5

THE

NINETEENTH BOOK

OF THE

LIA D.

I L

S

OON as Aurora heay'd her orient head

Above the waves that blufh'd with early red,

(With new-born day to gladden mortal fight,

And gild the courts of heav'n with facred light;)

Th' immortal arms the Goddefs-mother bears

Swift to her fon : Her fon fhe finds in tears,

Stretch'd o'er Patroclus' corfe; while all the reft Their Sov'reign's forrows in their own expreft. A ray divine her heav'nly prefence fhed, 10 And thus, his hand foft-touching, Thetis faid. Supprefs

Suppress (my son) this rage of grief, and know. It was not man, but heav'n that gave the blow; Behold what arms by Vulcan are bestow'd,

Arms worthy thee, or fit to grace a God.

15 Then drops the radiant burthen on the ground;
Clang the ftrong arms, and ring the shores around:
Back shrink the Myrmidons with dread furprize,
And from the broad effulgence turn their eyes.
Unmov'd, the hero kindles at the show,

20 And feels with rage divine his bosom glow ;
From his fierce eye-balls living flames expire,
And flash inceffant like a ftream of fire:
He turns the radiant gift; and feeds his mind
On all th' immortal artist had design'd.

25

Goddess (he cry'd) thefe glorious arms that shine With matchlefs art, confefs the hand divine. Now to the bloody battel let me bend:

But ah! the relicks of my flaughter'd friend!

V. 13. Behold what arms, &c.] 'Tis not poetry only which has had this idea, of giving divine arms to a hero; we have a very remarkable example of it in our holy books. In the fecond of Maccabees, chap. 16. Judas fees in a dream the prophet Jeremiah bringing to him a fword as from God: Tho' this was only a dream, or a vifion, yet ftill it is the fame Idea. This example is likewife fo much the more worthy of obfervation, as it is much later than the age of Homer; and as thereby it is feen, that the fame way of thinking continued a long time amongst the oriental nations. Dacier.

In those wide wounds thro' which his spirit fled, 30 Shall flies, and worms obfcene, pollute the dead? That unavailing care be laid aside,

(The azure Goddess to her fon reply'd),

. 30. Shall flies, and worms obscene, pollute the dead?} The care which Achilles takes in this place to drive away the flies from the dead body of Patroclus, feems to us a mean employment, and a care unworthy of a hero. But that office was regarded by Homer, and by all the Greeks of his time, as a pious duty confecrated by cuftom and religion; which obliged the kindred and friends of the deceas'd to watch his corps, and prevent any corruption before the folemn day of his funerals. It is plain this devoir was thought an indifpenfible one, fince Achilles could not difcharge himself of it but by impofing it upon his mother. It is alfo clear, that in thofe times the prefervation of a dead body was account. ed a very important matter, fince the Goddeffes themfelves, nay the most delicate of the Goddeffes, made it the fubje&t of their utmost attention. As Thetis preferves the body of Patroclus, and chafes from it thofe infects that breed in the wounds and caufe putrefaction, fo Venus is employ'd day and night about that of Hector, in driving away the dogs to which Achilles had expos'd it. Apollo, on his part, covers it with a thick cloud, and preferves its frefhnefs amidst the greatest heats of the fun: And this care of the deities over the dead was look'd upon by men as a fruit of their piety.

There is an excellent remark upon this paffage in Bofu's admirable treatife of the epic poem, lib. 3. c. 10. To fpeak "(fays this author) of the arts and fciences as a poet ought, "we fhould veil them under names and actions of perfons "fictitious and allegorical. Homer will not plainly fay that "falt has the virtue to preferve dead bodies, and prevent "the flies from engendering worms in them; he will not fay, that the fea prefented Achilles a remedy to preferve "Patroclus from putrefaction; but he will make the fea a "Goddess, and tell us, that Thetis, to comfort Achilles, en. ❝gaged to perfume the body with an Ambrofia which fhould "keep it a whole year from corruption: It is thus Homer

❝ teaches

Whole years untouch'd, uninjur'd shall remain Fresh as in life, the carcass of the flain. 35 But go, Achilles, (as affairs require)

40

45

Before the Grecian Peers renounce thine ire:
Then uncontroll'd in boundless war engage,
And heav'n with ftrength fupply the mighty rage!
Then in the noftrils of the flain fhe pour'd
Nectareous drops, and rich Ambrofia showr'd
O'er all the corfe: The flies forbid their prey,
Untouch'd it refts, and facred from decay.
Achilles to the ftrand obedient went;

The fhores refounded with the voice he fent.
The heroes heard, and all the naval train

That tend the ships, or guide them o'er the main,
Alarm'd, tranfported at the well-known found,
Frequent and full, the great affembly crown'd;
Studious to fee that terror of the plain,
50 Long, loft to battel, fhine in arms again..

This ex

teaches the poets to speak of arts and sciences. ample fhews the nature of the things, that flies cause puStrefaction, that falt preferves bodies from it; but all this is told us poetically, the whole is reduced into action, the fea is made a perfon who fpeaks and acts, and this profo popoeia is accompanied with paffion, tendernefs, and affec tion; in a word, there is nothing which is not (according to Ariftotle's precept) endued with manners,

Tydides

55

Tydides and Ulyffes first appear,

Lame with their wounds, and leaning on the fpear;
These on the facred feats of council plac'd,

The King of men, Atrides, came the last:
He too fore wounded by Agenor's fon.

Achilles (rifing in the midft) begun.

Oh Monarch! better far had been the fate
Of thee, of me, of all the Grecian ftate,
If (e'er the day when by mad paffion sway'd,
60 Rafh we contended for the black-ey'd maid)
Preventing Dian had dispatch'd her dart,
And shot the shining mischief to the heart!

v. 61. Preventing Dian bad difpatch'd her dart,

And Shot the Shining mischief to the heart.] Achilles wifhes Brifeis had died before fhe had occafion'd fo great calamities to his countrymen: I will not fay to excufe him, that his virtue here overpowers his love, but that the wifh is not fo very barbarous as it may feem by the phrafe to a modern reader. It is not, that Diana had actually kill'd her, as by a particular ftroke or judgment from heaven; it means no more than a natural death, as appears from this

pallage in Ody. 15.

When age and fickness have unnerv'd the strong,
Apollo comes, and Cynthia comes along,

They bend the filver bows for fudden ill,

And every fhining arrow flies to kill.

And he does not with her death now, after fhe had been his

mistress,

ved her.

but only that he had died, before he knew, or lo

Then