Now it may be remarked, first, of Homer, that many acute critics consider the whole story of the ‘Iliad’ to be, in reality, merely an adaptation of an eastern narrative to Greek scenes and names. It is pointed out, that, whereas the Catalogue in Book II. reckons upwards of 100,000 men, only 10,000 fought at Marathon; and, whereas there are counted no less than 1,200 ships in the Catalogue, there were but 271 at Artemisium, and at Salamis but 378. However this may be, we have the distinct evidence of Herodotus that the Greek mythology was derived originally from foreign sources. He says, ‘All the names of the gods in Greece were brought from Egypt,’ an opinion in which Diodorus and other eminent authorities concur. But it is the opinion of acute modern critics that we must go beyond Egyptian—to Assyrian, or Indian, perhaps even to Hebrew sources—for the origin of Greek mythology. Layard has ascribed to Niebuhr the following significant remarks: ‘There is a want in Grecian art which neither I, nor any man now alive, can supply. There is not enough in Egypt to account for the peculiar art and the peculiar mythology which we find in Greece. That the Egyptians did not originate it I am convinced, though neither I, nor any man now alive, can say who were the originators. But the time will come when, on the borders of the Tigris and Euphrates, those who come after me will live to see the origin of Grecian art and Grecian mythology.’

(From The Student, June 1868.)

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