You might also like

More about Historical Mysteries

• Book details
• Synopsis
• Trending among others

You get 74 loyalty points

Book synopsis

The aim of this book is to prove that the Homeric Epics, as wholes, and apart from passages gravely suspected in antiquity, present a perfectly harmonious picture of the entire life and civilisation of one single age. The faint variations in the design are not greater than such as mark every moment of culture, for in all there is some movement; in all, cases are modified by circumstances. If our contention be true, it will follow that the poems themselves, as wholes, are the product of a single age, not a mosaic of the work of several changeful centuries. This must be the case-if the life drawn is harmonious, the picture must be the work of a single epoch-for it is not in the nature of early uncritical times that later poets should adhere, or even try to adhere, to the minute details of law, custom, opinion, dress, weapons, houses, and so on, as presented in earlier lays or sagas on the same set of subjects. Even less are poets in uncritical times inclined to "archaise," either by attempting to draw fancy pictures of the manners of the past, or by making researches in graves, or among old votive offerings in temples, for the purpose of "preserving local colour." The idea of such archaising is peculiar to modern times.

Book details

Book category Books in English Literature & literary studies Anthologies (non-poetry)

• Full title: Historical Mysteries
• Author: Lang, Andrew (Senior Lecturer in Law, London School of Economics)
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 248
• EAN: 9781421897899
• ISBN: 9781421897899
• ID: 08414560
• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society
• Weight: 449 g
• Dimensions: 216 × 140 × 18 mm
• Date of publishing: 30. December 2007

Trending among others

---

---

---