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viii
THE LIFE OF HOMER.

property.[1] Cleanax conducted Critheïs secretly to that town, and committed her to the charge of Ismenias of Bœotia, a friend of his, on whom the lot had fallen to go to that colony.

III. Critheïs, being near her confinement, resorted to a festival held on the bank of the river Meles, in company with other women; while there, the pains of childbirth came upon her, and she brought forth Homer, who, far from being blind, had excellent eyes. She named him Melesigenes, having been born by the river Meles. Critheïs remained some time with Ismenias, but afterwards left him, supporting herself and son by the work of her hands,[2] and upon the proceeds of the charity of her fellow-citizens, educating the boy as she could.

IV. There lived at Smyrna, at this time, a man named Phemius, a teacher of literature and music;[3] who not be-

    Iapetus, m. Asia or Clymene. (Hes. Theog.)
     
     
    Prometheus.
     
     
    Deucalion, m. Pyrrha. (B. C. 1503.)
     
     
    Hellen, m. Orseïs (king of Phthiotis, circ. B. C. 1495).
     
     
    Æolus (emig. to Asia Minor, B. C. 1124).
     
     
    Cretheus m. Tyro. (Apollod. i. 7.)
     
     
    Pheres, m. Clymene (built Pheræ in Thessaly).
     
     
    Admetus, m. Alcestis. (Eurip. in Alcestis.)
     
     
    Eumelus (went to Troy with eleven ships). Ιλ. β. v. 764.
     
     
    Theseus (B. C. 1030.)

  1. ↑ Eumelus, being the son of a king, must have had both power and riches. Aristides (Monodiâ de Smyrnâ) mentions Theseus as one of the founders of the city, but without further notice. But see Herodotus, (i. 16,) who says that Smyrna was founded from Colophon.
  2. ↑ It is supposed by Eustathius (Comment. ad Il. xii. page 913) that Homer commemorated the honest endeavours of his mother to support herself and son, in the following lines: "As a just and industrious woman, holds the scale, and weighs the wool by which she lives; she is attentive to equalize the balances, so that she may afford her children a poor subsistence, the price of fatiguing labour." Il. xii. 433—435.
  3. ↑ Music was the general term under which the ancients comprehended
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