The Iliad Part 81

164 --_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 he is on the point of sparing a fallen enemy, and himself puts the suppliant to the sword."--Thirlwall, vol. i. p. 181

165 "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.

166 "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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s; they rend their hair, And rich embroider'd vests for presents bear."

Dryden's Virgil, i. 670

167 The manner in which this episode is introduced, is well ill.u.s.trated by the following remarks of Mure, vol. i. p.298: "The poet's method of introducing his episode, also, ill.u.s.trates 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."

168 --_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.

169 --_Solymaean crew,_ a people of Lycia.

170 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.

171 --_His own, of gold._ This bad bargain has pa.s.sed into a common proverb. See Aulus Gellius, ii, 23.

172 --_Scaean, i e._ left hand.

173 --_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

174 --_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.

175 --_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.

176 --_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.

177 --_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.

178 --_Athenian maid:_ Minerva.

179 --_Celadon,_ a river of Elis.

180 --_Oileus, i.e._ Ajax, the son of Oileus, in contradistinction to Ajax, son of Telamon.

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.

182 --_G.o.d of Thrace._ Mars, or Mavors, according to his Thracian epithet. Hence "Mavortia Moenia."

183 --_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: h.e.l.l, v.

184 "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.

185 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.

186 --_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.

187 --_What cause of fear,_ &c.

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

Dryden's Virgil, iv. 304.

188 --_In exchange._ These lines are referred to by Theophilus, the Roman lawyer, iii. t.i.t. xxiii. Section 1, as exhibiting the most ancient mention of barter.

189 "A similar bond of connexion, in the military details of the narrative, is the decree issued by Jupiter, at the commencement of the eighth book, against any further interference of the G.o.ds in the battles. In the opening of the twentieth book this interdict is withdrawn. During the twelve intermediate books it is kept steadily in view. No interposition takes place but on the part of the specially authorised agents of Jove, or on that of one or two contumacious deities, described as boldly setting his commands at defiance, but checked and reprimanded for their disobedience; while the other divine warriors, who in the previous and subsequent cantos are so active in support of their favourite heroes, repeatedly allude to the supreme edict as the cause of their present inactivity."--Mure, vol. i. p 257. See however, Muller, "Greek Literature," ch. v. Section 6, and Grote, vol. ii. p. 252.

190 "As far removed from G.o.d and light of heaven, As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole."

--"Paradise Lost."

"E quanto e da le stelle al ba.s.so inferno, Tanto e piu in su de la stellata spera"

--Gier. Lib. i. 7.

"Some of the epithets which Homer applies to the heavens seem to imply that he considered it as a solid vault of metal. But it is not necessary to construe these epithets so literally, nor to draw any such inference from his description of Atlas, who holds the lofty pillars which keep earth and heaven asunder. Yet it would seem, from the manner in which the height of heaven is compared with the depth of Tartarus, that the region of light was thought to have certain bounds. The summit of the Thessalian Olympus was regarded as the highest point on the earth, and it is not always carefully distinguished from the aerian regions above The idea of a seat of the G.o.ds--perhaps derived from a more ancient tradition, in which it was not attached to any geographical site--seems to be indistinctly blended in the poet's mind with that of the real mountain."--Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 217, sq.

191 "Now lately heav'n, earth, another world Hung e'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain To that side heav'n."

--"Paradise Lost," ii. 1004.

192 --_His golden scales._

"Jove now, sole arbiter of peace and war, Held forth the fatal balance from afar: Each host he weighs; by turns they both prevail, Till Troy descending fix'd the doubtful scale."