a tomb. Perhaps the very posture in which these horses are
described, their heads bowed down, and their manes falling in the
dust, has an allusion to the attitude in which those statues on
monuments were usually represented; there are bas-reliefs that
favor this conjecture.

9 [The Latin plural of Ajax is sometimes necessary, because the
English plural--Ajaxes--would be insupportable.]--TR.

10. [Leitus was another chief of the Boeotians.]--TR.

11. [{Diphro ephestaotos}--Yet we learn soon after that he fought on
foot. But the Scholiast explains the expression thus--{neosti to
diphoo epibantos}. The fact was that Idomeneus had left the camp on
foot, and was on foot when Hector prepared to throw at him. But
Coeranus, charioteer of Meriones, observing his danger, drove
instantly to his aid. Idomeneus had just time to mount, and the
spear designed for him, struck Coeranus.--For a right understanding
of this very intricate and difficult passage, I am altogether
indebted to the Scholiast as quoted by Villoisson.]--TR.

12. [The translator here follows the interpretation preferred by the
Scholiast. The original expression is ambiguous, and may signify,
either, that _we shall perish in the fleet ourselves_, or that
Hector will soon be in the midst of it. Vide Villoisson _in
loco_.]--TR.

13. [A noble instance of the heroism of Ajax, who asks not deliverance
from the Trojans, or that he may escape alive, but light only,
without which be could not possibly distinguish himself. The tears
of such a warrior, and shed for such a reason, are singularly
affecting.]--TR.

Footnotes for Book XVIII:
1. This speech of Antilochus may serve as a model for its brevity.

2. This form of manifesting grief is frequently alluded to in the
classical writers, and sometimes in the Bible. The lamentation of
Achilles is in the spirit of the heroic times, and the poet
describes it with much simplicity. The captives join in the
lamentation, perhaps in the recollection of his gentleness, which
has before been alluded to.--FELTON.

3. [Here it is that the drift of the whole poem is fulfilled. The
evils consequent on the quarrel between him and Agamemnon, at last
teach Achilles himself this wisdom--that wrath and strife are
criminal and pernicious; and the confession is extorted from his
own lips, that the lesson may be the more powerfully inculcated.