516 The Iliad and the Odiissey. [Nov. 



there planted the first Ionian colony. Homer lived about the period of 

 this emigration. He is supposed even to have been one of the settlers. 

 ' — (Knight's Proleg. 66.) He, of course, spoke the language of Attica. 

 But this being before the Athenians had excluded the peculiarities of 

 the Doi-ic and ^olic, they are still to be found in his writings. The 

 Attic still differs but little from the Ionic ; it is contracted Ionic. The 

 frequency of the broad vowel sounds was inconsistent with the refine- 

 ment of the Athenian ear, and Avas gradually reduced. 



Homer's alphabet was by no means so copious as that of the sub- 

 sequent Greek. It probably had but sixteen letters. The vowels 

 H and n, and the double consonants, were later ; the former being repre- 

 sented by E and O, and the latter by their component sounds. 



The digamraa is still a subject of controversy. In writing and 

 speaking, the meeting of two words, one of which ended with a vowel 

 and the other began with one, was offensive to the Greek ear. Thus, 

 something like the vulgar pronunciation of London, which adds a con- 

 sonant to every word ending with a vowel, as ]\Iaria-r, Diana-r, was the 

 sign of elegance among the Greeks. With the Londoner, the addi- 

 tion is r, with the Athenian the intermediate was n. With the 

 other tribes it was the custom to prefix to words beginning with a 

 vowel, a r, with a line across it, thus, F. — (Dionys. Halic. Antiq. Rom. 

 1. 20.) The latter is supposed to have formed the sixth, or the original 

 Pelasgic alphabet. It was used by the Laconians, Boeotians, lonians, and 

 jEolians, but by the last to so late a period, that it was peculiarly called 

 the MoWc Digamma. It exists, however, in no MSS. But it is found in 

 inscriptions — the Delian marble, and coins of Velia. The pronuncia- 

 tion is still a matter of contest. Dawes declares it to be W. IMarsh 

 overthrows this supposition, and states it to be F. The probability is, 

 that it had the force of V. The F is actually found in inscriptions for 

 V. And several words which are transferred from the Greek to the Latin 

 have the V., as Foivotr, vinum ; oFjtr, ovis, &c. The total disappearance 

 of the digamma from the Homeric writings, is accounted for on the idea, 

 that at the period of i-evising the copies by Pisistratus, the digamma 

 had either fallen into disuse, or perhaps had become so substantially a 

 part of the language, that its position in the words was as perfectly 

 understood, as we understand the omission or use of an aspirate in the 

 common words of a modern language. Homer has been idly asserted 

 to have been the earliest poet of Greece. The expression of Hero- 

 dotus should be qualified into his being the best. Homer himself men- 

 tions Thamyris, and probably Linus. — (II. £. SJO.) But poetry is as old 

 fis the world. 



