(See p. 173)
A translation of the passage from Pausanias is quoted in the text. I
append extracts from some letters I have received on the subject. The
first are from Mr. Heard, Fettes College, Edinburgh.
_October 5th._
"I cannot find a reference to Cephisus; but I send you a passage in
point from Homer, _Iliad_, 23, 140. I rather suspect Wordsworth had this
passage in mind, for no commentator I have quotes a parallel; in which
case he has either forgotten _Spercheius_ as the river, or substituted,
on purpose, the better known Attic river.
"Achilles offers to the dead Patroclus the locks which his father had
vowed to Spercheius, if ever he returned to his native land:
ἔνθ᾿ αὖτ ἄλλ᾿ ἐνόησε ποδάρκης δῖος Αχιλλεύς
στὰς ἀπάνευθε πυρῆς ξανθὴν ἀπεκείρατο χαίτην
τήν ῥα Σπερχειῷ ποταμῷ τρέφε τηλεθόωσαν
ὀχθήσας δ᾿ ἄρα εἶπεν ιδὼν ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον
Σπερχεί᾿, ἄλλως σοίγε πατὴρ ἠρήατο Πηλεὺς
κεῖσέ με νοστήσαντα ϕίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν
σοί τε κόμην κερέειν.
_October 13th._
"I have discovered the reference to the Cephisus. It is from Pausanias,
1, 37, 3. I transcribe the passage: you will notice the reference to the
Spercheius of the _Iliad_.
"πρὶν δὲ διαβαεναι τὸν Καεφισόν, Θεοδώρου μνῆμά ἐστι τραγῳσίαν
ὑποκριναμένου τῶν καθ᾿ αὑτὸν ἄριστα. ἀγάλματα δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ
Μνησιμάχης, τὸ δὲ ἐτερον ἀνάθημα κειρομένου οἰ τὴν κόμην τοῦ παιδὸς
ἐπὶ τῷ Καϕισῷ. καθεστάναι δὲ ἐκ παλαιοῦ καὶ τοῖς πᾶσι τοῦτο ῞Ἑλλαεσι
τῇ Ὁμήρου τις ἂν τεκμαίροιτο ποιήσει, ἃς τὸν Παελέα εὄξασθαί ϕησι τῷ
Σπερχειῷ κερεῖν ἀνασωθέντος ἐκ Τροίας Αχιλλέως τὴν κόμην.
"There can be little doubt that Wordsworth had this passage in mind. The
Cephisus is the Attic one; this is a statue, which Pausanias saw on the
banks of the river, of the son of Mnesimache cutting his locks over the
stream."
Professor Campbell writes:--"The Homeric passage is _Iliad_, 23, 140-151,
where Achilles cuts off for Patroclus the lock of hair, which _his father
Peleus_ had vowed to the river Spercheius in case of his son's safe
return. This is referred to by Plato,--_Rep._ 3, 391 B,--who regards it
as an act of impiety to have given that, which was sacred to the river,
to a dead body.
"Unless the passage in Pausanias is singularly apposite, I should think
that this passage must have been in Wordsworth's mind, and that by a
perfectly legitimate use of poetic freedom, in speaking of the later
Greek civilisation, he had put the Attic in place of the Phthiotic river."
Since receiving Mr. Heard's letter, I have found that Wordsworth
possessed a copy of Thomas Taylor's translation of Pausanias's
_Description of Greece_, published in 1794, a copy of that work having
been sold at the Rydal Mount sale in 1859. Bishop Wordsworth of St.
Andrews has also directed my attention to the following note to Pope's
translation of the _Iliad_, a copy of which his uncle possessed. Book
xxiii. 175.
"It was the custom of the ancients not only to offer their own hair, but
likewise to consecrate that of their children to the river-gods of their
country. This is what Pausanias shews in his Attics; _Before you pass
the Cephisa_, says he, _you find the tomb of Theodorus_, _who was the
most excellent actor of his time for tragedy; and_, _on the banks you
see two statues_, _one of Mnesimachus_, _and the other of his son_, _who
cut off his hair in honour of the rivers; for that this was in all ages
the custom of the Greeks_, _may be inferred from Homer's poetry_, _where
Peleus promises by a solemn vow to consecrate to the river Sperchius
the hair of his son_, _if he returns safe from the Trojan war_. This
custom was likewise in Egypt, where Philostratus tells us that Memnon
consecrated his hair to the Nile. This practice of Achilles was imitated
by Alexander at the funeral of Hephæstion."
It is likely that Wordsworth had read this note to the annotated edition
(1763) of Pope's _Homer_; but it is also probable that he was familiar
with the passage in Pausanias.