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rwards rendered him invulnerable by plunging him into the waters of the Styx, with the exception of that part of the heel by which she held him. Hygin. Fab. 54

[62] Thebé was a city of Mysia, north of Adramyttium.

[63] That is, defrauds me of the prize allotted me by their votes.

[64] Quintus Calaber goes still further in his account of the service rendered to Jove by Thetis:

“Nay more, the fetters of Almighty Jove She loosed”—Dyce’s “Calaber,” s. 58.

[65] _To Fates averse_. Of the gloomy destiny reigning throughout the Homeric poems, and from which even the gods are not exempt, Schlegel well observes, “This power extends also to the world of gods— for the Grecian gods are mere powers of nature—and although immeasurably higher than mortal man, yet, compared with infinitude, they are on an equal footing with himself.”—‘Lectures on the Drama’ v. p. 67.

[66] It has been observed that the annual procession of the sacred ship so often represented on Egyptian monuments, and the return of the deity from Ethiopia after some days’ absence, serves to show the Ethiopian origin of Thebes, and of the worship of Jupiter Ammon. “I think,” says Heeren, after quoting a passage from Diodorus about the holy ship, “that this procession is represented in one of the great sculptured reliefs on the temple of Karnak. The sacred ship of Ammon is on the shore with its whole equipment, and is towed along by another boat. It is therefore on its voyage. This must have been one of the most celebrated festivals, since, even according to the interpretation of antiquity, Homer alludes to it when he speaks of Jupiter’s visit to the Ethiopians, and his twelve days’ absence.”—Long, “Egyptian Antiquities” vol. 1 p. 96. Eustathius, vol. 1 p. 98, sq. (ed. Basil) gives this interpretation, and likewise an allegorical one, which we will spare the reader.

[67] _Atoned_, i.e. reconciled. This is the proper and most natural meaning of the word, as may be seen from Taylor’s remarks in Calmet’s Dictionary, p.110, of my edition.

[68] That is, drawing back their necks while they cut their throats. “If the sacrifice was in honour of the celestial gods, the throat was bent upwards towards heaven; but if made to the heroes, or infernal deities, it was killed with its throat toward the ground.”— “Elgin Marbles,” vol i. p.81.

“The jolly crew, unmindful of the past, The quarry share, their plenteous dinner haste, Some strip the skin; some portion out the spoil; The limbs yet trembling, in the caldrons boil; Some on the fire the reeking entrails broil. Stretch’d on the grassy turf, at ease they dine, Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with wine.”

Dryden’s “Virgil,” i. 293.

[69] _Crown’d, i.e._ filled to the brim. The custom of adorning goblets with flowers was of later date.

[70] _He spoke_, &c. “When a friend inquired of Phidias what pattern he had formed his Olympian Jupiter, he is said to have answered by repeating the lines of the first Iliad in which the poet represents the majesty of the god in the most sublime terms; thereby signifying that the genius of Homer had inspired him with it. Those who beheld this statue are said to have been so struck with it as to have asked whether Jupiter had descended from heaven to show himself to Phidias, or whether Phidias had been carried thither to contemplate the god.”— “Elgin Marbles,” vol. xii p.124.

[71] “So was his will Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath, That shook heav’n’s whole circumference, confirm’d.”

“Paradise Lost” ii. 351.

[72] _A double bowl, i.e._ a vessel with a cup at both ends, something like the measures by which a halfpenny or pennyworth of nuts is sold. See Buttmann, Lexic. p. 93 sq.

[73] “Paradise Lost,” i. 44.

“Him th’ Almighty power Hurl’d headlong flaming from th ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion”

[74] The occasion on which Vulcan incurred Jove’s displeasure was this—After Hercules, had taken and pillaged Troy, Juno raised a storm, which drove him to the island of Cos, having previously cast Jove into a sleep, to prevent him aiding his son. Jove, in revenge, fastened iron anvils to her feet, and hung her from the sky, and Vulcan, attempting to relieve her, was kicked down from Olympus in the manner described. The allegorists have gone mad in finding deep explanations for this amusing fiction. See Heraclides, “Ponticus,” p. 463 sq., ed Gale. The story is told by Homer himself in Book xv. The Sinthians were a race of robbers, the ancient inhabitants of Lemnos which island was ever after sacred to Vulcan.

“Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece, and in Ausonian land Men call’d him Mulciber, and how he fell From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o’er the crystal battlements from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer’s day and with the setting sun Dropp’d from the zenith like a falling star On Lemnos, th’ Aegean isle thus they relate.”

“Paradise Lost,” i. 738

[75] It is ingeniously observed by Grote, vol i p. 463, that “The gods formed a sort of political community of their own which had its hierarchy, its distribution of ranks and duties, its contentions for power and occasional revolutions, its public meetings in the agora of Olympus, and its multitudinous banquets or festivals.”

[76] Plato, Rep. iii. p. 437, was so scandalized at this deception of Jupiter’s, and at his other attacks on the character of the gods, that he would fain sentence him to an honourable banishment. (See Minucius Felix, Section 22.) Coleridge, Introd. p. 154, well observes, that the supreme father of gods and men had a full right to employ a lying spirit to work out his ultimate will. Compare “Paradise Lost,” v. 646:

“And roseate dews disposed All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest.”

[77] —_Dream_ ought to be spelt with a capital letter, being, I think, evidently personified as the god of dreams. See Anthon and others.

“When, by Minerva sent, a _fraudful_ Dream Rush’d from the skies, the bane of her and Troy.”

Dyce’s “Select Translations from Quintus Calaber,” p.10.

[78] “Sleep’st thou, companion dear, what sleep can close Thy eye-lids?”—“Paradise Lost,” v. 673.

[79] This truly military sentiment has been echoed by the approving voice of many a general and statesman of antiquity. See Pliny’s Panegyric on Trajan. Silius neatly translates it,

“Turpe duci totam somno consumere noctem.”

[80] _The same in habit_, &c.

“To whom once more the winged god appears; His former youthful mien and shape he wears.”

Dryden’s Virgil, iv. 803.

[81] “As bees in spring-time, when The sun with Taurus rides, Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of this straw-built citadel, New-nibb’d with balm, expatiate and confer Their state affairs. So thick the very crowd Swarm’d and were straiten’d.”—“Paradi