Commentary on the Iliad: The Divine Plague

On the Nature of Aging and Wounds

...this refers to you, saying that those among them who grew old did not perish, but rather that they aged before dying in that manner. The author is likely discussing the longevity or physical resilience of heroes in the "Heroic Age." Why is it that after they were cut, their nails original: χηλαὶ, "claws" or "hooves," used here for human extremities did not break, nor did their scars burst open, but they remained as they were at first? Psellos is exploring a physiological theory regarding the "incorruptibility" of certain ancient figures. It was as if they had been cared for, even as infants. For it was likely that they were neither old and full of sores, nor youthful, before some were created irrationally. The following points apply: In ancient times, the flies original: μυῖαι appeared to everyone. They grew to such a great size. They were very sweet to them, but also destructive. There were eighty of them in their own groups. For there should not have been such a fearful bitterness, making an old man even more pitiable. Among them, the midwives were graceful; bathing the infants in the depths of the water to declare them healthy and beautiful.

On the Sun and the Rhapsode

Such is the manner: the sun’s rays are his own. He writes larger than if they were merely musical or at their peak; they do not think of the sun’s ray as a physical light. The commentator is distinguishing between the physical sun and the divine Apollo. The method is an insertion: the speech was either directed toward the city, or according to the specific parts. One must know from the account that a Scythian original: σκύθος acts upon the writing just as Apollonius does. The word is derived from "to cover" original: ἐρέφω; hence, when the house is covered. It refers to "Misokles." For he was "nourished" original: ἐτρέφετο either from being "sewn into" original: ἐρράφθαι the thigh of Zeus, or from "weaving" original: ῥάφειν a composition together; from which the term rhapsode term: rhapsode — literally "one who stitches songs together," referring to professional performers of epic poetry is etymologically derived. He considers it worthy that we, who have been cared for, should not die as if from a "stitched-up" manner or a marvelous pain. For this does not apply to the poetic art. The fact that the skin is not always of a good color is a "yellowing" original: ἐπιξανθίον; so that he places this in the span of life or in the value of life. Since he parodied the skin, as he said: "Trust in these things, O midwife." He weeps while looking at your eyes. Why did you not already lead me away from the dead dog or the spit original: ὑβελίσκου, likely "obelisk" or "spit" which was choking you? Or as we say in our hopes, that after I die with great intensity, the spirit among them was released. Mechanically, the violence was smothered. Among such silver things, everyone lives as if by fleeing or by the maidens. And after I have been deprived of the light of life, he is tortured because the race is lost. His "static weight" original: βρῖσα did not look favorably upon the king of the God. For just as the mistress is a foreign concubine among the people of Kos, from whom he is cut off. The midwife is Sokē, for how was she sacred?

By no means like cattle, catching you in the depths

By no means like cattle, catching you in the depths,
lest perhaps the meat-eaters do not help you as it were I take away as it were for the Goddess.
I will not release all of them, for old age has overtaken them.
1. To Philip

Second as it were our people and as it were to the as it were Peloponnese, once far from the pale man
2. Isos

possessing a strong and medicinal power, he approaches my bed.
3. Insensibility provoked me, because I returned to the one being aimed at.

4. Famous

Thus I spoke: that it is not possible to apply the word "part of an old man."
5. Flow/Stream

Quietly upon the eye, for the blood of the sea of Palestratus...
6. Of the roaring [sea]

many things after these I laid aside, and I was in a worse state.
7. Uphill

8. Tok[os] (Birth)

of King Apollonius; Leto of the beautiful hair did not give birth.
9.

Hear me! He broke forth a brilliant word, for whom it was necessary to be a great champion.
10.

And to the divine and wonderful "Killa," you strongly support the old woman. Killa is a city mentioned in Chryses' prayer to Apollo.
11. Smintha (Mouse)

12. It sank/inclined

O Smintheus! term: Smintheus — an epithet of Apollo, traditionally interpreted as "Lord of Mice," though Psellos explores other meanings here. May I thank you for this letter from which I was pushed,
and if ever I burned the fat pieces for you,
13. This... [unclear]

of a bull or a goat, fulfill this desire for me:
14. From what sort of...

Let me give you a punishment, while the Greeks weep for my arrows as it were by my arrows as it were
15. He heard

Not by horse alone near Samos; for Apollo goes to the pure soul of the inhabitant.
He went down from the peaks of Olympus, angry in his soul,
having his bow on his shoulders and the quiver at its peak,
and the arrows clanged upon the shoulders of the angry god.
For he was in close contact; he himself arrived like the darkness of night.
16. With everyone

After this, he sat away from the ships. And then he stood;
a fearful sound came from the silver bow directed toward them.
17.

First he went after the pack-animals and the swift dogs;
18. Pyres

afterward, aiming a bitter arrow at the Greeks themselves, for nine days
he struck them. And all the while, the pyres of the dead were burning, and they were burned together in heaps.

Perhaps it is the God; not merely destroying, but making way for the household. He teaches how great a pure sacrifice is; but those who are "lofty" original: αἰωφῆτες are abominable, or not in the midst of battle. Many statues are the pillars. Why did he start from the "gnat" original: κωνωπῆ? I do not think it was only from those. Or because those who solve problems through rhetoric say that the Divine loves to find fault, wishing to extend the hope of repentance to those who sin. Others speak more philosophically, saying that every plague comes from a "burning inflammation" original: ἐκφλογώσεως caused by divine irritation. The "flies" or "gnats" are produced from the harm itself. He says that there was no haste in his prayer. For he appeared to them, not with some reverence as they were peeking out, but he wonders that they were burning as if near a corpse. He wished that the madness would increase even if it were small. Either that there would be battles afterward, or that by believing these things, they had reasonable hopes. But those who were being destroyed by the plague were filled with it. †