t the
time in which he flourished. Aristarchus says he lived about the period
of the Ionian emigration; this happened sixty years after the return of
the Heraclidae. But the affair of the Heraclidae took place eighty years
after the destruction of Troy. Crates reports that he lived before the
return of the Heraclidae, so he was not altogether eighty years distant
from the Trojan War. But by very many it is believed that he was born
one hundred years after the Trojan War, not much before the foundation
of the Olympic games, from which the time according to the Olympics is
reckoned.

There are two poems of his, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," both, of
which are arranged according to the number of letters in the alphabet,
not by the poet himself, but by Aristarchus, the grammarian. Of these,
the "Iliad" records the deeds of the Greeks and Barbarians in Ilium on
account of the rape of Helen, and particularly the valor displayed
in the war by Achilles. In the "Odyssey" are described the return
of Ulysses home after the Trojan War, and his experiences in his
wanderings, and how he took vengeance on those who plotted against his
house. From this it is evident that Homer sets before us, through the
"Iliad," bodily courage; in the "Odyssey," nobility of soul.

But the poet is not to be blamed because in his poetry he sets forth not
only the virtues but the evils of the soul, its sadness and its joys,
its fears and desires; for being a poet, it is necessary for him to
imitate not only good but evil characters. For without these the deeds
would not get the admiration of the hearer, who must pick out the better
characters. And he has made the gods associating with men not only for
the sake of interest and entertainment, but that he might declare by
this that the gods care for and do not neglect men.

To sum up, an extraordinary and mythical narration of events is employed
in order to stir his readers with wonder and to make his hearers
strongly impressed. Whence he seems to have said some things contrary to
what is likely. For the persuasive always follows where the remarkable
and elevated are previously conjoined. Therefore he not only elevates
actions, and turns them from their customary course, but words as well.
That he always handles novel things and things out of the common sphere,
and leads on his hearers, is evident to every one. And indeed in these
fabulous narratives, if one reads not unattentively but carefully each
el