NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES' SHIELD. 305 



was sung by Homer at those prolonged festivals which 

 formed a characteristic peculiarity of Achaian manners 

 seems shown, not only by what we learn respecting 

 the later ' rhapsodists,' but by the internal evidence of 

 the poem itself.* 



Homer, reciting a long and elaborate poem of his 

 own composition, occasionally varying the order of 

 events, or adding new episodes, extemporized as the 

 song proceeded, would exhibit the peculiarity invariably 

 observed in the e improvisatore,' of using, more than 

 once, expressions, sentences, or passages which hap- 

 pened to be conveniently applicable. The art of ex- 

 temporizing depends on the capacity for composing 

 fresh matter while the tongue is engaged in the recital 

 of matter already composed. Any one who has 

 watched a clever improvisatore cannot fail to have 

 noticed that, though gesture is aptly wedded to words, 

 the thoughts are elsewhere. In the case, therefore, 

 of an improvisatore, or even of a rhapsodist reciting 

 from memory, the occasional recurrence of a well- 

 worn form of words serves as a relief to the strained 

 invention or memory. 



"We have reason then for supposing that if Homer 

 had, in his earlier days, composed a poem which was 

 applicable, with slight alterations, to the story of the 



* Besides Homer's reference, both in the ' Iliad ' and ' Odyssey,' to 

 poetic recitations at festivals, there is the well-known invocation in 

 Book II. To what purpose would the mere writer of poetry pray for 

 an increase of his physical powers ? Nothing could be more proper, 

 says Gladstone, if Homer were about to- write ; nothing less proper if 

 he were engaged on a written poem. 



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