I.

Stories of Homer, which are the effects of extravagant admiration.

1. If we take a view of Homer in thofe fabulous traditions which the admiration of the ancient heathens has occafion'd, we find them running to fuperftition, and multiply'd and independent on one another, in the different accounts which are given with refpect to Egypt and Greece, the two native countreys of fable.

a

We have one in Euftathius moft ftrangely fram'd, which Alexander Paphius has reported concerning Homer's birth and infancy. That he was born in Ægypt of Damafagoras and Ethra, and brought up by 66. a daughter of Orus, the priest of Ifis, who was her"felf a prophetefs, and from whofe breafts drops of "honey would frequently diftil into the mouth of "the infant. In the night-time the first founds he

utter'd were the notes of nine feveral birds; in the "morning he was found playing with nine doves in "the bed: The Sybil, who attended him, us'd to be "feiz'd with a poetical fury, and utter verfes, in "which the commanded Damafagoras to build a Tem"ple to the Mufes: This he perform'd in obedience "to her inspiration, and related all these things to "the child when he was grown up; who, in memo

66 ry of the doves which play'd with him during his "infancy, has in his works preferr'd this bird to the "honour of bringing Ambrofia to Jupiter".

One would think a ftory of this nature, fo fit for age to talk of, and infancy to hear, were incapable of being handed down to us. But we find the tradition again taken up to be heighten'd in one part, and carry'd forward in another. b Heliodorus, who had heard of this claim which Egypt put in for Homer,

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endeavours to ftrengthen it by naming Thebes for the particular place of his birth. He allows too, that a prieft was his reputed father, but that his real father according to the opinion of Egypt, was Mercury: He fays, "That when the Priest was celebrating the "Rites of his countrey, and therefore slept with his "wife in the Temple, the God had knowledge of her, and begot Homer: That he was born with "tufts of hair on his thigh, as a fign of unlawful "generation, from whence he was call'd Homer by "the nations through which he wander'd: That he "himself was the occafion why this ftory of his di"vine extraction is unknown; because he neither "told his name, race, nor countrey, being afham'd "of his exile, to which his reputed father drove "him from among the confecrated youths, on ac"count of that mark, which their Priests efteem'd a "teftimony of an incestuous birth.”

These are the extravagant ftories by which men, who have not been able to exprefs how much they admire him, tranfcend the bounds of probability to fay fomething extraordinary. The mind, that becomes dazled with the fight of his performances, lofes the common idea of a man in the fanfy'd fplendor of perfection: It fees nothing less than a God worthy to be his father, nothing less than a Prophetess deferving to be his Nurfe; and, growing unwilling that he fhould be spoken of in a language beneath its imaginations, delivers fables in the place of hiftory.

But whatever has thus been offer'd to fupport the claim of Egypt, they who plead for Greece are not to be accus'd for coming fhort of it. Their fancy rofe with a refinement above that of their masters, and frequently the veil of fiction is wrought fine e

nough to be seen through, fo that it hardly hides the meaning it is made to cover, from the first glance of the imagination. For a proof of this, we may mention that poetical genealogy which is deliver'd for Homer's, in the d Greek Treatife of the contention between him and Hefiod, and but little vary'd by the relation of it in Suidas.

"The Poet Linus, (fay they) was born of Apollo, "and Thoofe the daughter of Neptune. Pierus of Ei

nus: Eagrus of King Pierus and the Nymph Me"thone: Orpheus of Eagrus and the Mufe Calliope. "From Orpheus came Othrys; from him Harmonides; "from him Philoterpus; from him Euphemus; from "him Epiphrades, who begot Menalops, the father "of Dius; Dius had Hefiod the Poet and Perfes by "Pucamede, the daughter of Apollo: Then Perfes "had Meon, on whofe daughter Crytheis, the river "Meles begot Homer."

Here we behold a wonderful genealogy, contriv'd induftrioufly to raise our idea to the higheft, where Gods, Goddeffes, Mufes, Kings, and Poets link in a defcent; nay, where Poets are made to depend, as it were, in clufters upon the fame ftalk beneath one another. If we confider too that Harmonides is deriv'd from harmony, Philoterpus from love of delight, Euphemus from beautiful diction, Epiphrades from intelligence, and Pucamede from prudence; it may not be improbable, but the inventors meant, by a fiction of this nature, to turn fuch qualifications into persons, as were agreeable to his character, for whom the line was drawn: So that every thing, divine or great, will thus come together by the extravagant indulgence of fancy, while it turns itself fometimes to admiration, and fometimes to allegory.

After this fabulous tree of his pedigree, we may regularly view him in one paffage concerning his birth, which, though it differs in a circumftance from what has been here deliver'd, yet carries on the fame air, and regards the fame traditions. There is a fhort life of Homer attributed to Plutarch, wherein a third part of Ariftotle on poetry, which is now loft, is quoted for an account of his uncommon birth, in this manner. "At the time when Neleus, the son of Codrus, "led the colony which was fent into Ionia, there "was in the ifland of lo a young girl, comprefs'd by "a Genius, who delighted to affociate with the Mu fes, and fhare in their conforts. She, finding her"felf with child, and being touch'd with the fhame " of what had happen'd to her, remov'd from thence "to a place call'd Egina. There she was taken in an "excurfion made by robbers, and being brought to "Smyrna, which was then under the Lydians, they "gave her to Maon the King, who marry'd her upon "account of her beauty. But while fhe walk'd on "the bank of the river Meles, fhe brought forth Ho

mer, and expir'd. The infant was taken by Maon "and bred up as his fon, 'till the death of that "Prince." And from this point of the ftory the Poet is let down into his traditional poverty. Here we fee, tho' he be taken out of the lineage of Meles, where we met him before, he has ftill as wonderful a rife invented for him; he is ftill to fpring from a Demigod, one who was of a poetical difpofition, from whom he might inherit a foul turn'd to poetry, and receive an affiftance of heavenly inspiration.

In his life the moft general tradition concerning him is his blindness, yet there are fome who will not allow even this to have happen'd after the manner in which it falls upon other men: Chance and fickness are excluded; nothing lefs than Gods and heroes inuft be visibly concern'd about him. Thus we find among

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the different accounts which e Hermias has collected concerning his blindness, that when Homer refolv'd to write of Achilles, he had an exceeding defire to fill his mind with a juft idea of fo glorious a Heroe: Wherefore, having paid all due honours at his tomb, he intreats that he may obtain a fight of him. The heroe grants his Poet's petition, and rifes in a glorious fuit of armour, which caft fo unfufferable a splendor, that Homer loft his eyes, while he gaz'd for the enlargement of his notions.

If this be any thing more than a mere fable, one would be apt to imagine it infinuated his contracting a blindness by too intenfe an application while he wrote his Iliad. But it is a very pompous way of letting us into the knowledge of fo fhort a truth: It looks as if men imagin'd the lives of poets fhould be poetically written; that to speak plainly of them, were to fpeak contemptibly; or that we debafe them, when they are plac'd in lefs glorious company than thofe exalted fpirits which they themselves have been fond to celebrate. We may however in fome measure be reconcil'd to this laft idle fable, for having occafion'd fo beautiful an Epifode in the Ambra of Politian. That which does not inform us in a hiftory, may please us in its proper sphere of poetry.

II.

Stories of Homer proceeding from envy.

II. Such ftories as thefe have been the effects of a fuperftitious fondness, and of the astonishment of men at what they confider in a view of perfection. But neither have all the fame tafte, nor do they equally submit to the fuperiority of others, nor bear that human nature, which they know to be imperfect, fhould be prais'd in an extream without opposition.

Hermias in Phad. Plat, Leo Allat, de Patr. Hom. C. 10.

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