Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
The Homeric Hymns A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological By: Andrew Lang (1844-1912) |
---|
![]()
[Bust of Athene. Forming a vase; found at Athens now in the British
Museum. (Fifth Century B.C.): langi.jpg]
DEDICATION
To Henry Butcher
A Little Token of
A Long Friendship
PREFACE
To translate the Hymns usually called "Homeric" had long been my wish,
and, at the Publisher's suggestion, I undertook the work. Though not in
partnership, on this occasion, with my friend, Mr. Henry Butcher
(Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh), I have been
fortunate in receiving his kind assistance in correcting the proofs of
the longer and most of the minor Hymns. Mr. Burnet, Professor of Greek
in the University of St. Andrews, has also most generously read the
proofs of the translation. It is, of course, to be understood that these
scholars are not responsible for the slips which may have wandered into
my version, the work of one whose Greek has long "rusted in disuse."
Indeed I must confess that the rendering "Etin" for [Greek text] is
retained in spite of Mr. Butcher, who is also not wholly satisfied with
"gledes of light," and with "shieling" for a pastoral summer station in
the hills. But I know no word for it in English south of Tweed. Mr. A. S. Murray, the Head of the Classical Department in the British
Museum, has also been good enough to read, and suggest corrections in the
preliminary Essays; while Mr. Cecil Smith, of the British Museum, has
obligingly aided in selecting the works of art here reproduced. The text of the Hymns is well known to be corrupt, in places impossible,
and much mended by conjecture. I have usually followed Gemoll ( Die
Homerischen Hymnen , Leipzig, 1886), but have sometimes preferred a MS.
reading, or emendations by Mr. Tyrrell, by Mr. Verral, or the admirable
suggestions of Mr. Allen. My chief object has been to find, in cases of
doubt, the phrases least unworthy of the poets. Too often it is
impossible to be certain as to what they really wrote. I have had beside me the excellent prose translation by Mr. John Edgar
(Thin, Edinburgh, 1891). As is inevitable, we do not always agree in the
sense of certain phrases, but I am far from claiming superiority for my
own attempts. The method employed in the Essays, the anthropological method of
interpreting beliefs and rites, is still, of course, on its trial. What
can best be said as to its infirmities, and the dangers of its abuse, and
of system making in the present state of the evidence, will be found in
Sir Alfred Lyall's "Asiatic Studies," vol. ii. chaps. iii. and iv.
Readers inclined to pursue the subject should read Mr. L. R. Farnell's
"Cults of the Greek States" (Clarendon Press, 1896), Mr. J. G. Frazer's
"Golden Bough," his "Pausanias," and Mr. Hartland's work on "The Myth of
Perseus." These books, it must be observed, are by no means always in
agreement with my own provisional theories.
ESSAYS INTRODUCTORY
THE SO CALLED HOMERIC HYMNS
"The existing collection of the Hymns is of unknown editorship, unknown
date, and unknown purpose," says Baumeister. Why any man should have
collected the little preludes of five or six lines in length, and of
purely conventional character, while he did not copy out the longer poems
to which they probably served as preludes, is a mystery. The celebrated
Wolf, who opened the path which leads modern Homerologists to such an
extraordinary number of divergent theories, thought rightly that the
great Alexandrian critics before the Christian Era, did not recognise the
Hymns as "Homeric." They did not employ the Hymns as illustrations of
Homeric problems; though it is certain that they knew the Hymns, for one
collection did exist in the third century B.C. {4} Diodorus and
Pausanias, later, also cite "the poet in the Hymns," "Homer in the
Hymns"; and the pseudo Herodotus ascribes the Hymns to Homer in his Life
of that author. Thucydides, in the Periclean age, regards Homer as the
blind Chian minstrel who composed the Hymn to the Delian Apollo: a good
proof of the relative antiquity of that piece, but not evidence, of
course, that our whole collection was then regarded as Homeric... Continue reading book >>
|
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|