Page:The Iliad in a Nutshell, or Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Wesley (1726).djvu/7

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15 Him thus accosts^[1] a Native of the Streams,
O thou from foreign Realms arriving here,
With truth, for truth the virtuous well beseems,
Thy Name, thy Nation, and thy Rank declare;
My destin'd Guest, if thee I haply see,
20 A Guest for Monarchs fit, and not unworthy Me.

III.
Me^[2] to great Peleus^[3] on the Banks of Po^[4],
The fair Hydromedusa^[5] joyful bore;
Me for their Lord, these watry Regions know,
And slime-born Frogs revere my dreaded Pow'r,
25 Physignathus^[6] my Name, resounded far.
Thee too, when first at near Approach I view'd

1. v. 15. Him thus accosts.] A Frog may as easily be supposed to speak as Xanthus the Horse of Achilles. Indeed the Epopæa assumes a liberty very like that of Æsop. The Discourse between Juno and Æolus, and what Neptune said to Zephyrus and Boreas have as little Truth and Probability as the Intercourse between the City and Country-mouse. Bossu.
2. v. 21. Me.] Self Commendation is very common in Epic Heroes, and Virgil makes Æneas say of himself, Sum pius.
3. Ibid. Peleus.] A Name from Mud.
4. Ibid. Po.] There were three Eridani, one in Heaven, another on Earth, and a third in Hell. That on Earth is here intended.
5. v. 17. Hydromedusa.] A Ruler in the Waters.
6. v. 25. Physignathus.] One who swells his Cheeks.

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