64 Quintus Calaber goes still further in his account of the service

rendered to Jove by Thetis:

"Nay more, the fetters of Almighty Jove

She loosed"--Dyce's "Calaber," s. 58.

5 --To Fates averse. Of the gloomy destiny reigning throughout the

Homeric poems, and from which even the gods are not exempt, Schlegel

well observes, "This power extends also to the world of gods-- for

the Grecian gods are mere powers of nature--and although immeasurably

higher than mortal man, yet, compared with infinitude, they are on

an equal footing with himself."--'Lectures on the Drama' v. p. 67.

6 It has been observed that the annual procession of the sacred ship

so often represented on Egyptian monuments, and the return of the

deity from Ethiopia after some days' absence, serves to show the

Ethiopian origin of Thebes, and of the worship of Jupiter Ammon. "I

think," says Heeren, after quoting a passage from Diodorus about the

holy ship, "that this procession is represented in one of the great

sculptured reliefs on the temple of Karnak. The sacred ship of Ammon

is on the shore with its whole equipment, and is towed along by

another boat. It is therefore on its voyage. This must have been one

of the most celebrated festivals, since, even according to the

interpretation of antiquity, Homer alludes to it when he speaks of

Jupiter's visit to the Ethiopians, and his twelve days'

absence."--Long, "Egyptian Antiquities" vol. 1 p. 96. Eustathius,

906

The Iliad of Homer