CHAPTER XX ON APPROPRIATENESS

It still remains for me to speak about appropriateness. All the other ornaments of speech must be associated with what is appropriate; indeed, if any other quality whatever fails to attain this, it fails to attain the main essential,—perhaps fails altogether. Into the question as a whole this is not the right time to go; it is a profound study, and would need a long treatise. But let me say what bears on the special department which I am actually discussing; or if not all that bears on it, nor even the largest part, at all events as much as is possible.

It is admitted among all critics that appropriateness is that treatment which suits the actors and actions concerned. Just as the choice of words may be either appropriate or inappropriate to the subject matter, so also surely must the composition be. This statement I had best illustrate from actual life. I refer to

1 ὡς ἐναγωνίων (om. ἐν λόγων) F   2 οὐχ ἥ γε PMV: οὐχ ἡ E: οὐχὶ ἡ F || ἐκείνου EF: ἐκείνω PM: ἐκείνων V   3 ἀλλὰ καὶ περιδεῶσ P   5 εἷς περιόδου om. FE   6 τις post κύκλος add. E (vocabulis εἷς περιόδου omissis) || φυλακὴ EF: φυσικὴ M: λέξις P: om. V   7 ἀλλὰ F   8 αἴρεσιν F: διαίρεσιν P   10 ἄλλαι EF: om. PMV   11 ἀπ’ EPV: οὐκ ἀπ’ F, M || τῶν ἄλλων om. F   12 γίνεται om. F   13 εἷς ἔτι PMV: ἔτι τις F: ἔτι E   14 καὶ Schaefer: ὡς libri || χρώμασι F: σχήμασιν PMV || ἅπασι om. F   15 ἄλλο om. P || καὶ εἰ F: εἰ καὶ PMV   18 αὐτοῦ P: αὕτη FMV || πάνυ δεομένη PMV: δεομένη σφόδρα F   20 τὰ πάντα PMV: πάντα F   21 λεγέσθω] γενέσθω F   23 ἀρμόττον F, E: ἁρμόζον PMV || ὥσπερ F: ὥσπερ ἡ PMV   25 καὶ E: καὶ ἡ FPMV   26 λαμβάνειν F: παραλαμβάνειν PMV

2. The following passage emphasizes in a striking way the supreme importance of variety as an element in excellence of style.

6. φυλακή: P’s reading λέξις may, as Usener suggests, be a relic of φύλαξις.

14. The manuscript reading ὡς suggests the possibility that some such words as εἴρηται πρότερον have been lost after ἀτυχεῖ in l. 16.

18. αὐτοῦ, ‘the matter,’ ‘the question.’ Cp. Eurip. Phoen. 626 αὐτὸ σημανεῖ (res ipsa declarabit). See also note on 140 14 supra.

ἐστιν· οὐχ ὁμοίᾳ συνθέσει χρώμεθα ὀργιζόμενοι καὶ χαίροντες,
οὐδὲ ὀλοφυρόμενοι καὶ φοβούμενοι, οὐδ’ ἐν ἄλλῳ τινὶ πάθει ἢ
κακῷ ὄντες, ὥσπερ ὅταν ἐνθυμώμεθα μηδὲν ὅλως ἡμᾶς ταράττειν
μηδὲ παραλυπεῖν. δείγματος ἕνεκα ταῦτ’ εἴρηκα ὀλίγα
περὶ πολλῶν, ἐπεὶ μυρία ὅσα τις ἂν εἰπεῖν ἔχοι τὰς ἰδέας      5
ἁπάσας ἐκλογίζεσθαι βουλόμενος τοῦ πρέποντος· ἓν δὲ ὃ
προχειρότατον ἔχω καὶ κοινότατον εἰπεῖν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, τοῦτ’
ἐρῶ. οἱ αὐτοὶ ἄνθρωποι ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ καταστάσει τῆς ψυχῆς
ὄντες ὅταν ἀπαγγέλλωσι πράγματα οἷς ἂν παραγενόμενοι
τύχωσιν, οὐχ ὁμοίᾳ χρῶνται συνθέσει περὶ πάντων, ἀλλὰ      10
μιμητικοὶ γίνονται τῶν ἀπαγγελλομένων καὶ ἐν τῷ συντιθέναι
τὰ ὀνόματα, οὐδὲν ἐπιτηδεύοντες ἀλλὰ φυσικῶς ἐπὶ τοῦτο
ἀγόμενοι. ταῦτα δὴ παρατηροῦντα δεῖ τὸν ἀγαθὸν ποιητὴν
καὶ ῥήτορα μιμητικὸν εἶναι τῶν πραγμάτων ὑπὲρ ὧν ἂν τοὺς
λόγους ἐκφέρῃ, μὴ μόνον κατὰ τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων      15
ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν σύνθεσιν. ὃ ποιεῖν εἴωθεν ὁ δαιμονιώτατος
Ὅμηρος καίπερ μέτρον ἔχων ἓν ὡς καὶ ῥυθμοὺς ὀλίγους, ἀλλ’
ὅμως ἀεί τι καινουργῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ φιλοτεχνῶν, ὥστε μηδὲν
ἡμῖν διαφέρειν γινόμενα τὰ πράγματα ἢ λεγόμενα ὁρᾶν. ἐρῶ
δὲ ὀλίγα, οἷς ἄν τις δύναιτο παραδείγμασι χρῆσθαι πολλῶν.      20
ἀπαγγέλλων δὴ πρὸς τοὺς Φαίακας Ὀδυσσεὺς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ
πλάνην καὶ τὴν εἰς ᾅδου κατάβασιν εἰπὼν τὰς ὄψεις τῶν
ἐκεῖ κακῶν ἀποδίδωσιν. ἐν δὴ τούτοις καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν
Σίσυφον διηγεῖται πάθη, ᾧ φασι τοὺς καταχθονίους θεοὺς
ὅρον πεποιῆσθαι τῆς τῶν δεινῶν ἀπαλλαγῆς, ὅταν ὑπὲρ ὄχθου      25
τινὸς ἀνακυλίσῃ πέτρον· τοῦτο δὲ ἀμήχανον εἶναι καταπίπτοντος
ὅταν εἰς ἄκρον ἔλθῃ πάλιν τοῦ πέτρου. πῶς οὖν

[201]

the fact that we do not put our words together in the same way when angry as when glad, nor when mourning as when afraid, nor when under the influence of any other emotion or calamity as when conscious that there is nothing at all to agitate or annoy us.

These few words on a wide subject are merely examples of the countless other things which could be added if one wished to treat fully all the aspects of appropriateness. But I have one obvious remark to make of a general nature. When the same men in the same state of mind report occurrences which they have actually witnessed, they do not use a similar style in describing all of them, but in their very way of putting their words together imitate the things they report, not purposely, but carried away by a natural impulse. Keeping an eye on this principle, the good poet and orator should be ready to imitate the things of which he is giving a verbal description, and to imitate them not only in the choice of words but also in the composition. This is the practice of Homer, that surpassing genius, although he has but one metre and few rhythms. Within these limits, nevertheless, he is continually producing new effects and artistic refinements, so that actually to see the incidents taking place would give no advantage over our having them thus described. I will give a few instances, which the reader may take as representative of many. When Odysseus is telling the Phaeacians the story of his wanderings and of his descent into Hades, he brings the miseries of the place before our eyes. Among them, he describes the torments of Sisyphus, for whom they say that the gods of the nether world have made it a condition of release from his awful sufferings to have rolled a stone over a certain hill, and that this is impossible, as the stone invariably falls down again just as it reaches the top. Now it is

3 μηδὲν ὅλως ἡμᾶς F: καὶ μηδὲν ἡμᾶς ὅλως PMV || πράττειν μηδὲ παραλυπεῖν F: ταράττηι μηδὲ παραλυπηῖ P, MV   4 δείγματος F: δείγματος ἢ παραδείγματος PMV   5 ἐπεὶ μυρία PMV: μυρία ἄλλα ἐστὶν F || ἂν F: αἴτια PMV   10 ἀλλὰ PMV: ἀλλὰ καὶ EF   13 δὴ F: δὲ PMV   17 καίπερ EF: καί τοι P, MV || ἓν ὡς] ἑν(ως) P: ἐν ᾧ M: ἓν V: om. EF   18 αὐτοῖς EF: τούτοις PV: τούτω M   20 παράδειγμα P: παραδείγματι V || πολλῶν F: ἐπὶ πολλῶν PMV   21 δὴ FP: οὖν MV   26 πέτρον F: πέτρον τινά PMV   27 τοῦ πέτρου om. F

1. It is implied that no general rules can be laid down on this point, but we must trust to nature,—to the aesthetic perceptions of the individual author,—on the principle that “tristia maestum | vultum verba decent, iratum plena minarum, | ludentem lasciva, severum seria dictu,” Hor. Ars P. 105-7.

3. An early reading may have been ὥσπερ εὐθυμούμεθα ὅταν μηδὲν ὅλως ἡμᾶς ταράττῃ μηδὲ παραλυπῇ.

7. προχειρότατον: lit. ‘readiest to hand.’—The verb προχειρίζεσθαι is used often by Dionysius ( 76 2, 236 21, 250 13) in the meaning ‘to select.’

13. ταῦτα δὴ παρατηροῦντα: Dionysius would (as the trend of his argument throughout the treatise shows) have an author not only observe, but improve upon, the methods of ordinary people. There is no real discrepancy between this passage and that quoted ( 78 18 supra) from Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria.

17. ῥυθμοὺς ὀλίγους: the two feet (dactyl and spondee) apparently are meant. Of course, the hexameter line can be so divided as to yield longer feet such as the βακχεῖος (see 206 11) or the molossus; but such divisions are not natural.

18. καινουργῶν ... καὶ φιλοτεχνῶν: see D.H. p. 46.

26. Here, and in 202 8, πέτρος is used to represent Homer’s λᾶας: in 202 10, 13, πέτρα. ὄχθος ( 202 9) = Homer’s λόφος.

δηλώσει ταῦτα μιμητικῶς καὶ κατ’ αὐτὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν τῶν
ὀνομάτων, ἄξιον ἰδεῖν·

καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ’ ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα,
λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρῃσιν·
ἦ τοι ὁ μὲν σκηριπτόμενος χερσίν τε ποσίν τε      5
λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον·

ἐνταῦθα ἡ σύνθεσίς ἐστιν ἡ δηλοῦσα τῶν γινομένων ἕκαστον,
τὸ βάρος τοῦ πέτρου, τὴν ἐπίπονον ἐκ τῆς γῆς κίνησιν, τὸν
διερειδόμενον τοῖς κώλοις, τὸν ἀναβαίνοντα πρὸς τὸν ὄχθον,
τὴν μόλις ἀνωθουμένην πέτραν· οὐδεὶς ἂν ἄλλως εἴποι. καὶ      10
παρὰ τί γέγονε τούτων ἕκαστον; οὐ μὰ Δί’ εἰκῇ γε οὐδ’
ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου. πρῶτον μὲν ἐν τοῖς δυσὶ στίχοις οἷς
ἀνακυλίει τὴν πέτραν, ἔξω δυεῖν ῥημάτων τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς λέξεως
μόρια πάντ’ ἐστὶν ἤτοι δισύλλαβα ἢ μονοσύλλαβα· ἔπειτα
τῷ ἡμίσει πλείους εἰσὶν αἱ μακραὶ συλλαβαὶ τῶν βραχειῶν      15
ἐν ἑκατέρῳ τῶν στίχων· ἔπειτα πᾶσαι διαβεβήκασιν αἱ τῶν
ὀνομάτων ἁρμονίαι διαβάσεις εὐμεγέθεις καὶ διεστήκασι πάνυ
αἰσθητῶς, ἢ τῶν φωνηέντων γραμμάτων συγκρουομένων ἢ τῶν
ἡμιφώνων τε καὶ ἀφώνων συναπτομένων· ῥυθμοῖς τε δακτύλοις
καὶ σπονδείοις τοῖς μηκίστοις καὶ πλείστην ἔχουσι διάβασιν      20
ἅπαντα σύγκειται. τί δή ποτ’ οὖν τούτων ἕκαστον δύναται;
αἱ μὲν μονοσύλλαβοί τε καὶ δισύλλαβοι λέξεις, πολλοὺς τοὺς
μεταξὺ χρόνους ἀλλήλων ἀπολείπουσαι, τὸ χρόνιον ἐμιμήσαντο
τοῦ ἔργου· αἱ δὲ μακραὶ συλλαβαί, στηριγμούς τινας ἔχουσαι
καὶ ἐγκαθίσματα, τὴν ἀντιτυπίαν καὶ τὸ βαρὺ καὶ τὸ μόλις·      25
τὸ δὲ μεταξὺ τῶν ὀνομάτων ψῦγμα καὶ ἡ τῶν τραχυνόντων

[203]

worth while to observe how Homer will express this by a mimicry which the very arrangement of his words produces:—

There Sisyphus saw I receiving his guerdon of mighty pain:
A monster rock upheaving with both hands aye did he strain;
With feet firm-fixed, palms pressed, with gasps, with toil most sore,
That rock to a high hill’s crest heaved he.[170]

Here it is the composition that brings out each of the details—the weight of the stone, the laborious movement of it from the ground, the straining of the man’s limbs, his slow ascent towards the ridge, the difficulty of thrusting the rock upwards. No one will deny the effect produced. And on what does the execution of each detail depend? Certainly the results do not come by chance or of themselves. To begin with: in the two lines in which Sisyphus rolls up the rock, with the exception of two verbs all the component words of the passage are either disyllables or monosyllables. Next, the long syllables are half as numerous again as the short ones in each of the two lines. Then, all the words are so arranged as to advance, as it were, with giant strides, and the gaps between them are distinctly perceptible, in consequence of the concurrence of vowels or the juxtaposition of semi-vowels and mutes; and the dactylic and spondaic rhythms of which the lines are composed are the longest possible and take the longest possible stride. Now, what is the effect of these several details? The monosyllabic and disyllabic words, leaving many intervals between each other, suggest the duration of the action; while the long syllables, which require a kind of pause and prolongation, reproduce the resistance, the heaviness, the difficulty. The inhalation between the words and the juxtaposition

8 μέτρου F   9 ὄχλον F   10 μόλις EF: μόγις PMV || ἄλλος F   11 οὐ μὰ Δί’ Radermacher: οὐκ ἂν F: οὐ γὰρ PMV   12 μὲν ἐν Schaefer: μὲν FMV: ἐν P, E   13 ἀνακυλίει EF: ἀνακινεῖ PV   15 μακραὶ om. F   16 ἔπειτα πᾶσαι F: ἔπειθ’ ἅπασαι PMV || διαβεβλήκασιν F   18 γραμμάτων FP: om. EMV   19 τε (post ῥυθμοῖς) F: τε καὶ EPMV   21 ποτ’ οὖν F: om. PMV   22 τοὺς EF: om. PMV   25 βαρὺ EFM2V: βραδὺ PM1 || μόλις EF: μόγις PMV

6. Cp. Demetr. de Eloc. § 72 ἐν δὲ τῷ μεγαλοπρεπεῖ χαρακτῆρι σύγκρουσις παραλαμβάνοιτ’ ἂν πρέπουσα ἤτοι διὰ μακρῶν, ὡς τὸ “λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε.” καὶ γὰρ ὁ στίχος μῆκός τι ἔσχεν ἐκ τῆς συγκρούσεως, καὶ μεμίμηται τοῦ λίθου τὴν ἀναφορὰν καὶ βίαν. So Eustathius: τὸ δὲ “λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον” ἐπαινεῖται χάριν τῆς συνθήκης. ἐμφαίνει γὰρ τὴν δυσχέρειαν τοῦ τῆς ὠθήσεως ἔργου τῇ τῶν φωνηέντων ἐπαλληλίᾳ, δι’ ὧν ὀγκούντων τὸ στόμα οὐκ ἐᾶται τρέχειν ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ’ ὀκνηρὰ βαίνει συνεξομοιούμενος τῇ ἐργωδίᾳ τοῦ ἄνω ὠθεῖν. The Homeric passage is imitated in Pope’s Essay on Criticism, “When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw, | The line too labours, and the words move slow.”—For the effect of the long unblended vowels cp. the first of Virgil’s two well-known lines, “ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam | scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum” (Georg. i. 282).

15. It is not easy to see how this result is reached. Perhaps in l. 5 the last syllable of ἤτοι is counted long for the purpose of the argument. A perception of the difficulty may have led to the omission of μακραί in F.

18. The meaning is: ‘either by repetition of vowels [ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα, λᾶαν] or by the juxtaposition of semi-vowels and mutes [with the semi-vowels first: μὴν Σίσυφον, εἰσεῖδον κρατερά, λᾶαν βαστάζοντα].’—In 204 15 the words πέδονδε κυλίνδετο may be taken to express the ‘bumps’ of the stone as it rolls down.

22. Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 98 “est enim quoddam in ipsa divisione verborum latens tempus, ut in pentametri medio spondeo, qui nisi alterius verbi fine alterius initio constat, versum non efficit.”—The effect of the short syllables in counterfeiting delay may be illustrated by Cic. pro Milone 11. 28 “paulisper, dum se uxor, ut fit, comparat, commoratus est.”

γραμμάτων παράθεσις τὰ διαλείμματα τῆς ἐνεργείας καὶ τὰς
ἐποχὰς καὶ τὸ τοῦ μόχθου μέγεθος· οἱ ῥυθμοὶ δ’ ἐν μήκει
θεωρούμενοι τὴν ἔκτασιν τῶν μελῶν καὶ τὸν διελκυσμὸν τοῦ
κυλίοντος καὶ τὴν τοῦ πέτρου ἔρεισιν. καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα οὐ
φύσεώς ἐστιν αὐτοματιζούσης ἔργα ἀλλὰ τέχνης μιμήσασθαι      5
πειρωμένης τὰ γινόμενα, τὰ τούτοις ἑξῆς λεγόμενα δηλοῖ. τὴν
γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς κορυφῆς ἐπιστρέφουσαν πάλιν καὶ κατακυλιομένην
πέτραν οὐ τὸν αὐτὸν ἡρμήνευκε τρόπον, ἀλλ’ ἐπιταχύνας τε
καὶ συστρέψας τὴν σύνθεσιν· προειπὼν γὰρ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ
σχήματι      10

ἀλλ’ ὅτε μέλλοι
ἄκρον ὑπερβαλέειν

ἐπιτίθησι τοῦτο

τότ’ ἐπιστρέψασκε κραταιίς·
αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής.      15

οὐχὶ συγκατακεκύλισται τῷ βάρει τῆς πέτρας ἡ τῶν ὀνομάτων
σύνθεσις, μᾶλλον δὲ ἔφθακε τὴν τοῦ λίθου φορὰν τὸ
τῆς ἀπαγγελίας τάχος; ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ. καὶ τίς ἐνταῦθα πάλιν
αἰτία; καὶ γὰρ ταύτην ἄξιον ἰδεῖν· ὁ τὴν καταφορὰν δηλῶν
τοῦ πέτρου στίχος μονοσύλλαβον μὲν οὐδεμίαν, δισυλλάβους      20
δὲ δύο μόνας ἔχει λέξεις. τοῦτ’ οὖν καὶ πρῶτον οὐ διίστησι
τοὺς χρόνους ἀλλ’ ἐπιταχύνει· ἔπειθ’ ἑπτακαίδεκα συλλαβῶν
οὐσῶν ἐν τῷ στίχῳ δέκα μέν εἰσι βραχεῖαι συλλαβαί, ἑπτὰ
δὲ μακραί, οὐδ’ αὗται τέλειοι· ἀνάγκη δὴ κατασπᾶσθαι καὶ

[205]

of rough letters indicate the pauses in his efforts, the delays, the vastness of the toil. The rhythms, when it is observed how long-drawn-out they are, betoken the straining of his limbs, the struggle of the man as he rolls his burden, and the upheaving of the stone. And that this is not the work of Nature improvising, but of art attempting to reproduce a scene, is proved by the words that follow these. For the poet has represented the return of the rock from the summit and its rolling downward in quite another fashion; he quickens and abbreviates his composition. Having first said, in the same form as the foregoing,

but a little more,
And atop of the ridge would it rest[171]—

he adds to this,

some Power back turned it again:
Rushing the pitiless boulder went rolling adown to the plain.[172]

Do not the words thus arranged roll downhill together with the impetus of the rock? Indeed, does not the speed of the narration outstrip the rush of the stone? I certainly think so. And what is the reason here again? It is worth noticing. The line which described the downrush of the stone has no monosyllabic words, and only two disyllabic. Now this, in the first place, does not break up the phrases but hurries them on. In the second place, of the seventeen syllables in the line ten are short, seven long, and not even these seven are perfect. So

1 καὶ τὰς ἐποχὰς EF: ἐποχάς τε PMV   6 τὴν ... ἐπιστρέφουσαν ... κατακυλιομένην πέτραν EF: τὸν ... ἐπιστρέφοντα ... κατακυλιόμενον πέτρον PMV   13 τοῦτο EFM1: τούτω PM2V   14 ἐπιστρέψασ κε P, E: ἐπιστέψασ (ρ suprascr.) καὶ F, MV: ἀποστρέψασκε Hom. || κραταὶ· ἲσ P: κραταις F: κραταιὴ ἴς MV   15 αὖθις PMV   16 συγκατακεκύλισται PMV: συγκυλίεται EF   18 ἐμοί τε PM: ἐμοὶ F   19 ταύτην PMV: ταύτης F || ἄξιον ἰδεῖν PV: ἰδεῖν ἄξιόν ἐστιν F   21 οὖν καὶ F(E): οὐκ ἐᾶι P, MV || οὐ διίστησι E: οὐδ’ ἵστησι F: διεστηκέναι PMV   24 δὲ F: δὲ μόναι PMV || οὐδ’ F: καὶ οὐδ’ PMV || αὗται F: αὐταὶ PMV || τέλειοι FPV: τέλειαι M || δὴ F: οὖν PMV || κατασπᾶσθαι F: κατεσπάσθαι PM: κατεσπᾶσθαι V

15. “Downward anon to the valley rebounded the boulder remorseless” (Sandys, in Jebb’s Rhetoric of Aristotle p. 172). Voss marks the contrast between the slow and the rapid line by translating the one by “Eines Marmors Schwere mit grosser Gewalt fortheben,” and the other by “Hurtig mit Donnergepolter entrollte der tückische Marmor.”—For similar adaptations of sound to sense cp. Lucret. iii. 1000 “hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte | saxum quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum | volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi”; Virg. Aen. vi. 616 “saxum ingens volvunt alii, radiisque rotarum | districti pendent”; id. ib. viii. 596 “quadripedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum” (in imitation of Il. xxiii. 116); id. ib. v. 481 “sternitur exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos”; id. ib. ii. 304-8 “in segetem ... de vertice pastor”; Racine Phèdre v. 6 “L’essieu crie et se rompt: l’intrépide Hippolyte | Voit voler en éclats tout son char fracassé; | Dans les rênes lui-même il tombe embarrassé”; Pope’s “Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone” (Odyss. xi.) or his “That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along” (Essay on Criticism), as compared with his “Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground” (Odyss. xi.).—It is an interesting question whether Dionysius overstates his case when he makes ‘Homer’ as conscious and sedulous an artist (ἀεί τι καινουργῶν καὶ φιλοτεχνῶν, 200 18) as any later imitator. It is, however, unlikely that even the earliest poets who were late enough to produce consummate music were insensible to the effect of the music they produced. But great poets in all ages have had their ear so attuned by long use and practice to the music of sounds as to choose the right letters, syllables, and words almost unconsciously.

19. ταύτην: Usener reads ταῦτ’ ἦν: but (1) ταύτην refers naturally to αἰτία; (2) with ἄξιον the verb is often omitted, e.g. 186 19, 202 2; (3) if there were a verb, ἐστίν would here be more natural than ἦν.

22. The meaning is that the absence of short words implies the absence of frequent breaks, and this absence contributes to rapid utterance.

24. τέλειοι, ‘perfect longs.’ The diphthongs in αὖτις, ἔπειτα, and ἀναιδής, are simply long by nature; they are not long by position as well. The ο in πέδονδε, and the ι in κυλίνδετο, are long by position but not by nature. The ᾶ in λᾶας, and the η in ἀναιδής, are long by nature but not (in the former case) by position. “Of the seven long syllables not one—except the last—contains more elements than are needful to make it pass for long and at the same time avoid hiatus; that is, no long vowel or diphthong is followed by more than one consonant; two consonants occur only where required to extend a short vowel to a long syllable” (Goodell Greek Metric p. 175). Compare 150 22- 154 3, and see also Gloss., s.v. τέλειος.—M here has τέλειαι (not τέλειοι): cp. τελείας in 174 1.

συστέλλεσθαι τὴν φράσιν τῇ βραχύτητι τῶν συλλαβῶν ἐφελκομένην.
ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις οὐδ’ ὄνομα ἀπὸ ὀνόματος ἀξιόλογον
εἴληφεν διάστασιν· οὔτε γὰρ φωνήεντι φωνῆεν οὔτε ἡμιφώνῳ
ἡμίφωνον ἢ ἄφωνον, ἃ δὴ τραχύνειν πέφυκεν καὶ διιστάναι
τὰς ἁρμονίας, οὐδέν ἐστι παρακείμενον. οὐ δὴ γίνεται διάστασις      5
αἰσθητὴ μὴ διηρτημένων τῶν λέξεων, ἀλλὰ συνολισθαίνουσιν
ἀλλήλαις καὶ συγκαταφέρονται καὶ τρόπον τινὰ μία
ἐξ ἁπασῶν γίνεται διὰ τὴν τῶν ἁρμονιῶν ἀκρίβειαν. ὃ δὲ
μάλιστα τῶν ἄλλων θαυμάζειν ἄξιον, ῥυθμὸς οὐδεὶς τῶν
μακρῶν οἳ φύσιν ἔχουσιν πίπτειν εἰς μέτρον ἡρωϊκόν, οὔτε      10
σπονδεῖος οὔτε βακχεῖος ἐγκαταμέμικται τῷ στίχῳ, πλὴν ἐπὶ
τῆς τελευτῆς· οἱ δ’ ἄλλοι πάντες εἰσὶ δάκτυλοι, καὶ οὗτοι
παραδεδιωγμένας ἔχοντες τὰς ἀλόγους, ὥστε μὴ πολὺ διαφέρειν
ἐνίους τῶν τροχαίων. οὐδὲν δὴ τὸ ἀντιπρᾶττον ἐστὶν εὔτροχον
καὶ περιφερῆ καὶ καταρρέουσαν εἶναι τὴν φράσιν ἐκ τοιούτων      15
συγκεκροτημένην ῥυθμῶν. πολλά τις ἂν ἔχοι τοιαῦτα δεῖξαι
παρ’ Ὁμήρῳ λεγόμενα· ἐμοὶ δὲ ἀποχρῆν δοκεῖ καὶ ταῦτα, ἵν’
ἐγγένηταί μοι καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων εἰπεῖν.

ὧν μὲν οὖν δεῖ στοχάζεσθαι τοὺς μέλλοντας ἡδεῖαν καὶ
καλὴν ποιήσειν σύνθεσιν ἔν τε ποιητικῇ καὶ λόγοις ἀμέτροις,      20
ταῦτα κατ’ ἐμὴν δόξαν ἐστὶ τὰ γοῦν κυριώτατα καὶ κράτιστα.
ὅσα δὲ οὐχ οἷά τε ἦν, ἐλάττω τε ὄντα τούτων καὶ ἀμυδρότερα
καὶ διὰ πλῆθος δυσπερίληπτα μιᾷ γραφῇ, ταῦτ’ ἐν ταῖς καθ’
ἡμέραν γυμνασίαις προσυποθήσομαί σοι, καὶ πολλῶν καὶ ἀγαθῶν
ποιητῶν τε καὶ συγγραφέων καὶ ῥητόρων μαρτυρίοις χρήσομαι.      25
νυνὶ δὲ τὰ καταλειπόμενα ὧν ὑπεσχόμην καὶ οὐδενὸς ἧττον
ἀναγκαῖα εἰρῆσθαι, ταῦτ’ ἔτι προσθεὶς τῷ λόγῳ παύσομαι

[207]

the line has to go tumbling down-hill in a heap, dragged forward by the shortness of the syllables. Moreover, one word is not divided from another by any appreciable interval, for vowel does not meet vowel, nor semi-vowel or mute meet semi-vowel—conjunctions the natural effect of which is to make the connexions harsher and less close-fitting. There is, in fact, no perceptible division if the words are not forced asunder, but they slip into one another and are swept along, and a sort of great single word is formed out of all owing to the closeness of the junctures. And what is most surprising of all, not one of the long feet which naturally fit into the heroic metre—whether spondee or bacchius—has been introduced into the line, except at the end. All the rest are dactyls, and these with their irrational syllables hurried along, so that some of the feet do not differ much from trochees. Accordingly nothing hinders the line from being rapid, rounded and swift-flowing, welded together as it is from such rhythms as this. Many such passages could be pointed out in Homer. But I think the foregoing lines amply sufficient, and I must leave myself time to discuss the remaining points.

The aims, then, which should be steadily kept in view by those who mean to form a charming and noble style, alike in poetry and in prose, are in my opinion those already mentioned. These, at all events, are the most essential and effective. But those which I have been unable to mention, as being more minute and more obscure than these, and, owing to their number, hard to embrace in a single treatise, I will bring before you in our daily lessons, and I will draw illustrations in support of my views from many good poets, historians, and orators. But now I will go on to add to this work, before concluding it, the remainder of the points which I promised to treat of, and the discussion of which is as indispensable as any: viz. what

1 συστέλεσθαι P: συντελεῖσθαι F   4 διιστάναι F: διιστάνειν PMV   5 διάτασις F   6 διηρτημένη F   10 ἡρωϊκὸν F: ἡρῶιον P, MV   12 οὗτοι F: οὗτοί γε PMV   17 δοκεῖ καὶ FM: ἐδόκει P: εἰδοκεῖ V   19 ἡδεῖαν καὶ καλὴν F: καλὴν καὶ ἡδεῖαν PMV   23 μιᾶι F: μὴ PM: om. V   24 σοι καὶ PMV: καὶ F || ἀγαθῶν καὶ ποιητῶν τε (τε om. M) καὶ P, M   25 μαρτυρίοις F: μαρτυρι(ας) P: μαρτυρίαις MV   26 νυνὶ F: νῦν PMV

1. τῇ βραχύτητι κτλ.: i.e. the utterance must necessarily be rapid when the syllables are short and trip along.

2. “Again, as between words, there is no hiatus, no semi-vowel or mute meets a semi-vowel, there is no rhetorical pause and no elision, the words almost run together into one” (Goodell Greek Metric p. 175).

11. βακχεῖος: see note on 200 17 supra.

13. τὰς ἀλόγους [συλλαβάς]: i.e. the long syllables in πέδονδε and κυλίνδετο.—With Usener’s conjecture παραμεμιγμένας the meaning will be “and these too are such as have irrational syllables incorporated with them.”

14. τροχαίων: Schaefer suggests τριβραχέων, Sauppe χορείων.

18. ἐγγένηται: cp. Antiqq. Rom. vi. 9 ὦ μακάριοι μέν, οἷς ἂν ἐγγένηται τὸν ἐκ τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου θρίαμβον καταγαγεῖν. In 68 11 σχολή is added, ἐὰν δ’ ἐγγένηταί μοι σχολή: and in 224 22 χρόνος is found in P and V.

23. ἐν ταῖς καθ’ ἡμέραν γυμνασίαις: this is one of the incidental references which show that Dionysius taught rhetoric at Rome.

* * * τίνες εἰσὶ διαφοραὶ τῆς συνθέσεως καὶ τίς ἑκάστης
χαρακτὴρ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ, τῶν τε πρωτευσάντων ἐν αὐταῖς
μνησθῆναι καὶ δείγματα ἑκάστου παρασχεῖν, ὅταν δὲ ταῦτα
λάβῃ μοι τέλος, τότε κἀκεῖνα διευκρινῆσαι τὰ παρὰ τοῖς
πολλοῖς ἀπορούμενα, τί ποτ’ ἐστὶν ὃ ποιεῖ τὴν μὲν πεζὴν      5
λέξιν ὁμοίαν ποιήματι φαίνεσθαι μένουσαν ἐν τῷ τοῦ λόγου
σχήματι, τὴν δὲ ποιητικὴν φράσιν ἐμφερῆ τῷ πεζῷ λόγῳ
φυλάττουσαν τὴν ποιητικὴν σεμνότητα· σχεδὸν γὰρ οἱ
κράτιστα διαλεχθέντες ἢ ποιήσαντες ταῦτ’ ἔχουσιν ἐν τῇ
λέξει τἀγαθά. πειρατέον δὴ καὶ περὶ τούτων, ἃ φρονῶ,      10
λέγειν. ἄρξομαι δ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου.