The Iliad
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 Oïleus, 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.