cutting it off? Because, said Bentley, in Homer's time the word anax did not begin with a vowel: it was vanax. Many old writers mention a letter which had disappeared from the ordinary Greck alphabet. Its sound had been like the Latin v-that is, probably, like our w. Its form was like F: which, to Greek eyes, suggested their letter gamma, T, with another gamma on its shoulders: and so they called this F the "double gamma," the digamma. Several words are specified by the old grammarians as having once begun with this digamma. Bentley tried the experiment of replacing it before such words where they occurred in Homer. Very often, he found, this explained a gap (or "hiatus "), like that in Atreides te anax. came to the conclusion that, when the Homeric poems were composed, this letter was still used, and that it should always be prefixed, in Homer, to those words which once had it. He The first hint of this idea occurs in Bentley's copy (now at Trinity College) of the "Discourse of Free-thinking" by Anthony Collins, which Bentley was reading and annotating in 1713. On a blank leaf at the end he has written: “Homer's δίγαμμα Aeolicum to be added. οἶνος, Foἶνος, vinū : a Demonstration of this, because Foivoç has always preceding it a vowel: so οἰνοποτάζων.” Bentley's view was noticed by his friend Dr. Samuel Clarke, in the second volume of his Iliad, published posthumously in 1732. In the same year came forth Bentley's edition of Paradise Lost, in which he had occasion to quote Homer. There the digamma makes its modern début in all the majesty of a capital F-for which printers now use the sign F. It was the odd look of such a word as Féros that inspired Pope with the lines in the Dunciad. Bentley speaks: "Roman and Greek grammarians! know your better, Stands our digamma, and o'ertops them all." Bentley had thrown a true and brilliant light on the text of Homer. But, as was natural then, he pushed his conclusion too far. The Greek Foinos is the same as vinum and wine. Homer, Bentley thought, could no more have said oinos, instead of voinos, than Romans could say inum, or Englishmen ine. Accordingly, he set to work to restore this letter all through the Homeric poems. Often it mended the metre, but not seldom it marred it; and then Bentley was for changing the text. A single instance will give some idea of his task. In Iliad 1. 202 we have the words hūbrin idē (üßpɩv idŋ), (that thou mayest) "see the insolence." This word ide was originally vide its stem vid is that of the Latin video and our wit. Homer, said Bentley, could have written nothing but vide. And so, to make the metre right, he reads a different word (ops). Now let us see what this involves. This stem vid is the parent of several words, very frequent in Homer, for seeing, seeming, knowing, form, etc. On Bentley's view, every one of these must always, in Homer, begin with F. The number of changes required can easily be estimated by any one who will consult Prendergast's Concordance to the Iliad, Dunbar's to the Odyssey and Homeric Hymns. I do not guarantee the absolute precision of the following numbers, but they are at least approximately correct. I find that about 832 derivatives of the stem vid occur in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Hymns. By F I denote those cases in which the metre requires the digamma: by N, those in which the metre excludes it: by Q, those cases which prove nothing: So, for this one root vid, Bentley would have been compelled to amend the text of Homer in about 191 places. The number of digammated roots in Homer is between 30 and 40; no other is so prolific as vid; but a consistent restoration of the digamma would require change in at least several hundreds of places; and often under conditions which require that the changes, if any, should be extremely bold. Bentley's error consisted in regarding the digamma as a constant element, like any other letter in the radical parts of the words to which it had once been prefixed. It was not this, but rather the ghost of a vanished letter, which, in Homeric metre, fitfully haunts its ancient seats. Nor is it the only such ghost. When Bentley found that, in Homer, the word wc, "as," can be treated as if it began with a consonant, he wrote Fús: but the lost initial was not the spirant v: it was y: for us is merely the ablative of ő-s, the Sanskrit yât. Apart from the restoration of the digamma, the relics of Bentley's work on Homer present other attempts at emendation. These are always acute and ingenious; but the instances are rare indeed in which they would now commend themselves to students. I give a few specimens. below, in order that scholars may judge of their general character.* The boldness with which Bentley was disposed to correct Homer may be illustrated by a single example. Priam, the aged king of Troy, is standing beside Helen on the walls, and looking forth on the plain where warriors are moving. He sees Odysseus passing along the ranks of his followers, and asks Helen who that is. "His arms lie on the earth that feedeth many: but he * I. From Bentley's MS. notes in the margin of the Homer. Odyssey I. 23 ('Αλλ ̓ ὁ μὲν Αἰθίοπας μετεκίαθε τηλόθ ̓ ἐόντας, [ Αἰθίοπας, τοὶ διχθὰ δεδαίαται, ἔσχατοι ἀνδρῶν). “legendum Αἰθίοπες : si vera lectio I. Ζ. 396.” (θυγάτηρ μεγαλήτορος Ηετίωνος, | Ηετίων, ôs evalev, K.T.λ.) [Lucian speaks of "Attic solecisms "-deliberate imitations, by late writers, of the irregular grammar found in Attic writers: surely this is a gratuitous "Homeric solecism."] 29. (μνήσατο γὰρ κατὰ θυμὸν ἀμύμονος Αἰγίσθοιο.) Bentley conjectures κατὰ νοῦν ἀνοήμονος. 51. θεὰ δ ̓ ἐν δώμασι ναίει " Εust. not. ἐν δώματα ναίει pro vulg. δώμασι, sed lego θεὰ δ ̓ ἐν πότνια ναίει. ἐνναίει absolute, ut ivvaíovoɩ Il. 1. 154, 296. Sic Od. E. 215 eam compellens Πότνα θεά. κοὐ δώματα ἔναιεν sed σπέος. Ibidem.” [i. e., Bentley objects to the word dúμara because Calypso lived in a cave. ἐν δώματα ναίει is unquestionably right.] II. From his MS. book of notes on Iliad 1.-VII. 54. But Iliad III. 46 Tolóσde ¿úv. Amabant, credo, Hiatus; non solum tolerabant. Dedit poeta ή τοιοῦτος ἐών. 212. (μύθους καὶ μήδεα πᾶσιν ὕφαινον.) Casaubonus ad Theocritum c. IX. corrigit ἔφαινον. Recte. paivov μúlovs, in concione loquebantur. Sic Il. o. 295, Νήπιε, μηκέτι ταῦτα νοήματα φαῖν ̓ ἐνὶ δήμῳ. 357. (διὰ μὲν ἀσπίδος ἦλθε φαεινῆς ὄβριμον ἔγχος.) Saepe redit hic versiculus qui si vere ab Homero est, Licentia nescio qua pronuntiabitur Aĩa μèv, ut 'Apɛs, "Apɛç. Non enim tribrachys pro Dactylo hic ponitur ad exprimendam Hastae celeritatem, non magis quam Molossus pes trium longarum ad tarditatem exprimendam. Quid si legat quis, Ataπpò μèv, pede Proceleusmatico, ut "capitibu' nutantes pinus," "Parietibus textum caecis iter." himself, like a leader of the flock (Kriλoc wc), moves along the ranks of men; yea, I liken him to a young ram with thick fleece, that passeth through a great flock of white sheep." Bentley, thinking that s must be Fws, had to get rid of Krixos somehow. "Never yet," says Bentley, "have I seen a ram ordering the ranks of men. And what tautology! He moves along, like a ram: and I compare him to a ram!" And so he changes the ram into a word meaning "unarmed" (writing avràp λòs έùv instead of αὐτὸς δὲ κτίλος ὥς), because the arms of Odysseus are said to be lying on the ground. Bentley had done first-rate work on some authors who would have rewarded him better than Homer-better than Horace or Manilius. It was his habit to enter collations of manuscripts, or his own conjectures, in the margins of his classical books. Some of these books are at Cambridge. Many more are in the British Museum. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1807 relates how Kidd found 60 volumes, formerly Bentley's, at the London bookseller Lackington's, to whom they had been sold by Cumberland, and from whom they were at once bought for the Museum by the Trustees. The complete list of the Bentley books in the British Museum comprises (omitting duplicates) 70 works. All, or nearly all, the manuscript notes which enrich these volumes have now been printed somewhere. The notes on Lucan, whom Bentley had intended to edit, were published by Cumberland in 1760. Among the most ingenious emendations are those on Nicander, the Greek physician of Colophon (circ. 150 B.C.), whose epic on venomous bites (Theriaca) Bentley had annotated at the request of Dr. Mead. But the province of Greek and Roman literature in which these remains most strikingly illustrate Bentley's power is, on the whole, that of the comic drama. |