soft, flexible, and sonorous, yet impressive and strong, was yielding as wax in their hands; their very life was poetry, and the taste that regulated and chastened all was an instinctive perception of refined art. Could we cast our view back, through the busy vista of intervening time, to those remote, but bright ages in the youth of civilization, and be present at one of those religous festivals, in which the spirit of the Greeks was most fully exhibited, we should witness a scene well calculated to attract our regards by the mingled grace and splendor of the ceremony. Suppose that the dark veil of the past were rent in twain, and that we were admitted among the throng of votaries engaged in the celebration of the customary rites to the Ionian Apollo." Observe the solemn procession winding its way to the temple of the god, through streets gorgeous with the trophies of Ionic art-note the clustering colonnades with their fluted pillars on either side-the just proportions of the classic fane-the altar decorated for the sacrifice-the victim garlanded with flowers, and with gilded horns-the venerable priests with their sacred sceptres twined with wool, the symbols of their holy of ficet-the long train of noble youths moulded in the chiselled symmetry of the Greecian form-the attendant band of the fairest virgins, faultless in figure, perfect in feature, their rich, warm skin flushed with the glow of health, their full voluptuous bosoms heaving with the strong passions of their country's blood-each of them robed in white, crowned with chaplets, and bearing along with them in golden baskets the brightest flowers of that sunny clime-listen to the soft and melting music of the Lydian mood--mark the commanding image of the god, his lip "smiling beautiful disdain"-consider the solemn veneration of the whole ceremony-and cast your eye over the proud pomp of that glorious assemblage. Is it not a sight worth witnessing? Does not the heart beat high, and the pulse throb at the graceful but imposing spectacle? This * Vide Aristoph. Nub. v. 586. This is what is referred to by Homer when he represents Chryses, as στέμματ' ἔχων ἐν χερσὶν ἑκηβόλου Απόλλωνος χρυσέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ. So in Soph. Ed. Tyr. v. 913. Eurip. Suppl. v. 36. Esch. Suppl. v. 22. See Stanley ad loc. is the land of Ionia, these are the full-bosomed (Bativo, BabúxoλToi, sügavoi,) Ionian maidens, that the Ionian god. The sacrifice is over. Now arises the melodious chaunt of praise in majestic Pæan or varied Dithyrambic; the Lydian and Hypolydian strains float upon the air, with now and then a wild dash of the Phrygian mood.* But these hymns are ended, yet the sacred rites are not closed. Now come forward the bards rivalling each other's excellence, as in later days in Arabia, and sing the deeds of prowess done by mighty men in the olden time. Μουσ ̓ ἐξ ἀοιδὸν ἀνῆκεν ἀειδέμεναι κλέα ἀνδρῶν, *Οιμης, τῆς τότ' ἄρα κλέος οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἵκανεν.† The public herald leads in by the hand an aged man gorgeously arrayed, and reverently conducts him to the throne prepared for the bard. Poor he may be, but he is now clad in splendid raiment; destitute of all else, he has his lyre and the sacred gift of song received direct from the inspiration of the Muse. He is a stranger in that illustrious assemblage: none knew whence he came, though some vague fame had preceded his appearance. A tremulous whisper runs through the crowd like an electric stroke: and clustering under the inner colonnades of that hypæethral temple the multitudinous throng is listening with strained and greedy ear to the full and sounding hexameters of no familiar poet. Every voice is hushed-not a breath is * The Dorian mood was usually employed in honor of Apollo-but that was the Dorian Apollo. We may have been guilty of an anachronism in introducing the Pean and Dithyramb, at a time when probably hexameter was the only metre,-and the songs to the gods were such as the hymns of the Homerida. There may be equal error in speaking of temples and statues. The temples were nothing more originally than enclosed spaces, and the statues blocks of stone or wood-but Dædalus must have lived about this time. † Hom. Od. viii. 73. We adopt Hookham Frere's views. See Mus. Crit. vol. 2, p. 243. We transfer this custom from a later age. See Plat. Ion. We have applied to Homer his own account of Demodocus. This allusion to his blindness is almost as touching as Milton's Sams. Agon. v. 80. We give Homer's description of Demodocus. Od. viii. 62. Κήρυξ δ' ἐγγύθεν ἦλθεν, ἂγων ἐρίηρον ἀοιδόν, Τὸν πέρι Μοῦσ ̓ ἐφίλησε, δίδου δαγαθόν τε κακόν τε Tyrwhitt ad Aristot. Poet. p. 95, considers that hexameters were sung without music,—but this is opposed to the testimony of Homer. heard in that assembly of Ionia's choicest children-nothing is audible save those deep, rich tones of the bard, and the accompanying notes of the lyre, played with a master's skill. How the hearts of that vast multitude beat in unison with the melody! Their breath is held in with compressed lips,-their limbs quiver under them--the blood tingles in their veins-the color comes and goes upon their cheeks-and their eyes blaze with unwonted fire! No such strain had ever yet been drunk in, even by Ionian ears! After a few preluding verses, the bard bends again over his lyre; his long white beard floats upon the chords; his upturned but sightless eyes are directed to that empurpled heaven whence came his inspiration; with bold fingers he sweeps the strings; and thus proceeds, Μήνιν άειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω 'Αχιλήος. To that spell-bound audience he had been before a stranger; but his name and his song have been familiar to all succeeding times. We recognize at once "the blind old man of Scio; rocky Isle:" Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer call'd, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own. This sketch is not a mere fancy piece. The form of it may, indeed, be fiction; but it is nevertheless significant of undoubted historical truth. It was among the Ionians that the Homeric Poems were originally produced-and it was on occasions similar to the one described that his Rhapsodies were recited to the public. The genius of the Poet had been inspired, moulded, and invigorated by such circumstances of time, place, and national condition as we have mentioned, and to these they owed much of their peculiar character. We have not concerned ourselves with deciding upon the personality of Homer, although we have introduced him into the picture, and represented him as an Ionian. The West wind which at Athens would have been a gentle breeze is always a squall in the Iliad. Of the seven cities claiming to be the birthplace of Homer, all, excepting Athens, are in Asia Minor, if we remember rightly. There was a foolish legend indeed which brought Homer from Egyptian Thebes. Apoll. Sidon: Anthol. Græc. vii. 7. And see Heyne, Hom. II. vol. viii. p. 826. + See Plat. Ion. and Schol. also Heyne. Excurs. ii. Sect. iii. Hom. II. xxiv. vol. viii. p. 792, et sqq. Consider also the story of Onomacritus. The question of his existence is at once too intricate and too long to be introduced episodically. If, as we ourselves believe, the Iliad was the achievement of a race of poets and successive generations, the general fidelity of our delineation is not affected thereby. The series must have had some commencement and some individual author in its inception, who would be portrayed in the vague Homer of our narration. Of him what we have said would be true, and it would also be true, in a similar measure, of the vague Homeridæ, who succeeded him, imitated under the influences of a like age his general air and language, and completed the epic cycle. For this reason we have made no distinction between the author of the Iliad and the author of the Odyssey, though whoever could now refer both poems to the same man, might believe that Hudibras was written by Milton as a sequel to Paradise Lost. The various Rhapsodies of the Iliad were undoubtedly composed for public recitation at the solemn festivals of Greece and Ionia: and were probably offered in competition for a public prize. To this, at least, the story of the contest between Homer and Hesiod points us; not indeed that this is to be credited, but it indicates a well-known custom.* The poems of Homer bear the impress of an early time and a young people upon them; and were greatly influenced and aided by the facilities of an informed creed, and a language not yet rigidly fixed. These circumstances will readily explain the supposed harmony of the rhapsodies of the Iliad, even if these were composed by different persons and at different times. This harmony, we may remark by the way, has been very much exagge. rated. Formed, as these poems were, by the genius of the time and people, out of the mass of common materials floating about in the popular mouth, expressing themselves in a rich and exuberant tongue, which readily moulded itself into verse of a particular structure, though untaught as yet to speak fluently in any metre but hexameter, it In further confirmation of this, see Hesiod. Op. et Dier. L. ii. v. 272. Ed. Winterton. Homerid. Hymn. V. 19. Χαιρ' ἑλικοβλέφαρε, γλυκυμέιλιχέ δὸς δ' ἐν ἀγῶνι Νίκην τω δε φέρεσθαι, ἐμὴν δ ̓ ἔντυνον ἀοιδήν. The open or resolved Ionic forms run naturally in hexameters-the contracted Attic in Iambics. Of the latter, Archilochus is the reputed inven was perfectly natural that a considerable similarity of language, sentiment, and rhythm should be exhibited even by different bards. And as for that further unity, which springs from consonance of details and the keeping of the characters, this would be sufficiently ensured by the religious veneration with which the poet and the people alike received all the incidents of the legends, and the lineaments of the heroes recorded by tradition. Hence arose that scrupulous fidelity, with which the Tragedians-Euripides, the infidel, excepted--handled the mythic tales, which furnished them with their plots. The very epithets and other expressions, so frequently occurring, were themselves part and parcel of these traditions; and, as such, were stereotyped upon the heart of the nation. The same thing may sometimes be observed in the earlier books of the Scriptures. In fact it may be illustrated to some extent by the antiquities of every people. "The swift-footed Achilles," and the "much-scheming Ulysses," or in the Odyssey, "much-enduring," were as familiar in their Homeric formsnay more so, to Ionian ears than the William Rufus, Richard Cœur de Lion, Louis le Débonnaire, Philippe le Bel, and Frederick Barbarossa, of the Middle Ages, are to those of modern times. The epithets had become a part of the proper names. To alter these materially, and to have substituted any thing entirely different for the πόδας ὠκὺς ̓Αχιλλεύς, and the πολύμητις Οδυσσεύς, or other equally recognized epithets, would have appeared as uncouth to a Grecian auditory, as if any one were now to talk of red-haired William, long-legged Edward, or poor John, in place of William Rufus, Edward Longshanks, and John Lackland. For this reason, we conceive Mr. Munford to have committed an error in point of costume, when he rejects such repetations "as disagreeable clogs impeding the main design and object of the poem."* From what has been said, it will be perceived that much, which to a modern may appear peculiar, and much in tor. Frere has, however, discovered a metre different from the hexameter in the Iliad itself. Mus. Crit. sup. cit. It is possible that various kinds did exist. The Dithyramb, which came from Phrygia must, on account of the proximity of Ionia, have been known in the latter country long before it reached Greece. Still the hexameter was the prevalent metre; so much so, that an old oracle was rejected as spurious because written in Iambics. Schol. ad Aristoph. Eq. * Pref. p. ix. |