The Iliad
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,