' Ancknt Epic Poem » 133 



Strong in bcr tUengtli, and warmed wMiall l.c; ... 



JEnc^s is in 1 the most imminent danger iVoni 

 his resistless arm. lliusfar^ is still tol(*rabfe, 

 and, by a little more stniinof the imagination, 

 Minerva might stiJl be donsidered as but a re- 

 presentative, of: the' herps personal valour.— 

 But A^bnus .personally interposes to rescue hed 

 mortal son. She is foiled and wounded in the 

 attempt; nor does Mars himself, the dread 

 god of battles, fare better, ; when opposed t^f 

 the martial goddess in the person of Diomed. 

 Surely this ■ is- heroism in burlesque. Those 

 who can admire such a scene, must, methinks,i 

 have submitted their taste and understanding 

 to as low a standard, as It was reduced with 

 the heathens by their wretched theology.—' 

 Though Homer told the. tale, as he probably, 

 received it from tradition, yet it sterns as if he 

 felt the ridiculousness of the scene. When he 

 sends the discomfited god blubbering up ta 

 the court! of heaven, and impotently urging 

 his complaints before his divine papa, who 

 only mocks his sorrows. 



But that the .poet meant more than mer^ 

 poetical allegory, by summoning his deities ;^q 

 the aid of his mortal combatants, is evinced by 

 their hiiiniUation in nuvinent; of dilUciiltv -ini 



