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The Homeridae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Extract

The Homeridae bear the name of Homer, and should point a path by which we may climb to his personality. In antiquity they were known to be a γένος, a constituted family-corporation, though the accounts of the functions they fulfilled are scanty. Modern criticism, with its usual fluctuation, began by taking them at their apparent value; then adopted from a Roman grammarian a rationalistic explanation of them; invented other similar rationalistic explanations; and finally my lamented colleague Mr. Binning Monro robbed them of all significance by treating the word as an adjective, an equivalent of Ὁμηρικοí Men who are called Sons of Homer should not be lightly dismissed, and it may be worth while to go over the familiar evidence once more in the hope that this obvious avenue to Homer may not turn out a blind alley.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1907

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References

page 135 note 1 Monro D. B., Hornet's Odyssey, xiii.–xxiv. (1901) pp. 398 sq.

page 136 note 1 Athenaeus 669 B repeats it from this place:Himerius or. iii. 2 (in Bergk, P.L.G. iii. p. 287) has, an affectation for ‘the less-known places of Anacreon’: Plutarch,v. Crassi 16 , J. Caes 35 : more in the Lexx.

page 136 note 2 Orpheus frr. 39, 40, 44, 140, 164, 165 Abel

page 136 note 3 The ‘metrical irregularity’ seems sufficient without an alteration of the text; the ‘outrage,’ I presume, is the deriving of Cupid, a liberty which his dam Aphrodite had endured before him.

page 136 note 4 My information on this subject comes from Dittenberger's, article, Hermes, xx. pp. 1 sq.; and Toepffer's Attische Genealogie, 1889.

page 137 note 1 This rests on good evidence. Mr. G. F. Hill is kind enough to inform me ‘there are very common bronze coins of the second and first centuries B. c. which have always been identified as Homereia; on the obverse is a head of Apollo, on the reverse a figure of Homer seated, his right hand raised to his chin, his left holding a roll on his knees.’ Head Cf., B. M. Cat. of Greek Coins, Ionia, pp. 244 ff. nos. 79–117.

page 138 note 1 Steph. Byz. in v.

page 138 note 2 Hesych.

page 140 note 1 The Thespian festival, the I. G. Sept. 1735, 1760, 1763 (s. iii.–i. B.C.).

page 140 note 2 The Ionic singing-guild, of which the regulations were published by Wilamowite-MÖollendorf v., was unfortunately melic. (Satzungen eitur milesischen Sängergilde. Sitzungsberichte d. preuss. Akad. 1904, xix.)

page 140 note 3 Nic. Damasc. fr. 62 (F.H.G. iii. p. 395).

page 141 note 1 Silenus Chius ap. Eust. 1871, 20.

page 141 note 2 The Elysian fields from ἰλ⋯ς (Apio ap. Eust. δ 563.)

page 142 note 1 Ephorus fr. 164. Even Proclus knew better than that: vit. Hom. v. 43 (p. 26 West.) He repeats the repartee which may be traced as far back as Velleius i. 5. I (‘quem si quis caecum genitum putat, omnibus sensibus orbus est’) and which the language Ephorus, Proclus) shows to from an enemy of Ephorus.—The real blind man was Cynaethus, who, forbidden by Homeric tradition to name himself, furnishes his identification as narrowly as he can. He succeeded in his intention: the hymn to Apollo is the only one where a tradition of authorship has survived.

page 142 note 2 On etymology Strabo's remarks are still in place: 784 We should never forget how a distinguished archaeologist once derived Lesches the cyclic poet from (Bild und Lied, p. 227).

page 142 note 1 Welcker, Ep. Cycl. i. 126, appears to deserve the credit.

page 142 note 2 Plato, Rep. 600 B Callimachus ap. Strab. 638. Ridiculous or not, he existed, and Mr. Lang (Homer and his Age, p. 300) has a French to the story that the Cypria was left either to him or to Stasinus.

page 142 note 3 Lycurgus' friends deserve a mention: Plut. Lycurg. 31, he died childless,