The Fight being again began to advantage gry Grocks.Jupiter lets fall Thunder at of fect of Diomed's Herkes;& Nestor whe accompanys him is to terrifve at it, that he Oblives him to quit & Field of Battle, ofw &Trojans remain Masters, B.VIII. THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE ILIA D. A URORA now, fair daughter of the dawn, Where high Olympus' cloudy tops arife. The * Homer, like moft of the Greeks, is thought to have tra vell'd into Egypt, and brought from the priests there, not on ly their learning, but their manner of conveying it in fables and hieroglyphicks. This is neceffary to be confider'd by thofe who would thoroughly penetrate into the beauty and defign of many parts of this Author: For whoever reflects that this was the mode of learning in thofe times, will make no doubt but there are feveral myfteries both of natural and moral The Sire of Gods his awful filence broke: The heav'ns attentive trembled as he spoke. Celestial states, immortal Gods! give ear, Hear our decree, and rev'rence what ye hear; The fix'd decree which not all heav'n can move; 10 Thou Fate! fulfil it; and ye pow'rs! approve! What God but enters yon' forbidden field, Who yields affiftance, or but wills to yield; Back to the skies with fhame he fhall be driv'n, Gafh'd with difhoneft wounds, the fcorn of heav'n: 15 Or far, oh far from fteep Olympus thrown, Low in the dark Tartarean gulf fhall groan, With moral philofophy involv'd in his fictions, which otherwife in the literal meaning appear too trivial or irrational; and it is but juft, when thefe are not plain or immediately intelligible, to imagine that fomething of this kind may be hid under them. Nevertheless, as Hemer travell'd not with a direct view of writing philofophy or theology, fo he might often ufe these hieroglyphical fables and traditions as embellishments of his poetry only, without taking the pains to open their mystical meaning to his readers, and perhaps without diving very deeply into it himself. .16. Low in the dark Tartarean Gulf, &c.] This opinion of Tartarus, the place of torture for the impious after death, might be taken from the Egyptians: for it feems not improbable, as fome writers have obferved, that fome tradition might then be fpread in the Eastern parts of the world, of the fall of the angels, the punishment of the damned, and other facred truths were afterwards more fully explain'd and taught by the Prophets and Apoftles. Thefe Hamer feems to allude to in this and other paffages; as where Vulcan is faid to be precipitated from heaven in the fift book, where Jupiter threatens With burning chains fix'd to the brazen floors, As deep beneath th' infernal centre hurl'd, 20 As from that centre to th' æthereal world. Let him who tempts me, dread those dire abodes ; And know, th' Almighty is the God of Gods. League all your forces then, ye pow'rs above, Join all, and try th' omnipotence of Jove: 25 Let down our golden, everlafting chain, [main: Whefe ftrong embrace holds heav'n, and earth, and Strive threatens Mars with Tartarus in the fifth, and where the Dæmon of Discord is caft out of heaven in the nineteenth. Virgil has tranflated a part of these lines in the fixth Æneid. -Tum Tartarus ipfe Bis patet in præceps tantum, tenditque fub umbras, And Milton in his first book, As far remov'd from God and light of heav'n, It may not be unpleafing juft to obferve the gradation in These three great Poets, as if they had vied with each other, in extending this idea of the depth of hell. Homer fays as far, Virgil twice as far, Milton thrice. .25. Let down our golden everlasting chain.] The various opinions of the ancients concerning this paffage are collected by Euftathius. Jupiter fays, If he holds this chain of gold, the force of all the Gods is unable to draw him down, but be can draw up them, the feas, and the earth, and caufe the whole univerfe to hang unactive. Some think that Jupiter fignifies the Ether, the golVOL. II. K Strive all, of mortal and immortal birth, To drag, by this, the Thund'rer down to earth: Ye ftrive in vain! If I but ftretch this hand, 301 heave the Gods, the Ocean, and the land, den chain the Sun: If the Ather did not temper the rays of the fun as they pass thro' it, his beams would not only drink up and exhale the Ocean in vapours, but alfo exhale the moisture from the veins of the earth, which is the cement that holds it together: by which means the whole creation would become unactive, and all its powers fufpended. Others affirm, that by this golden chain may be meant the days of the world's duration, les air, which are as it were painted by the luftre of the fun, and follow one another in a fucceffive chain till they arrive at their final period: While Jupiter or the Ather which the ancients call'd the foul of all things) ftill remains unchanged. Plato in his Theaterus fays that by this golden chain is meant the fun, whofe rays enliven all nature, and cement the parts of the univerfe. The Stoicks will have it, that by Jupiter is implied Destiny, which over-rules every thing both upon and above the earth. Others (delighted with their own conceits) imagine that Homer intended to reprefent the excellence of monarchy; that the fceptre ought to be fway'd by one hand, and that all the wheels of government fhould be put in motion by one perfon. But I fanfy a much better interpretation may be found for this, if we allow (as there is great reafon to believe) that the Agyptians understood the true fyftem of the world, and that Pythagoras first learn'd it from them. They held that the planets were kept in their orbits by gravitation upon the fun, which was therefore call'd Jovis carcer; and fometimes by the fun (as Macrob us informs us) is meant Jupiter himfeif: We fee too that the most prevailing opinion of antiquity fixes it to the fun; fo that I think it will be no ftrained interpretation to fay, that by the inability of the Gods to pull Jupiter out of his place with this catena, may be underfood the fuperior attractive force of the fun, whereby he continues unmoved, and draws all the reft of the planets towards him, |