Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/173

 to be almost untranslatable, as μήστωρ φόβοιο (deviser of fear?) μήστωρ ἀϋτῆς (deviser of outcry?): others are quaint to the verge of being comical, as to call a man an equipoise (ἀτάλαντος) to a god, and to praise eyes for having a curl in them. It is quaint to make Juno call Jupiter αἰνότατε (grimmest? direst?), whether she is in good or bad humour with him, and to call a Vision ghastly, when it is sent with a pleasant message. It is astonishingly quaint to tell how many oxen every fringe of Athene's ægis was worth.—It is quaint to call Patroclus 'a great simpleton', for not foreseeing that he would lose his life in rushing to the rescue of his countrymen. (I cannot receive Mr Arnold's suggested Biblical correction 'Thou fool'! which he thinks grander: first, because grave moral rebuke is utterly out of place; secondly, because the Greek cannot mean this;—it means infantine simplicity, and has precisely the colour of the word which I have used.)—It is quaint to say: 'Patroclus kindled a great fire, godlike man'! or, 'Automedon held up the meat, divine Achilles slic'd it': quaint to address a