New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-09-18
THE ILIAD IN THREE PARTS.
MIR. LEAFS PLAN OF DIVIDING THE Ho-
MERIC EPIC AMONG A GROUP OF POETS.

A COMPANION TO THE ILIAD for English reauers'
By Walter Leaf Lit. d. PIP. Kill. AL NM
milan g. Co.
In the present state Of Homeric crltlcish'' o'o
one certainty for the reader is tlat o'oi' e'.
LIST and commentator must have 'ieo,S o" -.
the composition of the Had ana 'ne O'S
some particulars different from those a'N00""
by othera Practically this is not a serious mat
ter. ALI the satisfaction that can DC gov ouO
Of the two poems is obtained just as well WIN
out considering their authorship as py o"elii,t
upon the point whether one NINA OF V"c MINIS
or MANY had the fashioning OF the epic anu ''o
nostos But the theories are OF Interest," Ill 'nen-
solves They are often the material TOT a''rac
tive studies in mental eccentricity, they oi'eh
lead to most valuable discoveries IN the peculiar.
;,ies If language, they disclose variations OF
theme and method in the text OF the poems anu
suggest changes of thought and OF manners IN
Homeric times that are Of the highest importance
In the study Of antiquity and Of human life IN
general
Mr.. Leaf has his theory as to the successive
occretiops which make the Had what it has
been since the opening Of the Greek historic
period He is inclined to put the composition
even of its latest parts back to an earlier date
than most writer's DO who insist on composite
authorship OF course, the confessed inter
polations do not figure in the discussion. 10
bracket them one gees aleng Is suu'cieh'
1t is the possibility of line on great poe's
having set their hands TO the work, ana ue
possibility of distinguishing the work OF each
which Mr. Leaf takes up as bis problem. lie
admits that he offers only working hypo'nesls
and he consistently uses 10 as such throughouo
his book This includes first the setting oil oy
themselves Of tho Achaians as pure UreeK
race in contrast, on The one mana, 10 INC Gu"
shaved Pelaegians, and on the other, TO the la'ei
Ionians whom he takes to be Hellenizel Pelas-
pians q race that came to think and speak anu
act in the Creek fashion, but which retained,
even at the period Of its highest development
in the supremacy of Athens. traces OF primi-
tivim. so-called which was apparently un-
known tn the Achaian civilization OF Mycenae
and to the lneal successors of the Achaians, the
Aeoltans except as the latter 1mbibed II from
their more lively Ionic neighbors. lie accepts
in a measure the conclusions OF flick tha' the
Uomeric poems-or at all events the original
nuoleus-wcre composed in pure Achaian ana that
only with the lapse of years and the rise OIL tile
Ionians to intellectual supremacy were the
verses modified with Ionic forms OF speech 80
as to produce the strange combination OF AeoHc
and Ionic called the epic dialect, long supposed
to be as unreal language and as purely
literary creation the verbal exercises OF
Spenser in the Faery Queen In this way ne
accounts for what he calls the comparative
modernness Of the Homeric civilization as COM
pared with that of Athens" 1t Is to be on
served that here, however, Mr.. Leaf is himself
talking in dialect, the dialect of those who
have made al arbitrary classification OF ideas
found among savage races, and ideas preserved in
the literature Of antique races, some of which they
have eraciously defined as primitive and Others as
NOT primitive This dialect may become, ike
the Attic Ionian, the universal language of cu-
ture: but, until that happens. some of US
hidcbound conservatives twill refuse to con-
verse in II.
Granting this scheme of race history in Greece,
H. should follow that what is essentially Ioniaa
in superstition in religion, in art. in form of ex-
nression must be o branch of the old Pelaseiall-
ism ANYTHING of that sort in the Iliad is Pei
asgic. and as the servile race is oetensibly al
most ignored throughout the Uiad, such ideas
must be not part of the original plan, but q
sybaeouent addition. The Homeric poems az
originally composed must have been like the
court poetry Of old Morse literature intended ex-
cusively for the qualification Of the feudal arts
tocracy, which in race, language. wealth, social
position and political power was a thing wholly
separate from the people throughout the Mycen-
aesn period To the two divisions between
Achaian and Pelasgic ideas. Mr.. Leaf adds third
from considerations of literary form. In his dis
cussion of this third point one seems TO perceive
that he has in mind solution for the problem
offered by the tradition that author created
both Had and Odyssey. He compares the style
of some later parts of the epic with that of the
Odyssey as a whole in a way to suggest that there
was at least link of individual genius between
the two works.
Thus divided the Iliad energies in three strata
The earliest is the story Of the Wrath Of Achilles,
which may roughly be said to include the first
eleventh sixteenth and twenty-second books
and certain pieces from other books which once
served TO unite these four into consecutive
tale. Mr.. Leaf supports his arrangement of
the "Menis' or Wrath Of Achilles by the rather
fancful argument that it can be divided into
five dramatic crises or acts as if any Achaan
poet was likely to have developed the conven-
tional method Of the tragic muse. OF course,
this argument would cease to be fanciful, how
ever, If it were shown that some natural process
of the human mind required tragedies in five
acts He asserts. indeed, that such division
Is mot a mere conventionality Of tragedy, but
natural outcome of the principle of symmetry"
In spirit he describes the MEMS as distinct
from the other parts OF the Had and from the
Odyssey THE interest from beginning to end,'
says he, is almost purely human. The gods
form a background underplot but their inter
ference is such becomes the rulers of tho world,
not partisans in the battles They nowhere take
any part in the fighting indeed they seldom APP
pear at all on the earthly stage. The Intervention
Of Athene in the first book is expressly confined
to Achilles alone of the rest no man bebeld her
AS though to let us know that this is
the way in which the gods speak to the mind Of
Apollo, invisible. stuns Patroklos, and Athene
appears for moment to bring Hector to
q stand before Achilles. In other words, the
gods appear just so much as TO let us know what
are the powers which control mankind from
heaven; nut none the less it is purely human
motive and human action which guides the plot