Contraction of the Homeric East. 341 on regions of land; and ideas, which were sure, indeed, to form a prominent feature in the Phoenician reports, that must have supplied him with material. Acting on the same principle, it would appear that he greatly shortens the range of Asia Minor eastwards. Through the medium of the Solymi (Il. vi. 184, 204) he appears to bring the Solyman mountains close upon Lycia. A chain now bearing that name skirts the right bank of the Indus but it is probable that Homer identified, or rather confounded, them with the great chain of the Caucasus between the Euxine and the Caspian, and with the Taurus joining it, and bordering upon Lycia: for, on the one hand, we cannot but connect them with the Solymi, the warlike neighbours of the Lycians and on the other, since Neptune, from these mountains, sees Ulysses making his homeward voyage from Ogygia, it follows that they must have been conceived by Homer to command a clear view of the Euxine, and of its westward extension. Thus he at once brings Egypt nearer to Crete (helping us to explain the Boreas of Od. xiv. 253), and Phoenicia nearer to Lycia: and it is in all likelihood immediately behind Phoenicia that he imagined to lie the country of the Persians and the ἄλσεα Περσεφονείης (Od. x. 507), on the shore of that eastern portion of Oceanus, for which the reports both of the Caspian and of the Red Sea, probably, as we have seen, have formed parts of his materials. Thus we find much and varied evidence converging to support the hypothesis, that Homer greatly compressed his East, and brought Persia within moderate distance of the Mediterranean. In the obscure perspectives of Grecian legend, we seem to find various points of contact between Egypt, Phoenicia, and Persia; and each of these points of con tact favours the idea that Persia and Phoenicia were closely associated in Homer's mind. Proteus, a Phoenician sea-god, is placed only at a short distance from the Egyptian coast. Helios, strongly associated with Egypt through his oxen, is associated with Phoenicia and with the remoter east by his relationship to Circe, and by his residence, the ávтodaì 'Heλíoio. And again, from the family of Danaus, a reputed Egyptian, descends Perseus, in whose name we find a note of relationship between the Persians and the Greeks. Lycia, too, is near the Solymi, and the Solyman hills are really Persian. Here is a new ray of light cast on Homer's passion for the Lycians of the Warb. A few words more will suffice to complete a probable view of the terrestrial system of Homer. The Ocean surrounds the earth. On its south-eastern beach are the groves of Persephone, and the descent to the Shades on its north-western, the Elysian plain. The whole southern range between is occupied by the Ailiores, who stretch from the rising to the setting sun. The natural counterpart in the cold north to their sun-burnt swarthy faces is to be found in the Cimmerians, Homer's Children of the Mist. Accordingly, they are placed by the Ocean mouth, hard by the island of Circe and the Dawn; nearly in contact, therefore, with the Ethiopians of the extreme east. Two hypotheses seem to be suggested by Homer's treatment of the north. Perhaps Homer imagined that the Cimmerians occupied the northern portion of the earth from east to west, as the Ethiopians occupied the southern a very appropriate conjecture for the disposal of the country from the Crimea to the Cwmri. b See Achæis, sect. iii. c Od. i. 24. d Od. xi. 15. Outline of his terrestrial system. 343 On the other hand, it seems plain that Homer must have received from his Phoenician informants two reports, both ascribed to the North, yet apparently contradictory: the one of countries without day, the other of countries without night. The true solution, could he have known it, was by time; each being true of the same place, but at different seasons of the year. Not aware of the facts, Homer has adopted another method. While preserving the northern locality for both traditions, he has planted the one in the northwest, at the craggy city of Lamus; and the other in the north-east, together with his Cimmerians. On the foundation of the conclusions and inferences at which we have thus arrived, I have endeavoured to construct a map of the Homeric World. The materials of this map are of necessity very different. First, there is the inner or Greek world of geography proper, of which the surface is coloured in red. Next, there are certain forms of sea and land, genuine, but wholly or partially misplaced, which may be recognised by their general likeness to their originals in Nature. Thirdly, there is the great mass of fabulous and imaginative skiagraphy, which, for the sake of distinction, is drawn in smooth instead of indented outline. The Map represents, without any very important variation, the Homeric World drawn according to the foregoing argument. To facilitate verification, or the detection of error, I have made it carry, as far as possible, its own evidences, in the inscriptions and references upon it. EXCURSUS I. ON THE PARENTAGE AND EXTRACTION OF MINOS. IN former portions of this work, I have argued from the name and the Phoenician extraction of Minos, both to illustrate the dependent position of the Pelasgian race in the Greek countries, and also to demonstrate the Phoenician origin of the Outer Geography of the Odyssey b. But I have too summarily disposed of the important question, whether Minos was of Phonician origin, and of the construction of the verse Il. xiv. 321. This verse is capable grammatically of being so construed as to contain an assertion of it; but upon further consideration I am not prepared to maintain that it ought to be so interpreted. The Alexandrian critics summarily condemned the whole passage (Il. xiv. 317-27), in which Jupiter details to Juno his various affairs with goddesses and women. "This enumeration,' says the Scholiast (A) on verse 327, 'is inopportune, for it rather repels Juno than attracts her and Jupiter, when greedy, through the influence of the Cestus, for the satisfaction of his passion, makes a long harangue.' Heyne follows up the censure with a yet more sweeping condemnation. Sanè absurdiora, quam hos decem versus, vix unquam ullus commentus est rhapsoduse. And yet he adds a consideration, b Ibid. sect. iv. a Achæis or Ethnology, sect. iii. c Obss. in loc. Genuineness of Il. xiv. 317-27. 345 which might have served to arrest judgment until after further hearing. For he says, that the commentators upon them ought to have taken notice that the description belongs to a period, when the relations of man and wife were not such, as to prevent the open introduction and parading of concubines; and that Juno might be flattered and allured by a declaration, proceeding from Jupiter, of the superiority of her charms to those of so many beautiful persons. : Heyne's reason appears to me so good, as even to outweigh his authority but there are other grounds also, on which I decline to bow to the proposed excision. The objections taken seem to me invalid on the following grounds; 1. For the reason stated by Heyne. 2. Because, in the whole character of the Homeric Juno, and in the whole of this proceeding, it is the political spirit, and not the animal tendency, that predominates. Of this Homer has given us distinct warning, where he tells us that Juno just before had looked on Jupiter from afar, and that he was disgusting to her; (v. 158) στυγερὸς δέ οἱ ἔπλετο θυμῷ. It is therefore futile to argue about her, as if she had been under the paramount sway either of animal desire, or even of the feminine love of admiration, when she was really and exclusively governed by another master-passion. 3. As she has artfully persuaded Jupiter, that he has an obstacle to overcome in diverting her from her intention of travelling to a distance, it is not at all unnatural that Jupiter should use what he thinks, and what, as Heyne has shown, he may justly think, to be proper and special means of persua sion. 4. The passage is carefully and skilfully composed; and it ends with a climax, so as to give the greatest force to the compliment of which it is susceptible. 5. All the representations in it harmonize with the manner of handling the same personages elsewhere in Homer. 6. The passage has that strong vein of nationality, which is so eminently characteristic of Homer. No intrigues are mentioned, except such as issued in the birth of children of recognised Hellenic fame. The gross animalism of Jupiter, displayed |