relation to Troy? Such is the culminating question; Ulysses has
been unfolding himself more and more throughout the present Book before
the king and people. The games showed his heroic strength; the dances
brought out his recognizing and harmonious spirit; the lays of
Demodocus have developed his connection with Troy. He clearly belongs
to the past and to the present, possibly he is a bridge spanning them,
which bridge he may be induced to build in wondrous rainbow colors
before the eyes of the Phaeacians.

_Appendix._ It seems never to have been noticed what an important
relation the present Book sustains toward the Wolfian theory concerning
the Homeric poems. The picture of Demodocus here given doubtless
suggested to Wolf the first outline of his view, and has influenced
other commentators who lean toward similar opinions. It is well known
that Wolf in his famous _Prolegomena_ maintains that the Iliad and
Odyssey were originally a string of ballads more or less disconnected,
and that Homer was only one of the many balladists, probably the best;
furthermore he holds that these ballads were brought together, edited
and put into their present shape by certain literary men called
_diaskeuastoe_--revisers, redactors, professors of poetry and philology
at the court of Peisistratus, about 500 B.C.

That is, Wolf regards Homer as a Demodocus, a singer and also a maker
of disjointed ballads and war-songs, the latter pertaining mostly to
the heroes of the Trojan War. These were sung at the festivals of the
people, at the houses of the nobility, and at the courts of kings,
quite as we see the bard singing here in Phaeacia. This fact we may
accept; but the question comes up: Is Homer such a balladist and
nothing more?

Now it is clear that Homer is not a Demodocus, since the latter is not
an epical builder, but a simple singer of separate lays for the
occasion. Mark well that Homer in this book does not unfold the themes,
"Strife between Ulysses and Achilles," and "The Wooden Horse," but
simply alludes to them as well-known; he barely gives the title and a
little of the argument, then drops the matter, leaving us to suppose
that the Bard sang a somewhat lengthy lay, of which the effect upon the
hearers and specially upon Ulysses is duly noted.

Homer, therefore, in this Book as well as in the First Book where
Phemius is introduced, makes the Bard or Balladist merely one of his
figures, and the song one of his incidents, while