This enormous entry is made up of three sections:
(A) a "life" of Homer, found only here and attributed to Hesychius of Miletus (eta 611), thus known as the Vita Hesychii (Wilamowitz 32-34). Like the Life of Homer falsely attributed to Plutarch (Vita Pseudoplutarchea = Vit. Ps-Plut., Wilamowitz 21-25) and the other lives, it is full of invention and assertions from local histories, probably fictional, but may contain germs of genuine tradition. See Lefkowitz and Schadewaldt.
(B) an extract on moderation in pleasures such as dining, from Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, apparently using the original of a section known to us only from its epitome (8E-9C). See Heath (2000). The source and implications of the false attribution to Dioscurides are discussed by Heath pp. 576-77, notes 11, 12.
(C) a selection of "Homeric" epigrams (see Evelyn-White 466-77 and Markwald), apparently loosely drawn from sections 17-23 and 29-36 of the "Life" known as Vita Herodotea (Wilamowitz 3-21; translated by Lefkowitz 139-155) because of a (false) attribution to Herodotus (see under omicron 252), but probably written towards the end of the Hellenistic age. Markwald (281) shows that the epigrams themselves, in archaic language and references, belong to Homer's century and the following. The text is inferior to the mss of ps.-Herodotus and is therefore usually restored from the latter (see Wilamowitz 3). This section is here divided in translation, for comparison, into sections corresponding to the §§ in its source, with significant omissions marked "…." (The epigrams in the text are given Evelyn-White's numbers, with those of Markwald, who omits 9, 16, 17, marked M when different.)
(i) a sentence based on §§14-15, the expulsion of Homer from Cyme;
(ii) based on §§ 21, 24;
(iii) based on §§29-31, with Epp. 12 (=11M), 13 (=12M);
(iv) §17 with Ep. 6;
(v) §§18-19 with Epp. 8, 10 (=9M);
(vi) §§22, with Ep. 11 (=10M);
(vii) §§32-36 with Epp. 14 (=13M), 15 (=14M), 16, 17.
[1] [mu 487] Meles (RE 'Meles[2]' 15.492-94, and Supp. 9.4 with bibl.). The more usual story is given a few sentences later, that his mother Kritheis named him Melesigenes from the river. Meles also figures in the list of kings of Phrygia.
[2] Charax FGrH 103 F62.
[3] [mu 337] Maionidas. In normal Greek the name Maion means "Maeonian" and refers to that people who, after the fall of Troy, occupied the regions of Anatolia south-east of Troy later controlled by the Phrygians and Lydians. References to the Amazons (interpreted in Greek myth to mean 'women with one breast', to shoot the bow more conveniently) as masters of Cyme may refer to the invasions of the Hittites or other such Anatolian peoples. In the "third book" of Aristotle's Poetics (fr. 76 Rose), Maion is described as a king of the Lydians ruling Smyrna at the time, who married Kritheis and adopted Homer before being expelled by the Aeolians (Vita ps.-Plut. 3). Maion is, however, also a Greek name attested in the Iliad and elsewhere. Ephorus' Life gives Homer's father Maion a Greek ancestry and brothers (cf. n. 7). [R.D.]
[4] [lambda 568] Linus.
[5] [omicroniota 6] Oeagrus.
[6] [omicron 654] Orpheus.
[7] Melanopus and Apelles also appear in the genealogy given for [eta 583] Hesiod, making Homer and Hesiod cousins, cf. Vita ps.-Plut. 2.
[8] On ancient discussions of Homer's native land see Allen (1924) 11-41; Heath (1998). For the biographical tradition see also Lefkowitz 12-24.
[9] It is more probable that Homer owed his name to being sent (or volunteering) to be a hostage for Smyrna or Cyme to Colophon, perhaps already an ally or subject state of Lydia (Xenophanes fr. 3 Lesher [1992] p. 61). Few details are known of the wars between Colophon, its exiles in Smyrna and the Aeolian cities, or between the Greek cities and inland nations such as the Lydians, seeking ports on the Aegean, although Mimnermus (mu 1077) wrote of them. Curiously the same word meant 'blind' in the Aeolian cities associated with Homer. This ambiguity would be resolved if it was applied there to hostages returned to their homes after being blinded in retribution for a violation of the hostage agreement. Ctesias (FGrH IIIC, 688 F9: p.456.10-14), as reported by Photius (Bibl. 72.36b, cf. 63.22a), reports such a blinding. The Persians took the Lydian king Croesus' son as a hostage and blinded him in retribution for Croesus' violation of the agreement with them. The word phro/s, used of blind Homer, usually (but not always) means 'maimed, blinded' (see note 21). See Vita Romana 31.22-32.6 Wilamowitz for legends of how he was blinded by a vision of either Achilles or Helen. Claros near Colophon was the site of an oracle of Apollo (H.W. Parke, The Oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor, 1989, 112ff.), that at least in post-classical times issued its oracles in hexameter verse. Diodorus Siculus 4.66 wrote that Homer 'took many verses from Manto (the legendary founder of this oracle)…. to ornament his poems.' Some scholars argue that Homer learned his metrical craft here. According to Ephorus, the verb related to the noun means 'to guide the blind' (but see omicron 244, omicron 245, omicron 246).[R.D.]
[10] Porphyry fr. 201 Smith. Eratosthenes' date for the fall of Troy was 1184; the first Olympiad was traditionally dated to 776. Hence Porphyry's dating places Homer's floruit c. 908/9 BC; the other datings mentioned place him c. 1024 or c. 833. On ancient datings of Homer see Mosshammer 193-7, 211-3.
[11] On the relationship of Stasinus to the Cypria see G.L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry (1969) 123ff., esp. 129, and OCD(4) 511-12 (cf. Davies 27-29, T1-4, 7, 8, 9, 11). Homer's daughter is also given the name Aresiphone (or Arsiphone in Tzetzes, Chil. 13. 636, who names Homer's wife as Eurydice).
[12] Little is known of these sons. Theolaus is rejected as a name by Wilamowitz 33-34 note. The other son is named Seriphon by Tzetzes, and Euryphon at tau 354, where we learn that Terpander was sometimes called Homer's great-grandson. Tzetzes mentions the possibility of a second Homer, the son of Euryphon (Vit. Hes. p. 49. 19-20 Wilamowitz). A certain Parthenius of Chios [pi 665] is also said to have been a descendant, but see note there. [R.D.]
[13] The idea that the Iliad and Odyssey were composed of different oral "lays" by one or more rhapsodes (interpreted as 'stitchers of lays') of various levels of originality has a long history ("The Homeric Question"). It is discussed in any work on Homer, e.g. Wade-Gery. Although few would deny that there is at least one episode (the "lay" of Dolon, Book 10) stitched into the Iliad without much alteration, the general view today is that Homer existed and composed the Iliad and most or all of the Odyssey, incorporating phrases, characters and whole episodes from an oral tradition into his own compositions (see, for example, Edwards). Scholars search for the creative hand and originality of a single poet called Homer, in much the same way as they study the sources and originality, say, of Shakespeare. [R.D.]
[14] On the legend of the 'Pisistratean recension' see Ritook.
[15] Probably none of these works (or those listed further on, see note 22) is by Homer. See Huxley. A number of "Homeric" Hymns survive, originating over a long period of time; they are often edited and translated (e.g.Evelyn-White [1914] 285-463, M. Crudden [2001], A.N. Athanassakis [1976]). The earliest is Hymn 3, to Delian Apollo (web address 1), probably contemporary with Homer, to whom it may contain a reference at line 170 (web address 2; cf. Dyer). The fragments of the other writings mentioned here and known from elsewhere are collected in Davies, and, with translation, in Evelyn-White (see Table of Contents).
[16] The tone of this rejection of Homer's blindness is similar to that of the rejection of the legend of his death (see note 36). The comment ignores the idea, already voiced, that Homer was blinded, or went blind (notes 9, 21), as a hostage in Colophon. So also Proclus' crusty rejection (Vit. Procli p.27.8-10 Wilamowitz), "Those who showed him as blind seem blinded in their wits, for he saw so many things as no man ever." For the opposite point of view see P. Bergounioux, La Cécité d'Homère (1998), who uses the blinded writer as a metaphor for the internalization of remembered experience and reading necessary for all creative writing. [R.D.]
[17] Odyssey 7.174-5, with 1.141.
[18] Odyssey 4.65-6.
[19] Odyssey 3.421.
[20] For the subdivisions (i, ii, etc.) see introduction to notes, above. They are designed to help those who wish to compare this entry with the ps.-Herodotean "Life" (translated by Lefkowitz), on which it is based, but with which it disagrees in chronology and wording.
[21] The phrase here on its own, phro\s w)\n, implies blindness (so at pi 1538, epsilon 2209, delta 340 on the self-blinding of Oedipus, scholia to Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 510). The word, however, may refer to any physical or mental handicap, and, when used of blindness, usually specifies the eyes (alpha 4610, epsilon 544, epsilon 545, kappa 1921). It is often used of maiming in war or by torture (alpha 1842 and epsilon 78, alpha 2015 = Theophylact Simocatta, Histories 5.5.6-9, alpha 4610), but equally of natural handicaps or in a sense where the cause of the handicap is unclear (pi 1537, iota 348, epsilon 1610, kappa 2670, omicron 1008). [R.D.]
[22] Homer is said to have established a 'school' here, from which his pupils, the Homeridae (omicron 248), carried his work (and their own) to festivals throughout the Greek world. See Dyer. For the list of 'works' composed on Chios see note 15.
[23] This epigram is also cited by Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 13.592A [13.61 Kaibel]. As the Herodotean Life makes clear (§§29-30), Homer arrives on Samos during the Ionian festival Apaturia (alpha 2940, OCD(4) 114-15), celebrated by phratries (note 26), and encounters women sacrificing to the Kourotrophos at the triple crossroad or fork. The day of admission to the phratry at the festival was known as *kourew=tis. When the priestess tells him to leave, he composes the epigram. Kourotrophos, as nourisher of children in their growing years (kappa 2192, kappa 2193), is probably not here Hecate (cf. Hesiod, Theogony 450, with West's note ad loc.; scholia to Aristophanes, Wasps 824), although she is the goddess of the triple crossroad (then as now a symbol of woman's power), or Hera (LfgrE fasc.14.1512-13; T.H. Price, Kourotrophos (1978) pp.152f., 192), although her temple the Heraion was the major one on Samos. J.V. O'Brien has shown that Hera is seldom identified as a protector of children (The Transformation of Hera, 1993, 66ff.). Markwald argues that the name refers to Aphrodite, cf. Venus Apaturia , and compares Plato Comicus fr. 174.7 Kock (now 188.7 Kassel-Austin), Lucian, DMeretr. 5.1, and Greek Anthology 6.318. If he is correct, Aphrodite is hardly the protector of four-year-old boys, but the generator of puberty as sexual maturity, using kou=ros in what was perhaps its original sense. In this case, as Markwald shows, she would also be capable of restoring to old men their sexual vigor and give the epigram its wit as prayer. [R.D.]
[24] It is almost certain that ou)rai/ is the correct reading, for it implies a witty etymological pun on the name of the festival as apat-ouria, 'seducing the penis', appropriate either to Aphrodite, or, more probably, Hera as seducer of Zeus (Iliad 14. 153-360, cf. O'Brien 175-79; see note 23 above). But on this disputed reading and meaning see Markwald, pp. 197, 201-3.; LfgrE fasc. 18.876 under ou)rh/ D(ubia). The sexual meaning is found in Sophocles fr. 1078 TGF vol.4, Eupolis fr. 471 PCG vol.5; and nw/qouros, *)apo)mu/zouris, a)pouri/a (if not *)apatouri/a). [R.D.]
[25] In ancient Greek speculations about the inner mechanisms of desire, emotion and thought, qu/mos (thymos, 'spirit') usually represents the producer of "hot" desires that lead to action (B. Snell, The Discovery of the Mind, 1946 and reprints, is the simplest introduction, although many of his examples are outdated). Its eager activity is here opposed to the old men's unresponsive bodies. [R.D.]
[26] A brotherhood, the unit of the four ancient Ionian tribes in which men celebrated the Apaturia (note 23) [phi 693, phi 694, cf. gamma 146, gamma 147]. With the reformation by Cleisthenes of the structure of Athenian citizenship into 10 (later more) tribes, made up of demes, the phratry remained the point where men registered their sons as citizens either at four years or at puberty.
[27] The word ko/smos is used twice here (and implied once) and translated 'a fine thing'. It not only refers to order and organization (see kappa 2146, where a fleeing army lacks it, and omicron 860) but is applied to the ornaments and coverings that give a woman, a house, etc., a schema or organized appearance. Thus, in the epigram, horses being cared for on a plain, ships on the sea, and stately kings seated in the marketplace provide their environment with its sense of civilized order established by man, and, in that sense, its beauty. See article and bibliography in LfgrE fasc. 14.1500-02; cf. LSJ. In the Suda the word is used both of the ordered cosmos (kappa 2147, kappa 2148, pi 149, gamma 134) and in definitions of pieces of jewellery (e.g. delta 252 necklace, epsilon 1419 ear-rings, tau 257 tiara). [R.D.]
[28] The unintelligible epithet "golden" applied to Helicon, the sacred hill and spring beside the temples of Delphi, has been corrected to "very holy" (za/qeon, literally 'infused with the power of a god', cf. ps.-Theocritus, Idylls 25.209) by Ruhnken. Wilamowitz, arguing that Apollo, not Poseidon, was ruler of Helicon and its dancing-places, posits a missing line of verse before "ruler of very holy Helicon." [R.D.]
[29] Mimas is the mountain range on the mainland, north of Erythrae (nowadays Boz Dag, not to be confused with other higher mountains of the same name in western Turkey), across the Straits of Chios from the NE coast of the island. It comes into view for travellers from Samos to Chios as they come through the Straits and near their destination. The writer, if he imagines that Chios lies at "the foot of the mountain", betrays ignorance of the region. Markwald (181) assumes, however, that the poet intends, oddly enough, to land on the mainland under the mountain (presumably at Erythrae) before crossing the Straits to Chios. [R.D.]
[30] The famous pine forests of Mount Ida behind Troy were sacred to Cybele (kappa 2586) and, in Vergil's Aeneid, provide Aeneas' ships that Cybele transforms into nymphs (9.80-122, 10.219-55). Attalus I of Pergamum saw a giant pine 67m. high and 7m. in circumference on a crest of Ida (Strabo 13.1.44). Markwald (173ff.) has an excellent discussion of this pine and of the ancient terms used here to distinguish the pine cones of Pinus pinea, which contain edible fruit, i.e. pine nuts used in cakes, from the inedible cones of other species. [R.D.]
[31] The reading a)/ristos 'best' is supplied in the minor mss of the Suda to supply the gap in A. It is better to take the reading in Vit. Her., *)/arhos 'of Ares'. This epigram and two lines on Marmor Parium §11 (OCD4 p.901; F. Jacoby, Marmor Parium (1904) 6, 56-61; cf. FGrH 239 Comm. 675f.) are our only written sources for the iron mines discovered by archaeologists near Cyme's colony Cebrene on the river of that name (RE 11. 105-06, cf. 7A. 571 [no. 65], 556, 553 [map no. 65]), in the region of Mt. Ida of Troy. Traces of ironworks have been found in Smyrna (R.M. Cook, JHS 67, 1947, 42). See further R.J. Forbes, Bergbau, Steinbruchtaetigkeit und Huettenwesen (=Archaeologia Homerica K, 1967, 29-33) and Markwald 182 and note 11. [R.D.]
[32] Or 'flocks' (reading botw=n for brotw=n).
[33] This epigram is credited to Hesiod in the edition of his fragments by R. Merkelbach and M.L. West (fr. 302).
[34] These are mock-heroic names for invented lubber fiends. With a different reading the Vita Her. adds at the beginning of the list *Su/ntriy, 'Crusher'.
[35] [epsiloniota 184, pi 1304, alpha 217, delta 589] Eiresione. For the difficult questions raised by this ancient folk 'Bettellied', begging song, see Markwald's chapter, 245-75, For the evidence for this ritual see Wilamowitz 56-57.
[36] The Herodotean life here, in the same tone as it adopts to dismiss Homer's blindness (note 16), sets aside the legend that Homer died in frustration when he could not answer the boys' riddle. Not coincidentally, the Greek name for a riddle as a type of allegory in rhetoric is gri=fos, 'a fisherman's net' [gamma 457, gamma 458]. [R.D.]