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The Iliad of Homer PDF
The Iliad of Homer PDF
By
Homer
1
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
BOOK XIII.
BOOK XIV.
BOOK XV.
BOOK XVI.
BOOK XVII.
BOOK XVIII.
BOOK XIX.
BOOK XX.
BOOK XXI.
2
BOOK XXII.
BOOK XXIII.
BOOK XXIV.
CONCLUDING NOTE.
3
INTRODUCTION.
scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the most
part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very gradual
acquire.
persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of
their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away
traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues of
ages could allow. Mere statements are jealously watched, and the motives
4
of the writer form as important an ingredient in the analysis of his
must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of
whole--we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom
condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider
least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere(1) have, perhaps,
other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all three
follow. The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only thing in which
else, even down to the authorship of plays, there is more or less of doubt
5
Plato and Xenophon will allow us to know. He was one of the dramatis
writers who have handed them down. When we have read Plato or Xenophon,
ignorant.
It has been an easy, and a popular expedient, of late years, to deny the
personal or real existence of men and things whose life and condition were
too much for our belief. This system--which has often comforted the
two scholars read in the same way, is more pardonable, than to believe in
the good-natured old king whom the elegant pen of Florian has
idealized--Numa Pompilius.
Scepticism has attained its culminating point with respect to Homer, and
concerning the author or authors of the Iliad and Odyssey. What few
6
arguments appear to run in a circle. "This cannot be true, because it is
not true; and, that is not true, because it cannot be true." Such seems to
truth is the requisite most wanting. Before taking a brief review of the
Homeric theory in its present conditions, some notice must be taken of the
Among the immigrants was Menapolus, the son of Ithagenes. Although poor,
he married, and the result of the union was a girl named Critheis. The
indebted for so much happiness." Homer was the first fruit of her juvenile
frailty, and received the name of Melesigenes, from having been born near
"At this time," continues our narrative, "there lived at Smyrna a man
named Phemius, a teacher of literature and music, who, not being married,
engaged Critheis to manage his household, and spin the flax he received as
7
of this task, and so modest her conduct, that he made proposals of
brought up."
They were married; careful cultivation ripened the talents which nature
died, leaving him sole heir to his property, and his mother soon followed.
exciting the admiration not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna, but also of
Mentes, from Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura, who evinced a knowledge and
his school, and accompany him on his travels. He promised not only to pay
his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend, urging, that,
"While he was yet young, it was fitting that he should see with his own
eyes the countries and cities which might hereafter be the subjects of his
may also suppose, that he wrote memoirs of all that he deemed worthy of
preservation(2) Having set sail from Tyrrhenia and Iberia, they reached
Ithaca. Here Melesigenes, who had already suffered in his eyes, became
much worse, and Mentes, who was about to leave for Leucadia, left him to
8
the medical superintendence of a friend of his, named Mentor, the son of
formed the subject of the Odyssey. The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that
it was here that Melesigenes became blind, but the Colophomans make their
But poverty soon drove him to Cumae. Having passed over the Hermaean
plain, he arrived at Neon Teichos, the New Wall, a colony of Cumae. Here
his misfortunes and poetical talent gained him the friendship of one
inhabitants showed the place where he used to sit when giving a recitation
of his verses, and they greatly honoured the spot. Here also a poplar
grew, which they said had sprung up ever since Melesigenes arrived".(4)
But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way of Larissa, as being
the most convenient road. Here, the Cumans say, he composed an epitaph on
Gordius, king of Phrygia, which has however, and with greater probability,
9
procured him an audience in the council. Having made the speech, with the
purport of which our author has forgotten to acquaint us, he retired, and
The greater part of the assembly seemed favourable to the poet's demand,
but one man observed that "if they were to feed Homers, they would be
says the writer, "Melesigenes acquired the name of Homer, for the Cumans
call blind men Homers."(7) With a love of economy, which shows how
similar the world has always been in its treatment of literary men, the
pension was denied, and the poet vented his disappointment in a wish that
Cumoea might never produce a poet capable of giving it renown and glory.
Homer in his own house, and allowed him a pittance, on condition of the
verses of the poet passing in his name. Having collected sufficient poetry
neglected the man whose brains he had sucked, and left him. At his
Homer continued his career of difficulty and distress, until some Chian
merchants, struck by the similarity of the verses they heard him recite,
acquainted him with the fact that Thestorides was pursuing a profitable
10
livelihood by the recital of the very same poems. This at once determined
him to set out for Chios. No vessel happened then to be setting sail
thither, but he found one ready to Start for Erythrae, a town of Ionia,
which faces that island, and he prevailed upon the seamen to allow him to
breach of hospitality, had drawn down the wrath of Jove the Hospitable.
At Erythrae, Homer fortunately met with a person who had known him in
the little hamlet of Pithys. Here he met with an adventure, which we will
continue in the words of our author. "Having set out from Pithys, Homer
went on, attracted by the cries of some goats that were pasturing. The
dogs barked on his approach, and he cried out. Glaucus (for that was the
name of the goat-herd) heard his voice, ran up quickly, called off his
dogs, and drove them away from Homer. For or some time he stood wondering
how a blind man should have reached such a place alone, and what could be
his design in coming. He then went up to him, and inquired who he was, and
how he had come to desolate places and untrodden spots, and of what he
misfortunes, moved him with compassion; and he took him, and led him to
friend, prythee attend to my behest. First give the dogs their supper at
11
the doors of the hut: for so it is better, since, whilst they watch, nor
Glaucus was pleased with the advice, and marvelled at its author. Having
resolved to go to his master, and acquaint him with his meeting with
near the farm, and finding his mate, he told him the whole story
said, and blamed Glaucus for his stupidity in taking in and feeding maimed
and enfeebled persons. However, he bade him bring the stranger to him.
Glaucus told Homer what had taken place, and bade him follow him, assuring
him that good fortune would be the result. Conversation soon showed that
the stranger was a man of much cleverness and general knowledge, and the
children.(11)
this day," says Chandler,(12) "the most curious remain is that which has
12
been named, without reason, the School of Homer. It is on the coast, at
some distance from the city, northward, and appears to have been an open
temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in
the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She
side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim, or seat, and
about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude,
He married, and had two daughters, one of whom died single, the other
married a Chian.
The following passage betrays the same tendency to connect the personages
of the poems with the history of the poet, which has already been
mentioned:--
Mentor of Ithaca, in the Odyssey, whose name he has inserted in his poem
as the companion of Ulysses,(13) in return for the care taken of him when
His celebrity continued to increase, and many persons advised him to visit
Greece, whither his reputation had now extended. Having, it is said, made
13
Athenians, of whose city he had hitherto made no mention,(14) he sent out
for Samos. Here being recognized by a Samian, who had met with him in
subsistence, visiting the houses of the rich, with whose children he was
very popular.
In the spring he sailed for Athens, and arrived at the island of Ios, now
Ino, where he fell extremely ill, and died. It is said that his death
arose from vexation, at not having been able to unravel an enigma proposed
Such is, in brief, the substance of the earliest life of Homer we possess,
scarcely necessary to point them out in detail. Let us now consider some
probability.
"Homer appeared. The history of this poet and his works is lost in
doubtful obscurity, as is the history of many of the first minds who have
done honour to humanity, because they rose amidst darkness. The majestic
stream of his song, blessing and fertilizing, flows like the Nile, through
many lands and nations; and, like the sources of the Nile, its fountains
14
will ever remain concealed."
Such are the words in which one of the most judicious German critics has
"It seems here of chief importance to expect no more than the nature of
genius always seem like miracles, because they are, for the most part,
all the historical testimonies, we never could wholly explain the origin
of the Iliad and the Odyssey; for their origin, in all essential points,
From this criticism, which shows as much insight into the depths of human
Well has Landor remarked: "Some tell us there were twenty Homers; some
deny that there was ever one. It were idle and foolish to shake the
to superior power. Of all the animals on earth we least know what is good
15
for us. My opinion is, that what is best for us is our admiration of good.
with the poetry on which its best impulses had been nurtured and fostered,
doubts and difficulties with which the Homeric question is beset, and to
entreat our reader, for a brief period, to prefer his judgment to his
unity of the Homeric poems, (at least of the Iliad,) I must express my
"We cannot but think the universal admiration of its unity by the better,
composition. It was not till the age of the grammarians that its primitive
whole. The most exquisite anatomist may be no judge of the symmetry of the
the proportions and general beauty of a form, rather than that of Mr.
16
"There is some truth, though some malicious exaggeration, in the lines of
Pope.--
Long was the time which elapsed before any one dreamt of questioning the
unity of the authorship of the Homeric poems. The grave and cautious
the subject; let us now see what are the discoveries to which more modern
At the end of the seventeenth century, doubts had begun to awaken on the
subject, and we find Bentley remarking that "Homer wrote a sequel of songs
and rhapsodies, to be sung by himself, for small comings and good cheer,
at festivals and other days of merriment. These loose songs were not
17
collected together, in the form of an epic poem, till about Peisistratus'
meet with the germ of the theory, subsequently defended by Wolf with so
much learning and acuteness. Indeed, it is with the Wolfian theory that we
have chiefly to deal, and with the following bold hypothesis, which we
turning to account the Venetian Scholia, which had then been recently
Iliad and Odyssey had not been cemented together into any compact body and
written copies of either poem could be shown to have existed during the
manuscripts, among the early Greeks, was thus one of the points in Wolf's
18
case against the primitive integrity of the Iliad and Odyssey. By Nitzsch,
and other leading opponents of Wolf, the connection of the one with the
other seems to have been accepted as he originally put it; and it has been
of the Iliad and Odyssey, to maintain that they were written poems from
the beginning.
nowise admissible. But much would undoubtedly be gained towards that view
were driven to the necessity of admitting long written poems, in the ninth
century before the Christian aera. Few things, in my opinion, can be more
hypothesis, admits this no less than Wolf himself. The traces of writing
in Greece, even in the seventh century before the Christian aera, are
fortieth Olympiad, and the early inscriptions are rude and unskilfully
of Amorgus, Kallinus, Tyrtaeus, Xanthus, and the other early elegiac and
19
"Those who maintain the Homeric poems to have been written from the
beginning, rest their case, not upon positive proofs, nor yet upon the
that the Iliad and Odyssey were not read, but recited and heard,--but upon
the supposed necessity that there must have been manuscripts to ensure the
by running into a greater; for the existence of trained bards, gifted with
even suitable instruments and materials for the process are not obvious.
Moreover, there is a strong positive reason for believing that the bard
manuscript; for if such had been the fact, blindness would have been a
well from the example of Demodokus, in the Odyssey, as from that of the
blind bard of Chios, in the Hymn to the Delian Apollo, whom Thucydides, as
himself. The author of that hymn, be he who he may, could never have
had been conscious that the memory of the bard was only maintained by
The loss of the digamma, that crux of critics, that quicksand upon which
even the acumen of Bentley was shipwrecked, seems to prove beyond a doubt,
20
that the pronunciation of the Greek language had undergone a considerable
could have suffered by this change, had written copies been preserved. If
Chaucer's poetry, for instance, had not been written, it could only have
"At what period," continues Grote, "these poems, or indeed any other Greek
there is ground for assurance that it was before the time of Solon. If, in
the absence of evidence, we may venture upon naming any more determinate
period, the question a once suggests itself, What were the purposes which,
been intended to answer? For whom was a written Iliad necessary? Not for
the rhapsodes; for with them it was not only planted in the memory, but
also interwoven with the feelings, and conceived in conjunction with all
those flexions and intonations of voice, pauses, and other oral artifices
which were required for emphatic delivery, and which the naked manuscript
could never reproduce. Not for the general public--they were accustomed to
solemn and crowded festival. The only persons for whom the written Iliad
would be suitable would be a select few; studious and curious men; a class
21
seem in an age like the present, there is in all early societies, and
there was in early Greece, a time when no such reading class existed. If
should be able to make a guess at the time when the old epic poems were
first committed to writing. Now the period which may with the greatest
century before the Christian aera (B.C. 660 to B.C. 630), the age of
Grecian poetry and music--the elegiac and the iambic measures having been
having been transferred from the epical past to the affairs of present and
real life. Such a change was important at a time when poetry was the only
known mode of publication (to use a modern phrase not altogether suitable,
yet the nearest approaching to the sense). It argued a new way of looking
at the old epical treasures of the people as well as a thirst for new
poetical effect; and the men who stood forward in it, may well be
own individual point of view, the written words of the Homeric rhapsodies,
just as we are told that Kallinus both noticed and eulogized the Thebais
conjecturing that (for the use of this newly-formed and important, but
very narrow class), manuscripts of the Homeric poems and other old
epics,--the Thebais and the Cypria, as well as the Iliad and the
22
(B.C. 1); and the opening of Egypt to Grecian commerce, which took place
about the same period, would furnish increased facilities for obtaining
the requisite papyrus to write upon. A reading class, when once formed,
would doubtless slowly increase, and the number of manuscripts along with
it; so that before the time of Solon, fifty years afterwards, both readers
But even Peisistratus has not been suffered to remain in possession of the
observations--
compilation, at least over the theory, that the Iliad was cast
little more than the fame, and the faint echo, if Stesichorus,
compiling the Iliad and Odyssey, so much must have been done to
23
doubt arise out of our own ignorance of the language of the
Homeric age, however the irregular use of the digamma may have
caused as much disquiet and distress as the fair one herself among
the heroes of her age, however Mr. Knight may have failed in
finally, the Attic dialect may not have assumed all its more
part. Even the few passages which relate to their ancestors, Mr.
24
in its leading outline, the Iliad may be true to historic fact,
forces, may have been the most important ally of the Peloponnesian
Trojan war may thus have forced the national feeling of the
have given birth to a Tasso, Tancred would have been the hero of
25
To return to the Wolfian theory. While it is to be confessed, that Wolf's
objections to the primitive integrity of the Iliad and Odyssey have never
been wholly got over, we cannot help discovering that they have failed to
which the whole subject is beset, are rather augmented than otherwise, if
any better. He divides the first twenty-two books of the Iliad into
sixteen different songs, and treats as ridiculous the belief that their
amalgamation into one regular poem belongs to a period earlier than the
sixteen poets concur in getting rid of the following leading men in the
the Halizonians; Pirous and Acamas, of the Thracians. None of these heroes
again make their appearance, and we can but agree with Colonel Mure, that
"it seems strange that any number of independent poets should have so
harmoniously dispensed with the services of all six in the sequel." The
book, weeps at his son's funeral in the thirteenth, can only be regarded
Grote, although not very distinct in stating his own opinions on the
subject, has done much to clearly show the incongruity of the Wolfian
26
theory, and of Lachmann's modifications with the character of
Peisistratus. But he has also shown, and we think with equal success, that
the two questions relative to the primitive unity of these poems, or,
not before his time, are essentially distinct. In short, "a man may
believe the Iliad to have been put together out of pre-existing songs,
found an Iliad that was already ancient, and the silence of the
prove, that, among the numerous manuscripts they examined, this was either
about by two centuries, in the Greek language, the coined money, the
the latter epoch. These alterations Onomakritus, and the other literary
design, had they then, for the first time, undertaken the task of piecing
together many self existent epics into one large aggregate. Everything in
27
the two great Homeric poems, both in substance and in language, belongs to
an age two or three centuries earlier than Peisistratus. Indeed, even the
and may well have been heard by Archilochus and Kallinus--in some cases
we seem warranted in believing that the Iliad and Odyssey were recited
condition."(30)
can lay down nothing respecting the extent of his labours. At the same
rather persuaded that the fine taste and elegant mind of that Athenian(31)
would lead him to preserve an ancient and traditional order of the poems,
28
hypothesis. I will not repeat the many discussions respecting whether the
poems were written or not, or whether the art of writing was known in the
time of their reputed author. Suffice it to say, that the more we read,
I cannot, however, help thinking, that the story which attributes the
I will conclude this sketch of the Homeric theories, with an attempt, made
is as follows:--
"No doubt the common soldiers of that age had, like the common
events passing around them. But what was passing around them? The
29
intonation. Then followed a species of recitative, probably with
considerably.
"It was at this period, about four hundred years after the war,
but most probably the former. He saw that these ballads might be
these lays, connecting them by a tale of his own. This poem now
exists, under the title of the 'Odyssea.' The author, however, did
not affix his own name to the poem, which, in fact, was, great
for the unity of authorship, 'a great poet might have re-cast
mind seized the hint that there presented itself, and the
caused him to publish the poem under the same pseudonyme as his
30
former work: and the disjointed lays of the ancient bards were
history, named the Iliad. Melesigenes knew that the poem was
Having thus given some general notion of the strange theories which have
them, and that the intrusive hand of the poetasters may here and there
have inflicted a wound more serious than the negligence of the copyist,
fasque sit, I feel conscious that, while the whole weight of historical
evidence is against the hypothesis which would assign these great works to
which springs from the deepest and most immediate impulse of the soul,
31
also speaks eloquently to the contrary.
poets are mere alterations, some of which, had they been suggested to the
Moreover, those who are most exact in laying down rules of verbal
criticism and interpretation, are often least competent to carry out their
own precepts. Grammarians are not poets by profession, but may be so per
mass of remarks, from Herodotus down to Loewe, have given us the history
heroic or dramatic poet to the block upon which they have previously
dissected his words and sentences, they proceed to use the axe and the
to make out a case of unlawful affiliation, they cut out book after book,
fragments, or till those, who fancied they possessed the works of some
32
great man, find that they have been put off with a vile counterfeit got up
phraseology with which writers like Boethius and Saxo Grammaticus were
more charmed than ourselves--in their freedom from real poetry, and last,
taste, that few writers of the present day would question the capabilities
of the same gentleman, be he Seneca or not, to produce not only these, but
a great many more equally bad. With equal sagacity, Father Hardouin
astonished the world with the startling announcement that the Æneid of
Virgil, and the satires of Horace, were literary deceptions. Now, without
bestowed upon this subject, I must express my fears, that many of our
modern Homeric theories will become matter for the surprise and
thinking, that the literary history of more recent times will account for
33
many points of difficulty in the transmission of the Iliad and Odyssey to
corrupt and imperfect editions of Homer may not have been abroad in his
day, than that the poems of Valerius Flaccus and Tibullus should have
given so much trouble to Poggio, Scaliger, and others. But, after all, the
main fault in all the Homeric theories is, that they demand too great a
which are its most fitting judges. The ingenuity which has sought to rob
us of the name and existence of Homer, does too much violence to that
inward emotion, which makes our whole soul yearn with love and admiration
for the blind bard of Chios. To believe the author of the Iliad a mere
author of the Iliad may be a mistaken one, but as yet nobody has taught us
a better.
While, however, I look upon the belief in Homer as one that has nature
herself for its mainspring; while I can join with old Ennius in believing
in Homer as the ghost, who, like some patron saint, hovers round the bed
of the poet, and even bestows rare gifts from that wealth of imagination
34
to deny that the author of these great poems found a rich fund of
itself from such materials. What consistency of style and execution can be
hoped for from such an attempt? or, rather, what bad taste and tedium will
A blending of popular legends, and a free use of the songs of other bards,
his own thoughts are a kind of secondary agents which support and feed the
great whole, a poem like the Iliad can never come to the birth. Traditions
teeming with the thoughts of gods and great men, may crowd in one mighty
poet; but, except the power to create a grand whole, to which these shall
other in their wild redundancy: we shall have a cento of rags and tatters,
35
still seems to me that the Homeric question is one that is reserved for a
higher criticism than it has often obtained. We are not by nature intended
to know all things; still less, to compass the powers by which the
greatest blessings of life have been placed at our disposal. Were faith no
virtue, then we might indeed wonder why God willed our ignorance on any
matter. But we are too well taught the contrary lesson; and it seems as
though our faith should be especially tried touching the men and the
events which have wrought most influence upon the condition of humanity.
And there is a kind of sacredness attached to the memory of the great and
the good, which seems to bid us repulse the scepticism which would
with a heartfelt appreciation, we are too much dazzled, too deeply wrapped
in admiration of the whole, to dwell upon the minute spots which mere
ourselves into heroes of the time being, we in imagination must fight over
the same battles, woo the same loves, burn with the same sense of injury,
enthusiasm (and less enthusiasm will scarcely suffice for the reading of
Homer), we shall feel that the poems of Homer are not only the work of one
writer, but of the greatest writer that ever touched the hearts of men by
36
And it was this supposed unity of authorship which gave these poems their
powerful influence over the minds of the men of old. Heeren, who is
"It was Homer who formed the character of the Greek nation. No
lawgivers and sages appeared in Greece, the work of the poet had
were to behold the world of gods and heroes no less than of feeble
mortals, and to behold them reflected with purity and truth. His
outweighs all others, the love of glory. His songs were poured
man; and therefore they enter, and will continue to enter, every
37
if it is permitted to him to view the vast assemblage of grand, of
how much that appeals most forcibly and most distinctly to our minds, is
lost by the admittance of any theory but our old tradition? The more we
more rooted becomes the conviction that the Father of Poetry gave us this
rich inheritance, whole and entire. Whatever were the means of its
eloquence thus laid open to our use, than seek to make it a mere centre
As the hymns, and some other poems usually ascribed to Homer, are not
of the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, from the pen of a writer who has done
it full justice(37):--
38
disturbed and corrupt to a great degree; it is commonly said to
little did the Greeks, before the age of the Ptolemies, know or
refined and permanent than that described in the Iliad, that any
contained in this poem; and the fact of there having existed three
other poems of the same kind attributed, for aught we can see,
that none of them were of the Homeric age. Knight infers from the
39
employed by the Asiatic Greeks for that purpose, that this poem
Having thus given a brief account of the poems comprised in Pope's design,
I will now proceed to make a few remarks on his translation, and on my own
Pope was not a Grecian. His whole education had been irregular, and his
earliest acquaintance with the poet was through the version of Ogilby. It
is not too much to say that his whole work bears the impress of a
deeply into the minute and delicate features of language. Hence his whole
were sounder than his own, during the undertaking; but it is probable that
original. And in those days, what is called literal translation was less
fair interpretation of the poet's meaning, his words were less jealously
40
sought for, and those who could read so good a poem as Pope's Iliad had
our kindly associations with the old Iliad, that once was our most
what a translation of Homer might be. But we can still dismiss Pope's
Iliad to the hands of our readers, with the consciousness that they must
have read a very great number of books before they have read its fellow.
As to the Notes accompanying the present volume, they are drawn up without
pretension, and mainly with the view of helping the general reader. Having
some little time since translated all the works of Homer for another
version was no field for such a display; and my purpose was to touch
some departures from the original, and to give a few parallel passages
from our English Homer, Milton. In the latter task I cannot pretend to
41
novelty, but I trust that my other annotations, while utterly disclaiming
accomplished.
Christ Church.
writer whatever. The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested with
ever been acknowledged the greatest of poets, who most excelled in that
42
human study, learning, and industry, which masters everything besides, can
never attain to this. It furnishes art with all her materials, and without
it judgment itself can at best but "steal wisely:" for art is only like a
beauty in them to which the invention must not contribute: as in the most
regularity, and such a figure, which the common eye may better take in,
and is, therefore, more entertained with. And, perhaps, the reason why
a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves
Our author's work is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the
contains the seeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those
who followed him have but selected some particular plants, each according
to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If some things are too luxuriant
it is owing to the richness of the soil; and if others are not arrived to
43
a true poetical spirit is master of himself while he reads him. What he
writes is of the most animated nature imaginable; every thing moves, every
fought, you are not coldly informed of what was said or done as from a
third person; the reader is hurried out of himself by the force of the
describes,
"They pour along like a fire that sweeps the whole earth before it." It
splendour: it grows in the progress both upon himself and others, and
been found in a thousand; but this poetic fire, this "vivida vis animi,"
in a very few. Even in works where all those are imperfect or neglected,
this can overpower criticism, and make us admire even while we disapprove.
all the rubbish about it, till we see nothing but its own splendour. This
from Homer, more shining than fierce, but everywhere equal and constant:
44
by the force of art: in Shakspeare it strikes before we are aware, like an
accidental fire from heaven: but in Homer, and in him only, it burns
I shall here endeavour to show how this vast invention exerts itself in a
manner superior to that of any poet through all the main constituent parts
This strong and ruling faculty was like a powerful star, which, in the
violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It seemed not
enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole compass of
nature, to supply his maxims and reflections; all the inward passions and
forms and images of things for his descriptions: but wanting yet an ampler
sphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and boundless walk for his
That which Aristotle calls "the soul of poetry," was first breathed into
Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the
marvellous. The probable fable is the recital of such actions as, though
they did not happen, yet might, in the common course of nature; or of such
as, though they did, became fables by the additional episodes and manner
45
of telling them. Of this sort is the main story of an epic poem, "The
That of the Iliad is the "anger of Achilles," the most short and single
subject that ever was chosen by any poet. Yet this he has supplied with a
vaster variety of incidents and events, and crowded with a greater number
found even in those poems whose schemes are of the utmost latitude and
irregularity. The action is hurried on with the most vehement spirit, and
its whole duration employs not so much as fifty days. Virgil, for want of
Homer's poems into one, which is yet but a fourth part as large as his.
The other epic poets have used the same practice, but generally carried it
it only in the main design that they have been unable to add to his
invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of story.
forces in the same order. If he has funeral games for Patroclus, Virgil
has the same for Anchises, and Statius (rather than omit them) destroys
the unity of his actions for those of Archemorus. If Ulysses visit the
shades, the Æneas of Virgil and Scipio of Silius are sent after him. If he
Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be absent from the army on the
score of a quarrel through half the poem, Rinaldo must absent himself just
46
armour, Virgil and Tasso make the same present to theirs. Virgil has not
only observed this close imitation of Homer, but, where he had not led the
way, supplied the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story of Sinon,
and the taking of Troy, was copied (says Macrobius) almost word for word
from Pisander, as the loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from those of
Medea and Jason in Apollonius, and several others in the same manner.
ample scene of wonder may this consideration afford us! How fertile will
elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues and vices, in forms
and persons, and to introduce them into actions agreeable to the nature of
could dispute with Homer, and whatever commendations have been allowed
them on this head, are by no means for their invention in having enlarged
his circle, but for their judgment in having contracted it. For when the
mode of learning changed in the following ages, and science was delivered
to lay it aside, as it was in Homer to make use of it. And perhaps it was
no unhappy circumstance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that
47
machines of the gods. If Homer was not the first who introduced the
deities (as Herodotus imagines) into the religion of Greece, he seems the
first who brought them into a system of machinery for poetry, and such a
one as makes its greatest importance and dignity: for we find those
authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the gods,
mankind have been ever since contented to follow them: none have been able
to enlarge the sphere of poetry beyond the limits he has set: every
attempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the various
changes of times and religions, his gods continue to this day the gods of
poetry.
We come now to the characters of his persons; and here we shall find no
author has ever drawn so many, with so visible and surprising a variety,
or given us such lively and affecting impressions of them. Every one has
them more by their features, than the poet has by their manners. Nothing
can be more exact than the distinctions he has observed in the different
love of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with softness and
48
tenderness for his people: we find in Idomeneus a plain direct soldier; in
Sarpedon a gallant and generous one. Nor is this judicious and astonishing
main of each character, but even in the under parts of it, to which he
takes care to give a tincture of that principal one. For example: the main
characters of Ulysses and Nestor consist in wisdom; and they are distinct
in this, that the wisdom of one is artificial and various, of the other
natural, open, and regular. But they have, besides, characters of courage;
and this quality also takes a different turn in each from the difference
of his prudence; for one in the war depends still upon caution, the other
The characters of Virgil are far from striking us in this open manner;
they lie, in a great degree, hidden and undistinguished; and, where they
His characters of valour are much alike; even that of Turnus seems no way
air of impetuosity runs through them all; the same horrid and savage
believe when the reader is led into this tract of reflection, if he will
pursue it through the epic and tragic writers, he will be convinced how
all others.
49
The speeches are to be considered as they flow from the characters; being
person's mouth upon the same occasion. As many of his persons have no
when we read Virgil, than when we are engaged in Homer, all which are the
If, in the next place, we take a view of the sentiments, the same
Longinus has given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer principally
excelled. What were alone sufficient to prove the grandeur and excellence
excellent modern writer allows, that if Virgil has not so many thoughts
that are low and vulgar, he has not so many that are sublime and noble;
and that the Roman author seldom rises into very astonishing sentiments
50
where he is not fired by the Iliad.
battles, which take up no less than half the Iliad, and are supplied with
such different kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are wounded in the same
manner, and such a profusion of noble ideas, that every battle rises above
near that number of images and descriptions in any epic poet, though every
one has assisted himself with a great quantity out of him; and it is
evident of Virgil especially, that he has scarce any comparisons which are
of Homer shining out in the most enlivened forms of it. We acknowledge him
the father of poetical diction; the first who taught that "language of the
gods" to men. His expression is like the colouring of some great masters,
51
It is, indeed, the strongest and most glowing imaginable, and touched with
the greatest spirit. Aristotle had reason to say, he was the only poet who
had found out "living words;" there are in him more daring figures and
on the wing, a weapon "thirsts" to drink the blood of an enemy, and the
like, yet his expression is never too big for the sense, but justly great
in proportion to it. It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the
diction, which rises with it, and forms itself about it, for in the same
is more strong, this will become more perspicuous; like glass in the
clearness, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more
intense.
To throw his language more out of prose, Homer seems to have affected the
filled the numbers with greater sound and pomp, and likewise conduced in
but attribute these also to the fruitfulness of his invention, since (as
persons or things to which they were joined. We see the motion of Hector's
of a single line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal
52
action or figure. As a metaphor is a short simile, one of these epithets
is a short description.
share of praise is due to his invention in that also. He was not satisfied
with his language as he found it settled in any one part of Greece, but
beautify and perfect his numbers he considered these as they had a greater
affected was the Ionic, which has a peculiar sweetness, from its never
using contractions, and from its custom of resolving the diphthongs into
contractions, the broader Doric, and the feebler Æolic, which often
rejects its aspirate, or takes off its accent, and completed this variety
by altering some letters with the licence of poetry. Thus his measures,
along with the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a further
what they signified. Out of all these he has derived that harmony which
makes us confess he had not only the richest head, but the finest ear in
the world. This is so great a truth, that whoever will but consult the
tune of his verses, even without understanding them (with the same sort of
find more sweetness, variety, and majesty of sound, than in any other
53
language of poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to
ascribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed the Greek has some
advantages both from the natural sound of its words, and the turn and
cadence of its verse, which agree with the genius of no other language.
Virgil was very sensible of this, and used the utmost diligence in working
beautiful agreement with its sense. If the Grecian poet has not been so
frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the only reason is,
that fewer critics have understood one language than the other. Dionysius
to observe of his numbers, that they flow with so much ease, as to make
one imagine Homer had no other care than to transcribe as fast as the
Muses dictated, and, at the same time, with so much force and inspiriting
vigour, that they awaken and raise us like the sound of a trumpet. They
roll along as a plentiful river, always in motion, and always full; while
we are borne away by a tide of verse, the most rapid, and yet the most
smooth imaginable.
his invention. It is that which forms the character of each part of his
work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more extensive and
copious than any other, his manners more lively and strongly marked, his
speeches more affecting and transported, his sentiments more warm and
54
sublime, his images and descriptions more full and animated, his
expression more raised and daring, and his numbers more rapid and various.
I hope, in what has been said of Virgil, with regard to any of these
heads, I have no way derogated from his character. Nothing is more absurd
thence of their merit upon the whole. We ought to have a certain knowledge
are to admire him. No author or man ever excelled all the world in more
than one faculty; and as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in
judgment. Not that we are to think that Homer wanted judgment, because
because Homer possessed a larger share of it; each of these great authors
had more of both than perhaps any man besides, and are only said to have
less in comparison with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil
the better artist. In one we most admire the man, in the other the work.
Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow; Virgil, like a river
in its banks, with a gentle and constant stream. When we behold their
battles, methinks the two poets resemble the heroes they celebrate. Homer,
boundless and resistless as Achilles, bears all before him, and shines
more and more as the tumult increases; Virgil, calmly daring, like Æneas,
appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; disposes all about him,
55
and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines,
Homer seems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus,
scattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens: Virgil, like the same
power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for
But after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues, they
exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may
Among these we may reckon some of his marvellous fictions, upon which so
in the whole; and, like the old heroes of that make, commit something near
Thus Homer has his "speaking horses;" and Virgil his "myrtles distilling
blood;" where the latter has not so much as contrived the easy
56
It is owing to the same vast invention, that his similes have been thought
too exuberant and full of circumstances. The force of this faculty is seen
to overpower the main one. His similes are like pictures, where the
principal figure has not only its proportion given agreeable to the
original, but is also set off with occasional ornaments and prospects. The
together in one breath, when his fancy suggested to him at once so many
various and correspondent images. The reader will easily extend this
If there are others which seem rather to charge him with a defect or
found upon examination to proceed wholly from the nature of the times he
lived in. Such are his grosser representations of the gods; and the
vicious and imperfect manners of his heroes; but I must here speak a word
antiquity, to think with Madame Dacier,(38) "that those times and manners
are so much the more excellent, as they are more contrary to ours." Who
ages, when a spirit of revenge and cruelty, joined with the practice of
rapine and robbery, reigned through the world: when no mercy was shown but
for the sake of lucre; when the greatest princes were put to the sword,
57
and their wives and daughters made slaves and concubines? On the other
side, I would not be so delicate as those modern critics, who are shocked
at the servile offices and mean employments in which we sometimes see the
princesses drawing water from the springs. When we read Homer, we ought to
reflect that we are reading the most ancient author in the heathen world;
and those who consider him in this light, will double their pleasure in
the perusal of him. Let them think they are growing acquainted with
nations and people that are now no more; that they are stepping almost
three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity, and entertaining
found, the only true mirror of that ancient world. By this means alone
their greatest obstacles will vanish; and what usually creates their
This consideration may further serve to answer for the constant use of the
same epithets to his gods and heroes; such as the "far-darting Phoebus,"
the "blue-eyed Pallas," the "swift-footed Achilles," &c., which some have
depended upon the powers and offices then believed to belong to them; and
had contracted a weight and veneration from the rites and solemn devotions
in which they were used: they were a sort of attributes with which it was
58
opinion, that they were in the nature of surnames, and repeated as such;
for the Greeks having no names derived from their fathers, were obliged to
add some other distinction of each person; either naming his parents
Homer, therefore, complying with the custom of his country, used such
Harefoot, Edmund Ironside, Edward Longshanks, Edward the Black Prince, &c.
If yet this be thought to account better for the propriety than for the
into its different ages, has placed a fourth age, between the brazen and
the iron one, of "heroes distinct from other men; a divine race who fought
at Thebes and Troy, are called demi-gods, and live by the care of Jupiter
in the islands of the blessed." Now among the divine honours which were
paid them, they might have this also in common with the gods, not to be
What other cavils have been raised against Homer, are such as hardly
deserve a reply, but will yet be taken notice of as they occur in the
to exalt Virgil; which is much the same, as if one should think to raise
the whole course of their parallels, that these critics never so much as
59
compares these two poets ought to have always in his eye. Some accuse him
for the same things which they overlook or praise in the other; as when
they prefer the fable and moral of the Æneis to those of the Iliad, for
the same reasons which might set the Odyssey above the Æneis; as that the
hero is a wiser man, and the action of the one more beneficial to his
country than that of the other; or else they blame him for not doing what
as Æneas, when the very moral of his poem required a contrary character:
it is thus that Rapin judges in his comparison of Homer and Virgil. Others
some that Virgil drew out of them: this is the whole management of
Scaliger in his Poetics. Others quarrel with what they take for low and
oftener from an ignorance of the graces of the original, and then triumph
that of his work; but when they come to assign the causes of the great
reputation of the Iliad, they found it upon the ignorance of his times,
cities, &c.) to be the causes of his fame, which were in reality the
any great author whose general character will infallibly raise many casual
yet confesses upon the whole that in whatever age Homer had lived, he must
60
have been the greatest poet of his nation, and that he may be said in his
In all these objections we see nothing that contradicts his title to the
honour of the chief invention: and as long as this (which is indeed the
faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one sort of critics: but that
warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most universal applauses which
holds the heart of a reader under the strongest enchantment. Homer not
only appears the inventor of poetry, but excels all the inventors of other
arts, in this, that he has swallowed up the honour of those who succeeded
him. What he has done admitted no increase, it only left room for
everything. A work of this kind seems like a mighty tree, which rises from
produces the finest fruit: nature and art conspire to raise it; pleasure
and profit join to make it valuable: and they who find the justest faults,
have only said that a few branches which run luxuriant through a richness
Having now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it remains
characteristic. As far as that is seen in the main parts of the poem, such
61
by wilful omissions or contractions. As it also breaks out in every
softens those, takes off from this chief character. It is the first grand
duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and unmaimed; and for the
rest, the diction and versification only are his proper province, since
these must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.
language: but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done) that a
rash paraphrase can make amends for this general defect; which is no less
literal. I know no liberties one ought to take, but those which are
poetical style of the translation: and I will venture to say, there have
not been more men misled in former times by a servile, dull adherence to
the letter, than have been deluded in ours by a chimerical, insolent hope
62
poetical and figurative; and it is what Homer will teach us, if we will
but follow modestly in his footsteps. Where his diction is bold and lofty,
let us raise ours as high as we can; but where his is plain and humble, we
ought not to be deterred from imitating him by the fear of incurring the
have been more commonly mistaken than the just pitch of his style: some of
sweating and straining after him by violent leaps and bounds (the certain
signs of false mettle), others slowly and servilely creeping in his train,
while the poet himself is all the time proceeding with an unaffected and
equal majesty before them. However, of the two extremes one could sooner
friends must agree together to call simplicity, and the rest of the world
as a bold and sordid one; which differ as much from each other as the air
Scripture and our author. One may affirm, with all respect to the inspired
writings, that the Divine Spirit made use of no other words but what were
intelligible and common to men at that time, and in that part of the
63
world; and, as Homer is the author nearest to those, his style must of
course bear a greater resemblance to the sacred books than that of any
other writer. This consideration (together with what has been observed of
the one hand, to give in to several of those general phrases and manners
being used in the Old Testament; as, on the other, to avoid those which
should be taken to express with all plainness those moral sentences and
and shortness with which they are delivered: a grace which would be
Perhaps the mixture of some Graecisms and old words after the manner of
Milton, if done without too much affectation, might not have an ill effect
require a venerable, antique cast. But certainly the use of modern terms
64
There are two peculiarities in Homer's diction, which are a sort of marks
or moles by which every common eye distinguishes him at first sight; those
who are not his greatest admirers look upon them as defects, and those who
authority of our best poets, and are become familiar through their use of
them; such as "the cloud-compelling Jove," &c. As for the rest, whenever
two words, may have justice done them by circumlocution; as the epithet
"the lofty mountain shakes his waving woods." Others that admit of
of two explications; one literal, in respect of the darts and bow, the
ensigns of that god; the other allegorical, with regard to the rays of the
65
person, I would use the former interpretation; and where the effects of
the sun are described, I would make choice of the latter. Upon the whole,
accommodated (as has been already shown) to the ear of those times, is by
no means so to ours: but one may wait for opportunities of placing them,
where they derive an additional beauty from the occasions on which they
are employed; and in doing this properly, a translator may at once show
As for Homer's repetitions, we may divide them into three sorts: of whole
neither to lose so known a mark of the author on the one hand, nor to
offend the reader too much on the other. The repetition is not ungraceful
insolence to alter his words; as in the messages from gods to men, or from
the like. In other cases, I believe the best rule is, to be guided by the
original: when they follow too close, one may vary the expression; but it
It only remains to speak of the versification. Homer (as has been said) is
66
perpetually applying the sound to the sense, and varying it on every new
subject. This is indeed one of the most exquisite beauties of poetry, and
attainable by very few: I only know of Homer eminent for it in the Greek,
chance, when a writer is warm, and fully possessed of his image: however,
the ear to be judges of it: but those who have, will see I have
Upon the whole, I must confess myself utterly incapable of doing justice
to Homer. I attempt him in no other hope but that which one may entertain
without much vanity, of giving a more tolerable copy of him than any
entire translation in verse has yet done. We have only those of Chapman,
more loose and rambling than his. He has frequent interpolations of four
or six lines; and I remember one in the thirteenth book of the Odyssey,
ver. 312, where he has spun twenty verses out of two. He is often mistaken
did not in other places of his notes insist so much upon verbal trifles.
67
in the tragedy of Bussy d'Amboise, &c. In a word, the nature of the man
may account for his whole performance; for he appears, from his preface
poetry. His own boast, of having finished half the Iliad in less than
fifteen weeks, shows with what negligence his version was performed. But
that which is to be allowed him, and which very much contributed to cover
his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his translation, which
is something like what one might imagine Homer himself would have writ
Hobbes has given us a correct explanation of the sense in general; but for
the most beautiful. As for its being esteemed a close translation, I doubt
not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it, which
proceeds not from his following the original line by line, but from the
sentences; and is now and then guilty of mistakes, into which no writer of
his learning could have fallen, but through carelessness. His poetry, as
It is a great loss to the poetical world that Mr. Dryden did not live to
translate the Iliad. He has left us only the first book, and a small part
of the sixth; in which if he has in some places not truly interpreted the
the haste he was obliged to write in. He seems to have had too much regard
68
him in passages where he wanders from the original. However, had he
translated the whole work, I would no more have attempted Homer after him
the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language. But the
fate of great geniuses is like that of great ministers: though they are
translates Homer, is above all things to keep alive that spirit and fire
which makes his chief character: in particular places, where the sense can
bear any doubt, to follow the strongest and most poetical, as most
agreeing with that character; to copy him in all the variations of his
even the little figures and turns on the words, nor sometimes the very
cast of the periods; neither to omit nor confound any rites or customs of
than has hitherto been done by any translator who has tolerably preserved
either the sense or poetry. What I would further recommend to him is, to
study his author rather from his own text, than from any commentaries, how
learned soever, or whatever figure they may make in the estimation of the
world; to consider him attentively in comparison with Virgil above all the
ancients, and with Milton above all the moderns. Next these, the
69
Archbishop of Cambray's Telemachus may give him the truest idea of the
spirit and turn of our author; and Bossu's admirable Treatise of the Epic
Poem the justest notion of his design and conduct. But after all, with
whatever judgment and study a man may proceed, or with whatever happiness
he may perform such a work, he must hope to please but a few; those only
who have at once a taste of poetry, and competent learning. For to satisfy
such a want either, is not in the nature of this undertaking; since a mere
modern wit can like nothing that is not modern, and a pedant nothing that
is not Greek.
who are most sensible of the weight of this task. As for the worst,
whatever they shall please to say, they may give me some concern as they
are unhappy men, but none as they are malignant writers. I was guided in
for whom they can have no kindness, if an old observation be true, that
the strongest antipathy in the world is that of fools to men of wit. Mr.
Addison was the first whose advice determined me to undertake this task;
cannot repeat without vanity. I was obliged to Sir Richard Steele for a
promoted my interest with that warmth with which he always serves his
friend. The humanity and frankness of Sir Samuel Garth are what I never
70
Congreve, who had led me the way in translating some parts of Homer. I
must add the names of Mr. Rowe, and Dr. Parnell, though I shall take a
further opportunity of doing justice to the last, whose good nature (to
favour of these gentlemen is not entirely undeserved by one who bears them
so true an affection. But what can I say of the honour so many of the
great have done me; while the first names of the age appear as my
find, that my highest obligations are to such who have done most honour to
the name of poet: that his grace the Duke of Buckingham was not displeased
I should undertake the author to whom he has given (in his excellent
That the Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me; of whom it is
hard to say whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing to
not more distinguished in the great scenes of business, than in all the
critic of these sheets, and the patron of their writer: and that the noble
author of the tragedy of "Heroic Love" has continued his partiality to me,
71
from my writing pastorals to my attempting the Iliad. I cannot deny myself
the pride of confessing, that I have had the advantage not only of their
them. Mr. Stanhope, the present secretary of state, will pardon my desire
particular zeal of Mr. Harcourt (the son of the late Lord Chancellor) gave
In short, I have found more patrons than ever Homer wanted. He would have
thought himself happy to have met the same favour at Athens that has been
shown me by its learned rival, the University of Oxford. And I can hardly
envy him those pompous honours he received after death, when I reflect on
72
which I have experienced the candour and friendship of so many persons of
merit; and in which I hope to pass some of those years of youth that are
73
THE ILIAD.
BOOK I.
ARGUMENT.(40)
In the war of Troy, the Greeks having sacked some of the neighbouring
towns, and taken from thence two beautiful captives, Chryseis and Briseis,
allotted the first to Agamemnon, and the last to Achilles. Chryses, the
ransom her; with which the action of the poem opens, in the tenth year of
Agamemnon, entreats for vengeance from his god; who inflicts a pestilence
the cause of it; who attributes it to the refusal of Chryseis. The king,
being obliged to send back his captive, enters into a furious contest with
withdraws himself and his forces from the rest of the Greeks; and
74
the wrong done to her son, by giving victory to the Trojans. Jupiter,
granting her suit, incenses Juno: between whom the debate runs high, till
The time of two-and-twenty days is taken up in this book: nine during the
plague, one in the council and quarrel of the princes, and twelve for
Jupiter's stay with the Æthiopians, at whose return Thetis prefers her
petition. The scene lies in the Grecian camp, then changes to Chrysa, and
lastly to Olympus.
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!(42)
75
For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain
76
Nor trust too far those ensigns of thy god.
77
Thus Chryses pray'd.--the favouring power attends,
78
By mystic dreams, for dreams descend from Jove.(53)
79
To whom thy hands the vows of Greece convey.
80
And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king?
81
The spoils of cities razed and warriors slain,
82
With chosen pilots, and with labouring oars.
83
What else to Troy the assembled nations draws,
84
For know, vain man! thy valour is from God.
85
Just as in anguish of suspense he stay'd,
86
When the proud monarch shall thy arms implores
87
Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,
88
Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd;
89
Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters' gore,
90
His word the law, and he the lord of all?
91
Meantime Atrides launch'd with numerous oars
92
Pensive they walk along the barren sands:
93
She, in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,
94
Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care."
95
Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline
96
With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he stands,
97
Which now, alas! too nearly threats my son.
Then down the steep she plunged from whence she rose,
98
Ulysses led to Phoebus' sacred fane;
99
Once more attend! avert the wasteful woe,
100
Apollo listens, and approves the song.
101
When, like the morning-mist in early day,
102
Is wretched Thetis least the care of Jove?"
103
Arising silent, wrapp'd in holy fear,
But thou, nor they, shall search the thoughts that roll
104
Thy boundless will, for me, remains in force,
105
Peace at his heart, and pleasure his design,
106
The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast;(74)
107
BOOK II.
ARGUMENT.
the Greeks sensible of their want of Achilles. The general, who is deluded
with the hopes of taking Troy without his assistance, but fears the army
was discouraged by his absence, and the late plague, as well as by the
that he would propose a return to the soldiers, and that they should put a
stop to them if the proposal was embraced. Then he assembles the whole
host, and upon moving for a return to Greece, they unanimously agree to
it, and run to prepare the ships. They are detained by the management of
recalled, several speeches made on the occasion, and at length the advice
of Nestor followed, which was to make a general muster of the troops, and
battle. This gives occasion to the poet to enumerate all the forces of the
The time employed in this book consists not entirely of one day. The scene
108
lies in the Grecian camp, and upon the sea-shore; towards the end it
removes to Troy.
109
Renown'd for wisdom, and revered for age:
110
Elate in thought he sacks untaken Troy:
111
Receive my words, and credit what you hear.
112
But first, with caution, try what yet they dare,
113
Along the region runs a deafening sound;
114
Renown'd, triumphant, and enrich'd with spoils.
115
Safe and inglorious, to our native shore.
116
And leave unpunish'd this perfidious race?
117
The voice divine confess'd the warlike maid,
118
That worst of tyrants, an usurping crowd.
119
Spleen to mankind his envious heart possess'd,
120
Plagued with his pride, or punish'd for his lust.
121
But grant the host with wealth the general load,
122
'Twas thus the general voice the hero praised,
123
Expect the time to Troy's destruction given.
124
Full of his god, the reverend Chalcas cried,(90)
125
On that great day, when first the martial train,
126
In arts of counsel, and in speaking well!
127
Who dares to tremble on this signal day;
128
Supreme of gods! unbounded, and alone!
129
"Now bid thy heralds sound the loud alarms,
130
A gleamy splendour flash'd along the fields.
131
Towers o'er his armies, and outshines them all;
132
Penelius, Leitus, Prothoenor, led:
133
Two valiant brothers rule the undaunted throng,
134
Opus, Calliarus, and Scarphe's bands;
135
The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.
136
But chief Tydides bore the sovereign sway:
137
And Helos, on the margin of the main:
138
The shaded tomb of old Æpytus stood;
139
Diores sprung from Amarynceus' line;
140
For now the sons of OEneus were no more!
141
And shun the vengeance of the Herculean race,
142
Sprung from the god by Thessalus the king.
143
And Antron's watery dens, and cavern'd ground.
144
Seven were his ships; each vessel fifty row,
145
Sprung from Pirithous of immortal race,
146
Say next, O Muse! of all Achaia breeds,
147
Swift as a flood of fire, when storms arise,
148
Thou, godlike Hector! all thy force employ,
149
Born in the shades of Ida's secret grove;
150
His fiery coursers thunder o'er the plains.
151
And where Ægialus and Cromna lie,
152
Amphimachus and Naustes guide the train,
153
BOOK III.
ARGUMENT.
The armies being ready to engage, a single combat is agreed upon between
Menelaus and Paris (by the intervention of Hector) for the determination
of the war. Iris is sent to call Helen to behold the fight. She leads her
to the walls of Troy, where Priam sat with his counsellers observing the
Grecian leaders on the plain below, to whom Helen gives an account of the
chief of them. The kings on either part take the solemn oath for the
conditions of the combat. The duel ensues; wherein Paris being overcome,
She then calls Helen from the walls, and brings the lovers together.
itself.
154
Proclaim their motions, and provoke the war
155
His bended bow across his shoulders flung,
156
As godlike Hector sees the prince retreat,
Oh, hadst thou died when first thou saw'st the light,
157
Thy graceful form instilling soft desire,
158
His be the fair, and his the treasure too.
159
Here in the midst, in either army's sight,
160
Sees what befell, and what may yet befall,
161
"Approach, and view the wondrous scene below!(112)
162
Lean'd on the walls and bask'd before the sun:
163
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
164
When godlike Mygdon led their troops of horse,
165
My house was honour'd with each royal guest:
166
See! bold Idomeneus superior towers
167
"Arise, O father of the Trojan state!
168
Then loudly thus before the attentive bands
169
From the same urn they drink the mingled wine,
170
The lists of combat, and the ground inclose:
And words like these are heard through all the bands:
171
Sustain'd the sword that glitter'd at his side:
172
Through Paris' shield the forceful weapon went,
173
In thirst of vengeance, at his rival's heart;
174
Fair Venus' neck, her eyes that sparkled fire,
175
"Obey the power from whom thy glories rise:
176
With Sparta's king to meet in single fray:
177
Roars through the desert, and demands his prey.
178
BOOK IV.
ARGUMENT.
The gods deliberate in council concerning the Trojan war: they agree upon
the continuation of it, and Jupiter sends down Minerva to break the truce.
cured by Machaon. In the meantime some of the Trojan troops attack the
reviews the troops, and exhorts the leaders, some by praises and others by
The battle joins, and great numbers are slain on both sides.
The same day continues through this as through the last book (as it does
also through the two following, and almost to the end of the seventh
179
When Jove, disposed to tempt Saturnia's spleen,
180
Though secret anger swell'd Minerva's breast,
181
Let Priam bleed! if yet you thirst for more,
182
'Tis not in me the vengeance to remove;
183
Or trembling sailors on the wintry main,)
184
Then seize the occasion, dare the mighty deed,
185
Drawn to an arch, and joins the doubling ends;
186
With horror seized, the king of men descried
187
And shake his aegis o'er their guilty head.
188
Thus, always thus, may Heaven thy life defend!
189
Which Chiron gave, and Æsculapius used.
190
Or thus the fearful with reproaches fires:
191
Be still thyself, in arms a mighty name;
192
A shady light was shot from glimmering shields,
193
Before the rest let none too rashly ride;
194
Such as I was, when Ereuthalion, slain
195
For this your names are call'd before the rest,
196
His steeds and chariots wedged in firm array;
197
To bar his passage fifty warriors lay;
198
His high concern may well excuse this rage,
199
In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand,
200
With rage impetuous, down their echoing hills
201
In blooming youth fair Simoisius fell,
202
And sinks a breathless carcase on the plain.
The Greeks with shouts press on, and spoil the dead:
203
Have ye forgot what seem'd your dread before?
204
The Ætolian warrior tugg'd his weighty spear:
205
BOOK V.
ARGUMENT.
Pandarus wounds him with an arrow, but the goddess cures him, enables him
to discern gods from mortals, and prohibits him from contending with any
Pandarus is killed, and Æneas in great danger but for the assistance of
Venus; who, as she is removing her son from the fight, is wounded on the
hand by Diomed. Apollo seconds her in his rescue, and at length carries
rallies the Trojans, and assists Hector to make a stand. In the meantime
Æneas is restored to the field, and they overthrow several of the Greeks;
among the rest Tlepolemus is slain by Sarpedon. Juno and Minerva descend
The first battle continues through this book. The scene is the same as in
the former.
Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires,
206
Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,
207
Left the rich chariot, and his brother dead.
208
And some bold chieftain every leader slew:
209
Down sinks the warrior with a thundering sound,
210
Swift through his crackling jaws the weapon glides,
211
And flatted vineyards, one sad waste appear!(144)
212
The purple current wandering o'er his vest:
213
Her shalt thou wound: so Pallas gives command."
214
No mystic dream could make their fates appear,
215
To whom the chief of Venus' race begun:
216
His fate was due to these unerring hands.
217
Cursed be the fate that sent me to the field
218
The horses, practised to their lord's command,
219
Know, 'tis not honest in my soul to fear,
220
Thus while they spoke, the foe came furious on,
221
The soul indignant seeks the realms of night.
222
But heavenly Venus, mindful of the love
223
No goddess she, commission'd to the field,
224
The field of combat is no scene for thee:
225
They stopp'd the car, and there the coursers stood,
226
Amphitryon's son infix'd the deadly dart,(150)
227
Juno and Pallas with a smile survey'd,
228
His blazing buckler thrice Apollo shook:
229
"Stern power of arms, by whom the mighty fall;
230
Where are thy threats, and where thy glorious boast,
231
Stung to the heart the generous Hector hears,
232
Each Trojan bosom with new warmth he fires.
233
From troop to troop he toils through all the plain,
234
Increase of harvests to the Pylian fields.
235
And fall or conquer by the Spartan king.
236
He fires his host with animating cries,
237
Trust not too much your unavailing might;
238
With bristling lances, and compacted shields;
239
While unrevenged thy Lycians bite the ground!
240
Yet not in vain, Tlepolemus, was thrown
241
If I, unbless'd, must see my son no more,
242
For managed steeds, and Trechus press'd the ground;,
243
Of sounding brass; the polished axle steel.
244
Here storm'd Contention, and here Fury frown'd,
245
The fiery steeds, and thus to Jove complains:
246
Troy now they reach'd and touch'd those banks divine,
247
While near Tydides stood the Athenian maid;
248
I own thy presence, and confess thy aid.
She snatch'd the reins, she lash'd with all her force,
249
And full on Mars impelled the foaming horse:
250
Beneath the rage of burning Sirius rise,
251
Me next encountering, me he dared to wound;
252
Thus he who shakes Olympus with his nod;
253
BOOK VI.
ARGUMENT.
The gods having left the field, the Grecians prevail. Helenus, the chief
a solemn procession of the queen and the Trojan matrons to the temple of
Minerva, to entreat her to remove Diomed from the fight. The battle
interview between the two armies; where, coming to the knowledge, of the
prevails upon Paris to return to the battle, and, taking a tender leave of
The scene is first in the field of battle, between the rivers Simois and
254
While Troy's famed streams, that bound the deathful plain
255
(Laomedon's white flocks Bucolion fed,
256
Prone on his face he sinks beside the wheel:
257
The monarch spoke; the words, with warmth address'd,
258
Turn back the routed, and forbid the flight,
259
Hector obedient heard: and, with a bound,
260
Where daring Glaucus and great Tydeus' son
261
Then sunk unpitied to the dire abodes,
262
Then mighty Praetus Argos' sceptre sway'd,
263
Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire;
264
Forsook by heaven, forsaking humankind,
265
The parting heroes mutual presents left;
266
Meantime the guardian of the Trojan state,
267
Com'st thou to supplicate the almighty power
268
Our wives, our infants, and our city spare;
269
Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come,
270
A spear the hero bore of wondrous strength,
271
"Brother, 'tis just, (replied the beauteous youth,)
272
Helen at least a braver spouse might claim,
273
Had hence retired; and with her second joy,
274
Through streets of palaces, and walks of state;
275
And thou must fall, thy virtue's sacrifice.
276
Redeem'd too late, she scarce beheld again
277
Attaint the lustre of my former name,
278
A thousand griefs shall waken at the name!
279
And say, 'This chief transcends his father's fame:'
280
The first in danger as the first in fame."
281
In arms refulgent as the god of day,
282
BOOK VII.
ARGUMENT
The battle renewing with double ardour upon the return of Hector, Minerva
is under apprehensions for the Greeks. Apollo, seeing her descend from
Olympus, joins her near the Scaean gate. They agree to put off the general
engagement for that day, and incite Hector to challenge the Greeks to a
single combat. Nine of the princes accepting the challenge, the lot is
cast and falls upon Ajax. These heroes, after several attacks, are parted
by the night. The Trojans calling a council, Antenor purposes the delivery
of Helen to the Greeks, to which Paris will not consent, but offers to
restore them her riches. Priam sends a herald to make this offer, and to
demand a truce for burning the dead, the last of which only is agreed to
by Agamemnon. When the funerals are performed, the Greeks, pursuant to the
Jupiter. Both armies pass the night in feasting but Jupiter disheartens
The three and twentieth day ends with the duel of Hector and Ajax, the
next day the truce is agreed; another is taken up in the funeral rites of
283
the slain and one more in building the fortification before the ships. So
that somewhat about three days is employed in this book. The scene lies
284
Drop the cold useless members on the ground.
285
Till Greece, provoked, from all her numbers show
286
The thronging troops obscure the dusky fields,
287
And if Apollo, in whose aid I trust,
288
'Tis man's bold task the generous strife to try,
289
No longer bent to rush on certain harms;
290
Where Celadon rolls down his rapid tide.(179)
291
The flower of Greece, the examples of our host,
292
"Grant, thou Almighty! in whose hand is fate,
293
He said. The troops with elevated eyes,
That both may claim it, and that both may share."
294
Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near.
295
Thou meet'st a chief deserving of thy arms,
296
Drove through the Trojan targe the knotty spear;
297
"Forbear, my sons! your further force to prove,
298
Who wearies heaven with vows for Hector's life.
299
Then spread the tables, the repast prepare,
300
For passing chariots; and a trench profound.
301
Thy words express the purpose of thy heart,
302
Soon as the rosy morn had waked the day,
303
The admiring chiefs, and all the Grecian name,
304
Scarce could the friend his slaughter'd friend explore,
305
Then he, whose trident shakes the earth, began:
306
And, whelm'd beneath the waves, drop the huge wall:
307
Then late, refresh'd with sleep from toils of fight,
308
BOOK VIII.
ARGUMENT.
Jupiter assembles a council of the deities, and threatens them with the
pains of Tartarus if they assist either side: Minerva only obtains of him
that she may direct the Greeks by her counsels.(189) his balances the
fates of both, and affrights the Greeks with his thunders and lightnings.
Nestor alone continues in the field in great danger: Diomed relieves him;
vain. The acts of Teucer, who is at length wounded by Hector, and carried
off. Juno and Minerva prepare to aid the Grecians, but are restrained by
Iris, sent from Jupiter. The night puts an end to the battle. Hector
before the ships,) and gives orders to keep the watch all night in the
camp, to prevent the enemy from re-embarking and escaping by flight. They
kindle fires through all the fields, and pass the night under arms.
The time of seven and twenty days is employed from the opening of the poem
to the end of this book. The scene here (except of the celestial machines)
309
Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn,
310
Let down our golden everlasting chain(191)
311
And smiled superior on his best beloved;
312
Men, steeds, and chariots shake the trembling ground,
313
Nor great Idomeneus that sight could bear,
314
Ulysses seeks the ships, and shelters there.
315
And strains his aged arm to lash the horse.
316
Some other sun may see the happier hour,
317
Now hope no more those honours from thy train;
This arm shall reach thy heart, and stretch thee dead."
318
Till, their proud navy wrapt in smoke and fires,
319
Nor swells thy heart in that immortal breast?
320
His purple robe, bright ensign of command.
321
His vows, in bitterness of soul preferr'd:
322
And last young Teucer with his bended bow.
323
And the brave son repays his cares with fame.
324
This offspring added to king Priam's line.)
325
And his numb'd hand dismiss'd his useless bow.
326
Their strong distress the wife of Jove survey'd;
327
I shot from heaven, and gave his arm the day.
Shall feast the fowls, and glut the dogs with gore?"
328
Floats in rich waves, and spreads the court of Jove.
329
Their coursers crush'd beneath the wheels shall lie,
330
Yourselves condemn'd ten rolling years to weep
331
The chariot propp'd against the crystal walls,
332
Your hearts shall tremble, if our arms we take,
333
Shall see the almighty Thunderer in arms.
334
These to Scamander's bank apart he led,
Greece with her ships, and crown our toils with fame.
335
Greece on her sable ships attempt her flight.
336
Whose fates are heaviest in the scales of Jove.
337
And beaming fires illumined all the ground.
338
BOOK IX.
ARGUMENT.
Agamemnon, after the last day's defeat, proposes to the Greeks to quit the
siege, and return to their country. Diomed opposes this, and Nestor
seconds him, praising his wisdom and resolution. He orders the guard to be
move him to a reconciliation. Ulysses and Ajax are made choice of, who are
accompanied by old Phoenix. They make, each of them, very moving and
This book, and the next following, take up the space of one night, which
is the twenty-seventh from the beginning of the poem. The scene lies on
339
Sat on each face, and sadden'd every heart.
340
Now shameful flight alone can save the host;
341
They gave dominion o'er the seas and land;
342
Applauding Greece with common voice approves.
And yet those years that since thy birth have run
343
See what a blaze from hostile tents aspires,
344
"Monarch of nations! whose superior sway
345
Bless'd in his love, this wondrous hero stands;
346
Then shall he store (when Greece the spoil divides)
347
There heifers graze, and labouring oxen toil;
348
He said; and all approved. The heralds bring
Through the still night they march, and hear the roar
349
Full opposite he sat, and listen'd long,
350
The parts transfixes, and with skill divides.
351
What scenes of slaughter in yon fields appear!
352
Those wholesome counsels which thy father gave.
353
Seven lovely captives of the Lesbian line,
354
Her shalt thou wed whom most thy eyes approve;
355
Proud Hector, now, the unequal fight demands,
356
For thankless Greece such hardships have I braved,
357
Wrong'd in my love, all proffers I disdain;
358
And all that rests of my unravish'd prey.
Then tell him: loud, that all the Greeks may hear,
359
Though bribes were heap'd on bribes, in number more
360
My fates long since by Thetis were disclosed,
361
In silence wrapt, in consternation drown'd,
362
My sire with curses loads my hated head,
363
Thy infant breast a like affection show'd;
364
The sire revenges for the daughters' sake;
365
On OEneus fields she sent a monstrous boar,
366
On her own son to wreak her brother's death;
367
Nor stay till yonder fleets ascend in fire;
368
A warmer couch with numerous carpets spread.
369
(To Ajax thus the first of Greeks replied)
370
Whose nightly joys the beauteous Iphis shared;
371
Such was his word: what further he declared,
372
In flaming arms, a long-extended line:
373
BOOK X.
ARGUMENT.
night, but passes through the camp, awaking the leaders, and contriving
all possible methods for the public safety. Menelaus, Nestor, Ulysses, and
Diomed are employed in raising the rest of the captains. They call a
council of war, and determine to send scouts into the enemies' camp, to
learn their posture, and discover their intentions. Diomed undertakes this
their passage they surprise Dolon, whom Hector had sent on a like design
to the camp of the Grecians. From him they are informed of the situation
of the Trojan and auxiliary forces, and particularly of Rhesus, and the
Thracians who were lately arrived. They pass on with success; kill Rhesus,
with several of his officers, and seize the famous horses of that prince,
The same night continues; the scene lies in the two camps.
374
All but the king: with various thoughts oppress'd,(215)
375
Next on his feet the shining sandals bound;
376
For Jove, averse, our humble prayer denies,
377
To labour is the lot of man below;
378
And scarce my heart support its load of pain.
379
To those tall ships, remotest of the fleet,
380
With that, the venerable warrior rose;
381
A bull's black hide composed the hero's bed;
But sleep'st thou now, when from yon hill the foe
382
Succeed to these my cares, and rouse the rest;
383
And thus accosted through the gloomy shade.
384
This could he learn, and to our peers recite,
385
The Spartan wish'd the second place to gain,
386
The stars shine fainter on the ethereal plains,
387
A long-wing'd heron great Minerva sent:
388
So still continue to the race thine aid!
389
And his the glory to have served so well."
390
Thus Hector swore: the gods were call'd in vain,
391
Along the path the spy unwary flew;
392
Then fix'd in earth. Against the trembling wood
What moves thee, say, when sleep has closed the sight,
393
And those swift steeds that sweep the ranks of war,
394
Anxious for Troy, the guard the natives keep;
395
The truth or falsehood of the news I tell."
396
Then heap'd with reeds and gathered boughs the plain,
397
Bathed all his footsteps, dyed the fields with gore,
398
But him, new dangers, new achievements fire;
399
He rose, and saw the field deform'd with blood,
400
Perhaps, even now pursued, they seek the shore;
401
Whose hostile king the brave Tydides slew;
402
BOOK XI.
ARGUMENT
prepares the Trojans to receive them, while Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva
give the signals of war. Agamemnon bears all before him and Hector is
commanded by Jupiter (who sends Iris for that purpose) to decline the
engagement, till the king shall be wounded and retire from the field. He
then makes a great slaughter of the enemy. Ulysses and Diomed put a stop
to him for a time but the latter, being wounded by Paris, is obliged to
the utmost danger, till Menelaus and Ajax rescue him. Hector comes against
Ajax, but that hero alone opposes multitudes, and rallies the Greeks. In
the meantime Machaon, in the other wing of the army, is pierced with an
arrow by Paris, and carried from the fight in Nestor's chariot. Achilles
(who overlooked the action from his ship) sent Patroclus to inquire which
of the Greeks was wounded in that manner; Nestor entertains him in his
tent with an account of the accidents of the day, and a long recital of
403
This book opens with the eight and-twentieth day of the poem, and the same
day, with its various actions and adventures is extended through the
part of the eighteenth books. The scene lies in the field near the
monument of Ilus.
404
The king of men his hardy host inspires
405
That round the warrior cast a dreadful shade;
406
As with the light the warriors' toils begun.
407
So Greece and Troy the field of war divide,
408
Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds.
409
These on the mountains once Achilles found,
410
They shook with fear, and dropp'd the silken rein;
411
Then, where the thickest fought, the victor flew;
412
Amidst alarms, and death, and dust, and blood.
413
And thus the many-coloured maid bespoke:
Then Jove shall string his arm, and fire his breast,
414
The chief shall mount his chariot, and depart,
Then Jove shall string thy arm, and fire thy breast,
415
And early honour warm his generous breast,
416
At once a virgin, and at once a bride!
417
The social shades the same dark journey go,
418
And from their sides the foam descends in snow;
419
Drives the wild waves, and tosses all the deeps.
420
"No martial toil I shun, no danger fear;
421
Great Jove from Ide with slaughter fills his sight,
422
And a short darkness shades his swimming eyes.
423
"He bleeds! (he cries) some god has sped my dart!
424
Now on the field Ulysses stands alone,
425
Next Ennomus and Thoon sank to hell;
426
But, pierced by this, to endless darkness go,
427
Thrice to its pitch his lofty voice he rears;
428
A single warrior half a host sustains:
429
Had pierced Machaon with a distant wound:
430
Thus having spoke, the driver's lash resounds;
431
Then sourly slow the indignant beast retires:
432
Whose eager javelin launch'd against the foe,
433
His coursers steep'd in sweat, and stain'd with gore,
434
Nor could I, through yon cloud, discern his face,
435
In sculptured gold, two turtles seem to drink:
436
Excite compassion in Achilles' mind?
437
Old Neleus gloried in his conquering son.
438
Myself the foremost; but my sire denied;
439
I seized his car, the van of battle led;
440
When, gathering aids along the Grecian sea,
441
If thou but lead the Myrmidonian line;
442
Resists she yet the raging Hector's hand?
443
He said, and in his arms upheld the chief.
444
BOOK XII.
ARGUMENT.
force them; but it proving impossible to pass the ditch, Polydamas advises
to quit their chariots, and manage the attack on foot. The Trojans follow
his counsel; and having divided their army into five bodies of foot, begin
the assault. But upon the signal of an eagle with a serpent in his talons,
withdraw them again. This Hector opposes, and continues the attack; in
which, after many actions, Sarpedon makes the first breach in the wall.
Hector also, casting a stone of vast size, forces open one of the gates,
and enters at the head of his troops, who victoriously pursue the Grecians
445
The walls were raised, the trenches sunk in vain.
446
Now smooth'd with sand, and levell'd by the flood,
447
And snort and tremble at the gulf beneath;
448
Wedged in the trench, by our own troops confused,
Pant for the fight, and threat the fleet with fire:
449
Deiphobus, and Helenas the seer;
450
And great Idomeneus shall boast thy fall!
Such their proud hopes; but all their hopes were vain!
451
The fearless brothers on the Grecians call,
452
And the deaf echo rattles round the fields.
453
To raise each act to life, and sing with fire!
454
A signal omen stopp'd the passing host,
455
And thus my mind explains its clear event:
456
To right, to left, unheeded take your way,
457
While these they undermine, and those they rend;
458
And now the stones descend in heavier showers.
459
And while two pointed javelins arm his hands,
460
Admired as heroes, and as gods obey'd,
461
Around the walls he gazed, to view from far
462
The bloody labours of the doubtful war:
463
And sends the brave Epicles to the shades,
464
Alcmaon first was doom'd his force to feel;
465
Attempts alone the guarded pass to gain:
Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall.
466
Each equal weight; nor this, nor that, descends:(227)
467
Leap the resounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
The shore is heap'd with death, and tumult rends the sky.
468
BOOK XIII.
ARGUMENT.
OF IDOMENEUS.
Neptune, concerned for the loss of the Grecians, upon seeing the
fortification forced by Hector, (who had entered the gate near the station
of the Ajaces,) assumes the shape of Calchas, and inspires those heroes to
oppose him: then, in the form of one of the generals, encourages the other
Greeks who had retired to their vessels. The Ajaces form their troops in a
close phalanx, and put a stop to Hector and the Trojans. Several deeds of
valour are performed; Meriones, losing his spear in the encounter, repairs
between those two warriors, who return together to the battle. Idomeneus
signalizes his courage above the rest; he kills Othryoneus, Asius, and
Alcathous: Deiphobus and Æneas march against him, and at length Idomeneus
retires. Menelaus wounds Helenus, and kills Pisander. The Trojans are
repulsed on the left wing; Hector still keeps his ground against the
Ajaces, till, being galled by the Locrian slingers and archers, Polydamas
advises to call a council of war: Hector approves of his advice, but goes
first to rally the Trojans; upbraids Paris, rejoins Polydamas, meets Ajax
469
The eight-and-twentieth day still continues. The scene is between the
470
Where Ida's misty tops confusedly rise;
471
Exults, and owns the monarch of the main;
472
His shouts incessant every Greek inspire,
473
Such, and so swift, the power of ocean flew;
474
Neptune meanwhile the routed Greeks inspired;
475
Not born to glories of the dusty plain;
476
The hour, the spot, to conquer, or to fall."
477
A rock's round fragment flies, with fury borne,
478
The glittering javelin pierced the tough bull-hide;
479
As from some far-seen mountain's airy crown,
480
In their fell jaws high-lifting through the wood,
481
To whom the king: "On Greece no blame be thrown;
Thus he: and thus the god whose force can make
482
Swift to his tent the Cretan king returns:
483
To whom the Cretan: "Enter, and receive
484
A dropping sweat creeps cold on every part;
485
(The wide destroyer of the race of man,)
486
And hurl the blazing ruin at our head.
487
Tremendous scene! that general horror gave,
488
Swell'd with false hopes, with mad ambition vain;
489
Before his chariot warring on the plain:
490
Stabb'd at the sight, Deiphobus drew nigh,
491
Nor yet from fight Idomeneus withdraws;
492
Then Idomen, insulting o'er the slain:
493
"Now, Trojan prince, employ thy pious arms,
494
Merion, and Aphareus, in field renown'd:
495
Now batter'd breast-plates and hack'd helmets ring,
496
The javelin err'd, but held its course along,
497
To Troy they drove him, groaning from the shore,
498
Faced every foe, and every danger sought;
499
There for some luckier Greek it rests a prize;
Pierced with his lance the hand that grasp'd the bow.
Trail'd the long lance that mark'd with blood the sand:
500
High-towering in the front, the warrior came.
501
Already noble deeds ye have perform'd;
502
Following his martial father to the war:
503
And loved of all the Paphlagonian race!
504
And where low walls confine the beating tides,
505
Force the bright ploughshare through the fallow soil,
506
But sage Polydamas, discreetly brave,
507
Convoked to council, weigh the sum of things.
508
For many a chief he look'd, but look'd in vain;
509
In other battles I deserved thy blame,
510
The afflicted deeps tumultuous mix and roar;
511
To force our fleet: the Greeks have hands and hearts.
512
Of Greece, and Argos be no more a name.
513
BOOK XIV.
ARGUMENT.(231)
Nestor, sitting at the table with Machaon, is alarmed with the increasing
clamour of war, and hastens to Agamemnon; on his way he meets that prince
with Diomed and Ulysses, whom he informs of the extremity of the danger.
withstands; to which Diomed adds his advice, that, wounded as they were,
they should go forth and encourage the army with their presence, which
forms a design to over-reach him: she sets off her charms with the utmost
care, and (the more surely to enchant him) obtains the magic girdle of
Venus. She then applies herself to the god of sleep, and, with some
difficulty, persuades him to seal the eyes of Jupiter: this done, she goes
to mount Ida, where the god, at first sight, is ravished with her beauty,
sinks in her embraces, and is laid asleep. Neptune takes advantage of his
slumber, and succours the Greeks: Hector is struck to the ground with a
prodigious stone by Ajax, and carried off from the battle: several actions
succeed, till the Trojans, much distressed, are obliged to give way: the
514
Could charm the cares of Nestor's watchful soul;
515
Jove sends one gust, and bids them roll away.
516
What drives thee, Nestor, from the field of fame?
Such was his threat, ah! now too soon made good,
517
And best defence, lies smoking in the dust;
518
And have whole streams of blood been spilt in vain?
519
Young though he be, disdain not to obey:
520
But lest new wounds on wounds o'erpower us quite,
521
And sent his voice before him as he flew,
522
Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold.
523
Ah yet, will Venus aid Saturnia's joy,
524
She said. With awe divine, the queen of love
525
Who spread'st thy empire o'er each god and man;
526
Had hurl'd indignant to the nether sky,
527
And those who rule the inviolable floods,
528
"Why comes my goddess from the ethereal sky,
529
Whence rose Pirithous like the gods in fame:
530
She ceased; and, smiling with superior love,
Not even the sun, who darts through heaven his rays,
531
And thus with gentle words address'd the god:
532
Thus arm'd, not Hector shall our presence stay;
533
Less loud the winds that from the Æolian hall
534
Stiff with amaze the pale beholders stand,
535
Placed on the margin of the flowery ground.
536
Go, guide thy darksome steps to Pluto's dreary hall."
537
He spake, and smiled severe, for well he knew
538
And from the spouting shoulders struck his head;
539
Thou first, great Ajax! on the unsanguined plain
540
BOOK XV.
ARGUMENT.
Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, Hector in a
swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks: he is highly incensed at the
artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions; she is then sent to
Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly of the gods, attempts,
she touches Mars with a violent resentment; he is ready to take arms, but
is prevented by Minerva. Iris and Apollo obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris
commands Neptune to leave the battle, to which, after much reluctance and
back to the battle, marches before him with his aegis, and turns the
fortune of the fight. He breaks down great part of the Grecian wall: the
Trojans rush in, and attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are,
541
On Ida's summit sat imperial Jove:
542
When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss'd
543
"Think'st thou with me? fair empress of the skies!
544
Nor one of all the heavenly host engage
545
Bid the crown'd nectar circle round the hall:
546
Smote his rebelling breast, and fierce begun:
547
And in thy guilt involve the host of heaven?
She said, and sat; the god that gilds the day,
548
With clouds of gold and purple circled round.
549
He bids thee from forbidden wars repair
550
The trembling, servile, second race of heaven."
551
The lord of thunders, from his lofty height
552
His sense returning with the coming breeze;
553
And to the ships impel thy rapid horse:
554
Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course,
555
The valiant leader of the Cretan band;
556
No swain to guard them, and no day to guide,
557
And o'er the slaughter stalks gigantic death.
558
Sweeps the slight works and fashion'd domes away:
559
Above the sides of some tall ship ascend,
560
The voice is powerful of a faithful friend."
561
Great Hector view'd him with a sad survey,
562
Where are those darts on which the fates attend?
563
But Hector was not doom'd to perish then:
564
Then Teucer laid his faithless bow aside;
565
And late posterity enjoy the deed!"
566
There, pierced by Ajax, sunk Laodamas,
567
Through Dolops' shoulder urged his forceful dart,
568
In one sad sepulchre, one common fall."
569
He said; and backward to the lines retired;
570
Now on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove,
571
Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides' spear:
572
Amidst the plain of some wide-water'd fen,
573
Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian train
574
A sudden ray shot beaming o'er the plain,
575
Lay rank'd contiguous on the bending shores;
576
No room to poise the lance or bend the bow;
577
Stepp'd back, and doubted or to live or die.
578
The luckless warrior at his stern lay dead:
579
BOOK XVI.
ARGUMENT
Achilles' troops and armour. He agrees to it, but at the same time charges
him to content himself with rescuing the fleet, without further pursuit of
the enemy. The armour, horses, soldiers, and officers are described.
Achilles offers a libation for the success of his friend, after which
Patroclus in Achilles' armour, taking him for that hero, are cast into the
himself flies, Sarpedon is killed, though Jupiter was averse to his fate.
the walls of Troy, where Apollo repulses and disarms him, Euphorbus wounds
580
Not faster, trickling to the plains below,
581
A sigh that instant from his bosom broke,
582
So rough thy manners, so untamed thy mind.
583
Due to my conquest of her father's reign;
584
Commands your slaughter, or proclaims your death.
585
Ajax no more the sounding storm sustain'd,
586
Divine Achilles view'd the rising flames,
587
The brave Automedon (an honour'd name,
Fire fills their eye, their black jaws belch the gore,
588
Like furious, rush'd the Myrmidonian crew,
589
That pleased a god, succeeded to her arms;
590
Such were your words--Now, warriors! grieve no more,
591
And costly furs, and carpets stiff with gold,
592
Though still determined, to my ships confined;
But when the fleets are saved from foes and fire,
Whet all their stings, and call forth all their rage:
593
Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms,
594
(Who led his bands from Axius' winding flood;)
595
The brazen-pointed spear, with vigour thrown,
596
Skill'd in the dart in vain, his sons expire,
597
Next Erymas was doom'd his fate to feel,
598
And shades the sun, and blots the golden skies:
599
Patroclus shakes his lance; but fate denies.
600
Shrunk up he sat, with wild and haggard eye,
601
When now Sarpedon his brave friends beheld
602
And send him safe to Lycia, distant far
His fame ('tis all the dead can have) shall live."
603
A shower of blood o'er all the fatal field:
604
And first Sarpedon whirl'd his weighty lance,
605
Not unrevenged to bear Sarpedon's death.
606
Powerful alike to ease the wretch's smart;
607
"What thoughts, regardless chief! thy breast employ?
608
Or weigh the great occasion, and be more.
609
A rock's large fragment thunder'd on his head;
610
And crowd to spoil the dead: the Greeks oppose;
611
This, instant, sends thee down to Pluto's coast;
612
On every side the busy combat grows;
613
And left their monarch with the common dead:
614
Veil'd in a cloud, to silver Simois' shore;
615
And call'd to fill the number of the dead?
616
Thus while he thought, beside him Phoebus stood,
617
The bursting balls drop sightless to the ground.
618
Mix the contending hosts in mortal fight.
619
And breathing slaughter, pours amid the foes.
620
Such is the force of more than mortal hands!
621
With flaming eyes, and jaws besmear'd with blood;
622
"Vain boaster! cease, and know the powers divine!
623
To Hector's lance? Who knows the will of heaven?"
624
BOOK XVII.
ARGUMENT.
Menelaus, upon the death of Patroclus, defends his body from the enemy:
but soon returns with Ajax, and drives him off. This, Glaucus objects to
Hector as a flight, who thereupon puts on the armour he had won from
Patroclus, and renews the battle. The Greeks give way, till Ajax rallies
them: Aeneas sustains the Trojans. Aeneas and Hector Attempt the chariot
deplore the loss of Patroclus: Jupiter covers his body with a thick
the fight, where, though attacked with the utmost fury, he and Meriones,
The time is the evening of the eight-and-twentieth day. The scene lies in
625
Great Menelaus, touch'd with generous woe,
626
Yet 'twas but late, beneath my conquering steel
627
Wide through the neck appears the grisly wound,
628
Meanwhile Apollo view'd with envious eyes,
629
And thus explored his own unconquer'd mind:
630
And through the cloud the godlike Ajax knew;
631
Her tawny young, beset by men and hounds;
632
Hence let him march, and give up Troy to fate.
633
And hear the thunder of the sounding steeds.
634
The work and present of celestial hands;
635
Then with his sable brow he gave the nod
636
To die or conquer are the terms of war.
637
The warrior raised his voice, and wide around
638
Nor less resolved, the firm Achaian band
639
The shatter'd crest and horse-hair strow the plain:
640
And through the wound the rushing entrails broke:
641
Æneas through the form assumed descries
642
And stands the centre and the soul of all:
643
(Their fellows routed,) toss the distant spear,
And carnage clogs their hands, and darkness fills their eyes.
644
Achilles in his ships at distance lay,
645
Meantime, at distance from the scene of blood,
646
For ah! what is there of inferior birth,
From their high manes they shake the dust, and bear
647
Now plies the javelin, now directs the reins:
648
Scarce their weak drivers guide them through the fight.
649
The dead, encircled by his friends, forego,
650
Nor longer Hector with his Trojans stood,
651
"And lies Achilles' friend, beloved by all,
652
With riches honour'd, and with courage bless'd,
653
At one regard of his all-seeing eye
654
The teeth it shatter'd, and the tongue it rent.
655
The mournful message to Pelides' ear;
656
And the red terrors of the blazing brands:
657
Cheering his men, and spreading deaths around:
658
"Gone is Antilochus (the hero said);
659
Wave their thick falchions, and their javelins shower:
660
Still close they follow, close the rear engage;
661
BOOK XVIII.
ARGUMENT.
Thetis, hearing his lamentations, comes with all her sea- nymphs to
comfort him. The speeches of the mother and son on this occasion. Iris
appears to Achilles by the command of Juno, and orders him to show himself
at the head of the intrenchments. The sight of him turns the fortunes of
the day, and the body of Patroclus is carried off by the Greeks. The
opinions: but the advice of the former prevails, to remain encamped in the
Thetis goes to the palace of Vulcan to obtain new arms for her son. The
description of the wonderful works of Vulcan: and, lastly, that noble one
The latter part of the nine-and-twentieth day, and the night ensuing, take
up this book: the scene is at Achilles' tent on the sea-shore, from whence
662
And now it rises, now it sinks by turns.
663
And wrapp'd his senses in the cloud of grief;
664
Their locks Actaea and Limnoria rear,
665
He grew, he flourish'd and adorn'd the land
666
He, deeply groaning--"To this cureless grief,
667
"Ah then, I see thee dying, see thee dead!
668
And sunk the victim of all-conquering death.
669
Then turning to the daughters of the main,
670
Nor yields a step, nor from his post retires:
671
"I come, Pelides! from the queen of Jove,
672
As when from some beleaguer'd town arise
673
Twelve in the tumult wedged, untimely rush'd
674
The son of Panthus, thus express'd his fears
675
Nor what I tremble but to think, ensue.
676
Darest thou dispirit whom the gods incite?
677
Now clasp his clay-cold limbs: then gushing start
678
And twelve, the noblest of the Trojan line,
679
(His wife and sister,) spoke almighty Jove.
680
(Wondrous to tell,) instinct with spirit roll'd
681
And soft received me on their silver breast.
682
On these supported, with unequal gait,
683
(Even while he lives, he wastes with secret woe;)
684
Soon as he bade them blow, the bellows turn'd
685
The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye,
686
And rising solemn, each his sentence spoke
687
Whole flocks and herds lie bleeding on the plains,
And the whole war came out, and met the eye;
688
Another field rose high with waving grain;
689
Whose tender lay the fate of Linus sings;
690
The maids in soft simars of linen dress'd;
691
At Thetis' feet the finished labour lay:
692
BOOK XIX.
ARGUMENT.
Thetis brings to her son the armour made by Vulcan. She preserves the body
of his friend from corruption, and commands him to assemble the army, to
till the troops have refreshed themselves by the advice of Ulysses. The
presents are conveyed to the tent of Achilles, where Briseis laments over
the body of Patroclus. The hero obstinately refuses all repast, and gives
him, by the order of Jupiter. He arms for the fight: his appearance
the death of Patroclus. One of them is miraculously endued with voice, and
inspired to prophesy his fate: but the hero, not astonished by that
693
(With new-born day to gladden mortal sight,
694
With matchless art, confess the hand divine.
695
Long lost to battle, shine in arms again.
696
I deem, their mightiest, when this arm he knows,
697
Of old, she stalk'd amid the bright abodes;
698
From his ambrosial head, where perch'd she sate,
699
The Trojan ranks, and deal destruction round,
700
That, spotless, as she came, the maid removes,
701
When the stern fury of the war is o'er,
702
Great Jove but turns it, and the victor dies!
703
Swift as the word was given, the youths obey'd:
704
Pure and unconscious of my manly loves.
705
Slow as she pass'd, beheld with sad survey
706
Her sister captives echoed groan for groan,
707
His son's sad fate, and drops a tender tear.
708
Ere thirst and want his forces have oppress'd,
With splendour flame the skies, and laugh the fields around,
709
His limbs in arms divine Achilles dress'd;
Loud howls the storm, and drives them o'er the main.
710
So stream'd the golden honours from his head,
711
High o'er the host, all terrible he stands,
712
All were in vain--the Fates thy death demand,
713
BOOK XX.
ARGUMENT.
Jupiter, upon Achilles' return to the battle, calls a council of the gods,
and permits them to assist either party. The terrors of the combat
described, when the deities are engaged. Apollo encourages Æneas to meet
Achilles. After a long conversation, these two heroes encounter; but Æneas
the Trojans, and is upon the point of killing Hector, but Apollo conveys
him away in a cloud. Achilles pursues the Trojans with a great slaughter.
The same day continues. The scene is in the field before Troy.
714
To Jove's eternal adamantine dome.
715
Ourself will sit, and see the hand of fate
716
Dreadful he stood in front of all his host;
717
Deep in the dismal regions of the dead,(260)
718
And burst like lightning through the ranks, and vow'd
719
And suffer not his dart to fall in vain.
720
Hereafter let him fall, as Fates design,
Thus she; and thus the god whose force can make
721
What time a vengeful monster of the main
722
Stalks careless on, with unregarding pride;
723
But can Achilles be so soon forgot?
724
If yet thou further seek to learn my birth
725
The matchless Ganymed, divinely fair,
726
Cease then--Our business in the field of fight
727
Sees, through its parting plates, the upper air,
728
At length are odious to the all-seeing mind;
729
Where the slow Caucans close the rear of fight.
730
He vents his fury and inflames the crowd:
Not though his heart were steel, his hands were fire;
731
Thus (breathing rage through all) the hero said;
732
Receives thee dead, though Gygae boast thy birth;
733
To the forbidden field he takes his flight,
734
To one that dreads thee, some unwarlike boy:
735
Whole hecatombs of Trojan ghosts shall pay."
736
Through Mulius' head then drove the impetuous spear:
737
This way and that, the spreading torrent roars:
Dash'd from their hoofs while o'er the dead they fly,
738
BOOK XXI.
ARGUMENT.
The Trojans fly before Achilles, some towards the town, others to the
river Scamander: he falls upon the latter with great slaughter: takes
Lycaon and Asteropeus. Scamander attacks him with all his waves: Neptune
and Pallas assist the hero: Simois joins Scamander: at length Vulcan, by
the instigation of Juno, almost dries up the river. This Combat ended, the
other gods engage each other. Meanwhile Achilles continues the slaughter,
drives the rest into Troy: Agenor only makes a stand, and is conveyed away
in a cloud by Apollo; who (to delude Achilles) takes upon him Agenor's
shape, and while he pursues him in that disguise, gives the Trojans an
The same day continues. The scene is on the banks and in the stream of
Scamander.
739
Where late their troops triumphant bore the fight,
740
In shoals before him fly the scaly train,
741
His well-known face when great Achilles eyed,
742
Longing to dip its thirsty point in blood,
743
Ah! think not me too much of Hector's kind!
744
Prone fell the youth; and panting on the land,
745
Meanwhile the hero springs in arms, to dare
746
Threatening he said: the hostile chiefs advance;
747
Sprung from a river, didst thou boast thy line?
748
And numbers more his lance had plunged to hell,
749
Full and express, that Phoebus should employ
750
Leap'd from the channel, and regain'd the land.
751
Not all his speed escapes the rapid floods;
752
Oh how unworthy of the brave and great!
753
Heaved on the bounding billows danced the dead,
754
Such ponderous ruin shall confound the place,
755
The power ignipotent her word obeys:
756
He ceased; wide conflagration blazing round;
757
Infest a god: the obedient flame withdraws:
758
Then heaved the goddess in her mighty hand
759
And, scoffing, thus to war's victorious maid:
760
Rash as thou art to prop the Trojan throne,
761
Like yearly leaves, that now, with beauty crown'd,
762
Thy certain arrows pierce the savage race?
Now here, now there, she winds her from the blow;
763
Collects the scatter'd shafts and fallen bow,
764
The pale inhabitants, some fall, some fly;
765
Thither, all parch'd with thirst, a heartless train,
766
While I decline to yonder path, that leads
767
And the barb'd javelin stings his breast in vain:
768
The god-like Trojan in a veil of clouds.
769
BOOK XXII.
ARGUMENT.
The Trojans being safe within the walls, Hector only stays to oppose
Achilles. Priam is struck at his approach, and tries to persuade his son
to re-enter the town. Hecuba joins her entreaties, but in vain. Hector
Achilles, his resolution fails him, and he flies. Achilles pursues him
thrice round the walls of Troy. The gods debate concerning the fate of
Achilles drags the dead body at his chariot in the sight of Priam and
Hecuba. Their lamentations, tears, and despair. Their cries reach the ears
of Andromache, who, ignorant of this, was retired into the inner part of
the palace: she mounts up to the walls, and beholds her dead husband. She
The thirtieth day still continues. The scene lies under the walls, and on
770
There safe they wipe the briny drops away,
771
Thou robb'st me of a glory justly mine,
772
"Ah stay not, stay not! guardless and alone;
773
And spare thyself, thy father, spare us all!
774
Spurn the hoar head of unresisting age,
775
So they, while down their cheeks the torrents roll;
776
Glorious, my country's terror laid in dust:
777
Shot trembling rays that glitter'd o'er the land;
778
Whose polish'd bed receives the falling rills;
779
Now see him flying; to his fears resign'd,
780
There swift Achilles compass'd round the field.
781
And weighs, with equal hand, their destinies.
782
It fits us now a noble stand to make,
783
But now some god within me bids me try
784
Collect thy soul, and call forth all thy power.
785
End all my country's woes, deep buried in thy heart."
786
Stoops from the clouds to truss the quivering hare.
787
Then, prince! you should have fear'd, what now you feel;
788
Should Dardan Priam, and his weeping dame,
789
The reeking javelin, cast it on the ground.
790
The flames of friends and lovers cease to glow,
791
She rent her tresses, venerable grey,
792
(Vigorous no more, as when his young embrace
793
But not as yet the fatal news had spread
794
Confronts Achilles; chased along the plain,
The net that held them, and the wreath that crown'd,
795
For sure one star its baneful beam display'd
796
The kindest but his present wants allay,
797
So spake the mournful dame: her matrons hear,
798
BOOK XXIII.
ARGUMENT.
Achilles and the Myrmidons do honours to the body of Patroclus. After the
ghost of his friend appears to him, and demands the rites of burial; the
next morning the soldiers are sent with mules and waggons to fetch wood
for the pyre. The funeral procession, and the offering their hair to the
captives, at the pile; then sets fire to it. He pays libations to the
Winds, which (at the instance of Iris) rise, and raise the flames. When
the pile has burned all night, they gather the bones, place them in an urn
of gold, and raise the tomb. Achilles institutes the funeral games: the
chariot-race, the fight of the caestus, the wrestling, the foot-race, the
single combat, the discus, the shooting with arrows, the darting the
javelin: the various descriptions of which, and the various success of the
In this book ends the thirtieth day. The night following, the ghost of
felling the timber for the pile: the two-and-thirtieth in burning it; and
799
sea-shore.
800
His slaughtering hands, yet red with blood, he laid
801
From his dead friend the pensive warrior went,
802
Where, dash'd on rocks, the broken billows roar,
803
No more our thoughts to those we loved make known;
804
Pensive he muses with uplifted hands:
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go:(285)
805
(Fair Ida, water'd with descending floods,)
806
They place, and heap the sylvan pile around.
807
"Enough, Atrides! give the troops relief:
808
"All hail, Patroclus! let thy vengeful ghost
She watch'd him all the night and all the day,
809
The winged Iris heard the hero's call,
810
Till on the pile the gather'd tempest falls.
811
"Ye kings and princes of the Achaian name!
812
And cast the deep foundations round the pyre;
813
To the brave rulers of the racing steed;
814
(Æthe her name) at home to end his days;
The gods have loved thee, and with arts have bless'd;
815
And short, or wide, the ungovern'd courser drive:
But urge the right, and give him all the reins;
816
And leave unskilful swiftness far behind:
817
Loose on their shoulders the long manes reclined,
818
And fills his steeds with vigour. At a stroke
819
Presents the occasion, could we use it right."
820
But thus upbraids his rival as he flies:
821
Those, though the swiftest, by some god withheld,
822
To vile reproach what answer can we make?
823
The well-plied whip is hung athwart the beam:
824
(Since great Tydides bears the first away)
825
With plates of brass the corslet cover'd o'er,
826
And touch thy steeds, and swear thy whole intent
827
'Tis now Atrides' turn to yield to thee.
828
Take thou this token of a grateful heart,
829
For the famed twins, impatient to survey
830
Achilles rising, thus: "Let Greece excite
831
'Twas thou, Euryalus! who durst aspire
832
And dragging his disabled legs along;
833
Nor could Ulysses, for his art renown'd,
834
Ye both have won: let others who excel,
835
The hero said, and starting from his place,
836
(O'erturn'd by Pallas), where the slippery shore
837
That proves the hero born in better days!)
838
These arms in common let the chiefs divide:
839
And from his whirling arm dismiss in air;
840
So past them all the rapid circle flies:
Err'd from the dove, yet cut the cord that tied:
841
And the free bird to heaven displays her wing:
842
With joy Pelides saw the honour paid,
843
BOOK XXIV.
ARGUMENT.
The gods deliberate about the redemption of Hector's body. Jupiter sends
Thetis to Achilles, to dispose him for the restoring it, and Iris to
Priam, to encourage him to go in person and treat for it. The old king,
in his chariot, with a waggon loaded with presents, under the charge of
Idaeus the herald. Mercury descends in the shape of a young man, and
Priam finds Achilles at his table, casts himself at his feet, and begs for
the body of his son: Achilles, moved with compassion, grants his request,
detains him one night in his tent, and the next morning sends him home
with the body: the Trojans run out to meet him. The lamentations of
The time of twelve days is employed in this book, while the body of Hector
lies in the tent of Achilles; and as many more are spent in the truce
allowed for his interment. The scene is partly in Achilles' camp, and
partly in Troy.
844
Now from the finish'd games the Grecian band
845
There sleep at last o'ercomes the hero's eyes;
846
A lion, not a man, who slaughters wide,
847
Springs from a goddess by a man's embrace
848
Meteorous the face of ocean sweeps,
849
(The way fair Iris led) to upper air.
850
But yield to ransom and the father's prayer;
851
To whom Achilles: "Be the ransom given,
852
Sat bathed in tears, and answer'd groan with groan.
853
Some thought there must be in a soul so brave,
854
Now all confused, distracted, overthrown!
855
Had any mortal voice the injunction laid,
856
"What make ye here, officious crowds! (he cries).
857
Wretch that I am! my bravest offspring slain.
858
(The gift of Mysia to the Trojan king.)
859
"'Tis just (said Priam) to the sire above
860
So broad, his pinions stretch'd their ample shade,
861
The god obeys, his golden pinions binds,(294)
862
Pale grew his face, and upright stood his hair;
863
"Nor true are all thy words, nor erring wide;
864
Of seven his sons, by whom the lot was cast
865
Though many a wound they gave. Some heavenly care,
866
Thee, far as Argos, pleased I could convey;
867
Then swift alighted the celestial guide,
868
Sudden (a venerable sight!) appears;
869
And, hearing, still may hope a better day
870
These words soft pity in the chief inspire,
871
Heaven sure has arm'd thee with a heart of steel,
872
Thou too, old man, hast happier days beheld;
What must be, must be. Bear thy lot, nor shed
Safe may'st thou sail, and turn thy wrath from Troy;
873
Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend:
874
Apart from Priam: lest the unhappy sire,
875
The common cares that nourish life forego.
The rock for ever lasts, the tears for ever flow.
876
Remember theirs, and mitigate thy own.
877
My careful temples in the dew of sleep:
878
To finish all due honours to the dead,
879
Nor fear the Grecian foes, or Grecian lord?
880
Ye wretched daughters, and ye sons of Troy!
881
With plaintive sighs, and music's solemn sound:
882
Or else some Greek whose father press'd the plain,
883
Sentenced, 'tis true, by his inhuman doom,
884
Thy gentle accents soften'd all my pain.
885
Beheld the flames and rolling smokes arise.
(Strong guards and spies, till all the rites were done,
CONCLUDING NOTE.
886
We have now passed through the Iliad, and seen the anger of Achilles, and
the terrible effects of it, at an end, as that only was the subject of the
poem, and the nature of epic poetry would not permit our author to proceed
to the event of the war, it perhaps may be acceptable to the common reader
to give a short account of what happened to Troy and the chief actors in
I need not mention that Troy was taken soon after the death of Hector by
the stratagem of the wooden horse, the particulars of which are described
Achilles fell before Troy, by the hand of Paris, by the shot of an arrow
Ajax, after the death of Achilles, had a contest with Ulysses for the
armour of Vulcan, but being defeated in his aim, he slew himself through
indignation.
Helen, after the death of Paris, married Deiphobus his brother, and at the
887
instigation of Clytemnestra his wife, who in his absence had dishonoured
Diomed, after the fall of Troy, was expelled his own country, and scarce
escaped with his life from his adulterous wife Ægiale; but at last was
he died.
Nestor lived in peace with his children, in Pylos, his native country.
Ulysses also, after innumerable troubles by sea and land, at last returned
For what remains, I beg to be excused from the ceremonies of taking leave
at the end of my work, and from embarrassing myself, or others, with any
as finest writers, of my age and country, one who has tried, and knows by
888
March 25, 1720
A. POPE
Ton theon de eupoiia--to mae epi pleon me procophai en poiaetikn kai allois
proionta.
FOOTNOTES
889
their affections in behalf of those time-honoured representatives of
even when history witnesses that vast convulsions have rent and
weakened it and the Celtic feeling towards the Stuarts has been
rekindled in our own days towards the grand daughter of George the
Third of Hanover.
of the human race. In this mutual ground every man meets his
vindicate for all of us what nature could effect, and that, in these
890
this Life has been paraphrased in English by my learned young friend
most insignificant.
"The first poets sang their own verses." Sextus Empir. adv. Mus. p.
medium between singing and recitation; the words, and not the melody
Greece, p. 94.
that "poplars can hardly live so long". But setting aside the fact
891
had a superstitious belief in the great age of trees which grew near
places consecrated by the presence of gods and great men. See Cicero
which Socrates used to walk and of the tree at Delos, where Latona
that of the pseudo Herodotean Life of Homer, from which they are
Greek leschai.
892
peletai noou anthropoisin. Ibid. p. 315. During his stay at Phocoea,
Homer is said to have composed the Little Iliad, and the Phocoeid.
272, 358, sqq., and Mure, Gr. Lit. vol. ii. p. 284, sq.
Odyssey. See the fourteenth book. In fact, whoever was the author of
Orat. vi. p. 168, and xvi. p. 374, ed. Petav So diaegaemasi sophois
the Frogs and Mice, the Epicichlidia, and some other minor works.
893
d'une exactitude scrupuleuse dans la vue generale que j'en donne,
car etant alle seul pour l'examiner je perdis mon crayon, et je fus
13 A more probable reason for this companionship, and for the character
f.
894
I am indebted to Coleridge, Classic Poets, p. 286.
has given three brief but elaborate papers on the different writers
Queries, vol. v. pp. 99, 171, and 221. His own views are moderate,
895
24 Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 191, sqq.
25 It is, indeed not easy to calculate the height to which the memory
informed us that the day before he had passed much time in examining
a man, not highly educated, who had learned to repeat the whole
alternately the odd and even lines--in short, whatever the passage
required; the memory, which seemed to cling to the words much more
produce it under any form. Our informant went on to state that this
same manner. But even this instance is less wonderful than one as to
which we may appeal to any of our readers that happened some twenty
can have forgotten the poor, uneducated man Blind Jamie who could
896
required from any part of the Bible--even the obscurest and most
question before us, but facts they are; and if we find so much
which the invention and the memory combined may attain in a simpler
writing. But the songs of a nation are probably the last things
which are committed to writing, for the very reason that they are
28 Betrachtungen uber die Ilias. Berol. 1841. See Grote, p. 204. Notes
897
29 Prolegg. pp. xxxii., xxxvi., &c.
31 "Who," says Cicero, de Orat. iii. 34, "was more learned in that age,
disposed the books of Homer in the order in which we now have them?"
32 "The first book, together with the eighth, and the books from the
ii. p. 235
Delphis, 1728.
898
37 Coleridge, Classic Poets, p. 276.
that has ever been drawn up:--"A hero, injured by his general, and
season withdraws himself and his troops from the war. During this
interval, victory abandons the army, which for nine years has been
opening his eyes to the fault which he had committed, deputes the
friend; this friend weeps before him, and asks for the hero's arms,
the gifts of the general. He lends his armour to his friend, but
commands him not to engage with the chief of the enemy's army,
899
because he also fears for his friend's life. The prohibition is
forgotten; the friend listens to nothing but his courage; his corpse
is brought back to the hero, and the hero's arms become the prize of
the conqueror. Then the hero, given up to the most lively despair,
reconciled with his general and, thirsting for glory and revenge,
chief, honours his friend with superb funeral rites, and exercises a
restores to the old man the corpse of his son, which he buries with
Homer writes "a prey to dogs and to all kinds of birds. But all
42 --i.e. during the whole time of their striving the will of Jove was
That shepherd."
900
44 --Latona's son: i.e. Apollo.
mice which had harassed that territory. Strabo, however, says, that
when the Teucri were migrating from Crete, they were told by an
the original inhabitants of the land, and that, having halted for
the night, a number of field-mice came and gnawed away the leathern
Aeolian colonization."
901
"If e'er I roofed thy graceful fane,"
date.
50 --Bent was his bow "The Apollo of Homer, it must be borne in mind,
the agent of her most awful dispensations? The close union of the
music, while the arrows with which he and his sister were armed,
Sun, whatever may have existed in the more esoteric doctrine of the
902
51 It has frequently been observed, that most pestilences begin with
purposes end."
belief that dreams had a divine origin and an import in which men
were interested.
ant, "because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like
903
earth; the change from ants to men is founded merely on the
the open fields, having no other retreats but dens and the cavities
the rest, was intended to point out the sudden recollection that he
The same idea is rather cleverly worked out by Apuleius, "De Deo
Socratis."
Dropp'd manna."
honey-comb."
59 Salt water was chiefly used in lustrations, from its being supposed
904
obtained, salt was thrown into the fresh water to be used for the
Pollux, Onom. viii. p. 159. The office was generally given to old
61 His mother, Thetis, the daughter of Nereus and Doris, who was
courted by Neptune and Jupiter. When, however, it was known that the
son to whom she would give birth must prove greater than his father,
through her attempts to see whether they were immortal, and Achilles
would have shared the same fate had not his father rescued him. She
of the Styx, with the exception of that part of the heel by which
905
64 Quintus Calaber goes still further in his account of the service
Homeric poems, and from which even the gods are not exempt, Schlegel
well observes, "This power extends also to the world of gods-- for
higher than mortal man, yet, compared with infinitude, they are on
66 It has been observed that the annual procession of the sacred ship
deity from Ethiopia after some days' absence, serves to show the
think," says Heeren, after quoting a passage from Diodorus about the
another boat. It is therefore on its voyage. This must have been one
906
vol. 1 p. 98, sq. (ed. Basil) gives this interpretation, and
68 That is, drawing back their necks while they cut their throats. "If
the sacrifice was in honour of the celestial gods, the throat was
deities, it was killed with its throat toward the ground."-- "Elgin
Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with
wine."
907
70 --He spoke, &c. "When a friend inquired of Phidias what pattern he
repeating the lines of the first Iliad in which the poet represents
the majesty of the god in the most sublime terms; thereby signifying
that the genius of Homer had inspired him with it. Those who beheld
this statue are said to have been so struck with it as to have asked
72 --A double bowl, i.e. a vessel with a cup at both ends, something
908
74 The occasion on which Vulcan incurred Jove's displeasure was
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
the manner described. The allegorists have gone mad in finding deep
p. 463 sq., ed Gale. The story is told by Homer himself in Book xv.
909
formed a sort of political community of their own which had its
observes, that the supreme father of gods and men had a full right
Thy eye-lids?"
910
--"Paradise Lost," v. 673.
79 This truly military sentiment has been echoed by the approving voice
911
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
the supreme and far-spread dominion of the house of the Atrides. See
912
84 Grote, i, p. 393, states the number of the Grecian forces at upwards
manner in relief; they are not grouped together, but follow one
and to follow it. The bas-relief is equally without limit, and may
913
be continued ad infinitum, either from before or behind, on which
curvature, the two ends are withdrawn from our sight, and where,
Homer is very much like such a circuit; the present object alone
p. 75.
not often hesitating, and never refractory to the chief. The fate
89 According to Pausanias, both the sprig and the remains of the tree
914
adopted a different fable to account for the stoppage at Aulis, and
90 --Full of his god, i.e., Apollo, filled with the prophetic spirit.
a stag; and to Venus the dove was consecrated. The infernal and evil
of all sacrifices was the heifer of a year old, which had never
915
during a tempest, on his return from Troy, to sacrifice to Neptune
the first creature that should present itself to his eye on the
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
the river Cayster, near its mouth. See Virgil, "Georgics," vol. i.
383, sq.
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;
others maintain; the Mendere is 40 miles long, 300 feet broad, deep
916
successfully combats the opinion of those who make the Scamander to
have arisen from the springs of Bounabarshy, and traces the source
very muddy, and flows through marshes. Between the Scamander and
men. The waters of the Scamander had the singular property of giving
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
the "Elgin Marbles," No. 103, (vol. ii. p. 26,) is remarkable for
100 "Say first, for heav'n hides nothing from thy view."
917
Debil aura di fama appena giunge."
101 "The Catalogue is, perhaps, the portion of the poem in favour of
Although the example of Homer has since rendered some such formal
the Iliad where both historical and internal evidence are more
918
Greece," vol. i. p. 263.
which carried one hundred and twenty men each, were probably meant
themselves; and that very few, besides the chiefs, went as mere
in point of fact there are only eleven hundred and eighty-six in the
Catalogue, the amount of the army, upon the foregoing average, will
towns and cities by the names by which they were known in his own
919
time.
105 --Æsetes' tomb. Monuments were often built on the sea-coast, and of
106 --Zeleia, another name for Lycia. The inhabitants were greatly
248.
in their language that they formed but one nation were but branches
of the same family. Homer has 'men of other tongues:' and yet Homer
920
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried:
"Thus they,
Moved on in silence."
111 Dysparis, i.e. unlucky, ill fated, Paris. This alludes to the evils
which resulted from his having been brought up, despite the omens
921
112 The following scene, in which Homer has contrived to introduce so
113 --No wonder, &c. Zeuxis, the celebrated artist, is said to have
iii. 7.
114 The early epic was largely occupied with the exploits and sufferings
poet, and a theme eminently popular with his hearers. We find these
922
i p. 289.
117 Duport, "Gnomol. Homer," p. 20, well observes that this comparison
118 --Her brothers' doom. They perished in combat with Lynceus and
Idas, whilst besieging Sparta. See Hygin. Poet Astr. 32, 22. Virgil
923
119 Idreus was the arm-bearer and charioteer of king Priam, slain during
120 --Scaea's gates, rather Scaean 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.
924
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
ancient times, and she was regarded as the patron deity of that
925
129 "Thither came Uriel, gleaming through the even
Impetuous winds."
132 --Podaleirius and Machaon are the leeches of the Grecian army,
highly prized and consulted by all the wounded chiefs. Their medical
the glaring eyes and disturbed deportment which preceded the suicide
of Ajax.
926
his apotheosis. Throughout all the historical ages the descendants
recognized the god not merely as the object of their common worship,
927
Dryden's Virgil, viii. 742.
the suitors of Helen, and is said to have been one of those who
136 --Forwarn'd the horrors. The same portent has already been
mentioned. To this day, modern nations are not wholly free from this
superstition.
139 "Stood
928
--"Paradise Lost," iv. 986.
141 I may, once for all, remark that Homer is most anatomically correct
mortal.
929
"But to nobler sights
930
149 This was during the wars with the Titans.
Amphitryon.
revenge for the wound she had received from her husband.
153 --Tlepolemus, son of Hercules and Astyochia. Having left his native
he was chosen king, and accompanied the Trojan expedition. After his
154 These heroes' names have since passed into a kind of proverb,
931
Through all th' empyreal road; till at the gate
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
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
158 "No trumpets, or any other instruments of sound, are used in the
Homeric action itself; but the trumpet was known, and is introduced
932
the uncle of Mohammed," &c.--Coleridge, p. 213.
160 --Paeon seems to have been to the gods, what Podaleirius and
163 --Rich heaps of brass. "The halls of Alkinous and Menelaus glitter
purpose of the warrior, we do not know; but the use of iron for
933
164 --Oh impotent, &c. "In battle, quarter seems never to have been
They weep; they beat their breasts; they rend their hair,
934
his tact in the dramatic department of his art. Where, for example,
Cilicia.
171 --His own, of gold. This bad bargain has passed into a common
935
173 --In fifty chambers.
174 --O would kind earth, &c. "It is apparently a sudden, irregular
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
the example of the Roman Vestals affords reasons for believing that,
175 --Paris' lofty dome. "With respect to the private dwellings, which
936
on the eye. It seems indeed probable, from the manner in which he
built for himself with the aid of the most skilful masons 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.
937
180 --Oileus, i.e. Ajax, the son of Oileus, in contradistinction to
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.
"And death
938
--Gier. Lib. vi. 51.
See Virg. Æn. viii. 181. Thus Benjamin was honoured with a "double
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
one: 'So long as Achilles fought, the terror of his name sufficed to
939
Thy boasted thunders, and thy thoughtless reign?"
188 --In exchange. These lines are referred to by Theophilus, the Roman
mention of barter.
the eighth book, against any further interference of the gods in the
the other divine warriors, who in the previous and subsequent cantos
940
--"Paradise Lost."
--Gier. Lib. i. 7.
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
941
--"Paradise Lost," ii. 1004.
942
Had not th' Almighty Father, where he sits
... foreseen."
194 --Gerenian Nestor. The epithet Gerenian either refers to the name
340.
195 --Ægae, Helice. Both these towns were conspicuous for their worship
of Neptune.
197 --Ungrateful, because the cause in which they were engaged was
unjust.
943
The curling vapours load the ambient air.
But vain their toil: the pow'rs who rule the skies
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
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
944
any power of peremptorily arresting mischievous resolves of the
201 In the heroic times, it is not unfrequent for the king to receive
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
Plato, however, (De Rep. vi. 4), says, "We cannot commend Phoenix,
presents, not to desist from his wrath, nor again, should we commend
945
204 "Agamemnon, when he offers to transfer to Achilles seven towns
them, than an authority over them. And the same thing may be
6, p. 162, note.
tradition.
207 It must be recollected, that the war at Troy was not a settled
946
209 --Orchomenian town. The topography of Orchomenus, in Boeotia,
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
alluvial land, pre-eminently rich and fertile. But when the channels
than one ancient islet, and to occasion the change of the site of
Hyphanteion." (Ibid.)
211 Compare the following pretty lines of Quintus Calaber (Dyce's Select
Translations, p 88).--
947
A parent's love. I fail'd not in my trust
circumstance."
--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
"Greece," vol. i. p, 180, that the law of honour among the Greeks
948
did not compel them to treasure up in their memory the offensive
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
between the straps, to protect the head, and make the helmet fit
close.
profound sleep, and Diomede with the sword in his hand hanging over
beholding his enemy in a dream, plunging the sword into his bosom.
949
not a reality but a dream."--Pope.
"There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one cry'd murder;
--Macbeth.
15:
950
222 --One of love. Although a bastard brother received only a small
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)
Of some sterne lion, with whose sighte they flie and he devours.
--Chapman.
Of heroes."
951
225 "Where yon disorder'd heap of ruin lies,
"Wherefore do I assume
952
--"Paradise Lost," vi. 245.
Gloomy as night."
229 --Renown'd for justice and for length of days, Arrian. de Exp.
since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares' milk one
indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud,
Hath broke the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock,
953
So Hector,--"
notes unnecessary.
bk. vi.
954
Dryden's Virgil, Æn. i. 107, seq.
236 --And Minos. "By Homer, Minos is described as the son of Jupiter,
seq.
237 Milton has emulated this passage, in describing the couch of our
first parents:--
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"Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
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
construction. So in Milton:--
The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven,
956
"But like a rock unmov'd, a rock that braves
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
"One of the noblest and most amiable sides of the Greek character,
maintained, was not the less admirable and engaging. The heroic
957
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
Theseus and Pirithous, of Orestes and Pylades; and though These may
owe the greater part of their fame to the later epic or even
love for the greater hero is only tempered by reverence for his
higher birth and his unequalled prowess. But the mutual regard which
i. p. 176, seq.
958
So rush'd we forth at once."
involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly
assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men
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
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,
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if he pleased, save him, and place him entirely out of the reach of
156. seq.
246 --Thrice at the battlements. "The art military of the Homeric age
personal prowess decided every thing; the night attack and the
The chiefs fight in advance, and enact almost as much as the knights
ditch or any other line or work round the town, and the wall itself
960
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 18-24.
He walks, and the big tears run rolling down his face."
961
250 This is connected with the earlier part of last book, the regular
lamentations of Achilles.
in the play of Æschylus, and comes from the depths of the sea to
comfort him.
253 Quintus Calaber, lib. v., has attempted to rival Homer in his
description of the shield of the same hero. A few extracts from Mr.
introduced.
962
The realms of Tethys, which unnumber'd streams,
Seem'd to augment."
254 --On seats of stone. "Several of the old northern Sagas represent
the old men assembled for the purpose of judging as sitting on great
"And here
963
--Dyce's Calaber.
--Dyce's Calaber.
differs in little more than the names and arrangements; and the
for the worse. The natural consecution of the Homeric images needs
964
no exposition: it constitutes in itself one of the beauties of the
Centaurs and Lapithae;-- but the gap is wide indeed between them and
Gorgons, and other images of war, over an arm of the sea, in which
the sporting dolphins, the fugitive fishes, and the fisherman on the
Hesiodic images themselves, the leading remark is, that they catch
war and tumult it may be thought, perhaps, that the Hesiodic poet
258 "This legend is one of the most pregnant and characteristic in the
and the endless toil and endurances of Heracles, the most renowned
Zeus, yet condemned constantly to labour for others and to obey the
reserved to the close of his career, when his afflicting trials are
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brought to a close: he is then admitted to the godhead, and receives
259 --Ambrosia.
stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth
upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the
262 These words seem to imply the old belief, that the Fates might be
966
263 It was anciently believed that it was dangerous, if not fatal, to
who
266 --The future father. "Æneas and Antenor stand distinguished from
967
"When your Æneas fought, but fought with odds
268 --On Polydore. Euripides, Virgil, and others, relate that Polydore
murdered by his host for the sake of the treasure sent with him.
269 "Perhaps the boldest excursion of Homer into this region of poetical
he has brought the river god Scamander, first with Achilles, and
afterwards with Vulcan, when summoned by Juno to the hero's aid. The
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flood at the critical moment when the hero's destruction appeared
270 Wood has observed, that "the circumstance of a falling tree, which
969
"On the other side,
275 "And thus his own undaunted mind explores."--"Paradise Lost," vi.
113.
276 The example of Nausicaa, in the Odyssey, proves that the duties of
the laundry were not thought derogatory, even from the dignity of a
278 Such was his fate. After chasing the Trojans into the town, he was
970
unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made by the
and borne off to the Grecian camp by the valour of Ajax and Ulysses.
Thetis stole away the body, just as the Greeks were about to burn it
Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should have
280 This book has been closely imitated by Virgil in his fifth book, but
comparison.
281 --Thrice in order led. This was a frequent rite at funerals. The
Romans had the same custom, which they called decursio. Plutarch
282 --And swore. Literally, and called Orcus, the god of oaths, to
971
With length of labours, and with, toils of war?
Dryden.
285 So Milton:--
972
286 "An ancient forest, for the work design'd
288 The height of the tomb or pile was a great proof of the dignity of
289 On the prevalence of this cruel custom amongst the northern nations,
290 --And calls the spirit. Such was the custom anciently, even at the
Roman funerals.
973
291 Virgil, by making the boaster vanquished, has drawn a better moral
comparison:--
* * * *
* * * *
974
His faithful friends unhappy Dares bore:
293 "Troilus is only once named in the Iliad; he was mentioned also in
the Cypriad but his youth, beauty, and untimely end made him an
399.
294 Milton has rivalled this passage describing the descent of Gabriel,
* * * *
A seraph wing'd. * * * *
975
Virgil, Æn. iv. 350:--
* * * *
Dryden.
them with the completest success. The whole scene between Achilles
and Priam, when the latter comes to the Greek camp for the purpose
976
skilful, and yet the simplest and most affecting passage in the
called spurious, in other words, of later date than the rest of the
the conqueror. The ego d'eleeinoteros per, and the apusato aecha
geronta, are not exactly like the tone of the earlier parts of the
Iliad. They are almost too fine and pathetic. The whole passage
defies translation, for there is that about the Greek which has no
by the religion of those barbarous times which not only taught that
977
man; but made the welfare of the soul after death dependent on the
fate of the body from which it had separated. Hence a denial of the
the dreary shores of the infernal river. The complaint of the ghost
pardon of Patroclus for even this partial cession of his just rights
297 Such was the fate of Astyanax, when Troy was taken.
"Few things are more interesting than to observe how the same hand
978
the Iliad a genuine lady, graceful in motion and speech, noble in
with whom that fault had committed her. I have always thought the
following speech in which Helen laments Hector, and hints at her own
299 "And here we part with Achilles at the moment best calculated to
his stormy passions. We now leave him in repose and under the full
few short days the mighty being in whom they were united was himself
Iliad, to the speedy termination of its hero's course, and the moral
on the vanity of human life which they indicate, are among the
979
300 Cowper says,--"I cannot take my leave of this noble poem without
980