ement of what is said, Homer appears to have been at home in the whole
sphere and art of logic, and to have supplied many incentives, and as it
were seeds of all kinds of thought and action to his posterity, not to
poets alone, but to the authors of historical and scientific works. Let
us first look at his varied form of speech, and afterward at his sound
knowledge on matters of fact. All poetry grips the hearer by definite
order of coordinated expressions, by rhythm and metre, since the smooth
and flowing, by becoming at the same time grave and sweet, forces the
attention by its action on the senses. Whence it comes to pass also that
it delights not only by the striking and attractive parts, but easily
persuades by the parts tending to virtue.

The poems of Homer have the most perfect metre, the hexameter, which
is also called heroic. It is called hexameter because each line has six
feet: one of these is of two long syllables, called spondee; the other,
of three syllables, one long and two short, which is called dactyl. Both
are isochronic. These in interchangeable order fill out the hexameter
verse. It is called heroic because in it the deeds of the heroes are
recounted.

He makes use of a sound diction, combining the characteristics of every
Greek dialect, from which it is plain that he travelled over the whole
of Greece and among every people in it. He uses the ellipse of the
Dorians, due to their practice of shortening their speech, saying for
[Greek omitted], as (O. i. 392): "Immediately a beautiful horse ([Greek
omitted]) was his," and for [Greek omitted] he uses [Greek omitted], as
(O. xix. 543): "Because ([Greek omitted]) an eagle killed my geese"; and
for [Greek omitted], "back," [Greek omitted], changing the o into a, the
[Greek letter omitted] and the [Greek letter omitted] into its related
letter. And [Greek omitted] he changes to [Greek omitted](I. xiv. 249):
"For before at another time ([Greek omitted]) your precepts made me
modest," and similar cases. Likewise, dropping the middle syllable, he
says for [Greek omitted], "of like hair," and [Greek omitted], "of the
same years," [Greek omitted]; and for [Greek omitted], that is, "of the
same father," [Greek omitted]; for [Greek omitted]; "to tremble," [Greek
omitted] for [Greek omitted], "I honour," [Greek omitted]. It is a
characteristic of the Dorians also to transpose letters, as when they
say for [Greek omitted], [Greek omitted].

In composite words h