An Abridged History of Greek Literature

Men. The Ideal and the Real. Moral Tone. 6. Form. Speeches, Narrations, and Descriptions.. Style and Language. 7. Second Period of Greek Epic. Subject of the Odyssey. Analysis. 8. Structure. Unity. Formation. 9. Beauty as a Whole. Extent and Variety. Enhancement of Interest. Slight Monotony of Invention. 10. Religion of the Odyssey. The Marvellous Element. Greater Realism of Certain Parts. Some of the Personages. Moral Tone. 11. Form. Style and Language. 12. Conclusions respecting the Two Homeric Poems. The Two Poems and their Time. Their Influence. 1. Special Importance of the Iliad and Odyssey.?During the period which has just been marked out and characterized, great numbers of poems and groups of poems were certainly produced. And this great production of epic was demanded by the state of men's minds, and favored by the abundance of heroic legends. But of all the works of this time, two only have survived, the Iliad and the Odyssey. It appears, too, that, very early in their history, they eclipsed all the others. This high rank they owed in part to the firmer way in which they were composed and to the beauties of superior invention; but they owed it, too, to the nature of the subject, which allowed two aspects, or phases, of heroic life to be set forth in singularly interesting poems. Yet it would be an illusion to believe that these poems, at the time of their appearance, were everything, and the others nothing. We must admit, on the contrary, that among so ...