spirit of a warrior rousing his followers to make a last
effort to repel the enemy.--FELTON.

13. [Meges.]

14. Hector is here represented as an instrument in the hand of
Jupiter, to bring about the design the God had long ago projected.
As his fatal hour now approaches, Jove is willing to recompense his
early death with this short-lived glory.

15. It may be asked what Pallas has to do with the Fates, or what
power has she over them? Homer speaks thus, because Minerva has
already resolved to deceive Hector and exalt Achilles. Pallas, as
the wisdom and knowledge of Jove, may be considered as drawing all
things to the termination decreed by his councils.

16. [This termination of the period, so little consonant to the
beginning of it, follows the original, where it is esteemed by
commentators a great beauty.]--TR.

Footnotes for Book XVI:
1. [This translation of {dnopheron} is warranted by the Scholiast, who
paraphrases it thus:

{meta doneseos pheromenon}.
_Iliad per Vill._]

2. The friendship of Achilles and Patroclus was celebrated by all
antiquity. It is said in the life of Alexander the Great, that when
that prince visited the monuments of the heroes of Troy, and placed
a crown upon the tomb of Achilles, his friend Hephaestion placed
another on that of Patroclus; an intimation of his being to
Alexander, what Patroclus was to Achilles. It is also said, that
Alexander remarked, "Achilles was happy indeed, in having had such
a friend to love him when living, and such a poet to celebrate him
when dead."

3. [{periagnytai}. A word of incomparable force, and that defies
translation.]

4. This charge is in keeping with the ambitious character of Achilles.
He is unwilling that even his dearest friend should have the honor
of conquering Hector.

5. The picture of the situation of Ajax, exhausted by his efforts,
pressed by the arms of his assailants and the will of Jupiter, is
drawn with much graphic power.--FELTON.

6. Argus-slayer.

7. The mythi which we find in the Iliad respecting Mercury, represent
him as the god who blessed the land with fertility, which was his
attribute in the original worship. He is represented as loving the
daughter of Phthiotian Phylas, the possessor of many herds, and by
her had Eudorus (or riches) whom the aged Phylas fostered and
brought up in his h