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THERE is a verse of the poet Parthenius: 1
To Glaucus, Nereus and sea-dwelling Melicertes.
This verse Virgil has emulated, and has made it equal to the original by a graceful change of two words: 2
To Glaucus, Panopea, and Ino's son Melicertes.

[p. 505] But the following verse of Homer he has not indeed equalled, nor approached. For that of Homer 3 seems to be simpler and more natural, that of Virgil 4 more modern and daubed over with a kind of stucco, 5 as it were:

Homer:
A bull to Alpheus, to Poseidon one.

Virgil:
A bull to Neptune, and to you, Apollo fair.

1 Anal. Alex., p. 285, fr. 33, Meineke.

2 Georg. i. 437.

3 Iliad xi. 728.

4 Aen. iii. 119.

5 Referring to the otiose epithet pulcher, which is “gilding the lily.”

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