. 53.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Elsewhere in the Iliad, tin is employed ornamentally, -as it was on the pottery of the ancient pile-dwellers -of Savoy.<a id='r343' /><a href='#f343' class='c017'><b>[343]</b></a> But the poet is much more -sparing of it than he is of either gold or silver. Even -his imaginary stores appear to be strictly limited. -‘Relucent tin,’ however, bordered the breastplate -presented by Achilles to Eumelus as a consolation-prize -in the Patroclean games; the chariot of Diomed -was ‘overlaid with gold and tin’;<a id='r344' /><a href='#f344' class='c017'><b>[344]</b></a> the cuirass of -Agamemnon was inlaid with parallel stripes, and the -buckler of Agamemnon decorated with bosses of tin.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f343'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r343'>343</a>. </span>Dawkins, <i>Early Man in Britain</i>, p. 402.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f344'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r344'>344</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 503.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>The metal was also turned to account by Hephæstus -for the purpose of adding to the effect and variety of -his delineations on the Shield of Achilles. But we -get no hint as to how it came into Achæan hands; no -rich man’s treasure contains it; and it drops completely -out of sight in the Odyssey.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Tin corrodes so readily that its extreme archæological -rarity is not surprising. None has been found, -either at Mycenæ or in any part of the stratified -débris at Hissarlik.<a id='r345' /><a href='#f345' class='c017'><b>[345]</b></a> Lead, on the other hand, has -been disinterred from all the Trojan cities, and was -in use at Mycenæ, both pure, and alloyed with silver. -Among the objects brought to light there was a leaden -figure of Aphrodite, doubtless an idol,<a id='r346' /><a href='#f346' class='c017'><b>[346]</b></a> and a vessel -in stag-shape composed of silver mixed with half its -weight of lead.<a id='r347' /><a href='#f347' class='c017'><b>[347]</b></a> The latter substance is unmentioned -in the Odyssey, but is twice familiarly alluded to in -the Iliad. Its cheapness and commonness can be -gathered from the circumstance incidentally disclosed, -that poor fishermen attached pieces of it as weights -to their lines.<a id='r348' /><a href='#f348' class='c017'><b>[348]</b></a> Its quality of softness comes in to -illustrate the ease with which the spear of Iphidamas -was turned by the silver in the belt of Agamemnon.<a id='r349' /><a href='#f349' class='c017'><b>[349]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f345'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r345'>345</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Troy</i>, pp. 31, 162.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f346'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r346'>346</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 67.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f347'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r347'>347</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Mycenæ</i>, p. 257.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f348'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r348'>348</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiv. 80.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f349'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r349'>349</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xi. 237.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Tin and lead made part of the booty taken in the -land of Midian by the Israelites, as well as of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>Asiatic tribute paid to early Egyptian conquerors. -But the lead disposed of by the Achæans of the Iliad -was most likely brought by the Phœnicians from -southern Spain; and the surmise is plausible that -the Homeric word, <i>molubdos</i>—lead—-otherwise isolated -and unexplained, may have been transferred, by the -same agency, from the perishing Iberian to the -vigorous Greek tongue.<a id='r350' /><a href='#f350' class='c017'><b>[350]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f350'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r350'>350</a>. </span>Schrader, <i>Prehistoric Antiquities</i>, p. 217.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Greek name for iron, <i>sideros</i>, is equally destitute -of known affinities. It has, indeed, sometimes -been deemed cognate with the Latin <i>sidus</i>, a star, on -the ground that meteoric, or star-sent iron was the -earliest form of the metal made available for human -purposes; but modern philologists do not see their -way to admitting the connexion. The coincidence is -impressive, yet may, none the less, be wholly misleading.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Homeric poems testify to everyday experience -of the powers and faculties of iron. In the -Iliad, knives are made of it, and rustic implements of -all sorts; iron-tipped arrows are sped from tough -bows; iron axes perform the rough work of the forest -and farm-yard. The Odyssean functions of the metal -cover a still wider range. The iron age, just beginning -in the first Epic, has pretty well made good its -footing in the second. Thus, Beloch<a id='r351' /><a href='#f351' class='c017'><b>[351]</b></a> has pointed -out that, while <i>chalkos</i> is mentioned 279, <i>sideros</i> only -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>23 times in the Iliad, the proportion has become, in -the Odyssey, 80 to 29; and his detailed analysis partially -supports the conclusion that iron comes most -prominently into view in the latest portions of both -poems. Yet no amount of skill in critical carving -can divide off a section of either in which ignorance -of the metal prevails. The differences are only in -degrees of acquaintanceship.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f351'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r351'>351</a>. </span><i>Rivista di Filologia</i>, t. ii. p. 55.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The diversity in this respect between the Odyssey -and Iliad can be perceived at a glance by contrasting -the weapons Odysseus left behind him at Ithaca with -those he wielded before Troy. The first set were of -iron, probably of steel, the existence of which is implied -in the practice of tempering by immersion in -cold water, referred to in connexion with the feat of -plunging a hot stake into the vast orbit of the -Cyclops’ solitary eye.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>And from the burning eye-ball the fierce steam</div> - <div class='line'>Singed all his brows, and the deep roots of sight</div> - <div class='line'>Crackled with fire. As when in the cold stream</div> - <div class='line'>Some smith the axe untempered, fiery white,</div> - <div class='line'>Dips hissing; for thence comes the iron’s might;</div> - <div class='line'>So did his eye hiss, and he roared again.<a id='r352' /><a href='#f352' class='c017'><b>[352]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f352'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r352'>352</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, ix. 391-95 (Worsley’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Iron or steel has even reached, in the Odyssey, -the stage of proverbial familiarity as the material for -arms. <i>Sideros</i> stands for sword in a maxim which -may be translated ‘Cold steel masters the man,’<a id='r353' /><a href='#f353' class='c017'><b>[353]</b></a> signifying -that when weapons are at hand, bloodshed is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>not far off. In the Iliad, on the contrary, swords -and spears are invariably of bronze; and the commentators’ -<i>caveat</i> marks the lines presenting the -iron-headed arrow of Pandarus, and the iron mace of -Areithöus. The passage, too, is not exempt from -their suspicions, in which Achilles offers, as prizes in -the Funeral Games, a ‘massy clod’ of freshly-smelted -iron, and two sets of iron axe-heads.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f353'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r353'>353</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xvi. 294.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The scanty use made of <i>sideros</i> in the compounding -of Homeric epithets,<a id='r354' /><a href='#f354' class='c017'><b>[354]</b></a> no less than its total neglect -in the formation of proper names, is a further argument -for the comparatively late introduction of the -metal. More especially when the plentifulness of -derivatives from <i>chalkos</i> is taken into consideration. -Nevertheless, a good deal of allowance has to be -made, in this matter, for what may be called ethnical -caprice. So the Teutons excluded copper from among -the elements of their local and personal appellations, -while admitting gold and iron; those of the Slavs -were coined from gold, silver, and iron; the Celts -excluding from employment for the purpose all the -metals except iron.<a id='r355' /><a href='#f355' class='c017'><b>[355]</b></a> More decisive is the designation -of a smith as <i>chalkeus</i>, irrespective of the particular -metal wrought by him, showing that the term had -been fixed when neither gold nor iron, but only -copper or bronze, was welded in Achæan forges. <i>Nam -prior æris fuit quam ferri cognitus usus.</i></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f354'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r354'>354</a>. </span>Beloch, <i>loc. cit.</i> p. 50.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f355'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r355'>355</a>. </span>Schrader and Jevons, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 194.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'><span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>Iron, copper, and gold served as the Homeric media -of exchange. Definitions of value, however, are always -by head of oxen. The golden armour of Glaucus, for -instance, was worth one hundred, the bronze equipment -of Diomed, inconsiderately taken in exchange -by the chivalrous Lycian, no more than nine oxen,<a id='r356' /><a href='#f356' class='c017'><b>[356]</b></a> -and the figures may be considered to represent the -proportionate value of those two metals. Iron probably -occupied an intermediate position. It must, -however, have been much cheaper in Ithaca than -in the Troad. For, since the Taphians are said to -have conveyed it in ships to Cyprus, where they -bartered it for copper, it was evidently mined and -smelted in notable quantities on the mainland of -Epirus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f356'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r356'>356</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, vi. 235.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Iron has no decorative function in the Homeric -Poems. It contributes nothing to the polymetallic -splendours of the palaces of Menelaus and Alcinous, -of the Shield of Achilles, or of the Breastplate of -Agamemnon. Except where it furnishes an axletree -for the chariot of Heré, it is never employed in -purposeful combination with any other substance. -Esteem, rather than admiration, seems, in fact, to be -considered its due. Its colour is described, usually as -grey, sometimes as violet; and the distinction may -possibly, as has been supposed,<a id='r357' /><a href='#f357' class='c017'><b>[357]</b></a> mark the observed -difference between the hoary appearance of newly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>fractured iron, and the bluish gleam of steel blades. -Nevertheless, an arbitrary element in Homeric tints -has often to be admitted. Iron is, however, chiefly -characterised in the Iliad and Odyssey—and with indisputable -justice—as ‘hard to work.’ It demands, -indeed, far more strenuous treatment than its ancient -rival, copper; and the difficulties connected with its -production and working long retarded the prevalence -of its use. Metallurgy advanced but slowly to the -point of being dominated by its influence.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f357'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r357'>357</a>. </span>Buchholz, <i>Homer. Realien</i>, Bd. i. Abth. ii. p. 335.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>This was probably first reached in Mesopotamia. -Some Chaldean graves have been found to contain -immense quantities of iron, of the best quality, and -wrought with the finest skill.<a id='r358' /><a href='#f358' class='c017'><b>[358]</b></a> One, opened by Place -at Khorsabad, was a veritable magazine of chains and -implements, still recognisable, though of course partly -devoured by rust. They dated from about the eighth -century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>; but the metal had been in some degree -available for ages previously. In Egypt, although -<i>men</i> (iron) may have been known under the early -Memphite dynasties, the nature of the hieroglyph -employed to denote it proves that copper had the -precedence. Utensils of iron were enumerated among -the spoils of Thothmes III., in the seventeenth century, -<span class='fss'>B.C.</span>;<a id='r359' /><a href='#f359' class='c017'><b>[359]</b></a> <i>barzel</i> has a place in the Books of Moses, -and was wrought at Tyre in the days of king Hiram, -and no doubt indefinitely earlier. The Latin <i>ferrum</i>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>indeed (equivalent to the Semitic <i>barezum</i>) testifies, -it is held, to the Phœnician introduction of the metal -to Italy in the twelfth century, <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r360' /><a href='#f360' class='c017'><b>[360]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f358'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r358'>358</a>. </span>Perrot et Chipiez, <i>Hist. de l’Art dans l’Antiquité</i>, t. ii. p. 720.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f359'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r359'>359</a>. </span>Lepsius, <i>Les Métaux dans les Inscriptions Égyptiennes</i>, p. <i>missing page</i> -See this <a href='#tn-Lepsius'>transcriber note</a>.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f360'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r360'>360</a>. </span>Taylor, <i>Origin of the Aryans</i>, p. 145.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Its still earlier diffusion through Greece is only, -then, what might have been expected: and the complete -acquaintance with it manifested in the Homeric -poems conveys, in itself, no presumption of lateness -in their origin. But there are archæological difficulties. -Prehistoric iron is unaccountably scarce in the -neighbourhood of the Ægean. True, it is of a perishable -nature; but where not even a ferruginous stain -survives, it is difficult to believe that objects made out -of iron once existed. Until lately, iron was believed -to be entirely absent from the ruins both at Hissarlik -and Mycenæ, as well as from those of Orchomenos -and Tiryns. But in 1890, Dr. Schliemann, in clearing -the foundations of a building on the Trojan Pergamus, -came upon two lumps of the missing substance; -and some finger-rings composed of it are -among the trophies of the recent excavations carried -on in the lower city of Mycenæ, under the auspices of -the Greek Archæological Society.<a id='r361' /><a href='#f361' class='c017'><b>[361]</b></a> But the metal -was then evidently very rare, although the ‘bee-hive -tombs,’ where it was discovered, belong to a later -stage of Mycenæan history than the ‘shaft-graves’ of -the citadel. Still, the gap previously supposed to -divide, at this point, the Homeric from the Mycenæan -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>world, has to a certain extent been bridged; and -other discrepancies may, in like manner, be qualified, -if not removed, by further research.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f361'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r361'>361</a>. </span>Schuchhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 332, 296.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The metals chiefly employed in Homeric verse to -typify abstract qualities are bronze and iron. The -Shakespearian use of ‘golden’ to convey delightfulness -of almost any kind, as in the expressions ‘<i>golden</i> -cadence of poesy,’ ‘a <i>golden</i> mind,’ ‘<i>golden</i> joys,’ -‘<i>golden</i> sleep,’ and so on, is paralleled only by the -Homeric ‘<i>golden</i> Aphrodite.’ Lead does not exemplify, -with the Greek poet, heaviness and sloth, -nor silver the gentle ripple of sweet sounds. But -death, as ‘a sleep of bronze,’ comes before us in all -its unrelenting sternness; Stentor has a ‘voice of -bronze;’ a ‘memory of bronze’ was needed for exceptional -feats of recitation; and the ‘iron noise’ of -battle went up to a ‘bronzen sky’ during the struggle -ensuing upon the fall of Patroclus. In the Odyssey, -the sky is alternately of bronze and of iron, the same -idea of stability—of a ‘brave, o’erhanging firmament’ -being conveyed by both epithets.<a id='r362' /><a href='#f362' class='c017'><b>[362]</b></a> Moreover, iron is -there the recognised symbol of pitilessness, strength of -mind, and self-command. Odysseus listens, masked -in an ‘aspect of iron,’ while Penelope, strangely -touched by his still unrecognised presence, recites the -weary story of her sorrows. A heart <i>steeled</i>—as we -should say—against pity was said to be ‘of iron,’ as -was that of Achilles against Hector in the days of his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>‘iron indignation’ at the slaying of his loved comrade; -and silence and secrecy, even in a woman, -were represented by the rigidity of that unbending -metal. Such metaphors occur, it is true, more frequently -in the Odyssey than in the Iliad; but the -conception upon which they are founded is present -throughout the whole sphere of Homeric thought. -There are, nevertheless, as we have seen, clearly definable -differences, in the matter of metallic acquisitions, -between the two great Epics. The Iliad -knows six, while the Odyssey refers only to four of -these substances, tin and lead not chancing to be -noticed in its cantos; and iron, in their record, has -made a considerable advance upon its Iliadic status. -This is unquestionably a circumstance to be taken -into account in attempting to deal with the Homeric -problem.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f362'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r362'>362</a>. </span>Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. i. p. 63.</p> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span> - <h2 id='ch10' class='c010'>CHAPTER X.<br /> <br />HOMERIC METALLURGY.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Man</span> is a tool-shaping animal. He alone infuses -matter with purpose, and so makes it effective for -widening and strengthening his wonderful dominion -over physical nature. What is more, his thoughts -themselves grow with the means at his command, and -their growth in turn inspires a further restless seeking -after instruments of fresh conquests. The first -metal-workers, accordingly, crossed a gulf destined to -divide the ages. It was not for nothing that legendary -honours were paid to them; they were the vague -recognition of a really momentous advance. Its importance -consisted, not so much in the immediate -gain of power, as in the implication of what was to -come. For metallurgy is an art which does not easily -stand still. Even in its crudest stages it demands -some technical skill; and technical skill cannot be -attained without division of labour, differentiation of -classes, and development of intelligence by its direction -into special channels, and towards feasible ends. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>There are, then, few better tests of civilisation than -the degree of command acquired over the metals.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The wide compass of metallic qualities was in itself -stimulating to ingenuity. There was always something -new to be found out about them, and they lent -themselves with facility to every variety of treatment. -This versatility contrasted strongly with the rigid and -impracticable nature of the stony substances they -tended to supersede. Thus, the six primitive metals -not only presented, at first sight, a great number -of diverse characteristics, but those characteristics -proved, on the most elementary trials, highly susceptible -of change. They could be surprisingly modified, -for instance, by mutual admixtures, and, in a -lesser degree, by differences of manipulation. Secrets -of the craft hence multiplied, and invited, as they -continue to invite, further experiments and research.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Of still greater consequence to civilisation at large -was the comparatively recondite occurrence of the -metals. They are not to be met with, like flints or -pebbles, strewing the bed of every stream; their distribution -is defined and restricted. The demand for -them could, for this reason, only be supplied by opening -long lines of communication; it led to extended -intercourse between nations, and created wants stimulating -to traffic.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Metals, besides, present themselves only by exception -in the native state; they are commonly disguised -under some form of ore, subterraneanly bestowed. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>Nature holds them concealed in her bosom, or at -most attracts the eye with niggardly samples of her -treasures. The very word <i>metal</i>, indeed, records a -‘quest,’ a searching for something hidden; and it is -remarkable that these substances have been least -effective for promoting culture just where they have -come most readily to hand. By the shores of Lake -Superior pure copper can be quarried like sandstone; -and it was, in fact, cut away and hammered into axes -and knives by Indian tribes long before they came -into contact with Europeans. A similar use has been -made of meteoric iron by the Esquimaux. But no -development of ingenuity resulted in either case. And -for this reason among others, that the metal was used -<i>cold</i>. It received essentially the treatment of stone, and -made very much the same kind of response. Because -smelting processes were not needed, forging processes -were not thought of. The furnace was absent, -and with it the power of rendering metals plastic -to human wants and purposes. There was, then, -good warrant for the figuring, as the arch-metallurgist -of mythology, of the incorporated element -of fire.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Hephæstus was the Homeric Wayland Smith. He -embodied the antique, universal notion of magic -metallurgy, but embodied it after a dignified manner -suitable to the grand epical standard. Homer was -not given to repeating folk-stories current among the -lower strata of—shall we say?—Pelasgian society. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>His associations were with courts and camps, his -sympathies with heroic achievements and maritime -adventures in distant, perhaps fabulous, countries. -There, indeed, grotesque aboriginal fancies might be -permitted to flourish; but they were excluded as -much as possible from the sunlit spaces of the Hellenic -world. Even here they crept in unbidden, for -the Homeric theology is by no means exempt from -the influence of rustic persuasions. But these were -only admitted after passing through the alembic of -fine fancy or ennobling thought. Thus, Hephæstus, -although he has not wholly put off the semblance of -the ‘drudging goblin’ of caves and cairns, stands for -a formidable nature-power, and possesses the capability -of being sublime. Panting, perspiring, shaggy, -and limping, he is still no dubious divinity, but a -genuine Olympian. His dwelling is on the mountain -of the gods; he shares their councils; his operations -are at the command of none; he is self-directed and -self-inspired with his art, having taken to the hammer -and anvil as spontaneously as the infant Hermes -took to music and thievery. Indeed, the ill-used, yet -not ill-natured, son of Heré surpasses his progenitors -in one important respect. He is the only one of the -Homeric gods in whom some remnant of creative -power remains active. He alone commands a glimmer -of the Promethean spark, half-hidden though it -be in the ashes of material conceptions. Not, indeed, -life in any true sense, but faculties of perception and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>animation are his to give to the works of his hands. -His forge can turn out intelligent automata. Among -its products are golden handmaidens,<a id='r363' /><a href='#f363' class='c017'><b>[363]</b></a> conscious without -being self-conscious, endowed with all the useful -attributes, while devoid of the inconveniences of personality. -Their efficiency was purely altruistic; they -acted, but neither sought nor suffered. The bellows, -too, of the great Iliadic armourer could be left to blow -at discretion; and his wheeled tripods repaired to, and -withdrew from, the assembly of the gods, at fit times, -unsummoned and undismissed. This lingering of the -creative tradition, completely dissociated from the -mighty Zeus, about the misshapen nursling of Thetis, -illustrates his connexion with Pthah, the creative -and at the same time the metallurgical deity of the -Nile-valley.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f363'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r363'>363</a>. </span>Ilmarine, the Finnish Hephæstus, made himself a wife of gold.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Teutonic Wieland sprang from the same -mythological stock. He could, however, lay claim to -no trait of divinity, but was merely an artist of -supreme skill, taught by subterranean pygmies. He -was lamed by King Nidung, an early art-patron, -eager for a monopoly of his services; but eventually -escaped by means of a flying-apparatus of his own -construction, his maladroit brother Ægil barely escaping -the fate of Icarus. Here, then, Wieland -merges into Dædalus, who is only once mentioned by -Homer, and that as a builder. In a passage full of -the ‘local colour’ of Crete, he is said to have constructed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>the ‘chorus,’ or dancing-place of Ariadne.<a id='r364' /><a href='#f364' class='c017'><b>[364]</b></a> -The dream of a levitative art lurked nowhere within -the Homeric field of view. Least of all had it been -mastered by the ‘eternal smith’ of Olympus, who -owed his life-long infirmity to the want of a parachute. -His ‘summer’s day’ fall from the ‘crystal battlements’ -of Olympus ‘on Lemnos, th’ Ægean isle,’ -crippled him incurably; and his return thither was -effected by other than aeronautic means. But the -story of his alliance with Dionysus is not Homeric, so -we have nothing to do with it.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f364'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r364'>364</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xviii. 592.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Still less Homeric is the comparatively late account -of his localisation in the Lipari Islands:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Vulcani domus, et Vulcania nomine tellus.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>And yet it is worth recalling, as evidence that the -prime metallurgists of Northern and Southern Europe -were offshoots from the same stem. Every one knows -that, in the days of old, travellers’ horses were wont -to be privily shod, ‘for a consideration,’ at a cromlech -at Ashbury in Berkshire,<a id='r365' /><a href='#f365' class='c017'><b>[365]</b></a> by a certain ‘Wayland -Smith,’ who had no doubt his own reasons for eschewing -public observation. It seems, however, from the -testimony of Pytheas, a Massilian Greek of Alexander’s -epoch, that the Liparine Hephæstus conducted himself -in just the same kind of way.<a id='r366' /><a href='#f366' class='c017'><b>[366]</b></a> He worked invisibly, -but could be hired to do any given job. This shows -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>a marked decline from his palmy Iliadic days, when -his services might by exception be had for love, but -never for money. From the position of a god, he had -sunk to that of a mere mercenary troll or kobold.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f365'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r365'>365</a>. </span>Wright, <i>Archæologia</i>, vol. xxxii. p. 315.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f366'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r366'>366</a>. </span>Scholium to Apoll. Rhod. <i>Argonautica</i>, iv. 761.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Among the Achæans at the time of the siege of -Troy, works in metal<a id='r367' /><a href='#f367' class='c017'><b>[367]</b></a> of traditional repute were -ascribed to Hephæstus no less freely than swords and -cuirasses in the Middle Ages to Wieland or his French -equivalent, Galand, or than fiddles in later days to -Straduarius. A Wieland’s sword, first brandished by -Alexander the Great, was said to have been transmitted -successively to Ptolemy, Judas Maccabæus, and -Vespasian; Charlemagne’s ‘Durandal’ and Taillefer’s -‘Durissima’ were from his master-hand, which armed -as well the prowess of Julius Cæsar, and Godfrey of -Bouillon. Part at least of the armour of Beowulf -was also from the cavernous northern workshop which -reproduced the forge on Mount Olympus, where the -behest of Thetis was carried into execution; and to -this day in Kurdistan King David is believed to -labour, in a desolate sepulchre among the hills, at -hauberks, greaves, and cuirasses.<a id='r368' /><a href='#f368' class='c017'><b>[368]</b></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Never on earthly anvil</div> - <div class='line'>Did such rare armour gleam,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>as that supplied by Hephæstus to Achilles, after his -original outfit had been stript by Hector from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>dead body of Patroclus. Only the shield, however, -is described in detail. It was a world-picture—a -succession of typical scenes of human life:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>All various, each a perfect whole</div> - <div class='line'>From living Nature—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>wrought in gold, silver, tin, and enamel on a bronze -surface. The implements at hand were hammer, -anvil, tongs, and bellows. A self-supporting furnace—we -hear of no fuel—contained crucibles, in which the -metals were rendered plastic by heat, but not, it would -appear, melted. The bronze used was presumably -ready-made.<a id='r369' /><a href='#f369' class='c017'><b>[369]</b></a> Processes of alloying, like processes of -mining and smelting, are ignored in the Homeric -poems. They seem to have lain outside the range -of ordinary Achæan experience, and can have been -carried on only to a very limited extent on Greek soil, -and there, perhaps, by foreigners. No part of the -‘clypei non enarrabile textum’ was cast. Forged -throughout, inlaid and embossed, it was a piece of -work of which the great Mulciber had no reason to be -ashamed.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f367'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r367'>367</a>. </span>Besides some of mixed materials, such as the Ægis of Zeus -and the Sceptre of Agamemnon.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f368'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r368'>368</a>. </span>Mrs. Bishop’s <i>Travels in Persia</i>, vol. i. p. 85.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f369'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r369'>369</a>. </span>Beck, <i>Geschichte des Eisens</i>, p. 383.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The technique employed by him has, within the -last few years, received a curiously apposite illustration. -The Homeric description is of a series of -vignettes depicted by means of polymetallic combinations, -in a manner wholly alien to the practice of -historic antiquity. But now prehistoric antiquity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>has come to the rescue of the commentators’ perplexity. -From the graves at Mycenæ were dug out -some rusty dagger-blades, which proved, on being -cleaned and polished at Athens, to be skilfully ornamented -in coloured metallic intarsiatura. The ground -is of bronze, prepared with a kind of black enamel for -the reception of figures cut out of gold-leaf tinted of -various shades, from silvery-white to copper-red, the -details being brought out with a graver.<a id='r370' /><a href='#f370' class='c017'><b>[370]</b></a> Groups -of men and animals, mostly in rapid motion, are thus -depicted with considerable vigour, and forcibly recall -the naturalistic effects suggested by the plastic power -of the poet. ‘On these blades,’ Mr. Gardner remarks,<a id='r371' /><a href='#f371' class='c017'><b>[371]</b></a> -‘we find fishes of dark gold swimming in a stream of -pale gold; drops of blood are represented by inserted -spots of red gold; in some cases silver is used. What -could be nearer to Homer’s golden vines with silver -props, or his oxen of gold and tin?’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f370'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r370'>370</a>. </span>Koehler, <i>Mitth. Deutsch. Archäol. Institut</i>, Bd. vii. p. 241; -Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 229.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f371'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r371'>371</a>. </span><i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, vol. liv. p. 377.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>This peculiar kind of damascening work was completely -forgotten before the classical age. It seems -to have originated in Egypt at least as early as -1600 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span><a id='r372' /><a href='#f372' class='c017'><b>[372]</b></a> and Egyptian influences are palpable both -in the decorative designs on the Mycenæan blades -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>and in the mode of their execution. The papyrus, -for instance, is conspicuous in a riverside scene. -Nevertheless, these remarkable objects were certainly -not imported. They were wrought by native artists -inspired by Egyptian models. The freedom and boldness -with which the subjects chosen for portrayal are -treated make this practically certain. A specimen of -the same style of work, brought from the island of -Thera (now Santorin) to the Museum of Copenhagen, -suffices to show that acquaintance with it was at one -time pretty widely diffused through the Ægean archipelago, -and hence cannot serve to localise the origin -of the Homeric poems.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f372'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r372'>372</a>. </span>‘A sword exactly in the style of the Mycenæan blades was taken -from the grave of Aa Hotep, the mother of Ah Mose, who freed -Egypt, about 1600 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, from the Hyksos.’—Schuchhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> -p. 316.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>In its entirety, the Shield of Achilles was beyond -doubt an ideal creation. The poet described something -imaginatively apprehended as the <i>chef-d’œuvre</i> -of a superhuman artist, but claiming no existence out -of the shining realm of fancy. Only the elements -of the creation were taken from reality. The idea -dominating its construction, of moulding a work of -art into a comprehensive world-picture, is eminently -Oriental. It recurs in the mantle of Demetrius Poliorcetes, -and, more or less abortively, in various Indian -and Moorish embroideries. And the arrangement of -the sequence of scenes in concentric circles on the -‘vast circumference’ of the ‘orbed shield’ was certainly -copied from Assyrio-Phœnician models.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In its manufacture no iron was employed; and -this was quite in accordance with Homeric usage. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>The latest metallic acquisition of the fore-time boasted -no traditional consecration; it could impart neither -beauty nor splendour; the part its nature assigned to -it was one of prosaic usefulness. It is accordingly -excluded from the Mycenæan scheme of ornament -imitated in the Shield, and may, indeed, have been -unknown to the artists by whom that scheme was -elaborated. The Olympian Demiurgus, at any rate, -was acquainted with no such substance; but then the -gods of Greece were never quick to adopt new improvements. -So far as Homer tells us, the only -Olympian use of iron was in the chariot of Heré, thus -described in the Fifth Iliad:</p> - -<p class='c022'>And Hebe quickly put to the car the curved wheels of -bronze, eight-spoked, upon their axletree of iron. Golden is -their felloe, imperishable, and tires of bronze are fitted thereover, -a marvel to look upon; and the naves are of silver, to turn -about on either side. And the car is plaited tight with gold -and silver thongs, and two rails run round about it. And the -silver pole stood out therefrom; upon the end bound she the -fair golden yoke, and set thereon the fair breast-straps of -gold.<a id='r373' /><a href='#f373' class='c017'><b>[373]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f373'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r373'>373</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, v. 722-31.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>This passage shows, as Dr. Leaf points out,<a id='r374' /><a href='#f374' class='c017'><b>[374]</b></a> that -the chariots of those times, being very light, were, in -the intervals of use, taken to pieces and laid by on -stands. That they were then covered with linen -cloths is told to us elsewhere in the Iliad. Not all -were furnished with eight-spoked wheels. The emphasis -laid upon the fact as regards the goddess’s car -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>indicates that it was exceptional; and the indication -is confirmed by the four-spoked wheels of every -vehicle in the Mycenæan reliefs. As to the iron -axletree, it was plainly meant, not for show, but for -strength; yet its introduction, even in that humble -capacity, among the appurtenances of a divine being, -can scarcely have been warranted by prescription, -and may have appeared a no less daring innovation -than the serving-out of gunpowder to the infernal -host in ‘Paradise Lost.’</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f374'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r374'>374</a>. </span>Leaf’s <i>Iliad</i>, vol. i. p. 186.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homeric archæology has assumed a new aspect -since the opening of the prehistoric graves at -Mycenæ. The doubts of centuries have now at last -met a criterion of truth; the debates of centuries are -in many cases already virtually closed. And this is -only a beginning. If the spade be the best commentator, -it will hardly be laid aside until further light -has been thrown upon still twilight places in Homeric -controversy. What has been done is indeed surprising -enough. Not very rarely, what might pass—allowing -for some slight poetical amplification—for the originals -of implements or utensils described in the Epics, have -been unearthed in the course of the excavations begun -by Dr. Schliemann. Among them is an excellent -model, on a reduced scale, of Nestor’s Cup, an acquisition -almost as surprising as would have been the -recovery of Jason’s Mantle, or Penelope’s Web.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The Pramnian beverage prepared by the skilled -Hecamede for the refreshment of Nestor and Machaon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>was served in ‘a right goodly cup that the old man -brought from home, embossed with studs of gold, and -four handles there were to it; and round each two -golden doves were feeding; and to the cup were two -feet below.’<a id='r375' /><a href='#f375' class='c017'><b>[375]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f375'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r375'>375</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 631-39.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The golden beaker now, after three millenniums -of sepulture, exhibited in the Polytechnicon at Athens,<a id='r376' /><a href='#f376' class='c017'><b>[376]</b></a> -has two, instead of two pairs of dove-surmounted -handles; but the support of each by a separate prop -riveted on to the base, corresponds strictly to the -construction with ‘two feet below’ (πυθμένες), as -described in the Iliad. The real and imagined -objects unmistakably belong to the same class and -epoch, and their agreement is in itself strong evidence -of coherence between Homeric and Mycenæan civilisation. -The ‘studs of gold’ embossing the Nestorean -drinking-cup were doubtless the ornamental heads of -the nails used as rivets. The art of soldering, in -the proper sense, was a later discovery;<a id='r377' /><a href='#f377' class='c017'><b>[377]</b></a> but the -Mycenæan goldsmith sometimes had recourse to a -cement of borax for fastening pieces of gold together. -In general, however, decorative adjuncts were separately -cast, and afterwards attached with rivets to the -objects they were intended to embellish. In this way, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>probably, the purely ornamental use of metallic knobs -and bosses grew up. The Homeric epithets ‘silver-studded’ -and ‘bossy,’ applied to sword-sheaths, -chairs, and shields, have been copiously illustrated -by the discovery at Mycenæ of innumerable gold, or -rather gilt, discs and buttons, which had evidently -once formed the adornment of the sheaths and shields -lying alongside.<a id='r378' /><a href='#f378' class='c017'><b>[378]</b></a> At Olympia, too, bronze sheathings -have been found set with rows of solid silver nails,<a id='r379' /><a href='#f379' class='c017'><b>[379]</b></a> -by means of which they may have been fastened to -chairs of the exact type of those described in the -Iliad.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f376'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r376'>376</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Mycenæ</i>, p. 236; Helbig, <i>Das Homerische Epos -aus den Denkmälern erläutert</i>, p. 371; Schuchhardt and Sellers -<i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 241.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f377'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r377'>377</a>. </span>Riedenauer, <i>Handwerk und Handwerker in den Homerischen -Zeiten</i>, p. 122.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f378'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r378'>378</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 237, &c.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f379'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r379'>379</a>. </span>Furtwängler, <i>Bronzefünde aus Olympia</i>, p. 102.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>For his effects of palatial splendour, Homer relied -all but exclusively on the metals. Upholstery was for -him non-existent. Small carpets for placing under -the feet of distinguished persons, and rugs for their -beds, were the utmost luxuries known to him in this -line, and they were mere individual appurtenances. -But for producing general effects, his means were -exceedingly limited. He could dispose neither of rich -draperies, nor of silken hangings. Polished and rare -woods lay outside his acquaintance; the marbles of -Paros and Pentelicus had not yet been quarried; -porphyry, jasper, alabaster, and all other kinds of -ornamental stones seem to have been strange to him. -Not so much as a coat of plaster, or a dash of distemper, -clothed the bareness of his walls. Floors of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>trodden earth, rafters blackened with smoke, chimneyless -and windowless apartments, belonged even to the -royal residences of his time, at least in Ithaca. But -in a few of the more opulent houses of the Peloponnesus, -something was done to dispel this sordid aspect -by means of metallic incrustations; and the possibility -was made the most of by the poet. Nor need the -looks of Mammon have been ‘always downward bent’ -in the radiant dwellings imagined by him, since their -riches lay on every side. They are, in the Iliad, -appropriated exclusively to the gods, and are vaguely -characterised as ‘golden,’ or ‘of bronze,’ all details -of construction being omitted. But the terrene -magnificence of the Odyssey is more distinctly -realised.</p> - -<p class='c022'>‘Son of Nestor, delight of my heart!’ [exclaimed Telemachus, -entering the ‘megaron’ or banqueting-saloon of Menelaus], -‘mark the flashing of bronze through the echoing halls, and -the flashing of gold and of amber,<a id='r380' /><a href='#f380' class='c017'><b>[380]</b></a> and of silver and of ivory. -Suchlike, methinks, is the court of Olympian Zeus within, for -the world of things that are here; wonder comes over me as I -look thereon.’<a id='r381' /><a href='#f381' class='c017'><b>[381]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f380'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r380'>380</a>. </span>See <i>supra</i>, p. 241.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f381'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r381'>381</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 71-75.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>His experienced sire was little less astonished at -the pomp surrounding the Phæacian king. All the -‘cities of men’ visited by him in the progress of his -long wanderings had not prepared him for the dazzling -effect of those stately halls.</p> - -<p class='c022'>‘Meanwhile,’ it is said, ‘Odysseus went to the famous palace -of Alcinous, and his heart was full of many thoughts as he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>stood there, or ever he had reached the threshold of bronze. -For there was a gleam as it were of sun or moon through the -high-roofed hall of great-hearted Alcinous. Brazen were the -walls which ran this way and that from the threshold to the -inmost chamber, and round them was a frieze of blue, and -golden were the doors that closed in the good house. Silver -were the doorposts that were set on the brazen threshold, and -silver the lintel thereupon, and the hook of the door was of -gold. And on either side stood golden hounds and silver, which -Hephæstus wrought by his cunning, to guard the palace of -great-hearted Alcinous, being free from death and age all their -days.... Yea, and there were youths fashioned in gold, -standing on firm-set bases, with flaming torches in their hands, -giving light through the night to the feasters in the palace.’<a id='r382' /><a href='#f382' class='c017'><b>[382]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f382'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r382'>382</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vii. 81-102.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Both here, and at Sparta, besides perhaps some -gilding of smaller surfaces with overlaid gold-leaf, the -stone and woodwork of the houses can be understood -to have been coated with metal plates—a mode of -decoration usual in Mesopotamia from a very early -date. Thus, the temple of Bel at Babylon had its -walls covered with silver and ivory, while the shimmer -of gold came from pavement and roof.<a id='r383' /><a href='#f383' class='c017'><b>[383]</b></a> The fashion -was adopted in Egypt, and spread to Asia Minor, perhaps -through the conquests of Ramses II., who built -at Abydos a temple to Osiris, plated with ‘silver-gold.’ -It was diffused as well among the pre-Dorian Greeks. -Both the so-called ‘Treasury of Minyas’ at Orchomenus, -and the ‘Treasury of Atreus’ at Mycenæ, -bear evident traces of having once been scale-plated -with bronze, not, it is thought, uniformly, but in fixed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>patterns.<a id='r384' /><a href='#f384' class='c017'><b>[384]</b></a> So, here again, archæological research -supplies the most instructive gloss upon the Homeric -text. Metallic incrustations lost their charm when -tinted marbles and manifold draperies had become -fully available; but a glint of their traditional -splendour was introduced by Plato into his Atlantis, -where the temple of Poseidon was lined interiorly -with the semi-mythical ‘orichalcum’ (later identified -with brass), dug up appropriately in great profusion -from the soil of a fabulous island.<a id='r385' /><a href='#f385' class='c017'><b>[385]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f383'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r383'>383</a>. </span>Helbig, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 436.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f384'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r384'>384</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 147.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f385'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r385'>385</a>. </span><i>Critias</i>, 116; Jowett’s <i>Plato</i>, vol. iii. p. 697.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The watch-dogs of Alcinous find analogues in the -pairs of sphinxes, winged bulls, or other nondescript -monsters, guarding Egyptian and Assyrian portals. -There is nothing to show that they possessed automatic -powers. In those unsophisticated times, works -of consummate imitative skill would readily take rank -as samples of magic metallurgy; and what was life-like -so inevitably suggested animation, that the distinction -could scarcely be drawn very clearly. -Similarly, the torch-bearers in the banqueting-hall -may be regarded as poetical anticipations of the Greek -art of statuary, then still unborn, or at most in -swaddling-clothes.</p> - -<p class='c015'>One of the rarities brought by Helen with her -from Egypt to Sparta was a silver basket, mounted -on wheels, for holding the wool which she industriously -span into thread.<a id='r386' /><a href='#f386' class='c017'><b>[386]</b></a> Now wheeled utensils -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>were presumably a Phœnician invention, since they -are mentioned among the furniture of Solomon’s -Temple (1 Kings vii.). Their occurrence in prehistoric -Greece is hence one of many proofs of Oriental -influence. The Iliad knows them as the handiwork -of Hephæstus, who facilitated by means of subjacent -wheels, the movements of his intelligent tripods; and -Homeric indications have been substantiated by the -unearthing, in the Altis at Olympia, of remnants of -objects belonging, apparently, to the same category.<a id='r387' /><a href='#f387' class='c017'><b>[387]</b></a> -Others, probably incense-pans, were found, a quarter -of a century ago, in tombs of great antiquity at -Præneste, Veii, and Cære.<a id='r388' /><a href='#f388' class='c017'><b>[388]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f386'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r386'>386</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 125.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f387'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r387'>387</a>. </span>Furtwängler, <i>Die Bronzefünde aus Olympia</i>, p. 440.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f388'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r388'>388</a>. </span>Garrucci, <i>Archæologia</i>, vol. xi. p. 206.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Helen’s silver workbasket was gilt round the -edges, like the ‘crater,’ or mixing-bowl, presented by -Menelaus as a ‘guest-gift’ to Telemachus.<a id='r389' /><a href='#f389' class='c017'><b>[389]</b></a> The latter -was a work of Hephæstus, and had been presented to -Menelaus by the king of Sidon, when he was driven -thither on his way back from Troy. The process of -gilding, however, is well known in the Odyssey, and -was practised by native craftsmen. In the scene of -Nestor’s sacrifice at Pylos,<a id='r390' /><a href='#f390' class='c017'><b>[390]</b></a> the goldsmith Laerkes is -summoned to gild the horns of the victim, which he -evidently did by the simple expedient of overlaying -them with gold-leaf. Fusion had indeed not yet been -resorted to for the purpose; nevertheless the art of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>plating silver with gold, to which is compared the -beautifying action of Athene upon Odysseus, in order -to his advantageous appearance before Nausicaa,<a id='r391' /><a href='#f391' class='c017'><b>[391]</b></a> -excites the extreme personal admiration of the poet, -and is regarded as a direct fruit of divine tuition. -And it is noticeable that the artists of Mycenæ, -although in most respects far above the Homeric -standard, found the operation of plating silver directly -with gold so difficult that they commonly interposed -a layer of copper to receive the more precious metal.<a id='r392' /><a href='#f392' class='c017'><b>[392]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f389'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r389'>389</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 615.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f390'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r390'>390</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> iii. 425.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f391'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r391'>391</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, vi. 232.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f392'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r392'>392</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 249.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>No gilt objects are expressly mentioned in the -Iliad,<a id='r393' /><a href='#f393' class='c017'><b>[393]</b></a> but the delineative inlaying of the Shield of -Achilles involved the same sort of process as that -required for producing them. The Iliadic Hephæstus, -however, was somewhat behind his time. For the -‘latest thing out,’ one would be inclined to look elsewhere. -He was, as we have seen, unacquainted with -iron, and his models were often a trifle archaic. -From the very outset of his career, when, as an infant -and a foundling, he was cared for by Thetis and -Eurynome, the divine artificer appears to have been -more dexterous than inventive.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f393'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r393'>393</a>. </span>In the adventitious Tenth Book, v. 294, the practice of gilding -the horns of victims for sacrifice is, however, alluded to.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>‘Nine years,’ he himself afterwards related, ‘with them -I wrought much cunning work of bronze; brooches, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>spiral armbands, and cups and necklaces, in the hollow cave; -while around me the stream of ocean with murmuring foam -flowed infinite.’<a id='r394' /><a href='#f394' class='c017'><b>[394]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f394'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r394'>394</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xviii. 400-403.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>But these ornaments were already of obsolete -forms. Three of the four kinds mentioned find no -place elsewhere in Homeric descriptions, and would -probably have struck Homeric ladies as quaint and -old-fashioned. They can, however, be more or less -plausibly identified with compound spiral brooches -and other decorative objects from pre-Hellenic, pre-Etruscan, -and Scandinavian tombs.<a id='r395' /><a href='#f395' class='c017'><b>[395]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f395'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r395'>395</a>. </span>Gerlach, <i>Philologus</i>, Bd. xxx. p. 491; Helbig, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 279.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The armour of Agamemnon was of foreign manufacture. -Cinyras, king of Cyprus, of semi-mythical -fame as a metallurgist, had sent it to him, perhaps as -a pledge of benevolent neutrality,<a id='r396' /><a href='#f396' class='c017'><b>[396]</b></a> at any rate, more -through fear than love. It was of a highly decorative -character, being inlaid and embossed with gold -and tin, silver and enamel. Fundamentally, of -course, it was, like all Homeric armour, of bronze. -Something further will be said about it in the next -Chapter.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f396'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r396'>396</a>. </span>Cf. Gladstone, <i>Studies in Homer</i>, vol. i. p. 189.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Baldric of Hercules, seen by Odysseus in -Hades, constituted, one must admit, an incongruously -substantial article of equipment for the thin remnant -of a hero owning the sway of Persephone. Yet the -horrified and shrinking glance with which it is regarded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>brings it wonderfully into harmony with the -sombre vision of the great <i>eidolon</i>, pursuing, in the -under-world, a career of shadowy destruction. The -golden shoulder-belt in question was from the hand -of an unknown but exceptionally gifted artist. It -was of chased, or repoussé work, and showed no -diversity of colouring or material.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Also a wondrous sword-belt, all of gold,</div> - <div class='line'>Gleamed like a fire athwart his ample breast,</div> - <div class='line'>Whereon were shapes of creatures manifold,</div> - <div class='line'>Boar, bear, and lion sparkling-eyed, expressed,</div> - <div class='line'>With many a bloody deed and warlike gest.</div> - <div class='line'>Whoso by art that wondrous zone achieved,</div> - <div class='line'>Let him for ever from art’s labours rest.<a id='r397' /><a href='#f397' class='c017'><b>[397]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f397'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r397'>397</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xi. 609-14 (Worsley’s trans.). Many critics -regard the passage as spurious. Yet it makes part of a splendidly -impressive picture.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The design indicated seems to be that of an -animal frieze fencing in a series of fighting episodes<a id='r398' /><a href='#f398' class='c017'><b>[398]</b></a>—an -arrangement met with on Rhodian and Etruscan -vases, and adopted in productions of the needle or the -loom, from the Peplum of Alcisthenes to the Bayeux -Tapestry. It does not appear to have made its way -into pre-Hellenic Greece; and the Belt of Hercules -bears, accordingly, a completely exotic stamp.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f398'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r398'>398</a>. </span>Gardner, <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, vol. liv. p. 378.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Brooch of Odysseus, on the other hand, might -have been wrought within the Achæan realm. It was -besides in his possession before his foreign wanderings -began, and we are not told that it was procured from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>abroad. At his setting out from Ithaca for Troy, it -is said that:</p> - -<p class='c022'>Goodly Odysseus wore a thick purple mantle, twofold, which -had a brooch fashioned in gold, with a double covering for the -pins, and on the face of it was a curious device; a hound in his -forepaws held a dappled fawn and gazed on it as it writhed. -And all men marvelled at the workmanship, how, wrought as -they were in gold, the hound was gazing on the fawn and -strangling it, and the fawn was writhing with his feet and -striving to flee.<a id='r399' /><a href='#f399' class='c017'><b>[399]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f399'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r399'>399</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 225-31.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The brooch, it is to be observed, was duplex. Two -pins were received into two confronting tubes, opening -opposite ways. The mechanism is exemplified in -the ‘pin and tube’ fastening of some golden diadems -from Mycenæ;<a id='r400' /><a href='#f400' class='c017'><b>[400]</b></a> and, still more perfectly, in certain -brooches exhumed at Præneste and Cære, each provided -with two pins running into a pair of tubular -sheaths, a kind of hook-and-eye arrangement behind -serving to retain them in that position.<a id='r401' /><a href='#f401' class='c017'><b>[401]</b></a> These were -associated with a multitude of articles, known to be -of Phœnician manufacture, imported into Etruria -during the sixth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>; but the stolid sphinxes -surmounting them were replaced, in the Ithacan -ornament, by a life-like representation, conceived in -the true Greek spirit, although deriving its motive -from the typical Oriental group of a lion tearing an -ox, or deer.<a id='r402' /><a href='#f402' class='c017'><b>[402]</b></a> This, however, had become so naturalised -in Mycenæan art as by no means in itself to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>imply a foreign origin; and the same remark applies -to the mechanism of the Odyssean fibula. The poet -certainly regarded it as a rare specimen of superlative -skill; but the like of it may not improbably yet be -unearthed from Greek soil.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f400'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r400'>400</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Mycenæ</i>, p. 156.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f401'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r401'>401</a>. </span>Helbig, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 277.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f402'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r402'>402</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> p. 387.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Smiths are not included among the Homeric -<i>demiurgi</i>. The class of persons specially distinguished -for their serviceableness to the community is -made up of physicians, soothsayers, carpenters, and -poets. Nevertheless, there were metal-workers in -Ithaca who might have competed in general utility -with the best of the native wizards. A smithy, described -as a place of common resort, was situated close -to the Odyssean palace; and the demand for spears, -swords, axes, and knives must have been continual, -and was certainly met by a local supply. There is -much doubt, however, as to whether objects claiming -an artistic character were produced in Ithaca. It -seems more likely, on the whole, that the few existing -there had been imported from the Peloponnesus. -There, presumably, Nestor’s Cup, stated to have been -brought by him from Pylos to Troy, was manufactured; -and the Brooch of Odysseus might very well -have been turned out from the same workshop. It -is true that a Peloponnesian origin is never expressly -attributed to objects for which particular admiration -is sought to be enlisted. Such are either left undetermined, -claimed for Hephæstus, or said to have -come from Egypt, Sidon, or Cyprus. Achæan was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>thus plainly ranked below foreign industry. And -this in itself indicates a falling off from the ‘golden -prime’ of Mycenæ, when Achæan craftsmen were, to -say the least, not utterly below compare with those of -lands earlier illuminated by the rising sun of civilisation. -Hence, products of everyday familiarity to -Agamemnon had become strange and wonderful to -his <i>sacer vates</i>; yet the abounding vitality has not -left them. They come before us in his songs, animated -with the energy of his thought, fragments of -palpitating life, true prognostics of the perfect art -which the future was to bring to Greece.</p> - -<p class='c015'>Homeric metallurgy thus plainly represents a -declining stage of Mycenæan metallurgy; and this -again included conspicuous elements from Egyptian, -Phœnician, and Phrygian sources. Of the two first -springs of influence, our poet shows full consciousness, -but none of the last; since his admiration for -spiral patterns, derived, according to the best authorities, -from the banks of the Sangarius, came to him -at second-hand from Mycenæ. The metallurgical -traditions of Phrygia find, moreover, no place in -his verses. The dæmonic artificers of Asia Minor—the -hammer-and-anvil goblins, sons or servants of -Hephæstus, who of old intangibly colonised the shores -and islands of the Levant, make no figure in the -Iliad or Odyssey. Cabiri, Curetes, Corybantes, Idæan -Dactyls, Rhodian Telchines, are all equally ignored -in the Homeric world. Hephæstus there works alone. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>He has neither aides-de-camp nor coadjutors, apart -from his spontaneously helpful bellows. His predilection -for Lemnos was obviously due to the existence -there of an active volcano; for Mosychlus did not -become extinct until about the time of Alexander the -Great. He, however, consulted perhaps in the choice -rather his primitive elemental character than his -derived industrial function. The establishment of -Cyclopean forges in the craters of volcanoes seems to -have been a mythological after-thought. Its appropriateness -did not at any rate strike Homer. He -indeed betrays no direct acquaintance with subterranean -fires. His Island of the Cyclops is entirely -devoid of volcanic associations, and indeed the genealogy -of Polyphemus was scarcely consistent with any -such relationship. He sprang from Poseidon; and -Poseidon’s wrath at the evil entreatment by Odysseus -of his amiable offspring was a main factor in the -development of the subsequent narrative. For the -resentment of the sea-god was not to be trifled with -by hero or mariner who had slipped unawares into -that outer region of much sea and little land, where -he reigned supreme. <i>Hinc illæ lachrymæ.</i></p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span> - <h2 id='ch11' class='c010'>CHAPTER XI.<br /> <br />AMBER, IVORY, AND ULTRAMARINE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c011'><span class='sc'>Many</span> ages ago, in early Tertiary times, a great forest -of conifers covered the bed of the present Baltic Sea. -Their copious gummy exudations had the leisure of -perhaps some hundreds of centuries to accumulate, -and have in fact furnished the greater part of the -amber brought into commerce from before the dawn -of history until now. The value set on the commodity -probably gave the first impulse to the establishment -of systematic relations between the north -and south of Europe; and supplied means for the -diffusion, far up towards the Arctic circle, of many of -the secrets of Mediterranean culture. Scandinavia -exchanged her amber for bronze, and the improvements -that the use of bronze implied and introduced. -They travelled in opposite directions, one as the correlative -of the other, from the mouth of the Elbe to -the mouth of the Rhone,<a id='r403' /><a href='#f403' class='c017'><b>[403]</b></a> the ever-ready Phœnicians -carrying the prized Eocene product eastward. There, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>much inequality in its distribution was prescribed by -variety of tastes. In Egypt and Assyria, it had no -great vogue; it is not mentioned in the Bible; but it -found a ready market among the younger communities -by the Ægean, just then eagerly appropriating -the elements and ornaments of civilisation. In the -Odyssey, the crafty Phœnician traders who kidnapped -Eumæus when a child in the island of Syriê, are -represented as diverting attention from their plot by -the chaffering sale of ‘a golden chain strung here and -there with amber beads’; and ‘a golden chain of -curious work, strung with amber beads, shining like -the sun,’ was presented by the suitor Eurymachus to -Penelope.<a id='r404' /><a href='#f404' class='c017'><b>[404]</b></a> To critics of an earlier generation, it -seemed indeed incredible that a material of such -remote and exclusive origin should have been familiar -in the Levant nine centuries before the Christian -era. But recent experience has enforced, as well as -qualified, the maxim <i>Ab Homero omne principium</i><a id='r405' /><a href='#f405' class='c017'><b>[405]</b></a>: -enforced it, by frequent archæological verifications; -qualified it, by the disclosure of a pre-Hellenic world, -by no means completely reflected in the Homeric -Epics.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f403'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r403'>403</a>. </span>Genthe, <i>Ueber den Etruskischen Tauschhandel nach dem -Norden</i>, p. 102.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f404'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r404'>404</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xv. 460; xviii. 295.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f405'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r405'>405</a>. </span>Scheins, <i>De Electro Veterum metallico</i>, p. 17.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>For here once more Mycenæ teaches an object-lesson. -Innumerable amber beads, of varied sizes, -the largest nearly an inch and half in diameter, were -found in the graves there. All were perforated, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>they had manifestly once been connected together to -form necklaces. And the remains of amber necklaces -have likewise been disinterred from the archaic tombs -of Præneste and Veii,<a id='r406' /><a href='#f406' class='c017'><b>[406]</b></a> from British barrows, and -from a prehistoric necropolis at Hallstadt in Austria. -The earliest Italian amber seems to have been conveyed -from the Gulf of Lyons along the Ligurian -coast; but a subsequent and more lasting stream of -supply flowed directly to the Po-delta from near the -site of Dantzic. Among the early Italian specimens, -are some neck-pendants carved into the forms of -apes, necessarily from Oriental models in a different -material—most likely, ivory.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f406'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r406'>406</a>. </span><i>Archæologia</i>, vol. xli. p. 205.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The particular and widespread preference for -amber as a means of decorating the throat had a -superstitious motive. An idea somehow originated -that the substance, thus worn, was potent against -malefic agencies, and the persuasion doubtless accompanied -it on its travels, and added to its popularity. -There is, to be sure, no sign that Homer, though he -only employs amber in the fitting shape for its exercise, -had any knowledge of this prophylactic power; -but then his indifference to rustic lore has repeatedly -come to our notice. Penelope, however, and the -ladies of Mycenæ, may have been less unconcerned on -the point, and perhaps gave some credence to the -rumours of mysterious virtue that enhanced the value -of the beautiful shining substance from the dim North. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>That their amber was truly hyberborean has been -chemically demonstrated. Fragments of Mycenæan -beads, analysed for Dr. Schliemann by Dr. O. Helm, -of Dantzic, proved to contain no less than 6 per cent. -of succinic acid; and the presence of succinic acid is -distinctive, for ‘there has been no instance hitherto,’ -Dr. Helm states, ‘of a product physically and chemically -identical with the Baltic amber being found in -another spot.’<a id='r407' /><a href='#f407' class='c017'><b>[407]</b></a> The characteristic ingredient in -question, for instance, is wholly wanting in Sicilian -amber, a fact strongly confirmatory of the historically -attested insignificance, in Mediterranean traffic, of -small local supplies. Tin and amber thus agree in -testifying to the wide extension, westward and northward, -of prehistoric trade; yet the first of these far-travelled -materials occurs in the Iliad, and is absent -from the Odyssey, while the second figures in the -Odyssey, but has no place in the Iliad.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f407'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r407'>407</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 196.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Greek name for amber, <i>elektron</i>, might be -freely translated ‘sun-stone,’ a meaning partially -preserved in the Latin term <i>lapis ardens</i>, Teutonicised -into <i>Brennstein</i>, or <i>Bernstein</i>. The English <i>amber</i> -is a loan from the Arabic, negotiated at the time -of the Crusades; but the original Achæan word -survives in <i>electricity</i> and its derivatives. For the -first production of that still mysterious agency was -by rubbing a piece of amber, the endowment of which -thereby with an attractive faculty for light objects was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>noted with no particular emphasis by Thales, the sage -of Miletus.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The ‘Electrides Insulæ,’ or ‘amber-islands,’ of the -ancients, corresponded, in vagueness of geographical -position, with the Cassiterides or ‘tin-islands,’ of which -the Phœnicians long kept the secret. The former -were eventually located in the Adriatic, whither the -historical Greeks succeeded in tracing the Baltic product, -transported in those later days, along a second -overland route from the Vistula to the Danube, and -thence, by intermediary Venetian tribes, to the Istrian -shore. Yet Herodotus was without any definite notion -as to the derivation of amber, one of his spasmodical -fits of scepticism forbidding him to admit its reported -origin from a river called the Eridanus, said to flow -into the sea somewhere at the back of the North -wind.<a id='r408' /><a href='#f408' class='c017'><b>[408]</b></a> The Eridanus, in fact, had a ‘name’ long -before it had a ‘local habitation.’ Æschylus was -doubtfully inclined to identify it with the Rhone, -showing that he was chiefly acquainted with amber -shipped at Massilia;<a id='r409' /><a href='#f409' class='c017'><b>[409]</b></a> Pherecydes, knowing more of -Adriatic supplies, established the ‘fluviorum rex -Eridanus,’ in the bed of the Po, where it has remained. -The myth of the Heliadæ, or sun-maidens, who, after -their merciful transformation into poplars, continued to -weep tears of amber for the fate of their brother, the -lucklessly ambitious Phaethon, took definite shape in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>the hands of the Attic tragedians. Homer gives no -hint of acquaintance with it.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f408'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r408'>408</a>. </span>Lib. iii. cap. 115.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f409'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r409'>409</a>. </span>Helbig, <i>Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei</i>, t. i. p, 422, ser. iii.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The decorative use of amber disappeared from -classical Greece. It had been adopted from the East, -as part of a semi-barbaric system of ornament, and -was abandoned on the development of a purer taste. -The substance was, indeed, as Helbig has remarked,<a id='r410' /><a href='#f410' class='c017'><b>[410]</b></a> -ill-adapted for the expression of artistic ideas, and so -had little value for those who directed towards the -achievement of such expression their best efforts for -the ennoblement and refinement of life. No amber, -then, is found in the tombs of the Hellenic Greeks, -nor in those of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, where the -Milesian colony Panticapæum held the primacy. -Even in Italy, the once prized product was left to be -largely appropriated by Gallic barbarians and Istrian -and Umbrian peasants. But the ‘whirligig of time,’ -as usual, ‘brought about its revenges.’ As artistic -feeling decayed, the favour of amber returned, and it -grew under the Empire to a higher pitch than it had -ever before attained. Whereupon a cavalier was despatched -from Nero’s court on an exploratory expedition -to the original and genuine home of the article; -direct trade was opened with the Baltic, and the -morning mists which had so long enveloped the origin -of the ‘sun-stone’ were at length dispersed. Nevertheless, -Pausanias, who saw an amber statue of -Augustus at Olympia in the second century <span class='fss'>A.D.</span>, still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>believed the rare substance composing it to have been -collected from the sands of Eridanus.<a id='r411' /><a href='#f411' class='c017'><b>[411]</b></a> Traditional -errors possess strong vitality.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f410'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r410'>410</a>. </span>Helbig, <i>Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei</i>, t. i. p. 425.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f411'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r411'>411</a>. </span><i>Descriptio Græciæ</i>, v. 12.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Both in the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer shows -perfect familiarity with ivory. But he is entirely -unconscious of its source. No rumour of the elephant -had reached him. He would surely, if it had, have -shared the surprising intelligence with his hearers. -In the judicious words of Pausanias,<a id='r412' /><a href='#f412' class='c017'><b>[412]</b></a> he would never -have passed by an elephant to discourse of cranes -and pygmies. The <i>début</i> in Europe of the strange -great beast ensued, in point of fact, only upon the -Indian campaign of Alexander. His tusks were, -however, in prehistoric demand all through the -East; and the relations of archaic Greeks were -almost exclusively Oriental. Assyrian ivory-carvings -enjoyed a just celebrity; the palaces of Nineveh -and Babylon were softly splendid with the subdued -lustre of their costly material. Solomon’s ivory -throne, and Ahab’s ivory house exemplify its profuse -availability in Palestine; Tyrian galleys were fitted -with ivory-bound cross-benches; musical instruments -were ivory-dight and wrought; ebony and ivory -furniture made part of the tribute of Ethiopia to -Egypt; and the spoils of Indian elephants were in -demand in Italy before the Etruscans had penetrated -the Cisalpine plain. Thus, gold, silver, amber, ivory, -and coloured glass combined with beautiful effect in a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>kind of so-called ‘Tyrrhene’ ornaments, extant specimens -of which have been taken from the Regulini-Galassi -tomb, and other coeval repositories.<a id='r413' /><a href='#f413' class='c017'><b>[413]</b></a> In Troy -and Mycenæ, ivory was relatively plentiful. Pins -and buckles were made of it, and perhaps the handles -of knives and daggers.<a id='r414' /><a href='#f414' class='c017'><b>[414]</b></a> Ivory plates, round and rectangular, -and perforated, in some cases, for attachment -to wood or leather, have been, in both spots, -sifted out from surrounding <i>débris</i>, and may be imaginatively -supposed to have once enriched the horse-trappings -of Hector or one of the Pelopides. The -art of carving in ivory, however, was in both these -places in a rude stage, and appears unfamiliar to -Homer. He barely recognises the use of the material -in substantive constructions, while availing himself of -it freely for veneering and inlaying. The only piece of -solid ivory met with in the poems is the handle of -the ‘key of bronze’ with which Penelope opened the -upper chamber to take thence the fateful bow of -Odysseus.<a id='r415' /><a href='#f415' class='c017'><b>[415]</b></a> For the sheath of the silver-hilted dagger -given to the Ithacan stranger by the Phæacian Euryalus,<a id='r416' /><a href='#f416' class='c017'><b>[416]</b></a> -was assuredly not <i>formed</i> of ivory, although -spirally decorated with it. This can be gathered -from the re-application, in the Iliad, of the same -phrase to designate the ornamentation with tin laid on -in a curving pattern, of the cuirass of Asteropæus;<a id='r417' /><a href='#f417' class='c017'><b>[417]</b></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>and it recurs, undoubtedly in a similar sense, in the -following passage of the Odyssey:</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f412'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r412'>412</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> i. 12.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f413'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r413'>413</a>. </span>Dennis, <i>Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria</i>, p. 82.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f414'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r414'>414</a>. </span>Schliemann, <i>Mycenæ</i>, pp. 152, 359.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f415'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r415'>415</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xxi. 7.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f416'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r416'>416</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> viii. 404.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f417'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r417'>417</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiii. 560; cf. Leaf’s annotations, vols. i. p. 110; ii. 413.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c022'>Now forth from her chamber came the wise Penelope, like -Artemis or golden Aphrodite, and they set a chair for her hard -by the fire, where she was wont to sit, a chair deftly turned and -wrought with ivory and silver, which on a time the craftsman -Icmalius had fashioned, and had joined thereto a footstool, -that was part of the chair, whereon a great fleece was wont to -be laid.<a id='r418' /><a href='#f418' class='c017'><b>[418]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f418'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r418'>418</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 53-59.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The word rendered in English as ‘turned,’ however, -does not refer to ‘turning’ with a lathe, as the -earlier commentators followed by the translators supposed, -but to such helical designs as Mycenæan artwork -exemplifies to superfluity. And it was in the -same style that Odysseus beautified his couch at -Ithaca—the couch wrought of a still rooted olive -tree. He reminds his queen, as yet dubious of his -identity, how</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Thence beginning, I the bed did mould</div> - <div class='line'>Shapely and perfect, and the whole inlaid</div> - <div class='line'>With ivory and silver and rich gold.<a id='r419' /><a href='#f419' class='c017'><b>[419]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f419'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r419'>419</a>. </span><i>Ib.</i> xxiii. 199-200 (Worsley’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The chest of Cypselus must have been an analogous -piece of work, though more highly elaborated; -and the ‘beds of ivory,’ denounced by the Prophet -with the rest of the ostentatious luxury in which -Jerusalem attempted to vie with haughty Tyre, may -have displayed similar ornamental designs. In the -Homeric palace of Menelaus, an ideal of splendour -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>exotic in the West, but fitting in naturally with -Oriental surroundings, was sought to be realised. -Some such model doubtless floated before the eyes of -the poet as the house of Ahab, magnificent with -panellings of that loveliest of organic substances -bartered by the ‘men of Dedan’ for the finely-wrought -bronze, the purple-dyed and embroidered -cloths of Phœnicia. <i>Domus Indo dente nitescit.</i></p> - -<p class='c015'>The door of deceptive dreams imagined by Penelope, -may possibly, on the other hand, have had a -Mycenæan prototype.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Two diverse gates there are of bodiless dreams,</div> - <div class='line'>These of sawn ivory, and those of horn.</div> - <div class='line'>Such dreams as issue where the ivory gleams</div> - <div class='line'>Fly without fate, and turn our hopes to scorn.</div> - <div class='line'>But dreams which issue through the burnished horn,</div> - <div class='line'>What man soe’er beholds them on his bed,</div> - <div class='line'>These work with virtue, and of truth are born.<a id='r420' /><a href='#f420' class='c017'><b>[420]</b></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>It has been conjectured that the imperfect transparency -of laminæ, whether of horn or ivory, caused -those materials to be associated with the shadowy -forms of dreamland; but the apportionment of their -respective offices was plainly determined by a play of -words unintelligible except in the original Greek.<a id='r421' /><a href='#f421' class='c017'><b>[421]</b></a> And -it must be admitted that scarcely a worse pair of puns -could be produced from the whole of Shakespeare’s -plays than those perpetrated by our ‘bonus Homerus’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>in a passage replete, none the less, with poetical suggestions -largely turned to account by his successors.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f420'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r420'>420</a>. </span><i>Odyssey</i>, xix. 562-67 (Worsley’s trans.).</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f421'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r421'>421</a>. </span>See Hayman’s <i>Odyssey</i>, vol. ii. p. 361.</p> -</div> -<p class='c015'>It is scarcely likely that complete tusks ever -found their way to archaic Greece, yet the comparison—used -twice in the Odyssey—of purely white -objects to ‘fresh-cut ivory,’ decidedly proves a working -acquaintance with the material. Its creamy tint -was, in Egypt and Assyria, constantly set off by -skilful intermixture with ebony; but ebony formed -no part of the Homeric stock-in-trade.</p> - -<p class='c015'>One cannot but be struck by finding that, in the -Iliad, ivory is employed <i>only</i> for embellishing equine -accoutrements, but in the Odyssey, <i>only</i> for purposes -of domestic decoration. So far as it goes, this circumstance -tends to reinforce the contrast of sentiment -towards the horse apparent in the two poems. -Thus, a species of art practised, we are given to -understand, exclusively by foreigners, helps to conjure -up more vividly the effect of the rush of crimson -blood over the white skin of the fair-haired Menelaus: -‘As when some woman of Maionia or Karia staineth -ivory with purple to make a cheek-piece for horses, -and it is laid up in the treasure-chamber, though -many a horseman prayeth to wear it; but it is laid -up to be a king’s boast, alike an adornment for his -horse, and a glory for his charioteer.’<a id='r422' /><a href='#f422' class='c017'><b>[422]</b></a> And the -simile was adopted by Virgil to expound a blush.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f422'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r422'>422</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, iv. 141-45.</p> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro</div> - <div class='line'>Si quis ebur.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>Ivory-staining does not seem to have been in -vogue outside of Asia Minor. Tablets of ivory were, -at Nineveh, often inlaid with lapis lazuli, and ornaments -of ivory were gilt; but there are no surviving -signs of the application to them of colouring matters.</p> - -<p class='c015'>The second mention of ivory in the Iliad is in -connexion with the slaying, by Menelaus, of Pylæmenes, -chief of the ‘bucklered Paphlagonians,’ when -it is said that Antilochus simultaneously smote his -charioteer Mydon with a great stone on the elbow, -and ‘the reins, white with ivory, fell from his hands -to earth, even into the dust.’<a id='r423' /><a href='#f423' class='c017'><b>[423]</b></a> The overlaying, in a -decorative design, of leathern bands with small slips -and rosettes of ivory, may here doubtless be understood; -and a similar fashion of lending splendour to -horse-trappings can, as already pointed out, plausibly -be inferred to have prevailed at Hissarlik.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f423'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r423'>423</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, v. 583.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Homer’s name for ivory is identical with ours for -the beast producing it for our benefit. And the word -<i>elephant</i> is held to be cognate with the Hebrew <i>aleph</i>, -an ox. Hence the designation came to the Greeks -almost certainly from a Semitic source. It was exported, -we may unhesitatingly say, from Phœnicia -with the wares it served to label.</p> - -<p class='c015'>No Homeric crux has been more satisfactorily -disposed of by actual exploration than that relating -to the identity of ‘cyanus,’ or ‘kuanos.’ In later -Greek, the term was of perfectly clear import. It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>signified lapis lazuli, either genuine or counterfeit. -But the simple hypothesis of a continuity of meaning -was met by difficulties of two kinds. The first -regarded colour, always a perplexed subject in the -Homeric poems. For uniformly, throughout their -course, ‘cyanean’ betokens darkness of hue, if not -absolute blackness. The epithet frequently recurs, -and only once with a possible, though doubtful suggestion -of <i>blueness</i>. It is never used to qualify the -summer sea, a serene sky, the eyes of a fair woman, -or the flowers of spring. Usually, the idea of sombreness, -pure and simple, is unequivocally attached -to it. As when Thetis, in sign of mourning, covers -herself with a cyanus-coloured robe, ‘than which no -blacker raiment existed.’<a id='r424' /><a href='#f424' class='c017'><b>[424]</b></a> Invisibility and the shade -of approaching death are each typified as a ‘cyanean -cloud’; the brows of Zeus and Heré, the waving -locks of Poseidon, the mane of the Poseidonian -steed Areion, the gathering tempest of war, are -of ‘cyanean’ darkness; the beard of Odysseus, the -raven curls of Hector, bear the same adjective, which -cannot well be construed otherwise than as a poetic -equivalent for <i>black</i>. Nor is there any ground for -supposing that it meant to convey any special shade -or quality of blackness. Fine-drawn distinctions of -every kind are totally alien to the spirit of Homeric -diction.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f424'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r424'>424</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xxiv. 94.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The second objection to identifying cyanus with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>lapis lazuli or ultramarine related to function. The -uses to which it is put in the Iliad and Odyssey -seemed, to anxious interpreters, inconsistent with its -being either of a stony or of a glassy nature. ‘Cyanus -ordinarily enters into the composition of the polymetallic -works described in their verses. It forms, -for instance, a dark trench round the tin-fence of -the vineyard represented on the shield of Achilles; -and it is especially prominent in the decoration of the -armour of Agamemnon. Cinyras, king of Cyprus, -was the donor of this magnificent equipment; not -through pure friendship. Intimidated by the Greek -armament, he probably dreaded being compelled to -take an active share in the enterprise it aimed at -accomplishing, and purchased with a personal gift to -its supreme chief, liberty to retain his passive attitude -of ‘benevolent neutrality.’ The breastplate alone -was a ransom for royalty.</p> - -<p class='c022'>Therein were ten courses of black cyanus, and twelve of -gold, and twenty of tin, and dark blue<a id='r425' /><a href='#f425' class='c017'><b>[425]</b></a> snakes writhed up towards -the neck, three on either side, like rainbows that the son -of Kronos hath set in the clouds, a marvel of the mortal tribes -of men.<a id='r426' /><a href='#f426' class='c017'><b>[426]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f425'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r425'>425</a>. </span>The original has simply ‘of cyanus.’</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f426'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r426'>426</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 24-28.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The comparison of the snakes to rainbows may -possibly refer only to their arching shapes; it is not -easy to connect iridescence with a substance just -previously noted expressly as <i>black</i>. The shield of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>Agamemnon resembled his cuirass in workmanship, -but was diversified as to pattern.</p> - -<p class='c022'>‘And he took,’ we are informed, ‘the richly-dight shield of -his valour that covereth all the body of a man, a fair shield, -and round about it were twenty white bosses of tin, and one in -the midst of black cyanus. And thereon was embossed the -Gorgon fell of aspect, glaring terribly; and about her were -Dread and Terror. And from the shield was hung a baldric of -silver, and thereon was curled a snake of cyanus; three heads -interlaced had he growing out of one neck.’<a id='r427' /><a href='#f427' class='c017'><b>[427]</b></a></p> - -<div class='footnote c018' id='f427'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r427'>427</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, xi. 32-40.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Mycenæan method of inlaying bronze was -followed in the construction of both articles. But -the arrangement of the contrasted metals on the -cuirass in alternating vertical stripes, although rendered -perfectly intelligible by Helbig’s learned discussion,<a id='r428' /><a href='#f428' class='c017'><b>[428]</b></a> -has not been illustrated by any actual ‘find.’ -The bosses of tin and cyanus diversifying the shield, -on the other hand, correspond strictly to a Mycenæan -plan of ornament,<a id='r429' /><a href='#f429' class='c017'><b>[429]</b></a> and are reproduced in the round -knobs of gold and silver attached to the bronze surface -of certain Phœnician dishes dug up from the -ruins of Nineveh.<a id='r430' /><a href='#f430' class='c017'><b>[430]</b></a> The Gorgon’s Head, however, -does not appear in Greek art until the seventh century -<span class='fss'>B.C.</span>;<a id='r431' /><a href='#f431' class='c017'><b>[431]</b></a> yet the suspicion of spuriousness thence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>attaching to the lines in which it is mentioned may -prove to be unfounded. The emblem was, at least, -a favourite one in Cyprus, having been introduced -thither, according to some archæologists, from Egypt. -Judging by the evidence of Cyprian terracottas, it -figured, surrounded with serpents, very much as on -the breastplate of Agamemnon, on the corslets of -priests and kings; and it seems to have been specially -appropriated by a priestly caste named ‘Cinyrades’<a id='r432' /><a href='#f432' class='c017'><b>[432]</b></a> -to signify their supposed descent from Agamemnon’s -dubious ally. The Cyprian partiality thus manifested -for the dread device goes far towards proving that -genuine products of Cyprian metallurgy were limned -in the passages just quoted.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f428'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r428'>428</a>. </span><i>Das Homerische Epos</i>, p. 382.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f429'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r429'>429</a>. </span>Schuchhardt and Sellers, <i>Schliemann’s Excavations</i>, p. 237.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f430'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r430'>430</a>. </span>Rawlinson, <i>Phœnicia</i>, p. 288.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f431'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r431'>431</a>. </span>Furtwängler in Roscher’s <i>Lexikon der Griech. Myth.</i>; art. -‘Gorgoneion.’</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f432'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r432'>432</a>. </span>Ohnefalsch-Richter, ‘Cypern, die Bibel, und Homer,’ <i>Das -Ausland</i>, Nos. 28, 29, 1891.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>Cyanus is, then, in the Iliad employed exclusively -as an adjunct to the metallic inlaying of armour, and -it is made similarly available in the Hesiodic poems. -But in the Odyssey its sole actual use is in a frieze -surmounting the bronze-clad walls of the Phæacian -banqueting-hall. Hence many futile debates and -perplexities. The Homeric ‘cyanus,’ most critics asserted, -could not, since it was uniformly described as -<i>black</i>, be a mineral of cærulean hue, such as the -cyanus of Theophrastus unquestionably was; and it -must be presumed to have been a metal, as obtaining -a place among metals in the decorative industry of -the time. It was hence variously held to be steel, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>bronze, even lead, while Mr. Gladstone at one time -thought of native blue carbonate of copper,<a id='r433' /><a href='#f433' class='c017'><b>[433]</b></a> later, -however, preferring bronze. Lepsius alone recognised -what is now generally admitted to be the truth—namely, -that the word retained its significance unchanged -from the time of Agamemnon to the time of -Theophrastus.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f433'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r433'>433</a>. </span><i>Studies in Homer</i>, vol. iii. p. 496.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>The Assyrians fabricated out of lapis lazuli, not -only personal, but architectural ornaments. Bactria -was its sole available source, and thence through the -Mesopotamian channel it reached Egypt. Among the -Babylonian spoils of Thothmes III. were a necklace of -‘true’ <i>chesbet</i>, and a gold staff jewelled with the same -beautiful mineral. Artificial <i>chesbet</i> was manufactured -in Egypt from about the fourteenth century <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> -It was composed of a kind of glassy paste, tinted blue -with salts of copper or cobalt, and it lay piled, like -bricks for building, in the storehouses of successive -monarchs.<a id='r434' /><a href='#f434' class='c017'><b>[434]</b></a> Clay-bricks, too, were enamelled with it -for use in decorative constructions, still exemplified in -the entrance to a chamber in the Sakkarah pyramid; -and the same fashion prevailed in Chaldea and Assyria.<a id='r435' /><a href='#f435' class='c017'><b>[435]</b></a> -The Egyptian admiration for <i>chesbet</i> spread -to the Peloponnesus, where an architectural function -was assigned to it agreeing most curiously with the -Odyssean use of cyanus. The spade has, on this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>point, surpassed itself as an engine of research; -nothing is left to speculation; we seem to find at -Tiryns the very arrangement which caught the quick -eye of the eminent castaway in Phæacia. For in the -palace<a id='r436' /><a href='#f436' class='c017'><b>[436]</b></a> explored by Dr. Schliemann within the citadel -of Perseus, fragments of an alabaster frieze, inlaid -with dark blue smalt, were found strewn over the -floor of a vestibule, having fallen from their place on -its walls; and the smalt appears to be of precisely -the same nature with the manufactured <i>chesbet</i> of -Thothmes III., and the Cyprian and Egyptian cyanus -described by Theophrastus.<a id='r437' /><a href='#f437' class='c017'><b>[437]</b></a> That it was also identical -with the substance turned to just the same architectural -account in the palace of Alcinous, may be -taken as certain; and the discovery constitutes one -of the most telling verifications of Homeric archæology. -The particular prominence of cyanus, besides, -in the Cyprian armour of Agamemnon falls in admirably -with what is known of the history of imitation -lapis lazuli; Cyprus, owing to the abundant -presence of the needful ores of copper, having become -early celebrated for its production. In addition to -some tubes of cobalt-glass, blue smalt trinkets in large -quantities have been brought to light at Mycenæ. -But if Homer took no notice of such small objects, it -was probably because he deemed them too common -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>for association with the noble or divine heroines of -his song.</p> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f434'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r434'>434</a>. </span>Lepsius, <i>Les Métaux</i>, &c. p. 61.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f435'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r435'>435</a>. </span>Helbig, <i>Das Homerische Epos</i>, p. 81.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f436'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r436'>436</a>. </span>Schuchhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 117.</p> -</div> - -<div class='footnote c020' id='f437'> -<p class='c019'><span class='label'><a href='#r437'>437</a>. </span><i>De Lapidibus</i>, lv. The Scythian kind of cyanus was genuine -lapis lazuli.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c015'>That the Homeric cyanus was really a kind of -ultramarine enamel, seems, then, thoroughly established. -And it is the only form of glass recognised -in the poems. Yet the colour-difficulty survives. Our -poet remains under the imputation of inability to distinguish -black from blue—unless, indeed, we admit -with Helbig that the word ‘cyanus’ comprised a jetty -as well as an azure smalt. There is a good deal to -be said for the opinion. Theophrastus plainly distinguishes -a dark and a light variety, and even speaks -of one of the derived pigments as being <i>black</i>; and a -black enamel formed part of the materials for the -Mycenæan inlaid-work. The stripes of Agamemnon’s -cuirass were, according to this hypothesis, of black, -the curling snakes on either side of blue cyanus. -And this might help to explain the comparison of the -latter to rainbows. Not, to be sure, altogether satisfactorily, -since the likening to a simply blue object of -the brilliant arch</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c016'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mille trahens varios adverso sole colores,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c024'>strikes the modern sense as absolutely inappropriate. -Nevertheless, we have to make allowance in Homer, -above all as regards chromatic estimates, for an <i>aliter -visum</i>. And it happens that the sole colour-epithet -bestowed by him on the rainbow is <i>porphureos</i>, signifying -purple of a peculiarly sombre shade. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>‘crocus wings’ of Iris were, then, less conspicuous -to him than her violet sandals.</p> -<p class='c015'>Amber, ivory, and cyanus, or ultramarine-enamel, -are the only non-metallic precious substances with -which Homer shows himself familiar. Precious stones -of all kinds lay apparently outside his sphere of cognisance. -Mother of pearl, coral, and rock crystal are -equally strange to him. He takes no notice of the -engraved gems of Mycenæ, no more than of the -porphyry, agate, onyx, and alabaster, there variously -employed to diversify the framework of life. No distinctions -are made in his verses between one kind of -stone and another. White jade, brought from the -furthest confines of Asia, though in some request at -Hissarlik, may not have struck him as essentially -different from any vulgar piece of flint picked up -by the shore of the Hellespont. Or, if it did, his -vocabulary was too scanty to allow of his expressing -the sentiment. Homeric mineralogy thus embraced -exceedingly few species.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='small'>PRINTED BY</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>LONDON</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c005' /> -</div> -<p class='c015'> </p> -<div class='tnbox'> - - <ul class='ul_1 c005'> - <li>Transcriber’s Notes: - <ul class='ul_2'> - <li>On page <a href='#Page_236'>236</a> there was a footnote for “<i>Blümner, Technologie der Gewerbe</i>” but - there was no anchor in the text. Those pages in Blümner are a description to the use of - silver in antiquity, so the anchor was attached to the word “silver” in the text. - </li> - <li><a id='tn-Lepsius'></a>On page <a href='#Page_255'>255</a> the footnote for “Lepsius, <i>Les Métaux dans - les Inscriptions Égyptiennes</i>” is missing a page number, but page 52 contains - hieroglyphics referring to iron. See Google Books for scans of the pages. -<p class='li-p-last c026'><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jkIimVEWcRAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=fer&f=false">Lepsius - iron</a></p> - </li> - <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected. - </li> - <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant - form was found in this book. - </li> - </ul> - </li> - </ul> - -</div> -<p class='c015'> </p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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