To fulfil these high and important duties; to add zest to the banquet by the recitation of soothing and interesting tales *; to sing the generations of the gods, and to hymn their praises during the celebration of their respective rites; to chaunt the glories of past military atchievments, and to stimulate to like exertion; to assist the labours of the legislator, and to direct the acquisitions of the youthful mind; to do all these, and such were the varied functions of the elder bards of Greece, it was necessary, at a period, too, when the art of writing was nearly, if not altogether unknown, that they should visit distant lands; should learn their various institutions, manners, and customs; should mingle with their heroes, sages, and bards; and thence acquire that fund of knowledge which was requisite for the skilful exercise of a profession so multiform and arduous. It was fortunately not until the decline of life that our poet had to sustain this heavy affliction; at a time when he had visited nearly every civilized country of any celebrity, and when his * Πολλα θελκτηρια. Homer. harp had repeatedly resounded throughout every state in Greece. That it was in his estimation, however, a misfortune of the deepest and most deplorable nature, is evident from the punishment which he has described the Muses as inflicting, in their utmost vengeance, on his great but unhappy predecessor Thamyris, whom they not only doomed to an oblivion of his art, but deprived of the use of his eyes; a poet too, Superior once of all the tuneful race, Till, vain of mortal's empty praise, he strove, * That Thamyris was deprived of his mental faculties as well as of his sight, is evident from the original, in which he is des cribed as having lost, not only his memory as a poet, but the very recollection of his art as a performer on the lyre or harp: Αἱ δὲ χολωσάμεναι περὸν θέσαν αὐτὰρ ἀοιδήν ΙΛΙΑΔΟΣ. Β'. 1. 599. More happy than his precurser, though with talents approximating, it is probable, still nearer to the imaginary perfection ascribed to the Muses, the intellect, though not the sight, of Homer was spared; and the latter calamity occurring to him at a period when he had accumulated more knowledge than had ever before fallen to the lot of man, and when his head was silvered o'er with age, his blindness served but to render him the subject of still greater love and honour. We cannot, indeed, picture to ourselves an object of more just and profound veneration than was Homer, at this era of society, blind and in years, the oracle of Greece, and conducted to the courts of admiring monarchs by the affection and gratitude of thousands. He approached their gates, in fact, under the twofold character of Prophet and of Bard, and he might say in the language of his own Phemius, "We have cause to regret," says Cowper," that all his works have perished; such honourable testimony given to his talents by this Chief of Poets, sufficiently proves his excellence as a bard, whatever might be his vanity. Αυτοδίδακτος δ ̓ εἰμί· Θεὸς δέ μοι ἐν φρεσίν οἴμας Παντοίας ενε φυσεν ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑΣ. Χ'. 347. Untaught by others, in my mind I bear, By God himself implanted, all the strains Of melody and verse. BLACKWELL. That this is not an imaginary delineation, but that united Greece hung as it were on the steps of Homer, sightless and in years, with an enthusiasm of regard little short of adoration, may be inferred from the admirable sketch which he has himself given of Demodocus, the blind Bard of Phœacia. Than this portrait, without all doubt, intended as a faithful representation of himself, and of the honours which usually awaited him*, nothing can be more lovely and affecting. It places Homer before us as he lived, and as he sung, and we dwell with rapture on the sketch, as "It was the opinion of Maximus Tyrius," remarks Cowper, that Homer in this short history of the Phoacian bard, gives us in reality his own." - Vide Cowper's Translation, 2nd. edit. vol. i. Odyssey, p. 201. exhibiting in the most pleasing light, the kind manners of that remote period, and the very affectionate respect which was paid to age and talent. Alcinous, the hospitable monarch of Phœacia, wishing to do honour to his illustrious guest, the ship-wrecked wanderer Ulysses, assembles together, at a sumptuous feast, the noblest in his realm. Without the sacred bard, however, the banquet had been joyless, and Alcinoüs therefore gives especial orders for his prescence: καλέσασθε δὲ θεῖον ἀοιδόν Δημόδοκον τῷ γάρ ῥα θεὸς πέρι δῶκεν ἀοιδήν Τερπνὴν, ὅππη θυμὸς ἐποτρύνησιν ἀείδειν. ΟΔΥΣ. Θ ́. 43. Call, too, Demodocus, the bard divine, To share my banquet, whom the Gods have blest With powers of song delectable, what theme Soe'er his animated fancy choose. Cowper. 3 He is accordingly introduced with all that care and tenderness, that deference and delicacy of feeling, due to his talents and infirmities; |