18.  Homer occasionally puts his readers in mind of Achilles, and finds
   occasion to celebrate his valor with the highest praise.  Apollo
   here tells the Trojans they have nothing to fear, since Achilles
   fights not.

19. [{Akrokomoi}.  They wore only a lock of hair on the crown of the
   head.]

Footnotes for Book V: 
1.  In each battle there is one prominent person who may be called the
   hero of the day.  This arrangement preserves unity, and helps to fix
   the attention of the reader.  The gods sometimes favor one hero, and
   sometimes another.  In this book we have the exploits of Diomede. 
   Assisted by Minerva, he is eminent both for prudence and valor.

2.  Sirius.  This comparison, among many others, shows how constantly
   the poet’s attention was directed to the phenomena of
   nature.—­FELTON.

3. {Eioenti}.

4.  The chariots were probably very low.  We frequently find in the
   Iliad that a person standing in a chariot is killed (and sometimes
   by a stroke on the head) by a foot soldier with a sword.  This may
   farther appear from the ease with which they mount or alight, to
   facilitate which, the chariots were made open behind.  That the
   wheels were small, may be supposed from their custom of taking them
   off and putting them on.  Hebe puts on the wheels of Juno’s chariot,
   when he called for it in battle.  It may be in allusion to the same
   custom, that it is said in Ex., ch. xiv.:  “The Lord took off their
   chariot wheels, so that they drove them heavily.”  That it was very
   small and light, is evident from a passage in the tenth Il., where
   Diomede debates whether he shall draw the chariot of Rhesus out of
   the way, or carry it on his shoulders to a place of safety.

5. [Meges, son of Phyleus.]

6.  This whole passage is considered by critics as very beautiful.  It
   describes the hero carried by an enthusiastic valor into the midst
   of his enemies, and mingling in the ranks indiscriminately.  The
   simile thoroughly illustrates this fury, proceeding as it did from
   an extraordinary infusion of courage from Heaven.

7. [Apollo.]

8.  The deities are often invoked because of the agency ascribed to
   them and not from any particular religious usage.  And just as often
   the heroes are protected by the gods who are worshipped by their
   own tribes and families—­MULLER.

9.  This fiction of Homer, says Dacier, is founded upon an important
   truth of religion, not unknown to the Pagans:  viz. that God only
   can open the eyes of men, and enable them to see what they cannot
   otherwise discover.  The Old Testament furnishes examples.  God opens
   the eyes of Hagar, that she may see the fountain.  “The Lord opened
   the eyes of Baalam, and he saw the angel,” etc.  This power of sight
   was given to Diomede only for the present occasion.  In the 6th
   Book, on meeting Glaucus, he is ignorant whether he is a god, a
   hero, or a man.