be written by Herodotus, and we leave them as fuch to ftand or fall with it; except the Epitaph on Midas, which is very ancient, quoted without its author both by x Plato and Longinus, and (according to Laertius) afcrib'd by Simonides to Cleobulus the wife man; who living after Homer, answers better to the age of Midas the fon of Gordias.

a

The Margites, which is loft, is faid by Ariftotle to have been a Poem of a comick nature, wherein Homer made use of iambick verses as proper for raillery. It was a jeft upon the fair fex, and had its name from one Margites, a weak man who was the subject of it. The story is fomething loofe, as may be feen by the account of it ftill preserv'd in Euftathius's comment on the Odyssey.

The Cercopes was a fatyrical work which is alfo loft; we may however imagine it was levell'd against the vices of men, if our conjecture be right that it was founded upon the cold fable of the Cercopes, a nation who were turn'd into monkies for their frauds and impoftures.

The Deftruction of Œchalia, was a Poem of which (according to Euftathius) Hercules was the Hero; and the fubject, his ravaging that countrey; because Eurytus the King had deny'd him his daughter Iole.

The Ilias Minor was a piece which included both the taking of Troy, and the return of the Grecians : In this was the story of Sinon, which Virgil has made ufe of. Ariftotle has judg'd it not to belong to

Homer.

The Cypriacks, if it was upon them that Nevius

* Plat. in Phad.

* Laërtius in vita Cleobuli ftath in Odyfl. ro.

Arift. Poct. cap. 24h

Longin. §. 36. Edit. Tollii.

Arift. Poet. cap. 4. b Eu‹ Ovid, Metam, l. 14. de Cercop.

founded

founded his Ilias Cypria, (as e Mr. Dacier conjectures) were the love-adventures of the ladies at the fiege: these are rejected by f Herodotus, for faying that Paris brought Helen to Troy in three days; whereas Homer aflerts they were long driven from place to place.

There are other things afcrib'd to him, fuch as the Heptapection Goat, the Arachnomachia, &c. in the ludicrous manner; and the Thebais, Epigoni, or fecond fiege of Thebes, the Phocais, Amazonia, &c. in the ferious: which, if they were his, are now to be reputed a real lofs to the learned world. Time, in fome things, may have prevail'd over Homer himself, and left only the names of thefe works, as memorials that fuch were in being; but while the Iliad and Odyssey remain, he feems like a leader, who, tho' he may have fail'd in a skirmish, has carry'd a victory, for which he paffes in triumph through all future ages.

Monuments,Coins, Marbles, remaining of him.

The remains we have at prefent, of those monuments antiquityhad fram'd for him, are but few. It could not be thought that they who knew fo little of the life of Homer, could have a right knowledge of his perfon: yet they had ftatues of him as of their Gods, whofe forms they had never feen. "Quin" imò que non funt, finguntur (fays & Pliny) pariuntque defideria non traditi vultûs, ficut in Homero eve "nit." But tho' the ancient portraits of him feem purely notional, yet they agree (as I think ↳ Fabretti has obferv'd) in reprefenting him with a short curl'd

g Pliny,

f Herod. 1. 2. Raph. Fabret. Explicatio Veteris Tabella Ana

• Dac. on Arift. Poet, cap. 24. 1.35. c. 2.

h

glyphe, Hom, Iliad,

beard, and diftinct marks of age in his forehead. That which is prefix'd to this book, is taken from an ancient marble buft, in the palace of Farnese at Rome.

In Boliffus near Chios there is a ruin, which was fhewn for the house of Homer, which i Leo Allatius went on pilgrimage to vifit, and (as he tells us) found nothing but a few ftones crumbling away with age, over which he and his companions wept for satisfaction.

They erected Temples to Homer in Smyrna, as appears from Cicero; one of these is fuppos'd to be yet extant, and the fame which they fhew for the Temple of Janus. It agrees with Strabo's defcription, a fquare building of stone, near a river, thought to be the Meles, with two doors oppofite to each other, North and South, and a large Niche within the eastwall, where the image ftood: But M. Spon denies this to be the true Homerium.

Of the medals ftruck for him, there are fome both of Chios and Smyrna ftill in being, and exhibited at the beginning of this Effay. The most valuable with refpect to the largenefs of the head, is that of Amafiris, which is carefully copied from an original belonging to the prefent Earl of Pembroke, and is the fame which Gronovius, Cuperus and Dacier have copies of, but very incorrectly performed.

But that which of all the remains has been of late the chief amufement of the learned, is the marble call'd his Apotheofis, the work of Archelaus of Priene, and now in the palace of Colonna. We fee there a Temple hung with its veil, where Homer is plac'd on a feat with a footftool to it, as he has defcrib'd the

! Leo Allat de patriâ Hom. cap. 13. * Strabo, 1. 14. Τὸ Ὁμήρειον. το migxy Godry, &c. de Smyrnâ,

Cicero pro Archiâ. τετράγωνα ἔχεσα νεῶν 0

feats

feats of his Gods; fupported on each fide with figures known for the Iliad and the Odyssey, the one by a fword, the other by the ornament of a ship, which denotes the voyages of Ulyffes. On each fide of his footstool are mice, in allufion to the Batrachomyoma chia. Behind, is Time waiting upon him, and a figure with turrets on its head, which fignifies the World, crowning him with the Laurel. Before him is an altar, at which all the Arts are facrificing to him as to their Deity. On one fide of the altar ftands a boy, reprefenting Mythology; on the other, a woman, reprefenting History: After her is Poetry bringing the facred fire; and in a long following train, Tragedy, Comedy, Nature, Virtue, Memory, Rhetorick, and Wif dom, in all their proper attitudes.

H

SECT. II.

AVING now finish'd what was propos'd concerning the hiftory of Homer's life, I fhall proceed to that of his works; and confidering him no longer as a Man, but as an Author, profecute the thread of his ftory in this his fecond life, thro' the different degrees of esteem which thofe writings have obtain'd in different periods of time.

It has been the fortune of feveral great Genius's not to be known while they liv'd, either for want of hiftorians, the meanness of fortune, or the love of retirement, to which a poetical temper is peculiarly addicted. Yet after death their works give themfelves a life in Fame, without the help of an hiftorian; and, notwithstanding the meanncis of their au

thor, or his love of retreat, they go forth among mankind, the glories of that age which produc'd; them, and the delight of thofe which follow it. This is a fate particularly verify'd in Homer, than whom no confiderable author is lefs known as to himself, or more highly valu'd as to his productions.

The first publication of his Works by Lycurgus.

46

a

The earliest account of thefe is faid by Plutarch to be fome time after his death, when Lycurgus fail'd to Afia; "There he had the first fight of Ho"mer's works, which were probably preferv'd by the grand-children of Creophilus; and having obferv'd that their pleasurable air of fiction "did not hinder the Poet's abounding in maxims of "state, and rules of morality, he tranfcrib'd and "carry'd with him that entire collection we have "now among us: For at that time (continues this author) "there was only an obfcure rumour in Greece "to the reputation of thefe Poems, and but a few

fcatter'd fragments handed about, 'till Lycurgus "publish'd them entire." Thus they were in danger of being loft as foon as they were produced, by the misfortune of the age, a want of tafte in learning, or the manner in which they were left to pofterity, when they fell into the hands of Lycurgus. He was a man of great learning, a law-giver to a people divided and untractable, and one who had a notion that poetry influenc'd and civiliz'd the minds of men; which made him fmooth the way to his conftitution by the fongs of Thales the Cretan, whom he engag'd to write upon obedience and concord. As he propos'd to himself, that the conftitution he would raife upon this their union fhould be of a martial nature, these poems were of an extraordinary value to him;

• Plut. vit, Lycurgi.

for