Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/198

 poet's epithets are often selected by their convenience for his metre; sometimes perhaps even appropriated for no other cause. No one has ever given any better reason why Diomedes and Menelaus are almost exclusively called βοὴν ἀγαθὸς, except that it suits the metre. This belongs to the improvisatore, the negligent, the ballad style. The word ἐϋμμελίης, which I with others render 'ashen-speared', is said of Priam, of Panthus, and of sons of Panthus. Mr Arnold rebukes me, p. 106, for violating my own principles. 'I say, on the other hand, that εὐμμελίω has not the effect of a peculiarity in the original, while "ashen-speared" has the effect of a peculiarity in the English: and "warlike" is as marking an equivalent as I dare give for ἐϋμμελίω, for fear of disturbing the balance of expression in Homer's sentence'. Mr Arnold cannot write a sentence on Greek, without showing an ignorance hard to excuse in one who thus comes forward as a vituperating censor. Warlike is a word current in the lips and books of all Englishmen: ἐϋμμελίης is a word never used, never, I believe, in all Greek literature, by anyone but Homer. If he does but turn to Liddell and Scott, he will see their statement, that the Attic