But suppose, on the other hand, that the later Odyssean grammar abounds all through the whole Iliad, then that grammar is not more Odyssean than it is Iliadic. The alleged distinction of early Iliadic grammar, late Odyssean grammar, in that case vanishes. Mr. Leaf is more keen than Mr. Monro and Sir Richard Jebb in detecting late grammar in the Iliadbeyond the bounds of Books IX., X., XXIII., XXIV. But he does not carry these discoveries so far as to make the late grammar no less Iliadic than Odyssean. In Book VIII. of the Iliad, which he thinks was only made for the purpose of introducing Book IX., {Footnote: Iliad, vol. i. p. 332. 1900.} we ought to find the late Odyssean grammar just as much as we do in Book IX., for it is of the very same date, and probably by one or more of the same authors as Book IX. But we do not find the Odyssean grammar in Book VIII.

Mr. Leaf says, "The peculiar character" of Book VIII. "is easily understood, when we recognise the fact that Book VIII. is intended to serve only as a means for the introduction of Book IX...." which is "late" and "Odyssean." Then Book VIII., intended to introduce Book IX., must be at least as late as Book IX. and might be expected to be at least as Odyssean, indeed one would think it could not be otherwise. Yet it is not so.

Mr. Leaf's theory has thus to face the difficulty that while the whole Iliad, by his view, for more than four centuries, was stuffed with late interpolations, in the course of oral recital through all Greek lands, and was crammed with original "copy" by a sycophant of Pisistratus about 540 B.C., the late grammar concentrated itself in only some four Books. Till some reasonable answer is given to this question—how did twenty Books of the Iliad preserve so creditably the ancient grammar through centuries of change, and of recitation by rhapsodists who used the Odyssean grammar, which infected the four other Books, and the whole of the Odyssey?—it seems hardly worth while to discuss this linguistic test.

Any scholar who looks at these pages knows all about the proofs of grammar of a late date in the Odysseyand the four contaminated Books of the Iliad. But it may be well to give a few specimens, for the enlightenment of less learned readers of Homer.

The use of {Greek: amfi}, with the dative, meaning "about," when

thinkingor speaking"about" Odysseus or anything else, is peculiar

to the Odyssey. But how has it not crept into the four Odyssean

contaminated Books of the Iliad?

{Greek: peri}, with the genitive, "follows verbs meaning to speak

or know abouta person," but only in the Odyssey. What preposition

follows such verbs in the Iliad?

Here, again, we ask: how did the contaminated Books of the Iliad

escape the stain of {Greek: peri}, with the genitive, after verbs

meaning to speak or know? What phrase do they use in the Iliadfor

speaking or asking aboutanybody? {Footnote (exact placing uncertain):

Monro, Homeric Grammar. See Index, under Iliad, p. 339.}

{Greek: meta}, with the genitive, meaning "among" or "with,"

comes twice in the Odyssey (X. 320; XVI. 140) and thrice in the Iliad

(XIII. 700; XXI. 458; XXIV. 400); but all these passages in the Iliad

are disposed of as "late" parts of the poem.

{Greek: epi}, with the accusative, meaning towardsa

person, comes often in the Iliad; once in the Odyssey. But it comes

four times in Iliad, Book X., which almost every critic scouts as very

"late" indeed. If so, why does the "late" Odysseynot deal in this

grammatical usage so common in the "late" Book X. of the Iliad?

{Greek: epi}, with the accusative, "meaning extent

(without motion)," is chiefly found in the Odyssey, and in the

Iliad, IX., X., XXIV. On consulting grammarians one thinks that there is

not much in this.

{Greek: proti} with the dative, meaning "in addition to," occurs

only once ( Odyssey, X. 68). If it occurs only once, there is little to

be learned from the circumstance.

{Greek: ana} with the genitive, is only in Odyssey, only

thrice, always of going on board a ship. There are not many ship-farings

in the Iliad. Odysseus and his men are not described as going on board

their ship, in so many words, in Iliad, Book I. The usage occurs in

the poem where the incidents of seafaring occur frequently, as is to be

expected? It is not worth while to persevere with these tithes of mint

and cummin. If "Neglect of Position" be commoner—like "Hiatus in the

Bucolic Diaeresis"—in the Odysseyand in Iliad, XXIII., XXIV., why

do the failings not beset Iliad, IX., X., these being such extremely

"late" books? As to the later use of the Article in the Odysseyand

the Odyssean Books of the Iliad, it appears to us that Book I. of the

Iliaduses the article as it is used in Book X.; but on this topic we

must refer to a special treatise on the language of Iliad, Book X.,

which is promised.

Turning to the vocabulary: "words expressive of civilisation" are bound to be more frequent, as they are, in the Odyssey, a poem of peaceful life, than in a poem about an army in action, like the Iliad. Out of all this no clue to the distance of years dividing the two poems can be found. As to words concerning religion, the same holds good. The Odyssey is more frequently religious(see the case of Eumaeus) than the Iliad.

In morals the term {Greek: dikaios} is more used in the Odyssey, also {Greek: atemistos} ("just" and "lawless"). But that is partly because the Odyssey has to contrast civilised ("just") with wild outlandish people—Cyclopes and Laestrygons, who are "lawless." The Iliadhas no occasion to touch on savages; but, as the {Greek: hybris} of the Wooers is a standing topic in the Odyssey (an ethical poem, says Aristotle), the word {Greek: hybris} is of frequent occurrence in the Odyssey, in just the same sense as it bears in Iliad, I 214—the insolence of Agamemnon. Yet when Achilles has occasion to speak of Agamemnon's insolence in Iliad, Book IX., he does not use the word{Greek: hybris}, though Book IX. is so very "late" and "Odyssean." It would be easy to go through the words for moral ideas in the Odyssey, and to show that they occur in the numerous moral situations which do not arise, or arise much less frequently, in the Iliad. There is not difference enough in the moral standard of the two poems to justify us in assuming that centuries of ethical progress had intervened between their dates of composition. If the Iliad, again, were really, like the Odyssey, a thing of growth through several centuries, which overlapped the centuries in which the Odysseygrew, the moral ideas of the Iliadand Odysseywould necessarily be much the same, would be indistinguishable. But, as a matter of fact, it would be easy to show that the moral standard of the Iliadis higher, in many places, than the moral standard of the Odyssey; and that, therefore, by the critical hypothesis, the Iliadis the later poem of the twain. For example, the behaviour of Achilles is most obnoxious to the moralist in Iliad, Book IX., where he refuses gifts of conciliation. But by the critical hypothesis this is not the fault of the Iliad, for Book IX. is declared to be "late," and of the same date as late parts of the Odyssey. Achilles is not less open to moral reproach in his abominable cruelty and impiety, as shown in his sacrifice of prisoners of war and his treatment of dead Hector, in Iliad, XXIII., XXIV. But these Books also are said to be as late as the Odyssey.