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

Bœotia, 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, and Melesigenes soon surpassed his schoolfellows in every attainment,

and, when older, rivalled his preceptor in wisdom. Phemius died, leaving him

sole heir to his property, and his mother soon followed. Melesigenes carried on

his adopted father’s school with great success, exciting the admiration

not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna, but also of the strangers whom the trade

carried on there, especially in the exportation of corn, attracted to that

city. Among these visitors, one Mentes, from Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura,