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
But, again, is it prefatory only to the division of Achilles, and
is it simply the integer expressing the whole territory from which
his contingent was drawn, or is it prefatory to the whole remainder
of the Catalogue, ending at v. 759, and does it include all the nine
territorial divisions described therein? There is no grammatical or
other reason for the former alternative, while various considerations
recommend the latter.
There is no sign in the poems of any connection between Achilles with
his Myrmidons, or between the kingdom of his father Peleus, and any
particular part of Thessaly under the name of Argos, or Pelasgic Argos.
Although the division of Achilles did not embrace the whole of the
Phthians[130], yet Phthia appears to be the proper description of his
territory, so far as it has a collective name: and there are signs,
which will be hereafter considered, that the name of Phthia itself was
embraced and included within the wider range of another name.
Again, the Pelasgic name, as will be further observed, is not in Homer
specially connected with the South of Thessaly, where the realm of
Peleus lay, but rather with the North, the towns and settlements of
which are enumerated, not in the first, but in the later paragraphs of
this portion of the Catalogue.
In the invocation of the Sixteenth Book, to which reference will
shortly be made, Achilles at once addresses Jupiter as Pelasgic, and as
dwelling afar (τηλόθι ναίων): therefore, the special Thessalian seat of
the god could not be in the dominions of Peleus.
We have observed, again, in the earlier parts of the catalogue various
collective names, afterwards explained distributively, for the various
contingents: but there is not one of this class of names employed
for any of the Eight Divisions which follow that of Achilles. They
all seem to bear the form of particular distributive enumerations,
belonging to the comprehensive head of Pelasgic Argos or Thessaly.
There is also something in the obvious break in the Catalogue,
signified by the words
νῦν αὖ τοὺς ὅσσοι ...
which indicate, as it were, a completely new starting point. There
is nothing else resembling them. They form the introduction to a new
chapter of the lists, after a geographical transition from the islands:
and there is no reason for these marked words, if Pelasgic Argos was
either a mere town district, or a local sovereignty, but a very good
reason, if Pelasgic Argos meant that great integral portion of the
Greek territory, the vale of Thessaly, the particular parts of which
the Poet was about to set forth in so much detail.
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