Posted by andyb on May 22, 2006 at 00:16:34 from 81.131.13.195 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Re: The Cairn on Kanchenjunga: some musings on ancient put-downs posted by PeterH on May 21, 2006 at 22:13:52:
Thanks for the kind words.
My 'extended essay' was, as I said, written for Mixed Moss rather than for Tarboard, I'd guess about nine years ago.
I think the Kanchenjunga upon Matterhorn is a sort of reference to "Ossa upon Pelion' which a quick google search tells me could be either Virgil of Homer but I thought came to me by way of Keats or Shelley. Does AR give it a quote?
Heav'd on Olympus tottering Ossa stood; On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Odyssey (bk. XI, l. 387), (Pope's translation)