The Iliads of Homer. Homer

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СКАЧАТЬ brass; to which this only wanted, that the souls of the persons they presented were not in them. Amongst these master-pieces and all-wit-exceeding workmanships stood Homer, as he was in his age, thoughtful and musing, his hands folded beneath his bosom, his beard untrimm'd and hanging down, the hair of his head in like sort thin on both sides before, his face with age and cares of the world, as these imagine, wrinkled and austere, his nose proportioned to his other parts, his eyes fixed or turned up to his eyebrows, like one blind, as it is reported he was." (Not born blind, saith Vell. Paterculus, which he that imagines, saith he, is blind of all senses.) "Upon his under-coat he was attired with a loose robe, and at the base beneath his feet a brazen chain hung." This was the statue of Homer, which in that conflagration perished. Another renowned statue of his, saith Lucian in his Encomion of Demosthenes, stood in the temple of Ptolemy, on the upper hand of his own statue. Cedrenus likewise remembereth a library in the palace of the king, at Constantinople, that contained a thousand a hundred and twenty books, amongst which there was the gut of a dragon of an hundred and twenty foot long, in which, in letters of gold, the Iliads and Odysseys of Homer were inscribed; which miracle, in Basiliscus the Emperor's time, was consumed with fire.

      For his respect amongst the most learned, Plato in Ione calleth him ἄριστον καὶ θειότατον τω̑ν ποιητω̑ν, Poeta rum omnium et præstantissimum et divinissimum; in Phædone, θει̑ον ποιητὴν, divinum Poetam; and in Theætetus, Socrates citing divers of the most wise and learned for confirmation of his there held opinion, as Protagoras, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Epicharmus, and Homer, who, saith Socrates, against such an army, being all led by such a captain as Homer, dares fight or resist, but he will be held ridiculous? This for Scaliger and all Homer's envious and ignorant detractors. Why therefore Plato in another place banisheth him with all other poets out of his Commonwealth, dealing with them like a Politician indeed, use men, and then cast them off, though Homer he thinks fit to send out crowned and anointed, I see not, since he maketh still such honourable mention of him, and with his verses, as with precious gems, everywhere enchaceth his writings. So Aristotle continually celebrateth him. Nay, even amongst the barbarous, not only Homer's name, but his poems have been recorded and reverenced. The Indians, saith Ælianus (Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 48) in their own tongue had Homer's Poems translated and sung. Nor those Indians alone, but the kings of Persia. And amongst the Indians, of all the Greek poets, Homer being ever first in estimation; whensoever they used any divine duties according to the custom of their households and hospitalities, they invited ever Apollo and Homer. Lucian in his Encomion of Demosth. affirmeth all Poets celebrated Homer’s birthday, and sacrificed to him the first fruits of their verses. So Thersagoras answereth Lucian, he used to do himself. Alex. Paphius, saith Eustathius, delivers Homer as born of Egyptian parents, Dmasagoras being his father, and Æthra his mother, his nurse being a certain prophetess and the daughter of Oris, Isis' priest, from whose breasts, oftentimes, honey flowed in the mouth of the infant. After which, in the night, he uttered nine several notes or voices of fowls, viz. of a swallow, a peacock, a dove, a crow, a partridge, a redshank, a stare, a blackbird, and a nightingale; and, being a little boy, was found playing in his bed with nine doves. Sibylla being at a feast of his parents was taken with sudden fury, and sung verses whose beginning was Δμασαγ όρα πολύνικε; polynice, signifying much victory, in which song also she called him μεγάκλεα, great in glory, and στεϕανίτην, signifying garland-seller, and commanded him to build a temple to the Pegridarij, that is, to the Muses. Herodotus affirms that Phæmius, teaching a public school at Smyrna, was his master; and Dionysius in his 56th Oration saith, Socrates was Homer's scholar. In short, what he was, his works show most truly; to which, if you please, go on and examine him.

      [1] Of Translation, and the natural difference of Dialects necessarily to be observed in it.

      [2] Ironicè.

      [3] The necessary nearness of Translation to the example.

      [4] The power of Nature above Art in Poesy.

      [5] Our English language above all others for Rhythmical Poesy.

      THE FIRST BOOK OF HOMER'S ILIADS

      THE ARGUMENT

      Apollo's priest to th' Argive fleet doth bring

       Gifts for his daughter, pris'ner to the king;

       For which her tender'd freedom he entreats;

       But, being dismiss'd with contumelious threats,

       At Phœbus' hands, by vengeful pray'r, he seeks

       To have a plague inflicted on the Greeks.

       Which had; Achilles doth a council cite,

       Embold'ning Calchas, in the king's despite;

       To tell the truth why they were punish'd so.

       From hence their fierce and deadly strife did grow.

       For wrong in which Æacides so raves,

       That goddess Thetis, from her throne of waves

       Ascending heav'n, of Jove assistance won,

       To plague the Greeks by absence of her son,

       And make the general himself repent

       To wrong so much his army's ornament.

       This found by Juno, she with Jove contends;

       Till Vulcan, with heav'n's cup, the quarrel ends.

      ANOTHER ARGUMENT

      Alpha the prayer of Chryses sings:

       The army's plague: the strife of kings.

      Achilles' baneful wrath resound, O Goddess, that impos'd

       Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls los'd.

       From breasts heroic; sent them far to that invisible cave

       That no light comforts; and their limbs to dogs and vultures gave;

       To all which Jove's will gave effect; from whom first strife begun

       Betwixt Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son.

       What god gave Eris their command, and op'd that fighting vein?

       Jove's and Latona's son: who fir'd against the king of men,

       For contumély shown his priest, infectious sickness sent

       To plague the army, and to death by troops the soldiers went.

       Occasion'd thus: Chryses, the priest, came to the fleet to buy,

       For presents of unvalu'd price, his daughter's liberty;

       The golden sceptre and the crown of Phœbus in his hands

       Proposing; and made suit to all, but most to the commands

       Of both th' Atrides, who most rul'd. "Great Atreus' sons," said he,

       "And all ye well-greav'd Greeks, the gods, whose habitations be

       In heav'nly houses, grace your pow'rs with Priam's razéd town,

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