proof of Homer's marvellous superiority to the rest. He did not attempt
to deal even with the Trojan war in its entirety, though it was a whole
with a definite beginning and end--through a feeling apparently that
it was too long a story to be taken in in one view, or if not that, too
complicated from the variety of incident in it. As it is, he has singled
out one section of the whole; many of the other incidents, however, he
brings in as episodes, using the Catalogue of the Ships, for instance,
and other episodes to relieve the uniformity of his narrative. As for
the other epic poets, they treat of one man, or one period; or else of
an action which, although one, has a multiplicity of parts in it. This
last is what the authors of the _Cypria_ and _Little_ _Iliad_ have
done. And the result is that, whereas the _Iliad_ or _Odyssey_ supplies
materials for only one, or at most two tragedies, the _Cypria_ does
that for several, and the _Little_ _Iliad_ for more than eight: for an
_Adjudgment of Arms_, a _Philoctetes_, a _Neoptolemus_, a _Eurypylus_,
a _Ulysses as Beggar_, a _Laconian Women_, a _Fall of Ilium_, and a
_Departure of the Fleet_; as also a _Sinon_, and _Women of Troy_.

24

II. Besides this, Epic poetry must divide into the same species as
Tragedy; it must be either simple or complex, a story of character
or one of suffering. Its parts, too, with the exception of Song and
Spectacle, must be the same, as it requires Peripeties, Discoveries, and
scenes of suffering just like Tragedy. Lastly, the Thought and Diction
in it must be good in their way. All these elements appear in Homer
first; and he has made due use of them. His two poems are each examples
of construction, the _Iliad_ simple and a story of suffering, the
_Odyssey_ complex (there is Discovery throughout it) and a story of
character. And they are more than this, since in Diction and Thought too
they surpass all other poems.

There is, however, a difference in the Epic as compared with Tragedy,
(1) in its length, and (2) in its metre. (1) As to its length, the limit
already suggested will suffice: it must be possible for the beginning
and end of the work to be taken in in one view--a condition which will
be fulfilled if the poem be shorter than the old epics, and about
as long as the series of tragedies offered for one hearing. For the
extension of its length epic poetry has a special advantage, of which it
makes large use. In a play one canno