CHAPTER XVI POETIC SKILL IN THE CHOICE AND IN THE COMBINATION OF WORDS
The poets and prose-writers themselves, then, with their eye on each object in turn, frame—as I said—words which seem made for, and are pictures of, the things they connote. But they also borrow many words from earlier writers, in the very form in which those writers fashioned them—when such words are imitative of things, as in the following instances:—
For the vast sea-swell on the beach crashed down with a thunder-shock.[136]
And adown the blasts of the wind he darted with one wild scream.[137]
Even as when the surge of the seething sea falls dashing
(On a league-long strand, with the roar of the rollers thunderous-crashing).[138]
And his eyes for the hiss of the arrows, the hurtling of lances, were keen.[139]
The great originator and teacher in these matters is Nature, who prompts us to imitate and to assign words by which things are pictured, in virtue of certain resemblances which are founded in reason and appeal to our intelligence. It is by her that we have been taught to speak of the bellowing of bulls, the whinnying of horses, the snorting of goats, the roar of fire, the
1 μὲν F: τε PMV 2 πρὸς χρῆμα PV: πρόσχημα PM 4 μιμητικὰ EF: μιμητικώτατα PMV 5 πραγμάτων] γραμμάτων PM 6 ῥόγχθει F: ῥοχθεῖ PMV 8 μεγάλωι P, EM Hom.: μεγάλα F 11 καὶ θετικοὺς ἡμᾶς EF: ἡμᾶς καὶ θετικοὺς V: καὶ θετικοὺς M: ἡμᾶς P 12 τῆς EF: om. PMV 13 ἧς P: ὧν EFMV 14 φριμαγμοὺς EF: φριγμοὺς P: φρυαγμοὺς V: φρυμαγμοὺς M || τράγων] ταύρων F
2. πρὸς χρῆμα ὁρῶντες: for χρῆμα cp. 160 4. The writer must, in Matthew Arnold’s phrase, have his “eye on the object.” Cp. Aristot. Poet. c. xvii. δεῖ δὲ τοὺς μύθους συνιστάναι καὶ τῇ λέξει συναπεργάζεσθαι ὅτι μάλιστα πρὸ ὀμμάτων τιθέμενον· οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἐναργέστατα ὁρῶν ὥσπερ παρ’ αὐτοῖς γιγνόμενος τοῖς πραττομένοις εὑρίσκοι τὸ πρέπον καὶ ἥκιστα ἂν λανθάνοι τὰ ὑπεναντία: and Long. de Sublim. c. xv. ἆρ’ οὐκ ἂν εἴποις, ὅτι ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ γράφοντος συνεπιβαίνει τοῦ ἅρματος, καὶ συγκινδυνεύουσα τοῖς ἵπποις συνεπτέρωται; οὐ γὰρ ἄν, εἰ μὴ τοῖς οὐρανίοις ἐκείνοις ἔργοις ἰσοδρομοῦσα ἐφέρετο, τοιαῦτ’ ἄν ποτε ἐφαντάσθη.
4. μιμητικά: cp. Aristot. Poet. c. iv. τό τε γὰρ μιμεῖσθαι σύμφυτον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐκ παίδων ἐστί (καὶ τούτῳ διαφέρουσι τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων ὅτι μιμητικώτατόν ἐστι καὶ τὰς μαθήσεις ποιεῖται διὰ μιμήσεως τὰς πρώτας), καὶ τὸ χαίρειν τοῖς μιμήμασι πάντας.
6. For the repeated r sound cp. the passage of the Aeneid (i. 108) which begins “talia iactanti stridens Aquilone procella,” and schol. on Odyss. v. 402 τῶν δὲ πεποιημένων ἡ λέξις (sc. ῥόχθει)· τραχὺ γὰρ τὸ ρ, τὸ θ, τὸ χ.
8. Cp. schol. ad Il. ii. 210 συμφυῶς τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ τετράχυνται τὸ ἔπος ταῖς ὀνοματοποιΐαις.—In this line F’s reading μεγάλα accords with a conjecture of Bentley’s.
9. Cp. Virg. Aen. v. 437 “stat gravis Entellus nisuque immotus eodem | corpore tela modo atque oculis vigilantibus exit.”
11. Not all languages, however, have the same powers in this direction: cp. Quintil. i. 5. 72 “sed minime nobis concessa est ὀνοματοποιΐα; quis enim ferat, si quid simile illis merito laudatis λίγξε βιός et σίζε ὀφθαλμός fingere audeamus? Iam ne balare quidem aut hinnire fortiter diceremus, nisi iudicio vetustatis niterentur” (Quintilian has just before, §§ 67 and 70, referred to Pacuvius’ repandirostrum and incurvicervicum: which may be compared with Ἑρμοκαϊκόξανθος, Aristot. Poet. c. 21); and viii. 6. 31 “ὀνοματοποιΐα quidem, id est fictio nominis, Graecis inter maxima habita virtutes, nobis vix permittitur ... vix illa, quae πεποιημένα vocant, quae ex vocibus in usum receptis quocunque modo declinantur, nobis permittimus, qualia sunt Sullaturit et proscripturit.” Greek, English and German admit onomatopoeia more readily than Latin and French. Any undue restriction (such as that indicated by Quintilian when defining πεποιημένα) hampers the life of a language. Words should serve their apprenticeship, no doubt; but there should be no lack of probationers. We feel that the language itself is growing when Cicero uses ‘dulcescit’ of the growing and ripening grape, or when Erasmus uses the same word to indicate that England ‘grew’ upon him the more he knew it.—For the general question of the right of coining new words or reviving disused words see Demetr. pp. 255, 297, 298 (and cp. §§ 94, 220 ibid.). Many of Dionysius’ remarks, here and elsewhere, seem to concern the choice or the manufacture of words rather than their arrangement; but, from the nature of the case, he clearly finds it hard to draw a strict dividing-line either in this direction or in regard to the entire λεκτικὸς τόπος as distinguished from the πραγματικὸς τόπος.
13. In giving the singular, P seems clearly right here, and as clearly wrong when giving the plural in 156 19.
βρόμον καὶ πάταγον ἀνέμων καὶ συριγμὸν κάλων καὶ ἄλλα
τούτοις ὅμοια παμπληθῆ τὰ μὲν φωνῆς μιμήματα, τὰ δὲ
μορφῆς, τὰ δὲ ἔργου, τὰ δὲ πάθους, τὰ δὲ κινήσεως, τὰ δ’
ἠρεμίας, τὰ δ’ ἄλλου χρήματος ὅτου δήποτε· περὶ ὧν εἴρηται
πολλὰ τοῖς πρὸ ἡμῶν, τὰ κράτιστα δ’ ὡς πρώτῳ τὸν ὑπὲρ 5
ἐτυμολογίας εἰσαγαγόντι λόγον, Πλάτωνι τῷ Σωκρατικῷ, πολλαχῇ
μὲν καὶ ἄλλῃ μάλιστα δ’ ἐν τῷ Κρατύλῳ.
τί δὴ τὸ κεφάλαιόν ἐστί μοι τούτου τοῦ λόγου; ὅτι
παρὰ μὲν τὰς τῶν γραμμάτων συμπλοκὰς ἡ τῶν συλλαβῶν
γίνεται δύναμις ποικίλη, παρὰ δὲ τὴν τῶν συλλαβῶν σύνθεσιν 10
ἡ τῶν ὀνομάτων φύσις παντοδαπή, παρὰ δὲ τὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων
ἁρμονίας πολύμορφος ὁ λόγος· ὥστε πολλὴ ἀνάγκη καλὴν
μὲν εἶναι λέξιν ἐν ᾗ καλά ἐστιν ὀνόματα, κάλλους δὲ ὀνομάτων
συλλαβάς τε καὶ γράμματα καλὰ αἴτια εἶναι, ἡδεῖαν δὲ διάλεκτον
ἐκ τῶν ἡδυνόντων τὴν ἀκοὴν γίνεσθαι κατὰ τὸ παραπλήσιον 15
ὀνομάτων τε καὶ συλλαβῶν καὶ γραμμάτων, τάς τε
κατὰ μέρος ἐν τούτοις διαφοράς, καθ’ ἃς δηλοῦται τά τε ἤθη
καὶ τὰ πάθη καὶ αἱ διαθέσεις καὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν προσώπων
καὶ τὰ συνεδρεύοντα τούτοις, ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης κατασκευῆς τῶν
γραμμάτων γίνεσθαι τοιαύτας. 20
χρήσομαι δ’ ὀλίγοις παραδείγμασι τοῦ λόγου τοῦδε τῆς
σαφηνείας ἕνεκα· τὰ γὰρ ἄλλα πολλὰ ὄντα ἐπὶ σαυτοῦ συμβαλλόμενος
εὑρήσεις. ὁ δὴ πολυφωνότατος ἁπάντων τῶν
[161]
rushing of winds, the creaking of hawsers, and numerous other similar imitations of sound, form, action, emotion, movement, stillness, and anything else whatsoever. On these points much has been said by our predecessors, the most important contributions being by the first of them to introduce the subject of etymology, Plato the disciple of Socrates, in his Cratylus especially, but in many other places as well.
What is the sum and substance of my argument? It is that it is due to the interweaving of letters that the quality of syllables is so multifarious; to the combination of syllables that the nature of words has such wide diversity; to the arrangement of words that discourse takes on so many forms. The conclusion is inevitable—that style is beautiful when it contains beautiful words,—that beauty of words is due to beautiful syllables and letters,—that language is rendered charming by the things that charm the ear in virtue of affinities in words, syllables, and letters; and that the differences in detail between these, through which are indicated the characters, emotions, dispositions, actions and so forth of the persons described, are made what they are through the original grouping of the letters.
To set the matter in a clearer light, I will illustrate my argument by a few examples. Other instances—and there are plenty of them—you will find for yourself in the course of your own investigations. When Homer, the poet above all others
2 μιμήματα EPM: μιμητικὰ V: μηνύματα F 3 ἔργων E: ἔργα M 4 ἐρημίας F || δήποτε FMV: δὴ P 5 δ’ ὡς F: δε νέμω (νέμων M) ὡς PMV 9, 10, 11 παρὰ] περὶ R || γραμμάτων] πραγμάτων F: cf. 158 5 10 δύναμις RF: σύνθεσις EPV || σύνθεσιν EF: συνθέσεις PMV: θέσεις R 12 λόγος REF: λόγος [γ]ίνεται cum litura P, MV 13 κάλλους REF: καλῶν PV 14 αἴτια RMV: αἰτίαν F: αἴτιον EP 15 κατὰ F: καὶ PMV 20 τοιαύτας Us.: τοιαύτα F, PMV 21 παραδείγμασι F: δείγμασιν P, MV 23 ἁπάντων τῶν MV: ἁπάντων FP
1. Cp. Virg. Aen. i. 87 “insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum”; Ap. Rhod. Argon. i. 725 ὑπὸ πνοιῇ δὲ κάλωες | ὅπλα τε νήια πάντα τινάσσετο νισσομένοισιν.
5. So Diog. Laert. (auctore Favorino in octavo libro Omnigenae historiae): καὶ πρῶτος ἐθεώρησε τῆς γραμματικῆς τὴν δύναμιν (Vit. Plat. 25).
8. The following passage (from ὅτι to καλὰ αἴτια) is quoted in schol. anon. in Hermog. (Walz Rhett. Gr. vii. 1049), with the prefatory words ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων περὶ λέξεως διαλαμβάνων λέγει ὅτι κτλ.
10. The endless possibilities of these syllabic, verbal, and other permutations had evidently impressed the imagination of Dionysius: together with their climax in literature itself, and in all the great types of literature.
12. “This sentence (ὥστε πολλὴ ἀνάγκη ... γράμματα καλὰ αἴτια εἶναι) puts boldly the truth which Aristotle had evaded or pooh-poohed in his excessive devotion to the philosophy of literature rather than to literature itself” (Saintsbury History of Criticism i. 130).
21. παραδείγμασι is perhaps to be preferred to δείγμασι here: cp. 164 16.
22. ἐπὶ σαυτοῦ = per te ipsum, tuopte Marte: cp. 96 21 ἐσκόπουν δ’ αὐτὸς ἐπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ γενόμενος.
23. πολυφωνότατος In this respect Homer’s great compeer is Shakespeare, in whose dramas “few things are more remarkable than the infinite range of style, speech, dialect they unfold before us” (Vaughan Types of Tragic Drama p. 165).—The passage of Dionysius which follows might be endlessly illustrated from Shakespeare; e.g. from Sonnet civ., Romeo and Juliet ii. 2 and v. 3, Antony and Cleopatra ii. 2 (speeches of Enobarbus), Tempest iii. 1. In the scene of the Tempest, correspondence and variety are alike conspicuous. Ferdinand’s address (beginning “Admired Miranda!”) tallies—to the line and even to the half-line—with Miranda’s reply, and the concluding lines are, in the one case,
But you, O you,
So perfect and so peerless, are created
Of every creature’s best;
and, in the other,
But I prattle
Something too wildly, and my father’s precepts
I therein do forget.
In the same scene the lines—
O, she is
Ten times more gentle than her father’s crabbed,
And he’s composed of harshness,
would have a very different effect (cp. quotation from Aristotle’s Poetics on 78 9 supra) if written as follows:—
O, she is
Ten times more gracious than her sire is stern,
And he is merely cruel
(‘merely’ being understood, of course, in the Shakespearian sense of ‘absolutely’).
ποιητῶν Ὅμηρος, ὅταν μὲν ὥραν ὄψεως εὐμόρφου καὶ κάλλος
ἡδονῆς ἐπαγωγὸν ἐπιδείξασθαι βούληται, τῶν τε φωνηέντων
τοῖς κρατίστοις χρήσεται καὶ τῶν ἡμιφώνων τοῖς μαλακωτάτοις,
καὶ οὐ καταπυκνώσει τοῖς ἀφώνοις τὰς συλλαβὰς οὐδὲ συγκόψει
τοὺς ἤχους παρατιθεὶς ἀλλήλοις τὰ δυσέκφορα, πραεῖαν δέ 5
τινα ποιήσει τὴν ἁρμονίαν τῶν γραμμάτων καὶ ῥέουσαν ἀλύπως
διὰ τῆς ἀκοῆς, ὡς ἔχει ταυτί
ἡ δ’ ἴεν ἐκ θαλάμοιο περίφρων Πηνελόπεια
Ἀρτέμιδι ἰκέλη ἠὲ χρυσῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ.
Δήλῳ δήποτε τοῖον Ἀπόλλωνος παρὰ βωμῷ 10
φοίνικος νέον ἔρνος ἀνερχόμενον ἐνόησα.
καὶ Χλῶριν εἶδον περικαλλέα, τήν ποτε Νηλεὺς
γῆμεν ἑὸν μετὰ κάλλος, ἐπεὶ πόρε μυρία ἕδνα.
ὅταν δ’ οἰκτρὰν ἢ φοβερὰν ἢ ἀγέρωχον ὄψιν εἰσάγῃ, τῶν τε
φωνηέντων οὐ τὰ κράτιστα θήσει ἀλλὰ τῶν ψοφοειδῶν ἢ 15
ἀφώνων τὰ δυσεκφορώτατα λήψεται καὶ καταπυκνώσει τούτοις
τὰς συλλαβάς, οἷά ἐστι ταυτί
σμερδαλέος δ’ αὐτῇσι φάνη κεκακωμένος ἅλμῃ.
τῇ δ’ ἐπὶ μὲν Γοργὼ βλοσυρῶπις ἐστεφάνωτο
δεινὸν δερκομένη, περὶ δὲ Δεῖμός τε Φόβος τε. 20
ποταμῶν δέ γε σύρρυσιν εἰς χωρίον ἓν καὶ πάταγον ὑδάτων
ἀναμισγομένων ἐκμιμήσασθαι τῇ λέξει βουλόμενος οὐκ ἐργάσεται
λείας συλλαβὰς ἀλλ’ ἰσχυρὰς καὶ ἀντιτύπους
[163]
many-voiced, wishes to depict the young bloom of a lovely countenance and a beauty that brings delight, he will use the finest of the vowels and the softest of the semi-vowels; he will not pack his syllables with mute letters, nor impede the utterance by putting next to one another words hard to pronounce. He will make the harmony of the letters strike softly and pleasingly upon the ear, as in the following lines:—
Now forth of her bower hath gone Penelope passing-wise
Lovely as Artemis, or as Aphrodite the Golden.[140]
Only once by the Sun-god’s altar in Delos I chanced to espy
So stately a shaft of a palm that gracefully grew thereby.[141]
Rose Chloris, fair beyond word, whom Nereus wedded of old,
For her beauty his heart had stirred, and he wooed her with gifts untold.[142]
But when he introduces a sight that is pitiable, or terrifying, or august, he will not employ the finest of the vowels. He will take the hardest to utter of the fricatives or of the mutes, and will pack his syllables with these. For instance:—
But dreadful he burst on their sight, with the sea-scum all fouled o’er.[143]
And thereon was embossed the Gorgon-demon, with stony gaze
Grim-glaring, and Terror and Panic encompassed the Fearful Face.[144]
When he wishes to reproduce in his language the rush of meeting torrents and the roar of confluent waters, he will not employ smooth syllables, but strong and resounding ones:—
2 ἐπαγαγὼν F 3 χρήσεται ... μαλακωτάτοις om. F 4 συγκόπτει P 6 ποιεῖ P 12 χλωρὴν F || ἴδον PMV || ἥν F 13 γῆμεν ἑὸν] τημέναιον F || μετα P, M: κατα F: διὰ EV 19 γοργῶι sic F: γοργὼ ceteri || βλοσυρώπις F (metri, ut videtur, gratia) 22 ἐργάσεται Us.: ἐργάζεται F: ἔτι EPMV 23 ἀντιτύπους F: ἀντιτύπους θήσει EPMV
1. κάλλος: cp. scholium in P, ση(μείωσαι) πῶς κάλλος ἡδο(νῆς) ἐπαγωγὸν δείκνυ(σιν) Ὅμ(η)ρ(ος).
3. χρήσεται ... καταπυκνώσει ... συγκόψει ... ποιήσει: general truths expressed by means of the future tense.
8. Cp. Virg. Aen. i. 496 “regina ad templum, forma pulcherrima Dido, | incessit magna iuvenum stipante caterva. | qualis in Eurotae ripis aut per iuga Cynthi | exercet Diana choros,” etc.; and Aen. xii. 67 “Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro | si quis ebur, aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multa | alba rosa: tales virgo dabat ore colores.”
13. In Odyss. xi. 282 the textual evidence is reported as follows: “διὰ FHJK, ss. XTU2, Dion. Hal. comp. verb. 16; δια P; μετὰ XDSTUW, An. Ox. iv. 310. 5, Bekker An. 1158, Eust.; μετα G” (Ludwich ad loc.).—In the present passage of Dionysius the reading μετά gives an additional μ in the line: γῆμεν ἑὸν μετὰ κάλλος, ἐπεὶ πόρε μυρία ἕδνα. For some instances in which the authorities vary between μετά and κατά see Ebeling’s Lexicon Homericum, s.v. μετά.
14. In his selection of tragic qualities Dionysius seems perhaps to have in view, once more, the Aristotelian doctrine of two extremes and a mean.—As the epithet ἀγέρωχος so closely follows the quotations from Homer, it is natural to suppose that Dionysius uses the word in the Homeric sense of lordly, august, rather than in the later (bad) sense of haughty, insolent.
15. Sauppe would insert τὰ δυσηχέστατα καὶ between ἀλλὰ and τῶν ψοφοειδῶν.
ὡς δ’ ὅτε χείμαρροι ποταμοὶ κατ’ ὄρεσφι ῥέοντες
ἐς μισγάγκειαν συμβάλλετον ὄβριμον ὕδωρ.
βιαζόμενον δέ τινα πρὸς ἐναντίον ῥεῦμα ποταμοῦ μετὰ τῶν
ὅπλων καὶ τὰ μὲν ἀντέχοντα, τὰ δ’ ὑποφερόμενον εἰσάγων
ἀνακοπάς τε ποιήσει συλλαβῶν καὶ ἀναβολὰς χρόνων καὶ 5
ἀντιστηριγμοὺς γραμμάτων
δεινὸν δ’ ἀμφ’ Ἀχιλῆα κυκώμενον ἵστατο κῦμα,
ὤθει δ’ ἐν σάκεϊ πίπτων ῥόος, οὐδὲ πόδεσσιν
εἶχε στηρίξασθαι.
ἀραττομένων δὲ περὶ πέτρας ἀνθρώπων ψόφον τε καὶ μόρον 10
οἰκτρὸν ἐπιδεικνύμενος, ἐπὶ τῶν ἀηδεστάτων τε καὶ κακοφωνοτάτων
χρονιεῖ γραμμάτων, οὐδαμῇ λεαίνων τὴν κατασκευὴν
οὐδὲ ἡδύνων·
σύν τε δύω μάρψας ὥστε σκύλακας ποτὶ γαίῃ
κόπτ’· ἐκ δ’ ἐγκέφαλος χαμάδις ῥέε, δεῦε δὲ γαῖαν. 15
πολὺ ἂν ἔργον εἴη λέγειν, εἰ πάντων παραδείγματα βουλοίμην
φέρειν ὧν ἄν τις ἀπαιτήσειε κατὰ τὸν τόπον τόνδε· ὥστε ἀρκεσθεὶς
τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπὶ τὰ ἑξῆς μεταβήσομαι. φημὶ δὴ τὸν
βουλόμενον ἐργάσασθαι λέξιν καλὴν ἐν τῷ συντιθέναι τὰς
φωνάς, ὅσα καλλιλογίαν ἢ μεγαλοπρέπειαν ἢ σεμνότητα περιείληφεν 20
ὀνόματα, εἰς ταὐτὸ συνάγειν. εἴρηται δέ τινα περὶ
τούτων καὶ Θεοφράστῳ τῷ φιλοσόφῳ κοινότερον ἐν τοῖς περὶ
[165]
And even as Wintertide torrents down-rushing from steep hill-sides
Hurl their wild waters in one where a cleft of the mountain divides.[145]
When he depicts a hero, though heavy with his harness, putting forth all his energies against an opposing stream, and now holding his own, now being carried off his feet, he will contrive counter-buffetings of syllables, arresting pauses, and letters that block the way:—
Round Achilles the terrible surge towered seething on every side,
And a cataract dashed and crashed on his shield: all vainly he sought
Firm ground for his feet.[146]
When men are being dashed against rocks, and he is portraying the noise and their pitiable fate, he will linger on the harshest and most ill-sounding letters, altogether avoiding smoothness or prettiness in the structure:—
And together laid hold on twain, and dashed them against the ground
Like whelps: down gushed the brain, and bespattered the rock-floor round.[147]
It would be a long task to attempt to adduce specimens of all the artistic touches of which examples might be demanded in this one field. So, contenting myself with what has been said, I will pass to the next point.
I hold that those who wish to fashion a style which is beautiful in the collocation of sounds must combine in it words which all carry the impression of elegance, grandeur, or dignity. Something has been said about these matters, in a general way, by the philosopher Theophrastus in his work on Style, where he
2 ὄβριμον FP: ὄμβριμον EM2V 9 στηρίξασθαι F Hom.: στηρίζεσθαι PMV 10 δραττομένων F || περι F, V: παρα P, M 11 ἐπιδεικνύμενος F: ἐνδεικνύμενος PMV 14 ποτι F, MV: προτὶ P: cf. 202 6 infra. 17 κατὰ τὸν τόπον τόνδε ὧν ἄν τις ἀπαιτήσειε (hoc verborum ordine) PV || κατὰ F: καὶ κατὰ PV 20 καλλιλογίαν ἢ F: καλλιλογίαν καὶ PMV 21 τὸ αὐτὸ F: τοῦτο PMV
1. Cp. Virg. Aen. ii. 496 “non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis | exiit oppositasque evicit gurgite moles, | fertur in arva furens cumulo camposque per omnes | cum stabulis armenta trahit.”
7. Cp. Virg. Aen. x. 305 “solvitur (sc. puppis Tarchontis) atque viros mediis exponit in undis, | fragmina remorum quos et fluitantia transtra | impediunt retrahitque pedes simul unda relabens.”
14. Cp. Virg. Aen. v. 478, “durosque reducta | libravit dextra media inter cornua caestus | arduus, effractoque illisit in ossa cerebro.”—Demetr. (de Eloc. § 219), in quoting this passage of Homer, couples with it Il. xxiii. 116 πολλὰ δ’ ἄναντα κάταντα πάραντά τε δόχμιά τ’ ἦλθον (Virgil’s “quadripedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum,” Aen. viii. 596).—Another good Virgilian instance of adaptation of sound to sense is Georg. iv. 174 “illi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt | in numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum.”
18. φημί seems (cp. the legal use of aio) to approximate to the sense of κελεύω (as in Pind. Nem. iii. 28, Soph. Aj. 1108). Either so, or (as Upton suggested) we may insert δεῖν, or the sense may simply be, “I say that the man who aims ... does combine, etc. (i.e. when he knows his own business).”
19. For the construction λέξιν καλὴν ἐν τῷ συντιθέναι τὰς φωνάς cp. Fragm. of Duris of Samos, Ἔφορος δὲ καὶ Θεόπομπος τῶν γενομένων πλεῖστον ἀπελείφθησαν, οὔτε γὰρ μιμήσεως μετέλαβον οὐδεμίας οὔτε ἡδονῆς ἐν τῷ φράσαι, αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ γράφειν μόνον ἐπεμελήθησαν.
20. Here, again, the Aristotelian ‘mean’ may possibly be intended.
22. Theophrastus: for other references to Theophrastus in the Scripta Rhetorica of Dionysius see de Lysia cc. 6, 14; de Isocr. c. 3; de Din. c. 2; de Demosth. c. 3. The passage of Theophrastus which Dionysius has in mind here is no doubt that mentioned by Demetr. de Eloc. § 173 ποιεῖ δὲ εὔχαριν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα καλὰ ὀνόματα. ὡρίσατο δ’ αὐτὰ Θεόφραστος οὕτως· κάλλος ὀνόματός ἐστι τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἀκοὴν ἢ πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν ἡδύ, ἢ τὸ τῇ διανοίᾳ ἔντιμον.
λέξεως, ἔνθα ὁρίζει, τίνα ὀνόματα φύσει καλά· παραδείγματος
ἕνεκα, ὧν συντιθεμένων καλὴν οἴεται καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῆ γενήσεσθαι
τὴν φράσιν, καὶ αὖθις ἕτερα μικρὰ καὶ ταπεινά, ἐξ ὧν
οὔτε ποίημα χρηστὸν ἔσεσθαί φησιν οὔτε λόγον. καὶ μὰ
Δία οὐκ ἀπὸ σκοποῦ ταῦτα εἴρηται τῷ ἀνδρί. εἰ μὲν οὖν 5
ἐγχωροίη πάντ’ εἶναι τὰ μόρια τῆς λέξεως ὑφ’ ὧν μέλλει
δηλοῦσθαι τὸ πρᾶγμα εὔφωνά τε καὶ καλλιρήμονα, μανίας
ἔργον ζητεῖν τὰ χείρω· εἰ δὲ ἀδύνατον εἴη τοῦτο, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ
πολλῶν ἔχει, τῇ πλοκῇ καὶ μίξει καὶ παραθέσει πειρατέον
ἀφανίζειν τὴν τῶν χειρόνων φύσιν, ὅπερ Ὅμηρος εἴωθεν ἐπὶ 10
πολλῶν ποιεῖν. εἰ γάρ τις ἔροιτο ὅντιν’ οὖν ἢ ποιητῶν ἢ
ῥητόρων, τίνα σεμνότητα ἢ καλλιλογίαν ταῦτ’ ἔχει τὰ ὀνόματα
ἃ ταῖς Βοιωτίαις κεῖται πόλεσιν Ὑρία καὶ Μυκαλησσὸς καὶ
Γραῖα καὶ Ἐτεωνὸς καὶ Σκῶλος καὶ Θίσβη καὶ Ὀγχηστὸς
καὶ Εὔτρησις καὶ τἆλλ’ ἐφεξῆς ὧν ὁ ποιητὴς μέμνηται, οὐδεὶς 15
ἂν εἰπεῖν οὐδ’ ἥντιν’ οὖν ἔχοι· ἀλλ’ οὕτως αὐτὰ καλῶς
ἐκεῖνος συνύφαγκεν καὶ παραπληρώμασιν εὐφώνοις διείληφεν
ὥστε μεγαλοπρεπέστατα φαίνεσθαι πάντων ὀνόματα·
Βοιωτῶν μὲν Πηνέλεως καὶ Λήϊτος ἦρχον
Ἀρκεσίλαός τε Προθοήνωρ τε Κλονίος τε, 20
οἵ θ’ Ὑρίην ἐνέμοντο καὶ Αὐλίδα πετρήεσσαν
Σχοῖνόν τε Σκῶλόν τε πολύκνημόν τ’ Ἐτεωνόν,
Θέσπειαν Γραῖάν τε καὶ εὐρύχορον Μυκαλησσόν,
οἵ τ’ ἀμφ’ Ἅρμ’ ἐνέμοντο καὶ Εἰλέσιον καὶ Ἐρυθράς,
οἵ τ’ Ἐλεῶν’ εἶχον ἠδ’ Ὕλην καὶ Πετεῶνα, 25
Ὠκαλέην Μεδεῶνά τ’ ἐυκτίμενον πτολίεθρον.
ἐν εἰδόσι λέγων οὐκ οἴομαι πλειόνων δεῖν παραδειγμάτων.
[167]
distinguishes two classes of words—those which are naturally beautiful (whose collocation, for example, in composition will, he thinks, make the phrasing beautiful and grand), and those, again, which are paltry and ignoble, of which he says neither good poetry can be constructed nor good prose. And, really and truly, our author is not far from the mark in saying this. If, then, it were possible that all the parts of speech by which a given subject is to be expressed should be euphonious and elegant, it would be madness to seek out the inferior ones. But if this be out of the question, as in many cases it is, then we must endeavour to mask the natural defects of the inferior letters by interweaving and mingling and juxtaposition, and this is just what Homer is accustomed to do in many passages. For instance, if any poet or rhetorician whatsoever were to be asked what grandeur or elegance there is in the names which have been given to the Boeotian towns,—Hyria, Mycalessus, Graia, Eteonus, Scolus, Thisbe, Onchestus, Eutresis, and the rest of the series which the poet enumerates,—no one would be able to point to any trace of such qualities. But Homer has interwoven and interspersed them with pleasant-sounding supplementary words into so beautiful a texture that they appear the most magnificent of all names:—
Lords of Boeotia’s host came Leitus, Peneleos,
Prothoenor and Arcesilaus and Clonius for battle uprose,
With the folk that in Hyrie dwelt, and by Aulis’s crag-fringed steep,
And in Schoinus and Scolus, and midst Eteonus’ hill-clefts deep,
In Thespeia and Graia, and green Mycalessus the land broad-meadowed,
And in Harma and Eilesius, and Erythrae the mountain-shadowed,
And they that in Eleon abode, and in Hyle and Peteon withal,
And in Ocalee and in Medeon, burg of the stately wall.[148]
As I am addressing men who know their Homer, I do not
1 ἔνθα] καθ’ ὃ F 2 γενήσεσθαι] γίνεσθαι F 3 αὖθις om. F 4 χρηστὸν ἔσεσθαι] χρήσιμον F 5 ἄπο FPMV || εἴρηται τῷ ἀνδρὶ F: τῷ ἀνδρὶ εἴρηται PMV 7 καλλιρρήμονα s 11 ἢ ποιητῶν P: ποιητῶν FM 13 βοιωτίαις PV: βοιωτικαῖς F: βοιωτίας M 15 τᾶλλ’ ἐφεξῆς F: τἄλλα ἑξῆς PM, V 17 συνὕφαγκεν F, EP: συνύφαγγε M: συνύφανεν V 18 μεγαλοπρεπέστερα E || πάντων] τούτων V || ὀνόματα PMV: ὀνομάτων EF 25 ἥδ’ F: οἵδ’ M: ἰδ’ V
1. παραδείγματος ἕνεκα looks like an adscript (possibly on ὁρίζει: to indicate that there were many other topics in Theophrastus’ book), which has found its way into the text.
4. For the distinction between poetry and prose cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 3 (1406 a) ἐν μὲν γὰρ ποιήσει πρέπει γάλα λευκὸν εἰπεῖν, ἐν δὲ λόγῳ τὰ μὲν ἀπρεπέστερα, τὰ δέ, ἂν ᾖ κατακορῆ, ἐξελέγχει καὶ ποιεῖ φανερὸν ὅτι ποίησίς ἐστιν, ἐπεὶ δεῖ γε χρῆσθαι αὐτοῖς, and iii. 4 (1406 b) χρήσιμον δὲ ἡ εἰκὼν καὶ ἐν λόγῳ, ὀλιγάκις δέ· ποιητικὸν γάρ.
5. οὐκ ἀπὸ σκοποῦ = ‘haud ab re.’
The minute variations in word-order between F and P are not usually given in the critical footnotes. But the fact that P places (here and in 164 17) the verb at the end of the sentence is noteworthy.
18. Cp. Virg. Georg. iv. 334-44; Aen. vii. 710-21; Milton Par. Lost i. 351-5. 396-414, 464-9, 576-87 (especially 583-7); and see Matthew Arnold (On translating Homer: Last Words p. 29) as to Hom. Il. xvii. 216 ff.
26. Dionysius (here as elsewhere) doubtless intended his remarks to apply to the lines that follow his quotation, as well as to those actually quoted.
27. ἐν εἰδόσι: this expressive phrase is as old as Homer himself (Il. x. 250 εἰδόσι γάρ τοι ταῦτα μετ’ Ἀργείοις ἀγορεύεις). It occurs also in Thucyd. (ii. 36. 4 μακρηγορεῖν ἐν εἰδόσιν οὐ βουλόμενος ἐάσω).
ἅπας γάρ ἐστιν ὁ κατάλογος αὐτῷ τοιοῦτος καὶ πολλὰ ἄλλα, ἐν οἷς ἀναγκασθεὶς ὀνόματα λαμβάνειν οὐ καλὰ τὴν φύσιν ἑτέροις αὐτὰ κοσμεῖ καλοῖς καὶ λύει τὴν ἐκείνων δυσχέρειαν τῇ τούτων εὐμορφίᾳ. καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων ἅλις.
