86 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



and many a horseman prayeth for it to wear; but it is laid up to be a 

 king's boast, alike an adornment for his horse and a glory for his chari- 

 oteer; even in such wise, Menelaos, were thy shapely thighs stained with 

 blood and thy legs and thy fair ankles beneath." Vergil (Aen. 12 : 67 f.) 

 borrowed the Homeric simile, applying it to a blushing maiden: "As 

 if one had stained Indian ivory with ruddy purple." 



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And then a dark cloud pass'd before his eyes, 

 And his head swam, and he sank down to earth. 



This may be compared with II. 22:4666.: "Then dark night came 

 on her eyes and shrouded her, and she fell backward and gasped forth 

 her spirit." Compare also such passages as II. 4: 503 ff. 



— and he seized 

 In both his hands the dust which lay around, 

 And threw it on his head, and smirch'd his hair, — 

 His hair, and face, and beard, and glittering arms; 

 And strong convulsive groanings shook his breast, 

 And his sobs choked him. 



The description of Rustum's grief for his son is very similar to the 

 picture of Achilles bewailing his friend Patroklos, II. 18:22 ff.: "Thus 

 spake he, and a black cloud of grief enwrapped Achilles, and with both 

 hands he took dark dust and poured it over his head, and defiled his 

 comely face, and on his fragrant doublet black ashes fell. And himself 

 in the dust lay mighty and mightily fallen, and with his own hands tore 



and marred his hair Then terribly mourned Achilles." 



Arnold's "glittering arms" like Vergil's arma radientia is borrowed 



from //. 18:617. 



— I but meet today 

 The doom which at my birth was written down 

 In Heaven. 



The belief in fatalism occurs frequently in Homer, as in Ody. 7:196 ff.: 

 " There, in the days to come, he shall receive whatever fate and the stern 

 spinners wove in his birth-thread when his mother bore him." Compare 

 also II. 3 : 308 f . : " Zeus knoweth, and all the immortal Gods, for whether 

 of the twain the doom of death is appointed." Compare also//. '6: 487 ff.; 

 16:441 f.; 20:127 f.; Vergil, Aen. 10:467. 



