Works of Homer
Homer's epic poems, referenced in the dedicatory letter as characterizing kings as shepherds of the peoples; by Jerome in the context of Homerocentones (centos composed from Homeric lines); and by Lacordaire as the summit of human literary genius.
Preliminaries
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TO THE MOST REVEREND AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD HENRY FRANCIS VAN DER BURCH, ARCHBISHOP AND DUKE OF CAMBRAI, PRINCE OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, COUNT OF CAMBRAI.
— Homer cited as calling a king "the shepherd of the peoples"
"Homer calls a king the shepherd of the peoples, because he ought to feed them, as a shepherd feeds sheep, and not fleece them."
Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship
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II. JEROME TO PAULINUS.
— Jerome refers to Homerocentones as parallel to Virgiliocento, centos that misuse poetic lines
"As though we had not read Homerocentones and Virgiliocento"
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ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES.
— Lacordaire invokes Homer alongside Virgil as the summit of human poetic genius, to which David and Isaiah are compared and found superior
"if it is capable of opening itself, it surrenders to a passionate admiration that it has known only in reading Homer or Virgil"
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ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES.
— Lacordaire lists "Homer's songs on the wrath of Achilles" as the pinnacle of nature's poetry, inferior to David's Miserere
"Homer's songs on the wrath of Achilles"
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter III: On the Difficulty of Sacred Scripture
— Homer's Iliad referenced as source text for Empress Eudocia's Christian cento
"or the Empress Eudocia in adapting Homer's Iliad, to Christ"