The Iliad
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:—
“And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter’s flood
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud,
Hath broke the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock,
Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke,
And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay,
And then (tho’ never so impelled), it stirs not any way:—
So Hector,—”
[231] This book forms a most agreeable interruption to the continuous
round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad. It is as
well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders many notes
unnecessary.
[232] _Who to Tydeus owes, i.e._ Diomed.
[233] Compare Tasso:—
Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille
Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci,
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille
Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci.”
Gier. Lib. xvi. 25
[234] Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando
Furioso, bk. vi.
[235]
“Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main—
Around my person wait, and bear my train:
Succeed my wish, and second my design,
The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine.”
Dryden’s Virgil, Æn. i. 107, seq.
[236] _And Minos_. “By Homer, Minos is described as the son of
Jupiter, and of the daughter of Phœnix, whom all succeeding authors
name Europa; and he is thus carried back into the remotest period of
Cretan antiquity known to the poet, apparently as a native hero,
Illustrious enough for a divine parentage, and too ancient to allow
his descent to be traced to any other source. But in a genealogy
recorded by later writers, he is likewise the adopted son of Asterius,
as descendant of Dorus, the son of Helen, and is thus connected with a
colony said to have been led into Creta by Tentamus, or Tectamus, son
of Dorus, who is related either to have crossed over from Thessaly, or
to have embarked at Malea after having led his followers by land into
Laconia.”—Thirlwall, p. 136, seq.
[237] Milton has emulated this passage, in describing the couch of our
first parents:—
“Underneath the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay,
’Broider’d the ground.”
—“Paradise Lost,” iv. 700.
[238] _He lies protected_.
“Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
By angels many and strong, who interpos’d
Defence, while others bore him on their shields
Back to his chariot, where it stood retir’d
From off the files of war; there they him laid,
Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame.”
“Paradise Lost,” vi. 335, seq.
[239] _The brazen dome_. See the note on Bk. viii. Page 142.
[240] _For, by the gods! who flies_. Observe the bold ellipsis of “he
cries,” and the transition from the direct to the oblique
construction. So in Milton:—
“Thus at their shady lodge arriv’d, both stood,
Both turn’d, and under open sky ador’d
The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven,
Which they beheld, the moon’s resplendent globe,
And starry pole.—Thou also mad’st the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day.”
Milton, “Paradise Lost,” Book iv.
[241] _So some tall rock_.
“But like a rock unmov’d, a rock that braves
The raging tempest, and the rising waves—
Propp’d on himself he stands: his solid sides
Wash off the sea-weeds, and the sounding tides.”
Dryden’s Virgil, vii. 809.
[242] Protesilaus was the first Greek who fell, slain by Hector, as he
leaped from the vessel to the Trojan shore. He was buried on the
Chersonese, near the city of Plagusa. Hygin Fab. ciii. Tzetz. on
Lycophr. 245, 528. There is a most elegant tribute to his memory in
the Preface to the Heroica of Philostratus.
[243] _His best beloved_. The following elegant remarks of Thirlwall
(Greece, vol. i, p. 176 seq.) well illustrate the character of the
friendship subsisting between these two heroes—
“One of the noblest and most amiable sides of the Greek character,
is the readiness with which it lent itself to construct intimate
and durable friendships, and this is a feature no less prominent in
the earliest than in later times. It was indeed connected with the
comparatively low estimation in which female society was held; but
the devotedness and constancy with which these attachments were
maintained, was not the less admirable and engaging. The heroic
companions whom we find celebrated partly by Homer and partly in
traditions which, if not of equal antiquity, were grounded on the
same feeling, seem to have but one heart and soul, with scarcely a
wish or object apart, and only to live as they are always ready to
die for one another. It is true that the relation between them is
not always one of perfect equality; but this is a circumstance
which, while it often adds a peculiar charm to the poetical
description, detracts little from the dignity of the idea which it
presents. Such were the friendships of Hercules and Iolaus, of
Theseus and Pirithous, of Orestes and Pylades; and though These may
owe the greater part of their fame to the later epic or even
dramatic poetry, the moral groundwork undoubtedly subsisted in the
period to which the traditions are referred. The argument of the
Iliad mainly turns on the affection of Achilles for Patroclus,
whose love for the greater hero is only tempered by reverence for
his higher birth and his unequalled prowess. But the mutual regard
which united Idomeneus and Meriones, Diomedes and Sthenelus,
though, as the persons themselves are less important, it is kept
more in the back-ground, is manifestly viewed by the poet in the
same light. The idea of a Greek hero seems not to have been thought
complete, without such a brother in arms by his side.”—Thirlwall,
Greece, vol. i. p. 176, seq.
[244]
“As hungry wolves with raging appetite,
Scour through the fields, ne’er fear the stormy night—
Their whelps at home expect the promised food,
And long to temper their dry chaps in blood—
So rush’d we forth at once.”
—Dryden’s Virgil, ii. 479.
[245] _The destinies ordain_.—“In the mythology, also, of the Iliad,
purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth unconsciously
involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly
equal scepticism and credulity of subsequent ages. Zeus or Jupiter is
popularly to be taken as omnipotent. No distinct empire is assigned to
fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men is absolute
and uncontrollable. This seems to be the true character of the Homeric
deity, and it is very necessary that the student of Greek literature
should bear it constantly in mind. A strong instance in the Iliad
itself to illustrate this position, is the passage where Jupiter
laments to Juno the approaching death of Sarpedon. ‘Alas me!’ says he
‘since it is fated (moira) that Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should
be slain by Patroclus, the son of Menoetius! Indeed, my heart is
divided within me while I ruminate it in my mind, whether having
snatched him up from out of the lamentable battle, I should not at
once place him alive in the fertile land of his own Lycia, or whether
I should now destroy him by the hands of the son of Menoetius!’ To
which Juno answers—‘Dost thou mean to rescue from death a mortal man,
long since destined by fate (palai pepromenon)? You may do it—but we,
the rest of the gods, do not sanction it.’ Here it is clear from both
speakers, that although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter
might still, if he pleased, save him, and place him entirely out of
the reach of any such event, and further, in the alternative, that
Jupiter himself would destroy him by the hands of another.”—Coleridge,
p. 156. seq.
[246] _Thrice at the battlements_. “The art military of the Homeric
age is upon a level with the state of navigation just described,
personal prowess decided every thing; the night attack and the
ambuscade, although much esteemed, were never upon a large scale. The
chiefs fight in advance, and enact almost as much as the knights of
romance. The siege of Troy was as little like a modern siege as a
captain in the guards is like Achilles. There is no mention of a ditch
or any other line or work round the town, and the wall itself was
accessible without a ladder. It was probably a vast mound of earth
with a declivity outwards. Patroclus thrice mounts it in armour. The
Trojans are in no respects blockaded, and receive assistance from
their allies to the very end.”—Coleridge, p. 212.
[247] _Ciconians_.—A people of Thrace, near the Hebrus.
[248] _They wept_.
“Fast by the manger stands the inactive steed,
And, sunk in sorrow, hangs his languid head;
He stands, and careless of his golden grain,
Weeps his associates and his master slain.”
Merrick’s Tryphiodorus, v. 18-24.
“Nothing is heard upon the mountains now,
But pensive herds that for their master low,
Straggling and comfortless about they rove,
Unmindful of their pasture and their love.”
Moschus, id. 3, parodied, _ibid._
“To close the pomp, Æthon, the steed of state,
Is led, the funeral of his lord to wait.