The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

tion, and this observation will be somewhat novel: it is that, the poetic inspiration being once received by the poet and his soul finding itself transported into the intelligible world, all the ideas which then come to him are universal and in consequence allegorical.

So that nothing true may exist outside of unity, and as everything that is true is one and homogeneous, it is found that, although the poet gives to his ideas a form determined in the sentient world, this form agrees with a multitude of things which, being distinct in their species, are not so in their genus.

This is why Homer has been the man of all men, the type of all types, the faithful mirror,' wherein all ideas becoming reflected have appeared to be created. Lycurgus read his works, and saw there a model of his legislation. ^ Pericles and Alcibiades had need of his counsels ; they had recourse to him as a model of statesmen.

He was for Plato the first of the philosophers, and for Alexander the greatest of kings; and what is more extraordinary still, even the sectarians, divided among themselves, were united in him.

The Stoics spoke only of this great poet as a rigid follower of the Porch"; at the Academy he was considered as the creator of dialectics; at the Lyceimi, the disciples of Aristotle cited him as a zealous dogmatist '; finally, the Epicureans saw in him only a man calm and pure, who, satisfied with that tranquil life where one is wholly possessed by it, seeks nothing more. * The temples, which devout enthusiasm consecrated to him, were the rendezvous for mankind.

' Such is the appanage of universal ideas: they are as the Divinity which inspires them, all in all, and all in the least parts.

- Dionys. Halic, De Comp. verb., t. v., c. i6, 26; Quintil., 1. x., c. i; Longin., De SubHm., c. 13; ^lian., Var. Hist., 1. viii., c. 2; Plat., Alcibiad., i.

» Plat., In Vitd Lycurg.

3 Allat., De Patr. Homer., c. 5 ; Meurs., In Pisist., c. 9 et 12; Plat., In Hipparc.

■> Senec, Epist., 117. s Ibidem, 88.

' Dion}^. Halic, In Vitd Homer.; Eustath., In Iliad, 1. i.

' Strabo, 1. xiv., p. 646.

40 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

If, at the distance where I am placed, I should dare, traversing the torrent of ages and opinions, draw near to Homer and read the soul of this immortal man, I would say, after having grasped in its entirety the allegorical genius which makes the essence of poetry, in seeking to give to his universal ideas a particular form, that his intention was to personify and paint the passions, and that it was from this that epopceia had birth. I have not sufficient documents to attest positively that the word by which one characterizes this kind of poetry after Homer, did not exist before him; but I have sufficient to repeat that no one had as yet recognized its real nature." The poems of Corinna, of Dares, or of Dictys, were only simple extracts from the mythological cycles, rude copies from certain theosophical fragments denuded of life ; Homer was the first who caused the Voice of Impulse, that is to say Epopceia, to be understood*: that kind of poetry which results from intellectual inspiration united to the enthusiasm of the passions.

In order to attain to the perfection of this kind of poetry, it is necessary to unite to the imaginative faculty which feeds the genius, the reason which regulates the impulse, and the enthusiasm which inflames the mind and supplies the talent. Homer united them in the most eminent degree. Thus he possessed the first inspiration and the complete science, as much in its essence as in its form; for the poetic form is always dependent upon talent.

This form was then highly favourable to genius. The Greek verse, measured by musical rhythm and filled with a

' Arist., De Poet., c. 2, cit. par Barth., Voyag. d'Anach., t. vii., c. 80, p. 44.

* The word Epopcsia is taken from the Greek iiro-irotit which designates alike a poet and an epic poem. It is derived from the Phoenician words KB« (apho) an impassioned transport, a vortex, an impulse, an enthusiasm; and n«D (phohe), a mouth, a discourse. One can observe that the Latin word versus, which is applied also to a thing which turns, which is borne along, and to a poetic verse, translates exactly the Greek word ?iros, whose root f\Mt (adph) expresses a vortex. The Hebrew ]SiW {aSphon) signifies properly a wheel.

The Essence and Form of Poetry 41