No More Learning

248.

107 --_Barbarous tongues. _ "Various as were the dialects of the
Greeks--and these differences existed not only between the several
tribes, but even between neighbouring cities--they yet acknowledged
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
had no general name for the Greek nation. "--Heeren, "Ancient Greece,"
Section vii. p. 107, sq.

_ 108 The cranes. _
"Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried:
And each with outstretch'd neck his rank maintains,
In marshall'd order through th' ethereal void. "

Lorenzo de Medici, in Roscoe's Life, Appendix.

See Cary's Dante: "Hell," canto v.

_ 109 Silent, breathing rage. _
"Thus they,
Breathing united force with fixed thought,
Moved on in silence. "

"Paradise Lost," book i. 559.

110 "As when some peasant in a bushy brake
Has with unwary footing press'd a snake;
He starts aside, astonish'd, when he spies
His rising crest, blue neck, and rolling eyes"

Dryden's Virgil, ii. 510.

111 Dysparis, i. e. unlucky, ill fated, Paris. This alludes to the evils
which resulted from his having been brought up, despite the omens
which attended his birth.

112 The following scene, in which Homer has contrived to introduce so
brilliant a sketch of the Grecian warriors, has been imitated by
Euripides, who in his "Phoenissae" represents Antigone surveying the
opposing champions from a high tower, while the paedagogus describes
their insignia and details their histories.

113 --_No wonder,_ &c. Zeuxis, the celebrated artist, is said to have
appended these lines to his picture of Helen, as a motto. Valer Max.
iii. 7.

114 The early epic was largely occupied with the exploits and sufferings
of women, or heroines, the wives and daughters of the Grecian
heroes. A nation of courageous, hardy, indefatigable women, dwelling
apart from men, permitting only a short temporary intercourse, for
the purpose of renovating their numbers, burning out their right
breast with a view of enabling themselves to draw the bow freely;
this was at once a general type, stimulating to the fancy of the
poet, and a theme eminently popular with his hearers. We find these
warlike females constantly reappearing in the ancient poems, and
universally accepted as past realities in the Iliad. When Priam
wishes to illustrate emphatically the most numerous host in which he
ever found himself included, he tells us that it was assembled in
Phrygia, on the banks of the Sangarius, for the purpose of resisting
the formidable Amazons. When Bellerophon is to be employed in a
deadly and perilous undertaking, by those who prudently wished to
procure his death, he is despatched against the Amazons. --Grote, vol.
i p. 289.

115 --_Antenor,_ like ? neas, had always been favourable to the
restoration of Helen. Liv 1. 2.

116 "His lab'ring heart with sudden rapture seized
He paus'd, and on the ground in silence gazed.
Unskill'd and uninspired he seems to stand,
Nor lifts the eye, nor graceful moves the hand:
Then, while the chiefs in still attention hung,
Pours the full tide of eloquence along;
While from his lips the melting torrent flows,
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows.
Now stronger notes engage the listening crowd,
Louder the accents rise, and yet more loud,
Like thunders rolling from a distant cloud. "

Merrick's "Tryphiodorus," 148, 99.

117 Duport, "Gnomol. Homer," p. 20, well observes that this comparison
may also be sarcastically applied to the _frigid_ style of oratory.
It, of course, here merely denotes the ready fluency of Ulysses.

118 --_Her brothers' doom. _ They perished in combat with Lynceus and
Idas, whilst besieging Sparta. See Hygin. Poet Astr. 32, 22. Virgil
and others, however, make them share immortality by turns.

119 Idreus was the arm-bearer and charioteer of king Priam, slain during
this war. Cf. ? n, vi. 487.

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.

122 --_Nor pierced. _

"This said, his feeble hand a jav'lin threw,
Which, flutt'ring, seemed to loiter as it flew,
Just, and but barely, to the mark it held,
And faintly tinkled on the brazen shield. "

Dryden's Virgil, ii. 742.

_ 123 Reveal'd the queen. _

"Thus having said, she turn'd and made appear
Her neck refulgent and dishevell'd hair,
Which, flowing from her shoulders, reach'd the ground,
And widely spread ambrosial scents around.
In length of train descends her sweeping gown;
And, by her graceful walk, the queen of love is known. "

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
early kings, Cranaus.

125 --_The martial maid. _ In the original, "Minerva Alalcomeneis," _i. e.
the defender,_ so called from her temple at Alalcomene in Boeotia.

126 "Anything for a quiet life! "

127 --_Argos. _ The worship of Juno at Argos was very celebrated in
ancient times, and she was regarded as the patron deity of that
city. Apul. Met. , vi. p. 453; Servius on Virg. ? n. , i. 28.

128 --_A wife and sister. _

"But I, who walk in awful state above
The majesty of heav'n, the sister-wife of Jove. "

Dryden's "Virgil," i. 70.

So Apuleius, _l. c. _ speaks of her as "Jovis germana et conjux, and
so Horace, Od. iii. 3, 64, "conjuge me Jovis et sorore. "

129 "Thither came Uriel, gleaming through the even
On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired
Impress the air, and shows the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds. "

--"Paradise Lost," iv. 555.

130 --_? sepus' flood. _ A river of Mysia, rising from Mount Cotyius, in
the southern part of the chain of Ida.

131 --_Zelia,_ a town of Troas, at the foot of Ida.

132 --_Podaleirius_ and _Machaon_ are the leeches of the Grecian army,
highly prized and consulted by all the wounded chiefs. Their medical
renown was further prolonged in the subsequent poem of Arktinus, the
Iliou Persis, wherein the one was represented as unrivalled in
surgical operations, the other as sagacious in detecting and
appreciating morbid symptoms. It was Podaleirius who first noticed
the glaring eyes and disturbed deportment which preceded the suicide
of Ajax.

"Galen appears uncertain whether Asklepius (as well as Dionysus) was
originally a god, or whether he was first a man and then became
afterwards a god; but Apollodorus professed to fix the exact date of
his apotheosis. Throughout all the historical ages the descendants
of Asklepius were numerous and widely diffused. The many families or
gentes, called Asklepiads, who devoted themselves to the study and
practice of medicine, and who principally dwelt near the temples of
Asklepius, whither sick and suffering men came to obtain relief--all
recognized the god not merely as the object of their common worship,
but also as their actual progenitor. "--Grote vol. i. p. 248.

133 "The plant she bruises with a stone, and stands
Tempering the juice between her ivory hands
This o'er her breast she sheds with sovereign art
And bathes with gentle touch the wounded part
The wound such virtue from the juice derives,
At once the blood is stanch'd, the youth revives. "

"Orlando Furioso," book 1.

134 --_Well might I wish. _

"Would heav'n (said he) my strength and youth recall,
Such as I was beneath Praeneste's wall--
Then when I made the foremost foes retire,
And set whole heaps of conquer'd shields on fire;
When Herilus in single fight I slew,
Whom with three lives Feronia did endue. "

Dryden's Virgil, viii. 742.

135 --_Sthenelus,_ a son of Capaneus, one of the Epigoni. He was one of
the suitors of Helen, and is said to have been one of those who
entered Troy inside the wooden horse.

136 --_Forwarn'd the horrors. _ The same portent has already been
mentioned. To this day, modern nations are not wholly free from this
superstition.

137 --_Sevenfold city,_ Boeotian Thebes, which had seven gates.

138 --_As when the winds. _

"Thus, when a black-brow'd gust begins to rise,
White foam at first on the curl'd ocean fries;
Then roars the main, the billows mount the skies,
Till, by the fury of the storm full blown,
The muddy billow o'er the clouds is thrown. "

Dryden's Virgil, vii. 736.

139 "Stood
Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved;
His stature reach'd the sky. "

--"Paradise Lost," iv. 986.

140 The Abantes seem to have been of Thracian origin.

141 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.

142 --_? nus,_ a fountain almost proverbial for its coldness.

143 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. "

144 "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.

145 --_From mortal mists. _

"But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed. "

"Paradise Lost," xi. 411.

146 --_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.

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

148 --_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.

149 This was during the wars with the Titans.

150 --_Amphitryon's son,_ Hercules, born to Jove by Alcmena, the wife of
Amphitryon.

151 --_? giale_ 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.

152 --_Pherae,_ a town of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly.

153 --_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.

154 These heroes' names have since passed into a kind of proverb,
designating the _oi polloi_ or mob.

155 --_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.

156 "Till Morn,
Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand
Unbarr'd the gates of light. "

--"Paradise Lost," vi, 2.

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
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.

158 "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.
159 "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.

160 --_Paeon_ seems to have been to the gods, what Podaleirius and
Machaon were to the Grecian heroes.

161 --_Arisbe,_ a colony of the Mitylenaeans in Troas.

162 --_Pedasus,_ a town near Pylos.

163 --_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.

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 breasts; 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 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. "

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 passed 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 --_God 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: Hell, 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. ? n. 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. tit. 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 gods 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 God and light of heaven,
As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole. "

--"Paradise Lost. "

"E quanto e da le stelle al basso 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 gods--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. "

Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v 687, sqq.

"Th' Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in heav'n his golden scales,
Wherein all things created first he weighed;
The pendulous round earth, with balanced air
In counterpoise; now ponders all events,
Battles and realms. In these he puts two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight:
The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam. "

"Paradise Lost," iv. 496.

193 --_And now,_ &c.

"And now all heaven
Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread;
Had not th' Almighty Father, where he sits
. . . foreseen. "

--"Paradise Lost," vi. 669.

194 --_Gerenian Nestor. _ The epithet _Gerenian_ either refers to the name
of a place in which Nestor was educated, or merely signifies
honoured, revered. See Schol. Venet. in II. B. 336; Strabo, viii. p.
340.

195 --_? gae, Helice. _ Both these towns were conspicuous for their worship
of Neptune.

196 --_As full blown,_ &c.

"Il suo Lesbia quasi bel fior succiso,
E in atto si gentil languir tremanti
Gl' occhi, e cader siu 'l tergo il collo mira. "

Gier. Lib. ix. 85.

197 --_Ungrateful,_ because the cause in which they were engaged was
unjust.

"Struck by the lab'ring priests' uplifted hands
The victims fall: to heav'n they make their pray'r,
The curling vapours load the ambient air.
But vain their toil: the pow'rs who rule the skies
Averse beheld the ungrateful sacrifice. "

Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 527, sqq.

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
Of all steepe hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for shows,
And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight;
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
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.