Note 145 — THE THEOGONY.
George Chapman translation
And Venus twinkling bland her tremulous lids.] Ελικοβλεφαρος is explained by Guietus arcuatis superciliis: so Creech, in his translation of a chapter of Plutarch’s Morals, where the verse is quoted;
And Venus beauteous with her bending brows.
But the Greek for an eyebrow is οφρυς. Robinson more properly interprets it orbiculatis palpebris, with semicircular eye-lids: after the old scholiast; who conceives it a metaphor drawn from ελιξ: the bending tendril of ivy or the vine. Le Clerc explains it volubilibus palpebris: and is supported by Grævius, who quotes Petronius in illustration of the peculiar propriety of the epithet as applied to Venus:
Blandos oculos et inquietos, Et quadam propriâ notâ loquaces. Soft and ever restless eyes, Still talkative, with language all their own.
Ελισσω is circumvolvo, to roll about.