from Hesiod before cited, and may be added to the other arguments against the genuineness of this part of the Iliad9.
In Phœnix's speech to Achilles, this passage occurs:
ovTvo KOL Tcov TTpocrdev eTrevOo/meOa KXea avopcjov rjpcjooov, IK IX. 524.
Here the i^pooe^ might, or might not, be considered as more than common men : to be the subjects of Kkea^ or ballads of renown, must have been a common expectation with the warriors of Homer : Odysseus hears a kKgos about himself in Phseacia10.
There are two passages in the account given by Odysseus of his visit to Hades, which, in the same way, will suit the hypothesis of an old race of heroes of renown, and somewhat mythological character, but which do not necessarily require it. The first is this:
Hacra? o ovk av €y(v ^vOj^crojuat^ ovo ovo^nrjvct), bcraa^ i^pcocov dXo'^ov^ 'loov rfce OvyaTpa^, Od. xi. S2S,
The second occurs at the end of the scene.
Avrap eywv avTov (Jievov hfXTredoi^^ el tl^ ct hXOot avopwv rjpcoaw^ at ct] to Trpoauev oaovto. KUL vv K eTL irporepov^ 'loov avepa^^ ovs eOeXou irep' ^Qr]aea TieLpiQoov t€, Oewv epiKvdea re/ci^a.] aXa irpiv ewl eOve ay eipe to juvpia veKpwVy rjX^ OeGTrecriri, Od. xi. 62S 6SS.
This is perhaps the strongest passage : the line about Theseus and Pirithous is indeed suspectcB Jldei; but the opposition of the heroes to the vulgar ghosts, eOrea {jLvpta veKpvov^ is re- markable. Lastly, the speech of Antinous to Odysseus, in the Odyssey, when he tells the story of the Lapithae, con- tains the word ^^ ijpcoa^ applied to the Lapithae, who, it might be contended, had a mythological character.
9 Perhaps I ought to allude to the passages where the great feats of strength of
some distinguished warriors are spoken of as being such as to require two of the poet's
time. Such are II. v. 303. xii. 383. 449. But these seem to me to prove very little,
and I much doubt whether we are to infer from them that ordinary men of the
Trojan era were meant to be represented as superior to ordinary men of the poet's
time. The men of the present time are mentioned merely as furnishing the' most
intelligible and familiar units for the calculation.
10 Od. VIII. 73. For a comment on the expression Kea dvSpaiv the reader need only be referred to Mr Frere's very interesting article in the Museum Criticum, Vol. II. p. 243.
11 Od. XXI. 209.
