The Iliad Part 85

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 G.o.d 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, s.h.i.+ngly beds are in summer comparatively dry, so as to be easily forded by the foot pa.s.senger. But a thunder-shower in the mountains, un.o.bserved 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 G.o.d symbolic of the influences opposed to all atmospheric moisture."--Mure, vol. i. p. 480, sq.

270 Wood has observed, that "the circ.u.mstance 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 G.o.ds, 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 s.h.i.+nes 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 pa.s.sages 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 G.o.d of oaths, to witness. See b.u.t.tmann, 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 sh.o.r.e His faithful friends unhappy Dares bore: His mouth and nostrils pour'd a purple flood, And pounded teeth came rus.h.i.+ng 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.