A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

506' HOMERUS. HOMERUS.
picious; in the nineteenth, the recognition of. transmitted them to their disciples by oral teaching,
Ulysses. by his old nurse, and, most of all, some and not by writing. This kind of oral teaching was
parts towards the end. All that follows after most carefully cultivated in Greece even when
xxiii. 296 was declared spurious even by the the use of writing was quite common. The tragic
Alexandrine critics Aristophanes and Aristar- and comic poets employed no other way of trainining
chus. Spohn (Comment. de extremn. Odysseae Parte, the actors than this oral L8ao'caKiea, with which
1816) has proved the validity of this judgment the greatest accuracy was combined. Therefore,
almost beyond the possibility of doubt. Yet, as says Wolf, it is not likely that, although not comHiiller and Nitzsch observe, it is very likely mitted to writing, the Homeric poems underwent
that the original Odyssey was concluded in a very great changes by a long oral tradition; only
somewhat similar manner; in particular, we can it is impossible that they should have remained
hardly do without the recognition of Laertes, who quite unaltered. Many of the rhapsodists were not
is so often alluded to in the course of the poem, destitute of poetical genius, or they acquired it by
and without some reconciliation of Ulysses with the constant recitation of those beautiful lays. Why
the friends of the murdered suitors. The second should they not have sometimes adapted their
N'ecyia (xxiv. init.) is evidently spurious, and, like recitation to the immediate occasion, or even have
nmany parts of the first Necyia (xi.), most likely endeavoured to make some passages better than
taken from a similar passage in the Nosloi, in they were?
which was narrated the arrival of Agamemnon in We can admit almost all this, without drawing
Hades. (Paus. x. -23. ~ 4.) from it Wolf's conclusion. Does not such a conConsidering all these interpolations and the ori- dition of the rhapsodists agree as well with the
ginal unity, which has only been obscured and not task which we assign to them, of preserving and
destroyed by them, we must come to the conclu- reciting a poem which already existed as a whole?
sinis that the Homeric poems were originally coin- Even the etymology of the name of rhapsodist,
posed as poetical wholes, but that a long oral tra- which is surprisingly inconsistent with Wolf's
dition gave occasion to great alterations in their general view, favours that of his adversaries.
original form. Wolf's fundamental opinion is, that the original
We have hitherto considered only the negative songs were unconnected and singly recited. How
part of Wolf's arguments. He denied, 1st, the ex- then can the rhapsodists have obtained their
istence of the art of writing at the time when the name from connecting poems? On the other hand,
Homeric poems were composed; 2d. the possibility if the Homeric poems originally existed as Wholes,
of composing and delivering them without that art; and the rhapsodists connected the single parts of
and, 3rdly, their poetical unity. From these pre- these wholes for public recitation, they might permises he came to the conclusion, that the Homeric haps be called " connecters of songs." But this etypoems originated as small songs, unconnected with mology has not appeared satisfactory to some, who
one another, which, after being preserved in this have thought that this process would rather be a
state for a long time, were at length put together. keeping together than a petting together. They
The agents, to whom he attributed these two tasks have therefore supposed that the word was derived
of composing and preserving on the one hand, and from p/Sdos, the staff or ensign of the bards (Hes.
of collecting and combining on the other, are the Theog. 30); an etymology which seemed counterhapsodists and Peisistratus. nanced by Pindar's (Isthm. iii. 5) expression poaifov
The subject of the rhapsodists is one of the most 3eio-recta/, 47rewv. But Pindar in another pascomplicated and difficult of all; because the fact is, sage gives the other etymology (NTem. ii. 1);
that we know very little about them, and thus a and, besides, it does not appear how pa7b4ios
large field is opened to conjecture and hypothesis. could be formed from p5d8os, which would make
(Wolf, Proleg. p. 96; Nitzsch, Prol. ad Plat. Ion.; laiG6pds. Others, therefore, have thought of
Heyne, 2. Excurs. ad I1. 24; Bickh, ad Pind. Sadrrs (a stick), and formed pargro-Vds, pa4bo's.
Nem. ii. 1, Isthm. iii. 55; Nitzsch, Indagaszdae, But even this will not do; for leaving out of view
ce. Histor. c'it.; Kreuser, d. Hoem. Rhapsod.) that dairls does not occur in the signification of
Wolf derives the name of rhapsodist from pcwrreiv paa6os, the word would be parL&3ods. Nothing is
c'43pv, which he interprets breviora carmina modo et left, therefore, but the etymology from p5d7'rreL
ordine publicae recitationi apto connectere. These Mids, which is only to be interpreted in the proper
breviora carmina are the rhapsodies of which the way. Miiller (Ibid. p. 33) says that pa/s.ie7z
-Iliad and Odyssey consist, not'indeed containing " signifies nothing more than the peculiar method of
originally one book each, as they do now, but epic recitation," consisting in some high-pitched
sometimes more and sometimes less. The nature sonorous declamations, with certain simple moduand condition of these rhapsodists may be learned lations of the voice, not in singing regularly acfrom Homer himself, where they appear as singing companied by an instrument, which was the method
at the banquets, games, and festivals of the princes, of reciting lyrical poetry. c" Every poem," says
and are held in high honour. (Od. iii. 267, xviii. Miiller, "can be rhapsodised which is composed in
383.) In fact, the first rhapsodists were the poets an epic tone, and in which the verses are of equal
themselves, just as the first dramatic poets were length, without being distributed into correspondthe first actors. Therefore Homer and Hesiod are ing parts of a larger whole, strophes, or similar
said to have rhapsodised. (Plat. Rep. x. p. 600; systems. Rhapsodists were also not improperly
Schol. adt Pind. Nem. ii. 1.) We must imagine called ax'Xcp6oi, because all the poems which they
that these minstrels were spread over all Greece, recited were composed in single lines independent
and that they did not confine themselves to the of each other (orTiXoi)." He thinks, therefore, that
recital of the Homneric poems. One class of rhap- jpcd7rTerv'85v denotes the coupling together of verses
sodists at Chios, the Homerids (Harpocrat. s. v. without any considerable divisions or pauses; in'Ogva77ptae), who called themselves descendants of other words, the even, continuous, and unbrokeb
the poet, possessed these particular poems, and flow of the epic poem. But'8H does not mean a