The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems · Homer
FINIS DUODECIMI LIBRI HOM. ODYSS.
_Opus novem dierum._ _Σὺν Θεᾳ._ [1] _Πέλειαι τρήρωνες. Columbæ timidæ._ What these doves were, and the whole mind of this place, the great Macedon asking Chiron Amphipolites, he answered: They were the Pleiades or seven Stars. One of which (besides his proper imperfection of being _ἀμυδρὸς,_ i.e. _adeo exilis, vel subobscurus, ut vix appareat_) is utterly obscured or let by these rocks. Why then, or how, Jove still supplied the lost one, that the number might be full, Athenæus falls to it, and helps the other out, interpreting it to be affirmed of their perpetual septenary number, though there appeared but six. But how lame and loathsome these prosers show in their affected expositions of the poetical mind, this and an hundred others, spent in mere presumptuous guess at this inaccessible Poet, I hope will make plain enough to the most envious of any thing done, besides their own set censures and most arrogant over-weenings. In the 23 of the lliads (being _ψ_) at the games celebrated at Patroclus’ funerals, they tied to the top of a mast _πέλειαν τρήρωνα, timidam columbam,_ to shoot at for a game, so that (by these great men’s abovesaid expositions) they shot at the Pleiades.
Ulysses (shipp’d, but in the even, With all the presents he was given, And sleeping then) is set next morn In full scope of his wish’d return, And treads unknown his country-shore, Whose search so many winters wore. The ship (returning, and arriv’d Against the city) is depriv’d Of form, and, all her motion gone, Transform’d by Neptune to a stone. Ulysses (let to know the strand Where the Phæacians made him land) Consults with Pallas, for the life Of ev’ry wooer of his wife. His gifts she hides within a cave, And him into a man more grave, All hid in wrinkles, crookéd, gray, Transform’d; who so goes on his way.
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