Allen T., Lives of Homer, In Journal of Hellenic Studies, 32, 1912

7/24/2019 Allen T., Lives of Homer, In Journal of Hellenic Studies, 32, 1912

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Lives of HomerAuthor(s): T. W. AllenReviewed work(s):Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 32 (1912), pp. 250-260

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LIVES OF HOMER.

I.

I

SHALL

not

do

injustice

to

the

learning

of

my

readers

if I

imagine

that the lives

of Homer are not

their usual

reading,

their livre

de

chevet. They are seldom opened nowadays, unless some wandering

folklorist

plunders

them

for an

Elpeo-uv'l

or a

Kitpwov.

Once

they

were

part

of

the arsenal

of

learning.

The

editors of Homer

from

Chalcondylas

to Ernesti

printed

them at the

head of the

poet,

and

herein

only

followed the

Byzantine

use. The Eastern

Empire

had

the habit

of

amassing

a consider-

able

quantity

of

erudition-grammatical, metrical, exegetical,

and also

biographical-believed

necessary

for

the

comprehension

of

Homer,

and

arranging

it at the

beginning

of a

copy

of

the

poems.

Whether the later

classical

ages

also

had this habit

we

cannot

tell,

for

no

papyrus

has

been

found

to

present

the

beginning

of the

Iliad

or the

Odyssey.

It was

in

any

case the latest

period

of classicism which so consulted the ease of

a reader

as to include his

commentary

with his author.

The

hand-

book

existed,

in

post-Augustan

days,

but

separately.

Scholia

of

any

compass

have so far not

been found

in

MSS.

earlier than the

minuscule

era,

and

their

origin appears

to

coincide

very nearly

with

the act

which

marked

the

world's second

childhood,

the

closing

of the schools

by Justinian.'

The documents

in

question

are

eight

in

number.

Their

age, origin,

and relation to one another are

doubtful.

Most of the information

they

contain does not reach the level of historical fact, but they constitute

a

department,

not to be

neglected,

of ancient

literature,

and

are ulti-

mately

connected with their

ostensible

subject.

Having

recently

edited

them

(Oxford, 1912)

I have

been

led to consider

them

in

general.

For

bibliographical

and

diplomatic

details I

refer to

the edition.

The Herodotean

life is

diffuse and

tedious,

as tedious to

read as to

collate.

It

is in the Ionic dialect.

The writer

by

assuming

the

person

of

Herodotus

excludes

the

possibility

of

quoting

technical

authorities,

and

in fact

anyone except

Homer.

We

have

therefore

nothing

but

internal

evidence to

go

upon.

The events of

the

Life themselves

are few:

Homer

was born at

Smyrna

of Cretheis

or

Critheis

upon

the banks

of the river

1

Mlarini

vit.

Procl.

25

irapaypdc4dav'ros

[ioi3

7rpdcAov] ro7s /tE"WlorioLs

"&-,

Ctro/pV?1" rwY,

dE-

Vreo

el

'OpEIa

abira

rxdALa

tCal

tJ7roi•txYajraa

o'tXWv

oc

hAiCywv.

The word

occurs,

but

not

in the sense

which

we now

give

it,

earlier in

Porph.

vit.

Plot.

3

oxdAca

E

icr

T&,v

ouvovoLWv

7•'oLo

os har

EVOS i~

rV

7o

3L3Ala

rOTV1'uaEE

7i&v

TXOAiWv.

250



LIVES

OF

HOMER

251

Meles,

travelled

about

Ithaca

and

Leucas,

returned

to

Colophon, where

he

lost

his

sight.

The

rest of

his

life

he

passed

in

Smyrna,

Cyme,

Neon

Teichos,

Phocaea, Chios,

Samos,

and

los,

where

he

died.

The

language,

Ionic,

is an obvious but undecisive

factor

in

the

problem

of

the

authorship.

The

dialect is

late,

according

to

Smyth,

Lomic

p.

117.

Late

literary

Ionic

was

used

by

many

doctors

and a

considerable

number

of

post-Augustan

historians

(see

Lobeck,

Aglaoph.

ii.

995).

We

must look

at the

writer's

opinions.2

He

makes

Smyrna

the

birth-

place

of

Homer,

and

(c. 47)

argues

that he was

an

Aeolian,

i.e.,

not

a

Chian

or an

letan,

on

the

ground

of

language

(wre~r•/9oxa)

and

institutions

(the

omission

to utilise

the

do-

i

of

the

victim).

He

holds that

Smyrna

was

founded

from

Cyme.

This,

however,

was

the

general

opinion.

Cyme

and

Lesbos were the mothers of thirty towns according to Strabo (622). The

opposite

view

that

Smyrna

was

founded

from

Ephesus

is

given by

Strabo

(634)

without

authority.

The

Ephesian

Artemidorus,

one of his

principal

sources,

no

doubt

maintained

it. The

writer shews

a

detailed

knowledge

of

Aeolis,

and

seems to

be

the

only

authority

for

the

statement

that Neon

Teichos

was

founded

by

the

Cymaeans

eight

years

after

their

own settle-

ment;3

the

mountain

fat8v4

above

Neon

Teichos

(mentioned

elsewhere

only

in

the

poems

he

cites;

Steph.

Byz.

clearly

quotes

from

him):

the

iron-works

at

Cebren,

which

town

the

Cymaeans

were

thinking

of

founding;4

the

localities

shewn at

Neon

Teichos

in

connexion

with

Homer,

the

survival for

a

long

time of

the

Ktiuvos

or

Kepae7S

in the

JYepAL~

t

Samos

(c.

23);

and

the

'Awraroipta

and

worship

of

Kovporp6~os

at

that

place (c.

29).

More-

over

at

the end

he

gives

some

very precise

chronological

details: Lesbos

was

settled in

towns

130

years

after

the

Trojan

War;

twenty

years

after

this

Cyme

was

colonised;

from

the

birth of

Homer

to

the

invasion of

Greece

by

Xerxes5

622

years

passed;

from

the

Trojan

War

to

the

birth of

Homer

was

168

years.

For

further

calculation

the

reader

is

referred

to the

Athenian

archons.

On the

last

date

the

MSS.

vary

between

168

and

160.

The

latter

is

given

by

Cassius

ap.

Gell.

xvii.

21.

3,

and,

without

authority, by

Cyril

in

Julian. vii. p.

225,6

Philostr. Heroic. xviii. 2=318=194. 13. It comes

between

Aristarchus'

140

years

and

Philochorus'

180.

The

reference

to

archons

also

points

to

Philochorus,

who

gave

'l

'Pxo"ros

'ApXIrwov

as

the

exact

date

(whence

the

Tzetzean

life

of

Hesiod

c.

2).

We

depend

upon

the

local

knowledge,

and

must

ask who

is

likely

to

have

possessed

it.

The

great

man

of

Cyme

was

Ephorus.

In

his

rdtX

ptoF

(X&1o9

)

he

dealt

with

the

story

of

Homer

(vit.

Plut.

2).

Homer's

short

stemma,

his

parentage,

and

the

meaning

of

his

name

are

quoted.

The

latter

2

Cf.

Rohde,

Rh.

Mus. 36.

413

(mainly

on

chronology).

3

Strabo

621

made

it

the

original

Aeolic

settlement,

earlier

than

Cyme.

SEphorus

fr.

22

agrees

in

the

Cymaean

origin

of

Cebren.

SThis

aera

was

chosen in

character,

as

by

Herodotus.

6 Hiller

Rh.

Mus.

25. 253

holds

that

Cyril's

chronological

statements

are

taken

from

Eusebius.



252 T.

W.

ALLEN

part

of

the

Ephorean

stemma

is not the same as the

Herodotean,7,

this

difference

seems

enough

to

disprove Ephorus' authorship,

and

to it we

may

add two

arguments

from

probability.

If

Ephorus

treated the

Homer-legend

in

his

e[y-•wPov,

e can

hardly

have written

a life of

Homer

also;

and the

infantine tone and diffuseness

of the

Herodotean

life does

not

resemble what

we know of

Ephorus.

No one will wish

to

go

back

to

Hippias

and

Stesimbrotus.

More is to

be

said

for

Cephalion

of

Gergithus

(F.H.G.

iii. 68

sqq.

625

sqq.).

There

appear

to have been

two

Cephaliones,

one of

whom

wrote

TpoKLcd,

or

an

account of the

geography

and

history

of

the

Troad

(like

Demetrius

of

Scepsis,

Attalus

I.,

and

Histiaea)

and is

quoted

by

Augustan

and

Antoninian

writers,

while

he

is

merely

a cloak

for

Hegesianax,

who lived

under

Antiochus

the

Great.

This

shadowy person

was

called

of Gergithus. Another of his name. under Hadrian, wrote wravroSo0ra

/o'roplat

of

the sort of

Conon

and

Hephaestion,

and

was

a source for

the

Byzantian

erudites,

Syncellus

and

Malalas.

He

survived

till the

day

of

Photius,

who

analyses

him

(Bibliotheca

cod.

68). According

to the

article

in

Suidas

he

was also

a

Gergithian.

This

article

is

currently

accused

of

conflation;

but

it

is

to be observed

that

there is

nothing

in it

inconsistent

with

the second

Cephalion except

his

birthplace.8

Suidas

does

not ascribe

Tpocdta

to

him,

nor make

him

an ambassador

to

Rome.

According

to

Photius

he himself concealed

his

birthplace

and

parentage,

after

the model

of Homer. He also gave

himself

out

to be

an

exile

in

Sicily-evidently

after

the model

of

Herodotus.

It

is therefore

not

certain

that;

Suidas'

ascription

of

Gergithus

to

him is

wrong.

His

history,

according

to

Photius,

was

in

nine

books,

called

after the nine

muses,

and

in Ionic.

This

is

plainly

in

imitation

of

Herodotus.

Moreover,

in his ninth book

he

included,

according

to

Photius,

'the

history

of

Cephalion.'

This at

first

sight

means

the

TpOwc

of his

namesake;

and

as his ninth book

treated

of

Alexander

there

is

an

obvious

reason

why

he should

have

incorporated

the

Trojan

discourse

of

the

elder

Cephalion.

If

he,

like the

elder

Cephalion,

were a

Gergithian,

the

origin

of the

local

information

in the Life

is clear.

Cephalion

either

knew

it

from personal observation or stole it from his namesake's

TpLcKd.

One who

had

copied

Herodotus'

dialect

and his nine

Muses,

would

easily go

one

step

7

Herod.

:

Ephorus:

Crethon

Ithagenes Omyres

Melanopus

+

daughter

Apelles

Maion

Dios

Critheis

Phemius

+

Critheis

Hesiod

Homer Homer

The

occurrence

of

Crethon

in

the

Herodotean stemma

suggests

Dinarchus

(v.

Part

II.).

8

Ke

aAlwv

4

KeQdAwv,

rEpyIlBos*

Si7mp Kac

LT70plK6S,

yeyovcks

d2

'A~psavoi.

nvye

6A ?)v

rarpl'a

8t'

•ifLEXGsaV

auvaorTv,

cal

dBiw

wv

•se•.Icl.

&ypa

i

,rav•poorows

oraopias

dv

BtBlots

0',

&•sva

7TrypdcgEL

Modtas,

)Idas

araAire'n, .EhdAas

le

riropsKds,

,cal &AAX eru'd. The

CteXdaS

pSlroprKal

may

cover

the

I.ife.

On

Cephalion

Lobeck,

Aglaoph.

ii. 995

may

still be read.



LIVES

OF

HOMER

253

further and write a life of Homer under Herodotus'

name. Photius

condemns

his childish

pretence

of

learning;

the childish

prolixity

of

the

Life,

together

with

its

well-furnished

sources,

is

obvious. This information

would be

extant in the Antonine

period,

the

age

of Lucian and Philostratus. It

was also the

age

of anecdotic

history

and

Homeric

mythology.

We

need I

think

not look

fiurther

for

the

author of the

Herodotean life.

The

quotations

of the Life

are

late

(Stephanus

of

Byzantium

and

Philoponus).

The allusion

in Tatian

is

doubtful. It contains

beside

the

epigraphical

and

archaeological

details we

have mentioned

twenty-eight

verse

quotations,

the

so-called

Homeric

Epigrams,

which are often believed

to have

an

independent

existence.

Of these

eight

come from the Iliad and

Odyssey;

one

is

according

to the author

the

beginning

of

the

Ilias

parva;

two profess to be epitaphs (that on Midas o was claimed for Cleobulus of

Lindos),

two

are

popular

songs,

the

Ktpvo9

or

Kepapeit

(attributed

to Hesiod

by

Pollux)

and

the

Elpeolt•cv.

The

remaining

fifteen

are

not

popular

or

epigraphic

or

of known source.

They

constitute

a considerable

problem.

They

are in

good epic

Greek,

without

Alexandrianism or

mysticism.

Some

of the lines were utilised

by

Sophocles (Athen.

592

A).

Now as the

writer

draws on

the Iliad

and

Odyssey

to

supply

his hero with utterances it

might

be

supposed

that these

fifteen

deliverances

came

from

other but lost

epics,

namely

the

Cycle.

But on

inspection

it looks

improbable

that

they

ever

stood

in a

different

context from

that

in

which

they

now find themselves.

It would

be

very

difficult to force

a4Seo-Oe

veoov

(101),

or

oc"

t'

a'oy

(173),

or

cKXDOLIooQeLdLWv

235)

into

any part

of the

Tale of

Thebes or

Troy;

and the

other verses

if less unamenable do

not

suggest

of themselves an heroic

context.

The

verses,

in

fact,

seem to

be concerned with

nothing

but what

they ostensibly

convey,

the Life

of Homer.

They appear

to come all from

one

poem

on that

subject. Cephalion

(or

the author of the

Life)

seems

to

have written a

prose history

out of this

poem,

incorporating

portions

which

recommended themselves.

Similarly

the

Orphic

compiler

of

the

Berlin

Papyrus

44 worked in verses here

and

there from the extant Homeric

Hymn.

The poem was eminently local, and contained most of the geographical data

which we have noticed: the foundation

of

Neon Teichos from

Cyme (102,

for

Pauw's

emendation

Kdiwrj

is

probable);

taLv{,

ib.,

the

foundation of

Smyrna

from

Cyme

(175,

6);

the

worship

of Poseidon

on

Helicon

(236);

the

prophecy

of

iron

at Cebren

(285).

Cephalion

limits himself to comments

on

these texts.

The

poem may

or

may

not

have contained

the

KdLevow

or

Kepa1Let

(439);

but

as Pollux states it was attributed to Hesiod it

apparently

had an

independent

existence,

and

this is

slightly

confirmed

by

its

mention

in

the

Suidean

list of

Homer's works

(46,

ed.

Oxf.).

We

then

assume an

autobiographical poem, fiullof local details. Did this poem come down to

Cephalion's

time

and

was

it used

by

him

directly

?

That a

vast

mass

of

heroic

verse

existed

in

Cephalion's age,

which is

the

age

of

Pausanias and

9

How the author reconciled this

epitaph,

written

for

Midas'

sons,

with his date

168

or

160

years

after

the

Troica,

is

not

clear:.



254

T. W. ALLEN

Athenaeus,

is

obvious;

still

there

is no

explicit

mention

of

any poem

which

could be

this.

It

is therefore

probable

it

was

known to

Cephalion

through

the

earlier

m6moiristes,

for

instance Stesimbrotus.

The

parody

of

part

of

it

by Sophocles

suggests

it was current in the fifth century. Similarly the

compiler

of

the

Certamen

took

over his

quotations

from

Alcidamrnas,

s

Alcidamas

in his

turn

probably

took

them

from a

predecessor.

To

this

autobiographical

poem

we shall

return;

the next document

to

be

considered

is the

Certamen.

This

singular

composition,

discovered

by

Stephanus

in what

is still

the

unique

fourteenth

century

MS.

at

Florence,

has been most

recently

explained

by

Adolf

Busse

(Rh.

Mus.

1909,

108).

It consists

of three

parts:

a Life

of

Homer,

the

Agon

proper,

and a third

part

composed

of

a

Life of

Hesiod

and a Life

of

Homer. The

Life of

Homer

comes from the same source as the other Lives: its stemma is the same as

the

Characean

and

the

Proculean;

and these

are all

slightly

varying

representations

of the

genealogy

of

Damastes

(v.

Part

II.).

The

compiler

therefore

used

the

lirSvuFa,

which is the

basis

of all the

Lives

(ib.).

The

original

of the

central

portion,

the

MovO•eov

of

Alcidamas,

was still

extant in the

time of

Stobaeus,

who

quotes

81,

82 from

it.1o

A

portion

of

it,

of

a

much earlier

date,

was

discovered

among

the

Flinders

Petrie

papyri

(s.

iii.

B.C.).

The

composer

of the

Certamen

does

not name

himself,

but

by

a

reference to

an oracle

given dril

70o

OELo-daov

a'o0KpdTopov

'ASptavoD

32, 3)

defines his

age

a

parte priore.

This author

unlike

Herodotus

quotes:

the

writers he

quotes

are

Hellanicus,

Cleanthes

the

Stoic,

Eugaeon,11

Callicles,'2

Democrines

13

of

Troezen,

Eratosthenes,

and

Alcidamas

dv MovO-elq.

None of

these is late.

In the third

part

the

compiler

uses

the

original

of the

life of

Hesiod

repeated

successively

by

Proclus

(this

has

perished)

and

Tzetzes

(extant),

as

well as the

Homeric

life.

He

conveys

much

learned

information:

the

beginnings

and

stichometry

of the

Thebais

and

Epigoni-a

method

of

classification

implying

access

to

the

7rlvakeS

of

Callimachus,

which

we

find

used in the

Antoninian

period

by

Athenaeus

1;4

the

stichometry

of the

Iliad

and

Odyssey,

a version

with

variants

of

B

559

sqq.,

Delian

anecdotes

(from

Semus ?), such as that Homer recited the hymn to Apollo standing on the

KepaL'vo9

o

Pat,

and

that

the

Delians

inscribed

his verses

on

a

XheK~Aa

in

the

temple

of

Artemis.

He

equates

Homer's

period

with Midas

and

Medon

10

There

is no

difficulty

in

believing

the

reference

to concern

the

original

Agon

and

not

our document.

Rhetorical

exercises

by Gorgias

and

Alcidamas

are still

extant,

and

Tzetzes

Chil.

xi. 750 declares

he

had

read

'many'

of

the latter's

o'••yo.

1n

F.H.G.

ii.

16. Dated

by

Dion. Hal.

as

7rpb -ro

nehonrovv~acraoi irooduov.

Hi4

CpoL

LaMywv

is

to

be

noticed

as an instance

of one

source

of the tradition

about

Homer.

12

No

independent

notice of Callicles

exists.

He seems

to have been

a

Cypriote,

since

his

candidate

as

Homer's

father

Masagoras

here is

evidently

the same

as

Dmasagoras

favoured

by

Alexander

of

Paphlos

(vit.

vii. 2.

10).

If this

is

so he

is the

authority

for the statement

Cert.

30,

that

his

father

was

giveni

as a

hostage by

the

Cyprians

to the Persians.

He

made him

a

Cyprian

Salaminian

vii.

vi.

17.

He was

proba-

bly

earlier

than

Antipater

(vit.

Plut.

i.

89).

1r

Democritus

of

Troezen must

disappear.

ArUdicptro here is an error for the rarer name,

which

is

preserved

vit.

vi.

28,

schol.

B

744.

1

Birt,

Das

antike

Buchween,

p.

164.

cf.

first

lines without

figures

in

Anonymi

vita Aristo-

telis

Did.

p.

14,

try

&v

&px'i

&,yvi

0

E

r

pc-

$reO'

iKacr2Pd3e,

JAeyela

Cv

&PX37

KaALTEIXVW

V

IM1pTs

Obyarap.



LIVES

OF HOMER

255

king

of Athens.

Whether all

this

erudition came

from the

ir-g6vywxa,

or

the

compiler

added

thereto de

sumo,

we cannot

tell.

For the

post

of

compiler

I

have

suggested Porphyrius.

The anterior

time-limit

cuts

out most

of

the

smaller

grammarians

whose names we

know;

the

austerity

of

Apollonius

and

Herodian

cannot be

suspected;

the book is

too

erudite

in form for

a

sophist

or

for

Philostratus. The

great

Homeric

activity

of

Porphyrius

seems

to

draw

it

by

suction

into its track.

If Proclus

two

centuries

later

wrote

a

Life

of

Homer,

his

predecessor (or

a

disciple)

might

have

composed

this

mixture

of

erudition

and rhetoric

(as

he

wrote

his well-found

life

of

Pythagoras).

Still

the field

is

open,

and

grammarians

were

innumerable.5

The

Agon proper,

which

seems

to

have been

incorporated faithfully-

since

the

papyrus

fragment

does not differ

materially

from the

fourteenth

century MS.--contains a number of verses recited alternately by Hiesiod and

Homer:

icak~X

8~

xca~

v

-o•

oro•s'

raV'

av7

ao9

[70ri

Opijpov]

''

che

apLtIoXov9

,Y/voa?

Wp/tLoE)

6c

aJ&,

V

X'

'

'

V

l

Olvqr

A

Hlo

,

elova

'Triov,

1

rov

glov

,ca9'

gva

'tcaoiov

av

've

J

wrotcpivaaOaet

Ov

"O/L1pov.

o'Trwoivi

0

,Lv

7rpCOrov

SCH-Tdov,

d

8

I

-

'Ozjpov

dElo7~e

8

Kai

8h

iao

riXov

7n'v

Eweparcr

7e

rrotv

ov

rov

70o

tHotodov.

That is

to

say

Hesiod

propounded

one

line,

or

two

lines,

apparently

absurd,

as

oVoro

avip

avopv

r7'

a

aato

a

avaXlKLdoto

UL'71,

which

Homer

set

right

by

the

simple

addition.

/CL'Tpo9,

ET7tE

WroXE/lo0

Xahewro9

Waoyo-t

v/vvat$iv.

In

other

words the

couplets

constituted

a kind

of

rypZ

o with

solution.

The

presumption

would follow

either

that

Alcidamas

wrote all

the

verses

himself

(a

supposition

hardly

likely

in

itself,

and

which

would rob

the

dialogue

of

most of

its

point),

or

that he

selected

lines

which lent

themselves

to

his

purpose

from

the

Cycle

(since

none

of

them

occur

in

the

Iliad

and

Odyssey)

and

Hesiod. We

should

therefore add

the

first

verse in

most

cases,

the first

two in

some,

to

the

fragments

of

Hesiod,

the

last to

the

fragments of Homer. The author made an early Cento of a

griphic

character. That

the

Agon

was

in

fact

griphic

is

the view

of

Busse

1.c.,

who

cites

Clearchus

ap.

Ath.

457

D

rpo43aXxov

r,/p

7raph

70o•9

7rrov

v

X

'JOr7epot

VJv

Epo7('iJVEvs

XXijXov...

E

aXXh

,tt&XXov

7rh

"otao

-

rpcr4;

'7i-ros

)

a~pF•etov

ei7v7Fzt

70

EXOgevo

vca

cWov

Xeyew,

ica

7

Ke

aXatov

/

,o

••'.v

g

i

'rog.qa

ao

elr"oVTt

avTe7.Tretvb

7

rTipov

orrOr70o

rtov.

The

resemblance

between the

Agon

and

these

Greek

parlour-games,

for

which

Memory

was

the

only

requisite,

is

not

strong.

Still

the

griphe

which

consisted in

giving

the

next

verse to

one

quoted

is

in

so

far a

support

to

my

belief

that the

couplets

in the Agon were originally couplets as they stand.

1'

e.g.

Hermogenes

whose

epitaph

(C.I.G.

ii.

1.

3311)

says

ovvzypaie

6

B$

8hfa

....

rrepl

Z/6pvvrs

a'

$',

•rept

rirs

'Ou•ipov

roopiar

a'

,al

rarpla6os

a'

(Schrader,

Porph.

qu.

II.

p.

441),

or

Cassius

Longinus

(Suid.

in

v.),

teacher of

Porphyrius

under

Aurelian,

who

wrote

several

Homeric

works.



256

T. W.

ALLEN

But

there

are two difficulties

at

least

in

accepting

this

view:

first the

couplet

107,

108

&etwvov TrtEL' e~Xovro /ocov 'p&a 'cadyvas

L7T7ov

•-cXvov

th3pAovrav

're

0

7ro0X

oto

Kcop64r07v

is cited

by

Aristophanes

Peace

1282

with a

slight

variant.

Aristophanes

is

older

than

Alcidamas.

Therefore

either

Alcidamas'

statement

that the

couplets

are

composed

of

unconnected

Hesiodean

and

Homeric

lines

is

entirely

untrue,

or the

cento

is a

fifth-century

work,

appropriated

by

Alcidamas.16

It

appears

to

me

unlikely

that

Aristophanes

should

have

put

part

of a

fifth-century

cento

into

the

mouth

of

his

boy.

As

Busse

himself remarks

115,

6

are

certainly

indecent,

and

117

ambiguous.

They

would

be unsuitable

for children

to commit

to

heart,

whatever

lessons

of

style

they might

convey.

Moreover

effective

parody,

which

is

Aristophanes'

object,

consists

in the

quotation

of

passages

really

occurring

in familiar

works,

not

of

lines

invented,

or

artificially

brought

together,

by

a

compiler.

Further,

the

passage

of the

Peace

in

which

107,

108

occur

consists

of a

series

of heroic

hexameters

put

in the

mouth

of

a

rais

who

has

learned

them

at

school.

We are

to

understand

therefore

that

they

belong

to

the

stock

of heroic

poetry

on

which

youth

was

fed.

The

first

(1270)

is

the

beginning

of the

Epigoni

of

Antimrnachus

f

Teos:

the

next,

1273,

4

and

1276,

are common

lines

in the

Iliad;

the

couplet

in

question

follows;

then

1286,

7

not in our Homer but in good heroic Greek. The presumption evidently is

that

the fourth

and fifth

quotations,

like

the

first

three,

are

from

the

heroic

corpus":

in fact since

the

scholiast

who

identifies

1270

says

nothing

about

them

I

presume

he

left

it

to

be

understood

that

they

also

came

from

the

Epigoni.

If now

the

first

couplet

in

the

Contest-107,

108-is

trans-

parently

not

a

blend

of

Hesiod

and

Homer,

the

same

must

hold

of

all

the

others,

failing specific

proof

of

the

contrary.

Alcidamas'

statement

is

a

blind,

a

literary

fable

to

introduce

his

exercise.

It is

not difficult

to

see

what

the intention

of

the

exercise

was,

and

why

these

particular

verses

were

put into the mouths of the characters. The rhetor, himself a stylist of the

first

rank,

intended

to

pass

a

veiled

criticism

on the

style

of the

post-homeric

epopoei,

in

particular

on

the

ambiguity

of

many

of their

lines

taken

in

themselves:

the

ifault

he censured

was the failure

to include

the elements

of

predication

within

the

stichus.

If we examine

the

couplets,

we see

that

the

first

line

read

by

itself

conveys

an

absurdity

which

is set

right

by

the

apparition

of

the

second.

Thus

107

makes

the heroes

eat

horseflesh,

108

by

providing

a

new

verb

removes

abxyvas

ir-aov

from

the

government

of

lhovTro.

(Meyer

and

Busse

think

the lines

can

never

have stood

in

a

heroic

poem

on

account

of

the

hysteron

proteron.

But

this,

according

to

me,

and

16

Isocrates'

words

Panath.

18=236d

may

apply:...

•.•yov

&s

d6

7'

AUVKecY

UTYKaS-

deYot

7rpess

g

'r&rrapes

r'zciv

&3'CyAalwY

6romtr'rv

Kal

7rdwra

Paa5•

rdwv

Ei.i

Cat KCal axdws

,ravraxov

ytryop/.LVWV,

LtaAdyowtro

ireppl

re

'r&v

tAAivy

7roL~rw~iv

cal

'z-iE IH~rlsou

ical

'z-is

O~i'hou

7rrosEws,

ovg~v

C&~v

rap'

;g

hriiv7F

AEyzhe

'r?.

;K('

baqa~cirres

P

Kdr

cijv

7RporEpov

&AhoLs,

?rso~v

Ecf)

(1/

wY

'z-

K&AALO'T~arlLv)oveVrov1Es.



LIVES

OF HOMER

257

perhaps

the crasis

also,

accounted

for their

selection.)

Line

133

Tooatv

'

'ArpEerSy

•EydX'

e~XE?ro

weortv

~Xor8at

is

mitigated

by

the

long

deferred

appearance

of

,L(&nror'

dv

7rv'T

in

134.

Line

131 credits some

heroic

force

with capacity beyond that of Xerxes' host, 122 alarms us with the 'white

bones of dead Zeus.'

The

rhetor

castigated

these faults of

technique by

exhibiting

the first line in the

guise

of a

puzzle

to be

solved

by

the

other

competitor.

The efforts

of

rhapsodes

to ease the

grammar

and

elucidate

the

sense of Homer

himself

were a

principal

cause of the accretions

of the

Iliad

and

Odyssey,

accretions which

the

Alexandrians found

their most

profitable

occupation

in

removing.

We

conclude

then that

Alcidamas used the

traditional

contest

between

Homer and

Hesiod as a

vehicle

to

convey

criticism

on

badly

composed

verses of the heroic corpus. The interesting question follows: where do these

verses

come

from

?

None of them

occur in

Homer or

Hesiod

as we

have

them;

the Masters

presumably

were

sacred. The

presumption

is

that the

remainder came from

the

Hesiodic

corpus

and the

Cycle.

Vv.

107,

108

as we

have noticed

may

have

come

from

the

Epigoni.

The

sentiment

of

114

resembles II.

parv.

2. A few

further

suggestions

may

be

made.

Vv.

121-3,

the

burial

of

Sarpedon:

no

poem

is

known to

deal

with

this

subject

separately.

The

verses

may

come

from a

fuller

version of

II

(i.e.

at

683).

The

accumulation of

genitives

betrays

the

forger.

124-6

which are

retrospective,

and

recall

e

468

sqq.,

would

find

a

place

in

the

N&rrot,

or

the

Trjxeyovla;

the

Atrides who

(133-137)

contrived

to

make a

double

ganfe

can

only

be

Menelaus

receiving

Paris,

i.e. in

the

Cypria.

The

rest I

cannot

guess

at,

but the

apparent imputation

on

Artemis'

virtue

(111)

comes

from

Hesiod,

if

not from

Eumelus

(Apollod.

iii.

100).

The

second

objection

to

believing

the

Agon

to be

a cento

whether

of

the

fifth

or

the

fourth

century

is

this. The

problem

set

by

Hesiod

to

Homer

immediately

before the

series of

couplets

begins,

viz':-

E.Loa'"

tilye

•Cot

r?

7)e17

"r

Qa~Lytrp"

eov'rard

p~oi~'

yE/iotra r'&~wra7-

c'

o AzEva

7rpo 71 Ew'ra

rCow

/aBv

p~rs(v

aet3E, ocr

("

(3'

Xrdm

tuvn

at

•tot3ic,

with

Homer's answer-

ofi'(3 7r7"0-

aLLp/ At(

?-rv/L/3c

KavaX~47ro(3E

tT7ToL

apaara

o

vvrplovo,-

Epltovre9

rEpt

viI?7,

is

given,

with

verbal

variants,'7

by

PIutarch

sept. sap.

conv.

153

F,

on the

authority

of

Lesches. One

Lesches

and one

only

is

known

to

history.

He

rests

on

the

respectable

evidence of

Phanias

the

Peripatetic,

who

makes

him a

native of

Pyrrha

in

Lesbos and

a

rival of

Arctinus

(F.H.G.

ii.

299).

He has

fared

badly

at the

hands of

the

learned.

Karl

Robert,

as

should e'er

be brought to mind, resolved him into the man of the Xao-Xm,nd in this

passage

he has

been for

many years

past

doubled.

Should

a

second

Lesches

17

The

Plutarchean

/oGado&

L

vevre

7reva

defends

the

ioiga'

&ye

got

of the

Certamen,

which has

been

misunderstood. The

five

lines

are

supposed

to be the

beginning

of a

poem,

not a

literal

challenge

to Homer.

2b

8' is

the

usual

call to the

Muse.



258

T. W.

ALLEN

appear

in

a document

this

argument

will

succeed;

pending

such

a

resurrec-

tion

this theoretical

tribute

to

method is sterile.

We must

deal

with

the

evidence

which

exists

without

foregone

conclusions.

Lesches,

one and

indivisible,

could

only

write verse. Prose was not in

his

day.

He

therefore

narrated the contest

between

Homer

and

Hesiod at

Chalcis

in

a

poem,

from

which

Plutarch

quoted

in the

first

century

after

Christ,

and

out

of

which

Alcidamas centuries

before

composed

his

Movo-eZov.

Lesches

then

beside

the

'IXLue

uEpd

composed

a

pious

poem

on his

Master's

life.

Such

another

poem,

of the Hesiodic

school,

was

that

from

which

Hes.

fr.

265

(the

victory

of

Hesiod

over Homer not

at

Chalcis

but

at

Delos)

was

drawn,

as it

would

seem

by

Philochorus. It is

not

certain

that the

couplets

107

sqq.

of

the

Certamnen

formed

part

of

Lesches'

poem,

for Plutarch's

reference only covers 97-101. Lesches' day also was so early that he had

only,

so

far

as

we

can

prove,

Arctinus

and

Antimachus,

the

author

of

the

Epigoni,

to criticise.

We

may plausibly

add the

Thebais (as

older

than

Callinus)

and

the

Cypria

(see

p.

257,

but

I do not

build

on

such

slender

foundations).

However,

it is more

than

probable

that

the

professionals

of

the

eighth

century

did

criticise

each

other,

and

sharply,

as Pindar

and

Bacchylides

exchanged

courtesies

two hundred

years

later,

and

Theognis

(if

we believe

Mr. Harrison's

first

gospel,

as

I

still

do)

corrected

his

poetical

brethren.

It would

be

contrary

to all we

know of

the

bardic

nature

if

the

Homrneridae

nd

Hesiodei

spared

each

other-

K~at rrw0Xo9

r7TWX~

flov~eE

Ka&

a~otsO9

doL65.

It

seems

then

safe

to

say

that

the tradition

of the

rivalry

between

the

heads

of

the

two

schools

can

be traced

to

a Lesbian

cyclic

poet

of

the

eighth

century.

A

poem

also

appeared

to be the

source

of the

Herodotean

life.

The

Lesbian

poem

contained

a contest

in amoebean

verse:

it

was

probably

only

an

episode

in

the

poetical

life

of

Homer.

In the

fourth

century

Alcidamas,

whose

interest

was

in

style,

expanded

the incident

into

a

rhetorical

exercise,

conveying

criticism

on

the

post-homeric

epopoei.

That

he repeated Lesches' couplets throughout cannot be proved, but it seems

not

improbable.'s

In

the

last

volume

of

Plutarch's

dreary

Moralia

is

to be found

a

lengthy

treatise

entitled

repl

o/L7pov

or

r-Xov'rdpXov

elS

rbV

plov

ro70i

pov.

It

consists

of

two

parts,

one

short

the other

long.

The contents

of both

are

nearly

entirely grammatical:

each

begins

with

a short

life. Various

ancient

authors,

Galen

first,

attest

that

Plutarch

wrote

LXdTasL

o/•L)pala,

and

Stobaeus

gives

considerable

extracts

therefrom.

Modern

scholars19

who

have

investigated

the

matter

consider

that

these

two

treatises

represent

the CpXeat, but that they were put into shape and provided with

s18

These

conclusions

were

I believe

reached

independently.

I see

on

reference

that

the

idea

of a

poem

of

some

antiquity

as the

source

of

the

Certamen

is

countenanced

by

Bergk,

Gr.

Litteraturgesch.

i.

930, 931,

Rohde,

Rh.

Mus.

36,

Eduard

Meyer,

Hermes 27. 377.

19

I

have

enumerated

some

of

them,

ed.

p.

239,



LIVES

OF HOMER 259

biographical

introductions-to

gild

the

pill-by

some one else. I can

believe

anything

of

Plutarch,

and see no reason

why

the intolerable

quality

of these

books

may

not

be laid at his door. The

question

has little interest

for

the

Homeric

Lives,

for

the

biographies

are

palpable

additions.

They

are,

however,

very

valuable, and,

according

to the verdict of

criticism,

date from the same

period

as the

Certamen.

The

first

life

contains

the

views,

on the

parentage

and birth of

Homer,

of

Ephorus

dv

dwrrtXowpi,

nd Aristotle

dv

9

rrep

wrouY-r)iu

;

it

also

collects some

oracles

and

epigrams.

The

second,

which

is

short,

resembles the

anonymous

lives and

gives

a

catalogue

of authorities

-Pindar,

Simonides,

Antimachus,

Nicander,

Aristotle,

Ephorus,

Aristarchus,

and

Crates.

The life

by

Proclus

is

part

of his

chrestomathia

(Proclus

died,

head

of

the Academy, in

A.D.

485) to which we owe our knowledge of the contents

of the

Cycle.

A

pre'cis

of

this was

prefixed

to

the

archetype

of a

distin-

guished

family

of

MSS.,

including

the

Venetian

and Escorial

copies

of

the

Iliad.

The same

was seen on

snake's-gut by Georgius

Cedrenus

(s.

xii.)

Hist.

cornp.

D.

p.

616,

ed.

Bonn.,

who

says

3pdiKovToS

'vrepov

oV

oSv

EKaTO

d'ICoaOtv,

dv

v

y~ypatiti~va

7-

'-r,'OtzeOpov

•

TE-

'IXtav

,cal jl

"Og6oCrLC

pvoScot

yptqiptaoa't

Le7

cal 7i-i

lo-roplas

r7;i

rcpv

(poov

'r

pd$eo

(I

take this from

Gardthausen Gr.

Pal.Y,

p.

96.)

Fortune,

however,

has dealt

hardly

with the

collection,

and

blown

it

almost

literally

to the winds.

The Life

and the

analysis

of the

Cypria

have been most

favoured,

and exist in

a

dozen

and

probably

more MSS.

The life

quotes

numerous

authorities,

among

which

Damastes,

Pherecydes,

and

Gorgias

appear

for the first

time;

gives

a

stemma,

taking

Homer back

to

Orpheus,

and a list of

disputed

works,

the

Cycle

and

the

IHatyvwa.

It also mentions the

heresy

of Xenon

and

Hellanicus,

who

denied

Homer

the

Odyssey.

The rest of the lives

are

anonymous.

Nos. IV. and

V.,

to

keep

the

numbers which Westermann

gave

them,

are brief.

They

are

very

common,

and

supplied

the

public

of

Constantinople

with its intellectual

food. IV. is

the shorter. V.

quotes

much the same

authorities

as Plutarch

II.

and

Proclus,

but adds Bacchylides. They both give a place to the Pisistratus-legend.

They

are

eclipsed by

VI. the most valuable

of these documents. This

exists

in

two forms.

Iriarte

in

the

eighteenth

century

first

copied

it from

one

of

Lascaris'

MSS. at

Madrid,

and

Sittl

in

1888 found a much better

version in

the

charming ninth-century

MS.

of

scholia

minora on the

Iliad,

which

exists

in

two

unequal parts

in

the Vittorio Emanuele at

Rome,

and the

Biblioteca

Nacional at

Madrid,

and

goes

by

the name of its former owner

Muretus. It

opens

in

good literary

Greek

with a

profession

of

impartiality worthy

of

Pausanias,

and

catalogues

a number of writers on Homer

among

whom

Anaximenes, Theocritus, Hippias, Timomachus, Stesimbrotus, Philochorus,

Aristodemus of

Nysa,

Dinarchus, Heraclides,

Pyrander, Hypsicrates,

and

Apollodorus

are new.

Suidas'

chapter

on

Homer

is,

like the

Certarnen,

tripartite.

The last

section

consists of

the Herodotean

Life,

deionicised,

the

beginning

left

out,

and the order of

the

quotations

altered. It

is

useful for

establishing

the text



260 LIVES OF HOMER

of

the

life. The middle

contains

a

passage

from Dioscorides

iv

rol

r'ap

'O/pep

v6got9

already quoted by

Athenaeus 8 E. The

first

portion

is

new,

and constitutes another life.

Its immediate authorities

are

recent,

Charax

the historian

(s.

ii.

A.D.),

Porphyrius

V etXoo-6bp

io-ropla,,

and Castricius of

Nicaea,

who

appears

as a

supporter

of the claims

of

Smyrna.20

The latter

seems

to be

Kao-plctao9

&

Ilpuov

IcaXov4LEvo9,

ho

possessed

a

property

six

miles from

Minturnae

(Porphyr.

vit.

Phot.

2.

7),

and

belonged

to the circle

of

Plotinus

and

Porphyry.

That he came from Nicaea is new.

The materials

used

through

these three sources are

the same as those

in

the

other lives:

e.g.

the stemma

of

Charax

is

the same as the stemma of the

Certamen

and

Proclus,

and

goes

back to Damastes.

Who

compiled

this

Life,2t

and

also

who

compiled

the

chapter

of

Suidas out

of it and

the

other

five

parts

is

unknown.

T.

W.

ALLEN.

(To

be

continued.)

2

This

mention

of

him,

and

that of

Calli-

machus

as

quoting

the

epitaph

e'vOd6&e

+v

tepdv

(53)

are

peculiar

to Vind.

39,

in

which the

Suidean

life is

prefixed

to the Iliad. Calli-

machus

perhaps

came

through

Charax,

cf. his

fr.

19.

21

Charax

was

extant

A.D.

502,

if

Eusta-

thius

of

Epiphania

(ap.

Evag.

v.

24,

F.H.G.

iv.

138),

whose

history

went

down

to

that

year,

epitomised

him.

Documents

Allen T., Lives of Homer, In Journal of Hellenic Studies, 32, 1912