72 HOMER—POSITION OF FISHERMEN 
(according to Evans) ousts the Assyrian or Phcenician in favour 
of a Cretan parentage. 
“It is clear that some vanguard of the Aryan Greek immi- 
grants came into contact with this Minoan culture at a time 
when it was still in its flourishing condition. The evidence of 
Homer is conclusive. Arms and armour described in the 
poems are those of the Minoan prime; the fabled Shield of 
Achilles, like that of Herakles described by Hesiod, with its 
elaborate scenes and vatiegated metal work, reflects the master- 
pieces of the Minoan craftsmen in the full vigour of their art. 
Even the lyre to which the minstrel sang was a Minoan 
invention.” ! 
The suggestion that both authorities are really in agreement 
and that the influence at work may be traced back ultimately 
to the early Assyrian, 1.e. Sumerian, culture, even if Evans 
holds “‘ that the first quickening impulse came to Crete from 
Egypt and not from the Oriental side,”’ seems, on present data, 
untenable. 
Till twenty years ago it was generally accepted that no 
character of Homer ever sailed for recreation, or fished for 
sport. They were far too near the primitive life to find any joy 
in such pursuits. Men scarcely ever hunted or fished for 
mere pleasure. These occupations were not pastimes; they 
were counted as hard labour. Hunting, fishing, and laying 
snares for birds in Homer and even in the classical periods 
had but one aim, food.? 
The Poet expressly mentions the hardships (aAyea, Od., IX. 
121) of hunters in traversing forest and mountains. Nowhere 
does he give any indication of sport in hunting or fishing, 
except perhaps in the case of the wild boar and in the delight 
of Artemis ‘“‘ taking her pastime in the chase of boars and swift 
deer,” * where the word, zaiZovow, would seem surely to 
indicate pleasure in sport. 
But the recent discovery at Tiryns of a fresco where two 
1 Presidential Address to the British Association, 1916. 
* Eustathius (on J/., V. 487) after stating that by the Homeric heroes fishing 
and fowling were very rarely employed, continues Oix joav bdpo8%pa: map’ aitois 
ei uh Epa ev Ame. 
* Od., VI. 102 ff. W.W. Merry ad loc. well compares Soph. El., 566 ff. 
