1807. ] - 
this day, im Hindostan, denotes a land- 
holder. ‘This the Greeks, with little va- 
riation, pronounced Scamandrios. on the 
other hand, the citizens, wishing to per- 
petuate the intident for which the ind 
was bestowed, and atthe same time iiti- 
rating that his son when grown to ma- 
turity had the fairest title to ruic a city 
which had been saved by the bravery of 
his father, gave the child, though yet an 
infant, the honourable name of Ascyanax 
or king of the city. For this fact [ lave 
only the mdirect authority of Homer; but 
as itisa fact which, in itself by no means 
improbable, serves to explain passages in- 
imitably beautiful and appropriate, but 
inexplicable on any other supposition, 
any additional evidence for the truth of it 
will hardly be deemed necessary. 
the amiable, but by the national preju- 
dices of Homer, much-injured, Hector 
met for the last ‘time Andromache, she 
had, it is said, her infant with her, m the 
arms of its nurse. 
That’ emt “odsrov exour’ araradheover, ynorioy 
UTS, 
Exropidyy eyannrov, wAyHioy ageet xaAor 
Toy ‘e Extwe uarsernut Deapeavdetov, avrag ob 
AAD Of 
Aguavaxr’, o1os yee Eoueto IAtoy ExTae. 
Il. vi 400—404. 
Which is-rendered by Cowper, 
Thus winged with haste she came, and wee 
like haste 
The virgin nurse, infolding in her arms 
His yet unweaned and helpless little-one, 
Fair as the star of morn. Him Hector 
named 
Scamandrius ; but the citizens of Troy, 
Astyanax ; for other guardian aid 
Effectual, none than Hector’s Ilium knew, 
Now, when Hector was delivered by fate 
to the hands of his savage enemy, Achilles, 
what sentiments were likely to rise on the 
occasion inthe mind of the widowed 
princess? On being informed of the sad 
event, and, by the restoration of her 
senses, of which the information deprived 
her fur a time, rendered capable of la- 
menting her fate, she proceeds in this pa- 
thetic strain : 
He, doom’d himself 
To sorrrow, me, more sorrowfully doomed, 
Sustained in helpless infancy, whom, oh | 
That be had never begotten! Thou de- 
scendest 
To Hades and the Stygian caves forlorn ; 
Me leaving here a widow: and thy Ro. 
Fruit of our hapless loves, an infant yet, 
Never to be hereafter thy delight, 
Nor love of thine to share or kindness more. 
Forshould he sate survive this cruel war 
With the Achaians, penury and toil 
from the Persian Tongue. 
When. 
$27 
Mast be his lot, since others will remove 
At will his land-marks and possess his fields, 
I]. xxii. near the close. 
How natural was it in maternal tender= 
ness to apprehend, that, as the prowess of 
Hector had now proved ineffectual for 
the defence of the city, his son should 
be stript of the land, and to lament that 
he was now likely to become a mendi- 
cant and aslave in those domains of which 
he tad once the prospect to be lord and 
sovereion? Yet, for want of attention to 
this circumstance, most critics,ancient and 
modern, have supposed this last passage 
to be spurious, as unworthy of Homer, 
“For while Priam lived, (they say) 
what probability was there, that his 
land-marks should be removed, and that 
he should be considered in all companies 
asanintrader anda vagabond?” “ ‘Yo this 
may be added (says Cowper) another 
reason, and perhaps not less weighty, for 
which its authority may be suspected. 
There never lived a more perfect master 
of the pathetic than Homer, and when he 
would touch the passions, he does it im 
the only effectual way, that is without 
seeming to do it. But im this passage 
there is an evident strain, an elfort, a Jae 
bour, to get at them :—a stile of writing 
that always disappoints itself, and is pe- 
culiar to poets who, feeling nothing them- 
selves, have yet an ambition. to work on 
the feelings of others.” MHeyne, indeed, 
the learned editor of Homer, pleads for 
the genumeness of the passage ; yet, after 
adducing the arguments in its favour, ac= 
knowledges i it to be incoherent and inap- 
propriate, I cannot help observing far- 
ther, that Plato comments upon the two 
names given to the son of Hector, and ap- 
pears, like modern commentators, to have 
been an entire stranger to the meaning of 
Scamandrius; from which we may con- 
clude that he had no knowledge what-° 
ever of the Persian language. Even the 
title Astyanax he seems rather to perplex 
than explam, and the perplexity 1s felt by 
modern annotators. “ Nec tamen (says 
Heyne on the place) nominis pirioris 
caussa est aperta; nec satis convenire 
etymon dices alterius; si avat aseog est, 
quo modo convenit cum eo qui severeus 
asv?” The answer to this question is, that 
the title was intended by the citizens to 
perpetuate the remembrance of Hector’s 
prowess, and at the same time to intimate 
that the city which the father had saveu, 
the son would, ia preference to all other 
claimants, have a right to rule. The child, 
therefure, if he had lived, and the Tite: 
jans preved successful in defence of their 
Gl Cf» 
