8.  The power of Agamemnon as a monarch refers to his being the leader
   of an army.  According to the form of royalty in the heroic age, a
   king had only the power of a magistrate, except as he held the
   office of priest.  Aristotle defines a king as a Leader of war, a
   Judge of controversies, and President of the ceremonies of the
   gods.  That he had the principal care of religious rites, appears
   from many passages in Homer.  His power was nowhere absolute but in
   war, for we find Agamemnon insulted in the council, but in the army
   threatening deserters with death.  Agamemnon is sometimes styled
   king of kings, as the other princes had given him supreme authority
   over them in the siege.

9. [The extremest provocation is implied in this expression, which
   Thersites quotes exactly as he had heard it from the lips of
   Achilles.—­TR.]

10.  The character of Thersites is admirably sketched.  There is nothing
   vague and indistinct, but all the traits are so lively, that he
   stands before us like the image of some absurd being whom we have
   ourselves seen.  It has been justly remarked by critics, that the
   poet displays great skill in representing the opponents of
   Agamemnon in the character of so base a personage, since nothing
   could more effectually reconcile the Greeks to the continuance of
   the war, than the ridiculous turbulence of Thersites.—­FELTON.

11. [Some for {ponos} here read {pothos}; which reading I have adopted
   for the sake both of perspicuity and connection.—­TR.]

12.  The principal signs by which the gods were thought to declare
   their will, were things connected with the offering of sacrifices,
   the flight and voice of birds, all kinds of natural phenomena,
   ordinary as well as extraordinary dreams.

13.  An epithet supposed to have been derived from Gerenia, a Messenian
   town, where Nestor was educated.

   In the pictures which Homer draws of him, the most striking
   features are his wisdom, bravery, and knowledge of war, his
   eloquence, and his old age.

   For some general remarks upon the heroes of the time, see Grecian
   and Roman Mythology.

14.  In allusion to the custom of pouring out a libation of pure wine,
   in the ceremony of forming a league, and joining right hands, as a
   pledge of mutual fidelity after the sacrifice.—­FELTON.

15. [Nestor is supposed here to glance at Achilles.—­TR.]

16.  Homer here exalts wisdom over valor.

17. [Money stamped with the figure of an ox.]—­TR.

18.  The encouragement of a divine power, seemed all that was requisite
   to change the dispositions of the Grecians, and make them more
   ardent for combat than they had previously been to return.  This
   conquers their inclinations in a manner at once poetical and in
   keeping with the moral which is every where spread through Homer,
   that nothing is accomplished without divine assistance.