sometimes another. In this book we have the exploits of Diomede.
Assisted by Minerva, he is eminent both for prudence and valor.

2. Sirius. This comparison, among many others, shows how constantly
the poet's attention was directed to the phenomena of
nature.--FELTON.

3. {Eioenti}.

4. The chariots were probably very low. We frequently find in the
Iliad that a person standing in a chariot is killed (and sometimes
by a stroke on the head) by a foot soldier with a sword. This may
farther appear from the ease with which they mount or alight, to
facilitate which, the chariots were made open behind. That the
wheels were small, may be supposed from their custom of taking them
off and putting them on. Hebe puts on the wheels of Juno's chariot,
when he called for it in battle. It may be in allusion to the same
custom, that it is said in Ex., ch. xiv.: "The Lord took off their
chariot wheels, so that they drove them heavily." That it was very
small and light, is evident from a passage in the tenth Il., where
Diomede debates whether he shall draw the chariot of Rhesus out of
the way, or carry it on his shoulders to a place of safety.

5. [Meges, son of Phyleus.]

6. This whole passage is considered by critics as very beautiful. It
describes the hero carried by an enthusiastic valor into the midst
of his enemies, and mingling in the ranks indiscriminately. The
simile thoroughly illustrates this fury, proceeding as it did from
an extraordinary infusion of courage from Heaven.

7. [Apollo.]

8. The deities are often invoked because of the agency ascribed to
them and not from any particular religious usage. And just as often
the heroes are protected by the gods who are worshipped by their
own tribes and families--MULLER.

9. This fiction of Homer, says Dacier, is founded upon an important
truth of religion, not unknown to the Pagans: viz. that God only
can open the eyes of men, and enable them to see what they cannot
otherwise discover. The Old Testament furnishes examples. God opens
the eyes of Hagar, that she may see the fountain. "The Lord opened
the eyes of Baalam, and he saw the angel," etc. This power of sight
was given to Diomede only for the present occasion. In the 6th
Book, on meeting Glaucus, he is ignorant whether he is a god, a
hero, or a man.

10. [Or collar-bone.]

11. The belief of those times, in regard to the p