7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

1/10

The Homeridae

Author(s): T. W. AllenSource: The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2/3 (Jul., 1907), pp. 135-143Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/635832

Accessed: 29/05/2010 11:11

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press and The Classical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve

and extend access to The Classical Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/stable/635832?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/635832?origin=JSTOR-pdf

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

2/10

THE HOMERIDAE.THE Homeridae bear the name of Homer, and should point a path by whichwe may climb to his personality. In antiquity they were known to be a gYvov,constituted family-corporation, though the accounts of the functions they fulfilledare scanty. Modern criticism, with its usual fluctuation, began by taking them attheir apparent value; then adopted from a Roman grammarian a rationalisticexplanation of them ; invented other similar rationalistic explanations; and finally

my lamented colleague Mr. Binning Monro robbed them of all significance bytreating the word as an adjective, an equivalent of 'Ospticol. Men who arecalled Sons of Homer should not be lightly dismissed, and it may be worth whileto go over the familiar evidence once more in the hope that this obvious avenue toHomer may not turn out a blind alley.Their firstappearance in literature is in Pindar, (I) Nem. ii. init. 'As the Sons ofHomer, singers of stitched lays, begin for the most part from a preface (rrpootplov)to Zeus, so my client has won his first victory in the grove of Nemean Zeus.'Pindar equates the Rhapsodes and the Sons of Homer, and represents them asreciting Homer's verses with a prelude often, but not invariably, to Zeus.The next mentions are in the fourth century philosophers Plato and Isocrates.(2) Plato Rep. 599 E. ' Does any state allow that Homer was its lawgiver? No,'says Glaucon, 'even the Sons of Homer do not say that.' The Sons of Homerthen had some title to speak on his behalf, some authority to do their best fortheir parent, had perhaps the real tradition. (3) Ion 53o c. The rhapsode,Socrates says, should also interpret his poet. Yes, replies Ion, and this is myaccomplishment: oZ,/tat d.XX.ar' vepcrrwov XEyetV7rep&tO/71pov, sv oGreMrrp6-Sopov 6 Aaptraxr)vnv owre E o'i'p.qpoTo~&0cCo'Oire 1Lat;EaEy oi;re cXhocoise'3 rev -Td7jroreyevo/dVO. So well do I adorn Homer (aTe oZtFat 7rrb'Orlpt8ev agtov etvat YJpv2OorepEcdvtpTEpavwO92vat. The Sons of Homer thenhave a position which authorises them to reward persons who honour their parents.They are not private individuals like Metrodorus, Stesimbrotus, Glaucon, orIon himself. (3) Phaedrus 252 B. The Sons of Homer from their reconditeverses recite two upon Love: X~yovottB ot,.al rtveF (Oyr7pt&v d reiv drro~&0vrrw& 860o r ely r7b vEpcra, cv rb &repov ij5ptErrtiecorvv7ru al oz oc8pa rt Ipperpov"

7rv 8' rot O,roip pvpo1 ra caXoo't .nrorrvv,&GBCva7ot ~~ rE'po~a, &L~-r~ep6 otrov avY~Ci'Y7V.SD. B. Monro, Homer's Odyssey, xiii.-xxiv. (1901O) p. 398 sq.

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

3/10

136 T. W. ALLENThe Sons of Homer then had a store of verses not accessible to all the world:

drOdOeva ust have this meaning. It nearly amounts to drrdppP7ra.xJhe linesthemselves have a hymnal ring; the earthly and the divine name of Love, and theetymology of the latter suggest the non-Homeric hymns.2 Plato, it is true, else-where (Sympos. 177 B) says there was no hymn to *Epeo; but as we know fromPausanias (ix. 27. 2) that both Pamphos and Orpheus wrote one, we must supposePlato ignored them or forgot them, when he wrote The Symposium. Again theSons of Homer are not the vulgar; they have arcana.8

(4) Isocrates Helena ? 64. Helen 'veSeliaro ,cal r~X~rypy 770 ror77 7vaitr &dva.tv . . (? 65) Xeyovuot e' rtvev xa TgivrOp&otCvUt hOrrTZoaa T77vvrb~v 'Otipqpy rpoodae 'roteyv 'rept ~vi aoparevaatCyOv dE'r Tpolav. As in (2)the Sons of Homer were entitled to speak for their parent and his qualities, herethey vouch for the apparition of Helen to his successor, as late too as 6II B.C.From these fifth and fourth century mentions of the Homeridae, it is plain that theyare not private persons, people interested in Homer, students like Theagenes,Stesimbrotus or Metrodorus-not 'OprtpucoL.This term in Aristotle Met. 1093 a26 (5&otot8& ca OrTOtTroi apxialoLe O/VplroiC,f thucptp o/0toTrldravOpOiia,eLcykare& rapopcao)means commentators, paraphrasers,philologers. In Strabo the sameword means the scientific critic, Aristarchus, or Strabo himself (339 o/0/ veYCrepot

... oi ' 'Ot.ppi'repoet roe twreotvboXovOoi7vre ; 3 131X7rov' 'HpdxXero9xaldIptKCTepov, ' a sounder interpretation'); Seleucus, the grammarian, who derivedHomer from 65pov a hostage, dre7X-0rtlO(poplcd6vSuidas): a synonym is ol Trept"Opvpov etvo4, exegetes (Plato Cratylus 407 A). The patronymic on the contraryappears always to imply a literal or figurative descendant, and in the latter senseone instinct with his spiritual father's nature, an artist not a commentator. Evenin its widest extension (see Philostratus infra) it means an epic poet.The Homeridae then in the earlier centuries were distinguished from laymenand critics such as Heraclitus and Theagenes by reciting Homer with preludes toZeus and other gods, by preserving the correct tradition about Homer and hissuccessors, by possessing a body of recondite verse, and by issuing rewards tobenefactors of their parent. The last three of these qualities are the distinguishingmarks of those corporations, united by blood or adoptive relation,which the Greekscalled ry't.' The function of 'Tiygr1al,expounders of sacred history and ritual,which (2) and (4) suggest, was performed at Athens by Eumolpidae, at Miletusby Sciridae; the' hymn to Eros' in the Phaedrus reminds us of the hymns 'writtenfor' the Lycomidae, the Apolline gens of Phlya (Paus. ix. 27. 2); rewards, whether

Athenaeus 669B repeats it from this place:Himerius or. iii. 2 (in Bergk, P.L. G. iii. p. 287) hasJx iwdlT&wo9r. r 'Avwaxpoureos,n affectation for'the less-known places of Anacreon': Plutarch,v. Crassi 16 raGIras ,ao' 'PgOatos 1&s &phs &woOrousrKal raAL&a,os c ,7XWoIw 8Ge aabY, J. Caes. 35 d5cTSP &AwooGlvXptSa/ a ,a/oB,,et,: more in theLexx.

* Orpheus frr. 39, 4o, 44, 14o, 164, i65 Abel.

* The 'metrical irregularity' b rI-dpa,- seemssufficient without an alteration of the text; the'outrage,' I presume, is the deriving of Cupid, aliberty which his dam Aphrodite had endured beforehim.SMy information on this subject comes from

Dittenberger's article, HUarws, xx. pp. I sq.; andToepffer's AttiscAs Gen~alogie, 1889.

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

4/10

THE HOMERIDAE 137crowns, statues, or decrees, were the commonest sign of a guild's activity (Toepffer,p. 21; e.g. Eumolpidae, Dittenberger Syll. 605, 651; C.I.A. ii. 605 ; 'E. "PX"1883,No. 82; Euthalidae in Rhodes, Ditt. 648; the Kjpvuxe, ib. 450; the ZaXcaidveo,Toepffer, p. 288).We may now continue our list of ancient mentions of the Homeridae. (5)Strabo 645. A&wCZrooq & 8 OOp&povio&,Cpap'rptov/dya rob 'O pla ccaXovued-VouqA r o&dxelvov rvy'ovu vrpoxeep4,ttevoe, v xal Illvsapoq pIvprra& (he thenquotes Nemr. ii. init. as above). Strabo interpreted the word as a patronymic, asmeaning the rhapsodes with whom Pindar equated it, and as descendants of Homer.Homer was worshipped with ceremony, in the neighbouring and rival state of Smyrna(Strabo 646 foi&84iab [$toBXoOicv1 xal 'b'O&tpetov, roa 'e~rpdrywvor,iXove~a weo'Oppov iac S6avov,Ia' 8;i cal vdo tcrT&6Xakxoihv,rap' ab7rov Op~ipesovXdEera& ),and at Argos (Aeiian V.H. ix. 15). That no ydevoof Homer is asserted to haveexisted at Smyrna or Argos (or anywhere else) tends to confirmthe statement aboutChios. Strabo'saccount is corroboratedby the logographers and critics quoted by (6)Harpocration s.v. .. .'O~plpairtyevoq dvXi" 6rep 'AcovolXao dEv' [fr. 31] 'EXd-vxoC de'v9 'ArXavtdut [fr. 55] &d~r~700 &'1roo? 7c"v cvoya'deal. E~Xevoc 89 dv9' iSoevApap7ivewvfrlo' Kpirrca vopiTovrae.vraie ieporodlac 'Opip1ac croydvovedva&0oi lrO&rtoi"

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

5/10

138 T. W. ALLENgens, originally of blood-descendants, is continued by adoption of individualswithout blood-relationship. Many parallels may be found for such a process,which was often necessary, and in fact inevitable, to secure the continuance of thegentile sacra. The scholion continues that the function of the guild (apart fromthe worship of its ancestor) was the right, acquired by apprenticeship (xCSca~oXfj)to recite the Homeric poems. This statement coincides with Pindar's words.The scholiast mentions as a conspicuous Homerid Cynaethus of Chios, the reputedauthor of the hymn to Apollo, who added lines to Homer, and first recitedHomer at Syracuse. The last statement is given on the authority of the Sicilianantiquarian Hippostratus. The date (ol. 69= B.C.504) which Hippostratus is madeto assign to Cynaethus has long been recognised to be wrong ; not only from theinternal evidence of the Hymn, but because it is incredible that the Syracusansshould never have heard the iwvet'cb7rod)7-Ciuntil the days of Epicharmus andPindar. An echo of the same tradition is found with Athenaeus (8) who ascribesthe Apollo-hymn to "Ofpoo , rcizvOpop$cSivrtq (22 B).Learned antiquity therefore regarded the Homeridae as a gens, first hereditaryand then adoptive, which possessed the exclusive right of reciting their parent'sworks. We may ask two questions: (I) Are there analogies to such a gens ? (2) Isthe statement true of the period during which we have information aboutrhapsodes ?

(I) The Attic y~wz do not seem to yield a parallel to this type of gens.Toepffer divides them into patronymic gentes, and gentes (like the Kipuvxe')named after their functions. The patronymic gentes, when they have specificduties, are entrusted with the worship of a public God; as the Eumolpidae, theLycomidae. Among the gentes devoted to their ancestor solely I do not find onepursuing a profession derived from its ancestor and awarding the distinctions onbehalf of its ancestor and preserving its traditions in the way which Plato hints at.A professional patronymic gens is the Eivet$as, a y7voc ,IovQoucvYith the right offurnishing JpXrlyPaland ctOapuriatat Athenian festivals (Toepffer, p. 187), but wehave no information about Euneus.

So far as the peculiarity of the Homeridae consisted in the exercise of a pro-fession which was not the worship of a particular God, parallels are to hand in thenumerous extra-Attic guilds, so common a feature of Greek life, of which I maymention the MeXamroSiSat,with their branch the KXutrla, the 'Ia/i/ae-prophets;the Nejpl8at, to which Hippocrates belonged-doctors1; the TaXBvldc6a--heralds; Opealuat at Delphi and KvvupiSa&n Cyprus-priests; and what may be anearer case, the IIagnclSes, daughters of the hymn-writer Pamphos, who it isassumed were singing-women at Athens." There seems therefore no reason todisbelieve the statement that the Homeric Family started with the prescriptiveright to recite their father's verses.

'Steph. Byz. in v. K~s; av b) '1Ifoicpdfrs IfIca~ovjivarnNer6ps5l~v.Ner9pbs hp ly'vnv'o 6 &ao,~td-~alos i~jv 'Aua~hwltdcv, d ical 7) fluea 4saPr8Plaw.'o; Fivopllluog, rvawsatx~ov) JwvIcpdriqsKIc AIv.IOS

,cut o&adrpcos. 'ITuoKpd~ovs 'Hpwcureilirs,aQ'nloftpdT?15 bidlqa4vva~aos.2 Hesych. focglaWr? yvva~rs A6ll~a ' &wrb 4.r*pou Tb 9i'Oi ~jXOMQ(1.

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

6/10

THE HOMERIDAE $39(2) Did they preserve this right through antiquity, or in other words werethe historical rhapsodes members of the Chian gens, or taught or licensed by them ?

Plainly not. To say nothing of the rhapsodes of earlier centuries (e.g. at Smyrnaand Sicyon) about whom we might conjecture with even probability in eithersense, Ion, in Plato's dialogue quoted above, a practising rhapsode,clearly separateshimself from the Homeridae: he suggests the gens might crown him. Such aremark might perhaps, t la rigueur, come from a yevvw~ri, but obviously it is mostunnatural; and the epigraphic evidence is decisive. For the Panathenaea mostunfortunately it is almost nil (C.I.A. ii. Pt. I, 965-970), but the agonistic inscriptionsrelating to Boeotia and the neighbouring parts of Greece are very abundant from thefourth to the first century B.C. They are summarised to the date of his book byReisch (de musicis Graecorum certaminibus 1885), but there have been largeaccretions. The rhapsode and the rrinvrrotyrpj were constant performers at theMovoesa at Thespiae, the Xaptrelina at Orchomenus,the 'ABGepeca at Oropus,theZorjpta at Delphi, the Zapa7rlea at Tanagra (see C.I.G. vii.passim), not to say atThebes and Eretria (for the last v. 'Ep. 'ApX. 1902, p. 99, a fourth cent. inscr). Inmany of these inscrr. the name and country of the rhapsode is given: it is difficultto believe that O6&0oro0 IvOlvovo9 'AOflvaio (1760), ,aaFv~se Kpi7roa KX&Iowvoof Thebes (3195 and 2418), Mbrrwp ArroXXo&jpov'HpacXeajrne3196), Novu~jvoqNovatov 'AOrlvaio (3197), 'APre'eoev '1oo86rov 'AOBrvaio 416), Eipoev 'Apttrro-9oXhov0nBaio9 (419), 0eoobdvr ZSPCipov lato (420), loXttur?ro9 'AXe4dvYpov'Apicd, KXetr6pto 'AprrelSov 'ApAd69Delphi, B.c. 272; Collitz, 2563) 'AyaSZvosKpero8~4ov IrcvrO o (ib. 2565), .. . v 0paovlov vcorr&d (ib. 2564), and manymore, in the Macedonian and Roman period, stood in any relation at all to thedistant island of Chios and the Homeric gens. Nor will anyone maintain thatDionysius' rhapsodes whom he sent to Olympia to recite his own poems (Diod. xiv.109) were under Chian rules.

They must therefore at some period have lost their copyright, their actingrights, in Homer, and have retained their sacral and esoteric functions. At what timetheir original rights passed from their hands there is no evidence; but probabilitywould put it at an early date. In Pindar (i) I am ready to agree with Mr. Monrothat the word 'Oplpl8a&has already acquired its later use of epic artists in general;as 'Axx~prrtedal is a synonym for doctors, and dAtaaXl68a for sculptors. Laterindeed 'Sons of Homer' meant merely writers of hexameters, as when Philostratus(9) recounting the exploits of Scopelianus at Smyrna says oro r7 eyaXo~Pvila dJrl,e&Cov(Xaoev 6o ial P67arriav EvvOeivat, rapasoOva r7eOopi8aae & oppt ede rbvXbyov. (Vit. Soph. p. 221=c. v.) The data seem reconcileable with the usuallegend that the poems after coming into existence as epics in Ionia, eventuallypassed to Europe (in the hands of Lycurgus): the Chian family must have founda compensation in the spreading name of their father,now a national possession, forthe loss of their monopoly.A historical analogy to the Homeridae as they were when their prescriptionwas taken from them is fortunately to hand. The Master of the other Epic

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

7/10

x4o T. W. ALLENschool, the Boeotian, was commemorated by an association, which if it did not bearhis patronymic, expressed the relation by a circumlocution. The o-vv64ratMovoriv'HtoSeliov possessed land at Thespiae (I.G. Sept. 1785 opov ra9 yat Ta [te]pa9rl 4[vv]OVra[ow] T[ay] pooa[,v] etoSecov). Another inscription (4240),imperfect, contains (a) a dedication to these Muses, av aewoe | xasyevi[e]o ToreXo9 [xet]vo xca[t ro,] voMa o-w4to, (b) an oracle delivered by one Aristopho[on ?],ozi c[tSa9] EXLAC, [o,,va,,,]v,viz. reteoi.evo,[ir] , poro,9 'lroOvja,9 ,ro80-oo Ievvoea Xapa 7' e[a]r[at] iap'roto-eipvovoa. (c) Hesiod himself speaks: rvosoovs&ov ova9 elXecovare Oetov( caX[X]aroce vpvo ....... When Pausanias cameto Thespiae, he was shown the sacred sights (ix. 29. 5) and was informed (31 .4) ofthe tradition (irapetXieyppva&5yp)that the Works and Days are Hesiod's onlygenuine works, and even of these the first verses (I-Io) were a ,rpoolpov; andwas shown the official copy at Aganippe, on lead. The early poets rhapsodisedtheir own works or those of their Master, and wrote hymns or irpoolC4asuch asOD. I-io (on their own showing), and the hymn to Apollo which won the prize atDelos (fr. 265, quoted by Philochorus, perhaps from the Ka'rdoyot). In later timesdoubtless they lost their privilege.These o-vvO6ratare a fair parallel to the Homeridae, and substantiate thestatement that the latter was a sacral corporation.What organisation the Homeridae and Hesiodeans originally had, whetherthey taught, gave licences, and so forth, is matter for the imagination.2 Theywere credited in antiquity with reciting the poems and composing irpoolp&aorhymns; and we have seen that there is nothing to contradict this. They willhave possessed, as Mr. Lang in his Homer and kis Age makes probable,' books'of their authors, which they handed on with the right to recite.It is to be noticed on the other hand that the members of the Homeric guildare not conceived of as composing independent epics of their own. It seemed, atone period of criticism, a symmetrical way of regarding the question to supposethat the Sons of Homer were the School of Homer, and like the Hippocratean,Platonic, and Aristotelian disciples, completed the Master's work. The Cyclehowever is

Op~cpooand not his sons. Not one of the authors of the Cycle is

called 'Opip(8~c. In the Boeotian inscriptions paywtoo and eirawv Trot7nrTare distinct categories, not convertible terms. Still no universal negative can beproved: if no cyclic poet is known to have declaimed Homer, rhapsodes didcompose. One of the latter, Magnes of Smyrna, a peripatetic rhapsode (it istrue we are not told in so many words he was an Homeric rhapsode), in the reignof Gyges, wrote the exploits of the Lycians against the Amazons.3 The key to

1 The Thespian festival, the MoveOr, is mentionedI. G. SePt. i735, 1760, 1763 (s. iii.-i. B.c.).I The Ionic singing.guild, of which the regulationswere published by v.' Wilamowitz-Millendorf, wasunfortunately melic. (Satzungtn einer milesisckenSingergilde. Sitzungsbericte d.plreuss. Akad. 19go4,x Nic. Damasc.). 6 (..G. ii. p. 395). taNic. Damasc. fr. 6s (F.II.G. iii. p. 395). ks'

Wdrl &vr)lp(wpvcsio5, rccsbs i~v3w'e irs ,cmlaA~~es,odgoese Iwuuucji ~rrr~os... wepqjtlCO T&SidheS: I*4wsIeuCwtCseOs)JwwO~t,~o.rOGIOu/ w.Arolhcsiv Icm?&Ahos%lpwi, bpr~siC~AAh%'s JgAfyelo imlgi3rbjcIXe wmsr~ucd. vuurc~re i~tvwdocss Ji4(sijvev,bvecs y/veio 6 MdyYrls, wd~hwm&Ihs MwYz'4rwvY, mlouviif rlcdnmf. l 3& rotkrv asrjyeveis, &X~d~seJ'ortl'riiGWX6lvV,pd~a~svwo~t~o4~se'otIt I, io~s twe~w

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

8/10

THE HOMERIDAE 14Ithe Homericquestion lies in the early history of Ionia,did we only possess it.This anecdote, irst used I believeby Bergk,shows us the rhapsodeof the age ofArctinus,Lesches,and Cynaethus(750-700) in all his glory; perambulating heGreek cities, reviving the heroic age at the court of a half-Greekmonarch,andenjoying the samebonnesfortuness the traditional troubadour r the prophetinIsocr.xix. 5. Was Aristeas of Proconnesusa rhapsode,and did he celebratetheArimaspians oundthe townsof Hellas? Thucydides oo recognised he work ofthe rhapsodeCynaethus s Homeric. Moreover ccording o tradition Leschesap.Plut. Cony. Sept. Sap. 153F; Hesiodfr. 265) 'Homer' and 'Hesiod' met atChalcisand Delos, and contendedat the latterplacewith 'new hymns' to Apollo.In the absence of eithercontext it is difficult o appreciatethe meaningof thesestatements.

The Hesiodicpassage(which may have come from the KartdXoyot,nd doesnot deserveRzach'sstigmaof t~i~lrpjpitov) is in the firstperson; Lesches(thepoet,there is no need to invent anotherindividualof the samename) may havealludedto Homerin the third(as Hesiodis referred o Theog. 22),but it would bean uniqueprocedureo faras we knowin the Homericschool. If the firstpersonwereused,then Lesches is speakingof himself,and the contest took placein hisperiod. I may furtherobserve that if membersof the Homericand Hesiodeanschools couldcompose and recite hymnsto Apolloat Delos in the 8th century,thereis no need to refuse he whole of the Homerichymnto Cynaethusof Chios.The harmonisation f Delos and Delphitook place some centuriesearlier han wegenerally suppose.If thenthe sons of Homer were a Chianguild, worshipping heir ancestor,performing is poems,possessingprivateverses of their own, the true accountoftheirparentand the authorityto recompense hose who honouredhim; may weinferfromthe Sons to the Father? In antiquity Seleucus,who lived at RomeunderTiberius,cut the groundfromthis argumentby interpreting P#poc o mean'hostage.' He committed he fallacyof the illicit commonnoun; the Greeksoftendid so, usuallyfor a gibe-and there were other etymologiesfor dppilgetv. Themodernsalso have indulged in the fallacy,but with a difference. The ancientswouldhaveall namessignificant, nd therefore ook Alvelatrromatvoc,'OS8retefromd8691or SiarerBatl;the modernswill not allow a significantword (in theheroicage) to be a name: el "EXserovaox7~qan defianceof the laws of speechis an allegory. Seleucuslivedin, or on the vergeof, the periodwhen the ancientbraingave way,and mythologyandallegoryreigned. Too much poring over thegreatdeadproduces he same results,and the ancients had their Donnellys andGallops. Well for Shakespeare hat he was born in an age of parishregisters;hadhe beena Greekhowmuchwould be left of 'Eyeor6Xoc? HoweverSeleucus'jfvrv 6 MdyniuAL4Ovpmrariti* WIrpXrooe p&'ACidCova;,&lv~&et4&vd1wSvA,, ~a1i~urtrpr.d~lpd kefI ~br.... dlq'ott b~a jdrawi6 I~S~... Ew.'oh,~v & tu 243.rru wcvi~yv~prr

drestra'e -tyax~t'm'ers.1SilenusChiusap. East. 1871, o.' The Elysianfields from IA6t (Apio ap. Eust.*s63.1

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

9/10

142 T. W. ALLENmadness, and the other ancient idea according to which op.poov= '.J.rv,1

are mildbefore he inventiveness f the moderns,who have turned he sommo poeta into acarpenterand joiner. It is safe to say that if 6prpovmeant anything,that isexistedas a commonnounin the heroicage,it meanta companionr 468 tvtypore&' pot ?rap'&aipwv cdyyeXov

7/31/2019 HomeridaeAllen

10/10

THE HOMERIDAE L43Homeris a consequence r abstraction f the Homeridae. It is I imaginea signofthe acquiescentnatureof philologers hat such a paradoxhas been acceptedandfinds its placein the latest books on Homer. What is the evidencefor the toofrequentphraseabout yEdi n general,'the mythical eponymous'? The Eumol-pidae,I suppose: they were a kind of Sons of Harmony,and could not do withoutan harmonious ncestor. But the Eumolpidaedid notsing; they werehierophants.Musicanddancingwereprovidedby the Ei'rie8a; Euneusdoes not mean danceror musician. If Eumolpus s anallegory,are Dysaules,Metaneira,ndTriptolemusallegories too ?-Or perhapsthe Daedalidae,Talthybiadae,and Asclepiadaearetransparent xamplesof the mythopoeic pirit? The AsclepiadaeI waive,as I donot knowenoughaboutGreekreligion o say who Asclepiuswas. 'ArX'rtoi) ildhoweverhas a definite sound in Homer,and to PindarAsclepius was as real asAchilles or Chiron; moreovert was the Greek opinionthat manyminordeitiesweredeifiedmen(Diodorusvi. I. 2 gives Heracles,Dionysus, Aristaeus,Paus. viii.2. 4 Aristaeus, Britomartis,Heracles, Amphiaraus,Pollux, and Castor). Theindividuals Daedalus and Talthybiusare the most natural means of accountingfortheirrhvy. I shallbe told that SalSahawas an old word for 4:ava (Paus. ix.3. 2), and remindedof 8atSdXXewv.Well, is Dahl derived from dahlia,and Voltafromvolt? Do Boulle and Chippendale llustratethe mythopoeictendencies ofthe eighteenthcentury?Let us realisewhatthis hypothesis nvolves. A set of minstrelscalled them-selves or foundthemselves alled 'Ompts8a&, patronymicwithouta meaning. Atsome point they awoke to their situation: 'tenez' they said,'on est des filsd'Hombre; il nous faut un phre.' Is this likely? Why should we shut oureyes to the universaltwo-foldphenomenon-a single individualhighly gifted,startinga movement, line of humanactivity,and his successorsdescribingtheirrelation o himas filial? Considerhe largestmediaeval nstancesof the principle,the religiousorders. The figlidi san Benedettoknowwheretheir father was bornand died, they have his rule; Dominic is no abstraction rom the Dominicani,nor Francis an invertedresultant of his children. The Greek heroic age is nolongera desertof Brockenspectresand naturalforces: it is peopled by positiveindividuals. The furtherwe go backin history he greaterappears o be ther61e fthe individual. Miss Harrisonhas madeout Orpheusas definite a missionaryasSt. Paul,andas ploughing he same waters. Theconstruction f two agelessEpicsout of sagaor metricalchronicle mphaticallydemandsanindividual, man abovehis peers. Whatis there to preventthis genius from leaving his name with hiswritings irstto theexcellentCreophylus,x ho makesPlatoand Callimachusaugh,and then to a societywhichappeasedhis ghostsP T. W. ALLEN.1 Plato, ReP. 6ooD 6 KpeduAes 6 'oO Og~povIagpse, .'rO6ada.eOs,r,~'d*epos I,. Callimachusap. Strab.638. Ridiculousor not, he existed, andMr. Lang(Homerand A~iAsge, . 300) has a Frenchparallel o the story hat the Cypriawas left either ohim or to Stasinus.

' Lycurgus'friends deserve a mention: Plut.Lyur. 31, he died childless, ol 8' *'rapowal,olIweroIk8aoXlvprvli

c vo6ov dtl woAobs XpdevousoaoagCsearagrirwarv,ial rub 4paudvmt