MR. BRYANTS "HOMER"
has made it almost prosaic in this respect. Such lines as
Telemachus, the prudent, thus rejoined
And then discreet Telemachus replied
Ulysses, the sagacious, answered her
are tame substitutes for the courtly and sonorous interludes,
Τήν δ᾽αὗ Τηλέμαχος πεπνυμένος ἀντίον ηὔδᾶ
Τήν δ᾽ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολύμητις ᾽Οδυσσέυς
and lower the poetical tone of the general translation. We feel still more the indefinite shortcomings of blank-verse in the paraphrases of those resonant dactylic lines, which make up so large a portion of the Iliad and Odyssey, and give splendor to the movement of whole cantos. We might cite innumerable examples, like the following:—
Ἦμος δ᾽ἠριγένεια φάνε ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς.
But when the Morn,
The rosy-fingered child of Dawn, looked forth.
Μήνιος ἐξ ὀλοῆς Γλαυκώπιδος ὀβριμοπάτρης,
Ἦτ᾽ ἔριν Ἀτρείδῃςι μετ᾽ἀμφοτέροισιν ἔθηκε
The fatal wrath of her,
The blue-eyed maid, who claims her birth from Jove.
'Twas she who kindled strife between the sons
Of Atreus.
[135]
