The Poet
1 is regarded as extraordinarily successful in bestowing
consolation, where he represents Achilles as speaking to Priam, who has come
to ransom Hector, as follows :
Come then and rest
on a seat; let us suffer our sorrows to slumber Quietly now in our
bosoms, in spite of our woeful afflictions ; Nothing is ever
accomplished by yielding to chill lamentation. Thus, then, the gods have
spun the fate of unhappy mortals, Ever to live in distress, but
themselves are free from all trouble. Fixed on Zeus' floor two massive
urns stand for ever, Filled with gifts of all ills that he gives, and
another 2 of blessings ; He on whom Zeus, god of thunder,
bestows their contents commingled Sometimes meets with the good, and
again he meets only with evil. Him upon whom he bestows what is baneful
he makes wholly wretched ; Ravenous hunger drives him o'er the earth's
goodly bosom, Hither and thither he goes, unhonoured of gods or of
mortals.
Hesiod, who, although he proclaimed himself the
disciple of the Muses, is nevertheless second to Homer in reputation as well
as in time, also confines the evils in a great urn and represents Pandora as
opening it and scattering the host of them over the whole land and sea. His
words
3 are as follows :
Then with her hands
did the woman, uplifting the urn's massive cover, Let them go as they
would ; and on men she brought woeful afflictions. [p. 129]
Hope alone where it was, with its place of abode yet undamaged, Under
the rim of the urn still tarried ; nor into the open Winged its way
forth; for before it escaped she had put on the cover. More are the woes
unnumbered among men now freely ranging. Full is the land now of evils,
and full of them too is the ocean ; Illnesses come upon men in the
daytime, and others at nighttime ; Hither and thither they go, of
themselves bringing evils to mortals ; Silent they go, since the wisdom
of Zeus has deprived them of voices.
