Note 117 — STATIUS'S THEBAIS.
Reading edition
Death cutting off the fatal thread with a scythe, is not a very sublime or congruous image. Pope has blended modern ideas with classical: in the original it is "ense metit;"—"mows with his sword." Pope has introduced a "scythe," to preserve more accurately the metaphor, but it has a bad effect.—Bowles.