The Poems of John Byrom :: :: University of Virginia Library

Your Consent, I made bold to suppose, in my last,
To a fair Postulatum had readily pass'd:
“That a mulish Distemper, or that a caníne,
Neither suited Apollo's nor Homer's Design,
Like making the Subjects who felt its first Shock,
To be Men like their Masters, tho' baser of Stock.”
Now, Proof at the present comes under the Pen,
That “ουρηες,” and “Κυνες,” may signify “Men.”

II.

You'll draw the Conclusion so fair and so just,
That if they may do it, they certainly must.

492

It would look with an unphilosophical Face,
And anti-Rawthmelian, to question the Case.
Tho' the Proofs of this Point, which I formerly noted,
Have slipt my Remembrance and cannot be quoted,
From Homer himself it may chance to appear,
As I promis'd to make it, no Whistle more clear.

III.

That ουρηες are “Guards” in Iliadal Lore,
You may see in Book Kappa, Line eighty-and-four;
Where the wise Commentators confess in their Rules,
That “Here it is ‘Guards,’” not “Ημιονοι,” “Mules.”
Being join'd with “εταιροι,” “Companions,” they knew
As “εταιροι” were Men, that ουρηες were too.
Now let us illústrate the combated Place,
As near as we can, by a Parallel Case.

IV.

Plain Sense as I take it, if once it is shown
That Homer opposes to “being alone”
Having two “Κυνες αργοι” along with an Hero,
Will call 'em “Companions,” not “Dogs,” in Homero.
Turn then to his Odyssey, Beta, Line ten,

493

Where “Dogs,” as they call 'em, are certainly “Men,”
Attended by whom (he will second who seeks)
Telemachus went to a Council of Greeks.

V.

With his Sword buckl'd on, and a Spear in his Hand,
He went (having summon'd) to meet the whole Band;
So bravely set forth, so equipt, and so shod,
That, as Homer has phras'd it, “he look'd like a God:”
“Not alone”—to enhance the Description of Song,—
“But he took with him two ‘Κυνας αργους’ along,”—
“Two swift-footed Dogs?” Yes! Two Puppies, no Doubt,
That Apollo had sav'd from the general Rout!

VI.

One can but reflect how we live in an Age
That scruples the Sense of all sensible Page,
Any Kind of old Nonsense more pleas'd to admit,
If in Homer, or Virgil, or Horace 'tis writ.
But yet, to do Justice to these, and the rest
Of the poor pagan Poets, it must be confess'd,
That Time, and Transcribing, and critical Note
Have father'd much on them, which they never wrote.

VII.

This Place is a Proof, how the Critics made bold
To foist their own Sense into Verses of old;

494

For instead of two Greeks here, attending their Master,
And footing a Pace neither slower nor faster,
They have made in some Places to follow his Track
Of their swift-footed Dogs an indefinite Pack;
The Son of Ulysses unskilfully forcing
To go to a Council, as Men go a-Coursing.

VIII.

“Ουκ οιος, ουκ οιη,” for Master and Dame,
“Not alone,” to interpret by Homer's true Aim:
There are Places enow to evince that Attendants
Were Men or were Maidens, were Friends or Dependants.
Thus Achilles “ουκ οιος,” Omega rehearses,
Had two “Θεραποντες,” both nam'd in the Verses
“Automedon, Alcimus;” whom, it is said,
“He valued the most, for Patroclus was dead.”

IX.

Penelope thus, in First Odyssey Strain,
Two “Αμφιπολοι” follow'd,—two Women, 'tis plain,—
When the Dame was “ουκ οιη,” and mention'd anon,
How they stood to attend her, on either Side one.
Had “Αμφιπολοι” signified “Cats” in the Greek,
Would not Sense have oblig'd us new Meaning to seek?
And two Dogs as unfit as two Cats you will own,
To describe Man or Woman “not being alone.”

X.

To close the plain Reasons that rise in one's Mind,
Take an Instance from Virgil of similar Kind:

495

Where in fair Imitation of Homer, no doubt,
He describes King Evander to dress and march out;
And discern, by the Help of his Mantuan Pen,
How “Custodes” and “Canes” were both the same Men,
Where “Canes” are “Dogs,” as all Custom opines.
See Virgil's eighth Book;—come, I'll copy the Lines:
“Nec non et gemini custodes limine ab alto
Procedunt, gressumque canes comitantur herilem.”

XI.

“Κυνες αργοι” in Homer were then in his View,
When Virgil in Latin thus painted the two,
And the “Canes” in him are the very “Custodes,”
Most aptly repeated, dignissime Sodes.
Did ever Verse yet, or Prose ever, record
Any literal Dogs that kept Pace with their Lord?
“Proceeding,” “attending”: how plain the Suggestion
That “Dogs,” in the Case, are quite out of the Question!

XII.

And now I appeal to all critical Candour,
If Homer's young Hero, or senior Evander,
Had Dogs for Companions, to honour their Gressus,
As Translators in Verse and in Prose would possess us?
The Moderns, I think (tho' a Lover of Metre),
Should manage with Judgment a little discreeter,
Than to gape and admire what old Poets have sung
If it will not make Sense in their own Mother-Tongue!