ous. Nor did they
do this without rhyme and reason, but when they made use of a word,
as an epithet apart from the body which was spoken of. For the words
concerned with the body are "great, beautiful," those not connected with
it, "glorious, fortunate." Besides, they are ambiguous on account of
their composition. For in general all compound things are common
to either gender. And wherever a verb or participle is used with a
masculine and feminine noun, the masculine prevails (I. vi. 567):--

The virgins and the youths minding childish things,--

where the participle is masculine.

Certain things, owing to the peculiarity of the dialect or the custom
of that time, are said differently, [Greek omitted] feminine instead of
[Greek omitted] (O. i. 53):--

And himself upholds the tall pillars which keep earth
and sky asunder.

Often as the narrative proceeds he changes the genders, as in (O, xv.
125):--

I give to you the gift, my dear son.

Son is a neuter substantive to which the adjective agrees; the poet
refers it to the person. Of the same kind is that which is said by Dione
to Venus (I. v. 382):--

Have patience, dearest child; though much enforced.

Analogous to it is that (O. xi. 90):--

Anon came the soul of Theban Teiresias, with a golden sceptre
in his hand,--

for he made the participle [Greek omitted] agree not with the gender of
soul [Greek omitted], but the gender of the body, that is, Teiresias.
For often he looks not to the word but to the sense, as in this passage
(I. xvi. 280):--

In all their spirit stirred, and the phalanxes moved hoping
for the idle son of Peleus from the ships,--

for the participle [Greek omitted] does not agree with the word
"phalanxes," but with the men composing them.

In another way he changes genders, as when he says (O. xii. 75):--

And a dark cloud encompasses it; this never streams away,--

since [Greek omitted] and [Greek omitted], "cloud," are synonyms, using
first [Greek omitted] he afterward makes his adjectives agree with
[Greek omitted] understood. Like this are these verses (I. ii. 459):--

As various tribes of winged fowl or geese
Or cranes or long necked swans
Besides Coysters stream, now here, now there,
Disporting, ply their wings.

For having first set down generically the kinds of birds, which are
neuter, then after speaking of the species in the masculine he comes
back