The Iliad - Homer (best novels to read for beginners .txt) 📗

seem to have been of Thracian origin.

 

[101]

I may, once for all, remark that Homer is most anatomically correct as to the parts of the body in which a wound would be immediately mortal.

 

[102]

AEnus, a fountain almost proverbial for its coldness.

 

[103]

Compare Tasso, Gier. Lib., xx. 7:

“Nuovo favor del cielo in lui niluce E ‘l fa grande, et angusto oltre il costume.

Gl’ empie d’ honor la faccia, e vi riduce Di giovinezza il bel purpureo lume.”

 

[104]

“Or deluges, descending on the plains, Sweep o’er the yellow year, destroy the pains Of lab’ring oxen, and the peasant’s gains; Uproot the forest oaks, and bear away Flocks, folds, and trees, an undistinguish’d prey.”

Dryden’s Virgil ii. 408.

 

[105]

From mortal mists.

“But to nobler sights

Michael from Adam’s eyes the film removed.”

“Paradise Lost,” xi. 411.

 

[106]

The race of those.

“A pair of coursers, born of heav’nly breed, Who from their nostrils breathed ethereal fire; Whom Circe stole from her celestial sire, By substituting mares produced on earth, Whose wombs conceived a more than mortal birth.

Dryden’s Virgil, vii. 386, sqq.

 

[107]

The belief in the existence of men of larger stature in earlier times, is by no means confined to Homer.

 

[108]

Such stream, i.e. the ichor, or blood of the gods.

“A stream of nect’rous humour issuing flow’d, Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed.”

“Paradise Lost,” vi. 339.

 

[109]

This was during the wars with the Titans.

 

[110]

Amphitryon’s son, Hercules, born to Jove by Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon.

 

[111]

AEgiale daughter of Adrastus. The Cyclic poets (See Anthon’s Lempriere, s. v.) assert Venus incited her to infidelity, in revenge for the wound she had received from her husband.

 

[112]

Pherae, a town of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly.

 

[113]

Tlepolemus, son of Hercules and Astyochia. Having left his native country, Argos, in consequence of the accidental murder of Liscymnius, he was commanded by an oracle to retire to Rhodes. Here he was chosen king, and accompanied the Trojan expedition. After his death, certain games were instituted at Rhodes in his honour, the victors being rewarded with crowns of poplar.

 

[114]

These heroes’ names have since passed into a kind of proverb, designating the oi polloi or mob.

 

[115]

Spontaneous open.

“Veil’d with his gorgeous wings, upspringing light Flew through the midst of heaven; th’ angelic quires, On each hand parting, to his speed gave way Through all th’ empyreal road; till at the gate Of heaven arrived, the gate self-open’d wide, On golden hinges turning.”—“Paradise Lost,” v. 250.

 

[116]

“Till Morn,

Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand Unbarr’d the gates of light.”—“Paradise Lost,” vi, 2.

 

[117]

Far as a shepherd. “With what majesty and pomp does Homer exalt his deities! He here measures the leap of the horses by the extent of the world. And who is there, that, considering the exceeding greatness of the space would not with reason cry out that ‘If the steeds of the deity were to take a second leap, the world would want room for it’?”—Longinus, Section 8.

 

[118]

“No trumpets, or any other instruments of sound, are used in the Homeric action itself; but the trumpet was known, and is introduced for the purpose of illustration as employed in war. Hence arose the value of a loud voice in a commander; Stentor was an indispensable officer… In the early Saracen campaigns frequent mention is made of the service rendered by men of uncommonly strong voices; the battle of Honain was restored by the shouts and menaces of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed,” &c.—Coleridge, p. 213.

 

[119]

“Long had the wav’ring god the war delay’d, While Greece and Troy alternate own’d his aid.”

Merrick’s “Tryphiodorus,” vi. 761, sq.

 

[120]

Paeon seems to have been to the gods, what Podaleirius and Machaon were to the Grecian heroes.

 

[121]

Arisbe, a colony of the Mitylenaeans in Troas.

 

[122]

Pedasus, a town near Pylos.

 

[123]

Rich heaps of brass. “The halls of Alkinous and Menelaus glitter with gold, copper, and electrum; while large stocks of yet unemployed metal—gold, copper, and iron are stored up in the treasure-chamber of Odysseus and other chiefs. Coined money is unknown in the Homeric age—the trade carried on being one of barter. In reference also to the metals, it deserves to be remarked, that the Homeric descriptions universally suppose copper, and not iron, to be employed for arms, both offensive and defensive. By what process the copper was tempered and hardened, so as to serve the purpose of the warrior, we do not know; but the use of iron for these objects belongs to a later age.”—Grote, vol. ii. p. 142.

 

[124]

Oh impotent, &c “In battle, quarter seems never to have been given, except with a view to the ransom of the prisoner.

Agamemnon reproaches Menelaus with unmanly softness, when be is on the point of sparing a fallen enemy, and himself puts the suppliant to the sword.”—Thirlwall, vol. i. p. 181

 

[125]

“The ruthless steel, impatient of delay, Forbade the sire to linger out the day.

It struck the bending father to the earth, And cropt the wailing infant at the birth.

Can innocents the rage of parties know, And they who ne’er offended find a foe?”

Rowe’s Lucan, bk. ii.

 

[126]

“Meantime the Trojan dames, oppress’d with woe, To Pallas’ fane in long procession go, In hopes to reconcile their heav’nly foe: They weep; they beat their breasts; they rend their hair, And rich embroider’d vests for presents bear.”

Dryden’s Virgil, i. 670

 

[127]

The manner in which this episode is introduced, is well illustrated by the following remarks of Mure, vol. i. p.298: “The poet’s method of introducing his episode, also, illustrates in a curious manner his tact in the dramatic department of his art. Where, for example, one or more heroes are despatched on some commission, to be executed at a certain distance of time or place, the fulfilment of this task is not, as a general rule, immediately described. A certain interval is allowed them for reaching the appointed scene of action, which interval is dramatised, as it were, either by a temporary continuation of the previous narrative, or by fixing attention for a while on some new transaction, at the close of which the further account of the mission is resumed.”

 

[128]

With tablets sealed. These probably were only devices of a hieroglyphical character. Whether writing was known in the Homeric times is utterly uncertain. See Grote, vol ii. p. 192, sqq.

 

[129]

Solymaean crew, a people of Lycia.

 

[130]

From this “melancholy madness” of Bellerophon, hypochondria received the name of “Morbus Bellerophonteus.” See my notes in my prose translation, p. 112. The “Aleian field,” i.e. “the plain of wandering,” was situated between the rivers Pyramus and Pinarus, in Cilicia.

 

[131]

His own, of gold. This bad bargain has passed into a common proverb. See Aulus Gellius, ii, 23.

 

[132]

Scaean, i e. left hand.

 

[133]

In fifty chambers.

“The fifty nuptial beds, (such hopes had he, So large a promise of a progeny,)

The ports of plated gold, and hung with spoils.”

Dryden’s Virgil, ii.658

 

[134]

O would kind earth, &c. “It is apparently a sudden, irregular burst of popular indignation to which Hector alludes, when he regrets that the Trojans had not spirit enough to cover Paris with a mantle of stones. This, however, was also one of the ordinary formal modes of punishment for great public offences. It may have been originally connected with the same feeling—the desire of avoiding the pollution of bloodshed—which seems to have suggested the practice of burying prisoners alive, with a scantling of food by their side. Though Homer makes no mention of this horrible usage, the example of the Roman Vestals affords reasons for believing that, in ascribing it to the heroic ages, Sophocles followed an authentic tradition.”—Thirlwall’s Greece, vol. i. p. 171, sq.

 

[135]

Paris’ lofty dome. “With respect to the private dwellings, which are oftenest described, the poet’s language barely enables us to form a general notion of their ordinary plan, and affords no conception of the style which prevailed in them or of their effect on the eye. It seems indeed probable, from the manner in which he dwells on their metallic ornaments that the higher beauty of proportion was but little required or understood, and it is, perhaps, strength and convenience, rather than elegance, that he means to commend, in speaking of the fair house which Paris had built for himself with the aid of the most skilful masons of Troy.”—Thirlwall’s Greece, vol. i. p. 231.

 

[136]

The wanton courser.

“Come destrier, che da le regie stalle Ove a l’usa de l’arme si riserba, Fugge, e libero al fiu per largo calle Va tragl’ armenti, o al fiume usato, o a l’herba.”

Gier, Lib. ix. 75.

 

[137]

Casque. The original word is stephanae, about the meaning of which there is some little doubt. Some take it for a different kind of cap or helmet, others for the rim, others for the cone, of the helmet.

 

[138]

Athenian maid: Minerva.

 

[139]

Celadon, a river of Elis.

 

[140]

Oileus, i.e. Ajax, the son of Oileus, in contradistinction to Ajax, son of Telamon.

 

[141]

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.

 

[142]

God of Thrace. Mars, or Mavors, according to his Thracian epithet. Hence “Mavortia Moenia.”

 

[143]

Grimly he smiled.

“And death

Grinn’d horribly a ghastly smile.”—“Paradise Lost,” ii. 845.

“There Mavors stands

Grinning with ghastly feature.”—Carey’s Dante: Hell, v.

 

[144]

“Sete o guerrieri, incomincio Pindoro, Con pari honor di pari ambo possenti, Dunque cessi la pugna, e non sian rotte Le ragioni, e ‘l riposo, e de la notte.”—Gier. Lib. vi. 51.

 

[145]

It was an ancient style of compliment to give a larger portion of food to the conqueror, or person to whom respect was to be shown. See Virg. AEn. viii. 181. Thus Benjamin was honoured with a “double portion.” Gen. xliii. 34.

 

[146]

Embattled walls. “Another essential basis of mechanical unity in the poem is the construction of the rampart. This takes place in the seventh book. The reason ascribed for the glaring improbability that the Greeks should have left their camp and fleet unfortified during nine years, in the midst of a hostile country, is a purely poetical one: ‘So long as Achilles fought, the terror of his name sufficed to keep every foe at a distance.’ The disasters consequent on his secession first led to the necessity of other means of protection. Accordingly, in the battles previous to the eighth book, no allusion occurs to a rampart; in all those which follow it forms a prominent feature. Here, then, in the anomaly as in the propriety of the Iliad, the destiny of Achilles, or rather this peculiar crisis of it, forms the pervading bond of connexion to the whole poem.”—Mure, vol. i., p. 257.

 

[147]

What cause of fear, &c.

“Seest thou not this? Or do we fear in vain Thy boasted thunders, and thy thoughtless reign?”

Dryden’s Virgil, iv. 304.

 

[148]

In exchange. These lines are referred to by Theophilus, the Roman lawyer, iii. tit. xxiii. Section 1, as exhibiting the most ancient mention of barter.

 

[149]

“A similar bond of connexion, in the military details of the narrative, is the decree issued by Jupiter, at the commencement of the eighth