To answer this story, we may take notice that Hefiod is generally plac'd after Homer. Gravius, his own commentator, fets him a hundred years lower; and whether he were fo or no, yet Plutarch has flightly pafs'd. the whole account as a fable. Nay, we may draw an argument against it from Hefiod himfelf: He had a. love of fame which caus'd him to engage at the funeral games, and which went fo far as to make him record his conqueft in his own works; had he defeated Homer, the fame principle would have made him mention a name that could have fecur'd his own to immortality. A Poet who records his glory, would not omit the nobleft circumftance, and Homer, like a captive prince, had certainly grac'd the triumph of his adverfary.

Towards the latter end of his life, there is another ftory invented, which makes him conclude it in a manner altogether beneath the greatnefs of a genius. We find in the life faid to be written by Plutarch, a tradition, "That he was warn'd by an oracle to be"ware of the young mens riddle. This remain'd "long obfcure to him, 'till he arriv'd at the island Ios." "There as he fat to behold the fishermen, they pro

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pos'd to him a riddle in verfe, which he being "unable to answer, dy'd for grief." This ftory refutes it felf, by carrying fuperftition at one end, and folly at the other. It feems conceiv'd with an air of derifion, to lay a great man in the duft after a foolish manner. The fame fort of hand might have fram'd that tale of Ariftotle's drowning himself becaufe he could not account for the Euripus: The design is the fame, the turn the fame; and all the difference, that the great men are each to fuffer in his character, the one by a poetical riddle, the other by a philofophical

Plut. Symp. 1. 5. §. 2.

problem

problem. But thefe are actions which can only proceed from the meannefs of pride, or extravagance of madness: A foul enlarg'd with knowledge (fo vaftly as that of Homer) better knows the proper stress which is to be laid upon every incident, and the proportion of concern, or carelefnefs, with which it ought to be affected. But it is the fate of narrow capacities to measure mankind by a falfe ftandard, and imagine the great, like themfelves, capable of being difconcerted by little occafions; to frame their malignant fables according to this imagination, and to ftand detected by it as by an evident mark of igno

rance.

III.

Stories of Homer proceeding from trifling curiofity.

III. The third manner in which the life of Homer has been written, is but an amaffing of all the traditions and hints which the writers could meet with, great or little, in order to tell a ftory of him to the world. Perhaps the want of choice materials might put them upon the neceffity; or perhaps an injudicious defire of faying all they could, occafion'd the fault. However it be, a life compos'd of trival circumftances, which (tho' it give a true account of feveral paffages) fhews a man but little in that light in which he was most famous, and has hardly any thing correfpondent to the idea we entertain of him: Such a life, I fay, will never anfwer rightly the demand the world has upon an Hiftorian. Yet the moft formal account we have of Homer is of this nature, I mean that which is faid to be collected by Herodotus. It is, in fhort, an unfupported minute treatife, compos'd of events which lie within the compafs of probability, and belong to the loweft fphere of life. It feems to be entirely conducted by the fpirit of a Grammarian; ever abounding with extempore verfes, as if it were to prove

C 2

a thing

a thing fo unquestionable as our author's title to rapture; and at the fame time the occafions are so poorly invented, that they mifbecome the warmth of a poetical imagination. There is nothing in it above the life which a Grammarian might lead himself; nay, it is but fuch a one as they commonly do lead, the highest stage of which is to be master of a school. But because this is a treatife to which writers have had recourfe for want of a better, I fhall give the following abftract of it.

Homer was born at Smyrna, about one hundred fixty eight years after the fiege of Troy, and fix hundred twenty two years before the expedition of Xerxes. His mother's name was Crytheis, who proving unlawfully with child, was fent away from Cuma by her uncle, with Ifmenias, one of those who led the colony to Smyrna, then building. A while after, as fhe was celebrating a festival with other women on the banks of the river Meles, fhe was deliver'd of Homer, whom the therefore nam'd Melefigenes. Upon this fhe left Ifmenias, and fupported herfelf by her labour, 'till Phemius (who taught a fchool in Smyrna) fell in love with her, and marry'd her. But both dying in procefs of time, the school fell to Homer, who manag'd it with fuch wifdom, that he was univerfally admir'd both by natives and ftrangers. Amongst thefe latter was Mentes, a master of a fhip from Leucadia, by whofe perfuafions and promifes he gave up his fchool, and went to travel: With him he visited Spain and taly, but was left behind at Ithaca upon account of a defluxion in his eyes. During his ftay he was entertain'd by one Mentor, a man of fortune, juftice, and hofpitality, and learn'd the principal incidents of Ulyffes's life. But at the return of Mentes, he went from thence to Colophon, where, his defluxion renewing, he fell entirely blind. Upon this he could think of no better expedient than to go back to Smyrna, where perhaps

perhaps he might be fupported by those who knew him, and have the leifure to addict himself to poetry. But there he found his poverty encrease, and his hopes of encouragement fail; fo that he remov'd to Cuma, and by the way was entertain'd for fome time at the house of one Tychius a leatherdreffer. At Cuma his poems were wonderfully admir'd, but when he propos'd to eternize their town if they would allow him a falary, he was anfwer'd, that there would be no end of maintaining all the "Oμneg, or blind men, and hence he got the name of Homer. From Cuma he went to Phocaa, where one Theftorides (a fchool-mafter alfo) offer'd to maintain him if he would fuffer him to tranfcribe his verses: This Homer complying with thro' mere neceffity, the other had no fooner gotten them, but he remov'd to Chios; there the poems gain'd him wealth and honour, while the author himself hardly earn'd his bread by repeating them. At laft, fome who came from Chios having told the people that the fame verfes were publish'd there by a school-master, Homer refolv'd to find him out. Having therefore landed near that place, he was receiv'd by one Glaucus a fhepherd (at whofe door he had like to have been worried by dogs) and carry'd by him to his master at Boliffus, who admiring his knowledge, entrusted him with the education of his children. Here his praise began to fpread, and Theftorides who heard of his neighbourhood, fled before him. He remov'd however fome time afterwards to Chios, where he fet up a school of poetry, gain'd a competent fortune, marry'd a wife, and had two daughters,the one of which dy'd young, the other was marry'd to his patron at Boliffus. Here he inferted in his poems the names of those to whom he had been moft oblig'd, as Mentes, Phemius, Mentor, and Tychius; and refolving for Athens, he made honourable mention of that city, to prepare the Athe

nians for a kind reception. But as he went, the fhip put in at Samos, where he continu'd the whole winter, finging at the houses of great men, with a train of boys after him. In fpring he went on board again in order to profecute his journey to Athens, but landing by the way at Ios, he fell fick, dy'd, and was bury'd on the fea-fhore.

This is the life of Homer afcrib'd to Herodotus, tho’ it is wonderful it fhould be fo, fince it evidently contradicts his own hiftory, by placing Homer fix hundred twenty two years before the expedition of Xerxes; whereas Herodotus himself, who was alive at the time of that expedition, fays Homer was only s four hundred years before him. However, if we can imagine that there may be any thing of truth in the main parts of this treatife, we may gather thefe general obfervations from it: That he fhew'd a great thirst after knowledge, by undertaking fuch long and numerous travels; That he manifefted an unexampled vigor of mind, by being able to write with more fire under the difadvantages of blindnefs, and the utmoft poverty, than any Poet after him in better circumftances; and that he had an unlimited fenfe of fame (the attendant of noble fpirits) which prompted him to engage in new travels, both under these disadvantages, and the additional burthen of old age.

But it will not perhaps be either improper or difficult to make fome conjectures, which feem to lay open the foundation from whence the traditions which frame the low lives of Homer have arisen. We may confider, That there are no Hiftorians of his time (or none handed down to us) who have mention'd him; and that he has never fpoken plainly of himself, in thefe works which have been afcrib'd

s Herod. 4, 2

to