Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/58

 intended likewise that we should cast "a glance towards the nurse." Fitzosborne's Letters, l. 43. If this was Homer's intention, he has, in my opinion, shewn less good taste in this instance, than his translator, who has, I think, with much propriety, left out the compliment to the nurse's waist altogether. And this liberty of the translator was perfectly allowable; for Homer's epithets are often nothing more than mere expletives, or additional designations of his persons. They are always, it is true, significant of some principal attribute of the person; but they are often applied by the poet in circumstances where the mention of that attribute is quite preposterous. It would shew very little judgement in a translator, who should honour Patroclus with the epithet of godlike,