| 976 | 977 | 978 | 979 | 980 |
| 1 | 245 | 490 | 735 | 980 |
|
man; but made the welfare of the soul after death dependent on the
fate of the body from which it had separated. Hence a denial of the
rites essential to the soul's admission into the more favoured
regions of the lower world was a cruel punishment to the wanderer on
the dreary shores of the infernal river. The complaint of the ghost
of Patroclus to Achilles, of but a brief postponement of his own
obsequies, shows how efficacious their refusal to the remains of his
destroyer must have been in satiating the thirst of revenge, which,
even after death, was supposed to torment the dwellers in Hades.
Hence before yielding up the body of Hector to Priam, Achilles asks
pardon of Patroclus for even this partial cession of his just rights
of retribution."--Mure, vol. i. 289.
297 Such was the fate of Astyanax, when Troy was taken.
"Here, from the tow'r by stern Ulysses thrown,
Andromache bewail'd her infant son."
Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 675.
298 The following observations of Coleridge furnish a most gallant and
interesting view of Helen's character--
"Few things are more interesting than to observe how the same hand
that has given us the fury and inconsistency of Achilles, gives us
also the consummate elegance and tenderness of Helen. She is through
978
Page
Quick Jump
|