AncicfU fupic Poem, \ 1^7 



history of PatrocKis, which cnti^|e4 him to be 

 exempted frun) the honour of falling uoder the 

 unaided arm of Hector, as Homer iiacj repeat* 

 cdly exhibited him. To tliis unncccssarv in- 

 terposition of a god is add^ 

 disgrace of Hector's unmanly triunxph and 

 insult over his prostrate and dying foe. Pa^. 

 VrQcluSjin the agonies ofdeath, justly f:f3pUesj 



^ " Vain boaster ! cease! and know the pdWers cHvinc, 

 Jove's and Apollo's is ihis deed, not ibine. 

 To heaven is owed whate'er your own yon call. 

 And heaven itself disarmeil me ere my fall. 

 Had twenty mortals, each ihy match in raigkr, 

 Opposed me fairly^ they had sunk in fight : 

 By fate and Phcebus was I first o'erlhrown, 

 £Qphorbus ne«t, th^ third mean part thy own. 



Homer has,liowever, rendered poetic justice 

 to the hero, whom, in subservience to his 

 celestial machinery, he had thus disgraced in 

 his combat with Patroclus ; for. Without the 

 aid of Minerva, the never-failing champion of 

 the Grecian cause, cvun Achilles, that god- 

 dess-born and invulneraole hero, on whose 

 forbearance alone the fate of Troy seemed to 

 be suspended, was not enabled to conquer the 

 very man, who was so unequal to the encounter 

 with his friend. To effect a death in battle b 

 not a nodusy. dipino vindicc dignus ; the ma- 

 chinery is a poor and artless refuge ; the poem 



