No More Learning

163 --_Rich heaps of brass. _ "The halls of Alkinous and Menelaus glitter
with gold, copper, and electrum; while large stocks of yet
unemployed metal--gold, copper, and iron are stored up in the
treasure-chamber of Odysseus and other chiefs. Coined money is
unknown in the Homeric age--the trade carried on being one of barter.
In reference also to the metals, it deserves to be remarked, that
the Homeric descriptions universally suppose copper, and not iron,
to be employed for arms, both offensive and defensive. By what
process the copper was tempered and hardened, so as to serve the
purpose of the warrior, we do not know; but the use of iron for
these objects belongs to a later age. "--Grote, vol. ii. p. 142.

164 --_Oh impotent,_ &c. "In battle, quarter seems never to have been
given, except with a view to the ransom of the prisoner. Agamemnon
reproaches Menelaus with unmanly softness, when he is on the point
of sparing a fallen enemy, and himself puts the suppliant to the
sword. "--Thirlwall, vol. i. p.
181

165 "The ruthless steel, impatient of delay,
Forbade the sire to linger out the day.
It struck the bending father to the earth,
And cropt the wailing infant at the birth.
Can innocents the rage of parties know,
And they who ne'er offended find a foe? "

Rowe's Lucan, bk. ii.

166 "Meantime the Trojan dames, oppress'd with woe,
To Pallas' fane in long procession go,
In hopes to reconcile their heav'nly foe:
They weep; they beat their breasts; they rend their hair,
And rich embroider'd vests for presents bear. "

Dryden's Virgil, i. 670

167 The manner in which this episode is introduced, is well illustrated
by the following remarks of Mure, vol. i. p. 298: "The poet's method
of introducing his episode, also, illustrates in a curious manner
his tact in the dramatic department of his art. Where, for example,
one or more heroes are despatched on some commission, to be executed
at a certain distance of time or place, the fulfilment of this task
is not, as a general rule, immediately described. A certain interval
is allowed them for reaching the appointed scene of action, which
interval is dramatised, as it were, either by a temporary
continuation of the previous narrative, or by fixing attention for a
while on some new transaction, at the close of which the further
account of the mission is resumed. "

168 --_With tablets sealed. _ These probably were only devices of a
hieroglyphical character. Whether writing was known in the Homeric
times is utterly uncertain.