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

class="calibre1">[183]

“Circled with foes as when a packe of bloodie jackals cling About a goodly palmed hart, hurt with a hunter’s bow Whose escape his nimble feet insure, whilst his warm blood doth flow, And his light knees have power to move: but (maistred by his wound) Embost within a shady hill, the jackals charge him round, And teare his flesh—when instantly fortune sends in the powers Of some sterne lion, with whose sighte they flie and he devours.

So they around Ulysses prest.”—Chapman.

 

[184]

Simois, railing, &c.

“In those bloody fields

Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields Of heroes.”—Dryden’s Virgil, i. 142.

 

[185]

“Where yon disorder’d heap of ruin lies, Stones rent from stones,—where clouds of dust arise,—

Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place, Below the wall’s foundation drives his mace, And heaves the building from the solid base.”

Dryden’s Virgil, ii. 825.

 

[186]

Why boast we.

“Wherefore do I assume

These royalties and not refuse to reign, Refusing to accept as great a share Of hazard as of honour, due alike to him Who reigns, and so much to him due

Of hazard more, as he above the rest High honour’d sits.”—“Paradise Lost,” ii. 450.

 

[187]

Each equal weight.

“Long time in even scale

The battle hung.”—“Paradise Lost,” vi. 245.

 

[188]

“He on his impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night.“—“Paradise Lost,” vi. 831

 

[189]

Renown’d for justice and for length of days, Arrian.

de Exp. Alex. iv. p. 239, also speaks of the independence of these people, which he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness. Some authors have regarded the phrase “Hippomolgian,”

i.e. “milking their mares,” as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes, since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares’ milk one of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as we read it, either “long-lived,” or “bowless,” the latter epithet indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.

 

[190]

Compare Chapman’s quaint, bold verses:—

“And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter’s flood Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud, Hath broke the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock, Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke, And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay, And then (tho’ never so impelled), it stirs not any way:—

So Hector,—”

 

[191]

This book forms a most agreeable interruption to The continuous round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad. It is as well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders many notes unnecessary.

 

[192]

Who to Tydeus owes, i.e. Diomed.

 

[193]

Compare Tasso:—

Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci, Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille

Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci.”

Gier. Lib. xvi. 25

 

[194]

Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando Furioso, bk. vi.

 

[195]

“Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main—

Around my person wait, and bear my train: Succeed my wish, and second my design, The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine.”

Dryden’s Virgil, AEn. i. 107, seq.

 

[196]

And Minos. “By Homer, Minos is described as the son of Jupiter, and of the daughter of Phoenix, whom all succeeding authors name Europa; and he is thus carried back into the remotest period of Cretan antiquity known to the poet, apparently as a native hero, Illustrious enough for a divine parentage, and too ancient to allow his descent to be traced to any other source. But in a genealogy recorded by later writers, he is likewise the adopted son of Asterius, as descendant of Dorus, the son of Helen, and is thus connected with a colony said to have been led into Creta by Tentamus, or Tectamus, son of Dorus, who is related either to have crossed over from Thessaly, or to have embarked at Malea after having led his followers by land into Laconia.”—Thirlwall, p. 136, seq.

 

[197]

Milton has emulated this passage, in describing the couch of our first parents:—

“Underneath the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay, ‘Broider’d the ground.”—“Paradise Lost,” iv. 700.

 

[198]

He lies protected,

“Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run By angels many and strong, who interpos’d Defence, while others bore him on their shields Back to his chariot, where it stood retir’d From off the files of war; there they him laid, Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame.”

“Paradise Lost,” vi. 335, seq.

 

[199]

The brazen dome. See the note on Bk. viii. Page 142.

 

[200]

For, by the gods! who flies. Observe the bold ellipsis of “he cries,” and the transition from the direct to the oblique construction. So in Milton:—

“Thus at their shady lodge arriv’d, both stood, Both turn’d, and under open sky ador’d The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heaven, Which they beheld, the moon’s resplendent globe, And starry pole.—Thou also mad’st the night, Maker omnipotent, and thou the day.”

Milton, “Paradise Lost,” Book iv.

 

[201]

So some tall rock.

“But like a rock unmov’d, a rock that braves The raging tempest, and the rising waves—

Propp’d on himself he stands: his solid sides Wash off the sea-weeds, and the sounding tides.”

Dryden’s Virgil, vii. 809.

 

[202]

Protesilaus was the first Greek who fell, slain by Hector, as he leaped from the vessel to the Trojan shore. He was buried on the Chersonese, near the city of Plagusa. Hygin Fab. ciii. Tzetz. on Lycophr. 245, 528. There is a most elegant tribute to his memory in the Preface to the Heroica of Philostratus.

 

[203]

His best beloved. The following elegant remarks of Thirlwall (Greece, vol. i, p. 176 seq.) well illustrate the character of the friendship subsisting between these two heroes—

 

“One of the noblest and most amiable sides of the Greek character, is the readiness with which it lent itself to construct intimate and durable friendships, and this is a feature no less prominent in the earliest than in later times. It was indeed connected with the comparatively low estimation in which female society was held; but the devotedness and constancy with which these attachments were maintained, was not the less admirable and engaging. The heroic companions whom we find celebrated partly by Homer and partly in traditions which, if not of equal antiquity, were grounded on the same feeling, seem to have but one heart and soul, with scarcely a wish or object apart, and only to live as they are always ready to die for one another. It is true that the relation between them is not always one of perfect equality; but this is a circumstance which, while it often adds a peculiar charm to the poetical description, detracts little from the dignity of the idea which it presents. Such were the friendships of Hercules and Iolaus, of Theseus and Pirithous, of Orestes and Pylades; and though These may owe the greater part of their fame to the later epic or even dramatic poetry, the moral groundwork undoubtedly subsisted in the period to which the traditions are referred. The argument of the Iliad mainly turns on the affection of Achilles for Patroclus, whose love for the greater hero is only tempered by reverence for his higher birth and his unequalled prowess. But the mutual regard which united Idomeneus and Meriones, Diomedes and Sthenelus, though, as the persons themselves are less important, it is kept more in the back-ground, is manifestly viewed by the poet in the same light. The idea of a Greek hero seems not to have been thought complete, without such a brother in arms by his side.”—Thirlwall, Greece, vol. i. p. 176, seq.

 

[204]

“As hungry wolves with raging appetite, Scour through the fields, ne’er fear the stormy night—

Their whelps at home expect the promised food, And long to temper their dry chaps in blood—

So rush’d we forth at once.”—Dryden’s Virgil, ii. 479.

 

[205]

The destinies ordain.—“In the mythology, also, of the Iliad, purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth unconsciously involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly equal scepticism and credulity of subsequent ages.

Zeus or Jupiter is popularly to be taken as omnipotent. No distinct empire is assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men is absolute and uncontrollable. This seems to be the true character of the Homeric deity, and it is very necessary that the student of Greek literature should bear it constantly in mind. A strong instance in the Iliad itself to illustrate this position, is the passage where Jupiter laments to Juno the approaching death of Sarpedon. ‘Alas me!’ says he ‘since it is fated (moira) that Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should be slain by Patroclus, the son of Menoetius! Indeed, my heart is divided within me while I ruminate it in my mind, whether having snatched him up from out of the lamentable battle, I should not at once place him alive in the fertile land of his own Lycia, or whether I should now destroy him by the hands of the son of Menoetius!’ To which Juno answers—‘Dost thou mean to rescue from death a mortal man, long since destined by fate (palai pepromenon)?

You may do it—but we, the rest of the gods, do not sanction it.’ Here it is clear from both speakers, that although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter might still, if he pleased, save him, and place him entirely out of the reach of any such event, and further, in the alternative, that Jupiter himself would destroy him by the hands of another.”—Coleridge, p. 156. seq.

 

[206]

Thrice at the battlements. “The art military of the Homeric age is upon a level with the state of navigation just described, personal prowess decided every thing; the night attack and the ambuscade, although much esteemed, were never upon a large scale.

The chiefs fight in advance, and enact almost as much as the knights of romance. The siege of Troy was as little like a modern siege as a captain in the guards is like Achilles. There is no mention of a ditch or any other line or work round the town, and the wall itself was accessible without a ladder. It was probably a vast mound of earth with a declivity outwards. Patroclus thrice mounts it in armour. The Trojans are in no respects blockaded, and receive assistance from their allies to the very end.”—Coleridge, p. 212.

 

[207]

Ciconians.—A people of Thrace, near the Hebrus.

 

[208]

They wept.

“Fast by the manger stands the inactive steed, And, sunk in sorrow, hangs his languid head; He stands, and careless of his golden grain, Weeps his associates and his master slain.”

Merrick’s Tryphiodorus, v. 18-24.

 

“Nothing is heard upon the mountains now, But pensive herds that for their master low, Straggling and comfortless about they rove, Unmindful of their pasture and their love.”

Moschus, id. 3, parodied, ibid.

 

“To close the pomp, AEthon, the steed of state, Is led, the funeral of his lord to wait.

Stripp’d of his trappings, with a sullen pace He walks, and the big tears run rolling down his face.”

Dryden’s Virgil, bk. ii [209]

Some brawny bull.

“Like to a bull, that with impetuous spring Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow Hath struck him, but unable to proceed Plunges on either side.”—Carey’s Dante: Hell, c. xii.

 

[210]

This is connected with the earlier part of last book, the regular narrative being interrupted by