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The ''Life of Homer'', whose unknown author is referred to as Pseudo-Herodotus, is one among several ancient biographies of the Greek epic poet, Homer. It is distinguished from the others by the fact that it contains, in its first lines, the claim to have been compiled by the early historian Herodotus:〔Translation by Mary R. Lefkowitz.〕 Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote the following history of Homer's background, upbringing and life, and sought to make his account complete and absolutely reliable. Despite being written in the Ionic dialect, it is not generally, and has not been since a time before the publication of books, considered to be the work of Herodotus〔Westermann, pages 1-20. Greek language text. An English translation can be found at Buckley, Theodore Alois (1891). The Odyssey of Homer: with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice: Literally Translated, with Explanatory Notes. London: George Bell and Sons. pp. vi-xxxii. Downloadable Google Books〕 and therefore according to current scholarly conventions the author merits the name "Pseudo-Herodotus." Although used in this context as a proper name, it is also used as a common name, "the pseudo-Herodotus," whenever a writer questions the authorship of any or any part of the writings of Herodotus. The text concludes〔Section 38.〕 with a calculation showing that Homer was born 168 years after the Trojan War and 622 years before Xerxes I of Persia (a major figure in the real Herodotus's ''Histories'') invaded Greece. That invasion took place in 480 BC; by this calculation, therefore, Homer was born in 1102 BC. This contradicts the estimate given by the real Herodotus, that Homer lived "not more than 400 years before our own time", thus around 850 BC. ==Epistemological interpretations== The invalidation of the author's stated identity threatens to disqualify the work's entire project, including all of the biographical claims made by the author about Homer. What, if anything, within the work can be retained in light of the author's apparent illegitimacy is a question that has been debated throughout classical scholarship. The most skeptical interpretation is that the text is patently false. It was, in this view, written long after Herodotus' time, perhaps in the 3rd or 4th centuries AD, when there was apparently an audience for literary pastiches, such as the ''Letters'' of Alciphron, and fraudulent attributions, as in the ''Historia Augusta'' . Thus the ''Life of Homer'' would be best treated as historical fiction. However, there appears to be a certain overlap of Pseudo-Herodotus on other works, including the ''Odyssey''; for example, the ''Life'' mentions Phemius, a school-master, Mentes, a ship-captain, Mentor, a man of Ithaca, and Tychius, a leather-maker . The ''Odyssey'' features Phemius, the bard, Mentes, a mariner, Mentor of Ithaca, and Tychius, a leather-worker. Moreover, some of the epigrams are in other ''Lives''. Strongest of all is the character of the wandering blind bard, Demodocus, in the ''Odyssey'', who fits the characterization of Homer in the ''Life.'' The appearance of these elements can be explained by back-formation; that is, the liar manufactured stories to explain elements already known. This argument defeats its own intent, as it proves that the ''Life'' is repeating elements and is not manufacturing the whole thing ''de novo''. The main line of scholarly thought therefore has accepted and used elements from the ''Life'', knowing that they may be lies, since at least the time of Guillaume Bude, who "accepted Peudo-Herodotus' method and results" . The main problem with the ''Life'' is identifying elements to which limited credibility might be extended, how limited, and why. For example, one reason for some credibility is that all the ''Lives'' were "compiled from the Alexandrian period onward but sometimes incorporating stories from the classical age" . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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