[252] In height surpass’d.] Aristotle observes that persons of small stature may be elegantly and justly formed, but cannot be styled beautiful, Ethics, iv. 7. Xenophon in his Cyropædia, ii. 5, describes the beautiful Panthea as “of surpassing height and vigour.” Theocritus mentions a fulness of form as equally characteristic of beauty:
It is remarkable that Chaucer appears to glance at this comparison:
I am satisfied that this is to be taken in a literal, not in a metaphysical or poetic sense. Nearly all the Greek female epithets had a reference to some artificial mode of heightening the personal allurements: as rosy-fingered; rosy-elbowed: I think κυανεαων, black, is an epithet of the same cast: and alludes to the darkening of the eye-lid by the rim drawn round it with a needle dipped in antimonial oil. “The eye-lashes breathing of Venus,” has a palpable connexion with this. Athenæus, xv. describes the several unguents for the hair, breast, and arms, which were in use among the Greeks, as impregnated with the odour of rose, myrtle, or crocus. The oily dye employed by the women to blacken their eye-brows and eye-lashes was doubtless perfumed in the same manner. Virgil probably had in his mind the perfumed hair of a Roman lady, when he described the tresses of Venus breathing ambrosia, Æn. i. 402:
[254] Those herds, the cause of strife.] The story commonly runs, that the Taphians, and Teloboans, a lawless and piratical people, had made an inroad into the territory of Argos, and carried off Electryon’s herds: that in the pursuit a battle took place, and the robbers killed the brothers of Alcmena: and Amphitryon himself accidentally killed Electryon. But it should appear from Hesiod that he killed him by design on some provocation or dispute.
[255] The wall of Thebes.] Noah was directed in express terms to build Thiba, an ark: it is the very word made use of by the sacred writer. Many colonies that went abroad styled themselves Thebeans, in reference to the ark: as the memory of the deluge was held very sacred. Hence there occur many cities of the name of Theba, not in Ægypt only and Bœotia, but in Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, &c. It was sometimes expressed Thiba; a town of which name was in Pontus: it is called Thibis by Pliny; and he mentions a notion which prevailed, that the people of this place could not sink in water. Bryant.
[256] Bull-visaged Neptune.] The patriarch was esteemed the great deity of the sea: and at the same time was represented under the semblance of a bull, or with the head of that animal: and as all rivers were looked upon as the children of the ocean, they likewise were represented in the same manner. Bryant.
This seems to have been a double emblem: referring to the bull Apis, the representative of the father of husbandry, Osiris, and to the roaring of waters.
[257] Mingled metal.] Ηλεκτρον is not amber, but a mixed metal: which Pliny describes as consisting of three parts gold, and the fourth silver. Electrum is one of the materials in the Shield of Æneas, Æn. viii.:
[258] Pursuit was there.] Homer, Il. vi. 5:
[259] Herds of boars.] That animal (the wild boar) was no less terrible on the opposite coast of Asia than in Greece: as we learn from Herodotus, book i. c. 34. Gillies.
[260] The battle of the Lapithæ.] This forms the subject of the alto-relievo on the entablature of the Parthenon, or the temple of Minerva: ascribed to Phidias. See the “Memorandum” on the Elgin marbles.
[261] Some from their city.] Homer, Il. book xvii. Shield of Achilles:
Warton observes, History of English poetry, vol. i. p. 468: “The French and Italian poets, whom Chaucer imitates, abound in allegorical personages: and it is remarkable that the early poets of Greece and Rome were fond of these creations: we have in Hesiod ‘Darkness:’ and many others; if the Shield of Hercules be of his hand.” But it seems to have escaped the writer that it is not literal, but figurative Darkness which is personified. Guietus ingeniously supposes that it is meant for the dimness of death. Homer, indeed, applies to this the same term: in the death of Eurymachus, Od. xxii. 88:
Tanaquil Faber, on Longinus, contends that αχλυς is here Sorrow. Sorrow is personified in a fragment of Ennius:
This is adopted by Grævius and Robinson. In like manner φως its opposite, light, is often used for χαρα, joy: as appears in the oriental style of scripture. But they have omitted to notice that this is a specific sorrow: for what connexion have these horrible symptoms with sorrow in general? I conceive that the prosopopœia describes the misery attendant on war: and especially in a city besieged, with its usual accompaniments of famine, blood, and tears, and the dust or ashes of mourning. Longinus selects the line “an ichor from her nostrils flowed,” as an instance of the false sublime; and compares it with Homer’s verse on Discord,
This is to compare two things totally unlike: why should an image of exhaustion and disease be thought to aim at sublimity? The objection of Longinus that it tends to excite disgust rather than terror is nugatory. The poet did not intend to excite terror, but horror: that kind of horror which arises from the contemplation of physical suffering.
[263] A well-tower’d city.] Homer, Il. book xviii. Shield of Achilles:
[264] Vaulted on steeds.] This circumstance has been thought to betray a later age: as it is alleged, that the only instance of riding on horseback mentioned by Homer is that of Diomed, who, with Ulysses, rides the horses of Rhesus of which he has made prize. But though chariot-horses only are found in the Homeric battles, there is an allusion to horsemanship, as an exhibition of skill, in a simile of the 15th book of the Iliad, v. 679; where the rider is described as riding four horses at once, and vaulting from one to the other.
[265] Others as husbandmen appear’d.] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
[266] In baskets thus up-piled.] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
This may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of Patroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very inferior.
This description apparently suggested to Virgil the chariot-race in the Georgics iii. 402, which Dryden has rendered with all the fire of the original.
[268] The ocean flow’d.] Homer, Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:
[269] Race of the far-famed Lyngeus.] Lyngeus was the ancestor of Perseus, the son of Danaë, and the father of Alcæus: of whom Amphitryon was the son.
Homer, Il. book xiii.
[271] He cast forth dews of blood.] Iliad, xvi, 459. Death of Sarpedon:
[272] As in the mountain thickets.] Homer, Iliad xiii.
[273] As two grim lions.] Iliad xvi.:
[274] As vultures curved of beak.] Iliad xvi.:
[275] As falls a thunder-blasted oak.] Iliad xiv.:
Iliad xvii.:
[277] Stoop’d from the chariot.] Iliad v.:
[278] The huge mount and monumental stone.] By the words tomb and monument, ταφος and σημα, I understand a mount of earth and a pillar of stone on the top of it: although Homer Il. xxiv. v. 801, applies σημα to the mount: which he seems to describe as raised of stones: