It is needless to dwell on the difficulty of finding any suitable words capable of being adapted to the necessities of English metre and rhythm for the numerous and highly poetic adjectives in which the Greek language abounds.  It would tax the ingenuity of any translator to weave into his verse expressions corresponding to the [Greek:  halierkees ochthai] (sea-constraining cliffs) or the [Greek:  Mnamosynas liparampykos] (Mnemosyne of the shining fillet) of Pindar.  Neither is the difficulty wholly confined to poetry.  A good many epithets have from time to time been applied to the Nile, but none so graphic or so perfectly accurate as that employed by Herodotus,[43] who uses the phrase [Greek:  hupo tosoutou te potamou kai outo ergatikou].  The English translation “that vast river, so constantly at work” is a poor equivalent for the original Greek.  German possesses to a greater degree than any other modern language the word-coining power which was such a marked characteristic of Greek, with the result that it offers special difficulties to the translator of verse.  Mr. Brandes[44] quotes the following lines of the German poet Buecher: 

    Welche Heldenfreudigkeit der Liebe,
    Welche Staerke muthigen Entsagens,
    Welche himmlisch erdentschwungene Triebe,
    Welche Gottbegeistrung des Ertragens! 
    Welche Sich-Erhebung, Sich-Erwiedrung,
    Sich-Entaeussrung, voell’ge Hin-sich-gebung,
    Seelenaustausch, Ineinanderlebung!

It is probable that these lines have never been translated into English verse, and it is obvious that no translation, which did not largely consist of paraphrase, would be possible.

Alliteration, which is a powerful literary instrument in the hands of a skilful writer, but which may easily be allowed to degenerate into a mere jingle, is of less common occurrence in Greek than in English, notably early English, literature.  It was, however, occasionally employed by both poets and dramatists.  Euripides, for instance, in the Cyclops (l. 120) makes use of the following expression, which would serve as a good motto for an Anarchist club, [Greek:  akouei d’ ouden oudeis oudenos].  Clytemnestra, also, in speaking of the murder of her husband (Ag. 1551-52) says: 

                        [Greek:  pros hemon
    kappese, katthane, kai katathapsomen.][45]

That Greek alliteration is capable of imitation is shown by Pope’s translation of the well-known line[46]: 

    [Greek:  polla d’ ananta katanta paranta te dochmia t’ elthon;]

    O’er hills, o’er dales, o’er crags, o’er rocks, they go.

Pope at times brought alliteration to his aid in cases where no such device had been adopted by Homer, as when, in describing the labours of Sisyphus,[47] he wrote: 

    With many a weary step, and many a groan,
    Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone.

On the whole, although a good deal more than is contained in this article may be said on either side, it would appear that, broadly speaking, Dryden’s principle holds good for prose translations, and that experience has shown, in respect to translations in verse, that, save in rare instances, a resort to paraphrase is necessary.