27. Love of his country is a prominent characteristic of Hector, and
is here beautifully displayed in his discharging the duties that
the public welfare required, before seeking his wife and child.
Then finding that she had gone to the tower, he retraces his steps
to "the Scaean gate, whence he must seek the field." Here his wife,
on her return home, accidentally meets him.

28. [The name signifies, the _Chief of the city_.--TR.]

29. It was the custom to plant about tombs only such trees as elms,
alders, etc., that bear no fruit, as being most appropriate to the
dead.

30. In this recapitulation, Homer acquaints us with some of the great
achievements of Achilles, which preceded the opening of the poem--a
happy manner of exalting his hero, and exciting our expectation as
to what he is yet to accomplish. His greatest enemies never upbraid
him, but confess his glory. When Apollo encourages the Trojans to
fight, it is by telling them Achilles fights no more. When Juno
animates the Greeks, she reminds them how their enemies fear
Achilles; and when Andromache trembles for Hector, it is with the
remembrance of his resistless force.

31. Drawing water was considered the most servile employment.

32. [The Scholiast in Villoisson calls it {physikon tina kai metrion
gelota} a natural and moderate laughter.--TR.]

33. According to the ancient belief, the fatal period of life is
appointed to all men at the time of their birth, which no
precaution can avoid and no danger hasten.

34. This scene, for true and unaffected pathos, delicate touches of
nature, and a profound knowledge of the human heart, has rarely
been equalled, and never surpassed, among all the efforts of genius
during the three thousand years that have gone by since it was
conceived and composed.--FELTON.

Footnotes for Book VII:
1. Holding the spear in this manner was, in ancient warfare,
understood as a signal to discontinue the fight.

2. The challenge of Hector and the consternation of the Greeks,
presents much the same scene as the challenge of Goliath, 1 Samuel,
ch. 17: "And he stood and cried to the armies of Israel;--Choose
you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to
fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants.--When
Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were
dismayed and greatly afraid."

3. It w