|
{Illustration: Title page, with drawing of a bust of Homer, and a
curving sash bearing the inscription 'Illustrated by Flaxman's
Designs'.}
THE ILIAD OF HOMER
TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER POPE,
WITH NOTES BY THE
REV. THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, M.A., F.S.A.
AND
FLAXMAN'S DESIGNS.
1899
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Iris
Hector and Ajax separated by the Heralds
Greek Amphora--Wine vessels
Juno and Minerva going to assist the Greeks
The Hours taking the Horses from Juno's Car
The Shield of Achilles
Pluto
The Embassy to Achilles
Greek Galley
Proserpine
Achilles
Diomed and Ulysses returning with the spoils of Rhesus
The Descent of Discord
Hercules
Polydamas advising Hector
Greek Altar
Neptune rising from the Sea
Greek Earrings
Sleep escaping from the wrath of Jupiter
Greek Shield
Bacchus
Ajax defending the Greek Ships
Castor and Pollux
Buckles
Diana
Sleep and Death conveying the body of Sarpedon to Lycia
AEsculapius
Fight for the body of Patroclus
Vulcan from an antique gem
Thetis ordering the Nereids to descend into the Sea
Juno commanding the Sun to set
Tripod
Thetis and Eurynome receiving the Infant Vulcan
Vulcan and Charis receiving Thetis
Thetis bringing the Armour to Achilles
Hercules
The Gods descending to Battle
Centaur
Achilles contending with the Rivers
The Bath
Andromache fainting on the Wall
The Funeral Pile of Patroclus
Ceres
Hector's Body at the Car of Achilles
The Judgment of Paris
Iris advises Priam to obtain the body of Hector
Funeral of Hector
INTRODUCTION.
Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of
scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the
most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very
gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and
emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired; we must set
aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be
daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and
anxiety to acquire.
And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which
progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which
persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu
of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away
traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues
of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive
superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society. The
credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as
powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy
scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of
conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church.
History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent
times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the
indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere statements are
jealously watched, and the motives of the writer form as important an
ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records.
Probability is a powerful and troublesome test; and it is by this
troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is
sifted. Consistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its
demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere
facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of extended experience,
is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical
characters can only be estimated by the standard which human
experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form
correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a
|
|
