.1829.] The Iliad and the- Odijssey. 515 



learned, ancient and modern. Simonides, and Theocritus, and Leo 

 Allotius, are in favour of Chios; but they can prove no more than 

 that he lived in the island. The distich relative to this dispute is well 

 known — 



" Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athene, 

 Orbis de patria certat, Homere, tua." 



A multitude of poems have been attributed to Homer by the Greeks. 

 But the art of verbal criticism was too negligently exercised on the sub- 

 ject. The people, eager for every novelty, and inclined to receive with 

 zealous delight every production that bore the name of their first poet, 

 suffered a multitude of spurious works to usurp the honour. The only 

 poems which establish in any considerable degi-ee a claim to authenti- 

 city, are the Batracho-muomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and IMice ; a 

 humorous fragment, the Margites, of which but four stanzas remain ; 

 and the Hymn to "\''enus. The Margites was universally supposed by the 

 ancients to have been the production of Homer. Zeno calls it his ear- 

 liest. Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle state it decidedly as his work. 

 The Hymn to Venus bears evidence of having been at least of the Ho- 

 meric age : yet the Battle of the Frogs and Mice has been attributed 

 to Pigres, of Halicarnassus, brother of the Queen Artemisia. The thirty- 

 three hymns, with the exception of the Hymn to Venus, are supposed 

 to be by Cynaethus — at all events, they are of high antiquity. 



Homer's travels were chiefly in the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean. His mention of Arabia and Lybia is cursory, and there 

 is no evidence of his having seen either. Spain and Italy appear 

 also to have been beyond his travels. But he speaks of Thebes 

 with the force of a spectator ; and he probably penetrated deep into 

 .(Ethiopia. He is closely familiar with the habits of Phoenicia and 

 Egypt; and his catalogue of the ships impHes a singularly close 

 knowledge of the whole of Greece, fi-om its eastern to its western boun- 

 dary. How much must it be regretted tliat he had not seen Jerusalem, the 

 most magnificent seat of religion in the world. With what additional 

 splendour must his genius then have shone, from the majesty of the city, 

 and the wisdom and worship of Sion. 



The language of Homer has been, by an absurdity possible only 

 to a pedant, conceived to consist of the four chief dialects of Greece. 

 We might as well conceive an English epic compounded of the 

 Yorkshire, Somersetshire, Cornish, and Scotch. The great poet of 

 fourse used the simple language of his country and his day. The 

 divisions subsequently recognized in the language of Greece Proper, 

 originated in the nature of the territory, which is cut into fragments 

 by mountains and rivers. The slight assistance that history gives, is 

 summed up in the knowledge, that ^olus and Dorus, the sons of Hel- 

 len, the son of Deucalion, settling in separate portions of Greece, much 

 of the accent and phraseology of the neighbouring native tribes 

 naturally passed into tlie language which they brought from Asia, and 

 tluis formed the peculiar dialect of their descendants. Achanis and Ion, 

 sons of the younger brother Xanthus, were born in Attica, where their 

 father had married the daughter of Erectheus the king. Acha-us finally 

 went nito Laconia, Ion remained in Attica, and his language was adopted 

 by the people, who are thence called by Homer lonians. Neleus, the son 

 of Codrus, went with a number of his countrymen into Asia IMmor, and 



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