sailors, "the ants of ocean"; the strap of a pedlar's pack, "the girdle of his load"; pitch, "the ointment of doors," and so on.
IV. 4. 4. The play upon the double meaning of κόρα, (1) maiden, (2) pupil of the eye, can hardly be kept in English. It is worthy of remark that our text of Xenophon has ἐν τοῑς θαλάμοις, a perfectly natural expression. Such a variation would seem to point to a very early corruption of ancient manuscripts, or to extraordinary inaccuracy on the part of Longinus, who, indeed, elsewhere displays great looseness of citation, confusing together totally different passages.
9. ἰταμόν. I can make nothing of this word. Various corrections have been suggested, but with little certainty.
5. 10. ὡς φωρίου τινος ἐφαπτόμενος, literally, "as though he were laying hands on a piece of stolen property." The point seems to be, that plagiarists, like other robbers, show no discrimination in their pilferings, seizing what comes first to hand.
VIII. 1. 20. ἐδάφους. I have avoided the rather harsh confusion of metaphor which this word involves, taken in connection with πηγαί.
IX. 2. 13. ἀπήχημα, properly an "echo," a metaphor rather Greek than English.
X. 2. 13. χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας, lit. "more wan than grass"—of the sickly yellow hue which would appear on a dark Southern face under the influence of violent emotion.[1]
3. 6. The words ἢ γάρ … τέθνηκεν are omitted in the translation, being corrupt, and giving no satisfactory sense. Ruhnken corrects, ἀλογιστεῖ, φρονεῖ, πτοεῖται, ἢ π. ὀ. τ.
- ↑ The notion of yellowness, as associated with grass, is made intelligible by a passage in Longus, i. 17. 19. χλωρότερον τὸ πρόσωπον ἦν πὀας θερινῆς.
