Perhaps the Chiefs, from warlike toils at eafe, Perhaps their fwords fome nobler quarrel draws, 310 Afham'd to combate in their fifter's caufe. So fpoke the fair, nor knew her brother's doom, Silent they flept, and heard of wars no more. Who thus the venerable King addreft. 320 The nations call, thy joyful people wait, To feal the truce, and end the dire debate, } . 309. Perhaps their fwords.] This is another ftroke of He len's concern: The fenfe of her crime is perpetually affli&ting her, and awakes upon every occafion. The lines that follow, wherein Homer gives us to underftand that Castor and Pollux were now dead, are finely introduc'd, and in the spirit of poetry: the mule is fuppos'd to know every thing, past and to come, and to fee things diftant as well as prefent. . 316. Mean time the heralds, &c.] It may not be unpleafing to the reader to compare the defcription of the ceremonies of the league in the following part with that of Virgil in the twelfth book. The preparations, the proceffion of the Kings, and their congrefs, are much more folemn and poetical in the latter; the oath and abjurations are equally noble in both. Paris thy son, and Sparta's King advance, Thus with a lafting league our toils may cease, So fhall the Greeks review their native fhore, He mounts the feat, Antenor at his fide; The gentle steeds thro' Scaa's gates they guide: The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands 345 Pour the full urn; then draws the Grecian Lord His cutlace fheath'd befide his pond'rous fword; Then . 342. The curling hair.] We have here the whole ceremonial of the folemn oath, as it was obferv'd anciently by the N 4 nations Then loudly thus before th' attentive bands 345 He calls the Gods, and fpreads his lifted hands. O first and greatest pow'r! whom all obey, From east to weft, and view from pole to pole! 350 Thou mother Earth! and all ye living floods! Infernal Furies, and Tartarean Gods, Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare The Dame and treafures let the Trojan keep, Be his the wealth and beauteous dame decreed: nations our author defcribes. I must take this occafion of remarking that we might fpare our felves the trouble of reading most books of Grecian antiquities, only by being well vers'd in Homer. They are generally bare tranfcriptions of him, but with this unneceffary addition, that after having quoted any thing in verfe, they fay the fame over again in profe. The Antiquitates Homerica of Feithius may ferve as an inftance of this. What my Lord Bacon obferves of authors in general, is particularly applicable to these of Antiquities, that they write for oftentation not for inftruction, and that their works are perpetual repetitions. Thap 360 Th' appointed fine let lion justly pay, This if the Phrygians fhall refuse to yield, With that the Chief the tender victims flew, 365 And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw : 361. And age to age record the fignal day.] "Hre aroun μετ ̓ ἀνθρώποισι πέλη). This feems the natural fenfe of the line, and not as Madam Dacier renders it. The tribute fhall be paid to the posterity of the Greeks for ever. I think she is single in that explication, the majority of the interpreters taking it to fignify that the victory of the Grecians and this pecunia y acknowledgment should be recorded to all pofterity. If it means any morethan this, at least it cannot come up to the fenfe Madam Dacier gives it; for a nation put under perpetual tribute is rather enflaved, than receiv'd to friendship and alliance, which are the terms of Agamemnon's fpeech. It feems rather to be a fine, demanded as a recompence for the expences of the war, which being made over to the Greeks, fhould remain to their po-ferny for ever, that is to fay, which they should never be molefted for, or which fhould never be re demanded in any age as a cafe of injury. The phrafe is the fame we ufe at this day, when any purchafe or grant is at once made over to a man and his heirs for ever. With this will agree the Sinolraft's note, which tells us the mul& was reported to have been half the goods then in the befieg'd city. .364. The chief the tender vil ms flew.] One of the grand objections which the ignorance of fome moderns has rais'd against Homer, is what they call a defe& in the manners of hisheroes. They are fhock'd to find his Kings employ'd in fuch offices as flaughtering of beasts, &c. But they forget that facrificing was the most folemn act of religion, and that Kings of old in moft nations were alfo Chief-priefts. This, among other objections of the fame kind, the reader may fee an fwer'd in the Preface, The vital fpirit iffu'd at the wound, And left the members quiv'ring on the ground. 370 While thus their pray'rs united mount the sky; Nor view the danger of fo dear a fon.. Whofe arms fhall conquer, and what Prince fhall fall, 385 Heav'n only knows, for heav'n disposes all. But on his car the flaughter'd victims laid; Bold: |