If yon proud Monarch thus thy fon defies, Where aged Ocean holds his watʼry reign, 475 Why grieves my fon? Thy anguish let me fhare, He deeply fighing faid: To tell my woe, Achilles tells the embaffadors of Agamemnon, Il. 9. That he had the choice of two fates; one lefs glorious at home, but bleffed with a very long life; the other full of glory at Troy, but then he was never to return. The alternative being thus propos'd to him (not from Jupiter but Theris who reveal'd the decree) he chofe the latter, which he looks upon as his due, fince he gives away length of life for it: and accordingly when he complains to his mother of the difgrace he lies under, it is in this manner he makes a demand of honour. Monf. de la Motte very judiciously obferves, that but for this fore-knowledge of the certainty of his death at Troy, Achilles's character could have drawn but little efteem from the reader. A heroe of a vicious mind, bleft only with a fuperiority of ftrength, and invulnerable into the bargain, was not very proper to excite admiration; but Homer by this exquifite piece of art has made him the greatest of heroes, who is ftill purfuing glory in contempt of death, and even under that certainty generoufly devoting himself in every action. From From Thebe facred to Apollo's name, (Aëtion's realm) our conqu'ring army came, 480 With treasure loaded and triumphant spoils, Whofe juft divifion crown'd the foldier's toils; 478. From Thebè.] Homer, who open'd his poem with the action which immediately brought on Achille.'s anger, being now to give an account of the fame thing again, takes his rife more backward in the ftory. Thus the reader is inform'd in what he fhould know, without having been delay'd from entering upon the promis'd fubject. This is the first attempt which we fee made towards the poetical method of narration, which differs from the hiftorical; in that it does not proceed always directly in the line of time, but fometimes relates things which have gone before, when a more proper opportunity demands it, to make the narration more informing or beautiful. The foregoing remark is in regard only to the firft fix lines of this fpeech. What follows is a rehearsal of the preceding action of the poem, almoft in the fame words he had used in the opening it; and is one of thofe faults which has with moft juftice been objected to our Author. It is not to be deny'd but the account must be tedious, of what the reader had been juft before inform'd: and especially when we are given to understand it was no way neceffary, by what Achilles fays at the beginning, that Thetis knew the whole story already. As to repeating the fame lines, a practice ufual with Homer, it is not fo excufable in this place as in thofe, where meffages are deliver'd in the words they were receiv'd, or the like; it being unnatural to imagine, that the perfon whom the Poet introduces as actually fpeaking, fhould fall into the felf-fame words that are us'd in the narration by the Poet himself. Yet Milton was fo great an admirer and imitator of our author, as not to have fcrupled even this kind of repetition. The paffage is at the end of his tenth book, where Adam having declar'd he would proftrate himself before God in certain particular acts of humiliation, thofe acts are immediately after defcrib'd by the Poet in the fame words. But bright Chryfeïs, heav'nly prize! was led By vote felected, to the Gen'rals bed. The priest of Phoebus fought by gifts to gain. 499 The gen'rous Greeks their joint confent declare, Th' infulted fire (his God's peculiar care) And points the crime, and thence derives the woes: 500 My felf the first th' affembled chiefs incline T'avert the vengeance of the pow'r divine; Then rifing in his wrath, the Monarch storm'd; Incens'd he threaten'd, and his threats perform'd: 505 With offer'd gifts to make the Go drelen; But But now he feiz'd Brifeis' heav'nly charms, And of my valour's prize defrauds my arms, And fervice, faith, and justice plead in vain. fio But Goddefs! thou, thy fuppliant fon attend, ·To high Olympus' fhining court afcend, Urge all the ties to former fervice ow'd, And fuè for vengeance to the thund'ring God. Oft haft thou triumph'd in the glorious boast, 515 That thou ftood'ft forth, of all th' æthereal hoft, When V. 514. Oft haft thou triumph'd.] The perfuafive which Achilles is here made to put into the mouth of Thetis, is moft artfully contriv'd to fuit the prefent exigency. You, fays he,, must intreat Jupiter to bring miseries on the Greeks, who are protected by Juno, Neptune, and Minerva: Put him therefore in mind that those Deities were once his enemies, and adjure him. by that fervice you did him when thofe very powers would have bound him, that he will now in his turn affift you against the endeavours they will oppofe to my wifhes. Euftibus. As for the story itself, fome have thought (with whom is Madam Dacier) that there was fome imperfect tradition of the fall of the Angels for their rebellion, which the Greeks had receiv'd by commerce with Egypt: and thus they account the rebellion of the Gods, the precipitation of Vulcan from heaven, and Jove's threatning the inferior Gods with Tartarus but as fo many hints of fcripture faintly imitated. But it feems not improbable that the wars of the Gods, defcribed by the Poets, allude to the confufion of the elements before they were brought into their natural order. It is almoft generally agreed that by Jupiter is meant the Ether, and by funo the Air: The ancient Philofophers fuppos'd the Ether to be ingeous, by by its kind influence upon the Air to be the G S C When bold rebellion fhook the realms above, The warlike maid, and monarch of the main, 20 The Traytor-Gods, by mad ambition driv'n, Durft threat with chains th' omnipotence of heav'n. Then call'd by thee, the monfter Titan came, (Whom Gods Briareus, Men Ægeon name) Thro' wondring fkies enormous ftalk'd along; * 525 Not he that shakes the folid earth fo ftrong: *Nep tune. With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he ftands, eaufe of all vegetation: Therefore Homer fays in the 14th Iliad, That upon Jupiter's embracing his wife, the earth put forth its plants. Perhaps by Thetis's affifting Jupiter, may be meant that the watry element fubfiding and taking its natural place, put an end to this combat of the elements. .523. Whom Gods Briareus, Men Ageon name.] This manner of making the Gods fpeak a language different from men (which is frequent in Homer) is a circumftance that as far as it widens the diftinction between divine and human natures, fo far might tend to heighten the reverence paid the Gods. But befides this, as the difference is thus told in Poetry, it is of use to the Poets themselves: For it appears like a kind of testimony of their inspiration, or their converfe with the God's, aud thereby gives a majesty to their works. |