Greek Classical Literature. By the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, M.A.
Vol. I. (Macmillan.)—We have here the first volume, in two parts, of a " third edition, revised and enlarged." The first part deals with the Epic and Lyric poets, the second with the Dramatic. It is in the first of these that the new element is specially notice- able. Many discoveries and advances have been made in the study of the Homeric poems of late years. The question of the present form of the poems, as distinguished from that of their essential antiquity, has come very much to the front. Since Pro- fessor Fisk rewrote the "Iliad," so to speak, in its ..olic form, the subject has assumed a changed aspect. Whatever may be the date of the modernising of the language, we can still believe in a more remote antiquity for the poem modernised. And here it is that the " Achman" discoveries of Schliemann bear upon the subject.
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