Essays in Portraiture Defended (26)

Moreover, he not only compares human beings with gods, but likens the long hair of Euphorbus to

the Graces, and that too when it was soaked with blood! In short, this sort of thing is so frequent that there is no part of his poetry which is not well adorned with comparisons of gods. Therefore you must either expunge all that, or permit us to be equally venturesome. So exempt from all accountability is the use of comparisons and similes that Homer actually did not hesitate to derive praise for the goddesses from things of lower degree. For instance, he likened Hera’s eyes to those of kine. And someone else called Aphrodite violet-browed.[*] As for “rosy-fingered,” who that has even the slightest acquaintance with Homer’s poetry does not know it?