ifO OK Tttfi REALITY OF THE TROJAN WAR. May 1 8, 



effefts that happened. This was poffibly neceffary, to 

 obviate an objfeftion of the inequality of Heftor dnd A- 

 chilles's armour, and to account for Achilles not im- 

 mediately joining the army ; — if Homer took a poeti- 

 cal licence in giving Achilles divine armour, it was 

 requifite to do the fame with Heftor. 



Allow that "only a fmall number got in in the wood- 

 en horfe, by taking advantage of the Trojan fuperfli- 

 tiori, they might manage matters till affiftance came. 

 Coriolanus is a \\'ell.known inilance, how much one 

 individual could do in a more critical fituation, in the 

 middle of an engagement, in broad day. — Virgil might 

 hide the Greeks iti Jight, [\x he does not mean to lodge) ; 

 it was only faying the Trojans \vere blind with drink- 

 ing- •uvAwwej to the ivQodcn horfe, which, they imagin- 

 ed, was come in place of their Palladium : but this 

 does not invalidate Homer's teftimony. 



That Homer had one critic at an early period, we 

 learn from the fate of Zoilus, who is faid to have been 

 torn in pieces for it. 



It is not improbable, after facking Troy, the Greeks 

 fhould have difperled, as there was no longer any bond 

 of union ; as their influence depended on perfonal prow- 

 efs. perfonal attendance was neceffary in their own 

 kingdoms; for want of wliich, patties were formed 

 fuccefsfully againft them, in fome places, in their ab- 

 fente. 



i^neas, who lived out of the town, fled to a differ- 

 ent country. He reigned over his Trojans, but not in 

 Troy ; — and was even fufpefted of felling it. Andro- 

 mache and Helenus were taken captives by Pvrrhus, 

 who married Andromache ; after Pyrrhus's death, the 



the two captives married Lycophron, a Greek writer, 



may be brought in fupport of part of Homer ; he bas 

 wrote the prediftions. of Caffandra. 



However paradoxical it may appear, tlie current of 

 prejudice has been very much againfl Homtr, and his 

 great merit only has inade him ftand id The Romans, 



