26.  The Iliad, in its connection, is, we all know, a glorification of
   Achilles by Zeus; for the Trojans only prevail because Zeus wishes
   to show that the reposing hero who sits in solitude, can alone
   conquer them.  But to leave him this glorification entirely unmixed
   with sorrow, the Grecian sense of moderation forbids.  The deepest
   anguish must mingle with his consciousness of fame, and punish his
   insolence.  That glorification is the will of Zeus; and in the
   spirit of the ancient mythus, a motive for it is assigned in a
   divine legend.  The sea-goddess Thetis, who was, according to the
   Phthiotic mythus, wedded to the mortal Peleus, saved Zeus, by
   calling up the giant Briareus or AEgaeon to his rescue.  Why it was
   AEgaeon, is explained by the fact that this was a great sea-demon,
   who formed the subject of fables at Poseidonian Corinth, where even
   the sea-god himself was called AEgaeon; who, moreover, was worshipped
   at several places in Euboea, the seat of Poseidon AEgaeus; and whom
   the Theogony calls the son-in-law of Poseidon, and most of the
   genealogists, especially Eumelus in the Titanomachy, brought into
   relation with the sea.  There is therefore good reason to be found
   in ancient belief, why Thetis called up AEgaeon of all others to
   Jove’s assistance.  The whole of the story, however, is not
   detailed—­it is not much more than indicated—­and therefore it
   would be difficult even now to interpret it in a perfectly
   satisfactory manner.  It bears the same relation to the Iliad, that
   the northern fables of the gods, which serve as a back-ground to
   the legend of Nibelungen, bear to our German ballad, only that here
   the separation is much greater still—­MULLER.

Homer makes use of this fable, without reference to its meaning as an allegory.  Briareus seems to symbolize a navy, and the fable refers to some event in remote history, when the reigning power was threatened in his autocracy, and strengthened by means of his association with the people against some intermediate class.—­E.P.P.

27. {epaurontai}.

28. [A name by which we are frequently to understand the Nile in
   Homer.—­TR.]

29.  Around the sources of the Nile, and thence south-west into the
   very heart of Africa, stretching away indefinitely over its
   mountain plains, lies the country which the ancients called
   Ethiopia, rumors of whose wonderful people found their way early
   into Greece, and are scattered over the pages of her poets and
   historians.

   Homer wrote at least eight hundred years before Christ, and his
   poems are well ascertained to be a most faithful mirror of the
   manners of his times and the knowledge of his age. * * * * *