Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER - Beecroft
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER - Beecroft
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Cambridge University Press, The Classical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Quarterly
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Classical Quarterly 61.1 1-18 (2011) Printed in Great Britain 1
doi: 1 0. 1 0 1 7/S000983 88 1 00003 52
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
2 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
8 A reasonable objection at this point would be the (well-documented) cases of John Milton,
James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges, among others, whose blindness in no way prevented the
continued composition of highly literate and highly text-based literature and, in Borges 's case,
did not prevent him from assuming the directorship of the National Library. Such literary activ-
ity presumes, of course, a considerable infrastructure of already existing textual literature, and a
system of readers and/or amanuenses (Milton's daughter and friends; Joyce's friends including
Samuel Beckett; Borges 's mother) to accomplish the transfer from textual to oral in both direc-
tions; and abundant evidence testifies to the laborious nature of such proceedings. Our Lives of
Homer, when they insist on Homer's blindness, have serious reservations about transcription as
a legitimate mechanism for the transmission of verbal art.
9 All citations from the Lives will be given with page numbers from Allen's OCT edition.
10 M.R. Lefkowitz, The Lives of the Greek Poets (Baltimore, 1981), 23; G. Gigante, Vite di
Omero (Naples, 1981), 21.
11 See e.g. Lord (n. 2) on a poem performed by Avdo Mededovic which ran to 12,000 lines,
approximately the length of the Odyssey. Significantly, this poem, 'The wedding of Smailagic
Medo', was learned by Avdo by listening to a recital from a printed songbook version, which
was only one-sixth the length of the poem Avdo himself would later perform.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 3
*0 Si Mevrrjs dva7rXicov Ik rrjs AevKaSos 7Tpooioxev TVV *lQa-Kr)v Kal aviAafie rov
MeArjoiyivea- XP°V0V T€ ^7TL ovxvw ovpLTTepiiirAei avrw. aiTLKOfiivcx) Si is Ko'o<f>u)va
ovviftr) 7T(iAlv voor]oavra rovs 6(f>daA(iovs /jlt) Svvaodai Sia(j>vyeiv rrjv vooov, aAAa
TV(/)Xcod7]vaL ivOavra. €K Si rrjs KoAoc/xjovos rv(j>A6s i<l)v airiKveerai els rrjv Zfivpvav
Kal OVTWS i7T€X€Lpei< Tfj TTOir)(J€l.
As Mentes sailed back from Leucas, he brought his ship in at Ithaca and picked up
Melesigenes, and for some time he sailed around with him. But when he arrived at
Colophon, it happened that Homer's eye disease came back, and he was unable to escape
the disease, but became blind there. And from Colophon, Homer, as a blind man, arrived
at Smyrna and in this condition took up poetry.
Pseudo-Herodotus here quite explicitly makes the claim that, while Homer was
a literate and indeed a teacher of writing, his literary career began only once he
had become blind. This point is reinforced in the paragraph immediately following,
when we hear of what is specifically labelled as Homer's first poetic composition:
Xpovov Si TTpo'iovros iv rrj UfjLVpvrj a tropos iwv rov fttov evorjdir) aTTiKeodai is
Kvfxiqv. nopevofjievos Se Sia tov "Epjjiov TreSiov, airiKveeraL is Niov ret^os, ai tolkltjv
Kvfxaicjv. cpKiodr) 8i tovto to xco/oi'ov vorepov Kvpaqs ireoiv oktcj. ivdavra Aeyerat
avrov iiriaravra iirl OKvrelov tl €ltt€lv 7Tpcora ra h Tea raSe-
When a little time had passed, and since he was without a means of support, Homer
decided to go to Cyme. After he had journeyed across the plain of the Hermus, he arrived
in Neon Teikhos, a Cymean colony, which had been founded eight years after Cyme itself.
It is said that Homer for the first time spoke these, his first verses, standing at some
cobbler's shop there ... (Allen, 197)
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
4 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
ot fjuiv 8rj lOaKrjGLOL Aeyovou tot€ [xlv Trap et ovtols rvcfrAojdTjvai' ojs Si iyaj <j>7]fiL
tot€ fjiiv vyirj yeveod at, vorepov kv KoAo(j)ajvi rv(/)Xa)6rjvaL. ovvo/jioXoyovoL Se /jlol
/cat KoXoc/xjovlol tovtols .
While the Ithacans do indeed claim that Homer became blind among them, I say instead
that at that time he regained his health, and only later among the Colophonians did he
become blind. The Colophonians agree with me in these matters. (Allen, 196)
It may seem odd to us that cities would strive to be known as the site of Homer's
blinding, but if we think of Homeric travel as a device to represent the construc-
tion of Panhellenic epic out of epichoric material, the question of whether Homer
lost his sight permanently (or only temporarily) on Ithaca may assume greater
importance. A Homer blinded permanently after Ithaca finds in that island his last
and most important source of information, and it is no surprise to be told that the
Ithacans make such a claim. By contrast, a Homer who remains sighted a while
longer may gather more material elsewhere, and Pseudo-Herodotus insists that
Homer's travels continue for some time. Further, we hear from the Certamen that
the Colophonians still (in the compiler's time) point to the place where Homer
began to compose poetry; evidently, the juxtaposition of blindness and poetic
composition was an inherent part of the Colophonian narrative about Homer, and
to accept a final blindness on Ithaca would be to locate his first moment of poetic
inspiration there as well.14
Of the two Lives traditionally attributed to Plutarch, the second (which is very
brief) says nothing about Homer's blindness. The first, however, takes an interesting
position, and one quite distinct from that of Pseudo-Herodotus. Where the latter
13 Below I discuss one ancient critic who made precisely this argument.
14 Gigante (n. 10), 29 notes that this is the only point at which Pseudo-Herodotus indulges
in source criticism; evidently the question of where Homer became blind had ideological sig-
nificance for the Chian tradition as well.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 5
15 The blindness is alluded to only once in Pseudo-Plutarch I's material taken from Aristotle:
he presents two versions of the Delphic oracle Homer is said to have received urging him not
to travel to Ios (which will be the site of his death scene). The shorter version, cited below in
the discussion of Homer's death, and which we find also in the Certamen and in Proclus, makes
no mention of blindness; the longer version, found only here in Pseudo-Plutarch I's Aristotelian
material, at least suggests it:
If Pseudo-Plutarch is here still quoting from Aristotle, then Aristotle's account of Homer's life
must have addressed the question of his blindness, although frustratingly we cannot tell from
Pseudo-Plutarch's quotation just what Aristotle's views might have been.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
6 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
rv(f>X6v 8i ogol rovrov aire^vavro, avroi [jlol Sokovgl rrjv Siavotav TT€TT7)pci)oQai-
roaavra yap Kareihev avOpwiros ooa ovSels ircjirore.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 7
And those who think that Homer was blind seem to me to be maimed in their understand-
ing, for he saw more than any other man ever saw. (Allen, 101)
Proclus' attack against the story of Homer's blindness uses in support the argumen
that Homer must have been able to see and understand more than any man. Th
argument is developed in more detail further on:
Homer appears to have been an old man when he departed this life, since his unsur
passed precision in matters of fact show him to have been of advanced age. From h
wide experience of places travel to many regions of the world can be deduced. We m
additionally suspect that he had a great surplus of wealth,17 since great journeying requi
much expenditure, and at that in those times when neither was frequent sailing safe n
was there in any way an easy mixing of peoples with each other. (Allen, 101-2)
ol fjuev ovv ZfjLvpvaiov avTov d7ro<^atvo/xevoi Maiovos fikv iraTpos Xiyovoiv elv
yevvrjOrjv at 8e irrl MeXrjros tov TroTapuov , odev Kal MeXrjoiyevr) ovofjiaoOrjvai' 8o0€vt
8e Xlols els ofxi^pelav "Ofjuqpov KXrjdrjvai. ol 8i air o Trjs tcjv OfifxaTCJV Triqpcjoec
tovtov tvx^lv avTov cfraoi tov ovofjiaTos' tovs yap TV(f)Xov s vtto AloXiov 6p,r)po
KaXeioOai.
Those who say that Homer was from Smyrna say that his father was Maion, and that
he was born on the banks of the river Meles, from which he was named Melesigenes.
When he was given as a hostage (eis homereian ) to the Chians, he was called Homer.
And others say that he acquired this name from the maiming of his eyes, since the blind
are called homeroi by the Aeolians. (Allen, 99)
17 Proclus would thus appear to be a locus class icus for the mod
Homer was of a high social status, for which see Graziosi (n. 1
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
8 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
Homer had been blind since childhood, but the truth is that he never yielded to the lust
which takes its beginnings from the eyes, and on that account is considered as blind.
(Allen, 259)
Most of the Lives take a fairly decisive stance one way or another on the subject
of Homer's blindness; some do not make their stances explicit, but their presenta-
tion of the evidence makes it possible to infer their views. Hesychius of Miletus
is the only one of Homer's biographers to assert and deny the blindness within
one sentence. Moreover, he is the only biographer even to suggest that Homer may
have been blind since childhood; all of the others who accept the blindness either
assert that it was the result of some incident in his adulthood, or they mention
the 'blindness' etymology for his name, thus indirectly confirming that Homer
spent some substantial period of his life as a sighted man. Most likely, I believe,
18 Hesychius' version of the Smyrnaean account of Homer is distinct from the versions found
in both Proclus and the Certamen (Allen, 257-8):
€KArjdr) 8 ' " OfJLTjpOS Sea TO TroAefJLOV eVlOTCLfJLeVOV UjXVpvaLOLS 7TpOS KoXo<f)CDVLOVS OfATjpOV
Sodrjvai , rj to ovAevofievtuv Upupvaicov 8ai jxovia tlvl ivepyeia <f>6eyt;aoda t Kai
ovpfiovXevocLL eKKXrjcnd^ovoi 7 repl tov TroXepov.
He was called Homer due to his being given as a hostage ( homeros ) by the Smyrnaeans
when war was impending with the Colophonians, or because, when the Smyrnaeans were
considering their options Homer, through the power of some daimon , spoke and offered
his counsel to them as they held an assembly about the war.
It is beyond the scope of this article to enumerate, let alone interpret, all of the discrepan-
cies, large and small, between the versions of the various poleis ' accounts of Homer's life as
represented by his various biographers. This moment may serve as a further illustration.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 9
TV(f>X(x)OrjvaL 8 avTOv ovtoj ttcjs '4yovoiv iXdovra yap Ittl tov AxLAAecos rdffrov
ev^aoOai deaoaodai tov yjpoua tolovtov ottolos TTporjXdev cttl ttjv pLaxrjv tols Sevrepois
07t'0LS K€KOOpLT)pL€VOS' 6<f)64vTOS S aVTCQ TOV ^^lAAe'cUS" Tv<f>'(x)drjvai TOV * OfJLTjpOV VI TO
tt}s Totv ottAcov avyrjs , iXerjdevTa 6' vn to @€tl8os koi Movocjv TipLrjdrjvai 7 Tpos avTwv
Tjj 7TOL7]TLKfj. aAAot &€ (fraGl TOVTO CLVTOV TTZTTOvOeVCLl 8lO, purjVLV Trjs 'EAgVTJS OpyLodeLGTjS
aVTO) hlOTL €L7T€V OLVTTjV KaTaXeXoL7T€VaL pL€V TOV 7TpOT€pOV (LvSpCL, rjKo'ovdr)K€VCLL 8'
AAe^avSptp- ovtlos yovv ... otl Kal irapeoTrj avTO) (f>aolv vvktos rj ifj vx rj rrjs rjpwivrjs
19 Note, for example, that, while the contest narrative incorporates the Delphic oracle claim-
ing that Homer's mother was from Ios and predicting his death there, the writer of the frame
narrative quotes as authoritative an oracle from the time of Hadrian claiming that Homer was
born on Ithaca, to Telemachus and Nestor's daughter Polycaste (Allen, 227).
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
10 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
Both of these stories have interesting resonances with the rest of the tradition. As
others have observed,21 the Achilles story, with the gift of poetry as a divine com-
pensation for the divine punishment of blinding, is reminiscent of, for example, the
myths of Aesop and of Tiresias. Certainly, the juxtaposition of sudden disability and
sudden poetic or mantic inspiration, both the result of divine action, is a common
theme in Greek myth, as Robert Garland has observed.22 For my purposes here,
what is interesting in these myths is less their undoubted typological similarities,
but rather the differing models of intelligence, insight and communication expressed
in each of them.
20 Accepting here West's emendation, as well as -rrpd^oL for ttp6g'ol in the same line.
21 See e.g. T. Compton, 'The trial of the satirist: poetic vitae (Aesop, Archilochus, Homer) as
background for Plato's Apology ', AJPh 111 (1990), 330-47; Graziosi (n. 1), 160-3.
22 See R. Garland, The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman
World (London, 1995), 99-102.
23 Apollod. 3.6.7, incl. Hes. fr. 267 M-W. Note that Pseudo-Apollodorus gives us an alter-
native account from Pherecydes, in which Athena blinds him because he has seen her bathe,
and his mother, the nymph Chariclo, begs successfully for some compensation; in this version,
the compensation is specifically the ability to hear and understand birdsong.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 11
Aiocjdttos Xiyei ' X^PIV G0L € X ***> °Tt o.v8pa)v <f>iXoX6yajv irapovroiv fjue
fJLOL OTL " €L TL ^/OT^CTt/LtOV €OTLV €V TO) fiitp, €L TL T)8vT€pOV TJ fl€l£,OV
ovv iaTLV iv rep piw yXojoorjs XP7]OLIJL^)T€POV V ju,et£oi>; fxade otl 8l
(f>iXoao(f)La /cat iraoa Traiheia ovveoTrjKev. xwP^ yXwoorjs ovSev ytW
ov XrjifjLS, ouSe ayopaopuos' aXXa Sta yXcjoor^s iroXeis avopBovvrai, h6y
opi^ovrai. el ovv Sta yXcooarjs rras fiios ovveoTrjKev, yXcooorjs ovhev
( Vita Aesopis 53).
Granted that the night after the tongue feast described above Aes
identical feast to illustrate the point that there is nothing worse than
Aesopis 55), the juxtaposition of the two stories certainly underscores
of speech in the constitution of the social sphere (note, perhaps, t
English expression 'the pen is mightier than the sword', which s
for the power of language, but in a text-based, rather than oral, cont
we are later shown that Aesop can read (or at least recognize the
alphabet and identify words beginning with those letters; Vita Ae
is clear that Aesop's wisdom, and his skill, are best expressed not
written word, but rather in improvised and spontaneous speech (a
the Vita , significantly, also assumes for the philosopher Xanthus' tea
the story of Tiresias sees prophetic vision as a suitable, even super
for the sense of sight, the story of Aesop works somewhat differe
taking the structure of 'disability as punishment compensated for
ability', the Aesop story, as we have seen, gives its protagoni
kind of surcompensation for his earlier muteness, granted him a
his piety. Extreme cleverness in speech, then, is represented as a h
of the capacity for speech, where prophecy (perhaps a kind of hei
but one which dispenses with, rather than heightens, the everyday
sense), is a compensation given in a case where a man's more amb
require both reward and punishment. The Achilles story of Homer's
is much closer to the story of Tiresias than to that of Aesop; both
or known what they should not, and are punished for that transgr
compensation thanks to the pity of one or more of the gods. In
that pity is earned through prayer, which moves the gods for its
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
12 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
24 1 discuss the issue of Stesichorus' blinding (and subsequent regaining of his sight) in A.
Beecroft, '"This is not a true story": Stesichorus' Palinode and the revenge of the epichoric',
TAPhA 156 (2006), 47-70. See also id., Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and
China: Patterns of Literary Circulation (Cambridge, 2010), ch. 4, for the possibility that the
palinode might be a performance genre, situating a certain kind of citharodic lyric in relation-
ship to Homeric epic.
25 Beecroft (n. 24 [2006]).
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 13
way: the Stesichorus of this episode can compose poetry both sigh
but the poetry he composes while blind displays a kind of knowl
earlier work had offended Helen) unavailable to him earlier. We do
date of the anecdote of Homer's blindness as narrated in the Vita
but it seems plausible to take the anecdote there in the context of
account of Stesichorus' blindness first reported by Plato, even if the
Homer's failure to his not being mousikos , while the former attr
love for his own poetry.
Both versions of the blindness of Homer represented by the Vit
fascinating examples of the intertwining of vision, desire, and poe
adaptation of mythic structures to accounts of the lives of poets.
draw particular attention to the fact that these two stories rely
gate) completely opposite assumptions about the composition and t
Homeric epic. The Achilles version, as with Pseudo-Herodotus, as
poet. The Homer of the beginning of this version clearly has a fasci
Trojan War and its heroes, and some familiarity with locations im
war. He is not, however, a poet until he becomes blind. More exp
have seen anywhere else, this version of Homer's blinding makes i
blinding precedes his poetic composition not only chronologically
matter of logical necessity. The Homer who is blinded by Achilles
be literate as a poet. The Homer blinded by Helen, in contrast, is
a literate poet; in fact, his poems exist in manuscript form and th
manuscripts would represent the destruction of the poems. Furtherm
blinding a poet seems equivalent in some sense to silencing him;
destroy his poems by burning them or she will destroy him and t
that he might write more slanders against him by blinding him
this Helen believes that poetry is made possible by vision and by
destroyed by the absence of either or both.
The author of the Vita Romana , by so casually juxtaposing thes
cally opposed accounts of Homer's blindness, betrays no discernibl
own - and may, thereby, reveal the agendas of his sources all the
Where many of our other biographers seem to manipulate the eviden
in order to advance a particular theory about Homeric epic, this au
catalogue as full a range of theories as possible. He lists nine poss
for Homer's birthplace, eight possible fathers, three possible mothe
chronologies and two possible birth names for Homer (one of whic
is not found in the other lives). Both the 'blindness' etymology an
etymology co-exist here, and predictably without any attempt t
priority over the other. The two Vitae Scorialenses , thought by A
from the Vita Romana,21 are similarly catholic in their presentatio
versions of the basic facts of Homer's existence, and, except for th
his death, singularly uninformative for our purposes.
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
14 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 15
and fell on his side, and they say he died within three days. He was bu
this is his epitaph:
My interest here in this story rests on one small detail in each version, namel
whether or not Homer is said to 'see' the fisher boys. In the context of th
question of Homer's blindness, of course, this particular detail is far from trivia
and at times serves as the only evidence we have that a particular biographer of
Homer accepts his blindness as factual. As we have seen, blindness is an issue
that all biographers of Homer must address. For those who assume that Home
was an oral poet, or for those who do not make any definite assumptions abou
the composition of Homeric epic, the blindness is not a problem, but for thos
biographers who believe Homer to have written his poems, it must be explaine
away or ignored. The account of Homer's death, almost as compulsory as mentio
of his blindness, serves as a useful means of asserting that Homer was sighted (an
thus at least potentially literate), and in the final moments of his life (thus remov-
ing the possibility, suggested in Pseudo-Herodotus, of a poetic career subsequent
to the onset of blindness).
Of the seven Lives that provide the account of Homer's death, fully five avoi
using a verb of seeing to characterize Homer's encounter with the fisher boys
As we have already seen, the Certamen has Homer question the boys as the
approach from the sea. The Pseudo-Herodotean Vita has the boys approach Home
and address the riddle to him directly, not only avoiding a verb of seeing, bu
actually providing a plausible alternative explanation for Homer's awareness of th
boys' presence:
Td)v 8e vavrewv /cat rwv Ik rrjs ttoXlos tlvcov rffievajv irapa rq> 'OfjLrjpa) KaTeirXaio
7rai8€S a Xifjes rov tottov , Kal eK^avres €K tov olkcltiov n pooeXOovTes at jtols raS
etirov ayere d> £evoi eiraKovoare rjfjiecov, av a pa 8vvr]o6e Stayvcuvai a oa av vfitv
eiTTCxifiev.
While some of the sailors and some of the people from the town were sitting with Homer
some fisher boys sailed up to the place, and, as they disembarked from their boat, they
approached the group and said, 'Come now, strangers, listen to us, and see if you ca
figure out what we tell you.' (Allen, 215)
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
16 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
(ACT ov ttoXvv XP°V0V ei's" @r)fias €tt i ra Kpovia (ayajv Se ovtos aye-rat
Trap avrols fiovoiKos) rfXBev €ls "Iov. evda eirl irirpas KaOe^ofievos iOeaoaTO aXieis
TTpooTrXeovTas , <Lv iirvdero et ti e^otev.
Not much time later, Homer was sailing to Thebes for the Cronia festival (which is a
musical competition they hold there), he came to Ios. Sitting there among the rocks,
he saw fisher boys sailing towards the shore, whom he asked what they'd caught.
(Vita Plutarchea /, Allen, 242)
Kade^ofjLevov Se €ttl tivos aKrfjs , deaodfjievov aXieis irpooenretv avrovg Kal avaKpivai
TOiaSe TOIS €7T€OLV ...
Seated on the shore, Homer saw fishermen and spoke to them, questioning them with
these words ... (Proclus, Allen, 100)
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
BLINDNESS AND LITERACY IN THE LIVES OF HOMER 17
31 For the Certamen , see above. Pseudo-Herodotus: *Ek 8e rrjs aoOeveias ravTiqs ovvefir} tov
"Ofxrjpov TeXevrrjaaL ev "Iw, ov Trapa to fxr] yvcovai to nrapa twv iraihwv prjdev, (bs oiovral
rives, aXXa rfj fjuaXaKir) ('From this state of weakness it happened that Homer died on Ios,
not because he was unable to understand what the boys said, as some think, but from his ill-
ness', Allen, 216). Pseudo-Plutarch I: 07T€p ov Svvrjdels ov/jL^aXeLv "Ojxrjpos Sia rrjv advpLiav
ireXevTjjoe ('Because Homer was unable to interpret this, he died of despondency', Allen, 242).
Proclus: ovtld 8' €K€lvov advfi"qoavTa avvvovv aTTievai tov x/o^ct/zou evvouav Aa/u,j8avoi>ra, Kal
ovtojs dXiodevTa 7T€piiTTaLoai XlOoj Kal TpiTaiov TeXevTrjoaL ('Thus Homer was despondent,
and went away, pensive and mindful of the oracle, and in this condition he slipped and fell
on a stone and was dead within three days', Allen, 100-1). Notice Pseudo-Herodotus' explicit
refutation of the claim that Homer died as a direct result of his failure to interpret the boys'
riddle. Note also Proclus' intermediate approach, attributing Homer's death to his injury, but
that injury to his emotional state!
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
18 ALEXANDER BEECROFT
This content downloaded from 190.195.51.203 on Sat, 22 Jun 2019 16:11:54 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms