"We enjoy Homer for his history, story, and characters", said Professor G. H. Palmer '64 yesterday afternoon in the first of a series of four lectures in Emerson D, before an audience which filled and overflowed the large class room. Professor Palmer expressed the purpose of the series by saying that it was designed for those who have neither the time nor the inclination to make a detailed study of the four great poets: Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton.

Speaking of the history in Homer's works, he said, "We see the germs of many modern institutions, government, home life, and kinship between God and man in his poetry. All nature is alive and free: splendor and squalor, kindness and savage disposition are found side by side."

"Odyssey" Has an Even Beauty

With reference to the stories themselves. Professor Palmer showed how the "Iliad", with a duration of only a few days, reaches a great height of splendor, while the Odyssey has an even beauty, which is lacking in the "Iliad", as well as great artistic skill. "The ability to produce joy", he said, "seems to be at its height in these poems. It is not the source of the various incidents, but the way in which they are welded together that is the sign of the artist.

"The important characters of the 'Iliad' are men, while those of the 'Odyssey' are women, but the great moral theme of the former is courage embodied in Achilles, while that of the 'Odyssey' is the ability of a strong man. 'Odysseus, to overcome obstacles. He matches himself against for universe and wins."