1 "What," says
Archdeacon Wilberforce,
"is the natural root of
loyalty
as distinguished from
such mere selfish desire
of personal security
as is apt to take its
place in civilized
times, but that
consciousness of a
natural bond among the
families of men which
gives a fellow-feeling
to whole clans and
nations, and thus
enlists
their affections in
behalf of those
time-honoured
representatives of
their ancient blood, in
whose success they feel
a personal interest?
Hence the delight when
we recognize an act of
nobility or justice in
our hereditary princes
"'Tuque prior, tu parce
genus qui ducis Olympo,
Projice tela manu
sanguis meus'
"So strong is this
feeling, that it regains
an engrafted influence
even when history
witnesses that vast
convulsions have rent
and
weakened it and the
Celtic feeling towards
the Stuarts has been
rekindled in our own
days towards the grand
daughter of George the
Third of Hanover.
"Somewhat similar may be
seen in the disposition
to idolize those
great lawgivers of man's
race, who have given
expression, in the
immortal language of
song, to the deeper
inspirations of our
nature.
The thoughts of Homer or
of Shakespere are the
universal inheritance
of the human race. In
this mutual ground every
man meets his
brother, they have been
bet forth by the
providence of God to
vindicate for all of us
what nature could
effect, and that, in
these
representatives of our
race, we might recognize
our common
benefactors.'--Doctrine
of the Incarnation.
2 Eikos de min aen kai
mnaemoruna panton
grapherthai. Vit. Hom.
in
Schweigh Herodot t. I
may observe that this
Life has been
paraphrased
in English by my learned
young friend Kenneth R.
H. Mackenzie, and
appended to my prose
translation of the
Odyssey. The present
abridgement
however, will contain
all that is of use to
the reader, for the
biographical
value of the treatise is
most insignificant.
3 --I.e. both of
composing and reciting
verses for as Blair
observes,
"The first poets sang
their own verses."
Sextus Empir. adv. Mus.
p.
360 ed. Fabric. Ou
hamelei ge toi kai oi
poiaetai melopoioi
legontai, kai ta Omaerou
epae to palai pros lyran
aedeto.
"The voice," observes
Heeren, "was always
accompanied by some
instrument. The bard was
provided with a harp on
which he played a
prelude, to elevate and
inspire his mind, and
with which he
accompanied the song
when begun. His voice
probably preserved a
medium between singing
and recitation; the
words, and not the
melody
were regarded by the
listeners, hence it was
necessary for him to
remain intelligible to
all. In countries where
nothing similar is
found, it is difficult
to represent such scenes
to the mind; but
whoever has had an
opportunity of listening
to the improvisation of
Italy, can easily form
an idea of Demodocus and
Phemius."--Ancient
Greece, p. 94.
4 "Should it not be,
since my arrival? asks
Mackenzie, observing
that "poplars can hardly
live so long". But
setting aside the fact
that we must not expect
consistency in a mere
romance, the ancients
had a superstitious
belief in the great age
of trees which grew near
places consecrated by
the presence of gods and
great men. See Cicero
de Legg II I, sub init.,
where he speaks of the
plane tree under
which Socrates used to
walk and of the tree at
Delos, where Latona
gave birth to Apollo.
This passage is referred
to by Stephanus of
Byzantium, s. v. N. T.
p. 490, ed. de Pinedo. I
omit quoting any
of the dull epigrams
ascribed to Homer for,
as Mr. Justice Talfourd
rightly observes, "The
authenticity of these
fragments depends upon
that of the pseudo
Herodotean Life of
Homer, from which they
are
taken." Lit of Greece,
pp. 38 in Encycl.
Metrop. Cf. Coleridge,
Classic Poets, p. 317.
5 It is quoted as the
work of Cleobulus, by
Diogenes Laert. Vit.
Cleob. p. 62, ed.
Casaub.
6 I trust I am justified
in employing this as an
equivalent for the
Greek leschai.
7 Os ei tous, Homerous
doxei trephein autois,
omilon pollon te kai
achreoin exousin.
enteuthen de kai tounoma
Homeros epekrataese to
Melaesigenei apo taes
symphoraes oi gar
Kumaioi tous tuphlous
Homerous legousin. Vit.
Hom. l. c. p. 311. The
etymology has been
condemned by recent
scholars. See Welcker,
Epische Cyclus, p. 127,
and Mackenzie's note, p.
xiv.
8 Thestorides,
thnetoisin anoiston
poleon per, ouden
aphrastoteron
peletai noou
anthropoisin. Ibid. p.
315. During his stay at
Phocoea,
Homer is said to have
composed the Little
Iliad, and the Phocoeid.
See Muller's Hist. of
Lit., vi. Section 3.
Welcker, l. c. pp. 132,
272, 358, sqq., and
Mure, Gr. Lit. vol. ii.
p. 284, sq.
9 This is so pretty a
picture of early manners
and hospitality, that
it is almost a pity to
find that it is
obviously a copy from
the
Odyssey. See the
fourteenth book. In
fact, whoever was the
author of
this fictitious
biography, he showed
some tact in identifying
Homer
with certain events
described in his poems,
and in eliciting from
them the germs of
something like a
personal narrative.
10 Dia logon estionto. A
common metaphor. So
Plato calls the parties
conversing daitumones,
or estiatores. Tim. i.
p. 522 A. Cf. Themist.
Orat. vi. p. 168, and
xvi. p. 374, ed. Petav
So diaegaemasi sophois
omou kai terpnois aedio
taen Thoinaen tois
hestiomenois epoiei,
Choricius in Fabric.
Bibl. Gr. T. viii. P.
851. logois gar estia,
Athenaeus vii p 275, A
11 It was at Bolissus,
and in the house of this
Chian citizen, that
Homer is said to have
written the
Batrachomyomachia, or
Battle of
the Frogs and Mice, the
Epicichlidia, and some
other minor works.
12 Chandler, Travels,
vol. i. p. 61, referred
to in the Voyage
Pittoresque dans la
Grece, vol. i. P. 92,
where a view of the spot
is given of which the
author candidly says,--
"Je ne puis repondre
d'une exactitude
scrupuleuse dans la vue
generale que j'en donne,
car etant alle seul pour
l'examiner je perdis mon
crayon, et je fus
oblige de m'en fier a ma
memoire. Je ne crois
cependant pas avoir
trop a me plaindre
d'elle en cette
occasion."
13 A more probable
reason for this
companionship, and for
the character
of Mentor itself, is
given by the
allegorists, viz.: the
assumption
of Mentor's form by the
guardian deity of the
wise Ulysses, Minerva.
The classical reader may
compare Plutarch, Opp.
t. ii. p. 880;
Xyland. Heraclid. Pont.
Alleg. Hom. p. 531-5, of
Gale's Opusc.
Mythol. Dionys. Halic.
de Hom. Poes. c. 15;
Apul. de Deo Socrat. s.
f.
14 Vit. Hom. Section 28.
15 The riddle is given
in Section 35. Compare
Mackenzie's note, p.
xxx.
16 Heeren's Ancient
Greece, p. 96.
17 Compare Sir E. L.
Bulwer's Caxtons v. i.
p. 4.
18 Pericles and Aspasia,
Letter lxxxiv., Works,
vol ii. p. 387.
19 Quarterly Review, No.
lxxxvii., p. 147.
20 Viz., the following
beautiful passage, for
the translation of which
I am indebted to
Coleridge, Classic
Poets, p. 286.
"Origias, farewell! and
oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some
stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may
your isle explore,
And ask you, maid, of
all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest,
and delights you most
Oh! answer all,--'A
blind old man and poor
Sweetest he sings--and
dwells on Chios' rocky
shore.'"
See Thucyd. iii, 104.
21 Longin., de Sublim.,
ix. Section 26. Othen en
tae Odysseia
pareikasai tis an
kataduomeno ton Omaeron
haelio, oo dixa taes
sphodrotaetos paramenei
to megethos
22 See Tatian, quoted in
Fabric. Bibl. Gr. v. II
t. ii. Mr. Mackenzie
has given three brief
but elaborate papers on
the different writers
on the subject, which
deserve to be consulted.
See Notes and
Queries, vol. v. pp. 99,
171, and 221. His own
views are moderate,
and perhaps as
satisfactory, on the
whole, as any of the
hypotheses
hitherto put forth. In
fact, they consist in an
attempt to blend
those hypotheses into
something like
consistency, rather than
in
advocating any
individual theory.
23 Letters to
Phileleuth; Lips.
24 Hist. of Greece, vol.
ii. p. 191, sqq.
25 It is, indeed not
easy to calculate the
height to which the
memory
may be cultivated. To
take an ordinary case,
we might refer to that
of any first rate actor,
who must be prepared, at
a very short
warning, to
'rhapsodize,' night
after night, parts which
when laid
together, would amount
to an immense number of
lines. But all this
is nothing to two
instances of our own
day. Visiting at Naples
a
gentleman of the highest
intellectual
attainments, and who
held a
distinguished rank among
the men of letters in
the last century, he
informed us that the day
before he had passed
much time in examining
a man, not highly
educated, who had
learned to repeat the
whole
Gierusalemme of Tasso,
not only to recite it
consecutively, but also
to repeat those stanzas
in utter defiance of the
sense, either
forwards or backwards,
or from the eighth line
to the first,
alternately the odd and
even lines--in short,
whatever the passage
required; the memory,
which seemed to cling to
the words much more
than to the sense, had
it at such perfect
command, that it could
produce it under any
form. Our informant went
on to state that this
singular being was
proceeding to learn the
Orlando Furioso in the
same manner. But even
this instance is less
wonderful than one as to
which we may appeal to
any of our readers that
happened some twenty
years ago to visit the
town of Stirling, in
Scotland. No such person
can have forgotten the
poor, uneducated man
Blind Jamie who could
actually repeat, after a
few minutes
consideration any verse
required from any part
of the Bible--even the
obscurest and most
unimportant enumeration
of mere proper names not
excepted. We do not
mention these facts as
touching the more
difficult part of the
question before us, but
facts they are; and if
we find so much
difficulty in
calculating the extent
to which the mere memory
may be
cultivated, are we, in
these days of
multifarious reading,
and of
countless distracting
affairs, fair judges of
the perfection to
which the invention and
the memory combined may
attain in a simpler
age, and among a more
single minded
people?--Quarterly
Review, l.
c., p. 143, sqq.
Heeren steers between
the two opinions,
observing that, "The
Dschungariade of the
Calmucks is said to
surpass the poems of
Homer
in length, as much as it
stands beneath them in
merit, and yet it
exists only in the
memory of a people which
is not unacquainted with
writing. But the songs
of a nation are probably
the last things
which are committed to
writing, for the very
reason that they are
remembered."-- Ancient
Greece. p. 100.
26 Vol. II p. 198, sqq.
27 Quarterly Review, l.
c., p. 131 sq.
28 Betrachtungen uber
die Ilias. Berol. 1841.
See Grote, p. 204. Notes
and Queries, vol. v. p.
221.
29 Prolegg. pp. xxxii.,
xxxvi., &c.
30 Vol. ii. p. 214 sqq.
31 "Who," says Cicero,
de Orat. iii. 34, "was
more learned in that
age,
or whose eloquence is
reported to have been
more perfected by
literature than that of
Peisistratus, who is
said first to have
disposed the books of
Homer in the order in
which we now have them?"
Compare Wolf's
Prolegomena, Section 33
32 "The first book,
together with the
eighth, and the books
from the
eleventh to the
twenty-second inclusive,
seems to form the
primary
organization of the
poem, then properly an
Achilleis."--Grote, vol.
ii. p. 235
33 K. R. H. Mackenzie,
Notes and Queries, p.
222 sqq.
34 See his Epistle to
Raphelingius, in
Schroeder's edition,
4to.,
Delphis, 1728.
35 Ancient Greece, p.
101.
36 The best description
of this monument will be
found in Vaux's
"Antiquities of the
British Museum," p. 198
sq. The monument itself
(Towneley Sculptures,
No. 123) is well known.
37 Coleridge, Classic
Poets, p. 276.
38 Preface to her Homer.
39 Hesiod. Opp. et Dier.
Lib. I. vers. 155, &c.
40 The following
argument of the Iliad,
corrected in a few
particulars,
is translated from
Bitaube, and is,
perhaps, the neatest
summary
that has ever been drawn
up:--"A hero, injured by
his general, and
animated with a noble
resentment, retires to
his tent; and for a
season withdraws himself
and his troops from the
war. During this
interval, victory
abandons the army, which
for nine years has been
occupied in a great
enterprise, upon the
successful termination
of
which the honour of
their country depends.
The general, at length
opening his eyes to the
fault which he had
committed, deputes the
principal officers of
his army to the incensed
hero, with commission
to make compensation for
the injury, and to
tender magnificent
presents. The hero,
according to the proud
obstinacy of his
character, persists in
his animosity; the army
is again defeated,
and is on the verge of
entire destruction. This
inexorable man has a
friend; this friend
weeps before him, and
asks for the hero's
arms,
and for permission to go
to the war in his stead.
The eloquence of
friendship prevails more
than the intercession of
the ambassadors or
the gifts of the
general. He lends his
armour to his friend,
but
commands him not to
engage with the chief of
the enemy's army,
because he reserves to
himself the honour of
that combat, and
because he also fears
for his friend's life.
The prohibition is
forgotten; the friend
listens to nothing but
his courage; his corpse
is brought back to the
hero, and the hero's
arms become the prize of
the conqueror. Then the
hero, given up to the
most lively despair,
prepares to fight; he
receives from a divinity
new armour, is
reconciled with his
general and, thirsting
for glory and revenge,
enacts prodigies of
valour, recovers the
victory, slays the
enemy's
chief, honours his
friend with superb
funeral rites, and
exercises a
cruel vengeance on the
body of his destroyer;
but finally appeased
by the tears and prayers
of the father of the
slain warrior,
restores to the old man
the corpse of his son,
which he buries with
due
solemnities.'--Coleridge,
p. 177, sqq.
41 Vultures: Pope is
more accurate than the
poet he translates, for
Homer writes "a prey to
dogs and to all kinds of
birds. But all
kinds of birds are not
carnivorous.
42 --i.e. during the
whole time of their
striving the will of
Jove was
being gradually
accomplished.
43 Compare Milton's
"Paradise Lost" i. 6
"Sing, heavenly Muse,
that on the secret top
Of Horeb, or of Sinai,
didst
inspire That shepherd."
44 --Latona's son: i.e.
Apollo.
45 --King of men:
Agamemnon.
46 --Brother kings:
Menelaus and Agamemnon.
47 --Smintheus an
epithet taken from
sminthos, the Phrygian
name for a
mouse, was applied to
Apollo for having put an
end to a plague of
mice which had harassed
that territory. Strabo,
however, says, that
when the Teucri were
migrating from Crete,
they were told by an
oracle to settle in that
place, where they should
not be attacked by
the original inhabitants
of the land, and that,
having halted for
the night, a number of
field-mice came and
gnawed away the leathern
straps of their baggage,
and thongs of their
armour. In fulfilment
of the oracle, they
settled on the spot, and
raised a temple to
Sminthean Apollo. Grote,
"History of Greece," i.
p. 68, remarks that
the "worship of
Sminthean Apollo, in
various parts of the
Troad and
its neighboring
territory, dates before
the earliest period of
Aeolian colonization."
48 --Cilla, a town of
Troas near Thebe, so
called from Cillus, a
sister of Hippodamia,
slain by OEnomaus.
49 A mistake. It should
be, "If e'er I roofed
thy graceful fane," for
the
custom of decorating
temples with garlands
was of later date.
50 --Bent was his bow
"The Apollo of Homer, it
must be borne in mind,
is a different character
from the deity of the
same name in the
later classical
pantheon. Throughout
both poems, all deaths
from
unforeseen or invisible
causes, the ravages of
pestilence, the fate
of the young child or
promising adult, cut off
in the germ of
infancy or flower of
youth, of the old man
dropping peacefully into
the grave, or of the
reckless sinner suddenly
checked in his career
of crime, are ascribed
to the arrows of Apollo
or Diana. The
oracular functions of
the god rose naturally
out of the above
fundamental attributes,
for who could more
appropriately impart to
mortals what little
foreknowledge Fate
permitted of her decrees
than
the agent of her most
awful dispensations? The
close union of the
arts of prophecy and
song explains his
additional office of god
of
music, while the arrows
with which he and his
sister were armed,
symbols of sudden death
in every age, no less
naturally procured him
that of god of archery.
Of any connection
between Apollo and the
Sun, whatever may have
existed in the more
esoteric doctrine of the
Greek sanctuaries, there
is no trace in either
Iliad or
Odyssey."--Mure,
"History of Greek
Literature," vol. i. p.
478, sq.
51 It has frequently
been observed, that most
pestilences begin with
animals, and that Homer
had this fact in mind.
52 --Convened to
council. The public
assembly in the heroic
times is
well characterized by
Grote, vol. ii. p 92.
"It is an assembly for
talk. Communication and
discussion to a certain
extent by the chiefs
in person, of the people
as listeners and
sympathizers--often for
eloquence, and sometimes
for quarrel--but here
its ostensible
purposes end."
53 Old Jacob Duport,
whose "Gnomologia
Homerica" is full of
curious and
useful things, quotes
several passages of the
ancients, in which
reference is made to
these words of Homer, in
maintenance of the
belief that dreams had a
divine origin and an
import in which men
were interested.
54 Rather,
"bright-eyed." See the
German critics quoted by
Arnold.
55 The prize given to
Ajax was Tecmessa, while
Ulysses received
Laodice, the daughter of
Cycnus.
56 The Myrmidons dwelt
on the southern borders
of Thessaly, and took
their origin from
Myrmido, son of Jupiter
and Eurymedusa. It is
fancifully supposed that
the name was derived
from myrmaex, an
ant, "because they
imitated the diligence
of the ants, and like
them were indefatigable,
continually employed in
cultivating the
earth; the change from
ants to men is founded
merely on the
equivocation of their
name, which resembles
that of the ant: they
bore a further
resemblance to these
little animals, in that
instead
of inhabiting towns or
villages, at first they
commonly resided in
the open fields, having
no other retreats but
dens and the cavities
of trees, until Ithacus
brought them together,
and settled them in
more secure and
comfortable
habitations."--Anthon's
"Lempriere."
57 Eustathius, after
Heraclides Ponticus and
others, allegorizes this
apparition, as if the
appearance of Minerva to
Achilles, unseen by
the rest, was intended
to point out the sudden
recollection that he
would gain nothing by
intemperate wrath, and
that it were best to
restrain his anger, and
only gratify it by
withdrawing his
services.
The same idea is rather
cleverly worked out by
Apuleius, "De Deo
Socratis."
58 Compare Milton,
"Paradise Lost," bk. ii:
"Though his tongue
Dropp'd
manna." So Proverbs v.
3, "For the lips of a
strange woman drop as an
honey-comb."
59 Salt water was
chiefly used in
lustrations, from its
being supposed
to possess certain fiery
particles. Hence, if
sea-water could not be
obtained, salt was
thrown into the fresh
water to be used for the
lustration. Menander, in
Clem. Alex. vii. p.713,
hydati perriranai,
embalon alas, phakois.
60 The persons of
heralds were held
inviolable, and they
were at
liberty to travel
whither they would
without fear of
molestation.
Pollux, Onom. viii. p.
159. The office was
generally given to old
men, and they were
believed to be under the
especial protection of
Jove and Mercury.
61 His mother, Thetis,
the daughter of Nereus
and Doris, who was
courted by Neptune and
Jupiter. When, however,
it was known that the
son to whom she would
give birth must prove
greater than his father,
it was determined to wed
her to a mortal, and
Peleus, with great
difficulty, succeeded in
obtaining her hand, as
she eluded him by
assuming various forms.
Her children were all
destroyed by fire
through her attempts to
see whether they were
immortal, and Achilles
would have shared the
same fate had not his
father rescued him. She
afterwards rendered him
invulnerable by plunging
him into the waters
of the Styx, with the
exception of that part
of the heel by which
she held him. Hygin.
Fab. 54
62 Thebe was a city of
Mysia, north of
Adramyttium.
63 That is, defrauds me
of the prize allotted me
by their votes.
64 Quintus Calaber goes
still further in his
account of the service
rendered to Jove by
Thetis: "Nay more, the
fetters of Almighty Jove
She loosed"--Dyce's
"Calaber," s. 58.
65 --To Fates averse. Of
the gloomy destiny
reigning throughout the
Homeric poems, and from
which even the gods are
not exempt, Schlegel
well observes, "This
power extends also to
the world of gods-- for
the Grecian gods are
mere powers of
nature--and although
immeasurably
higher than mortal man,
yet, compared with
infinitude, they are on
an equal footing with
himself."--'Lectures on
the Drama' v. p. 67.
66 It has been observed
that the annual
procession of the sacred
ship
so often represented on
Egyptian monuments, and
the return of the
deity from Ethiopia
after some days'
absence, serves to show
the
Ethiopian origin of
Thebes, and of the
worship of Jupiter
Ammon. "I
think," says Heeren,
after quoting a passage
from Diodorus about the
holy ship, "that this
procession is
represented in one of
the great
sculptured reliefs on
the temple of Karnak.
The sacred ship of Ammon
is on the shore with its
whole equipment, and is
towed along by
another boat. It is
therefore on its voyage.
This must have been one
of the most celebrated
festivals, since, even
according to the
interpretation of
antiquity, Homer alludes
to it when he speaks of
Jupiter's visit to the
Ethiopians, and his
twelve days'
absence."--Long,
"Egyptian Antiquities"
vol. 1 p. 96.
Eustathius,
vol. 1 p. 98, sq. (ed.
Basil) gives this
interpretation, and
likewise an allegorical
one, which we will spare
the reader.
67 --Atoned, i.e.
reconciled. This is the
proper and most natural
meaning of the word, as
may be seen from
Taylor's remarks in
Calmet's Dictionary,
p.110, of my edition.
68 That is, drawing back
their necks while they
cut their throats. "If
the sacrifice was in
honour of the celestial
gods, the throat was
bent upwards towards
heaven; but if made to
the heroes, or infernal
deities, it was killed
with its throat toward
the ground."-- "Elgin
Marbles," vol i. p.81.
"The jolly crew,
unmindful of the past,
The quarry share, their
plenteous dinner haste,
Some strip the skin;
some portion out the
spoil;
The limbs yet trembling,
in the caldrons boil;
Some on the fire the
reeking entrails broil.
Stretch'd on the grassy
turf, at ease they dine,
Restore their strength
with meat, and cheer
their souls with
wine."
Dryden's "Virgil," i.
293.
69 --Crown'd, i.e.
filled to the brim. The
custom of adorning
goblets
with flowers was of
later date.
70 --He spoke, &c. "When
a friend inquired of
Phidias what pattern he
had formed his Olympian
Jupiter, he is said to
have answered by
repeating the lines of
the first Iliad in which
the poet represents
the majesty of the god
in the most sublime
terms; thereby
signifying
that the genius of Homer
had inspired him with
it. Those who beheld
this statue are said to
have been so struck with
it as to have asked
whether Jupiter had
descended from heaven to
show himself to
Phidias, or whether
Phidias had been carried
thither to contemplate
the god."-- "Elgin
Marbles," vol. xii
p.124.
71 "So was his will
Pronounced among the
gods, and by an oath,
That shook heav'n's
whole circumference,
confirm'd."
"Paradise Lost" ii. 351.
72 --A double bowl, i.e.
a vessel with a cup at
both ends, something
like the measures by
which a halfpenny or
pennyworth of nuts is
sold. See Buttmann,
Lexic. p. 93 sq.
73 "Paradise Lost," i.
44.
"Him th' Almighty power
Hurl'd headlong flaming
from th ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and
combustion"
74 The occasion on which
Vulcan incurred Jove's
displeasure was
this--After Hercules,
had taken and pillaged
Troy, Juno raised a
storm, which drove him
to the island of Cos,
having previously cast
Jove into a sleep, to
prevent him aiding his
son. Jove, in revenge,
fastened iron anvils to
her feet, and hung her
from the sky, and
Vulcan, attempting to
relieve her, was kicked
down from Olympus in
the manner described.
The allegorists have
gone mad in finding deep
explanations for this
amusing fiction. See
Heraclides, 'Ponticus,"
p. 463 sq., ed Gale. The
story is told by Homer
himself in Book xv.
The Sinthians were a
race of robbers, the
ancient inhabitants of
Lemnos which island was
ever after sacred to
Vulcan.
"Nor was his name
unheard or unadored
In ancient Greece, and
in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber,
and how he fell
From heaven, they
fabled, thrown by angry
Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal
battlements from morn
To noon he fell, from
noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day and with
the setting sun
Dropp'd from the zenith
like a falling star
On Lemnos, th' Aegean
isle thus they relate."
"Paradise Lost," i. 738
75 It is ingeniously
observed by Grote, vol i
p. 463, that "The gods
formed a sort of
political community of
their own which had its
hierarchy, its
distribution of ranks
and duties, its
contentions for
power and occasional
revolutions, its public
meetings in the agora
of Olympus, and its
multitudinous banquets
or festivals."
76 Plato, Rep. iii. p.
437, was so scandalized
at this deception of
Jupiter's, and at his
other attacks on the
character of the gods,
that he would fain
sentence him to an
honourable banishment.
(See
Minucius Felix, Section
22.) Coleridge, Introd.
p. 154, well
observes, that the
supreme father of gods
and men had a full right
to employ a lying spirit
to work out his ultimate
will. Compare
"Paradise Lost," v. 646:
"And roseate dews
disposed All but the
unsleeping eyes of God
to rest."
77 --Dream ought to be
spelt with a capital
letter, being, I think,
evidently personified as
the god of dreams. See
Anthon and others.
"When, by Minerva sent,
a fraudful Dream Rush'd
from the skies, the
bane of her and Troy."
Dyce's "Select
Translations from
Quintus Calaber," p.10.
78 "Sleep'st thou,
companion dear, what
sleep can close
Thy eye-lids?"
--"Paradise Lost," v.
673.
79 This truly military
sentiment has been
echoed by the approving
voice
of many a general and
statesman of antiquity.
See Pliny's Panegyric
on Trajan. Silius neatly
translates it,
"Turpe
duci totam somno
consumere noctem."
80 --The same in habit,
&c.
"To whom once more the
winged god appears; His
former youthful mien
and shape he wears."
Dryden's Virgil, iv.
803.
81 "As bees in
spring-time, when
The sun with Taurus
rides,
Pour forth their
populous youth about the
hive
In clusters; they among
fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on
the smoothed plank,
The suburb of this
straw-built citadel,
New-nibb'd with balm,
expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So
thick the very crowd
Swarm'd and were
straiten'd."--"Paradise
Lost" i. 768.
82 It was the herald's
duty to make the people
sit down. "A standing
agora is a symptom of
manifest terror (II.
Xviii. 246) an evening
agora, to which men came
elevated by wine, is
also the forerunner of
mischief ('Odyssey,'
iii. 138)."--Grote, ii.
p. 91, note.
83 This sceptre, like
that of Judah (Genesis
xlix. 10), is a type of
the supreme and
far-spread dominion of
the house of the
Atrides. See
Thucydides i. 9. "It is
traced through the hands
of Hermes, he being
the wealth giving god,
whose blessing is most
efficacious in
furthering the process
of acquisition."--Grote,
i. p. 212. Compare
Quintus Calaber (Dyce's
Selections, p. 43).
"Thus the monarch spoke,
Then pledged the chief
in a capacious cup,
Golden, and framed by
art divine (a gift
Which to Almighty Jove
lame Vulcan brought
Upon his nuptial day,
when he espoused
The Queen of Love), the
sire of gods bestow'd
The cup on Dardanus, who
gave it next
To Ericthonius Tros
received it then,
And left it, with his
wealth, to be possess'd
By Ilus he to great
Laomedon
Gave it, and last to
Priam's lot it fell."
84 Grote, i, p. 393,
states the number of the
Grecian forces at
upwards
of 100,000 men. Nichols
makes a total of
135,000.
85 "As thick as when a
field
Of Ceres, ripe for
harvest, waving bends
His bearded grove of
ears, which way the wind
Sways them."--Paradise
Lost," iv. 980, sqq.
86 This sentiment used
to be a popular one with
some of the greatest
tyrants, who abused it
into a pretext for
unlimited usurpation of
power. Dion, Caligula,
and Domitian were
particularly fond of it,
and, in an extended
form, we find the maxim
propounded by Creon in
the Antigone of
Sophocles. See some
important remarks of
Heeren,
"Ancient Greece," ch.
vi. p. 105.
87 It may be remarked,
that the character of
Thersites, revolting and
contemptible as it is,
serves admirably to
develop the disposition
of Ulysses in a new
light, in which mere
cunning is less
prominent.
Of the gradual and
individual development
of Homer's heroes,
Schlegel well observes,
"In bas-relief the
figures are usually in
profile, and in the epos
all are characterized in
the simplest
manner in relief; they
are not grouped
together, but follow one
another; so Homer's
heroes advance, one by
one, in succession
before
us. It has been remarked
that the Iliad is not
definitively
closed, but that we are
left to suppose
something both to
precede
and to follow it. The
bas-relief is equally
without limit, and may
be continued ad
infinitum, either from
before or behind, on
which
account the ancients
preferred for it such
subjects as admitted of
an indefinite extension,
sacrificial processions,
dances, and lines
of combatants, and hence
they also exhibit
bas-reliefs on curved
surfaces, such as vases,
or the frieze of a
rotunda, where, by the
curvature, the two ends
are withdrawn from our
sight, and where,
while we advance, one
object appears as
another disappears.
Reading
Homer is very much like
such a circuit; the
present object alone
arresting our attention,
we lose sight of what
precedes, and do not
concern ourselves about
what is to
follow."--"Dramatic
Literature,"
p. 75.
88 "There cannot be a
clearer indication than
this description --so
graphic in the original
poem--of the true
character of the Homeric
agora. The multitude who
compose it are listening
and acquiescent,
not often hesitating,
and never refractory to
the chief. The fate
which awaits a
presumptuous critic,
even where his virulent
reproaches are
substantially
well-founded, is plainly
set forth in
the treatment of
Thersites; while the
unpopularity of such a
character is attested
even more by the
excessive pains which
Homer
takes to heap upon him
repulsive personal
deformities, than by the
chastisement of Odysseus
he is lame, bald,
crook-backed, of
misshapen head, and
squinting
vision."--Grote, vol. i.
p. 97.
89 According to
Pausanias, both the
sprig and the remains of
the tree
were exhibited in his
time. The tragedians,
Lucretius and others,
adopted a different
fable to account for the
stoppage at Aulis, and
seem to have found the
sacrifice of Iphigena
better suited to form
the subject of a
tragedy. Compare
Dryden's "Æneid," vol.
iii. sqq.
90 --Full of his god,
i.e., Apollo, filled
with the prophetic
spirit.
"The god" would be more
simple and emphatic.
91 Those critics who
have maintained that the
"Catalogue of Ships" is
an interpolation, should
have paid more attention
to these lines,
which form a most
natural introduction to
their enumeration.
92 The following
observation will be
useful to Homeric
readers:
"Particular animals
were, at a later time,
consecrated to
particular
deities. To Jupiter,
Ceres, Juno, Apollo, and
Bacchus victims of
advanced age might be
offered. An ox of five
years old was
considered especially
acceptable to Jupiter. A
black bull, a ram, or
a boar pig, were
offerings for Neptune. A
heifer, or a sheep, for
Minerva. To Ceres a sow
was sacrificed, as an
enemy to corn. The
goat to Bacchus, because
he fed on vines. Diana
was propitiated with
a stag; and to Venus the
dove was consecrated.
The infernal and evil
deities were to be
appeased with black
victims. The most
acceptable
of all sacrifices was
the heifer of a year
old, which had never
borne the yoke. It was
to be perfect in every
limb, healthy, and
without
blemish."--"Elgin
Marbles," vol. i. p. 78.
93 --Idomeneus, son of
Deucalion, was king of
Crete. Having vowed,
during a tempest, on his
return from Troy, to
sacrifice to Neptune
the first creature that
should present itself to
his eye on the
Cretan shore, his son
fell a victim to his
rash vow.
94 --Tydeus' son, i.e.
Diomed.
95 That is, Ajax, the
son of Oileus, a
Locrian. He must be
distinguished
from the other, who was
king of Salamis.
96 A great deal of
nonsense has been
written to account for
the word
unbid, in this line.
Even Plato, "Sympos." p.
315, has found some
curious meaning in what,
to us, appears to need
no explanation. Was
there any heroic rule of
etiquette which
prevented one
brother-king visiting
another without a formal
invitation?
97 Fresh water fowl,
especially swans, were
found in great numbers
about the Asian Marsh, a
fenny tract of country
in Lydia, formed by
the river Cayster, near
its mouth. See Virgil,
"Georgics," vol. i.
383, sq.
98 --Scamander, or
Scamandros, was a river
of Troas, rising,
according
to Strabo, on the
highest part of Mount
Ida, in the same hill
with
the Granicus and the
OEdipus, and falling
into the sea at Sigaeum;
everything tends to
identify it with
Mendere, as Wood,
Rennell, and
others maintain; the
Mendere is 40 miles
long, 300 feet broad,
deep
in the time of flood,
nearly dry in the
summer. Dr. Clarke
successfully combats the
opinion of those who
make the Scamander to
have arisen from the
springs of Bounabarshy,
and traces the source
of the river to the
highest mountain in the
chain of Ida, now
Kusdaghy; receives the
Simois in its course;
towards its mouth it is
very muddy, and flows
through marshes. Between
the Scamander and
Simois, Homer's Troy is
supposed to have stood:
this river,
according to Homer, was
called Xanthus by the
gods, Scamander by
men. The waters of the
Scamander had the
singular property of
giving
a beautiful colour to
the hair or wool of such
animals as bathed in
them; hence the three
goddesses, Minerva,
Juno, and Venus, bathed
there before they
appeared before Paris to
obtain the golden apple:
the name Xanthus,
"yellow," was given to
the Scamander, from the
peculiar colour of its
waters, still applicable
to the Mendere, the
yellow colour of whose
waters attracts the
attention of travellers.
99 It should be "his
chest like Neptune." The
torso of Neptune, in
the "Elgin Marbles," No.
103, (vol. ii. p. 26,)
is remarkable for
its breadth and
massiveness of
development.
100 "Say first, for
heav'n hides nothing
from thy view."
--"Paradise Lost," i.
27.
"Ma di' tu, Musa, come i
primi danni
Mandassero a Cristiani,
e di quai parti:
Tu 'l sai; ma di tant'
opra a noi si lunge
Debil aura di fama
appena giunge."
--"Gier. Lib." iv. 19.
101 "The Catalogue is,
perhaps, the portion of
the poem in favour of
which a claim to
separate authorship has
been most plausibly
urged.
Although the example of
Homer has since rendered
some such formal
enumeration of the
forces engaged, a common
practice in epic poems
descriptive of great
warlike adventures,
still so minute a
statistical detail can
neither be considered as
imperatively
required, nor perhaps
such as would, in
ordinary cases, suggest
itself to the mind of a
poet. Yet there is
scarcely any portion of
the Iliad where both
historical and internal
evidence are more
clearly in favour of a
connection from the
remotest period, with
the
remainder of the work.
The composition of the
Catalogue, whensoever
it may have taken place,
necessarily presumes its
author's
acquaintance with a
previously existing
Iliad. It were
impossible
otherwise to account for
the harmony observable
in the recurrence of
so vast a number of
proper names, most of
them historically
unimportant, and not a
few altogether
fictitious: or of so
many
geographical and
genealogical details as
are condensed in these
few
hundred lines, and
incidentally scattered
over the thousands which
follow: equally
inexplicable were the
pointed allusions
occurring in
this episode to events
narrated in the previous
and subsequent text,
several of which could
hardly be of traditional
notoriety, but
through the medium of
the Iliad."--Mure,
"Language and Literature
of
Greece," vol. i. p. 263.
102 --Twice Sixty:
"Thucydides observes
that the Boeotian
vessels,
which carried one
hundred and twenty men
each, were probably
meant
to be the largest in the
fleet, and those of
Philoctetes, carrying
fifty each, the
smallest. The average
would be eighty-five,
and
Thucydides supposes the
troops to have rowed and
navigated
themselves; and that
very few, besides the
chiefs, went as mere
passengers or landsmen.
In short, we have in the
Homeric
descriptions the
complete picture of an
Indian or African war
canoe,
many of which are
considerably larger than
the largest scale
assigned to those of the
Greeks. If the total
number of the Greek
ships be taken at twelve
hundred, according to
Thucydides, although
in point of fact there
are only eleven hundred
and eighty-six in the
Catalogue, the amount of
the army, upon the
foregoing average, will
be about a hundred and
two thousand men. The
historian considers
this a small force as
representing all Greece.
Bryant, comparing it
with the allied army at
Platae, thinks it so
large as to prove the
entire falsehood of the
whole story; and his
reasonings and
calculations are, for
their curiosity, well
worth a careful
perusal."--Coleridge, p.
211, sq.
103 The mention of
Corinth is an
anachronism, as that
city was called
Ephyre before its
capture by the Dorians.
But Velleius, vol. i. p.
3, well observes, that
the poet would naturally
speak of various
towns and cities by the
names by which they were
known in his own
time.
104 "Adam, the goodliest
man of men since born,
His sons, the fairest of
her daughters Eve.'
--"Paradise Lost," iv.
323.
105 --Æsetes' tomb.
Monuments were often
built on the sea-coast,
and of
a considerable height,
so as to serve as
watch-towers or land
marks.
See my notes to my prose
translations of the
"Odyssey," ii. p. 21,
or on Eur. "Alcest."
vol. i. p. 240.
106 --Zeleia, another
name for Lycia. The
inhabitants were greatly
devoted to the worship
of Apollo. See Muller,
"Dorians," vol. i. p.
248.
107 --Barbarous tongues.
"Various as were the
dialects of the
Greeks--and these
differences existed not
only between the several
tribes, but even between
neighbouring
cities--they yet
acknowledged
in their language that
they formed but one
nation were but branches
of the same family.
Homer has 'men of other
tongues:' and yet Homer
had no general name for
the Greek
nation."--Heeren,
"Ancient Greece,"
Section vii. p. 107, sq.
108 The cranes.
"Marking the tracts of
air, the clamorous
cranes
Wheel their due flight
in varied ranks
descried:
And each with
outstretch'd neck his
rank maintains,
In marshall'd order
through th' ethereal
void."
Lorenzo de Medici, in
Roscoe's Life, Appendix.
See Cary's Dante:
"Hell," canto v.
109 Silent, breathing
rage.
"Thus
they, Breathing united
force with fixed
thought, Moved on in
silence."
"Paradise Lost," book i.
559.
110 "As when some
peasant in a bushy brake
Has with unwary footing
press'd a snake;
He starts aside,
astonish'd, when he
spies
His rising crest, blue
neck, and rolling eyes"
Dryden's Virgil, ii.
510.
111 Dysparis, i.e.
unlucky, ill fated,
Paris. This alludes to
the evils
which resulted from his
having been brought up,
despite the omens
which attended his
birth.
112 The following scene,
in which Homer has
contrived to introduce
so
brilliant a sketch of
the Grecian warriors,
has been imitated by
Euripides, who in his
"Phoenissae" represents
Antigone surveying the
opposing champions from
a high tower, while the
paedagogus describes
their insignia and
details their histories.
113 --No wonder, &c.
Zeuxis, the celebrated
artist, is said to have
appended these lines to
his picture of Helen, as
a motto. Valer Max.
iii. 7.
114 The early epic was
largely occupied with
the exploits and
sufferings
of women, or heroines,
the wives and daughters
of the Grecian
heroes. A nation of
courageous, hardy,
indefatigable women,
dwelling
apart from men,
permitting only a short
temporary intercourse,
for
the purpose of
renovating their
numbers, burning out
their right
breast with a view of
enabling themselves to
draw the bow freely;
this was at once a
general type,
stimulating to the fancy
of the
poet, and a theme
eminently popular with
his hearers. We find
these
warlike females
constantly reappearing
in the ancient poems,
and
universally accepted as
past realities in the
Iliad. When Priam
wishes to illustrate
emphatically the most
numerous host in which
he
ever found himself
included, he tells us
that it was assembled in
Phrygia, on the banks of
the Sangarius, for the
purpose of resisting
the formidable Amazons.
When Bellerophon is to
be employed in a
deadly and perilous
undertaking, by those
who prudently wished to
procure his death, he is
despatched against the
Amazons.--Grote, vol.
i p. 289.
115 --Antenor, like
Æneas, had always been
favourable to the
restoration of Helen.
Liv 1. 2.
116 "His lab'ring heart
with sudden rapture
seized
He paus'd, and on the
ground in silence gazed.
Unskill'd and uninspired
he seems to stand,
Nor lifts the eye, nor
graceful moves the hand:
Then, while the chiefs
in still attention hung,
Pours the full tide of
eloquence along;
While from his lips the
melting torrent flows,
Soft as the fleeces of
descending snows.
Now stronger notes
engage the listening
crowd,
Louder the accents rise,
and yet more loud,
Like thunders rolling
from a distant cloud."
Merrick's
"Tryphiodorus," 148, 99.
117 Duport, "Gnomol.
Homer," p. 20, well
observes that this
comparison
may also be
sarcastically applied to
the frigid style of
oratory.
It, of course, here
merely denotes the ready
fluency of Ulysses.
118 --Her brothers'
doom. They perished in
combat with Lynceus and
Idas, whilst besieging
Sparta. See Hygin. Poet
Astr. 32, 22. Virgil
and others, however,
make them share
immortality by turns.
119 Idreus was the
arm-bearer and
charioteer of king
Priam, slain during
this war. Cf. Æn, vi.
487.
120 --Scaea's gates,
rather Scaean gates,
i.e. the left-hand
gates.
121 This was customary
in all sacrifices. Hence
we find Iras descending
to cut off the hair of
Dido, before which she
could not expire.
122 --Nor pierced.
"This said, his feeble
hand a jav'lin threw,
Which, flutt'ring,
seemed to loiter as it
flew,
Just, and but barely, to
the mark it held,
And faintly tinkled on
the brazen shield."
Dryden's Virgil, ii.
742.
123 Reveal'd the queen.
"Thus having said, she
turn'd and made appear
Her neck refulgent and
dishevell'd hair,
Which, flowing from her
shoulders, reach'd the
ground,
And widely spread
ambrosial scents around.
In length of train
descends her sweeping
gown;
And, by her graceful
walk, the queen of love
is known."
Dryden's Virgil, i. 556.
124 --Cranae's isle,
i.e. Athens. See the
"Schol." and Alberti's
"Hesychius," vol. ii. p.
338. This name was
derived from one of its
early kings, Cranaus.
125 --The martial maid.
In the original,
"Minerva Alalcomeneis,"
i.e.
the defender, so called
from her temple at
Alalcomene in Boeotia.
126 "Anything for a
quiet life!"
127 --Argos. The worship
of Juno at Argos was
very celebrated in
ancient times, and she
was regarded as the
patron deity of that
city. Apul. Met., vi. p.
453; Servius on Virg.
Æn., i. 28.
128 --A wife and sister.
"But I, who walk in
awful state above
The majesty of heav'n,
the sister-wife of
Jove."
Dryden's "Virgil," i.
70.
So Apuleius, l. c.
speaks of her as "Jovis
germana et conjux, and
so Horace, Od. iii. 3,
64, "conjuge me Jovis et
sorore."
129 "Thither came Uriel,
gleaming through the
even
On a sunbeam, swift as a
shooting star
In autumn thwarts the
night, when vapours
fired
Impress the air, and
shows the mariner
From what point of his
compass to beware
Impetuous winds."
--"Paradise Lost," iv.
555.
130 --Æsepus' flood. A
river of Mysia, rising
from Mount Cotyius, in
the southern part of the
chain of Ida.
131 --Zelia, a town of
Troas, at the foot of
Ida.
132 --Podaleirius and
Machaon are the leeches
of the Grecian army,
highly prized and
consulted by all the
wounded chiefs. Their
medical
renown was further
prolonged in the
subsequent poem of
Arktinus, the
Iliou Persis, wherein
the one was represented
as unrivalled in
surgical operations, the
other as sagacious in
detecting and
appreciating morbid
symptoms. It was
Podaleirius who first
noticed
the glaring eyes and
disturbed deportment
which preceded the
suicide
of Ajax.
"Galen appears uncertain
whether Asklepius (as
well as Dionysus) was
originally a god, or
whether he was first a
man and then became
afterwards a god; but
Apollodorus professed to
fix the exact date of
his apotheosis.
Throughout all the
historical ages the
descendants
of Asklepius were
numerous and widely
diffused. The many
families or
gentes, called
Asklepiads, who devoted
themselves to the study
and
practice of medicine,
and who principally
dwelt near the temples
of
Asklepius, whither sick
and suffering men came
to obtain relief--all
recognized the god not
merely as the object of
their common worship,
but also as their actual
progenitor."--Grote vol.
i. p. 248.
133 "The plant she
bruises with a stone,
and stands
Tempering the juice
between her ivory hands
This o'er her breast she
sheds with sovereign art
And bathes with gentle
touch the wounded part
The wound such virtue
from the juice derives,
At once the blood is
stanch'd, the youth
revives."
"Orlando Furioso," book
1.
134 --Well might I wish.
"Would heav'n (said he)
my strength and youth
recall,
Such as I was beneath
Praeneste's wall--
Then when I made the
foremost foes retire,
And set whole heaps of
conquer'd shields on
fire;
When Herilus in single
fight I slew,
Whom with three lives
Feronia did endue."
Dryden's Virgil, viii.
742.
135 --Sthenelus, a son
of Capaneus, one of the
Epigoni. He was one of
the suitors of Helen,
and is said to have been
one of those who
entered Troy inside the
wooden horse.
136 --Forwarn'd the
horrors. The same
portent has already been
mentioned. To this day,
modern nations are not
wholly free from this
superstition.
137 --Sevenfold city,
Boeotian Thebes, which
had seven gates.
138 --As when the winds.
"Thus, when a
black-brow'd gust begins
to rise,
White foam at first on
the curl'd ocean fries;
Then roars the main, the
billows mount the skies,
Till, by the fury of the
storm full blown,
The muddy billow o'er
the clouds is thrown."
Dryden's Virgil, vii.
736.
139 "Stood Like
Teneriffe or Atlas
unremoved; His stature
reach'd the sky."
--"Paradise Lost," iv.
986.
140 The Abantes seem to
have been of Thracian
origin.
141 I may, once for all,
remark that Homer is
most anatomically
correct
as to the parts of the
body in which a wound
would be immediately
mortal.
142 --Ænus, a fountain
almost proverbial for
its coldness.
143 Compare Tasso, Gier.
Lib., xx. 7:
"Nuovo favor del cielo
in lui niluce
E 'l fa grande, et
angusto oltre il
costume.
Gl' empie d' honor la
faccia, e vi riduce
Di giovinezza il bel
purpureo lume."
144 "Or deluges,
descending on the
plains,
Sweep o'er the yellow
year, destroy the pains
Of lab'ring oxen, and
the peasant's gains;
Uproot the forest oaks,
and bear away
Flocks, folds, and
trees, an
undistinguish'd prey."
Dryden's Virgil ii. 408.
145 --From mortal mists.
"But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes
the film removed."
"Paradise Lost," xi.
411.
146 --The race of those.
"A pair of coursers,
born of heav'nly breed,
Who from their nostrils
breathed ethereal fire;
Whom Circe stole from
her celestial sire,
By substituting mares
produced on earth,
Whose wombs conceived a
more than mortal birth.
Dryden's Virgil, vii.
386, sqq.
147 The belief in the
existence of men of
larger stature in
earlier
times, is by no means
confined to Homer.
148 --Such stream, i.e.
the ichor, or blood of
the gods.
"A stream of nect'rous
humour issuing flow'd,
Sanguine, such as
celestial spirits may
bleed."
"Paradise Lost," vi.
339.
149 This was during the
wars with the Titans.
150 --Amphitryon's son,
Hercules, born to Jove
by Alcmena, the wife of
Amphitryon.
151 --Ægiale daughter of
Adrastus. The Cyclic
poets (See Anthon's
Lempriere, s. v.) assert
Venus incited her to
infidelity, in
revenge for the wound
she had received from
her husband.
152 --Pherae, a town of
Pelasgiotis, in
Thessaly.
153 --Tlepolemus, son of
Hercules and Astyochia.
Having left his native
country, Argos, in
consequence of the
accidental murder of
Liscymnius, he was
commanded by an oracle
to retire to Rhodes.
Here
he was chosen king, and
accompanied the Trojan
expedition. After his
death, certain games
were instituted at
Rhodes in his honour,
the
victors being rewarded
with crowns of poplar.
154 These heroes' names
have since passed into a
kind of proverb,
designating the oi
polloi or mob.
155 --Spontaneous open.
"Veil'd with his
gorgeous wings,
upspringing light
Flew through the midst
of heaven; th' angelic
quires,
On each hand parting, to
his speed gave way
Through all th' empyreal
road; till at the gate
Of heaven arrived, the
gate self-open'd wide,
On golden hinges
turning."
--"Paradise Lost," v.
250.
156 "Till Morn, Waked by
the circling Hours, with
rosy hand Unbarr'd
the gates of light."
--"Paradise Lost," vi,
2.
157 --Far as a shepherd.
"With what majesty and
pomp does Homer exalt
his deities! He here
measures the leap of the
horses by the extent
of the world. And who is
there, that, considering
the exceeding
greatness of the space
would not with reason
cry out that 'If the
steeds of the deity were
to take a second leap,
the world would want
room for
it'?"--Longinus, Section
8.
158 "No trumpets, or any
other instruments of
sound, are used in the
Homeric action itself;
but the trumpet was
known, and is introduced
for the purpose of
illustration as employed
in war. Hence arose the
value of a loud voice in
a commander; Stentor was
an indispensable
officer... In the early
Saracen campaigns
frequent mention is made
of the service rendered
by men of uncommonly
strong voices; the
battle of Honain was
restored by the shouts
and menaces of Abbas,
the uncle of Mohammed,"
&c.--Coleridge, p. 213.
159 "Long had the
wav'ring god the war
delay'd, While Greece
and
Troy alternate own'd his
aid."
Merrick's
"Tryphiodorus," vi. 761,
sq.
160 --Paeon seems to
have been to the gods,
what Podaleirius and
Machaon were to the
Grecian heroes.
161 --Arisbe, a colony
of the Mitylenaeans in
Troas.
162 --Pedasus, a town
near Pylos.
163 --Rich heaps of
brass. "The halls of
Alkinous and Menelaus
glitter
with gold, copper, and
electrum; while large
stocks of yet
unemployed metal--gold,
copper, and iron are
stored up in the
treasure-chamber of
Odysseus and other
chiefs. Coined money is
unknown in the Homeric
age--the trade carried
on being one of barter.
In reference also to the
metals, it deserves to
be remarked, that
the Homeric descriptions
universally suppose
copper, and not iron,
to be employed for arms,
both offensive and
defensive. By what
process the copper was
tempered and hardened,
so as to serve the
purpose of the warrior,
we do not know; but the
use of iron for
these objects belongs to
a later age."--Grote,
vol. ii. p. 142.
164 --Oh impotent, &c.
"In battle, quarter
seems never to have been
given, except with a
view to the ransom of
the prisoner. Agamemnon
reproaches Menelaus with
unmanly softness, when
he is on the point
of sparing a fallen
enemy, and himself puts
the suppliant to the
sword."--Thirlwall, vol.
i. p. 181
165 "The ruthless steel,
impatient of delay,
Forbade the sire to
linger out the day.
It struck the bending
father to the earth,
And cropt the wailing
infant at the birth.
Can innocents the rage
of parties know,
And they who ne'er
offended find a foe?"
Rowe's Lucan, bk. ii.
166 "Meantime the Trojan
dames, oppress'd with
woe,
To Pallas' fane in long
procession go,
In hopes to reconcile
their heav'nly foe:
They weep; they beat
their breasts; they rend
their hair,
And rich embroider'd
vests for presents
bear."
Dryden's Virgil, i. 670
167 The manner in which
this episode is
introduced, is well
illustrated
by the following remarks
of Mure, vol. i. p.298:
"The poet's method
of introducing his
episode, also,
illustrates in a curious
manner
his tact in the dramatic
department of his art.
Where, for example,
one or more heroes are
despatched on some
commission, to be
executed
at a certain distance of
time or place, the
fulfilment of this task
is not, as a general
rule, immediately
described. A certain
interval
is allowed them for
reaching the appointed
scene of action, which
interval is dramatised,
as it were, either by a
temporary
continuation of the
previous narrative, or
by fixing attention for
a
while on some new
transaction, at the
close of which the
further
account of the mission
is resumed."
168 --With tablets
sealed. These probably
were only devices of a
hieroglyphical
character. Whether
writing was known in the
Homeric
times is utterly
uncertain. See Grote,
vol ii. p. 192, sqq.
169 --Solymaean crew, a
people of Lycia.
170 From this
"melancholy madness" of
Bellerophon,
hypochondria received
the name of "Morbus
Bellerophonteus." See my
notes in my prose
translation, p. 112. The
"Aleian field," i.e.
"the plain of
wandering," was situated
between the rivers
Pyramus and Pinarus, in
Cilicia.
171 --His own, of gold.
This bad bargain has
passed into a common
proverb. See Aulus
Gellius, ii, 23.
172 --Scaean, i e. left
hand.
173 --In fifty chambers.
"The fifty nuptial beds,
(such hopes had he,
So large a promise of a
progeny,)
The ports of plated
gold, and hung with
spoils."
Dryden's Virgil, ii.658
174 --O would kind
earth, &c. "It is
apparently a sudden,
irregular
burst of popular
indignation to which
Hector alludes, when he
regrets that the Trojans
had not spirit enough to
cover Paris with a
mantle of stones. This,
however, was also one of
the ordinary formal
modes of punishment for
great public offences.
It may have been
originally connected
with the same
feeling--the desire of
avoiding
the pollution of
bloodshed--which seems
to have suggested the
practice of burying
prisoners alive, with a
scantling of food by
their side. Though Homer
makes no mention of this
horrible usage,
the example of the Roman
Vestals affords reasons
for believing that,
in ascribing it to the
heroic ages, Sophocles
followed an authentic
tradition."--Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. i. p. 171,
sq.
175 --Paris' lofty dome.
"With respect to the
private dwellings, which
are oftenest described,
the poet's language
barely enables us to
form a general notion of
their ordinary plan, and
affords no
conception of the style
which prevailed in them
or of their effect
on the eye. It seems
indeed probable, from
the manner in which he
dwells on their metallic
ornaments that the
higher beauty of
proportion was but
little required or
understood, and it is,
perhaps, strength and
convenience, rather than
elegance, that he
means to commend, in
speaking of the fair
house which Paris had
built for himself with
the aid of the most
skilful masons of
Troy."--Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. i. p. 231.
176 --The wanton
courser.
"Come destrier, che da
le regie stalle
Ove a l'usa de l'arme si
riserba,
Fugge, e libero al fiu
per largo calle
Va tragl' armenti, o al
fiume usato, o a
l'herba."
Gier, Lib. ix. 75.
177 --Casque. The
original word is
stephanae, about the
meaning of
which there is some
little doubt. Some take
it for a different kind
of cap or helmet, others
for the rim, others for
the cone, of the
helmet.
178 --Athenian maid:
Minerva.
179 --Celadon, a river
of Elis.
180 --Oileus, i.e. Ajax,
the son of Oileus, in
contradistinction to
Ajax, son of Telamon.
181 --In the general's
helm. It was customary
to put the lots into a
helmet, in which they
were well shaken up;
each man then took his
choice.
182 --God of Thrace.
Mars, or Mavors,
according to his
Thracian
epithet. Hence "Mavortia
Moenia."
183 --Grimly he smiled.
"And death
Grinn'd horribly a
ghastly smile."
--"Paradise Lost," ii.
845.
"There Mavors stands
Grinning with ghastly
feature."
--Carey's Dante: Hell,
v.
184 "Sete o guerrieri,
incomincio Pindoro,
Con pari honor di pari
ambo possenti,
Dunque cessi la pugna, e
non sian rotte
Le ragioni, e 'l riposo,
e de la notte."
--Gier. Lib. vi. 51.
185 It was an ancient
style of compliment to
give a larger portion of
food to the conqueror,
or person to whom
respect was to be shown.
See Virg. Æn. viii. 181.
Thus Benjamin was
honoured with a "double
portion." Gen. xliii.
34.
186 --Embattled walls.
"Another essential basis
of mechanical unity in
the poem is the
construction of the
rampart. This takes
place in the
seventh book. The reason
ascribed for the glaring
improbability that
the Greeks should have
left their camp and
fleet unfortified during
nine years, in the midst
of a hostile country, is
a purely poetical
one: 'So long as
Achilles fought, the
terror of his name
sufficed to
keep every foe at a
distance.' The disasters
consequent on his
secession first led to
the necessity of other
means of protection.
Accordingly, in the
battles previous to the
eighth book, no allusion
occurs to a rampart; in
all those which follow
it forms a prominent
feature. Here, then, in
the anomaly as in the
propriety of the
Iliad, the destiny of
Achilles, or rather this
peculiar crisis of
it, forms the pervading
bond of connexion to the
whole poem."--Mure,
vol. i., p. 257.
187 --What cause of
fear, &c.
"Seest thou not this? Or
do we fear in vain
Thy boasted thunders,
and thy thoughtless
reign?"
Dryden's Virgil, iv.
304.
188 --In exchange. These
lines are referred to by
Theophilus, the Roman
lawyer, iii. tit. xxiii.
Section 1, as exhibiting
the most ancient
mention of barter.
189 "A similar bond of
connexion, in the
military details of the
narrative, is the decree
issued by Jupiter, at
the commencement of
the eighth book, against
any further interference
of the gods in the
battles. In the opening
of the twentieth book
this interdict is
withdrawn. During the
twelve intermediate
books it is kept
steadily
in view. No
interposition takes
place but on the part of
the
specially authorised
agents of Jove, or on
that of one or two
contumacious deities,
described as boldly
setting his commands at
defiance, but checked
and reprimanded for
their disobedience;
while
the other divine
warriors, who in the
previous and subsequent
cantos
are so active in support
of their favourite
heroes, repeatedly
allude to the supreme
edict as the cause of
their present
inactivity."--Mure, vol.
i. p 257. See however,
Muller, "Greek
Literature," ch. v.
Section 6, and Grote,
vol. ii. p. 252.
190 "As far removed from
God and light of heaven,
As from the centre
thrice to th' utmost
pole."
--"Paradise Lost."
"E quanto e da le stelle
al basso inferno,
Tanto e piu in su de la
stellata spera"
--Gier. Lib. i. 7.
"Some of the epithets
which Homer applies to
the heavens seem to
imply that he considered
it as a solid vault of
metal. But it is not
necessary to construe
these epithets so
literally, nor to draw
any
such inference from his
description of Atlas,
who holds the lofty
pillars which keep earth
and heaven asunder. Yet
it would seem, from
the manner in which the
height of heaven is
compared with the depth
of Tartarus, that the
region of light was
thought to have certain
bounds. The summit of
the Thessalian Olympus
was regarded as the
highest point on the
earth, and it is not
always carefully
distinguished from the
aerian regions above The
idea of a seat of
the gods--perhaps
derived from a more
ancient tradition, in
which it
was not attached to any
geographical site--seems
to be indistinctly
blended in the poet's
mind with that of the
real
mountain."--Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. i. p. 217,
sq.
191 "Now lately heav'n,
earth, another world
Hung e'er my realm,
link'd in a golden chain
To that side heav'n."
--"Paradise Lost," ii.
1004.
192 --His golden scales.
"Jove now, sole arbiter
of peace and war,
Held forth the fatal
balance from afar:
Each host he weighs; by
turns they both prevail,
Till Troy descending
fix'd the doubtful
scale."
Merrick's Tryphiodorus,
v 687, sqq.
"Th' Eternal, to prevent
such horrid fray,
Hung forth in heav'n his
golden scales,
Wherein all things
created first he
weighed;
The pendulous round
earth, with balanced air
In counterpoise; now
ponders all events,
Battles and realms. In
these he puts two
weights,
The sequel each of
parting and of fight:
The latter quick up
flew, and kick'd the
beam."
"Paradise Lost," iv.
496.
193 --And now, &c.
"And now all heaven
Had gone to wrack, with
ruin overspread;
Had not th' Almighty
Father, where he sits
... foreseen."
--"Paradise Lost," vi.
669.
194 --Gerenian Nestor.
The epithet Gerenian
either refers to the
name
of a place in which
Nestor was educated, or
merely signifies
honoured, revered. See
Schol. Venet. in II. B.
336; Strabo, viii. p.
340.
195 --Ægae, Helice. Both
these towns were
conspicuous for their
worship
of Neptune.
196 --As full blown, &c.
"Il suo Lesbia quasi bel
fior succiso,
E in atto si gentil
languir tremanti
Gl' occhi, e cader siu
'l tergo il collo mira."
Gier. Lib. ix. 85.
197 --Ungrateful,
because the cause in
which they were engaged
was
unjust.
"Struck by the lab'ring
priests' uplifted hands
The victims fall: to
heav'n they make their
pray'r,
The curling vapours load
the ambient air.
But vain their toil: the
pow'rs who rule the
skies
Averse beheld the
ungrateful sacrifice."
Merrick's Tryphiodorus,
vi. 527, sqq.
198 "As when about the
silver moon, when aire
is free from
winde, And stars shine
cleare, to whose sweet
beams high prospects on
the
brows Of all steepe
hills and pinnacles
thrust up themselves for
shows,
And even the lowly
valleys joy to glitter
in their sight;
When the unmeasured
firmament bursts to
disclose her light,
And all the signs in
heaven are seene, that
glad the shepherd's
heart."
Chapman.
199 This flight of the
Greeks, according to
Buttmann, Lexil. p. 358,
was
not a supernatural
flight caused by the
gods, but "a great and
general one, caused by
Hector and the Trojans,
but with the approval
of Jove."
200 Grote, vol. ii. p.
91, after noticing the
modest calmness and
respect with which
Nestor addresses
Agamemnon, observes,
"The
Homeric Council is a
purely consultative
body, assembled not with
any power of
peremptorily arresting
mischievous resolves of
the
king, but solely for his
information and
guidance."
201 In the heroic times,
it is not unfrequent for
the king to receive
presents to purchase
freedom from his wrath,
or immunity from his
exactions. Such gifts
gradually became
regular, and formed the
income of the German,
(Tacit. |
