FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>   >|  
we can observe the same development suggested with greater distinctness. Already in the previous Book it was stated that the Phaeacians at first "dwelt near the insolent Cyclops," from whom they had to make the removal to their present island on account of violence done them by their neighbors. But now we hear that both Alcinous and Arete are descended on one side from the daughter of King Eurymedon, "who ruled over the arrogant race of Giants," all of whom, both king and "wicked people," had perished. On the other side the royal pair had the sea-god Neptune as their progenitor who was also the father of the Cyclops Polyphemus. It is impossible to mistake the meaning of this genealogy and the reason of its introduction at the present conjuncture. The Phaeacians likewise were sprung of the wild men of nature, and had been at one time savages; but they had changed, had separated from their primitive kindred and begun the march of civilization. The poet has manifestly before his mind this question: why does one branch of the same people develop, and another branch lag behind; why, of two brothers, does one become civilized and the other remain savage? Of this dualism Greece would furnish many striking illustrations, whereof the difference between Athena and Sparta is the best known. Here the change from the locality of the Cyclops, implying also the change in spirit, is made by a hero-king, "the large-souled Nausithous," evidently a very important man to the Phaeacians. Then this respect given to the woman has often been noted as both the sign and the cause of a higher development of a people. At any rate the Phaeacians have made the great transition from savagery to civilization, and thus reveal the inherent possibilities of the race. We now begin to catch a hint of the sweep of the poem in these portions. Ulysses who has lapsed or at least has become separated from his institutional life, must travel back to the same through the whole rise of society; he has to see its becoming in his own experience, and to a degree create it over again in his own soul, having lost it. Hence the evolution of the social organism passes before his eyes, embodied in a series of persons and places. In this Seventh Book, therefore, Ulysses is to make the transition to Family and State as shown in Phaeacia, and as represented by Arete and Alcinous. We shall mark three leading divisions:-- I. Ulysses enters the city in the dark, when he
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Phaeacians

 

Cyclops

 

people

 
Ulysses
 
change
 

transition

 
Alcinous
 

separated

 

civilization

 

branch


present
 

development

 

possibilities

 

inherent

 

reveal

 
savagery
 

lapsed

 

observe

 

suggested

 
portions

evidently

 
important
 

Nausithous

 

souled

 

greater

 

respect

 

higher

 
institutional
 

Family

 

Seventh


embodied

 

series

 

persons

 

places

 

Phaeacia

 

represented

 

enters

 

divisions

 

leading

 

passes


society

 

travel

 

spirit

 

experience

 

degree

 

evolution

 
social
 

organism

 

create

 

impossible