The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-05-27

Homeric women. Her parting from Hecto,
in tho sixth "1nad" Is the best known. mari
OF the poem, AID Hectors love for his youn,
wife Is as touching as anything IN moder,
romance. We next see Andromache In IN.
twenty-second "Illad." when hearing Iiec,,.
ba's cry Of anguish, she rushes to the wall
only to sec her husband dragged at Achilles
chariot wheels. and then we hear her bitter
lament at his funeral. She has appeared but
for few brief moments, and yet no woman
OF tho HAD" and few in literature. have
had such hold on hearts, both ancient and
modern.
Homer was the universal textbook In
Greek schools A young man in Xenophon $
Symposium" remarked that he could say
the whole 'Iliad" and odyssey by heart
and his example was probably not unique
The young Alcibiades Indignantly struck a
schoclmaster who confessed that he had
nothing of Homer's. and Alexander the
Great admitted that he had formed himself
on the character of Achilles The eleglac
poets develop verses and language out OF the
epic. and all the greatest lyric poets show
Homer's inhuence-none more than Pndar.
In an important sense Homer was the mas
grammarians. as well as German critics.
have discussed the IIomeric style and thought
In both historians. Aeschylus called his
tragedies fragments from Homers great
banquets,' and Sophocies received no high
er praise than 1.-The tragic Homer" The
Homeric style and language are noticeable
in Plato, as well as the latters frequent
citation OF the epic poet Even Demosthenes
is said to have initiated Homer In the
Alexandrlne' poetry Homerlc influence was
predominant especially in Theocritus ln-
deed Homer was the key to all subsequent
Greek literature. as no other poet has ever
been 20 any other literature, even the In
iuence of the English Bible being less de-
terminative in our own literature.
who was Homer? When and where was he
born? What works did he compose? There is
perfect agreement only as to the name. we
do not know who Homer was According to
Greek epigram. seven cities claimed to be
Homer's birthplace: but. in fact, far more
places. on both sides of the Aegean and
among the islands. arrogated this distinc-
ton. and the statements as to the date OF
his birth range over more than 400 years
This is in reality perhaps tradition of
OI
did Homer compose? Earlier Creek antiquity
attributed to him pretty much the whole
body of epic poetry. but Alexandrlne schol-
arship denied his title to all except the
"1liad' and the odyssey" Even the unity
of the authorship of these two was attacked
but the authority of Aristarchus, the great
est of ancient scholars. silenccd the so-called
"separators. Early in tho Eighteenth cen
tury a Neapolltan claimed that Homer s
poems were made by series of poets and
not committed to writing at first, but proofs
in support of this view were first given in
f, A. VOLTS famous "Prolegomena" Q795).
Wolf argued that our Homer was originally
many small unwritten poems, the unity be-
ing due to commission in the time Of
Pesistratus isixth century,. VOLTS follow
ers. especially Lachman attempted to dissect
the "Iliad" into the original lays. All great
Greek scholars of all lands have in the last
century been arrayed on one side or the
other OF the Homeric question, and it has
been almost as farreaching in philoogy as
the Darwinian theory has been in science.
BY natural reaction. the trend of opinion
is again rather toward an original nucleus
or central nosm. greater or smaller: hut
N'itiSdl ODlulHH uOtS uuL tohu uh.sS - ~N
thorship o. both "Tliad" and Odyssey
OF translations OF the "Ilad' Lord Der
ty's il verse. and Lang, Leaf and Myers, in
prose, may be especially mentioned; but other
versions, such as Chapman's, Pope's, Cow
per's, Bryant's, have many claims TO consld-
Grafton. For the Odyssey, Worsley's trans
lation in verse and Butcher and Lang's in
prose are doubtless unequaled, though Palm
er's rhythmical prose version merits especial
COMMUNICATION.
Valuable helps to the general reader in APP
preciating Homer are, besides the histories
of Greek literature, Jebb's introduction"
Leafs Companion to the Had" Agnes NJ.
Clerkes Familiar Studies In Homer Jebb's
'Classica Greek Poetry" chapters ii. and
ill.,. Symonds' Greek Poets" vol L. chap
tiers iii. and w.; Mahaffy's Social Lise Of
the Greeks" chapters H. and ILL.,, Gladstone's
"Hon.eric Studies" and "Juventus Mundi;"
Bonitz's "origin of the Homeric Poems, and
Matthew Arnolds ION Translatlng Homer"
Charles Forster Smith,
University Of Wisconsin.