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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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