No More Learning

239, also speaks of the independence of these people,
which he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness.
Some authors have regarded the phrase "Hippomolgian," _i. e. _
"milking their mares," as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes,
since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares' milk one
of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this
passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as
we read it, either "long-lived," or "bowless," the latter epithet
indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence.

230 Compare Chapman's quaint, bold verses:--

"And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter's flood
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud,
Hath broke the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock,
Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke,
And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay,
And then (tho' never so impelled), it stirs not any way:--
So Hector,--"

231 This book forms a most agreeable interruption to The continuous
round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad. It is
as well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders many
notes unnecessary.

232 --_Who to Tydeus owes, i. e. _ Diomed.

233 Compare Tasso:--

Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille
Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci,
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille
Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci. "

Gier. Lib. xvi.
25

234 Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando Furioso,
bk. vi.

235 "Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main--
Around my person wait, and bear my train:
Succeed my wish, and second my design,
The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine. "

Dryden's Virgil, ? n. i. 107, seq.

236 --_And Minos. _ "By Homer, Minos is described as the son of Jupiter,
and of the daughter of Phoenix, whom all succeeding authors name
Europa; and he is thus carried back into the remotest period of
Cretan antiquity known to the poet, apparently as a native hero,
Illustrious enough for a divine parentage, and too ancient to allow
his descent to be traced to any other source. But in a genealogy
recorded by later writers, he is likewise the adopted son of
Asterius, as descendant of Dorus, the son of Helen, and is thus
connected with a colony said to have been led into Creta by
Tentamus, or Tectamus, son of Dorus, who is related either to have
crossed over from Thessaly, or to have embarked at Malea after
having led his followers by land into Laconia. "--Thirlwall, p. 136,
seq.

237 Milton has emulated this passage, in describing the couch of our
first parents:--

"Underneath the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay,
'Broider'd the ground. "

--"Paradise Lost," iv. 700.

238 --_He lies protected,_

"Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run
By angels many and strong, who interpos'd
Defence, while others bore him on their shields
Back to his chariot, where it stood retir'd
From off the files of war; there they him laid,
Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame.