HOMERIC POEMS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 308, 22 September 1920, Page 5

HOMERIC POEMS

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. An interesting lecture on "The Homerio Poems in the Liirlit of Modern Beseareh' as given in the Town Hall on Monday by Professor ltankine Brown, the lecture being one of a series of free public addresses by professors of Victoria University College. The attendance was only fair, but great interest was taken in the lecture. . The lecturer maintained that in Greece the human intellect began first to grow, and Hellas reached heights of artistic and literary eminence that were' greater than those reached in modern times. The spot where the Homeric poems were written was not far from Gallipoli. The Iliad and the Odyssey were epic noems. des.U.ng with man in action. Both these works were natural epics, the oldest European cnics extant, of the same type as the Chanson do Roland of the tenth century. Achilles - and his story, a pathetic and magnificent character, formed the basis of tiio Iliad. The weaker told' of the ouarrel of Achilles with Agamemnon, his leader, of his refusal to fight the Tro.ians, and the impersonation of Achilles by Petroclus. who went forth against Hector clad in Achilles's shining armour, and was killed. Achiiles. clad in Vulcan's new panoply, went forth against the Trojans, and the speaker told of the encounter with tho aged Priam. Tho interest of the Odyssey was sustained by » i much more artistic finish than in the Iliad. Ulysses, the hero, maae many trips in his ArgOßy, travelling through the realms of Greek mythology, tho storv of Penelor?. his beloved, bein it particularly fine. All the female characters in the Otlv-spy Mid the Bpenker, were very fine. Homer had do cided views on tho emancipation of women nine hundred years before Christ, and practically three .thousand ycare asro. In those da.vs woman held an eaual place with man Homerio poetrv had always been considered the work of r. single man, but there was no proof of the existence of the poet. Greek tradition ascribed to Homer further works that would not, be recosrnised aB having been written by the writer of the Iliad of Odyssey. He referred to the conception of Homer a.s a collection of poems, collected by an Athenian. Wolß's theory started tho Homeric question, but hia arfuimer.ts were generally unsound. He had held that writing had not been introduced into Greece at 700 8.C., but it had been proved tha.t writing existed in Crete two thousand years before the Christian era. Tho time of th» Odyssev. however, was much more advanced than tho Iliad, there appearing to be a difference of two hundred years between t'"e works. This was r.hown in the origir;l Greek. Tho sneaker briefly referred to the varying aspects that Zeus and the Immortals took in the poems, thoro being minor inconsistencies in the works. The lc-turer was acoordcd a hearty vote of thanks.