THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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632 THE HOMERIC DIALECT.
Odyssey, who, according to Sir W. Geddes, reveals himself by
his love for the dog in preference to the horse or whether there
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CHAPTER X}
THE HOMERIC DIALECT.
Ofroi AioAiCTi AieAexSHCAN.
Strabo, 33i.
In an investigation which is so closely connected with the
Iliad and Odyssey, the chief sources from which we have
obtained both our knowledge of the Acheans and their culture,
and also many glimpses of an older age, which are invaluable
to the historical inci[uirer,
it is
necessary to deal in some
measure with the origin of the two great epics.
It has recently been held somewhat um-easonably that
these poems are in every way Achean, that is, the work of an
Achean poet, and composed
in the Achean language, which is
held to be identical with Aeolic. Next, there is the question
whether these poems were composed on the mainland of Greece
or cm the west coast of Asia Minor.
These are the two main (piestious with which we shall
concern ourselves in the ])res('nt chapter.
The controversies touching th(^ structure of the poems,
which havu i-agcd incessantly ever since the; publication of
Wolf's ProleyuiiieiKt in 17(SS, do not come within the scoj)e
of
this Work. It is
undoubtedly of gi'eat litei'ary interest to
debate whethei' the ICkkI is made u|) of 17 sepnrate poems, or
of an oi'iginal nucleus called tlie \\r;ith of Achilles subse(]uently
ex])anded either b\' the |)oet
who made this Achilleid, or by
some othei- long-foi'gotteii Iroubadour, or l)y the aiithoi' of the
TIk^ (loctiiiic ((iiicciiiiii),' the l'tl:is^.'imi liiiit,'ua(,'c iiiaintaincd in this
cliiipttn- was [Hit toiwaid in my ]ia]H'r "What I'l-djilc
made the Ohjccls called
Myconeaii ? " {J