FAMILIAR STUDIES IN HOMER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _FAMILIAR STUDIES_ IN _HOMER_ BY AGNES M. CLERKE ------- AB HOMERO OMNE PRINCIPIUM ------- LONDON _LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO._ AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16^{th} STREET 1892 All rights reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. HOMERIC archæology has, within the last few years, finally left the groove of purely academic discussion to advance along the new route laid down for it by practical methods of investigation. The results are full of present interest, and of future promise. They already imply a reconstruction of the Hellenic past; they vitalise the Homeric world, bringing it into definite relations with what went before, and with what came after, and transforming it from a poetical creation into an historical reality. Excavations and explorations in Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor, have thus entirely changed the aspect of the perennial Homeric problem, and afford reasonable hope of providing it with a satisfactory solution.