Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/11

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THE LIFE OF HOMER.

vii

died, leaving this child very young. The father, before his death, appointed Cleanax of Argos, one of his most intimate friends, her guardian.

II. In the course of time, by a secret intrigue, Critheïs found herself with child. This was for some time concealed; but Cleanax, having discovered it, was much afflicted by the occurrence, and privately reproached her with her fault, laying before her the dishonour she had brought upon herself. To repair the evil as much as possible, was now the subject of his thoughts. The inhabitants of Cumæ were at this time building a town in the basin of the Hermæan Gulf.^[1] Theseus^[2] wishing to render the name of his wife immortal, called it Smyrna. He was a Thessalian, and of one of the most illustrious families in that country. His father was Eumelus, son of Admetus,^[3] from whom he inherited a considerable

↑ The present gulf of Smyrna; the river on which that place is situated, then called Meles, now Sarabat or Kedous. Some of the ancients suppose that Homer composed his poems in a cave near the sources of this river, and thence called his compositions Meletææ chartæ. Strabo xii.; Stat. ii.; Sylv. vii. 34; Tibull. iv. el. i. 201; Paus. vii. 5. Smyrna was built by the Cumæans, B. C. 1015. Eratosthenes. Some say that Smyrna was the name of an Amazon: according to our author, it was named after the wife of Theseus, of whom mention will presently be made. Alyattes expelled the Cimmerians from Smyrna. Herodotus i. 16. Alexander, or, as Strabo affirms, Lysimachus, rebuilt the town, which had remained ruinous and desolate for four hundred years, i. e. from the time of Alyattes. Marcus Aurelius repaired the damage done to it by an earthquake, B. C. 180. The Smyrnæans had a building, and a brass coin, called Homerium. Strabo xii. and xiv.; Ital. viii. 565; Paus. v. § 8; Mela i. 17; Herod. i. 55; v. 101; D'Anville's Geographie abrégéé, tom. ii. p. 8.
↑ Tacitus (iv. 56) confounds this Theseus with the early mythical king of Attica. The commentators on Tacitus have passed over this life in silence. In the Anthology there is an inscription for a statue of Peisistratus, which seems to attribute the building of Smyrna to the Athenians.
↑ The following is the genealogy of Theseus, omitting the mystical period, and commencing at the mythical age:—

[1] The present gulf of Smyrna; the river on which that place is situated, then called Meles, now Sarabat or Kedous. Some of the ancients suppose that Homer composed his poems in a cave near the sources of this river, and thence called his compositions Meletææ chartæ. Strabo xii.; Stat. ii.; Sylv. vii. 34; Tibull. iv. el. i. 201; Paus. vii. 5. Smyrna was built by the Cumæans, B. C. 1015. Eratosthenes. Some say that Smyrna was the name of an Amazon: according to our author, it was named after the wife of Theseus, of whom mention will presently be made. Alyattes expelled the Cimmerians from Smyrna. Herodotus i. 16. Alexander, or, as Strabo affirms, Lysimachus, rebuilt the town, which had remained ruinous and desolate for four hundred years, i. e. from the time of Alyattes. Marcus Aurelius repaired the damage done to it by an earthquake, B. C. 180. The Smyrnæans had a building, and a brass coin, called Homerium. Strabo xii. and xiv.; Ital. viii. 565; Paus. v. § 8; Mela i. 17; Herod. i. 55; v. 101; D'Anville's Geographie abrégéé, tom. ii. p. 8.

[2] Tacitus (iv. 56) confounds this Theseus with the early mythical king of Attica. The commentators on Tacitus have passed over this life in silence. In the Anthology there is an inscription for a statue of Peisistratus, which seems to attribute the building of Smyrna to the Athenians.

[vii-3] The following is the genealogy of Theseus, omitting the mystical period, and commencing at the mythical age:—

[1]

[2]

[3]