him that of god of archery. Of any connection between Apollo and the Sun, whatever may have existed in the more esoteric doctrine of the Greek sanctuaries, there is no trace in either Iliad or Odyssey."--Mure, "History of Greek Literature," vol. i. p. 478, sq. 51 It has frequently been observed, that most pestilences begin with animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind. 52 --_Convened to council._ The public assembly in the heroic times is well characterized by Grote, vol. ii. p 92. "It is an assembly for talk. Communication and discussion to a certain extent by the chiefs in person, of the people as listeners and sympathizers--often for eloquence, and sometimes for quarrel--but here its ostensible purposes end." 53 Old Jacob Duport, whose "Gnomologia Homerica" is full of curious and useful things, quotes several passages of the ancients, in which reference is made to these words of Homer, in maintenance of the belief that dreams had a divine origin and an import in which men were interested. 54 Rather, "bright-eyed." See the German critics quoted by Arnold. 55 The prize given to Ajax was Tecmessa, while Ulysses received Laodice, the daughter of Cycnus. 56 The Myrmidons dwelt on the southern borders of Thessaly, and took their origin from Myrmido, son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa. It is fancifully supposed that the name was derived from myrmaex, an _ant,_ "because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like them were indefatigable, continually employed in cultivating the earth; the change from ants to men is founded merely on the equivocation of their name, which resembles that of the ant: they bore a further resemblance to these little animals, in that instead of inhabiting towns or villages, at first they commonly resided in the open fields, having no other retreats but dens and the cavities