The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-11-17

second Lecture in Rev. THr. DaltOn's
Course

large audience assembled at o'clock Sat
urday afternoon, in st. Stephens church, to
listen to The second lecture in the course which
Mr.. Dalton has prepared. The subject was
Homer's Odyssey, and involved discussion
both of the merits and plan of the poem, and
also brief resume of what is known as the
"Homeric Question:; which is, briefly, a
question as to whether the Iliad and the Odys-
sey were the work OF an author, or whether
they are composed Of number of short lays
by different authors, united by one person, who
by virtue of his task was called Homerus, the
compiler
The story of Ulysses, said the speaker, is as
interesting as any story of modern times, and
has many elements in common with stories of
today. Like many modern authors, Homer
seems to commence at the middle of the story,
go back to the beginning and then to the end.
But this seeming complication only shows the
skill Of the author, for he arouses at once an
interest in his reader which never flags. We
have in the Odyssey story in twenty-four
books. A study of these will show two grand
divisions. In the first twelve we have the ad
ventures of Ulysses and his son Telemachus
away AAOlA AOncs LII bu6 66CUuu bWCiFc, buelt
arrival home, and the various adventures
which led to the recognition of Ulysses and
the destruction of the suitors. The first
twelve books can be again sub-divided into
three parts OF four books each, the first of
which introduces the reader to the hcme of
Ulysses, and narrates how the Goddess Miner
va appears to young Telemachus, bids him get
rid of the suitors, who are living on the bounty
of Ulysses, and go in search of his father. In
accordance with these commands, Telemachus
sets out in ship provided by the Goddess, Wis
iting Pyias and Sparta, where he finds that
his father has been detained in the
island of Ogygia. In the second part, Ulysses
is introduced to the reader, having been re-
leased from Ogygia through the intervention
of the gods. While sailing home he suffers
shipwreck, on the coast of Phaecis, and is
Hospitality received by the Phaecian king.
Games are introduced in his honor, and then
Ulysses throws off the disguise he had assumed
discloses his identity, and in the third subdi-
vision OF the first twelve books, relates his adj
ventures from the time he left Troy. The
reader Is thus brought back to the starting
point of the story, the mystery about Ulysses
is entirely cleared away, and he is in a posi-
ton to appreciate fully the incidents of the
last twelve books. These like the first twelve
are capable of subdivision, and relate IN sue
cession to the arrival home of Ulysses and Tel
emachus, the insults heaped upon Ulysses by
the suitors, who fail to recognize the master of
the house in the ragged beggar bsfore them
(or Ulysses is still in disguise,) his recognition
BY his dog, and then by al aged servant, the
final effort of Penelope to get rid of the sui
tors and then the dreadful death of the suitors
by the hand of Ulysses, and his subsequent
recognition by his wife and aged father. Ia
the whole twenty -four books, the art of the
post is shown, and in the arrangement is seen
the great skill of the author.
Passing to the second part of the lecture the
speaker began the discussion of the authorship
of tn9 DOSmg. In Lha first Dlnca ha said w
discover considerable difference between the
names OF the heroes in the Iliad and Odyssey.
The question which has arisen in regard to the
Iliad lie, Whistler or not we have in that poem
anything more than string of ballads made
by one man or by many. II we reason from
the analogy of the human mind, the probable
ity is very strong that the whole poem was the
work OF a single authors For if we assume for
moment that the poem is no more than a
string OF ballads composed by fifty or perhaps q
hundred different poets, then as all the parts
are well balanced and as there is no superiority
in merit OF one part over another, we must
conclude that at the time when the Iliad was
written there were fifty or hundred poets all
equally gifted and all equally capable of writ
ing the whole poem. Applying this same req
soning to the Odyssey we must conclude that it
was the work of single author. Indeed the
plot OF the Odyssey is much more complicated
than that OF the Iliad, and the conclusion is
only the stronger.
A(As q 6OCUuu 4uCnblOu WHlSn has arlE6u H.
Was Homer the author of the Odyssey as we'll
as the Iliad? There are many who deny that
he was. In the first place. they say that the
| whole tone of the books is different. Manners,
customs, characters, even names, are changed.
| In the second place, they say that no one m an
ever lived who could write two such poems.
| Yet Shakespeare did as much in volume as
Homer. In comparing Homer and the English
poet, many would give the palm to the latter.
Yet there is this difference between them.
Shakespeare is naturally better appreciated by
the English speaking people and perhaps by
the Germans. Yet the French and other ma
lions of Southern Europe never understood
him, while Homer is understood and equally
relished by all civilized nations. In regard to
| the first objection, that there is too much
diversity in theme, the answer is that such
difference is but natural. one is poem of
war, the other Of peace; one describes adven-
| lures at sea, the other adventures on land; one
| narrates the dissensions of the gods, the other
| their harmony.
| But putting aside all questions of authorship,
| the fact remains that in them we have two
| glorious books. There is a tendency among
| all people at the present time to go back into
| the early history of the world. In these two
| poems we have a disclosure of the ancient
| manners and customs of a people far
more interesting than the Arabian Nights
| Tales, because they tell us of the life Of "a
| people among whom our ancestors lived.
| Greek poetry and art and literature are but
| descriptions OF the life OF our own ancestors.
| From the Greek we have inherited our GUS
toms, In criticising these poems flor by criti-
| cisng we learn to appreciated the first thought
| which we have is that Homer might have
| adopted simpler plan in the Odyssey than he
did. But the advantages of the plan are
many, for we are brought directly to the home
of Ulysses; the first natural inquiry is as to his
whereabouts, which query is next answered
followed by recital of his adventures, and
then the rest of the story follows in chronolo.
| giCal order. AS regards certain gross passages
| in the poem, it must be remembered that the
times were different from nov, and sharp dis.
| tinctions in the moral world we're not drawn OIL
| even thought of Even the authors of the
| present day are not entirely free from this
charge.
At the close of the lecture quite a number Of
the audience remained while Mr.. Dalton read
different passages from the Odyssey.
The subject of the lecture next Saturday
| will be the idea of the ancient concerning
| Hades, OR the Lower World.