Essay on the Origin of Languages and Writings Related to Music by Rousseau Jean Jacques; Scott John T.; Scott John T

Author:Rousseau, Jean Jacques; Scott, John T.; Scott, John T.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dartmouth College Press
Published: 2012-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI

WHETHER IT IS PROBABLE THAT HOMER KNEW HOW TO WRITE

Whatever we may be told about the invention of the Greek alphabet, I believe it to be much more modern than it is made out to be, and I base this opinion principally on the character of the language.50 It has quite often occurred to me to doubt not only that Homer knew how to write, but even that anyone wrote in his time. I very much regret that this doubt is so categorically contradicted by the Story of Bellerophon in the Iliad; as I have the misfortune, as much as Father Hardouin does, to be a bit obstinate in my paradoxes, if I were less unlearned I would be quite tempted to extend my doubts to this Story itself, and to charge it with having been uncritically interpolated by Homer’s compilers.51 Not only are few traces of this art seen in the rest of the Iliad, but I dare suggest that the whole Odyssey is but a tissue of stupidities and ineptitude which a letter or two would have reduced to thin air, whereas this Poem is made reasonable and even quite well executed by supposing that its Heroes did not know how to write. If the Iliad had been written, it would have been sung much less, the Rhapsodies would have been in less demand and would not have become so numerous. No other Poet has been sung in this way unless it is Tasso in Venice, even so it is only by the Gondoliers, who are not great readers.52 The variety of dialects used by Homer constitutes yet another very strong presumption. Dialects distinguished by speech come together by means of writing and are confounded by it, everything imperceptibly conforming to a common model. The more a nation reads and teaches itself, the more its dialects are effaced, and finally they no longer remain except as a form of slang among the people, which reads little and do not write at all.

Now, since these two Poems are posterior to the siege of Troy, it is hardly obvious that the Greeks who conducted this siege knew about writing, and that the Poet who sang of it did not. These Poems remained for a long time written only in men’s memories; they were assembled in writing quite late and with considerable difficulty. It was when Greece began to abound in books and written poetry that all the charm of that of Homer came to be felt by comparison.53 The other Poets wrote, Homer alone had sung, and these divine songs ceased to be listened to with rapture only when Europe was covered with barbarians who meddled in judging what they were incapable of feeling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.