Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

72 HOMER— POSITION OF FISHERMEN(according to Evans) ousts the Assyrian or Phoenician in favourof a Cretan parentage." It is clear that some vanguard of the Aryan Greek immigrantscame into contact with this Minoan culture at a timewhen it was still in its flourishing condition. The evidence ofHomer is conclusive. Arms and armour described in thepoems are those of the Minoan prime ; the fabled Shield ofAchilles, like that of Herakles described by Hesiod, with itsvigour of their art.elaborate scenes and variegated metal work, reflects the masterpiecesof the Minoan craftsmen in the fullEven the lyre to which the minstrel sang was a Minoaninvention." ^The suggestion that both authorities are really in agreementand that the influence at work may be traced back ultimatelyto the early Assyrian, i.e. Sumerian, culture, even if Evansholds " that the first quickening impulse came to Crete fromEgypt and not from the Oriental side," seems, on present data,untenable.Till twenty years ago it was generally accepted that nocharacter of Homer ever sailed for recreation, or fished forsport. They were far too near the primitive life to find any joyin such pursuits. Men scarcely ever hunted or fished formere pleasure. These occupations were not pastimes ; theywere counted as hard labour. Hunting, fishing, and layingsnares for birds in Homer and even in the classical periodshad but one aim, food. 2The Poet expressly mentions the hardships {aXyea, Od., IX.121) of hunters in traversing forest and mountains. Nowheredoes he give any indication of sport in hunting or fishing,except perhaps in the case of the wild boar and in the delightof Artemis " taking her pastime in the chase of boars and swiftdeer," ^ where the word, naitiovmv, would seem surely toindicate pleasure in sport.But the recent discovery at Tiryns of a fresco where two^ Presidential Address to the British Association, 191 6.* Eustathius (on II., V. 487) after stating that by the Homeric heroes fishingand fowling were very rarely employed, continues Ovk fiaav vdpoBrjpai -nap' avroTsft jjiT) &pa (V AifKfj,' Od., VI. 102 ft. W. W. Merry ad loc. well compares Soph. El., 566 £f.