11.  These lines show how careful the poet always was to be true to
   nature.  The little circumstance that they could not see the
   heron, but only heard him, stamps the description with an air of
   verisimilitude which is at once recognized.—­FELTON.

12.  This passage sufficiently justifies Diomede for his choice of
   Ulysses.  Diomede, who was most renowned for valor, might have given
   a wrong interpretation to this omen, and have been discouraged from
   proceeding in the attempt.  For though it really signified that, as
   the bird was not seen, but only heard, so they should not be
   discovered by the Trojans, but perform actions of which all Troy
   should hear with sorrow; yet, on the other hand, it might imply
   that, as they discovered the bird by the noise of its wings, so the
   noise they should make would betray them to the Trojans.  Pallas
   does not send the bird sacred to herself, but the heron, because
   that is a bird of prey, and denoted that they should spoil the
   Trojans.

13.  Dolon seems to have been eminent for wealth, and Hector summons
   him to the assembly as one of the chiefs of Troy.  He was known to
   the Greeks, perhaps, from his having passed between the two armies
   as a herald.  Ancient writers observe, that it was the office of
   Dolon that led him to offer himself in this service.  The sacredness
   attached to it gave him hopes that they would not violate his
   person, should he chance to be taken; and his riches he knew were
   sufficient to purchase his liberty.  Besides these advantages, he
   probably trusted to his swiftness to escape pursuit.

14.  Eustathius remarks upon the different manner in which the Grecians
   and Trojans conduct the same enterprise.  In the council of the
   Greeks, a wise old man proposes the adventure with an air of
   deference; in that of the Trojans, a brave young man with an air of
   authority.  The one promises a small gift, but honorable and
   certain; the other a great one, but uncertain and less honorable,
   because it is given as a reward.  Diomede and Ulysses are inspired
   with a love of glory; Dolon with the thirst of gain.  They proceed
   with caution and bravery; he with rashness and vanity.  They go in
   conjunction; he alone.  They cross the fields out of the road, he
   follows the common track.  In all this there is an admirable
   contrast, and a moral that strikes every reader at first sight.

15. [Commentators are extremely in the dark, and even Aristarchus
   seems to have attempted an explanation in vain.  The translator does
   not pretend to have ascertained the distance intended, but only to
   have given a distance suited to the occasion.]—­TR.

16.  Ulysses makes no promise of life, but artfully bids Dolon, who is
   overpowered by fear, not to think of death.  He was so cautious as
   not to believe a friend just before without an oath, but he trusts
   an enemy without even a promise.