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| Wednesday, 17 March 2004 |
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The 'concrete and artistic expression' The Language Lobby by Carl Muller Poetry is the "immemorial inheritance". Poetry's present form is relatively recent, but it is far older than writing - coming to us from the folk songs that are still repeated and sung in villages the world over. The very word "Ballad" (from the old French "baller") tells of how man first began to arrange words rhythmically. "Baller" means to dance, so that first songs must have been sung by dancers who fitted words to accompany their movements. To this day, in Russia and the Pyrenees, words are improvised to fit the dance form when peasants celebrate their festivals. Long ago, Theodore Watts-Duncan defined poetry as "the concrete and artistic expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical language". It crystallized as a popular art; was then followed by a poetry of personality; then the expressions of particular rather than general emotions. At a time when few wrote, the songs were sung-even in the dark times after the fall of the Roman Empire. Poetry was the spoken literature of the unlettered. Having said so, I will now turn to Homer, the greatest of all the epic poets who gave us the earliest pictures of European civilization. Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" hold a special place in world literature both in poetry and in history. In historic times, these epics were the "Bible of the Greeks" and we had Plato constantly quoting lines from them just as the Christians quote from the Bible to this day. Homer's epics became models for those to follow-the "Aenid" of Virgil, for example; and later, the "artificial epics" of Lucan, Dante, Milton and others. Even today, people who have never read a single line of Homer know the meaning of the adjective "Homeric". They talk of Homeric grandeur, and Homeric laughter and tell you wisely that "even Homer sometimes nods". Likewise, Achilles has Homeric valour; Helen of Troy possessed Homeric beauty; Ulysses had a reservoir of Homeric resourcefulness, and Penelope a Homeric faithfulness. But who would like to enter the controversial labyrinth of the Homeric Problem? In 1795, a manj named Wolf wrote "Prolegomena", tried to prove that the Homeric poems were composed without the aid of writing and were passed on by recitation that altered them considerably. Wolf claimed that when the poems were written down about 550BC, they were polished and altered to suit the literary critics of the time and that the artistic unity of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" were the result of this treatment. He also said that the two epics were the works of several authors. However, he did not deny the existence of Homer and later scholars declared that the two epics and their acceptance is very like the faith of those who believe that the Bible is the word of God handed out from heaven. The very name Homer means "piece-together" and it does appear that several authors were involved. The epics do seem revised, the barbaric episodes toned down. We must remember that the Greeks of 550BC had a gentler taste. Even in the plays of the time, "murders" were committed off-stage! But a large body of eminent writers and poets were convinced of the personal unity of the epics. Schiller called Wolf's theory "barbaric", and Goethe declared: "I am more than ever convinced of the unity and individuality of the Iliad". Even Matthew Arnold, who himself was a poet of the Greek spirit, said: "The insurmountable obstacle to believing a Iliad a consolidated work of several poets is this - that the work of great masters is unique, and the Iliad has a great master's genuine stamp, and that stamp is the grand style." Let's look at these epics. The characters love and hate, fight and speak, live and die in a wholly dramatic sense. Achilles, in his violent anger, unrestrained sorrow, is a hero, a glorious fighter and unafraid of the early death ordained for him. Ulysses is a heroic adventurer and also a lover of wife and home. Not even the embrace of an ageless goddess in the garden of her fairy isle can drive out thoughts of home. There are the Homeric women-Andromache, Penelope, Nausicaa and, above all, Helen, the innocent cause of the wars of the Greeks and Trojans alike. All we know of Helen's beauty are from a few lines in the Third Book of the "Iliad": So speaking, the goddess put into her heart A yearning for her husband of yore And her city and her father and mother. And straightaway she veiled herself with white linen And went forth from her chamber, shedding a great tear. The elders of Troy, seeing her, spoke to one another: Small wonder that the Trojans and mailed Greeks Should endure pain for many years For such a woman. Strangely like she is In face to some immortal spirit. The gods and goddesses are very human. They feel pain, although they cannot die. They even enter the war to help their favourites and also fight each other. We see how Mars calls Minerva a "dog-fly" and Minerva taunts him in a way that is most unladylike. Juno calls Diana a "shameless she-dog", grabs her bow and quiver and beats her until she, "full of tears, fled like a wood-pigeon." Home presents the characters of the deities in much the same way as he presents his mortal heroes and heroines. Jove - imperious but swayed by passion; Juno - determined to prevent Jove from allowing the Trojans to win the war; Apollo - actively enforcing his role as minister of death; Minerva - an excellent businesswoman. All this may sound far-fetched, but we carry the same naive faith as we ask the gods for help. We actually ask the saints to leave Paradise to help us and in the Middle Ages it was believed that even the Virgin Mary could be called upon to help devout persons to meet the ones they love! Homer may have recorded it all, but lets face it. Our only recourse to this day is to the gods and goddesses, deities and devas, demons and spirits good or evil, when the shit is about to hit the fan! |
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