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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
I Now turn to an examination of the grounds for arguing supernaturalism in the Phaeacian story, but for their proper appreciation it is necessary to consider an element in the narrative which unfortunately has had little attention of recent years. There is in it more than mere unseasoned description. The poet is evidently taking off these settlers in Scheria, the centre about which his humour plays being the figure of their king, Alkinoos. This is no new thing, but all, as Blass once slily remarked of a scene in the Iliad, do not perceive it. It was clear to Mure. On pp. 404 sqq. of Vol. I. of his Hist, of Gk. Lit. he describes the fun at length, deplores the misapprehension by ‘profound commentators,’ and thinks the episode ‘the most brilliant specimen of the poet's combined talent for the delineation of character and for satirical humour.’ See also Samuel Butler's The Humour of Homer. No one was better qualified than Butler for such an appreciation; the pity is that he spoiled it all by his great Homeric joke about Nausikaa's authorship. Some points are noticed by Perrin and Hayman, and Trenkel sees that the community is Gegenstand des Spottes. But generally the humour is lost on the commentators, who, intent only on the jigsawing of the Phaeacian story, mark the uerborum minutiae and are blind to the rerum pondera.
page 58 note 1 I have not seen a reason suggested for Laodamas' behaviour. Is it that he was sore at having had to give up his place of honour by his father the night before? If so, there is a parallel given by Wägner-Anson, , Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages. 21Google Scholar. Similarly, the apology for the insult and the amende by the gift of a sword are paralleled, ibid. 353, in Beowulf.
page 60 note 1 Jobst in a Program, Passau, , 1909Google Scholar, compares the two Tournaments. After excising in each case what he deems spurious, he finds much that is common to the two narratives.
page 60 note 2 I should now take stronger ground than I did in C.Q. VII. 234 sqq. in regard to some of the cases relied on by Monro.
page 61 note 1 The only other occurrence of the word in the early epic seems to be Hymn. Vcn. 200. Its use there gives no support to the fairyists' argument. With this passage Nitzsch, on ε 35, quotes from Plato, Πρ⋯αμον ⋯γγύς θε⋯ν γεγονóτα.
page 64 note 1 The coincidence with the number of weeks in a year has not been lost on supernaturalists. See Osterwald, op. cit. 92Google Scholar, and cp. for other Zahlenspielen of the of the kind, ibid. 87, and Fick, Entstehung d. od. 190 sqq. To those who believe the poet means no more than what he says, it seems simple to take a crew of fifty, with the ⋯ρχ⋯ς ναυτ⋯ων and κυβερνητ⋯ρ. Vürtheim, De Aiacis origine, 64, divides 52 by 13, the number of the Phaeacian βασιλεῖς, and gets 4, the number of ϕυλαι–systema igitur Ionicum. This is hard to follow.
page 64 note 2 I might repeat, in regard to the attitude of the Higher Criticism to the description of Alkinoos' palace and gardens, what I have just said about θ 550 sqq.
page 65 note 1 MissHarrison, , Prolegg. 611Google Scholar, accepts the quaint suggestion of Eustathius that he is so described in δ 564 πρ⋯ς ⋯δον⋯7nu; Μενελ⋯ῳ!
page 65 note 2 In Minos' case a similar doubt has been restated by Professor Ridgeway.
page 66 note 1 So Burnet, , The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul, 14Google Scholar. ‘These really do not die at all.’
page 66 note 2 On whom see MissMacurdy's, interesting paper in C.R. XXX. 180 sqqGoogle Scholar. For the meaning of the name we have either ‘above the Bora, or Balkans,’ or ‘behind the north wind.’.
page 67 note 1 Cp. Norlin in C.P. XII. 352.
