Τριχθά τε καὶ τετραχθὰ διατρύφεν.
Who does not catch the hurtling of battle in the same poet’s
σκέπτετ’ ὀϊστῶν τε ῥοῖζον καὶ δοῦπον ἀκόντων,
and a murmur of ocean in
ἐξ ἀκαλαῤῥείταο βαθυῤῥόου Ὠκεανοῖο?
A similar effect is produced by his
πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης,
the first word of which was perhaps intended to represent the roaring of the wave as it mounts on the sea-shore, and the second the hissing sound of a receding billow.
Virgil’s description of the Cyclopses toiling at the anvil; his picture of the Trojans laboriously hewing the foundations of a tower on the top of Priam’s palace, and its sudden and violent fall; Ennius’s imitation of a trumpet blast; and the imitation by Aristophanes of the croaking of frogs,—will recur to the classic reader as other examples of the felicitous use of this figure by the Greek and Roman writers.
Paronomasia and alliteration owe their subtle beauty to the fact that in using them the writer has reference to words considered as sounds. Though an excess of either is offensive, yet, charily used, it adds a surprising force to expression. How much is the grandeur of the effect enhanced by the repetition of the s in the following lines from Macbeth!—