The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)
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* It is needless for me to observe that the birthplace of Homer has been the object of a host of discussions as much among the ancients as among the modems. My plan here is not to put down again en problhne, nor to examine anew the things which have been a hundred times discussed and that I have sufficiently examined. I have chosen, from the midst of all the divergent opinions bom of these discussions, that which has appeared to me the most probable, which agrees best with known facts, and which is connected better with the analytical thread of my ideas. I advise my readers to do the same. It is neither the birthplace of Homer nor the name of his parents that is the important matter: it is his genius that must be fathomed. Those who would, however, satisfy their curiosity regarding these subjects foreign to my researches, will find in La Bibliothigue grecque de Fabricius, and in the book by L^on Allatius entitled De PatriA Homeri, enough material for all the systems they may wish to build. They will find there twenty-six different locations wherein they can, at their pleasure, place the cradle of the poet. The seven most famous places indicated in a Greek verse by Aulus Gellius are, Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, and Athens. The nineteen indicated by divers authors, are Pylos, Chios, Cyprus, Clazomenae, Babylon, Cumas, Egypt, Italy, Crete, Ithaca, Mycenae, Phrygia, Msonia, Lucania, Lydia, Syria, Thessaly, and finally Troy, and even Rome.
However, the tradition which I have followed, in considering Homer as born not far from Smyrna, upon the borders of the liver Meles, is not only
The Essence and Form of Poetry 35 his benevolent preceptor, simple but pure ideas, which the activity of his soul developed, which his genius increased, universalized, and brought to their perfection. His education, begun with an assiduous and sedentary study, was perfected through observation. He undertook long journeys for the sole purpose of instructing himself. The political conditions, contrary to every other project, favoured him.
Greece, after having shaken ofif the yoke of the Phoenicians and having become the friend of Egypt rather than her subject, commenced to reap the fruits of the beautiful institutions that she had received from Orpheus. Powerful metropolises arose in the heart of this country, long regarded as a simple colony of Asia, and her native strength being progressively augmented by the habit of liberty, she had need of extending herself abroad. " Rich with the increase of population, she had reacted upon her ancient metropolis, had taken possession of a great number of cities on the opposite shores of Asia, and had colonized them. ^ Phoenicia humiliated, torn by internal dissensions, ^ tossed between the power of the Assyrians and that of the Egyptians, " saw the most probable but the most generally followed; it has in its favour Pindar; the first anonymous Life of Homer; the Life of this poet by Proclus; Cicero, in his oration for Archias; Eustathius in his ProUgomines sur I'lliade; Aristotle, Poitigue, 1. iii. ; Aulus GelUus, Martial, and Suidas. It is known that Smyrna, jealous of consecrating the glory that it attributed to itself, of having given birth to Homer, erected to this great genius a temple with quadrangular portico, and showed for a long time, near the source of the Meles, a grotto, where a contemporaneous tradition supposes that he had composed his first works. Voyez La Vie d'Homlre, par Delille-de-Sales, p. 49, et les ouvrages qu'il cite: Voyage de Chandeler, t. i., p. 162, et Voyages pittoresgues de ChoiseulGouffier, p. 200.
'H6rod., 1. v., 42; Thucyd., 1. i., 12.
' Marbres de Paros, Epoq. 28; H6rod., 1. i., 142, 145, 149; Plat., De Leg., 1. v.; Strab., 1. xiv.; Pausan., 1. vii., 2; ^lian., Var. Histor., 1. viii., c. 5; Sainte-Croix, De I'etat des Colon, des anc. Peuples, p. 65; Bourgainville, Dissert, sur les MStrop. et les Colon., p. 18; Spanheim, Prast., nimi. p. 580.
3 Bible, Chron. ii., ch. 12 et suiv.
* Ibid., Chron. ii., ch. 32 et 36.
36 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras this same Greece that she had civilized and to whom she had given her gods, her laws, and even the letters of her alphabet, ignore, deny her benefits,' take up arms against her, carry away her colonies from the shores of Italy and of Sicily, and becoming mistress of the islands of the Archipelago, tear from her her sole remaining hope, the empire of the sea. ' The people of Rhodes were overpowered.
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