by taking pains he often raises himself to a tragic elevation. In his sublimer moments he generally reminds us of Homer's description of the lion—
"With tail he lashes both his flanks and sides,
And spurs himself to battle."[1]
4Take, for instance, that passage in which Helios, in handing the reins to his son, says—
"Drive on, but shun the burning Libyan tract;
The hot dry air will let thine axle down:
Toward the seven Pleiades keep thy steadfast way."
And then—
"This said, his son undaunted snatched the reins,
Then smote the winged coursers' sides: they bound
Forth on the void and cavernous vault of air.
His father mounts another steed, and rides
With warning voice guiding his son.'Drive there!
Turn, turn thy car this way.'"[2]
May we not say that the spirit of the poet mounts the chariot with his hero, and accompanies the winged steeds in their perilous flight? Were it not so,—had not his imagination soared side by side with them in that celestial passage, he would never have conceived so vivid an image. Similar is that passage in his "Cassandra," beginning
"Ye Trojans, lovers of the steed."[3]
5Aeschylus is especially bold in forming images
