Note 154 — Chapter II · HOMER—METHODS OF FISHING

Among the arguments elaborated by Payne Knight and others to prove that the Iliad and Odyssey were written by different authors and dealt with far different times, one is based on the fact that certain methods of fowling and fishing are only found in the Odyssey. If this argument be pushed to its logical end, it should be easy to prove that the ages of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, which overlapped, were really far apart, because, while the latter mentions the familiar use of tobacco, the former never once alludes to it.