THE LIFE AND WORE OP BOMER. 



39 



I lacing conic at last to the end, offer a fervent prayer. 

 Goddesses, who /node the lay wherein I hove 'presented 

 Odysseus, how he wrought and endured acts of enmity 

 unmatched in magnitude. : may as great acts of kindness 

 be wrought about it, if it scut good to the gods and to 

 yon, ye goddesses* 



The next which conies for solution is the prologue of the 

 Odyssey, which is a very miracle of the Poet's ingenuity ; his 

 ten hexameters here are to he divided by vertical lines between 

 every pair of columns ; there result twenty anagrams, of which 

 sixteen are of twenty letters, giving a preface of thirteen iambic 

 lines, thus : — 



Thon (in a sense), Apollo, cert the author ; 0 Icing, be very 

 gracious ; " expelling " the load of cares which has 

 entered, come enter us, and bear aloft one ivell accus- 

 tomed to such a journey. Thou didst bid me lay down 

 Carnage and Strife there whence they once arose ; to 

 turn the War-god towards his northern home ; to propi- 

 tiate on the earth's account her child Erinys with sacri- 

 fices, prayers and pyres ; and after this in payment of 

 thy clue reivard, 0 son of Laertes, to compose as many 

 logs as Homer, recommended by the choice, brave son of 

 Aeneas, was chosen by Ilion to compose for her. But 

 for this, Apollo, the scion of Aeneas would by offers of 

 reward have turned my mind to some fresh Trojan 

 theme.^ 



* ttoWcis ucfiLKoov reppara 8fj Bov dpds ' Seal, 

 ai K(ifj.ov doibrjv, j'/t eBrjK 'OSvo-j}' eVt, 

 omrrj re epfie drjt epipve ff 6a afxa^a, 

 Toa dfi<pl eo epboiro Ki^Sei' epy ', cap 

 Beoicn X^f JLiV " Beat, Sokjj 

 Authority for dep'ueau is given by Veitch, Greek Verbs, 1871, p. 296 ; in 

 the work of which this paper is an abstract it is proposed to justify every 

 phrase, form, and thought which these and the other verses produced here 

 contain. 



t av nrj, TraTr)f),"A7ro\\ov ' to ava, 



7rd\X' iAo#' ' u iXX<ov" duvr " dypovft " d)((ov yo/xov, 

 'iBF dppe 8vs aeip ', uycov dr]B( ov 

 odolo. kcitBzvt evvenes *2(payr)tf 6Bev 

 tvot a>pT "Epiv r ' "Apea totvov eo, Bopea, 

 TpeyjravT iir olpco ' avv Bvalys, evxys, nvpais, 

 Trjs ttcuo 'Epivvv Zuena BepunevaavT ' a<pap 

 t'ivovtl aov, Aaepriddao y , dBXiov 

 re'Aov, TTotlv to<t oacr eAero ra a xXea 



