many-voiced, wishes to depict the young bloom of a lovely countenance and a beauty that brings delight, he will use the finest of the vowels and the softest of the semi-vowels; he will not pack his syllables with mute letters, nor impede the utterance by putting next to one another words hard to pronounce. He will make the harmony of the letters strike softly and pleasingly upon the ear, as in the following lines:—
Now forth of her bower hath gone Penelope passing-wise
Lovely as Artemis, or as Aphrodite the Golden.[140]
Only once by the Sun-god’s altar in Delos I chanced to espy
So stately a shaft of a palm that gracefully grew thereby.[141]
Rose Chloris, fair beyond word, whom Nereus wedded of old,
For her beauty his heart had stirred, and he wooed her with gifts untold.[142]
But when he introduces a sight that is pitiable, or terrifying, or august, he will not employ the finest of the vowels. He will take the hardest to utter of the fricatives or of the mutes, and will pack his syllables with these. For instance:—
But dreadful he burst on their sight, with the sea-scum all fouled o’er.[143]
And thereon was embossed the Gorgon-demon, with stony gaze
Grim-glaring, and Terror and Panic encompassed the Fearful Face.[144]
When he wishes to reproduce in his language the rush of meeting torrents and the roar of confluent waters, he will not employ smooth syllables, but strong and resounding ones:—
2 ἐπαγαγὼν F 3 χρήσεται ... μαλακωτάτοις om. F 4 συγκόπτει P 6 ποιεῖ P 12 χλωρὴν F || ἴδον PMV || ἥν F 13 γῆμεν ἑὸν] τημέναιον F || μετα P, M: κατα F: διὰ EV 19 γοργῶι sic F: γοργὼ ceteri || βλοσυρώπις F (metri, ut videtur, gratia) 22 ἐργάσεται Us.: ἐργάζεται F: ἔτι EPMV 23 ἀντιτύπους F: ἀντιτύπους θήσει EPMV