Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek RacesGladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek Races
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
2. The legend of Bellerophon, delivered on the field of battle, was
not required, nor is it introduced, merely to fill up the time during
which Hector goes from the camp to the city. It required no filling
up: but Homer turns the interval to account by using it to give us
this interesting chapter of archaic history, doubtless in order to
illustrate, as all his other legends do, the beginnings and early
relations of the Hellenic races. Accordingly we find that Antea, wife
of Prœtus the Argive king, was a Lycian: that a familiar intercourse
subsisted between the two courts, such as probably and strongly implies
that the nations had other ties: and lastly that an Æolid line of
sovereigns, descended through Sisyphus, were the actual governors of
Lycia at the period of the _Troica_.
3. The very same ideas of kingship and its offices, which prevailed
in Greece, are expressed by Sarpedon in his speech to Glaucus[333],
and there is an indication of free institutions which enlarges the
resemblance. The force of this circumstance will be more fully
appreciated, when we shall have examined the Asiatic tinge which is
perceptible in the institutions of Troy itself.
4. Besides the Æolid sovereignty, the etymology of the names of Lycian
warriors connects itself not only with the Greek race, but with the
Hellic element in that race[334].
5. On the other hand Apollo, whom we shall hereafter find to be the
great Pelasgian, though also universal, god, is even, according to
Homer, in close and peculiar connection with Lycia, although he is
not localized there by Homer as he is in the later tradition. First
as being λυκηγενής. Secondly as the great bowman: while Lycia was so
eminent in this art, that Æneas, addressing Pandarus with a compliment
on his skill, says no man before Troy can match him, and perhaps even
in Lycia there may not be a better archer[335]. Thirdly, this Pandarus
the archer, and son of Lycaon, received the gift of his bow from Apollo
himself[336]: and says, that Apollo prompted or instructed him, as
he came from Lycia[337]. It may, however, be reasonably questioned,
whether we are here to understand the Lycia of the South, or the
district of kindred name in Troas. In any case, Apollo in Lycia would
be no more than the counterpart of Minerva in Pelasgian Athens.
6. The prevalence of that Lycian name in other quarters, such as
Arcadia, of a marked Pelasgian character, further supports the
supposition that Lycia had probably a Pelasgian race for the bulk of
its population, holding the same subordinate relation to another race
as we find in corresponding cases. In Arcadia[338] Pausanias reports a
Lycaon son of Pelasgus; a Lycosura, the city he founded; Lyceon, the
hill where it stood; and Lycea, the games he established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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