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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. — John Shaqi

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

deep carving of the political characters; and what is still more, the
intense political spirit which pervades them. I will venture one step
farther, and say that, of all the countries of the civilized world,
there is no one of which the inhabitants ought to find that spirit so
intelligible and accessible as the English: because it is a spirit,
that still largely lives and breathes in our own institutions, and, if
I mistake not, even in the peculiarities of those institutions. There
we find the great cardinal ideas, which lie at the very foundation of
all enlightened government: and then we find, too, the men formed under
the influence of such ideas; as one among ourselves, who has drunk into
their spirit, tells us;

[1] Page xvii.

  Sagacious, men of iron, watchful, firm,
  Against surprise and sudden panic proof.

And again,

  The sombre aspect of majestic care,
  Of solitary thought, unshared resolve[2].

[2] Merope; by Matthew Arnold, pp. 94, 135.

It was surely a healthful sign of the working of freedom, that in
that early age, despite the prevalence of piracy, even that idea of
political justice and public right, which is the germ of the law of
nations, was not unknown to the Greeks. It would appear that war could
not be made without an appropriate cause, and that the offer of redress
made it the duty of the injured to come to terms. Hence the offer of
Paris in the Third Iliad is at once readily accepted: and hence, even
after the breach of the Pact, arises Agamemnon’s fear, at the moment
when he anticipates the death of Menelaus, that by that event the claim
to the restoration of Helen will be practically disposed of, and the
Greeks will have to return home without reparation for a wrong, of
which the _corpus_, as it were, will have disappeared[3].

[3] Il. iv. 160-82.

Before proceeding to sketch the Greek institutions as they are
exhibited in Homer, I will give a sketch of the interesting account of
them which is supplied by Grote. I cite it more for contrast than for
concurrence; but it will assist materially in bringing out into clear
relief the points which are of the greatest moment.

~_Grote’s account of the Heroic Polities._~

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.

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