NEWIIALL. — PISISTRATUS AND HOMER. 493 



Hpeas 6 Mfyapevs, wairep av ttoKiu efx^aXfiv eis t^v 'OnTjpov vfKviav to, Qrjcrfa 

 U^ipidoov re dfcov d/jtSeifcera reKva, )^api^6p.fvov ^ AOrjvnioii. The manUSCnptS, 



according to La Roche,* read in this place, ipiKvdea for dpiSflKera, which 

 change he himself adopts in his edition, explaining the variation by 

 the well warranted supposition that either Hereas or Plutarch, in ac- 

 cordance with the prevailing custom of the ancients, was quoting from 

 memory. This passage shows that even before the time of Plutarch it 

 was believed by one writer at least that Pisistratus inserted this verse 

 in the Odyssey. Diintzer,^ then, has some warrant for his supposition 

 that in the time of Hereas credence was given to the story of the 

 Pisistratean edition of the Homeric poems, provided we take it for 

 granted that the poems did not exist in writing before the time of 

 Pisistratus, — a point on which authorities differ. If they had previ- 

 ously been reduced to manuscript form, then the insertion of a line by 

 a ruler, merely to tickle the vanity of his subjects, can hardly be con- 

 sidered indicative of an entire recension of the poems. 



Ascribed to Dieuchidas, the Megarian historian, we find a statement 

 which, though vague, has reference, nevertheless, to an activity of some 

 sort on the part of Pisistratus in connection with the Homeric poems. 

 The exact date of Dieuchidas himself is a matter of some uncertainty, 

 though he is confidently placed by Wilamowitz ^ in the fourth century 

 B. c, and by W. Christ, who refers to Wilamowitz, among the earlier 

 Atticists, which would make his sphere of activity fall in the first part 

 of the third century b. c. The statement is contained in Diogenes 



LaertiuS (1, 57), and reads as follows : rd re 'Onrjpov e'l vtto^oX^s y/ypat^e 

 (i. e. SoXui'), payj/aSelcrdaL, oiov ottov 6 TvpwTOi eXrj^ev, iKfldev ap)(fcrdai rov 

 i)(6p.evov. p.a\Xov ovv "ZoXoav" Op.ripov ecjiaiTKrev ^ UeirriaTpuTos, Sis <pT]cn At,ev)(i- 



8as iv Tre/iTTTo) MiyupiKav. It is obviously impossible to determine the 

 exact nature of the services of Pisistratus to Homer as indicated by 

 the word " ecptaTia-ev." Even the very reading of the text itself after 

 the word " neto-iarparo? " has been questioned by scholars, not, however, 

 because the manuscript is corrupt, but merely because the sequence of 

 the next sentence is deemed too abrupt. Ditntzer (ibid., p. 8), ^ith 

 Ritschl and Lehrs, finds himself compelled to indicate a lacuna after 

 that word. Two insertions into the text have accordingly been pro- 

 posed, one by Diintzer himself and the other by Ritschl, both being 

 relative clauses descriptive of the literary activity of Pisistratus. 

 That the reputed collection of poems by Pisistratus can find no sup- 

 port in this reference to Dieuchidas has already been pointed out by 



4 Horn. Textkritik, p. 13. 

 ^ Horn. Abliandlungen, p. 5. 

 8 Horn. Untersuchungen, p. 241. 



