Homer and His Age

The aim of this book is to prove that the Homeric Epics as wholes and apart from passages gravely suspected in antiquity present a perfectly harmonious picture of the entire life and civilisation of one single age. The faint variations in the design are not greater than such as mark every moment of culture for in all there is some movement; in all cases are modified by circumstances. If our contention be true it will follow that the poems themselves as wholes are the product of a single age not a mosaic of the work of several changeful centuries. This must be the case-if the life drawn is harmonious the picture must be the work of a single epoch-for it is not in the nature of early uncritical times that later poets should adhere or even try to adhere to the minute details of law custom opinion dress weapons houses and so on as presented in earlier lays or sagas on the same set of subjects. Even less are poets in uncritical times inclined to archaise either by attempting to draw fancy pictures of the manners of the past or by making researches in graves or among old votive offerings in temples for the purpose of preserving local colour. The idea of such archaising is peculiar to modern times.