THE "ILIAD" AND "ODYSSEY" IN " SOHRAB AND RUSTUM" 87 



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Come, sit beside me on this sand, and take 



My head betwixt thy hands, and kiss my cheeks, 



And wash them with thy tears, and say : My Son! 



It is possible that this passage shows the influence of II. 18 : 70 ff. : " And 

 as he groaned heavily his lady mother stood beside him, and with a shrill 

 cry clasped the head of her child, and spake unto him winged words of 

 lamentation: 'My child,' " etc. Compare also II. 24:723 ff. 



— and Ruksh, the horse, 

 With his head bowing to the ground and mane 

 Sweeping the dust, came near, and in mute woe 

 First to the one then to the other moved 

 His head, as if inquiring what their grief 

 Might mean; and from his dark compassionate eyes, 

 The big warm tears roll'd down, and caked the sand. 



The "mute woe" of Ruksh is described in words which represent a free 

 borrowing from the story of the grief of Achilles' horses, Balios and 

 Xanthos, once " endowed with human speech," over the death of Patrok- 

 los, II. 17 :426 ff. : " But the horses of Aeakides that were apart from the 

 battle, were weeping, since first they were aware that their charioteer 



had fallen So abode they immovably with the beautiful chariot 



abasing their heads unto the earth. And hot tears flowed from their 

 eyes to the ground as they mourned in sorrow for their charioteer, and 

 their rich manes were soiled as they drooped from beneath the yoke 

 cushion on both sides beside the yoke." Compare also II. 19:404 ff. 

 In "big warm tears," Arnold has combined two Homeric epithets occur- 

 ring separately. The expression " big tears " is found in //. 24 : 9; " warm 

 tears" in II. 17 1437, 438. The expression " caked the sand" calls up II. 

 23:15 f.: "Bedewed were the sands with tears, bedewed the warriors' 

 arms." 

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Then with heavy groan, Rustum bewail'd. 



There are many lines in Homer very similar to this one. Compare 

 77. 1:364: "Then with heavy moan, Achilles, fleet of foot spake to 

 her." 



