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Homers Jugend und Erblindung (183 Aufrufe)

Γραικύλος schrieb am 13.05.2026 um 15:43 Uhr (Zitieren)

Das Leben Homers (vermutlich 1. Jhdt. u.Z., Herodot zugeschrieben), 5-8

Homer, so heißt es, sei in Smyrna als uneheliches Kind des Phemios und der Kretheïs geboren; von ihr habe er den Namen Melesigenes, nach dem etwas außerhalb der Stadt gelegenen Fluß Meles, erhalten.

The boy was naturally endowed, and with the benefit of attention and education he quickly began to stand out far above the rest. When in time he reached manhood, he was nothing inferior to Phemius in learning. So it was when Phemius came to the end of his life, leaving everything to the boy; not long afterwards Cretheis died too, and Melesigenes was established as the teacher. Being now on his own, he attracted more notice, and earned the admiration both of the local people and of those foreigners who came in. For Smyrna was a trading center, and much grain was exported from there, as it was brought in from the surrounding country in great abundance; so when the foreigners stopped work, they used to spend time sitting in on Melesigenes.

There was among them at that period a shipowner Mentes from the Leucas region, who had sailed in with his ship for grain, an educated man for his time and a knowledgeable one. He persuaded Melesigenes to close his school and sail with him, for a wage and all found, adding that it was worth seeing countries and cities while he was still young. And I think that he was won over by this argument above all; for it may be that he was already thinking of setting his hand to poetry. He closed the school and sailed with Mentes. And wherever he went on each occasion, he observed all the local details and learned more by enquiry; and probably he also made written notes of everything.

Coming back from Etruria and Spain, they arrived at Ithaca, and it happened that Melesigenes developed an eye ailment and was in a very bad way. So that he could be looked after, Mentes, who was sailing to Leucas, left him with a great friend of his, Mentor, son of Alkimos, an Ithacan, entreating him to take care of him; he said he would pick him up on his return trip. Mentor tended him assiduously, for he had sufficient means, and much the best reputation of the men in Ithaca for uprightness and hospitality. It was there that Melesigenes enquired into and learned the story of Odysseus. The Ithacans say that it was then, among them, that he became blind; but as I maintain, he recovered on that occasion and became blind later in Colophon, and the Colophonians agree with me on this.

When Mentes sailed back from Leucas, he put in at Ithaca and picked Melesigenes up, and for a long time he continued to sail about with him. Bu when he came to Colophon, it happened that his eye ailment recurred, and he could not get rid of it but became blind there. From Colophon, as a blind man, he went to Smyrna, and in these circumstances he began to essay poetry.

[Homeric Hymns – Homeric Apocrypha – Lives of Homer. Ed. by Martin L. West. Cambridge (Mass.)/London 2003, pp. 358-363]