The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-06-11

cite from written books. how did they Learn
their lsysf Doubtless they used memoir
alone. and. even In the days Of Socrates. did
not read from book. Wolf can sec NOTHING
TO marvel at In their faculty OF "Reminiscences
which WAS \ professional memory carefully
cultivated. Their sole business was to make
poems or learn and recite the poems Of others.
One rhapsodist would carefully instruct an
other. Great feats Of memory are even 10
our day accomplished, as. for example. by
actors. In word. the Homerfo poets repre-
sent. according to the wo1an hypothesis,
what the rhapsodist would be likely to COM
pose with no intention OF literary imposture.
Yet, after all allowances are made for the de-
| yelopment OF professional m emory. Wolf con-
tends that no single rhapsodlst could or would
| have composed for the purpose OF oral recita-
ton poem as long as 10 the Had or the Odys-
sey. It would not have paid him to mako the
epics as We now possess them II he had been
able to do so. They would have been like
| huge ships built inland. and in no way to be
| launched. II he could not be read. the poets
| epics. as We possess them. would have been
worthless to him. Nobody could hear them
| out at sitting: so the idea OF making them
| could never have occurred to him. Hence the
poems came otherwise:" not By the art OF
one ancient minstrel. Here. Of course. Wolf
has to meet objections raised By the pretended
unity OF plot and character In the dad and the
odyssey. Is that unity. he asks. so perfect In
zach poem as 1t 10 thought to bs2 He points
out with regard to tho Had that the learned
are not agreed about Its original argument
and chief motive. Tho difficulty 10 that the
statement OF the TOPIC 10 the prelude does not
demand tho unfolding Of all that tho Iliad con-
tains. II the Had is only to tell OF the wrath Of
Achilles and Its result. A few battles Just to
show how the Greeks Jared without Achilles
would be enough. The promise made by the
seven verses Of prelude might easily be full
filled In eighteen rhapsodies The rest OF the
poem 10 q nero appendix to tho story OF the
wrath. Indeed. tho topic OF the roem as 1t
now stands 10 not tho wrath but the glory OF
Achilles. Thus the composition OF the poems
10 not In VOLTS opinion an argument against
his theory. That composition 10 the product
OF q later and moro polished age. not the
work OF an illiterato early minstrel. More
over tho com osition 10 not really such mar
vel OF excellence as has been supposed. Wolf
gives examples OF the passages In tho poems
introduced. as he AYERS. by later hands to
affect the transition. One excerpt 10 from the
eighteenth book Of the Ill ad dimes 356-368.
where many OF the lines occur also in other
parts OF the poem. This passage wns sus-
pected In ancient times. There 10 also dis
pute about the last book Of the Iliad. and
Wolf himself has doubt about the last six
books OF the poem. Tho Had In short, Is a |
congeries OF atoms. though not fortutous |
congeries. Many ages and many minds sup |
piled the functions and imposed what unity |
thsre Is. They added whole rhapsodies In |
which the original minstrel had no part
Wolf next examines the little handed down
by the Greeks themselves about tho carly his
~ ho iroth or ~ 20 ha |
that Lycurgus brought the epics from Ionia
into the Peloponnesus. According to Hera-
clidas. the poems were obtained from tho de-
scendants Of family In which they had been
committed to writing. In this tradition Wolf
recognizes only tho Spartans' previous lack OF
or scanty knowledge Of the lays.
The next historical reference is to the regula-
lion Of Scion about the recitation Of the
poems at the Psnathenean festival Di.
ogenes Lasrtlus says that Scion wrote
. law BY which Homer was to be re-
cited 10Th prompting Tor In regular order). SO
that where tho first recital left of the next
should begin" The translation with
prompting" has the approval OF Mr.. Monro.
the present Provost OF Orisl. and other Ho-
merio scholars, but Wolf believed that Scion
the cantos to be rocited In order-that
ie. according to the sequence OF events.
seems to imply prompter's book
or text. but Wolf holds that no written texts
were used at the Athenian recitation ofSolon's
time. In Ionis. he thinks tho poems must al
ready have been recitod in an orderly manner.
Leaving Scion. Wolf declares that he need
no longer trust to conjecture. History
speaks. Tho voice Of all antiquity. and. ON
the whole. the consent OF all report. bears wit
ness that Pisistratus was the first to have tho
Homeriu poems committed to writing and
brought into that order In which we now pos
sess them" This is the key to VOLTS posi-
ton. II the Homeric poems were not even
written out until the age Of Pisistratus. II they
did not exist nearly In their present order I'M
I'll that epoch. then We must postulate be-
tween their first com position and their COM
Dlete form gap SO Wide as to admit OF any
amount Of changes After citing the testi-
mony OF Cicero. Pausanias. and other ancient
authors on this point. Wolf rejects the idea
that Pislstratus collected scattered manu-
scripts instead OF oral rhapsodfes. and that he |
merely restored instead OF creating tho unity
81 the epics. Much. however. as Pisistratus did.
Wolf docs not think that he did everything. or {
Homer as we now possess 1t. Be- I
ween Pisistratus and the Alexandrians came I
he Diaskeuasts. to whose supplemental or
polishing or interpolating labors much 10 at !
ributsd. We reach finally the Alexandrian I
we OF libraries and Of comparative criticism. '
Y
lotus. who objected to SO many passages I
hat he may seem to Danish Homer out
Il the Homsric poems. Next came Aristoph-
mes. the inventor Of tho signs for accents. c
rhen We arrive at AristarolIus. the great Il
ut OF critical names, whose work 10 main t
' known to us by citations in the Vene- O
Ian scholia. Wolf maintains that Aristarchus Z
vas devoted not SO much to reproducing Il
iomer as to improving him: he believed only Il
hat to be genuine which seemed to him most q
worthy OF his author Not what Homer sang, D
tut what he should have sung was his chief v
oncern. Aristarchus not only put his O
riticAl sign. the obelus. against passages, "
tut he took many passages clean out, Our Il
iomer. finally. Is not that which lived in the Il
nouths OF his Greeks. but Homer as he was e
hanged. interpolated. reduced. and amended "
etween tho times OF Scion aud those OF the Il
lexandrians. Here. then. In a nutrhell, we a
ave the WolAan hypothesis. 1t 10 this,
hat tho Homeric poems. however much Of
hem may have been composed by single an