The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

As for Homer's repetitions, we may divide
them into three sorts: of whole narrations
and speeches, of single sentences,
and of one verse or hemistitch. I hope it
is not impossible to have such a regard to
these, as neither to lose so known a mark
of the author on the one hand, nor to offend
the reader too much on the other.
The repetition is not ungraceful in those
speeches, where the dignity of the speaker
renders it a sort of insolence to alter
his words; as in the messages from gods
to men, or from higher powers to inferiors
in concerns of state, or where the ceremonial
of religion seems to require it,
in the solemn forms of prayers, oaths,
or the like. In other cases, I believe the
best rule is, to be guided by the nearness,
or distance, at which the repetitions are
placed in the original: when they follow
too close, one may vary the expression;
but it is a question, whether a professed
translator be authorized to omit any: if