The Iliad

  276 The example of Nausicaa, in the Odyssey, proves that the duties of
      the laundry were not thought derogatory, even from the dignity of a
      princess, in the heroic times.

  277 --_Hesper shines with keener light._

        "Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
        If better thou belong not to the dawn."

                                                  "Paradise Lost," v. 166.

  278 Such was his fate. After chasing the Trojans into the town, he was
      slain by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the
      unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made by the
      Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was however rescued
      and borne off to the Grecian camp by the valour of Ajax and Ulysses.
      Thetis stole away the body, just as the Greeks were about to burn it
      with funeral honours, and conveyed it away to a renewed life of
      immortality in the isle of Leuke in the Euxine.

  279 --_Astyanax,_ i.e. the _city-king_ or guardian. It is amusing that
      Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should have
      copied this twaddling etymology into his Cratylus.

  280 This book has been closely imitated by Virgil in his fifth book, but
      it is almost useless to attempt a selection of passages for
      comparison.

  281 --_Thrice in order led._ This was a frequent rite at funerals. The
      Romans had the same custom, which they called _decursio._ Plutarch
      states that Alexander, in after times, renewed these same honours to
      the memory of Achilles himself.

  282 --_And swore._ Literally, and called Orcus, the god of oaths, to
      witness. See Buttmann, Lexilog, p. 436.

          283 "O, long expected by thy friends! from whence
        Art thou so late return'd for our defence?
        Do we behold thee, wearied as we are
        With length of labours, and with, toils of war?
        After so many funerals of thy own,
        Art thou restored to thy declining town?
        But say, what wounds are these? what new disgrace
        Deforms the manly features of thy face?"

                                                          Dryden, xi. 369.

  284 --_Like a thin smoke._ Virgil, Georg. iv. 72.

        "In vain I reach my feeble hands to join
        In sweet embraces--ah! no longer thine!
        She said, and from his eyes the fleeting fair
        Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air."

                                                                   Dryden.

  285 So Milton:--

          "So eagerly the fiend
        O'er bog, o'er steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
        With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
        And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."

                                                 "Paradise Lost," ii. 948.

          286 "An ancient forest, for the work design'd
        (The shady covert of the savage kind).
        The Trojans found: the sounding axe is placed:
        Firs, pines, and pitch-trees, and the tow'ring pride
        Of forest ashes, feel the fatal stroke,
        And piercing wedges cleave the stubborn oak.
        High trunks of trees, fell'd from the steepy crown
        Of the bare mountains, roll with ruin down."

                                                 Dryden's Virgil, vi. 261.

  287 --_He vowed._ This was a very ancient custom.

  288 The height of the tomb or pile was a great proof of the dignity of
      the deceased, and the honour in which he was held.

  289 On the prevalence of this cruel custom amongst the northern nations,
      see Mallet, p. 213.

  290 --_And calls the spirit._ Such was the custom anciently, even at the
      Roman funerals.

        "Hail, O ye holy manes! hail again,
        Paternal ashes, now revived in vain."

                                                  Dryden's Virgil, v. 106.

  291 Virgil, by making the boaster vanquished, has drawn a better moral
      from this episode than Homer. The following lines deserve
      comparison:--

        "The haughty Dares in the lists appears:
        Walking he strides, his head erected bears:
        His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield,
        And loud applauses echo through the field.