So rush'd we forth at once."

--Dryden's Virgil, ii. 479.

45 --The destinies ordain.--"In the mythology, also, of the Iliad,

purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth unconsciously

involved, which was almost entirely lost from view amidst the nearly

equal scepticism and credulity of subsequent ages. Zeus or Jupiter

is popularly to be taken as omnipotent. No distinct empire is

assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the father of gods and men

is absolute and uncontrollable. This seems to be the true character

of the Homeric deity, and it is very necessary that the student of

Greek literature should bear it constantly in mind. A strong

instance in the Iliad itself to illustrate this position, is the

passage where Jupiter laments to Juno the approaching death of

Sarpedon. 'Alas me!' says he 'since it is fated (moira) that

Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should be slain by Patroclus, the

son of Menoetius! Indeed, my heart is divided within me while I

ruminate it in my mind, whether having snatched him up from out of

the lamentable battle, I should not at once place him alive in the

fertile land of his own Lycia, or whether I should now destroy him

by the hands of the son of Menoetius!' To which Juno answers--'Dost

thou mean to rescue from death a mortal man, long since destined by

fate (palai pepromenon)? You may do it--but we, the rest of the gods,

do not sanction it.' Here it is clear from both speakers, that

although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter might still,

959

The Iliad of Homer