And had not Vulcan lent celestial aid, He too had funk to death's eternal shade; But in a moaky cloud the God of fire Struck with amaze, and fhame, the Trojan crew And whofe the conqueft, mighty Jove decide or in While we from interdicted fields retire, Nor tempt the wrath of heaven's avenging Sire. 30 35 40 alighting from his chariot was not that he could run fafter on foot, but that he could fooner escape by mixing with the croud of common foldiers. There is a particular exactly of the fame nature in the book of Judges, ch. 4. v. 15. where Sifera alights to fly in the fame manner. V. 40. Who barbe in blood.] It may feem fomething unnatural, that Pallas, at a time when the is endeavouring to work upon Mars under the appearance of benevolence and kindness, should make ufe of terms which feem fo full of bitter reproaches; but these will appear very properly applied to this warlike Deity. For perfons of this martial character, who fcorning equity and reafon, carry all things by force, are better pleased to be celebrated for their power than their virtue. Statues are raised to the conquerors, that is, the destroyers of nations, who are complemented for excelling in the arts of ruin. Demetrius the fon of Antigonus was celebrated by his Aatterers with the title of Poliorectes a term equivalent to one here made ufe of Her Her words allay th' impetuous warrior's heat, The God of arms and martial Maid retreat'; Remov'd from fight, on Xanthus' flow'ry bounds They fate, and liften'd to the dying founds. Meantime, the Greeks the Trojan race pursue, And fome bold chieftain ev'ry leader flew : 45 50 First V. 46. The God of arms and martial Maid retreat.] The retreat of Mars from the Trojans intimates that courage forfook them: It may be faid then, that Minerva's abfence from the Greeks will fignify that wisdom deserted them alfo. It is true she does defert them, but it is at a time when there was more occafion for gallant actions than for wife counfels. Euftathius V. 49. The Greeks the Trojan race purfue.] Homer always appears very zealous for the honour of Greece, which alone might be a proof of his being of that country, against the opinion of those who would have him of other nations. It is obfervable through the whole Iliad, that he endeavours every where to represent the Greeks as fuperior to the Trojans in valour and the art of war. In the beginning of the third book he defcribes the Trojans rushing on to the battel in a barbarous and confufed manner, with loud fhouts and cries, while the Greeks advance in the moft profound filence and exact order. And in the latter part of the fourth book, where the two armies march to the engagement, the Greeks are animated by Pallas, while Mars inftigates the Trojans, the Poet attributing by this plain allegory to the former a well-conducted valour, to the latter rafh ftrength and brutal force: So that the bilities of each nation are diftinguifhed by the characters of the Deities who affift them. But in this place, as Euftathius obferves, the Poet being willing to fhew how much the Greeks excelled their enemies, when they engaged only with their proper force, and when each fide was alike deftitute of divine afliftance, takes occafion to remove the Gods out of the battel, and then each Grecian chief gives fignal inftances of valour fuperior to the Trojans. A modern Critick obferves, that this conftant fuperiority of the Greeks in the art of war, valour, and number, is contradictory to the main defign of the poem, which is to make the return of Achilles appear neceffary for the prefervation of the Greeks; but this contradiction vanishes, when we reflect, that the affront given Achilles was the occafion of Jupiter's interpofing in favour of the Trojans. VOL. II. Wherefore B First Odius falls, and bites the bloody fand, As he to flight his wheeling car addrest, The speedy jav'lin drove from back to breast. In duft the mighty Halizonian lay, 55 His arms refound, the spirit wings its way. Thy fate was next, O Phæftus! doom'd to feel The great Idomeneus' protended steel; Whom Borus fent (his fon and only joy) From fruitful Tarne to the fields of Troy. 60 The Cretan jav'lin reach'd him from afar, And pierc'd his shoulder as he mounts his car; Then dy'd Scamandrius, expert in the chace, To bend the bow, and aim unerring darts: But vainly here Diana's arts he tries, 65 70 Wherefore the anger of Achilles was not pernicious to the Greeks purely because it kept him inactive, but because it occafioned Jupiter to afflict them in fuch a manner, as made it neceffary to appease Achilles, in order to render Jupiter propitious. V. 63. Back from the car he tumbles.]. It is in poetry as in painting, the postures and attitudes of each figure ought to be different: Homer takes care not to draw two perfons in the fame pofture; one is tumbled from his chariot, another is flain as he afcends it, a third as he endeavours to escape on foot, a conduct which is every where observed by the Poet. Euftathius. From Thro' his broad back and heaving bofom went : Next artful Phereclus untimely fell; To him the fhipwright's and the builder's art. Nor faw his country's peril, nor his own. 75 80 85 The spear of Merion mingled with the dead. ner. V. 75. Next artful Phereclus.] This character of Phereclus is finely imagined, and presents a noble moral in an uncommon manThere ran a report, that the Trojans had formerly received an oracle; commanding them to follow husbandry, and not apply themselves to navigation. Homer from hence takes occafion to feign, that the shipwright, who prefumed to build the fleet of Paris when he took his fatal voyage to Greece, was overtaken by the divine vengeance fo long after as in this battel. One may take notice too in this, as in many other places, of the remarkable difpofition Homer fhews to Mechanicks; he never omits an opportunity either of defcribing a piece of workmanship, or of celebrating an artift. Prone on his knees he falls with fruitless cries, From Meges' force the fwift Pedaus fled, 90 How V. 93. Whofe gen rous fpoufe Theano.] Homer in this remarkable paffage commends the fair Theano for bleeding up a baftard of her hufband's with the fame tenderness as her own Children. This lady was a woman of the firft quality, and (as it appears in the fixth Iliad) the high Priestess of Minerva: So that one cannot imagine the education of this child was impofed upon her by the authority or power of Antenor; Homer himself takes care to remove any fuch derogatory notion, by particularizing the motive of this unufual piece of humanity to have been to pleafe her hufband, χαριζομένη πόσεϊ . Nor ought we to leffen this commendation by thinking the wives of thofe times in general were more complaifant than those of our own. The ftories of Phoenix, Clytemnestra, Medea, and many others, are plain inftances how highly the keeping of miftreffes was resented by the married ladies. But there was a difference between the Greeks and Afiaticks as to their notions of marriage: For it is certain the latter allowed plurality of wives; Priam had many lawful ones, and fome of them Princefies who brought great dowries. Theano was an Afiatick, and that is the moft we can grant; for the fon fhe nurfed fo carefully was apparently not by a wife, but by a miftiefs; and her paflions were naturally the fame with those of the Grecian women. As to the degree of regard then fhewn to the baftards, they were carefully enough educated, though not (like this of Antenor) as the lawful iffue, nor admitted to an equal fhare of inheritance. Megapenthes and Nicoftratus were excluded from the inheritance of Sparta, because they were born of bond women, as Paufanias fays. But Neoptolemus, a natural fon of Achilles by Deidamia, fucceeded in his father's kingdom, perhaps with relpect to his mother's quality, who was a Princefs. Upon the whole, however that matter ftcod, Homer was very favourable to baftards, and has paid them more compliments than one in his works. If I am not mistaken, Ulyffes reckons himself one in the Odyfeis. Agamemnon in the eighth had plainly accounts it no difgrace, when charm'd with the noble exploits of young Teucer, and praifing him in the rapture of his heart, he just then |