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because he also fears for his friend's life. The prohibition is
forgotten; the friend listens to nothing but his courage; his corpse
is brought back to the hero, and the hero's arms become the prize of
the conqueror. Then the hero, given up to the most lively despair,
prepares to fight; he receives from a divinity new armour, is
reconciled with his general and, thirsting for glory and revenge,
enacts prodigies of valour, recovers the victory, slays the enemy's
chief, honours his friend with superb funeral rites, and exercises a
cruel vengeance on the body of his destroyer; but finally appeased
by the tears and prayers of the father of the slain warrior,
restores to the old man the corpse of his son, which he buries with
due solemnities.'--Coleridge, p. 177, sqq.
4
1 Vultures: Pope is more accurate than the poet he translates, for
Homer writes "a prey to dogs and to all kinds of birds. But all
kinds of birds are not carnivorous.
4
2 --i.e. during the whole time of their striving the will of Jove was
being gradually accomplished.
43 Compare Milton's "Paradise Lost" i. 6
"Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Horeb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd."
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