The present translation of the Iliad will, it is hoped, be found to convey, more accurately than any which has preceded it, the words and thoughts of the original. It is based upon a careful examination of whatever has been contributed by scholars of every age towards the elucidation of the text, including the ancient scholiasts and lexicographers, the exegetical labours of Barnes and Clarke, and the elaborate criticisms of Heyne, Wolf, and their successors.

The necessary brevity of the notes has prevented the full discussion of many passages where there is great room for difference of opinion, and hence several interpretations are adopted without question, which, had the editor's object been to write a critical commentary, would have undergone a more lengthened examination. The same reason has compelled him, in many instances, to substitute references for extracts, indicating rather than quoting those storehouses of information, from whose abundant contents he would gladly have drawn more copious supplies. Among the numerous works to which he has had recourse, the following deserve particular mention-Alberti's invaluable edition of Hesychius, the Commentary of Eustathius, and Buttmann's Lexilogus.

In the succeeding volume, the Odyssey, Hymns, and minor poems will be produced in a similar manner.

THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,

Ch. Ch., Oxford.

THE ILIAD OF HOMER.

Table of Contents

BOOK THE FIRST.

Table of Contents

ARGUMENT.

Apollo, enraged at the insult offered to his priest, Chryses, sends a pestilence upon the Greeks. A council is called, and Agamemnon, being compelled to restore the daughter of Chryses, whom he had taken from him, in revenge deprives Achilles of Hippodameia. Achilles resigns her, but refuses to aid the Greeks in battle, and at his request, his mother, Thetis, petitions Jove to honour her offended son at the expense of the Greeks. Jupiter, despite the opposition of Juno, grants her request.

Sing, Ο goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought countless woes upon the Greeks, ¹ and hurled many valiant souls of heroes down to Hades, and made themselves ² a prey to dogs and to all birds [but the will of Jove was being accomplished], from the time when Atrides, king of men, and noble Achilles, first contending, were disunited.

Footnote 1: (return) Although, as Ernesti observes, the verb προίαψεν does not necessarily contain the idea of a premature death, yet the ancient interpreters are almost unanimous in understanding it so. Thus Eustathius, p. 13, ed. Bas.: μετὰ βλάζης είς Αιδην πρὁ το δέοντος ἔπεμφεν, ὡς τῆς προθέσεως (i.e. προ) καιρικόν τι δηλούσης, ἢ ἁπλὡς ἔπεμψεν, ώς πλεοναζούσης τἤς προθέσεως. Hesych. t. ii. p. 1029, s. ν.: προίαψεν--δηλοῖ δε διὰ τἤς λέξεως τὴν μετ' ỏδὑνης αὐτῶν ἀπώλειαν. Cf. Virg. Æn. xii. 952: "Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras," where Servius well observes, "quia discedebat

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