[{173}] Of Achilles. See the 18th book of the “Iliad.”
[{175a}] Greek, ο χορηγος.
[{175b}] Sicyon was a city near Corinth, famous for the richness and felicity of its soil.
[{176a}] The famous Ager Cynurius, a little district of Laconia, on the confines of Argolis; the Argives and Spartans, whom it laid between, agreed to decide the property of it by three hundred men of a side in the field: the battle was bloody and desperate, only one man remaining alive, Othryades, the Lacedæmonian, who immediately, though covered with wounds, raised a trophy, which he inscribed with his own blood, to Jupiter Tropæus. This victory the Spartans, who from that time had quiet possession of the field, yearly celebrated with a festival, to commemorate the event.
[{176b}] A mountain of Thrace. Dion Cassius places it near Philippi. It was supposed to have abounded in golden mines in some parts of it.
[{177}] When Æacus was king of Thessaly, his kingdom was almost depopulated by a dreadful pestilence; he prayed to Jupiter to avert the distemper, and dreamed that he saw an innumerable quantity of ants creep out of an old oak, which were immediately turned into men; when he awoke the dream was fulfilled, and he found his kingdom more populous than ever; from that time the people were called Myrmidons. Such is the fable, which owed its rise merely to the name of Myrmidons, which it was supposed must come from μυρμηξ, an ant. To some such trifling circumstances as these we are indebted for half the fables of antiquity.
[{178a}] See Homer’s “Iliad,” book i. 1. 294.
[{178b}] This was the opinion of Anaxagoras, and is confirmed by the more accurate observations of modern philosophy.
[{179}] See Pope’s Homer’s “Odyssey,” book x. 1. 113.
[{180a}] I.e. Such a countenance as he put on when he slew the rebellious Titans.