While streamy sparkles, restless as he flies,
Flash from his arms, as lightning from the skies.
Again, in the nineteenth book of the Odyssey (35–41), Homer has a metaphor from fire, from which it may be seen that in his time a notion was prevalent among the Greeks that a miraculous light was a sure token of the presence of some divinity. The lines in question run as follows:—
What miracle thus dazzles with surprise;
Distinct in rows the radiant columns rise!
The walls, wherein my wondering sight I turn,
And roofs amidst a blaze of glory burn.
Some visitant of pure ethereal race
With his bright presence, deigns the dome of grace[[17-2]].
Not less prolific in metaphors of the same description is Virgil.