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A UTHOR : 
 
 LE CHEVALIER, JEAN 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1829 
 
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 Le Chevalier, Joan Baptiste.|75^-jj?3fe 
 
 Ulysses Homer; or, A discovery- of the true 
 author of the Iliad and Odyssey, by Constantine 
 Koliades ^pseud.^ ... London, Murray, IBflP. 
 xxiii, 67 p. SOri- cm. 
 
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 Cotombia (Hnttie raitp 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
'. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER; 
 
 Oft 
 
 A DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE AUTHOR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. 
 
 BY 
 
 CONSTANTINE KOLIADES, 
 
 PROFK8SOR IN THK IONIAN t.VrVBRSITV. 
 
 
 MT0ON A*, Ca O, r A0IA05, Eni^TAMENnS KATEAEHA5, 
 nANTHN T" APrEiriN, 5EO T ATTOT, KHAEA ATFPA. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 
 
 MDCCGXXIX. 
 
52402 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ <> 
 ^ ^ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 J'RINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHlTJirKIARS. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The translator thinks it necessary to state that 
 the following disquisition is meant but to serve as 
 the introduction to a larger work, in which the 
 same opinion is developed and supported, by the 
 same ingenious author, much more in the detail. 
 Indeed it is often by observations upon points 
 apparently minute, and by the detection of coin- 
 cidences seemingly trivial, that the most important 
 truths are most firmly established. This larger 
 work is actually finished, and the plans and views 
 necessary for the illustration of the subject are 
 already engraved. But the opinion therein broached 
 respecting the real author of the Homeric poems 
 being entirely new, it has been thought prudent to 
 send forth the present little work into the world 
 first, in order to try the sentiments of the learned 
 
 on so interesting a subject. 
 
 a2 
 
IV 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 It is proper to add, that the writer is not to be 
 considered as one who, like father Hardouin, puts 
 forth a fanciful paradox from the love of singularity, 
 or in order to show his address. He firmly believes 
 in the opinion which he promulgates; and his belief 
 has not been formed in the retirement of the closet 
 only, or from the study of the works of learned 
 men, but from adventurous voyages and travels 
 through the regions to which his inquiries relate. 
 
 London, November I9th, 1828. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 THE EARL OF GUILFORD, 
 
 ETC., ETC., ETC., 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE IONIAN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 Having visited all the countries 
 sung by Homer, you are at present 
 engaged in diffusing the invaluable 
 benefits of education over Greece; 
 and, after the example of the heroes 
 Podalirius and Machaon, you pour 
 
' 
 
 VI 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 a healing arid soothing balm into her 
 
 wounds. 
 
 « 
 
 It is to you, therefore, my Lord, that 
 the respectful homage of my conjec- 
 tures on the real author of the Iliad 
 and Odyssey is due. If you honor 
 them with your approbation, all the 
 friends of the arts, who witness your 
 generous sacrifices for Greece, will imi- 
 tate your indulgence towards my labors, 
 and, in concert with yourself, will per- 
 haps assist me in lifting up a corner of 
 the veil which for so many ages has 
 withdrawn from the admiration of 
 mankind the most sublime of poets, 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 Vll 
 
 the most skilful warrior, and the most 
 accomplished shepherd of his people 
 that has appeared on earth since the 
 time of Moses. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My llord, 
 
 With great respect, 
 Your Lordship's humble and obedient servant, 
 CONSTANTINE KOLIADES, 
 
 INHABITANT OF ITHAGA, AKI> 
 PROFESSOR IN THE IONIAN UNIVERSITY. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A KING, says Pope, obedient to the call 
 of honor, quits his states on a long and peril- 
 ous expedition, which is to decide the fate of 
 Europe and of Asia. The two chiefs of this 
 great enterprise, Agamemnon and Menelaus, 
 attach so much value to the talents and alli- 
 ance of this king that they repair in person to 
 his capital to solicit the aid of his prudence 
 and valor. During the continuance of a 
 bloody war they summon this king to all 
 their councils ; they charge him with their 
 embassies the most difficult : he it is who di- 
 rects all their military operations ; who shows 
 himself throughout an equally great orator 
 and intrepid warrior; who captivates and 
 
V 
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 carries with him the chiefs and the soldiers 
 by the force of his eloquence ; who exhibits 
 to all the army an example of conjugal and 
 paternal tenderness, and of constant piety 
 towards the gods. 
 
 This same king, after having assembled 
 all the heroes of Greece, to lead them against 
 the enemy; after having covered himself with 
 glory in the war, of which he was the life and 
 soul, embarks to return to his kingdom, and 
 to carry with him his companions in arms ; 
 but tempests drive them from their course, 
 and cast them among different nations, of 
 which he studies the forms of government 
 and the manners. His companions neglect 
 the sage counsels which he gives them : they 
 land upon a desert island, from which they 
 seem likely never to escape. In the mean 
 time anarchy desolates his states ; numerous 
 usurpers consume his goods, plot the death of 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 his son, and endeavour to force his wife to 
 contract a new marriage. 
 
 The return of this valiant and courageous 
 king appears impossible; and, could he return 
 to his native country, all then appears lost to 
 him. However, by means the most surprising, 
 he does return, clothed in a disguise which 
 conceals him from the curiosity of his ene- 
 mies and the knowledge of his most faithful 
 subjects, of his own son, and even of his wife 
 herself. In the resources of his genius, in 
 the courage of his son, in the incorruptible 
 fidelity of his ancient servants, he finds means 
 to triumph over his enemies, and to bring 
 back for a short time tranquillity and peace 
 into his states. 
 
 Who then is this king who unites such 
 talents and such virtues ? Must it not have 
 
Xll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 !l 
 
 been that same personage, unknown for so 
 many ages, who has displayed in his immortal 
 poems the sublime lessons of morality, of po- 
 licy, and of war ; who so perfectly knew the 
 towns, the mountains, the rivers, the pro- 
 ductions, and the history of Greece; who 
 seems to have lived in intimacy with all the 
 princes who reigned there in his time, and to 
 have known those who preceded him ? Must 
 it not have been the sublime genius who 
 drew in the Iliad the picture of the war in 
 which he had fought, and in the Odyssey the 
 interesting journal of his own adventures 
 after the war, and of his return to his coun- 
 try ? In feet, if it be observed that this great 
 king lived at a period when poet-kings, such 
 as Moses, David, and Solomon, were seated 
 upon the thrones of the east, composed 
 divine poems, and drew up also in verse 
 ihe enumeration of the people under them ; 
 
 if it be true, as Philostratus asserts, and 
 as all antiquity has agreed to believe, that 
 Palamedes, the son of the king of Euboea, 
 had also made a poem upon the war of Troy, 
 we should perhaps feel less surprise if Ulysses, 
 the son of the king of Ithaca, were the real 
 author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. 
 
 Upon that supposition every thing explains 
 itself naturally and without effort. The name 
 and the country of this author are no longer 
 problematic. We have no longer to ask our- 
 selves where he was born; what were the 
 events of his life ; whether he were a soldier, 
 a priest, a king, or a schoolmaster. No : he 
 was born at Ithaca ; he fought at Troy ; he 
 navigated the seas of Greece, of Sicily, of 
 Italy, and perhaps even so far as the Atlantic 
 ocean. He is the author of the enumeration 
 of all the nations known in his time : he is 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 111 
 
 the author of that magnificent monument of 
 history and geography, of that eternal and 
 sacred code of which all the nations of Greece 
 invoke the authority, in order to fix the hounds 
 of their several territories. If his name does 
 not appear at the head of the Iliad, it is at 
 least written in characters of gold at the head 
 and in every line of the Odyssey. 
 
 Poet and soldier, like Moses, David, Solo- 
 mon, Palamedes, Ossian, Camoens, he was 
 upon the field of battle witnessing the ex- 
 ploits of his countrymen, and he determined 
 to sing them, along with his own personal 
 adventures, in order that poesy might draw 
 from thence lessons useful to posterity : 
 
 .... tva 3<r« KoX kaaofiivoLffiy aoihtj. 
 
 As it is easy to perceive that a system so 
 extraordinary as that which it has been sought 
 to establish in the course of this dissertation 
 
 will experience numerous objections, and cri- 
 ticisms apparently well founded, it is proper 
 to resolve beforehand the chief, I will venture 
 to say the only, difficulties which can be op- 
 posed to it. 
 
 Let us begin with that beautiful invocation 
 to the Muses with which the poet seems him- 
 self to fix, in a manner the most precise, the 
 period at which he lived to times subsequent 
 to the war of Troy. I have shown in this 
 dissertation the manner in which the learned 
 Mitford has interpreted this passage, and how 
 his interpretation is favorable to my system ; * 
 but Eustathius, and after him Madame Da- 
 cier, have discovered the true sense of this 
 invocation, by which the poet only tries to 
 gain the confidence of his readers, without 
 having the least idea of fixing the era at 
 
 * P. 15. 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XVll 
 
 1*1 
 
 I 
 
 P 
 
 which he lived. " Behold," says Madame 
 Dacier, " a noble address for the purpose of 
 giving to a fable the air of truth. Men know 
 nothing certain ; they only receive confused 
 accounts; and, consequently, if the Muses 
 speak, they will say nothing but the truth. 
 As for ourselves, we hear only confused ac- 
 counts of the war of Troy ; but the Muses 
 knew all things exactly, and they only can 
 tell us what really took place. Homer here 
 wishes to gain the confidence of his reader by 
 making him believe that he is not the author 
 of a fable, and that he speaks only the truth. 
 He may also wish to have it inferred," con- 
 tinues Madame Dacier, " that, this history of 
 Ulysses being true, it was impossible that it 
 should be buried in oblivion, or that it should 
 not be known by an infinity of persons. Many 
 people have abready heard mention of it. 
 Deign, therefore, divine Muses, to teach it to 
 
 the Greeks also, as you have already taught 
 it to other nations." 
 
 A second difficulty, and nearly of the same 
 
 kind, which will not fail to be objected to our 
 
 system of antiquity, is that immense stone 
 
 thrown by Diomed ; so heavy that two men 
 
 of Homer*s time could not have lifted it. It 
 
 will without doubt be inquired how Ulysses, 
 
 belonging to the time of the Trojan war, 
 
 could have said, if he had been the author of 
 
 the poem, that the stone was so large that 
 
 two men, such as they were in his time, could 
 
 not have lifted it. The poet must without 
 
 doubt, therefore, have lived after the Trojan 
 
 war to have made that observation. Yes, 
 
 without doubt, after the Trojan war ; but it 
 
 is not necessary that he should have lived at 
 
 a period greatly distant from that war: it 
 
 will suffice that he should have put the last 
 
 b 
 
I 
 
 }\ 
 
 i 
 
 XVlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hand to his poem at an advanced age, and 
 that he should thus have wished to draw a 
 comparison between the men, such as they 
 were in the war at the time of his youth, and 
 such as he saw them at the close of his life. 
 This will be altogether conformable to the 
 character of the old man, — 
 
 .... laudator temporis acti. 
 
 In the third place, if it be supposed that 
 Ulysses was the author of the poems on the 
 war of Troy, how can we explain the constant 
 praises which he bestows on himself from one 
 end of the poem to the other ? If the praise 
 of our rivals be painful to us in the mouth 
 of another, what must it be to hear any one 
 praise himself? It is in general the most 
 insupportable vanity; and nothing is more 
 offensive than to see a man anticipate the 
 favorable suffrages of others, and as it were 
 
 1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XIX 
 
 crown himself with his own hands. Let us 
 see whether we can apply these reproaches to 
 Ulysses on the supposition that he was the 
 author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Has 
 he not. in the first place rendered justice to 
 the bravery and other good qualities of his 
 companions in arms? Has he affected to 
 show himself superior to them with ostenta- 
 tion or with a view to humiliate them ? Was 
 it not allowable to show by his own example 
 that it was right to be a pious man, a faithful 
 husband, and a tender father ? Did not David, 
 born like him of a chosen race, a great king, 
 a great captain , think himself worthy to sing 
 the divine omnipotence, and to call himself 
 the man after God's own heart ? Should one 
 after this blame Ulysses for having boasted 
 of his own prudence, his address, and his 
 courage; above all, when one perceives him 
 make in the same terms the religious acknow- 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXI 
 
 ledgment that Minerva, or the Divine Wis- 
 doniy never abandoned him ? 
 
 In order to add a last stroke to the justi- 
 fication of the Homeric hero, and to free him 
 completely from all imputation of vanity, on 
 the supposition that he is the author of the 
 poems on the war of Troy, let us open the 
 sage Plutarch, who will teach us when and 
 how a man may utter his own praises without 
 exposing himself to envy. His expressions 
 on this subject will appear so much the more 
 remarkable as Ulysses himself is the subject 
 of them. " Ulysses," says Plutarch, " seeing 
 his men afraid at the dreadftil noise proceed- 
 ing from the gulf of Charybdis,recals to their 
 memory the subtlety of his genius and his 
 valor, by thus addressing them : * O my 
 friends, we are not without experience of 
 dangers : this is not a greater evil than when 
 
 the Cyclops shut us up in his dark cave by 
 powerful might; but even from thence we 
 escaped by my valor, counsel, and wisdom; 
 and I trust that you will remember these 
 things. Now therefore come, let all obey 
 the orders which I shall give.*"* 
 
 This manner of praising oneself, according 
 to Plutarch, " is not that of a flattering ad- 
 vocate, nor of a boasting sophist, nor of one 
 who demands applauses, but of a person who 
 pledges to his friends, as the ground of as- 
 surance in himself, his acknowledged valor 
 and sufficiency; for it is not a matter of 
 small importance towards ensuring safety in 
 times of danger, to have confidence derived 
 from reputation in the man who has the 
 chief command." t Who knows, besides, 
 
 * Od. M. 208. 
 
 t Plut. irepl Tov eavTov tiraLViiv avewKftdoviagj T. III. 
 p. 139. ed. Oxon. 1797- 
 
 u 
 
;l 
 
 XXll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXllI 
 
 iitlii 
 
 1 
 
 '^1 
 
 whether he has not skilfully concealed his 
 name in order to obtain the right of ren- 
 dering himself the justice which he knew 
 he merited? 
 
 Lastly, it may be said, and this objection 
 
 has greater force than all the others, if 
 
 Ulysses be the author of the poems on the 
 
 war of Troy, how can it be supposed that 
 
 he would accuse himself of cowardice, and 
 
 of having fled at the moment when he was 
 
 called upon to succour his best friend? The 
 
 answer is easy. The father of gods and 
 
 men thunders from the top of mount Ida: 
 
 the Greeks seeing the heavens on fire, and 
 
 Jupiter armed with his lightning and bolts, 
 
 are seized with fear and fly. Neither 
 
 Agamemnon nor Idomeneus, nor the two 
 
 Ajaxes, the favorites of Mars, dare to stand 
 
 their ground. The life of Nestor is in 
 
 danger. Diomed conjures Ulysses to come 
 to the succour of his friend : but his object 
 is then to rally the Greeks, and to prevent 
 the Trojans from penetrating into the en- 
 trenchments. The fleet was threatened, and 
 the voice of his country spoke louder to the 
 heart of Ulysses than that of friendship. 
 
ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 It is known that in the time of Plutarch 
 there were still in the island of Ithaca two 
 families which were descended from the two 
 superintendents of the flocks of Ulysses : one 
 bore the name of Koliades, and was a de- 
 scendant of Eumaeus; the other was called 
 Boukolos, and was of the race of Phyletius. 
 
 My father, Spiridion Koliades, was of opi- 
 nion that the Boukoloi had been extinct for 
 a long time ; and, in truth, their name was 
 unknown in the island ; but he asserted that 
 that of the Koliadae had come down to him 
 without interruption, and that consequently 
 he was descended in a right line by Eumaeus 
 from the kings of Scyros : and, after all, what 
 would there have been extraordinary that we 
 
 B 
 
 f' 
 
m 
 
 H} 
 
 i\ 
 
 2 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEK. 
 
 should still at the present time find in Ithaca 
 descendants of the kings of Scyros, when we 
 see at Venice descendants of Justinian and of 
 Galba, and in the Phanar of Constantinople 
 Comneni, Cantacuzenes, Palaeologi, and other 
 descendants of the sovereigns of the lower 
 empire ? 
 
 Having lost my mother at the age of ten 
 years, I became an object of affection to my 
 father, so much the more tender as I was the 
 only branch of the family of the Koliadae. 
 In order therefore to give himself up entirely 
 to my education, he solicited of the Venetian 
 government the retirement which he had well 
 deserved by thirty years of good and loyal 
 service in the galleys and other vessels of the 
 republic. With a pension of fifteen sequins 
 a month, and the moderate revenue of some 
 acres of vineyards and oliveyards, which he 
 possessed in the hamlet of Leuca, upon the 
 western bank of the island, he hoped to find 
 a means of supporting me for some years in 
 one of the universities of Italy ; but, before 
 sending me thither, he wished to teach me 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 i 
 
 himself the elements of Greek literature. The 
 first book that he put into my hands was the 
 Odyssey, which he called the divine history 
 of his ancient king. At every verse which 
 we read together he did not fail to make me 
 remark the relation that subsisted between 
 the ancient language of our forefathers and 
 the patois which is at this time spoken in our 
 islands. 
 
 When he judged me sufficiently instructed 
 to comprehend the twenty- four books of the 
 Odyssey, he undertook to make me study all 
 the sites, and all the monuments of our island, 
 which recalled the remembrance of Ulysses, 
 and which prove not only his presence, but 
 his long abode in Ithaca. We began this in- 
 teresting excursion with the summits of mount 
 Neritos ; from whence we could perceive, at 
 a bird's-eye view, our dear country throughout 
 
 the extent of its territory. 
 
 * 
 
 " This island," says he, " which we now 
 have under our view, is twenty-four miles in 
 length, from north to south, and about four 
 
 b2 
 
4 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER, 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 Ill 
 
 miles at the place of its greatest breadth. Its 
 population amounts to about ten thousand 
 inhabitants. It counts eight harbours, of dif- 
 ferent sizes ; of which the chief preserves still 
 in our days the name of Vathi, the name 
 given it by Homer in the Odyssey. 
 
 " Behold the two promontories which, 
 bending towards each other, form the en- 
 trance and repel the waves. The vessels to 
 be seen within are there sheltered from the 
 winds, and there remain stationary without 
 being held by any hawser." 
 
 :$'!, t 
 
 A celebrated English traveller, Edward 
 Dodwell, was so struck at the picture of this 
 port, which is to be found in the twelfth book 
 of the Odyssey, and every trait, as he said, 
 appeared of an exactitude so perfect, that he 
 thought himself bound to copy it line by line 
 into his Travels in Greece : 
 
 "iopKvroQ ^i rig iari \tfirlv, &.\loio yipovrog, 
 'Ev S^/ia> *I6aici?c* ^vo Ik TrpcfiXrireQ kv avr^ 
 *AKTai cLTTOppGiytQ^ Xifiiyog Trornrerrrtviai' 
 At T ayifAuv ffKiwoiam Ivaaijiay fic'ya Kxtfia 
 
 "EkToOfV eyroaOev ^e ayev ^efffxoio fxiyovcri 
 N^£C evffaeXfioi, oray opfiov ^irpoy iKutyrai. 
 
 Od. N. 96. 
 
 The same traveller, after having traversed 
 the island of Ithaca in every direction, and 
 having taken views of all the sites and all the 
 monuments in it, observes, in the same work, 
 that Homer dwelt with so much pleasure 
 upon the island of Ithaca and its hero that 
 some authors have supposed that he was him- 
 self of Ithaca. 
 
 From the summit of Neritos we descended 
 together to the Grotto of the Nymphs, the 
 ruins of which are still to be seen, and in 
 which the bees still make their abode in pre- 
 ference to any other place, as the doves in the 
 rocks of Thisbe, and the owls in the acropolis 
 of Athens. From the Grotto of the Nymphs 
 * he conducted me by a rugged path to the rocks 
 of the Crow,* where he pointed out to me the 
 
 * Hap KopaKos ircrpiy, M rp Kpriyri 'ApcOoverij. Od. 
 N. 408. 
 
 I!! 
 
m 
 
 \^ 
 
 , 
 
 ?i 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 6 
 
 ULYSSKS HOMEU. 
 
 situation of the cottage of Eumaeus, and near 
 that cottage the cavern where the faithful 
 servant of Ulysses passed the night to keep 
 watch and guard over the flocks of his master. 
 He made me remark at the same time the 
 fountain of Arethusa, beyond the port where 
 Telemachus landed on his return from Pylos. 
 
 From thence he brought me back to the 
 Cyclopian ruins of the capital and of the 
 palace of Ulysses, where he made me study 
 the details of the combat and of the victory 
 of the hero over the infamous pretenders to 
 his crown and to the chaste Penelope, making 
 me at the same time admire the most extra- 
 ordinary monuments of antiquity, certain me- 
 dals of Ulysses discovered in the very ruins 
 of his palace. 
 
 We went from thence in search of the foun- 
 tain of Mercury, and of the farm of Laertes. 
 At the village of Leuca he pointed out to me 
 the isle of Asteris, as the spot the most happily 
 chosen by the suitors in which to place their 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. T 
 
 ambuscade against Telemachus. Even to the 
 ruins of the School of Homer he made me 
 pay attention, in order, as he said, to prove 
 to me that the island of Ithaca had a right 
 to put in its claims to be the birthplace of 
 Homer, as well as the other seven towns of 
 Greece. 
 
 At length, by means of hearing him com- 
 pare the scenes of the Odyssey with the places 
 which had evidently been the theatre of them, 
 and which I had continually under my eyes, 
 I began to participate in all the enthusiasm 
 of my father, and was as thoroughly convinced 
 as himself, that such a personage as Ulysses 
 had certainly existed, that he had been king 
 of Ithaca, and that that island had been the 
 theatre of the most interesting scenes of the 
 Odyssey. 
 
 My father, enchanted with the manner in 
 which I had seized his shrewd perceptions, 
 and the deep impression which they had at 
 the same time made upon my mind and 
 
 s^. 
 
8 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 heart, thought it right that I should then 
 conclude my elementary studies in the island 
 of Ithaca, and depart for the university of 
 Padua, where he had studied himself, before 
 entering into the naval service of the Vene- 
 tians. When on the point of my departure, he 
 conducted me to the Cyclopian ruins of mount 
 Aito, in order there to take his leave of me 
 and to communicate io me his last wishes, * 
 and to impart to me an important secret, 
 which, as he said, he had never intrusted to 
 any one. 
 
 The sun, just rising, gilded with his first 
 rays the summit of mount Neritos, and the 
 gigantic ruins with which we were surrounded. 
 The cytisus, the terebinthus, the lentisc, and 
 a thousand other aromatic plants, perfumed 
 the air with their delicious odors. f "Go, 
 
 99 
 
 * They were in truth his last; for, on my return 
 from my travels, he ha'd sunk into the grave. 
 
 t Those who sail in these happy climates breathe the 
 balsamic air of the plants at a considerable distance from 
 the shores. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 9 
 
 said -he to me, " my dear son, and remember 
 that it is on mount Neritos, near those beau- 
 teous ruins, that I have put into thy hands for 
 the first time the poem of the Odyssey, at- 
 tributed, as well as that of the Iliad, to a 
 genius surely supernatural and divine ; since 
 his name, his country, and the era in which 
 he lived have remained mysteries through so 
 many ages that have been enchanted by his 
 
 verses. 
 
 The most ancient of the Greek historians 
 believed that this great poet had existed four 
 hundred years before him. Thucydides, Plato, 
 Aristotle, Strabo, and Plutarch, who, at dif- 
 ferent periods, have examined with care the 
 antiquities of their country, do not dissemble 
 the uncertainty of the authorities and monu- 
 ments which they have consulted upon this 
 important subject. Pausanias avers frankly, 
 that he knows nothing of Homer. " I have 
 spared no pains," he says, " in my endeavours 
 to discover at what time Homer and Hesiod 
 have lived ; but as I know that many writers 
 
10 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 11 
 
 have treated this question with much warmth, 
 and particularly those who in our own time 
 have applied themselves to poetry, I refrain 
 from publishing my own opinion, in order 
 that I may not become a party in the dis- 
 pute." Cicero assures us, that in his time 
 the age and country of Homer were alike 
 completely unknown. " The inhabitants of 
 Salamis and of Chios," says he, « claim this 
 great poet : those of Smyrna maintain that 
 he belongs to them : the Cephalonians pre- 
 tend that he is their fellow citizen."* " The 
 most moderate computations," adds the Ro- 
 man orator, in another part, " place Homer, 
 at least, thirty years before Lycurgus ; from 
 whence we may conclude, that he was a long 
 time before Romulus." " It is without doubt 
 useless," says Plutarch, " to search either for 
 the family or for the country of Homer, since 
 
 * This passage of Cicero will explain the monument 
 known in our days, in the island of Ithaca, hy the name 
 of the School of Homer. Tlie Cephalonians had a right 
 to claim Ulysses as their countryman, and even as their 
 sovereign. 
 
 he has not deigned himself to speak of either ; 
 and has carried his caution so far as not to 
 choose to give us even his true name." 
 
 But, in the midst of this painful darkness 
 and obscurity, it is of great importance to re- 
 mark, that a Roman emperor, as illustrious 
 by his power as by his taste for the arts, 
 learnt from the mouth of the oracle of Delphi, 
 that Homer was born in the island of Ithaca, 
 and that he was the son of Telemachus and 
 of the fair Polycasta, the daughter of Nestor. 
 
 It is to be presumed, that the oracle of 
 Delphi did not say the whole truth to the 
 emperor. It at least revealed to him the 
 opinion consigned to the mysterious treasures 
 of its temple, which, as we know, was at no 
 great distance from Ithaca. Another tra- 
 dition, which comes from the banks of the 
 Nile, informs us that the name of Homer has 
 reference to a wound which that great poet 
 had received on his thigh, b-firip6g. Might it 
 not be that wound which he received from 
 the wild boar of Parnassus, and which oc- 
 
 •5 
 
 1 r <.yi- 
 
12 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 13 
 
 i< i 
 
 
 casioned his being recognized by his nurse 
 Euryclea ? 
 
 It may be farther observed by the way, that, 
 according to Philostratus, Homer made the 
 voyage of Ithaca in order to consult there the 
 manes of Ulysses, upon the details of which 
 he had need for the composition of his poems. 
 
 If these diflferent observations do not seem 
 at first view to throw a great access of light 
 upon the real author of the poems of the war 
 of Troy, they prove, at least, that the Delphic 
 oracle, the first of its kind in Greece, regarded 
 the island of Ithaca as the cradle of Homer ; 
 and that he who directed that great poet to 
 the manes of Ulysses, in order to learn from 
 him the events of the war of Troy, felt the 
 necessity of consulting that hero in order to 
 paint them faithfully. 
 
 Forasmuch as the ancients teach us no- 
 thing positive respecting the age and country 
 of Homer, let us see if we can .hope for more 
 information from the moderns. If we run 
 
 through the most famous schools of Europe, 
 we shall there find the same disputes, the 
 same uncertainty, and the same darkness. 
 Let us consult in England the Popes, the 
 Woods, the Knights, &c. ; in Germany, the 
 Heynes, the Stolbergs, &c. ; in Italy, the 
 MafTeis, the Martorellis, the Salvinis, the 
 Cesarottis, &c. ; in Spain, the Gravinas, the 
 Garofalos, the Varyas, &c. ; in Holland, the 
 Wisels, the Sgravenaers, &c. ; in Austria, the 
 Hamers; in France, the Barthelemis, the 
 Daciers, the Rocheforts, the Larchers, &c. ; 
 throughout we shall find the most complete 
 uncertainty with respect to the person and 
 age of Homer. One single English historian 
 has had the courage to fix an epoch for the 
 existence of this sublime genius : I say that 
 he has had the courage, because real courage 
 is necessary to attack a system, whatever it 
 may be, when it has been accredited by so 
 many ages. In the first book of the Odyssey, 
 the prudent Telemachus says to his mother, 
 " Why do you forbid Phoenix to sing the sub- 
 ject which he has chosen, and which pleases 
 him the most ? You should not chide him 
 
ll 
 
 I 
 
 •i! 
 
 (I ; 
 
 ; ( 
 
 lii 
 
 14 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 for singing the misfortunes of the Greeks : 
 the taste of all men is to love best the songs 
 which are the newest." " Now this," says 
 Mitford, ** would stand contradicted by the 
 poet's practice, if the events which he cele- 
 brates happened, as some have imagined, five, 
 four, three, two, or even one century before 
 the generation for which he composed ex- 
 isted." Vol. i. p. 230. In the eighth book, 
 Ulysses says to Demodocus: " Divine songster, 
 you paint the misfortunes of the Greeks, all 
 that they have done and suffered, and all the 
 labors they have undergone, as if you had 
 been present, or as if you had learned them 
 from themselves." Afterward, Alcinous says 
 to Ulysses : " Tell us, why you weep, on 
 hearing sung the misfortunes of the Greeks, 
 and those of Troy? Those misfortunes 
 spring from the gods, who have ordained the 
 death of so many men in order that poetry 
 may derive from thence songs useful to those 
 who shall come after them." Pope has re- 
 marked, that Homer's invocation, 'Hfieie ^f 
 kXIoq olov cLKovo^tvy ovU Ti (t3/i£v, shows that hc 
 lived long after the siege of Troy. " Thu- 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 15 
 
 cydides," Mitford adds, " for such matters 
 incomparably a greater authority than Pope, 
 has said nearly the same thing; but the 
 question still remains, ' What is long ?' Per- 
 haps the ovU ri i^fxev might be not unreason- 
 ably taken to imply that the poet's birth was 
 so near the time of the Trojan war that, in 
 his old age, if he had not declared the con- 
 trary, it might have been imagined, that he 
 pretended to know the events he describes 
 from having been a party concerned; for it is 
 little usual to contradict what could not be 
 supposed." Vol. i. p. 234. 
 
 It should appear, according to this para^ 
 graph, that Mitford himself is of opinion, that 
 the author of the Iliad and Odyssey had lived 
 sufficiently near the time of the events which 
 he describes to create a belief that he had per- 
 sonally taken part in them. Whatever may 
 be the case with respect to the judgment of 
 the ancients and moderns on the author (rf 
 the Odyssey, it is at all events certain, as has 
 been well remarked by a celebrated English 
 
 lii( 
 
 
I 
 
 u 
 
 ',1 
 
 16 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 17 
 
 «: 
 
 'i 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 1 
 
 traveller,* that the Ithaca of Homer is some- 
 thing more than a creation of his own ima- 
 gination, as some authors have supposed; 
 inasmuch as the most minute circumstances 
 which he has recited coincide perfectly with 
 the topography of that island ; and that it 
 would be a task evidently impossible, to adapt 
 so great a number of details and incidents to 
 a falsehood so long and so laboriously worked 
 up. " This reflection of the English traveller, 
 as thou seest," says my father, " is word for 
 word the same which thou madest to me, in 
 all the simplicity of thy tender age, when I 
 took thee to the height of Aito to make thee 
 study the ruins, and when we read together 
 the combat of Ulysses with the suitors in the 
 twenty-second book of the Odyssey. ' The 
 poet,' thou saidst, ' must have well known the 
 palace of Ulysses, in order to mark out to us 
 the manner in which it was distributed with 
 so much particularity, and to point out to us 
 at the bottom of the hall of combat that port 
 
 * Sir William Gell. 
 
 of retreat through which the suitors might 
 call for assistance.' Mad. Dacier had made 
 this remark long before thee. ' Ulysses,' 
 says she, ' who knew all the parts of his pa- 
 lace, took the wise precaution of setting Eu- 
 mseus to guard that port, as it was the only 
 one by which they could descend into the 
 court.'*' 
 
 In general, the surprising agreement which 
 exists between the numerous incidents of the 
 combat and the localities of the palace proves 
 that the |ierson who described the combat 
 must have been the principal actor in it ; and 
 this argument would be sufficient alone, with- 
 out any other, in the mind of every sensible 
 man, to prove the incontestable identity of the 
 poet and the hero. 
 
 But there remain still other means of esta- 
 blishing this identity. It is known that the 
 king of Ithaca was a member of the con- 
 federation of Greece, and that he had contri- 
 buted more than any other to the taking of 
 Troy. His adventures after the war, as he 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 19 
 
 ji 
 
 ■i'l! 
 
 recounts them himself in the Odyssey, have 
 all the characters of a history ; and Strabo, a 
 writer of the Augustan age, has said, that 
 those who would refuse their belief to the 
 adventures of Ulysses, when pruned of their 
 mythological ornaments; those who denied 
 the return of Ulysses to his palace, and his 
 punishment of the usurpers of his throne, 
 calumniated the poet, and no more deserved 
 to be refuted, than those who gave credit to 
 the hospitality of goddesses, to metamorphoses, 
 to the great size of the Cyclops and the Lae- 
 strygons, to the monstrosity of Scylla, and 
 the oxen of the sun. 
 
 Now, if the adventures of Ulysses are true, 
 who could have recounted them? Que of the 
 companions of Ulysses? but they all perished 
 in the shipwreck, the victims of their impiety. 
 A Phaeacian, who had heard the hero himself 
 give the recital of them? but we are in- 
 formed in the recital itself that the Phaeacians 
 dwelt far from civilized people : kKdc fxepdirtay 
 aydpwTnav: and Certainly no one can attribute 
 the Odyssey to a poet of uncultivated genius. 
 
 But might not Ulysses have recounted his 
 adventures during his abode at Ithaca ? Yes, 
 no doubt he would recount them to Penelope 
 and Telemachus— but very rapidly; for his 
 journey to the country abode of Laertes, his 
 combat against the suitors, his victory, and 
 the banishment into Italy which followed it, 
 would not allow him time to make a long re- 
 cital. Lastly, it should be remarked that, if 
 the Odyssey was the work of any other poet 
 than Ulysses, that poet would without doubt 
 have given us the death of his hero in the 
 poem. If it was the king of Ithaca who was 
 the same person as the author, it is not to 
 be wondered that he has said nothing of his 
 own death. 
 
 Ulysses is, therefore, most assuredly the 
 author of the Odyssey ; and as in the opinion 
 of all men of taste, ancient as well as modem, 
 the Odyssey and Iliad are by the same hand, 
 it is to the king of Ithaca that we are obliged 
 for two poems the most magnificent that have 
 ever come from the hand of man. 
 
 c 2 
 
hi 
 
 20 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEll. 
 
 I 
 
 in 
 
 " But although this reasoning, and the con- 
 sequences which I have deduced from it," said 
 my father, " may appear to thy eyes and to mine 
 to have the character of a rigorous demonstra- 
 tion, I feel the imperious necessity of having 
 assistance so extraordinary and so new con- 
 firmed by some one else besides myself. Thou 
 art he then, my son, whom I declare the heir 
 and the defender of my discovery, on condition 
 that thou wilt spare no effort, no fatigue, no 
 sacrifice, in order to confirm and render it 
 perfect. Thou art now going first to pass 
 some years at the university. When thou 
 shalt have then acquired the knowledge ne- 
 cessary to render thy travels advantageous, and 
 which it was impossible for me to procure for 
 thee in Ithaca, thou shalt repair by Constan- 
 tinople to the Sigean promontory, in order to 
 study there the theatre of the Iliad with the 
 same zeal and the same care with which thou 
 hast here studied with thy father that of the 
 Odyssey. Without doubt, all the echoes of 
 the plain of Ilium will repeat to thee the ac- 
 tions of our king, when thou shalt have verified 
 
 liLYSSES HOMER. 
 
 21 
 
 the presence of the hero in battles, and the 
 coincidence of the topography of the plain 
 with the poem of the Iliad, as thou hast al- 
 ready verified that of our island with the poem 
 of the Odyssey. Thou shalt follow the hero 
 in the regions of the Greek and Trojan con- 
 federation, in the islands of the J^gean sea, 
 and in the sea of Sicily. Thou wilt return 
 to the embraces of thy father loaded with 
 the fruits of thy travels, which will perhaps 
 confirm the discovery of the true author of 
 the Iliad and of the Odyssey. Who knows 
 whether, at thy return, thou wilt not find the 
 production due to the noble independence of 
 the heroic ages ?" 
 
 In pronouncing these last words my ve- 
 nerable father melted into tears, and I threw 
 myself into his arms. It seemed to me that 
 we bade each other a last adieu ; and in truth, 
 at my return from my long travels by land 
 and by sea, I found only his ashes. The day 
 after this conversation, I took my departure 
 for the university. The general war of E urope, 
 and the revolutions which menaced the happy 
 
mi 
 
 22 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 and peaceful existence of the republic of Ve- 
 nice, did not allow of my giving a fixed direc- 
 tion to my studies. I therefore gave myself 
 up to those which most flattered my taste- 
 to the study of the ancient and modem lan- 
 guages, and to reading the works of travellers 
 of all nations who had visited the theatre of 
 the Iliad and Odyssey. At length, after an 
 abode of five years employed in preparing 
 myself for the expedition, for which my fa- 
 ther had given me such precise instructions, 
 I commenced my route for the plain of Troy. 
 The first object which struck my sight on 
 arriving at the entrance of the Hellespont was 
 that fine line of tombs ranged on the lofty 
 coasts of the Mgean sea. Behold then, said 
 I to myself, those ancient monuments pro- 
 mised by Homer to the curiosity and interest 
 of future generations, who were to traverse 
 the Hellespont in ages to come, and in futurity 
 the most remote. What an admirable picture 
 for the lover of sublime poetry, and of beau- 
 tiful relics of antiquity ! How happy should I 
 be, if it was possible for me to impart to my 
 readers the transports which I felt in ad- 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 23 
 
 vancing with religious steps towards that 
 plain, the theatre of so many glorious ac- 
 tions, and the place of sepulture of so many 
 heroes ! 
 
 When, in 1790, a French traveller an- 
 nounced to the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
 that those monuments still existed at the en- 
 trance of the Hellespont, and that there was 
 there to be found a vast plain watered by two 
 rivers, one of M^ich was remarkable for two 
 beauteous springs of different temperature; 
 when he added, that still might be seen in 
 that plain the tombs of Greek and Trojan war- 
 riors, a valley which bore the name of Thim- 
 breck, so like that of Thymbra which Homer 
 gives to it ; when the same traveller pointed 
 out in the island of Ithaca the mountains 
 Neritos and Neios, the fountain of Arethusa, 
 and the rock of the Crow, which is still called 
 at this time Korax, as in the time of Ulysses 
 and of Eumaeus.; none of the schools of the 
 learned in Europe believed in the existence 
 of those venerable remains of antiquity. But 
 when the description of them was received by 
 
 m 
 
24 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEfiU 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 Q5 
 
 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and published 
 by the learned professor Dalzel, under the au- 
 spices of that illustrious body, the travellers 
 of England and of all the nations of Europe 
 visited those classic countries, and confirmed 
 the discoveries of the Frenchman. From that 
 time the sources of the Scamander, the tombs 
 of the Greek and Trojan warriors, the foun- 
 tain of Arethusa were no longer regarded as 
 the dreams of a heated imagination ; and no 
 one at present doubts the authenticity of those 
 Homeric monuments; more especially since 
 the topography of the plain of Troy and that 
 of the isle of Ithaca have been ascertained 
 with the highest degree of accuracy. J. B. S. 
 Morritt, member of the British Parliament, in 
 an excellent memoir, entitled " Vindication 
 of Homer," has demonstrated with the utmost 
 clearness of evidence that the two poems of 
 the Iliad and the Odyssey contain historic 
 truths. 
 
 He has observed, he says, with great plea- 
 sure that there is not in the Iliad a single 
 event of which we cannot fix the place upon 
 
 some point of the plain near the Sigean pro- 
 montory; and that from this coincidence of 
 the poem with the topography, it must ne- 
 cessarily be concluded, that the events are 
 real and historical, or else that the poet has 
 adapted them most exactly to the theatre 
 which is at present seen at the outlet of the 
 Hellespont. This reflection of Mr. Morritt 
 is literally the same as that of Mr. David 
 Morier, at this time consul-general from Eng- 
 land at Paris : ** The general appearance of 
 the country and the relative position of the 
 leading features of the land and sea prospects 
 correspond so strikingly with the vivid pic- 
 tures of the poet that it is hardly possible not 
 to be convinced that he was himself an eye- 
 witness of the deeds he celebrated^ or that he 
 adapted his fictitious pictures to a scene he 
 had accurately studied with that view.'' 
 
 William Martin Leake, an English colonel, 
 as distinguished by his military talents as by 
 his great erudition, justly remarks, that " not 
 one of the ancient authors who have written 
 on the Troas, with the exception of Homer, 
 
26 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 27 
 
 M 
 
 was so well acquainted with the locality as 
 modem travellers are ; and that not one pos- 
 sessed any delineation of its topography ap- 
 proaching to the accuracy of that with which 
 we are furnished, and not yet satisfied." * They 
 did not, indeed, possess any of the resources, 
 any of those means which are possessed at 
 present, for comparing the poem with the 
 topography of the places which it describes. 
 They had neither charts nor views designed 
 with exactness. They could not, therefore, 
 Jbrm conjectures, nor draw the co?iclusions 
 which have since successively enlightened the 
 researches of the moderns. 
 
 Is it not in fact very singular, that Strabo, 
 (1. viii. p. 378.) who had travelled to Corinth, 
 that is to say, within some miles of Mycenae, 
 was ignorant of the existence of the immense 
 ruins of that town, and asserted that there did 
 not remain a vestige of it ? In like manner, 
 he makes no mention of several other towns, 
 of which modern travellers have found con- 
 
 * Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, p. 277. 
 
 siderable ruins. Diodorus Siculus also re- 
 presents to us Mycenae as entirely destroyed. 
 Livy too annihilates many towns of Italy, 
 of which we still find the walls, the gates, and 
 the towers in an almost perfect state of pre- 
 servation. 
 
 " As even the identity," adds the colonel, 
 " of the country on the Asiatic side of the 
 entrance of the IJellespontine strait with the^ 
 scene of the Ilias has been doubted, it may 
 not be useless to premise, that if the war of 
 Troy was a real event, having reference to a 
 real topography, (and to doubt it would shake 
 the whole fabric of profane history,) no dis- 
 trict has yet been shown that will combine 
 even a few of the requisite features of the 
 plain of Troy, except that between Kmn-kal6 
 and Bunarbashi; whereas in that district, 
 and in the surrounding country by land and 
 by water, we find the seas and mountains 
 and islands in the positions which the poet 
 indicates, and many of them with the same 
 or nearly the same names. The features which 
 do not accord so well with his description are 
 
m 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 29 
 
 It 
 
 those which are the most liable to change in 
 the lapse of ages, the course and size of the 
 rivers, and the extent and direction of the 
 low coast, where these waters join the sea. 
 Instead of a river with two large branches, 
 which Homer seems to describe, we find on 
 one side of the plain a broad torrent, reduced 
 in the dry season to a slender brook and a few 
 stagnant pools, and on the other side a small 
 perennial stream, which, instead of joining 
 the former, is diverted into an artificial chan- 
 nel, and is thus carried to a different part of 
 the coast. But the diminutive size of some 
 of the most celebrated rivers of antiquity is 
 well known to those who have travelled in 
 Greece ; and it must be considered, that a poet 
 writing of a real scene is obliged to magnify 
 those features which, without exaggeration, 
 would be beneath the dignity of his verse. 
 In regard to the course of the streams, it 
 seems sufficient still to find, at the end of 
 three thousand years, two rivers which, if 
 they do not now unite, evidently did so at a 
 former period of time ; and for the sources of 
 that stream which Homer describes as rising 
 
 under the walls of Troy, to find some very- 
 remarkable springs, not very different in their 
 peculiarities from the poet's description, and 
 rising at the foot of a commanding height on 
 the edge of the plain. : 
 
 " For poetry this coincidence appears suf- 
 ficient ; and in regard to the position of Troy 
 itself, it seems enough to find a hill rising 
 above the sources just mentioned, not only 
 agreeing in all particulars with the kind of 
 position which the Greeks * usually chose for 
 their towns, but the only situation in this 
 region which will combine all the requisites 
 they sought for; namely, a height overlooking 
 a fertile maritime plain, situated at a sufficient 
 distance from the sea to be secure from the 
 
 * " It is almost unnecessary here to remark that the 
 ruling family, and hence probably a large portion of the 
 people of Troy, were of Greek origin, and that they had 
 adopted the manners and language of Greece. The 
 DardanidflB were Greeks settled in Asia ; as the Atridse 
 were Phrygians settled in Europe. For the history of 
 Ilium the reader may conveniently consult the work of 
 Chandler, in 4to, 1802." 
 
 M 
 
so 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 31 
 
 I* 
 
 attacks of pirates, and furnished with a copious 
 and perennial supply of water ; presenting a 
 strong and healthy position for the city; and 
 for the citadel a hill beyond the reach of bow- 
 shot from the neighbouring heights, defended 
 at the back by steep rocks and precipices, sur- 
 rounded by a deep valley and broad torrent, 
 and backed beyond the river by mountains 
 which supplied timber and fuel. That it was 
 precisely such a situation as the inhabitants 
 of Greece and Asia in remote ages preferred, 
 might be shown by a great variety of ex- 
 amples ; and it can hardly be doubted, that a 
 person totally unacquainted with the Ilias, but 
 accustomed to observe the positions of ancient 
 Greek towns, would fix on Bunarbashi for 
 the site of the chief place of the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 " It is a necessary consequence of placing 
 Troy on the heights to the S. E. of Bunar- 
 bashi, that the river flowing from the sources 
 which give that village its name (meaning 
 spring-head) is the Scamander of Homer; 
 that the large torrent which flows through a 
 
 deep ravine on the eastern side of the heights 
 is the Simoeis ; and that, notwithstanding the 
 much greater magnitude of the bed of the 
 latter, and occasionally of that stream itself, 
 the united river after the junction in the 
 plain was called by the name of the former, 
 Scamander. 
 
 " With regard to the existing barrows, it 
 seems incontrovertible only that those which 
 stand in conspicuous situations on either side 
 of the mouth of the Scamander are the tumuli 
 supposed in the time of the Romans, and 
 probably with reason, to have been the se- 
 pulchres of Ajax, Achilles, and some other 
 chieftains; and these monuments are so far 
 important as they prove the identity of the 
 plain of the Mendere with the scene of the 
 Ilias. 
 
 "It is objected to the springs of Bundr- 
 bashi, that instead of being only two — one 
 hot and the other cold, as described by Homer 
 — they are in one place so numerous as to have 
 received from the Turks the name of Kirk- 
 
32 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEK. 
 
 33 
 
 'I 
 
 \ I 
 
 .i'» 
 
 ' ki 
 
 
 m 
 
 Ghiuz, (the Forty Fountains,) and that they 
 are all of the same temperature. 
 
 " But viewing them as the springs of a 
 river, they may in poetical language, or even 
 in common speech, be considered as two, since 
 they arise in two places, distant from each 
 other about two hundred yards : in one the 
 water appears in a deep basin, which is noted 
 among the natives for being often covered 
 with a thick vapor like smoke ; in the other 
 place there are numerous rills issuing from 
 the rocks into a broad shallow piece of water, 
 terminating in a stream which is joined by 
 that from the smoking spring. As to the 
 temperature of the water, the observations of 
 travellers give various results. Some have 
 observed a difference : according to others, 
 it would appear that, being all deep-seated 
 springs, their temperature is the same at all 
 seasons, or about 60 ' of Fahrenheit at their 
 eruption from the ground ; consequently that 
 they will feel cold when the air is at 70** or 
 80°, and warm when it is at 40^ or 50\ It 
 seems sufficient to justify Homer's expression, 
 
 that a difference of temperature was beliieved, 
 and that an occasional appearance of vapor 
 over one source was often observed by the 
 natives." pp. 277—283. 
 
 In the number of the important witnesses 
 that have been cited, I must not forget the 
 celebrated Wood, who appeared fifty years ago 
 in the plain of Troy, after having braved the 
 deserts of Palmyra, in order to render us ac- 
 quainted with their monuments. He observes, 
 that if any one were to take the pains of ex- 
 tracting from the Iliad the simple journal of 
 the siege of Troy, divested of all the orna- 
 ments of poetry, that journal would be found 
 in general to contain an exact recital of mi- 
 litary events supported by the most perfect 
 coincidence of time, circumstance, and place 
 which history requires ; so that Homer is not 
 only the most inimitable of poets, but is also 
 the most faithful copyist of nature. Struck 
 with this observation of Wood, I not only, in 
 conformity with his wise counsel, extracted 
 from the Iliad the simple journal of the siege 
 of Troy, but as I luckily had the Iliad in my 
 
34 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 i| 
 
 
 ii 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 liand, and the theatre of the battles before 
 my eyes, I went and seated myself sometimes 
 by the side of Mars on the Pergama and the 
 beauteous hill (KoXXiicoXwvt;), sometimes near 
 Minerva on the intrenchment of Hercules at 
 the Sigean promontory. Placed alternately 
 on those two situations, so well chosen by the 
 two divinities, I followed the armed gods in 
 all their movements, and each of the heroes 
 in his own particular exploits. 
 
 The war between the Greeks and the Tro- 
 jans had lasted nine years. The first were 
 encamped in the neighbourhood of Troy when 
 the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon 
 occasioned a division in the army. Up to that 
 time the Trojans had remained in the town, 
 according to the advice of the aged counsel- 
 lors, who foresaw the difficulties which the 
 Greeks would have to overcome in forming 
 the siege. But encouraged by the defection 
 of Achilles, with which they had become ac- 
 quainted, they at last marched out of their 
 walls, and advanced to encounter the enemy. 
 This sortie of the Trojans ought to satisfy the 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 35 
 
 vengeance of Achilles, and flatter his pride, 
 as it was an act of homage paid to his valor. 
 The two armies engage, and have successively 
 four grand battles, which form altogether the 
 principal subject of the Iliad. 
 
 In the first of those combats the Greeks 
 occupied the plain of the Scamander: the 
 Trojans the hill Bathycia. Paris and Me- 
 nelaus are not long in discovering each other. 
 Hector provokes a single combat between 
 them, of which the issue is not decisive. 
 The two armies could not then be at a great 
 distance from the town, as Priam, accom- 
 panied by the old men, distinguishes] from 
 the top of the walls the chiefs of the Greeks, 
 of whom Helen recounts to him the names. 
 The traitor Pandarus discharges an arrow: the 
 two armies again engage: the battle took 
 place in the neighbourhood rf the town, as 
 Apollo animated the Trojans by his shouts 
 from the top of the Pergama. The fate of 
 the battle rests for a long time undecided : 
 the armies advance and retreat alternately 
 between the rivers Simois and Scamander. 
 
 D 2 
 
* . 
 
 36 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 At length Ajax drives back the Trojans to 
 the gates of the town : there they rally at the 
 voice of Hector and ^neas, and turn round 
 upon the enemy. Hector, excited by Helenus, 
 and no doubt alarmed at the approaching 
 danger, has recourse to the gods. He enters 
 the town, and engages the women to implore 
 the protection of Minerva. During that time 
 Glaucus and Diomed exchange their armour. 
 At the return of Hector the battle recom- 
 mences. Hector challenges the most valiant 
 of the Greeks. At length the Trojans retire 
 into their town, and the Greeks into their 
 camp. Thus ends the first day's battle. 
 
 The day after, an armistice is agreed upon 
 in order to burn the dead ; and the Greeks 
 avail themselves of it to throw up a rampart 
 before their camp. On the point of the day 
 following the second battle takes place, which 
 is soon followed by another between the town 
 and the camp. Towards the middle of the 
 day a panic terror seizes the Greeks : they re- 
 tire in disorder : they return, however, once 
 more to the charge, but are repelled, and at 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 37 
 
 last shut themselves up in their intreneh- 
 ments. Night comes on happily to save 
 them. 
 
 Hector does not allow his troops to enter 
 into the town ; but lets them pass the night 
 in the plain upon the banks of the river, at 
 some distance from the camp, and commands 
 them to light fires. The Greeks, in com- 
 pliance with the advice of Nestor, keep watch 
 also on their part during the same night. 
 They send ambassadors to Achilles. Ulysses 
 and Diomed are sent to reconnoitre. The 
 situation of the camp of the Trojans is on this 
 occasion described with precision. Hector, 
 with the chiefs of the Trojans, holds a council 
 at the tomb of Ilus. The auxiliaries sleep ; 
 but the Trojans keep watch near the fires 
 which they had lighted. The Lycians and 
 the Mysians are towards the valley of Thym- 
 bra ; that is, without doubt, on the right wing, 
 and opposite the post of Ajax. The Carians 
 and the Paeonians are towards the sea, on the 
 left wing, and opposite to the post of Achilles, 
 The Thracians, under the command of Rhe- 
 
 m 
 
" 1! 
 
 *i 
 
 38 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 BUS, must have been at the advanced posts, 
 and near the camp of the Greeks; for Ulysses 
 and Diomed, by following the banks of the 
 Simois, surprised the former, and returned at 
 the break of day to their camp, from whence 
 they had departed some time after mid- 
 night. 
 
 The day following, the Trojans attacked 
 the camp of the Greeks. In order to com- 
 prehend perfectly the different actions which 
 took place in the course of that day, it is ne- 
 cessary to understand the disposition of the 
 ships, and the fortification which the Greeks 
 had newly constructed. 
 
 The vessels were ranged in two lines be- 
 tween the promontories, with their stems 
 turned towards the land. Ajax was on the 
 left wing of the camp, and Achilles, with his 
 Myrmidons, on the right. There can be no 
 doubt respecting the disposition of the troops 
 placed on the two promontories; but it is 
 not easy to determine with equal exactness 
 the disposition of those who occupied the in- 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 39 
 
 termediate space. It is, however, probable 
 that Idomeneus with the Cretans was on the 
 right of Ajax, and that Nestor with the Py- 
 lians was next to the latter. Then Mnestheus 
 with the Athenians ; next Ulysses with the 
 Argives; and, lastly, Achilles with the Myrmi- 
 dons and other Thessalians. 
 
 This order of battle throws great light upon 
 many incidents of the poem. When Machaon 
 is wounded, and orders himself to be con- 
 ducted to the tent of Nestor, Achilles is at 
 such a distance that he cannot distinguish 
 him. Patroclus, sent by Achilles in order to 
 obtain information, and returning from the 
 post of Nestor, passes near the ships of Ulysses. 
 He finds Eurypylus wounded, who was re- 
 turning, without doubt, to the right wing, 
 where were placed the Thessalians. Machaon, 
 though a Thessalian, was conducted into the 
 tent of Nestor by Nestor himself, because he 
 was too weak to reach the right wing. The 
 vessels of Ulysses were in the centre; and 
 when he called his troops to arms, his voice 
 was heard at the two extremities of the camp. 
 
40 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 The order of the vessels in the catalogue 
 appears to have reference to the disposition 
 of the troops in the camp. The Boeotians, 
 in fact, and those who are next to them, 
 up to the Salaminians commanded by Ajax, 
 belonged to the left wing. The Argives, and 
 those who were next to them, the Cretans, 
 Rhodians, and other islanders, composed the 
 centre. The Thessalians,with the Myrmidons, 
 formed the right wing. 
 
 The order of battle is a little different. 
 Agamemnon throws himself into the midst 
 of the combatants, and, after having passed 
 some troops that are not named, reaches Ido- 
 meneus, who commanded the Cretans. Then 
 Ajax, under whom the Salaminians fought ; 
 next Nestor, Mnestheus, Ulysses, and, lastly, 
 Diomed. 
 
 Ulysses was so far separated from the part 
 of the camp attacked by the Trojans that he 
 was not aware of their approach. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 41 
 
 we have just seen, all the space comprised be- 
 tween the two promontories. As they had 
 not succeeded in the former battle, Nestor, 
 alarmed at the valor of Hector, and con- 
 templating also the void which the secession 
 of Achilles had left in the army, proposes to 
 fortify the camp. This precaution had been 
 hitherto unnecessary, as the Trojans had been 
 always kept shut up within their walls. 
 
 By the little time that was employed in 
 constructing this intrenchment, it may be 
 judged that the work was of no great im- 
 portance ; but as it is the most ancient model 
 of a fortification known, it merits on that ac- 
 count some attention. It was constructed of 
 earth, pierced with several ports, and flanked 
 with towers built of stone and wood. It must 
 have been at a distance from the f.hips, inas- 
 much as a very sanguinary engagement took 
 place in the part which separated them. The 
 principal gate, through which the Greeks made 
 a sortie into the plain, was on the left wing. 
 
 .Ill 
 
 m 
 
 The camp of the Greeks then occupied, as 
 
 This intrenchment was of little elevation, 
 
\'A 
 
 (I 
 
 42 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEIl. 
 
 inasmuch as Sarpedon reached the battlements 
 of it with his hand. It was defended along 
 its whole extent by a deep ditch fenced with 
 palisades, which was immediately contiguous 
 to it. 
 
 Now let us return to the assault on the 
 camp. At the break of day the Greeks sallied 
 out of it, and left their chariots behind them : 
 the Trojan were upon the Thrasimos. The 
 fate of battle remains undecided to the middle 
 of the day ; at which time the Trojans are 
 repelled, and fly across the plain, passing near 
 the tomb of Ilus and the fig-tree, and do not 
 stop till they reach the Scaean gates. There 
 the combat is renewed, and continues the 
 whole day. Agamemnon distinguishes him- 
 , self by many brilliant actions. At length he 
 is wounded : the Trojans then resume their 
 courage, and drive back the Greeks beyond 
 the tomb of Ilus, where Paris, in ambuscade, 
 wounds Diomed with an arrow. The battle 
 becomes general, and reaches to great distance 
 upon the plain; inasmuch as Hector, com- 
 bating on the left wing, towards the Sca- 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 4.3 
 
 mander, knew nothing of the success which 
 Diomed, Ulysses, and Ajax were obtaining 
 over the Trojans towards the Simois. He 
 flies to the assistance of his countrymen, and 
 Ajax himself is forced to give way. The 
 Greeks fly towards their camp, and there shut 
 themselves up. Hector pursues them, pre- 
 pares to attack them, to set fire to their ves- 
 sels, and to destroy the whole Greek army. 
 
 The Trojans were ignorant of the method 
 of conducting an attack on an intrenched 
 camp ; but, on the advice of Polydamas, their 
 chiefs descend from their chariots, divide the 
 infantry into five columns, and lead it on to- 
 wards the intrenchment. Asius alone remains 
 in his chariot ; and, casting his eyes towards 
 the left of the ships, he observes that the pass 
 by which the Greeks had sallied from their 
 camp was open. He there makes an attack, 
 but without success. The other divisions 
 attack other points ; and as the columns of 
 the Trojans were five in number, it is gene- 
 rally supposed that the ports of the intrench- 
 
 'i 
 fliiii 
 
 ti 
 
? 
 
 T f 
 
 44 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 45 
 
 ' 11' 
 
 ''Ml 
 
 m 
 
 ment were the same. The division of Hector 
 is particularly directed to destroy the rampart 
 ahout one of the ports. Sarpedon directs his 
 attacks upon the parts defended by Mne- 
 stheus, the chief of the Athenians. He calls 
 to his assistance Ajax and Teucer, who were 
 fighting against Hector. The absence of 
 these two adversaries oftered to the son of 
 Hercules an opportunity of bursting open the 
 gate with a fragment of a rock, and of pene- 
 trating into the camp. The Greeks, terrified, 
 retire into their vessels. Here the two Ajaxes 
 unite : they rally the fugitives, and bring them 
 back to the combat. This column of the 
 Greeks gives the first idea of a phalanx ; for 
 the bravest troops began to close in their 
 ranks on the approach of the enemy. By 
 means of this manoeuvre the Trojans are 
 quickly repelled. 
 
 While the combat is at its height among 
 the vessels, Idomeneus, accompanied by Me- 
 riones, passes to the left wing, and makes head 
 against the troops of Asius. 
 
 The Trojans meanwhile assemble from all 
 parts at the place where Hector was combat- 
 ing. This warrior, following the advice of 
 Polydamas, assembles a council. He quits it 
 in order to seek the bravest chiefs with their 
 battalions, and advances with them against 
 Ajax. 
 
 Hector thought that he had attained the 
 object of his wishes, when the Greek generals, 
 after having dressed their wounds, returned 
 to the combat. Hector himself is wounded, 
 and the Trojans are driven beyond the in- 
 trenchment. He rallies them, attacks the 
 foss once more, passes it, and renews the com- 
 bat between the vessels and the tents. The 
 Greeks, overpowered, seek an asylum behind 
 the first rank of the vessels, and beat off the 
 Trojans with the oars. Ajax advances gal- 
 lantly against Hector, who at length seizes 
 the poop of the vessel which had borne Pro- 
 tesilaus, and sets fire to it. 
 
 But here the success of the Trojans ends. 
 Patroclus advances at the head of the Myr- 
 
I 
 
 if 
 
 46 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 midons divided into five close columns. The 
 Trojans are soon forced to retire : confusion 
 shows itself in their ranks: they betake them- 
 selves to flight. Patroclus cuts through their 
 army, and causes great carnage between the 
 vessels, the river, and the town. Intoxicated 
 with his victory, and forgetting the orders of 
 Achilles, he pursues the fugitives to the walls 
 of Troy, and even tries to carry the town by 
 assault. Hector halts at the Scaean gates, 
 attacks the Greeks in his turn, slays Patro- 
 clus, and pursues the fugitives to their camp. 
 They nevertheless carry off the body of Pa- 
 troclus. Achilles presents himself without 
 arms to the Trojans. The bare sight of this 
 warrior arrests their course. They pass the 
 night in the plain before the camp. Polyda- 
 mas counsels them to retire within the town. 
 Hector opposes him. At the break of day, 
 Achilles, clad in his new armour, comes out 
 of the camp. Here begins the fourth and 
 last battle. 
 
 At first the two armies display an equal 
 valor ; but at length the Trojans give way, 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 47 
 
 and fly towards the Scamander. Achilles 
 pursues, and divides them into two parts. 
 The one is fortunate enough to save itself in 
 the town : the other is forced into the river. 
 Achilles then approaches the town into which 
 the Trojans had already entered. Hector 
 alone remains before the walls, and falls by 
 the hand of Achilles near the sources of the 
 Scamander. 
 
 Here I stop to invoke the testimony of 
 all the generals who have fought during 
 the last thirty years upon the grand theatre 
 of Europe, and I ask of them confidently, 
 whether it be possible that the historian of 
 the Trojan war, " Trojani belli scriptor,'* 
 could have made so perfect an agreement, so 
 constant a harmony, between the localities of 
 the plain of Troy and the numerous combats 
 which there took place, without having been 
 an actor and a witness of them. 
 
 A dexterous painter designs every day scenes 
 of imagination with as much facility as ele- 
 gance. Voltaire describes the battles of Fon- 
 
 :' 
 
 • p 
 
 I 
 
I'. 
 
 u 
 
 m 
 
 !k' 
 
 48 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 49 
 
 tenoy, and those of Charles XII. ; but is there 
 a single officer, Frenchman or Swede, who 
 can comprehend those battles in the descrip- 
 tion which Voltaire has given of them ? There 
 is never anything but obscurity, or at least a 
 description difficult to make out, in the battles 
 which are given by historians who are not of 
 the profession. In whatever relates to the 
 tactics and the topography, we can only 
 trust to those who have been present at, 
 and have seen with their own eyes, or par- 
 ticipated in the scenes which they describe. 
 It is in Thucydides, Polybius, Xenophon, 
 Caesar, Arrian, Josephus; and, among the 
 modern generals, in the Cond^s, the Tu- 
 rennes, the Fredericks, the Napoleons, the 
 Foys, the Segurs, the Wellingtons, the Rey- 
 niers, &c. that are developed, with order, 
 truth, and simplicity, the recitals of the 
 great operations of war, offensive and defen- 
 sive, the military reconnoitres, the art of in- 
 trenchment, ambuscades, attacks, mines, and 
 sieges. This kind of knowledge is not to be 
 found in Voltaire, nor in Tasso, nor in Virgil 
 himself. The description of Virgil is more 
 
 ornamental without doubt, but that of Homer 
 is more martial ; and though more detailed, 
 has more warmth and truth. The picture 
 which Tasso has drawn of the armies that 
 dispute the Holy Land is intermixed with 
 agreeable and interesting episodes ; but Tasso 
 is far from approaching his model. He only 
 presents the descriptions of the countries of 
 which he speaks : he does not paint his war- 
 riors with traits equally strong. We may 
 perceive, says Pope, in the poems of Homer, 
 that he has seen the places which he men- 
 tions. In fact he executes his numerous pic- 
 tures with a topographic fidelity, a freedom, 
 a boldness, and liberty of pencil which evi- 
 dently only belong to the warrior-poet, at 
 once the historian and the witness of the 
 scenes which he describes — the poet-king who, 
 like Moses, was equally competent in the art 
 of governing an empire and in that of com- 
 manding armies. 
 
 Thus those commentators who have up to 
 the present time believed that this poet had 
 written his own adventures and the wars in 
 
 E 
 
 'i' 
 
m 
 
 50 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 which he had fought have been carried along 
 by the force of truth. Those on the contrary 
 who have maintained that Homer did not 
 exist till many ages after the taking of Troy, 
 being equally forced to allow that he could 
 not put so much truth into his pictures with- 
 out having seen the places which he describes, 
 are necessarily obliged to suppose that the au- 
 thor of the Iliad, whosoever he may have been. 
 Homer, Ulysses, or any one else, has gone 
 many ages after the war, and placed himself, 
 for example, upon the Sigean promontory, or 
 upon the Pergama, in order there to meditate 
 the plan of his poem ; to adapt its episodes to 
 the rivers, valleys, and promontories of that 
 celebrated plain; to support indeed through 
 twelve books the recitals of all the combats, 
 general and partial, which have there taken 
 place, without deviating in a single instance 
 from the topographic reality of the spot which 
 has been the theatre of them. Nor is this 
 all. It must further be admitted that the 
 same poet has also taken up his abode in the 
 island of Ithaca, and has there also happily 
 placed himself upon the top of the Rock of the 
 
 ii 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 51 
 
 Crow, in order to paint to us with the same 
 exactness all that passed in Ithaca from 
 the arrival of Ulysses at the Grotto of the 
 Nymphs to his last combat with the usurpers 
 of his throne : 
 
 C( 
 
 credat Judaeus Apella.' 
 
 m 
 
 It is therefore indubitably and rigorously 
 demonstrable that the author of the Iliad, who- 
 ever he may have been, has fought on the 
 plain of Troy. Some authors of antiquity 
 have pretended that the son of Palamedes, the 
 king of Euboea, had composed certain poems 
 upon this war : but as the name of that hero 
 is not even mentioned in the Iliad, the opinion 
 of antiquity respecting that prince can only 
 serve to prove that the kings of the heroic 
 ages, like the Hebrew patriarchs, knew both 
 how to fight and to sing their battles. 
 
 It now only remains to examine upon which 
 of the heroes mentioned in the poem we ought 
 to cast our eyes, and to whom we are to ascribe 
 a distinction the most honorable that any 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 53 
 
 
 It 
 
 I ■ 
 
 ,1 
 
 if 
 jt 
 
 l<< i ! > 
 
 mortal has ever merited. If among those 
 heroes there was one who was found to be the 
 most devoted lover of his country and of his 
 king, the most faithful husband, the most 
 tender father, the most dutiful son; if that 
 hero had travelled among all nations known 
 in his time, in order to become acquainted 
 with their manners and their cities ; if by his 
 address, his courage, his wisdom, and his elo- 
 quence he had constantly directed the army 
 of Agamemnon in the paths of victory, and 
 had rendered it master of Troy; if he had 
 obtained throughout the preference over the 
 other heroes ; if he had constantly supported 
 the character of the pious hero of the Iliad as 
 of the Odyssey, might he not confidently be 
 declared the author of the first of those poems, 
 more especially after it had been shown that 
 no one but he could be the author of the 
 second? 
 
 I think that I have sufficiently proved that 
 Ulysses is the author of the Odyssey and of the 
 Iliad : but let us now see whether he must not 
 necessarily have been the author of a portion 
 
 of the Iliad, which of itself alone is perhaps 
 more surprising than the whole poem. Let 
 us examine whether he has not permitted us to 
 discover with sufficient clearness that himself, 
 in concert with Nestor, was the author of the 
 admirable enumeration of the Greek and Tro- 
 jan nations, of that chief work, which is totally 
 inexplicable, if it is not the act of a powerful 
 king who unites in himself alone all the know- 
 ledge of his age, in geography, in agriculture, 
 in history, in politics, and in eloquence. This 
 third proof would support the other two ; and 
 no resources are to be neglected in the at- 
 tempt to establish a system so new, and to 
 triumph over an uncertainty protected by so 
 many ages. 
 
 I open the eleventh book of the Iliad, and 
 I there remark the following passage : " When 
 Ulysses and I were sent,'' says Nestor, " to 
 assemble the heroes of all Greece" &;c. (II. A. 
 769.) The commentators, ancient or mo- 
 dern, at least so far as I know, have not at- 
 tached to this beautiful passage the value and 
 importance of which it is worthy, since it com- 
 
 4 
 
54 
 
 ULYSSES HOMEIl. 
 
 R 
 } 
 
 m 
 
 4 
 
 prises a brief and clear explanation of the list. 
 Madame Dacier is the only person who has 
 made a remark upon this subject, full of good 
 sense and reason; but, unhappily, she has 
 not sounded it to the bottom. " Nestor and 
 Ulysses," she says, '* were chosen to go into 
 all the states of Greece and exhort the princes 
 to join in the expedition against Troy. There 
 was much wisdom in the choice ; for as they 
 were the two men most celebrated in Greece 
 for their prudence, they were perhaps the only 
 persons capable of engaging in so difficult a 
 war." Yes, no doubt, these were the only per- 
 sons capable of assembling the heroes of their 
 country in order to be led against the enemy ; 
 to traverse all Greece at a period when, as 
 Suidas says, travelling was so dear. But 
 they had not only to arm the continent of 
 Greece, but also to put in motion the sove- 
 reigns of the Mgean Sea ; all the Greeks, in 
 fact, who were to combat against the Trojans. 
 
 If the great age of Nestor forced him to 
 limit his services to the continent of Greece, 
 it is probable that Ulysses, the indefatigable 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 55 
 
 Ulysses, accompanied by another young and 
 active prince, finished the recruiting of the 
 Mgean Sea. It appears at least that he was 
 no stranger to the expeditions which took 
 place in that sea ; since, according to the ge- 
 neral opinion of antiquity, it was he who was 
 employed to search for Neoptolemus in the 
 island of Scyros ; to bring in Philoctetes from 
 Lemnos to the army: and it was certainly 
 more difficult to tear the son of Achilles from 
 the arms of his mother, and to reconcile the 
 son of Poeas with the Atridae, than to engage 
 the kings of Crete and of Rhodes, Idomeneus 
 and Tlepolemus, to follow the standard of 
 Agamemnon. 
 
 ».> 
 
 In this double conscription of the continent 
 and of the islands of Greece Ulysses must have 
 acquired at great expense and by immense 
 fatigue a perfect knowledge of those regions. 
 That happy genius might also during his em- 
 bassies to Troy, and during the ten years in 
 which he made war upon the Trojans, have 
 become acquainted with the kingdom of Priam 
 and the states of his numerous allies, the 
 
 'I 
 
 S^ 
 
 ] 
 
i 
 
 «'l 
 
 56 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 57 
 
 Mysians, the Phrygians, the Cariaiis, the 
 Maeoniaus, the Paphlagonians, the Chaly- 
 beans, and the Halizonians. 
 
 It has been remarked with great truth that 
 the author of the Iliad has given a much less 
 complete and much less detailed description 
 of the kingdom of Priam than of the king- 
 doms of Greece. This difference is in truth 
 worthy of remark ; for it proves at the same 
 time, in a manner the most incontestable, that 
 that great man was not a native of Asia, as 
 has been generally imagined by the ancients 
 and the moderns ; for he would certainly know 
 his own country better than that of Greece ; 
 and besides, he would not have proclaimed in 
 his poems a preference so decided for the ene- 
 mies of Asia, and sentiments so hostile to the 
 Trojans, who would in that case have been 
 his neighbours and his countrymen. 
 
 I have shown above that Ulysses has pre- 
 sented in his Odyssey the most exact picture 
 of the island of Ithaca. I have just now 
 proved that he has been an eye-witness of the 
 
 battles of the Iliad. It now remains for me to 
 verify the exactitude which he has shown in 
 painting all the regions of the catalogue of 
 this immortal work— I repeat it, altogether 
 inexplicable, if it were not the work of an 
 illustrious ambassador accredited by the king 
 of kings to all the sovereigns of Greece. 
 
 I quitted then the plain of Ilium to go 
 and study first the kingdom of Priam, from 
 Paphlagonia to Lycia. I visited Egypt, and 
 Thebes with its hundred gates, of which the 
 ruins are still standing. I then traversed all 
 the continent of Greece, all the islands of the 
 Mgean Sea, and all those of the seas of Sicily 
 and Italy. I saw the city of Erechtheus, cele- 
 brated for the temple of Minerva; Argolis, 
 abounding in fine horses ; Achaia, renowned 
 for the beauty of its women ; the spacious 
 plains of Mycalessus ; the arid rocks of Pytho; 
 Thisbe, which is still the chosen abode of 
 doves, &c. &c. &c. I visited, in a word, all 
 the treasures of Greece, the most distinguished 
 country in the world, for beautiful scenery, 
 for historic recollections and works of art. 
 
 II 
 
 m;. 
 
 
•I 
 
 58 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 59 
 
 
 r 
 I » 
 
 If 
 
 I' i 
 
 Two celebrated English travellers, Mr. Ed- 
 ward Dodwell and Sir William Gell, had per- 
 formed before me the general tour of Greece, 
 and had made drawings of all its chief monu- 
 ments. It is to them that I am indebted for 
 the small number which I have already had ex- 
 ecuted for the illustration of a larger work on 
 this subject, in order to prove at least by some 
 examples that the author of the catalogue had 
 described the monuments and the scenery with 
 as much exactness and truth as the island of 
 Ithaca and the plain of Troy. The first of 
 those engravings presents us with the temple 
 of Minerva Sunias, on the sacred promontory 
 of Attica. This picture is followed by those 
 of jEgina * and Troezen ; of the course of the 
 Peneus ; of the fountain of Hesperia ; of the 
 lake of Stymphalus ; of the Cyclopean ruins 
 of Tiryns; of the magnificent gate of the 
 citadel of Mycenae, out of which passed the 
 king of kings with the numerous battalions 
 which he conducted to the siege of Troy ; 
 and, last of all, the passage of Alpheus, where 
 
 * The present seat of the new government of Greece. 
 
 Nestor in his early youth gave such striking 
 proofs of his valor. Arrived on the banks, 
 and near the mouth of the Alpheus, I was so 
 near to the capital of the king of Pylos, and 
 to the port where Telemachus embarked on 
 his return from Sparta to Ithaca ; I was be- 
 sides so worn out with the fatigues which I 
 had experienced in my long travels, that I was 
 strongly tempted to follow the son of Ulysses 
 along the shores ofElis from the embouchure 
 of the Peneus, and to return, like him, into 
 my native country. Would to God that I had 
 persisted in this resolution! I should then have 
 found my father alive after my long absence. 
 But I was still once more excited by my de- 
 sire of following my hero across the seas of 
 Sicily and Italy. I therefore embarked in the 
 port of Navarino, (Pylos,) which was soon to 
 become the theatre of a great event, happy 
 for certain nations, untoward for others, ac- 
 cording to different interests, or perhaps accord- 
 ing to political measures wisely concerted. , 
 
 A violent north wind had cast Ulysses upon 
 the coast of Africa at the moment when he 
 
 )!: 
 
 f 
 
 (1(1 
 
^^! 
 
 It : 
 
 60 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 61 
 
 n 
 
 wished to doublp the Malean promontory, in 
 order to sail up to Ithaca. This north wind, 
 fatal to the course of Ulysses, was on the con- 
 trary most favorable to mine ; and in a few 
 days I arrived at the extremity of the Syrtes, 
 where is situated the island of the Lotophagi, 
 (Meninx,) now called Gerby, and where still 
 grows the lotus. I landed on that island t 
 and I there in fact found the fruit-plant with 
 the flower of which the odor was as agreeable 
 as the taste was for the sailors of Ulysses the 
 most dangerous of all poisons; for it extin- 
 guished in their hearts the remembrance of 
 their country. From the island of the Loto- 
 phagi I passed to that of iEgusa, which the 
 poet seems to have described with as much 
 satisfaction as his dear Ithaca ; for we there 
 see the banks crowned with meadows well- 
 watered, always covered with fresh grass and 
 numerous flocks of goats, a port vast and 
 commodious, and that beauteous spring of 
 limpid water sung by the author of the 
 Odyssey. From the island of ^Egusa I passed 
 into that of the Cyclops, which, as Ulysses 
 says, was very near. Polyphemus, of whom 
 
 he draws so hideous a picture, was not any 
 more than Ulysses himself a fabulous cha- 
 racter. He was without doubt a king of the 
 country, deficient in the duties of hospitality. 
 It has been pretended that this king had a 
 daughter of rare beauty, whom Ulysses car- 
 ried off, and that the inhabitants pursued the 
 daughter of their king, and rescued her from 
 the hands of the ravisher : but how can we 
 attribute such conduct to the virtuous hero 
 who preferred his Penelope to immortality? 
 
 After having surveyed the island of the 
 Cyclops, and visited the immense crater 
 which sometimes shakes Sicily and Italy, but 
 which without doubt was silent in the time 
 of Ulysses, inasmuch as he has not even pro- 
 nounced its name in his narrative to the 
 Phaeacians, I repaired to the island of .SLolus, 
 where the heroic navigator, protected by the 
 god of the winds, becomes himself the master 
 of the winds. Here the allegory is intelligible ; 
 and we may see in it the poetical expression 
 of a natural fact. From the island of Molus 
 I passed into that of Circe, at this day Monte 
 
62 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 63 
 
 Circello. I Tecognised, with all the other na- 
 turalists who have travelled in these parts, an 
 immense quantity of poisonous plants, the 
 deadly nightshade, the datura ferox, the ra- 
 nunculus sceleratus, and their antidote the 
 moly, which Mercury makes known to Ulysses 
 to secure him against the spells of Circe. 
 Close to the island of Circe I perceived the 
 capital of the Laestrygons, those anthropo- 
 phagi from whence Ulysses only escaped by 
 abandoning to them twelve of his vessels. It 
 is the hero himself who teaches me the real 
 position of the island of the Syrens, which 
 was unknown in the time of Strabo, and upon 
 which modern geographers had no more cer- 
 tain notions than he. Yet the name only, 
 the island of bones, (Ustica,) ought to have 
 pointed out to them the horrible abode of 
 those goddesses, strewed with the dreadful 
 relics of their victims. 
 
 But where I have most admired the genius 
 of the poet, and the fidelity of his pencil, is 
 in his description of the dismal region? of the 
 Cimmerians, and in his surprising picture of 
 
 Charybdis and Scylla. Thus the poet has 
 shown himself as faithful a painter of nature 
 in the seas of Sicily and Italy as in the .^gean, 
 in the continent of Greece, in the plain of 
 Ilium, and in the island of Ithaca. Ogygia 
 alone is involved in mystery, which has 
 hitherto evaded all the researches of geo- 
 graphers. Did Ulysses wish to cast a veil 
 over the theatre of his amours with Calypso ? 
 This conjecture would agree with his resist- 
 ance to the charms of the goddess, and his 
 impatience to see once more the smoke of his 
 palace. 
 
 It is at the strait of Charybdis and Scylla 
 that I end my observations on the seas of 
 Sicily and Italy. Arrived at Rhegio, I had 
 only a step to take to reach the interesting 
 ruins of Temese in the country of the Bruttii. 
 I repaired thither that I might not leave a 
 single one of the chief geographical points 
 mentioned in the two poems without verifying 
 its existence and position. 
 
 Minerva, in the first book of the Odyssey, 
 
;i 
 
 64 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 65 
 
 \f: 
 
 approaches Telemachus and says to him : " I 
 am Mentes, king of the Taphians, whose 
 principal occupation is on the sea. I am 
 going to Temese* to fetch copper in exchange 
 for iron." The ruins of that celebrated town 
 and the scoria of its mines have been observed 
 upon before me, and have been described by 
 Swinburne, at the place named Campo Te- 
 mese, some miles above Amantea. It appears 
 that the commerce of the Taphians with Te- 
 mese did not take place through the strait, 
 but that the merchandise was deposited on 
 the eastern coast of Italy, and transported by 
 land to Temese upon the western shore. 
 
 * 
 
 After quitting Temese, nothing remarkable 
 occurred till I discerned the lofty mountains 
 of Albania, and a favorable wind brought 
 
 * The learned Bochart conjectures that the Phoeni- 
 cians had given the name to that town, as well as to 
 another situated in the island of Cyprus, on account of 
 the minerals which ahound in their territory ; for Te- 
 mese in their language signifies fusion, and it is known 
 that the Phoenicians were much engaged in the casting 
 of metals. 
 
 me in less than twenty hours within the port 
 of Corfu. • . 
 
 At the time of my voyage from Ithaca to 
 the university of Padua I had had occasion 
 to observe how exact the author of the 
 Odyssey is in his description of the ca- 
 pital and gardens of the king of Corcyra. 
 I had above all admired the circuit of the 
 ancient port, surrounded with hills covered 
 with olive-trees, fig-trees, and orange-trees, 
 thrusting their branches into the waters of 
 the sea. At the village of Chrysida I had 
 remarked the abundant fountain of limpid 
 water which, springing at present from the 
 foot of a beautiful tree, turns a mill at the 
 distance of a few paces. In this second voyage 
 I made an observation which had escaped 
 me in the first, that the pictures of the poet 
 are more numerous, richer, and, if it be pos- 
 sible, of an exactness still more striking, in 
 proportion as they approach nearer to the two 
 principal theatres of the Odyssey and the 
 Iliad. In fact, when I contemplated that 
 beauteous fountain of Chrysida, which was 
 
nil 
 
 66 
 
 ulVsses homer. 
 
 ULYSSES HOMER. 
 
 67 
 
 
 «l 
 
 heretofore divided into two channels, one of 
 which watered the magnificent gardens of 
 Alcinous, * and the other formed a vast basin 
 in front of the palace, for the convenience of 
 the citizens, I had a difficulty in figuring to 
 myself that a schoolmaster had come from the 
 extremity of Ionia to paint with so much care 
 the gardens of Alcinous and the beauteous 
 fountain which watered them. It seemed to 
 me more natural to believe that a picture so 
 minute had been painted by the neighbour 
 and friend of the king ; by the king of Ithaca, 
 whose flocks drank at the delicious fountain 
 of Arethusa, and who had fought so long at 
 the beauteous springs of the Scamander. 
 
 After having taken a general view of the 
 embellishments and improvements of every 
 kind, which that happy colony owes to the 
 English, my first care was to pay a visit to 
 the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian 
 Islands, Major-General Sir Frederick Adam, 
 
 * These splendid gardens have received new embel- 
 lishments from their illustrious possessor, the present 
 Loijd High Commissioner of the Ionian islands. 
 
 and to the Earl of Guilford, the lord chancellor 
 of the new University, who unfortunately had 
 gone to the waters of Spa ; from whence he 
 wrote to me, some days after my arrival (Aug. 
 15, 1827) : " The fatigues of the journey 
 and the bad roads of the Ardennes have given 
 me a disorder of which the waters will not 
 cure me." This mournful presentiment was 
 but too well founded : the noble and generous 
 friend of humanity, the zealous protector of 
 the Greek nation, died three months after- 
 wards in London, at the house of his sister. 
 Lady Sheffield, surrounded by his relations, 
 and an object of regret to all Europe. At 
 the time when I learnt from England the 
 death of my benefactor, I received at the same 
 time from Ithaca the fatal news of the death 
 of my father. These two pure souls are in 
 the bosom of the Almighty, where without 
 doubt they still intercede for the restoration 
 of Greece and the peace of the world. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 M) 
 
I 
 
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 LONDON . 
 
 FRIKTSD BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFBIARS. 
 
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