[The Iliad of Homer by Homer]@TWC D-Link book
The Iliad of Homer

BOOK XXIV
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I fail'd not in my trust And oft, while round my neck thy hands were lock'd, From thy sweet lips the half articulate sound Of Father came; and oft, as children use, Mewling and puking didst thou drench my tunic." "This description," observes my learned friend (notes, p.

121) "is taken from the passage of Homer, II ix, in translating which, Pope, with that squeamish, artificial taste, which distinguished the age of Anne, omits the natural (and, let me add, affecting) circumstance." "And the wine Held to thy lips, and many a time in fits Of infant frowardness the purple juice Rejecting thou hast deluged all my vest, And fill'd my bosom." -- Cowper.
212 -- _Where Calydon._ For a good sketch of the story of Meleager, too long to be inserted here, see Grote, vol.i.p.

195, sqq.; and for the authorities, see my notes to the prose translation, p.

166.
213 "_Gifts can conquer_"-- It is well observed by Bishop Thirlwall, "Greece," vol.i.p, 180, that the law of honour among the Greeks did not compel them to treasure up in their memory the offensive language which might be addressed to them by a passionate adversary, nor to conceive that it left a stain which could only be washed away by blood.

Even for real and deep injuries they were commonly willing to accept a pecuniary compensation." 214 "The boon of sleep."-- Milton 215 "All else of nature's common gift partake: Unhappy Dido was alone awake." -- Dryden's Virgil, iv.


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