Εχσοιδα μ ανεθεκε Διϝος ϙοροιν μεγαλοιο
χαλκεον hοι νικασε Κεφαλανας μεγαθυμος
(cf. Hom. Hymn. XXXIII 9; Il. II 631).
[351] The same remark is true of heroic names occurring in Doric inscriptions, e.g. Ϝεκαβα, Κεβριονας, Δαιφοβος on a vase (Cauer, op. cit. 78) found near Caere. So also with the heroic names used by Pindar and other non-Ionic poets—not to mention the Latin forms. Yet these poets use the Ionic forms of foreign names, such as Μῆδοι (Cypr. Ma-to-i), which had come to them presumably through Ionic channels. On the other hand we find in inscriptions on Chalcidian vases more purely Ionic forms, e.g. Αινεες (ib. 545), than those preserved in our text. These seem to count against any place except Athens as the home of the final form of the 'epic dialect.'
[352] From the fact that Pindar and other non-Ionic authors use what is apparently an Ionic form—indeed, strictly speaking, a western Ionic form—in the poet's name (Ὅμηρος), while they give the names of the heroes themselves in non-Ionic form, we are justified in concluding that they had acquired the former from a different (presumably literary) source. Certainly the earliest references to the poet come from Ionic authors. Again, Thucydides (III 104) is clearly recording a generally accepted opinion when he quotes the Hymn to the Delian Apollo under Homer's name; and I can see no reason for doubting the identity of Semonides' Χῖος ἀνήρ (cf. p. [209]) with the author of this poem (v. 172: τυφλὸς ἀνὴρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἔνι παιπαλοέσσῃ). The Hymn dates probably from the period when Chios was in process of becoming Ionicised. At such a time the repertoire of a Chian minstrel would have an exceptionally favourable opportunity of gaining currency (naturally under his own name) in Ionic circles—in the Cyclades probably as well as in Ionia itself.
[353] Cf. Reichel, op. cit. p. 59: "Das Epos schildert, wie in allen Dingen, auch hier die ältere Prachtzeit," and pp. 63, 102 f., where the first appearance of the round shield (of which the knowledge is granted, p. 55 ff.) is referred to the middle of the eighth century, and that of breast-plates to about the beginning of the seventh century.
[354] Prof. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff holds that the editor was a person of inferior ability and that the poem as a whole is not a success; but this view is scarcely in accordance with the generally received opinion.
[355] It is worth noting that these objections apply even to what are commonly regarded as among the latest parts of the poems. Thus in Od. XXIV 305, where Odysseus describes himself as υἱὸς Ἀφείδαντος Πολυπημονίδαο ἄνακτος, the point is entirely spoilt by the Ionic form. That the true form should be Aeolic (-παμμον-) is rendered more than probable by such names as Ἁλιθέρσης, Πολυθερσεΐδη—of which at least the second likewise belongs to the 'later' portions of the poem.