payment of a fine, the criminal was allowed to remain in the
city.

12. Linus was the most ancient name in poetry, the first upon record
as inventor of verse and measure among the Grecians. There was a
solemn custom among the Greeks, of bewailing annually their first
poet. Pausanias informs us, that before the yearly sacrifice to the
Muses on Mount Helicon, the obsequies of Linus were performed, who
had a statue and altar erected to him in that place. In this
passage Homer is supposed to allude to that custom.

13. See article Theseus, Gr. and Rom. Mythology.

14. There were two kinds of dance--the Pyrrhic, and the common dance;
both are here introduced. The Pyrrhic, or military, is performed by
Youths wearing swords, the other by the virgins crowned with
garlands. The Grecian dance is still performed in this manner in
the oriental nations. The youths and maidens dance in a ring,
beginning slowly; by degrees the music plays in quicker time, till
at last they dance with the utmost swiftness; and towards the
conclusion, they sing in a general chorus.

15. The point of comparison is this. When the potter first tries the
wheel to see "if it will run," he moves it much faster than when at
work. Thus it illustrates the rapidity of the dance.--FELTON.

Footnotes for Book XIX:
1. [Brave men are great weepers--was a proverbial saying in Greece.
Accordingly there are few of Homer's heroes who do not weep
plenteously on occasion. True courage is doubtless compatible with
the utmost sensibility. See Villoisson.]--TR.

2. The fear with which the divine armor filled the Myrmidons, and the
exaltation of Achilles, the terrible gleam of his eye, and his
increased desire for revenge, are highly poetical.--FELTON.

3. The ancients had a great horror of putrefaction previous to
interment.

4. [Achilles in the first book also summons a council himself, and not
as was customary, by a herald. It seems a stroke of character, and
intended by the poet to express the impetuosity of his spirit, too
ardent for the observance of common forms, and that could trust no
one for the dispatch he wanted.]--TR.

5. [{'Aspasios gony kampsein}.--Shall be glad to bend their knee, i.e.
to sit and repose themselves.]--TR.

6. [{Touton mython}.--He seems to intend the reproaches sounded in
his ear from all quarters, and which he had repeatedly heard
before.]--TR