omfortless as the religious creed of the
heathens was, they were piously attentive to its dictates, and to a
degree that may serve as a reproof to many professed believers of
revelation. The allegorical history of prayer, given us in the 9th
Book of the Iliad from the lips of Phoenix, the speech of
Antilochus in the 23d, in which he ascribes the ill success of
Eumelus in the chariot race to his neglect of prayer, and that of
Pisistratus in the 3d book of the Odyssey, where speaking of the
newly-arrived Telemachus, he says;

For I deem
Him wont to pray; since all of every land
Need succor from the Gods;

are so many proofs of the truth of this remark; to which a curious
reader might easily add a multitude.]--TR.

3. [There is no word in our language expressive of loud sound at all
comparable in effect to the Greek _Bo-o-osin_. I have therefore
endeavored by the juxta-position of two words similar in sound, to
palliate in some degree defect which it was not in my power to
cure.]--TR.

4. [Or collar-bone.]

5. [The proper meaning of {epioasomeno}--is not simply _looking on_,
but _providing against_. And thus their ignorance of the death of
Patroclus is accounted for. They were ordered by Nestor to a post
in which they should have little to do themselves, except to
superintend others, and were consequently too remote from Patroclus
to see him fall, or even to hear that he had fallen.--See
Villoisson.]--TR.

6. This is one of the similes of Homer which illustrates the manners
and customs of his age. The mode of preparing hides for use is
particularly described. They were first softened with oil, and then
were stretched every direction by the hands of men, so that the
moisture might be removed and the oil might penetrate them.
Considered in the single point of comparison intended, it gives a
lively picture of the struggle on all sides to get possession of
the body.--FELTON.

7. This is the proper imperfect of the verb _chide_, though modern
usage has substituted _chid_, a word of mean and awkward sound, in
the place of it.

8. This alludes to the custom of placing columns upon tombs, on which
were frequently represented chariots with two or four horses. The
horses standing still to mourn for their master, could not be more
finely represented than by the dumb sorrow of images standing over