Note 13 — THE STORM-CLOUD OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Reading edition
Black clouds.—For the sudden and extreme local blackness of thundercloud, see Turner's drawing of Winchelsea, (England series), and compare Homer, of the Ajaces, in the 4th book of the Iliad,—(I came on the passage in verifying Mr. Hill's quotation from the 5th.)
"ἅμα δὲ νέφος εἴπετο πεζῶν. Ὡς δ' ὅτ' ἀπὸ σκοπιῆς εἶδεν νέφος ἀιπόλος ἀνὴρ Ἐρχόμενον κατὰ πόντον ὑπὸ Ζεφύροιο ἰωῆς, Τῶ δέ τ', ἄνευθεν ἔοντι, μελάντερον, ἠύτε πίσσα Φαίνετ', ἰὸν κατὰ πόντον, ἄγει δέ τε λάιλαπα πολλήν‧ Ῥιγησέν τε ἰδὼν, ὑπό τε σπέος ἤλασε μῆλα‧ Τοῖαι ἅμ Αἰάντεσσιν ἀρηϊθόων αἰζηῶν Δήϊον ἐσ πόλεμον πυκιναὶ κίνυντο φάλαγγες Κυάνεαι,"
I give Chapman's version—noting only that his breath of Zephyrus, ought to have been 'cry' or 'roar' of Zephyrus, the blackness of the cloud being as much connected with the wildness of the wind as, in the formerly quoted passage, its brightness with calm of air.
"Behind them hid the ground A cloud of foot, that seemed to smoke. And as a Goatherd spies On some hill top, out of the sea a rainy vapor rise, Driven by the breath of Zephyrus, which though far off he rests, Comes on as black as pitch, and brings a tempest in his breast Whereat he, frighted, drives his herds apace into a den; So, darkening earth, with swords and shields, showed these with all their men."
I add here Chapman's version of the other passage, which is extremely beautiful and close to the text, while Pope's is hopelessly erroneous.
"Their ground they still made good, And in their silence and set powers, like fair still clouds they stood, With which Jove crowns the tops of hills in any quiet day When Boreas, and the ruder winds that use to drive away Air's dusky vapors, being loose, in many a whistling gale, Are pleasingly bound up and calm, and not a breath exhale."