14.  There were two kinds of dance—­the Pyrrhic, and the common dance;
   both are here introduced.  The Pyrrhic, or military, is performed by
   Youths wearing swords, the other by the virgins crowned with
   garlands.  The Grecian dance is still performed in this manner in
   the oriental nations.  The youths and maidens dance in a ring,
   beginning slowly; by degrees the music plays in quicker time, till
   at last they dance with the utmost swiftness; and towards the
   conclusion, they sing in a general chorus.

15.  The point of comparison is this.  When the potter first tries the
   wheel to see “if it will run,” he moves it much faster than when at
   work.  Thus it illustrates the rapidity of the dance.—­FELTON.

Footnotes for Book XIX: 
1. [Brave men are great weepers—­was a proverbial saying in Greece. 
   Accordingly there are few of Homer’s heroes who do not weep
   plenteously on occasion.  True courage is doubtless compatible with
   the utmost sensibility.  See Villoisson.]—­TR.

2.  The fear with which the divine armor filled the Myrmidons, and the
   exaltation of Achilles, the terrible gleam of his eye, and his
   increased desire for revenge, are highly poetical.—­FELTON.

3.  The ancients had a great horror of putrefaction previous to
   interment.

4. [Achilles in the first book also summons a council himself, and not
   as was customary, by a herald.  It seems a stroke of character, and
   intended by the poet to express the impetuosity of his spirit, too
   ardent for the observance of common forms, and that could trust no
   one for the dispatch he wanted.]—­TR.

5. [{’Aspasios gony kampsein}.—­Shall be glad to bend their knee, i.e.
   to sit and repose themselves.]—­TR.

6. [{Touton mython}.—­He seems to intend the reproaches sounded in
   his ear from all quarters, and which he had repeatedly heard
   before.]—­TR.

7. [By some call’d Antibia, by others, Nicippe.]—­TR.

8.  It was unlawful to eat the flesh of victims that were sacrificed in
   confirmation of oaths.  Such were victims of malediction.

9.  Nothing can be more natural than the representation of these
   unhappy young women; who, weary of captivity, take occasion from
   every mournful occurrence to weep afresh, though in reality little
   interested in the objects that call forth these expressions of
   sorrow.—­DACIER.

10.  Son of Deidameia, daughter of Lycomedes, in whose house Achilles
   was concealed at the time when he was led forth to the war.

11. [We are not warranted in accounting any practice unnatural or
   absurd, merely because it does not obtain among ourselves.  I know
   not that any historian has recorded this custom of the Grecians,
   but that it was a custom among them occasionally to harangue their
   horses, we may assure ourselves on the authority of Homer, who
   would not have introduced such speeches, if they could have
   appeared as strange to his countrymen as they do to us.]—­TR.