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Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)

Philosophy

Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.

Name: Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.
Author: Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)

Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)

Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer

same time learn that he had a priest in Troas, the presumption arises,
that different conceptions of him prevailed in the two countries.
Again, there is nowhere assigned to him as a Greek deity any such
exercise of power, as that by which he saves Idæus, a son of his priest
Dares, from imminent death on the field of battle.

These general considerations, which tend to show that the identity
of name in a Trojan and a Greek deity may be compatible with much
of dissimilarity in the popular development of the functions, will
relieve us from difficulties, which we should otherwise have had to
meet, in accounting for the place of some of the Olympian divinities
in Trojan worship. We have found reason to suppose, that Vulcan may
have come into Greece through Phœnicia. But the Trojans appear to
have had very little connection with Phœnicia. The precious κειμήλιον
of Priam, the cup that he carried to Achilles, was not Phœnician but
Thracian[297]. The only token of intercourse mentioned is, that Paris
brought textile fabrics from Sidon[298]. Again, Vulcan was especially
worshipped in Lemnos, and had his terrestrial abode there. But this
goes more naturally to account for the works of metal in Thrace, than
for the position of Vulcan in Troas; higher as it was, apparently,
than in Greece. Again, it is worth notice, that the Vulcan of the
Romans was, like their Mars, one of the old gods of Etruria, a country
stamped with many Pelasgian characteristics. It may be, that we ought
to look back to Egypt for the origin of all these Vulcans. In the time
of Herodotus[299], the Egyptian priests claimed him as their own: and
Phtah, the principal deity of Memphis, was held by the later Greeks
to correspond with their Ἥφαιστος. Even the two names carry tokens of
relationship. From that fountain-head might be propagated diverging
copies of the deity: and, as far as we can judge, the Vulcan worshipped
in Troy was much more like the common ancestor, than the highly
idealized artificer of Olympus, upon whom the Poet has worked out all
his will[300].

[297] Il. xxiv. 234-5.

[298] Il. vi. 289-92.

[299] Herod. ii. 50.

[300] Döllinger Heid. u. Jud. VI. iii. p. 411.

~_Worship of Juno and Gaia in Troas._~

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Philosophy

Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.

Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)

Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer

same time learn that he had a priest in Troas, the presumption arises,
that different conceptions of him prevailed in the two countries.
Again, there is nowhere assigned to him as a Greek deity any such
exercise of power, as that by which he saves Idæus, a son of his priest
Dares, from imminent death on the field of battle.

These general considerations, which tend to show that the identity
of name in a Trojan and a Greek deity may be compatible with much
of dissimilarity in the popular development of the functions, will
relieve us from difficulties, which we should otherwise have had to
meet, in accounting for the place of some of the Olympian divinities
in Trojan worship. We have found reason to suppose, that Vulcan may
have come into Greece through Phœnicia. But the Trojans appear to
have had very little connection with Phœnicia. The precious κειμήλιον
of Priam, the cup that he carried to Achilles, was not Phœnician but
Thracian[297]. The only token of intercourse mentioned is, that Paris
brought textile fabrics from Sidon[298]. Again, Vulcan was especially
worshipped in Lemnos, and had his terrestrial abode there. But this
goes more naturally to account for the works of metal in Thrace, than
for the position of Vulcan in Troas; higher as it was, apparently,
than in Greece. Again, it is worth notice, that the Vulcan of the
Romans was, like their Mars, one of the old gods of Etruria, a country
stamped with many Pelasgian characteristics. It may be, that we ought
to look back to Egypt for the origin of all these Vulcans. In the time
of Herodotus[299], the Egyptian priests claimed him as their own: and
Phtah, the principal deity of Memphis, was held by the later Greeks
to correspond with their Ἥφαιστος. Even the two names carry tokens of
relationship. From that fountain-head might be propagated diverging
copies of the deity: and, as far as we can judge, the Vulcan worshipped
in Troy was much more like the common ancestor, than the highly
idealized artificer of Olympus, upon whom the Poet has worked out all
his will[300].

[297] Il. xxiv. 234-5.

[298] Il. vi. 289-92.

[299] Herod. ii. 50.

[300] Döllinger Heid. u. Jud. VI. iii. p. 411.

~_Worship of Juno and Gaia in Troas._~

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.

Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3: I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer.

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