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Ancient accounts of Homer: Difference between revisions





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[[Image:Auguste Leloir - Homère.jpg|thumb|300px|''Homer, 1841'', by Auguste Leloir (1841)]]
The '''ancientAncient accounts of Homer''' include manynumerous passages in which archaic and classical [[Greek poetry|Greek poets]] and prose authors that mention or allude to [[Homer]]. In addition, andthey include the ten biographies of Homer, often referred to as the ''[[Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)|Lives]]''.
 
==DateAncient dating of Homer==
EstablishingThere anare accurate date for Homer's life presents significant difficulties. No documentary record of his life isno known torecords havedirectly existeddating Homer other than his writings of the ''[[Odyssey]],'' as well asand the ''[[Iliad]].''. All accounts are based on tradition. OnlyThe oneperiodization explicithinted datein exists.written records comes from [[Herodotus]], who maintainsmaintained that [[Hesiod]] and Homer lived notno more than 400 years before his own time, consequentlytherefore not much beforearound 850 BC.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'' 2.53.</ref> Artemon of [[Clazomenae]], an [[annalist]], givesgave [[Arctinus of Miletus]], a pupil of Homer, a birth date of 744 BC. ReceivedIt opinionis generallyassumed dateshe him approximatelylived between 750-700 BC.{{clarify|reason=Previous two dates are 850 BC and 700a pupil born 744BC, so why assume 750-700 i.e. the latter end pls?|date=April 2023}}<ref>Homer; Rieu, EV (translator); Rieu, DCH (editor); Jones, Peter (editor): ''The Odyssey'' (Penguin, 2003), p. ''i''.</ref>
 
==The livesLives and the epigramsEpigrams==
[[Image:Lafond Sappho and Homer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|250px|left|[[Sappho]] sings for Homer, Charles Nicolas Rafael Lafond, 1824]]
 
There are 10 knownten extant lives''Lives'' of Homer. Eight of these are edited in [[Georg Westermann]]'s ''Vitarum Scriptores Graeci minores'',<ref>{{Cite book|first=Antonius|last=Westermann|title=ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΟΙ: Vitarum Scriptores Graeci Minores|location=Brunsvigae|publisher=Georgius Westermann|year=1845}} Downloadable Google Books.</ref> including a piecenarrative calledentitled the ''[[Contest of Homer and Hesiod]]''.<ref>Westermann, pages 33-45. Greek language text.</ref> The longest, ''[[Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)|Life of Homer]]'', is written in the [[Ionic dialect]], and claims to be the work of Herodotus, but isthis certainlyis spurious (see [[Pseudo-Herodotus]]).<ref>Westermann, pages 1-20. Greek language text. An English translation can be found at {{Cite book|first=Theodore Alois|last=Buckley|title=The Odyssey of Homer: with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice: Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes|publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|year=1891|pages=vi–xxxii}} Downloadable Google Books</ref> InIt allmost probability itlikely belongs to the 2nd century AD, whichalthough was fruitful beyond all others in literary forgeries. Thethe other livesLives are certainly notof more ancientrecent origin.
 
The lives''Lives'' preserve some curious short poems orand fragments of verse attributed to Homer, the so-called ''Epigrams'', which usedwere to beonce printed at the end of editions of Homer. They are numbered as they appear in Pseudo-Herodotus. These are easily recognized as popular rhymes, a form of folklore, to be met withand in most countries, treasured by the people as a kind of [[proverb]]s.
 
In the Homeric epigrams, the interestsubject turnsmatter sometimesoften oncovers the characteristics of particular localities, for example, [[Smyrna]] and [[Cyme (Aeolis)|Cyme]],<ref>Epigrams 1, 2, 4, Buckley pages 427-428.</ref> [[Erythrae]],<ref>Epigram 8, Buckley page 429.</ref> and [[MtMount Ida]];<ref>Epigram 10, Buckley page 429.</ref> others relate to certain trades or occupations: potters,<ref>Epigram 14, Buckley page 431.</ref> sailors, fishermen, goat herds, etc. Some may be fragments of longer poems, butsuggesting evidentlythat they are not the work of any one poet. The fact thatThat they were all ascribed to Homer merely meanssuggests that they belong to a period in the history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when Homer was a name whichthat drew to itself allmuch ancient and popular verse.
 
Again, comparing theThe epigrams with the legends and anecdotes told in the ''Lives of Homer,'' one can hardly doubt that they were the chief source from which thesethe ''Lives'' of Homer were derived. Thus Epigram 4 mentions a blind poet, a native of Aeolian [[Smyrna]], through which flows the water of the sacred [[River Meles|Meles]]. Here ismay doubtlessbe the source of the chief incident of the Herodotean ''Life,'' the birth of Homer, named Son of the Meles to conceal a scandalous affair between his mother and an older man who had been appointed her guardian. The epithet ''Aeolian'' implies high antiquity, inasmuch as according to Herodotus, Smyrna became Ionian aboutnot long before 688 BC. Naturally theThe Ionians had their own version of the story, awhich versionmay whichhave made Homer come out with the first Athenian colonists. {{Original research inline|date=December 2022}}
 
==TheOther minorreferences poemson Homer==
[[File:Homer_-02.jpg|thumb|Coin of [[Smyrna]], 2nd/1st century BC; Apollo at left, seated Homer at right.]]
The same line of argument may be extended to the [[Homeric Hymns|Hymns]], and even to the works of the so-called [[Cyclic poets]], the lost early epics, some of which formed the [[Epic Cycle]] and [[Theban Cycle]]. Thus:
 
#The hymn to the Delian [[Apollo]] ends with an address of the poet to his audience. When any stranger comes and asks whois the sweetest singeris, they are to answer with one voice, "theThe blind man that dwells in rocky [[Chios]]; his songs deserve the prize for all time to come." [[Thucydides]], who quotes this passage to show the ancient character of the Delian festival, seems to have no doubt ofabout the [[Homer|Homeric]] authorship of the hymn. HenceMany weaccounts maysay mostthat naturallyhe accountwas forfrom theSmyrna beliefand thatlived Homerin wasChios alater Chianin his life.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
#The ''[[Margites]]'', a humorous poem which kept its groundknownasthea reputed work of Homer down to the time of [[Aristotle]],{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} began with the words, "There came to Colophon an old man, a divine singer, servant of the Muses and Apollo." Hence doubtless the claim of [[Colophon (city)|Colophon]] to be the native city of Homer, a claim supported in the early times of Homeric learning by the Colophonian poet and grammarian [[Antimachus]]. The [[Suda]] reports Homer being a Smyrnaean that was taken as captive to the Colophonians in war, hence the name Ὅμηρος, which in Greek means "captive". Homer's name originating from him being a captive is widely reported.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
#The poem called the ''[[Cypria]]'' was said to have been given by Homer to his son-in-law [[Stasinus of Cyprus]] as dowry. The connection with [[Cyprus]] appears further in the predominance given in the poem to [[Aphrodite]].
#The ''[[Little Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Phocais]]'', according to the [[Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)|pseudo-Herodotean life]], were composed by Homer when he lived at [[Phocaea]] with a certain [[Thestorides of Phocaea|Thestorides]], who carried them off to Chios and there gained fame by reciting them as his own. The name Thestorides occurs in Epigram 5.
#A similar story was told about the poem called the ''[[Capture of Oechalia]]'', the subject of which was one of the exploits of [[Heracles]]. It passed under the name of [[Kreophylos of Samos|Creophylus of Samos]], a friend or (as some said) a son-in-law of Homer, and was sometimes said to have been given to Creophylus by Homer in return for hospitality.
#Finally, theThe ''[[Thebaid (Greek poem)|Thebaid]]'' was confidently counted as the work of Homer.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} As to the ''[[Epigoni (epic)|Epigoni]]'', which carried on the Theban story, there was less certainty.
 
These indications render it probable that the stories connecting Homer with different cities and islands grew up after his poems had become known and famous, especially in the new and flourishing colonies of Aeolis and Ionia. The contention for Homer, inmay short,have beganbegun at a time when his real history was lost, and he had become a sort of [[Greek mythology|mythical]] figure, an anonymous hero, or a [[personification]] of a great school of poetry.
 
==Arctinus of Miletus==
An interestingA confirmation of this view from the negative side is furnished by the chief city which ranked as chief among the Asiatic colonies of Greece, [[Miletus]]. NoThere legendhas claimsso forfar Miletusbeen evenno alegend visitthat fromclaims Homer, oraboutasharevisit infrom the[[Homer]] authorshipto of any Homeric poem[[Miletus]]. Yet, [[Arctinus of Miletus]] was said to have been a disciple of Homer, and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the Cyclic poets. His ''[[Aethiopis]]'' was composed as a sequel to the ''[[Iliad]]''; and the structure and general character of his poems show that he took the ''Iliad'' as his model. Yet, in his case, wethere findisnotraceindicationof the disputed authorship which is sothe commoncase with other Cyclic poems. How has this come about? Why have the works of Arctinus escaped the attraction which drew to the name of Homer such epics as the ''CypriaPossibly,'' the ''Little Iliad,'' the ''[[ThebaidArctinus (Greekof poem)Miletus|ThebaidArctinus]],'' the ''Epigoni,'' the ''[[Capture of Oechalia]]'' and the ''[[Phocais]]''? The most obvious account of the matter is that Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute. This may provide a glimpse of an early post-Homeric age in Ionia, when the immediate disciples and successors of Homer were distinct figures in a trustworthy tradition when they had not yet merged their individuality in the legendary Homer of the [[Epic Cycle]].▼
{{tone|section|date=February 2020}}
▲An interesting confirmation of this view from the negative side is furnished by the city which ranked as chief among the Asiatic colonies of Greece, [[Miletus]]. No legend claims for Miletus even a visit from Homer, or a share in the authorship of any Homeric poem. Yet [[Arctinus of Miletus]] was said to have been a disciple of Homer, and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the Cyclic poets. His ''[[Aethiopis]]'' was composed as a sequel to the ''Iliad''; and the structure and general character of his poems show that he took the ''Iliad'' as his model. Yet in his case we find no trace of the disputed authorship which is so common with other Cyclic poems. How has this come about? Why have the works of Arctinus escaped the attraction which drew to the name of Homer such epics as the ''Cypria,'' the ''Little Iliad,'' the ''[[Thebaid (Greek poem)|Thebaid]],'' the ''Epigoni,'' the ''[[Capture of Oechalia]]'' and the ''[[Phocais]]''? The most obvious account of the matter is that Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute. This may provide a glimpse of an early post-Homeric age in Ionia, when the immediate disciples and successors of Homer were distinct figures in a trustworthy tradition when they had not yet merged their individuality in the legendary Homer of the [[Epic Cycle]].
 
==Notes==▼
<references/>▼
 
==See also==
* [[Homer]]
* [[Homeridae]]
* [[Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)]]
 
▲==Notes==
{{EB1911|wstitle=Homer}}▼
▲<references/>
▲*{{EB1911|wstitle=Homer}}
 
{{Homer}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancient Accounts Of Homer}}

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