DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0500
4.74
Oh TK£ MILITAB* AFFAIKS OF GREKCE.
the Trojan war, as appears from divers instances in the Iliad, wnerfe
lead enemies are dismembered by insulting conquerors ; none of which
is more remarkable than that of Hector, who lay unburied many days,
vas dragged round Troy's walls, and Patroclus's sepulchre, and suffer-
ed all sorts of indignities. This indeed might be imputed to Achilles?s
extravagant rage for the loss of Patroclus, or (as the Scholiast (1)
iffirms) to a peculiar custom of Thessaly, his native country, where
it was their constant practice to drag at their chariots the murderers of
their near friends : but did it not appear that the rest of the Grecians
used him in a manner no less brutish and barbarous, insulting over
him, and stabbing his dead body (2) ? Tydeus has no better treatment
in Statius (3) : whence it appears to have been their constant practice,
and looked on as very consistent with virtue and honour; as Servi-
us hath likewise observed, when Virgil's Mezentius was used in the
same manner. The poet indeed does not expressly affirm any such
thing, which, notwithstanding, plainly appears : for, whereas he only
received two wounds from jEneas (4), we find his breast-plate afterwards
pierced through in twelve, i. e. a great many places, a determinate num
ber being put for an indefinite (5) :
--- bis sex thoracapetition
Perfossumque locis :
Through twice six places was his breast-plate^erc'd.
The barbarous nations were not less guilty of this inhuman practice,
Leonidas king of Sparta, having valiantly lost his life in fighting against
Xerxes, had his head fixed upon a pole, and his body gibbeted (6) : but
the Grecians were long before that time convinced of the villany and
baseness of such actions ; and, therefore, when Pausanias the Spartan
was urged to retaliate Leonidas's injury upon Mardonius. Xerxes's gene-
ral overcome at Plat^ea, he refused to be concerned in, or to permit a
revenge so barbarous, and unworthy a Grecian. Even in the times of
the Trojan war, the Grecians were much reformed from the inhumanity;
as well of their own ancestors, as other nations. It had formerly been
customary for the conquerors to hinder their enemies from interring their
dead, till they had paid large sums for their ransom ; and some footsteps
of this practice are found about that time : Hector's body was redeemed
from Achilles (?) ; Achilles's again was redeemed from the Trojans for
the same price he had received for Hector's (8) :
AaCav cTe Tst&gs t* inqaurfjikix <f&voc
2ks8j» t*a*vt« Tgl/T<*V»c MgTx^evsy.
AuQis rcy dvTt7roitov ix.%t<ic t<rov,
lIsotT«A/ov Tttmciitri t»xay\» /ui/tTgor,
Kg«tTM§* Ba'x^s fva-iritt--
A ramsom large as that which Priam gave,
That royal Hector's mangled corse might have
The happy priv'lege of a decent grave,
By Argian chiefs shall be repaid to Troy,
And then the slain Achilles shall enjoy
That honourable urn the grateful god
Upon his mother Thetis had bestow'd. h. h.
Nisus is introduced by Virgil, dissuading his friend Euryalus from accom-
panying him into danger, lest, if he were slain, there should be no per-
(1) Iliad, x'. v. 398. (4) Fine jEn. x. (5) jEn. xi. v. 9.
(2) Iliad. x'. v. 367. (6) Herodotus Calliope. (7) Iliad, 6,
(3) Thebaid. ix. v. T80 (8) Lycophronis Cassandra, r. 28?
Oh TK£ MILITAB* AFFAIKS OF GREKCE.
the Trojan war, as appears from divers instances in the Iliad, wnerfe
lead enemies are dismembered by insulting conquerors ; none of which
is more remarkable than that of Hector, who lay unburied many days,
vas dragged round Troy's walls, and Patroclus's sepulchre, and suffer-
ed all sorts of indignities. This indeed might be imputed to Achilles?s
extravagant rage for the loss of Patroclus, or (as the Scholiast (1)
iffirms) to a peculiar custom of Thessaly, his native country, where
it was their constant practice to drag at their chariots the murderers of
their near friends : but did it not appear that the rest of the Grecians
used him in a manner no less brutish and barbarous, insulting over
him, and stabbing his dead body (2) ? Tydeus has no better treatment
in Statius (3) : whence it appears to have been their constant practice,
and looked on as very consistent with virtue and honour; as Servi-
us hath likewise observed, when Virgil's Mezentius was used in the
same manner. The poet indeed does not expressly affirm any such
thing, which, notwithstanding, plainly appears : for, whereas he only
received two wounds from jEneas (4), we find his breast-plate afterwards
pierced through in twelve, i. e. a great many places, a determinate num
ber being put for an indefinite (5) :
--- bis sex thoracapetition
Perfossumque locis :
Through twice six places was his breast-plate^erc'd.
The barbarous nations were not less guilty of this inhuman practice,
Leonidas king of Sparta, having valiantly lost his life in fighting against
Xerxes, had his head fixed upon a pole, and his body gibbeted (6) : but
the Grecians were long before that time convinced of the villany and
baseness of such actions ; and, therefore, when Pausanias the Spartan
was urged to retaliate Leonidas's injury upon Mardonius. Xerxes's gene-
ral overcome at Plat^ea, he refused to be concerned in, or to permit a
revenge so barbarous, and unworthy a Grecian. Even in the times of
the Trojan war, the Grecians were much reformed from the inhumanity;
as well of their own ancestors, as other nations. It had formerly been
customary for the conquerors to hinder their enemies from interring their
dead, till they had paid large sums for their ransom ; and some footsteps
of this practice are found about that time : Hector's body was redeemed
from Achilles (?) ; Achilles's again was redeemed from the Trojans for
the same price he had received for Hector's (8) :
AaCav cTe Tst&gs t* inqaurfjikix <f&voc
2ks8j» t*a*vt« Tgl/T<*V»c MgTx^evsy.
AuQis rcy dvTt7roitov ix.%t<ic t<rov,
lIsotT«A/ov Tttmciitri t»xay\» /ui/tTgor,
Kg«tTM§* Ba'x^s fva-iritt--
A ramsom large as that which Priam gave,
That royal Hector's mangled corse might have
The happy priv'lege of a decent grave,
By Argian chiefs shall be repaid to Troy,
And then the slain Achilles shall enjoy
That honourable urn the grateful god
Upon his mother Thetis had bestow'd. h. h.
Nisus is introduced by Virgil, dissuading his friend Euryalus from accom-
panying him into danger, lest, if he were slain, there should be no per-
(1) Iliad, x'. v. 398. (4) Fine jEn. x. (5) jEn. xi. v. 9.
(2) Iliad. x'. v. 367. (6) Herodotus Calliope. (7) Iliad, 6,
(3) Thebaid. ix. v. T80 (8) Lycophronis Cassandra, r. 28?