It bears the same kind of relation to the Iliad that Robertson's narrative bears to the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis.
There is a pretty allegory in Homer--I think in the last book, but I forget precisely where--about two vessels, the one filled with blessings and the other with sorrow, which stand, says the poet, on the right and left hand of Jupiter's throne, and from which he dispenses good and evil at his pleasure among men.

What word to use for these vessels has long posed the translators of Homer.

Pope, who loves to be fine, calls them _urns_.

Cowper, who loves to be coarse, calls them _casks_;--a translation more improper than Pope's; for a cask is, in our general understanding, a wooden vessel; and the Greek word means an earthen vessel.

There is a curious letter of Cowper's to one of his female correspondents about this unfortunate word.