The feelings are just what we should look for in Ajax. He does not, you
observe, ask for his life--such a request would have been unworthy of
his heroic soul--but finding himself paralysed by darkness, and
prohibited from employing his valour in any noble action, he chafes
because his arms are idle, and prays for a speedy return of light. “At
least,” he thinks, “I shall find a warrior’s grave, even though Zeus
himself should fight against me.”

[Footnote 6: _Il._ xvii. 645.]

11
In such passages the mind of the poet is swept along in the whirlwind of
the struggle, and, in his own words, he

“Like the fierce war-god, raves, or wasting fire
Through the deep thickets on a mountain-side;
His lips drop foam.”[7]

[Footnote 7: _Il._ xv. 605.]

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But there is another and a very interesting aspect of Homer’s mind. When
we turn to the _Odyssey_ we find occasion to observe that a great
poetical genius in the decline of power which comes with old age
naturally leans towards the fabulous. For it is evident that this work
was composed after the _Iliad_, in proof of which we may mention, among
many other indications, the introduction in the _Odyssey_ of the sequel
to the story of his heroes’ adventures at Troy, as so many additional
episodes in the Trojan war, and especially the tribute of sorrow and