Chapter 152

Weighed down in a garden by this fruit,--

instead of "it is weighed," and (O. xiii. 113):--

Thither they as having knowledge of that place drive their ships,--

instead of "before they knew."

And articles he often changes, setting demonstrative instead of relatives (I. xvi. 150):--

Whom Podarge, swift of foot, to Zephyr bore,--and the contrary (I. xvii. 460):--

And breastplate: for his own his faithful friend hath lost.

So he was wont to change prepositions (I. i. 424):--

Yesterday he went through the banquet,--instead of "to the banquet."

And (I. i. 10):--

And he stirred up an evil plague through the army.

Likewise he joins with a preposition a noun improperly, as in the verse (I. x. 101):--

Lest perchance they wish to decide the contest in the night,--

where the preposition is followed by, the accusative, not the genitive. And as to other prepositions, some he changes, some he omits (I. ii. 696):--

Of whom he lies lamenting,--instead of "concerning whom."

And (O. xxiii. 91):--

Expecting whether he would bespeak him,--instead of "speak to him."

And other prepositions he in the same fashion changes or leaves out. And adverbs he changes, using indifferently motion towards, rest in, and motion from a place (I. xx. 151):--

His grandchildren were setting down from elsewhere,--instead of "elsewhere" (I. vii. 219):--

And Ajax came from near,--instead of "near."

Finally he has changes of conjunctions, as (O. i. 433):--

He never lay with her and he shunned the wrath of his lady,-- instead of "for he shunned," etc. And these are the figures of speech which not only all poets but the writers of prose have employed.

But significance is given by him in many ways. One of which is Proanaphonesis, which is used when any one in the midst of a narration uses an order proper to other things, as in the following line (O. xxi, 98):--

He was to be the first that should taste the arrow,-- and Epiphonesis (I. xvii. 32):--

After the event may e'en a fool be wise.

The use of Prosopopoiia is frequent and varied with him. For he introduces many different people speaking together, to whom he attributes various characteristics. Sometimes he re-creates characters no longer living, as when he says (I. vii. 125):--

What grief would fill the aged Pellus's soul.

There is, too, Diatyposis, which is the working out of things coming into being or actually existent or that have come to pass, brought in to make what is said clearer, as in the following (I. ix. 593):--

The slaughtered men, the city burnt with fire, The helpless children and deep-bosomed dames.

Or, to produce pity (I. xxii. 60):--

Look, too, on me with pity: me on whom E'en on the threshold of mine age, hath Jove A bitter burthen cast, condemned to see My sons struck down, my daughters dragged away In servile bonds: our chamber's sanctity Invaded; and our babes by hostile hands Dashed to the ground.

There is also to be found in him Irony, i.e. an expression revealing the opposite of what is said with a certain ethical artifice; as in the speech of Achilles (I. ix. 391):--

Let him choose among the Greeks a fitter King.

For he hints that he would not find one of more royal temper. And this is the same Trope used when one speaks about himself in extenuation and gives a judgment contrary to one's own. There is another form when any one pretends to praise another and really censures him. As the verse in Homer, put in the mouth of Telemachus (O. xvii. 397):--

Antinous--verily thou hast good care of me, as it were a father for his son.

For he says to an enemy that he cares as a father for his son, and, again, when any one by way of jest extolls his neighbor, as the suitors (O. ii. 325):--

In my truth Telemachus planneth our destruction. He will bring a rescue either from sandy Pylos, or it may be from Sparta, so terribly is he set on slaying us.

Sarcasm is a species of Irony used when any one jibes at another with a pretence of smiling. As Achilles, in the following passage (I. ix. 335):--

He meted out Their several portions, and they hold them still. From me, from me alone of all the Greeks, He bore away and keeps my cherished wife. Well! let him keep her, solace of his bed.

Like this in kind is Allegory, which exhibits one thing by another, as in the following (O. xxii. 195):--

Now in good truth Melanthiusi shalt thou watch all night, lying on, a soft bed as beseems thee.

For being in chains and hanging, he says he can rest on a soft bed.

Often, too, he makes use of Hyperbole, which, by exaggerating the truth, indicates emphasis, as (I. x. 437):--

These surpass in brilliancy the snow, in speed the eagle.

Homer used Tropes and figures of this sort and handed them down to posterity, and justly obtains glory beyond all others.

Since there are also Characters of speech called Forms, of which one is Copiousness, the other Gracefulness, and the third Restraint, let us see if Homer has all these separate classes, on which poets and orators have worked after him. There are examples of these--copiousness in Thucydides, gracefulness in Lysias, restraint in Demosthenes. That is copious which by combination of words and sentences has great emphasis. An example of this is (O. v. 291):--

With that he gathered the clouds and troubled the waters of the deep, rasping his trident in his hands: and he roused all storms of all manner of winds and shrouded in clouds the land and sea: and down sped night from heaven.

The graceful is delicate by the character of the matter. It is drawn out by the way it is expressed (I. vi. 466).--

Thus he spake, great Hector stretch'd his arms To take the child: but back the infant shrank, Crying, and sought his nurse's sheltering breast, Scar'd by the brazen helm and horse-hair plume.

The restrained is between the two, the copious and the graceful, as (O.