evolution.
For instance, in the present Book as well as elsewhere, Pallas must be
noted as having two characters, a mythical and allegorical, as above
unfolded. Nitzsch, whose commentary on the Odyssey, though getting a
little antiquated, is still the best probably, because it grapples with
so many real problems of the poem, says: "It is wholly in Homer's
manner to represent, in the form of a conversation with Pallas, what
the wise man turns over in his own mind and resolves all to himself"
(_Anmerkungen zu Homer's Odyssee, Band II, S. 137_). Very true, yet on
the next page Nitzsch says that it is "entirely wrong to suppose that
Pallas represents the wisdom of Ulysses _allegorically_." But what else
is allegory but this embodiment of subjective wisdom? Now Nitzsch truly
feels that Pallas is something altogether more than an allegory, but he
has failed to grasp distinctly her mythical character, the objective
side of the Goddess, and so gets confused and self-contradictory.

One of the best books ever written on Homer is Naegelsbach's _Homerische
Theologie_, which also wrestles with the most vital questions of the
poem. But Naegelsbach's stress is almost wholly on the side of the
Gods, he seems to have the smallest vision for beholding the free,
self-acting man in Homer. In his first chapter (_die Gottheit, the
Godhead_) he recognizes the Gods as the upholders and directors of the
Supreme Order (sec. 28); also they determine, or rather create
(_schaffen_) man's thought and will (sec. 42). What, then, is left for
the poor mortal? Of course, such a view is at variance with Homer in
hundreds of passages (see especially the speech of Zeus with which the
action of the Odyssey starts, and in which the highest God asserts the
free-will and hence the responsibility of the man). Naegelsbach himself
suspects at times that something is wrong with his view and hedges here
and there by means of some limiting clauses; note in particular what he
says about Ulysses (sec. 31), who is an exception, being "thrown upon
his own resources in cases of extreme need," without the customary
intervention of the Gods. But the man in his freedom, who co-operates
with the God in the providential order, is often brought before the
reader in the Iliad as well as in the Odyssey (see author's _Com. on
the Iliad_, pp. 129, 157, 216, etc.).

II.

We now come to one of the most famous passages in Homer, describing the
palace and garden of Alcinous. Fi