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be continued ad infinitum, either from before or behind, on which
account the ancients preferred for it such subjects as admitted of
an indefinite extension, sacrificial processions, dances, and lines
of combatants, and hence they also exhibit bas-reliefs on curved
surfaces, such as vases, or the frieze of a rotunda, where, by the
curvature, the two ends are withdrawn from our sight, and where,
while we advance, one object appears as another disappears. Reading
Homer is very much like such a circuit; the present object alone
arresting our attention, we lose sight of what precedes, and do not
concern ourselves about what is to follow."--"Dramatic Literature,"
p. 75.
8
8 "There cannot be a clearer indication than this description --so
graphic in the original poem--of the true character of the Homeric
agora. The multitude who compose it are listening and acquiescent,
not often hesitating, and never refractory to the chief. The fate
which awaits a presumptuous critic, even where his virulent
reproaches are substantially well-founded, is plainly set forth in
the treatment of Thersites; while the unpopularity of such a
character is attested even more by the excessive pains which Homer
takes to heap upon him repulsive personal deformities, than by the
chastisement of Odysseus he is lame, bald, crook-backed, of
misshapen head, and squinting vision."--Grote, vol. i. p. 97.
89 According to Pausanias, both the sprig and the remains of the tree
were exhibited in his time. The tragedians, Lucretius and others,
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