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