Pind. has both act. (1) and pass. (2), Aesch. act. (5), Soph. act. (1) and pass. (2), Eur. act. (9).

Xpĥobaɩ, to inquire of an oracle (Thuc. i. 126. 9), is rare in Attic (cf.

Aeschin. iii. 124), but occurs in Hom. (Od. viii. 81; x. 492; xi. 165; xxiii. 323), also in the hymns (h. ii. 74, 114, 215), and is rather frequent in Hdt. (i. 46. 15; 47. 4; 53. 6; 85. 5; iii. 57. 11; iv. 150. 8; 151. 3; 157. 4; vii. 141.6; 220. 11). For this Thuc. uses èπepwrâv in i. 25. 3; 118. 20, as Hdt. frequently. тpνxóμevo, worn out (Thuc. i. 126. 24), is the subject of the following note by Classen: "In iv. 60. 13 and vii. 28. 23, we have the pf. ptc. from stem 7pvxo-; in iii. 93. 9 and viii. 48. 11 the fut. and aor. from Kтpvxo- these are the only forms in Thuc. of this verb, which often occurs in Homer, the Att. poets (Soph. Aj. 604; O. R. 666; Tr. 110; Eur. Hipp. 147; Hel. 521 [1285]; Ar. Pax 989; Ach. 68), and in later writers. It is not used by Hdt., and is rare in Att. prose (Xen. Hell. v. 2. 4 [Plato, Legg. 761 d])." For Hom. cf. Od. i. 248, 288; ii. 219; X. 177; xvi. 125; xvii. 387; xix. 133. Cf. Solon 3. 22; Theog. 750, 909.

VII. Notes on Homeric War.

BY PROF. THOMAS D. SEYMOUR,

YALE UNIVERSITY.

THE Homeric poet is not composing an Art of War; his aim is rather to please than to teach. In a well-known passage of his Republic, Plato gibes those who regard Homer as the highest authority on military science, saying that if he had really known what was to be done in war he would have been a soldier and general himself, and not a poet; he would have chosen to do brave deeds rather than to tell of them, to be the man to receive praise than the one to confer it. But the warriors of Plato's time were thought to draw inspiration and stimulus from the Iliad; Aristophanes declares that Homer taught better than all others the marshalling, brave deeds, and arming of men; and the great Napoleon, who solaced his weary exile on St. Helena by the perusal of the Iliad and the Aeneid, is quoted as saying that in reading the Iliad he felt each moment that Homer was a warrior himself, and had not (as some of his commentators asserted) spent the greater part of his life in the schools of Chios. An enthusiastic Frenchman has even suggested that the poet was aid-de-camp or military secretary to Agamemnon. Though Homer knew no strategy in the modern sense, nor any manual of arms, nor evolutions of a squad, a company, a regiment, or a brigade, — yet he was familiar with many notable deeds of brave men, and delighted in them.

In modern times and civilized countries, war is an exceptional occurrence, and few in a generation are called to take part in it. Americans have prided themselves on their citizen soldiery, who would leave the works of peace only at the stern call of duty, and who returned as soon as possible to their homes and ordinary employments, like Cincinnatus laying down their arms and military offices. But in the

Homeric Age, deeds of violence were common. Even in a time of supposed peace a hostile force might invade the land any day or night, with no formal declaration of war. Arms were man's natural accompaniment. steel," as Thucydides tells us. man," Odysseus says to Agamemnon in the third day of

battle.

"All Greece wore "War is the proper work of

The war before Troy was in the main a succession of single combats between champions. The common soldier is of little importance in the fight; he kills no hero. No "bow drawn at a venture" smites a king between the joints of his harness. The ordinary Homeric scene of conflict is not unlike what Shakspere presents at the close of Macbeth and in Henry Fourth, part first. The absence of Achilles from the fray is more deplored than that of all his Myrmidons, and when his friend Patroclus enters the battle, accompanied by his followers, the Trojans appear to be dismayed not so much by the advance of the twenty-five hundred common soldiers as by the appearance of the brave son of Menoetius and his esquire in glittering armor. The poet nowhere tells his hearer how large was the force of men before Troy.

Agamemnon reviews his troops at the beginning of the first day of battle, and exhorts them to fight bravely, but gives no directions either then or later as to the position of the several tribes in the line. Each leader goes where he pleases, and fights with whom he will. The poet narrates no strategic movements of an army or part of an army, no manoeuvres, no flank movements, no concentration of forces at a special point in order to break through the enemy's line, no surprises. No body of men is stationed for the defence of an important post, or brought to the support of a hardpressed division, or sent against a weak place in the enemy's line. Neither Telamonian Ajax from Salamis nor his namesake the Locrian, the son of Orleus, is ever accompanied by his own forces, but the two (though of different tribes) generally keep together, and move from one part of the field. to another according to the apparent need or fancy of the Ajax, the son of Orleus, indeed, could not be

moment.

attended by his countrymen, since they were archers, while he excelled in the use of the spear; he must be in the forefront of battle, while they must stand in the rear of the heavyarmed forces.

The use of chariots by many of the chieftains, of itself tended to separate them from their commands; like the Locrian Ajax they could go where their countrymen could not follow them. On the third day of battle when Idomeneus, the Cretan, and his lieutenant, Meriones, return to the field of battle after a short absence, they do not ask where their own men, the Cretans, are fighting, but where the Achaeans are hardest pressed. As they appear on the scene of conflict, all the Trojans advance against them, as if the strife were between one hundred men on a side, instead of one hundred thousand. The individual and his bodily strength are clearly far more important than in modern warfare. The victory is not that of the troops, nor of the leader and his troops, but of the leader alone. Perhaps we may compare the song of the Israelites: "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." When Agamemnon is wounded, Diomed is downright discouraged, although all else is going well, yet Agamemnon is important only as a mighty man of valor, not as a commander-in-chief. No one receives instructions from him in all the course of the Iliad. Thus also Hector, though the chief Trojan leader, is not kept informed of the condition of the fight at other parts of the field than his own; no official reports are brought to him, and no directions are sought from him. When a leader is slain, his command devolves upon no other. Even the common soldier seems very much left to himself, although subject to harsh rebuke if he plays the coward. The movement of a body of men who follow their captain may be compared with that of a flock of sheep with their bell-wether (to use a Homeric figure), rather than to the regular advance of a modern military company.

So completely is the hearer's attention concentrated on an individual or on a single group of warriors that at times before a single combat two antagonists hold a long conversa

tion as if they were alone on the field. Thus when Achilles and Aeneas meet, the first blow is preceded by one hundred verses of talk,-partly a reminder by Achilles to Aeneas of a similar occasion when he had fled from him, but mainly Aeneas's recital of his family tree; and this was when Achilles was most vehement in his anger against all the Trojans.

This habit of the poet, to give prominence to the individual, may spring from his desire to concentrate his hearer's attention, affording but a dull background for the principal figures which are brought into high relief and have a strong light thrown on them. With this may be compared the practice of the Greek dramatic poets in presenting only two or three characters at once to their spectators in the theatre. Masses of men awaken less sympathy than individuals. The hearer's attention is drawn by the poet away from the accessories, and concentrated upon the chief actors.

Possibly, however, the poet's method of description of the war by a succession of single combats, is not to be explained entirely from his artistic principles; it may have been influenced also by the fact that the earlier epic poets in their briefer lays, which furnished material and precedents for the Homeric poems and adventures, doubtless sang of much smaller armies, less elaborate expeditions, and of single exploits. At the opening of the third great day of battle, "the son of Atreus shouted aloud and bade the Argives gird themselves for the fray," -an action more appropriate to the commander of a military company than to one of an army of a hundred thousand men. Other and similar indications may be found of the poet's having in mind a smaller body of men than the Catalogue of Ships presents. For example, Nestor and Agamemnon find Diomed sleeping outside of his tent, "with his comrades about him." This does not look like a division of five or six thousand men, but rather like a single ship's company. When Hector is wounded, all the Trojan chieftains gather about him; and when he sees Teucer's bowstring break, he shouts to" Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians," as if the disabling of one Achaean bow meant triumph for the Trojans. The same Hector shouts to the Trojans and allies to stand