and himself were the wisest of all the Grecians. Now, is the Translator, in this Case, to follow his Author or not? Is he to preserve the Manners of the Ancients, in the Characters of his Heroes, or is he to modernize them, and to make Ulysses and Achilles appear the most accomplish’d, finest Gentlemen in the World’?What this learned Gentleman says in Defence of Homer’s Heroes, is applicable to Æneas who was their Cotemporary. And Virgil, with the utmost Propriety, makes his Hero commend himself with that Freedom and Openness of Behaviour, that was in Use among the Ancients; when Men spoke to express their Thoughts, as they now do to conceal them.
Verse 539. And her majestic Port confest the God.] The Translation in this Place ventures to call Venus a God. Virgil calls her so in the next Book. And in this very Verse he takes as great a Liberty, by leaving two Vowels opening upon one another. The Word Θεὸς in the Greek is us’d promiscuously in either Gender. (Not to mention Euripides, Demosthenes, Lucan, and Statius) Minerva is call’d a God by Homer in the fifth Iliad, and by Mr. Pope, as good an Authority, in the Translation.
Verse 636.Scamander's fatal Flood.] The River Scamander, or Xanthus, is here call’d fatal, because if the Horses of Rhaesus King of Thrace, who came to the Assistance of Priam,
