The three adjectives you cite from Women of Trachis apply well, I think,
to Pound's notion of himself if the "self-chastisement" interpretation is
followed.He would be thinking of himself as aspiring to these powerful
traits-- that would be his
vanity."
         Dan Pearlman's repeated point that Pound has expressed humility
earlier, so would not again, refutes itself, in my opinion. I am also
skeptical of his idea, well taken apart by other correspondents, that the
army or mankind in general are the subjects of the line.
        As for bringing other passages to bear on this one, Jerome McGann
has pointed out that the tendency of every part of the Cantos to bear on
every other part makes final judgment impossible, and opens the text to
continual re-interpretation.
        Is that what we are doing? And incidentally, I am still going with
the "self-chastisement" view I recently offered.

                                                Jacob Korg
 On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Tim Romano wrote:

> Dan Pearlman recently pulled up from his files an exchange we had here last
> year, regarding this line from Canto 81:
>
>     The ant's a centaur in his dragon world...
>
> In that exchange, I took issue with Michael Coyle's characterization of the
> man-beast as "lascivious" and "randy".  I described the centaur as
> "prodigious". In re-reading Women of Trachis, I've found some lines that
> shed some more light on Pound's exemplum; here, Herakles is speaking:
>
> ... and those unsociable bardots, half man and half horse,
> the whole gang of them all together
> ARROGANT, LAWLESS, SURPASSING STRONG...
>
> [ emphasis mine]
>
>
> Tim Romano
>