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"Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum."

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Epic poetry Works by Virgil

Original Language: English

Sources

Line 658 (tr. Fairclough); of Polyphemus. — Variant translation: A monster horrendous, hideous and vast, deprived of sight. — Note: Virgil "uses elision (the disappearance of the final syllable of a word before the initial vowel of another word) to create effects that unfortunately can't be replicated in English, like his famous description of the 'misshapen mass' of the Cyclops (3.658): monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens. In Latin this line would lose many of its syllables and run together in

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aeneid

Line 658 (tr. Fairclough); of Polyphemus. — Variant translation: A monster horrendous, hideous and vast, deprived of sight. — Note: Virgil "uses elision (the disappearance of the final syllable of a word before the initial vowel of another word) to create effects that unfortunately can't be replicated in English, like his famous description of the 'misshapen mass' of the Cyclops (3.658): monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens. In Latin this line would lose many of its syllables and run together in