Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3
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CAMBRIDGE LIBRARY COLLECTION Books of enduring scholarly value Classics From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, Latin and Greek were compulsory subjects in almost all European universities, and most early modern scholars published their research and conducted international correspondence in Latin. Latin had continued in use in Western Europe long after the fall of the Roman empire as the lingua franca of the educated classes and of law, diplomacy, religion and university teaching. The flight of Greek scholars to the West after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave impetus to the study of ancient Greek literature and the Greek New Testament. Eventually, just as nineteenth-century reforms of university curricula were beginning to erode this ascendancy, developments in textual criticism and linguistic analysis, and new ways of studying ancient societies, especially archaeology, led to renewed enthusiasm for the Classics. This collection offers works of criticism, interpretation and synthesis by the outstanding scholars of the nineteenth century. Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age Four-time prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) was also a prolific author and enthusiastic scholar of the classics. Gladstone had spent almost two decades in politics prior to his writing the three-volume Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. This work and the preceding ‘On the place of Homer in classical education and in historical inquiry’ (1857), reflect Gladstone’s interest in the Iliad and the Odyssey, which he read with increasing frequency from the 1830s onward and which he viewed as particularly relevant to modern society. As he relates, he has two objects in the Studies: ‘to promote and extend’ the study of Homer’s ‘immortal poems’ and ‘to vindicate for them ... their just degree both of absolute and, more especially, of relative critical value’. Volume 3 examines Greek polities of this period before returning to the poems themselves, their plots, characters and the beauty of their language. Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing of out-of-print titles from its own backlist, producing digital reprints of books that are still sought after by scholars and students but could not be reprinted economically using traditional technology. The Cambridge Library Collection extends this activity to a wider range of books which are still of importance to researchers and professionals, either for the source material they contain, or as landmarks in the history of their academic discipline. Drawing from the world-renowned collections in the Cambridge University Library, and guided by the advice of experts in each subject area, Cambridge University Press is using state-of-the-art scanning machines in its own Printing House to capture the content of each book selected for inclusion. The files are processed to give a consistently clear, crisp image, and the books finished to the high quality standard for which the Press is recognised around the world. The latest print-on-demand technology ensures that the books will remain available indefinitely, and that orders for single or multiple copies can quickly be supplied. The Cambridge Library Collection will bring back to life books of enduring scholarly value (including out-of-copyright works originally issued by other publishers) across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and in science and technology. Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age Volume 3: I. Agorè; II. Ilios; III. Thalassa; IV. Aoidos William Ewart Gladstone CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108012065 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010 This edition first published 1858 This digitally printed version 2010 ISBN 978-1-108-01206-5 Paperback This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated. Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title. STUDIES ON HOMER AND THE HOMERIC AGE. BY THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, D.C.L. M. P. FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. Plenius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore.— HORACE. OXFORD: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. M.DCCC.LVI1I. [1'hc right of Translation is ivaercccl.] STUDIES ON HOMER AND THE HOMERIC AGE. I. AGORE : POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE. II. ILIOS : TEOJANS AND GREEKS COMPARED. III. THALASSA : THE OUTER GEOGRAPHY. IV. AOIDOS: SOME POINTS OF THE POETRY OF HOMER. BY THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, D.C.L. M. P. FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. Plenius ac melius Chrysippo et Crautore.—HORACE. OXFORD: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. M.DCCC.LVIII. ] The r'ujht '>f Translation is reserved.] ADVERTISEMENT. SINCE the Sections -which relate to Ethnology passed through the Press, the First Volume of Mr. Rawlinson's Herodotus has appeared. Earlier possession of this important Publication would have em- boldened me to proceed a step further in the attempt to specify the probable or possible form of the original Ethnic relation between the Pelasgians and the Hellenes of the Greek Peninsula, by desig- nating the latter as pure Arian, and the former as Arian, with a residue or mixture of Turanian elements. It has also been since the ' Olympus' was printed, that I have become acquainted with Welcker's recent and unfinished 'Griechische Gotterlehrej1 (Gottingen, 1857.) I could have wished to refer to it at various points, and especially to avail myself of the clearer view, which the learned Author has given, of the position of Kpovos. Founding himself in part on the exclusive appropriation by Homer of the term KpovlSrjs to Jupiter, he enables us to see how Jupiter may have inherited the sole use of the title as being ' the Ancient of days ;' and how Kpovos was a formation in the Mythology wholly secondary and posterior to his reputed son. (Welcker, sectt. 27,8. pp. 140-7.) Another recent book, M. Alfred Maury's Jlistoire des Religions de la Grece Antique, undertakes the useful task of unfolding largely the relations of the Greek religion to the East. But the division of it which deals with Homer specifically is neither complete nor accu- rate, and affords a new illustration of the proposition which I chiefly desire to establish, namely, that Homer ought to be treated as a separate and independent centre of study. 11, CAKLTON HOUSE TERRACE, LONDON, March 15, 1858. THE CONTENTS. I. AGORE: THE POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE. Political ideas of later Greece Page i 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 Bao-tJuvs 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 Bao-iAfjfs in the Iliad 32 viii CONTENTS. The nine Greek BaviKrjes of the Iliad 35 The case of Meges 3" Of Phoenix 37 Of Patroclus and Eurypylus 3° Conditions of Kingship in the Iliad 39 The personal beauty of the Kings 4° Custom of resignation in old age 4° Force of the term a'ifaos 41 Gymnastic superiority of the Kings 44 Their pursuit of Music and Song 45 Ulysses as artificer and husbandman 4*> The Kings as Gentlemen 47 Achilles in particular 48 Tenderness and tears of the Greek chiefs 49 Right of hereditary succession 5° Right of primogeniture 52 The Homeric King (1) as Priest 55 (2) as Judge 56 (3) as General 57 (4) as Proprietor: the rijievos 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 drjrcs or hired servants 74 Supply of military service ng Whether there was a peasant-proprietary H* Political Economy of the Homeric age »g The precious metals not a measure of value gj Oxen in some degree a measure of value g2 Relative scarcity of certain metals g Mode of government of the Army g- Its military composition gg Chief descriptions of fighting men „ l CONTENTS. ix The Battle and the Ambuscade 92 The BovXrj or Council of the Greeks 94 It subsisted in peace and in war 97 Opposition in the B01A17 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 TO8 The power of sarcasm 109 The faculty of debate in Homer