Homer

Tradition a igns the Iliad and the Ody ey, the great epics upon the time of the Trojan war, together with other poems no longer extant, to a writer of this name, whose date is uncertain, Hero dot us expre ing the opinion that he lived not more than 400 years before his day; i.e., ab. 850 B.C. Several cities claimed the honor of giving him birth, and legends tell us the mythical details of his life. Until the close of the last century the critical editors went no further than to recognize the difference between the Homeric Hymns, formerly considered to be his work, and the two great epics. In 1795 F. A. Wolf published his Prolegomena to Homer, in which he questioned the authenticity of the traditional origin of these poems. He claimed that they could not have been committed to writing at so early a date. and the bulk seemed to him too great to be transmitted by word of mouth. A third objection lay in his idea of the loose unity IMG:content-0631.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0632.png:[graphic] sition. Homocarpous. Plants whose fruit is all of one kind. Homocercal. Having two equal lobes to the tail fin, though the notochord may be bent up into the upper lobe. Compare DIPHYCERCAL. Homodont Dentition. Teeth all alike, as in whales. Homodromous. Organs which coil or are spirally ar- which episodes were added. Nitsch championed a much more moderate position. The more conservative contend for the practical integrity of the poems and the historical character of Homer. The style of these poems affords grounds for believing at least the principal portions to spring from one man. The general charac