C.G. Heyne, Homeri Ilias

[Macedon]

Maybe someone is familiar with C.G. Hayne's Homeri Ilias, 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1834

Was the commentary on the Iliad in this book written by Heyne himself or is it based on some collection of older texts? I have online access to the commentary itself but nothing is said there on actual authorship. I guess there had to be some foreword where everything is explained.

Thx in advance.

[D B Campbell]

Maybe someone is familiar with C.G. Hayne's Homeri Ilias, 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1834

I can only assume that it is an Oxford reprint of the Leipzig 1804 original. (Heyne died in 1812, I think.)

Was the commentary on the Iliad in this book written by Heyne himself or is it based on some collection of older texts?

There is no reason to believe that it isn't original (although Friedrich August Wolf believed that his own work had been plagiarised by his German contemporaries, one of whom was Heyne).

I expect you have seen this: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008884960 (both volumes are viewable).

[Jona Lendering]

(although Friedrich August Wolf believed that his own work had been plagiarised by his German contemporaries, one of whom was Heyne)

Those German giants continue to surprise me. Heyne was Wolf's teacher. I know Wolf claimed he hadn't learned anything in Göttingen, but this statement is a wonderful piece of scholarly rivalry.

[Macedon]

Thanks for the link Duncan. I have found many of Hayne's comments verbatim in works of (mainly) Byzantine scholars. A study of his originality might be interesting but certainly not that useful... Another strange thing is his last name... Hayne? That doesn't sound German at all..

[Lyceum]

Hm odd is there a reason you're using such a text?

Also I think Wolf was a bit mental in general, didn't he start some serious feuds? To be honest feuds are a part of academia. Ioannis Tzetzes was always fueding, for example. Even now, this year, I'm in the middle of a massive feud with someone from Cambridge over poet/patronage relationships. I will break him. I've seen historians throwing tables and an (almost) fist fight over a Greek particle.

Speaking of older pre Westian versions I was recently gifted with an old small hardback of Walter Leaf's commentary on the Iliad the other day as a curio, it is a rather amusing divergence to go through these things. Often also instructive when scholars might have hariolated a little more freely.

EDIT: We should totally have a conversation about Wolf and his conception of Alterthumswissenschaft and how this has reverberated throughout the ages.

[Macedon]

I found some specific comments that were very interesting and I wanted to know whether these comments originated from. Now I have found the original sources (or at least much older accounts of them) so I can myself use them in the context of their own time and place which of course isn't 19th century Germany...

[Lyceum]

Ah ok, care to share?

[Macedon]

My interest mainly lies in military matters. I was going through this specific book (just because I could) when I came across some very specific numbers having to do with the units or unit terms that Homer mentions (stichos, phalanx, oulamos, pyrgos etc). The text was too good to have originated by a 19th century German and I wanted to know whether in his book he admitted to have used specific sources and which they were. Yet, I looked these and other quotes up and found them verbatim in a number of sources like the Suida lexicon, Zonaras etc, among which these I originally was interested in. Of course I know that these numbers (and much of other information) have nothing to do with the epos, but it is interesting for me to note, since they give insight in military matters of their own era and consist a good basis for further research to detect even older sources that they might draw on. I will certainly use them in the tables I make regarding such matters.

[Jona Lendering]

We should totally have a conversation about Wolf and his conception of Alterthumswissenschaft and how this has reverberated throughout the ages.

I once proposed to have a subforum discussing the stidy of the past itself, including the history of classical studies, method, the use and abuse of the past, and so on. But there was not enough interest, even though I am convinced that the relevance of our job is not in knowledge of the past, but in the methods (and application of them) we use. Explanation.

Meanwhile, this a piece about Wolf I once wrote.