The sixth book, which relates the visit of Hector to Troy and his parting with Andromache, possesses in itself great interest, even when considered apart from the rest of the poem. But it cannot be separated from it; for 1. It has a most intimate connection with what precedes. It is the fact that Minerva is aiding the Greeks which brings Hector to Troy in order to enduce the matrons to appease the goddess. 2. It has a most intimate connection with what follows. In fact it gives an intirely new turn to the action. Minerva is appeased, and through her instrumentality a single combat between Hector and Ajax is determined on. 3. Ajax alludes to the wrath of Achilles,* and shows that the poet still keeps his eye on that circumstance. In the eighth book, Jupiter forbids the gods to interfere with the combat, takes it into his own hands, and this for the express purpose of avenging the wrongs of Achilles. The ninth book presents the ineffectual effort to reconcile Achilles. The tenth, relating the night-adventures of Ulysses and Diomed, has been generally supposed to be an interpolation. No doubt it possesses in itself an interest and a completeness amply sufficient. But 1. The unfortunate occurrences of the preceding day rendered the restlessness attributed to the heroes, and the plan devised by them for ascertaining the projects of the enemy, in the highest degree natural and probable. 2. The time is most exactly matched to the preceding book. 3. The conversation among the heroes appertains to the events of the preceding book, and their position is described with reference to it. 4. In the battle of the following day Diomed takes no part until he has had time to rest from the fatigue of his nocturnal adventure. 5. In this book also, the poet refers to the angry Achilles. The eleventh book relates the more fearful events which followed, and the night-scene furnishes suitable relief from the too rapid succession of horrors. It is now, in consequence of the dreadful ravages of Hector, that Patroclus is sent out by Achilles to reconnoitre, and is urged by Nestor to call his master to battle. The twelfth book continues the ravages of Hector, nor can any one doubt the connection of this with the poet's design, or the present direction of matters toward an issue. At this critical moment we might expect Achilles to appear for the salvation of the ships. But the poet has other designs in view and relieves us by a happy and un * B. VII. 226. Eusth. II. 785. + B. VIII. 370-409. § B. X. 103. expected turn. Jupiter as if disgusted turns his eyes to more congenial subjects, and the eager divinities avail themselves of his inattention to aid the Greeks. This is the subject of the thirteenth book. The anger of Achilles is here again referred to.* In book fourteenth, the Trojans retreat. Neptune orders the Greeks to pursue them, and Juno puts Jove to sleep. All this takes place that Achilles may not too wildly exult. Hector falls. We anticipate the immediate destruction of the city, now that its main bulwark is disabled. But the poet by another turn in the fifteenth book, puts off the issue. Jupiter awakes, and sends Apollo to reanimate Hector. The Trojans are revived. Here also we have two allusions to the wrath of Achilles. In the sixteenth book Patroclus is sent out in the armor of Achilles, and repels the Trojans, but is slain and spoiled. In the following book occurs the contest for the body of Patroclus, and news of his death is sent to Achilles. Wolf has suggested that the Iliad should terminate with the death of Patroclus. This event certainly furnishes a sequel to a portion of the story, which might lead those who doubted its unity to ascribe what follows to another hand. The subject proposed would necessarily require no more, now that the Greeks are so thoroughly humbled. But that the poem cannot here terminate will appear from the following considerations 1. A Greek would not thus terminate the story while everything was so disadvantageous to his countrymen, but would rather have found an end in the ninth book, where, if his simple object were a close adherence to the theme proposed, an ample satisfaction would have been given. But the hero of the poem has not yet been so prominent as the subject would seem to demand. He has appeared in person but twice. By concluding the poem here we shut out those portions where he is a prominent actor. 2. Should such a poem in seventeen books be found among the rubbish of antiquity, with the whole of the first book, half of the second, and half of the ninth defaced and illegible, the reader would at once conclude that it was an epic poem designed to relate the victories of Hector. Should he be informed that Hector was but the second hero, he would necessarily anticipate a large portion to follow which would bring into notice some rival of Hector's. 3. Such a * B. XIII. 345. t B. XIV. 139-365. § Wolf's Prolegom. in Hom. p. 118. The sequel would poem would also be wanting in proportion. prove utterly inadequate to the preparations, and would fail to satisfy the mind with regard to the object kept constantly before it, the appeasement of Achilles. 4. It is exceedingly improbable that a poet addressing himself to the sympathies of the Greeks would thus engulph the interests of the nation in those of his hero, especially as in the sequel there is no change, and Achilles does not become again the joy and the pride of Greece. 5. If the poem closed with the seventeenth book, the hero only appears ridiculous. The whole machinery is set in motion to accomplish his purposes of vengeance, but in the end he loses his armor and his friend. Rather than a heroic poem, this would be a sermon on the folly of revenge. 6. In such a poem we should be left in doubt whether Achilles were reconciled and satisfied, although it would be evident that he had more cause than ever for anger in the loss of his friend. So the poet views it, and in the remainder, the revenge of the hero assumes a new form, acting in concert with the Greeks and against their enemies. 7. The splendid offers refused by Achilles in book ninth lead us to anticipate a still more brilliant satisfaction and appeasement of his anger. If the poet leaves him now, he treats him like an ugly child, who because dissatisfied with what is offered gains in the end nothing at all. 8. Achilles is the hero of the poem, and the grand object of the poet is to exalt and ennoble him. It is unnatural then to leave him just as the circumstances are such as to draw him out, and exhibit his character to advantage. 9. The nature of the Epic requires an active hero. A Hercules or Alexander at rest would form good subjects for painting or statuary, but not for history or epic poetry. We naturally expect Achilles to become active before the close of the poem. 10. The poet himself gives ex press predictions of such a change in his hero.* The poet has not skillfully brought his hero into circumstances which will call him out to advantage. The circumstance that his armor is in the possession of Hector, gives his mind a definite object of pursuit. In regaining that, he avenges his friend by slaying Hector; and in slaying Hector, he assumes a prominence proper to his rank as hero of the poem. If it be said that the twenty-third and twenty-fourth books are superfluous, we must consider that the funeral rites of Patroclus seem to be required by the spirit of the age. And moreover * B 11. 694. B. VIII. 474. B. X. 105. The the preceding incidents of the poem, the reservation of the victims of slaughter to deck the funeral pile, and the sympathy which the poet takes pains to excite for the loss of Patroclus, require this full and splendid description of his burial. twenty-fourth book is important as it seems to consummate the glory of the hero by placing Priam at his feet, and developing so fully the finer feelings of heroism. The first and second parts of the poem have thus a similar termination. His vengeance on the Greeks ends in a magnanimous refusal of their presents. His vengeance on the Trojans in a restoration of the body of his foe, and a liberal allowance of time for the funeral rites. Aristotle then has not erred when he praised the perfect unity of the Iliad. The very proposition of the poet (sein grundsatz) is a head of Medusa which turns to stone every audacious hand that would rob him of a single book. It is incredible that a poem at once so unique and so complete, so admirable in its construction, so perfect in its minutest details should have been produced without any aid from writing. It would be a miracle. To this art then is Homer indebted for his superiority over all predecessors. III. ABSTRACT OF DR. THIERSCH'S TREATISE ON THE AGE AND NA TIVE COUNTRY OF HOMER. Proposition. The Homeric Poems appeared in European Greece immediately after the Trojan war. I. THE AGE. The precise period of the Trojan war cannot be ascertained. Computations vary from 1284 to 1184 B. C. Ancient writers differ much about the age of Homer. According to the Arundelian Marbles he flourished 277 years after the Trojan war, or 900 B. C. The calculation given in the life of Homer attributed to Herodotus, is not only inconsistent with that given in Herodotus' history, but with itself. puts Homer 168 years after the Trojan war, and 622 years be It fore Xerxes crossed the Hellespont, which event occured 480 B. C. This of course drives us from the previous calculation respecting the time of the Trojan war 1184 to 1270 B. C. The circumstances of the narrative, and the character of the poetry it contains, prove that it is one of the Cyclic poets and not the true Homer whose life is here given. Plutarch, in his life mentions three opinions; one making Homer coeval with the Trojan war, another 100 years later, and another 150. Gellius makes him contemporary with Solon and Hesiod, Cornelius Nepos 160 years before Rome-900 B. C. Cicero is quite selfcontradictory in his various conjectures on the subject. dame Dacier puts Homer 300 years after the Trojan war. Payne and Knight make him coeval with the Ionian migration. Mitford puts Homer four generations after the Trojan war. Dodwell considers him a son of Telemachus. Wood makes different calculations. Wolf dates his time at 1000 B. C. Schubart places him in the court of the Aeneades. Ma The opinion that Homer lived after the Ionian migration has little foundation. 1. Its prevalence among the Ancients is easily accounted for, as the poems, being found among the islands of Asia, would not naturally be referred to a European origin. 2. Various incidents mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey, particularly the appearance of bards at feasts in the latter, and the analogies of other lands, indicate the age of heroes and bards to be the same. 3. The omission, except in a single instance, of all allusion to the death of Ulysses, and the manner in which the history of Agamemnon's family is related, no mention being made of the fate of Orestes, intimate that the poet was nearly contemporary with his heroes. 4. If it be said that the poet transfers himself for the time being to the age of which he writes, and makes his heroes speak consistently, it may be replied that this is a stroke of art too great for the simplicity of the poet of a childlike age. 5. The song of the vóotos, relating the return of the heroes from Troy, is spoken of* as if it related to recent incidents. 6. From the Iliad and Odyssey it appears that there were bards contemporaneous with the heroes. Now it is unreasonable to suppose that the succession of bards was interrupted for two hundred years. It is impossible that the events of the heroic age could have been preserved without song. And the circumstances of the period immediately after the return from Troy, with the ease and luxury in which the |