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QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE "HOMER" OF THE TRAGIC POETS. 
 
 BY 
 
 F. A. PALEY, M.A. 
 
 CLASSICAL EXAMINER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE IN fHE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
 
 KENSINGTON. 
 
 SEGOND EDITION 
 
 F. NORGATE, 
 
 7, KING STREET, CO VENT GARDEN. 
 1879. 
 
Cambridge : 
 
 PRINTED BY J. PALMER, JESUS LANE. 
 
QUINTUS SMYENAEUS 
 
 AND THE LOST EPICS OF THE CYCLUS. 
 
 THE epic poem on the Troica in fourteen \6yoi, or narrations, 
 attributed to one Quintus (Koivros} of Smyrna, appears to be a 
 composition of greater literary interest and importance, if not of 
 somewhat higher poetic merit, than has commonly been supposed. 
 It is an example of a work that has been not merely eclipsed but 
 well nigh extinguished by the greater effulgence of the Homer 
 that has been traditionally received and acknowledged as such. 
 The title of the poem, TO, fjued' "Opripov, indicates that the subject 
 is continued from the death and funeral of Hector, with which 
 the Iliad concludes. It comprehends, in a word, a considerable 
 portion of those epics on the capture of Troy and the events 
 subsequent to it, which were, from whatever cause, much more 
 familiar to, or at all events much more made use of by the tragic 
 poets and vase-painters in the age of Pericles than the Homer 
 whom we have been taught to venerate as the real originator of 
 this branch of Grecian literature. Of the author, Quintus, nothing 
 whatever is known from external sources, and scarcely anything 
 from internal evidence. He himself tells us (xii. 308-13) that 
 the Muses inspired him to sing, while yet a beardless youth tend- 
 ing his flocks on the plain of Smyrna, near the Hermus. From 
 the fact that a MS. of the Posthomerica of Quintus was first 
 found by Cardinal Bessarion at the Monastery of St. Nicholas at 
 Otranto in Calabria, the sobriquet of "Quintus Calaber" has been 
 commonly assigned as the name of the poet. But there is no 
 reason to think that he belonged to any city in Magna Graecia. 
 That he was a Roman civis or libertus or cliens seems probable 
 from the nature of the name Quintus. It has been rather in- 
 
 1 
 
 303884 
 
2 QUINT.US SMYBNAEUS. 
 
 geniously suggested 1 i thai, as-' Q. Ennius- himself was " Calabris in 
 montibus ortus," and was said to have dreamed (Pers. Sat. vi. 11) 
 that he was "Maeonides quintus pavone ex Pythagoreo," "the 
 fifth in transmigration from the person of Homer," so this title 
 Quintus may contain some allusion to the profession of a Homerid. 
 The date is placed, by conjecture founded on the style and on some 
 metrical characteristics (though I myself attribute no great weight 
 to them), as late as the fourth or even the fifth century after the 
 Christian era. The statement about his being visited by the 
 Muses when a shepherd boy is too closely like that in Hesiod's 
 Theogony (22), 
 
 at vv iroff 'HffioSov Ka\V e$i8aav dotSV, 
 &pvas TTOifj-aivovO' 'E\IKWVOS virb {adeoio, 
 
 to be deserving of credence. It is more likely that it was intended 
 to conceal the real author, just as Persius in his Prologue repre- 
 sents himself as semipaganus. He may have intended to claim 
 originality for much older poems which in fact he only arranged, 
 epitomised, or compiled. But whoever the poet was, and wherever 
 he lived, it is certain that he has handed down to us how far 
 altered or re-arranged we cannot positively say 2 the very poems 
 which Virgil and Propertius repeatedly translate, and which were 
 even known, as I shall be able to demonstrate, four centuries ear- 
 lier, to Sophocles and Euripides, and probably even to Aeschylus 
 and Pindar. 
 
 I very much fear that this is a question in which few take any 
 interest. Nevertheless, it is well worthy of careful consideration. 
 Some theory is necessary to account for these apparently second- 
 ary poems having at one time, and that the best period of Grecian 
 literature, enjoyed a reputation, as they certainly seem to have 
 done, greater than "Homer" himself. If Homer was always the 
 , how is it that he so rarely comes before us in any 
 
 1 See Koechly, Prsef. p. x. (ed. Teubner, 1853), who does not agree with this view. 
 From an inscription said to have been found at Naples, and given in Corp. Inscr. 
 Graec., No. 5815, the real name of the writer has been supposed to be Alcibiades. 
 
 2 The very fact of materials undoubtedly old being thus " cooked" and modernised 
 at a late period at once confirms and illustrates my position with respect to "our 
 Homer," which I take in like manner to be a not very early recension and re-adapta- 
 tion of old materials. 
 
QUINTUS SMYENAEUS. 3 
 
 writings before the time of Plato? That "Homer" is only a 
 name, round which different groupings of epic poetry centered, 
 none of them really older than the writing or literary age, i.e. 
 later than the Persian wars, though all of them made up from 
 very old materials, is the position which I defend as, on the whole, 
 the most probable one. My object now is to give some direct 
 proofs that a large proportion of this Homeric farrago, so to say, 
 has been preserved by Quintus, and that the tragics were per- 
 fectly familiar with many of the details that he has recorded. 
 And I cannot think this evidence unimportant to the solution of 
 the great enigma of the date of our texts. 
 
 It seems then in every way probable that this Quintus col- 
 lected or compiled a considerable portion of the ancient poems 
 which had been included in the Epic Cyclus, and which, though 
 they had existed in writing from, at least, the times of the Alex- 
 andrine critics, were dropping out of notice, eclipsed by the 
 "Homer" that had attained such especial pre-eminence in the 
 age of Plato. 
 
 That Quintus was a literary Roman, or even an adopted Greek, 
 or a grammarian who wrote for some learned Roman patronus, 
 might not unfairly be inferred from his eulogy in xiii. 336, of the 
 city on the Tiber destined to be founded by Aeneas : 
 
 r})v yap Qsfrfyar&v eon Oewv eptKvSei &ov\fj 
 v/j./3pii' eir' evpvpeeOpov airb advdoio jj.o\6vra 
 rev^ffjLev tepbv &<rrv KOI sffffopsvoHrtv ayr)Tbv 
 avdpdtnrois. 
 
 But if he really belonged to Smyrna, as appears probable, he 
 perhaps was, in his earlier career, one of a school of ( O/j,r)pl$ai,, or 
 rhapsodists, whom we know to have existed in Plato's time (Ion, 
 p. 530 : Symp. p. 252), and who may have continued the practice 
 and the profession till quite a late period. 
 
 The Roman libraries, however, had Greek books enough 3 to 
 supply authentic copies of the Alexandrine Cyclus to any who 
 
 3 Juv. Sat. iii. 206, " Jamque vetus Grsecos servabat cista libellos." The fact is 
 well known from Cicero's and Pliny's letters, as well as from discoveries at Hercu- 
 laneum. But the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamus were of course accessible. 
 
4 QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 
 
 took interest enough in a less popular kind of literature, even as 
 late, perhaps, as the time commonly assigned to Quintus. The 
 very large use made of these poems by Virgil, Ovid, and Proper- 
 tius, and to some extent by Horace, shows that they enjoyed a 
 high degree of popularity in the Augustan age. I cannot doubt 
 then, from considering all the bearings of the question, that this 
 Quintus Smyrnaeus has laboured under a somewhat unjust and 
 unfortunate depreciation. We have all so hugged the notion, 
 fostered as it has been by the great names of Gladstone and 
 Grote, that we possess the genuine Homer of B.C. 850, that we 
 have despised, as feeble imitations, all poems that we have sup- 
 posed to have been written in later times as supplements to the 
 Iliad and the Odyssey : the fact being, that those very epics are 
 themselves largely indebted to the poems which the tragics knew 
 and so extensively used. 4 
 
 I purposely made my own careful perusals (not once, but 
 several times) of the work of Quintus, before I referred to literary 
 accounts, not only of the author's history, if known, but of his 
 general merits as a poet. And I must say I was somewhat sur- 
 prised at the disparaging verdict by which he is almost put out of 
 the category, so to say, of poets deserving any consideration at all. 5 
 The following is from K. 0. Mliller's and Donaldson's History of 
 Grecian Literature (vol. iii. p. 365). 
 
 " He has drawn up from the best authorities a continuation of 
 Homer's Iliad down to the capture of Troy and the departure of 
 the Greeks. In this painstaking work Quintus has earned the 
 praise of careful versification, and of a certain amount of ingenuity 
 in his similes. But he has no epic genius ; he cannot paint 
 characters; and his gods and heroes are only so many puppets, 
 which he sets in motion by very visible strings. And when he 
 aims at it with the strongest effort, he almost becomes ludicrous (!). 
 Thus, when Oenone, after refusing to heal the wound of Paris, 
 
 4 This Tiew has been more fully explained in my Treatise, " Homeri quae hodie 
 extant an reliquis Cycli carminibus antiquiora jure habita sint." 
 
 5 The best and fullest account of the poems of Quintus, and of his relation to the 
 epics of the Cyclus, is G. Bernhardy's Grundrifs der Griechischen Litteratur, vol. ii. 
 p. 239 seqq. 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 5 
 
 performs upon herself the sacrifice of the Suttee out of regret for 
 his death, a sagacious nymph standing by indulges in the reflexion 
 that Paris must have been a madman to neglect such a faithful 
 wife for a worthless dame like Helen " (x. 47l). 6 
 
 And this is all the account that is given, in a professed History 
 of the Literature of Ancient Greece, of the works of a poet who 
 has, I shrewdly suspect, transmitted to us much more of the 
 " Homer " of the Periclean age than is contained in the Iliad and 
 Odyssey together. In Col. Cure's History of Greek Literature 
 Q. Smyrnaeus is omitted altogether. 
 
 In Dr. Smith's larger Dictionary of Greek and Roman Bio- 
 graphy the fact is indeed recognised, that much of the Cyclic 
 poems is embodied in Quintus ; but the great literary importance 
 of it is overlooked from the assumption that these poems were in 
 themselves merely enlargements or continuations of the Iliad. 
 " In phraseology, similes, and other technicalities, Quintus closely 
 copied Homer. The materials for his poem he found in the works 
 of the earlier poets of the Epic Cycle. There can be little doubt 
 that the work of Quintus Smyrnaeus is nothing more than an 
 amplification or remodelling of the poems of Arctinus and 
 Lesches. It is clear that he had access to the same sources as 
 Virgil, though there is nothing from which it would appear that 
 he had the Roman poet before his eyes." 
 
 I shall show that Virgil and Propertius must have known 
 these epics nearly, if not quite in their present form. The theory 
 therefore that they were composed in the fourth or fifth century 
 of our era is evidently quite untenable. Not only is the style and 
 diction thoroughly Homeric, but the morality is as pure, and the 
 manners, customs, aud ethics are quite as archaic as in the Iliad 
 or the Odyssey. The negative argument, so often urged in favour 
 of the antiquity of our Homer, viz. that there is no mention of 
 
 6 This criticism is shallow and unfair. The deep love of Oenone for Paris, beauti- 
 fully described in Ovid's Epistle Oenone Paridi, explains all his conduct and the self- 
 sacrifice to unrequited love. The remark of the pitying nymph is most natural and 
 most pathetic. " Why ever did Paris desert so devoted a wife as Oenone for the gay 
 but heartless Helen ?" 
 
6 QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 
 
 law, of coined money, or of writing, 7 applies (so far as I know) 
 equally to the poems of Quintus. The poetry and the versification 
 of very many passages would not be thought at all inferior, were 
 not our judgments biassed by a supposed standard and model of 
 excellence in the Homer we possess. The similes are very fre- 
 quent, always, as in the Iliad, Asiatic in character, and many of 
 them are of the finest and most felicitous invention, besides that 
 they give descriptions of or contain allusions to local customs 
 of much interest in relation to farming, to vineyards and olive- 
 groves, to hunting, fishing, and many other details of country life 
 little known to us from other Greek writers. The use of the 
 digamma, as in our Homeric text, varies ; but generally it is cer- 
 tainly more often violated in the " Posthomerica." Indeed, the 
 preservation of it at all is instructive, and tends to show how 
 precarious a test of real antiquity it is. It was, in fact, a feature 
 in the old epic language, retained to the latest, when it suited the 
 metre, but dropped when it was convenient. The theory, that 
 our Homeric texts were compiled at a time when the use of the 
 digamma had just begun to decline, is the merest assumption, 
 based on a preconceived view. Thus we have Kara Fdarv in 
 Q. ix. 14, but K\VTOV darv ib. 280, et? eov aarv x. 255; es 
 epyov ix. 284 and elsewhere, but e? fj>eya Fepyov in x. 65 ; 
 
 FdvaKTos in ix. 311, iiiro Niprji, FCLVCLKTI in xi. 61, CLTTO- 
 Fdva/cros ib. 200, but erdpa) KOI avatcri in x. 463. As 
 occasionally in both Iliad and Odyssey, we have olz/o? without the 
 F t e.g. Q. xiii. 19, eepyojuevos (frpevas OWM, ib. 4, vii. 681, d\\oi &' 
 olvov epvOpov. We find //^Sea fotSa? in ii. 71, but evavriov olSe 
 fjid^e^dau ib. 249 ; Sairl KOI olvw, aoov Se poi oltcov 6<f>e\\oi,s in 
 ii. 92, SdfjLvaO' o? OLKL evaie, viii. 292 ; //-e^o? rjBe KOI eZ&o<? in vii. 
 690, whereas oZSa, oZ/co?, eZSo? usually (by no means always) have 
 the F in our Homeric texts. A few forms occur peculiar perhaps 
 to Quintus, though the great bulk of his language and construction 
 is essentially Homeric. Such are the accusatives Xaa, vrjSva, l%v 
 
 7 In his recent work, Homeric Synchronism, p. 65, Mr. Gladstone says, " The nega- 
 tive evidence of the poems, with respect to writing, I hold to be amongst the strongest 
 indications of their very great antiquity." 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 7 
 
 otua, 8pva, the forms apripd/juevos, aacr^era, Se^i/uro, a^Uerai, a 
 transitive aorist KareKpvfav (ii. 478), KarcoTriocov, " looking down," 
 iii. 133, the word eSre^^ure, which is common in Quintus, but 
 which greatly perplexed Buttmann (Lexil. in v.) as occurring in 
 II. iii. 10, and a remarkable and not unfrequent use of o>9 o(f>e\ov 
 not in agreement with the subject of the verb, but as a mere 
 synonym of et'0e, as in x. 428, 
 
 utinam me rapuissent Parcae, 8 
 and xiii. 231, 
 
 &s o<$>e\6v jue ffelo irar 
 
 On the whole, it is hardly too much to say, that if the Post- 
 homerica of Quintus had come down to us as an original poem 
 with the traditional authority of our Homer, and the Iliad and 
 Odyssey had been called (as, in a sense, i. e. as a comparatively 
 late combination, I fully believe they really are) " posthomeric," 
 the position of the poems, as far as language and matter are con- 
 cerned, would have been reversed ; or at least the superior merits 
 of the Iliad, if acknowledged, would have been attributed to its 
 later development. 
 
 I proceed to show, that not only Virgil and Propertius made 
 much use of the " Posthomerica " (in whatever form they had 
 them), but, what is far more important, that the tragics, who so 
 rarely have any passage that we can certainly refer to our Homer, 
 very frequently copy the " Posthomerica " verse for verse. The 
 extant Greek plays in which this is most conspicuous are the Ajax 
 and the Philoctetes of Sophocles, and the Troades and the Hecuba 
 of Euripides. I shall therefore confine myself chiefly to these, 
 with some parallels selected from the Agamemnon. 
 
 The Cyclic edition of the poems on Troy continued the narra- 
 tive after the death of Hector, and related the arrival of the 
 
 8 Analogous to this, though not identical with it, is the Homeric formula ws p.^ 
 #0eAAe yevearOai, in which p.^ does not directly negative yei/effQai, but occupies a 
 position in the clause equivalent to et0e /j.^ e^eVero. Compare with this Q. x. 377, 
 aAAa ns dl<ra (jL^Sero \oiyia pepya, ret, /x^/ &ty$i\ov orA^crat. 
 
8 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 Amazons at Troy. 9 Now this was a most famous subject in anti- 
 quity ; it was the subject of a painting in the Poecile at Athens 
 by Micon in or about the time of Pericles. Ar. Lysist. 678, 
 
 r&s 8' 
 
 This event, and the fight between Achilles and Penthesilea, is 
 the subject of the first book of the " Posthomerica," and a very 
 beautiful and pathetic story it is. So struck was Achilles with 
 remorse when he drew off the helmet and saw the beautiful face 
 of his victim, that he was taunted for soft-heartedness by Thersites. 
 Q. i. 657, 
 
 a/J.<pl 8e ol ttparbs K6pvv e'/A-ero fj.apjj.aipovcraj', 
 ije\iov aKrlcriv a.\iyiciov $) Aibs 0^7X77, 
 rrjs 8e /col ev Kovtrjari Kal a'/^OTt TreTTTTjutr/s 
 4f<pdvr) tparfjcriv UTT' o<ppvcri /caAa irp6<r<i)ira 
 Kaiirep o.-ironra^vris. 
 
 Now, Propertius must have known these very lines, which he 
 renders thus (iv. 10, 13) : 
 
 Ausa ferox ab equo quondam oppugn are sagittis 
 
 Maeotis Danaum Penthesilea rates ; 
 Aurea cui postquam nudavit cassida frontem, 
 
 Yicit victorem Candida forma virum. 
 
 That the story was known to the author (or compiler) of the 
 Iliad is proved by the brief allusion in II. iii. 189, 
 
 tffjLari TCf #re T' ?i\Qov 'A/^a^j/es avTidvetpai. 
 
 Equally famous was the story of the wooden horse, described 
 minutely in Q. Book xii., alluded to (apparently) in Aesch. Agam. 
 798, 1 and more fully in a chorus of the Troades (511-567), but 
 dismissed with scant allusion in Od. iv. 272, xi. 523, and viii. 492 
 seqq., 2 where Demodocus the bard 
 
 '/7T7TOU K6(T(J.OV &lffeV 
 
 Sovpareov, rbu 'Eireibs eiroiytrev ffvv ' 
 
 9 See K. 0. Miiller, Hist. Gr. Lit. p. 65. 
 
 1 'Lirirov veofftros, a(nrtf>o!TTp6q>os 
 
 TrrjSTjyu' opovffas u,/J.(pl Tl\eid5(av Svcriv. 
 
 3 A little consideration will show that the account in the Odyssey must have been 
 compiled from the 'l\iov Tie pa-is, just as much as the opening part was compiled from 
 the N<$(TTot. The description of the horse in Quintus is, in my opinion, in the main the 
 older account, that in the Odyssey the later. It is impossible not to feel that the latter 
 is a casual allusion to a very familiar event. 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 9 
 
 The whole story connected with the capture of Troy, so 
 familiar to us, and so justly celebrated from the second book of 
 the Aeneid and the fine chorus in Eur. Hec. 905 seqq., is taken in 
 detail, and even in the same series of events, from the epics pre- 
 served by Quintus in the twelfth book. We have the story of 
 Sinon, the Greek captive, who induced the Trojans to admit the 
 wooden horse within their walls; of Laocoon and his sons de- 
 voured by the sea-serpents, the pretended retreat of the Greek 
 fleet to Tenedos (Q. xii. 30, Aen. ii. 24). Compare, for instance, 
 Aen. ii. 235, 
 
 Accingunt omnes operi, pedib usque rotarum 
 Subiciunt lapsus, et stuppea vincula collo 
 Intendunt. Scandit fatalis machina muros 
 Feta armis. Pueri circum innuptaeque puellae 
 Sacra canunt, funemque manu contingere gaudent. 
 Quintus xii. 421, 
 
 To&veica 7rpo(ppovecas /te/ &yov irorl Tpcaiov 
 o\|/e irp oiKTeipavres' ayip6fj.evoi 8' a/j.a 
 ffeipTjv a/j.(pefid\ovTO Oocos Trepi/J.'fiKei 'iinrq 
 SrjffdiJ.ei'oi KadvTrepQev, eVei pd ot ffO\bs 
 
 ftpiapo'io'iv euTpo^a 8ovpar y 
 KGV alfaoiffiv eirl inoXieQpov eTnjrai, 
 Tpdocav virb x^P ffflv - 
 
 The admission of the horse into the citadel by breaking an 
 opening in the walls is mentioned by both poets : Aen. ii. 234, 
 Dividimus muros, efc moenia pandimus urbis ; 
 
 Q. S. xii. 439, 
 
 0? Se fJLO\6fTS 
 
 &OTTV TTOT! o-<pTepov neydXys Kp^Se/uva Tr6\T)os 
 Xva-dpevoi p.4ya.v '(TTTTOV *<r-{]yayov. 
 
 The points of resemblance indeed between the two poets are 
 so close and so numerous that I need not quote them all at length, 
 but, for the sake of brevity, I will give some references for com- 
 parison, e.g. the escape of Sinon from being sacrificed, Q. xii. 382, 
 Aen. ii. 130-6 ; the rape of Cassandra by Ajax, son of Oileus, 
 Q. xiii. 422, Aen. ii. 403 ; 3 the carrying off of the Palladium, Q. x. 
 
 3 Add Prop. v. 1, 119: 
 
 Victor Oiliade, rape nunc et dilige vatem, 
 Quam vetat avelli veste Minerva sua. 
 
10 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 355, Aen. ii. 166 ; the murder of Priam at the family altar by 
 Neoptolemus, Q. xiii. 241, Aen. ii. 550 ; the rescue of Anchises 
 and Ascanius by Aeneas from the burning Troy, the one borne on 
 his shoulders, the other led by the hand, 4 Q. xiii. 317-30, Aen. ii. 
 720; the receding of the flames before them, flammaeque re- 
 cedunt, Aen. ii. 633, TOV 8' ecrav^evov VTTO Troacrl Trdvrrj irvp 
 V7r6ei/c6j Q. xiii. 329 ; the name of Coroebus, Q. xiii. 169, Aen. ii. 
 341, &c. 
 
 Speaking generally, the thirteenth book of Quintus is an 
 epitome of the J I\lov Hepcris attributed to Lesches in later times, 
 but, without doubt, to Homer himself in the tragic times ; while 
 the fourteenth book is in the same way from the Nocnoi attributed 
 to Agias. 
 
 As the Iliad ends with the death of Hector, and we know that 
 the " Cyclus " continued the tale of Troy with the arrival of the 
 Amazons, the fact that this latter subject stands first in Quintus is 
 another strong indication that we have in his work an epitome 
 from the " Cyclus." 5 
 
 Propertius, not less than Virgil, follows the Cyclic narrative. 
 Many of his verses we may at once identify in Quintus Smyrnaeus. 
 The lament of Briseis over the body of Achilles, 6 Q. iii. 560, and 
 his huge bones, ib. 725, is referred to with great pathos, Prop ii. 
 9,9: 
 
 Nee non exanimem amplectens Briseis Achillen 
 
 Candida vesana verberat ora manu, 
 Foedavitque cornas, et tanti corpus Achilli 
 
 Maximaque in parva sustulit ossa manu. 
 
 4 This also was a favourite subject with the Greek vase-painters of the best age. 
 
 5 Very many years ago, I had copied from a MS. in Emmanuel College Library 
 about a hundred verses, which had so thoroughly an Homeric character that I showed 
 them to the late Dr. Donaldson, with some such remark as this : " What if this should 
 prove a fragment of the lost Cyclics ?" He at once took down Quintus Smyrnaeus 
 an author of which I then knew absolutely nothing and pointed out the passage I had 
 transcribed. I was at the time impressed with his knowledge of the Greek poets. My 
 own guess, though hardly meant seriously, was not so very wide of the mark. 
 
 6 The death of Achilles by the bow of Paris is referred to in II. xxii. 358. It was 
 a subject in still earlier epics; see Find. Pyth. iii. 100, Eur. Hec. 388, Soph. Phil. 335. 
 
QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 11 
 
 Q. iii. 552 : 
 
 Epiffrjls irapaKOiTts VTTTO\/J.OV 'A^iATjos 
 a/j.(t>l vfKW ffrpca(f>aro, Kal ajjuporepris ^ 
 
 ava 
 
 The lines next following : 
 
 Cum tibi nee Peleus aderat nee caerula mater, 
 
 Scyria nee viduo Deidamia toro, 
 
 refer to the scene in Q. vii. 228, where the envoys sent to Scyros 
 to fetch Neoptolemus 7 find Deidamia : 
 
 rrfKO/ji.evr)v 0', wffei re x i ^ v KOTaT^/cer' opeffffiv. 
 
 In Prop. v. 3, 30, 
 
 si qua relicta iacent, osculor arma tua 
 is from the lines in Q. vii. 341, 
 
 afj.(pl 8e ol Kal &KOVTO. \e\eifjLfi4vov ft n tSoiro, 
 raptyfa fj.iv $i\ee<TK. 
 
 In Prop. iv. 6, 31, it is said of the shipwrecked Poetus, 
 
 Huic fluctus vivo (vivos) radicitus abstulit ungues, 
 
 which is from the description of the desperate grip of Ajax when 
 swimming for dear life, Q. xiv. 577, 
 
 Kal f>a ol afjLtpl Trdyoiffiv \Lff<ro/j.vov /j.d\a Sripbv 
 
 and the grief of Nestor for the loss of his son Antilochus, Prop. iii. 
 13, 49, 
 
 Non aut Antilochi vidisset corpus humari, 
 Diceret aut mors, cur mihi sera venis? 
 
 is also from Q. ii. 261, 
 
 fj.d\i(TTa 8c irarpl irepl (ppevas Jj\v6e Trepflos, 
 Ne(TTopi, iraiSbs eo?o Trap' 6<pda\/j.o'io'i Sa/j-evros, 
 
 though the speech itself of Nestor, once famous, has been lost. 
 
 7 A scene alluded to in Od. xi. 509, and mentioned also in Soph. Phil. 343. 
 
AESCHYLUS. 
 
 I do not know of one single passage in Homer, excepting the 
 rather brief allusions in the Odyssey to the hackneyed story of the 
 murder of Agamemnon, that Aeschylus can be said to have re- 
 ferred to in any of his extant plays, much less to have directly 
 imitated : so that if, as Athenaeus says, Aeschylus called his own 
 poems 'O/Jirjpov SeiTrvwv Te/jud^r), he must have meant by "Ofjirjpos 
 something very different from what we mean. 1 I think this is 
 certain; and the more the subject is looked into (the fragments 
 and the titles of lost plays being also taken into account) the 
 clearer the truth of it will become. The " Homer" of the Platonic 
 age was, in my opinion (I speak of the form rather than of the 
 general matter) unknown to Pindar and Aeschylus ; 2 or, if known 
 in some of its parts, it had quite a secondary reputation. 
 
 But they most certainly had the narratives we have learnt to 
 call "Cyclic" and " Posthomeric," which are, in effect, but two 
 
 1 The sacrifice of Iphigenia in Ag. 200 seqq. was taken from the " Cypria," which 
 in the poet's time was commonly attributed to Homer (Herod, ii. 117). The same 
 remark applies to the frequent allusions to Paris and Helen in the choral odes. 
 
 2 Prof. Conington was among the first to perceive that Aeschylus did not follow 
 "our Homer." He remarks (Introduction to the Choephoroe, p. xiii.), "All that 
 Aeschylus has in common with Homer is the bare fact of the return of Orestes after 
 many years of absence, and the revenge which he takes. Even with regard to the 
 absence of Orestes, there are points of difference." 
 
 The mention of Scylla (Agam. 1204) and of Chryseis (ib. 1414) does not in the 
 least prove that Aeschylus had our Homer. For Scylla was mentioned in the Argo- 
 nautics (see Apoll. Ehod. iv. 923), with other characters transferred (I am inclined 
 to think) from that ancient epic, which Aeschylus certainly knew, to the Odyssey. 
 The proof of this is curious, and in itself complete. It is stated in the Odyssey (xii. 
 69) that the only ship which ever passed in safety through the irXayKral Trerpai was 
 the Argo. As for Chryseis, it is known that the possession of the captive maid was 
 a subject in the Cypria. See Welcker, Ep. Cycl. ii. p. 508 (from Proclus). For further 
 remarks on the Argonautica see my Treatise, "Homeri quae hodie extant," &c.. p. 22. 
 
QUINTUS SMYENAEUS. 13 
 
 names for the same thing, i.e. for the genuine entire Homer of 
 antiquity. The storm which the Grecian heroes fell in with on 
 their return from Troy, off the rocky coast of Euboea, so gra- 
 phically described in the well-known narrative in Agam. 630 
 seqq., and alluded to also in Eur. Troad. init. and Hel. 767, is 
 evidently that preserved at considerable length and in a very fine 
 and spirited passage by Q. S. in Bk. xiv. Compare the following 
 passages : 
 Q. xiv. 597, 
 
 at Se Kal es /j.ya ftevOos vTroftpvxiai Kare8v(rav 
 6[j.f$pov fTTifipiffavTOS aireipovos. 
 
 Ag. 655 (Bind.), 3 
 
 at' Se KepOTvirovfievai fiiq, 
 rv<pa> u 
 
 Q. ib. 610, 
 
 a/jKpl Se vfjia Sovpa fiapvftpofjioi' a,fj.<pirplT'r]i/ 
 iraaav &$t]v fitdXvtye, jjieorov 8' avetyaiiseTO Kvfj.a. 
 
 Ag. 659, 
 
 6pufj.ev avdovv iT\ayos Aiyaiov veitpols 
 av8p>v 'AxaiSiV vavriKiav r' fpenriwv. 
 
 Ag. 661, 
 
 f)/j.as ye /J.ev 8ij VOLVV r' a.K^]pa/rov ffKacpos 
 
 fJTOl riS ^K\tl/V ^ '^T'fja'aTO 
 
 6e6s rts, OVK &v6p(i)Tros. 
 
 Q. ib. 627, 
 
 iravpot Se (pvyov fj.6pov, owy 
 3) 6ebs ^ SaifjLwv ns iirlppoQos. 
 
 Q. ib. 657, 
 
 '6<rffOi vTTfp ir6vroio \vypas 
 
 Ag. 676, 
 
 et S' oZv ns O.KT\S T]\iov viv Iffrope? 
 Kal S>VTO. Kal j8A.eVoj/Ta /j-r^x^fdis Aibs 
 
 ris TIS avrbv irpbs 86/j.ovs T^^etv ird\iv. 
 
 (Compare Od. iv. 495, 7ro\\ol peis yap TWV ye Sdpev, 7ro\\ol Se- 
 
 \i7TOVTO.) 
 
 Aeschylus does not expressly mention the rocks off the Eu- 
 
 3 The mention of heavy rain (or spray) in sinking an undecked ship (Thuc. i. 10) 
 is remarkable, though it must be regarded as a poetical hyperbole. 
 
14 QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 
 
 boean headland Caphareus, but at Kafflpeiai, axpai, Eur. Troad. 
 90, TrerpaL Kafyrjp&es, Hel. 1130, Euboicae cautes ultorque Ca- 
 phareus, Virg. Aen. xi. 260, and, Saxa triumphales fregere Capharea 
 puppes, Propert. iv. 7, 39, should be compared with Q. vi. 524; 
 xiv. 362, 469, 487, 572. 
 
 On the other hand, the description of captured Troy and the 
 misery of the inhabitants, in Ag. 315 seqq., only generally re- 
 sembles Q. xiii. 80 144, unless indeed we identify ver. 124, 
 
 &\\ot 8' a/j.<p' frXXounv aireirveov, 
 
 with Ag. 317, 
 
 ot fj.ev yap a/j.<pl ffu/j-afftv ire-irru^Tes 
 a.vSpui' Kafftyv^rwv re Kal ^vraX^iuv 
 TrcuSes yepdvrcav, 
 
 which has some resemblance also to ver. 120, 
 
 t) TtKfffflV. 
 
 But that Euripides in the Hecuba seems to have followed the 
 account in Q. S., I shall show further on. 
 
 The punishment of Cassandra for deceiving Apollo, viz. that 
 she should not be believed even when she foretold the truth, 
 Ag. 1212, 
 
 ouSeV ouSei/, us rdS' tf/J.tr\aKOV, 
 
 alluded to also in Virg. Aen. ii. 246, iii. 187, Prop. iv. 12 (13) 61, 
 is found in Q. xii. 526, 
 
 ], TTJS ot/TTOT 5 eTros 
 
 S* ^/c TWOS aforjs 
 
 The triumphant return of the Greeks with paeans of joy and 
 boasts of their prowess is found in both authors, and, of course, it 
 is absurd to suppose such frequent resemblances are accidental. 
 The Homer of Aeschylus was, beyond all question, the "Cyclic" 
 Homer so largely preserved to us by Quintus Smyrnaeus. 
 
 Q. xiv. 117 (compared with II. xxii. 393), 
 
 i}vvffa/J.ev 7roA.e/*oio p-aKpov reAos, ripd/Aeff evpv 
 
 Ag. 575, 
 
 us K0fjurd(ra,i rcpV zlicbs fi\iov 
 6a\dcr<njs Kal 
 
QUINTUS SMYENAEUS. 15 
 
 Tpoiav e\6vres STJTTOT' 'Apyeitav ffr6\os 
 0eots \d(pvpa ravra rots KaO' 'EAAaSo 
 86/j.ois eiraaffaXevffav apxuov yavos. 
 
 In Ag. 357, 
 
 %T' e-jrl Tpoias irvpyois eaAes 
 ffTeyav'bv SIKTVOV, us fj-^re peyav 
 /j.'fjr' ovv veapuv nv 1 u7repTeAe(Tat, 
 
 and ib. 822, 
 
 Kal irdyas 
 
 the metaphor from a stake-net dp/cva-Tara, (ib. 1375) closely re- 
 sembles Q. xiii. 493, 
 
 &s Tpwes KreivovTo KO.TCI. irr6\iv ov8e TIS avrovs 
 ^uer 5 eirovpaviw irepl y&p \lva TravroQe MoTpat 
 fj.ct.Kpa Trepiffr^ffavrOf TC irep fiporbs oijns aAu|eu 
 
 The reluctance of Ulysses to join the expedition to Troy is 
 also found in both poets. 
 
 Q. v. 121, where Ajax says to him, 
 
 7je rtJS 1 ee\o0ou, #T' es 'l\iov 
 e\de/Jievai dAeeti/es a/x,' aypo/j-evo 
 Kai (re KaTairTcfxrffovra Kal OVK 
 
 Ag. 841, 
 
 P.OVOS S' 'OSvffffevs, ftffTrep ov% 
 
 v e/j.ol a~eipa<p6pos. 
 
 Soph. Phil. 1025, 
 
 /cat-rot try /iej/ K\oiry re Ka.vA.yKri vyels 
 
 The grief of the Greeks remembering their friends slain in 
 war, Ag. 422, 
 
 o&s inev yap ris 
 oTSej', avrl Se (pwTcav 
 Tevxy Kal ffiroSbs els eKaffrov 86(j.ovs 
 
 closely resembles Q. xiv. 407, 
 
 ot S' ava Qvphv 
 
 Katirep Iaiv6^evoi KTap.ev(av fAvrjcrdevres eraipwv 
 apya\e(as 
 
 The advice given by Prometheus, not to let Thetis marry with 
 a god, lest her progeny, i.e. Achilles, should prove stronger than 
 Zeus himself, was clearly an "Homeric" story, probably in the 
 
16 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 " Cypria." 4 We have it in Prom. v. 76470, and 930, Find. Isthm. 
 vii. 28 seqq., Q. v. 338, 
 
 at 8e fj.4ya VKV^OVTO Upo/unrjOei p.i]Ti6fVTi, 
 fj.vAlJi.tva.1 &s Keivoio OeoTrpoirtrjffi Kpoviwv 
 SaJwe erjj/ IT/jA^i, Kal OVK e6f\ovffav ayeffOai. 
 
 The madness and suicide of Ajax (another subject only just 
 touched upon in Od. xi. 545) is described at length in the fifth 
 book of Q. Smyrnaeus ; and his account is identical with that of 
 Sophocles in the Ajax. 5 One of the few passages in that play 
 that can with any probability be referred to the Iliad, viz. 1276, 
 where Ajax is said to have rescued the Grecian fleet from being 
 destroyed by fire, 6 and to have withstood the attack of Hector, 
 
 afj.<pl IA 
 
 UKpoiffiv tfSrj vavTitco'is 
 irvpbs <p\fyovTos, es 8e vavritcb. <r/ca(>Tj 
 apdir]v "EKTopos rdcppctiv virep, 
 
 should perhaps rather be compared with Q. v. 215, 
 
 7cb 8' VTT' arapftei 
 Kal irvpbs avra Kal "E/cropos, os /J.QI 
 ev vfffjt.ivr). 
 
 4 One of the most famous stories in antiquity, often alluded to by the tragics, 
 more than once in the Iliad, also by Pindar and the early vase-painters, and in Q. 
 v. 759, was the marriage of Peleus with Thetis. Her transformations (i.e. the 
 changing colours of the sea) evidently give rise to the much later description of Pro- 
 teus in the fourth book of the Odyssey. In Q. iii. 619, Thetis in her lamentation 
 for her dead son, recalls this event ; eiAA' <5re n*v a))s oVe/xos TreAor, a\\ore 8' tfScup, 
 &AA.OTC 8' olwvy IvaKijKios % wvpbs 6pfj.fj. With which compare Virg. Georg. iv. 407 
 10. 
 
 5 Mr. Palmer, in his recent edition of the Ajax (Appendix, p. 125), acknowledges 
 that I have established the identity of the descriptions in Sophocles and Q. Smyr- 
 naeus. And, like a logical reasoner, he concludes, "this remarkable similarity of 
 ideas between the two writers cannot, I think, be accounted for on any other theory 
 than that there were poems relating to the madness and suicide of Ajax extant in 
 the time of Sophocles, which have been handed down to our times, somewhat altered 
 perhaps and re-arranged, in that epic poem which goes by the name of Quintus Smyr- 
 naeus." But Sophocles knew nothing about " Cyclic poets." What he followed 
 carried the authority of " Homer." 
 
 6 In II. xv. 730, it is said that Ajax successfully resisted all attempts to fire the 
 fleet, eyxei' 8' alel Tp&as &/JLVVC vewv, '6s TIS 4>epoi aKa^arov irvp. But see II. xvi. 122, 
 294. 
 
QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 17 
 
 The madness diverted by Athena from the Atridae to the 
 flocks and herds, Aj. 51, 
 
 eyca fffy' aireipyca, 8vo~(f)6povs CTT' ofj./j.a<Ti 
 yvcafias f3a\ovo~a, Trjs a.vrjKeo'Tov %apos, 
 Kal irpbs re irolfjiva.<i e/crpeirw <rvfj.fj.iKTd re 
 Aeias &5affra f3ovit6\(av <ppovp'f)[j.aTa t 
 
 is mentioned in Q. v. 360, 
 
 Kal ret fj-fv &s ftp/naive, TO 5^ Tdxa irdvra 
 el fjL-fj ol Tpirwvls adcrx^rov e)u)8aA.e \vcrcrav. 
 rovvfKa 877 fj,yd\oio 
 Tpfyeir air' 'Apyeicav. 
 
 ib. 411, 
 
 &s Atas fM^Xoiffi fj.ey' 
 s Aavao'i<Ti 
 
 His return to his senses, on finding what havoc he has com- 
 mitted, Aj. 305, Q. v. 456, and his grief in consequence ; his suicide 
 by the sword of Hector, Aj. 817, Q. v. 483 ; the lamentations of 
 Teucer and Tecmessa, Aj. 895, 992 seqq., Q. v. 509, 521 ; the re- 
 morse of Ulysses for having been the cause of the suicide, Q. v. 
 571 ; and his expostulation with Agamemnon not to refuse the 
 corpse burial, Aj. 1332 : all these points of coincidence make it 
 certain that it was not from our Homer that Sophocles drew his 
 inspirations. Even the subject of the Trachinice is thus epito- 
 mised in Q. v. 644, 
 
 ofos <aovra /te'Arj irvpl 5</ce 0epe<r6ai 
 pcwcAe'rjs NeWoio o\o<f>po<rvvri<n x 
 
 rArj fj.eya epyov, fi\ri S' a/j.tyeo-Tfveis Olrr/ 
 lwov Ka.iop.iv 'Oio. 
 
 Similarly the Suttee or self-immolation of Evadne on the pyre 
 of her husband, Eur. Suppl. 990 seqq., Propert. i. 15, 21, is in Q. 
 x. 481. There were many points in the "Homer" of antiquity, 
 and several in the Iliad and Odyssey, in which Thebaica have 
 been mixed up with Troica. 
 
 Euripides has given in the Troades, the Hecuba, the Andro- 
 mache (not to add, in the Helena and Iphigenia at Aulis, which 
 are taken from the Cypria and the NOCTTOL), abundant proofs that 
 his Homer was no other than that which Pindar, Aeschylus, 
 and Sophocles possessed. The dream or vision that appeared to 
 
 3 
 
18 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 Hecuba, the ghost of Achilles 7 demanding the sacrifice of one of 
 the Trojan captives over his tomb, Hec. 94, 
 
 ^A0' virep &Kpas TVfufiov KopvQas 
 
 yrei Se yepas TU>V ir 
 nvh TpcoidScav, 
 
 is given in Q. xiv. 180, 214, 275, Polyxena being specially men- 
 tioned in 214. The detention of the Greek fleet till the sacrifice 
 was performed, by causing a storm at sea, Hec. 113, Q. xiv. 216-9 ; 
 the reproach of the Greeks for leaving his tomb unhonoured, 8 
 Q. ib. 220, Hec. 116; the harrowing details of the sacrifice by 
 cutting the throat of the maid, Hec. 567, Q. ib. 314 ; the invoca- 
 tion of his father's spirit by Neoptolemus, to be propitious to the 
 wished-for return, Q. ib. 308, 216, 327, Hec. 535, 
 
 irpV(ji.v}]s 8' rjfuv yei/ou, 
 \vffat re irpvfjLvas nal x a ^ lvwr ^P ia 
 vtwv Sbs T}iu.v, irpev/jLfvovs T' avr' 'lA/ou 
 v6(TTOV TVX&VTO.S irdvras es irdrpav yUoAelV, 
 
 the injunction to honour the body with funeral rites, Q. ib. 221, 
 xiv. 325, Hec. 571 ; the transformation of Hecuba into the. canine 
 form, 9 Q. ib. 349, Hec. 1265 ; the advent of Odysseus as a spy to 
 Troy, dressed as a beggar 1 who had been personally abused, Q. ib. 
 278, Hec. 240. 
 
 In Hec. 933 the Trojan wife is described as leaving her bed, 
 scantily clad, to take refuge in the temple, on the first alarm of 
 the capture of Troy, 
 
 7 In a very early vase in the British Museum there is a curious representation 
 of the ghost of Achilles rising near the Grecian fleet. 
 
 8 It is easy to see in this propitiatory rite, as in all the attributes of Achilles, an 
 ancient worship of the sun-god. His re-appearance in the east after leaving the earth 
 in the west, is as clearly the "ghost," as the 'AxiAAecos Sp6/j.os was the haunt of the 
 sun-god in the far east, Q,. iii. 776, Eur. Androm. 1262. 
 
 9 Juv. x. 271, Sed torva canino latravit victu quae post hunc vixerat uxor. 
 1 See also Ehes. 711, e/8a Kal Trdpos Kara Tr6\iv, viratypov optf ^X <av i 
 
 (TToAa irvKacrQeis. Alluded to in Od. iv. 244, avr6v p.iv irhy'yfiffiv aeiK\ir]<n 
 enreTpa /cc/c' a/j.^' ia/JLOiffi fia\(av, ot/CTji' e'cu/ccta, avSpoov 8v0>iei'eeoj/ /care'Su ir6\iv. This, 
 which is undoubtedly the older story, gave rise to the imitation or replica 'jof it in Od. 
 xvii. 200, where Ulysses goes from the homestead of Eumaeus dressed as a beggar. 
 
QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 19 
 
 \iirovo~a Aupls us ic6pa 
 
 ffe/ji.vav Trpoffi^ova^ 
 
 OVK tfvva* 'Aprf/j-iv a TXd.fj.wv. 
 
 Compare with this Q. xiii. 109, 
 
 &s apa TpcotoSes /j-tya KtioKvov a\\o6ev aAAou, 
 a? p.*v aveypo/J-evat A.e%eW airo, rat 5' eirl youav 
 9pa>(TKovo-ai- rfjs 8' ovrt fj.irp-qs ert fte/jifiXeTO \vypfjs, 
 a\\' aijTcas a\d\f]VTO TTfpl /j.fXeeffo'i ^nSava. 
 P.OVVOV e(f)ffcrdfj.i'ai' ral S' ov ipddffav of/re 
 ovre fiaOvv fj.e\eff<riv eAe?;/ 
 
 The destruction of the Greek fleet by a false beacon held up 
 by Nauplius in revenge for the death of his son Palamede, 2 Hel. 
 767, 
 
 T& NauirAiou T' Euj8ot/ca irvpTro\^fji.ara, 
 
 alluded to by Propertius, v. 1, 115, 
 
 Nauplius ultores sub noctem porrigit ignes, 
 is found in Q. xiv. 612, 
 
 o$ S' eVl 
 epi i/rjas oivp>s 
 
 riv 6 yap Korea*!/ fj.d\a 7rat5iy, K.r.\. 
 
 But the fullest accounts of the storm, as I have said, are given 
 in the Agamemnon and the beginning of the Troades, both of 
 which passages were taken from the same epics in the Noaroi, 
 from which the allusions are evidently borrowed in Od. i. 12, and 
 iv. 490 seqq., and probably those in Iliad vii. 460, xii. 16. 
 
 In Tro. 70, Athena expresses her resentment at the rape of 
 Cassandra from her Palladium, 
 
 A. OVK oiffff vftpiffQeifrav /me Kal vaovs 3/j.ovs ; 
 Ho. oT5' T)VIK' Atas elXfce Kao~dvSpav flia. 
 
 Compare with this Q. xiii. 420, 
 
 oAA.' ov p.av ovS 1 avr^ ev<pp(av Tpiroyeveia 
 Trajj.irav aSaKpvs fijv, irei*f) pd ol HvSodi vt\ov 
 Kao~o~dv8p'r)V 
 
 3 The death of Palamedes by the treachery of Ulysses is alluded to in Q. v. 198, 
 a\\a Kal a.vnQe(? Ua\a^5ff Q^Kas oXsBpov. See Ar. Thesm. 770, 848. 
 
20 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 ib. xiv. 420 and 436, 
 
 7ret fid fjioi fvSoOe vt]o\> 
 utbs 'OiXfjos /we"/ epTjAire*', oi>8' eAecupe 
 Ka(T<ravSp?7i/ bpsyovffav a/crjSeas et? e^ 
 
 In Tro. 80, the goddess borrows the thunder arid lightning 
 from Zeus, 
 
 /iOt 5e 5c6(Tejp <T7(ri TrCp Kepavviov, 
 /JaAAeij/ 'A^atoi/s vat5s re Trefj.irpa.vai irvpi. 
 
 Q. xiv. 445, 
 
 oAAa /cal ei/reo Trai/ra, ra /^ot iropos ^ 
 
 uir' a.Ka/j.d.Tr)<nv freKT^vavro Ku/cA7res, 
 
 Compare further Aesch. Eum. 791, where Athena says, 
 
 Kal K\fj8as olSa Sufjidrcav /j.6vr) 0e>v, 
 eV ^ Kfpavvds etrrtj/ eff<ppayiff/j(.fvos. 
 
 In Tro. 88 and Q. xiv. 250, 507, the storm 3 is raised by Posei- 
 don to gratify Athena. In Tro. 24080, the allotment of the 
 captive women, Cassandra, Andromache, Hecuba, is the same as in 
 Q. xiv. 20, 
 
 8' 'AxtAf)os eus TTCUS, avrap ' 
 efA/ce )8i7? 'EKaftrjv. 
 
 The frenzied act of Cassandra in coming forth with a lighted 
 torch, Tro. 298, 308, 344, is also in Q. xii. 568, 
 
 TOVISfKO. 1TVK1)S 
 
 al0o/jievr]S ert SoAbi/ OTT' e(r^op6wvos eAoucro 
 
 But the most remarkable points of coincidence are in the 
 description of bringing the wooden horse into Troy. 
 Q. xii. 436, 
 
 8' ijirve 
 
 Tro. 522, 
 
 a.va 5' 
 
 TpcfdSos o?rb Trerpas (Travels, 
 IT', & TrTrav/j.evoi irovcov, 
 T<J5' iepbv avdyere 6avov 
 'I\id8i Sioyeve't icopa. 
 
 3 This must be distinguished from the storm raised by the anger of Achilles to 
 detain the fleet at Troy, as mentioned above. 
 
QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 21 
 
 (Q. xii. 377, Kd\xavTOs 8' IOTTJTI, ba'typovi, TpiToyevely LTTTTOV eVe/e- 
 rrjvavro.) 
 
 The making of the horse from pine-wood, Tro. 533, Virg. Aen. 
 ii. 258, Q. xii, 124, 
 
 o? 8' eXdrriffiv eTTiftpicravres atf v\t]v 
 T&P.VOV SevSpea ju,a/cpc, 
 
 and the comparison with the hull of a ship, Tro. 537, towed with 
 ropes, 
 
 K\(0ffTov 8' a/j.<pi&6Aois \ivoio, yaks oxrei 
 o~nd<pos KeXaivbv els eSpava 
 AetiVa SaTreSa re <p6via irarptoi 
 riaAAaSos deaav 0eas, 
 
 are again identical ; Q. xii. 423, 
 
 a/j.a irdvres 
 6ows irepi/j.'fiKei 
 
 ib. 428, 
 
 ot 8' a/io 
 
 ft\KOV firifipiffavTes aoAAees, TJVTC vr\a. 
 s effco a\bs 
 
 The advice given to the uxorious Menelaus, not to trust him- 
 self to slay his fair wife, Tro. 800, Androm. 629, Ar. Lysist. 155, 
 
 6 yuv Mev\aos ras 'EAeVos ra juaAa ira 
 yvfjLisas TrapfviSwv e^ejSoA', otw, r5 i<pos, 
 
 exactly corresponds with Q. xiv. 390, 
 
 i fj.'fj ot Ka.Tpve $(T\V tpAtffff' 'A^poSiTrjy 
 ^ pa ot K x ei P"> v e)3aA6 i<pos. 
 
 In Tro. 955 Helen pleads that her residence with Paris was 
 involuntary, and that she often tried to escape by letting herself 
 down from the Trojan wall by a rope. In Q. xiii. 160 she says, in 
 the same spirit, that she often tried to commit suicide by the noose 
 or the sword. And this is precisely what the nurse says of Her- 
 mione in Androm. 811, 
 
 fji6\is 8e viv 6e\ovffav apr^a-ai Sepyjj/ 
 <pv\aites 8/uo)es, e re Sepias 
 
 The resemblance seems too close to be accidental : 
 
 vcas airo\e<rOai 
 
 f) 
 
 tlpyov eVt /J-tydpoifft. 
 
22 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 The destruction of the city by fire, Tro. 1320 seqq., is the same 
 as in Q. xiii. 431. Compare 
 
 K6vis 8' 'tffa Kairvtf irrepvyi irpbs aidepa, 
 
 and efc\vere Ilepydfjicov KTVTTOV, with 
 
 aa\er} 8e K.6vis ffWCfdffytro Kairva, 
 
 3>pTO 8' apa KTVTTOS O.lv6s. 
 
 The death of the infant Astyanax by being thrown from the 
 Trojan wall, Troad. 725, 
 
 p?^at 8e Trvpycav 8e? <r0e TpcaiKuv &TTO, 
 
 Q. xiii. 251, 
 
 ot 8e Kal 'AffTvdvaKTa $a\ov Aavaol To%u7rcoAot 
 irvpyov o^)' uT|/rjA.oro, 
 
 is alluded to in II. xxiv. 731 5, where Andromache is made to 
 foretell her own captivity and the fate of her child. This, if ever 
 there was one, is an ex post facto prophecy. The composition of 
 the Iliad and the Odyssey, I repeat, is largely indebted to those 
 very poems which we have been taught to regard as secondary and 
 inferior. 
 
 Deiphobus, as the husband or paramour of Helen, is men- 
 tioned 4 in Tro. 960, Q. xiii. 355, where he is put to death as such 
 by Menelaus. 
 
 The wealth given to Hermione by her father on her marriage 
 with Neoptolemus, 5 Androm. 152, 
 
 Mej/eAaos TJ/JUV ravra Swpeirai Trartyp 
 iroAAots ffvv e'Sj/ots, 
 
 is from Q. vi. 90, 
 
 Scaffca ol irapdKotTiv epfyv ept/cuSea Kovp-riv 
 'Ep/jLi6vriv, Kal Tro\\a Kal 8\/3ia Swpa ffvv avrfj. 
 
 In the Philoctetes of Sophocles, Odysseus and Neoptolemus 
 sail to Lemnos to bring away Philoctetes. In Q. S. ix. 335, 
 
 'ArpelSot 7rpoe7j/cav fvKTL/j.fi'rjv TTOT! Afj 
 TuSeos u&pL/nov via 
 
 But in Phil. 370, Odysseus and Diomede are combined in a pre- 
 
 4 Alluded to as such in Od. iv. 276. 
 
 5 Alluded to in Od. iv. 5. 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 23 
 
 tended mission mentioned by the "EfjLTropos as eV aXXov avSpa. 
 And in Q. vi. 64, these two envoys are sent to Scyros to bring 
 Neoptolemus to Troy. 
 
 The arms of Achilles are adjudged to Ulysses by Trojan um- 
 pires in Q. S. v. 318 and Od. xi. 547, by the Greeks in Phil. 64. 6 
 
 The necessity of obtaining the bow of Hercules from Philoc- 
 tetes for capturing Troy is mentioned in Q. S. ix. 327, 
 
 ov yap 8$) TreVpwTO So/xTj/iei/at 'l\iov 
 irpiv ye &i\uKT'f)Tao &ir)V es tfyuAoj/ ' 
 f\6efjievai, 7roA.eyu.oto 
 
 Phil. 68, 
 
 et yap ra rovde r6%a 
 
 OUK ecTTt Trepffai <rol TO AapSdvov 
 
 and ib. 611. 
 
 In Phil. 72 Ulysses reminds Neoptolemus that he did not sail 
 with the first expedition. In Q. vi. 65 the intention of bringing 
 him from Scyros is announced. 
 
 In Q. ix. 360 the ragged dress of Philoctetes is described, and 
 his gaining a miserable livelihood by shooting birds and beasts 
 with his arrows. The whole account is evidently identical with 
 that in Phil. 165, drjpo/3o\ovvra Trryvois lots afivyepov a^vyepw^, 
 and ib. 287, yacrrpl fjuev ra av^opa ro^ov roS' e^evpiaKe ra<? UTTO- 
 Trrepovs /3d\\ov TreXe/a?, compared with ib. 955 ; and in Ar. Ach. 
 424 the rags of Philoctetes are specially mentioned, 
 
 a\\' % &t\oKT'f)Tov ra TOV trrcaxov \eyis ; 
 
 In Q. ix. 385 and Phil. 194/270, the wound in the foot is 
 attributed to the bite of a serpent at Chrysa, and Q. ix. 390, Phil. 
 325, the gory humour dropping from the wound is described. 
 
 In Q. vii. 292 and Phil. 243 the old Lycomedes of Scyros is 
 mentioned as the grandsire of Neoptolemus. This, and many 
 
 6 Tfre verse f\d6vri 5ovi/cu Kvpicas alrov^vtf seems to me an interpolation. The 
 '6ir\w Kpla-is was one of the most famous episodes in the ancient " Homer," and it is 
 given at length in Q. S. lib. v. Professor Jebb, in his Preface to the Ajax, p. vi., 
 though he recognises the influence of the " Cyclic" poems on the subject of the play, 
 still follows the generally received view, that they were only supplementary to the 
 Iliad and the Odyssey. 
 
24 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 other incidents in the same play, are expressly recorded as having 
 been subjects of the Cypria. 
 
 In Q. iii. 62 and Phil. 335 we have the death of Achilles from 
 an arrow sent by Apollo, 
 
 To|eiTby, us \eyovariv, e $oi/3ov Safety. 
 
 In Q. ix. 55, Neoptolemus, on his arrival at Troy, laments that 
 he has not seen his father Achilles unburied : 
 
 us e?0e ioV ere /xer' 'Apyeioicrt Ki-^avov. 
 
 vvv 5' OUT' ap* (rv y' eVetSes eoj/ TWOS, ouYe 0' eytaye 
 
 ?8ov fabv eoWo \i\ai6fj-ev6s irep ISec 
 
 Phil. 350, 
 
 fj.d\LO~Ta fj.fv 8r) rov Bav6vros 
 oirws tSoifji.' &9airrov ov y&p fl 
 
 (sc. eri ^cobv ovra, which must be supplied from the context.) 
 
 In Q. vii. 176, the Greeks both at Scyros and at Troy are 
 struck with the resemblance of Neoptolemus to his father, 
 
 otya 5e oi KIOV &VTO. T6r]ir6rS, ovvex opuvro 
 0apcra\fC{) 'AxiATjt Se'/xas 7repiKaAA.es d/u-oTov, 
 
 and ib. 537, 
 
 ot S' &p' afj.rjxai'i'ri )8ej8oA.7j/ieVot fj/8o6ev firop 
 TpoJes fcpavr' 'A%iA^a ireXcapiov flffopdacrdai 
 ourbj' 6/j.cas Tevxeo-tri. 
 
 In Phil. 356, 
 
 Kai fj.' evBvs eV KVK\CJ> trrparbs 
 fK&disra TTS TjfTTrt^eT 5 , O/JLVVVTZS )8\e / 7reti' 
 rbv OVKCT' ovra, <avr' 'AxtAAe'a ird\iv. 
 
 lu Q. iii. 217 it is Ajax who endeavours to rescue the body and 
 the arms of Achilles. 
 
 The promise to cure Philoctetes of his wound in the Grecian 
 camp, Phil. 1333, 
 
 teal -roiv Trap' 
 v6crov /J.a\ax0f 
 
 is thus given in Q. ix. 410, 
 
 o? 5e' e Oapo-vveffKOV, *<pavTO 8e ot \vypbv \KOS 
 e| oAooIo fjt,6yoio Kal a\yeos IJiffaffOai. 
 
 Propert. ii. 1, 59, 
 
 Tarda Philoctetae sanavit crura Machaon. 
 In Q. xiv. 630 the sufferings of Ulysses are predicted through 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 25 
 
 the anger of Poseidon and his jealousy of the Grecian ramparts as 
 a protection against the Trojans. In Od. i. 20 and 70 this anger 
 is attributed to the blinding of the Cyclops. 
 
 In Q. xiv. 437 the wrath of Athena for the rape of Cassandra 
 is the cause of the disaster at sea off Euboea. There is an allu- 
 sion to this in Od. i. 327 and iii. 135, 145. In Od. v. 108 it is 
 simply said that the Greeks eV Z/OCTTW 'A&rfvaivjv O\LTOVTO. 
 
 In Od. iii. 109 112, the deaths of Ajax, Antilochus and 
 Achilles are alluded to, 
 
 evQa 8 y e/xbs fy'iXos vlbs ' 
 
 all which events are given in detail by Q. Smyrnaeus. The valour 
 of Ulysses in defending the body of Achilles (Q. iii. 320) is alluded 
 to in Od. v. 309, 
 
 tf/j.a.Ti rfj ore /xot TrAelcTTot x a ^ K ^P a ^ovpa 
 Tpues fireppityav irepl FlTjAeiWt Qavovn. 
 
 In the time of Aristotle the Iliad and the Odyssey had assumed 
 that position of pre-eminence which could tolerate no rival. Now 
 therefore the "Cypria," which we have seen were attributed to 
 Homer in the age of the tragic poets, and the other poems on the 
 Troica which were not either Iliad or Odyssey, were relegated to 
 the authorship of inferior poets, to whom however an antiquity 
 was ascribed which of itself shows they were not regarded as novel 
 creations. This view enables us to appreciate at its true value a 
 well-known passage of Aristotle in the Poetics, 23. "Homer 
 takes a part of the war, but introduces many incidents (eVetcroSta), 
 while others take as their theme one hero or period or complex 
 action, as the composer of the Cypria and the little Iliad; for 
 which reason, while only one or two tragedies are composed respec- 
 tively from the Iliad and the .Odyssey, from the Cypria there are 
 many, and from the little Iliad more than eight." 
 
 Of course, if my reasoning is right, then the explanation of an 
 undoubted fact given by Aristotle is the wrong one. 
 
WAS QUINTUS AN IMITATOE OF 
 OUR HOMER? 
 
 HAVING proved by numerous quotations from the tragic poets 
 that the Posthomerica of Quintus i.e. his epitome from the 
 Cyclus was, in the main, the " Homer " with which they were 
 familiar, I proceed to another important and interesting, though 
 rather difficult inquiry. Do these epics follow the narratives of 
 the Iliad and the Odyssey, or are they apparently independent 
 of them ? 
 
 If, as will be found to be the case, they contain some incidents 
 that are the same, or nearly the same, closely combined with 
 others that are quite different, then it seems the most reasonable 
 inference that both are alike compilations from the same older 
 sources. Though far removed in point of time, the authors of 
 both followed a principle of selection suggested by particular 
 motives into which we cannot and need not enquire. The follow- 
 ing passage (Q. iv. 148, which is confirmed by two other narratives 
 of the deeds of Achilles, Q. vii. 377-81, and xiv. 127-135) is 
 extremely suggestive, as showing beyond all doubt that the tale 
 of his exploits was not taken directly from the Iliad, which 
 contains a partial and eclectic account of them. 
 
 (Nestor is relating to the Greeks at the funeral of Achilles the 
 deeds of that hero.) 
 
 forces Sieirepcre Kara ir\6ov oVreo <COTO>J/, 
 8' au KOTO yatav aireiptTOV, &s 8* eSdie 
 
 SaireSottrt, IS' avrideov Tlo\vScapov, 
 Kal Ip&iXov Brff^rbV) a^vfj.ovd r' ' 
 a'lfjLari 8' a>s fpv6r}vev &8-r)v TroTa/ 
 EdV0ou, /col VGHveffffiv aireipecrlour 
 p6ov KeXdSovra, AVKO.OVOS 
 ar' e/c fjLe\fcav irora/Jiov 
 
 a>y tSaftaacre, Kal &s eAe 
 rjSe /col u/ea 8?oj' ivQp6vov ' 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 27 
 
 Here, interpolated with well-known incidents from the Iliad, 1 
 we have the additional mention of Telephus, Cycnus, Troilus, 2 
 Penthesilea, and Memnon. 
 
 The very nature and theory of the epic Cyclus was to include 
 the whole tale of the Troica, and apparently of the Thebaica also 
 (from which, as I have elsewhere remarked, many passages have 
 been borrowed in the compilation of the Iliad), from the cos- 
 mogony of the world, in a continuous narrative. Hence a certain 
 consistency between the Iliad and other portions of the Cyclus was 
 a necessity. But Quiutus compiled from the general story of the 
 Troica which passed as " Homer " even in his time, long after a 
 distinction between Homer and the scriptor Cyclicus 3 was 
 acknowledged by the learned. It was no part of his care to 
 make his work harmonise with the particular accounts in the 
 Iliad or the Odyssey, and hence the great literary value of his 
 work. 
 
 But a still more striking and instructive instance of discre- 
 pancy from and yet resemblance to the text of the Iliad occurs in 
 two passages describing the arms of Achilles (Q. v. 7 100, vii. 
 196 205). They are too long to quote here at length ; but not 
 a few of the details e.g. lions, leopards, bears, jackals, &>a eoiKora 
 Kivv^kvoioi (Q. vii. 303), the Gorgons, the Mount of Virtue, the 
 marriage of Peleus and Thetis, etc., are wholly distinct 4 from the 
 Homeric account. 
 
 1 ix. 328, HcaSeita p.lv avv i/rjutrl ir6\eis aXdirag avOpAiruv, ire^bs 8' eVSe/co ^Tf]fJLi Kara 
 Tpoirjv epi&<a\ov. See also II. vi. 416, xxi. 140, 218, xxii. 46, xxiv. 257. 
 
 2 Troilus and Telephus had not passed out of memory as Trojan heroes in Horace's 
 time. See Carm. ii. 9, 16, Ep. ad Pison. 96. Throughout the Aeneid, but especially 
 in the first part of it, Virgil follows the " Cyclics" more closely than he does Homer. 
 The general matter of them, it is well known, survived even to the age of printing. 
 
 3 Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 136. The irapa\enr6/j.eva of the Troica occupied a position 
 closely resembling the Apocrypha in the estimation of theologians. 
 
 4 I have long felt, from internal evidences of the language, grave doubts if the 
 famous " Shield of Achilles " in II. xviii. can claim any great antiquity. Ancient 
 authors are marvellously silent respecting it. There certainly was an older account 
 in which the arms given by the gods to Peleus on his marriage were described (Eur. 
 El. 442477). Those arms, a ol 6eol ovpaviwcs irarpl $(\u firopov, and which were 
 taken by Hector from the body of Patroclus, to whom they had been lent (II. xvii. 
 195), had been conveyed to Troy by the Nereids for Achilles across the Aegean (Elect. 
 
28 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 The list of passages might be extended, did space allow, in 
 which, so to speak, Homeric incidents are differently treated by 
 Quintus. I will mention a few of the principal passages or 
 episodes common to both; but the subject requires to be more 
 fully worked out, pregnant with significance as it is. 
 
 The truce for the burning of the bodies, II. vii. 381, Q. ix. 35. 
 The funeral games at the pyre of Achilles, resembling but not 
 identical with those at the funeral of Patroclus, 5 II. xxiii., Q. iv., 
 Virg. Aen. v., the destruction and levelling of the Grecian camp, 6 
 II. vii. 460, xii. init., Q. xiv. 460, the carrying off of Aeneas from 
 the fight by Aphrodite, II. v. 318, Q. xi. 289 ; the Oeofjua^ia in 
 II. xx. and Q. xii. 162; Dionysus in his alarm received by Thetis, 
 II. vi. 136, Q. ii. 438. The two incidents on which the tale of the 
 Iliad may be said to turn, viz. the promise of Zeus to do honour 
 to the son of Thetis (II. i. 506, 524), and the anger of Achilles 
 against Agamemnon, are both referred to, though quite casually, 
 by Quintus, ix. 29, 
 
 67re/ vv e dv/Jibs avtaysi 
 ?lpa (pepeiv Kol KvSos evQpovi 
 
 442). To the second suit of armour, made by Hephaestos at the command of Thetis 
 after the loss of the others, there may be an allusion in the posthumous play of Euri- 
 pides, the Iph. Aul. 1071, where it is predicted that Achilles will come to Troy with 
 his Myrmidons, clad in the armour made by Hephaestos and presented to him by his 
 mother. A little consideration will show that there is here a confusion between the 
 two shields, and will suggest, especially after a careful comparison of the so-called 
 Hesiodic " Scutum Herculis," how many and varying were the accounts. That the 
 story however is ancient in its outline may be inferred from its distinctly solar charac- 
 ter. It was circular (like the eye of the Cyclops and the Table of King Arthur), and 
 it bore, as all accounts agree, a representation upon it of the bright sun and stars, with 
 the heaven and the circling sea. 
 
 The style of art in the Homeric shield is evidently late. Mr. Gladstone admits 
 (Homeric Synchronism, p. 57) that " if we place the real Homer in an age which 
 produced works of art such as he describes, he must be brought down to the age of 
 Phidias, if even that will suffice." He argues, of course, that later art followed the 
 imaginative conceptions of Homer, which seems to me a doubtful position. 
 
 5 The order of the games is in Homer (1) chariot-race, (2) pugilism, (3) wrestling, 
 (4) foot-race, (5) javelin, (6) quoit, (7) bow. In Quintus (1) foot-race, (2) wrestling, 
 (3) pugilism, (4) bow, (5) quoit, (6) long leap, (7) javelin. In Virgil (1) boat-race, 
 (2) foot-race, (3) pugilism, (4) bow, (5) game of Troy. 
 
 e A legend evidently referring to the extensive silting on the coast of the Troad, 
 pointed out by Dr. Schliemann in the account of his discoveries, " The Site of the 
 Homeric Troy," 4to, 1875 (p. 5). 
 
QUINTUS SMYENAEUS. 29 
 
 ib. xiv. 132, 
 
 7)8' oo> ' 
 Kara fj.r)viv 'AxtAAeos epya Ka.jj.ovro. 
 
 In some few cases the resemblance is very close; but even 
 this leaves the question open between Quintus copying the Iliad, 
 or the two poems being separate and independent compilations. 
 The story of old Phoenix, as the nurse of Achilles, and the 
 honours shown to him by Peleus, are nearly coincident; II. ix. 
 490, 
 
 7roAAa/a /tot /careSeucras evl (TTrjOeffffi 
 olvov airo/B\va>v ev vrjirier) a\eyetvfj. 
 
 Q. iii. 475, 
 
 (TV 5' ffj.o7(n Trepl ffTepvoiffi 
 iroAAa/a jrainrdfc'rKes er' &Kpira 
 ttai fjifv vrjirierjcriv &St)v evl o~r)o~i Sirjvas 
 
 In other episodes there is some marked discrepancy. In II. 
 viii. 133, Diomede is stopped by a flash of lightning falling before 
 his horses : in Q. xii. 96, this is narrated of Neoptolemus and 
 Philoctetes. In Q. vii. 444, the arms of Socus are presented by 
 Ulysses to Diomede, whereas in II. xi. 449, Socus is slain by 
 Ulysses, but not despoiled, Ulysses himself having been wounded 
 by Socus, ib. 439. The legend (a favourite one with the vase- 
 painters) of Memnon's corpse borne by the winds (Q. ii. 553, 585) 
 is evidently another version, and probably the older one, of 
 Sarpedon 7 borne by f/ T?r^o9 and Odvaros in II. xvi. 454. 
 
 In Od. xi. 520, we read that the son of Achilles 
 
 rbv TTjAe^tSrji/ KarevfipaTO ^aA/cy, 
 tfpca' EupuTTuAoz/. 
 
 In Q. vii. 324 and 630, and xiv. 137, we have the full account 
 of the fight between them and the death of Eurypylus. This, like 
 
 7 Memnon and Sarpedon appear in some mythical way to be connected with each 
 other. To the lament of Eos (Aurora) over her son Memnon, Q. ii. 609, and that of 
 Thetis over Achilles, Q. iii. 608, Ovid refers, Amor. iii. 9, 1, " Memnona si mater, 
 mater ploravit Achillem, Et tangunt magnas tristia fata deas." Propert. iii. 18, 15, 
 *' Cui maiora senis Tithoni gaudia vivi, Quam gravis amisso Memnone luctus erat." 
 The antiquity of the legend is again shown by its distinctly solar character. Aurora 
 threatens to withdraw from giving light to the heavens, and to hide herself in the 
 nether world, Q. ii. 610, with which compare the threat of Helios, Od. xii. 383, U<ro- 
 fj.ai els 5 Ai5ao, KO! ev veKveffffi 
 
30 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 the brief allusion to Memnon in Od: iv. 188, is clearly later as 
 given in the Odyssey. Another example is the mention of the 
 Muses as present at the funeral of Achilles, in Od. xxiv. 60, the 
 older account 8 being that in Q. iii. 594. 
 
 A third instance is the escape of Ajax by swimming, in Od. iv. 
 500, Q. xiv. 548 seqq. In both accounts he is just reaching the 
 Gyrean Rocks, when Poseidon, enraged at his proud boast that he 
 would escape, even if all the gods were against him, struck the 
 rock with his trident and threw it into the sea. The two accounts, 
 which for brevity's sake I omit, are well worthy of comparison, 
 being exactly the same though expressed in quite different words. 
 
 The description of Thersites in II. ii. 212 seqq., where several 
 words occur which are evidently not of an archaic type, 9 compared 
 with the account preserved by Q. i. 722 seqq., from which it passed 
 into Soph. Phil. 442, is another example of a common theme differ- 
 ently treated or applied. In Quintus, Thersites abuses Achilles 
 for his remorse over the dead Penthesilea ; in the Iliad, he abuses 
 Agamemnon for caring about Briseis. The point of the taunt is 
 the same. In both he is struck, but in Quintus he is slain, by 
 Ulysses for his insolence. 
 
 So, too, the ransom of Hector's body, which gave rise to the 
 "E/cropos \vrpa of Aeschylus (a play that had a different treatment 
 from the Iliad, lib. xxiv.) is alluded to by Priam himself to Neop- 
 tolemus, in Q. xiii. 233, 
 
 6TTir6T t &TTOIVO. irepl KTafJLfVOlO <ppf(TKOV 
 
 "EKTopos, '6v (Mot eTre^J/e trar^p re6s. 
 
 The love of Ares and Aphrodite, Od. viii. 267, is evidently an 
 episode interpolated from earlier poems, of a nature less pure, per- 
 haps, than the general tenor of the Hornerica and Posthomerica. 
 We have a reference to it in Q. xiv. 47 53. 
 
 The prophecy of Calchas about the ten-year siege, II. ii. 322 9, 
 probably adapted from the " Cypria," is referred to in Q. viii. 475. 
 
 8 Nine Muses, as mentioned in the Odyssey, is a later figment. 
 
 9 E.g. ffwox^fSre, ii. 218. This word, like SeSouirJros, II. xxiii. 679, and some 
 others, is found in the later epic authors an offspring, I have no doubt, of epic de- 
 velopment. Q. vii. 301, Seoy 8' eAe irdvras 'A^otoi/s, reix^os &s ^877 
 
QUINTUS SMYKNAEUS. 31 
 
 The well-known allegory of the Airal in II. ix. 502 is differently 
 given in Q. x. 300. The surrender of Helen (the 'EXewrjs aira'i- 
 rrja-ts of Tragedy), in II. vii. 347 proposed by Antenor, 1 in Q. ii. 55 
 by Polydamas, and in both poems (II. vii. 362, Q. ii. 96) rejected 
 by Paris, again points to independent compilation. And the same 
 probably, not either direct copying or deliberate variation from the 
 Iliad, will explain many minor differences of detail. Compare, for 
 instance, II. xix. 301, 
 
 irl Se ffrevdxovTO yvvcuKts, 
 TlaTpoK\ov jrp6(pacrii', afywv 8' avrfav KTjSe' etcdtfTirj, 
 
 with Q. x. 406, 
 
 &s e0or' ot TI yocacra, ir6<riv T6ffov, OTnr6(rov avr-fjs 
 ju.vpT y a\iTpo<rvvr)s fjLefj.vri/j.evr), 
 
 and II. ix. 26570, 
 
 atQwas Se AejSrjras e6i/co<rt, 8ca8eKa 8' 'linrovs 
 TTTj-yoi/s, a6\o(f>6povs, ot aeO\ia iroff(T\v &povro t 
 Sctxrca S' eTTTa yvvcuKas /c.T.A. 
 
 Q. ix. 512, 
 
 vvv 8e Xdf? CTTTO yvvaiKas tfiKOtri T' w/ceas 'l-mrovs 
 ad\o<j>6povs, rp'nroSds re 8vca8Ka. 
 
 The fact indeed is sufficiently evident, not that everything was 
 copied, imitated, modified from the Iliad, but that there were, in 
 the vast body of orally recited epics in and before the age of Peri- 
 cles, 2 certain popular themes and episodes which were almost 
 indefinitely varied, each rhapsode, we may fairly suppose, trying to 
 surpass his rivals in the art in novelty or interest. Such themes 
 were 
 
 1. Descriptions of shields, armour, and generally of works of 
 art, e.g. the shields in II. xviii., in Q. v. 7, vi. 200 seqq., vii. 200, the 
 " Scutum " attributed to Hesiod. 
 
 2. Descriptions of heirlooms or hereditary possessions, as the 
 
 1 In Q. xiii. 293, the house of Anterior is spared by the Greeks in sacking Troy, 
 because he had entertained Menelaus and Ulysses on their embassy to demand Helen 
 (II. iii. 205). This explains Virg. Aen. i. 242, "Antenor mediis elapsus Achivis." 
 The story was known to Herodotus (ii. 118), in whose time a literary distinction was 
 beginning to be made between the Cypria and the Iliad. 
 
 2 When Homer became a written literature in the age of Plato, rhapsodists of 
 course speak of knowing the Iliad or the Odyssey by heart. 
 
32 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 sceptre in II. ii. 100, the cap given to Ulysses in II. x. 261, the 
 goblet in which Priam drank the health of his guest Memnon in 
 Q. ii. 140, the bowls given as a prize by Thetis, Q. iv. 382, that 
 presented to Telemachus by Menelaus, Od. iv. 615, the arms of 
 Areithous in II. vii. 148, &c. 
 
 3. Funeral ceremonies 3 and contests of skill or prowess, e.g. 
 those in honour of Patroclus and Hector in the Iliad, of Achilles 
 in Od. xxiv., and Q. iii. and iv., those in the court of Alcinous, 
 Od. viii. 110 seqq. 
 
 4. Lamentations of women over a dead husband or son, as 
 those of Andromache and Briseis, Hecuba and Helen in the Iliad, 
 of Briseis and Thetis in Q. iii. 560, 608, of Eos in Q. ii. 609. 
 
 5. Pedigrees, as of Glaucus in II. vi. 150, of Aeneas in II. 
 xx. 213. 
 
 6. Contests between heroes, which must have been almost 
 indefinitely varied, since they were, from the nature of the case, 
 the easiest to alter, and enlarge, and the least likely to remain 
 always the same. 4 
 
 7. Contests for the possession of a corpse, like the fight over 
 the slain Achilles in Q. iii. 192 387, that over Patroclus in II. 
 xvii., and many other instances. 
 
 To recapitulate : I think it is altogether a gratuitous supposi- 
 tion to maintain, without a particle of evidence, that the Iliad 
 is the sole source and origin of the idea, and that all other 
 accounts are copies of and deviations from the accounts in the 
 Iliad. I have elsewhere remarked, that the Epic was a language 
 in itself, and that not a dead one, merely copied or modified from 
 the Iliad, but a living dialect up to quite a late period, capable, in 
 the hands of skilful rhapsodists, of almost indefinite expansion 
 and modification. Those who have come to understand and 
 realise this important truth, are not so easily deceived by appear- 
 
 3 The invocation of the winds to burn the pyre, occurs II. xxiii. 197, Q. iii. 700, 
 Propert. v. 7, 31, "Cur ventos non ipse rogis, ingrate, petisti? Cur nardo flammse 
 non oluere meae?" 
 
 4 Some one feature, e.g. the death of the hero hy supernatural intervention (usually 
 of Apollo) is commonly preserved, because it tends to magnify his prowess, and to 
 show the impossibility of conquering him by merely mortal valour. Sec 11. xvi. 788, 
 Q. iii. 62. Soph. Phil. 33-5. 
 
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 33 
 
 ances of archaism, as the maintainers of the antiquity of the 
 Iliad 5 appear generally to have been, in spite of the fact that 
 so large a pprtion of his vocabulary is the Ionic of the age of 
 Herodotus, and much of the diction, as I have elsewhere shown, 
 is quite of a late type. I contend further that it cannot be 
 proved that the tragic poets knew our Iliad or Odyssey as we 
 have them. They had the same stories in the main, but they took 
 their accounts from the older epics from which our Homer was 
 compiled in an age (about that of Plato, or not long before) 6 when 
 a literary taste had superseded a popular curiosity, and a fixed or 
 written " Homer " was required to take the place of a fluctuating 
 and oral ballad poetry. 
 
 Rightly considered then, the resemblances between Homer 
 and Quintus are proofs, not that Quintus " followed Homer," 
 which is an easy but wholly inadequate explanation, but that 
 both are made up from the epics which Pindar and the tragics 
 had, with variations indeed, because they were not yet fixed as 
 written poems, but in the main the same. 
 
 It is to be hoped that in due time, and when the whole argu- 
 ment has been well considered, the dreams about Solon and 
 Peisistratus and their MS. of Homer 7 will vanish into thin air, 
 and not return to haunt us again. But, of course, we must not 
 expect that a new view, so opposed to tradition and to strong edu- 
 cational prejudice, will make its way rapidly even among scholars. 
 
 5 I mean, of course, in its present form, composition, and plan. That the general 
 matter of the Iliad is ancient I have never thought of denying. 
 
 6 I am glad to be able to cite in favour of my views little attention as they have 
 attracted in this country the expressed convictions of Dr. John Oberdick, Director of 
 the Imperial Gymnasium at Miinster, Westphalia. He thus writes (De Stasimo Primo 
 Sept. adv. Theb., Miinster, 1878, p. 9), " Confisus iis quae ipse studiis meis assecutus 
 sum, non dabito F. A. Paleio assentiri qui Homeri carmina quae nunc feruntur nisi 
 Platonis aetate orta non esse docuit." ^Quadere" (he adds) "alio loco accuratius 
 agam." 
 
 7 Grote, Hist. Vol. ii. p. 144. " The first positive ground which authorises us to 
 presume the existence of a MS. of Homer, is the famous ordinance of Solon with 
 regard to the rhapsodes at the Panathenaea ; but for what length of time, previously, 
 MSS. had existed, we are unable to say." K. 0. Miiller, Hist. Gr. Lat. p. 64, " From 
 a close comparison of the extracts and fragments of these (the Cyclic) poems, which 
 we still possess, it is evident that their authors had before them copies of the Iliad and 
 Odyssey in their complete form" 
 
 5 
 
34 QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS. 
 
 We shall still see repeated in histories, notes and school books, 8 the 
 assertion that our Homer was the source and centre of all Grecian 
 literature ; that he cannot possibly be placed later than the time 
 of Peisistratus, and may be very much earlier. They will continue 
 to call the " Cyclic " poems mere expansions and continuations of 
 the Iliad and Odyssey, 9 though both of these latter epics were 
 largely made up, like the Greek tragedies, from the former. Yet 
 it is equally certain, that when a few candid and thoughtful scho- 
 lars are fully convinced (as I know of several who now are), that 
 my views in the main are true, and my arguments, as a whole, 
 unanswerable, those views will ultimately make their way, and 
 the difficulties felt in accepting them will disappear. 
 
 8 Since writing the above, Mr. Jebb has published his Manual of Greek Literature, 
 in which he repeats the popular view, that the Iliad and Odyssey date 850 B.C., if not 
 earlier. 
 
 9 K. 0. Miiller, Hist. Gr. Lit. chap. vi. " Homer's poems, as they became the foun- 
 dation of all Grecian literature, are likewise the central point of the epic poetiy of 
 Greece. All that was most excellent in this line originated from them, and was con- 
 nected with them in the way of completion or continuation." Welcker too thought 
 that the (i.e. our) Homeric poems were recognised and presupposed by the epics of the 
 Cyclus, and that these were either introductory or supplemental to them, and served 
 either as a commencement or a continuation. He, with others, had a theory about 
 the true Homer being a sort of sacred ground, on which minor poets feared to tread. 
 
 *** An edition of Quintus Smyrnaeus in the Teubner Series (1853), by A. Koechly, 
 may easily be procured by students who desire to make some acquaintance with this 
 author. A MS. of the whole work, hitherto I think uncollated, exists in the library 
 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, a folio on paper, of late date, in the same 
 volume with the Iliad and the Odyssey. The fault in Koechly' s book, as it seems to 
 me, is the view he has taken of the fragmentary character of the Posthomerica, and 
 his habit of marking lacunae in numerous places where nothing is wanting either in 
 sense or in syntax. The work seems to me quite complete as an epitome of events 
 from the death of Hector to the final return of the heroes into Greece. It is taken up 
 in continuity by the Odyssey, and so forms strictly a connecting link between the two 
 great epics which we regard as the only genuine works of Homer, albeit Thucydides 
 attributed the Hymn to Apollo, and Aristotle even the Margites, to " Homer." 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 HOMERUS PERICLIS AETATE QUINAM HABITUS 
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"" IVEM1TV 
 
 
 B 1924 
 MAY 23 1944 
 
 15w-4,'24 
 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY