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withdrawn.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