MR. CHURCH'S "HEROES AND KINGS."
MR. CHURCH'S literary cunning in selection, translation, and paraphrase, does not in any degree desert him. A more charm- ing supplementary volume to his other Greek tales it would be impossible to find, and we only regret that as yet at least it is not published in a shape uniform with the long series of Classical tales which have done so much to render for English readers the spirit of the Greek and Latin legends. The form, indeed, could be hardly prettier than it is. Both type and illustrations are as good as ever, and the cheapness of the book is something marvellous. But there are many who will wish to possess this delightful series of Classical tales as a whole, and for them we hope that there may be given at some future time an edition of
the present volume uniform with those which have preceded it. This volume may be regarded as supplementary to the tales from Homer and from Herodotus, though its first and longest tale, "The Voyage of the Argo,' " is taken from Apollonius Rhodius, who, if he may be said to be of the school of Homer, lived so long after him that he bears nearly the same relation to Homer that some of our modern Chauceriaus bear to Chaucer. Partly however for that very reason, the story of the Argonauts is well worth telling in con- nection with the Homeric tales. One sees in it glimpses of that later day in which it was written, but those glimpses heighten the effect of the Homeric episodes which fill up the middle por- tion of Mr. Church's book. The scepticism of Idas as to the importance to be attached to the wrath of Zeus, is one of such signs of the later origin of the story of the Argo '; the com- plaint of Aphrodite as to the selfishness and hardheartedness of her son Eros, is another ; and the beautiful passage in which Medea takes leave of her bed-room, when she is about to trust herself to Jason and the Greeks, is a third. No one, we think, could compare it with the leave-taking of Hector and Andro- mache in the Iliad, without being conscious that the pathos of the later book is cast in a more self-conscious mood than the pathos of Homer "All that night the King sat with his nobles, meditating harm against Jason and the heroes ; for he knew that the thing had been done by craft, and also that his daughter was concerned in the matter. And Medea also at grievously troubled in her chamber, fearing the wrath of her father; and oft-time she thought that she had best kill herself with poison. But at last Here put it into her heart that she should flee, taking the sons of Phrixus for companions. Then she * Heroes and Kings: Stories from the Greek. By the Rev. Alfred J. Church, M.A., Professor of Latin in University College, London. London: Seeley, JaAsor, sad Haliday. arose from bed, and took the medicines that she bad from their chest, and hid them in her bosom. And she kissed her bed and the posts of her chamber-doors and the walls. Also she cut off a long lock of her hair to be a memorial of her to her mother. And when she had done this- she cried with a lamentable voice, Farewell, my mother, and thou, Chalciope, my sister ! Would that this stranger had perished before he came to the land of the Colchians !' Then she went out from the house, the great gates opening before her of their own accord, for she had anointed them with a mighty drug ; and, being come into the street, she ran very swiftly, holdieg herrobo over her bead, tiil she saw- the light of the fires where the heroes sat feasting all the night in the joy of the victory that Jason had won. Then she came near, and,. lifting up her voice, cried to the youngest of the sons of Phrixus, whose name was Phrontis. And Phrontis heard her, and knew the voice that it was the voice of Medea, and told the thing to Jason.. Then Jason bade the heroes be silent; and they listened. Thrice she cried, and thrice did Phrontis answer her. And the heroes loosed, the ship and rowed it acrcss the river ; but ere ever it came to the- other shore Jason and the sons of Phrixus leapt from the deck on to the land. And when Medea saw the brothers, she ran to them, and caught them by the knees, and cried to them, 'Save me now from King ! yea, and save yourselves also, for all things are now known, to him. Let us fly hence in the ship, before he come upon us with a great army. But first I will give the Fleece into your hands, having laid to sleep the dragon that guardeth it. But do thou, Prince Jason,. do as thou didst promise, calling the gods to witness.' And Jason was glad when he saw her, and took her by the band, and lifted her op, and spake kindly to her, saying, Dearest of women, now may Zeus and Here his wife, that is the goddess of marriage, be my wit- nesses that I will take thee to wife so soon as we shall have returned to the land of Greece.' "
Compare this even with a passage of much less power than the- parting of Hector and Andromache, a passage contained in the present volume, the interview of Ulysses with the soul of his mother in the shades, and we shall see at once how different the. temper of the pathos is,—how much less of the spirit of self- pity natural to a self-conscious age, it contains :—
" So Ulysses abode in his place ; and the soul of his mother came near, and drank of the blood. And when she bad drunk, she knew her son, and said, ' My son, why haat thou come into the land of darkness, being yet alive ? Haat thou not yet returned to thy home ?' To her Ulysses made answer. I came hither to inquire of Teiresias of Thebes, and my home have I not seen. Truly trouble hath fol- lowed me from the day that I first went with Bing Agamemnon to the land of Troy. But tell me, how didst thou die ? Did a wasting disease slay thee, or Artemis smite thee with sudden stroke of her arrow ? And my father and my son, have they enjoyment of that which is mine, or have others taken it from them ? And my wife, is she true to me, or bath she wedded some Prince among the Greeks ?' Then said his mother, 'Thy wife is true, and sits weeping for thee- day and night. And thy son bath enjoyment of thy possessions, and bath his due place at the feasts of the people. But thy father cometh no longer to the city, but abideth in the country. Nor bath he any couch for his bed, but in winter-tide he sleeps, even as sleep the- slaves, in the ashes near unto the fire, and when the summer comes, in the corner of the vineyard upon leaves. Greatly doth be sorrow,. waiting for thy return, and the burden of old age lies heavy upon him. But as for me, no wasting disease slew me, nor did Artemis smite me with her arrows ; but I died of longing for thee, so sorely did I miss thy wisdom and thy love.' Then Ulysses would have laid hold upon the soul of his mother. Thrice he sprang forward, eager to embrace her ; and thrice she passed from oat his hands, even as passeth a shadow. And when he said How is this, my mother, art thou then but a phantom, that the Queen of the dead bath sent me ?" his mother answered him, Thus it is with the dead, my son. They have no more any flesh and bones, for these the might of the fue devours ; but their souls are even as dreams, flying hither and thither.. But do thou return so soon as may be to the light, and tell all that thou halt seen and heard to thy wife.' " In this story of the visit of Ulysses to the shades, Mr. Church loses not a few, we think, of the many delicate effects of the original, by narrating in the third person what Homer gives us, in the first person as the direct narrative of Ulysses to the Pbaeacian king. Mr. Church leaves out, for instance, not un- naturally under the circumstances, Ulysses's own expression of anguish at the shadowiness of b is mother's form and at the failure- of his attempt to embrace her ; and this deprives the passage of much of its naturalness, as well as of some of its tenderness.. Again, there is a special effect of simplicity conveyed by the language in which Ulysses is made to narrate his mother's. address to him, a simplicity lost when the words are no longer put into his own mouth. As Homer gives it, the shade of his mother says to Ulysses :—" But it was yearning for you, and for your words of counsel, and for your gentleness, noble Ulysses, which broke my heart." That, as an address from the- mother to the son, repeated by that son himself to a third per- son, has a simplicity that is absent from an impersonal narra- tive. Still, even in the form of an independent tale, which Mr. Church could not well have avoided, the contrast between the style of the late disciple of Homer and the style of Homer him- self is extremely striking. And we are sure that the effect, both of the later and of the earlier style, is heightened by giving them both in the same volume.
We may congratulate not only Mr. Church, but ourselves -also, on the success with which he has followed up the hint given him in these columns, and rendered for us that most quaint and humorous as well as splendid passage in the twenty-first book .of the Iliad, in which the Gods descend to encounter each other on the plains of Troy. Mr. Church has never given us a passage -of greater spirit and vivacity, and has rendered, as indeed he was sure to render, the touches of humour with the most admir- able vividness and fidelity. The conception of the battle of the -Gods seems to have been suggested by the antique belief that when a river rises to flood, it is by the will of the river- god that this happens, so that the flooding of Scamander is represented by Homer as a voluntary act of the local river-deity done to curb the rage of Achilles—an act which directly brings on the intervention of the scandalised deities on the other side :-
" Furiously did Achilles rage over the plain, and he drave the sons of Troy before him as a man driveth sheep, till they came to the river of Scamander. And when they leapt into the river seeking to • escape him, even as locusts fly before a fire that devours them, then Achilles leapt in also, pursuing them. His spear he left on the bank, -and slew them with his sword, smiting them this way and that, till the water was red with blood. Very wroth was the River to see such slaughter, for be loved the sons of Troy, and first he put courage into the heart of Asteropsens' the Preonian ; but him Achilles slew, for all that he was the son of a river-god and a great warrior that could throw a spear with his left hand even as he threw it with his right. And when the River saw that Asteropasus was dead, and that Achilles was slaying many of the Preonians—for these were troubled, their chief being dead—be took upon him the shape of a man, and spake -to Achilles, saying : 'Truly, Achilles, thou eacellest all other men in might and deeds of blood, for the gods themselves protect thee. It may be that Zeus bath given thee to slay all the sons of Troy ; nevertheless, depart from me and work thy will upon the plain ; for my stream is choked with the multitude of corpses, nor can I pass to the sea. Do thou, therefore, cease from troubling me.' To him Achilles made answer : 'This shall be as thou wilt, 0 Scamander. But the Trojans I will not cease from slaying till I have driven them Into their city and have made trial of Hector, whether I shall vanquish him or he shall vanquish me.' And as be spake he sped on, pursuing the Trojans. Then the River cried to Apollo : Little thou doest the will of thy father, thou of the Silver Bow, who bade thee stand by the men of Troy and help them till darkness should cover the land.' And ho rushed on with a great wave, stirring together all his streams. The dead bodies be threw upon the shore, roaring as a bull roareth; and them that -lived he bid in the depth of his eddies. And all abont Achilles rose np the flood, beating full upon his shield, so that he could not stand fast upon his feet. Then Achilles laid hold of a lime tree, fair and tall, that grew upon the bank ; but the tree brake therefrom with all -its roots, and tare down the bank, and lay across the river, staying its flow, for it had many branches. Thereupon Achilles leapt out of the water and sped across the plain, being sore afraid. But the River ceased not from pursuing him, that he might stay him from -slaughter and save the sons of Troy. So far as a man may throw a -spear, so far did Achilles leap; strong as an eagle was he, the hunter- bird that is the strongest and swiftest of all birds. And still as ho fled the River pursued after him with a great roar. Even as it is with a man that would water his garden, bringing a stream from a fountain ; he has a pickaxe in his hand, to break down all that would -stay the water ; and the stream runs on, rolling the pebbles along with it, and overtakes him that guides it. Even so did the River overtake Achilles, for all that be was swift of foot, for indeed the gods are mightier than men. And when Achilles would have stood against the River, seeking to know whether indeed all the gods were against him, then the great wave smote upon his shoulders; and -when he leapt into the air, it bowed his knees beneath him and devoured the ground from under his feet. Then Achilles looked up -to heaven and groaned, crying out : ' 0 Zeno, will none of the gods pity me, and save me from the River ? I care not what else may befall me. Truly my mother has deceived me, saying that I should perish under the walls of Troy by the arrows of Apollo. Surely it had been better that Hector should slay me, for he is the bravest of the men -of Troy, but now I shall perish miserably in the river, as some herd- boy perisheth whom a torrent sweeps away in a storm.' "
Nothing could be more graphic than that. Indeed, we hardly know a better piece of English in the language. But that is only .the beginning of the fray among the deities, high and low, who concern themselves with the fate of Troy. We must give one more passage from the same fine story, that in which Artemis unwisely endeavours to persuade Apollo to assist the Trojans, 'and suffers for her temerity :-
" And he turned to depart ; for he feared to join battle with the 'brother of his sire. But his sister, Artemis, the great huntress of beasts, was very wroth when she saw him depart, and rebuked him, crying : Bost thou fly, Far-Shooter, and yield the victory to Poseidon ? For what then haat thou thy bow P Never let me hear thee boast again, as thou halt been wont to boast in the hall of thy father, that thou wonldst do battle with Poseidon !' No answer made Apollo; but the wife of Zeus spake to her in wrath, How tbinkest thou, shameless one, to stand against me ? No easy one am I for thee to match, for all that thou bast a bow, and that Zeus bath made thee a devouring lion for women to slay whom thou wilt. 'Tis better for thee to hunt deer upon the bills than to fight with them that are stronger than thou.' Then did Here lay her left hand upon the
hands of Artemis by the wrist, and with her right hand she took from her her arrows and her bows, and smote her with them about the ears as she tarried away, smiling the while; and the arrows fell from the quiver. And the goddess fled, leaving her bow behind, even as a dove flieth from before a hawk to her hole among the rocks. Then spake Hermes to Latona : I will not fight with thee, 0 Latena! 'Tis a hard thing to strive with them that Zeus bath loved. Boast as thou wilt among the immortal gods that thou hest conquered me in battle.' So he spake ; but Latona gathered together the bow and the arrows that had fallen this way and that way in the dust. And Artemis came to Olympus, to the hall of Zeus that is paved with bronze ; and, weeping sore, she sat on her father's knee ; and her veil was shaken about her with her sobbing. Then her father took her to him, and laughed, and said : ' Who, of the dwellers in heaven bath so dealt with thee, my child ?' And Artemis said : 'It was Here, my father, that smote me—Here, that always maketh strife and quarrel among the immortal gods.' "
That could not have been given with more effect, unless, indeed, by continuing the story a little further, instead of ending so abruptly with the complaint of Artemis against Her6—in her complaint against whom, by the way, Homer does not exactly attribute to her She statement that Herd " maketh" strife and quarrel, but only that it has been the decree of fate that from Her6 the strifes and quarrels of the Immortals shall proceed,—and this partly explains the perfect frankness with which Artemis lays the blame on the Queen of Olympus.
We wish Mr. Church had added the short sequel in which Homer relates simply how the one party of divinities went back to Olympus in great dudgeon at their discomfiture, and the other exultant at their feats of arms. It would have put a more natural conclusion to this most nag passage in the story of the Homeric mythology. For the tale of Periander of Corinth we think Mr. Church might have substituted some more char- acteristic legend from Herodotus. But the story of Polycrates of Samos, with which the volume concludes, is one of the most effective of the Herodotean tales.
On the whole, we have not had any more attractive volume from Mr. Church ; and we sincerely hope that the enterprise of his publishers in bringing out a little volume so perfect in shape, at so low a price, may be rewarded by the large sale which it seems to us to deserve.
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