And on the Trojan Plain. 155 
objections to the history contained in the 
Iliad, Mr. Bryant grounds, almost wholly, 
on the improbability of the facts therein re- 
lated:—for example, the combination of so 
many independent chiefs to avenge the injury 
of one ;—the great size of the fleets and ar- 
mies;—the long duration of the siege, and 
there being no remains of the ancient city. 
It would, perhaps, be a sufficient and rea- 
sonable answer to objections of this nature, 
if we replied, that as (1) Homer lived be- 
tween two or three centuries after the events 
which he describes, the tradition from which 
he wrote might be as inaccurate and exag- 
gerated, as traditions usually are; or that, 
as a poet, he indulged his fancy, magnified, 
andembellished. Homer, himself, seems not 
to demand implicit belief in all that he relates, 
for he invokes the aid of the muses not only 
to enable him to sing well, but to supply him 
with facts, of which he declares his ignorance: 
For he says, (2) 
(1) Homer flourished about A. C. 907. Troy was taken A. €. 1184, 
or according to the Arundelian Marbles, A. C. 1209. Tytler. He 
was most probably a native of the Isle of Chios, or of some place on 
the neighbouring coast. 
(2) The references are all to Cowper’s translation of the Iliad, which 
has the double advantage of being familiar to most readers, and of 
being at the same time a most faithful, and indeed a literal, translation 
of Homer. 
is seldom that any point in the course of this discussion turns on 
