Book V
:
In each battle there is one prominent person who may be called the hero of the day. This arrangement preserves unity, and helps to fix the attention of the reader. The gods sometimes favor one hero, and sometimes another. In this book we have the exploits of Diomede. Assisted by Minerva, he is eminent both for prudence and valor.
Sirius. This comparison, among many others, shows how constantly the poet’s attention was directed to the phenomena of nature.—Felton.
Ηιοεντι.
The chariots were probably very low. We frequently find in the Iliad that a person standing in a chariot is killed (and sometimes by a stroke on the head) by a foot soldier with a sword. This may farther appear from the ease with which they mount or alight, to facilitate which, the chariots were made open behind. That the wheels were small, may be supposed from their custom of taking them off and putting them on. Hebe puts on the wheels of Juno’s chariot, when he called for it in battle. It may be in allusion to the same custom, that it is said in Ex., ch. xiv.: “The Lord took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them heavily.” That it was very small and light, is evident from a passage in the tenth Il., where Diomede debates whether he shall draw the chariot of Rhesus out of the way, or carry it on his shoulders to a place of safety.
[Meges, son of Phyleus.]
This whole passage is considered by critics as very beautiful. It describes the hero carried by an enthusiastic valor into the midst of his enemies, and mingling in the ranks indiscriminately. The simile thoroughly illustrates this fury, proceeding as it did from an extraordinary infusion of courage from Heaven.
[Apollo.]
The deities are often invoked because of the agency ascribed to them and not from any particular religious usage. And just as often the heroes are protected by the gods who are worshipped by their own tribes and families—Muller.
This fiction of Homer, says Dacier, is founded upon an important truth of religion, not unknown to the Pagans: viz. that God only can open the eyes of men, and enable them to see what they cannot otherwise discover. The Old Testament furnishes examples. God opens the eyes of Hagar, that she may see the fountain. “The Lord opened the eyes of Baalam, and he saw the angel,” etc. This power of sight was given to Diomede only for the present occasion. In the 6th Book, on meeting Glaucus, he is ignorant whether he is a god, a hero, or a man.
[Or collar-bone.]
The belief of those times, in regard to the peace and happiness of the soul after death, made the protection of the body a matter of great importance. For a full account of these rites, see the articles Charon and Pluto, Gr. & Rom. Mythology.
The physician of the gods. Homer says nothing of his origin. He seems to be considered as distinct from Apollo, though perhaps originally identical with him.
From the fact that so few mystical myths are introduced in the Iliad, Müller infers that the mystical element of religion could not have predominated among the Grecian people for whom Homer sang. Otherwise, his poems in which that element is but little regarded, would not have afforded universal pleasure and satisfaction. He therefore takes but a passing notice of Demeter. Müller also remarks, that in this we cannot but admire the artistic skill of Homer, and the feeling for what is right and fitting that was innate with the Greeks.
[Vide Samson to Harapha in the Agonistes. There the word is used in the same sense.—Tr.]
[This is a construction of λευκ ελεφαντι given by some of the best commentators, and that seems the most probable.—Tr.]
This slow and orderly retreat of the Greeks, with their front constantly turned to the enemy, is a fine encomium on their courage and discipline. This manner of retreating was customary among the Lacedæmonians, as were many other martial customs described by Homer. The practice arose from the apprehension of being killed by a wound in the back, which was not only punished with infamy, but a person bearing the mark was denied the rites of burial.
[This, according to Porphyrius as quoted by Clarke, is the true meaning of αιολομιτρης.—Tr.]
The chariots of the gods were formed of various metals, and drawn through the air, or upon the surface of the sea, by horses of celestial breed. These chariots were used by the deities only on occasion of a long journey, or when they wished to appear with state and magnificence. Ordinarily they were transported from place to place by the aid of their golden sandals, with the exception of the “silver-footed Thetis,” to whom they seem to have been superfluous. When at home, the gods were barefoot, according to the custom of the age, as we see from various representations of antique art.
[These which I have called crescents, were a kind of hook of a semicircular form, to which the reins were occasionally fastened.—Tr.]
The Greeks borrowed the vest and shield of Minerva from the Lybians, only with this difference: the Lybian shield was fringed with thongs of leather, and the Grecian with serpents.—Herodotus.
This expression (the gates of Heaven) is in the eastern manner, and common in the Scriptures.
[Αρεα τονδε.]
Every thing that enters the dark empire of Hades disappears, and is seen no more; hence the figurative expression, to put on Pluto’s helmet; that is to become invisible.
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