The Iliad Part 83

221 "No thought of flight, None of retreat, no unbecoming deed That argued fear."

--"Paradise Lost," vi. 236.

222 --_One of love._ Although a b.a.s.t.a.r.d brother received only a small portion of the inheritance, he was commonly very well treated. Priam appears to be the only one of whom polygamy is directly a.s.serted in the Iliad. Grote, vol. ii. p. 114, note.

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

So they around Ulysses prest."

--Chapman.

224 --_Simois, railing,_ &c.

"In those b.l.o.o.d.y fields Where Simois rolls the bodies and the s.h.i.+elds Of heroes."

--Dryden's Virgil, i. 142.

225 "Where yon disorder'd heap of ruin lies, Stones rent from stones,--where clouds of dust arise,-- Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place, Below the wall's foundation drives his mace, And heaves the building from the solid base."

Dryden's Virgil, ii. 825.

226 --_Why boast we._

"Wherefore do I a.s.sume These royalties and not refuse to reign, Refusing to accept as great a share Of hazard as of honour, due alike to him Who reigns, and so much to him due Of hazard more, as he above the rest High honour'd sits."

--"Paradise Lost," ii. 450.

227 --_Each equal weight._

"Long time in even scale The battle hung."

--"Paradise Lost," vi. 245.

228 "He on his impious foes right onward drove, _Gloomy as night._"

--"Paradise Lost," vi. 831

229 --_Renown'd for justice and for length of days,_ Arrian. de Exp.

Alex. iv. p. 239, also speaks of the independence of these people, which he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness.

Some authors have regarded the phrase "Hippomolgian," _i.e._ "milking their mares," as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes, since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares' milk one of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this pa.s.sage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as we read it, either "long-lived," or "bowless," the latter epithet indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.

230 Compare Chapman's quaint, bold verses:--

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

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

232 --_Who to Tydeus owes, i.e._ Diomed.

233 Compare Ta.s.so:--

Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci, Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci."

Gier. Lib. xvi. 25

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

235 "Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main-- Around my person wait, and bear my train: Succeed my wish, and second my design, The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine."

Dryden's Virgil, aen. i. 107, seq.

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

237 Milton has emulated this pa.s.sage, in describing the couch of our first parents:--

"Underneath the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay, 'Broider'd the ground."

--"Paradise Lost," iv. 700.

238 --_He lies protected,_

"Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run By angels many and strong, who interpos'd Defence, while others bore him on their s.h.i.+elds Back to his chariot, where it stood retir'd From off the files of war; there they him laid, Gnas.h.i.+ng for anguish, and despite, and shame."

"Paradise Lost," vi. 335, seq.

239 --_The brazen dome._ See the note on Bk. viii. Page 142.

240 --_For, by the G.o.ds! who flies._ Observe the bold ellipsis of "he cries," and the transition from the direct to the oblique construction. So in Milton:--

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

Milton, "Paradise Lost," Book iv.

241 --_So some tall rock._

"But like a rock unmov'd, a rock that braves The raging tempest, and the rising waves-- Propp'd on himself he stands: his solid sides Wash off the sea-weeds, and the sounding tides."

Dryden's Virgil, vii. 809.

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

243 --_His best beloved._ The following elegant remarks of Thirlwall (Greece, vol. i, p. 176 seq.) well ill.u.s.trate the character of the friends.h.i.+p subsisting between these two heroes--

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

i. p. 176, seq.

244 "As hungry wolves with raging appet.i.te, 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.