Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/193

 SUBJECT OF THE 1L1AU. 177 real halting-place from the eleventh book to Ihe twenty-second. the death of Patroclus ; and this can never be conceived as the end of a separate poem, 1 though it is a capital step in the devel- opment of the Achilleis, and brings about that entire revolution in the temper of Achilles which was essential for the purpose of the poet. It would be a mistake to imagine that there ever could have existed a separate poem called Patrocleia, though a part of the Iliad was designated by that name. For Patroclus has no substantive position : he is the attached friend and second of Achilles, but nothing else, standing to the latter in a relation of dependence resembling that of Telemachus to Odysseus. And the way in which Patroclus is dealt with in the Iliad, is, (in my judgment,) the most dexterous and artistical contrivance in tho poem, that which approaches nearest to the neat tissue of the Odyssey. 3 Iliad. This remark of Lachmann is highly illustrative for the distinction between the original and the enlarged poem. 1 1 confess my astonishment that a man of so much genius and power of thought as SI. Benjamin Constant, should have imagined the original Iliad to have concluded with the death of Patroclus, on the ground that Achilles then becomes reconciled with Agamemnon. See the review of B. Constant's work, De la Religion, etc., by O. Miiller, in the Kleine Schriften of the latter, vol. ii. p. "4. 2 He appears as the mediator between the insulted Achilles and the Greeks, manifesting kindly sympathies for the latter without renouncing his fidelity to the former. The wounded Slachaon, an object of interest to the whole camp, being carried off. the field by Nestor, Achilles, looking on from his distant ship, sends Patroclus to inquire whether it be really Machaon ; which enables Nestor to lay before Patroclus the deplorable state of the Grecian host, as a motive to induce him and Achilles again to take arms. The compassionate feelings of Patroclus being powerfully touched, he is hasten- ing to enforce upon Achilles the urgent necessity of giving help, when he meets Eurypylus crawling out of the field, helpless with a severe wound, and imploring his succor. He supports the wounded warrior to his tent, and ministers to his suffering; but before this operation is fully completed, the Grecian host has been totally driven back, and the Trojans are on tha point of setting fire to the ships : Patroclus then hurries to Achilles to pro- claim the desperate peril which hangs over them all, and succeeds in obtain- ing his permission to take the field at the head of the Myrmidons. Tho way in which Patroclus is kept present to the hearer, as a prelude to his brilliant but short-lived display, when he comes forth in arms, the con- trast between his characteristic gentleness and the ferocity of Achilles, VOL. IT. 8* 120C.