distinguished from them. He is, indeed, rather to be classed with Milton than with the balladists and Scott; for what he has in common with Milton,–the noble and profound application of ideas to life,–is the most essential part of poetic greatness. The most essentially grand and characteristic things of Homer are such things as
ἔτλην, δ’, οἱ’ οὔπω τις ἐπιχθόνιος βροτὸς ἄλλος,
ἀνδρὸς παιδοφόνοιο ποτὶ στόμα χειρ’ ὀρέγεσθαι . . .[1]
or as
καὶ σὲ, γέρον, τὸ πρὶν μὲν ἀκούομεν ὄλξιον εἰναι . . .
or as
ὣς γὰρ ἐπεκλώσαντο ζεοὶ δειλοισι βροτοισιν,
ζώειν ἀχνυμένους·αὺτοὶ δὲ τ’ ἀκηδέες εἰσίν . . .[3]
and of these the tone is given, far better than by anything of the balladists, by such things as the
Io no piangeva: sì dentro impietrai:
Piangevan elli…[4]
of Dante; or the
of Milton.
- ↑ ‘And I have endured,—the like whereof no soul upon the earth hath yet endured,–to carry to my lips the hand of him who slew my child.’—Iliad, xxiv. 505.
- ↑ ‘Nay and thou too, old man, in times past wert, as we hear, happy.’—Iliad, xxiv. 543. In the original this line, for mingled pathos and dignity, is perhaps without a rival even in Homer.
- ↑ ‘For so have the gods spun our destiny to us wretched mortals,—that we should live in sorrow; but they themselves are without trouble.’—Iliad, xxiv. 525.
- ↑ ‘I wept not: so of stone grew I within:—they wept.’—Hell, xxxiii. 49 (Carlyle’s Translation, slightly altered).
