51 It has
frequently
been observed, that most pestilences begin with
animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind.
animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind.
Iliad - Pope
Grote, "History of Greece," i.
p.
68, remarks that
the "worship of Sminthean Apollo, in various parts of the Troad and
its neighboring territory, dates before the earliest period of
Aeolian colonization. "
48 --_Cilla,_ a town of Troas near Thebe, so called from Cillus, a
sister of Hippodamia, slain by OEnomaus.
49 A mistake. It should be,
"If e'er I _roofed_ thy graceful fane,"
for the custom of decorating temples with garlands was of later
date.
50 --_Bent was his bow_ "The Apollo of Homer, it must be borne in mind,
is a different character from the deity of the same name in the
later classical pantheon. Throughout both poems, all deaths from
unforeseen or invisible causes, the ravages of pestilence, the fate
of the young child or promising adult, cut off in the germ of
infancy or flower of youth, of the old man dropping peacefully into
the grave, or of the reckless sinner suddenly checked in his career
of crime, are ascribed to the arrows of Apollo or Diana. The
oracular functions of the god rose naturally out of the above
fundamental attributes, for who could more appropriately impart to
mortals what little foreknowledge Fate permitted of her decrees than
the agent of her most awful dispensations? The close union of the
arts of prophecy and song explains his additional office of god of
music, while the arrows with which he and his sister were armed,
symbols of sudden death in every age, no less naturally procured him
that of god of archery. Of any connection between Apollo and the
Sun, whatever may have existed in the more esoteric doctrine of the
Greek sanctuaries, there is no trace in either Iliad or
Odyssey. "--Mure, "History of Greek Literature," vol. i. p. 478, sq.
51 It has frequently been observed, that most pestilences begin with
animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind.
52 --_Convened to council. _ The public assembly in the heroic times is
well characterized by Grote, vol. ii. p 92. "It is an assembly for
talk. Communication and discussion to a certain extent by the chiefs
in person, of the people as listeners and sympathizers--often for
eloquence, and sometimes for quarrel--but here its ostensible
purposes end. "
53 Old Jacob Duport, whose "Gnomologia Homerica" is full of curious and
useful things, quotes several passages of the ancients, in which
reference is made to these words of Homer, in maintenance of the
belief that dreams had a divine origin and an import in which men
were interested.
54 Rather, "bright-eyed. " See the German critics quoted by Arnold.
55 The prize given to Ajax was Tecmessa, while Ulysses received
Laodice, the daughter of Cycnus.
56 The Myrmidons dwelt on the southern borders of Thessaly, and took
their origin from Myrmido, son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa. It is
fancifully supposed that the name was derived from myrmaex, an
_ant,_ "because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like
them were indefatigable, continually employed in cultivating the
earth; the change from ants to men is founded merely on the
equivocation of their name, which resembles that of the ant: they
bore a further resemblance to these little animals, in that instead
of inhabiting towns or villages, at first they commonly resided in
the open fields, having no other retreats but dens and the cavities
of trees, until Ithacus brought them together, and settled them in
more secure and comfortable habitations. "--Anthon's "Lempriere. "
57 Eustathius, after Heraclides Ponticus and others, allegorizes this
apparition, as if the appearance of Minerva to Achilles, unseen by
the rest, was intended to point out the sudden recollection that he
would gain nothing by intemperate wrath, and that it were best to
restrain his anger, and only gratify it by withdrawing his services.
The same idea is rather cleverly worked out by Apuleius, "De Deo
Socratis.
the "worship of Sminthean Apollo, in various parts of the Troad and
its neighboring territory, dates before the earliest period of
Aeolian colonization. "
48 --_Cilla,_ a town of Troas near Thebe, so called from Cillus, a
sister of Hippodamia, slain by OEnomaus.
49 A mistake. It should be,
"If e'er I _roofed_ thy graceful fane,"
for the custom of decorating temples with garlands was of later
date.
50 --_Bent was his bow_ "The Apollo of Homer, it must be borne in mind,
is a different character from the deity of the same name in the
later classical pantheon. Throughout both poems, all deaths from
unforeseen or invisible causes, the ravages of pestilence, the fate
of the young child or promising adult, cut off in the germ of
infancy or flower of youth, of the old man dropping peacefully into
the grave, or of the reckless sinner suddenly checked in his career
of crime, are ascribed to the arrows of Apollo or Diana. The
oracular functions of the god rose naturally out of the above
fundamental attributes, for who could more appropriately impart to
mortals what little foreknowledge Fate permitted of her decrees than
the agent of her most awful dispensations? The close union of the
arts of prophecy and song explains his additional office of god of
music, while the arrows with which he and his sister were armed,
symbols of sudden death in every age, no less naturally procured him
that of god of archery. Of any connection between Apollo and the
Sun, whatever may have existed in the more esoteric doctrine of the
Greek sanctuaries, there is no trace in either Iliad or
Odyssey. "--Mure, "History of Greek Literature," vol. i. p. 478, sq.
51 It has frequently been observed, that most pestilences begin with
animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind.
52 --_Convened to council. _ The public assembly in the heroic times is
well characterized by Grote, vol. ii. p 92. "It is an assembly for
talk. Communication and discussion to a certain extent by the chiefs
in person, of the people as listeners and sympathizers--often for
eloquence, and sometimes for quarrel--but here its ostensible
purposes end. "
53 Old Jacob Duport, whose "Gnomologia Homerica" is full of curious and
useful things, quotes several passages of the ancients, in which
reference is made to these words of Homer, in maintenance of the
belief that dreams had a divine origin and an import in which men
were interested.
54 Rather, "bright-eyed. " See the German critics quoted by Arnold.
55 The prize given to Ajax was Tecmessa, while Ulysses received
Laodice, the daughter of Cycnus.
56 The Myrmidons dwelt on the southern borders of Thessaly, and took
their origin from Myrmido, son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa. It is
fancifully supposed that the name was derived from myrmaex, an
_ant,_ "because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like
them were indefatigable, continually employed in cultivating the
earth; the change from ants to men is founded merely on the
equivocation of their name, which resembles that of the ant: they
bore a further resemblance to these little animals, in that instead
of inhabiting towns or villages, at first they commonly resided in
the open fields, having no other retreats but dens and the cavities
of trees, until Ithacus brought them together, and settled them in
more secure and comfortable habitations. "--Anthon's "Lempriere. "
57 Eustathius, after Heraclides Ponticus and others, allegorizes this
apparition, as if the appearance of Minerva to Achilles, unseen by
the rest, was intended to point out the sudden recollection that he
would gain nothing by intemperate wrath, and that it were best to
restrain his anger, and only gratify it by withdrawing his services.
The same idea is rather cleverly worked out by Apuleius, "De Deo
Socratis.
