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On the Sublime by 1st cent. Longinus
page 34 of 126 (26%)
observed, “Were I Alexander, I should have been satisfied”; “And I, were
I Parmenio”...

The distance between heaven and earth[1]--a measure, one might say, not
less appropriate to Homer’s genius than to the stature of his discord.

[Footnote 1: _Il._ iv. 442.]

5
How different is that touch of Hesiod’s in his description of sorrow--if
the _Shield_ is really one of his works: “rheum from her nostrils
flowed”[2]--an image not terrible, but disgusting. Now consider how
Homer gives dignity to his divine persons--

“As far as lies his airy ken, who sits
On some tall crag, and scans the wine-dark sea:
So far extends the heavenly coursers’ stride.”[3]

He measures their speed by the extent of the whole world--a grand
comparison, which might reasonably lead us to remark that if the divine
steeds were to take two such leaps in succession, they would find no
room in the world for another.

[Footnote 2: _Scut. Herc._ 267.]

[Footnote 3: _Il._ v. 770.]

6
Sublime also are the images in the “Battle of the Gods”--

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