CHAPTER THE FIRST, Or the three following chapters, the first will offer some new ideas on the characters and secondary fable of the Iliad, without adverting much to its third fable, or to the gods introduced there: the two other chapters will contain an explanation of a considerable part of the Odyssey. I shall first notice Agamemnon, one of the principal heroes of the Iliad, in whose character the poet seems to have personified that portion of the continent of Europe, which has throughout all history been opposed, in rivalship or in war, to the British islands; that is to say, France and the countries dependent on France, the beauty of which parts of Europe, as well as the despotic nature of their government, are well depicted in Priam's inquiry about Agamemnon, in 3 Il. 166. Οστις οδ' εστιν Αχαιος ανήρ ήυστε μεγαστε but the identity of this hero with France and its dependencies will appear more strikingly, when the places, which are enumerated in the catalogue of the Iliad, as being enrolled under his banners, are stripped of the veil of disguise with which they are purposely concealed there. Vid. 2 Il. 569. Οι δε Μυκήνας είχον ἔυκτίμενον πτολιεθρον Άτρείδας" αμα τω γε πολυ πλείστοι και άριστοι Λαοι εποντ' εν δ' αυτος εδύσατο νωροπα χαλκον Κυδιόων οτι πασι μετέπρεπεν ηρώεσσιν. (573) by supposing only a slight alteration of the word, according to Horace's rule* may plainly be seen the city of Paris;† in lovosoσav, Gand, in Fanders; in Arylov Aix-la-Chapelle; in Пελλ, Holland perhaps (from πиλs, mud, and w;) in Aryläλov (literally, the sea-shore) the Dutch province of Zealand; and in Ex Evgεlav, the river Rhine: again to go back to 569 by Munnvas (from Mu and xevos, vacuus) I am inclined to underuv stand here the port of Brest, hollowed out of the coast in the shape (which it has) of the *The rule of Horace is this; Et nova factaque semper habebunt verba fidem, si For the right understanding of which, I beg leave to refer to what is said in the introduction concerning Greece, or rather concerning the Greek language. Paris on the o Eau de la Seine. letter m or ; by Kogadov, the isthmus between France and Spain, like that at Corinth in the Morea; by Kλɛwvas, the city of Lyons in France by Ορνείας (quasi, nigh the mountains, ορος in opvelas) the south of France, between the Alps and Pyrenees; by Apaulupen, the province of Touraine in France; and by Eva, the course of the river Seine there (in Latin, Sequana): which explanation of muova, as of Muxnvas before, may lead perhaps to a juster notion in future of the classical kingdoms of those names. The line 574, Kudïowv, &c. points to the habitual gasconades of the French; and TоλUTλ1501 Aα, either to their numerous population, or to the stoney mountains (8) which border their countries: I should ineline to derive the name of Agamemnon itself from Aga, (the appellation of the Turkish commanders) and Me, together implying a permanent Aga, or t eternal Despot; and his additional name Alpeidus from priv. and true, as pointing to the notorious/ want of faith of the French Government. One strong proof of Agamemnon's representing France may be drawn from the epithet dappavos being |