She said, and from his eyes the
fleeting
fair
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air.
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air.
Iliad - Pope
176, seq.
244 "As hungry wolves with raging appetite,
Scour through the fields, ne'er fear the stormy night--
Their whelps at home expect the promised food,
And long to temper their dry chaps in blood--
So rush'd we forth at once. "
--Dryden's Virgil, ii. 479.
245 --_The destinies ordain. _--"In the mythology, also, of the Iliad,
purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth unconsciously
involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly
equal scepticism and credulity of subsequent ages. Zeus or Jupiter
is popularly to be taken as omnipotent. No distinct empire is
assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men
is absolute and uncontrollable. This seems to be the true character
of the Homeric deity, and it is very necessary that the student of
Greek literature should bear it constantly in mind. A strong
instance in the Iliad itself to illustrate this position, is the
passage where Jupiter laments to Juno the approaching death of
Sarpedon. 'Alas me! ' says he 'since it is fated (moira) that
Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should be slain by Patroclus, the
son of Menoetius! Indeed, my heart is divided within me while I
ruminate it in my mind, whether having snatched him up from out of
the lamentable battle, I should not at once place him alive in the
fertile land of his own Lycia, or whether I should now destroy him
by the hands of the son of Menoetius! ' To which Juno answers--'Dost
thou mean to rescue from death a mortal man, long since destined by
fate (palai pepromenon)? You may do it--but we, the rest of the gods,
do not sanction it. ' Here it is clear from both speakers, that
although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter might still,
if he pleased, save him, and place him entirely out of the reach of
any such event, and further, in the alternative, that Jupiter
himself would destroy him by the hands of another. "--Coleridge, p.
156. seq.
246 --_Thrice at the battlements. _ "The art military of the Homeric age
is upon a level with the state of navigation just described,
personal prowess decided every thing; the night attack and the
ambuscade, although much esteemed, were never upon a large scale.
The chiefs fight in advance, and enact almost as much as the knights
of romance. The siege of Troy was as little like a modern siege as a
captain in the guards is like Achilles. There is no mention of a
ditch or any other line or work round the town, and the wall itself
was accessible without a ladder. It was probably a vast mound of
earth with a declivity outwards. Patroclus thrice mounts it in
armour. The Trojans are in no respects blockaded, and receive
assistance from their allies to the very end. "--Coleridge, p. 212.
247 --_Ciconians. _--A people of Thrace, near the Hebrus.
248 --_They wept. _
"Fast by the manger stands the inactive steed,
And, sunk in sorrow, hangs his languid head;
He stands, and careless of his golden grain,
Weeps his associates and his master slain. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 18-24.
"Nothing is heard upon the mountains now,
But pensive herds that for their master low,
Straggling and comfortless about they rove,
Unmindful of their pasture and their love. "
Moschus, id. 3, parodied, _ibid. _
"To close the pomp, ? thon, 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
249 --_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.
250 This is connected with the earlier part of last book, the regular
narrative being interrupted by the message of Antilochus and the
lamentations of Achilles.
251 --_Far in the deep. _ So Oceanus hears the lamentations of Prometheus,
in the play of ? schylus, and comes from the depths of the sea to
comfort him.
252 Opuntia, a city of Locris.
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.
Dyce's version (Select Translations, p. 104, seq. ) may here be
introduced.
"In the wide circle of the shield were seen
Refulgent images of various forms,
The work of Vulcan; who had there described
The heaven, the ether, and the earth and sea,
The winds, the clouds, the moon, the sun, apart
In different stations; and you there might view
The stars that gem the still-revolving heaven,
And, under them, the vast expanse of air,
In which, with outstretch'd wings, the long-beak'd bird
Winnow'd the gale, as if instinct with life.
Around the shield the waves of ocean flow'd,
The realms of Tethys, which unnumber'd streams,
In azure mazes rolling o'er the earth,
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
stones, in a circle called the Urtheilsring or gerichtsring"-- Grote,
ii. p. 100, note. On the independence of the judicial office in The
heroic times, see Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 166.
255 --_Another part,_ &c.
"And here
Were horrid wars depicted; grimly pale
Were heroes lying with their slaughter'd steeds
Upon the ground incarnadin'd with blood.
Stern stalked Bellona, smear'd with reeking gore,
Through charging ranks; beside her Rout was seen,
And Terror, Discord to the fatal strife
Inciting men, and Furies breathing flames:
Nor absent were the Fates, and the tall shape
Of ghastly Death, round whom did Battles throng,
Their limbs distilling plenteous blood and sweat;
And Gorgons, whose long locks were twisting snakes.
That shot their forky tongues incessant forth.
Such were the horrors of dire war. "
--Dyce's Calaber.
256 --_A field deep furrowed. _
"Here was a corn field; reapers in a row,
Each with a sharp-tooth'd sickle in his hand,
Work'd busily, and, as the harvest fell,
Others were ready still to bind the sheaves:
Yoked to a wain that bore the corn away
The steers were moving; sturdy bullocks here
The plough were drawing, and the furrow'd glebe
Was black behind them, while with goading wand
The active youths impell'd them. Here a feast
Was graved: to the shrill pipe and ringing lyre
A band of blooming virgins led the dance.
As if endued with life. "
--Dyce's Calaber.
257 Coleridge (Greek Classic Poets, p. 182, seq. ) has diligently
compared this with the description of the shield of Hercules by
Hesiod. He remarks that, "with two or three exceptions, the imagery
differs in little more than the names and arrangements; and the
difference of arrangement in the Shield of Hercules is altogether
for the worse. The natural consecution of the Homeric images needs
no exposition: it constitutes in itself one of the beauties of the
work. The Hesiodic images are huddled together without connection or
congruity: Mars and Pallas are awkwardly introduced among the
Centaurs and Lapithae;-- but the gap is wide indeed between them and
Apollo with the Muses, waking the echoes of Olympus to celestial
harmonies; whence however, we are hurried back to Perseus, the
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
shore with his casting net, are minutely represented. As to the
Hesiodic images themselves, the leading remark is, that they catch
at beauty by ornament, and at sublimity by exaggeration; and upon
the untenable supposition of the genuineness of this poem, there is
this curious peculiarity, that, in the description of scenes of
rustic peace, the superiority of Homer is decisive--while in those of
war and tumult it may be thought, perhaps, that the Hesiodic poet
has more than once the advantage. "
258 "This legend is one of the most pregnant and characteristic in the
Grecian Mythology; it explains, according to the religious ideas
familiar to the old epic poets, both the distinguishing attributes
and the endless toil and endurances of Heracles, the most renowned
subjugator of all the semi-divine personages worshipped by the
Hellenes,--a being of irresistible force, and especially beloved by
Zeus, yet condemned constantly to labour for others and to obey the
commands of a worthless and cowardly persecutor. His recompense is
reserved to the close of his career, when his afflicting trials are
brought to a close: he is then admitted to the godhead, and receives
in marriage Hebe. "--Grote, vol. i. p. 128.
259 --_Ambrosia. _
"The blue-eyed maid,
In ev'ry breast new vigour to infuse.
Brings nectar temper'd with ambrosial dews. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 249.
260 "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He
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
cloud is not rent under them. " Job xxvi. 6-8.
261 "Swift from his throne the infernal monarch ran,
All pale and trembling, lest the race of man,
Slain by Jove's wrath, and led by Hermes' rod,
Should fill (a countless throng! ) his dark abode. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 769, sqq.
262 These words seem to imply the old belief, that the Fates might be
delayed, but never wholly set aside.
263 It was anciently believed that it was dangerous, if not fatal, to
behold a deity. See Exod. xxxiii. 20; Judg. xiii. 22.
264 "Ere Ilium and the Trojan tow'rs arose,
In humble vales they built their soft abodes. "
Dryden's Virgil, iii. 150.
265 --_Along the level seas. _ Compare Virgil's description of Camilla,
who
"Outstripp'd the winds in speed upon the plain,
Flew o'er the field, nor hurt the bearded grain:
She swept the seas, and, as she skimm'd along,
Her flying feet unbathed on billows hung. "
Dryden, vii. 1100.
266 --_The future father. _ "? neas and Antenor stand distinguished from
the other Trojans by a dissatisfaction with Priam, and a sympathy
with the Greeks, which is by Sophocles and others construed as
treacherous collusion,--a suspicion indirectly glanced at, though
emphatically repelled, in the ? neas of Virgil. "--Grote, i. p. 427.
267 Neptune thus recounts his services to ? neas:
"When your ? neas fought, but fought with odds
Of force unequal, and unequal gods:
I spread a cloud before the victor's sight,
Sustain'd the vanquish'd, and secured his flight--
Even then secured him, when I sought with joy
The vow'd destruction of ungrateful Troy. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 1058.
268 --_On Polydore. _ Euripides, Virgil, and others, relate that Polydore
was sent into Thrace, to the house of Polymestor, for protection,
being the youngest of Priam's sons, and that he was treacherously
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
fancy is the collision into which, in the twenty-first of the Iliad,
he has brought the river god Scamander, first with Achilles, and
afterwards with Vulcan, when summoned by Juno to the hero's aid. The
overwhelming fury of the stream finds the natural interpretation in
the character of the mountain torrents of Greece and Asia Minor.
Their wide, shingly beds are in summer comparatively dry, so as to
be easily forded by the foot passenger. But a thunder-shower in the
mountains, unobserved perhaps by the traveller on the plain, may
suddenly immerse him in the flood of a mighty river. The rescue of
Achilles by the fiery arms of Vulcan scarcely admits of the same
ready explanation from physical causes. Yet the subsiding of the
flood at the critical moment when the hero's destruction appeared
imminent, might, by a slight extension of the figurative parallel,
be ascribed to a god symbolic of the influences opposed to all
atmospheric moisture. "--Mure, vol. i. p. 480, sq.
270 Wood has observed, that "the circumstance of a falling tree, which
is described as reaching from one of its banks to the other, affords
a very just idea of the breadth of the Scamander. "
271 --_Ignominious. _ Drowning, as compared with a death in the field of
battle, was considered utterly disgraceful.
272 --_Beneath a caldron. _
"So, when with crackling flames a caldron fries,
The bubbling waters from the bottom rise.
Above the brims they force their fiery way;
Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day. "
Dryden's Virgil, vii. 644.
273 "This tale of the temporary servitude of particular gods, by order
of Jove, as a punishment for misbehaviour, recurs not unfrequently
among the incidents of the Mythical world. "--Grote, vol. i. p. 156.
274 --_Not half so dreadful. _
"On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. "
--Paradise Lost," xi. 708.
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
princess, in the heroic times.
277 --_Hesper shines with keener light. _
"Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn. "
"Paradise Lost," v. 166.
278 Such was his fate. After chasing the Trojans into the town, he was
slain by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the
unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made by the
Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was however rescued
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
with funeral honours, and conveyed it away to a renewed life of
immortality in the isle of Leuke in the Euxine.
279 --_Astyanax,_ i. e. the _city-king_ or guardian. It is amusing that
Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should have
copied this twaddling etymology into his Cratylus.
280 This book has been closely imitated by Virgil in his fifth book, but
it is almost useless to attempt a selection of passages for
comparison.
281 --_Thrice in order led. _ This was a frequent rite at funerals. The
Romans had the same custom, which they called _decursio. _ Plutarch
states that Alexander, in after times, renewed these same honours to
the memory of Achilles himself.
282 --_And swore. _ Literally, and called Orcus, the god of oaths, to
witness. See Buttmann, Lexilog, p. 436.
283 "O, long expected by thy friends! from whence
Art thou so late return'd for our defence?
Do we behold thee, wearied as we are
With length of labours, and with, toils of war?
After so many funerals of thy own,
Art thou restored to thy declining town?
But say, what wounds are these? what new disgrace
Deforms the manly features of thy face? "
Dryden, xi. 369.
284 --_Like a thin smoke. _ Virgil, Georg. iv. 72.
"In vain I reach my feeble hands to join
In sweet embraces--ah! no longer thine!
She said, and from his eyes the fleeting fair
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air. "
Dryden.
285 So Milton:--
"So eagerly the fiend
O'er bog, o'er steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. "
"Paradise Lost," ii. 948.
286 "An ancient forest, for the work design'd
(The shady covert of the savage kind).
The Trojans found: the sounding axe is placed:
Firs, pines, and pitch-trees, and the tow'ring pride
Of forest ashes, feel the fatal stroke,
And piercing wedges cleave the stubborn oak.
High trunks of trees, fell'd from the steepy crown
Of the bare mountains, roll with ruin down. "
Dryden's Virgil, vi. 261.
287 --_He vowed. _ This was a very ancient custom.
288 The height of the tomb or pile was a great proof of the dignity of
the deceased, and the honour in which he was held.
289 On the prevalence of this cruel custom amongst the northern nations,
see Mallet, p. 213.
290 --_And calls the spirit. _ Such was the custom anciently, even at the
Roman funerals.
"Hail, O ye holy manes! hail again,
Paternal ashes, now revived in vain. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 106.
291 Virgil, by making the boaster vanquished, has drawn a better moral
from this episode than Homer. The following lines deserve
comparison:--
"The haughty Dares in the lists appears:
Walking he strides, his head erected bears:
His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield,
And loud applauses echo through the field.
* * * *
Such Dares was, and such he strode along,
And drew the wonder of the gazing throng
His brawny breast and ample chest he shows;
His lifted arms around his head he throws,
And deals in whistling air his empty blows.
His match is sought, but, through the trembling band,
No one dares answer to the proud demand.
Presuming of his force, with sparkling eyes,
Already he devours the promised prize.
* * * *
If none my matchless valour dares oppose,
How long shall Dares wait his dastard foes? "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 486, seq.
292 "The gauntlet-fight thus ended, from the shore
His faithful friends unhappy Dares bore:
His mouth and nostrils pour'd a purple flood,
And pounded teeth came rushing with his blood. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 623.
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
object of great interest with the subsequent poets. "--Grote, i, p.
399.
294 Milton has rivalled this passage describing the descent of Gabriel,
"Paradise Lost," bk. v. 266, seq.
"Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,
Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air. * * * *
* * * *
At once on th' eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights, and to his proper shape returns
A seraph wing'd. * * * *
Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide. "
Virgil, ? n. iv. 350:--
"Hermes obeys; with golden pinions binds
His flying feet, and mounts the western winds:
And whether o'er the seas or earth he flies,
With rapid force they bear him down the skies
But first he grasps within his awful hand
The mark of sovereign power, his magic wand;
With this he draws the ghost from hollow graves;
With this he drives them from the Stygian waves:
* * * *
Thus arm'd, the god begins his airy race,
And drives the racking clouds along the liquid space. "
Dryden.
295 In reference to the whole scene that follows, the remarks of
Coleridge are well worth reading:--
"By a close study of life, and by a true and natural mode of
expressing everything, Homer was enabled to venture upon the most
peculiar and difficult situations, and to extricate himself from
them with the completest success. The whole scene between Achilles
and Priam, when the latter comes to the Greek camp for the purpose
of redeeming the body of Hector, is at once the most profoundly
skilful, and yet the simplest and most affecting passage in the
Iliad. Quinctilian has taken notice of the following speech of
Priam, the rhetorical artifice of which is so transcendent, that if
genius did not often, especially in oratory, unconsciously fulfil
the most subtle precepts of criticism, we might be induced, on this
account alone, to consider the last book of the Iliad as what is
called spurious, in other words, of later date than the rest of the
poem. Observe the exquisite taste of Priam in occupying the mind of
Achilles, from the outset, with the image of his father; in
gradually introducing the parallel of his own situation; and,
lastly, mentioning Hector's name when he perceives that the hero is
softened, and then only in such a manner as to flatter the pride of
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
name, but which is of so fine and ethereal a subtlety that it can
only be felt in the original, and is lost in an attempt to transfuse
it into another language. "--Coleridge, p. 195.
296 "Achilles' ferocious treatment of the corpse of Hector cannot but
offend as referred to the modern standard of humanity. The heroic
age, however, must be judged by its own moral laws. Retributive
vengeance on the dead, as well as the living, was a duty inculcated
by the religion of those barbarous times which not only taught that
evil inflicted on the author of evil was a solace to the injured
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
rites essential to the soul's admission into the more favoured
regions of the lower world was a cruel punishment to the wanderer on
the dreary shores of the infernal river. The complaint of the ghost
of Patroclus to Achilles, of but a brief postponement of his own
obsequies, shows how efficacious their refusal to the remains of his
destroyer must have been in satiating the thirst of revenge, which,
even after death, was supposed to torment the dwellers in Hades.
Hence before yielding up the body of Hector to Priam, Achilles asks
pardon of Patroclus for even this partial cession of his just rights
of retribution. "--Mure, vol. i. 289.
297 Such was the fate of Astyanax, when Troy was taken.
"Here, from the tow'r by stern Ulysses thrown,
Andromache bewail'd her infant son. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 675.
298 The following observations of Coleridge furnish a most gallant and
interesting view of Helen's character--
"Few things are more interesting than to observe how the same hand
that has given us the fury and inconsistency of Achilles, gives us
also the consummate elegance and tenderness of Helen. She is through
the Iliad a genuine lady, graceful in motion and speech, noble in
her associations, full of remorse for a fault for which higher
powers seem responsible, yet grateful and affectionate towards those
with whom that fault had committed her. I have always thought the
following speech in which Helen laments Hector, and hints at her own
invidious and unprotected situation in Troy, as almost the sweetest
passage in the poem. It is another striking instance of that
refinement of feeling and softness of tone which so generally
distinguish the last book of the Iliad from the rest. "--Classic
Poets, p. 198, seq.
299 "And here we part with Achilles at the moment best calculated to
exalt and purify our impression of his character. We had accompanied
him through the effervescence, undulations, and final subsidence of
his stormy passions. We now leave him in repose and under the full
influence of the more amiable affections, while our admiration of
his great qualities is chastened by the reflection that, within a
few short days the mighty being in whom they were united was himself
to be suddenly cut off in the full vigour of their exercise.
The frequent and touching allusions, interspersed throughout the
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
finest evidences of the spirit of ethic unity by which the whole
framework of the poem is united. "--Mure, vol. i. p 201.
300 Cowper says,--"I cannot take my leave of this noble poem without
expressing how much I am struck with the plain conclusion of it. It
is like the exit of a great man out of company, whom he has
entertained magnificently; neither pompous nor familiar; not
contemptuous, yet without much ceremony. " Coleridge, p. 227,
considers the termination of "Paradise Lost" somewhat similar.
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244 "As hungry wolves with raging appetite,
Scour through the fields, ne'er fear the stormy night--
Their whelps at home expect the promised food,
And long to temper their dry chaps in blood--
So rush'd we forth at once. "
--Dryden's Virgil, ii. 479.
245 --_The destinies ordain. _--"In the mythology, also, of the Iliad,
purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth unconsciously
involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly
equal scepticism and credulity of subsequent ages. Zeus or Jupiter
is popularly to be taken as omnipotent. No distinct empire is
assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men
is absolute and uncontrollable. This seems to be the true character
of the Homeric deity, and it is very necessary that the student of
Greek literature should bear it constantly in mind. A strong
instance in the Iliad itself to illustrate this position, is the
passage where Jupiter laments to Juno the approaching death of
Sarpedon. 'Alas me! ' says he 'since it is fated (moira) that
Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should be slain by Patroclus, the
son of Menoetius! Indeed, my heart is divided within me while I
ruminate it in my mind, whether having snatched him up from out of
the lamentable battle, I should not at once place him alive in the
fertile land of his own Lycia, or whether I should now destroy him
by the hands of the son of Menoetius! ' To which Juno answers--'Dost
thou mean to rescue from death a mortal man, long since destined by
fate (palai pepromenon)? You may do it--but we, the rest of the gods,
do not sanction it. ' Here it is clear from both speakers, that
although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter might still,
if he pleased, save him, and place him entirely out of the reach of
any such event, and further, in the alternative, that Jupiter
himself would destroy him by the hands of another. "--Coleridge, p.
156. seq.
246 --_Thrice at the battlements. _ "The art military of the Homeric age
is upon a level with the state of navigation just described,
personal prowess decided every thing; the night attack and the
ambuscade, although much esteemed, were never upon a large scale.
The chiefs fight in advance, and enact almost as much as the knights
of romance. The siege of Troy was as little like a modern siege as a
captain in the guards is like Achilles. There is no mention of a
ditch or any other line or work round the town, and the wall itself
was accessible without a ladder. It was probably a vast mound of
earth with a declivity outwards. Patroclus thrice mounts it in
armour. The Trojans are in no respects blockaded, and receive
assistance from their allies to the very end. "--Coleridge, p. 212.
247 --_Ciconians. _--A people of Thrace, near the Hebrus.
248 --_They wept. _
"Fast by the manger stands the inactive steed,
And, sunk in sorrow, hangs his languid head;
He stands, and careless of his golden grain,
Weeps his associates and his master slain. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 18-24.
"Nothing is heard upon the mountains now,
But pensive herds that for their master low,
Straggling and comfortless about they rove,
Unmindful of their pasture and their love. "
Moschus, id. 3, parodied, _ibid. _
"To close the pomp, ? thon, 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
249 --_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.
250 This is connected with the earlier part of last book, the regular
narrative being interrupted by the message of Antilochus and the
lamentations of Achilles.
251 --_Far in the deep. _ So Oceanus hears the lamentations of Prometheus,
in the play of ? schylus, and comes from the depths of the sea to
comfort him.
252 Opuntia, a city of Locris.
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.
Dyce's version (Select Translations, p. 104, seq. ) may here be
introduced.
"In the wide circle of the shield were seen
Refulgent images of various forms,
The work of Vulcan; who had there described
The heaven, the ether, and the earth and sea,
The winds, the clouds, the moon, the sun, apart
In different stations; and you there might view
The stars that gem the still-revolving heaven,
And, under them, the vast expanse of air,
In which, with outstretch'd wings, the long-beak'd bird
Winnow'd the gale, as if instinct with life.
Around the shield the waves of ocean flow'd,
The realms of Tethys, which unnumber'd streams,
In azure mazes rolling o'er the earth,
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
stones, in a circle called the Urtheilsring or gerichtsring"-- Grote,
ii. p. 100, note. On the independence of the judicial office in The
heroic times, see Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 166.
255 --_Another part,_ &c.
"And here
Were horrid wars depicted; grimly pale
Were heroes lying with their slaughter'd steeds
Upon the ground incarnadin'd with blood.
Stern stalked Bellona, smear'd with reeking gore,
Through charging ranks; beside her Rout was seen,
And Terror, Discord to the fatal strife
Inciting men, and Furies breathing flames:
Nor absent were the Fates, and the tall shape
Of ghastly Death, round whom did Battles throng,
Their limbs distilling plenteous blood and sweat;
And Gorgons, whose long locks were twisting snakes.
That shot their forky tongues incessant forth.
Such were the horrors of dire war. "
--Dyce's Calaber.
256 --_A field deep furrowed. _
"Here was a corn field; reapers in a row,
Each with a sharp-tooth'd sickle in his hand,
Work'd busily, and, as the harvest fell,
Others were ready still to bind the sheaves:
Yoked to a wain that bore the corn away
The steers were moving; sturdy bullocks here
The plough were drawing, and the furrow'd glebe
Was black behind them, while with goading wand
The active youths impell'd them. Here a feast
Was graved: to the shrill pipe and ringing lyre
A band of blooming virgins led the dance.
As if endued with life. "
--Dyce's Calaber.
257 Coleridge (Greek Classic Poets, p. 182, seq. ) has diligently
compared this with the description of the shield of Hercules by
Hesiod. He remarks that, "with two or three exceptions, the imagery
differs in little more than the names and arrangements; and the
difference of arrangement in the Shield of Hercules is altogether
for the worse. The natural consecution of the Homeric images needs
no exposition: it constitutes in itself one of the beauties of the
work. The Hesiodic images are huddled together without connection or
congruity: Mars and Pallas are awkwardly introduced among the
Centaurs and Lapithae;-- but the gap is wide indeed between them and
Apollo with the Muses, waking the echoes of Olympus to celestial
harmonies; whence however, we are hurried back to Perseus, the
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
shore with his casting net, are minutely represented. As to the
Hesiodic images themselves, the leading remark is, that they catch
at beauty by ornament, and at sublimity by exaggeration; and upon
the untenable supposition of the genuineness of this poem, there is
this curious peculiarity, that, in the description of scenes of
rustic peace, the superiority of Homer is decisive--while in those of
war and tumult it may be thought, perhaps, that the Hesiodic poet
has more than once the advantage. "
258 "This legend is one of the most pregnant and characteristic in the
Grecian Mythology; it explains, according to the religious ideas
familiar to the old epic poets, both the distinguishing attributes
and the endless toil and endurances of Heracles, the most renowned
subjugator of all the semi-divine personages worshipped by the
Hellenes,--a being of irresistible force, and especially beloved by
Zeus, yet condemned constantly to labour for others and to obey the
commands of a worthless and cowardly persecutor. His recompense is
reserved to the close of his career, when his afflicting trials are
brought to a close: he is then admitted to the godhead, and receives
in marriage Hebe. "--Grote, vol. i. p. 128.
259 --_Ambrosia. _
"The blue-eyed maid,
In ev'ry breast new vigour to infuse.
Brings nectar temper'd with ambrosial dews. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 249.
260 "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He
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
cloud is not rent under them. " Job xxvi. 6-8.
261 "Swift from his throne the infernal monarch ran,
All pale and trembling, lest the race of man,
Slain by Jove's wrath, and led by Hermes' rod,
Should fill (a countless throng! ) his dark abode. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 769, sqq.
262 These words seem to imply the old belief, that the Fates might be
delayed, but never wholly set aside.
263 It was anciently believed that it was dangerous, if not fatal, to
behold a deity. See Exod. xxxiii. 20; Judg. xiii. 22.
264 "Ere Ilium and the Trojan tow'rs arose,
In humble vales they built their soft abodes. "
Dryden's Virgil, iii. 150.
265 --_Along the level seas. _ Compare Virgil's description of Camilla,
who
"Outstripp'd the winds in speed upon the plain,
Flew o'er the field, nor hurt the bearded grain:
She swept the seas, and, as she skimm'd along,
Her flying feet unbathed on billows hung. "
Dryden, vii. 1100.
266 --_The future father. _ "? neas and Antenor stand distinguished from
the other Trojans by a dissatisfaction with Priam, and a sympathy
with the Greeks, which is by Sophocles and others construed as
treacherous collusion,--a suspicion indirectly glanced at, though
emphatically repelled, in the ? neas of Virgil. "--Grote, i. p. 427.
267 Neptune thus recounts his services to ? neas:
"When your ? neas fought, but fought with odds
Of force unequal, and unequal gods:
I spread a cloud before the victor's sight,
Sustain'd the vanquish'd, and secured his flight--
Even then secured him, when I sought with joy
The vow'd destruction of ungrateful Troy. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 1058.
268 --_On Polydore. _ Euripides, Virgil, and others, relate that Polydore
was sent into Thrace, to the house of Polymestor, for protection,
being the youngest of Priam's sons, and that he was treacherously
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
fancy is the collision into which, in the twenty-first of the Iliad,
he has brought the river god Scamander, first with Achilles, and
afterwards with Vulcan, when summoned by Juno to the hero's aid. The
overwhelming fury of the stream finds the natural interpretation in
the character of the mountain torrents of Greece and Asia Minor.
Their wide, shingly beds are in summer comparatively dry, so as to
be easily forded by the foot passenger. But a thunder-shower in the
mountains, unobserved perhaps by the traveller on the plain, may
suddenly immerse him in the flood of a mighty river. The rescue of
Achilles by the fiery arms of Vulcan scarcely admits of the same
ready explanation from physical causes. Yet the subsiding of the
flood at the critical moment when the hero's destruction appeared
imminent, might, by a slight extension of the figurative parallel,
be ascribed to a god symbolic of the influences opposed to all
atmospheric moisture. "--Mure, vol. i. p. 480, sq.
270 Wood has observed, that "the circumstance of a falling tree, which
is described as reaching from one of its banks to the other, affords
a very just idea of the breadth of the Scamander. "
271 --_Ignominious. _ Drowning, as compared with a death in the field of
battle, was considered utterly disgraceful.
272 --_Beneath a caldron. _
"So, when with crackling flames a caldron fries,
The bubbling waters from the bottom rise.
Above the brims they force their fiery way;
Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day. "
Dryden's Virgil, vii. 644.
273 "This tale of the temporary servitude of particular gods, by order
of Jove, as a punishment for misbehaviour, recurs not unfrequently
among the incidents of the Mythical world. "--Grote, vol. i. p. 156.
274 --_Not half so dreadful. _
"On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. "
--Paradise Lost," xi. 708.
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
princess, in the heroic times.
277 --_Hesper shines with keener light. _
"Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn. "
"Paradise Lost," v. 166.
278 Such was his fate. After chasing the Trojans into the town, he was
slain by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the
unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made by the
Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was however rescued
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
with funeral honours, and conveyed it away to a renewed life of
immortality in the isle of Leuke in the Euxine.
279 --_Astyanax,_ i. e. the _city-king_ or guardian. It is amusing that
Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should have
copied this twaddling etymology into his Cratylus.
280 This book has been closely imitated by Virgil in his fifth book, but
it is almost useless to attempt a selection of passages for
comparison.
281 --_Thrice in order led. _ This was a frequent rite at funerals. The
Romans had the same custom, which they called _decursio. _ Plutarch
states that Alexander, in after times, renewed these same honours to
the memory of Achilles himself.
282 --_And swore. _ Literally, and called Orcus, the god of oaths, to
witness. See Buttmann, Lexilog, p. 436.
283 "O, long expected by thy friends! from whence
Art thou so late return'd for our defence?
Do we behold thee, wearied as we are
With length of labours, and with, toils of war?
After so many funerals of thy own,
Art thou restored to thy declining town?
But say, what wounds are these? what new disgrace
Deforms the manly features of thy face? "
Dryden, xi. 369.
284 --_Like a thin smoke. _ Virgil, Georg. iv. 72.
"In vain I reach my feeble hands to join
In sweet embraces--ah! no longer thine!
She said, and from his eyes the fleeting fair
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air. "
Dryden.
285 So Milton:--
"So eagerly the fiend
O'er bog, o'er steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. "
"Paradise Lost," ii. 948.
286 "An ancient forest, for the work design'd
(The shady covert of the savage kind).
The Trojans found: the sounding axe is placed:
Firs, pines, and pitch-trees, and the tow'ring pride
Of forest ashes, feel the fatal stroke,
And piercing wedges cleave the stubborn oak.
High trunks of trees, fell'd from the steepy crown
Of the bare mountains, roll with ruin down. "
Dryden's Virgil, vi. 261.
287 --_He vowed. _ This was a very ancient custom.
288 The height of the tomb or pile was a great proof of the dignity of
the deceased, and the honour in which he was held.
289 On the prevalence of this cruel custom amongst the northern nations,
see Mallet, p. 213.
290 --_And calls the spirit. _ Such was the custom anciently, even at the
Roman funerals.
"Hail, O ye holy manes! hail again,
Paternal ashes, now revived in vain. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 106.
291 Virgil, by making the boaster vanquished, has drawn a better moral
from this episode than Homer. The following lines deserve
comparison:--
"The haughty Dares in the lists appears:
Walking he strides, his head erected bears:
His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield,
And loud applauses echo through the field.
* * * *
Such Dares was, and such he strode along,
And drew the wonder of the gazing throng
His brawny breast and ample chest he shows;
His lifted arms around his head he throws,
And deals in whistling air his empty blows.
His match is sought, but, through the trembling band,
No one dares answer to the proud demand.
Presuming of his force, with sparkling eyes,
Already he devours the promised prize.
* * * *
If none my matchless valour dares oppose,
How long shall Dares wait his dastard foes? "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 486, seq.
292 "The gauntlet-fight thus ended, from the shore
His faithful friends unhappy Dares bore:
His mouth and nostrils pour'd a purple flood,
And pounded teeth came rushing with his blood. "
Dryden's Virgil, v. 623.
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
object of great interest with the subsequent poets. "--Grote, i, p.
399.
294 Milton has rivalled this passage describing the descent of Gabriel,
"Paradise Lost," bk. v. 266, seq.
"Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,
Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air. * * * *
* * * *
At once on th' eastern cliff of Paradise
He lights, and to his proper shape returns
A seraph wing'd. * * * *
Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide. "
Virgil, ? n. iv. 350:--
"Hermes obeys; with golden pinions binds
His flying feet, and mounts the western winds:
And whether o'er the seas or earth he flies,
With rapid force they bear him down the skies
But first he grasps within his awful hand
The mark of sovereign power, his magic wand;
With this he draws the ghost from hollow graves;
With this he drives them from the Stygian waves:
* * * *
Thus arm'd, the god begins his airy race,
And drives the racking clouds along the liquid space. "
Dryden.
295 In reference to the whole scene that follows, the remarks of
Coleridge are well worth reading:--
"By a close study of life, and by a true and natural mode of
expressing everything, Homer was enabled to venture upon the most
peculiar and difficult situations, and to extricate himself from
them with the completest success. The whole scene between Achilles
and Priam, when the latter comes to the Greek camp for the purpose
of redeeming the body of Hector, is at once the most profoundly
skilful, and yet the simplest and most affecting passage in the
Iliad. Quinctilian has taken notice of the following speech of
Priam, the rhetorical artifice of which is so transcendent, that if
genius did not often, especially in oratory, unconsciously fulfil
the most subtle precepts of criticism, we might be induced, on this
account alone, to consider the last book of the Iliad as what is
called spurious, in other words, of later date than the rest of the
poem. Observe the exquisite taste of Priam in occupying the mind of
Achilles, from the outset, with the image of his father; in
gradually introducing the parallel of his own situation; and,
lastly, mentioning Hector's name when he perceives that the hero is
softened, and then only in such a manner as to flatter the pride of
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
name, but which is of so fine and ethereal a subtlety that it can
only be felt in the original, and is lost in an attempt to transfuse
it into another language. "--Coleridge, p. 195.
296 "Achilles' ferocious treatment of the corpse of Hector cannot but
offend as referred to the modern standard of humanity. The heroic
age, however, must be judged by its own moral laws. Retributive
vengeance on the dead, as well as the living, was a duty inculcated
by the religion of those barbarous times which not only taught that
evil inflicted on the author of evil was a solace to the injured
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
rites essential to the soul's admission into the more favoured
regions of the lower world was a cruel punishment to the wanderer on
the dreary shores of the infernal river. The complaint of the ghost
of Patroclus to Achilles, of but a brief postponement of his own
obsequies, shows how efficacious their refusal to the remains of his
destroyer must have been in satiating the thirst of revenge, which,
even after death, was supposed to torment the dwellers in Hades.
Hence before yielding up the body of Hector to Priam, Achilles asks
pardon of Patroclus for even this partial cession of his just rights
of retribution. "--Mure, vol. i. 289.
297 Such was the fate of Astyanax, when Troy was taken.
"Here, from the tow'r by stern Ulysses thrown,
Andromache bewail'd her infant son. "
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 675.
298 The following observations of Coleridge furnish a most gallant and
interesting view of Helen's character--
"Few things are more interesting than to observe how the same hand
that has given us the fury and inconsistency of Achilles, gives us
also the consummate elegance and tenderness of Helen. She is through
the Iliad a genuine lady, graceful in motion and speech, noble in
her associations, full of remorse for a fault for which higher
powers seem responsible, yet grateful and affectionate towards those
with whom that fault had committed her. I have always thought the
following speech in which Helen laments Hector, and hints at her own
invidious and unprotected situation in Troy, as almost the sweetest
passage in the poem. It is another striking instance of that
refinement of feeling and softness of tone which so generally
distinguish the last book of the Iliad from the rest. "--Classic
Poets, p. 198, seq.
299 "And here we part with Achilles at the moment best calculated to
exalt and purify our impression of his character. We had accompanied
him through the effervescence, undulations, and final subsidence of
his stormy passions. We now leave him in repose and under the full
influence of the more amiable affections, while our admiration of
his great qualities is chastened by the reflection that, within a
few short days the mighty being in whom they were united was himself
to be suddenly cut off in the full vigour of their exercise.
The frequent and touching allusions, interspersed throughout the
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
finest evidences of the spirit of ethic unity by which the whole
framework of the poem is united. "--Mure, vol. i. p 201.
300 Cowper says,--"I cannot take my leave of this noble poem without
expressing how much I am struck with the plain conclusion of it. It
is like the exit of a great man out of company, whom he has
entertained magnificently; neither pompous nor familiar; not
contemptuous, yet without much ceremony. " Coleridge, p. 227,
considers the termination of "Paradise Lost" somewhat similar.
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