CHAPTER VI THREE PROCESSES IN THE ART OF COMPOSITION

My view is that the science of composition has three functions. The first is that of observing the combinations which are naturally adapted to produce a beautiful and agreeable united effect; the second is that of perceiving how to improve the harmonious appearance of the whole by fashioning properly the several parts which we intend to fit together; the third is that of perceiving what is required in the way of modification of the material—I mean abridgment, expansion and transformation—and of carrying out such changes in a manner appropriate to the end in view. The effect of each of these processes I will explain more clearly by means of illustrations drawn from industrial arts

8 συγγραφεῦσιν et ῥήτορσιν P || φιλοσόφοις τε] καὶ φιλοσόφοις F   10 εἰκῆι sic FP   12 ἐγὼ πειράσομαι FM: πειράσομαι PV   13 ἐξευρεῖν P   16 μετά τινος P || ἁρμοττόμενον PMV: ἁρμοζόμενον EF   19 φαίνεσθαι ποιήσειεν P, V || εἴ τι P: δὲ τί EFMV || κατασκευ(ης) P   20 ἀφαιρέσ(ως) P || λέγω ... ἀλλοιώσεως om. P || προσθέσεως EF: προσθήκης PMV   21 τε F: τε πῶς PMV   22 ὅτι F: τί PMV   23 δημιουργῶν PM1V

3. θηρευθείς: cp. Eur. Hippol. 957 θηρεύουσι γὰρ | σεμνοῖς λόγοισιν αἰσχρὰ μηχανώμενοι, and Xen. Cyrop. viii. 2. 2 τούτοις ἐπειρᾶτο τὴν φιλίαν θηρεύειν.

4. ἐπιγραφαῖς: cp. the excerpt from Diog. Laert., 96 13 supra, and Cic. de Or. ii. 14. 61 “in philosophos vestros si quando incidi, deceptus indicibus librorum, qui sunt fere inscripti de rebus notis et illustribus, de virtute, de iustitia, de honestate, de voluptate, verbum prorsus nullum intellego; ita sunt angustiis et concisis disputationibus illigati.”

5. τῶν συνταξαμένων αὐτάς: Zeno and Chrysippus in particular.

6. The statement in 92 21 is here resumed.

13. συνεξευρεῖν: perhaps, ‘to investigate together,’ i.e. by a comparative method.

14. αὐτὰ τὰ ἀναγκαιότατα: as in Demosthenes, e.g. de Cor. §§ 126, 168.

16. Probably ἁρμοττόμενον (rather than ἁρμοζόμενον) should be preferred here, as ἁρμόττεσθαι is used in the next line but one. It seems likely that Dionysius would use the Attic form ἁρμόττω with aorist ἥρμοσα, ἡρμόσθην, etc.; cp. 98 6, 106 6, 7, 110 6, 13, 112 2, 4, 124 19, 198 23, 230 22. Perhaps 106 7 should be changed accordingly.

17. λήψεσθαι after πέφυκε = μέλλει.—συζυγίαν: Dionysius rightly recognizes that a word-order, already settled in the writer’s mind, may influence both his choice of language and grammatical forms he adopts.

20. προσθέσεως (cp. 116 16) seems right. But προσθήκη, though generally used of the part added ( 114 11, 150 13, 152 12), may (in 212 14, 274 22) refer to the process: cp. N.T. use of βάπτισμα.

ἃς ἅπαντες ἴσασιν, οἰκοδομικῇ λέγω καὶ ναυπηγικῇ καὶ ταῖς
παραπλησίαις· ὅ τε γὰρ οἰκοδόμος ὅταν πορίσηται τῆν ὕλην
ἐξ ἧς μέλλει κατασκευάζειν τὴν οἰκίαν, λίθους καὶ ξύλα καὶ
κέραμον καὶ τἆλλα πάντα, συντίθησιν ἐκ τούτων ἤδη τὸ
ἔργον τρία ταῦτα πραγματευόμενος, ποίῳ δεῖ λίθῳ τε καὶ ξύλῳ      5
καὶ πλίνθῳ ποῖον ἁρμόσαι λίθον ἢ ξύλον ἢ πλίνθον, ἔπειτα πῶς
τῶν ἁρμοζομένων ἕκαστον καὶ ἐπὶ ποίας πλευρᾶς ἑδράσαι, καὶ
τρίτον, εἴ τι δύσεδρόν ἐστιν, ἀποκροῦσαι καὶ περικόψαι καὶ
αὐτὸ τοῦτο εὔεδρον ποιῆσαι· ὅ τε ναυπηγὸς τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα
πραγματεύεται. τὰ δὴ παραπλήσιά φημι δεῖν ποιεῖν καὶ τοὺς      10
μέλλοντας εὖ συνθήσειν τὰ τοῦ λόγου μόρια, πρῶτον μὲν
σκοπεῖν, ποῖον ὄνομα ἢ ῥῆμα ἢ τῶν ἄλλων τι μορίων ποίῳ
συνταχθὲν ἐπιτηδείως ἔσται κείμενον καὶ πῶς οὐκ ἄμεινον
(οὐ γὰρ δὴ πάντα γε μετὰ πάντων τιθέμενα πέφυκεν ὁμοίως διατιθέναι
τὰς ἀκοάς)· ἔπειτα διακρίνειν, πῶς σχηματισθὲν τοὔνομα      15
ἢ τὸ ῥῆμα ἢ τῶν ἄλλων ὅ τι δήποτε χαριέστερον ἱδρυθήσεται
καὶ πρὸς τὰ ὑποκείμενα πρεπωδέστερον· λέγω δὲ ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν
ὀνομάτων, πότερον ἑνικῶς ἢ πληθυντικῶς λαμβανόμενα κρείττω
λήψεται συζυγίαν, καὶ πότερον κατὰ τὴν ὀρθὴν ἐκφερόμενα
πτῶσιν ἢ κατὰ τῶν πλαγίων τινά, καὶ εἴ τινα πέφυκεν ἐξ      20
ἀρρενικῶν γίνεσθαι θηλυκὰ ἢ ἐκ θηλυκῶν ἀρρενικὰ ἢ οὐδέτερα

[107]

familiar to all—house-building, ship-building, and the like. When a builder has provided himself with the material from which he intends to construct a house—stones, timbers, tiling, and all the rest—he then puts together the structure from these, studying the following three things: what stone, timber and brick can be united with what other stone, timber and brick; next, how each piece of the material that is being so united should be set, and on which of its faces; thirdly, if anything fits badly, how that particular thing can be chipped and trimmed and made to fit exactly. And the shipwright proceeds in just the same way. A like course should, I affirm, be followed by those who are to succeed in literary composition. They should first consider in what groupings with one another nouns, verbs, or other parts of speech, will be placed appropriately, and how not so well; for surely every possible combination cannot affect the ear in the same way—it is not in the nature of things that it should be so. Next they should decide the form in which the noun or verb, or whatever else it may be, will occupy its place most gracefully and most in harmony with the ground-scheme. I mean, in the case of nouns, whether they will offer a better combination if used in the singular or the plural; whether they should be put in the nominative or in one of the oblique cases; or which gender should be chosen if they admit of a feminine instead of a masculine form,

1 ναυτικῆι P, MV   3 λίθοις F   5 δεῖ EV: ex δηῖ P: δὴ FM || ξύλ(ω) et πλίνθ(ω) P   8 κα(τα)κροῦσαι P1 || καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ EF   9 ἑδραῖον P   10 τὰ δὴ] τὰ F: δή PMV ||ποιεῖν om. F   12 ποί(ω) P   14 μετα πάτν sic P   16 ϊδρυθήσεται P: ϊδρυνθήσεται F, EMV   18 πληθυντικῶς] π suprascripto θ̑ P || κρείτω P: κρείττονα E: κρείττο F   19 πότερα FE   20 καὶ τίνα F   21 ἀρρενι(κων) P, M: ἀρ’ ἐνικῶν V: ἀρρενων F, E: ἀρσενικῶν s

2. For comparisons between literary composition and civil or marine architecture cp. C.V. c. 22, Quintil. Inst. Or. vii. 1 (proem.), Cic. de Or. iii. 171. A metaphor from building underlies the rhetorical use in all or most of such words as: κανών, γόμφος, πυργοῦν, ἀντερείδειν, στηριγμός, ἀντιστηριγμός, ἕδρα, τέκτων, ὕλη, κατασκευάζειν, ἐγκατάσκευος.

5. ταῦτα refers forward here, cp. 112 8 with 112 4. In 110 9 ἥδε refers backward—‘the foregoing.’

7. ἐπὶ ποίας πλευρᾶς, ‘on what side,’ i.e. ‘with what attention to stratification or grain.’ A builder likes to place stone in courses as it lay in the quarry: he knows that, if what lay horizontally is set perpendicularly, it will not last so well. Or the reference here may be simply to the difference in general appearance made by laying a stone in one of several possible ways.

10. If ποιεῖν be omitted with F, it must be mentally supplied from the general sense of the verbs that follow. Cp. Plato Gorg. 491 D ἢ τοῦτο μὲν οὐδὲν δεῖ, αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἄρχειν, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων; Demosth. de Cor. § 139 καίτοι δυοῖν αὐτὸν ἀνάγκη θάτερον, ἢ μηδὲν ἐγκαλεῖν κτλ., Soph. Philoct. 310 ἐκεῖνο δ’ οὐδείς, ἡνίκ’ ἂν μνησθῶ, θέλει | σῶσαί μ’ ἐς οἴκους, id. Antig. 497 θέλεις τι μεῖζον ἢ κατακτεῖναί μ’ ἑλών;

13. For οὐκ ἄμεινον Usener substitutes εὖ ἢ ἄμεινον. The corruption of εὖ ἢ to οὐκ might easily happen in uncial writing, and the reading οὐκ is as old as the Epitome. But the εὖ comes unexpectedly after ἐπιτηδείως, and the emendation is not convincing. The manuscript reading has, therefore, been kept, though οὐκ ἄμεινον is a difficult litotes.

15. σχηματισθέν: grammatical form, or construction, is clearly meant here.

16. From here to the end of the chapter the general sense is: We must, in the interests of harmonious composition, make the fullest possible use of alternative forms—now a noun, now a verb; now a singular, now a plural; now a nominative, now an oblique case; now a masculine, and then a feminine or neuter; and so with voices, moods, and tenses—with forms such as τουτονί and τοῦτον, ἰδών and κατιδών, χωροφιλῆσαι and φιλοχωρῆσαι, λελύσεται and λυθήσεται,—and with elision, hiatus, and the employment of νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν. Many of these points will be found illustrated in Ep. ad Amm. II., where the subject of some of the characters is as follows: c. 5 use of noun for verb, c. 6 use of verb for noun, c. 7 substitution of passive for active voice, c. 9 interchange of singular and plural number, c. 10 interchange of the three genders, c. 11 use of cases, c. 12 use of tenses. See D.H. pp. 138-49, together with the notes added on pp. 178-81. As Ep. ad Amm. II. shows, Dionysius is fully alive to the dangers of this continual straining of language. Absolutely interchangeable expressions are not common.

18. πληθυντικῶς: cp. the use of the plural in Virg. Aen. 155 “vos arae ensesque nefandi, | quos fugi.”

21. ἐκ θηλυκῶν ἀρρενικά: cf. Quintil. Inst. Or. ix. 3. 6 “fiunt ergo et circa genus figurae in nominibus, nam et oculis capti talpae [Virg. Georg. i. 183] et timidi damae [Virg. Ecl. viii. 28, Georg. iii. 539] dicuntur a Vergilio; sed subest ratio, quia sexus uterque altero significatur, tamque mares esse talpas damasque quam feminas, certum est.” Besides the reason given by Quintilian, the desire to avoid monotony of termination (excessive ὁμοιοτέλευτον) also counts.—The present passage may further be illustrated by Dionysius’ own words in Ep. ad Amm. II. c. 10: “Examples of the interchange of masculines, feminines and neuters, in contravention of the ordinary rules of language, are such as the following. He [Thucydides] uses τάραχος in the masculine for ταραχή in the feminine, and similarly ὄχλος for ὄχλησις. In place of τὴν βούλησιν and τὴν δύναμιν he uses τὸ βουλόμενον and τὸ δυνάμενον.”

ἐκ τούτων, πῶς ἂν ἄμεινον σχηματισθείη, καὶ πάντα τὰ
τοιαῦτα· ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ῥημάτων, πότερα κρείττω λαμβανόμενα
ἔσται, τὰ ὀρθὰ ἢ τὰ ὕπτια, καὶ κατὰ ποίας ἐγκλίσεις ἐκφερόμενα,
ἃς δή τινες πτώσεις ῥηματικὰς καλοῦσι, κρατίστην ἕδραν
λήψεται, καὶ ποίας παρεμφαίνοντα διαφορὰς χρόνων καὶ εἴ      5
τινα τοῖς ῥήμασιν ἄλλα παρακολουθεῖν πέφυκε (τὰ δ’ αὐτὰ
ταῦτα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τοῦ λόγου μερῶν φυλακτέον, ἵνα
μὴ καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον λέγω)· ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις τὰ ληφθέντα
διακρίνειν, εἴ τι δεῖται μετασκευῆς ὄνομα ἢ ῥῆμα, πῶς ἂν
ἐναρμονιώτερόν τε καὶ εὐεδρότερον γένοιτο· τοῦτο τὸ στοιχεῖον      10
ἐν μὲν ποιητικῇ δαψιλέστερόν ἐστιν, ἐν δὲ λόγοις πεζοῖς
σπανιώτερον· πλὴν γίνεταί γε καὶ ἐν τούτοις ἐφ’ ὅσον ἂν
ἐγχωρῇ· ὅ τε γὰρ λέγων “εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα” προστέθεικέ
τι τῇ ἀντωνυμίᾳ γράμμα τῆς συνθέσεως στοχαζόμενος· ἄρτιον
γὰρ ἦν “εἰς τοῦτον τὸν ἀγῶνα” εἰπεῖν· καὶ πάλιν ὁ λέγων      15
“κατιδὼν Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν ὑποκριτήν” τῇ προθέσει παρηύξηκεν
τοὔνομα, τὸ γὰρ ἰδὼν ἀπέχρη· καὶ ὁ γράφων “μήτ’ ἰδίας
ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν” ταῖς συναλοιφαῖς ἠλάττωκε τὰ

[109]

or a masculine instead of a feminine, or a neuter instead of either: and so on. With reference to verbs, again: which form it will be best to adopt, the active or the passive, and in what moods (or verbal cases, as some call them) they should be presented so as to receive the best setting, as also what differences of tense should be indicated; and so with all the other natural accidents of verbs. These same methods must be followed in regard to the other parts of speech also; there is no need to go into details. Further, with respect to the words thus selected, if any noun or verb requires a modification of its form, it must be decided how it can be brought into better harmony and symmetry with its neighbours. This principle can be applied more freely in poetry than in prose. Still, in prose also, it is applied, where opportunity offers. The speaker who says “εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα”[118] has added a letter to the pronoun with an eye to the effect of the composition. The bare meaning would have been sufficiently conveyed by saying “εἰς τοῦτον τὸν ἀγῶνα”. So in the words “κατιδὼν Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν ὑποκριτήν”[119] the addition of the preposition has merely expanded the word into κατιδών, since ἰδών alone would have conveyed the meaning. So, too, in the expression “μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν”[120] the writer has cut off some of the letters, and has condensed the

2 τε EFMV1 || κρείττω EF: κρείττονα PMV || λαβόμενα ἔσται F: ἔσται λαμβανόμενα EPMV   4 καλοῦσιν P   6 πέφυκεν P || δὲ PMV   8 ἓν om. F   9 δεῖται F: δεῖ PMV || μετὰ κα(τα)σκευ(ης) P, M || πῶς Usener: ὡς libri   12 πλὴν EF: om. PMV || τε PV: om. F1EM || ὅσο*ν F, E: ὁπόσον PMV   14 ἀντ(ω)νυμία P   17 ἀπέχρη καὶ ὁ F: ἀπέχρηκεν ὅ τε P   18 ἔχθρας] ἔχθρας ἐμὲ Demosth. || ἔνεχ’ F: ἕνεκ’ PV || εικειν P1, V || συναλειφαῖς F: συναλιφαῖς P

8. Cp. Batteux Réflexions p. 181: “Cette opération [sc. μετασκευή] ne peut pas avoir lieu en français, parce que nos mots sont faits et consacrés dans leur forme par un usage que les écrivains ne peuvent ni changer ni altérer: la poésie n’a pas sur ce point plus de privilége que la prose; mais cela n’empêche pas que nous ne fassions dans notre langue une grande partie des opérations qu’indique Denys d’Halicarnasse dans le chapitre vi. Nous mettons dans nos verbes un temps pour un autre, l’actif pour le passif, le passif pour l’actif; nous prenons les substantifs adjectivement, les adjectifs substantivement, quelquefois adverbialement, les singuliers pour les pluriels, les pluriels pour les singuliers; nous changeons les personnes; nous varions les finales, tantôt masculines, tantôt féminines; nous renversons les constructions, nous faisons des ellipses hardies, etc. etc. Tous ceux qui font des vers savent de combien de manières on tourne et retourne les expressions d’une pensée qui résiste; ceux qui travaillent leur prose le savent de même que les poëtes.”

9. For Usener’s correction πῶς cp. 106 15, 108 1; and for F’s δεῖται cp. 104 19.

11. Examples in Latin poetry would be ‘gnatus’ for ‘natus,’ or ‘amarunt’ and ‘amavere’ for ‘amaverunt.’

13. We have an English parallel in the dialect form ‘thik’ and ‘thikky,’ both of which stand for this; or ‘the forthcoming’ and ‘the coming’ might be employed in the translation, and ‘syllable’ be substituted for ‘letter.’

14. ἄρτιον: for the meaning cp. ἀπέχρη 108 17. The implication is that τουτονί (as compared with τοῦτον) is περισσόν.

16. Demosth. περὶ τῆς Εἰρήνης § 6, πάλιν τοίνυν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, κατιδὼν Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν ὑποκριτὴν τῷ μὲν τῆς τέχνης προσχήματι τυγχάνοντ’ ἀδείας, κακὰ δ’ ἐργαζόμενον τὰ μέγιστα τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὰ παρ’ ὑμῶν διοικοῦντα Φιλίππῳ καὶ πρυτανεύοντα, παρελθὼν εἶπον εἰς ὑμᾶς, οὐδεμιᾶς ἰδίας οὔτ’ ἔχθρας οὔτε συκοφαντίας ἕνεκεν, ὡς ἐκ τῶν μετὰ ταῦτ’ ἔργων γέγονε δῆλον. If κατιδών here means little or nothing more than ἰδών, we might compare ‘entreat’ in the sense of ‘treat’, or Chaucer’s use of ‘apperceive’ for ‘perceive.’ Dionysius’ meaning, however, probably is not that τουτονί and τοῦτον, κατιδών and ἰδών, are actual synonyms, but rather that the shorter form would have sufficed.

17. Demosth. κατὰ Ἀριστοκράτους § 1, μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας ἐμὲ μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα τουτουΐ, μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον ἁμάρτημ’ ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειαν, ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἄρ’ ὀρθῶς ἐγὼ λογίζομαι καὶ σκοπῶ, ὑπὲρ τοῦ Χερρόνησον ἔχειν ὑμᾶς ἀσφαλῶς καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθέντας ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς, περὶ τούτου μοί ἐστιν ἅπασ’ ἡ σπουδή. The passage is fully discussed (from the rhythmical, or metrical, point of view) in C.V. c. 25.

μόρια τοῦ λόγου κἀποκέκρουκέ τινα τῶν γραμμάτων· καὶ ὁ
ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐποίησεν “ἐποίησε” λέγων χωρὶς τοῦ ν̄ καὶ “ἔγραψε”
ἀντὶ τοῦ ἔγραψεν λέγων καὶ “ἀφαιρήσομαι” ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀφαιρεθήσομαι
καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα, ὅ τ’ “ἐχωροφίλησε” λέγων τὸ
ἐφιλοχώρησε καὶ “λελύσεται” τὸ λυθήσεται καὶ τὰ τοιουτότροπα      5
μετασκευάζει τὰς λέξεις, ἵν’ αὐτῷ γένοιντο ἁρμοσθῆναι καλλίους
καὶ ἐπιτηδειότεραι.