6. I do not think èn' aptorepà can be construed to the left of the army. The army has nowhere been named. The phrases ἐπὶ δεξιὰ and ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ require us to have a subject clearly in view. It is frequently named, as in è' àpiσтepà μáxs. When it is connected with omens, it means to the west, and èπidéέia the reverse. Again, oivoxoeîv èñɩdéĝia is to begin pouring wine from the left, and towards the right end of the rank whom the cupbearer may be serving. The army' has not been mentioned since the reassembling in v. 207. These objections appear to me fatal to the construction now under our view. They do not indeed touch the question whether en' aptoTepà should be interpreted on the left, or (on the right and) towards the left. That must, I think, be decided by the general principles of augury duly applied to order and enumeration. On the whole, then, I contend that it is wrong to construe Od. v. 277, 'to sail with Arctus on his left hand.' It would be much more nearly right, and would, in fact, convey the meaning, though not in a grammatical manner, if we construed it' to sail with Arctus on his right hand.' But the manner of construing it, grammatically and accurately, as I submit, is this: 'to sail with Arctus looking towards the left (of his hand, or his left hand);' that is to say, looking from his right. And generally, that the proper mode of construing è' àpiσtepà and ènì değià in Homer is, towards the left, towards the right; or, conversely, from the right, from the left. This meaning is in exact accordance with the North-eastern, and is entirely opposed to the North-western, hypothesis. And I venture to believe that, itself established by sufficient evidence from other passages in the poems, it enables us to give a meaning substantially, though perhaps not minutely self-consistent, though of course one not based upon the true configuration of the earth's surface as it is now ascertained, to every passage in Homer which relates to the Outer Geography of the Odyssey. Both ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ and ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ χειρός are used repeatedly in the Hymn to Mercury. One of the passages resembles x Hymn. Merc. 153. Cf. 418, 424, 499. Sense altered in later Greek. 365 in its form that of the eagle, II. xii. 219. It is this: κεῖτο, χέλυν ἐρατὴν ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ χειρὸς ἐέργων. And probably the basis of the idea is the same. correct Greek expression for 'on the left hand' I take to be χειρὸς ἐξ ἀριστερᾶς, which is used by Euripidesy. The really But in the later Greek the idea of the point of arrival prevailed over that of the point of departure: and, conventionally at least, the idéia, with its equivalent èvòégia, came to mean simply on the right,' and ' ȧpioтepà, 'on the left.' It is worth notice, that we have a like ambiguous use in English of the word towards. Sometimes towards the left means being on the left sometimes it means moving from the right in the direction of the left and a room towards the south' means one with its windows on the north, looking out over the south, like as the star Arctus looks out towards the left of Ulysses2. y Hecuba 1127. z I have observed that desiòs pvis means a bird flying from the left towards the right, and ȧpioтepòs opus, the reverse. Here however the force of the epithet is derived from immediate connection with the motion implied, and with the doctrine of omens : δεξιὸς ὦμος would of course be the right shoulder, and degin, as we have seen, may stand alone to signify the right hand. And so in general with these words, when used as epithets, apart from a preposition implying motion, and from any relation to omens. IV. AOIDOS. SECT. I. On the Plot of the Iliad. ALTHOUGH the hope has already been expressed at the commencement of this work, that for England at least, the main questions as to the Homeric poems have well nigh been settled in the affirmative sense; yet I must not pass by without notice the recently propounded theory of Grote. I refer to it, partly on account of the general authority of his work; for this authority may give a currency greater than is really due to a portion of it, which, as lying outside the domain of history proper, has perhaps been less maturely considered than his conclusions in general. But it is partly also because I do not know that it has yet been treated of elsewhere; and most of all because the discussion takes a positive form; for the answer to his argument, which perhaps may be found to render itself into a gratuitous hypothesis, depends entirely upon a comprehensive view of the general structure of the poem, and the reciprocal relation and adaptation of its parts. Grote believes, that the poem called the Iliad is divisible into two great portions: one of them he conceives to be an Achilleis, or a poem having for its subject the wrath of Achilles, which comprises the First Book, the Eighth, and all from the Eleventh to the Twentysecond Books inclusive; that the Books from the Second to the Seventh inclusive, with the Ninth and Tenth, and Theory of Grote on the Iliad. 367 the two last Books, are portions of what may be called an Ilias, or general description of the War of Troy, which have been introduced into the original Achilleis, most probably by another hand; or, if by the original Poet, yet to the destruction, or great detriment, of the poetic unity of his work. In support of this doctrine he urges, 1. That the Books from the Second to the Seventh inclusive in no way contribute to the main action, and are brought out in a spirit altogether indifferent to Achilles and his angera.' 2. That the Ninth Book, containing a full accomplishment of the wishes of Achilles in the First, by ' atonement and restitution,' is really the termination of the whole poem, and renders the continuance of his Wrath absurd therefore, and also from the language of particular passages, it is plain that the Books from the Eleventh downwards are composed by a Poet, who has no knowledge of that Ninth Book, (or, as I presume he would add, who takes no cognizance of it.') 3. The Jupiter of the Fourth Book is inconsistent with the Jupiter of the First and Eighth. 4. The abject prostration of Agamemnon in the Ninth Book is inconsistent with his spirit and gallantry in the Eleventh. 5. The junction of these Books to the First Book is bad; as the Dream of Agamemnon produces no effect,' and the Greeks are victorious, not defeated". 6. For the latter of these reasons, the construction of the wall and fosse round the camp landwards is out of place. 7. The tenth Book, though it refers sufficiently to a Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 258 n. b Ibid. p. 241 n. d Ibid. p. 247. what precedes, has no bearing on what follows in the poem. Grote has argued conclusively against the supposition that we owe the continuous Iliade to the labours of Pisistratus, and shows that it must have been known in its continuity long before. He places the poems between 850 and 776 B. C.; admits the splendour of much of the poetry which he thus tears from its context; yet he apparently is not startled by the supposition, that the man, or the men, capable of composing poetry of the superlative kind that makes up his Achilleis, should be so blind to the primary exigencies of such a work for its effect as a whole, that he or they could also be capable of thus spoiling its unity by adding eight books, which do not belong to the subject, to fifteen others in which it was already completely handled and disposed of. And though our historian leans to the belief of a plurality of authors for the Iliad, he does not absolutely reject the supposition that it may be the work of one. As to the Ninth Book', he refers it more decisively to a separate hand; and he makes no difficulty about presuming that the Homerids could furnish men capable of composing (for example) the wonderful speech of Achilles from the 307th to the 429th line. Happy Homerids! and felix prole virúm, happy land that could produce them! It appears to me that these are wild suppositions. Against no supposition can there be stronger presumptions than against those which, by dissevering the prime parts of the poem, produce a multiplication of Homers; and however Grote may himself think that enlargef Ibid. p. 178. e Grote's History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 210. i Ibid. |