Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/203

FORTIFICATION OF THE GRECIAN CAMP. 1Q7 be an after-thought, arising out of the enlargement of the poem beyond its original scheme. The original Achilleis, passing at once from the first to the eighth,i and from thence to the eleventh book, might well assume the fortification, and talk of it as a thing existing, without adducing any special reason why it was erected. The hearer would naturally comprehend and follow the existence of a ditch and wall round the ships, as a matter of course, provided there was nothing in the previous narrative to make him believe that the Greeks had originally been without these bulwarks. And since the Achilleis, immediately after the promise of Zeus to Thetis, at the close of the first book, went on to describe the fulfilment of that promise and the ensuing dis- asters of the Greeks, there was nothing to surprise any one in hearing that their camp was fortified. But the case was altered when the first and the eighth books were parted asunder, in order to make room for descriptions of temporary success and glory on the part of the besieging army. The brilliant scenes sketched in the books, from the second to the seventh, mention no fortifica- tion, and even imply its nonexistence ; yet, since notice of it occurs amidst the first description of Grecian disasters in the eighth book, the hearer, who had the earlier books present to his memory, might be surprised to find a fortification mentioned im- mediately afterwards, unless the construction of it were specially announced to have intervened. But it will at once appear, that there was some difficulty in finding a good reason why the 1 Heyne treats the eighth book as decidedly a separate song, or epic ; a supposition which the language of Zeus and the agora of the gods at the beginning are alone sufficient to refute, in my judgment (Excursus 1, ad lib. xi. vol. vi. p. 269). This Excursus, in describing the sequence of events in the Iliad, passes at once and naturally from book eighth to book eleventh. And Mr. Payne Knight, whea he defends book eleventh against Heyne, says, " Quae in undecimS. rhapsodia Iliadis narrata sunt, haud minus ex ante narratis pendent: neque rationem pugnae commissae, neque rerum in ea ges- tarum nexum atque ordinem, quisquam intelligere posset, nisi iram A secessum Achillis, et victoriam quam Trojani inde consecuti erant, antea cog- nosset." (Prolegom. c. xxix.) Perfectly true : to understand the eleventh book, we must have before us the first and the eighth (which are those that describe the anger and with- drawal of Achilles, and the defeat which the Greeks experience in onse ^uence of it) ; we may dispense with the rest