Shakspeare by Homer

This brief two-line excerpt references the biblical Behemoth — a creature known for its immense size and power — to reflect on Shakespeare. It suggests that Shakespeare represents the pinnacle of human achievement, a natural force too grand to be completely understood. It's a tribute distilled to its most impactful essence.

Awe, in its purest form. There’s no irony, no hesitation, no debate — just the raw impact of a straightforward comparison presented as is. The tone carries an ancient, ceremonial weight, reminiscent of words chiseled into stone.

This fragment is often attributed to Homer, following the tradition of brief epigraphic verses, though this attribution is likely false—Homer lived about 2,400 years before Shakespeare. It shows up as an epigraph (indicated by the page reference [112]) and feels more like a caption or inscription than a poem on its own. The lines come from Milton's *Paradise Lost* (Book VII), where they depict the Behemoth, a creature reminiscent of a hippopotamus, emerging from the freshly created earth. Using this passage as a tribute to Shakespeare was a typical practice in the 18th and 19th centuries: editors and anthologists would often select a striking classical or biblical fragment and place it beneath a well-known name as a shorthand for literary greatness. The Behemoth excerpt from Milton was particularly popular for this purpose due to its impressive physical imagery.