Note 47 — BOOK V.

p. 15. l. 23. —saw she, and with moveless eyes. "The gods are supposed to be exempt from the momentary elevation and depression of the upper eyelid, to which mortals are subject. Hence a deity is called 'Animisha' or 'Animesha,' one whose eyes do not twinkle." Mr. Wilson, in his note to Vikrama and Urvasi, (Hindu Theatre, i. 237. p. 60.), quotes this passage, and suggests that the "marble eyes of Venus, by which Helen knew the goddess, and which the commentators and translators seem to be much perplexed with, are probably the 'stabdha lochana,' the fixed eyes of the Hindus, full and unveiled for an instant, like the eyes of a marble statue." Mr. Wilson has, I think, been misled by the words ὁμματα μαρμαἱροντα, which rather expresses the contrary. Μαρμαἱρω is to glitter, and is applied in many places in Homer to the gleaming of armour. The μαρμαριγἀς θηεἴτο ποδὤν of the Odyssey is well translated by Gray, "glance their many-twinkling feet." In Mr. Wilson's curious reference to Heliodorus (the passage is in the Æthiopica, iii. 13.) the author appears to write from Egyptian rather than Grecian notions. He extorts, somewhat violently, a meaning from Homer's words, δεινὼ δἐ εἱ ἔσσε φἁανθην, which they by no means necessarily bear; but the analogy is as curious if Egyptian as if Grecian.