Homer: And the Epic #263600

This method, we argue here, is erroneous. It has its origin in the arguments of Wolf against the possible exist ence Of a long continuous early Greek epic. These argu ments led men to look for the traces Of joins in the poems, and to find them, to hunt for the resulting discrepancies, and to discover them. But Wolf's a priori arguments, we try to show, are no longer valid. It is not impossible that a long early Greek poem might have been composed, and might survive. This being so, we plead for wider and more generous views of the Iliad and Odyssey, for a study of poetry as poetry, not as a dubious clause in a Bill, or a doubtful statement by an historian.