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to mix their wine with water, as it became less plentiful. Hence the fable that Thetis received Bacchus into her bosom.

This style of language was according to the manners of the times. Thus Goliath to David, "Approach, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field." The Orientals still speak in the same manner.

Though this comparison may be justly admired for its beauty in the obvious application to the mortality and succession of human life, it seems designed by the poet, in this place, as a proper emblem of the transitory state of families which, by their misfortune or folly, have fallen and decayed, and again appear, in a happier season, to revive and flourish in the fame and virtues of their posterity. In this sense it is a direct answer to the question of Diomede, as well as a proper preface to what Glaticus relates of his own family, which, having become extinct in Corinth, recovers new life in Lycia.

The same as Corinth.

Some suppose that alphabetical writing was unknown in the Homeric age, and consequently that these signs must have been hieroglyphical marks. The question is a difficult one, and the most distinguished scholars are divided in opinion. We can hardly imagine that a poem of the length and general excellence of the Iliad, could be composed without the aid of writing; and yet, we are told, there are well-authenticated examples of such works being preserved and handed down by traditional memory. However this may be, we know that the Oriental nations were in possession of the art of alphabetical writing it a very early period, and before the Trojan war. It cannot, then, seem very improbable, that the authors of the Iliad should also have been acquainted with it.—Felton.

The Solymi were an ancient nation inhabiting the mountainous parts of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Pisidia. Pliny mentions them as having become extinct in his time.

It was the custom in ancient times, upon the performance of any signal service by kings or great men, for the public to grant them a tract of land as a reward. When Sarpedon, in the 12th Book, exhorts Glaucus to behave valiantly, he reminds him of these possessions granted by his countrymen.

The laws of hospitality were considered so sacred, that a friendship contracted under their observance was preferred to the ties of consanguinity and alliance, and regarded as obligatory even to the third and fourth generation. Diomede and Glaucus here became friends, on the ground of their grandfathers having been mutual guests. The presents made on these occasions were preserved by families, as it was considered obligatory to transmit them as memorials to their children.

[Ξεινοι πατρωιοι.]

The Scæan gate opened to the field of battle, and was the one through which the Trojans made their excursions. Close to this stood the beech tree sacred to Jupiter, and often mentioned in connection with it.

There is a mournfulness in the interview between the hero and his mother which is deeply interesting. Her urging him to take wine and his refusal were natural and simple incidents, which heighten the effect of the scene.—Felton.

The custom that prohibits persons polluted with blood from performing any offices of divine worship before purification, is so ancient and universal, that it may be considered a precept of natural religion, tending to inspire a horror of bloodshed. In Euripides, Iphigenia argues the impossibility of human sacrifices being acceptable to the gods, since they do not permit any one defiled with blood, or even polluted with the touch of a dead body, to come near their altars.

Paris surprised the King of Phœnecia by night, and carried off many of his treasures and captives, among whom probably were these Sidonian women. Tyre and Sidon were famous for works in gold, embroidery, etc., and for whatever pertained to magnificence and luxury.

This gesture is the only one described by Homer as being used by the ancients in their invocations of the gods.

[δια θεαων.]

The employment in which Hector finds Paris engaged, is extremely characteristic.—Felton.

This address of Helen is in fine keeping with her character.—Felton.

[The bulk of his heroes is a circumstance of which Homer frequently reminds us by the use of the wordμεγας—and which ought, therefore, by no means to be suppressed.—Tr.]

Love of his country is a prominent characteristic of Hector, and is here beautifully displayed in his discharging the duties that the public welfare required, before seeking his wife and child. Then finding that she had gone to the tower, he retraces his steps to "the Scæan gate, whence he must seek the field." Here his wife, on her return home, accidentally meets him.

[The name signifies, the Chief of the city.—Tr.]

It was the custom to plant about tombs only such trees as elms, alders, etc., that bear no fruit, as being most appropriate to the dead.

In this recapitulation, Homer acquaints us with some of the great achievements of Achilles, which preceded the opening of the poem—a happy manner of exalting his hero, and exciting our expectation as to what he is yet to accomplish. His greatest enemies never upbraid him, but confess his glory. When Apollo encourages the Trojans to fight, it is by telling them Achilles fights no more. When Juno animates the Greeks, she reminds them how their enemies fear Achilles; and when Andromache trembles for Hector, it is with the remembrance of his resistless force.

Drawing water was considered the most servile employment.

[The Scholiast in Villoisson calls it φυσικον τινα και μετριον γελωτα a natural and moderate laughter.—Tr.]

According to the ancient belief, the fatal period of life is appointed to all men at the time of their birth, which no precaution can avoid and no danger hasten.

This scene, for true and unaffected pathos, delicate touches of nature, and a profound knowledge of the human heart, has rarely been equalled, and never surpassed, among all the efforts of genius during the three thousand years that have gone by since it was conceived and composed.—Felton.

Footnotes for Book VII:

Holding the spear in this manner was, in ancient warfare, understood as a signal to discontinue the fight.

The challenge of Hector and the consternation of the Greeks, presents much the same scene as the challenge of Goliath, 1 Samuel, ch. 17: "And he stood and cried to the armies of Israel;—Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants.—When Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid."

It was an ancient custom for warriors to dedicate trophies of this kind to the temples of their tutelary deities.

[The club-bearer.]

[It is a word used by Dryden.]

Homer refers every thing, even the chance of the lots, to the disposition of the gods.

[Agamemnon.]

The lot was merely a piece of wood or shell, or any thing of the kind that was at hand. Probably it had some private mark, and not the name, as it was only recognized by the owner.

This reply is supposed to allude to some gesture made by Ajax in approaching Hector.

The heralds were considered as sacred persons, the delegates of Mercury, and inviolable by the laws of nations. Ancient history furnishes examples of the severity exercised upon those who were guilty of any outrage upon them. Their office was, to assist in the sacrifices and councils, to proclaim war or peace, to command silence at ceremonies or single combats, to part the combatants and declare the conqueror.

This word I have taken leave to coin. The Latins have both substantive and adjective. Purpura—Purpureus. We make purple serve both uses; but it seems a poverty to which we have no need to submit, at least in poetry.—Tr.

A particular mark of honor and respect, as this part of the victim belonged to the king. In the simplicity of the times, the reward offered a victorious warrior of the best portion of the sacrifice at supper, a more capacious bowl, or an upper seat at table, was a recompense for the greatest actions. It is worthy of observation, that beef, mutton, or kid, was the food of the heroes of Homer and the patriarchs and warriors of the Old Testament. Fishing and fowling were then the arts of more luxurious nations.

[The word is here used in the Latin sense of it. Virgil, describing the entertainment given by Evander to the Trojans, says that he regaled them

Perpetui tergo bovis et lustralibus extis.

Æn. viii.

It means, the whole.—Tr.]

Footnotes for Book VIII:

An epithet of Aurora, supposed to designate an early hour.

Many have explained this as an allegorical expression for one of the great laws of nature—gravity or the attraction of the sun. There is not the slightest probability that any such meaning is intended.—Felton.

A part of Mt. Ida. This place was celebrated, in subsequent times, for the worship of Jupiter. Several years ago, Dr. E.D. Clarke deposited, in the vestibule of the public library in Cambridge, England, a marble bust of Juno, taken from the ruins of this temple of Jupiter, at the base of Mt. Ida.—Felton

[In the repetition of this expression, the translator follows the original.]

Sacred, because that part of the day was appropriate to sacrifice and religious worship.

This figure is first used in the Scriptures. Job prays to be weighed in an even balance, that God may know his integrity. Daniel says to Belshazzar, "thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting," etc.

Jupiter's declaring against the Greeks by thunder and lightning, is drawn (says Dacier) from truth itself. 1 Sam. ch. vii.: "And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but the Lord thundered on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them."

Nothing can be more spirited than the enthusiasm of Hector, who, in the transport of his joy, breaks out in the following apostrophe to his horses. He has, in imagination, already forced the Grecian entrenchments, set the fleet in flames, and destroyed the whole army.

From this speech, it may be gathered that women were accustomed to loosen the horses from the chariot, on their return from battle, and feed them; and from line 214, unless it is spurious, it seems that the provender was sometimes mixed with wine. It is most probable, however, that the line is not genuine.—Felton.

Homer describes a princess so tender in her love to her husband, that she meets him on his return from every battle, and, in the joy of seeing him again, feeds his horses with bread and wine, as an acknowledgment to them for bringing him back.—Dacier.

These were the arms that Diomede had received from Glaucus.

[None daring to keep the field, and all striving to enter the gates together, they obstructed their own passage, and were, of course, compelled into the narrow interval between the foss and rampart.

But there are different opinions about the space intended. See Villoisson.—Tr.]

[To Jove, the source of all oracular information.]

Jupiter, in answer to the prayer of Agamemnon, sends an omen to encourage the Greeks. The application of it is obvious: The eagle signified Hector, the fawn denoted the fear and flight of the Greeks, and being dropped at the altar of Jupiter, indicated that they would be saved by the protection of that god.

This simile is very beautiful, and exactly represents the manner of Gorgythion's death. There is so much truth in the comparison, that we pity the fall of the youth and almost feel his

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