[1] This simile likewise Virgil learns of him.
[2] How far a heavenly horse took at one reach or stroke in galloping
or running; wherein Homer’s mind is far from being expressed in his
interpreters, all taking it for how far Deities were borne from the
earth, when instantly they came down to earth: _τόσσον ἐπιθρώσκουσι,_
etc. _tantun uno saltu conficiunt, vel, tantum subsultim
progrediuntur, deorum altizoni equi, etc. uno_ being understood, and
the horse’s swiftness highly expressed. The sense, otherwise, is
senseless and contradictory.
[3] ᾽Αμβροσίην is the original word, which Scaliger taxeth very
learnedly, asking how the horse came by it on those banks, when the
text tells him Simois produced it; being willing to express by
hyperbole the delicacy of that soil. If not, I hope the Deities could
ever command it.