Note 150 — Chapter XX · THE IDYLLISTS.

Perhaps this is over-stated. In the later Greek literature of the Sophists we find many very exquisite concetti. Philostratus, for example, from whom Jonson translated "Drink to me only with thine eyes," calls the feet of the beloved one ἐρηρεισμένα φιλήματα, or "kisses pressed upon the ground." Even Empedocles (see vol. i. p. 220) and Pindar (see vol. i. p. 369) are not free from the vice of artificial metaphor. Compare, too, the labored metaphors and compound epithets quoted from Chæremon above, chap. xvi., and the specimens quoted below from Meleager, chap. xxi.