quote · Legacy record
Homer's Epos has not ceased to be true; yet is no longer our Epos, but shines in the distance, if clearer and clearer, yet also smaller and smaller, like a receding star. It needs a scientific telescope, it needs to be reinterpreted and artificially brought near us, before we can so much as know that 'twas a sun.... For all things, even celestial luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.
Homer's Epos has not ceased to be true; yet is no longer our Epos, but shines in the distance, if clearer and clearer, yet also smaller and smaller, like a receding star. It needs a scientific telescope, it needs to be reinterpreted and artificially brought near us, before we can so much as know that 'twas a sun.... For all things, even celestial luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.
Approximate author period: c. 1838 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Thomas Carlyle
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1838 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1795–1881)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Dictionary of Quotations (1893) (1893 AD)
Printed citation: Carlyle. · page_158
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
