HOMER. 



poetry, while the lofty mind of the true poet could not 

 stoop to canvass for popularity. In the lite of Homer, 

 already mentioned, we find the prince of poet* encoun- 

 tering adversity in many shape*. At several place* it 

 tell* oa of hi* applying to the ruler* of the state for 

 e at the public expence, and promising to 

 their history by his compositions. If the 



of the life, whoever he waa, contrived those tra- 

 dition*, it is singular that he ha* told by anticipation a 

 story so nearly resembling the fortunes of Taoso and of 

 Dryden. Among the Fbocian* it i* al*o related, that 

 a perfidious brother poet, Thestorides, after having re- 

 ceived Homer in hi* bouse, drew from him the story 

 of the Iliad, and passed it off for hi* own. Homer, it 

 ia added, followed bin to Chios, where Thootoride* wa* 

 iscitiaj, hia work*, and obliged the plagiary to fly from 

 his prosmcti His kindest reception is said to have 

 boon at Chios, where, assuming gaiety from hi* cosy 

 circumstances, ho tompmid the mock heroic of the 

 Frog* and Mice. There, also, he married, and had 

 two daughter*, one of whom died a virgin, and the 

 ' ia supposed to have pfipstoalod hia race in the 



tides, who, for many aurmotiani, lived by ro- 

 th* Iliad and the Odyssey. On this account of 

 lioa, whether fabulou* or uue, 



are founded all the local tradition* of 



ted by his name. Among other*, that of the hollow in 



the rock, which boor* the name of bis school, but 



which ToornsMrto and Chandler* have so entirely 



discredited. 



It u not known whet epotrateo HOJMV tram hi* 

 lily, but he quitted ChioB, according to thi* aeemurt, 

 it AMI atdvanctMi to fvcoHkHMOCv bit WoMMMnifl** 

 Those were principally at seo ; and the wl* l %l 

 which the poet display* of all the rod* art that wo* 



derable deal of navigation. Many of bis voyages are 

 said to have boon disastrous ; a circumstance which we 



dor that the only ship* 



con well believe, when wo 



which hia i 



destitute of anchor*, and built without a nail of 



to secure thorn. An illnes* which at last sotted him. 



obliged him to stop at the island of Jo., and there ho 



died Strabo. .uaania*. Aristotle, and Aulu* 



GellMS. agree with this account of the place of his 



death al intefnont. A tomb in 



eeiibrsUil as the diptskury of his 



to which the states of Argo* sent a 



tifin ovrrv f i v r \r.ir to olfrr litwUim*,. 



Soxh oro a few of the Unto of bis life which an an. 

 ven in the work attributed to HirudoUi*. Among the 

 places that have laid claim to the hi Mm of his birth, 

 think* that ho wo* bora u Colophon; An- 

 Athrns; Pindar, at Smyrna; Ariatotle 

 > that bo wa* bom. a* well as that bo died, in 

 the island of Chios. Soido* oaoigm hin to Cyprus, 

 other, to Pvlos, Rhodes. Mycanejlhsc*, HI 111?. sad 

 Argo*. In fret, the guesse* at hi* birth-place load u* 

 pretty nearly over the whole map of Asm Minor, the 

 Pilnpnaim. and the Araiia il, t >. Even Egypt bo. 

 had it* advocate, for thi* distmetion ; so that the whole 

 ancient world may be said to how claimed him. The 

 port Martial, who* called upon for hia opinion on the 

 subject, could only reply in an .pigmnTthot 

 genius belonged to the world at large, and it 

 thatajisjilil, Tike the light. lriawj.1 to all that 

 j<7 it; but uirfbrtunatJy epigram* w,!l 



of history. The Emperor Adrian applied to the oracle 

 to solve the question, and was told that he wa certain- 

 ly born in Ithaca; but the oracle seems to have con- 

 verted few to its opinion. The opinion of antiquity 

 seem* generally to lean towards either Chios or Smyrna 

 havingbeenhis birth-place. Wood, who, after describing 

 Balbec ami Palmyra, travelled through Greece with the 

 works of Homer in his band, has adopted, as we hare 

 already mentioned, an ingenious mode of inferring from 

 the landscape* and natural simile* of the poet, the 

 placo in which Homer first received his impressions of 

 Uic scenery of nature. " 1 f we survey," says that travel- 

 ler, ' the map of the world with attention, 1 think we 

 may discover that hi* first impression* of the exter- 

 nal face of nature were made in a country east of 

 Greece, at least a* far a* we may be allowed to form a 

 judgment, from hi* describing some place* under a per- 

 spective, to which such a point of view i* necessary ; 

 as, for example, when he place* the Locrians beyond 

 Euboea. This piece of geography, though very intel- 

 ligible at Smyrna or Chios, would appear strange at 

 Athene or Argo*. Hi* description of the situation of 

 the Echinade* beyond sea opposite to Eli*, ha* some- 

 thing equivocal in it, which at cleared up, if we suppose 

 it addressed to the inhabitants of the Asiatic side of tin- 

 Archipelago. But if. with Mr Tope, we understand 

 the word* '" beyond SOB" to relate to Eli*, I think we 

 adopt on unnatural construction to come at a forced 

 Honing; for the old Greek historians tell us, that those 

 islands are so close upon the coast ol Mi-., that in their 

 of them had been joined to it by mean* of 

 which still continues to connect them 

 with the Miilawjnt, by the rubbish which that river de- 

 posits at its mouth. I think I ran discover another in- 

 stance of this kind in the 15th book of the Odyssey, 

 where Fnoasuis. the faithful servant of Ulysses, i* de- 



ster with a recital 

 open* hi* story 



description of the' island of Syro*, hi* native 

 1, and place* it beyond or above Ortygia. Now, it' 

 that Ithaca was the scone of thai conference 

 Ulyasoo and FOOUMII. it will appear that the 

 of Syro* is very inaccurately laid down ; for 

 in reality this i*lond. so far from being placed beyond 

 or farther from Ortygia. should have boon described a* 

 nearer to it. An ingenkm* friend think* that urnr^*. 

 may relate to the latitude, and that Honor meant to 

 Syro* as north of Ortygia ; but I cannot help 

 that the application of high to northern lati- 

 i* much M4er than Honor. 

 A* thorafore the same Btotiiption would have been 

 perfectly ogreeoblo to truth had it boon node in Ionia, 



early ianptoaaian* of the siTaatim of Syro* in that part 

 of the world, and had upon this occasion forgotten to 

 adopt hi* idea* to the spot to which the scene is shifted. 

 If my conjecture i* thus fir admitted. 1 beg leave 

 to proceed to a farther use of it, in attempting to 

 throw aonc bght on this obscure expression IIT/**I 

 MMM. It is important to that part of the poet's charac- 

 ter now under consideration, to have hi* sense of those 

 word* restored if possible; for they have been urged a* 

 an argument of hia gross ignorance of geography, by 

 those who think they relate to the latitude of Syro*. 

 and that thi* description place* that island under the 

 I bog leave to carry the reader for a 

 to the Asiatic aide of the Archipelago, in or- 

 der to examine whether a view of the landscape under 

 4 



Homo. 



scribed snlmnkw.no, his diajuJsed ns 

 of the adventure* of hi* youth. He 

 with a ilnninriiin of the bland of S 



