no exposition: it constitutes in itself one of the beauties of the

work. The Hesiodic images are huddled together without connection or

congruity: Mars and Pallas are awkwardly introduced among the

Centaurs and Lapithae;-- but the gap is wide indeed between them and

Apollo with the Muses, waking the echoes of Olympus to celestial

harmonies; whence however, we are hurried back to Perseus, the

Gorgons, and other images of war, over an arm of the sea, in which

the sporting dolphins, the fugitive fishes, and the fisherman on the

shore with his casting net, are minutely represented. As to the

Hesiodic images themselves, the leading remark is, that they catch

at beauty by ornament, and at sublimity by exaggeration; and upon

the untenable supposition of the genuineness of this poem, there is

this curious peculiarity, that, in the description of scenes of

rustic peace, the superiority of Homer is decisive--while in those of

war and tumult it may be thought, perhaps, that the Hesiodic poet

has more than once the advantage."

58 "This legend is one of the most pregnant and characteristic in the

Grecian Mythology; it explains, according to the religious ideas

familiar to the old epic poets, both the distinguishing attributes

and the endless toil and endurances of Heracles, the most renowned

subjugator of all the semi-divine personages worshipped by the

Hellenes,--a being of irresistible force, and especially beloved by

Zeus, yet condemned constantly to labour for others and to obey the

commands of a worthless and cowardly persecutor. His recompense is

reserved to the close of his career, when his afflicting trials are

965

The Iliad of Homer