A Biographic Outline of Homer as He Reveals Himself in His Works (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. 1922 Excerpt: ...of this new poetic structure he found floating in scattered tales which bubble up everywhere from the folk-soul, and which are found among all peoples around the globe. But Homer has collected, ordered, and transfigured these early materials, more primitive indeed than the Trojan Mythus, into the eternal temple of song indwelt of his creative genius. Worthy of notice in this connection is what the swineherd Eumaeus says concerning the charm of the words of Ulysses, when the latter recounts the tale of his adventures: "He is like unto a singer whom the Gods have taught to sing strains of weal and woe to listening mortals, who have a never-failing desire to hear his song." (Odyssey XVII, 518.) Thus his trials and sufferings have made Ulysses a poet, for no such faculty does he show in the Iliad, but rather the reverse, being there the man of solid understanding more than of far-flying imagination. But now Homer seems to have transformed his previous rather prosaic sober-thoughted hero into his uniquely fantasygifted minstrel, assigning to the same on the whole the most original and imaginative portion of all his poetry. Thus the poet unfolds and evolves his many-minded Ulysses into a poet, that is, into himself as the culmination of his heroic career. After performing many famous deeds, and passing through many wonderful experiences, he turns back upon himself and builds his long discipline into a poem which is as much transformed from the old Trojan Mythus, as he is from his old Trojan Self. Far longer drawn-out but far less significant is the external contest of Ulysses with the Suitors in his Ithacan home, so that the last half of the Odyssey seems in form, style and expansion a foreshow of the discursive modern novel. The voyage to wonderland is...