DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0067
THE GODS OF HOMER. 3*
CHAPTER III.
HOMERIC ART.
It is sometimes asserted with pardonable exaggeration that Homer
is the intellectual founder not only of Greek history, Greek religion,
and the Greek drama, but also of Greek art. We can only accept
this dictum with regard to the last in a very limited sense. Great
as his influence on the direction of Greek art undoubtedly was, it was
exercised almost exclusively through the medium of religion, with
which early art was indissolubly connected. He fixed in every brain
and heart a clear conception of the nature and being of the Gods, of
whose presence and operation he saw evidence in every event of
life ; and it was the general diffusion of the ideas which sprang from
his creative genius which prepared for the artist an appropriate field
of activity, and inspired in the people at large the faculty to appre-
ciate and enjoy, and the desire to honour and reward.
We are not then to look for sculpture in the works, or even in the
age, of Homer.1 He indeed gave shape and scope to the vague
religious notions and aspirations of his countrymen, but Epic poetry
alone could not furnish appropriate subjects for the sculptor's art. It
was the mental and moral type, the ijdos, which Homer formed. The
Cyclic poets, who succeeded him, did much to give bodily shape and
1 In the following pages the expression
'age of Homer' means the period in which
the kernels of the Iliad and Odyssey were
composed. It would l>e impossible for me
to enter into the interminable Homeric con-
troversy in this place, but I may say that I
am a firm believer in the existence of Homer
and think that he sang the oldest portion of
the Iliad and Odyssey not later than the ninth
century n.c. If I were compelled jurare in
verba, I should choose Col. Mure as my
maguttr. At the same time, I recognise the
force of much which Mr. F. A. l'aley ad-
vances in his learned and interesting Re-
marks on Prof. Mahaffy's Account of the Rise
and Progress of Epic Poetry, in support of
an opposite opinion. He has shown that
the lists are open. Conf. an article in the
Church Quarterly Review, Jan. 1881, 'On
the Antiquity of our Homer.'
CHAPTER III.
HOMERIC ART.
It is sometimes asserted with pardonable exaggeration that Homer
is the intellectual founder not only of Greek history, Greek religion,
and the Greek drama, but also of Greek art. We can only accept
this dictum with regard to the last in a very limited sense. Great
as his influence on the direction of Greek art undoubtedly was, it was
exercised almost exclusively through the medium of religion, with
which early art was indissolubly connected. He fixed in every brain
and heart a clear conception of the nature and being of the Gods, of
whose presence and operation he saw evidence in every event of
life ; and it was the general diffusion of the ideas which sprang from
his creative genius which prepared for the artist an appropriate field
of activity, and inspired in the people at large the faculty to appre-
ciate and enjoy, and the desire to honour and reward.
We are not then to look for sculpture in the works, or even in the
age, of Homer.1 He indeed gave shape and scope to the vague
religious notions and aspirations of his countrymen, but Epic poetry
alone could not furnish appropriate subjects for the sculptor's art. It
was the mental and moral type, the ijdos, which Homer formed. The
Cyclic poets, who succeeded him, did much to give bodily shape and
1 In the following pages the expression
'age of Homer' means the period in which
the kernels of the Iliad and Odyssey were
composed. It would l>e impossible for me
to enter into the interminable Homeric con-
troversy in this place, but I may say that I
am a firm believer in the existence of Homer
and think that he sang the oldest portion of
the Iliad and Odyssey not later than the ninth
century n.c. If I were compelled jurare in
verba, I should choose Col. Mure as my
maguttr. At the same time, I recognise the
force of much which Mr. F. A. l'aley ad-
vances in his learned and interesting Re-
marks on Prof. Mahaffy's Account of the Rise
and Progress of Epic Poetry, in support of
an opposite opinion. He has shown that
the lists are open. Conf. an article in the
Church Quarterly Review, Jan. 1881, 'On
the Antiquity of our Homer.'