Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose

33 As on some mountain Pope comments on the fertility
of Homer’s imagination and invention apparent in the
five similes in this passage, all different, illustrating
splendour, movement, number, ardour, and the
discipline of the troops (line 534).
41 Caÿster a river in Lydia, south of Troy.
46 Scamander the river that flows through the Trojan
plain.
68 Neptune brother of Jupiter and god of the sea.
Mars the god of war.

from the eighth book of the Iliad

After a day’s success in battle, the Trojan troops await the
dawn. Lines 685–708 of the completed version. For discussion
of this passage see Critical commentary, pp. 218–24.

15 Ilion another name for Troy.
16 Xanthus a river on the Trojan plain.

from the twelfth and sixteenth books of the Iliad

‘The episode of Sarpedon’: Pope published this episode (of
which the representation here is a substantial extract) in
Poetical Miscellanies in 1709. The title, the argument, and the
prose connecting the two parts are from this edition, except
that Pope has the plural Iliads commonly used for the whole
poem in the Renaissance and beyond. The text is the later
(slightly revised) version of 1717. The extracts are XII, 345–
410 and 509–62, and XVI, 512–626 and 773–836 from the
complete version.

1 Hector is the oldest son of Priam king of Troy and the
Trojans’ chief defender. His death at the hands of
Achilles is the climax of the poem. Here the Trojans
are trying to storm a defensive wall that the Greeks
have built around their ships.
27 Why boast we Pope’s note on Sarpedon’s speech
points to its generosity and nobleness: it includes