New-York tribune., 1909-06-19
THE HOMERIC TANGLE.
What Vas the Ci1aIi2ation the Poet
Described?

Andrew Lang in The London Morning Post
Was there ever such a puzzle as the problems
which connected with Homer ana WIN tHe
early history Of mid-Eastern Europe ana the
.IEgean coasts? Till the last quarter OF tuc
Nineteenth Century we knew nothing about thls
unwritten history, and now the more we Know III
the way of facts the less we feel certain IN lhe
way of theory When l was an Undergraduate
nv tutor, Mr. JoWett, felt by no means certain
that the civilization arts and mode of life de
scribed by Homer were not the creation "I
noeticaI fancy Now as the result of the labor
of the spade. in regions from the Danube Ndiley
to the northern coast of the Black Sea, from
the Greek mainland to Crete, Egypt Palestine:
Cyprus and the western coasts and lnIald OF
Asia Minor. know that Homer described
actual civilizations and spoke of what ne knew
But the trouble is that his descriptions. thouSI
they all deal with veritable actuaIlueS' 90 Hot
fit into any theory OF the history OF TINS great
region revealed by excavations me
great HEgeaU civilization which we nave de
scribed has left no relics in iron: no iron was
found in the graves of NycenR which were so
rich in remains of 4tgean art. Now. IT the
IFgeans had iron and were conquered by the
iron swords of NortheInerS. and If these Norlh-
erners were Fomer's AchaeanS, why does Homer
never name iron sword or spear head;
His mems ancestors conquered the z1Sean so
cieties of Greece by ptting iron against bronze
so why does he always arm his men win
bronze. which had gone out, Tor weapons. IONS
before his date We might well look tor
bronze weapons i'm the AuglO-SaXou epic. sUcn
as "Beowulf." a s in HOMER. If the remote an
cestors of his AchFans conquered the 4tgeanS
of Greece with iron. OF that conquest he has
no tradition; his tradition speaks of the con-
The difficulty is only beginning. Though IN
Homer the art is always demonstraby <ESean
like the chariots. the bronze weapons ana LHe
enormous shields. in all otuer respects HF u
scribes civilization that is not H1Sean that
is y. an unknown quantity, or at least a guam
t!ty which is not HSgean. and has LETT no known
proofs Of its existence in Greek soil The re
lgiou Is not 4Fgean as far as We can gamer
from .Egean art. but is that Of classical Greece,
of Zeus and the OlympianS. TGe burial rites
are not .TEgean- the .4IgeanS always buried the
dead with rich grave goods in deep shaft graves
or in a thoos. stone built circular edIhCe-
Homer's people are always crelnated, ana tls
bones are placed in urnS covered with q Hnen
sheet and placed in the chamber "t a Hlsn
earthern Cairn. All this. down 10 the uheu
wrauuiuc ~ the Urn. was the European mode in
the Bronze Age. and later. in Scotland, for eN-
,rnr,Ia This is the FIor7erfc uethod-but no
such cairu has ever been found on Greek soil
To explain this il has been supposed that the
AchFans when they migrated 20 Asia burned
their dead and built cairns over the bones. that
these i'm their golden urns might NOT pe des1-
Grated by the hostile natives But this is IN
credible because burial in deep shaft graves
would have concealed the site Of the remains
dt has done so 10 our own day in many cases).
whereas cairns merely invite robbers The
Mortimer looted every Cairn in SUtherlandshire-
Where then. are the iunumeTa be cairns which
the Homeric age ought 10 have left IN Greece!
Again the costume Of HomerS men ana Wo'h-
on +. wholly unlike any that Mycenaean art rep
resentS The men merely wear Sii'ch anu
mantle the Celtic smock and plaid but where
are there pictures OF such men on me gems
and painted vases of. say 12t'p-'Vo = '-- iHtFr
Is in Homer a great break away from some
FEeau manners. others. the art. shield. and
vvar-chariot-. are familiar 10 Homer In bur
SAL r. is Of the Mid and North European Age
of Bronze I'm religion and mainly I'm costume
Dc IS Of classical Greece. i'm arr, shields and
CH4riots he is .FEsean. and when We examine
his knowledge OF the uses of. bronze and IRON
he is PaIestInian, His weapons are of bronze.
his tools are Of iron 'Now. for example. in the
great grave stead Of Hallstatt SEE iron creep
lu gradually. very gradually for weapons. Hel-
hie could not believe that the Homeric period
nr iron for pIouchShaTes, axes, adZes and knives
with bronze for weapons. ever existed. Poets
tradition OF bronze weapons. hut gave them
selves free hand in the use OF iron for tools
Ypt II they followed the poetic tradition de-
rived from the Bronze Age tools well as
,veauous should have been Of bronze i'm the
poems. That the Homeric usage. bronze for
weapons of war. iron for tools. has actually
prevailed was proved when Mr. Nacaliister eN-
cayated tho mound of GeZeT. i'm Palestine To
the tools OF iron and the weapons of bronze found
nj Gczcr Homcr's uniform description exactly
applies. This stage If the metals was at GeZer
a genuine stage. but in Greek graves of. say.
1oOO-9JO T.. g.. we fird iron weapons and bronze
weapons all :rtermiNed How did Homer know
of the Ciezer state of affairs and why. as il eN-
istcd has il never been found in Greece
Scholars who busy themselves with this old
puzzle of the HomeriC age do not seem always
10 understand how pcrpleNug ii is and how
little any explanation yet given explains it.
The poems describe manners and ways OF liviua
which are gu real. Yet not known ever %
have existed. Some things described found
i'm existence beneath the soil of Greece. others
found. tut not in Greek soil