case extreme instability or changeableness. It has even entered the domain of slang, to denote an actor who is obliged to assume inferior and changing rôles.

References to this god are in all classes of literature, and a recent publication, Jokes For All Occasions, tries in the Introduction to give a definition of wit, then in despair adds: "It is as hard to settle a clear and definite notion of wit as it is to make a portrait of Proteus."

During the celebration of the festival of the Mardi Gras at New Orleans there is the Carnival or Ball of Proteus at which the leader assumes to be that divinity, and he must always appear in a new guise and a new costume. The ingenuity of uniform designers is taxed to make a new creation each year, a creation which must also show that the leader is assuming to be a divinity of the sea.

Proteus has even become a Christian name, and the full name of the great electrician is given as Charles Proteus Steinmetz. I do not know whether he had this name from birth or not, but the application of the name of the wizard of the sea to the wizard of electricity looks like an after-thought.

The widespread influence of this divinity is but typical of most of the creations of Homer. A Tantalus, Circe, or Niobe would show similar extension; while Helen, Hecuba, Hector, or Nestor would so overwhelm with material as to daunt the most eager student.

Even all these gods, heroes, fables, ideas, and words, so widely used and known, reveal but faintly the influence of Homer.

Aristotle founded his immensely important theory of poetry on what the Iliad and the Odyssey actually are, regarding them as the standard of perfection both in plan and in execution.

Professor Dixon says: In the centuries during which the ideal of heroic poetry was in debate Homer was without a serious rival. He is without a rival still." 21

His influence is to be estimated by the fact that at the very beginning of our literature he set up an ideal and gave an example which has inspired and guided all writers influenced by European civilization. He is the dominating force with those who have read him and also with those who have read him not, for he created the atmosphere in which liberalizing culture has continued to abide.

VIII. HOMER AMONG THE

A

ANCIENT GREEKS

LL Greek art, society, and literature assume the poetry of Homer as

a background and a foundation. Xenophanes, the first writer in whose works is found the name of Homer, says: "From the beginning, for all have learned from him." Plato refers to him as the one who has trained Hellas, and calls him "the best and the most divine of poets," "the greatest of poets and the first of the dramatists."

He was regarded by entire Hellas as the greatest poet, the father of tragedy, the pattern for oratory, the source of theology, the leader in all civilizing pursuits, so that Plato called him: " the poet wise in all things."

Cicero could say with but little exaggeration: Homer because of his outstanding excellence made the common name 'poet' his own proper name," and Philo to the same effect: "Although there were unnumbered poets, Homer was meant when the word 'poet' was used." 22

Then by a sudden shift Homer was well-nigh deprived of his own name and Plato was called "Homerus Philosophorum," Aesop, "Homerus fabularum," Sophocles, " Homericus Tragicus," and Sappho, "the female Homer." In each case the word Homer was intended to convey superlative honor.

Coins were struck with his likeness, days were named for him, and recurring festivals celebrated in his memory. Artists strove to reproduce with paint, marble, clay, or metal his conceptions or his characters, and grammars were first needed and prepared in order to discuss the Homeric language.

Protagoras has the honor of being the first to discuss the significance of the moods, and his query regarding the use of the imperative in the first verse of the Iliad, whether or not a divinity should be addressed with an imperative, may well have been the first step towards a scientific treatment of that important part of syntax.

Homer used many words which were archaic even in his own age and which were difficult of interpretation in subsequent times, hence the need for explanation and the creation of lexica. The first of these were devoted solely to the

elucidation of Homeric vocabulary. This fact was so familiar that poets of comedy could introduce parents questioning their children on the meaning of obsolete or obscure Homeric words.

The great Athenian dramas were regularly presented in Athens but a single time, yet the poetry of Homer and of Homer alone was recited at each recurring Panathenaic festival; thus it was kept constantly fresh in the public mind. The fact that the scholars of Alexandria used, in their recension of the text, copies from Sinope, Chios, Argos, and Marseilles, evidently state or public copies, shows that Athens could hardly have been alone in such recitals.

Greek audiences, despite the frequency with which they heard them, never wearied of listening to the Homeric poems, and an orator could be sure of arousing the interest of his hearers by repeating verses from the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Aeschines in a speech, supposed to have been delivered before a jury, paraphrased and quoted Homeric verses, then turned to the clerk and asked him to recite, first the passage where Achilles expresses his determination to avenge the death of Patroclus, then the words