AN ESSAY ΟΝ HOMER's Battels. P Erhaps it may be neceffary in this place at the opening of Homer's Battels, to premise fome obfervations upon them in general. I fhall firft endeavour to fhew the Conduct of the Poet herein, and next collect fome Antiquities, that tend to a more diftinct understanding of those descriptions which make fo large a part of the Poem. One may very well apply to Homer himself, what he fays of his Heroes at the end of the fourth book, that whosoever should be guided thro' his battels by Minerva, and pointed to every fcene of them, would fee nothing through the whole but fubjects of furprize and applaufe. When the reader reflects that no less than the compafs of twelve books is taken up in thefe, he will have reafon to wonder by what methods our author could prevent defcriptions of such a length from being tedious. It is not enough to fay, that tho' the fubject itself be the fame, the actions are always different; that we have now diftinct combates, now promifcuous fights, now fingle duels, now general engagements: or that the fcenes are perpetually vary'd; we are now in the fields, now at the fortification of the Greeks, now at the ships, now at the gates of Troy, now at the river Scamander: But we must look farther into the art of the poet to find the reafons of this aftonithing variety. We may first obferve that diverfity in the deaths of his warriors, which he has fupply'd by the vastest fertility of invention. Thefe he distinguishes feveral ways: Sometimes by the characters of the Men, their age, office, profeffion, nation, family, &c. One is a blooming youth, whofe father dif fuaded him from the war; one is a Prieft, whofe piery could not fave him; one is a sportfman, whom Diana taught in vain; one is the native of a fardiftant countrey, who is never to return; one is defcended from a noble line, which ends in his death;" one is made remarkable by his boasting; another by his befeeching; and another who is diftinguifh'd no way elfe, is mark'd by his Habit and the fingularity of his armour. Sometimes he varies thefe deaths by the feveral poftures in which his Heroes are reprefented either fighting or falling. Some of these are fo exceedingly exact, that one may guefs from the very pofition of the combatant, whereabouts the wound will light: Others fo very peculiar and uncommon, that they could only be the effect of an imagination which had fearch'd thro' all the ideas of nature. Such is that picture of Myden in the fifth book, whofe arm being numb'd by a blow on the elbow, drops the reins that trail on the ground; and then being fuddenly ftruck on the temples, falls headlong from the chariot in a foft and deep place; where he finks up to the shoulders in the fands, and continues a while fix'd by the weight of his armour, with his legs quivering in the air, 'till he is trampled down by his horfes. Another caufe of this variety is the difference of the wounds that are given in the Iliad: They are by no means like the wounds defcribed by most other Poets, which are commonly made in the felf-fame obvious places: The heart and head ferve for all thofe in general who understand no anatomy, and fometimes for variety they kill men by wounds that are no where mortal but in their poems. As the whole human body is the fubject of thefe, fo nothing is more neceffary to him who would defcribe them well, than a thorough knowledge of its ftructure, eyen tho' the poet is not profeffedly to write of them as an anatomist; in the fame manner as an exact skill in anatomy is neceffary to thofe Painters that would excel in drawing the naked, tho' they are not to make every muscle as vifible as in a book of chirurgery. It appears from fo many paffages in Homer that he was perfectly mafter of this fcience, that it would be needlefs to cite any in particular. One may only obferve, that if we throughly examine all the wounds he has defcrib'd, tho' fo infinite in number, and fo many ways diverfify'd, we fhall hardly find one which will contradict this obfervation. I must just add a remark, That the various periphrafes and circumlocutions by which Homer expreffes the fingle act of dying, have fupply'd Virgil and the fucceeding Poets with all their manner of phrafing it. Indeed he repeats the fame verfe on that occafion more often than they A 4 σxór os εκάλυψε ακάλυψε Αράβησε ἢ τοὐχὶ ἐπ' αὐτῷ, &c. But tho' it must be owned he had more frequent occafions for a line of this kind than any Poet, as no other has defcrib'd half fo many deaths, yet one cannot afcribe this to any fterility of expreffion, but to the genius of his times, that delighted in those reiterated verfes. We find repetitions of the fame fort affected by the facred writers, fuch as He was gathered to his people; He flept with his fathers, and the like. And upon the whole they have a certain antiquated harmony, not unlike the burthen of a fong, which the ear is willing to fuffer, and as it were refts upon. As the perpetual horror of combates, and a fucceffion of images of death, could not but keep the imagination very much on the ftretch; Homer has been careful to contrive fuch reliefs and pauses, as might divert the mind to fome other fcene, without lofing fight of his principal object. His comparisons are the more frequent on this account; for a comparifon ferves this end the most effectually of any thing, as it is at once correfpondent to, and differing from the fubject. Thofe criticks who fanfy that the use of comparisons diftracts the attention, and draws it from the first image which should moft employ it (as that we lose the idea of the battel itself, while we are led by a fimile to that of a deluge or a ftorm :) Thofe, I fay, may as well imagine we lofe the thought of the fun, when we fee his reflexion in the water; where he appears more diftinctly, and is contemplated more at eafe, than if we gaz'd directly at his beams. For it is with the eye of the imagination as it is with our corporeal eye, it must sometimes be taken off from the object in order to fee it the better. The fame criticks that are difpleated to have. their fancy diftracted (as they call it) are yet fo inconfiftent with themfelves as to object to Homer that his fimiles are too much alike, and are too often de |