PORPHYRY

THE PHILOSOPHER'S HOMERIC QUESTIONS

BOOK ONE

A Decorative initial letter Pi.Often, during our conversations with one another regarding Homeric questions, Anatolius, you urged me to demonstrate that Homer explains most things by himself, and that we, through our childhood indoctrination, possess a superficial understanding rather than truly grasping what he says. You asked me to record these matters after they were spoken, so that they would not fall away and vanish through forgetfulness. Being unable to turn away from your requests, for your sake and for the sake of other lovers of Homer, I will endeavor to recount those things once spoken and to add those that occur to me again. I reserve the larger treatises on Homer for a more appropriate time for examination, but these are like a preliminary exercise for the contests concerning him, in which many things regarding his phrasing remain unknown. They escape the notice of most who attend to the apparent, overall clarity of the poems. Let each person, questioning himself before our explanation is brought forward, consider what understanding he had regarding the proposed verses. For either, finding that we say the same things, he will have a firm judgment regarding what he understood, or, if he was mistaken, he will change his view and benefit us by correcting our errors. We shall cut into the thought of these [lines] and the words themselves:

If the path you speak of is indeed to be a sea-voyage,
I am a passenger; for I am not master of a ship, nor of rowers,
As it seemed to you to be more profitable.