588 Nov. For the LONDON MAGAZINE. An Account of Homer's Geography of the Country round Troy, with Remarks on the Map of Troy prefixed to Mr. Pope's Tranflation of Homer. Illufirated by a Map of the neighbouring Country, taken on the Spot by Mr. Wood.) MR R. Wood, the celebrated author of the defcriptions of Palmyra and Balbec, in his late Effay on Homer, hath pointed out a number of miftakes in Mr. Pope's translation of Homer, particularly as to geography. He followed Homer through Greece, under the direction of Strabo, whose judicious commentary on the geographical part of the Iliad and Odyssey is ftill extant, and obferves that " not only the permanent and durable objects of his defcription, fuch as his rock, hill, dale, promontory, &c. continue in many inftances to bear unquestionable teftimony of his correctnefs, and fhew, by a ftrict propriety of his epithets, how faithfully they were copied; but even his more fading and changeable landscape, his fhady grove, verdant lawn, and flow ery mead, his pafture and tillage, with all his varieties of corn, wine, and oil, agree furprisingly with the prefent face of thofe countries." Great part of the amusement, however, which Mr. Wood enjoyed in Homer and Strabo's company on the fpot, arofe as much from the investigation, as the discovery of the refemblance; and he hopes that by his remarks he shall raife the attention of future commentators and translators to a matter too negligently treated, and the neglect of which hath been in jurious to the truth of Homer. As Mr. Wood wrote from the spot, we shall give the account in his own words. "As a truly poetical translation could not be effected, even by Mr. Pope, without his venturing to open the profpect a little, by the addition of a few epithets, or fhort hints of defcription; fo the most valuable piece of geography left us, concerning the ftate of Greece in that early period, has of courie fuffered by fuch liberties *; and, when every defcriptive epithet in Homer fhould have been religiously preferved, Mr. Pope's alte rations have produced a new map of his own, and deprived us of that merit of the original, which he called upon us to admire. Thus the Grea and fpacious Mycaleffus of Homer become by tranflation, Græa near the main, "And Mycaleffia's ample piny plain." Had it been proper to defcribe the narrow ftreight of the Euripus, by the name of the main, yet it is not at all difftinguished, by such a situation, from feveral other places mentioned on this fhore; and as to the ample piny plain, we fearched for it to no purpose. It is, therefore, matter of doubt, whether it exifted in the time of Homer, though mentioned by Statius about a thousand years after. Indeed it would be difficult to affign any reason for the addition in English, except that the rhyme requires that Græa fhould be near the main in the first line, and that Mycaleffia (for so the translator was obliged to write it in order to make out the line) owes both to rhyme and measure her piny plain in the fecond. When the additional epithets of the tranflator are defcriptive of fome permanent circumstance, as in those lines "From high Trazene and Mafeta's plain, "And fair Ægina circled by the main ;” the defcription (though not Homer's, and merely introduced to help out the rhyme and measure) has probably been always true; but when unauthorised, and without confulting his author, he enriches the picture with the fluctuating and tranfitory circumftances of husbandry, it is lefs excufable. Thus when he informs us, that the following two places were famous « For flocks Erythræ, Gliffa for the vine;" and mentions thofe "Who plow the famous Orchomenian plain;" he substitutes the ftate of those coun tries in the time of Plutarch and Sta tius, from whom he takes his account See Pope's obfervations on the catalogue. of 1775 Remarks on Homer's Geography, &c. of them, for what it might have been in that of Homer, who connects no fuch ideas of pasture, vintage, and corn, with thofe names." 1 "The tranflator gives us a picture, not without its beauties; but beauties fo much his own, that they retain little of Homer, either as to the fubject, or the manner. We shall fay no more at prefent of the catalogue, where Rhetor is green, Lilæa fair, and Cynos rich, without any authority from the original; Anemonia has her ftately fhining turrets, and Corinth her imperial towers, Parrhafia her fnowy cliffs, Tarphe her fylvan feats, and Ætylus her low walls, from Pope, not from Homer. It is owing to, thefe liberties, that we find the old poet often loaded with English ambiguity, and even contradiction, for which there is no foundation in the Greek; as where Ithaca is fometimes fair, and fometimes barren, and where, in fpite of the fandy coaft of Pylos in one place, we have, in another, Alpheus' plenteous ftream, that yields · Increase of harvest to the Pylian fields." Befides thofe infuperable difficulties which every poetical tranflator of Homer has to encounter, when we confider (what it is our great object at prefent to point out) that he copied from Nature, and trufted to his own obfervation, we fee how this original method of collecting his materials produces a confiftent whole out of corre fponding parts, every object of defcription recurring, though in a new light, yet always agreeable to the first idea, which he conveys of it. And when we alfo confider, that none of his commentators, fince the time of Strabo, have been at the pains of forming to themselves any distinct idea of his geography; it is not furprifing, that, when they lofe fight of the original, they should be inconfiftent, not only with truth, but with themselves. However, the tranflator's reprefentation of the fame fcene of action under different appearances, in different parts of the poem, falls lefs under obfervation, than when the fame defcription contradicts itself within the compafs of a few lines; as where we fee Nov. 1775. 589 "The great Achilles ftretch'd along the "Starting from the fands." Should we give this fleepy Achilles to a painter, he must be ftrangely puzzled with the hero's rocky, graffy, fandy couch; a fort of prevarication (if I may ufe that expreffion) impracticable upon canvafs. Thus, while the poet, by judicioufly felecting the mere characterizing circumstances of the object which he defcribes, leaves us fully impressed with truth and reality; his translator, over ftudious of embellishment, wanders into inconfiftence in fearch of it: nay, fometimes into fudden contradiction; as when the fame picture of the fea is, in one line, "The foaming flood;" "The level furface of the deep." When thefe difcordant pictures of the fame object are thus clofely confronted, the falling off is fo triking, that we muft, in candour, fuppole it the work of different hands haftily revifed. It is impoffible to account, in any other way, for fome of the inaccuracies of the map of Troy prefixed to the English tranflation. So capital an error as that of difcharging the Scamander into the Egean fea, inftead of the Hellefpont, is a striking fpecimen of the carelefs and fuperficial manner in which this matter has been treated. Yet this mistake, material as it is, does not feem to mislead the tranflator in other refpects; for he is as inconfiftent with his own incorrect map, as both he and his map are with the real fituation of the ground; and, by not having afcertained any invariable and fixed idea of the fcene of action, either true or falfe, he has led his author into a labyrinth of contradiction, out of which no imaginable difpofition of the fcene can extricate him. Thus, when he fuppofes that the Greeks had not paffed the river before the beginning of the fixth book, it is a neceffary confequence of fuch a fuppofition, that they were, till then, at fome miles diftance from Troy. But this is inconfiftent with that beautiful digreffion of the third book, where Priam and Helen fee the Grecian leaders fo diftinctly from the walls of that city, as to diftinguish the perfons and figures of the leaders from the walls of Troy. In short, this map would not deferve the few lines, which we bestow upon it, were it not for the refpectable hame of Pope, who, no doubt, trufted this inferior part of his work to unfkilful or negligent hands. I was át a lofs to account for fo much obvious inaccuracy, collected into fo fmall a compafs, till I difcovered, befides the mistakes of the draughtfman, a certain method and regularity of error, which could belong to the engraver alone, who, by a piece of neg. ligence, not lefs unpardonable in the artift than fatal to geography and Homer, has given a map, which reverfes the drawing from which it was engraved, and of course changes the refpective fituation of all the parts, from right to left, and from left to right; fo that the Sigeum ftands where the Rhaeteum fhould be, and the Scamander runs on that fide of Troy which belongs to the Simois. How fo material an overfight should have remained hitherto unnoticed, or how Mr. Pope could contrive to explain his own reverfed map *, is not to our prefent purpose. To fay more on this head is needlefs; to have said thus much, on the only chart which has hitherto attempted to illustrate the principal fcene of the action of the Iliad, was unavoidable." * See Pope's Letters with regard to this map. For the LONDON MAGAZINE. The fubfequent Letter was tranfmitted to General Gage, in Anfwer to his, inferted in our laft Magazine, p. 519, by General Washington. SIR, Head Quarters, Cambridge, Aug. 19, 1775. I addreffed you on the 11th inftant, in terms which gave the faireft fcope for the exercise of that humanity and politenefs, which were fuppofed to form a part of your character. I remonftrated with you on the unworthy treatment fhewn to the officers and citizens of America, whom the fortune of war, chance, or a mistaken confidence, had thrown into your hands. Whether British or American mercy, fortitude, and patience, are moft pre-eminent; whether our virtuous citizens, whom the hand of tyranny has forced into arms, to defend their wives, their children, and their property, or the mercenary inftruments of lawless domination, avarice and revenge, beft deferve the appellation of rebels, and the punishment of that cord, which your affected clemency has for born to inflict; whether the authority under which I act, is ufurped, or founded upon the genuine principles of liberty, were altogether foreign to the fubject. I purposely avoided all political difquifition; nor fhall I avail myfelf of those advantages, which the facred caufe of my country, of liberty, and human nature give me over you, much lefs fhall I ftoop to retort and invective. But the intelligence you fay you have received from our army requires a reply. I have taken time, Sir, to make a strict enquiry, and find it has not the leaft foundation in truth. Not only your officers and foldiers have been treated with tendernefs due to fellow citizens and brethren, but even thofe execrable parricides, whofe councils and aid have deluged their country with blood, have been protected from the fury of a justly enraged people. Far from compelling or permitting their affiftance, I am embarraffed with the numbers who croud to our camp, animated with the pureft principles of virtue, and love of their country. You advise me to give free operation to truth, to punish mifreprefentation and falfehood. If experience ftamps value upon counfel, yours must have a weight, which few can claim. You beft |