Pours the black wine, and fees the flames afpire; The youth with inftruments furround the fire: 610 The thighs thus facrific'd, and entrails dreft,

Th' affiftants part, transfix, and roaft the reft:
Then spread the tables, the repaft prepare,
Each takes his feat, and each receives his fhare.
When now the rage of hunger was represt,
615 With pure libations they conclude the feast;

The youths with wine the copious goblets crown'd,
And pleas'd, difpenfe the flowing bowls around.
With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends,
The Paans lengthen'd 'till the fun defcends:
620 The Greeks reftor'd, the grateful notes prolong;
Apollo liftens, and approves the fong.

'Twas night; the Chiefs befide their veffel lie, 'Till rofie morn had purpled o'er the sky: Then launch, and hoife the maft; indulgent gales, 625 Supply'd by Phoebus, fill the fwelling fails;

The milk-white canvas bellying as they blow, The parted ocean foams and roars below :: Above the bounding billows swift they flew, 'Till now the Grecian camp appear'd in view. 630 Far on the beach they haul their bark to land,. (The crooked keel divides the yellow fand)

Then

Then part, where ftretch'd along the winding bay
The fhips and tents in mingled profpect lay.

But raging still amidst his navy fate
The ftern Achilles, ftedfaft in his hate;
Nor mix'd in combate, nor in council join'd;
But wafting cares lay heavy on his mind:
In his black thoughts revenge and flaughter roll,
And fcenes of blood rife dreadful in his foul.

Twelve days were paft, and now the dawning light
The Gods had fummon'd to th' Olympian height:
Jove first afcending from the wat'ry bow'rs,
Leads the long order of ætherial pow'rs.
When like a morning mift, in early day,
45 Rofe from the flood the daughter of the sea;
And to the feats divine her flight addrest.

There, far apart, and high above the rest,
The Thund'rer fate; where old Olympus fhrouds

His hundred heads in Heav'n, and props the clouds. 650 Suppliant the Goddefs ftood: One hand fhe plac'd Beneath his beard, and one his knees embrac'd.

If e'er, O father of the Gods! fhe faid,

My words cou'd please thee, or my actions aid;
Some marks of honour on my fon bestow,

655 And pay in glory what in life you owe.

Fame

Fame is at leaft by heav'nly promise due
To life fo fhort, and now dishonour'd too.
Avenge this wrong, oh ever juft and wife!

Let Greece be humbled, and the Trojans rise ; 660 'Till the proud King, and all th' Achaian race

Shall heap with honours him they now difgrace. This Thetis fpoke, but Jove in filence held The facred councils of his breast conceal'd, Not fo repuls'd, the Goddess closer prest, 665 Still grafp'd his knees, and urg'd the dear request. O Sire of Gods and Men! thy fuppliant hear, Refufe, or grant; for what has Jove to fear! Or oh! declare, of all the pow'rs above Is wretched Thetis leaft the care of Jove? 670 She faid, and fighing thus the God replies, Who rolls the thunder o'er the vaulted fkies. What haft thou afk'd? Ah why fhould Jove engage

In foreign contefts, and domeftick rage,

The Gods complaints, and Juno's fierce alarms, 675 While I, too partial, aid the Trojan arms?

Go, left the haughty partner of my sway
With jealous eyes thy close accefs survey;
But part in peace, fecure thy pray'r is sped:
Witness the facred honours of our head,

The

o The Nod that ratifies the will divine,

The faithful, fix'd, irrevocable fign;
This seals thy fuit, and this fulfils thy vows-
He spoke, and awful bends his fable brows;
Shakes his ambrofial curls, and gives the nod;
35 The ftamp of fate, and fanction of the God:

. 681. The faithful, fix'd, irrevocable fign.] There are among men three things by which the efficacy of a promife may be made void; the defign not to perform it, the want of power to bring it to pafs, and the inftability of our tempers; from all which Homer faw that the divinity must be exempted, and therefore he defcribes the nod, or ratification of Jupiter's word, as faithful, in oppofition to fraud, fure of being perform'd, in oppofition to weakness, and irrevocable, in oppofition to our repenting of a promife. Euftathius.

.683. He spoke, and awful bend.] This defcription of the Majefty of Jupiter has fomething exceedingly grand and venerable. Macrobius reports, that Phidias having made his 0lympian Jupiter, which paft for one of the greatest miracles of art, was ask'd from what pattern he fram'd fo divine a figure, and anfwer'd, it was from that archetype which he found in thefe lines of Homer. The fame author has also taken notice of Virgil's imitating it, l. 1.'

Dixerat, idque ratum Stygii per flumina fratris,
Per pice torrentes atrâque voragine ripas ;
Annuit, & totum nutu tremefecit Olympum.

Here indeed he has preferv'd the nod with its ftupendous effect, the making the heavens tremble. But he has neglected the defcription of the eye brows and the hair, thofe chief pieces of imagery from whence the artift took the idea of a countenance proper for the King of Gods and Men.

Thus far Macrobius, whom Scaliger anfwers in this manner; Aut ludunt Phidiam, aut nos ludit Phidias: Etiam fine Homero puro illum fciffe, Jovem non carere fuperciliis & cafarie.

High Heav'n with trembling the dread fignal took,

And all Olympus to the centre fhook.

Swift to the feas profound the Goddefs flies

Jove to his ftarry manfion in the skies.

690 The shining fynod of th' immortals wait

The coming God, and from their thrones of state

Arifing filent, wrapt in holy fear,

Before the Majefty of Heav'n appear.

Trembling they ftand, while Jove affumes the throne,

695 All, but the God's imperious Queen alone;
Late had the view'd the filver-footed dame,

And all her paffions kindled into flame.
Say, artful manager of heav'n (fhe cries)
Who now partakes the fecrets of the skies?

Thy

. 694. Jove affumes the throne.] As Homer makes the firft council of his men to be one continu'd fcene of anger, whereby the Grecian chiefs became divided, fo he makes the first meeting of the Gods to be spent in the fame paffion; whereby Jupiter is more fix'd to affift the Trojans, and Juno more incens'd against them. Thus the defign of the Poem goes on: The anger which began the book overfpreads all exiftent beings by the latter end of it: Heaven and earth become engag'd in the fubject, by which it rifes to a great importance in the reader's eyes, and is haften'd forward into the briskeft fcenes of action that can be fram'd upon that violent paffion.

V. 698. Say, artful manager.] The Gods and Goddeffes being defcrib'd with all the defires and pleafures, the paffions and humours of mankind, the commentators have taken a li

cence