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Description
The early Greek epic—that is, poetry as anatural and popular, and not (as it became later) an artificial andacademic literary form—passed through the usual three phases, ofdevelopment, of maturity, and of decline.
No fragments which can be identified as belonging to the firstperiod survive to give us even a general idea of the history of theearliest epic, and we are therefore thrown back upon the evidenceof analogy from other forms of literature and of inference from thetwo great epics which have come down to us. So reconstructed, theearliest period appears to us as a time of slow development inwhich the characteristic epic metre, diction, and structure grew upslowly from crude elements and were improved until the verge ofmaturity was reached.
The second period, which produced the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey",needs no description here: but it is very important to observe theeffect of these poems on the course of post-Homeric epic. As thesupreme perfection and universality of the "Iliad" and the"Odyssey" cast into oblivion whatever pre-Homeric poets hadessayed, so these same qualities exercised a paralysing influenceover the successors of Homer. If they continued to sing like theirgreat predecessor of romantic themes, they were drawn as by a kindof magnetic attraction into the Homeric style and manner oftreatment, and became mere echoes of the Homeric voice: in a word,Homer had so completely exhausted the epic genre, that after himfurther efforts were doomed to be merely conventional. Only therare and exceptional genius of Vergil and Milton could use theHomeric medium without loss of individuality: and this quality noneof the later epic poets seem to have possessed. Freedom from thedomination of the great tradition could only be found by seekingnew subjects, and such freedom was really only illusionary, sinceromantic subjects alone are suitable for epic treatment.
In its third period, therefore, epic poetry shows two divergenttendencies. In Ionia and the islands the epic poets followed theHomeric tradition, singing of romantic subjects in the nowstereotyped heroic style, and showing originality only in theirchoice of legends hitherto neglected or summarily and imperfectlytreated. In continental Greece 1101, on the other hand, butespecially in Boeotia, a new form of epic sprang up, which for theromance and PATHOS of the Ionian School substituted the practicaland matter-of-fact. It dealt in moral and practical maxims, ininformation on technical subjects which are of service in dailylife—agriculture, astronomy, augury, and the calendar—in matters ofreligion and in tracing the genealogies of men. Its attitude issummed up in the words of the Muses to the writer of the"Theogony": `We can tell many a feigned tale to look like truth,but we can, when we will, utter the truth' ("Theogony" 26-27). Sucha poetry could not be permanently successful, because the subjectsof which it treats—if susceptible of poetic treatment at all—werecertainly not suited for epic treatment, where unity of actionwhich will sustain interest, and to which each part shouldcontribute, is absolutely necessary. While, therefore, an epic likethe "Odyssey" is an organism and dramatic in structure, a work suchas the "Theogony" is a merely artificial collocation of facts, and,at best, a pageant. It is not surprising, therefore, to find thatfrom the first the Boeotian school is forced to season its matterwith romantic episodes, and that later it tends more and more torevert (as in the "Shield of Heracles") to the Homerictradition.
No fragments which can be identified as belonging to the firstperiod survive to give us even a general idea of the history of theearliest epic, and we are therefore thrown back upon the evidenceof analogy from other forms of literature and of inference from thetwo great epics which have come down to us. So reconstructed, theearliest period appears to us as a time of slow development inwhich the characteristic epic metre, diction, and structure grew upslowly from crude elements and were improved until the verge ofmaturity was reached.
The second period, which produced the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey",needs no description here: but it is very important to observe theeffect of these poems on the course of post-Homeric epic. As thesupreme perfection and universality of the "Iliad" and the"Odyssey" cast into oblivion whatever pre-Homeric poets hadessayed, so these same qualities exercised a paralysing influenceover the successors of Homer. If they continued to sing like theirgreat predecessor of romantic themes, they were drawn as by a kindof magnetic attraction into the Homeric style and manner oftreatment, and became mere echoes of the Homeric voice: in a word,Homer had so completely exhausted the epic genre, that after himfurther efforts were doomed to be merely conventional. Only therare and exceptional genius of Vergil and Milton could use theHomeric medium without loss of individuality: and this quality noneof the later epic poets seem to have possessed. Freedom from thedomination of the great tradition could only be found by seekingnew subjects, and such freedom was really only illusionary, sinceromantic subjects alone are suitable for epic treatment.
In its third period, therefore, epic poetry shows two divergenttendencies. In Ionia and the islands the epic poets followed theHomeric tradition, singing of romantic subjects in the nowstereotyped heroic style, and showing originality only in theirchoice of legends hitherto neglected or summarily and imperfectlytreated. In continental Greece 1101, on the other hand, butespecially in Boeotia, a new form of epic sprang up, which for theromance and PATHOS of the Ionian School substituted the practicaland matter-of-fact. It dealt in moral and practical maxims, ininformation on technical subjects which are of service in dailylife—agriculture, astronomy, augury, and the calendar—in matters ofreligion and in tracing the genealogies of men. Its attitude issummed up in the words of the Muses to the writer of the"Theogony": `We can tell many a feigned tale to look like truth,but we can, when we will, utter the truth' ("Theogony" 26-27). Sucha poetry could not be permanently successful, because the subjectsof which it treats—if susceptible of poetic treatment at all—werecertainly not suited for epic treatment, where unity of actionwhich will sustain interest, and to which each part shouldcontribute, is absolutely necessary. While, therefore, an epic likethe "Odyssey" is an organism and dramatic in structure, a work suchas the "Theogony" is a merely artificial collocation of facts, and,at best, a pageant. It is not surprising, therefore, to find thatfrom the first the Boeotian school is forced to season its matterwith romantic episodes, and that later it tends more and more torevert (as in the "Shield of Heracles") to the Homerictradition.
