An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer/Section 4
SECT. IV.
Next to the Originals from which a Language is derived, and the critical Period of its Duration, it is chiefly affected by the Religion of a Country, and the Manners of the Times. These might have been included under the Common Manners of the Nation; but their Influence is great enough to deserve a particular Consideration.
I shall soon have occasion to make a stricter Enquiry into the Origin both of the Grecian Religion and Learning. At present it is sufficient to say, that they came from the great Parent of sacred and civil Institutions, the Kingdom of Egypt. That wise People seem to have early observed the Curbs of the human Passions, and the Methods of governing a large Society. They saw the general Bent of Mankind, to admire what they do not understand, and to stand in awe of unknown Powers, which they fancy capable to do them great good or ill: They adapted their religious Belief and solemn Ceremonies to this Disposition; made their Rites mysterious, and delivered their allegorical Doctrines under great Ties of profound and pious Secrecy.
Ω ΤΕΚΝΟΝ! ΣΥ ΔΕ ΤΟΙΣΙ ΝΟΟΙΣΙ ΠΕΛΑΖΕΟ, ΓΛΩΣΣΗΝ ΗΥ ΜΑΛ’ ΕΠΙΚΡΑΤΕΩΝ, ΣΤΕΡΝΟΙΣΙ Δ’ ΕΝΘΕΟ ΦΗΜΗΝ.[1]
Now, thou my Son! approach with Mind intent, And careful keep thy Tongue: But in thy Breast Revolve these awful Sounds.—
Hence the Number of monstrous Stories concerning their Gods, which the first Grecian Sages that travell’d into Egypt certainly understood, and explained to their Adepts[2], among whom, after some Descents, I reckon Hesiod and Homer: But falling afterwards into the Hands of Men of warm Fancies, who thought they might invent as well as their Masters, there were many traditional Stories tacked to the former; sometimes untowardly enough, and sometimes so as to make a tolerable Piece of the literal Relation, but confounding when applied to the Allegory. These are all the ΙΡΟΙ ΛΟΓΟΙ (Sacred Traditions) mentioned so often by Herodotus, with a Declaration that he will not publish them; and of the same kind is the ΘΕΙΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ (the divine Tradition) recommended by Orpheus to his favourite Scholar, and quoted by a primitive Father for another purpose[3].
This Allegorical Religion having been transplanted into Greece, found it a very proper Soil for such a Plantation. It took deep root in the Minds of the Greeks, who were grosly ignorant, and prepossessed with no rival Opinions: They made Additions to it of their own, and in a few Ages it was incorporated with their Manners, mixed itself with their Language, and gained universal Belief. Such was its Condition when Homer made his Appearance in the World: It had attained its Vigour, and had not lost the Grace of Novelty and Youth. This is the Crisis, when every body affects to talk in the prevailing Stile; which joined with the early metaphorical Cast of the Language, is one great Reason of the constant Allegory in the ancient Writings.
We have frequent Examples, how much the firm Belief of any Sect makes Men speak and write in the approved Idiom: They introduce it into their Business, allude to it in their Pleasures, and abstain from it in no Part of Life; especially while the Doctrine flourishes, and appears in Bloom: For your Lordship knows, that these things, among the Ancients, had their Spring and Summer as well as natural Growths; and after a certain time, like a superannuated Plant, they turned scrubby and lifeless, were disregarded by degrees, and at last vanished.
What further Advantages Poetry might reap from a Religion so framed, will appear afterwards: Let us now consider the Manners of the Times; by which I mean the Professions and Studies that are in vogue, and bring most Honour to those that possess them in an eminent degree.
They likewise follow the Fortunes of a Nation: In the Progression abovementioned, the Arts of the greatest Use in Life, I mean those that supply our natural Wants, and secure our Persons and Properties, are the first that ennoble their Inventors; and in the process of time, when Wealth has made its Entrance, the Refiners of Pleasure, and Contrivers of Magnificence draw our attention.
From the Accounts already given of the State of Greece, it is easy to conclude, that the first must be still prevalent when Homer lived; a piece of good Fortune that exempted him from the two Vices, to whose charge the admired Longinus lays the Fall of Poetry: An insatiable Desire of Riches, and what he calls a mean dispiriting Passion, (ἀγεννεστάτον Παθὸς) the Love of Pleasure[4].
In effect, Arms at that time was the honoured Profession, and a publick Spirit the courted Character: There was a Necessity for them both. The Man who had bravely defended his City, enlarged its Dominion, or died in its Cause, was revered like a God: Love of Liberty, Contempt of Death, Honour, Probity and Temperance, were Realities. There was, as I said, a Necessity for those Virtues[5]: No Safety to Life or Fortune without them; while every State, that is to say, almost every City was necessitated either to defend itself against its warlike Neighbour, or shamefully submit to Oppression and Slavery. And no wonder if the Man who learns these Virtues from Necessity, and the Things themselves, knows them better than Schools and Systems can instruct him; and that the Representations of such genuine Characters bear the Marks of Truth, and far outshine those taken from counterfeit Worth, or fainter Patterns.
Thus your Lordship sees, that the Fortunes, the Manners, and the Language of a People are all linked together, and necessarily influence one another. Men take their Sentiments from their Fortunes; if they are low, it is their constant Concern how to mend them; if they are easy, how to enjoy them: And according to this Bent they turn both their Conduct, and their Conversation; and assume the Language, Air, and Garb peculiar to the Manner of the different Characters. In most of the Greek Cities, Policy and Laws were but just a forming, when Homer came into the World[6]. The first Sketches of them were extremely simple[7]; generally Prohibitions from Violence, or such Regulations of Manners as we should think unnecessary or barbarous. The Tribes were but beginning to live secure within the Walls of their new-fenced Towns, and had as yet neither Time nor Skill to frame a Domestick Policy, or Municipal Laws; and far less to think of publick Methods of training up their Citizens: They lived naturally, and were governed by the natural Poise of the Passions, as it is settled in every human Breast. This made them speak and act, without other Restraint than their own native Apprehensions of Good and Evil, Just and Unjust, each as he was prompted from within. These Manners afford the most natural Pictures, and proper Words to paint them.
They have a peculiar Effect upon the Language, not only as they are natural, but as they are ingenuous and good. While a Nation continues simple and sincere, whatever they say has a Weight from Truth: Their Sentiments are strong and honest; which always produce fit Words to express them[8]: Their Passions are sound and genuine, not adulterated or disguised, and break out in their own artless Phrase and unaffected Stile. They are not accustomed to the Prattle, and little pretty Forms that enervate a polished Speech; nor over-run with Quibble and Sheer-Wit, which makes its Appearance late, and in Greece came long after the Trojan Times. And this I take to be the Reason, “Why most Nations are so delighted with “their ancient Poets[9]:” Before they are polished into Flattery and Falshood, we feel the Force of their Words, and the Truth of their Thoughts.
In common Life, no doubt, the witty facetious Man is now the preferable Character: But he is only a middling Person, and no Hero[10]; bearing a Personage for which there is hardly an Inch of room in an Epic Poem. To be witty in a Matter of Consequence, where the Risque is high, and the Execution requires Caution or Boldness, is Impertinence and Buffoonry.
VIRGIL knew well the Importance of this Imitation of ancient Manners; and borrowed from Ennius his antiquated Terms, and the strong obsolete Turn of his Sentences. Nay, he has adopted as many of the old Forms used at Sacrifices, Games, Consecrations, and even Forms of Law, as the Emergencies of his admired Poem wou'd permit.
- ↑ Ὀρφεύς πρὸς Μουσαίον. In Fragment, Ὀρφικῶν Ἐπῶν.
- ↑ Diodorus the Sicilian, after having explained the natural Signification of the Allegory of Bacchus’s being the Son of Jupiter and Ceres, or Wine’s being the Production of the Earth and Moisture, adds these remarkable Words, σύμφωνα δὲ τούτοις εἶναι τάτε δηλούμενα, διὰ τῶν ὈΡΦΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΩΝ, καὶ τὰ παρεισαγόμενα κατὰ τὰς τελετὰς, περὶ ὧν οὐ θέμις τοῖς ἀμυήτοις ἱστορεῖν τὰ κατὰ μέρος. βιβ. γ. Which plainly shews the Nature and Tendency of the Orphick Rites.
- ↑ Justin Martyr. Εἰς δὲ ΘΕΙΟΝ ΛΟΓΟΝ βλέψας, τούτῳ προσέδρευε.Λόγος παραινετικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας
- ↑ Περì Ὑψοῦς. Τμήμα μδʹ. ζήτημα λαμπρόν.
- ↑ Ὁ γὰρ δὴ χρόνος ἐκεῖνος, (the Age of Theseus, a little before the Trojan War) ἤνεγκεν ἀνθρώπους χειρῶν μὲν ἔργοις, καὶ ποδῶν τάχεσι, καὶ σωμάτων ῥώμαις [ὡς ἔοικεν] ὑπερφυεῖς καὶ ἀκαμάτους; πρὸς οὐδὲν δὲ τῇ φύσει χρωμένους ἐπιεικὲς οὐδὲ ὠφέλιμον· ἀλλ’ ὕβρει τὲ χαίροντας ὑπερηφάνῳ, καὶ ἀπολαύοντας τῆς δυνάμεως ὠμότητι καὶ πικρίᾳ, καὶ τῷ κρατεῖν τὲ καὶ βιάζεσθαι τὲ καὶ διαφθείρειν τὸ παραπῖπτον. Αἰδῶ δὲ καὶ δικαιοσύνην, καὶ τὸ ἴσον, καὶ τὸ φιλάνθρωπον, ὡς ἀτολμίᾳ τοῦ ἀδικεῖν, καὶ φόβῳ τοῦ ἀδικεῖσθαι, τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπαινοῦντας, οὐδὲν οἰομένους προσήκειν τοῖς πλέον ἔχειν δυναμένοις.Πλουτάρχου ΘΗΣΕΥΣ.
- ↑ They had no well digested Body of Laws, or Plan of a Civil Constitution, before Onomacritus. So Aristotle, Ὀνομακριτοῦ γενομένου πρώτου δείνου περὶ Νομοθεσίαν. Πολιτ. α.
- ↑ Τοὺς γὰρ ἀρχαίους Νόμους λίαν ἁπλοῦς εἶναι καὶ βαρβαρικούς. Ἐσιδηροφοροῦντό γὰρ οἱ Ἕλληνες, καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐωνοῦντο παρ' ἀλλήλων. Ὅσα τε λοιπὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐστὶ που Νομίμων, εὐήθη πάμπαν ἐστὶ.
Αριστ. Πολιτ. β. - ↑ Quin ipse (Tiberius) compositus aliàs, & velut eluctantium Verborum, solutius promptiusque eloquebatur quotiens subveniret.
- ↑ Græcorum sunt antiquissima quæque
Scripta vel Optima.Horat. ad Augustum. Ep. i. Lib. 2.
- ↑ Bellus Homo, & Magnus vis idem, Cotta, videri:
Sed qui bellus Homo est, Cotta, pusillus Homo est.Martial. Epigr. Lib. i. 10.