by with indifference. The verses glow with a kind of rapture of enjoyment that describe his strength and beauty, his eager spirit and fine nervous organisation, his intelligent and disinterested participation in human struggles and triumphs. In the region of the Iliad claimed for the Odysscan Homer, it suffices to point to the episode of the capture by Diomed and Sthenelus of the divinely-descended steeds of Eneas; to the careful provision of ambrosial forage for the horses of Heré along the shores of Simoeis; to the resplendent simile of Book vi. ;3 to the gleeful zeal with which Odysseus and Diomed secure, as the fruit and crown of their nocturnal expedition, the milkwhite coursers of Rhesus; to the living fervour imported into the chariot-race at the funeral games of Patroclus; to the tender pathos with which Achilles describes the grief of his immortal horses for their well-loved charioteer." The enumeration of similar examples from non-Achillean cantos might be carried much further, but where is the use of 'breaking in an open door'? The evidence is overwhelming as to homogeneity of sentiment, in this important respect, through the entire Iliad. If more than one author was concerned in its production, the coadjutors were at least unanimous in their glowing admiration for the heroic animal of battle.

This is certainly original in book vi. It comes in as an awkward interpolation at xv. 263.

4 Iliad, x. 474-569,

Ib. xxiii. 280-81.

Nor can the search, in the same ten cantos, for indications of a sympathetic feeling towards the dog consonant to that displayed in the Odyssey, be pronounced successful. Certainly much stress cannot be laid, for the purpose, upon the striking passage in the Twenty-third Book, descriptive of the cremation of Patroclus; yet it makes the nearest discoverable approach to the desired significance. It runs as follows in Lord Derby's translation:

A hundred feet each way they built the pyre,
And on the summit, sorrowing, laid the dead.
Then many a sheep and many a slow-pac'd ox
They flay'd and dress'd around the fun'ral pyre;
Of all the beasts Achilles took the fat,
And coverod o'er the dead from head to foot,
And heap'd the slaughter'd carcases around;
Then jars of honey plac'd, and fragrant oils,
Resting upon the couch; next, groaning loud,
Four pow'rful horses on the pyre he threw ;
Then, of nine 1 dogs that at their master's board
Had fed, he slaughter'd two upon his pyre;
Last, with the sword, by evil counsel sway'd,
Twelve noble youths he slew, the sons of Troy.
The fire's devouring might he then applied,
And, groaning, on his lov'd companion call'd.'

These sanguinary rites have been thought to afford proof that canine companionship was necessary

'The number nine is curiously associated with the canine species. The herdsmen's pack on the Shield of Achilles consists of nine ; nine were the dogs of Patroclus; and we learn from Mr. Richardson (Dogs: their Origin and Varieties, p. 37), that Fingal kept nine great dogs, and nine smaller game-starting dogs.

Iliad, xxiii. 164–78,

to the happiness of a Greek hero in the other world. For, amongst rude peoples, from the Scythians of Herodotus to the Indians of Patagonia, such sacrifices have been a common mode of testifying respect to the dead. And it may readily be admitted that their originally inspiring idea was that of continued association after death with the objects most valued in life. But such an idea appears to have been very remotely, if at all, present to the mind of our poet. The Ghost of Patroclus, at any rate, though sufficiently communicative, expresses no desire for canine, equine, bovine, or ovine society, although specimens of all four species were immolated in its honour. The purpose of Achilles in instituting tho ghastly solemnity was, as he himself expressed it,

That with provision meet the dead may pass
Down to the realms of night.2

But the motives that crowded upon his fierce soul were probably in truth as multitudinous as the waves of passion which rolled over it. He desired to appease the parted spirit of his friend with a sacrifice matching his own pride and the extent of his bereavement. Still more, he sought to glut his vengeance, and allay, if possible, the intolerable pangs of his grief. He perhaps dimly imaged to himself a pompous funeral throng accompanying the beloved soul even to the gates of Hades, provision for the way being supplied

'Book iv. 71, 72.

* Geddes, Problem, &c., p. 227.

by the flesh of sheep and oxen, an escort by horses and dogs, while an air of gloomy triumph was imparted to the shadowy procession by the hostile presence of outraged and indignant human shades. A similar ceremony was put in practice, by comparison recently, in Lithuania. When the still pagan Grand Duke Gedimin died in 1841, his body was laid on a pyre and burned with two hounds, two falcons, his horse saddled and still living, and a favourite servant.' But here the disembodied company was altogether friendly, and may have been thought of as willingly paying a last tribute of homage to their lord.

The information is in any case worth having that Patroclus, like Priam, kept a number of 'table-dogs,' whose presence doubtless contributed in some degree to the stateliness of his surroundings. It is, however, given casually, without a word of comment, as if the bard instinctively shrank from dwelling on the intimate personal relations of the animal to man. The son of Mencetius had a gentle soul, and we cannot doubt, although no hint of such affection is communicated, that he loved his dogs, and was loved by them. Of the horses accustomed to his guidance-the immortal pair of Achilles-we indeed hear how they stood, day after day, with drooping heads and silken manes sweeping the ground, in sorrow for his and their lost friend; but no dog is permitted to whine

' Hehn and Stallybrass, Wanderings of Plants and Animals, p. 417.

his sense of bereavement beside the body of Patroclus; no dog misses the vanished caress of his master's hand; no dog crouches beside Achilles in his soli-. tude, or offers to his unsurpassed grief the dumb and wistful consolation of his sympathy. The privilege of sharing the sorrows, as of winning the applause of humanity, is, in the Iliad, reserved exclusively for the equine race.

Turning to the Odyssey, we find ourselves in a changed world. Ships have here become the 'chariots of the sea';' navigation usurps the honour and interest of charioteering; a favourable breeze imparts the cheering sense of companionship felt by a practised rider with his trusty steed. The scenery on shore leaves this sentiment undisturbed. Rocky Ithaca, Telemachus informs Menelaus, contains neither wide tracks for chariot-driving, nor deep meadows for horse-pasture; it is a goat-feeding land, though more beautiful, to his mind, in its ruggedness than even the spacious plain' of Sparta, with its rich fields of lotus-grass, its sedgy flats, its waving tracts of 'white barley,' wheat, and spelt. A suitable habitat is thus, in his native island, wanting for the horse, who is accordingly relegated to an obscure corner of the stage, while the foreground of animal life is occupied by his less imposing rival in the regard of man. The dog is, in fact, the characteristic and con

'Odysscy, iv. 708; of. Goddos, Problem, &c., p. 216.
Odyssey, iv. 605.