imois Bhateum Oftia Scamandri 3. Fontes Seamandri dus. Ili Monimentum. 7. Tumu 12,13,14,.C. Gefta Diomedis hoe in lib:u.G.Pugna in lib. 20 · AN ESSAY ON HOMER'S BATTEL S. P ERHAPS it may be neceffary in this place at the opening of Homer's Battels, to premise fome obfervations upon them in general. I fhall firft endeavour to fhew the Conduct of the Poet herein, and next collect fome Antiquities, that tend to a more diftin&t understanding of thofe defcriptions which make fo large a part of the Poem. One may very well apply to Homer himself, what he fays of his Heroes at the end of the fourth book, that whofoever fhould be guided thro' his battels by Minerva, and pointed to every fcene of them, would fee nothing thro' the whole but fubjects of furprife and applaufe. When the reader reflects that no lefs than the compass of twelve books is taken up in these, he will have reason to wonder by what methods our author could prevent de A 2 scriptions fcriptions of fuch a length from being tedious. It is not enough to fay, that tho' the fubject itself be the fame, the actions are always different; that we have now distinct combats, now promifcuous fights, now fingle duels, now general engagements; or that the scenes are perpetually vary'd; we are now in the fields, now at the fortification of the Greeks, now at the fhips, now at the gates of Troy, now at the river Scamander: But we muft look farther into the art of the poet, to find the reasons of this aftonishing variety. We may firft obferve that diverfity in the deaths of his warriors, which he has fupplied by the vafteft fertility of invention, Thefe he diftinguishes feveral ways: Sometimes by the characters of the Men, their age, office, profeffion, nation, family, &c. Cne is a blooming youth, whofe father diffuaded him from the war; one is a priest, whose piety could not fave him; one is a sportsman, whom Diana taught in vain; one is the native of a far-diftant country, who is never to return; one is defcended from a noble line, which ends in his death; one is made remarkable by his boafting another by his bifeeching; and another, who is diftinguished no way elfe, is marked by his Habit and fingularity of his armour.. ; Sometimes he varies thefe deaths by the feveral poftures in which his Heroes are reprefented either fighting or falling. Some of these are so exceedingly exact, that one may guess from the very position of the combatant, whereabouts the wound will light: Others fo very peculiar and uncommon, that they could only be the effect of an imagination which had fearched thro' all the ideas of nature. Such is that picture of Mydon in the fifth book, whofe arm being numb'd by a blow on the elbow, drops the reins that trail on the ground; and then being fuddenly ftruck on the temples, falls headlong from the cha riot in a foft and deep place; where he finks up to the fhoulders in the fands, and continues a while fixed by the weight of his armour, with his legs quivering in the air, till he is trampled down by the horses. Another Another caufe of this variety is the difference of the wounds that are given in the Iliad: They are by no means like the wounds defcribed by most other poets, which are commonly made in the felf-fame obvious places: The heart and head ferve for all thofe in general who underftand no anatomy, and fometimes for variety they kill men by wounds that are no where mortal but in their poems. As the whole human body is the fubject of these, so nothing is more neceffary to him who would defcribe them well, than a thorough knowledge of its ftructure, even tho' the poet is not profeffedly to write of them as an anatomist; in the fame manner as an exact skill in anatomy is neceffary to thofe Painters that would excel in drawing the naked, tho' they are not to make every mufcle as vifible as in a book of chirurgery. It appears from fo many paffages in Homer that he was perfectly mafter of this science, that it would be needless to cite any in particular. One may only obferve, that if we thoroughly examine all the wounds he has described, tho' fo infinite in number, and fo many ways diversify`d, we shall hardly find one which will contradict this obfervation. I must just add a remark, That the various periphrafes and circumlocutions by which Homer expreffes the fingle act of dying, have fupplied Virgil and the fucceeding Poets with all their manners of phrafing it. Indeed he repeats the fame verfe on that occafion more often than they τὸν δὲ σκότω ἴσσ ̓ ἐκάλυψε Αράβησε δὲ τεύχε' ἐπ' αὐτῷ, &c. But tho' it must be owned he had more frequent occafions for a line of this kind than any Poet, as no other has defcribed half fo many deaths, yet one cannot afcribe this to any fterility of expreffion, but to the genius of his times, that delighted in thofe reiterated verfes. We find repetitions of the fame fort affected by the facred writers, fuch as, He was gathered to his prople; He flept with his fathers; and the like. And upon the whole they have a certain antiquated harmony, not unlike the burthen of a A 3 Long, |