[46] Apollo.

[47] Bacchus accused her to Diana of having lain with Theseus in his
temple, and the Goddess punished her with death.

[48] Probably meaning Helen.

[49] This is surely one of the most natural strokes to be found in any
Poet. Convinced, for a moment, by the virtues of Penelope, he mentioned
her with respect; but recollecting himself suddenly, involves even her in
his general ill opinion of the sex, begotten in him by the crimes of
Clytemnestra.

[50] Another most beautiful stroke of nature. Ere yet Ulysses has had
opportunity to answer, the very thought that Peleus may possibly be
insulted, fires him, and he takes the whole for granted. Thus is the
impetuous character of Achilles sustained to the last moment!

[51] +Gynaion eineka doron+--Priam is said to have influenced by gifts
the wife and mother of Eurypylus, to persuade him to the assistance of
Troy, he being himself unwilling to engage. The passage through defect of
history has long been dark, and commentators have adapted different
senses to it, all conjectural. The Ceteans are said to have been a people
of Mysia, of which Eurypylus was King.

[52] +Kat' asphodelon leimona+--Asphodel was planted on the graves and
around the tombs of the deceased, and hence the supposition that the
Stygian plain was clothed with asphodel. F.

[53] +Basazonta+ must have this sense interpreted by what follows. To
attempt to make the English numbers expressive as the Greek is a labour
like that of Sisyphus. The Translator has done what he could.

[54] It is now, perhaps, impossible to ascertain with precision what
Homer meant by the word +krataiis+, which he uses only here, and in the
next book, where it is the name of Scylla's dam.--+Anaides+--is also of
very doubtful explication.

[55] The two first lines of the following book seem to ascertain the true
meaning of the conclusion of this, and to prove sufficiently that by
+Okeanos+ here Homer could not possibly intend any other than a river. In
those lines he tells us in the plainest terms that _the ship left the
stream of the river Oceanus, and arrived in the open sea_. Diodorus
Siculus informs us that +Okeanos+ had been a name anciently given to the
Nile. See Clarke.

BOOK XII

ARGUMENT

Ulysses, pursuing his narrative, relates his return from the shades to
Circe's island, the precautions given him by that Goddess, his escape
from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis; his arrival in Sicil