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SEVERA

In

EVERAL Gentlemen, who have expreffed their Approbation of this Work, have also defired us to render it ftill more useful, by giving an Account of the most esteemed Editions of the feveral CLASSICS here treated of, under the Head of each respective Author. Compliance with which we have given the Readers; First, Thofe curious Editions which excel the others in the Beauty of their Print; Secondly, Those which have best explained the Author by the Notes of the Learned: And, Laftly, The neatest and moft correct Editions of the Pocket-Size.

VOL.

THE

Lives and Characters

OF THE

CLASSIC AUTHORS, the GRECIAN and ROMAN POETS, HISTORIANS, ORATORS, and BIOGRAPHERs.

VOL. I.

HOME R.

T has been the fruitless Labour of many Ages to arrive at any reafonable Certainty concerning the Circumftances of Homer's Life; every Man covets to know the Perfon he cannot but admire: but, unhappily, this is aCuriosity that can never in this cafe be throughly fatisfied; the moft celebrated of Men will for

VOL. L

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ever

ever be the most unknown.

Not but that the

Ancients have writ his Life. but they are fupported chiefly by fabulous Traditions, they run into Superftition, and are fo different in their Relations, that no Dependance can be form'd from the Accounts which are given, particularly with refpect to Egypt and Greece, the two native Countries of Fable.

WE have an Account in Euftathius, moft ftrangely framed, which Alexander Paphius has reported concerning Homer's Birth and Infancy. That He was born in Egypt of Damafagoras and Ethra, and brought up by a Daughter of Orus the Priest of Ifis, who was herself a Prophetefs, and from whofe Breafts Drops of Honey would frequently diftill into the Mouth of the Infant. In the Night-time, the first Sounds he uttered, were the Notes of nine feveral Birds; in the Morning he was found playing with nine Doves in the Bed: The Sibyl who attended him was used to be feized with a Poetical Fury, and. utter Verfes, in which the commanded Damalagoras to build a Temple to the Muses. he performed in obedience to her Infpiration, and related all thefe Things to the Child when he was grown up; who in Memory of the Doves which played with him during his Infancy, has in his Works preferr'd this Bird to the Honour of bringing Ambrofia to Jupiter.

This

HELIODORUS, who had heard of this Claim which Egypt put in for Homer, endeavours to ftrengthen it by naming Thebes for the particular Place of his Birth. a Prieft was his reputed real Father, according to was Mercury. He fays,

He allows too, that Father, but that his the Opinion of Egypt, that when the Priest

was

was celebrating the Rites of his Country, and therefore flept with his Wife in the Temple, the God had Knowledge of her, and begot Homer. That he was born with Tufts of Hair upon his Thigh, as a Sign of unlawful Generation, from whence he was called 'Ounos (Femur) Homer, by the Nations through which he wander'd. That he himself was the Occafion why this Story of his Divine Extraction is unknown; becaufe he neither told his Name, Race, nor Country, being afhamed of his Exile, to which his reputed Father drove him, from among the confecrated Youths, on account of that Mark, which their Priefts esteemed a Testimony of an unlawful Birth.

THAT Poetical Genealogy which is deliver'd for Homer's in the Greek Treatife of the Contention between him and Hefiod, gives this Account of his Defcent. The Poet Linus was born. of Apollo, and Thoöfe the Daughter of Neptune; Pierus of Linus; Ócagrus of King Pierus, and the Nymph Methone; Orpheus of Oeagrus, and the Mufe Calliope; from Orpheus came Othrys; from him Harmonides; from him Philoterpus; from him Euphemus; from him Epiphrades, who begot Menalops the Father of Dius; Dius had Hefiod the Poet, and Perfes by Pucamede the Daughter of Apollo; then Perfes had Meon, on whofe Daughter Crytheis, the River Meles begot Homer. Here is a wonderful Genealogy, contrived induftriously to raise our Idea to the higheft; efpecially if we confider, that Harmonides is derived from Harmony, Philoterpus from Love of Delight, Euphemus from beautiful Diction, Epiphrades from Intelligence, and Pucamede from Prudence. It is not improbable,

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probable, but the Inventors meant by a Fiction of this Nature to turn fuch Qualifications into Perfons, as were agreeable to his Character for whom the Line was drawn.

THERE is a fhort Life of Homer attributed to Plutarch, wherein a third Part of Ariftotle on Poetry, which is now loft, is quoted, for an Account of his uncommon Birth in this manner: At the time when Neleus the Son of Cedrus led the Colony which was fent into Jonia, there was in the Ifland of Io, a young Girl compreffed by a Genius, who delighted to affociate with the Mufes and fhare in their Concerts. She finding herself with Child, and being touched with the Shame of what had happened to her, removed from thence to a Place called Egina. There fhe was taken in an Excurfion made by Robbers, and being brought to Smyrna, which was then under the Lydians, they gave her to Maon the King, who married her upon the Account of her Beauty : But while fhe walked on the Bank of the River Meles, fhe brought forth Homer, and expired. The Infant was taken by Maon, and bred up as his Son, till the Death of that Prince.

The most remarkable Tradition of Homer's Life is his Blindness, yet this must not befall him in a common manner; nothing lefs than Gods and Heroes must be vifibly concerned about it. Thus we find among the different Accounts which Hermias has collected concerning his Blindness, that when Homer refolved to write of Achilles, he had an exceeding Defire to fill his Mind with a juft Idea of fo glorious a Hero; wherefore having paid all due Honours at his Tomb, he intreats that

he

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