Note 732 — Chapter XI · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE: HOMER; HESIOD AND HERODOTUS: MYCENÆ.
Reading edition
This is a fair instance of ‘elegant translation.’ What Homer says is:
E’en as a blacksmith-wight some weighty hatchet or war-axe Dippeth in water cold with a mighty hissing and sputt’ring, Quenching to temper, for such is the strength and steeling of iron.
The reply will be that Homer does not say it in this way; and to this reply I have no rejoinder.