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was infinite controversy ilMut tin- works ami the 

 authorship with little positive result, except the 

 establishment ni i in- luct ilia! they were not written 

 Inn handed down hy memory an o|cration aided 

 and MUM liinli-.nl by tin- hi^h |M>sition of ItunlH as 

 -in-h in ( Jreeee ( more |>ro|H>rly . \clniiis, un<l after- 

 wards Italia* ). by the formation of a sciiaiate school 

 t<> hand down these particular songs, and by the great 

 institution of the Games at a variety of points in 

 the country. At these rent res there were public 

 recitations even In-fore the IKHMUH were composed, 

 and the uneei tainties of individual memory were 

 limited and corn-cud by competition carried on in 

 |nvM>nee of a people eminently endowed with the 

 literary faculty, and lv the vast national import 

 ance of handing down faithfully a record which was 

 the chief authority touching the religion, history, 

 political divisions, and manners of the country. 

 Many diversities of text arose, hut there was thus 

 in continual operation a corrective as well as a 

 disintegrating process. 



The Germans, who had long been occupied in 

 framing careful monographs which contracted the 

 contents of the Homeric text on many particulars, 

 such as the Ship, the House, and so forth, have at 

 length supplied, in the work of Dr E. Buchholz, a 

 full and methodical account of the contents of the 

 text. This work would h'll in English not less than 

 six octavo volumes. 



The Greeks called the poet poietes, the ' maker,' 

 and never was there such a maker as Homer. The 

 work, not exclusively but yet pre-eminently his, 

 was the making of a language, a religion, and a 

 nation. The last named of these was his dominant 

 idea, and to it all his methods may be referred. Of 

 the first he may have been little conscious while he 

 wrought in his office as a bard, which was to give 

 delight. 



Careful observation of the text exhibits three 

 powerful factors which contribute to the composi- 

 tion of the nation. First, the Pelasgic name is 

 associated with the mass of the people, cultivators 

 of the soil in the Greek peninsula and elsewhere, 

 though not as their uniform designation, for in 

 Crete (for example) they appear in conjunction 

 with Achaians and Dorians, representatives of a 

 higher stock, and with Eteocretans, who were prob- 

 ably anterior occupants. This Pelasgian name com- 

 mands the sympathy of the poet iind his laudatory 

 epithets ; but is nowhere used for the higher class or 

 for the entire nation. The other factors take the 

 command. The Achaians are properly the ruling 

 el ass, and justify their station by their capacity. 

 lint there is a third factor also of great power. We : 

 know from the Egyptian monuments that Greece j 

 had been within the sway of that primitive empire, 

 and that the Phranicians were its maritime arm, as 

 they were also the universal and apparently exclu- 

 sive navigators of the Mediterranean. Whatever 

 came oversea to the Achaian land came in connec- 

 tion with the Phoenician name, which was used l>y 

 Homer in a manner analogous to the use of the 

 word Frank in the Levant during modern times. 

 But as Egyptian and Assyrian knowledge is gradu- 

 ally opened up to us we find by degrees that Phoe- 

 nicia conveyed to Greece Egyptian and Assyrian 

 elements together with her own. 



The rich materials of the Greek civilisation can 

 almost all ! traced to this medium of conveyance 

 from the East and South. Great families which 

 Ktand in this association were founded in Greece 

 and left their mark upon the country. It is prob- 

 able that they may have exercised in the first 

 instance a power delegated from Kgypt, which they 

 retained after her influence had passed away. 

 Building, metal -working, navigation, ornamental 

 arts, natural knowledge, all carry the Phoenician 

 impress. This is the third of the great factors 



which were combined and evolved in the wonderful 



nationality of Greece, a IM>WCI a* vividly felt at 

 thin hour as it \\.-t- three thousand yean* ago. But 



if I'llii'llicia com eyed the seed, the soil WIU Arhaian, 



and on account of it- iiclui!- that |x-nin*ulii *ur- 

 paMed, in its developments of human nature and 

 action, the southern ami eastern growth-. An 

 Achaian civilisation wax the result, full of frenhneM 

 and power; in which usage had a great Hacredneft*, 

 religion was a moral spring of no mean force, nlavi-r y 

 though it existed was not associated with cruelty, 

 the worst extremes of sin had no place in the lite 

 of the people. lil>erty had an informal but very real 

 place in public institutions, and manners reached 

 to much relinement : while on the other hand fierce 

 passion was not abated by conventional restraint-, 

 slaughter and bondage were the usual result- .f 

 war, the idea of property was but very partially de- 

 fined ; and, though there weie strong indeterminate 

 sentiments of right, there is no word in Homer 

 signifying law. I'pon the whole, though a very 

 imperfect, it was a wonderful and noble nursery of 

 manhood. 



It seems clear that this first civilisation of the 

 peninsula was sadly devastated by the rude hands 

 of the Dorian conquest. Institutions like those of 

 Lycurgus could not have been grafted uj>on the 

 Homeric manners ; and centuries elated before 

 there emerged from the political ruin a state of 

 things favourable to refinement and to progress in 

 the Greece of history ; which, though in so many 

 respects of an unequalled splendour, yet had a less 

 firm hold than the Achaian time upon some of the 

 highest social and moral ideas, tor example, the 

 position of women had greatly declined, liljerty was 

 perhaps less largely conceived, and the tie Itetween 

 religion and morality was more evidently sundered. 



After this sketch of the national existence which 

 Homer described, and to the consolidation of which 

 he powerfully ministered, let us revert to the state 

 in which he found and left the elements of a 

 national religion. A close observation of the poems 

 pretty clearly shows us that the three races which 

 combined to form the nation had each of them their 

 distinct religious traditions. It is also plain enough 

 that with this diversity there had been antagonism. 

 As sources illustrative of these propositions, which 

 lie at the base of all true comprehension of the 

 religion which may be called Olympian from its 

 central seat I will point to the numerous signs of a 

 system of Nature-worship as prevailing among the 

 Pelasgian masses ; to the alliance in the War be- 

 tween the Nature-powers and the Trojnns as against 

 the loftier Hellenic mythology ; to the legend in 

 llnnl, i. 396-412, of the" great war in heaven, which 

 symbolically describes the collision on earth between 

 the ideas which were locally older and those begin- 

 ning to surmount them ; and, finally, to the tradi- 

 tions extraneous to the poems of coni]>etiiions 

 between different deities for the local allegiance of 

 the people at different spots, such as Corinth, to 

 which I ho'iiician influence had brought the Posei- 

 don-worsuip before Homer's time, and Athens, 

 which somewhat later became peculiarly the seat 

 of mixed races. I have spoken of Nature- worship 

 as the Pelasgian contribution to the composite 

 olympian religion. In the Phoenician share we 

 find, as might be expected, both Assyrian and 

 Egyptian elements. The lest indication we pos- 

 sess of the Hellenic function is that given by the 

 remarkable prayer of Achilles to Zeus in I/tint, 

 xvi. 233-248. This prayer on the sending forth 

 of Patroclos is the hinge of the whole action of the 

 poem, and is preceded by a long introduction 

 (220-232) such as we nowhere else find. The 

 tone is monotheistic: no partnership of gods 

 appears in it ; and the immediate servants of Zeus 

 are described as interpreters, not as priests. From 



