46 TR T not taken 



have happened in a century and a half. Befides, that he wrote 

 from report^ and knew nothing certain, he himfelf declares, in 

 his addrefs to the Mufes, with which he introduces the catalogue 

 of the Grecian {hips and forces ; which implies, that he was not 

 only very long pofterior to the event he chofe for his fubjecl, but 

 that there was no record or hiftory of it extant when he wrote. 



MANY proofs might be brought of HOMER'S (lory being ge- 

 nerally difbelieved or doubted of among the ancients. A few 

 {hall be mentioned : And, firft, I refer to the hiftory of HELEN'S 

 birth. LJEDA, the wife of TYNDARUS, was delivered (it is 

 faid) of two eggs, in one of which were POLLUX and HELEN, 

 in the other CASTOR and CLYTEMNESTRA. The former being 

 .the offspring of JUPITER, metamorphofed into a fwan, were im- 

 mortal j the latter, coining from TYNDARUS, fubjecl to diffo- 

 lution. And, it is added, that, when CASTOR drew near his 

 end, his brother begged of the gods that he might be exempted 

 from death as well as himfelf. This, it feems, could not be al- 

 together complied with ; but, to gratify him as far as fate would 

 permit, it was decreed that they mould live and die by turns. 

 This is evidently an allegory, and generally thought to be an 

 aftronomical one. Now, if HELEN was not a real, but an al- 

 legorical perfonage, what becomes of the Trojan war ? 



THE flory of the egg is not to be found in HOMER ; but the 

 alternate life and death of CASTOR and POLLUX is mentioned 

 in the Odyffey *, though not confiftent with a paffage in the 

 Iliad, to be afterwards quoted, which declares them both dead. 

 Madame DACIER, in a note on this paffage of the Iliad, fays, 

 that the fable of CASTOR and POLLUX was pofterior to HOMER; 

 but the paffage of the Odyffey, juft now referred to, proves the 

 contrary. HORACE feems to have thought, that the whole had 

 been invented -before HOMER'S time, as he .commends him for 

 riot having begun with the egg : 



Nee gemtno Trojanum bellum ordltur ab ovo. 



But 



1* xt. 302. 



