Book contents
- Frontmatter
- ADVERTISEMENT
- Contents
- I AGORÈ OR THE POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE
- II ILIOS
- III THALASSA
- EXCURSUS I
- EXCURSUS II
- IV AOIDOS
- SECT. I On the Plot of the Iliad
- SECT. II The Sense of Beauty in Homer: human, animal, and inanimate
- SECT. III Homer's perception and use of Number
- SECT. IV Homer's Perceptions and Use of Colour
- SECT. V Homer and some of his Successors in Epic Poetry: in particular, Virgil and Tasso
- SECT. VI Some principal Homeric Characters in Troy. Rector: Helen: Paris
- SECT. VII The declension of the great Homeric Characters in the later Tradition
- Plate section
SECT. III - Homer's perception and use of Number
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- ADVERTISEMENT
- Contents
- I AGORÈ OR THE POLITIES OF THE HOMERIC AGE
- II ILIOS
- III THALASSA
- EXCURSUS I
- EXCURSUS II
- IV AOIDOS
- SECT. I On the Plot of the Iliad
- SECT. II The Sense of Beauty in Homer: human, animal, and inanimate
- SECT. III Homer's perception and use of Number
- SECT. IV Homer's Perceptions and Use of Colour
- SECT. V Homer and some of his Successors in Epic Poetry: in particular, Virgil and Tasso
- SECT. VI Some principal Homeric Characters in Troy. Rector: Helen: Paris
- SECT. VII The declension of the great Homeric Characters in the later Tradition
- Plate section
Summary
While the faculties of Homer were in many respectsboth intense and refined in their action, beyond all ordinary, perhaps we might say. beyond all modern, examples, there were other points in which they bear the marks of having been less developed than is now common even among the mass of many civilized nations. In the power of abstraction and distinct introspective contemplation, it is not improbable that he was inferior to the generality of educated men in the present day. In some other lower faculties, he is probably excelled by the majority of the population of this country, nay even by many of the children in its schools. I venture to specify, as examples of the last-named proposition, the faculties of number, and of colour. It may be true of one or both of these, that a certain indistinctness in the perception of them is incidental everywhere to the early stages of society. But yet it is surprising to find it where, as with Homer, it accompanies a remarkable quickness and maturity not only of great mental powers, but of certain other perceptions more akin to number and colour, such as those of motion, of sound, and oform. But let us proceed to examine, in the first place, the former of these two subjects.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age , pp. 425 - 456Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1858