The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

ternal as external, enable us to judge, we
seem warranted in believing that the Iliad
and Odyssey were recited substantially
as they now stand (always allowing for
paitial divergences of text and interpolations)
in 776 B.C., our first trustworthy
mark of Grecian time; and this ancient
date, let it be added, as it is the best-authenticated
fact, so it is also the most important
attribute of the Homeric poems,
considered in reference to Grecian history;
for they thus afford us an insight
into the anti-historical character of the
Greeks, enabling us to trace the subsequent
forward march of the nation, and to
seize instructive contrasts between their
former and their later condition." 30
On the whole, I am inclined to believe,
that the labours of Peisistratus were
wholly of an editorial character, although,
I must confess, that I can lay
down nothing respecting the extent of his