156.

274 --_Not half so dreadful._

"On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war."

--Paradise Lost," xi. 708.

275 "And thus his own undaunted mind explores."--"Paradise Lost," vi.
113.

276 The example of Nausicaa, in the Odyssey, proves that the duties of
the laundry were not thought derogatory, even from the dignity of a
princess, in the heroic times.

277 --_Hesper shines with keener light._

"Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn."

"Paradise Lost," v. 166.

278 Such was his fate. After chasing the Trojans into the town, he was
slain by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the
unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made by the
Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was however rescued
and borne off to the Grecian camp by the valour of Ajax and Ulysses.
Thetis stole away the body, just as the Greeks were about to burn it
with funeral honours, and conveyed it away to a renewed life of
immortality in the isle of Leuke in the Euxine.

279 --_Astyanax,_ i.e. the _city-king_ or guardian. It is amusing that
Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should have
copied this twaddling etymology into his Cratylus.

280 This book has been closely imitated by Virgil in his fifth book, but
it is almost useless to attempt a selection of passages for
comparison.

281 --_Thrice in order led._ This was a frequent rite at funerals. The
Romans had the same custom, which they called _decursio._ Plutarch
states that Alexander, in after times, renewed these same honours to
the memory of Achilles himself.

282 --_And swore._ Literally, and called Orcus, the god of oaths, to
witness. See Buttmann, Lexilog, p. 436.

283 "O, long expected by thy friends! from whence
Art thou so late return'd for our defence?
Do we behold thee, wearied as we are
With length of labours, and with, toils of war?
After so many funerals of thy own,
Ar