opinion, that they were in the nature of surnames, and repeated as such;

for the Greeks having no names derived from their fathers, were obliged to

add some other distinction of each person; either naming his parents

expressly, or his place of birth, profession, or the like: as Alexander

the son of Philip, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Diogenes the Cynic, &c.

Homer, therefore, complying with the custom of his country, used such

distinctive additions as better agreed with poetry. And, indeed, we have

something parallel to these in modern times, such as the names of Harold

Harefoot, Edmund Ironside, Edward Longshanks, Edward the Black Prince, &c.

If yet this be thought to account better for the propriety than for the

repetition, I shall add a further conjecture. Hesiod, dividing the world

into its different ages, has placed a fourth age, between the brazen and

the iron one, of "heroes distinct from other men; a divine race who fought

at Thebes and Troy, are called demi-gods, and live by the care of Jupiter

in the islands of the blessed." Now among the divine honours which were

paid them, they might have this also in common with the gods, not to be

mentioned without the solemnity of an epithet, and such as might be

acceptable to them by celebrating their families, actions or qualities.

What other cavils have been raised against Homer, are such as hardly

deserve a reply, but will yet be taken notice of as they occur in the

course of the work. Many have been occasioned by an injudicious endeavour

to exalt Virgil; which is much the same, as if one should think to raise

the superstructure by undermining the foundation: one would imagine, by

the whole course of their parallels, that these critics never so much as

heard of Homer's having written first; a consideration which whoever

The Iliad of Homer