This happy port affords our wand'ring fleet A month's reception, and a safe retreat. Full but this reafon is not fufficient to give foundation to fuch a fiction. Dacier obferves that it is thus defcribed, because of the fubterrane an fires, which from time to time break out from the entrails of this Inland. Ariftotle speaking of Lipara, which is the most confiderable of the colian Islands, thus defcribes it; " All night long "the Inland Lipara appears enlighten'd with fires." The fame relation agrees with Strongyle, call'd Strombolo at this day. I will take the liberty to propofe a conjecture, which may perhaps not unhappily give a reafon of this fiction of the wall of brafs, from this defcription of Ariftotle: All night fires appear (fays that Author) from this Ifland, and thefe fires falling upon the feas, might caft a ruddy reflexion round the Ifland, which to navigators might look like a wall of brass enclosing it. This is but a conjecture drawn from appearances; but to write according to appearances is allowable in Poetry, where a feeming or a real truth may be used indifferently. v. 5. Six blooming youths and fix fair daughters.] Diodorus Siculus mentions the names of the fix fons of Aols, but is filent concerning his daughters, and therefore others, who can find myfteries in the plaineft defcription, affure us, that this is not to be understood hiftorically, but allegorically: Edlus reprefents the year, his twelve children are the twelve months, fix of which are female, to denote thofe fix months in which the earth brings forth her fruits; by his fix fons the other months are understood, in which the feed is fown, or in which the herbs, fruits, &c. are nourished in order to production, thefe may therefore be called males. But this is to darken an Author into mystery, not to explain him. Dacier gives us another allegorical interpretation: The Poet makes him the governor of the winds, and gives him twelve children, these denote the twelve principal winds; half of which children are males, half females; the males denote the winter winds, which as it were brood upon the earth, and generate its increase; the females thofe warmer feafons of the year, when the more prolific winds blow, and make the earth teem with fruitfulne's: Thefe children of Eolus are in continual feafts in his Palace; that is, the winds are continually fed by the exhalations from the earth, which may be call'd their food or nourishment: The brothers and fifters inter-marry; this denotes the nature of the winds, which blow promifcuously, and one wind unites it self 15 Full oft the Monarch urg'd me to relate zo Comprefs'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blaft: For him the mighty Sire of Gods affign'd The tempeft's Lord, and tyrant of the wind with another from all quarters of the world indifferently: The V. 9. All day they feaft, and Mufick thro' the Ifle refounds.] Homer was not unacquainted with the wonders related of this Ifland Lipara. "In this Ifland, fays Ariftotle, a monument is " to be, of which they tell miracles: they affure us that Ported they hear iffuing from it the found of timbrels or cymbals, plainly and "diftinctly." It is eafy to perceive that this is founded upon the noife the fires make which are enclofed in the caverns of this Ifland, and that Homer alludes to the ancient name of it, which in the Phenician language (Meloginin, as Bechart obferves) fignifies the land of those who play upon inftruments. We learn from Callimachus, in his Hymn to Diana, that Lipara was originally call'd Mel gounts. She (Diana) went to find out the Cyclops: She found them in Lipara, for that is the name the Ifle now bears, but anciently it was call'd Meligounis; they were labouring a huge mafs of red hot iron, &c. So that Homer is not all invention, but adapts his Poetry to tradition and ancient ftory. Dacier. 25 These in my hollow fhip the Monarch hung, Securely fetter'd by a filver thong. But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly gales He charg'd to fill, and guide the fwelling fails: } v. 32. The hills display the beacon's friendly light.] Enftathins obferves that thefe fires were a kind of beacons kept continually burning to direct Navigators; the fmoke gave notice by day, the light of the flame by night. Ithaca was environ'd with rocks, and confequently there was a neceffity for this care, to guide fea-faring men to avoid those rocks, and to point out the places of landing with fecurity. But is it not an imputation to the wifdom of Ulyffes, to fuffer himself to be furpriz'd with fleep, when he was almost ready to enter the ports of his own country? and is it not probable that the joy he must be fuppos'd to receive at the fight of it, should not induce him to a few hours watchfulnefs? It is eafier to defend his fleeping here, than in the 13th of the Odyffey: the Poet very judiGioufly tells us, that Ulyffes for nine days together almoft continually wak'd and took charge of the veffel, and the word nexμndra shews that nature was wearied out, and that he fell into an involuntary repofe; it can therefore be no diminution to his character to be forced to yield to the calls of nature, any more than it is to be hungry: His prudence and love of his country fufficiently appear from the care he took thro' the space of nine days to arrive at it; fo that this circumftance must be imputed to the infirmity of human nature, and not to a defect of care or wisdom in Vlyffes, Then Then first my hands did from the rudder part, What rare device thofe veffels might enclose? Say whence, ye Gods, contending nations strive Who most shall pleafe, who most our Hero give? Long have his coffers groan'd with Trojan spoils; 45 Whilft we, the wretched part'ners of his toils, Reproach'd by want, our fruitless labours mourn, And only rich in barren fame return. Now Eolus, ye fee, augments his ftore: But come, my friends, these myftic gifts explore. So They faid: and (oh curs'd Fate!) the thongs unbound; The gufhing tempeft fweeps the Ocean round Snatch'd v. 50. They said: and (oh curs'd fate!) the thongs unbound.] This relation has been blam'd as improbable; what occafion was there to unbind the bag, when these companions of Ulyffes might have fatisfy'd their curiofity that there was no treasure in it from the brightness of it? But Homer himself obviates this objection, by telling us that Æolus faften'd it in the veffel, as Enfathins obr ferves, Νηΐ δ' ἐνὶ γλυφυρῇ κατέδει Boffu gives us the moral of this fable or allegory, cap. 1o. lib. 1. B 6 Prince Snatch'd in the whirl, the hurried navy flew, The Ocean widen'd, and the fhores withdrew. Rowz'd from my fatal fleep, I long debate 55 If ftill to live, or defp'rate plunge to Fate: i. Thus doubting, proftrate on the deck I lay, "Till all the coward thoughts of death gave way. Mean-while our veffels plough the liquid plain, And foon the known Ealian coaft regain: 60 Our groans the rocks re-murmur'd to the main. We leap'd on fhore, and with a fcanty feaft Our thirst and hunger haftily reprefs'd; That done, two chosen heralds strait attend Our fecond progrefs to my royal friend; 65 And him amidft his jovial fons we found, The banquet fteaming, and the goblets crown'd: Prince intends to keep fecret: The tempefts and confufions rais'd by the loofing the winds, reprefent the mifchiefs and diforders that arife from fuch a vain curiofity in the fubject: A wife people permit the winds to reft without moleftation, and fatisfie themfelves with thofe that the Prince is pleas'd to releafe, and believe them to be the most proper and ufeful. But whatever judgment is pafs'd upon this explication, it is certainly an inftance of the ill confequences of avarice, and unfeasonable curiofity. v. 55. If fill to live, or defp'rate plunge to Fate.] We ought not to infer from this paffage, that Homer thought a perfon might lawfully take away his own life to avoid the greatest dangers what Ulyffes here speaks arifes from the violence of a fudden paffion, and gives us a true picture of Human Nature: The wifeft of men are not free from the infirmity of paffion, but reafon corrects and fubdues it. This is the cafe in the inftance before us; Uly des has fo much of the man in him as to be liable to the paffion of man; butfo much virtue and wifdem as to refrain and govern it. |