Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

66 HOMER—POSITION OF FISHERMENHomer makes reference more than once.^ Boldness ofnavigation, plus guile and gainfulness, characterised the nation ;their " tricky trading " (cf. the Levantines of our day) 2found frequent comment.A comparison of them with the seamen of EUzabeth's timeshows common traits. Both were " the first that ever burstinto the silent seas," both committed acts of piracy, bothkidnapped and enslaved freely. Lest it be objected that theevidence of Od., XIV. 297 and 340 occurs in a fictitious accountby Odysseus of himself and so is itself fictitious, let us callas witness the Hebrew prophet Joel ^ ": What have ye todo with Me, O Tyre and Zidon ?The children, also, of Judah,and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the sons ofthe Grecians."The second reason lies in the fact that each Homerichouse or each hamlet, although perhaps not each town,apparently suppHed nearly all its own wants and was practicallyself-supporting.The chief crafts existed, as Hesiod shows, but only in arudimentary stage ;workers there were in gold, silver, bronze,wood, leather, pottery, carpentry. Although they were not" adscript! glebse," the proper pride or narrow jealousy ofeach settlement was strongly averse from calHng in craftsmenfrom outside. Only apparently those " workers for thepeople," such as " a prophet, or a healer of ills, or a shipwright,or a godlike minstrel who can dehght all by his song,"were free to come and go, as they willed, sure of a welcome-" These are the men who are welcome over all the wideearth. "41 He never mentions Tyre, the later port. Evans [Scripta Minoa, pp. 56,80) and other archaeologists now-a-days hold that Homer's ^oiviKes, or" red men," are really the " Minoans," and are to be distinguished from the'S.Mvioi or Phoenicians. At what date the latter appeared in the WestMediterranean is still a matter of controversy, but the present trend of opinionis that they only succeeded to the " Minoan " heritage.* Cf., however, Isaiah xxiii. 8, " whose merchants are princes, whosetraffickers are the honourable of the earth." cit.,In spite of this, Butcher, opp. 45, writes : was" but in Bacon's words, the end and purpose of their life'the Sabbathless pursuit of fortune.' "^ Chap. iii. 4-6.« Od., XVII. 386.