[64]
For Homer himself assigns
to Menelaus1 an eloquence, terse and pleasing, exact
(for that is what is meant by “making no errors in
words”) and devoid of all redundance, which qualities
are virtues of the first type: and he says that from
the lips of Nestor2 flowed speech sweeter than honey,
than which assuredly we can conceive no greater
delight: but when he seeks to express the supreme
gift of eloquence possessed by Ulysses3 he gives a
mighty voice and a vehemence of oratory equal to
the snows of winter in the abundance and the vigour
of its words.
1 Mil. iii. 214. The words which Quintilian translates by non deerrare verbhis are οὐδ᾽ ἀφαμαρτοεπής, “no stumbler in speech,” rather than “correct in speech.”
2 Il. i. 249.
3 Il. iii. 221.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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