inscription which no
two scholars read in the same way, is more pardonable, than to believe in
the good-natured old king whom the elegant pen of Florian has
idealized--_Numa Pompilius._

Scepticism has attained its culminating point with respect to Homer, and
the state of our Homeric knowledge may be described as a free permission
to believe any theory, provided we throw overboard all written tradition,
concerning the author or authors of the Iliad and Odyssey. What few
authorities exist on the subject, are summarily dismissed, although the
arguments appear to run in a circle. "This cannot be true, because it is
not true; and, that is not true, because it cannot be true." Such seems to
be the style, in which testimony upon testimony, statement upon statement,
is consigned to denial and oblivion.

It is, however, unfortunate that the professed biographies of Homer are
partly forgeries, partly freaks of ingenuity and imagination, in which
truth is the requisite most wanting. Before taking a brief review of the
Homeric theory in its present conditions, some notice must be taken of the
treatise on the Life of Homer which has been attributed to Herodotus.

According to this document, the city of Cumae in AEolia, was, at an early
period, the seat of frequent immigrations from various parts of Greece.
Among the immigrants was Menapolus, the son of Ithagenes. Although poor,
he married, and the result of the union was a girl named Critheis. The
girl was left an orphan at an early age, under the guardianship of
Cleanax, of Argos. It is to the indiscretion of this maiden that we "are
indebted for so much happiness." Homer was the first fruit of her juvenile
frailty, and received the name of Melesigenes, from having been born near
the river Meles, in Boeotia, whither Critheis had been transported in
order to save her reputation.

"At this time," continues our narrative, "there lived at Smyrna a man
named Phemius, a teacher of literature and music, who, not being married,
engaged Critheis to manage his household, and spin the flax he received as
the price of his scholastic labours. So satisfactory was her performance
of this task, and so modest her conduct, that he made proposals of
marriage, declaring himself, as a further inducement, willing to adopt her
son, who, he asserted, would become a clever man, if he were carefully
brought up."

They were married; careful cultivation ripened the talents which nature
had bestowed, an