Such store provided now as seem'd to suit Her present purpose, or with leaf or root, The poet afterwards tells us, that Achilles was shot by an arrow from Paris, sent into the midst of the battle, but does not describe him as wounded in any particular part: speaking of Apollo standing by Paris, he says, Dixit et ostendens sternentem Troia ferro Met. Lib. xii. ver. 604. He said, and show'd from far the blazing shield And sword, which but Achilles none could wield, Th' envenom'd shaft, and wings the fatal flight. Dryden. Virgil records the circumstance of his being slain by Paris, in the prayer of Eneas to Apollo, which Dryden translates with hasty inaccuracy, his mind being impressed with the popular fable. Indulgent God! propitious power to Troy! For which the original gives no authority: the words of Virgil are, Fhæbe, graves Troja semper miserate labores, Thus faithfully rendered by Pitt. Hear, Phoebus, gracious God! whose aid divine En. vi. 6. What yet remain'd of night, with seeming care 135 The story of Achilles being slain in the temple at his nuptials with Polyxena, seems to have been of later invention than his dipping in the Styx the author of both these fables, is unknown; but the first may be traced back, if not to the inventor, at least as early as the Augustan age, when Hyginus, the freedman of Augustus and friend, of Ovid, relates the death of Achilles thus, and seems to speak of the incident of the heel as a current, but probably a vulgar story; and therefore not noticed by the Classic writers of the time, who closely adhered to the authority of Homer. "Hectore sepulto, cum Achilles circa monia Trojanorum vagaretur, ac diceret se solum Trojam expugnâsse, Apollo iratus, Alexandrum Parin se simulans, talum, quem mortalem habuisse dicitur, sagitta percussit et occidit." "After the funeral of Hector, when Achilles was boasting before the walls of Troy that he singly would take the city, Apollo being incensed, took upon him the likeness of Paris, and wounding Achilles in the heel, in which he was said to be mortal, slew him." The histories now extant under the names of Dictys Cretensis, and Dares the Phrygian, both said to have been present at the siege of Troy, have the story of Achilles with all the modern circum stances; but these histories are supposititious, the originals being lost. Statius, who died 91 years after Christ, in his Achilleid mentions the circumstance of the river Styx. Thetis speaking to Chiron, says, ...Sæpe ipsa, nefas! sub inania natum Tartara, et ad Stygios iterum fero mergere fontes. How oft this breast could hell's dire horrors brave, She says to her son, when she has taken him to Scyros: VOL. IV. Lib. I. Lib. II. Now with his squires in sportive dice and play The king of Algiers pass'd the hours away, When from the kindled fire, the heat enclos'd In narrow bounds, to raging thirst dispos'd Soon shalt thou view (when eas'd my present fears) 140 Seneca, Plutarch, and Pausanias are silent on this head. Quintus Calaber, who lived about two hundred years after Augustus, and wrote a supplement to Homer's Iliad, represents Achilles as wounded by Memnon, king of the Ethiopians. Lactantius, in his argument to the xiith book of the Metamorphoses, refers to the vulgar tradition of the heel, which is the more singular, as no such circumstance occurs in his author: and Servius, in his note on the vith book of the Æneid, to the before cited passage has the like reference. In the edition of Virgil by Masuicius, the commentator on the same place, refers both to the story of the Styx and of Polyxena: and, speaking of the words here made use of by the poet, he adds: "Et bene ait direxti---quasi ad solum vulnerabilem locum.” Dryden, in the preface to his translation of the Eneid refers to a passage of M. Segrais where the French writer is defending Virgil for giving his hero enchanted arms. "This accusation (says Dryden) must fall on Homer ere it can reach Virgil. Achilles was as well provided with them as Eneas, though he was invulnerable without them." He goes on thus: "In defence of Virgil---he has been more cautious than his predecessor or descendents, for Eneas was actually wounded in the xiith bood of the Æneid." Thus far Dryden. But it is very extraordinary that so cool and judicious a critic as Segrais should take up this unclassical fable. Speaking of the enchanted arms given to the heroes of epic poetry or romance, he says, "Ces presens des Pieux, sont même une preuve de la valeur du prince, à qui ils sont faits; et il ne se trouve point que les mechans et les hommes mediocres ayent obtenu des graces pareilles, la providence ne les accorde qu'aux hommes rares qui meritent seuls, qu'elle les conserve The lord and menials, who insatiate drain'd At length removing from the crackling flame. 145 150 155 160 dans les dangers où leur courage les porte. Autrement il faudroit dire qu' Achille n'étoit pas vaillant, puis qu'outre un pareil secours d'armes forgés par Vulcain, sa mere avoit encore ajoute des charmes 'qui le rendoient invulnerable." To conclude this subject, in the discussion of which I hope I shall not have been thought tedious, though the first inventor of the story is unknown, it is undoubtedly of considerable antiquity, and has been occasionally made use of or rejected by different authors, but ought certainly never to be alluded to in any criticism or observation on Homer, to whom the fable appears to be wholly unknown. But it is no wonder that a fiction of this kind, so consonant to the genius of romance, should be adopted by Boyardo and Ariosto. 2 Thy force, thy sword undaunted to receive; Th' unthinking Saracen, (whose wretched sense, 165 170 Thrice from the floor the head was seen to bound, 175 And thrice was heard Zerbino's name to sound, Ver. 176. And thrice was heard, &c.] Corflambo, the giant's head in Spenser, speaks when cut off by Arthur. Fairy Queen, B. iv. C. viii. His head before him humbled on the ground, "Poetry deals in the wonderful, and nothing is so tame and prosaic as Scaliger's criticism on the verse of Homer, Il. x. which Spenser had in view, "Falsum est a pulmone caput avulsum loqui posse." It is false that a head can speak after separation from the Jungs. Hear Ovid. Met. v. ver. 104. Demetit ense caput; quod protinus incidit aræ, The trenchant falchion lopt his head away, And curses linger'd on the dying tongue. "And speaking of a lady's tongue, (which may be less wonderful) when cut off and flung upon the ground, he says, terræque tremens inmurmurat." ...And trembling murmurs on the ground. |