Blass's Interpolations in the Odyssey Die Interpolationen in Der Odyssee

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Blass's Interpolations in the Odyssey Die Interpolationen in der Odyssee. Eine Untersuchung von Friedrich Blass. Halle a. S. Verlag von Max Niemeyer. 1904. 9¼″ × 6″. Pp. 306. M. 8.

T. W. Allen

The Classical Review / Volume 20 / Issue 05 / June 1906, pp 267 - 271 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00995635, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00995635

How to cite this article: T. W. Allen (1906). The Classical Review, 20, pp 267-271 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00995635

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 128.122.253.228 on 28 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 267 large number. Compare the New Hol- I am inclined to think that ' Four ' presents landers' ' One, Two, Many, Very many.' an insoluble mystery. But this does not seem very plausible, and LILIAN M. BAGGE.

REVIEWS. BLASS'S INTERPOLATIONS IN THE ODYSSEY. Die Interpolationen in der Odyssee. Eine remark (p. 1) that Archilochus' Homer was Untersuchungvon FRIEDRICH BLASS. Halle substantially the same as ours; and that a. S. Verlag von Max Niemeyer. 1904. (p. 24) on the extraordinary inability, of 9}" x 6". Pp. 306. M. 8. both ancients and moderns, to accept the heroic standard of morality and propriety. WHEN I reviewed (C.B. 1905, p. 359) Prof. The writer, however, holds that the poems are Henning's work on the Odyssey, I observed indubitably not in the state in which their that that book marked the end of the author left them; two species of 'fremde German or Woman period of Homeric criti- Handen' have had dealings with them, cism. I was not consciously following the diasceuasts, who added episodes, rhapsodes rule never to prophesy unless you know; and scribes who added lines here and there. but here is Herr Blass' book to confirm my The preface gives us Herr Blass' tests for vaticination. It contains the most sensible discovering these foreign elements. His view of Homer published for a hundred tests are of two degrees ; proofs, TiKfirjpia, years—may I say the only sense written and presumptions, a-q/xua. Proofs are un- about Homer since Wolf? To assert so homeric allusions and usages—Sicily in ; the athe- who though unreadable has many good con- tesis of ancient commentators, omissions in clusions, but the remark would be true of ancient MSS. On the other hand, discre- other writers, both German and English. pancies within the poems, chronological and lam redit et uirgo, and that the harbinger of material, are to be used with caution; a better age is the soundest and most encyclo- repetitions (of formulae, etc.) are but o^/xcia. paedic Hellenist now living increases our Interruption in a context, delay in an action, satisfaction. We have a guarantee that no is always a aujfulov and often amounts to factors will be overlooked, least of all the positive proof. Herr Blass is alive to the linguistic, in which Herr Blass is a past relative and provisional nature of some of master. The tone of the book is sane, the these rules (and I fancy he overestimates style terse and even blunt. The writer the authority of the ancient grammarians), works with the external evidence, wherever but his procedure is reassuring, and com- there is any. A reader accustomed to the pared to that of any other critic, satisfactory. vagaries of Blass' distinguished predecessors, However, the bearing of his remarks lies in Kirchhoff and v. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, their application, and we must see him at feels that he has escaped from Plato's cave work. into the light. He takes the rhapsode (and the scribe) The preface is the part of the work which first, and traces his mole-run over the text will find most acceptance. It contains from a to , Tf(ov airre fSpormv es yaidi' quity increases: that the Cyclic poets ludvoi ; (p. 9) were ' Sagengelehrter' rather than rj p" o? y' vppuTTaX re KOI aypioi ovSe poets, and (p. 3 n.) died a natural (though S since Proclus read them, lengthy) death of rje w voos «rri OtovSys ; their own inferiority ; his hearty admiration Sxrre fie Kovpaiav afiy\.v6e Ofjkvs avrr), of the proportion and arrangement of the vvjjLtjxiuyv at i\ovcr opiwv ahrtwa Kaprjva. Odyssey, as a single work of art, and his 1 But as the English which falls from my pen is comparison of it to Plato's Republic, and to apt to be misunderstood, I should like to say that I tragedies, to their disadvantage (p. 6); the have read the whole book. 268 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW.

Kat jnjyas TroTa/imv Kai iruria iroir/evra ; Standorte aus, vor dem Hause, zwar von 125 7} vv irov avOpwirwv cip.1 o-\eBbv avSijei'- dem Innern etwas sehen und dies bewundern TIOV kann, das Weitere aber . . . unmoglich.' So dAA' ay' eyo>v avfos ireiprjo~ofiai i)8e Alcinous' house blocked out his fruit-trees ; but at Monaco, which must be something like Scheria, you catch a glimpse of the The unprejudiced reader findsn o stumbling- Prince's gardens without passing the sentry. block here, any more than Herr Blass, on It is a lesson to us philologers, this scholastic a general reading, did in a-£ (p. 4). criticism, which emasculates the poem of its The learned, however, feel differently; best portions, compared to the objective one cuts out 120, 121; another 123-125. method of Berard, resting on facts, which is Herr Blass adstipulates to the former. This capable of admitting a false quantity, but is a typical case of the minor critical opera- shows us things as they were. tion. It implies two working principles: On the other hand the remark that in 17 (a) the ' dispensable supplement'; nothing 51, 52 may be kept which the syntax does not necessitate. We can get on with 119, 122, Oapo~a\eos yap avijp ev iraxiiv d//.etVpoet was sensitive on this real expansion, the amplification of a gnome, point; the rhapsodes (and scribes) were and in so far the easing of the sense. It is victims to association. In this passage 120, 'gag,' and has its parallel in Tragedy. I 121=t 175, 176, and 123-5 = Y 8-10 am glad to see that Herr Blass resists (nearly). Both these canons require demon- KirchhofFs extirpation of 17 56-68, the stration, and both are contradicted by effect of which would be to make Alcinous the nature of epos, Greek and foreign. and Arete brother and sister. It is im- Abundance and formulism are the first portant, however; if as Berard believes, the characteristic of hexameter verse, in vocab- Scherian civilisation is non-Hellenic, the ulary, phrase, figures, and ideas. Particularly custom would have given offence in the weak is the assumption of additions ; £ 221 heroic age, and we should have a TtK/j.^pwv ! The reference to Athens, rj 80, is justly avrrjv 8' OVK av eyiaye Xoiaraofuir aiSeo/tai yap defended; after all it was there. ^The yv/j.vovcr$ai Kovpy

Alkinoos an den Phaaken riihmen will, SOKOS) ; no want of ' connection' was felt at keinen Bezug hat.' I daresay Schiitz and that period. The evidence of later centuries Nitzsch thought so, but they had not does not authorise us to exclude the bard enjoyed the picture of the Phaeacians as an from the heroic agon. The Phaeacians had athletic and hygienic people which has been a long card; foot-race, wrestling, jump, so brilliantly put before us. We know, quoits, boxing (incident of remarks on nous autres, that the complements of irooi Odysseus and Odysseus' exhibition), dancing icpaiimos 6fUiv and vrjvirlv apurreveiv are to music (troupe), Demodocus' lay, dancing warm water and clean clothes, and Alcinous (pas de deux). Herr Blass, who knows includes these points in his general account everything, is aware that in historical Greece of his people. Herr Blass will not have the some dyives were athletic, some artistic, and sailor's knot by which Arete advises Odysseus some mixed. In the Iliad, there being a to secure his treasure (6 443) ; ' seltsam ist state of war and bards left at home, we have dass Arete ihre Phaaken verdachtigt.' only games, but at the wake of Amphi- What, with Odysseus all alone, in a deep damas, which Hesiod attended, there were sleep? Even today in some countries you ' hymns,' at the Panionia hymns, prosodia, are advised to insure your baggage, or to tie paeans, etc.; Delphi began by being entirely it in string and seal it with lead. The musical, races were not added till 586. At mention of Circe (448) is not fatal. I Hermione, in what is called a //.ova-iKrjs ayiov, presume Homer's audience knew Odysseus' there were prizes for diving and swimming wanderings in general. Does anyone suppose (Paus. ii. 35. 1); Pausanias infers from Homer invented Circe 1—Here I stop, though Eumelus' words that the Ithomaea were at the reading is very interesting. Heir Blass first musical (iv. 33. 2). Why is not the in this department is practically an Alex- Phaeacian entertainment the first instance andrian. He finds 'Anstoss' constantly, of the mixed festival? Demodocus' 'lay' and where he cannot climb over his obstacle about the Gods, contrasted with his previous he takes it out. For my part, while I read excerpt from the Tale of Troy, resembles the him I believe; but when I turn to the poet pai/'totSos and eirtav iroirjnjs, or pcufrwiSos and I see the rock of offence is imaginary. Herr eyKotfUov tiriKov (once evKWfuov «is /JU>v and takes a crab-like course Orphic in the passage. Minos, Orion, back to a. I will follow the order of nature. Tityos, and Heracles are unorphic, Sisy- In 6 he almost assumes Demodocus' lay phus and Tantalus remain: their names must go, but pays little attention to its are reduplicated, and the vagueness of their immorality and irreligion—which indeed description shows they are types, like the are difficult to maintain, if one remembers Danaides. I am surprised that so careful that all we know about the morals and a philologer as Herr Blass should build religion of the heroic age is what Homer anything upon the etymology of heroic tells us and then considers H 294, 315, 333, names: he admits that Tantalus is not O 130, the grotesque stories in Hesiod, the transparent: why should Sisyphus be Hel- non-devotional tone of Hesiod Theog. 27, 28, lenic Greek at all? On the other hand, h. Herm. 577, 578 and the familiarity the Ephyrean Sisyphus is an historical with Heaven shown throughout the poems. personage, and the absence of genealogy in Herr Blass rejects the lay on account of its these two cases is merely for variety. The want of connection. ' Mit den Tanzen hat writer is correct in rejecting the agency das Lied nicht das Mindeste zu thun.' How of Onomacritus. We can have no deal- does this appear ? Blass admits the age of ings with a sixth century Homer. Herr the episode and even quotes the chair at Blass defends the relevancy of A. as a whole Amyclae (QataKcov xopbs KOX aIliupersis, and, simi- this passage. The description of the country larly, Alcaeus' hymns to Apollo and Hermes part of Ithaca is excellent. The principal are quoted in preference to the long and question is, where are we to look for the important hexameter hymns still extant. author of this sequel 1 Hardly at Corinth Books o- may be given a meaning. My own opinion of the book is another hundred years; and Arctinus may doubtful. When I think of all the other critics I say oTos -iriirvurai; when I open 1 The Sioels it is admitted are mentioned v 383, and Hesiod discusses the formation of the island Homer I repeat the Cambridge epigram, h. 183. 68pa Teimtfv. T. W. ALLEN.

RAEDER'S PHILOSOPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF PLATO.

Platons Philosophische Entwickelung. Von of the Hippias major and minor, as against HANS RAEDER, von der Koniglich Dan- Horneffer, as well as rejecting the more ischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften extreme views of Schaarschmidt and Horn. Gekronte Preisschrift. Leipzig: B. G. The second section is occupied with the Teubner, 1905. 8vo. Pp. 435. M. 8. ' stylometrists' Campbell,' Dittenberger, Lutoslawski, and the rest; various points in PLATONIC students have no reason to com- Lutoslawski's method are criticized, and, it plain of the quantity of the books dealing is shown that it is open to the charge of with their subject which have appeared what is civilly described as ' willkiirliches during the last decade. For, not to mention Verfahren' (p. 35). M. Raeder, however, slighter works devoted to the elucidation of seems inclined to attach a good deal of special problems or of particular dialogues, weight to ' stylometric' results, when care- there have been published within this period fully sifted, as providing a criterion for quite a number of volumes which aim at chronology superior in objectivity to that expounding more or less completely and derivable from philosophic interpretations. systematically the whole range of Plato's In the following sections the subjects treated doctrine, such as those by Lutoslawski, are the literary form and dramatic setting Gomperz, Natorp, and now finally by M. of the dialogues, the literary and historical Raeder. It would be interesting to compare references they contain, and the general the main features of these latest expositors, character of their philosophic content, but I must content myself here with the whether positive or negative, constructive or general observation that they all break away critical; and all these matters, like those from the Zellerian tradition, and all bear which occupy the earlier sections, are witness to the current popularity of ' stylo- handled mainly from the point of view of metric ' methods and of views which ascribe their bearing on the chronological sequence of to Plato what is euphemistically termed the Platonic writings. For the main purpose * Entwickelung.' of M. Raeder's book is, in fact, to establish M. Raeder commences with a chapter on a certain fixed order for the dialogues. And t^e history and present position of 'the the order he arrives at is this: (1) the So- Platonic question,' in which the methods and cratic dialogues—Apol., Ion, Hipp, min., results of the chief systematic expositors of Loch., Charm., Crito : (2) Hipp, maj., Pro- Platonism—Schleiermacher, Hermann, Rib- tag., Gorg. : (3) Menex., Euthyphro, Meno, bing, Zeller, Ueberweg, Grote, Gomperz— Euthyd., Cratylus: (4) Lysis, Sympos., are briefly stated and estimated. The Phaedo: (5) Bepublic: (6) Phaedrus: second chapter discusses, first, questions of (7) Theaet., Parmen. : (8) Soph., Polit.: authenticity; and with regard to these (9) Phileb., Tim., Critias: (10) Laws, M. Raeder is decidedly conservative, vindi- Epinomis. cating, for example, the Platonic authorship It will be seen from this list that