I. AGORÈ:
OR
THE POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE.
Political ideas of later GreecePage [1]
Their strong development in Heroic Greece[2]
Germ of the Law of Nations[4]
Grote’s account of the Heroic Polities[5]
Their peculiar features, Publicity and Persuasion[6]
Functions of the king in the Heroic Polities[8]
Nature of the Pelopid Empire[9]
Degrees in Kingship and in Lordship[10]
Four forms of Sovereignty[12]
First tokens of change in the Heroic Polities[12]
Shown by analysis of the Catalogue[14]
Extended signs in the Odyssey[17]
Altered sense of Βασιλεὺς or King[18]
New name of Queen[20]
Disorganization caused by the War[21]
Arrival of a new race at manhood[22]
Increased weight of the nobles[24]
Altered idea of the kingly office[25]
The first instance of a bad King[27]
Further change in the time of Hesiod[28]
Veneration long adhering to the name[31]
Five distinctive notes of Βασιλῆες in the Iliad[32]
The nine Greek Βασιλῆες of the Iliad[35]
The case of Meges[36]
Of Phœnix[37]
Of Patroclus and Eurypylus[38]
Conditions of Kingship in the Iliad[39]
The personal beauty of the Kings[40]
Custom of resignation in old age[40]
Force of the term αἴζηος[41]
Gymnastic superiority of the Kings[44]
Their pursuit of Music and Song[45]
Ulysses as artificer and husbandman[46]
The Kings as Gentlemen[47]
Achilles in particular[48]
Tenderness and tears of the Greek chiefs[49]
Right of hereditary succession[50]
Right of primogeniture[52]
The Homeric King (1) as Priest[55]
(2) as Judge[56]
(3) as General[57]
(4) as Proprietor: the τέμενος[58]
His revenues, from four sources in all[59]
Burdens upon them[61]
The political position of Agamemnon[62]
The governing motives of the War[64]
Position of Agamemnon in the army[66]
His personal character[67]
The relation of sovereign and subject a free one[67]
The personal attendants of the King[69]
The Aristocracy or chief proprietors[69]
The Trades and Professions[70]
The Slaves of the Homeric age[72]
The θῆτες or hired servants[74]
Supply of military service[75]
Whether there was a peasant-proprietary[77]
Political Economy of the Homeric age[78]
The precious metals not a measure of value[81]
Oxen in some degree a measure of value[82]
Relative scarcity of certain metals[84]
Mode of government of the Army[85]
Its military composition[88]
Chief descriptions of fighting men[91]
The Battle and the Ambuscade[92]
The Βουλὴ or Council of the Greeks[94]
It subsisted in peace and in war[97]
Opposition in the Βουλὴ[98]
Agamemnon’s proposals of Return[99]
The influence of Speech in the Heroic age[102]
It was a subject of regular training[103]
Varied descriptions of oratory in Homer[104]
Achilles the paramount Orator[105]
The orations of the poems[106]
The power of repartee[108]
The power of sarcasm[109]
The faculty of debate in Homer[111]
The discussion of the Ninth Iliad[111]
Function of the Assembly in the Heroic age[114]
The formal use of majorities unknown[116]
The great decisions of the War taken there[117]
It was not summoned exclusively by Agamemnon[118]
Opposition in the Agorè by the chiefs[119]
Opposition by Thersites[120]
Grote’s judgment on the case of Thersites[123]
How that case bears witness to the popular principle[126]
As does the Agorè on the Shield[126]
Mode of addressing the Assembly[129]
Its decisions in the Seventh and Ninth Iliads[129]
Division in the Drunken Assembly[130]
Appeal of Telemachus to the Ithacan Assembly[132]
Phæacian Assembly of the Eighth Odyssey[134]
Ithacan Assembly of the Twenty-fourth[136]
Councils or Assemblies of Olympus[137]
Judicial functions of the Assembly[139]
Assembly the central point of the Polity[140]
The common soul or Τὶς in Homer[141]
Imperfect organization of Heroic Polities[143]
II. ILIOS.
THE TROJANS COMPARED AND CONTRASTED WITH THE GREEKS.
Relationship of Troy and Greece twofold[145]
Greek names of deities found also in Troas[147]
Include nearly all the greater deities[150]
Worship of Vulcan in Troas[151]
Worship of Juno and Gaia in Troas[153]
Worship of Mercury in Troas[154]
Worship of Scamander[155]
Different view of Rivers in Troas[158]
Essential character of Trojan River-worship[160]
Trojan impersonations from Nature rare[162]
Poverty of Mythology among the Trojans[165]
Their jejune doctrine of a Future State[166]
Redundance of life in the Greek system[168]
Worship from hills[169]
The nations compared as to external development of religion.—
1. Temples[170]
2. As to endowments in land, or τεμένεα[172]
3. As to Groves’ ἄλσεα[173]
4. As to Statues of the Gods[174]
5. As to Seers or Diviners[177]
6. As to the Priesthood: Priesthood in Greece[179]
Priesthood in later Greece[183]
Priesthood among the Trojans[184]
Comparative observance of sacrifice[187]
The Trojans more given to religious observances[189]
Homer’s different modes of handling for Greece and Troy[190]
Moral superiority of his Greeks on the whole[192]
Homer’s account of the abduction of Helen[193]
The Greek estimate of Paris[197]
Its relation to prevailing views of Marriage[200]
And to Greek views of Homicide[202]
The Trojan estimate of Paris[205]
Public opinion less developed in Troy[206]
The Trojans more sensual and false[207]
Trojan ideas and usages of Marriage[210]
The family of Priam[211]
Stricter ideas among the Greeks[215]
Trojan Polity less highly organized[216]
Rule of Succession in Troy[217]
Succession to the throne of Priam[219]
Paris, most probably, was his eldest son[221]
Position of Priam and his dynasty in Troas[223]
Meaning of Τροίη and of Ἴλιος[224]
Evidence from the Trojan Catalogue[225]
Extent of his sovereignty and supremacy[228]
Polity of Ilios: the Βασιλεύς[232]
The Assembly[232]
The greater weight of Age in Troy[234]
The absence of a Βουλὴ in Troy[236]
The greater weight of oratory in Greece[239]
Trojans less gifted with self-command[242]
And with intelligence generally[244]
Difference in the pursuits of high-born youth[245]
Difference as to αἰδὼς[246]
Summary of differences[247]
III. THALASSA.
THE OUTER GEOGRAPHY OF THE ODYSSEY.
Why it deserves investigation[249]
Principal heads of the inquiry[251]
The two Spheres of Inner and Outer Geography[252]
Limits of the Inner Geography[255]
The intermediate or doubtful zone[257]
The Sphere of the Outer Geography[260]
The two Keys of the Outer Geography[261]
The traditional interpretations valueless[262]
Manifest dislocations of actual nature[263]
Postulates for examining the Outer Geography[264]
The Winds of Homer[265]
Special notices of Eurus and Notus[267]
Of Zephyr and Boreas[268]
Points of the Compass for the two last[270]
For the two first[272]
Scheme of the four Winds[273]
Signification of Eurus[273]
Homeric distances and rates of speed[275]
Particulars of evidence on speed[277]
The northward sea-route to the Euxine[280]
Evidence from Il. xiii. 1-6[281]
From Od. vii. 319-26[282]
From Od. v. 44-57[283]
From Od. xxiv. 11-13[285]
Amalgamated reports of the Ocean-mouth[287]
Open-sea passage to the Ocean-mouth[289]
Homeward passage by the Straits, why preferred[290]
Three maritime routes to the Ocean-mouth[291]
Its two possible originals in nature[292]
Straits of Yenikalè as Ocean-mouth[294]
Summary of facts from Phœnician reports[295]
Two sets of reports are blended into one[296]
The site of Ææa; North-western hypothesis[298]
North-eastern hypothesis[300]
Argument from the Πλαγκταὶ[302]
From the Island Thrinacie[302]
Local notes of Ææa[303]
Site of Ogygia[304]
Argument from the flight of Mercury[305]
From the floatage of Ulysses[306]
From his homeward passage[308]
Site of Scylla relatively to the Dardanelles[309]
Why Ææa cannot lie North-westward[311]
Construction of Od. xii. 3, 4[312]
Construction of Od. v. 276, 7[315]
Genuineness of the passage questionable[316]
Its real meaning[317]
Homer’s indications of geographical misgivings[318]
Stages of the tour of Ulysses to Ææa (i-vi.)[320]
Ææa and the Euxine (vi-viii.)[325]
Remaining stages (viii-xi.)[327]
Directions and distances from Ææa onwards[329]
Tours of Menelaus and Ulysses compared[331]
The earth of Homer probably oval[334]
Points of contact with Oceanus[337]
The Caspian and Persian Gulf belong to Oceanus[338]
Contraction and compression of the Homeric East[340]
Outline of Homer’s terrestrial system[342]
Map of Earth according to Homer[343]
EXCURSUS I.
Parentage and Extraction of Minos.
On the genuineness of Il. xiv. 317-27[344]
On the sense of the line Il. xiv. 321[346]
Collateral testimony to the extraction of Minos[347]
EXCURSUS II.
On the line Odyss. v. 277.
Points of the question stated[349]
Senses of δεξιὸς and ἀριστερὸς[350]
Illustrated from Il. xiii[352]
On the force of the Homeric ἐπὶ[354]
Force of ἐπὶ with ἀριστερὰ[356]
Illustrated from Il. ii. 353. Od. xxi. 141[358]
From Il. i. 597. vii. 238. xii. 239, 249[359]
From Il. xxiii. 335-7[360]
From Il. ii. 526[362]
Application to Od. v. 277[364]
Another sense prevailed in later Greek[365]
IV. AOIDOS.
SECT. I.
On the Plot of the Iliad.
The Theory of Grote on the structure of the poem[366]
Offer related in the Ninth Book and its rejection[369]
Restitution and gifts not the object of Achilles[371]
The offer was radically defective[373]
Apology needed in particular[375]
Consistency maintained in and after Il. ix[377]
Skilful adjustment of conflicting aims[379]
Glory given to Achilles[380]
Glory given to Greece[380]
Trojan inferiority mainly in the Chiefs[382]
But it pervades the poem[384]
In the Chiefs it is glaring[385]
Conflicting exigencies of the plan[387]
Greeks superior even without Achilles[388]
Harmony in relative prominence of the Chiefs[389]
Retributive justice in the two poems[392]
The sufferings of Achilles[394]
Double conquest over his will[395]
SECT. II.
The Sense of Beauty in Homer: human, animal, and inanimate.
His sense of Beauty alike pure and strong[397]
Degeneracy of the popular idea had begun[398]
Illustrated by the series of Dardanid traditions, (1) Ganymede[398]
(2) Tithonus, (3) Anchises[400]
(4) Paris and Venus[401]
Homer’s sense of Beauty in the human form[402]
His treatment of the Beauty of Paris[402]
Beauty among the Greek chieftains[404]
Ascribed also to the nation[405]
Beauty of Nireus[406]
Of Nastes and of Euphorbus[407]
Beauty placed among the prime gifts of man[408]
Homer’s sense of Beauty in animals[409]
Especially in horses[410]
As to their movements[411]
As to their form and colour[413]
Homer’s sense of Beauty in inanimate nature[416]
The instance of Ithaca[417]
Germ of feeling for the picturesque in Homer[419]
Close relation of Order and Beauty[420]
Causes adverse to the development of the germ[421]
Beauty of material objects absorbed in their Life[423]
SECT. III.
Homer’s perception and use of Number.
The traditional character of aptitudes[425]
Conceptions of Number not always definite in childhood[427]
Nor even in manhood[428]
No calculations in Homer[430]
Greek estimate of the discovery of Number[431]
Enumerative addition in Od. iv. 412, 451[432]
Highest numerals of the poems[432]
The three hundred and sixty fat hogs[434]
The Homeric ἑκατομβὴ[435]
The numerals expressive of value[436]
His silence as to the numbers of the armies[439]
Especially in the Greek Catalogue[440]
Case of the Trojan bivouac[442]
Case of the herds and flocks in Od. xiv.[443]
Hesiod’s age of the Nymphs[444]
Case of the cities of Crete[445]
No scheme of chronology in Homer[446]
Case of the three Decades of years[448]
Meaning of the γενεὴ of Homer[449]
Homer reckons time by generations[451]
Some difficulties of the Decades taken literally[452]
Uses of the proposed interpretation[455]
SECT. IV.
Homer’s Perceptions and Use of Colour.
Modern perceptions of colour usually definite[457]
Signs of immature perception in Homer[458]
His chief adjectives of colour[459]
His quasi-adjectives of colour[460]
Applications of ξανθὸς, ἐρυθρὸς, πορφύρεος[460]
Of κύανος and κυάνεος[462]
Of φοίνιξ[465]
Of πόλιος[466]
The quasi-adjectives of colour; χλωρὸς[467]
The αἰθαλόεις of Homer[468]
The ῥοδόεις and ῥοδοδάκτυλος[469]
The ἰόεις, ἰοειδὴς, ἰοδνεφὴς[470]
The οἴνοψ and μιλτοπάρηος[472]
Αἴθων and its cognates; also ἀργὸς, αἴολος[473]
Γλαυκὸς, γλαυκῶπις, γλαυκιόων[474]
Χάροπος, σιγαλόεις, μαρμάρεος, ἠεροειδὴς[475]
Conflict of the colours assigned to the same object[475]
Great predominance of white and black[476]
Remarkable omissions to specify colour[477]
In the case of the horse among others[479]
In the case of human beauty, and of Iris[482]
In the case of the heavens[483]
Causes of this peculiar treatment of colour[483]
License of poetry in the matter of colour[484]
Illustrated from Shakespeare[485]
Homer’s contracted means of training in colour[487]
His system one of light and dark[488]
Colour in the later Greek language[491]
Greek philosophy of colour[493]
Nature of our advantage over Homer[495]
Note on κύανος and χαλκός.
Meanings for κύανος heretofore suggested[496]
Probably a native blue carbonate of copper[497]
Χαλκὸς to be understood as hardened copper[499]
SECT. V.
Homer and some of his successors in Epic Poetry; particularly Virgil and Tasso.
Milton’s place among Epic poets[500]
Difficulty of comparing him with Homer[501]
The same as to Dante[501]
Æneid and Iliad; their resemblances and contrasts[502]
Contrast between form and spirit in the Æneid[503]
Catalogue in the Iliad and in the Æneid[504]
Character of Æneas in the Æneid[505]
Character of Æneas in the Iliad[507]
The fine character of Turnus[508]
The false position of Virgil before Augustus[509]
Difficulty of learning the poet from the poem[510]
His false position as to religion, liberty, and nationality[511]
Untruthfulness hence resulting[512]
Homer is misapprehended through Virgil[513]
In minor matters, e. g. Simois and Scamander[513]
Νεκυΐα of Homer and of Virgil[515]
Ethnological and genealogical dislocations[516]
Action of the Twelfth Æneid[520]
Unfaithful imitations of details[521]
Maltreatment of the Homeric characters[522]
And of the Homeric Mythology and Ethics[523]
Æneas and Dido in the Shades beneath[525]
The woman characters of Homer and Virgil[527]
Virgil’s insufficient care of minor proprieties[528]
And of the order of natural phenomena[529]
Use of exaggeration in Homer and in Virgil[530]
Contrast of principal aims respectively[531]
Character of the Bard; not found in Virgil[532]
Post-Homeric change in the idea of the Poet’s office[533]
Virgil’s poetical disadvantages[534]
Comparison of the Trojan War with the Crusades[535]
Rinaldo and Achilles[535]
Exaggerations of bulk in Homer and in Tasso[536]
Mr. Hallam’s judgment on the Jerusalem[537]
Tasso’s poetical disadvantages[538]
The man Achilles in relation to the Iliad[539]
Liberation of the Sepulchre in relation to the Gerusalemme[540]
Intrusion of incongruous elements[542]
Relative prominence of Tancredi and Rinaldo[543]
The Woman-characters of Tasso[544]
The Armida of Tasso[545]
Her resemblances and inferiority to Dido[546]
Her passion ill-sustained[546]
Obtrusiveness of the amatory element[548]
The Affront of Gernando[549]
Difference in modes of describing personages[551]
Battles and Similes of Tasso[552]
Inferiority of the Return in the Gerusalemme[553]
Tasso’s greatness except as compared with Homer[554]
SECT. VI.
Some principal Homeric Characters in Troy.
Hector: Helen: Paris.
Homer’s character-drawing power[555]
Corruption of the later tradition[556]
Why specially destructive in his case[557]
Mure’s treatment of the Homeric characters[558]
The character of Hector set off with generalities[558]
It became the basis for that of Orlando[559]
The martial heroism of Hector second-rate[559]
His boastfulness his only moral fault[561]
Hectoring and Rodomontading[562]
Hector’s sense of the guilt and shame of Paris[563]
His responsibilities beyond his strength[565]
Brightness of his character as to the affections[567]
His piety, gentleness, and equity[568]
Inequality of his character as a whole[569]
Apparent reason for it[569]
Opposite views of the character of Helen[571]
Homer’s intention with respect to it[572]
Two adverse mentions of her only[574]
Homer’s epithets and simile for Helen[575]
The case of Bathsheba[576]
As to the free agency of Helen[577]
Picture of Helen in Il. iii.[572]
In Il. vi., Il. xxiv., Od. iv.[581]
The marriage with Deiphobus[583]
General estimate of the Homeric Helen[584]
The character of Paris[585]
His apathy, levity, and selfishness[586]
His place in the War[587]
Relation of his intellect to his morality[588]
SECT. VII.
The declension of the great Homeric Characters in the later Tradition.
Physical conditions of the Greek Theatre[590]
Absolute dependence on the popular taste[592]
General obliteration of the finer distinctions[593]
Mutilation of the Helen of Homer[593]
The Helen of Euripides[595]
Of Isocrates and of Virgil[597]
Characters of Achilles and Ulysses in Homer[598]
Mutilation of the Ulysses of Homer[601]
Of the Achilles of Homer[602]
The Achilles of Statius[604]
Homeric characters in Seneca[605]
New relative position of Trojans and Greeks[606]
Trojanism in England[608]
Imitations of Homeric characters by Tasso[609]
The Troilus and Cressida[610]
Shirley’s Ajax and Ulysses[612]
Racine’s Iphigénie[613]
Racine’s Andromaque[614]
Conclusion[615]

I. AGORÈ.
THE POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE.

It is complained, and perhaps not without foundation, that the study of the ancient historians does not supply the youth of England with good political models: that, if we adjust our sympathies and antipathies according to the division of parties and classes offered to our view in Rome, Athens, or Sparta, they will not be cast in an English mould, but will come out in the cruder forms of oligarchic or democratic prejudice. Now I do not wait to inquire how far these defects may be supplied by the political philosophers, and in particular by the admirable treatise of Aristotle. And it certainly is true, that in general they present to us a state of political ideas and morals greatly deranged: the choice lies between evil on this side in one form, and on that side in another form: the characters, who can be recommended as examples, are commonly in a minority or in exile. Nor do I ask how far we ought to be content, having an admirable range, so to speak, of anatomical models in our hands, to lay aside the idea of attaching our sympathies to what we see. I would rather incite the objector to examine and judge whether we may not find an admirable school of polity, and see its fundamental ideas exhibited under the truest and largest forms, in a quarter where perhaps it would be the least expected, namely, in the writings of Homer.

As respects religion, arts, and manners, the Greeks of the heroic age may be compared with other societies in the infancy of man. But as respects political science in its essential rudiments, and as respects the application of those principles by way of art to the government of mankind, we may say with almost literal truth that they are the fathers of it; and Homer invites those who study him to come and view it in its cradle, where the infant carries every lineament in miniature, that we can reasonably desire to see developed in manhood.

Strong development of political ideas.

I cannot but deprecate the association established, perhaps unintentionally, by Grote, where, throwing Homer as he does into hotch-pot, so to speak, with the ‘legendary age,’ he expresses himself in his Preface[1], as follows. ‘It must be confessed that the sentimental attributes of the Greek mind—its religious and poetical vein—here appear in disproportionate relief, as compared with its more vigorous and masculine capacities—with those powers of acting, organizing, judging, and speculating, which will be revealed in the forthcoming volumes.’ If the sentimental attribute is to be contra-distinguished from the powers, I will not say of speculating, but of acting, organizing, and judging, then I know of nothing less sentimental in the after-history of Greece than the characters of Achilles and Ulysses, than the relations of the Greek chiefs to one another and to their people, than the strength and simplicity which laid in those early times the foundation-stones of the Greek national character and institutions, and made them in the social order the just counterparts of the material structures that are now ascribed to the Pelasgians; simple indeed in their elements, but so durable and massive in their combination, as to be the marvel of all time. The influences derived from these sources were of such vitality and depth, that they secured to an insignificant country a predominating power for centuries, made one little point of the West an effective bulwark against the East, and caused Greece to throw out, to the right and left, so many branches each greater than the trunk. Even when the sun of her glory had set, there was yet left behind an immortal spark of the ancient vitality, which, enduring through all vicissitudes, kindled into a blaze after two thousand years; and we of this day have seen a Greek nation, founded anew by its own energies, become a centre of desire and hope at least to Eastern Christendom. The English are not ashamed to own their political forefathers in the forests of the Northward European Continent; and the later statesmen with the lawgivers of Greece were in their day glad, and with reason glad, to trace the bold outline and solid rudiments of their own and their country’s greatness in the poems of Homer. Nothing in those poems offers itself, to me at least, as more remarkable, than the deep carving of the political characters; and what is still more, the intense political spirit which pervades them. I will venture one step farther, and say that, of all the countries of the civilized world, there is no one of which the inhabitants ought to find that spirit so intelligible and accessible as the English: because it is a spirit, that still largely lives and breathes in our own institutions, and, if I mistake not, even in the peculiarities of those institutions. There we find the great cardinal ideas, which lie at the very foundation of all enlightened government: and then we find, too, the men formed under the influence of such ideas; as one among ourselves, who has drunk into their spirit, tells us;

Sagacious, men of iron, watchful, firm,

Against surprise and sudden panic proof.

And again,