Part 25

THE END OF THE TWELFTH BOOK.

[1] Such maketh Virgil Pandaras and Bitias.

[2] Apta ad rem comparatio.

[3] Sarpedon’s speech to Glaucus, neither equalled by any (in this kind) of all that have written.

[4] _Admiranda et penè inimitabilis comparatio_ (saith Spond.); and yet in the explication of it, he thinks all superfluous but three words, ὀλίγῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ, _exiguo in loco_, leaving out other words more expressive, with his old rule, _uno pede, etc_.

[5] A simile superior to the other, in which, comparing mightiest things with meanest, and the meanest illustrating the mightiest, both meeting in one end of this life’s preservation and credit, our Homer is beyond comparison and admiration.

[6] Δύ ἀνέρε δήμου, Duo viri plebei.

THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF HOMER’S ILIADS

THE ARGUMENT

Neptune (in pity of the Greeks’ hard plight) Like Calchas, both th’ Ajaces doth excite, And others, to repel the charging foe. Idomenëus bravely doth bestow His kingly forces, and doth sacrifice Othryonëus to the Destinies, With divers others. Fair Deiphobus, And his prophetic brother Helenus, Are wounded. But the great Priamides. Gath’ring his forces, heartens their address Against the enemy; and then the field A mighty death on either side doth yield.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT

The Greeks, with Troy’s bold pow’r dismay’d, Are cheer’d by Neptune’s secret aid.