The World of Homer
the Scholiast in the famous "Venice A" manuscript of the _Iliad_. He
enters here into more details than Proclus in his epitome of the work.
"They say that Earth, burdened by the abundance of men, all impious as
they were, prayed to Zeus to be relieved. Zeus then caused the Theban
war, whereby he destroyed many. Later again he called Momus (Mockery)
into council, 'the counsel of Zeus,' Homer styles it, though he might
have destroyed the human race altogether by deluges and thunderbolts.
But Momus prevented this, and suggested to Zeus the marriage of Thetis
with a mortal, and the begetting of a beautiful daughter from these two
causes arose war involving both Hellenes and barbarians, from which
time Earth was lightened of her burden, so many men were slain. The
narrative is by Stasinus, the author of the _Cypria_..."[14]
In this version Themis is not mentioned as the adviser of Zeus; perhaps
she suggested the Theban, and Momus the Trojan war.
In the epitome of Proclus, Eris (Strife) comes among the Gods at the
bridal feast of Peleus and Thetis. Of this feast one detail remains
in a fragment of the _Cypria,_ which the Scholiast gives in prose.
Cheiron the Centaur cut an ash-tree for a spear, as a wedding present
to Peleus. Athene polished it, and Hephaestus forged the point. This
spear, which Achilles alone could wield, is mentioned as the gift of
Cheiron to Achilles in the _Iliad_ (xvi. 143, 144, and xix. 389-90).
If, then, we find in the _Cypria_ decisive proof that there it is later
than the _Iliad_, we may suppose the author to borrow here from our
Homer, and to add the previous division of labour in the spear-making.
As a bronze-smith Hephaestus only makes the metal point of the weapon.
At the bridal feast, Eris rouses a dispute between Aphrodite, Athene,
and Hera as to superiority in beauty.
To return to the Epitome of Proclus. The three contending goddesses
are led by Hermes to Mount Ida, and Paris pronounces Aphrodite to be
the most beautiful; he has been won by her promise of Helen as his
wife. This is suggested by _Iliad_, xxiv. 29, 30, where the passage,
according to some, suggests that all three goddesses _wooed_ Paris, and
that he preferred Aphrodite. But this is wholly out of keeping with the
Greek conception of Hera and Athene; and the lines in _Iliad_, xxiv.,
must refer to the cause of the ferocity with which these two slighted
goddesses persecute Troy, though Athene was its patron. No other cause
has been adduced.
The counsel of Zeus could not have caused the Trojan war merely by
making the goddesses quarrel. It was necessary to beget "the beautiful
daughter," whom Aphrodite was to offer as a bride to Paris. According
to the Cypria, this fairest of women, Helen, wife of Menelaus, was
not the daughter of Zeus and Leda, but of Zeus and Nemesis; in Homer,
Nemesis is little more than the emotion of virtuous indignation, she
is not, as in the Cypria, a chaste and pretty nymph, "fair-tressed
Nemesis." Her does Zeus pursue and, says the inept author of the
Cypria, "the feelings of Nemesis were torn by shame and nemesis"
(indignation). Mr. Murray devotes eight pages to the ethical meaning
of Αὶδώς (shame) and of Νέμεσις (righteous indignation).[15] Surely
we must recognise a great difference in manner between Homer, to whom
nemesis means "righteous indignation," and the author of the _Cypria_,
to whom Nemesis is a fair-tressed nymph? Homer, it is true, knows
_themis_ as customary law, and _Themis_, a goddess. But _she_ is not
a fair-tressed being who flees from her lover in a series of animal
disguises.
Later Greeks, puzzled by the contending versions of our Homer and
of the _Cypria_, declared that Nemesis was, indeed, the mother of
Helen, but that Leda, wife of Tyndareus, was her foster-mother and
brought her up.[16] Meanwhile Nemesis, in the _Cypria_, is not a mere
personification of the sentiment of nemesis, or righteous indignation,
but is, as we know, "a concrete figure of ancient Attic tradition," "a
primitive goddess of Rhamnus," in Attica, associated with, or a local
form of, "the wild Artemis" of pre-Achaean religion, "with deep roots
in local worship." Nemesis had a famous statue at Rhamnus, attributed
by Pausanias to Pheidias; a fragment of the face, in the British
Museum, proves that it was at least of the school of Pheidias. She
held in her hand a spray of the apple-tree, an attribute of Aphrodite,
and the stag of Artemis was an ornament of her crown. She was also "a
queen over death and the dead," a chthonic characteristic.[17] The
Nemesis of Rhamnus was thus like the very primitive Artemis of Brauron
in Attica. At Smyrna, where the population was very mixed, Pausanias
mentions two Nemeses.[18]
We see that all this of Nemesis, in the _Cypria_, is at once apart as
the poles from the Nemesis of Homer, virtuous indignation personified,
and is also an Ionian celebration of an Attic goddess of the
pre-Achaean faith.
In the _Cypria_, Aphrodite, mother of Aeneas (in Homer), sends him with
Paris. Landing in Lacedaemon, Paris is welcomed by the brothers of
Helen, and in Sparta by Menelaus, who then sails to Crete. (Different
reasons for this voyage are given by later writers.) Paris then seduces
Helen, _who is brought to him by Aphrodite_ (as in _Iliad_, iii.);
_they take away property of Menelaus_ (as in _Iliad_, vii.). (The
_italics_ mark probable hints from the _Iliad_.)
The pair are wedded in Troy, where the story leaves them, and very
needlessly goes back to Lacedaemon. Here are Helen's brothers, Castor
and Polydeuces, who fall into a feud about cattle with Idas and
Lynceus, the keen-eyed. Lynceus is merely the Keen-Eye, who can see
through everything, a common personage in _Märchen._ The brothers of
Helen hide themselves in a hollow tree, but Lynceus climbs to the
crest of Mount Taygetus and "looks over all the isle of Pelops," that
is, Peloponnesus. Homer never speaks of the country as a geographical
unity, nor uses the word "Peloponnesus"; this is manifestly a
post-Homeric term.[19] Idas slays Castor; Polydeuces slays both
Lynceus and Idas, and Zeus assigns to Castor and Polydeuces immortality
on alternate days. This is wholly unknown to the _Iliad_, both heroes
are dead and buried in _Iliad_, iii. 243, 244. Their alternate
immortality with their divine honours, mentioned in _Odyssey_, xi.
298-304, may be an interpolation (a kind of footnote in verse); it
is, at all events, non-Iliadic. Homer knows the deaths of the two
brothers, at home in Lacedaemon: we cannot tell whether he knew about
the Keen-Eye of _Märchen_, Lynceus.
In the _Cypria_, Menelaus is now informed, in Crete, about the flight
of Helen: he returns to the isle of Pelops and consults Agamemnon about
collecting an army. Nestor, called to council, abounds in anecdotic
digressions (whether the author borrows this trait from the _Iliad_
or the _Iliad_ from him, it is not hard to guess!). Among Nestor's
themes--for he simply poured out stories--are Epopeus and his seduction
of the daughter of Lycus; Oedipous; the madness of Heracles; and the
tale of Theseus (whom Homer steadily avoids), and Ariadne. Theseus, as
an Athenian, is dear to the Ionian poet: Homer ignores him.
The Atridae go through Greece collecting the heroes. Odysseus feigns
madness with a view to shirking the war; he ploughs the sand, and
Palamedes detects his sanity by placing the child Telemachus in the
way of the plough. Here we have a hero, Palamedes, unknown to Homer,
and an equally unknown Odysseus who is a coward, but is baffled by
the superior wisdom of Palamedes. It is obvious that the poet of the
_Cypria_ is here introducing an un-Homeric character to serve his
private ends: his methods are unveiled in Chapter XVII., "The Story of
Palamedes."
The _Cypria_ now relates _the First gathering of the Greek forces
at Aulis_, with the story from the _Iliad_ of the serpent and the
sparrows, and the prophecy of Calchas. The ships, says the _Iliad_,
"had been gathering but a day or two at Aulis," and the host was at
a sacrifice, when a wonderful serpent came forth from the altar and
killed eight nestlings of a sparrow, with their mother. Zeus then
turned the serpent into a stone. Calchas prophesied, "we shall fight
nine years _there_ (_αῢθι_, at Troy), but take the city in the tenth
year."[20]
Such was Homer's opinion, the Greeks were warring in Troyland against
Ilios for nine years and more. But the author of the _Cypria_ desired
to fill up the nine years before the _Iliad_ opens in some way, and
this is how he did it. (Italics mark possible hints from Homer.)
_Learning from the Odyssey_ (xi. 519-521) _that Eurypylus, a Mysian
chief, son of Telephus, came to the aid of Troy after the death of
Achilles_, he makes the Achaeans land in Teuthrania, and supposing the
town to be Troy, they attack it. But Telephus comes to the rescue, and
is wounded by Achilles. A storm falls on the fleet, and the ships are
scattered. _Achilles arrives in Scyros and weds Deidameia_. The storm
that sends Achilles to marry and beget a son in Scyros was an easy
explanation of _Achilles' own statement_,[21] that he had a son at
Scyros.[22]
In the _Cypria_, Achilles later returns from Scyros to Argos,
apparently "Pelasgic Argos," that is, Phthia, to his home. The wounded
Telephus, as advised by prophecy, follows Achilles thither, and
Achilles' spear, or rust from the spear, in Dictys, heals the wound it
had inflicted: by "sympathetic magic," unknown to Homer. Achilles did
the healing, because it was prophesied that Telephus would pilot the
fleet to Troy; whereas, in Homer, Calchas directs the voyage.
The author of the _Cypria_, who is filling up his nine imaginary years
of the wanderings of the Greeks, now adopts the very stupid device of
mustering the scattered fleet at Aulis _for the second time_. This
enables him to please an Ionian audience by introducing their favourite
incident, the sacrifice of a princess: Attic traditions harp eternally
on this un-Homeric horror. Agamemnon shoots a stag, and boasts
himself a better shot than Artemis. The angry goddess sends a tempest
unceasing, the ships cannot sail, and Calchas (who dared not do such a
thing, _Iliad_, i. 78, 79) says that a daughter of Agamemnon must be
sacrificed, Iphigeneia. This name was, at least in later days, a name
of the homicidal Artemis of Tauris, on the north shore of the Euxine.
But Tauris, as Mr. Monro justly observes, was not known to Homer. In
the _Cypria_, Artemis substitutes a fawn for Iphigeneia, and carries
the maid "to the Tauroi," making her immortal. "This form of the
story," the form in the _Cypria_, "is necessarily later than the Greek
settlements on the northern coasts of the Euxine."[23] The connection
between Iphigeneia and a Tauric Artemis is thus late, un-Homeric, and
Ionian. Homer (_Iliad_, ix. 145) knows no Iphigeneia, but the daughters
of Agamemnon are Chrysothemis, Laodice, and Iphianassa. Even so early
a poet as Stesichorus could not account for Iphigeneia as a daughter
of Agamemnon. He therefore, says Pausanias, made her a foster-child
of Clytaemnestra, a child of Helen by Theseus (who, in Attic myth,
captured her), and Helen hands her baby over to the wife of Agamemnon.
Euphorion of Chalcis, Alexander of Pleuron, and the people of Argos
generally, maintained this theory, and at Argos they showed a temple
of Ilithyia, founded by Helen after her safe delivery![24] Tzetzes,
the father of nonsense, makes Iphigeneia the daughter of Agamemnon and
Chryseis; she is sacrificed, or threatened with sacrifice, during the
return from Troy.
However, the Ionian author of the _Cypria_ cannot deny himself an
allusion to human sacrifice. Iphigeneia was brought to Aulis, he says,
under the pretence that she was to wed Achilles. (See Euripides,