FOOTNOTES
[252] In height surpass’d.] Aristotle observes that persons of small stature may be elegantly and justly formed, but cannot be styled beautiful, Ethics, iv. 7. Xenophon in his Cyropædia, ii. 5, describes the beautiful Panthea as “of surpassing height and vigour.” Theocritus mentions a fulness of form as equally characteristic of beauty:
So bloom’d the charming Helen in our eyes
With full voluptuous limbs and towering size:
In shape, in height, in stately presence fair,
Straight as a furrow gliding from the share:
A cypress of the gardens, spiring high,
A courser in the cars of Thessaly.
Idyl, xviii.
It is remarkable that Chaucer appears to glance at this comparison:
Winsing she was, as is a jollie colt,
Long as a maste and upright as a bolt.
The Miller’s Tale.
From the darkening lashes of her eyes
She breathed enamouring odour.]
I am satisfied that this is to be taken in a literal, not in a metaphysical or poetic sense. Nearly all the Greek female epithets had a reference to some artificial mode of heightening the personal allurements: as rosy-fingered; rosy-elbowed: I think κυανεαων, black, is an epithet of the same cast: and alludes to the darkening of the eye-lid by the rim drawn round it with a needle dipped in antimonial oil. “The eye-lashes breathing of Venus,” has a palpable connexion with this. Athenæus, xv. describes the several unguents for the hair, breast, and arms, which were in use among the Greeks, as impregnated with the odour of rose, myrtle, or crocus. The oily dye employed by the women to blacken their eye-brows and eye-lashes was doubtless perfumed in the same manner. Virgil probably had in his mind the perfumed hair of a Roman lady, when he described the tresses of Venus breathing ambrosia, Æn. i. 402:
She spoke and turn’d: her neck averted shed
A light that glow’d ‘celestial rosy red:’
The locks that loosen’d from her temples flew
Breathing heaven’s odours, dropp’d ambrosial dew.
[254] Those herds, the cause of strife.] The story commonly runs, that the Taphians, and Teloboans, a lawless and piratical people, had made an inroad into the territory of Argos, and carried off Electryon’s herds: that in the pursuit a battle took place, and the robbers killed the brothers of Alcmena: and Amphitryon himself accidentally killed Electryon. But it should appear from Hesiod that he killed him by design on some provocation or dispute.
[255] The wall of Thebes.] Noah was directed in express terms to build Thiba, an ark: it is the very word made use of by the sacred writer. Many colonies that went abroad styled themselves Thebeans, in reference to the ark: as the memory of the deluge was held very sacred. Hence there occur many cities of the name of Theba, not in Ægypt only and Bœotia, but in Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, &c. It was sometimes expressed Thiba; a town of which name was in Pontus: it is called Thibis by Pliny; and he mentions a notion which prevailed, that the people of this place could not sink in water. Bryant.
[256] Bull-visaged Neptune.] The patriarch was esteemed the great deity of the sea: and at the same time was represented under the semblance of a bull, or with the head of that animal: and as all rivers were looked upon as the children of the ocean, they likewise were represented in the same manner. Bryant.
This seems to have been a double emblem: referring to the bull Apis, the representative of the father of husbandry, Osiris, and to the roaring of waters.
[257] Mingled metal.] Ηλεκτρον is not amber, but a mixed metal: which Pliny describes as consisting of three parts gold, and the fourth silver. Electrum is one of the materials in the Shield of Æneas, Æn. viii.:
And mingled metals damask’d o’er with gold.
Pitt.
[258] Pursuit was there.] Homer, Il. vi. 5:
She charged her shoulder with the dreadful Shield,
The shaggy Ægis, border’d thick around
With Terror: there was Discord, Prowess there,
There hot Pursuit.
There Discord raged, there Tumult, and the force
Of ruthless Destiny. She now a chief
Seiz’d newly wounded, and now captive held
Another yet unhurt, and now a third
Dragg’d breathless through the battle by his feet:
And all her garb was dappled thick with blood.
Like living men they travers’d and they strove,
And dragg’d by turns the bodies of the slain.
Cowper, book xviii. Shield of Achilles.
[259] Herds of boars.] That animal (the wild boar) was no less terrible on the opposite coast of Asia than in Greece: as we learn from Herodotus, book i. c. 34. Gillies.
[260] The battle of the Lapithæ.] This forms the subject of the alto-relievo on the entablature of the Parthenon, or the temple of Minerva: ascribed to Phidias. See the “Memorandum” on the Elgin marbles.
[261] Some from their city.] Homer, Il. book xvii. Shield of Achilles:
The other city by two glittering hosts
Invested stood: and a dispute arose
Between the hosts, whether to burn the town
And lay all waste, or to divide the spoil.
Meantime the citizens, still undismay’d,
Surrender’d not the town, but taking arms
Prepared an ambush; and the wives and boys,
With all the hoary elders, kept the walls.
Cowper.
And near to them
Stood Misery.]
Warton observes, History of English poetry, vol. i. p. 468: “The French and Italian poets, whom Chaucer imitates, abound in allegorical personages: and it is remarkable that the early poets of Greece and Rome were fond of these creations: we have in Hesiod ‘Darkness:’ and many others; if the Shield of Hercules be of his hand.” But it seems to have escaped the writer that it is not literal, but figurative Darkness which is personified. Guietus ingeniously supposes that it is meant for the dimness of death. Homer, indeed, applies to this the same term: in the death of Eurymachus, Od. xxii. 88:
Κατ’ οφθαλμων δ’ εχυτ’ ΑΧΛΥΣ.
A darkening mist was pour’d upon his eyes.
Tanaquil Faber, on Longinus, contends that αχλυς is here Sorrow. Sorrow is personified in a fragment of Ennius:
Omnibus endo locis ingens apparet imago
Tristitia.
Sorrow, a giant form, uprears the head
In every place.
This is adopted by Grævius and Robinson. In like manner φως its opposite, light, is often used for χαρα, joy: as appears in the oriental style of scripture. But they have omitted to notice that this is a specific sorrow: for what connexion have these horrible symptoms with sorrow in general? I conceive that the prosopopœia describes the misery attendant on war: and especially in a city besieged, with its usual accompaniments of famine, blood, and tears, and the dust or ashes of mourning. Longinus selects the line “an ichor from her nostrils flowed,” as an instance of the false sublime; and compares it with Homer’s verse on Discord,
Treading on earth, her forehead touches heaven.
This is to compare two things totally unlike: why should an image of exhaustion and disease be thought to aim at sublimity? The objection of Longinus that it tends to excite disgust rather than terror is nugatory. The poet did not intend to excite terror, but horror: that kind of horror which arises from the contemplation of physical suffering.
[263] A well-tower’d city.] Homer, Il. book xviii. Shield of Achilles:
Two splendid cities also there he form’d
Such as men build: in one were to be seen
Rites matrimonial solemnized with pomp
Of sumptuous banquets. Forth they led the brides
Each from her chamber, and along the streets
With torches usher’d them: and with the voice
Of hymeneal song heard all around.
Here striplings danced in circles to the sound
Of pipe and harp; while in the portals stood
Women, admiring all the gallant show.
Cowper.
[264] Vaulted on steeds.] This circumstance has been thought to betray a later age: as it is alleged, that the only instance of riding on horseback mentioned by Homer is that of Diomed, who, with Ulysses, rides the horses of Rhesus of which he has made prize. But though chariot-horses only are found in the Homeric battles, there is an allusion to horsemanship, as an exhibition of skill, in a simile of the 15th book of the Iliad, v. 679; where the rider is described as riding four horses at once, and vaulting from one to the other.
[265] Others as husbandmen appear’d.] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
He also graved on it a fallow field
Rich, spacious, and well-till’d. Plowers not few
There driving to and fro their sturdy teams
Labour’d the ground.
There too he form’d the likeness of a field
Crowded with corn: in which the reapers toil’d
Each with a sharp-tooth’d sickle in his hand.
Along the furrow here the harvest fell
In frequent handfuls: there they bound the sheaves.
Cowper.
[266] In baskets thus up-piled.] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
There also, laden with its fruit, he form’d
A vineyard all of gold: purple he made
The clusters: and the vines supported stood
By poles of silver, set in even rows.
The trench he colour’d sable, and around
Fenced it with tin. One only path it show’d:
By which the gatherers, when they stripp’d the vines,
Pass’d and repass’d. There youths and maidens blithe
In frails of wicker bore the luscious fruit;
While in the midst a boy on his shrill harp
Harmonious play’d: and ever as he struck
The chord, sang to it with a slender voice.
They smote the ground together, and with song
And sprightly reed came dancing on behind.
Cowper.
Hung
The charioteers.]
This may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of Patroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very inferior.
All raised the lash together; with the reins
All smote their steeds, and urged them to the strife
Vociferating: they with rapid pace
Scouring the field soon left the fleet afar.
Dark, like a stormy cloud, uprose the dust
Beneath them, and their undulating manes
Play’d in the breezes: now the level field
With gliding course, the rugged now they pass’d
With bounding wheels aloft: meantime erect
The drivers stood: with palpitating heart
Each sought the prize: each urged his steeds aloud;
They, flying, fill’d with dust the darken’d air.
Cowper.
This description apparently suggested to Virgil the chariot-race in the Georgics iii. 402, which Dryden has rendered with all the fire of the original.
[268] The ocean flow’d.] Homer, Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
Last with the might of ocean’s boundless flood
He fill’d the border of the wondrous shield.
Cowper.
[269] Race of the far-famed Lyngeus.] Lyngeus was the ancestor of Perseus, the son of Danaë, and the father of Alcæus: of whom Amphitryon was the son.
As rocks
From some high mountain-top.]
Homer, Il. book xiii.
Then Hector led himself
Right on: impetuous as a rolling rock
Destructive: torn by torrent waters off
From its old lodgment on the mountain’s brow,
It bounds, it shoots away: the crashing wood
Falls under it: impediment or check
None stays its fury, till the level found
At last, there overcome it rolls no more.
Cowper.
[271] He cast forth dews of blood.] Iliad, xvi, 459. Death of Sarpedon:
The Sire of gods and men
Dissented not: but on the earth distill’d
A sanguine shower, in honour of a son
Dear to him.
Cowper.
[272] As in the mountain thickets.] Homer, Iliad xiii.
As in the mountains, conscious of his force,
The wild boar waits a coming multitude
Of boisterous hunters to his lone retreat:
Arching his bristly spine he stands: his eyes
Beam fire: and whetting his bright tusks, he burns
To drive not dogs alone, but men, to flight:
So stood the royal Cretan.
Cowper.
[273] As two grim lions.] Iliad xvi.:
Then contest such
Arose between them, as two lions wage
Contending in the mountains for a deer
New-slain: both hunger-pinched, and haughty both.
Cowper.
[274] As vultures curved of beak.] Iliad xvi.:
As two vultures fight
Bow-beak’d, crook-talon’d, on some lofty rock
Clanging their plumes, so they together rush
With dreadful cries.
Cowper.
[275] As falls a thunder-blasted oak.] Iliad xiv.:
As when Jove’s arm omnipotent an oak
Prostrates uprooted on the plain: a fume
Rises sulphureous from the riven trunk;
So fell the might of Hector, to the earth
Smitten at once. Down dropp’d his idle spear,
And with his helmet and his shield, himself
Also: loud thunder’d all his gorgeous arms.
Cowper.
As a lion, who has fall’n
Perchance on some stray beast.]
Iliad xvii.:
But as the lion on the mountains bred
Glorious in strength, when he hath seiz’d the best
And fairest of the herd, with savage fangs
First breaks the neck, then laps the bloody paunch,
Torn wide: meantime around him, but remote,
Dogs stand, and huntsmen shouting, yet by fear
Repress’d, annoy him not, nor dare approach;
So these all wanted courage to oppose
The glorious Menelaus.
Cowper.
[277] Stoop’d from the chariot.] Iliad v.:
When with determin’d fury Mars
O’er yoke and bridle hurl’d his glittering spear:
Minerva caught: and turning it, it pass’d
The hero’s chariot-side, dismiss’d in vain.
Cowper.
[278] The huge mount and monumental stone.] By the words tomb and monument, ταφος and σημα, I understand a mount of earth and a pillar of stone on the top of it: although Homer Il. xxiv. v. 801, applies σημα to the mount: which he seems to describe as raised of stones:
Χευαντες δε το σημα, παλιν κιον.
So casting up the tomb, they back return’d.