[L. 152.] le disque: discus, platter for meat, whence O.E. 'disc,' E. 'dish,' and German Tisch, a table. d'airain; cf. Il. xi. 630: 'a brass fruit-dish.'—CHAPMAN.
[L. 153.] l'amphore vineuse. An epithet of nature. Chénier, it will be noticed, used them freely, as the ancients did.
[L. 155.] leur lendemain... A thought akin to that in Homer, Od. xv. 400: 'Betwixt his sorrows every humane joys.'—CHAPMAN.
[Ll. 156-159.] Od. vii. 178: '... command That instantly your heralds fill in wine, That to the god that doth in lightnings shine We may do sacrifice: for he is there Where these his reverend suppliants appear.'—CHAPMAN.
[L. 158.] Pour boire. An unexpected passage from indirect to direct speech, as in Homer, Il. xv. 348. The abrupt break in construction is more telling in French than in English, where it is a more common device.
[L. 160.] For this rite see Od. iii. 45.
[L. 163, 164.] Od. vii. 192.
[L. 169.] De sourire et de plainte would be de sourires et de plaintes in prose. But the two s's of the plural would prevent the two e's from being elided and so give two syllables more.
[L. 170.] tes nobles toits. The plural for the singular, that the form of the word, riming with abois, may satisfy the eye. A Latinism besides.
[Ll. 174-179.] Od. xiv. 462. I cannot refrain from giving here Chapman's quaint equivalent for ce que... il eût mieux valu taire: 'strong wine,' he makes Ulysses say, 'moves the wise to... prefer a speech to that were better in.'