C 459 1 
Some, as Euftathius (28) himfelf, take this to be a 
defcription of a comet j. and the juftnefs of it will be 
acknowleged by all that remember the late one in 
1743. By the beauty and livelinefs of the defcrip- 
tion, likewife, one would be induced to believe far- 
ther, that it mu ft have been the defcription of one 
feen by Homer himfelf. But if the comet that ap- 
peared in 1681. hath a period of about 575 years (29), 
as it feems to have, we fhall find, by counting back- 
wards, that it muft have viftted the earth about the 
year before Chrift 619* at which time Homer might 
have been alive, and old enough to remember the 
terror and confternation that it caufed. 
Another remarkable paftage there is, in the Odyf- 
fy (30), where, juft before Ulyftes recovered his wife 
and kingdom, the poet tells us, that 
Se 
Ouoourd f^a'sroAwAg, tccocx 1 cf 1 ’ a^Aus 
■Sol quoqiis 
Ex ccelo per lit ; omino/aque ingruit call go. 
Tccvtoc cf ? 00s of.'zzrQ hA iov Ex.A«dg&)s, fays Euftathius tnere 1 
And again, H cT? tU HA;gu EzA drSis qvx. u'zji^’ocr^ otoc. 
yil'OUiV/l eu Isl OVfJLYwlcjL- 
What authority Euftathius had for fuppoiing that 
this tranfadtion was at the new moon, I know not. 1 
( 28 ) A<ri$ct J'i vvv a <f Kupi&>( Xiy&i, ciAAa Tt ci? olov KoiMiTW 
« (nvA-vrJi AS'oc. 
(29.) See Dr. Halley’s' Ajlron. Tables > or Mi fed* Curl of, Vol. II. 
(30) Lib. XX. v. 356. 
M m m 2 think 
