Out of thy mansion majestic was born in a song the Greek Temple,
Sentineled round with a choir—Titans columnar of stone,
Bearing forever their burden to hymns of a Parian measure,
Wearing out heaviest Fate to a Pindaric high strain.
Look! those boys of thy garden with tapers are moving to statues,
Seeming to walk into stone while they are bringing the light;
Hellas springs out of thy palace all sculptured with actions heroic,
Even the God we discern turning to marble by faith.
Such is the originative, prophetic character of Phæacia, which the reader must take profoundly into his soul, if he would understand the genetic history of Greek spirit. Verily the poet is the maker of archetypes and reveals in his shapes all that his people are to become.
Thou, old Homer, wert the first builder in Greece, the first carver,