Book XXIVArgument (part 4 of 5)

[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] Scæa’s gates, rather Scæan 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 Bœotia.

[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 Machäon 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, Bœotian 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] Ægialé 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] Pheræ, 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] Pæon 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] Solymæan 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] Scæan, 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] Oïleus, i.e. Ajax, the son of Oïleus, 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 Mœnia.”

[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 ò 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. § 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 è da le stelle al basso inferno,
Tanto è più in sù 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.

“Oh’ 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, Helicè. 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. Germ. Section 15) Persian, (Herodot. iii.89), and other kings. So, too, in the middle ages, ‘The feudal aids are the beginning of taxation, of which they for a long time answered the purpose.’ (Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. x. pt. 1, p. 189) This fact frees Achilles from the apparent charge of sordidness. Plato, however, (De Rep. vi. 4), says, “We cannot commend Phœnix, the tutor of Achilles, as if he spoke correctly, when counselling him to accept of presents and assist the Greeks, but, without presents, not to desist from his wrath, nor again, should we commend Achilles himself, or approve of his being so covetous as to receive presents from Agamemnon,” &c.

[202] It may be observed, that, brief as is the mention of Briseïs in the Iliad, and small the part she plays—what little is said is pre-eminently calculated to enhance her fitness to be the bride of Achilles. Purity, and retiring delicacy, are features well contrasted with the rough, but tender disposition of the hero.

[203] Laodice. Iphianassa, or Iphigenia, is not mentioned by Homer, among the daughters of Agamemnon.

[204] “Agamemnon, when he offers to transfer to Achilles seven towns inhabited by wealthy husbandmen, who would enrich their lord by presents and tribute, seems likewise to assume rather a property in them, than an authority over them. And the same thing may be intimated when it is said that Peleus bestowed a great people, the Dolopes of Phthia, on Phœnix.”—Thirlwall’s Greece, vol. i Section 6, p. 162, note.

[205] Pray in deep silence. Rather: “use well-omened words;” or, as Kennedy has explained it, “Abstain from expressions unsuitable to the solemnity of the occasion, which, by offending the god, might defeat the object of their supplications.”

[206] Purest hands. This is one of the most ancient superstitions respecting prayer, and one founded as much in nature as in tradition.

[207] It must be recollected, that the war at Troy was not a settled siege, and that many of the chieftains busied themselves in piratical expeditions about its neighborhood. Such a one was that of which Achilles now speaks. From the following verses, it is evident that fruits of these maraudings went to the common support of the expedition, and not to the successful plunderer.

[208] Pythia, the capital of Achilles’ Thessalian domains.

[209] Orchomenian town. The topography of Orchomenus, in Bœotia, “situated,” as it was, “on the northern bank of the lake Æpais, which receives not only the river Cephisus from the valleys of Phocis, but also other rivers from Parnassus and Helicon” (Grote, vol. p. 181), was a sufficient reason for its prosperity and decay. “As long as the channels of these waters were diligently watched and kept clear, a large portion of the lake was in the condition of alluvial land, pre-eminently rich and fertile. But when the channels came to be either neglected, or designedly choked up by an enemy, the water accumulated in such a degree as to occupy the soil of more than one ancient islet, and to occasion the change of the site of Orchomenus itself from the plain to the declivity of Mount Hyphanteion.” (Ibid.)

[210] The phrase “hundred gates,” &c., seems to be merely expressive of a great number. See notes to my prose translation, p. 162.

[211] Compare the following pretty lines of Quintus Calaber (Dyce’s Select Translations, p 88).—

“Many gifts he gave, and o’er
Dolopia bade me rule; thee in his arms
He brought an infant, on my bosom laid
The precious charge, and anxiously enjoin’d
That I should rear thee as my own with all
A parent’s love. I fail’d not in my trust
And oft, while round my neck thy hands were lock’d,
From thy sweet lips the half articulate sound
Of Father came; and oft, as children use,
Mewling and puking didst thou drench my tunic.”

“This description,” observes my learned friend (notes, p. 121) “is taken from the passage of Homer, II ix, in translating which, Pope, with that squeamish, artificial taste, which distinguished the age of Anne, omits the natural (and, let me add, affecting) circumstance.”

“And the wine
Held to thy lips, and many a time in fits
Of infant frowardness the purple juice
Rejecting thou hast deluged all my vest,

And fill’d my bosom.” —Cowper.

[212] Where Calydon. For a good sketch of the story of Meleager, too long to be inserted here, see Grote, vol. i. p. 195, sqq.; and for the authorities, see my notes to the prose translation, p. 166.

[213] “Gifts can conquer”—It is well observed by Bishop Thirlwall, “Greece,” vol. i. p, 180, that the law of honour among the Greeks did not compel them to treasure up in their memory the offensive language which might be addressed to them by a passionate adversary, nor to conceive that it left a stain which could only be washed away by blood. Even for real and deep injuries they were commonly willing to accept a pecuniary compensation.”

[214] “The boon of sleep.”—Milton

[215]
“All else of nature’s common gift partake:
Unhappy Dido was alone awake.”

—Dryden’s Virgil, iv. 767.

[216] The king of Crete: Idomeneus.

[217] Soft wool within, i e. a kind of woollen stuffing, pressed in between the straps, to protect the head, and make the helmet fit close.

[218] “All the circumstances of this action—the night, Rhesus buried in a profound sleep, and Diomede with the sword in his hand hanging over the head of that prince—furnished Homer with the idea of this fiction, which represents Rhesus lying fast asleep, and, as it were, beholding his enemy in a dream, plunging the sword into his bosom. This image is very natural; for a man in his condition awakes no farther than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality but a dream.”—Pope.

“There’s one did laugh in his sleep, and one cry’d murder; They wak’d each other.”

—Macbeth.

[219]
“Aurora now had left her saffron bed,
And beams of early light the heavens o’erspread.”

Dryden’s Virgil, iv. 639

[220] Red drops of blood. “This phenomenon, if a mere fruit of the poet’s imagination, might seem arbitrary or far-fetched. It is one, however, of ascertained reality, and of no uncommon occurrence in the climate of Greece.”—Mure, i p. 493. Cf. Tasso, Gier. Lib. ix. 15:

“La terra in vece del notturno gelo
Bagnan rugiade tepide, e sanguigne.”

[221]
“No thought of flight,
None of retreat, no unbecoming deed
That argued fear.”

—“Paradise Lost,” vi. 236.

[222] One of love. Although a bastard brother received only a small portion of the inheritance, he was commonly very well treated. Priam appears to be the only one of whom polygamy is directly asserted in the Iliad. Grote, vol. ii. p. 114, note.

[223] “Circled with foes as when a packe of bloodie jackals cling About a goodly palmed hart, hurt with a hunter’s bow Whose escape his nimble feet insure, whilst his warm blood doth flow, And his light knees have power to move: but (maistred by his wound) Embost within a shady hill, the jackals charge him round, And teare his flesh—when instantly fortune sends in the powers Of some sterne lion, with whose sighte they flie and he devours. So they around Ulysses prest.”

—Chapman.

[224] Simois, railing, &c.

“In those bloody fields
Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields
Of heroes.”

—Dryden’s Virgil, i. 142.

[225] “Where yon disorder’d heap of ruin lies, Stones rent from stones,—where clouds of dust arise,— Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place, Below the wall’s foundation drives his mace, And heaves the building from the solid base.”

Dryden’s Virgil, ii. 825.

[226] Why boast we.

“Wherefore do I assume
These royalties and not refuse to reign,
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honour, due alike to him
Who reigns, and so much to him due
Of hazard more, as he above the rest
High honour’d sits.”

—“Paradise Lost,” ii. 450.

[227] Each equal weight.

“Long time in even scale
The battle hung.”

—“Paradise Lost,” vi. 245.

[228]
“He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night.”

—“Paradise Lost,” vi. 831

[229] Renown’d for justice and for length of days, Arrian. de Exp. Alex. iv. p. 239, also speaks of the independence of these people, which he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness. Some authors have regarded the phrase “Hippomolgian,” i.e. “milking their mares,” as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes, since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares’ milk one of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as we read it, either “long-lived,” or “bowless,” the latter epithet indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.

[230] Compare Chapman’s quaint, bold verses:—