Complete Works of Plutarch Part 61

The pipes and lyres were sounding.

And in the works of the vintage (I. xvii. 569):--

A boy amid them, from a clear-ton'd pipe Drew lovely music; well his liquid voice The strings accompanied.

Besides in war (I. x. 13):--

Of pipes and flutes he heard the sound.

Also he uses music to express grief (I. xxiv. 721):--

Poured forth the music of the mournful dirge,

by the sweetness of melodies softening the bitterness of the soul.

It is clear that melody is twofold,--one of the voice, the other of instruments, partly wind, partly string. Of sound some are ba.s.s, some treble. These differences Homer knew, since he represents women and boys with treble voices, by reason of the tenuity of their breath; men, he makes with ba.s.s voices. As in the following (I. xviii. 70):--

She with bitter cry Clasped in her hands his head, and Sorrowing spoke.

And again (I. ix. 16):--

So with deep groans he thus addressed the Greeks.

But old men like the locusts (I. iii. 151) he compares to shrill-voiced creatures. Instruments whose strings are thin and vibrate quickly, easily cut the air, and give an acute sound. Those with thick ones, through the slow movement, have a deep sound. Homer calls the pipe acute--acute because being thin it gives an acute sound. Homer has this information about music.

Since we are speaking here about Pythagoras, to whom taciturnity and not expressing those things which it is wrong to speak were especially pleasing, let us see whether Homer had also this opinion. For about those drunken with wine he says (O. xiv. 466):--

And makes him speak out a word which were better unsaid.

And Odysseus upbraids Thersites (I. ii. 246):--

Thou babbling fool Therites, prompt of speech, Restrain thy tongue.

And Ajax speaks, blaming Idomeneus (I. xxiii. 478):--

But thou art ever hasty in thy speech.

And ill becomes thee this precipitance

And while the armies are entering the fight (I. iii. 2-8):--

With noise and clarmor, as a flight of birds, The men of Troy advanced, On th'other side the Greeks in silence mov'd.

Clamor is barbaric, silence is Greek. Therefore he has represented the most prudent man as restrained, in speech. And Odysseus exhorts his son (O. xvi. 300):--

If in very truth thou art my son and of our blood, then let no man hear that Odysseus is come home; neither let Laertes know it nor the swineherd nor any of the household nor Penelope herself.

And again he exhorts him (O. xix. 42):--

Hold thy peace and keep all this in thine heart and ask not thereof.

So the opinions of famous philosophers have their origin in Homer.

If it is necessary to mention those who elected for themselves certain individual views, we could find them taking their source in Homer.

Democritus in constructing his "idola," or representative forms, takes the thought from the following pa.s.sage (I. v. 449):--

Meanwhile Apollo of the silver bow A phantom form prepar'd, the counterpart Of great Aeneas and alike in arms.

Others deviated into error in ways he would not approve of, but he represented them as fitting to the special time. For when Odysseus was detained with Alcinous, who lived in pleasure and luxury, he speaks to him in a complimentary way (O. ix. 5):--

Nay, as for me I say that there is no more gracious or perfect delight than when a whole people make merry, and the men sit orderly at feasts in the halls and listen to the singer, and the tables by them laden with food and flesh, and a winebearer drawing the wine serves it into the cups. The fashion seems to me the fairest thing in the world.

Led by these words, Epicurus took up the opinion that pleasure was the SUMMUM BONUM. And Odysseus himself is at one time covered with a precious and thin woven garment, sometimes represented in rags with a wallet. Now he is resting with Calypso, now insulted by Iros and Melantheus. Aristippus taking the model of this life not only struggled valiantly with poverty and toil, but also intemperately made use of pleasure.

But it is possible to take these as specimens of Homer's wisdom, because he first enunciated the many excellent sayings of the Wise Men, as "follow G.o.d" (I. i. 218):--

Who hears the G.o.ds, of them his prayers are heard,

And "nothing too much" (O. xv. 70):--

I think it shame even in another heart, who loves overmuch or hates overmuch; measure is in all things best.

And the expression (O. viii. 351):--

A pledge is near to evil, Evil are evil folks' pledges to hold.

And that saying of Pythagoras to one who asked who is a friend said "an ALTER EGO."

Homer's parallel saying is (O. xviii. 82):--

The equal to my head.

Belonging to the same species of Apothegm is what is called the Gnome, a universal expression about life stated briefly. All poets and philosophers and orators have used it and have attempted to explain things gnomically. Homer was the first to introduce in his poetry many excellent Gnomes stating a principle he wishes to lay down; as when he says (I. i. 80):--

And terrible to men of low estate the anger of a king.

And again what must needs be done or not done (I. ii 24):--

To sleep all night but ill becomes a chief.

Of Homer's many good sayings and admonitions not a few afterward have been paraphrased. Some examples of these should find a place here; as the following pa.s.sage of Homer (I. xv. 104):--

Fools are we all, who madly strive with Jove, Or hope, by access to his throne, to sway By word or deed his course! From all apart, He all our counsels heeds not, but derides!

And boasts o'er all the immortal G.o.ds to reign.

Prepare, then, each his several woes to bear.

Like this is a saying of Pythagoras:--

Whatever pains mortals have from the G.o.ds, whatever fate thou hast, bear it nor murmur.