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The Descent of Ulyfses into Hell,

B.XI

63

THE

ELEVENTH BOOK

OF THE

ODYSSEY.

N

by W. Broome: ses vol. 5. p. 226,

OW to the shores we bend, a mournful train,
Climb the tall bark, and launch into the main :

At once the mast we rear, at once unbind

The spacious sheet, and stretch it to the wind:

Then

The Antients call'd this book Νέκυομαντειά, οι Νεκύα, the book of Necromancy: because (fays Euftathius) it contains an interview between Ulyffes, and the shades of the dead.

Virgil has not only borrow'd the general design from Homer, but imitated many particular incidents: L'Abbé Fragnier in the Memoirs of Literature gives his judgment in favour of the Roman Poet, and justly observes, that the end and design of the journey is more important in Virgil than in Homer. Ulysses descends to confult Tirefias, Æneas his father. Ulyffes takes a review of the shades of celebrated persons that preceded his times, or whom he knew

at

5 Then pale and pensive stand, with cares opprest, And folemn horror faddens every breaft.

at Troy, who have no relation to the story of the Odyssey: Æneas receives the History of his own Posterity; his father instructs him how to manage the Italian war, and how to conclude it with honour, that is, to lay the foundations of the greatest Empire in the world: and the Poet by a very happy address takes an opportunity to pay a noble compliment to his Patron Augustus. In the Eneid there is a magnificent description of the descent and entrance into Hell; and the diseases, cares, and terrors that Æneas fees in his journey, are very happily imagin'd, as an introduction into the regions of Death: whereas in Homer there is nothing fo noble, we scarce are able to discover the place where the Poet lays his scene, or whether Ulyffes continues below or above the ground. Instead of a defcent into hell, it feems rather a conjuring up, or an evocation of the dead from hell; according to the words of Horace, who undoubtedly had this passage of Homer in his thoughts. Satyr 8. lib. I.

Scalpere terram

Unguibus, & pullam divellere mordicus agnam
Ceperunt; cruor in fossam confufus, ut inde
Manes elicerent, animas responsa daturas.

But if it be understood of an evocation only, how shall we account for several visions and defcriptions in the conclufion of this book? Ulyffes sees Tantalus in the waters of hell, and Sisyphus rowling a ftone up an infernal mountain; these Ulyffes could not conjure up, and confequently muft be supposed to have enter'd at least the borders of those infernal regions. In short, Fraguier is of opinion, that Virgil profited more by the Frogs of Aristophanes than by Homer; and Mr. Dryden prefers the fixth book of the Aneid to the eleventh of the Odyffey, I think with very great reafon.

I will take this opportunity briefly to mention the original of all these fictions of infernal Rivers, Judges, &c. spoken of by Homer, and repeated and enlarged by Virgil. They are of Ægyptian extract, as Mr. Sandys (that faithful traveller, and judicious Poet) observes, speaking of the Mummies of Memphis, p. 1.34.

"These ceremonies perform'd, they laid the corps in a boat to " be wafted over Acherufia, a lake on the fouth of Memphis, by *one only person, whom they called Charon; which gave Orpheus "the

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A freshning breeze the * Magic pow'r supply'd,
While the wing'd vessel flew along the tyde:

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*Circe.

"the invention of his infernal ferriman; an ill-favour'd flo venly fellow, as Virgil describes him, Aneid 6. About this lake stood the shady temple of Hecate, with the ports of Cocytus and Oblivion, feparated by bars of brass, the original

of like fables. When landed on the other fide, the bodies were " brought before certain Judges; if convinc'd of an evil life, they " were deprived of burial; if otherwise they suffer'd them to be " interr'd." This explication shews the foundation of those antient fables of Charon, Rhadamanthus, &c. And also that the Poets had a regard to truth in their inventions, and grounded even their fables upon some remarkable customs, which grew obscure and abfurd only because the memory of the customs to which they allude is lost to pofterity.

I will only add from Dacier, that this book is an evidence of the antiquity of the opinion of the Soul's Immortality. It is upon this that the most antient of all divinations was founded, I mean that which was performed by the evocation of the dead. There is a very remarkable instance of this in the holy Scriptures, in an age not very distant from that of Homer. Saul confults one of these infernal agents to call up Samuel, who appears, or fome evil spirit in his form, and predicts his impending death and calamities. This is a pregnant instance of the antiquity of Necromancy, and that it was not of Homer's invention; it prevail'd long before his days among the Chaldeans, and spread over all the oriental world. Æschylus has a Tragedy intitled Perfe, in which the shade of Davius is call'd up, like that of Samuel, and fortelis Queen Atoffa all her misfortunes. Thus it appears that there was a foundation for what Homer writes; he only embellishes the opinions of Antiquity with the ornaments of Poetry.

I must confess that Homer gives a miferable account of a future state; there is not a person defcrib'd in happiness, unless perhaps it be Tirefias: the good and the bad seem all in the same condition: Whereas Virgil has an Hell for the wicked, and an Elysium for the just. Tho' perhaps it may be a vindication of Homer to say, that the notions of Virgil of a future state were different from these of Homer; according to whom Hell might only be a receptacle for the vehicles of the dead, and that while they were in Hell, their Φρὴν or Spirit might be in Heaven, as appears from what is said of the εἴδωλον of Hercules in this sath book of the Odyssey.

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