of the bow, draws the shaft to its head and accomplishes the feat. Then turning on the trembling suitors, he showers his arrows among them, and none escape. The true - hearted Penelope is restored to him whom she had wept as lost, and husband and wife sit down together to talk over the sorrows of the past. "She told him of the scorn and wrong She long had suffered in her house, Each wooing her to be his spouse; How, for their feasts, her sheep and kine Were slaughtered, while they quaffed her wine And he, the noble wanderer, spoke Ulysses next discovers himself to his father; and they two, with their friends, succeed in putting down the adherents of the suitors and restoring peace to the kingdom. Among the most beautiful passages of the Odyssey is that in which the poet introduces us to the happy household of Alcinoüs, king of an island on which Ulysses was thrown. Charming is the simple sketch he gives of the unaffected princess of this isle, just before her marriage, driving her maidens to the river in her father's chariot, to wash the robes of state, lunch, and disport upon the bank while the clothes are drying. The royal mother superintends the weaving, the royal daughter the washing. We quote Homer's description of the PALACE AND GARDEN OF ALCINOÜS. "Ulysses, then, toward the palace moved Of King Alcinous, but immersed in thought Stood first and paused, ere with his foot he pressed EXTRACT FROM THE ODYSSEY. The brazen threshold; for a light he saw, Walls plated bright with brass on either side Sheer from the threshold to the inner house Fixed thrones the walls, through all their length, adorned, Transparent, work of many a female hand. Holding perpetual feasts, while golden youths On all the sumptuous altars stood, their hands With burning torches charged, which, night by night, Full fifty female menials served the king In household offices; the rapid mills These turning, pulverize the mellowed grain; Bright as with oil the new-wrought texture shone. Without the court, and to the gates adjoined, Those fruits nor winter's cold nor summer's heat There too, well-rooted, and of fruit profuse, 149 In part they gather, and in part they tread Such were the ample blessings on the house Of King Alcinous by the gods bestowed."-Cowper. Minor Poems of Homer.-The Iliad and the Odyssey are the only authentic productions of Homer. To their author, however, have been attributed about thirty hymns and several minor poems, which have little claim to so distinguished an origin. Of these, "the Margites," a satire on a blockhead who knew much "but everything knew ill," was probably the work of some clever Athenian in an age when epic poetry was a thing of the past; the poem is no longer extant. "The Battle of the Frogs and Mice,” a mock heroic of comparatively modern birth, is still preserved and appreciated. It is a witty burlesque on the Iliad (perhaps the earliest burlesque extant), written in a bold and flowing style. The plot is brief. A mouse, Crumb-snatcher, son of the Mice-king, flying from an enemy, reaches a pool over which a courteous frog, Puff-cheek, undertakes to carry him. But during the passage a water-snake appears; the frightened frog dives to escape his foe, and thoughtlessly leaves his newly-made friend to drown. The mice gather to avenge the loss of their prince; a great battle ensues, and but for the interference of Jupiter the frogs would have been annihilated. The so-called HOMERIC HYMNS, which the ancients believed to be the work of Homer, if somewhat inferior in age to the Iliad and Odyssey, are undoubtedly older than the pieces. named above. Those addressed to Apollo, Mercury, Venus, THE HOMERIC HYMNS. 151 and Ceres, the finest in the collection, are regular poems of some length; the others are simple eulogies or brief preludes to longer pieces. The Hymn to Venus has a tenderness and warmth not unworthy of Homer. The one in honor of Ceres relates the abduction of her daughter Pros'erpine by Pluto, king of the lower world, the mother's search for the stolen maiden, her anger on discovering the ravisher, and the final arrangement that the goddess shall enjoy the society of her daughter during two-thirds of the year. As a favorable specimen of its style, we cite the lines that follow: THE ABDUCTION OF PROSERPINE. "In Nysia's vale, with nymphs a lovely train, By magic formed, in beauty rose confessed. So Jove, t' ensnare the virgin's thoughtless mind, From the deep root a hundred branches sprung, The gladdened earth and heaven's wide circuit share. Pleased at the sight, nor deeming danger nigh, Her eager hand she stretched to seize the flower, Pluto, from Saturn sprung. The trembling maid Her wild complaint: nor god nor mortal hears! HOLE. There are also various fragments styled Homeric, supposed to have been dropped from the poet's genuine or spurious works. Among these is the beautiful couplet quoted by Plato: "Asked and unasked, thy blessings give, O Lord! Cyclic Poets. After the death of Homer, a host of imitators sprung up in Greece and Asia Minor. Rhapsodists by profession, as they wandered among the Grecian cities reciting the Homeric poems, their attention was naturally directed to epic composition, and they sought to supply in verse like Homer's what the Iliad and Odyssey had left untold. Confining themselves to the Cycle (circle) of the Trojan War, they were called Cyclic poets. One bard sung of the preparations made by the Grecian chiefs and the events of the war prior to Achilles' withdrawal ; two others took up the narrative where the Iliad left it, and described the sack of Troy; a fourth celebrated the return voyages of the Greek heroes; a fifth supplemented the Odyssey with the later history of Ulysses. Fragments only of these Cyclic epics survive. HESIOD AND HIS WORKS. Hesiod.-Homer was an Ionian of Asia Minor. Shortly after his time, or, as some think, contemporaneously with him, a new school of epic poetry appeared in the mother-country. |