The Lay of Dolon (the Tenth Book of Homer's Illiad); Some Notes on Its Language, Verse and Contents, with Remarks by the Way on the Canons and Methods of Homeric Criticism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...610; K 145, 172 and n 22. More might be adduced. It is unnecessary. For, in Gemoll's words, the proprietary right of K against the rest of the Iliad, even against the Minis, is proved aufs bestimmteste, and in other cases the opposite conclusion is negatived. Therefore K is earlier than a great part of the Iliad. Others besides Gemoll, as Ranke, Sickel and Orszulik, regard the author of K as a mere centoist. They give elaborate lists, and Ranke calculates that 205 out of the 579 lines in K occur in whole or in part elsewhere in the poems. Perhaps he does not exaggerate. But we must object to any conclusion being drawn till every individual case is considered. I have not space for such an examination, but I can take another way. If the procedure is good for K, it is good for other books. Take then A in the Minis. Ellendt (D.E.A. 55 ff.) has analysed it most completely, and there is hardly a line for which a parallel cannot be found elsewhere. When exceptions occur, Ellendt seems to be astonished and marks sic nusquam or nihil simile The statement fills 60 pages. On this mere enumeration then, A is a cento like K. But A is of hoary antiquity, and therefore not a cento. Which is absurd. If K is to fall by any such assault, no part of the poems can stand. "There is hardly a verse in the Iliad or the Odyssey which is not to some extent like some other" (Rothe in Jb. 1889, 358). We venture to think we may with some confidence claim a verdict favourable to K on this charge of plagiarism, one of the most serious of all that have been brought against it. CHAPTER XV THE ALLEGED 0DY8SEAN CHARACTER OP I, K, 0 Appendix H contains an examination of the words, forms, etc., enumerated by Diintzer and Orszulik as peculiar to K and the Odyssey, and on which Odys...