“. . . by the god of war
Indwelt.”
ἔνθεος δ᾽ Αρει, literally, “ingodded by Mars,” or having the god of war dwelling in him. This phrase shows the meaning of that reproach cast by the Pharisees in the teeth of Christ—ἔχει δαιμόνιον—he hath a devil, or, as the Greeks would have said, a god—i.e. he is possessed by a moral power so far removed from the common, that we must attribute it to the indwelling might of a god or devil.
“. . . a hostile pair
Well matched by Hermes.”
The Greeks ascribed to Hermes every thing that they met with on the road, and every thing accidentally found, and whatever happens by chance—and so two adversaries well matched in battle were said to have been brought together by the happy contrivance of that god.”—Schol.; and see [Note 59] to the Eumenides, [p. 386].
“The sixth a sober man, a seer of might,
Before the Homoloidian gate stands forth.”