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The Iliad

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Title: The Iliad

Author: Homer

Annotator: Theodore Alois Buckley

Translator: Alexander Pope

 
Release date: July 1, 2004 [eBook #6130]
 Most recently updated: February 7, 2026

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6130

Credits: Anne Soulard, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ILIAD ***

The
Iliad of Homer

Translated by
Alexander Pope,

With Notes and Introduction
by the
Rev. Theodore Alois Buckley, M.A., F.S.A.

and
Flaxman's Designs.

1899

Contents

 INTRODUCTION.
 POPE'S PREFACE TO THE ILIAD OF HOMER

 THE ILIAD
 BOOK I.
 BOOK II.
 BOOK III.
 BOOK IV.
 BOOK V.
 BOOK VI.
 BOOK VII.
 BOOK VIII.
 BOOK IX.
 BOOK X.
 BOOK XI.
 BOOK XII.
 BOOK XIII.
 BOOK XIV.
 BOOK XV.
 BOOK XVI.
 BOOK XVII.
 BOOK XVIII.
 BOOK XIX.
 BOOK XX.
 BOOK XXI.
 BOOK XXII.
 BOOK XXIII.
 BOOK XXIV.

 CONCLUDING NOTE.

Illustrations

 HOMER INVOKING THE MUSE
 MARS
 MINERVA REPRESSING THE FURY OF ACHILLES
 THE DEPARTURE OF BRISEIS FROM THE TENT OF ACHILLES
 THETIS CALLING BRIAREUS TO THE ASSISTANCE OF JUPITER
 THETIS ENTREATING JUPITER TO HONOUR ACHILLES
 VULCAN
 JUPITER
 THE APOTHEOSIS OF HOMER
 JUPITER SENDING THE EVIL DREAM TO AGAMEMNON
 NEPTUNE
 VENUS, DISGUISED, INVITING HELEN TO THE CHAMBER OF PARIS
 VENUS PRESENTING HELEN TO PARIS
 VENUS
 Map, titled "GRÆCIÆ ANTIQUÆ"
 THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS
 Map of the Plain of Troy
 VENUS, WOUNDED IN THE HAND, CONDUCTED BY IRIS TO MARS
 OTUS AND EPHIALTES HOLDING MARS CAPTIVE
 DIOMED CASTING HIS SPEAR AT MARS
 JUNO
 HECTOR CHIDING PARIS
 THE MEETING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE
 BOWS AND BOW CASE
 IRIS
 HECTOR AND AJAX SEPARATED BY THE HERALDS
 GREEK AMPHORA-WINE VESSELS
 JUNO AND MINERVA GOING TO ASSIST THE GREEKS
 THE HOURS TAKING THE HORSES FROM JUNO'S CAR
 THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES
 PLUTO
 THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES
 GREEK GALLEY
 PROSERPINE
 ACHILLES
 DIOMED AND ULYSSES RETURNING WITH THE SPOILS OF RHESUS
 THE DESCENT OF DISCORD
 HERCULES
 POLYDAMAS ADVISING HECTOR
 GREEK ALTAR
 NEPTUNE RISING FROM THE SEA
 GREEK EARRINGS
 SLEEP ESCAPING FROM THE WRATH OF JUPITER
 GREEK SHIELD
 BACCHUS
 AJAX DEFENDING THE GREEK SHIPS
 CASTOR AND POLLUX
 Buckles
 DIANA
 SLEEP AND DEATH CONVEYING THE BODY OF SARPEDON TO LYCIA
 ÆSCULAPIUS
 FIGHT FOR THE BODY OF PATROCLUS
 VULCAN FROM AN ANTIQUE GEM
 THETIS ORDERING THE NEREIDS TO DESCEND INTO THE SEA
 JUNO COMMANDING THE SUN TO SET
 TRIPOD
 THETIS AND EURYNOME RECEIVING THE INFANT VULCAN
 VULCAN AND CHARIS RECEIVING THETIS
 THETIS BRINGING THE ARMOUR TO ACHILLES
 HERCULES
 THE GODS DESCENDING TO BATTLE
 CENTAUR
 ACHILLES CONTENDING WITH THE RIVERS
 THE BATH
 ANDROMACHE FAINTING ON THE WALL
 THE FUNERAL PILE OF PATROCLUS
 CERES
 HECTOR'S BODY AT THE CAR OF ACHILLES
 THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
 IRIS ADVISES PRIAM TO OBTAIN THE BODY OF HECTOR
 FUNERAL OF HECTOR

INTRODUCTION.

Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of
scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the
most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very
gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and
emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired; we must set
aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be
daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and
anxiety to acquire.

And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which
progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which
persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu
of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away
traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues
of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive
superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society. The
credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as
powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy
scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of
conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church.
History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent
times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the
indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere statements are
jealously watched, and the motives of the writer form as important an
ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records.
Probability is a powerful and troublesome test; and it is by this
troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is
sifted. Consistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its
demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere
facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of extended experience,
is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical
characters can only be estimated by the standard which human
experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form
correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a
great whole-we must measure them by their relation to the mass of
beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contemplating the incidents
in their lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we
must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than
the respective probability of its details.

It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know
least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere[1] have, perhaps,
contributed more to the intellectual enlightenment of mankind than any
other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all
three has given rise to a boundless ocean of discussion, which has left
us little save the option of choosing which theory or theories we will
follow. The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only thing in
which critics will allow us to believe without controversy; but upon
everything else, even down to the authorship of plays, there is more or
less of doubt and uncertainty. Of Socrates we know as little as the
contradictions of Plato and Xenophon will allow us to know. He was one
of the _dramatis personæ_ in two dramas as unlike in principles as in
style. He appears as the enunciator of opinions as different in their
tone as those of the writers who have handed them down. When we have
read Plato _or_ Xenophon, we think we know something of Socrates; when
we have fairly read and examined both, we f

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