[11,30] ὁρώσας δὲ τὰ νήπια βρέφη πρὸς τῇ γῇ παιόμενα ὠμῶς, οὔτε ἱερὰ πορθούμενα θεῶν οὔτε χρημάτων πλῆθος ἁρπαζόμενον οὔτε κατ´ ἄκρας ὅλην ἐμπιμπραμένην {τὴν} πόλιν οὔτε μείζονα βοὴν ἢ κτύπον χαλκοῦ τε καὶ πυρὸς τῶν μὲν φθειρομένων, τῶν δὲ ῥιπτουμένων· ἃ τὸν Πρίαμον πεποίηκε λέγοντα ἐπ´ ὀλίγον ὡς ἐσόμενα, ἃ τυχὸν αὐτῷ ὡς γιγνόμενα διελθεῖν, ὅπως ἐβούλετο καὶ μεθ´ ὅσου τἄλλα εἰώθει δείματος, ἐκπλήττων τε καὶ αὔξων τὰ μικρότατα. (31) εἰ δέ γε ἤθελεν ἀνδρῶν ἐπισήμων εἰπεῖν θάνατον, πῶς ἀπέλιπε τὸν τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως καὶ τὸν τοῦ Μέμνονος καὶ Ἀντιλόχου καὶ Αἴαντος καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου; πῶς δὲ τὴν Ἀμαζόνων στρατείαν καὶ τὴν μάχην ἐκείνην τὴν λεγομένην τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως καὶ τῆς Ἀμαζόνος γενέσθαι καλὴν (32) οὕτως καὶ παράδοξον; ὁπότε τὸν ποταμὸν αὐτῷ πεποίηκε μαχόμενον ὑπὲρ τοῦ λέγειν τι θαυμαστόν, ἔτι δὲ τοῦ Ἡφαίστου καὶ τοῦ Σκαμάνδρου μάχην καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, τροπάς τε καὶ ἥττας καὶ τραύματα {ἐπιθυμῶν ὅ, τι εἴποι μέγα καὶ θαυμαστόν}, ὑπὸ ἀπορίας πραγμάτων τοσούτων ἔτι καὶ τηλικούτων ἀπολειπομένων. (33) ἀνάγκη οὖν ἐκ τούτων ὁμολογεῖν ἢ ἀγνώμονα Ὅμηρον καὶ φαῦλον κριτὴν τῶν πραγμάτων, ὥστε τὰ ἐλάττω καὶ ταπεινότερα αἱρεῖσθαι, καταλιπόντα ἄλλοις τὰ μέγιστά τε καὶ σπουδαιότατα, ἢ μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτόν, ὅπερ εἶπον, ἰσχυρίζεσθαι τὰ ψευδῆ, μηδ´ ἐν τούτοις ἐπιδεικνύναι τὴν ποίησιν ἃ ἐβούλετο κρύψαι ὅπως γέγονεν. (34) οὕτως γὰρ καὶ ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ τὰ μὲν περὶ τὴν Ἰθάκην καὶ τὸν θάνατον τῶν μνηστήρων αὐτὸς λέγει, τὰ δὲ μέγιστα τῶν ψευσμάτων οὐχ ὑπέμεινεν εἰπεῖν, τὰ περὶ τὴν Σκύλλαν καὶ τὸν Κύκλωπα καὶ τὰ φάρμακα τῆς Κίρκης, ἔτι δὲ τὴν εἰς ᾅδου κατάβασιν τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα ἐποίησε διηγούμενον τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἀλκίνοον· ἐκεῖ δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν ἵππον καὶ τὴν ἅλωσιν τῆς Τροίας διεξιόντα τὸν Δημόδοκον ἐν ᾠδῇ δι´ ὀλίγων ἐπῶν.

[11,30] and beheld their helpless babes dashed cruelly to earth. Think, too, of the desecration of the sanctuaries of the gods, the plundering of stores of wealth, the whole city burnt to the very ground by the flames, the mighty cries of men, the clash of bronze, the roar of the flames as some were perishing in them and others were being hurled upon them. These things Homer makes Priam speak of as soon to come to pass, though he could perhaps have related them as actual events in any way that pleased him and with all that horror with which he was accustomed to describe other slaughters, thrilling the listener and magnifying the smallest details. (31) If it was his wish to tell of the death of illustrious men, how is it that he omitted the slaying of Achilles, Memnon, Antilochus, Ajax, and of Paris himself? Why did he not mention the expedition of the Amazons and that battle between Achilles and the Amazon, which is said to have been so splendid and so strange ? Yet he represented the river as fighting with Achilles just for the sake of telling a marvellous tale, and also the battle between Hephaestus and the Scamander, and the mutual discomfitures, defeats, and woundings of the other gods, desiring something great and wonderful to say because he was at a loss for facts, though so many important facts were still left untouched. So from what has been said it must be acknowledged that Homer was either unintelligent and a bad judge of the facts, so that he selected the more unimportant and trivial things and left to others the greatest and most impressive, or else that he was unable, as I have said, to bolster up his falsehoods and show his poetic genius in handling those incidents whose actual nature it was his purpose to conceal. (34) We find this in the Odyssey also. For he tells of events in Ithaca and of the death of the suitors in his own person, but has not ventured to mention the greatest of his falsehoods—the story of Scylla, of the Cyclops, the magie charms of Circe, and further, the descent of Odysseus into the lower world. These he makes Odysseus narrate to Alcinous and his court, and there too he has Demodocus recount the story of the horse and the capture of Troy in a song of only a few lines.