Note 20 — A NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES’ SHIELD.

Besides Homer’s reference, both in the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ to poetic recitations at festivals, there is the well-known invocation in Book II. To what purpose would the mere writer of poetry pray for an increase of his physical powers? Nothing could be more proper, says Gladstone, if Homer were about to recite; nothing less proper if he were engaged on a written poem.