Ερχομενων· μαλα δ’ ώκα διεπρησσον πεδίοιο.
“As when the south wind pours a thick cloud upon the tops of the mountains, whose shade is unpleasant to the shepherds, but more commodious to the thief than the night itself, and when the gloom is so intense, that one cannot see farther than he can throw a stone: So rose the dust under the feet of the Greeks marching silently to battle.”
With what superior taste has the translator heightened this simile, and exchanged the offending circumstance for a beauty. The fault is in the third line; τοσσον τις τ’ επιλευσσει, &c., which is a mean idea, compared with that which Mr. Pope has substituted in its stead:
Thus from his shaggy wings when Eurus sheds
A night of vapours round the mountain-heads,
Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade,
To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade;
While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey,
Lost and confus’d amidst the thicken’d day:
So wrapt in gath’ring dust the Grecian train,