NOTES.

58. The Iron or Post-patriarchal Race.

The Heroic Age, taking Samuel as the last of the priestly rulers, ended about 1060 B. C. All time after this date is classed by the poet as "The Iron Age."

59. So as either to have lived with the patriarchs, or flourish when Christ would come.

60.

"O how the passions, insolent and strong,

Bear our weak minds their rapid course along;
Make us the madness of their will obey,

Then die—and leave us to our griefs a prey." Crabbe.

61. "For the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner." Isa. LI. 6.

62.

So, too, does Ovid say (Met. I. 256) that the world will be destroyed by fire:

"Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, adfore tempus
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia caeli
Ardeat, et mundi moles operosa laboret."

γειν. πολιοκρότ. τελέθ. An allusion to the tradition prevalent among the
Jews, and based on many scriptural passages, that the Day of Judg-
ment would be heralded by the reappearance upon earth of Enoch and
Elias.

The phrase possesses further interest from a chronological point of view, since it tends to show that Hesiod could not have flourished prior to 896 B. C.—the year when Elias was translated up to heaven. "Manners with fortunes, humors turn with climes. Tenets with books, and principles with times." Pope. 63. An opportunity for pointing the Name and for resuming the further story of our Lord is furnished the poet by the concluding words of verse 185:

ΕΣΟΥΣΙ ΤΟΚΕΑΣ

Who looks at θεῶν ὅπις (IT-INIO VVTI) and fails to see Ιησούς (ΕΣΟΥΣΙ) ?
Who sees only TOKÊAΣ and refuses to acknowledge

Χρειστός (TO-VA-ΕΙΤΛΛ) ?

64. The "Jesus" combination blots out Zaλýμ (EΣ-OV-IAII); the "Christ" one blots out 'Iepoσóλvμa (TOIAIVATVAΣ).

65. "Who has kept his oath"-by coming upon the earth.

66. "Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas." Luke XXIII. 18. 67. Another chance of pointing the Name is offered in

ΤΙΜΕΣΟΥΣΙ

Are not δίκη and αιδώς (T-IM-ΓΙ — ΙΣΟΙΛΙΙ) linked together in E or ΓΙΙ ?

195

200

οὐκ ἔσται; βλάψει δ ̓ ὁ κακὸς τὸν ἀρείονα φῶτα
μύθοισι σκολιοῖς ἐνέπων, ἐπὶ δ ̓ ὅρκον ὀμείται·
ζῆλος δ ̓ ἀνθρώποισιν οιζυροῖσιν ἅπασιν
δυσκέλαδος, κακόχαρτος ὁμαρτήσει, στυγερώπης.
καὶ τότε δὴ πρὸς Ὄλυμπον ἀπὸ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης
λευκοῖσιν φαρέεσσι καλυψαμένω χρόα καλόν
αθανάτων μετὰ φύλον ἴτον προλιπόντ ̓ ἀνθρώπους
Αἰδὼς καὶ Νέμεσις. τὰ δὲ λείψεται ἄλγεα λυγρά
θνητοῖς ἀνθρώποισι· κακοῦ δ ̓ οὐκ ἔσσεται ἀλκή.

The wicked light, that speaks with crafty words,
Will hold the better Light, and falsely swear;
And envy's self, that's clamorous in tongue,
In mind malicious, and in visage lean,
Will be the comrade of those wretches all.

Then up to heaven from the wide-wayed earth,
With beauteous outline wrapped in snow-white garb,
And 'midst a galaxy of godlike forms,

Go Grace and Retribution, leaving men.
And bitter woes for mortals will be left;
But evil's innate strength will cease to be.

NOTES.

68. práva. "But they laid hands on him, and held him." Mark XIV. 46. the priests and scribes, "the wicked light," since they had the Law and Prophets.

ὁ κακὸς

69. μύθ. σκολ. Here is one instance. "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no?" Luke XX. 22.

ἐπομεῖται "And some rising up, bore false witness against him.”Mark XIV. 57.

70. "For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him up out of envy." Mark XV. 10.

71. "And it came to pass, whilst he blessed them, he departed from them, and was carried up into heaven." Luke XXIV. 51.

72. Néμeois. "Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in equity." Acts. XVII. 31.

73. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, and that we may serve sin no longer." Rom. VI. 6.

Iliad. XVIII. 368-617.

In this book (as in the first) the opening verse is a keyline to all the subject matter, the present selection being illustrated by ΔΕΜΑΣ ΠΥΡΟΣ Α.

Scheme: It is divided into two portions, a preparative one, and a formative. In the first of these, Thetis (the same goddess of Design whom we have met before) visits the poet (under guise of Vulcan), is cordially welcomed, and graciously requested to state her wants.

She tells the story:

How Design was wedded through weal and woe to Adam who, while alive, handed down the tradition that through Design a Son would be born for men-and Thetis breaks off here to identify this Son as "the Shiloh" of patriarchs, "the Saviour" of the world, the growing "Jesus," and the matured "Jesus Christ" who would battle with the Jews in Jerusalem, and return to heaven when his mission was accomplished and his passion was endured.

Resuming her narrative, she tells how the Gentiles gradually parted the Fullness of time from the Eternal God, the humanity of Christ from his divinity, or (in briefest words) Mary from the Son; how this last belief in "the seed of the woman" was received by Abraham when his obedience (even to abnegation of paternal feeling) was tested by the Almighty; how the Greeks, through medium of Jewish teachings, were restrained from lapsing into complete atheism; how many of the enlightened

prayed incessantly for the coming of the Saviour; and concludes by telling how Moses was sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

She then declares the object of her present visit to the artist-that he would fabricate for the Son a new and complete suit of armor. The Vulcan of the Iliad gladly complies. He collects his scattered thoughts and focuses them on the plan; he puts his tablets on a block and grasps the stylus and eraser; and, those things done, he proceeds to forge for the Son a suit of weapons the confusion of His enemies, the safeguards of His followers.