Good work with their close fights before. Behind whom, having shot, The Locrians hid still; and their foes all thought of fight forgot With shows of those far-striking shafts, their eyes were troubled so. Command that your advice obeys) with utmost speed." This said, With day-bright arms, white plume, white scarf, his goodly limbs array'd, He parted from them, like a hill, removing, all of snow, And to the Trojan peers and chiefs he flew, to let them know The counsel of Polydamas. All turn'd, and did rejoice, And then, assuredly, from the ships, and In counsels wouldst thou pass us too? In To some God gives the power of war, to some the sleight to dance, To some the art of instruments, some doth for voice advance; And that far-seeing God grants some the wisdom of the mind, Which no man can keep to himself, that, though but few can find, Doth profit many, that preserves the public weal and state, The And that, who hath, he best can prize. And so a few with many fight, spersed thinly through the fleet. Retire then, leave speech to the rout, and all thy princes call, That, here, in counsels of most weight, we may resolve of all, If having likelihood to believe that God will conquest give, We shall charge through; or with this grace, make our retreat, and live. For, I must needs affirm, I fear, the debt of yesterday (Since war is such a God of change) the Grecians now will pay. And since th' insatiate man of war remains at fleet, if there We tempt his safety, no hour more his hot soul can forbear." This sound stuff Hector liked, approved, jump'd from his chariot, And said: Polydamas make good this place, and suffer not One prince to pass it; I myself will there go, where you see Those friends in skirmish, and return (when they have heard from me haste to Panthus' gentle son, being Who, through the forefights making way, Asiades, Hyrtasian Of whom, some were not to be found unhurt, or undeceased, Some only hurt, and gone from field. As further he address'd, He found within the fight's left wing the fair-hair'd Helen's love By all means moving men to blows; which could by no means move Hector's forbearance; his friends' miss so put his powers in storm: But thus in wonted terms he chid: "You with the finest form, Impostor, woman's man, where are, in your care mark'd, all these? Deiphobus, King Helenus, Asius Hyrtacides, Othryoneus, Acamas? Now haughty Ilion Shakes to his lowest groundwork. Now " just ruin falls upon Thy head past rescue.' He replied: 'Hector, why chidest thou now, When I am guiltless? Other times, there are for ease I know, Than these; for she that brought thee forth, not utterly left me Without some portion of thy spirit, to make me brother thee. But since thou first brought'st in thy force, to this our naval fight, I and my friends have ceaseless fought, to do thy service right. But all those friends thou seek'st are slain; excepting Helenus, Who parted wounded in his hand, and so Deiphobus; Jove yet averted death from them. And now lead thou as far As thy great heart affects, all we will second any war That thou endurest; and I hope, my own strength is not lost; Though least, I'll fight it to his best; nor further fights the most.' This calm'd hot Hector's spleen; and both turn'd where they saw the face Of war most fierce, and that was where their friends made good the place About renown'd Polydamas, and god-like Polypæt, Palmus, Ascanius, Morus that Hippotion did beget, And from Ascania's wealthy fields but even the day before Arrived at Troy, that with their aid they kindly might restore Some kindness they received from thence. And in fierce fight with these, Phalces and tall Orthæus stood, and bold Cebriones. And then the doubt that in advice Polydamas disclosed, To fight or fly, Jove took away, and all to fight disposed. And as the floods of troubled air to pitchy storms increase That after thunder sweeps the fields, and ravish up the seas, Encountering with abhorred roars, when the engrossed waves Boil into foam, and endlessly one after other raves; So rank'd and guarded th' Ilians march'd; some now, more now, and then More upon more, in shining steel; now captains, then their men. And Hector, like man-killing Mars, advanced before them all, His huge round target before him, through thicken'd, like a wall, With hides well couch'd with store of brass; and on his temples shined His bright helm, on which danced his plume; and in this horrid kind, (All hid within his world-like shield) he every troop assay'd For entry, that in his despite stood firm and undismay'd. Which when he saw, and kept more off, Come nearer. Not art's want in war makes us thus navy-bound, But Jove's direct scourge; his arm'd hand makes our hands give you ground. Yet thou hopest, of thyself, our spoil. But we have likewise hands To hold our own, as you to spoil; and ere thy countermands Stand good against our ransack'd fleet, your hugely-peopled town Our hands shall take in, and her towers from all their heights pull down. And I must tell thee, time draws on, when, flying, thou shalt cry To Jove and all the Gods to make thy fair-maned horses fly More swift than falcons, that their hoofs may rouse the dust, and bear Thy body, hid, to Ilion." This said, his bold words were Confirm'd as soon as spoke. Jove's bird, the high-flown eagle, took The right hand of their host; whose wings high acclamations strook From forth the glad breasts of the Greeks. Then Hector made reply: "Vain-spoken man, and glorious, what hast thou said? Would I As surely were the son of Jove, and of great Juno born, Adorn'd like Pallas, and the God that lifts to earth the morn, As this day shall bring harmful light to all your host; and thou If thou darest stand this lance, the earth before the ships shalt strow, Thy bosom torn up, and the dogs, with all the fowl of Troy, Be satiate with thy fat and flesh." This said, with shouting joy His first troops follow'd; and the last their shouts with shouts repell'd. Greece answer'd all, nor could her spirits from all show rest conceal'd. And to so infinite a height all acclamations strove, They reach'd the splendours, stuck about the unreach'd throne of Jove. COMMENTARIUS. ̓Αγανῶν Ιππημολγών, &c., illustrium prose) take ἀγαθῶν, the epithet to Ιππη Hippemolgorum: гλaктopáуwv, lacte ves- podyŵr, for a nation so called, and 'In centium, &c. Laurentius Valla, and μολγών, Γλακτοφάγων ἀβίων τε translates, Eobanus Hessus (who I think translated ut quæ sine ullis divitiis equino victitat Homer into hexameters out of Valla's lacte; intending gens Agavorum, which ex a he takes for those just men of life likewise which Homer commends; utterly mistaking ayavos, signifying præclarus or illustris, whose genitive case plural is used here; and the word, epithet to Ipoly@v, together signifying illustrium Hippemolgorum, and they being bred, and continually fed with milk (which the next word yλakтooáywv signifies) Homer calls most just, long-lived, and innocent, in the words ἀβίων τε δικαιοτάτων ἀνθρώπων ἄβιος | signifying longævus ab a epitatico, and Bios vita, but of some inops, being a compound privat., and Bios victus: and from thence had Valla his interpretation, ut quæ sine ullis divitiis; but where is equino lacte? But not to shew their errors, or that I understand how others take this place different from my translation, I use this note, so much as to intimate what Homer would have noted, and doth teach; that men brought up with that gentle and soft-spirit-begetting milk are long lived, and in nature most just and innocent. Which kind of food the most ingenious and grave Plutarch, in his oration De Esu Carnium, seems to prefer before the food of flesh, where he saith: "By this means also tyrants laid the foundations of their homicides, for (as amongst the Athenians) first they put to death the most notorious or vilest sycophant Epitedeius, so the second, and third; then, being accustomed to blood, they slew good like bad, as Niceratus, the emperor Theramenes, Polemarchus the philosopher, &c. So, at the first, men killed some harmful beast or other, then some kind of fowl, some fish; till taught by these, and stirred up with the lust of their palates, they proceeded to slaughter of the laborious ox, the manclothing or adorning sheep, the houseguarding cock, &c., and by little and little cloyed with these, war, and the food of men, men fell to, &c." Twice twenty nights and days these hide their heads, The year then turning, leave again their beds, And show when first to whet the harvest steel. received th' advance Of Hector and his men so full, that lance was Helms stuck to helms, and man to man grew Plumed casques were hang'd in either's plumes, All bent their firm breasts to the point, and Of both. Troy all in heaps strook first, and And as a round piece of a rock, &c. 2 'Aμfi d' up' Aiavras, &c., Circum autem Which martial verses, though they are as Ajaces, &c. To judgment of this place, high as may be for their place and end of Spondanus calleth all sound judgments to our Homer, are yet infinitely short of his condemnation of one Panades, a judge of best in a thousand other places. Nor games on Olympus, whose brother Amphi-think I the contention at any part true, damas being dead, Gamnictor his son celebrated his funerals, calling all the most excellent to contention, not only for strength and swiftness, but in learning likewise, and force of wisdom. To this general contention came Homer and Hesiodus, who casting down verses both parts, and of all measures (Homer by all consents questionless obtaining the on Homer being affirmed by good authors to be a hundred years before Hesiodus; and by all others much the older, Hesiodus being near in blood to him. And this, for *See Vol. II., page 222. It is evident from the alterations made in this passage in the complete version that Chapman spent as much pains on the revision of his Hesiod as of his Homer.ED. some variety in your delight, I thought not amiss to insert here. 3 perdón, the Commentors translate in this place funda, most untruly, there being no slings spoken of in all these Iliads, nor any such service used in all these wars, which in my last annotation in this book will appear more apparent. But here, and in this place, to translate the word funda (though most commonly it signifieth so much) is most ridiculous; perdóvn likewise signifying ornamentum quoddam mulicbre, which therefore I translate a scarf, a fitter thing to hang his arm in than a sling, and likely that his squire carried about him, either as a favour of his own mistress, or his master's, or for either's ornament, scarfs being no unusual wear for soldiers. industries I reverence. But all this time I lose my collection of Menelaus' silly and ridiculous upbraids here given to the Trojans. First (as above said) for ravishing his wife in the flower of her years :when should a man play such a part but then?-though indeed poor Menelaus had the more wrong or loss in it, and yet Paris the more reason. He added then, and without cause or injury, a most sharp one in Homer, and in Menelaus as much ridiculous; as though lovers looked for more cause in their love-suits than the beauties of their beloved; or that men were made cuckolds only for spite, or revenge of some wrong precedent. But indeed Menelaus' true simplicity in this, to think harms should not be done without 4 Δείψετέ θην οὕτω, &c. Relinquetis harms foregoing (no not in these undemum sic, &c. At length forsake our smarting harms) maketh him well deserve fleet, &c. Now come we to the con- his epithet ayalós. Yet further see how his tinuance (with clear notes) of Menelaus' pure imbecility prevaileth: and how by a ridiculous character. This very beginning thread Homer cutteth him out here, e of his insultation, in the manner of it, idéeσbe πap' avτý, postquam amicè tractati preparing it, and the simply uttered fuistis apud ipsam, after ye had been kindly upbraids of the Trojans following, confirm-entertained at her hands. I hope you will ing it most ingeniously. First, that the Trojans ravished his wife in the flower of her years, calling her koupidin aλoxov, which Spondanus translateth virginem uxorem, being here to be translated juvenilem uxorem (Kovpidios signifying juvenilis) but they will have it virginem; because Homer must be taxed with ignorance of what the next age after Troy's siege revealed of the age before, in which Theseus is remembered first to have ravished Helen, and that, by Theseus, Iphigenia was begotten of her; which being granted, maketh much against Homer, if you mark it, for making Menelaus think yet he married her a virgin, if Spondanus' translation should pass. First, no man being so simple to think that the Poet thinketh always as he maketh others speak; and next, it being no very strange or rare credulity in men to believe they marry maids, when they do not; much more such a man made for the purpose as Menelaus, whose good husbandly imagina-dominant softness and simplicity. Which tion of his wife's maidenhead at their marriage, I hope, answereth at full the most foolish taxation of Homer's ignorance. In which a man may wonder at these learned Critics' overlearnedness, and what ropes of sand they make with their kind of intelligencing knowledge; I mean in such as abuse the name of Critics, as many versers do of Poets; the rest for their think nothing could encourage them more than that. See how he speaketh against her in taking her part, and how ingeniously Homer giveth him still some colour of reason for his senselessness, which colour yet is enough to deceive our commentors; they find not yet the tame figure of our horned; but they and all translators still force his speeches to the best part. Yet further then make we our dissection. "And now" (saith our simplician) "you would again shew your iniquities, even to the casting of pernicious fire into our fleet, and killing our princes if you could." Would any man think this in an enemy, and such an enemy as the Trojans? Chide enemies in arms for offering to hurt their enemies? Would you have yet plainer this good king's simplicity? But his slaughters sometimes, and wise words, are those mists our Homer casteth before the eyes of his readers, that hindereth their prospects to his more constant and pre he doth, imagining his understanding readers' eyes more sharp than not to see pervially through them: and yet, would not have these great ones themselves need so subtle flatteries, but that every shadow of their worth might remove all the substance of their worthlessness. I am weary with beating this thin thicket for a woodcock, and yet, lest it prove still too thick for our sanguine and gentle complexions to shine through, in the next words of his lame reproof he crieth out against Jupiter, saying, ἦ τέ σε φασὶ περὶ φρένας ἔμμεναι ἄλλων· profectò te aiunt sapientia (vel circa mentem) superare cæteros homines atque deos; wherein he affirmeth that men say so, building, poor man, even that unknown secret to himself upon others, and now, I hope, sheweth himself empty enough. But, lest you should say I strive to illustrate the sun, and make clear a thing plain, hear how dark and perplexed a riddle it showeth yet to our good Spondanus, being an excellent scholar, and Homer's commentor; whose words upon this speech are these: Facundiam Menelai cum acumine, antea prædicavit Homerus (intending in Antenor's speech, lib. iii. unto which I pray you turn) cujus hic luculentum exemplum habes. Vehemens autem est ejus hoc loco oratio, ut qui injuriarum sibi à Trojanis in uxoris raptu illatarum recordetur, quâ præsens corundem in Græcos impetum exacerbavit. Primùm itaque in Trojanos invehitur, et corum furorem tandem aliquando cohibitum iri comminatur. Deindè, per apostrophem, ad Jovem conqueritur de inexplebili pugnandi ardore, quibus Trojani vehementer inflammantur. Would any man believe this serious blindness in so great a scholar? Nor is he alone so taken in his eyes, but all the rest of our most profaned and holy Homer's traducers. 5 Καὶ ἐϋστρόφῳ οἰὸς ἀώτῳ, &c., et bend torta ovis lana (or rather, benè torto ovis flore.) Definitio funde (saith Spondanus) vel potius periphrastica descriptio. The definition, or rather paraphrastical description of a sling. A most unsufferable exposition; not a sling being to be heard of (as I before affirmed) in all the services expressed in these Iliads. It is therefore the true periphrasis of a light kind of armour called a jack, that all our archers used to serve in of old, and were ever quilted with wool, and (because evστpodos signifieth as well qui facili motu versatur et circumagitur, as well as benè vel pulchre tortus) for their lightness and aptness to be worn, partaketh with the word in that signification. Besides note the words that follow, which are: Tappéa Báλλovтes, and ontoer* Báλdovtes, &c., frequenter jacientes, and à tergo jacientes, shooting, striking, or armed men, not hurling; here being no wounding so thick, and at the backs of the talk of any stones, but only ovverλóvev yap boroì, conturbabant enim sagittæ. And when saw any man slings lined with wool? to keep their stones warm? or to dull hurled their delivery? And I am sure they not shafts out of them. The agreement of the Greeks with our English, as well in all other their greatest virtues, these annotations shall clearly demonstrate, as this skill with their bows, other places of and give, in my conceit, no little honour to our country. * Metri causâ usurpatur ömɩbev. THE END OF THE THIRTEENTH BOOK. |