Book XXII
:
This simile is very striking. It not only describes the appearance of Achilles, but is peculiarly appropriate because the star was supposed to be of evil omen, and to bring with it disease and destruction. So Priam beholds Achilles, splendid with the divine armor, and the destined slayer of his son.—Felton.
The usual cruelties practised in the sacking of towns. Isaiah foretells to Babylon, that her children shall be dashed in pieces by the Medes. David says to the same city, “Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”—Ps. c22vii. 9.
It was supposed that venomous serpents were accustomed to eat poisonous roots and plants before attacking their victims.—Felton.
This speech of Hector shows the fluctuation of his mind, with much discernment on the part of the poet. He breaks out, after having apparently meditated a return to the city. But the imagined reproaches of Polydamas, and the anticipated scorn of the Trojans forbid it. He soliloquizes upon the possibility of coming to terms with Achilles, and offering him large concessions; but the character of Achilles precludes all hope of reconciliation. It is a fearful crisis with him, and his mind wavers, as if presentient of his approaching doom.—Felton.
[The repetition follows the original, and the Scholiast is of opinion that Homer uses it here that he may express more emphatically the length to which such conferences are apt to proceed.—Δια την πολυλογιαν τη αναληψε εχρησατο.]—Tr.
[It grew near to the tomb of Ilus.]
The Scamander ran down the eastern side of Ida, and at the distance of three stadia from Troy, making a subterraneous dip, it passed under the walls and rose again in the form of the two fountains here described—from which fountains these rivulets are said to have proceeded.
It was the custom of that age to have cisterns by the side of rivers and fountains, to which the women, including the wives and daughters of kings and princes, resorted to wash their garments.
Sacrifices were offered to the gods upon the hills and mountains, or, in the language of scripture, upon the _high places_, for the people believed that the gods inhabited such eminences.
[The numbers in the original are so constructed as to express the painful struggle that characterizes such a dream.]—Tr.
[προπροκυλινδομενος.]
The whole circumference of ancient Troy is said to have measured sixty stadia. A stadium measured one hundred and twenty-five paces.
[The knees of the conqueror were a kind of sanctuary to which the vanquished fled for refuge.]—Tr.
[The lines of which these three are a translation, are supposed by some to have been designed for the Επινικιον, or song of victory sung by the whole army.]—Tr.
[It was a custom in Thessaly to drag the slayer around the tomb of the slain; which custom was first begun by Simon, whose brother being killed by Eurydamas, he thus treated the body of the murderer. Achilles therefore, being a Thessalian, when he thus dishonors Hector, does it merely in compliance with the common practice of his country.]—Tr.
[It is an observation of the Scholiast, that two more affecting spectacles cannot be imagined, than Priam struggling to escape into the field, and Andromache to cast herself from the wall; for so he understands ατυζομενην απολεσθαι.]—Tr.
A figurative expression. In the style of the orientals, marrow and fatness are taken for whatever is best, most tender, and most delicious.
Homer is in nothing more excellent than in the distinction of characters, which he maintains throughout the poem. What Andromache here says, cannot be said with propriety by any one but Andromache.
Footnotes for