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, a See also:principal See also:government See also:department in the See also:United See also:Kingdom, the creation of which See also:dates from 1782, when the conduct of See also:foreign affairs, which had previously been divided between the See also:northern and See also:southern secretaries, was handed over to the northern department (see FOREIGN See also:OFFICE)
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The See also:home department retained See also:control of Irish and colonial affairs, and of See also:war business until 1794, when an additional secretary of See also:state was re-appointed
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In 18or the colonial business was transferred from the home department, which now attends only to domestic affairs
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The See also:head of the department, the principal secretary of state for home affairs, or home secretary, is a member of the government for the See also:time being, and of the See also:cabinet, receiving a See also:salary of £Soon a See also:year
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He is the proper See also:medium of communication between the See also:sovereign and the ' subject, and receives petitions addressed to the See also:crown
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He is responsible for the See also:maintenance of the See also: See also:Herodotus (ii . 53) maintains that See also:Hesiod and Homer lived not more than 400 years ' This See also:article was thoroughly revised by Dr D . B . See also:Monro before his See also:death in 1905; a few points have since been added by Mr . T . W . See also:Allen . before his own time, consequently not much before 85o a.c . From the controversial See also:tone in which he expresses himself it is evident that others had made Homer more ancient; and accordingly the dates given by later authorities, though very various, generally fall within the loth and See also:firth centuries B.C . But none of these statements has any claim to the See also:character of See also:external See also:evidence . The extant lives of Homer (edited in Westermann's Vilarum S(riptores Geaeci minores) are eight in number, including the piece called the Contest of Hesiod and Homer . The longest is written in the Ionic See also:dialect, and bears the name of Herodotus, but is certainly See also:spurious . In all See also:probability it belongs to the time which was fruitful beyond all others in See also:literary forgeries, viz, the and See also:century of our era.' The other lives are certainly not more ancient . Their See also:chief value consists in the curious See also:short poems or fragments of See also:verse which they have preserved—the so-called Epigrams, which used to be printed at the end of See also:editions of Homer . These are easily recognized as " Popular Rhymes," a See also:form of folk-See also:lore to be met with in most countries, treasured by the See also:people as a See also:kind of See also:proverbs.' In the Homeric epigrams the See also:interest turns sometimes on the characteristics of particular localities—See also:Smyrna and Cyme (Epigr. iv.), See also:Erythrae (Epigr. vi., vii.), Mt See also:Ida (Epigr. x.), Neon Teichos (Epigr. i.); others relate to certain trades or occupations—potters (Epigr. xiv.), sailors, fishermen, See also:goat herds, &c . Some may be fragments of longer poems, but evidently they are not the See also:work of any one poet . The fact that they were all ascribed to Homer merely means that they belong to a See also:period in the See also:history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when " Homer " was a name which See also:drew to itself all ancient and popular verse . Again, comparing the " epigrams " with the legends and anecdotes told in the Lives of Homer, we can hardly doubt that they were the chief source from which these Lives were derived . Thus in Epigr. iv. we find a See also:blind poet. a native of Aeolian Smyrna, through which flows the See also:water of the sacred Meles . Here is doubtless the source of the chief incident of the Herodotean See also:Life—the See also:birth of Homer " Son of the Meles." The epithet Aeolian implies high antiquity, inasmuch as according to Herodotus Smyrna became Ionian about 688 E.C . Naturally the See also:Ionians had their own version of the See also:story—a version which made Homer come out with the first Athenian colonists . The same See also:line of See also:argument may be extended to the Hymns, and even to some of the lost works of the See also:post-Homeric or so-called " Cyclic " poets . Thus: i . The hymn to the Delian See also:Apollo ends with an address of the poet to his See also:audience . When any stranger comes and asks who is the sweetest See also:singer, they are to See also:answer with one See also:voice, the " blind See also:man that dwells in rocky See also:Chios; his songs deserve the See also:prize for all time to come." See also:Thucydides, who quotes this passage to show the ancient character of the Delian festival, seems to have no doubt of the Homeric authorship of the hymn . Hence we may most naturally See also:account for the belief that Homer was a Chian . 2 . The .liargiles—a humorous poem which kept its ground as the reputed work of Homer down to the time of See also:Aristotle—began with the words, " There came to See also:Colophon an old man, a divine singer, servant of the See also:Muses and Apollo." Hence doubtless the claim of Colophon to be the native See also:city of Homer—a claim supported in the See also:early times of Homeric learning by the Colophonian poet and grammarian See also:Antimachus . 3 . The poem called the Cypria was said to have been given by Homer to See also:Stasinus of See also:Cyprus as a daughter's See also:dowry . The connexion with Cyprus appears further in the predominance given in the poem to See also:Aphrodite . 4 . The Little Iliad and the Phocais, according to the Herodotean life, were composed by Homer when he lived at See also:Phocaea with a certain Thestorides, who carried them off to Chios and there gained fame by reciting them as his own . The name Thestorides occurs in Epigr. v . See a See also:paper in the Hiss . Philol . Halenses, 97-219 . z Compare the Popular Rhymes of See also:Scotland, published by See also:Robert See also:Chambers . 5 . A similar story was told about the poem called the Taking of Oechalia (OixaXiar "AAwots), the subject of which was one of the exploits of Heracles . It passed under the name of See also:Creophylus, a friend or (as some said) a son-in-law of Homer; but it was generally believed to have been in fact the work of the poet himself . 6 . Finally the Thebaid always counted as the work of Homer . As to the See also:Epigoni, which carried on the Theban story, some doubt seems to have been See also:felt . These indications render it probable that the stories connecting Homer with different cities and islands See also:grew up after his poems had become known and famous, especially in the new and flourishing colonies of See also:Aeolis and See also:Ionia . The contention for Homer, in short, began at a. time when his real history was lost, and he had become a sort of mythical figure, an " See also:eponymous See also:hero," or personification of a great school of See also:poetry . An interesting See also:confirmation of this view from the negative See also:side is furnished by the city which ranked as chief among the See also:Asiatic colonies of Greece, viz . See also:Miletus . No See also:legend claims for Miletus even a visit from Homer, or a See also:share in the authorship of any Homeric poem . Yet See also:Arctinus of Miletus was said to have been a " See also:disciple of Homer," and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the " Cyclic " poets . His Aethiopis was composed as a sequel to the Iliad; and the structure and See also:general character of his poems show that he took the Iliad as his See also:model . Yet in his See also:case we find no trace of the disputed authorship which is so See also:common with other " Cyclic " poems . How has this come about ? Why have the works of Arctinus escaped the attraction which drew to the name of Homer such epics as the Cypria, the Little Iliad, the Thebaid, the Epigoni, the Taking of Oechalia and the Phocais . The most obvious account of the See also:matter is that Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute . We seem through him to obtain a glimpse of an early post-Homeric See also:age in Ionia, when the immediate disciples and successors of Homer were distinct figures in a trustworthy tradition—when they had not yet merged their individuality in the legendary " Homer " of the Epic See also:Cycle . Recitation of the Poems.—The recitation of epic poetry was called in See also:historical times " rhapsody " (past ybia) . The word pati(rwhhs is post-Homeric, but was known to See also:Pindar, who gives two different explanations of it—" singer of stitched verse " (paarrc v ilriwv aoihoi), and " singer with the wand " (pa,3S6s), Of these the first is etymologically correct (except that it should rather be " stitcher of verse "); the second was suggested by the fact, for which there is early evidence, that the reciter was accustomed to hold a wand in his See also:hand—perhaps, like the See also:sceptre in the Homeric See also:assembly, as a See also:symbol of the right to a See also:hearing.3 The first See also:notice of rhapsody meets us at See also:Sicyon, in the reign of See also:Cleisthenes (600-56o B.C.), who " put down the rhapsodists on account of the poems of Homer, because they are all about See also:Argos and the Argives " (Hdt. v . 67) . This description applies very well to the Iliad, in which Argos and Argives occur on almost every See also:page . It may have suited the Thebaid still better, but there is no need to understand it only of that poem, as See also:Grote does . The incident shows that the poems of the Ionic Homer had gained in the 6th century B.C., and in the Doric parts of the See also:Peloponnesus, the ascendancy, the See also:national importance and the almost canonical character which they ever afterwards retained . At See also:Athens there was a law that the Homeric poems should be recited (patG'SeivOar) on every occasion of the See also:Panathenaea . This law is appealed to as an especial See also:glory of Athens by the orator See also:Lycurgus (Leocr. See also:roe) . Perhaps therefore the custom of public recitation was exceptional,4 and unfortunately we do not know when or by whom it was introduced . The Platonic See also:dialogue See also:Hipparchus attributes it to Hipparchus, son of See also:Peisistratus . This, however, is See also:part of the historical See also:romance of Compare the See also:branch of See also:myrtle at an Athenian feast (Aristoph., Nub., 1364) . The Iliad was also recited at the festival of the Brauronia, at Brauron in See also:Attica (Hesych. s.v . Ppaepcevlocs) . which the dialogue mainly consists . The author makes (perhaps "singer" (Itot&s), who does not carry a wand or See also:laurel-branch, wilfully) all the mistakes about the See also:family of Peisistratus which Thucydides notices in a well-known passage (vi . 54-59) . In one point, however, the writer's testimony is valuable . He tells us that the law required the rhapsodists to recite " taking each other up in See also:order (EE inroXip/sews Eri5eEi7s), as they still do." This recurs in a different form in the statement of See also:Diogenes Laertius (i . 2 . 57) that See also:Solon made a law that the poems should be recited " with prompting " (E uaoi3oXp7s) . The question as between Solon and Hipparchus cannot be settled; but it is at least clear that a due order of recitation was secured by the presence of a See also:person charged to give the rhapsodists their cue (uao$&XXecv) . It was necessary, of course, to See also:divide the poem to be recited into parts, and to compel each contending See also:rhapsodist to take the part assigned to him . Otherwise they would have chosen favourite or show passages . The practice of poets or rhapsodists contending for the prize at the great religious festivals is of considerable antiquity, though apparently post-Homeric . It is brought vividly before us in the Hymn to Apollo (see the passage mentioned above), and in two Hymns to Aphrodite (v. and ix.) . The latter of these may evidently be taken to belong to See also:Salamis in Cyprus and the festival of the See also:Cyprian Aphrodite, in the same way that the Hymn to Apollo belongs to See also:Delos and the Delian gathering . The earliest trace of such contests is to be found in the story of Thamyris, the Thracian singer, who boasted that he could conquer even the Muses in See also:song (Il. ii . 594 ff.) . Much has been made in this part of the subject of a family or See also:clan (yfvos) of Homeridae in the See also:island of Chios . On the one hand, it seemed to follow from the existence of such a family that Homer was a See also:mere "eponymus," or mythical ancestor; on the other hand, it became easy to imagine the Homeric poems handed down orally in a family whose hereditary occupation it was to recite them, possibly to add new episodes from time to time, or to combine their materials in new ways, as their poetical gifts permitted . But, although there is no See also:reason to doubt the existence of a family of " Homeridae," it is far from certain that they had anything to do with Homeric poetry . The word occurs first in Pindar (Nem . 2 . 2), who applies it to the rhapsodists (` Oµ17PLSau paurrwv 7zit.ev aou3oi) . On this a scholiast says that the name "Homeridae" denoted originally descendants of Homer, who sang his poems in See also:succession, but afterwards was applied to rhapsodists who did not claim descent from him . He adds that there was a famous rhapsodist, Cynaethus of Chios, who was said to be the author of the Hymn to Apollo, and to have first recited Homer at See also:Syracuse about the 69th See also:Olympiad . Nothing here connects the Homeridae with Chios . The statement of the scholiast is evidently a mere inference from the patronymic form of the word . If it proves anything, it proves that Cynaethus, who was a Chian and a rhapsodist, made no claim to Homeric descent . On the other hand our knowledge of Chian Homeridae comes chiefly from the See also:lexicon of See also:Harpocration, where we are told that Acusilaus and See also:Hellanicus said that they were so called from the poet; whereas Seleucus pronounced this to be an See also:error . See also:Strabo also says that the Chians put forward the Homeridae as an argument in support of their claim to Homer . These Homeridae, then, belonged to Chios, but there is no indication of their being rhapsodists . On the contrary, See also:Plato and other See also:Attic writers use the word to include interpreters and admirers—in short, the whole " spiritual kindred "—of Homer . And although we hear of " descendants of Creophylus " as in See also:possession of the Homeric poems, there is no similar story about descendants of Homer himself . Such is the evidence on which so many inferences are based . The result of the notices now collected is to show that the early history of epic recitation consists of (r) passages in the Homeric hymns showing that poets contended for the prize at the great festivals, (2) the passing mention in Herodotus of rhapsodists at Sicyon, and (3) a law at Athens, of unknown date, regulating the recitation at the Panathenaea . Let us now compare these data with the account given in the Homeric poems . The word " rhapsode " does not yet exist; we hear only of the but the See also:lyre (cbop,utyE), with which he accompanies his "song." In the Iliad even the epic " singer " is not met with . It is See also:Achilles himself who sings the stories of heroes (rcXia &n3pwv) in his See also:tent, and Patroclus is waiting (respondere paratus), to take up the song in his turn (Il. ix . 191) . Again we do not hear of poetical contests (except in the story of Thamyris already mentioned) or of recitation of epic poetry at festivals . The Odyssey gives us pictures of two great houses, and, each has its singer . The song is on a subject taken from the Trojan war, at some point chosen by the singer himself, or by his hearers . Phemius pleases the suitors by singing of the calamitous return of the Greeks; Demodocus sings of a See also:quarrel between Ulysses and Achilles, and afterwards of the wooden See also:horse and the See also:capture of See also:Troy . It may be granted that the author of the Odyssey can hardly have been just such a singer as he himself describes . The songs of Phemius and Demodocus are too short, and have too much the character of improvisations . Nor is it necessary to suppose that epic poetry, at the time to which the picture in the Odyssey belongs, was confined to the one type represented . Yet in several respects the conditions under which the singer finds himself in the See also:house of a chieftain like See also:Odysseus or See also:Alcinous are more in See also:harmony with the character of Homeric poetry than those of the later rhapsodic contests . The subdivision of a poem like the Iliad or Odyssey among different and necessarily unequal performers must have been injurious to the effect . The highly theatrical manner of recitation which was fostered by the spirit of competition, and by the example of the See also:stage, cannot have done justice to the even See also:movement of the epic See also:style . It is not certain indeed that the practice of reciting a See also:long poem by the agency of several competitors was ancient, or that it prevailed elsewhere than at Athens; but as rhapsodists were numerous, and popular favour throughout Greece became more and more confined to one or two great works, it must have become almost a See also:necessity . That it was the mode of recitation contemplated by the author of the Iliad or Odyssey it is impossible to believe . The difference made by substituting the wand or branch of laurel for the lyre of the Homeric singer is a slighter one, though not without significance . The recitation of the Hesiodic poems was from the first unaccompanied by the lyre, i.e. they were confessedly said, not sung; and it was natural that the example should be extended to Homer . For it is difficult to believe that the Homeric poems were ever " sung " in the strict sense of the word . We .can only suppose that the lyre in the hands of the epic poet or reciter was in reality a piece of See also:convention, a " survival " from the stage in which narrative poetry had a lyrical character . Probably the poets of the Homeric school—that which dealt with war and See also:adventure—were the genuine descend-ants of minstrels whose " See also:lays " or " See also:ballads " were the amusement of the feasts in an earlier heroic age; whereas the Hesiodic compositions were non-lyrical from the first, and were only in verse because that was the universal form of literature . It seems, then, that if we imagine Homer as a singer in a royal house of the Homeric age, but with more freedom regarding the limits of his subject, and a more tranquil audience than is allowed him in the rapid movement of the Odyssey, we shall probably not be far from the truth . Time and See also:Place of Homer.—The See also:oldest See also:direct references to the Iliad and Odyssey are in Herodotus, who quotes from both poems (ii . 53) . The See also:quotation from the Iliad_ is of interest because it is made in order to show that Homer supported the story of the travels of See also:Paris to See also:Egypt and See also:Sidon (whereas the Cyclic poem called the Cypria ignored them), and also because the part of the Iliad from which it comes is cited as the "Aristeia of Diomede." This was therefore a recognized part of the poem . The earliest mention of the name of Homer is found in a fragment of the philosopher See also:Xenophanes (of the 6th century B.C., or possibly earlier), who complains of the false notions implanted through the teaching of Homer . The passage shows, not merely that Homer was well known at Colophon in the time of Xenophanes, but also that the great advance in moral and sacredness . There were ruling families, laying claim to divine descent, from whom the king was naturally chosen, but his own fitness is the essence of his See also:title . The aged Laertes is set aside; the See also:young See also:Telemachus does not succeed as a matter of course . Nor are any very definite rights attached to the office . Each tribe in the See also:army before Troy was commanded by its own king (or See also:kings); but See also:Agamemnon was supreme, and was "more a king" (BavcXeirepor) than any other . The assembly is summoned on all See also:critical occasions, and its approval is the ultimate See also:sanction . A king therefore stands in almost as much need of See also:oratory as of warlike skill and prowess . Even the See also:division of the spoil is not made in the Iliad by Agamemnon, but by " the See also:Achaeans " (11. i . 162, 368) . The taking ,of Briseis from Achilles was an arbitrary See also:act, and against all See also:rule and custom . The See also:council is more difficult to understand . The "elders" (14povres) of the Iliad are the same as the subordinate "kings "; they are summoned by Agamemnon to his tent, and form a small council of nine or ten persons . In Troy we hear of elders of the people (6twoyEpovres) who are with See also:Priam, and are men past the military age . So in See also:Ithaca there are elders who have not gone to Troy with the army . It would seem therefore that the See also:meeting in Agamemnon's tent was only a copy or See also:adaptation of the true constitutional "council of elders," which indeed was essentially unfitted for the purposes of military service . The king's See also:palace, if we may See also:judge from See also:Tiryns and See also:Mycenae, was usually in a strong situation on an "See also:acropolis." In the later times of See also:democracy the acropolis was reserved for the temples of the principal gods . Priesthood in Homer is found in the case of particular temples, where an officer is naturally wanted to take See also:charge of the sacred See also:inclosure and the sacrifices offered within it . It is perhaps an See also:accident that we do not hear of priests in Ithaca . Agamemnon performs See also:sacrifice himself, not because a priestly character was attached to the kingly office, but simply because he was " See also:master in his own house." The conception of " law " is foreign to Homer . The later words for it (vb tos, See also:Air pa) are unknown, and the terms which he uses (binn and 6 us) mean merely " custom." Judicial functions are in the hands of the elders, who " have to do with suits " (bucar1roXoc), and " uphold judgments " (O )atcras eipvarat) . On such matters as the See also:compensation in cases of See also:homicide, it is evident that there were no rules, but merely a feeling, created by use and wont, that the relatives of the slain man should be willing to accept See also:payment . The sense of anger which follows a violation of custom has the name of " See also:Nemesis " —righteous displeasure . As there is no law in Homer, so there is no morality . That is to say, there are no general principles of See also:action, and no words which indicate that acts have been classified as See also:good or See also:bad, right or wrong . Moral feeling, indeed, existed and was denoted by " Aidos " ; but the numerous meanings of this word—shame, veneration, pity—show how rudimentary the See also:idea was . And when we look to practice we find that cruel and even treacherous deeds are spoken of without the least sense that they deserve censure . The heroes of Homer are hardly more moral agents than the giants and enchanters of a See also:fairy See also:tale . The religious ideas of Homer differ in some important points from those of later Greece . The Apollo of the Iliad has the character of a See also:local Asiatic deity—" ruler of Chryse and goodly See also:Cilia and Tenedos." He may be compared with the Clarian and the Lycian See also:god, but he is unlike the Apollo of Dorian times, the " deliverer " and giver of oracles . Again, the See also:worship of See also:Dionysus, and of See also:Demeter and Persephone, is mainly or wholly post-Homeric . The greatest difference, however, lies in the See also:absence of hero-worship from the Homeric order of things . See also:Castor and Polydeuces, for instance, are simply See also:brothers of See also:Helen who died before the expedition to Troy (Il. iii . 243.) The military See also:tactics of Homer belong to the age when the See also:chariot was the principal See also:engine of warfare . See also:Cavalry is unknown, and the battles are mainly decided by the prowess of the chiefs . The use of the See also:trumpet is also later . It has been supposed indeed that the See also:art of See also:riding was known in Homer's own time, because it occurs in comparisons . But the riding which he religious ideas which forced Plato to banish Homer from his See also:republic had made itself felt in the days of the early Ionic philosophers . Failing external testimony, the time and place of the Homeric poems can only be determined (if at all) by internal evidence . This is of two See also:main kinds: (a) evidence of history, consisting in a comparison of the See also:political and social See also:condition, the See also:geography, the institutions, the See also:manners, arts and ideas of Homer with those of other times; (b) evidence of See also:language, consisting in a comparison with later dialects, in respect of See also:grammar and vocabulary . To these may be added, as occasion-ally of value, (c) much evidence of the direct See also:influence of Homer upon the subsequent course of literature and art . (a) The political condition of Greece in the earliest times known to history is separated from the Greece of Homer by an See also:interval which can hardly be overestimated . The great national names are different: instead of Achaeans, Argives, Danai, we find Hellenes, subdivided into See also:Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians—names either unknown to Homer, or mentioned in terms more significant than silence . At the See also:dawn of See also:Greek history Mycenae is no longer the seat of See also:empire; new empires, polities and civilizations have grown up—See also:Sparta with its military discipline, See also:Delphi with its religious supremacy, Miletus with its See also:commerce and numberless colonies, Aeolis and Ionia, See also:Sicily and Magna Graecia . While the political centre of Homeric Greece is at Mycenae, the real centre is rather to be found in See also:Boeotia . The See also:Catalogue of the See also:Ships begins with Boeotia; the See also:list of Boeotian towns is much the longest; and they See also:sail, not from the See also:bay of Argos, but from the Boeotian See also:harbour of See also:Aulis . This position is not due to its chiefs, who are all of inferior See also:rank . The importance of Boeotia for Greek See also:civilization is further shown by the ancient worship of the Muses on See also:Mount See also:Helicon, and the fact that the oldest poet whose birthplace was known was the Boeotian Hesiod . Next to Boeotia and the neighbouring countries, it appears that the Peloponnesus, See also:Crete and See also:Thessaly were the most important seats of Greek See also:population . In the Peloponnesus the See also:face of things was completely altered by the Dorian See also:conquest, no trace of which is found in Homer . The only Dorians known in Homer are those that the Odyssey (xix . 177) places in Crete . It is difficult to connect them with the Dorians of history . The eastern shores of the See also:Aegean, which the earliest historical records represent to us as the seat of a brilliant civilization, giving way before the advance of the great military empires (See also:Lydia and afterwards See also:Persia), are almost a See also:blank in Homer's See also:map . The line of settlements can be traced in the Catalogue from Crete to See also:Rhodes, and embraces the neighbouring islands of See also:Cos and Calymnos . The colonization of Rhodes by Tlepolemus is related (II. ii . 66r ff.), and seems to See also:mark the farthest point reached in the Homeric age . Between Rhodes and the See also:Troad Homer knows of but one city, Miletus—which is a Carian ally of Troy—and the mouth of one See also:river, the Cayster . Even the See also:Cyclades—See also:Naxos, See also:Paros, Melos—are unknown to the Homeric See also:world . The disposition of the Greeks to look to the See also:west for the centres of religious feeling appears in the mention of |