Sunday, July 28, 2013

 

Analysts versus Unitarians

G.P. Goold (1922-2002), "The Nature of Homeric Composition," Illinois Classical Studies 2 (1977) 1-34 (at 1):
Sing, Goddess, of Friedrich son of Wolf,
Who brought countless griefs upon the Homerists,
And sent to Hades many valiant souls of professors,
When on a time there clashed together in strife
The lynx-eyed Analysts and much-enduring Unitarians.
First did one hero take up a huge, jagged hypothesis,
Which no two scholars of this age could believe
(Though he alone believed it quite easily),
And hurled it at foeman's shield of six indubitable strata;
But, checked thereby, the shameless assumption glanced aside.
Next did the other lift up a much larger hypothesis,
And threw it, nor missed, at enemy's book:
Through six editions did the missile penetrate,
But the seventh stopped it, made of the hide of a calf.
Then the two armies advanced with clamour unspeakable,
And a chorus of Babel arose before the face of heaven.
As when the South Wind sheds a mist over mountain-peaks,
A mist hated of shepherd, but to robber better than night,
Even so ascended a thick dust-cloud of uncertainty
From beneath their feet as they went.
Cf. Homer, Iliad 1.1-7, 5.302-304, 7.244-248, and 3.10-14.



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