Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Literary Composition / Being the Greek Text of the De Compositione Verborum
Date: 2015-10-14T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Rhetoric -- Early works to 1800

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Title: Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Literary Composition

Author: of Halicarnassus Dionysius

Editor: W. Rhys Roberts

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Errata:

Page 40: ὠδῇ -> ᾠδῇ
Page 108, note 16: οὐδεμίας -> οὐδεμιᾶς
Page 109, line 21: μηδεμίας -> μηδεμιᾶς
Page 112, note 14: διάνοιας -> διανοίας
Page 182, note 9: Διά -> Δία
Page 188, critical apparatus to line 5: συγκαμφθείς -> συγκαμφθεὶς
Page 204, line 11: ἀλλ -> ἀλλ’
Page 232, line 1: οὐχι -> οὐχὶ
Page 334, s.v. ᾠδή: ὠδικός -> ᾠδικός

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

On Literary Composition

BEING THE GREEK TEXT OF THE

DE COMPOSITIONE VERBORVM

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, TRANSLATION, NOTES

GLOSSARY, AND APPENDICES

BY

W. RHYS ROBERTS

Litt.D. (Cambridge), Hon. Ll.D. (St. Andrews)

PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

FORMERLY FELLOW OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

EDITOR OF ‘DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS: THE THREE LITERARY LETTERS,’ ETC.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON

1910

EQVITI INSIGNI

NATHAN BODINGTON

VNIVERSITATIS LOIDENSIS VICE-CANCELLARIO PRIMO

HVNC LIBRVM DAT DICAT DEDICAT

EDITOR COLLEGA AMICVS

Tantum series iuncturaque pollet,
Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris.

Horace Ars Poetica 242, 243.

See Dionysius Homer’s thoughts refine,
And call new beauties forth from every line.

Pope Essay on Criticism 665, 666.

PREFACE

It is a happy instinct that leads Pope to find in Dionysius a gifted interpreter of Homer’s poetry, who can ‘call new beauties forth from every line.’ In his entire attitude, not only towards Homer but towards Sappho and Simonides, Herodotus and Demosthenes, Dionysius has proved that he can rise above the debased standards of the ages immediately preceding his own, and can discern and proclaim a classic excellence. He has thus contributed not a little to confirm our belief in the essential continuity of critical principles—in the existence of a firm and permanent basis for the judgments of taste.[1]

The breadth of interest and the discriminating enthusiasm with which in the present treatise Dionysius of Halicarnassus (or ‘Denis of Halicarnasse’, as we might prefer to call him) approaches his special subject of literary composition, or word-order, may be inferred from the table of contents, the detailed summary, and the brief statement on page 10 of the Introduction.[2] It is an interest which impels him to touch, incidentally but most suggestively, on such topics as Greek Pronunciation, Accent, Music. It is an enthusiasm which prompts him to speak of ‘words soft as a maiden’s cheek’ (ὀνόματα μαλακὰ καὶ παρθενωπά), to describe Homer as ‘of all poets the most many-voiced’ (πολυφωνότατος ἁπάντων τῶν ποιητῶν), and to attribute to Thucydides ‘an old-world and masterful nobility of style’ (ἀρχαϊκόν τι καὶ αὔθαδες κάλλος). Expressions so apt and vivid as these, together with the easy flow and natural arrangement of the whole treatise, tend to prove that Dionysius is not laboriously compiling his matter as he goes along, but is writing out of a full mind, is dealing with a subject which has long occupied his thoughts, and is imparting one section only of a large and well-ordered body of critical doctrine in the command of which he feels secure.

That to the Greeks literature was an art—that with them, the sound was echo to the sense—that they were keenly alive to all the magic and music of beautiful speech: where shall we find these truths more vividly brought out than in the present treatise? And if we are still to teach the great Greek authors in the original language and not in translations, surely it is of supreme importance to lay stress on points of artistic form, most especially in a literature where form and substance are so indissolubly allied as in that of Greece and when we are fortunate enough to have the aid of a writer who knows so well as does Dionysius (see page 41) that noble style is but the reflection of those noble thoughts and feelings which should inspire a nation’s life. Nevertheless, the de Compositione lies almost dead and forgotten, seldom mentioned and still more seldom read; and one is sometimes tempted to think of the eager curiosity with which it would most certainly be welcomed had it lately been discovered in the sands of Egypt or in some buried house at Herculaneum. A new ode of Sappho, and a ‘precious tender-hearted scroll of pure Simonides,’ would rejoice the man of letters, while the philologist would revel in the stray hints upon Greek pronunciation. So striking an addition to the Greek criticism of Greek literature would be hailed with acclamation, and it would be gladly acknowledged that its skilful author had known how to enliven a difficult subject by means of eloquence, enthusiasm, humour, variety in vocabulary and in method of presentation generally, and had made his readers realize that the beauty of a verse or of a prose period largely depends upon the harmonious collocation of those sounds of which human speech primarily consists.

A word may be said upon some of the modern bearings of the treatise. Dionysius is undoubtedly right in holding that consummate poets are consummate craftsmen—that even so early a poet as Homer φιλοτεχνεῖ. Our British habit of thought leads us to dwell on the spontaneity of literary achievement rather than on its artistic finish. We are apt to sneer, as some degenerate Greeks did in Dionysius’ time (pages 262-270), at the contention that even genius cannot dispense with literary pains, and to insist in a one-sided way on the axiom that where genius begins rules end. But a reference to the greatest names in our own literature will confirm the view that the highest excellence must be preceded by study and practice, however eminent the natural gifts of an author may be. Would any one hesitate to say whether Paradise Lost or Lycidas is the more mature example of Miltonic poetry? Shakespeare, with his creative genius and all-embracing humanity, may seem to soar far above these so-called artificial trammels. But, here again, could any one doubt, on grounds of style alone, whether Hamlet or The Two Gentlemen of Verona was the earlier play? To be able fully to appreciate such differences is no small result of a literary education; and though the rhetoric of each language is in a large degree special to that language, it is notwithstanding true that our western literatures are closely interrelated—that they should continually be compared and contrasted—and that modern literary theory can gain much in stimulus and suggestion from that ancient literary theory which had its origin in Greece, and which by way of Rome (where Dionysius taught Greek literature in the age of Horace) was transmitted to the modern world.

In the present edition an endeavour has been made to suggest some of the many points at which Dionysius’ principles and precepts are applicable to the modern languages and literatures. Efforts, too, have been made to smooth away, by means of the Glossary and the English Translation, those technical difficulties which might easily deter even the advanced Greek student (not to mention the wider of cultivated readers generally) from seeking in the de Compositione that literary help which it is so well able to give. The edition has been many years in preparation; and special pains have been taken with the English Translation, as it is the first to be published and as its execution presents great and obvious difficulties. The Glossary will show how rich and varied is Dionysius’ rhetorical terminology, and it may also serve as a contribution towards that new Lexicon of Greek and Roman Rhetoric which is a pressing need. It seems not unnatural to treat thus fully a work of which no annotated edition in any language has appeared for a hundred years. For the constitution of the Greek text, on the other hand, the recent critical edition of Dionysius’ literary essays by Usener and Radermacher is of the highest importance. The present editor desires here to acknowledge the debt he owes to their admirable apparatus criticus, the exhaustiveness of which he has not attempted to equal, though he has thought it desirable to report (with their aid) a good many seemingly insignificant errors or variants which may serve to throw some light on the comparative value of the chief documentary authorities. He may add that he has himself collated, for the purposes of the present recension, the best Paris manuscript (P 1741, which contains Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics, Demetrius de Elocutione, Dionysius de Compositione Verborum and Ep. ii. ad Amm., etc.), and that he has explained on pages 56-60 his views with regard to some of the textual problems presented by the treatise.

It is a pleasure further to acknowledge the ever ready aid he has received from his personal friends—-from Dr. A. S. Way, who has not only contributed the verse-translations throughout the treatise but has given help of unusual range and worth in other directions also, and from Mr. L. H. G. Greenwood, Mr. G. B. Mathews, Mr. P. N. Ure, and Professor T. Hudson Williams, who have read the proofs and made most valuable suggestions. Nor should the great care shown in the printing of the book by Messrs. R. & R. Clark’s able staff of compositors and readers be passed over without a word of grateful mention.

It may perhaps not be out of place to state in conclusion that the editor hopes next to publish, in continuation of this series of contributions to the study of the Greek literary critics, a number of essays and dissertations grouped round the Rhetoric of Aristotle. The Rhetoric is a remarkable product of its great author’s maturity, in reading which constant reference should be made to Aristotle’s other works, to the writings of his predecessors, and to those later Greek and Roman critics who illustrate it in so many ways. Studies of the kind indicated ought to contain much of modern and permanent interest. Not long ago a distinguished man of science wrote, ‘one literary art, the art of rhetoric, may be weakened and lost when the scientific spirit becomes predominant—that sort of rhetoric, I mean, which may be fitly described as insincere eloquence. Rhetoric seeks above all to persuade, and in a completely scientific age men will only allow themselves to be persuaded by force of reason.’ The writer seems to recognize that there may be a good as well as a bad rhetoric, but perhaps it hardly falls within his scope to make it clear that the Greeks, from whom the art and the term come, were themselves well aware of this fact, even though the age in which they lived might not be completely scientific. The vicious type of rhetoric which he justly censures is exemplified in the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum. In this book—for whose date the antiquity of a recently-discovered manuscript (published in the Hibeh Papyri i. 114 ff.) suggests the age of Aristotle, though Aristotle himself is certainly not the author—the aim of rhetoric is assumed to be persuasion at any price. But how different is the spirit of Plato in the Phaedrus and the Gorgias, and of Aristotle in the Rhetoric. To take Aristotle only. He looks at rhetoric with the sincerity of a lover of truth and with the breadth of a lover of wisdom. He recognizes that the art may be abused; but ‘so may all good things except virtue itself, and particularly the most useful things, such as strength, health, wealth, generalship.’ Its function is ‘not to persuade, but to ascertain in any given case the available means of persuasion.’ Mental self-defence is a duty no less than physical self-defence; but though it is necessary to know bad arguments in order to be ready to parry them, we must not use them ourselves (for ‘one must not be the advocate of evil’), nor must we try to warp the feelings of the judge (for this would be like ‘making crooked a carpenter’s rule which you are about to use’). Season must be our weapon, and we must have confidence that the truth will prevail (for ‘truth and justice are by nature stronger than their opposites’ and ‘what is true and better is by nature the easier to prove and the more convincing’). The whole work is conceived in the same spirit—that of attention to truth rather than to mere persuasion, to matter rather than to manner, to the solid facts of human nature rather than to the shallow blandishments of style. The author of the most scientific treatise that has yet been written on rhetoric manifestly held a lofty view of his subject; and so far from commending an insincere eloquence, he says less than we could wish about literary beauties and the arts of style. Here Dionysius, in his various critical works, happily serves to supplement him. Though he has the art of speaking specially in view, Dionysius draws his literary illustrations from so wide a field that the art of literature may be regarded as his theme. The method he inculcates is that which every literary aspirant follows, consciously or unconsciously, in regard to his own language—the reading and imitation of the great writers by whom its capacities have been enlarged. To us, no less than to his Roman pupil Rufus, the practice and the precepts of those Greeks who attained an unsurpassed excellence in the art of literature have an enduring interest. For they help the fruitful study of our own literature; and that literature, we all rejoice to think, has not only a great past behind it but a great future in store for it.

The University, Leeds,
December 6, 1909.

CONTENTS

| PAGE |
INTRODUCTION— |
I. Summary of the ‘de Compositione’ | 1
II. The Order of Words in Greek— |
A. Freedom and Elasticity | 11
B. Normal Order | 14
C. Lucidity | 15
D. Emphasis | 17
E. Euphony | 27
F. Greek and Latin and Modern Languages | 29
G. Prose and Poetry: Rhythm and Metre | 33
III. Other Matters arising in the ‘de Compositione’— |
A. Greek Music: in relation to the Greek Language | 39
B. Accent in Ancient Greek | 41
C. Pronunciation of Ancient Greek | 43
D. Greek Grammar | 46
E. Sources of the Treatise | 47
F. Quotations and Literary References in it | 49
G. Manuscripts and Text of it | 56
H. Recent Writings connected with it | 59
TEXT, Translation, and Notes (Critical and Explanatory) | 64
Glossary | 285
Appendices— |
A. Obscurity in Greek | 335
B. Illustrations of Word-Order in Greek and Modern Languages | 342
C. Greek Pronunciation: Scheme of the Classical Association | 348
Indices—
A. Passages quoted in the ‘de Compositione’ | 353
B. Names and Matters | 354

INTRODUCTION

I

Summary of the de Compositione

A general account of the life and literary activities of Dionysius will be found in the volume entitled Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters, where the de Compositione Verborum is briefly described in connexion with the other critical essays of its author. Here a fuller summary of the treatise seems necessary before an attempt is made to estimate its value and to follow up some of the highly interesting questions which it raises.

The date of the de Compositione is not known, but may be conjectured to lie between the years 20 and 10 B.C. The book is a birthday offering from Dionysius, as a teacher of rhetoric in Rome, to his pupil Rufus Metilius.

c. 1. This book is a birthday present which deals with the art of speech, and so will be found particularly useful to youths who look forward to a public career. Oratorical excellence depends on skill exercised in two directions—in the sphere of subject matter and in the sphere of expression (πραγματικὸς τόπος and λεκτικὸς τόπος). In the former sphere, maturity of judgment and experience is required: in the latter the young are more at home, but they need careful guidance at the start. The λεκτικὸς τόπος has two subdivisions, ἐκλογὴ ὀνομάτων and σύνθεσις ὀνομάτων. The composition of words is to be treated now: the choice of words is to be treated next year, if Heaven keeps the author “safe and sound.” The chief headings in the present treatise are to be the following:—

(1) The nature of composition, and its effect;

(2) Its aims, and how it attains them;

(3) Its varieties, with their characteristic features and the author’s preferences among them;

(4) The poetical element in prose and the prose element in verse, and the means of cultivating both—of imparting the flavour of poetry to prose and the ease of prose to poetry.

c. 2. “Composition is, as the very name indicates, a certain mutual arrangement of the parts of speech, or elements of diction, as some prefer to call them.” The parts of speech recognized by Theodectes and Aristotle and their contemporaries were three in number, viz. nouns, verbs, and connectives. The number was raised, by the Stoics and others, to four through the separation of the article from the connectives. Later were added the adjective, the pronoun, the adverb, the preposition, the participle, and certain other subdivisions. These principal parts of speech form, when joined and set side by side, the cola (‘members,’ ‘clauses’). The union of cola completes the “periods,” and these make up the entire discourse. The functions of composition are to arrange the words fittingly, to assign the proper structure to the cola, and to divide the discourse carefully into periods.

In its effects, though not in order of time, the composition of words comes before the choice of words.

c. 3. Our thoughts are uttered either in verse or in prose. In both alike, composition can invest the lowliest words with charm and distinction. By way of foretaste, two passages (one of poetry, the other of prose) may be quoted in illustration. The first is from the opening of the 16th Odyssey, where the lines allure not by elaborate language or lofty theme, but by the sheer beauty with which the words are grouped. The prose example is furnished by that passage of Herodotus (i. 8-10) which describes the unworthy behaviour of Candaules towards his wife. Here, too, the charm resides not in the incident nor in the words which describe it, but in the deft arrangement of the language.

c. 4. The powerful effect of composition will be still further realized if some choice passages of verse and prose be taken and the order of the words disturbed. Homer and Herodotus once more provide examples. Certain lines in the twelfth and thirteenth books of the Iliad are chosen, and transformed, with disastrous effects, from hexameters into two varieties of tetrameters. A short passage of Herodotus is turned about in a similar way, one of the two versions being in the style of Thucydides, the other in the odious manner of Hegesias. Composition may in fact be likened to the Homeric Athena, who with a touch of her magic wand could make the same Odysseus resemble either a beggar or a gallant prince. The neglect of composition has lamentable results in writers like Duris, Polybius, Chrysippus, and others. Failing to find the subject satisfactorily treated by previous authors, Dionysius has himself endeavoured to discover some natural principle to form a starting-point (φυσικὴ ἀφορμή). He has not succeeded, but he will describe his attempt.

c. 5. It had occurred to him that, in a natural order, verbs would follow nouns and precede adverbs, while things which happened first in time would come first in narration. But these (and other) rules were seen to be untrustworthy, when tested by the actual practice of the great authors.

c. 6. As far as words (or elements of discourse) are concerned, the art of composition operates in three ways—through (1) the choice of elements likely to combine effectively; (2) the discernment of the particular shapes or constructions (i.e. singular or plural number, nominative or oblique case, active or passive voice, etc.) to be given to each element in order that the structure may be improved; (3) the perception of the modification which these shapes need in view of the materials. Each of the processes can be illustrated from the arts of house-building and ship-building—of civil and marine architecture. This analogy is developed at some length.

c. 7. In the case of the cola, the processes are two. (1) The cola must be rightly arranged. For instance, in a passage of Thucydides (iii. 57) the order in which they come makes all the difference. So, too, in Demosthenes de Corona § 119.

c. 8. (2) The right “turn,” or “shaping,” must be given to the cola, so that they may faithfully reflect the various aims and moods of the speaker or writer. A good example will be found in Demosthenes de Corona § 179.

c. 9. Under (2) it is to be noted that the cola may be lengthened or shortened for the sake of literary effect. Examples are given from Demosthenes, Plato, Sophocles, and again Demosthenes.—The same remarks will apply to periods as to cola. Further, the art of composition must determine when it is fitting to employ periods and when not.

c. 10. Next come the aims and methods of good composition. The two chief aims are charm and beauty or nobility: the ear craves these in composition, just as the eye in a work of pictorial art. The two qualities are, however, not identical. Thucydides, for example, and Antiphon possess beauty but lack charm. Ctesias, on the other hand, and Xenophon are charming (pleasing, agreeable), but deficient in beauty. Herodotus combines the two excellences.

c. 11. The chief sources of charm and beauty (or nobility) are four: music, rhythm, variety, and propriety. Charm and beauty, themselves, have many subdivisions. The instinctive appreciation of music and rhythm on the part of a popular audience may be noticed during a performance in some house of entertainment. Variety, too, and propriety are indispensable. As to the music of speech, it is to be observed that there is a sort of oratorical cadence which differs from music proper in quantity only, not in quality. The speaking voice does not rise in pitch above three tones and a half: it confines itself to the interval of the Fifth. The singing voice, on the other hand, uses a greater number of intervals, not only the Fifth but (beginning with the Octave) the Fifth, the Fourth, the Tone, and the Semitone, and, as some think, still slighter intervals. Other points of difference are that, in singing, the words are subordinate to the air, and the length of the syllables is regulated by the musical time. So the speaking voice can show good melody without being “melodic,” and show good rhythms without being “rhythmic.” There is, in fact, music in speech, but not the whole of music.

c. 12. Various sounds affect the ear in various ways. The cause lies in the nature of the letters; and as their nature cannot be changed, there should be a judicious intermixture of pleasant with unpleasant sounds. Short words, too, must be mingled with long, and long with short. The same variety, too, must be practised in the use of figures, and in other ways. But even variety must not be carried to excess: uniformity is sometimes equally pleasant. Tact is needed, and to impart tact is no easy task. It is to be remembered that not even the commonest words need be shunned by good writers: they can all be dignified by means of composition, as is seen in Homer’s poems.

c. 13. Beauty of composition will be attained by the same means as charm of composition,—by melody, rhythm, variety, propriety. And the nature of the letters themselves will play an equal part in determining the character of the composition.

c. 14. The twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet are now examined from the phonetic point of view. The object is to trace to some of its ultimate elements the secret of the variety and music found in beautiful language. The nature and the qualities of the letters must be understood by the writer who would know how to vary his style in an ever-changing and musical way. The letters (γράμματα), or elements (στοιχεῖα), may be divided into vowels (φωνήεντα, φωναί) and consonants (ψόφοι), and the consonants into semivowels (ἡμίφωνα) and mutes (ἄφωνα). The vowels can be pronounced by themselves; the semivowels sound best when combined with vowels; the mutes cannot be uttered at all except in combination. There are seven vowels: two short, ε and ο; two long, η and ω; and three common,—α, ι, and υ. The semivowels are eight in number: five single, viz. λ, μ, ν, ρ, ς, and three double, viz. ζ, ξ, ψ. The nine mutes may be classified as: ψιλά (tenues) κ, π, τ; δασέα (aspiratae) χ, φ, θ; and μέσα (mediae) γ, β, δ. Or they may be arranged according to the part chiefly concerned in their production: whether it is the lip,—π, φ, β; the teeth,—τ, θ, δ; or the throat,—κ, χ, γ. That is to say, Dionysius recognizes (though he does not use the technical adjectives) a division into labials, dentals, and gutturals. Among these various letters a regular hierarchy is established by him. Long vowels are held to be more euphonious than short vowels. The order of euphony for the vowels is, from the top downwards, as follows: ᾱ, η, ω, υ, ι, ο, ε; and (for the semivowels) first the double consonants, then λ, μ, ν, ρ, and lastly ς, which is condemned in strong terms. Among the mutes, the rough (the aspirates) are regarded as superior to the middle, and the middle to the smooth. The physiological processes by which the several letters are produced are described with some particularity in the light of the phonetics of the day.

c. 15. Syllables, as well as letters considered singly, contribute to variety of style. Of the syllables (or small groups of letters) there are many different kinds. The principal difference is that some are short and others long. But the difference does not end there, since some are shorter than the short and others longer than the long. The fact is that, from the metrical point of view, the vowels and final consonants alone count in determining the length of a syllable, whereas in actual delivery the initial consonants also have to be considered. For instance, a speaker will find that the initial syllable of στρόφος takes more time to utter than that of τρόπος; and so with τρόπος by the side of Ῥόδος, and with Ῥόδος by the side of ὁδός. In the same way, σπλήν is really longer than the vowel η standing by itself. And further: syllables differ not only in quantity but in sound, some being pleasant and others unpleasant, according to the nature of the letters which compose them. Great poets and prose-writers have an instinctive perception of these facts, and skilfully adapt their very syllables and letters to the emotions which they wish to portray; e.g. Homer in Odyss. ix. 415, 416, and in Il. xvii. 265, xxii. 220, 221, 476, xviii. 225.

c. 16. Poets and prose-writers frame, or borrow from their predecessors in earlier generations, such imitative forms (words whose sound suggests their sense) as ῥοχθεῖ, κλάγξας, βρέμεται, σμαραγεῖ, ῥοῖζος: all of which are found in Homer. Nature is here the great teacher; she prompts us to use, in their right connexion, words so expressive as μύκημα, χρεμετισμός, φριμαγμός, βρόμος, πάταγος, συριγμός, and the like. The first writer to broach the subject of etymology was Plato, particularly in his Cratylus.

With regard to the music of sounds, the general conclusion is that variety and beauty of style depend upon variety and beauty of words, syllables, and letters. To clinch the matter, Dionysius quotes (with appropriate comments) further illustrations from Homer—Odyssey xvii. 36, 37, vi. 162, 163, etc. Theophrastus, in his work on Style, has distinguished two classes of words—those which are beautiful (or noble) and those which are mean and paltry. Our aim should be to intermingle the latter kind, when we are forced to employ them (as sometimes we are), with the better sort, as has been done by Homer (Il. ii. 494-501) in his enumeration of the Boeotian towns.

c. 17. Rhythm, also, is an important element in good composition. For our present purpose, a rhythm and a foot may be regarded as synonymous. Of disyllabic and trisyllabic feet the following descriptive list is given:—

| A. Disyllabic Feet.
Name. | Quantities. | Qualities.
1. ἡγεμών, πυρρίχιος. | ᴗ ᴗ | Wanting in seriousness and dignity.
2. σπονδεῖος. | – – | Full of dignity.
3. ἴαμβος. | ᴗ – | Not lacking in nobility.
4. τροχαῖος. | – ᴗ | Less manly and noble than the iambus.

B. Trisyllabic Feet

Name. | Quantities. | Qualities.
1. χορεῖος, τρίβραχυς. | ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ | Mean and unimpressive.
2. μολοττός. | – – – | Dignified and far-striding.
3. ἀμφίβραχυς. | ᴗ – ᴗ | Effeminate and unattractive.
4. ἀνάπαιστος. | ᴗ ᴗ – | Stately.
5. δάκτυλος. | – ᴗ ᴗ | Contributes greatly to beauty of style.
6. κρητικός. | – ᴗ – | Not lacking in nobility.
7. βακχεῖος. | – – ᴗ | Virile and grave.
8. ὑποβακχεῖος. | ᴗ – – | Virile and grave.

Various lines are quoted from the poets in order to illustrate the effect of these several feet.

c. 18. As each word has a rhythmical value (great or small) which cannot be changed, all depends on the skill with which we arrange the words at our disposal so as to blend artistically the inferior with the better. To illustrate his meaning, Dionysius quotes, and gives a rhythmical analysis of, passages from Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes. The excerpt from Thucydides is a part of the Funeral Oration attributed to Pericles (ii. 35). The rhythms here used are shown to be dignified ones, such as spondees, anapaests, dactyls, etc. Thucydides, we are told, deservedly has a name for elevation and for choice language, since he habitually introduces noble rhythms. From Plato is taken a short passage of the Menexenus (236 D); and this too is shown to owe its dignity and beauty to the beautiful and striking rhythms that compose it. If Plato had only been as clever in the choice of words as he is unrivalled in the art of combining them, he “had even outstript” Demosthenes, as far as beauty of style is concerned, or “had left the issue in doubt.” Demosthenes is the foremost of orators, and may be regarded as a model alike in his choice of words and in the beauty with which he arranges them. The opening of the Crown, with its careful avoidance of all ignoble rhythms, will prove his pre-eminence. Deficiency in this respect can be illustrated just as conspicuously by the writings of Hegesias, who would seem to have shunned good rhythms out of sheer wilfulness. A passage is quoted from Hegesias’ History—a passage which, if well written, would have moved to sympathetic tears rather than to derisive laughter. With it are contrasted some famous lines of the Iliad (xxii. 395-411) which, we are told, owe their nobility largely to the beauty of their rhythms.

c. 19. The third element in good composition is variety (ἡ μεταβολή). In the use of rhythms to impart variety, prose enjoys much greater freedom than poetry. Epic poets must needs employ the hexameter line: the writers of lyric verse must make antistrophe correspond to strophe, however greatly they may strive for liberty in other respects. That prose style is best which exhibits the greatest variety in the way of periods, clauses, rhythms, figures, and the like; and its charm is all the greater if the art that fashions it lies hidden. In point of variety, Herodotus, Plato and Demosthenes hold the foremost place: Isocrates and his followers are distinguished rather by monotony of style.

c. 20. The fourth element is fitness or propriety (τὸ πρέπον). Propriety is described as the harmony which an author establishes between his style, and the actions and persons of which he treats. Common experience proves that ordinary people, in describing an event, will vary the order of their words (and the point here is the arrangement, not the choice of words) in accordance with the emotions which it excites in them. Similarly, artistic writers should follow their own aesthetic instincts in the matter. Homer has done so with surpassing effect. A fine instance is furnished by the lines (Odyssey xi. 593-598) which depict the torment of Sisyphus—the slow upheaval of his rock, and its rapid rolling down the hill once it has reached the top.

c. 21. After these theoretical and technical discussions there arises the question: what are the different kinds of composition or arrangement,—what are the different harmonies? The answer given is that there are three: (1) the austere (αὐστηρά), (2) the smooth (γλαφυρά), (3) the harmoniously blended (εὔκρατος) or intermediate (κοινή).

c. 22. The characteristic features of austere composition are set forth in considerable detail: both generally and in reference to words, clauses, periods. Among its principal representatives are mentioned: Antimachus of Colophon and Empedocles in epic poetry, Pindar in lyric, Aeschylus in tragic; in history, Thucydides; in oratory, Antiphon. The beginning of a Pindaric dithyramb and the opening sentences of the introduction to Thucydides’ History are minutely examined from this point of view. [Any attempt to summarize fully this chapter and those which follow is hardly possible owing to the nature of the subject matter. The chapters are important, and will repay a careful study.]

c. 23. Smooth composition is next characterized in a similar way. Its chief representatives may be taken to be: Hesiod, Sappho, Anacreon, Simonides, Euripides, Ephorus, Theopompus, Isocrates. In illustration are quoted (with sundry comments) Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite and the introductory passage from Isocrates’ Areopagiticus.

c. 24. “The third, the mean of the two kinds already mentioned, which I call harmoniously blended (or intermediate) for lack of a proper and better name, has no form peculiar to itself, but is a judicious blend of the other two and a selection from the most effective features of each.” This third is the best variety of composition because it is a kind of golden mean; and its highest representative is Homer, in whom we find a union of the severe and the polished forms of arrangement. On a lower plane are other votaries of the golden mean: among lyric poets Stesichorus and Alcaeus, among tragedians Sophocles, among historians Herodotus, among orators Demosthenes, and among philosophers Democritus, Plato and Aristotle. Illustrative examples are, in this case, unnecessary.

c. 25. These discussions lead up to a final question,—that of the relations between prose and poetry. And first: in what way can prose be made to resemble a beautiful poem or lyric? It is in metre, even more than in the choice of words, that poetry differs from prose. Consequently prose cannot become like metrical and lyrical writing, unless it contains, though not obtrusively, metres and rhythms within it. It must not be manifestly in metre or in rhythm (for in that case it will be a poem or a lyric and will desert its own specific character), but it is enough that it should simply appear rhythmical and metrical. It will thus be poetical, although not a poem; lyrical, although not a lyric. Passages are then taken from the opening of the Aristocrates and the Crown of Demosthenes and are subjected to a minute metrical analysis. The result of the scrutiny is (it is claimed) to show that many metrical lines are latent in good prose, the author having taken care to disguise slightly their metrical character. In an eloquent passage Dionysius then submits that the great end in view warranted all these anxious pains on the part of Demosthenes. Demosthenes was no mere peddler, but a consummate artist who had the judgment of posterity always before his mind. Isocrates, also, and Plato spent no less trouble on their writings, as witness the story about the opening passage of the Republic. It is, further, to be noticed that such careful processes, though deliberate at first, become in the end unconscious and almost instinctive, just as accomplished musicians do not think of every note they strike on their instrument, nor skilled readers of every single letter which meets their eyes in the book that lies open before them.

c. 26. Secondly (and lastly) comes a question which is the counterpart of that asked in c. 25: namely, in what way can a poem or lyric be made to resemble beautiful prose? The two principal means are: (1) so to arrange the clauses that they do not invariably begin and end together with the lines; (2) to vary the clauses and periods in length and form. These things are more difficult to do where the metre is uniform, as in heroic and iambic verse. In lyric poems the task is easier, since the variety of their metres brings them a point nearer to prose. At the same time, while avoiding monotony and while generally causing his verse to resemble beautiful prose, the poet must remember that the so-called “prosaic character” is a defect. We are, however, here thinking not of vulgar prose but of the highest civil oratory. In order to show that, in poetry, clauses can be of different sorts and sizes, and can also be so far independent of the metre as almost to give the effect of an unbroken prose-narrative, Dionysius draws some concluding illustrations from the 14th Odyssey, the Telephus of Euripides, and the Danaë of Simonides.

The following Tabular Analysis may help to make the general structure of the treatise still clearer:—

I. Chapters 1-5. Introductory. The nature of composition, and its effect.—Instances of the fatal neglect of composition.—The secret of composition not to be found in grammatical rules.

II. Chapters 6-20. General Theory and Technique of Composition:—

1. cc. 6-9:

(α) Three processes in the art of composition, c. 6.
(β) Grouping of clauses, c. 7.
(γ) Shaping of clauses, c. 8.
(δ) Lengthening and shortening of clauses and periods, c. 9.

2. cc. 10-20: Charm and beauty of composition, and the four means of attaining these qualities:—

(α) Preliminary remarks, cc. 10-13.
(β) Four means:
(1) μέλος, cc. 14-16.
(2) ῥυθμός, cc. 17, 18.
(3) μεταβολή, c. 19.
(4) τὸ πρέπον, c. 20.

III. Chapters 21-24. Three Modes of Composition:—

(1) σύνθεσις αὐστηρά, c. 22.
(2) σύνθεσις γλαφυρά, c. 23.
(3) σύνθεσις εὔκρατος (or κοινή), c. 24.

IV. Chapters 25, 26. Relation of Prose to Poetry, and of Poetry to Prose.

Note.—The existing division into chapters is not always a happy one. As a help to the reader, a few words of summary have been prefixed to each chapter of the English Translation.

The Greek Epitome is about one-third the length of the original. It is of early but uncertain date (cp. Usener de Dionysii Halicarnassensis Libris Manuscriptis p. viii, n. 7), and is preserved in the following codices: Darmstadiensis, Monacensis, Rehdigeranus, Vaticanus Urbinas. It has survived along with the original; and instead of superseding and extinguishing the unabridged work, as ancient epitomes seem often to have done, it contributes not a little to its elucidation. Had it been preserved at the expense of the original, we should have still possessed the Sappho, but should have lost the Simonides. Towards the end, the Epitome is executed with less care than at the beginning.

II

The Order of Words in Greek

The strong and the weak points of the de Compositione Verborum will appear from the foregoing summary, and still more from the treatise itself and the notes appended to it. Dionysius’ book is unique: no other of its kind has come down to us from classical antiquity. Its immediate subject is the Order of Words in Greek. But its author is happily led to raise fundamental questions such as the relations between Prose and Poetry, together with incidental points of Greek Pronunciation and Accentuation; and generally to take so wide a range that no English title less comprehensive than On Literary Composition seems to fit the contents of the work.[3]

The discursive enthusiasm of the writer is obvious. Not less striking, however, is the sound literary taste which converts his quotations into a true anthology and preserves some priceless remains of Sappho and Simonides. It will be necessary to point out certain weaknesses of Dionysius from time to time. But his weaknesses are far more than counterbalanced by his great excellences. Some of his shortcomings are those of his age,—an age which was a stranger to the modern method of comparison as applied to literary investigation. Others, again, are more apparent than real. When, for example, certain omissions are observable in some directions along with ample expatiations in others, it is to be remembered (1) that Dionysius is dealing with the department of expression and not with that of subject matter, (2) that, in the department of expression, he is concerned with the composition (or arrangement) of words and not with their selection, and (3) that, in regard to composition, he is here interested primarily not in lucidity nor in emphasis, but in euphony. Hence we must not expect him to dwell on that great governing principle of literary composition,—logical connexion. To its importance, however, he is fully alive, as is clear from a passage in his essay on Isocrates: “The thought” [in Isocrates, who pays excessive heed to smoothness of style and a pleasant cadence] “is often the slave of rhythmical expression, and truth is sacrificed to elegance.... But the natural course is for the expression to follow the ideas, not the ideas the expression.”[4] And though, in the de Compositione, it is his business to discourse rather upon sound than upon sense, yet the orderly way in which the subject matter of the treatise is presented shows in itself that Dionysius was well aware that the chief essential for a book is a basis of clear thinking and broad logical arrangement, and that, as a consequence, its excellence is to be sought even more in its chapters and its paragraphs than in its flowing periods.[5] It may be well to touch, with a similar regard to sequence and with occasional references to modern parallels or contrasts, upon one or two aspects of his main theme which his own treatment of it suggests as suitable for further discussion and elucidation.

A. Freedom and Elasticity

In his fifth chapter Dionysius shows, with no difficulty and with much vivacity, that it is impossible to lay down universal rules governing the order of words in Greek. He admits that he had been inclined to entertain a priori views on the question of the natural precedence of certain parts of speech and to hold that nouns should precede verbs, verbs adverbs, and so forth.[6]

But he had proceeded, with that sound practical judgment which distinguishes him, to test his theories in the light of Homer’s usage. He had then found them wanting. “Trial invariably wrecked my views and revealed their utter worthlessness.” The examples of variety in word-order which he quotes from the Iliad and the Odyssey are most interesting and instructive. But a modern reader, familiar with languages whose paucity of inflexions often offers freedom only at the price of ambiguity, has more cause than any ancient writer to wonder at the liberty which Greek enjoys in this respect. No doubt the long gap between πολὺν and χρόνον in the Frogs has, and is intended to have, a comic effect. But there is no sort of ambiguity in the sentence, since the poet takes care to use no noun with which the adjective could agree until the right noun at length comes and relieves the listener of his suspense and growing curiosity,—
εἰ δ’ ἐγὼ ὀρθὸς ἰδεῖν βίον ἀνέρος ἢ τρόπον ὅστις ἔτ’ οἰμώξεται,
οὐ πολὺν οὐδ’ ὁ πίθηκος οὗτος ὁ νῦν ἐνοχλῶν,
Κλειγένης ὁ μικρός,
ὁ πονηρότατος βαλανεὺς ὁπόσοι κρατοῦσι κυκησιτέφρου
ψευδολίτρου κονίας
καὶ Κιμωλίας γῆς,
χρόνον ἐνδιατρίψει.

Aristophanes Ranae 706-13.

Here as many as twenty-one words divide an adjective from its noun, though noun and adjective are usually placed close together.[7] But, even in serious poetry, the same thing is to be noticed, though on a less surprising scale. For example:

ἦν δ’ οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς οὔτε χείματος τέκμαρ
οὔτ’ ἀνθεμώδους ἦρος οὔτε καρπίμου
θέρους βέβαιον.

Aeschylus Prometheus Vinctus 454-6.

Here the adjective follows the noun, but (as before) there is no ambiguity, though there is much added emphasis due to the apparent afterthought. Similarly:

ἐν δὲ νομὸν ποίησε περικλυτὸς ἀμφιγυήεις
ἐν καλῇ βήσσῃ μέγαν οἰῶν ἀργεννάων.[8]

Homer Iliad xviii. 587, 588.

And in prose the dependence of a genitive may be quite clear, though the distance between it and the words on which it depends be great: e.g.

τῶν μὲν οὖν λόγων, οὓς οὗτος ἄνω καὶ κάτω διακυκῶν ἔλεγε περὶ τῶν παραγεγραμμένων νόμων, οὔτε μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς οἶμαι ὑμᾶς μανθάνειν οὔτ’ αὐτὸς ἐδυνάμην συνεῖναι τοὺς πολλούς.

Demosthenes de Corona § 111 (cp. § 57).

In prose, again, the extremely antithetic and artificial arrangement of words possible (without complete loss of clearness) in a highly inflected language may be illustrated from Thucydides:—

καὶ οὐ περὶ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἄρα οὔτε οὗτοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὔθ’ οἱ Ἕλληνες τῆς ἑαυτῶν τῷ Μήδῳ ἀντέστησαν, περὶ δὲ οἱ μὲν σφίσιν ἀλλὰ μὴ ἐκείνῳ καταδουλώσεως, οἱ δ’ ἐπὶ δεσπότου μεταβολῇ οὐκ ἀξυνετωτέρου, κακοξυνετωτέρου δέ.

Thucydides vi. 76.[9]

The following sentence of Demosthenes, with its carefully chosen position for the main subject Φίλιππος and the main verb ἐπηγγείλατο, shows how well suspense and the period can be worked in such a language:—

ὡς δὲ ταλαιπωρούμενοι τῷ μήκει τοῦ πολέμου οἱ τότε μὲν βαρεῖς νῦν δ’ ἀτυχεῖς Θηβαῖοι φανεροὶ πᾶσιν ἦσαν ἀναγκασθησόμενοι καταφεύγειν ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς, Φίλιππος, ἵνα μὴ τοῦτο γένοιτο μηδὲ συνέλθοιεν αἱ πόλεις, ὑμῖν μὲν εἰρήνην ἐκείνοις δὲ βοήθειαν ἐπηγγείλατο.

Demosthenes de Corona § 19.[10]

In an analytical language such as English a separate introductory sentence[11] would be almost necessary in order to bring out the point of a familiar passage in the Cyropaedia:—

παῖς μέγας μικρὸν ἔχων χιτῶνα ἕτερον παῖδα μικρὸν μέγαν ἔχοντα χιτῶνα, ἐκδύσας αὐτόν, τὸν μὲν ἑαυτοῦ ἐκεῖνον ἠμφίεσε, τὸν δὲ ἐκείνου αὐτὸς ἐνέδυ.

Xenophon Cyropaedia i. 3. 17.

And the force and variety gained by juxtaposition, or by chiastic arrangement, is obvious in such examples as:—

(1) τίπτε με, Πηλέος υἱέ, ποσὶν ταχέεσσι διώκεις,
αὐτὸς θνητὸς ἐὼν θεὸν ἄμβροτον;

Homer Iliad xxii. 8, 9.

(2) τί δῆτα, ὦ Μέλητε; τοσοῦτον σὺ ἐμοῦ σοφώτερος εἶ τηλικούτου ὄντος τηλικόσδε ὤν;

Plato Apology 25 D.

(3) οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ κρίσει μέν τις δικασθεὶς οὐκ ἂν ἐπὶ τῶν δικαίων καὶ καλῶν ἐλεύθερος καὶ ὑγιὴς ἂν κριτὴς γένοιτο· ἀνάγκη γὰρ τῷ δωροδόκῳ τὰ οἰκεῖα μὲν φαίνεσθαι καλὰ καὶ δίκαια.

Longinus de Sublimitate c. xliv.

(4) καὶ τῶν κώλων ... ἀνίσων τε ὄντων καὶ ἀνομοίων ἀλλήλοις ἀνομοίους τε καὶ ἀνίσους ποιούμενοι τὰς διαιρέσεις.

Dionys. Halic. de Comp. Verb. c. xxvi.

The two last examples of elegant variation might, no doubt, be closely reproduced in modern languages. To the more important matter of emphasis, which arises in some of the other instances, a separate section must be devoted later.[12]

B. Normal Order

Though Dionysius does right to deny the existence of a natural or inevitable order in Greek and to emphasize the essential freedom of the language, he might well have recognized more explicitly that there is what may be termed a normal or usual order, and that it is precisely the departure from this normal usage which does much to give a definite character (good or bad, as the case may be) to the style of individual Greek authors. For instance, it is usual in Greek for an adjective to follow its noun, and for a negative to precede the word or words which it qualifies. There are, further, certain customary positions for the article (according as it is attributive or predicative); for the demonstrative pronouns in conjunction with the article; for αὐτός, according to the meaning which it bears; for the particles; for prepositions, conjunctions, and relative pronouns; and so forth. There is, in short, a grammatical order sanctioned by prevailing usage, an order which might be shown to hold good, commonly though not universally, in some of the grammatical constructions indicated by Dionysius in his fifth chapter. Now between this normal order, and lucidity of expression, there exists a close connexion.

C. Lucidity

It might easily be concluded, by a reader who knew the de Compositione alone among Dionysius’ critical essays, that he set little store by that clear writing which, as it presupposes clear thinking, is a rare and cardinal excellence of style. As the noun σαφήνεια occurs but once in the treatise and the adjective σαφής not much oftener, it might be supposed that he underrated a quality to which Aristotle and other writers of antiquity assign so high a place. Aristotle, indeed, regards it as a first essential of good style, which must be “clear without being mean” (λέξεως δὲ ἀρετὴ σαφῆ καὶ μὴ ταπεινὴν εἶναι, Aristot. Poet. xxii. 1: cp. Rhet. iii. 2. 1). Similarly Cicero puts clearness (sermo dilucidus) before ornament, asking how it is possible, “qui non dicat quod intellegamus, hunc posse quod admiremur dicere” (Cic. de Orat. iii. 9. 38). Horace’s approving reference to lucidus ordo has become proverbial.[13] And Quintilian allots the primacy to the same great quality: “nobis prima sit virtus perspicuitas, propria verba, rectus ordo, non in longum dilata conclusio; nihil neque desit neque superfluat” (Inst. Or. viii. 2. 22), and puts a high and not always attainable ideal before the orator in relation to his judicial auditor: “quare non, ut intellegere possit, sed, ne omnino possit non intellegere, curandum” (ibid. viii. 2. 24).

If Dionysius in the present treatise says little about lucidity, the sole reason is that he assumes it as a necessary and indispensable quality of style. In the de Thucydide c. 23 it is classed (together with purity and brevity) as one of the ἀρεταὶ ἀναγκαῖαι (in contradistinction to the ἀρεταὶ ἐπίθετοι, such as ἐνάργεια, ἡ τῶν ἠθῶν τε καὶ παθῶν μίμησις, etc.). The Greek critics recognized, however, that the plainer styles were more likely than the more elaborate ones to excel in lucidity,—that, in this respect, a Herodotus and a Lysias might be expected to surpass a Thucydides and a Demosthenes.[14] Among these authors let us choose Lysias and Thucydides, and see what praise or blame Dionysius awards to them upon this score. In the fourth chapter of the de Lysia, the lucidity of Lysias is contrasted with the obscurity often found in Thucydides and Demosthenes; and it is pointed out that this excellence is, in him, all the more admirable in that it is combined with a studious brevity, an opulent vocabulary, and a mind of great native force. And no finer example of pellucid clearness of narration could well be imagined than that quoted from Lysias in the sixth chapter of the de Isaeo: ἀναγκαῖόν μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, περὶ τῆς φιλίας τῆς ἐμῆς καὶ τῆς Φερενίκου πρῶτον εἰπεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, κτλ. To the obscurities of Thucydides, on the other hand, as seen in his History and particularly in his Speeches, constant and mournful reference is made in the essay which has the historian for its subject. “You can almost count on your fingers,” says Dionysius, “the people who are capable of comprehending the whole of Thucydides; and not even they can do so without occasional recourse to a grammatical commentary.”[15] Dionysius, further, gives it as his opinion that the language of Thucydides was unique even in his own day; and he combats the view that a historian (as distinguished, say, from an advocate) may plead in excuse for an artificial style that he does not write for “people in the market-place, in workshops or in factories, nor for others who have not shared in a liberal education, but for men who have reached rhetoric and philosophy after passing through a full curriculum of approved studies, to whom therefore none of these expressions will appear unfamiliar.”[16] Obscurity and eccentricity, he says in effect, are not virtues except in the eyes of literary coteries; presumably a speaker speaks, and a writer writes, in order to be understood.[17]

D. Emphasis

Dionysius’ inadequate recognition of a normal order is naturally attended by some uncertainty in his attitude towards that kind of emphasis which a departure from the normal order produces. It may, indeed, be thought that the effect of emphasis, and the best means of attaining it, are considered at the opening of the sixth chapter of the treatise, and that it comes under the heading both of σχηματισμός and of ἁρμονία. In the fifth chapter, however, we should have welcomed a clearer recognition of the emphasis which, as it seems to modern readers, falls upon ἄνδρα, μῆνιν, and ἠέλιος, when they come at the beginning of the line and so are the first words to accost the ear. Certainly in his own writing Dionysius shows that he appreciates the emphasis gained by thrusting a word to the front of the sentence: e.g. καιροῦ δὲ οὔτε ῥήτωρ οὐδεὶς οὔτε φιλόσοφος εἰς τόδε χρόνου τέχνην ὥρισεν (132 21). Towards the end of chapter 7 he quotes from Demosthenes the words τὸ λαβεῖν οὖν τὰ διδόμενα ὁμολογῶν ἔννομον εἶναι, τὸ χάριν τούτων ἀποδοῦναι παρανόμων γράφῃ. He changes the order to ὁμολογῶν οὖν ἔννομον εἶναι τὸ λαβεῖν τὰ διδόμενα, παρανόμων γράφῃ τὸ τούτων χάριν ἀποδοῦναι, and then asks whether the passage will be ὁμοίως δικανικὴ καὶ στρογγύλη. To us it would seem that the chief loss is the loss of emphasis which is entailed (in Greek) by removing from the beginning of the clauses the important and contrasted phrases τὸ λαβεῖν τὰ διδόμενα and τὸ χάριν τούτων ἀποδοῦναι. Possibly this loss of emphasis is implied (among other things) in the words “δικανικὴ καὶ στρογγύλη.”[18]

Where it occurs in Dionysius, the word ἔμφασις bears the sense of ‘hint,’ ‘suggestion,’ ‘soupçon’ (de Thucyd. c. 16 ῥᾳθύμως ἐπιτετροχασμένα καὶ οὐδὲ τὴν ἐλαχίστην ἔμφασιν ἔχοντα τῆς δεινότητος ἐκείνης): a sense which is akin to its technical use of ‘hidden meaning’ (“significatio maior quam oratio,” Cic. Orat. 40. 139; cp. Quintil. viii. 3. 83, ix. 2. 3, 64).[19] In our sense of emphasis due to position, the word ἔμφασις is perhaps hardly used even in the scholiasts; and it is possible that Greek has no single term to express the idea, though it may doubtless be one of the elements in view when a writer uses such expressions as ἁρμονία, σχηματισμός, and ὑπερβατόν.

A modern student of Greek, having to feel his way with practically no help from ancient authorities, will probably reach the conclusion that the rhetorical emphasis he has in mind is attained by placing a word in one of the less usual positions open to it. The word thus emphasized may come at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence, the real point being that the position should be (for that particular word) a little out of the ordinary. In Greek, however, as contrasted with English, the emphasis tends to fall on the earlier rather than the later words.[20] In delivery, it would seem that the Greeks found it more natural to stress the beginning than the conclusion of a sentence. But an emphatic word may be found at the end as well as at the beginning, and may sometimes be placed neither at the end nor at the beginning.[21]

Allusion has already been made to the rhetorical emphasis which falls upon the opening words of the Iliad and the Odyssey. As with “arma virumque cano” in the Aeneid, the words μῆνιν and ἄνδρα seem to strike the keynote of the following Epics. And, in a less degree, a certain emphasis due to initial position (and contributing either to emotional effect or to logical clearness) is to be discerned throughout the poems: e.g. in the sixth book of the Iliad:—
δυστήνων δέ τε παῖδες ἐμῷ μένει ἀντιόωσιν.

Homer Iliad vi. 127.

and
πέπλον δ’, ὅς τίς τοι χαριέστατος ἠδὲ μέγιστος
ἔστιν ἐνὶ μεγάρῳ καί τοι πολὺ φίλτατος αὐτῇ,
τὸν θὲς Ἀθηναίης ἐπὶ γούνασιν ἠϋκόμοιο, κτλ.

Homer Iliad vi. 271.

Similarly with the following ten miscellaneous examples of various emphasis, taken chiefly from Dionysius’ favourite speech:—

(1) ἐκεῖνος γὰρ πολλοὺς ἐπιθυμητὰς καὶ ἀστοὺς καὶ ξένους λαβών, οὐδένα πώποτε μισθὸν τῆς συνουσίας ἐπράξατο, ἀλλὰ πᾶσιν ἀφθόνως ἐπήρκει τῶν ἑαυτοῦ.

Xenophon Memorabilia i. 2. 60.

(2) καὶ ταραχώδης ἦν ἡ ναυμαχία, ἐν ᾗ αἱ Ἀττικαὶ νῆες παραγιγνόμεναι τοῖς Κερκυραίοις, εἴ πῃ πιέζοιντο, φόβον μὲν παρεῖχον τοῖς ἐναντίοις, μάχης δὲ οὐκ ἦρχον δεδιότες οἱ στρατηγοὶ τὴν πρόρρησιν τῶν Ἀθηναίων.[22]

Thucydides i. 49.

(3) Ἀναξαγόρου οἴει κατηγορεῖν, ὦ φίλε Μέλητε, κτλ.

Plato Apology 26 D.

(4) οὐ γὰρ τὰ ῥήματα τὰς οἰκειότητας ἔφη βεβαιοῦν, μάλα σεμνῶς ὀνομάζων, ἀλλὰ τὸ ταὐτὰ συμφέρειν.

Demosthenes de Corona § 35.

(5) οἱ μὲν κατάπτυστοι Θετταλοὶ καὶ ἀναίσθητοι Θηβαῖοι φίλον, εὐεργέτην, σωτῆρα τὸν Φίλιππον ἡγοῦντο· πάντ’ ἐκεῖνος ἦν αὐτοῖς· οὐδὲ φωνὴν ἤκουον εἴ τις ἄλλο τι βούλοιτο λέγειν.

id. ib. § 43.

(6) οὓς σὺ ζῶντας μέν, ὦ κίναδος, κολακεύων παρηκολούθεις, τεθνεώτων δ’ οὐκ αἰσθάνει κατηγορῶν.

id. ib. § 162.

(7) καὶ τότ’ εὐθὺς ἐμοῦ διαμαρτυρομένου καὶ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ “πόλεμον εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν εἰσάγεις, Αἰσχίνη, πόλεμον Ἀμφικτυονικόν, κτλ.”

id. ib. § 143.

(8) ὃς γὰρ ἐμοῦ φιλιππισμόν, ὦ γῆ καὶ θεοί, κατηγορεῖ, τί οὗτος οὐκ ἂν εἴποι;
id. ib. § 294.

(9) ἀλλ’ οἶμαι οὐ δυνάμεθα· ἐλεεῖσθαι οὖν ἡμᾶς πολὺ μᾶλλον εἰκός ἐστίν που ὑπὸ ὑμῶν τῶν δεινῶν ἢ χαλεπαίνεσθαι.

Plato Republic i. 336 E.

(10) μηδ’ εἵμασι στρώσασ’ ἐπίφθονον πόρον
τίθει· θεούς τοι τοῖσδε τιμαλφεῖν χρεών.

Aeschylus Agamemnon 921.

It will be seen from some of the above examples that words may have emphasis if, though not actually placed at the very beginning of a sentence or a clause, they come as early as they well can. The three following passages will further illustrate this point:—

(1) καὶ ἐς Νικίαν τὸν Νικηράτου στρατηγὸν ὄντα ἀπεσήμαινεν, ἐχθρὸς ὢν καὶ ἐπιτιμῶν, ῥᾴδιον εἶναι παρασκευῇ, εἰ ἄνδρες εἶεν οἱ στρατηγοί, πλεύσαντας λαβεῖν τοὺς ἐν τῇ νήσῳ, καὶ αὐτός γ’ ἄν, εἰ ἦρχε, ποιῆσαι τοῦτο.

Thucydides iv. 27.

(2) ὅ τι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα· ἐγὼ δ’ οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπ’ αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην· οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθές γε, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν.

Plato Apology init.

(3) ἀλλὰ μὴν τὸν τότε συμβάντα ἐν τῇ πόλει θόρυβον ἴστε μὲν ἅπαντες, μικρὰ δ’ ἀκούσατε ὅμως, αὐτὰ τἀναγκαιότατα ... οἱ δὲ τοὺς στρατηγοὺς μετεπέμποντο καὶ τὸν σαλπιγκτὴν ἐκάλουν, καὶ θορύβου πλήρης ἦν ἡ πόλις.

Demosthenes de Corona §§ 168, 169.

Sometimes, however, emphatic words will be thrust right to the front through such devices as the postponement of an interrogative particle: e.g.

ἑστάναι, εἶπον, καὶ κινεῖσθαι τὸ αὐτὸ ἅμα κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ ἆρα δυνατόν;

Plato Republic iv. 436 C.

and
οἷον δίψα ἐστὶ δίψα ἆρά γε θερμοῦ ποτοῦ ἢ ψυχροῦ, ἢ πολλοῦ ἢ ὀλίγου, ἢ καὶ ἑνὶ λόγῳ ποιοῦ τινος πώματος;
id. ib. iv. 437 D.[23]

An uninflected language may well envy the grammatical resources which enable Greek or Latin poets to secure at once clearness and the utmost height of emotion in such lines as:

Ζεῦ πάτερ, ἀλλὰ σὺ ῥῦσαι ὑπ’ ἠέρος υἷας Ἀχαιῶν,
ποίησον δ’ αἴθρην, δὸς δ’ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἰδέσθαι·
ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον, ἐπεί νύ τοι εὔαδεν οὕτως.

Homer Iliad xvii. 645.

Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum,
O Rutuli.

Virgil Aeneid ix. 427.[24]

The end as well as the beginning of a clause or sentence may bring emphasis when it is an unusual position for the particular word or phrase which stands there. Illustrations may perhaps be drawn from expressions conveying the idea of “death,” which (according to Dionysus in the Frogs) is the “heaviest of ills,” and which (be that as it may) is as little likely as any to be entertained lightheartedly, or to be mentioned without some degree of feeling and emphasis. At the beginning of a sentence, τεθνᾶσι clearly has emphasis in
τεθνᾶσ’ ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατὴρ οὑμὸς γέρων.

Euripides Hercules Furens 539.

And in the following passage of Plato, it will be seen that the τὸν θάνατον which comes near the beginning of a clause is more emphatic than the τὸν θάνατον which comes at the end of a clause:—
οἶσθα δ’, ἦ δ’ ὅς, ὅτι τὸν θάνατον ἡγοῦνται πάντες οἱ ἄλλοι τῶν μεγάλων κακῶν;—καὶ μάλ’, ἔφη.—οὐκοῦν φόβῳ μειζόνων κακῶν ὑπομένουσιν αὐτῶν οἱ ἀνδρεῖοι τὸν θάνατον, ὅταν ὑπομένωσιν;—ἔστι ταῦτα.

Plato Phaedo 68 D.

The τὸν θάνατον before ἡγοῦνται is here emphatic on the same principle as the θάνατον before εἰσέθηκε in the passage (already alluded to) of the Frogs:—
θάνατον γὰρ εἰσέθηκε βαρύτατον κακόν.

Aristophanes Ranae 1394.

But a word like θάνατος may also come with emphasis at the end of a sentence, if that order is rendered unusual by the interposition of additional words or by any other means which create a feeling of suspense and even of afterthought. For example:

τί δέ; τὰν Αἵδου ἡγούμενον εἶναί τε καὶ δεινὰ εἶναι οἴει τινὰ θάνατου ἀδεῆ ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἐν ταῖς μάχαις αἱρήσεσθαι πρὸ ἥττης τε καὶ δουλείας θάνατον;

Plato Republic iii. 386 B.

Here the θάνατον seems intended to repeat with emphasis the preceding θανάτου to which, itself, a considerable degree of prominence is assigned. So, perhaps,
ἀλλὰ νόμον δημοσίᾳ τὸν ταῦτα κωλύσοντα τέθεινται τουτονὶ καὶ πολλοὺς ἤδη παραβάντας τὸν νόμον τοῦτον ἐζημιώκασιν θανάτῳ.

Demosthenes Midias § 49.

and

... καὶ φοβερωτέρας ἡγήσεται τὰς ὕβρεις καὶ τὰς ἀτιμίας, ἃς ἐν δουλευούσῃ τῇ πόλει φέρειν ἀνάγκη, τοῦ θανάτου.

Demosthenes de Corona § 205.

Some miscellaneous examples of words coming emphatically at the end of a clause or sentence are:—

(1) αἰτοῦμαι δ’ ὑμᾶς δοῦναι καὶ νῦν παισὶ μὲν καὶ γυναικὶ καὶ φίλοις καὶ πατρίδι εὐδαιμονίαν, ἐμοὶ δὲ οἷόν περ αἰῶνα δεδώκατε τοιαύτην καὶ τελευτὴν δοῦναι.

Xenophon Cyropaedia viii. 7.

(2) ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους κολυμβηταὶ δυόμενοι ἐξέπριον μισθοῦ.[25]

Thucydides vii. 25.

(3) ὑψοῦ δὲ θάσσων ὑψόθεν χαμαιπετὴς
πίπτει πρὸς οὖδας μυρίοις οἰμώγμασι
Πενθεύς.[26]

Euripides Bacchae 1111.

(4) ἴστε γὰρ δήπου τοῦθ’ ὅτι πάντες οἱ ξεναγοῦντες οὗτοι πόλεις καταλαμβάνοντες Ἑλληνίδας ἄρχειν ζητοῦσιν, καὶ πάντων, ὅσοι περ νόμοις οἰκεῖν βούλονται τὴν αὑτῶν ὄντες ἐλεύθεροι, κοινοὶ περιέρχονται κατὰ πᾶσαν χώραν, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐχθροί.

Demosthenes Aristocrates § 139.

(5) δεῖ δὲ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας ἐγχειρεῖν μὲν ἅπασιν ἀεὶ τοῖς καλοῖς, τὴν ἀγαθὴν προβαλλομένους ἐλπίδα, φέρειν δ’ ἃν ὁ θεὸς διδῷ γενναίως.[27]

Demosthenes de Corona § 97.

(6) εἶθ’ οὗτοι τὰ ὅπλα εἶχον ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἀεί.

id. ib. § 235.

(7) εἰ γὰρ ταῦτα προεῖτ’ ἀκονιτεί, περὶ ὧν οὐδένα κίνδυνον ὅντιν’ οὐχ ὑπέμειναν οἱ πρόγονοι, τίς οὐχὶ κατέπτυσεν ἂν σοῦ; μὴ γὰρ τῆς πόλεώς γε, μηδ’ ἐμοῦ.

id. ib. § 200.

(8) ... ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς λοιποῖς τὴν ταχίστην ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶν ἐπηρτημένων φόβων δότε καὶ σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ.[28]

id. ib. § 324.

It may be added that, occasionally, both the earlier and the later positions are emphatic in the same clause or sentence: e.g.

(1) τέκνα γὰρ κατακτενῶ
τἄμ’.[29]

Euripides Medea 792.

(2) ὦτα γὰρ τυγχάνει ἀνθρώποισι ἐόντα ἀπιστότερα ὀφθαλμῶν.[30]

Herodotus i. 8.

(3) νῦν δὲ τὸ μὲν παρὸν ἀεὶ προϊέμενοι, τὰ δὲ μέλλοντ’ αὐτόματ’ οἰόμενοι σχήσειν καλῶς, ηὐξήσαμεν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, Φίλιππον ἡμεῖς, καὶ κατεστήσαμεν τηλικοῦτον ἡλίκος οὐδείς πω βασιλεὺς γέγονεν Μακεδονίας. [31]

Demosthenes Olynthiacs i. § 9.

(4) πολλάκις δὲ τοῦ κήρυκος ἐρωτῶντος οὐδὲν μᾶλλον ἀνίστατ’ οὐδείς, ἁπάντων μὲν τῶν στρατηγῶν παρόντων, κτλ.

Demosthenes de Corona § 117.

(5) καὶ μὴν καὶ Φερὰς πρώην ὡς φίλος καὶ σύμμαχος εἰς Θετταλίαν ἐλθὼν ἔχει καταλαβών, καὶ τὰ τελευταῖα τοῖς ταλαιπώροις Ὠρείταις τουτοισὶ ἐπισκεψομένους ἔφη τοὺς στρατιώτας πεπομφέναι κατ’ εὔνοιαν· πυνθάνεσθαι γὰρ αὐτοὺς ὡς νοσοῦσι καὶ στασιάζουσιν, συμμάχων δ’ εἶναι καὶ φίλων ἀληθινῶν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις καιροῖς παρεῖναι.

Demosthenes Philippics iii. § 12.

(6) οὐ λίθοις ἐτείχισα τὴν πόλιν οὐδὲ πλίνθοις ἐγώ, οὐδ’ ἐπὶ τούτοις μέγιστον τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ φρονῶ.

Demosthenes de Corona § 299.

(7) ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐχθρῶν πεπολίτευσαι πάντα, ἐγὼ δ’ ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρίδος.

id. ib. § 265.

In connexion with the imperfect appreciation which the de Compositione Verborum shows of a normal order and of an emphasis produced by departure from it, attention may be drawn to the fact that the treatise contains no reference to the ‘figure’ hyperbaton; and this although the figure had been recognized long before Dionysius’ time, and continued to be recognized long afterwards. It is first mentioned by Plato, who probably took over the notion from the Sophists: ἀλλ’ ὑπερβατὸν δεῖ θεῖναι ἐν τῷ ᾄσματι τὸ “ἀλαθέως” (Plato Protag. 343 E, where the reference is to a poem of Simonides). The author of the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (c. 30) indicates it in the following terms: ἐὰν μὴ ὑπερβατῶς αὐτὰ [sc. τὰ ὀνόματα] τιθῶμεν, ἀλλ’ ἀεὶ τὰ ἐχόμενα ἑξῆς τάττωμεν. Quintilian treats of it in the passage beginning “Hyperbaton quoque, id est verbi transgressionem, quoniam frequenter ratio comparationis et decor poscit, non immerito inter virtutes habemus” (Inst. Or. viii. 6. 62).[32] The author of the Treatise on the Sublime describes and defines it thus: ἔστι δὲ λέξεων ἢ νοήσεων ἐκ τοῦ κατ’ ἀκολουθίαν κεκινημένη τάξις καὶ οἱονεὶ χαρακτὴρ ἐναγωνίου πάθους ἀληθέστατος (Longinus de Sublim. c. 22).[33] And, later still, Hermogenes and other writers on rhetoric are well acquainted with the figure. Dionysius, however, mentions it but seldom in any of his writings, and even then (e.g. τὰς ὑπερβατοὺς καὶ πολυπλόκους καὶ ἐξ ἀποκοπῆς πολλὰ σημαίνειν πράγματα βουλομένας καὶ διὰ μακροῦ τὰς ἀποδόσεις λαμβανούσας νοήσεις, de Thucyd. c. 52; cp. c. 31 ibid.) is clearly thinking not of desirable but of highly undesirable “inversions.” He may have thought that its proper place was in poetry rather than in prose.

E. Euphony

A modern writer on style would probably lay more stress on clearness and emphasis than on euphony. The ancient critics, on the other hand, seem to have taken the two former elements more or less for granted. Because they were easily attainable in languages so fully inflected as Greek and Latin, their attainment was regarded as an important matter indeed, but one which called for no special recognition of any kind. As Quintilian says, in reference to clearness, “nam emendate quidem ac lucide dicentium tenue praemium est, magisque ut vitiis carere quam ut aliquam magnam virtutem adeptus esse videaris” (Inst. Or. viii. 3. 1).[34] Dionysius, too, in the de Compositione Verborum, passes more readily over the two qualities of clearness and emphasis because he is not concerned with the πραγματικὸς τόπος.[35] He keeps rigorously to his real subject; and that is not the relation of words to the ideas of which they are the symbols. It is, rather, their relation to their own constituent elements (letters and syllables of diverse qualities and quantities) and to the pleasant impression which the apt collocation of many various words can make upon the ear. His task is to investigate the emotional power of the sound-elements of language when alone and when in combination—their euphonic and their symphonic effects. Hence the constant recurrence, throughout the treatise, of words like εὐφωνία, εὐρυθμία, εὐστομία, λειότης, ἁρμονία, σύνθεσις. The illustrative excerpts which he gives are so numerous and so happily chosen that no others need be added here.[36] A careful study of his examples, in the context in which they occur, will suggest many reflexions upon the freedom and adaptability of Greek order. But no absolute test of euphony
can be based upon them. Dionysius himself formulates no invariable rules upon the subject. In the last resort, the court of appeal must, as he sees, be the instinctive judgment of the ear (τὸ ἄλογον τῆς ἀκοῆς πάθος).[37] The part played by the ear has been well described by Quintilian: “ergo quem in poëmate locum habet versificatio, eum in oratione compositio. optime autem de illa iudicant aures, quae plena sentiunt et parum expleta desiderant et fragosis offenduntur et levibus mulcentur et contortis excitantur et stabilia probant, clauda deprehendunt, redundantia ac nimia fastidiunt” (Inst. Or. ix. 4. 116). Naturally the ear in question must be the individual ear (“aurem tuam interroga, quo quid loco conveniat dicere,” Aulus Gellius Noctes Att. xiii. 21); the criterion is subjective, not absolute.[38] But it is assumed that the ear in question has been trained and attuned by constant converse with the great masters, and that (like Flaubert in modern times) an author never writes without repeating the words aloud to himself. Thus trained, the ear will work in harmony with the mind: “aures enim vel animus aurium nuntio naturalem quandam in se continet vocum omnium mensionem” (Cic. Orat. 53. 177). Both Cicero and Dionysius are well aware that style is personal and individual,—that it is no uniform and mechanical thing. Dionysius’ own position has been misunderstood by those who have judged the de Compositione as if it were a complete treatise on the entire subject of style. In the eyes of Dionysius, words are not what dead stone and timber are in the eyes of the ordinary workman. They are, rather, the living elements which, in the secret places of his mind, the master-builder views as potential parts of some great temple.[39] They are what an individual makes them. Hence, just as Cicero writes “qua re sine, quaeso, sibi quemque scribere,

Suam quoíque sponsam, míhi meam; suum quoíque amorem, míhi meum”:

so Dionysius long ago anticipated the saying that the style is the man.[40]

Among the minor debts we owe to him is the fact that his minute analysis of rhythms, or feet, in passages of Thucydides, Pindar and others, helps to disclose the inner workings of the beautiful Greek language and to impress us with the importance attached by the ancients to what we moderns find it so hard fully to appreciate,—the effect on a Greek ear of syllabic quantity in prose as well as verse. And he insists no less upon the charm of variety,—the paramount necessity of avoiding monotony. He saw, for example, that the Greek inflexions (notwithstanding the many advantages which they brought with them) had at least one drawback: they are apt to lead to a certain sameness in case-endings. Accordingly he would, for instance, have approved (though he does not mention this particular passage) of the separation of the words σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ from the other accusatives at the end of the de Corona: ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς λοιποῖς τὴν ταχίστην ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶν ἐπηρτημένων φόβων δότε καὶ σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ.[41] Further reference to these minutiae of style may fitly be made later, when the topics of “rhythm” and “music” are considered.[42]

F. Greek and Latin compared with Modern Languages, in regard to Word-Order

Something has already been said, incidentally, about certain differences in word-order between the ancient and the modern European languages. In such a comparison Greek and Latin may be placed upon the same footing, as their points of contact are vastly more numerous than their points of divergence, considerable though these are.[43]

The points of contact become manifest when an attempt is made to translate into Latin, and into English, the sentence from Herodotus which Dionysius quotes, and twice recasts, in his fourth chapter:—

(1) Κροῖσος ἦν Λυδὸς μὲν γένος, παῖς δ’ Ἀλυάττου, τύραννος δ’ ἐθνῶν τῶν ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ· ὃς ῥέων ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας μεταξὺ Σύρων τε καὶ Παφλαγόνων ἐξίησι πρὸς βορέαν ἄνεμον εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον καλούμενον πόντον.

Herodotus i. 6.

Croesus genere quidem fuit Lydus, patre autem Alyatte; earum vero nationum tyrannus, quae intra Halym amnem sunt: qui, a meridie Syros ac Paphlagones interfluens, contra ventum Aquilonem in mare, quid vocant Euxinum, evolvitur.

(2) Κροῖσος ἦν υἱὸς μὲν Ἀλυάττου, γένος δὲ Λυδός, τύραννος δὲ τῶν ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ ἐθνῶν· ὃς ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας ῥέων μεταξὺ Σύρων καὶ Παφλαγόνων εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον καλούμενον πόντον ἐκδίδωσι πρὸς βορέαν ἄνεμον.

Croesus erat filius quidem Alyattis, genere autem Lydus, tyrannusque earum, quae intra sunt Halym amnem nationes; qui, a meridie interfluens Syros ac Paphlagones, in mare, quod vocant Euxinum, evolvitur contra ventum Aquilonem.

(3) Ἀλυάττου μὲν υἱὸς ἦν Κροῖσος, γένος δὲ Λυδός, τῶν δ’ ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ τύραννος ἐθνῶν· ὃς ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας ῥέων Σύρων τε καὶ Παφλαγόνων μεταξὺ πρὸς βορέαν ἐξίησιν ἄνεμον ἐς τὸν καλούμενον πόντον Εὔξεινον.

Alyattis quidem filius erat Croesus, genere autem Lydus, earum, quae intra sunt Halym amnem, tyrannus nationum; qui, a meridie fluens Syros inter ac Paphlagones, contra Boream erumpit ventum in mare, quod vocant Euxinum.

In these sentences the Latin follows the Greek order closely, and might be made to follow it still more faithfully were it not that it seems better to diverge occasionally for special reasons: e.g. it is desirable, in rendering the original passage of Herodotus, to secure (as far as possible) a good rhythm. In English, on the other hand, the choice lies between a wide deviation and a rendering which is ambiguous and possibly grotesque. In fact (to recur once more to the main point) the freedom with which the order of words can be varied in a Greek or Latin sentence is without parallel in any modern analytical language, and the attendant gain in variety, rhythm, and nicety of emphasis is incalculable.[44]

Still, the modern languages have great powers, in this as in other ways: powers which will be incidentally illustrated later. M. Jules Lemaître has written, with reference to Ernest Renan: “Je trahis peut-être sa pensée en la traduisant; tant pis! Pourquoi a-t-il des finesses qui ne tiennent qu’à l’arrangement des mots?”[45] These finesses are perhaps, as is here implied, hardly communicable, even though an earlier French writer has commended Malherbe as an author who

D’un mot mis en sa place enseigna le pouvoir.[46]

It may well be that these matters, if not altogether the “mysteries” which Dionysius terms them, are eternally elusive because they depend upon the infinite variety of the human mind. Yet some studies in English literary theory, such as might be suggested by Dionysius’ treatise, could not fail to be of interest, and might be instructive also. Something of the kind has been already done, without reference to Dionysius or other Greek critics, by Robert Louis Stevenson in his essay on Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature.[47] Each language has, in truth, a rhetoric of its own. But the various languages, ancient and modern, can help one another in the way of comparison and contrast.

These methods of comparison and contrast have—as regards word-order—been excellently applied to the ancient and the modern languages by Henri Weil and T. D. Goodell. Weil’s chief service is to have pointed out so clearly the principle that the order of syntax must be separated in thought from the order of ideas, and was by both Greeks and Romans freely so separated in practice, whereas in the modern languages (owing to the lack of inflexions) this practical separation is less frequent. Goodell, starting from the postulate that the order of words in a language represents the order in which the speaker or writer chooses, for various reasons, to bring his ideas before the mind of another, discusses (with constant reference to modern languages) the order of words in Greek, from the standpoint of syntax, rhetoric, and euphony. In the course of a carefully reasoned exposition, he corrects and supplements many of Weil’s observations.

The full title of Weil’s book is De l’ordre des mots dans les langues anciennes comparées aux langues modernes: question de grammaire générale (3rd edition, Paris, 1879). There is an English translation by C. W. Super (Boston, 1887), with notes and additions. Goodell’s paper on “The Order of Words in Greek” is printed in the Transactions of the American Philological Association vol. xxi. Other writings on the subject are: Charles Short’s “Essay on the Order of Words in Attic Greek Prose,”—prefixed to Drisler’s edition of C. D. Yonge’s English-Greek Lexicon,—which is an extensive collection of examples, but is weak in scientific classification and in clear enunciation of principles; H. L. Ebeling’s “Some Statistics on the Order of Words in Greek,” contributed to Studies in Honour of Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, and including some valuable investigations into the order in which subject, object, and verb usually come in Greek; inquiries into the practice of individual authors, e.g. Spratt on the “Order of Words in Thucydides” (Spratt’s edition of Thucydides, Book VI.), and Riddell on the “Arrangement of Words and Clauses in Plato” (Riddell’s edition of Plato’s Apology), or various dissertations such as Th. Harmsen de verborum collocatione apud Aeschylum, Sophoclem, Euripidem capita selecta, Ph. Both de Antiphontis et Thucydidis genere dicendi, J. J. Braun de collocatione verborum apud Thucydidem observationes, F. Darpe de verborum apud Thucydidem collocatione; and in Latin such elaborate studies as Hilberg’s Die Gesetze der Wortstellung im Pentameter des Ovid. An interesting book which compares Cicero’s Latin translations (prose and verse) with their Greek originals is V. Clavel’s de M. T. Cicerone Graecorum Interprete. In Harvard Studies in Classical Philology vol. vii. pp. 223-233, J. W. H. Walden discusses Weil’s statement that “an emphatic word, if followed by a word which, though syntactically necessary to the sentence, is in itself unemphatic, receives an access of emphasis from the lingering of the attention which results from the juxtaposition of the two.” Reference may also be made to A. Bergaigne’s “Essai sur la construction grammaticale considérée dans son développement historique, en Sanskrit, en Grec, en Latin, dans les langues romanes et dans les langues germaniques,” in the Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris vol. vii. The subject is, further, glanced at in the Greek Grammars of Kühner and others. But in modern times, as in those of Dionysius, it has on the whole failed to receive the attention which its importance would seem to demand.

G. Prose and Poetry: Rhythm and Metre

Readers of the de Compositione cannot fail to notice that, catholic as he is in his literary tastes, Dionysius reserves his highest admiration for two authors,—Homer in poetry and Demosthenes in prose; and that he seems to regard them as equally valid authorities for the immediate purpose which he has in view. Homer is quoted throughout the treatise, on the first page and on the last; and Demosthenes inspires (in c. 25) its most eloquent passage. That outburst is a triumphant vindication of Demosthenes’ methods as a sedulous artist. Dionysius sees that he is one of those men who spare no pains over the art they love—that Demosthenes, like Homer, φιλοτεχνεῖ (200 18; cp. 154 20).

In seeming thus to draw no very clear line between verse and prose, Dionysius is at one with most of the Greek and Roman critics; and this attitude is readily intelligible in the light of the historical development of Greek literature, in which Homer (who was a master of oratory[48] as well as of poetry) heralds the intellectual life of all Greece, while Demosthenes is the last great voice of free Athens. But the approximations of prose to poetry, and of poetry to prose, which Dionysius describes in his twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth chapters should not create the impression that, in his opinion, the prose-writer was free to borrow any and every weapon from the armoury of the poet. Of one poetical artifice he says, in c. 6, “this principle can be applied freely in poetry, but sparingly in prose”; and elsewhere he calls attention to qualities which he regards as over-poetical in the styles of Thucydides and Plato.[49] Yet he did clearly wish that good prose should borrow as much as possible from poetry, while still remaining good prose. And although he agrees, in general, with Aristotle’s exposition of the formal differences between prose and poetry, he does not adhere quite firmly to the Aristotelian principles.[50]

In the Rhetoric, Aristotle insists that the styles of poetry and prose are distinct. The difference is this: “prose should have rhythm but not metre, or it will be poetry. The rhythm, however, should not be of too marked a character: it should not pass beyond a certain point.”[51] In the same way, Dionysius (C.V. c. 25) declares that prose must not be manifestly metrical or rhythmical, lest it should desert its own specific character. It should simply appear to be the one and the other, so that it may be poetical although not a poem, and lyrical although not a lyric. But, in practice, Dionysius is found to cast longing eyes upon the formal advantages which poetry possesses, and to wish to infuse into public speeches a definite metrical element, which seems alien to the genius of prose, and which would have failed to gain the sanction of Aristotle, though this appears to be claimed for it.[52] It is not here a question of the ordinary methods of imparting force and variety to word-arrangement. In regard to these, Dionysius’ precepts are, in general, sound and helpful enough; and if, now and then, the process is extolled in what may seem extravagant terms, we have only to think of the vast difference which slight variations of word-order will make even in our modern analytical languages. For example:

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight.

Marlowe Doctor Faustus.

Killed with report that old man eloquent.

Milton Sonnets.

Schön war ich auch, und das war mein Verderben.

Goethe Faust.

The effect of these lines would be sadly marred if we were to read “the branch is cut,” “that eloquent old man,” and “ich war auch schön.”[53] In Greek prose, no less than in Greek poetry, inversions like those just quoted would be quite legitimate. This at least we can affirm, though it would be rash to attempt to lay down any general rules with regard to the differences between Greek order in verse and in prose. It is better to follow Dionysius’ example and to cull illustrations from both alike impartially, with only two qualifications. First, the Greek word-arrangement is even freer in verse than in prose, though the clause-arrangement and the sentence-arrangement of Greek poetry show (as Dionysius implies in c. 26) a general tendency to coincide with the metrical arrangement. Second, an absolutely metrical arrangement is foreign to the best traditions of Greek prose. It is the second point that is of importance here; and notwithstanding the almost furtive character which he attributes to the metrical lines detected by him in the Aristocrates, it is obvious that Dionysius has in mind a very close and deliberate approximation to the canons of verse and is prepared to strain his material in order to attain it.[54] Here, again, some modern illustrations may be of interest. The writers of the Tudor period seem to have had a special fondness for, and an ear attuned to, what may be roughly regarded as hexameter measures. This predilection appears both in their rendering of the Bible and in the Book of Common Prayer:—

How art thou | fallen from | Heaven, O | Lucifer, | son of the | morning.
How art | thou cut | down to the | ground, which didst | weaken the | nations.[55]
Why do the | heathen | rage, and the | people im | agine a | vain thing?
(He) poureth con | tempt upon | princes and | weakeneth the | strength of the | mighty.
God is gone | up with a | shout, the | Lord with the | sound of a | trumpet.
(The) kings of the | earth stood | up, and the | rulers took | counsel to | gether.
Dearly be | loved | brethren, the | Scripture | moveth us |.

The rhythms into which modern prose-writers drop are usually iambic or trochaic. This is so with Ruskin and Carlyle, and it would be easy to quote examples from their writings.[56] But, as in ancient so in modern times, the best criticism looks with favour on rhythmical, with disfavour on metrical prose. Prose, it is held, loses its true character—as the minister primarily of reason rather than of emotion—if it is made to conform to the rigid laws of metre.

If Dionysius fails to prove that metrical lines, thinly disguised, are a marked feature of the style of Demosthenes, no greater fortune has attended some attempts made in our own day to establish such exact rhythmical laws as that of the systematic avoidance, in Greek oratory, of a number of short syllables in close succession. It is clear that Demosthenes’ ear, with that kind of instinct which comes from musical aptitude and long training (cp. C.V. 266 13 ff., 268 12), shunned undignified accumulations of short syllables, but not with so pedantic a persistency that he could not on occasion use forms like πεφενάκικεν or διατετέλεκεν or προσαγαγόμενον. If he formulated to himself a principle, instead of trusting to inspiration controlled by long experience, this principle would be that which Cicero attributes to a critic who was almost contemporary with Demosthenes: “namque ego illud adsentior Theophrasto, qui putat orationem, quae quidem sit polita atque facta quodam modo, non astricte, sed remissius numerosam esse oportere” (Cic. de Orat. iii. 48. 184).[57] The necessary limits to be observed in these curious inquiries are well indicated by Quintilian, who utters some sensible warnings against any attempts continually to scent metre in prose or to ban some feet while admitting others: “neque enim loqui possumus nisi syllabis brevibus ac longis, ex quibus pedes fiunt ... miror autem in hac opinione doctissimos homines fuisse, ut alios pedes ita eligerent aliosque damnarent, quasi ullus esset, quem non sit necesse in oratione deprehendi” (Quintil. Inst. Or. ix. 4. 61 and 87).[58]

On the subject of prose and poetry, Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (ed. Shawcross, Clarendon Press, 1907) is likely long to hold its unique position. Theodore Watts-Dunton’s article on “Poetry” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica contains an appreciative estimate of the good service done to criticism by Dionysius in the de Compositione. The article by Louis Havet on La Prose métrique (in La Grande Encyclopédie, xxvii. 804-806) deals with what we should call “rhythmical prose,” the French terminology differing here from our own. Some account of enjambement (with ancient and modern illustrations) will be found in the Notes, pp. 270 ff. The recent writings on Greek rhythm and metre are almost endless. Some of them will be suggested by the names of: Rossbach, Westphal, Weil, Schmidt, Christ, Gleditsch, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Goodell, Masqueray, Blass.

With regard to the relation between metre and rhythm, there is not a little suggestiveness in the saying of the historical Longinus: μέτρου δὲ πατὴρ ῥυθμὸς καὶ θεός (Proleg. in Heph. Ench.; Westphal Script. Metr. Graeci i. 82). There is also, in our day, an increasing recognition of the intimate alliance between Greek poetry and Greek music; it is more and more seen that lyric stanzas are formed out of figures and phrases, rather than from mere mechanical feet. Nor is it to be forgotten that poetic rhythm may probably be traced back to the regular movements of the limbs in dancing. The views of Blass on ancient prose rhythm are given in his Die attische Beredsamkeit, Die Rhythmen der attischen Kunstprosa (Isokrates, Demosthenes, Platon), and Die Rhythmen der asianischen und römischen Kunstprosa (Paulus, Hebräerbrief, Pausanias, Cicero, Seneca, Curtius, Apuleius); and some of them are summarized in an article which he contributed, shortly before his death, to Hermathena (“On Attic Prose Rhythm” Hermathena No. xxxii., 1906). Probably his tendency was to seek after too much uniformity in such matters as the avoidance of hiatus and of successive short syllables, or as the symmetrical correspondences between clauses within the period. The best Attic orators were here guided, more or less consciously, by two principles to which Dionysius constantly refers: (1) μεταβολή, or the love of variety; (2) τὸ πρέπον, or the sense of propriety. This sense of propriety rejected all such obvious and systematic art as should cause a speech to seem, in Aristotle’s words, πεπλασμένος and ἀπίθανος (Rhet. iii. 2. 4; 8. 1). Still, Demosthenes’ greatest speeches were no doubt carefully revised before they were given to the world; and so the blade may have been cold-polished, after leaving the forge of the imagination. It is to be noticed that, in the matter of hiatus, for example, some of the best manuscripts of Demosthenes do seem to observe a strict parsimony; and this careful avoidance of open vowels may be due ultimately rather to Demosthenes himself than to an early scholar-editor. Whatever the final judgment on Blass’s work may be, he will have done good service by directing attention anew to a point so hard for the modern ear to appreciate as the great part played in artistic Greek prose by the subtle use of time,—of long and short syllables arranged in a kind of general equipoise rather than in any regular and definite succession. How singularly important that part was reckoned to be, such passages of Dionysius as the following help to indicate: οὐ γὰρ δὴ φαῦλόν τι πρᾶγμα ῥυθμὸς ἐν λόγοις οὐδὲ προσθήκης τινὸς μοῖραν ἔχον οὐκ ἀναγκαίας, ἀλλ’ εἰ δεῖ τἀληθές, ὡς ἐμὴ δόξα, εἰπεῖν, ἁπάντων κυριώτατον τῶν γοητεύειν δυναμένων καὶ κηλεῖν τὰς ἀκοάς (de Demosth. c. 39).

III

Other Matters arising in the de Compositione

A. Greek Music: in Relation to the Greek Language

For the modern student there is perhaps no more valuable chapter of the de Compositione than that (c. 11) which treats of the musical element in Greek speech. It helps to bring home the fact that, among the ancient Greeks, “the science of public oratory was a musical science, differing from vocal and instrumental music in degree, not in kind” (μουσικὴ γάρ τις ἦν καὶ ἡ τῶν πολιτικῶν λόγων ἐπιστήμη τῷ ποσῷ διαλλάττουσα τῆς ἐν ᾠδῇ καὶ ὀργάνοις, οὐχὶ τῷ ποιῷ, 124 20). The extraordinary sensitiveness of Greek audiences to the music of sounds is described by Dionysius, who also indicates the musical intervals observed in singing and in speaking, and touches on the relation borne by the words to the music in a song. His statements, further, give countenance to the view that “the chief elements of utterance—pitch, time, and stress—were independent in ancient Greek speech, just as they are in music. And the fact that they were independent goes a long way to prove our main contention, viz. that ancient Greek speech had a peculiar quasi-musical character, and consequently that the difficulty which modern scholars feel in understanding the ancient statements on such matters as accent and quantity is simply the difficulty of conceiving a form of utterance of which no examples can now be observed.”[59] Even Aristotle, Greek though he was, seems to have felt imperfectly those harmonies of balanced cadence which come from the poet, or artistic prose-writer, to whom words are as notes to the musician. And if Aristotle, a Greek though not an Athenian, shows himself not fully alive to the music of the most musical of languages, it is hardly matter for wonder that writers of our own rough island prose should be far from feeling that they are musicians playing on an instrument of many strings, and should be ready, as Dionysius might have said in his most serious vein, εἰς γέλωτα λαμβάνειν τὰ σπουδαιότατα δι’ ἀπειρίαν (252 16). It is true that, on the other side, we have R. L. Stevenson, who writes: “Each phrase of each sentence, like an air or recitative in music, should be so artfully compounded out of longs and shorts, out of accented and unaccented syllables, as to gratify the sensual ear. And of this the ear is the sole judge.”[60] Dionysius and Stevenson are, admittedly, slight names to set against that of Aristotle. But this is no reason why they should not be allowed to supplement his statements when he is too deeply concerned with matter and substance to say much about manner and the niceties and enchantments of form. And Dionysius is—it must in justice be conceded—no mere word-taster but a man genuinely alive to the great issues that dignify and ennoble style. He can, for example, thus describe the effect, subsequent and immediate, of Demosthenes’ speeches: “When I take up one of his speeches, I am entranced and am carried hither and thither, stirred now by one emotion, now by another. I feel distrust, anxiety, fear, disdain, hatred, pity, good-will, anger, jealousy. I am agitated by every passion in turn that can sway the human heart, and am like those who are being initiated into wild mystic rites.... When we who are centuries removed from that time, and are in no way affected by the matters at issue, are thus swept off our feet and mastered and borne wherever the discourse leads us, what must have been the feelings excited by the speaker in the minds of the Athenians and the Greeks generally, when living interests of their own were at stake, and when the great orator, whose reputation stood so high, spoke from the heart and revealed the promptings of his inmost soul?”[61]

In addition to D. B. Monro’s book on Greek music, reference may be made to such works as Rossbach and Westphal’s Theorie der musischen Künste der Hellenen, H. S. Macran’s edition of Aristoxenus’ Harmonics (from the Introduction to which a quotation of some length will be found in the note on 194 7), and the edition of Plutarch’s de Musica by H. Weil and Th. Reinach. The articles, by W. H. Frere and H. S. Macran, on Greek Music in the new edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians should also be consulted, as well as the essay, by H. R. Fairclough, on “The Connexion between Music and Poetry in Early Greek Literature” in Studies in Honour of Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve. The close connexion between music and verbal harmony is brought out in Longinus de Sublim. cc. 39-41. In Grenfell and Hunt’s Hibeh Papyri, Part i. (1906), p. 45, there is a short “Discourse on Music” which the editors are inclined to attribute to Hippias of Elis, the contemporary of Socrates.

B. Accent in Ancient Greek

If there were any doubt that the Greek accent was an affair of pitch rather than of stress, the eleventh chapter of this treatise would go far to remove it. It is clear that Dionysius describes the difference between the acute and the grave accent as a variation of pitch, and that he considers this variation to be approximately the same as the musical interval of a fifth, or (as he himself explains) three tones and a semitone. Similarly Aristoxenus (Harm. i. 18) writes λέγεται γὰρ δὴ καὶ λογῶδές τι μέλος, τὸ συγκείμενον ἐκ τῶν προσῳδιῶν τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασιν· φυσικὸν γὰρ τὸ ἐπιτείνειν καὶ ἀνιέναι ἐν τῷ διαλέγεσθαι (‘for there is a kind of melody in speech which depends upon the accent of words, as the voice in speaking rises and sinks by a natural law,’ Macran). The expression προσῳδία itself (cp. τάσεις φωνῆς αἱ καλούμεναι προσῳδίαι, 196 16) implies a melodic character, and the adjectives (ὀξύς and βαρύς) which denote ‘acute’ and ‘grave’ are used regularly in Greek music for what we call ‘high’ and ‘low’ pitch.[62] It would be hard to believe that βαρύς could ever have indicated an absence of stress.

That such a musical pitch—such a rising or falling of tone—can be quite independent of quantity seems to be proved by the analogy of Vedic Sanskrit, inasmuch as, when reciting verses in that language, the native priests are said to succeed in keeping quantity and musical accent altogether distinct. “We cannot now say exactly how Homer’s verse sounded in the ears of the Greeks themselves; and yet we can tell even this more nearly than Matthew Arnold imagined. Sanskrit verse, like Greek, had both quantity and musical accent; and the recitation of the Vedic poems, as handed down by immemorial tradition, and as it may be heard to-day, keeps both these elements clear. It is a sort of intoned recitative, most impressive and agreeable to the sensitive ear.”[63]

A useful handbook on the general subject of Greek Accentuation (including its musical character) is Vendryes’ Traité d’accentuation grecque, which is prefaced by a bibliographical list. The volume is noticed, in the Classical Review xix. 363-367, by J. P. Postgate, who supplements it in some important directions. There is also a discussion of the nature and theory of the Greek accent in Hadley’s Essays pp. 110-127. As Monro (Modes p. 113) remarks, it is our habit of using Latin translations of the terms of Greek grammar that has tended to obscure the fact that those terms belong in almost every case to the ordinary vocabulary of music. The point of the illustration drawn from the Orestes, in the C.V. c. 11, is that the musical setting in question neglected entirely the natural tune, or accent, of the words. It is not to be assumed that Dionysius approved (except within narrow limits) of this practice or of the corresponding neglect of syllabic quantity (128 19). He probably regarded such excesses as innovations due to inferior schools of music and rhythm. In the hymns found at Delphi (and also in an inscription discovered by W. M. Ramsay) there is a remarkable correspondence between the musical notes and the accentuation of the words, as was pointed out by Monro (Modes pp. 90, 91, 116, 141; and Classical Review ix. 467-470). It is the hymns to Apollo (belonging probably to the early part of the third century B.C.), in which the acute accents usually coincide with a rise of pitch, that Dionysius would doubtless have regarded as embodying the classical practice. In early times, it must be remembered, words and music were written by the same man; cp. G. S. Farnell Greek Lyric Poetry pp. 41, 42. The chief surviving fragments of Greek music (including the recent discoveries at Delphi) will be found in C. Jan’s Musici Scriptores Graeci (with Supplement), as published by Teubner.

C. Pronunciation of Ancient Greek

The de Compositione is not a treatise on Greek Pronunciation, or even on Greek Phonetics. The sections which touch upon these subjects are strictly subsidiary to the main theme; they are literary rather than philological in aim. There was, in fact, no independent study of phonetics in Greek antiquity; the subject was simply a handmaid in the service of music and rhetoric. Hence the reference early in c. 14 to the authority of Aristoxenus “the musician,” and the constant endeavour to rank the letters according to standards of beautiful sound. Still, though Dionysius’ object in describing the way in which the different letters are produced is not scientific but aesthetic and euphonic, much praise is due to the rigorous thoroughness which led him to undertake such an investigation at all. And it has had important incidental results.

One modern authority claims that, notwithstanding difficulties in the interpretation of the de Compositione due either to vague statements in the text or to defective knowledge on our own part, it is possible to reconstruct, with essential accuracy, the “Dionysian Pronunciation of Greek,” or (in other words) the pronunciation current among cultivated Greeks during the fifty years preceding the birth of Christ; while another authority has given a transliteration of the Lord’s Prayer, according to the original text, in the Hellenistic pronunciation of the first century A.D.[64] It is, further, maintained that, thanks to the general progress of philological research, we can in the main reproduce with certainty the sounds (including even the aspirates) actually heard at Athens in the fourth century B.C.—with such certainty, at all events, as will suffice for the practical purposes of the modern teacher.[65]

Two circumstances render it unsafe to lean unduly on Dionysius’ evidence in determining the pronunciation of the earlier Greek period. Although he studied with enthusiasm the literature produced by Greece in her prime, and would certainly desire to read it to his pupils in the same tones as might have been used by its original authors, it is hardly likely that the pronunciation of the language had changed less in three or four hundred years than that (say) of English has changed since the days of Shakespeare.[66] The other circumstance is the uncertainty which attends some of his statements, quite apart from any question of the period which they may be supposed to cover. This uncertainty is due to the fact that there was no science of phonetics in his day, and that consequently his explanations are sometimes obscure, either in themselves or at all events to their modern interpreters. But in many other cases he is, fortunately, explicit and easily understood. One example only shall be given, but that an important one: the pronunciation of ζ. In 144 9-12, it is clearly indicated that ζ is a double letter, and that it is composed of σ and δ (in that order): διπλᾶ δὲ τρία τό τε ζ̄ καὶ τὸ ξ̄ καὶ τὸ ψ̄. διπλᾶ δὲ λέγουσιν αὐτὰ ἤτοι διὰ τὸ σύνθετα εἶναι τὸ μὲν ζ̄ διὰ τοῦ σ̄ καὶ δ̄, τὸ δὲ ξ̄ διὰ τοῦ κ̄ καὶ σ̄, τὸ δὲ ψ̄ διὰ τοῦ π̄ καὶ σ̄, κτλ. The manuscript testimony is here in favour of σ̄ καὶ δ̄ (rather than the reverse order), and it may be noticed that the similar reading, ὐπασ̅δ̅εύξαισα, is well supported in Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite (238 9). The statement is not in any way contradicted by the further statements in 146 5 and 148 6; and taken together with other evidence (e.g. such forms as συρίσδειν = συρίζειν, κωμάσδειν = κωμάζειν, Ἀθήναζε = Ἀθήνασδε), it seems to establish this as at least one pronunciation of ζ. The actual pronunciation may well have varied at different times and in different places. Some authorities think that in fifth-century Greece the sound was like that of English zd in the word ‘glazed,’ while in the fourth century it roughly resembled dz in the word ‘adze’ (Arnold and Conway, op. cit. pp. 6, 7).

The book which deals most directly with the de Compositione in relation to Greek pronunciation is A. J. Ellis’ English, Dionysian, and Hellenic Pronunciation of Greek, considered in reference to School and College Use. In applying great phonetic skill to the interpretation of Dionysius’ statements, the author of this pamphlet has done much service; but he abandons too lightly any attempt to recover a still earlier pronunciation, and shows an uncritical spirit in so readily believing (p. 4) that Erasmus could be hoaxed in the matter of Greek pronunciation. A more trustworthy work is F. Blass’ Pronunciation of Ancient Greek (translated by W. J. Purton), in which the scientific aids towards a reconstruction of the old pronunciation are marshalled with much force. Arnold and Conway’s Restored Pronunciation of Greek and Latin, and Giles’ Manual of Comparative Philology (pp. 114-118: especially p. 115 for ζ), contain a succinct statement of probable results. There is also a good article, by W. G. Clark, on Greek Pronunciation and Accentuation in the Journal of Philology i. pp. 98-108; with which should be compared the papers by Wratislaw and Geldart in vol. ii. of the same journal. The entire conflict on the subject of Greek pronunciation, as waged by the early combatants in England and Holland, is reflected in Havercamp’s two volumes entitled Sylloge Scriptorum qui de linguae Graecae vera et recta pronuntiatione commentarios reliquerunt, videlicet Adolphi Mekerchi, Theodori Bezae, Jacobi Ceratini et Henrici Stephani (Leyden, 1736), and his Sylloge Altera Scriptorum qui ... reliquerunt, videlicet Desiderii Erasmi, Stephani Vintoniensis Episcopi, Cantabrigiensis Academiae Cancellarii, Joannis Checi, Thomae Smith, Gregorii Martini, et Erasmi Schmidt (Leyden, 1740). Erasmus’ dialogue de recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronunciatione (Basle, 1528) was, in its way, a true work of science in that it laid stress on the fact that variety of symbols implied variety of sounds, and that diphthongal writing implied a diphthongal pronunciation. Attention has lately been directed to the fact that Erasmus claims no originality for his views on this subject, and that he had been anticipated, in varying degrees, by Jerome Aleander in France, by Aldus Manutius in Italy, and (earlier still) by the Spanish humanist, Antonio of Lebrixa (Bywater The Erasmian Pronunciation of Greek and its Precursors Oxford, 1908). It may be noted, in passing, that when enumerating the errors of his Byzantine contemporaries, Antonio mentions that they pronounced Ζ “as a single letter, whereas it was really composite, and stood for SD” (Bywater, p. 20). Among the immediate successors of Erasmus in this field the most interesting, perhaps, is Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577), who, like Cheke, was one of the “etists” and so incurred the wrath of Stephen Gardiner and drew out that edict which threatened various penalties (including corporal punishment for boys) against the practice of unlawful innovations in the province of Greek pronunciation. It was Smith who, in his treatise de recta et emendata linguae Graecae pronuntiatione (Havercamp, ii. 542), detected a lacuna in the text of C.V. 140 16 as current in his time, and secured the right sense by the insertion of δύο δὲ βραχέα τό τε ε̄ καὶ τὸ ο̄ after τὸ ω̄ (in l. 17). Echoes, more or less distinct, of the long dispute as to the pronunciation of the ancient classical languages may be heard in such various quarters as: (1) [Beaumont and] Fletcher’s Elder Brother ii. 1, “Though I can speak no Greek, I love the sound on’t; it goes so thundering as it conjur’d devils”; (2) King James I. (in an address to the University of Edinburgh, delivered at Stirling), “I follow his [George Buchanan’s] pronunciation, both of his Latin and Greek, and am sorry that my people of England do not the like; for certainly their pronunciation utterly fails the grace of these two learned languages”; and (3) Gibbon’s reference to “our most corrupt and barbarous mode of uttering Latin.” In modern times a constant effort is being made to get nearer to the true pronunciation of the two classical languages; and (to speak of Greek alone) some interesting side-lights have been shed on the subject by the discovery of Anglo-Saxon or Oriental transliterations (cp. Hadley Essays pp. 128-140, and Bendall in Journal of Philology xxix. 199-201). The application of well-ascertained results to the teaching of Greek pronunciation could be injurious only if it were allowed to impede the principal object of Greek study—contact with the great minds of the past. But an attempt to recapture some part of the music of the Greek language is hardly likely to have this disastrous effect.

D. Greek Grammar

Grammar, like phonetics, was by the ancients often regarded as a part of “music.”[67] It would not, therefore, seem unnatural to his readers that, in a treatise on euphony, Dionysius should continually be referring to the parts of speech (τὰ μόρια τοῦ λόγου). He also uses freely such technical terms of grammar as: πτῶσις, ἔγκλισις, ἀπαρέμφατος, πληθυντικῶς, ὕπτιος, ἀρρενικός, θηλυκός, οὐδέτερος, ἄρθρον, ὄνομα, πρόθεσις, σύνδεσμος, etc. Though himself concerned more immediately with the euphonic relations of words, he is fully alive to the phenomena of their syntactical relations. His remarks on grammatical points show, as might have been expected, many points of contact with the brief treatise of another Dionysius—Dionysius Thrax, who was born a full century earlier than himself. Dionysius Thrax was a pupil of Aristarchus, and produced the earliest formal Greek Grammar. Some interesting hints as to the successive steps in grammatical analysis which had made such a Grammar possible may be found in the second chapter of the de Compositione, where special mention is made of Theodectes, Aristotle, and “the leaders of the Stoic School.” In c. 5, a useful protest is raised against the tyranny of grammar, which so often seeks to control by iron “rules” the infinite variety and living flexibility of language.

The standard edition of Dionysii Thracis Ars Grammatica is that by Uhlig (Leipzig, 1883). The whole question of ancient views on grammar can be studied in Steinthal’s Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei den Griechen und Römern, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die Logik (2nd ed., Berlin, 1890-91).

E. Sources of the de Compositione

It must strike every reader of the treatise, that Dionysius combines some assertion of originality with many acknowledgments of indebtedness to predecessors. In this there is, of course, no necessary inconsistency. The work covers a wide field, and implies an acquaintance with many special studies. While referring with gratitude and respect to the admitted authorities in these various branches of learning or science, Dionysius claims for himself a certain originality of idea and of treatment. He is among the first to have written a separate treatise on this particular subject, and he is the first to have attempted an adequate treatment of it.[68]

In making these acknowledgments, Dionysius does not specify any Latin writers, nor indeed any recent writers whatsoever. When Quintilian, in the fourth chapter of his Ninth Book, is himself writing a short de Compositione, he mentions “Halicarnasseus Dionysius” and (with special respect) “M. Tullius.”[69] But Dionysius says not a word about Cicero or Horace, although the former was partly and the latter fully contemporary with himself, and although they, like himself, were students of literary composition. As his work on early Roman history shows, Dionysius was not ignorant of Latin; and it is unfortunate that he did not think of comparing Greek writers with Latin. But the comparative method of literary criticism hardly existed in Greek antiquity, notwithstanding the reference to Cicero and Demosthenes in the de Sublimitate, whose author (it may be added here) not only treats of σύνθεσις in two of his chapters, but also tells us that he had already dealt with the subject in two separate treatises.[70]

To his Greek predecessors Dionysius often refers in general terms. For example, they are called οἱ πρὸ ἡμῶν in 140 7, οἱ πρότερον in 96 7, and οἱ ἀρχαῖοι in 68 9. The last term best suggests Dionysius’ habitual attitude, which was that of looking to the past for the finest work in criticism as well as in literature.[71] And so it will be found that, though the de Compositione Verborum contains incidental references to the Stoics and to other leaders of thought, its highest respect seems to be reserved for Aristotle and his disciples Theophrastus and Aristoxenus.[72] But the question of Dionysius’ obligations to his predecessors (and to the Peripatetics particularly) is so large and far-reaching that it must be treated separately elsewhere. Meanwhile, let it be noted how considerably his various writings illustrate, and are illustrated by, the Rhetoric of Aristotle.[73]

As to its originality, the book may well be left to answer for itself. It does not read like a dull compilation. The learning is there, but it is lightly borne, and none can doubt that the writer has long thought over his subject and can give to others the fruits of his reflexions with verve and a contagious enthusiasm. The work has an easy flow of its own, as though it had been rapidly (but not carelessly) written, out of a well-stored mind, while its author was busy with his teaching and with the many literary enterprises to which he so often refers. It must be conceded that a literary critic who deals with so difficult, many-sided, and elusive a subject as that of composition can hardly avoid some errors of detail, since he cannot hope to be a master in all the accessory sciences upon which he has to lean. But we may well be content if he preserves for later ages much invaluable literature and teaching which would otherwise have been lost,—if he himself maintains (amid corrupting influences) high standards in his literary preferences and in his own writing,—and if he sheds a ray of light upon many a hidden beauty of Greek style which would but for him be shrouded in darkness.

Reference may be made to G. Ammon de Dionysii Halicarnassensis Librorum Rhetoricorum Fontibus and to G. Mestwerdt de Dionysii Halicarnassensis in libro de Compositione Verborum Studiis. One section of the subject is also treated in G. L. Hendrickson’s valuable papers on the ‘Peripatetic Mean of Style and the Three Stylistic Characters’ and on the ‘Origin and Meaning of the Ancient Characters of Style’ in the American Journal of Philology vols. xxv. and xxvi.; and in H. P. Breitenbach’s dissertation on The ‘De Compositione’ of Dionysius of Halicarnassus considered with reference to the ‘Rhetoric’ of Aristotle.

F. Quotations and Literary References in the de Compositione

The greatest of all the lyrical passages quoted in the treatise is Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite. But great as this is, it does not stand alone. It has companions, if not equals, in the Danaë of Simonides and in the opening of a Pindaric dithyramb. The very preservation of these splendid relics, as of some slighter ones, we owe to Dionysius alone.[74] The total extent of the quotations made in the course of the treatise may be judged from the references given at the foot of the translation: these illustrative extracts form a substantial part of the work they illustrate. The width of Dionysius’ literary outlook may also be inferred from the following roughly-drawn Chronological Table, which (for the sake of completeness) includes some authors who are mentioned but not actually quoted:—

Chronological Table of Authors quoted or mentioned in the De Compositione

B.C.

Epic
Poetry.

Elegiac
and
Iambic.

Lyric.

Tragedy.

Comedy and
Satire.

Before 700

Homer
Hesiod

...

...

...

...

700-600

...

Archi-
lochus

Alcaeus
Sappho
Stesichorus

...

...

600-500 | ... | ... | Anacreon | ... | ...

500-400

...

...

Simonides
Pindar
Bacchylides

Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides

Aristophanes

400-300

Antimachus
of
Colophon

...

Philoxenus
Timotheus
Telestes

...

...

300-200

...

[Calli-
machus]

...

...

Euphorio
Chersonesita

| | | | | Sotades
200-100 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

B.C.

History.

Oratory and
Rhetoric.

Philosophy.

Grammar;
Musical and
Metrical
Science, etc.

Before 700 | ... | ... | ... | ...
700-600 | ... | ... | ... | ...
600-500 | ... | ... | ... | ...

500-400

Herodotus
Thucydides

Gorgias
Antiphon

Empedocles
(verse)
Democritus

...

400-300

Ctesias
Xenophon
Theopompus
Ephorus

Isocrates
Aeschines
Demosthenes
Theodectes

Plato
Aristotle
Theophrastus

Aristoxenus

300-200

...

Hegesias

Epicurus
and the
Epicureans

Aristophanes
of
Byzantium

Chrysippus
and the
Stoics

200-100 | Polybius | ... | ... | ...

To this list might be added the minor historians, of the third and second centuries B.C., who are mentioned together with Polybius in c. 4, and of whom some account will be found in the notes on that chapter: Phylarchus, Duris, Psaon, Demetrius of Callatis, Hieronymus, Antigonus, Heracleides, and Hegesianax. And it will be noticed, further, that the treatise contains a large number of unassigned verse-fragments, which can only be referred, vaguely, to some lyric poet or to the lyric portions of some tragic poet. By such anonymous fragments, as well as by the poems quoted under the names of Sappho and Simonides, we are reminded of the many lost works of Greek literature and of the happy surprises which Egypt or Herculaneum or the Sultan’s Library may still have in store for us. If the quotations as a whole—identified and unidentified, previously known and previously unknown—are passed in review, it will be found that Dionysius has given us a small Anthology of Greek prose and verse. While strictly relevant to the main theme, his illustrations are chosen with so much taste, and from so wide a field of study, that (to adapt his own words) οὐκ ἀηδὴς ὁ λόγος ἐγένετο πολλοῖς ὥσπερ ἄνθεσι διαποικιλλόμενος τοῖς ἐαρινοῖς.[75]

Two prose-writers mentioned by Dionysius seem to invite special comment: Polybius and Hegesias. It is not without a kind of shock that we find the great historian Polybius classed, along with Phylarchus and the rest, among writers whose works no man can bring himself to read from cover to cover.[76] But we have to remember that the judgment is passed solely from the standpoint of style; and from this restricted standpoint, it can hardly be said that subsequent critics have ventured to reverse it and to maintain that Polybius is (to use the modern expression) an eminently “readable” author. Let one modern estimate be quoted, and that from a writer who appreciates fully the greatness of Polybius’ theory of history, and who, on the other hand, is not concerned to vindicate the soundness of Dionysius’ judgment: “Unfortunately, his [Polybius’] style is a serious deterrent to the reader. We long for the ease, the finished grace, the flowing simplicity of Herodotus; or again, for the terse and rapid phrase of Thucydides, the energy, the precision of each single word, the sentence packed with thought. Polybius has lost the Greek artistic feeling for writing, the delicate sense of proportion, the faculty of reserve. The freshness and distinction of the Attic idiom are gone. He writes with an insipid and colourless monotony. In arranging his materials he is equally inartistic. He is always anticipating objections and digressing; he wearies you with dilating on the excellence of his own method; he even assures you that the size and price of his book ought not to keep people from buying it. Admirable as is the substance of his writing, he pays the penalty attaching to neglect of form—he is read by the few.”[77]

Hegesias is not only mentioned, but quoted, in the treatise. A few detached sentences are given from his writings, and one longer passage. In c. 4 Dionysius rewrites a brief extract from Herodotus in utter defiance of the customary rules (or practices) of Greek word-order, and then exclaims, “This form of composition resembles that of Hegesias: it is affected, degenerate, enervated.” He proceeds: “In such trumpery arts the man is a hierophant. He writes, for instance, ‘After a goodly festival another goodly one keep we.’ ‘Of Magnesia am I, the mighty land, a man of Sipylus I.’ ‘No little drop into the Theban waters spewed Dionysus: O yea, sweet is the stream, but madness it engendereth.’”

In c. 18 Dionysius illustrates the beauty of prose-rhythm from Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes. He then assigns to Hegesias a bad pre-eminence among writers who have neglected this essential of their art. Quoting a passage of some length from his History, he asks how it compares with Homer’s description of a similar scene; and he holds the vast superiority of the latter to be due ‘chiefly, if not entirely, to the difference in the rhythms.’ In the words just cited there is obviously much exaggeration. But we must allow for Dionysius’ preoccupation in this treatise (cp. τοῦτ’ ἦν σχεδὸν ᾧ μάλιστα διαλλάττει ποιητής τε ποιητοῦ καὶ ῥήτωρ ῥήτορος, τὸ συντιθέναι δεξιῶς τὰ ὀνόματα, 92 18-20), and must, at any rate, try to discover wherein the main defect of Hegesias’ rhythms is supposed to lie. It is probable that no single thing in the passage offends the ear of Dionysius so much as the double trochees (or their metrical equivalent) which are found at the end of so many of the clauses. This double trochee, or dichoree, is found in its normal form (– ᴗ – ⏒) at the end of such cola as those which terminate in: τοῖς ἀρίστοις, καὶ τὸ πλῆθος, εἰς τὸ τολμᾶν, τῇ μαχαίρᾳ, καὶ Φιλωτᾶς, καὶ τὸ χρῶμα, σκαιὸν ἐχθρόν. The metrical equivalent ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ – ⏒ occurs in such instances as: πρότερον οὕτως, ἕνεκα πρᾶξαι, κατακοπῆναι, καθικετεύων. It is interesting to observe that this final dichoree is regarded both by Cicero and by Quintilian as characteristic of the Asiatic orators.[78] Let it be added that, in the extract from Hegesias, the dichorees are not confined to the close of clauses but occur freely in other positions, while many of the sentences are short and the reverse of periodic; and it will be granted that Cicero has good ground for calling attention to the jerky, or staccato, character of the style in question. In the Orator (67. 226) the effect of Hegesias’ writing is thus described: “quam (sc. numerosam comprehensionem) perverse fugiens Hegesias, dum ille quoque imitari Lysiam volt, alterum paene Demosthenem, saltat incidens particulas.” And his manner is amusingly parodied in one of the letters to Atticus (ad Att. xii. 6): “de Caelio vide, quaeso, ne quae lacuna sit in auro: | ego ista non novi; | sed certe in collubo est detrimenti satis. | huc aurum si accedit |—sed quid loquor? | tu videbis. | habes Hegesiae genus! quod Varro laudat.”[79] Two further specimens (not given by Dionysius) of Hegesias’ style will add point to Cicero’s parody. The first is preserved by Strabo (Geogr. 396): ὁρῶ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν | καὶ τὸ περιττῆς τριαίνης | ἐκεῖθι σημεῖον· | ὁρῶ τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα, | καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν γέγονα μύστης· | ἐκεῖνο Λεωκόριον· | τοῦτο Θησεῖον· | οὐ δύναμαι δηλῶσαι | καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον. The other specimen is quoted by Photius (Bibl. cod. 250) from Agatharchides, the geographer of Cnidus: ὅμοιον πεποίηκας, Ἀλέξανδρε, Θήβας κατασκάψας, ὡς ἂν εἰ ὁ Ζεὺς ἐκ τῆς κατ’ οὐρανὸν μερίδος ἐκβάλλοι τὴν σελήνην. ὑπολείπομαι γὰρ τὸν ἥλιον ταῖς Ἀθήναις. δύο γὰρ αὗται πόλεις τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἦσαν ὄψεις. διὸ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἑτέρας ἀγωνιῶ νῦν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ εἷς αὐτῶν ὀφθαλμὸς ἡ Θηβαίων ἐκκέκοπται πόλις.[80]

It is quite clear, from his express statements, that Dionysius, in his criticisms, has in view, mainly if not entirely, the bad rhythms of Hegesias. But the passages which he quotes seem open to criticism on other grounds as well. The long extract in c. 18 contains metaphors which might well seem violent to the Greeks, who allowed themselves less licence than the moderns do in this direction (e.g. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐλπὶς αὕτη συνέδραμεν εἰς τὸ τολμᾶν, and τοὺς δ’ ἄλλους ὀργὴ πρόσφατος ἐπίμπρα); and it is high-flown expressions of this kind which the author of the de Sublimitate has in view when he writes: τά γε μὴν Ἀμφικράτους τοιαῦτα καὶ Ἡγησίου καὶ Ματρίδος· πολλαχοῦ γὰρ ἐνθουσιᾶν ἑαυτοῖς δοκοῦντες οὐ βακχεύουσιν ἀλλὰ παίζουσιν (iii. 2). False emphasis, too, and a general desire to purchase notoriety by the cheap method of eccentric word-order, would appear to be implied in Dionysius’ own parody in c. 4 (90 15-19). For example, Ἀλυάττου and ἐθνῶν, though not in themselves important, are assigned prominent positions at the beginning and the end of the sentence. But the greatest of all the defects of Hegesias—especially when compared with Homer—is a certain vulgarity of tone.

The contrast drawn between Hegesias and Homer may seem overstrained, but it is eminently characteristic of Dionysius. Homer was to him the great pure fount of Greek, and his own constant desire was “antiquos accedere fontes.” Hegesias, on the other hand, typifies to him the decline in Greek literature which followed the death of Alexander, whose exploits he records with so feeble a magniloquence. And yet the curious thing is that Hegesias, who lived probably in the earlier part of the third century, aspires (as Cicero tells us) to copy Lysias. But while endeavouring thus to imitate one of the most Attic of the Attic writers, he came, by the irony of fate, to be regarded as the founder of the degenerate Asiatic school: Ἡγησίας ὁ ῥήτωρ, ὃς ἦρξε μάλιστα τοῦ Ἀσιανοῦ λεγομένου ζήλου, παραφθείρας τὸ καθεστηκὸς ἔθος τὸ Ἀττικόν (Strabo Geogr. xiv. 1. 41).[81] In the terms “Attic” and “Asiatic” there often lurks some confusion of thought, as well as no little prejudice and rhetorical animosity. But of Dionysius, as compared with Hegesias, it is clearly within the mark to say that, though he lived two centuries later, he has vastly more of the true Attic feeling for purity of style; and that, though he may himself have cherished wild dreams of turning back the tide of language, yet in league with some leading Romans of his day he did good service by showing how the best Attic models may hold out to future ages shining examples of the skill and beauty which all men should strive after in handling the language of their birth.

For Dionysius in relation to contemporary Romans, and to the struggle between Asianism and Atticism, reference may be made to Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters pp. 34-49.

G. Manuscripts and Text

The chief authorities for the text of the de Compositione are indicated in the following list of abbreviations employed in the apparatus criticus of the present edition:—

Siglorum in notulis criticis adhibitorum Index

F = cod. Florentinus Laurentianus lix. 15. saec. xii.
P = cod. Parisinus bibl. nat. 1741. saec. xi. (x.).
M = cod. Venetus Marcianus 508. saec. xv.
V = cod. Vergetii Parisiensis bibl. nat. 1798. saec. xvi.

E = Διονυσίου Ἁλικαρνασέως τοῦ περὶ Συνθέσεως Ὀνομάτων Ἐπιτομή. saec. inc.

R = Rhetor Graecus (Scholiasta Hermogenis περὶ ἰδεῶν, i. 6). saec. inc.

a = editio princeps Aldi Manutii (Aldi Manutii Rhetores Graeci, tom. i.), Venetiis. 1508.
s = editio Roberti Stephani, Lutetiae. 1547.
r = exemplum Reiskianum, Lipsiae. 1775.
Us = exemplum ab Usenero et Radermachero Lipsiae nuper editum.

The Florentine manuscript (F) contains, besides certain writings of other authors, the following works of Dionysius: (1) the essays on Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, and Dinarchus: and (2) the de Compositione Verborum (as far as the words πειρατέον δὴ καὶ περὶ τούτων λέγειν ἃ φρονῶ in c. 25). The Paris manuscript 1741 (P) is the famous codex which contains not only the de Comp. Verb., but also Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics, Demetrius de Elocutione, Dionysius Halic. Ep. ad Amm. II., De Vet. Scr., etc. Some notes upon the manuscript are given in Demetrius on Style pp. 209-11; and the editor has examined it once more at Paris for the purposes of the present recension. The remaining manuscripts are considerably later than F and P. M belongs to the fifteenth century, and V was copied by the Cretan calligrapher Ange Vergèce (as he was called in France) in the sixteenth century. The edition of Robert Stephens is based upon V. In the Journal of Philology xxvii. pp. 83 ff., there is a careful collation, by A. B. Poynton, of “Some Readings of MS. Canonici 45” (C: sixteenth century) in the Bodleian Library, with regard to which the collator says: “Despite the care with which the work is done, the manuscript is not of much value as a presentation of the Florentine tradition, since F exists and the writer of C is rather a διασκευαστής than a copyist. The interest of the manuscript is antiquarian and bibliographical.... It is a copy made at some time in the sixteenth century, probably after 1560. It is based on the Florentine MS. with variae lectiones and marginal notes. It has not the appearance of being a mechanical copy: rather it seems to be the work of a scholar who was conversant with the MSS. of the treatise and, while he was aware of the importance of the Florentine MS., saw that in many cases it needed to be corrected.”

The dates of the Epitome and of the Rhetor Graecus are uncertain. But both are early and highly important authorities. The latter quotes c. 14 only of the treatise, but the quotation enabled Usener to show that the text of F agreed in the main with that of the Rhetor and of the Epitome. The result was to enhance greatly the authority of F, with which earlier editors had merely an indirect and imperfect acquaintance. But by a not unnatural reaction against the excessive attention paid to what may be called the P group (PMV: though M and V sometimes coincide with F against P), Usener is inclined too readily to follow F, or even E, when standing alone. Still, while the readings supported only by F, or E, or P should be carefully scrutinized and independently judged, the concurrent testimony of FE and any other MS. is very strong indeed.

Two passages taken almost at a venture (say, the first twenty lines of c. 12 and the last twenty of c. 19) would be enough to show that neither F nor P can be exclusively followed, and that Usener himself is often (more often than is indicated in this edition) driven to desert F, which in fact contains, in these or other places, a large number of impossible or even absurd readings.[82] Where, however, there are genuine instances of various readings (as εὐκαιροτέραις: εὐροωτέραις in the last of the passages just specified), it seems best to follow F (especially when supported by other authorities), even though the hand of an ingenious early scholar may sometimes with reason be suspected.[83]

One reason for accepting with reserve the unsupported testimony of F is that its evidence is sometimes far from sound in regard to quotations from authors whose text is well established from other sources. In the principal quotations from Pindar and Thucydides this defect is not so manifest; and it may even be claimed that its text of the Pindaric dithyramb, and of the Herodotus extract on p. 82, is distinguished by many excellent features, though not so many as Usener was at first inclined to claim in the case of the Pindar. But in the extract from the Areopagiticus of Isocrates which is given in c. 23, the text presented by F (as compared with that presented by P) seems to suggest that, in dealing with Dionysius’ own words as well as with his quotations, the transcriber may have felt entitled to make rather free alterations on his own account. In order to provide readers with the means of judging for themselves, the critical apparatus has been made specially full at this point.[84]

Usener’s text of the de Compositione deserves the highest respect: it is the last undertaking of one of the greatest philologists of the nineteenth century, and every succeeding editor must find himself deep in its debt. Its record of readings is full to exhaustiveness. In the present edition less wealth of detail is attempted (especially in regard to F and R), though all really important and typical variations have, it is hoped, been duly registered, and particular attention has been paid to the minute collation of P. But apart from the correction of misprints (as on pp. 124 13, 132 23, 250 7), it is hoped that the following among other readings will commend themselves (on an examination of the sections of the Notes or Glossary in which they are defended) as superior to those adopted by Usener (and indicated here in brackets) from conjecture or on manuscript authority: 64 11 (σοὶ omitted), 70 5 (εὖ τί), 78 17 (παλαιαί), 80 13 (παιδικόν), 94 13 (προβαῖεν), 94 16 (σπουδάζεσθαι), 98 20 (οἷά τινα), 106 13 (εὖ ἢ), 132 20 (θηρᾶν), 142 9 (σπανίζει), etc.

H. Recent Writings connected with the de Compositione

A full bibliography, covering not only the de Compositione of Dionysius but his rhetorical and critical works generally, is given in the present editor’s Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters (published in January 1901), pp. 209-219. The following are (in chronological order) the early editors who have done most to further the study of the de Compositione: Aldus Manutius (editio princeps), Robertus Stephanus, F. Sylburg, J. Upton, J. J. Reiske, G. H. Schaefer, and F. Goeller. Much interest still attaches to C. Batteux’ publication (1788): Traité de l’arrangement des mots: traduit du grec de Denys d’Halicarnasse; avec des réflexions sur la langue française, comparée avec la langue grecque. The translation is too free and based on too poor a text to meet the needs of exact scholarship. But the Réflexions (which accompany the translation, in vol. vi. of the author’s Principes de littérature) are full of suggestive remarks. Another excellent literary study of Dionysius is that of Max. Egger: Denys d’Halicarnasse: essai sur la critique littéraire et la rhétorique chez les Grecs au siècle d’Auguste (Paris, 1902). As its title indicates, this volume takes a wide range; and it reveals that full competence in these matters which it is natural to expect from the son of Émile Egger. A short general account, by Radermacher, of Dionysius’ critical essays will be found in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie vol. v.

The first volume of Usener and Radermacher’s text was included in the bibliographical list mentioned above. In 1904 appeared the second volume, containing the de Compositione and some other critical writings of Dionysius (Dionysii Halicarnasei opuscula ediderunt Hermannus Usener et Ludovicus Radermacher. Voluminis sec. fasc. prior. Lipsiae, 1904). The second volume is on a par with the first, which was welcomed, as a notable achievement, in the Classical Review xiv. pp. 452-455, where also attention was drawn (p. 454 a) to a questionable emendation previously introduced by Usener into the text of the de Imitatione. This emendation is withdrawn in Usener’s second volume—a fact which may be mentioned as one proof among many that his tendency was to grow more conservative and, in particular, more attentive to the testimony of P 1741. The titles of A. B. Poynton’s articles on Dionysius are: “Oxford MSS. of Dionysius Halicarnasseus, De Compositione Verborum” (Journal of Philology xxvii. pp. 70-99), and “Oxford MSS. of the Opuscula of Dionysius of Halicarnassus” (Journal of Philology xxviii. pp. 162-185). Among other useful subsidia lately published may be mentioned: W. Kroll’s “Randbemerkungen” in Rhein. Mus. lxii. pp. 86-101, and Larue van Hook’s Metaphorical Terminology of Greek Rhetoric and Literary Criticism (Chicago, 1905). R. H. Tukey (Classical Review, September 1909, p. 188) makes the interesting suggestion that “the De Compositione belongs chronologically between the two parts of the De Demosthene.” The use of the present tense δηλοῦται, in C.V. 182 8 may be held to countenance this view.

In some recent books of larger scope it is pleasant to notice an increased appreciation of the high value of the work done by Dionysius in the field of literary criticism. Certain of these estimates may be quoted in conclusion. R. C. Jebb, in the Companion to Greek Studies p. 137: “The maturity of the ‘Attic revival’ is represented at Rome, in the Augustan age, by the best literary critic of antiquity, Dionysius of Halicarnassus.” A. and M. Croiset Histoire de la littérature grecque v. p. 371: “Les uns et les autres [les contemporains et les rhéteurs des âges suivants] appréciaient avec raison l’érudition de Denys, la justesse de son esprit, sa finesse dans le discernement des ressemblances et des différences, la solidité de sa doctrine, son goût dans le choix des exemples. De plus, ils se sentaient touchés, comme nous et plus que nous, par la vivacité de ses admirations, par cette sorte de foi communicative, qui faisait de lui le défenseur des traditions classiques.” Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Die griechische Literatur des Altertums pp. 102 and 148: “Von unbestreitbar hohem und dauerndem Werte ist die andere Seite der rhetorischen Theorie und Praxis, die sich auf den Ausdruck erstreckt, die Stilistik.... Es ist ein hohes Lob, dass er (Dionysios von Halikarnass) im Grunde dieselbe stilistische Überzeugung vertritt wie Cicero, und wir sind ihm für die Erhaltung von ungemein viel Wichtigem zu Dank verpflichtet; seine Schriften über die attischen Redner und über die Wortfügung sind auch eine nicht nur belehrende, sondern gefällige Lekture.” J. E. Sandys History of Classical Scholarship i. p. 279: “In the minute and technical criticism of the art and craft of Greek literature, the works of Dionysius stand alone in all the centuries that elapsed between the Rhetoric of Aristotle and the treatise On the Sublime.” G. Saintsbury History of Criticism i. pp. 136, 137, 132: “Dionysius is a very considerable critic, and one to whom justice has not usually, if at all, yet been done.... A critic who saw far, and for the most part truly, into the proper province of literary criticism.... This treatise [sc. the de Compositione], if studied carefully, must raise some astonishment that Dionysius should have been spoken of disrespectfully by anyone who himself possesses competence in criticism. From more points of view than one, the piece gives Dionysius no mean rank as a critic.” S. H. Butcher Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects pp. 236, 239: “Of his fine perception of the harmonies of Greek speech we can entertain no reasonable doubt.... We cannot dismiss his general criticism as unsound or fanciful. The whole history of the evolution of Greek prose, and the practice of the great masters of the art, support his main contention.” With these extracts may be coupled one from the Spectator of March 23, 1901: “In this treatise Dionysius reviews and attempts to explain the art of literature. It is a brilliant effort to analyse the sensuous emotions produced by the harmonious arrangement of beautiful words. Its eternal truth might make it a textbook for to-day.”

In the Notes and Glossary, as in the Introduction, references are usually given to the lines, as well as the pages, of the Greek text here printed: e.g. 80 7 = page 80 line 7 of the De Compositione.—The following abbreviations are used in referring to volumes already issued by the editor:—

D.H. = ‘Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters.’
Long. = ‘Longinus on the Sublime.’
Demetr. = ‘Demetrius on Style.’

ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΛΙΚΑΡΝΑΣΕΩΣ

ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΝΘΕΣΕΩΣ ΟΝΟΜΑΤΩΝ

ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΛΙΚΑΡΝΑΣΕΩΣ

ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΝΘΕΣΕΩΣ ΟΝΟΜΑΤΩΝ

I

“Δῶρόν τοι καὶ ἐγώ, τέκνον φίλε, τοῦτο δίδωμι,”

καθάπερ ἡ παρ’ Ὁμήρῳ φησὶν Ἑλένη ξενίζουσα τὸν Τηλέμαχον,      5
πρώτην ἡμέραν ἄγοντι ταύτην γενέθλιον, ἀφ’ οὗ παραγέγονας
εἰς ἀνδρὸς ἡλικίαν, ἡδίστην καὶ τιμιωτάτην ἑορτῶν ἐμοί· πλὴν
οὔτε χειρῶν δημιούργημα πέμπω σοι τῶν ἐμῶν, ὡς ἐκείνη
φησὶ διδοῦσα τῷ μειρακίῳ τὸν πέπλον, οὔτ’ ἐς γάμου μόνον
ὥραν καὶ γαμετῆς χάριν εὔθετον, ἀλλὰ ποίημα μὲν καὶ γέννημα      10
παιδείας καὶ ψυχῆς τῆς ἐμῆς, κτῆμα δὲ σοὶ τὸ αὐτὸ
καὶ χρῆμα πρὸς ἁπάσας τὰς ἐν τῷ βίῳ χρείας ὁπόσαι γίνονται
διὰ λόγων ὠφέλιμον, ἀναγκαιότατον ἁπάντων χρημάτων,
εἴ τι κἀγὼ τυγχάνω τῶν δεόντων φρονῶν, ἅπασι μὲν ὁμοίως
τοῖς ἀσκοῦσι τοὺς πολιτικοὺς λόγους, ἐν ᾗ ποτ’ ἂν ἡλικίᾳ      15

DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS[65]

ON

LITERARY COMPOSITION

CHAPTER I

OCCASION AND PURPOSE OF THE TREATISE

To you, Rufus Metilius, whose worthy father is my most honoured friend, “I also offer this gift, dear child,”[85] as Helen, in Homer, says while entertaining Telemachus. To-day you are keeping your first birthday after your arrival at man’s estate; and of all feasts this is to me the most welcome and most precious. I am not, however, sending you the work of my own hands (to quote Helen’s words when she offers the robe to her young guest), nor what is fitted only for the season of marriage and “meet to pleasure a bride withal.”[86] No, it is the product and the child of my studies and my brain, and also something for you to keep and use in all the business of life which is effected through speech: an aid most necessary, if my estimate is of any account, to all alike who practise civil oratory,

1 ἁλικαρνασσέως PV^2   4 καὶ om. V   6 ταυτηνὶ PMV   7 ἡδίστην om. P   8 χεῖρον PV^1   9 ἔφη PV || οὔτε εἰς PMV   11 σοὶ om. E   12 πάσας EF   13 ὠφέλιμον V: ὠφελίμων EFM: ὠφέλιμοι P   14 τι] τι δὴ MV

2. For the meaning and rendering of σύνθεσις see Glossary, p. 326 infra.

5. In ll. 5, 8, 9, 10, the reference is to Odyssey xv. 123-127:—

Ἑλένη δὲ παρίστατο καλλιπάρῃος
πέπλον ἔχουσ’ ἐν χερσίν, ἔπος τ’ ἔφατ’ ἐκ τ’ ὀνόμαζε·
Δῶρον τοι καὶ ἐγώ, τέκνον φίλε, τοῦτο δίδωμι,
μνῆμ’ Ἑλένης χειρῶν, πολυηράτου ἐς γάμου ὥρην,
σῇ ἀλόχῳ φορέειν.

10. The word γαμετή is used by Dionysius in the interesting and highly characteristic passage which opens the de Antiq. Oratoribus (c. 2).—Here Sauppe conjectures γαμετῇ for γαμετῆς.—For εὔθετος cf. de Thucyd. c. 55 τὸ διηγηματικὸν μέρος αὐτῆς πλὴν ὀλίγων πάνυ θαυμαστῶς ἔχειν καὶ εἰς πάσας εἶναι τὰς χρείας εὔθετον, τὸ δὲ δημηγορικὸν οὐχ ἅπαν εἰς μίμησιν ἐπιτήδειον εἶναι.

11. κτῆμα ... χρῆμα, ‘a treasure and a tool,’ ‘a compliment and an implement’: similarly 264 14 φθόνῳ καὶ χρόνῳ (the reading of PMV), and 268 9 χρόνῳ τε πολλῷ καὶ πόνῳ, 184 25 ἀγνοίας ... προνοίας. Cp. the jingles found in the fragments of Gorgias, or in Aristophanes (ῥώμῃ ... γνώμῃ, Av. 637, 638; σχῆμα ... λῆμα, Ran. 463). Such rhyming tendencies (frequent in the orations of Cicero) are condemned in prose-writing by modern taste, though they have, in the course of centuries, found much acceptance in poetry.—For the antithesis in κτῆμα ... χρῆμα cp. Isocr. ad Demonicum 28, Cic. ad Fam. vii. 29, 30, Lucr. de Rer. Nat. iii. 971.

The Epitome (except Er) omits σοι, thus securing brevity at the price of rhythm, antithesis, and point. Cp. 66 13, where E omits οἰκειοτέρα.

14. κἀγώ: the καί gives a modest tone, as in Soph. Philoct. 192 εἴπερ κἀγώ τι φρονῶ (Jebb).

15. πολιτικούς: see Glossary, s.v.

τε καὶ ἕξει τυγχάνωσιν ὄντες· μάλιστα δὲ τοῖς μειρακίοις τε
καὶ νεωστὶ τοῦ μαθήματος ἁπτομένοις ὑμῖν, ὦ Ῥοῦφε Μετίλιε
πατρὸς ἀγαθοῦ, κἀμοὶ τιμιωτάτου φίλων.

διττῆς γὰρ οὔσης ἀσκήσεως περὶ πάντας ὡς εἰπεῖν τοὺς
λόγους, τῆς περὶ τὰ νοήματα καὶ τῆς περὶ τὰ ὀνόματα, ὧν ἡ      5
μὲν τοῦ πραγματικοῦ τόπου μᾶλλον ἐφάπτεσθαι δόξειεν ἄν,
ἡ δὲ τοῦ λεκτικοῦ, καὶ πάντων ὅσοι τοῦ λέγειν εὖ στοχάζονται
περὶ ἀμφοτέρας τὰς θεωρίας τοῦ λόγου ταύτας σπουδαζόντων
ἐξ ἴσου, ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ τὰ πράγματα καὶ τὴν ἐν τούτοις
φρόνησιν ἄγουσα ἡμᾶς ἐπιστήμη βραδεῖά ἐστι καὶ χαλεπὴ      10
νέοις, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀδύνατος εἰς ἀγενείων καὶ μειρακίων πεσεῖν
ἡλικίαν· ἀκμαζούσης γὰρ ἤδη συνέσεώς ἐστι καὶ πολιαῖς
κατηρτυμένης ἡλικίας ἡ τούτων κατάληψις οἰκειοτέρα, πολλῇ
μὲν ἱστορίᾳ λόγων τε καὶ ἔργων, πολλῇ δὲ πείρᾳ καὶ συμφορᾷ
παθῶν οἰκείων τε καὶ ἀλλοτρίων συναυξομένη· τὸ δὲ περὶ      15
τὰς λέξεις φιλόκαλον καὶ ταῖς νεαραῖς πέφυκε συνανθεῖν
οὐχ ἧττον ἡλικίαις. ἐπτόηται γὰρ ἅπασα νέου ψυχὴ περὶ
τὸν τῆς ἑρμηνείας ὡραϊσμόν, ἀλόγους τινὰς καὶ ὥσπερ ἐνθουσιώδεις
ἐπὶ τοῦτο λαμβάνουσα τὰς ὁρμάς· οἷς πολλῆς πάνυ

[67]

whatever their age and temperament, but especially to youths like you who are just beginning to take up the study.

We may say that in practically all speaking two things must have unremitting attention: the ideas and the words. In the former case, the sphere of subject matter is chiefly concerned; in the latter, that of expression; and all who aim at becoming good speakers give equally earnest attention to both these aspects of discourse. But the science which guides us to selection of matter, and to judgment in handling it, is hampered with difficulties for the young; indeed, for beardless striplings, its difficulties are insurmountable. The perfect grasp of things in all their bearings belongs rather to a matured understanding, and to an age that is disciplined by grey hairs,—an age whose powers are developed by prolonged investigation of discourse and action, and by many experiences of its own and much sharing in the fortunes of others. But the love of literary beauty flourishes naturally in the days of youth as much as in later life. For elegance of expression has a fascination for all young minds, making them feel impulses that are instinctive and akin to

1 τε καὶ PV: ἢ FM || τε om. F   2 νεωστὶ PMV: ἄρτι F || μετίλιε FP: μελίτιε EMV   3 καμοὶ P,MV: καὶ ἐμοὶ F   4 ἀσκήσεως EPMV: ὑποθέσεως F   5 νοήματα καὶ τὴν λέξιν ὧν EF   6 μᾶλλον ἐφάπτεσθαι om. M   9 τούτοις EPMV: αὐτοῖς F   10 ἐπιστημηι F^1   11 καὶ EFMV: ἢ P   12 ἀγμαζούσης F^1 || πολιαῖς κατηρτυμένης FMVs: κεκοσμημένης P   13 ἡλικίαις M^2 (cf. v. 17 infra) || ἡ τούτων κατάληψις F γρ M: ἐστὶν ἡ τούτων κατάληψις E: ἡ τούτων γνῶσις ἐστὶν PMV || οἰκει[ο]τέρα cum litura F,PMV: om. E   15 συναυξανομένη PMV   16 φιλόκαλον EFP: φιλότιμον καὶ φιλόκαλον MV || πέφυκε συνανθεῖν Reiskius: πεφυκὸς συνανθεῖν P: συνανθεῖν εἴωθεν οὐχ ἧττον EF: πεφυκὸς συνανθεῖν (εἴωθεν addit M) οὐχ ἧττον MV   19 ἐπὶ τοῦτο EF^2: ἐπὶ τοῦτον F^1MV: om. P || τὰς EFM: om. PV

2. For the plural ὑμῖν cp. Long. xii. 5 ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὑμεῖς [‘you Romans’] ἂν ἄμεινον ἐπικρίνοιτε.

Ῥοῦφε Μετίλιε: reference may be made to the editor’s article on ‘The Literary Circle of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ in the Classical Review xiv. (year 1900), pp. 439-442. Dionysius clearly numbered many Romans among his friends and pupils. Dedicatory books, or poems, were not uncommon gifts on birthdays: compare

Ἀντίπατρος Πείσωνι γενέθλιον ὤπασε βίβλον
μικρήν, ἐν δὲ μιῇ νυκτὶ πονησάμενος.
ἵλαος ἀλλὰ δέχοιτο, καὶ αἰνήσειεν ἀοιδόν,
Ζεὺς μέγας ὡς ὀλίγῳ πειθόμενος λιβάνῳ.

Antipater Thessalonic.
Epigr. Anthol. Pal. ix. 93.

θύει σοὶ τόδε γράμμα γενεθλιακαῖσιν ἐν ὥραις,
Καῖσαρ, Νειλαίη Μοῦσα Λεωνιδέω.
Καλλιόπης γὰρ ἄκαπνον ἀεὶ θύος· εἰς δὲ νέωτα,
ἢν ἐθέλῃς, θύσει τοῦδε περισσότερα.

Leonidas Alexandr. ib. vi. 321.

3. Reiske’s conjecture ‹παῖ› is plausible rather than necessary: cp. Il. xxi. 109 πατρὸς δ’ εἴμ’ ἀγαθοῖο and Odyss. iv. 611 αἵματος εἶς ἀγαθοῖο.—In the words κἀμοὶ τιμιωτάτου φίλων Dionysius illustrates his own contention (in c. 25) that fragments of metrical lines are occasionally found in prose writings. [F, however, has καὶ ἐμοί.]

6. πραγματικοῦ ... λεκτικοῦ: see Gloss., s.v.

13. κατηρτυμένης: cp. the sense of ‘break in,’ as in Soph. Antig. 477 σμικρῷ χαλινῷ δ’ οἶδα τοὺς θυμουμένους | ἵππους καταρτυθέντας and Plut. Vit. Themist. c. 2 καὶ τοὺς τραχυτάτους πώλους ἀρίστους ἵππους γίνεσθαι φάσκων, ὅταν ἧς προσήκει τύχωσι παιδείας καὶ καταρτύσεως. So Plato Legg. 808 D (of a child regarded as ‘the most intractable of animals’) ὅσῳ μάλιστα ἔχει πηγὴν τοῦ φρονεῖν μήπω κατηρτυμένην.—On πολιαῖς (although supported by FMV) Usener candidly remarks “fort. πολιαῖς interpolatum.”—Against κατάληψις (notwithstanding its strong manuscript support) must be weighed: (1) Dionysius’ anti-Stoicism, (2) the likely intrusion of a comparatively late word.

14. συμφορᾷ: perhaps the meaning is ‘comparison of,’ as (according to a possible interpretation) τὰς ξυμφορὰς ... τῶν βουλευμάτων in Soph. Oed. Tyr. 44, 45.

15. συναυξομένη: the form αὐξάνω (and its compounds) does not seem to be used by Dionysius.

17. οὐχ ἧττον (EFMV) should be retained: cp. n. on line 13. The words can hardly be regarded as a gloss on καὶ ταῖς νεαραῖς, though εἴωθεν (see critical notes) is probably a gloss on πέφυκε, which would subsequently be changed to πεφυκός.

ἐπτόηται: not infrequent in earlier and in later Greek. Aesch. Prom. V. 856 ἐπτοημένοι φρένας (‘with their hearts wildly beating’), Plato Phaedo 68 C περὶ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας μὴ ἐπτοῆσθαι (so Rep. 439 D), Plut. Mor. 40 F βλὰξ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ παντὶ λόγῳ φιλεῖ ἐπτοῆσθαι (quoted from Heracleitus), id. ib. 1128 B ἐπτοημένους περὶ τὰ ὄψα, Chrysostom de Sacerdotio c. 1 περὶ τὰς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ (i.e. the theatre) τέρψεις ἐπτοημένον.—For youth in relation to the arts of style cp. Plut. Vit. Demosth. c. 2 (last sentence).

18. ἑρμηνείας: see Gloss., s.v.

καὶ ἔμφρονος δεῖ τῆς πρώτης ἐπιστάσεώς τε καὶ ἀγωγῆς, εἰ
μέλλουσι μὴ πᾶν “ὅ τι κεν ἐπ’ ἀκαιρίμαν γλῶσσαν ἔπος ἔλθῃ”
λέγειν μηδ’ εἰκῇ συνθήσειν τὰ προστυχόντα ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλ’
ἐκλογῇ τε χρήσεσθαι καθαρῶν ἅμα καὶ γενναίων ὀνομάτων καὶ
συνθέσει ταῦτα κοσμήσειν μεμιγμένον ἐχούσῃ τῷ σεμνῷ τὸ      5
ἡδύ. εἰς δὴ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος, ὃ δεῖ πρῶτον νέοις ἀσκεῖσθαι,
“συμβάλλομαί σοι μέλος εἰς ἔρωτα” τὴν περὶ τῆς συνθέσεως
τῶν ὀνομάτων πραγματείαν ὀλίγοις μὲν ἐπὶ νοῦν ἐλθοῦσαν,
ὅσοι τῶν ἀρχαίων ῥητορικὰς ἢ διαλεκτικὰς συνέγραψαν τέχνας,
οὐδενὶ δ’ ἀκριβῶς οὐδ’ ἀποχρώντως μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος ἐξειργασμένην,      10
ὡς ἐγὼ πείθομαι. ἐὰν δ’ ἐγγένηταί μοι σχολή, καὶ
περὶ τῆς ἐκλογῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἑτέραν ἐξοίσω σοι γραφήν,
ἵνα τὸν λεκτικὸν τόπον τελείως ἐξειργασμένον ἔχῃς. ἐκείνην
μὲν οὖν τὴν πραγματείαν εἰς νέωτα πάλιν ὥραις ταῖς αὐταῖς
προσδέχου θεῶν ἡμᾶς φυλαττόντων ἀσινεῖς τε καὶ ἀνόσους, εἰ      15
δήποτε ἡμῖν ἄρα τούτου πέπρωται βεβαίως τυχεῖν· νυνὶ δὲ
ἣν τὸ δαιμόνιον ἐπὶ νοῦν ἤγαγέ μοι πραγματείαν δέχου.

κεφάλαια δ’ αὐτῆς ἐστιν ἃ πρόκειταί μοι δεῖξαι ταῦτα,
τίς τε ἐστὶν ἡ τῆς συνθέσεως φύσις καὶ τίνα ἰσχὺν ἔχει, καὶ
τίνων στοχάζεται καὶ πῶς αὐτῶν τυγχάνει, καὶ τίνες αἱ γενικώταται      20
αὐτῆς εἰσι διαφοραὶ καὶ τίς ἑκάστης χαρακτὴρ καὶ ποίαν

inspiration. Young people need, at the beginning, much prudent[69] oversight and guidance, if they are not to utter

What word soe’er may have sprung
To the tip of an ill-timed tongue,[87]

nor to form at random any chance combinations, but to select pure and noble words, and to place them in the beautiful setting of a composition that unites charm to dignity. So in this department, the first in which the young should exercise themselves, “for love’s service I lend you a strain,”[88] in the shape of this treatise on literary composition. The subject has occurred to but few of all the ancients who have composed manuals of rhetoric or dialectic, and by none has it been, to the best of my belief, accurately or adequately treated up to the present time. If I find leisure, I will produce another book for you—one on the choice of words, in order that you may have the subject of expression exhaustively treated. You may expect that treatise next year at the same festive season, the gods guarding us from accident and disease, if it so be that our destiny has reserved for us the secure attainment of this blessing. But now accept the treatise which my good genius has suggested to me.

The chief heads under which I propose to treat the subject are the following: what is the nature of composition, and where its strength lies; what are its aims and how it attains them; what are its principal varieties, what is the distinctive

1 ἐπιστάσεως EF: ἐπιστασίας PMV   3 μηδὲ PF^1V || εἰκῆ sine iota PF^2: εἰκεῖ F^1 || ἀλλὰ PMV   4 τε χρήσεσθαι s: τε χρήσασθαι PMV: κεχρῆσθαι sine τε EF   5 τῶ σεμνῶ sine iota P: σεμνῶ[ι] cum litura F   6 ἐσ F   7 συμβάλλομέν F || μέλος M. Schmidt: μέρος libri || εἰς F: εἰς τὸν PMV || τὴν (ex τῆς) F,M: τὸν P,V in marg.: τὸ r || τῆς F: om. PMV   8 ὀλίγοις] οὐκ ὀλίγοις V in marg. || ἐλθοῦσαν ἐπινοῦν F   9 ἀρχομένων M || διαλεκτικὰς F: καὶ λεκτικὰς P: καὶ διαλεκτικὰς MV   10 et 11 δὲ PMV   10 ἀποχρώντως οὐδ’ ἀκριβῶς F || οὐδὲ PMV   12 σοι om. F   13 ἔχης P sine iota   15 ἀνούσους P   16 ἄρα om. F   17 δέχου F: προσδέχου PMV   18 δὲ PMV || ταῦτα δεῖξαι F   19 τε om. M   21 τίνες ἑκάστης χαρακτῆρες F

2. The reference is to the indiscretions of an impertinent tongue,—‘Whatever, without rhyme and reason, | Occurs to the tongue out of season’: Lat. quicquid in buccam. Cp. Lucian de conscrib. hist. c. 32 ἀναπλάττοντες ὅ τι κεν ἐπ’ ἀκαιρίμαν γλῶσσαν, φασίν, ἔλθῃ.

4. The κεχρῆσθαι of EF perhaps points to τε χρῆσθαι as the right reading. We should then have λέγειν ... συνθήσειν, χρῆσθαι ... κοσμήσειν: a combination of present and future infinitives which would be in keeping with Dionysius’ love of variety (μεταβολή).

6. “Write νέους. The dative with the passive present, though of course possible, is unlikely in Dionysius. ἀσκῶ can take two accusatives,” H. Richards in Classical Review xix. 252.

7. M. Schmidt’s conjecture μέλος (M. Schmidt Diatribe in Dithyrambum, Berol. 1845) seems to be established by Athenaeus xv. 692 D ἐπεὶ δ’ ἐνταῦθα τοῦ λόγου ἐσμέν, συμβαλοῦμαί τι μέλος ὑμῖν εἰς ἔρωτα, κατὰ τὸν Κυθήριον ποιητήν: cp. ib. vi. 271 B συμβαλοῦμαί τι καὶ αὐτὸς μέλος εἰς ἔρωτα τῷ σοφῷ καὶ φιλτάτῳ Δημοκρίτῳ.—In itself, however, συμβάλλομαι μέρος gives good sense (cp. Plato Legg. 836 D τί μέρος ἡμῖν ξυμβάλλοιτ’ ἂν πρὸς ἀρετήν;); and the repetition of μέρος might be deliberate,—‘to this part of the subject ... I contribute as my part.’—ἔρανον [corrupted into ἔρον, ἔρων, ἔρωτα] might be conjectured in place of ἔρωτα, if any considerable change were needed.

8. In estimating Dionysius’ obligations to his predecessors, it should be noticed that the correct reading here is not οὐκ ὀλίγοις (as in the editions of Reiske and Schaefer) but ὀλίγοις.—For συνθέσεως see Gloss., s.v.

11. Either (1) ἐὰν δ’ ἐγγένηταί μοι (without σχολή), or (2) ἐὰν δὲ γένηταί μοι σχολή, would be more natural. Cp. H. Richards in Classical Review, l.c.

12. Either Dionysius did not fulfil his design, or this treatise on the ‘choice of words’ has been lost. For other lost works of Dionysius see D.H. p. 7.

14. εἰς νέωτα: Hesychius, εἰς τὸ ἐπιὸν ἢ νέον ἔτος. Cp. Theophr. de c. Pl. iii. 16. 2 τὸν εἰς νέωτα καρπόν.

17. τὸ δαιμόνιον: cp. de Demosth. c. 58 ad f. ἐὰν δὲ σῴζῃ τὸ δαιμόνιον ἡμᾶς κτλ.

18. ταῦτα: compare 86 4, 90 15, 100 12, 27, 106 5, and contrast 98 20, 21, 100 16, 17, 18.

κρατίστην αὐτῶν εἶναι πείθομαι, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις, τί ποτ’
ἐστὶ τὸ ποιητικὸν ἐκεῖνο καὶ εὔγλωσσον καὶ μελιχρὸν ἐν ταῖς
ἀκοαῖς, ὃ πέφυκε τῇ συνθέσει τῆς πεζῆς λέξεως παρακολουθεῖν,
ποιητικῆς τε κατασκευῆς τὸν ἀποίητον ἐκμιμουμένης λόγον καὶ
σφόδρα ἐν τῇ μιμήσει κατορθούσης ποῦ τὸ κράτος, καὶ διὰ      5
ποίας ἂν ἐπιτηδεύσεως ἐγγένοιτο ἑκάτερον αὐτῶν. τοιαυτὶ
μὲν δή τινά ἐστιν ὡς τύπῳ περιλαβεῖν ὑπὲρ ὧν μέλλω λέγειν,
ἄρχεται δὲ ἐνθένδ’ ἡ πραγματεία.

II
ἡ σύνθεσις ἔστι μέν, ὥσπερ καὶ αὐτὸ δηλοῖ τοὔνομα,
ποιά τις θέσις παρ’ ἄλληλα τῶν τοῦ λόγου μορίων, ἃ δὴ καὶ      10
στοιχεῖά τινες τῆς λέξεως καλοῦσιν. ταῦτα δὲ Θεοδέκτης μὲν
καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης καὶ οἱ κατ’ ἐκείνους φιλοσοφήσαντες τοὺς
χρόνους ἄχρι τριῶν προήγαγον, ὀνόματα καὶ ῥήματα καὶ
συνδέσμους πρῶτα μέρη τῆς λέξεως ποιοῦντες. οἱ δὲ μετὰ
τούτους γενόμενοι, καὶ μάλιστα οἱ τῆς Στωικῆς αἱρέσεως      15
ἡγεμόνες, ἕως τεττάρων προὐβίβασαν, χωρίσαντες ἀπὸ τῶν
συνδέσμων τὰ ἄρθρα. εἶθ’ οἱ μεταγενέστεροι τὰ προσηγορικὰ
διελόντες ἀπὸ τῶν ὀνοματικῶν πέντε ἀπεφήναντο τὰ πρῶτα
μέρη. ἕτεροι δὲ καὶ τὰς ἀντονομασίας ἀποζεύξαντες ἀπὸ τῶν
ὀνομάτων ἕκτον στοιχεῖον τοῦτ’ ἐποίησαν. οἱ δὲ καὶ τὰ      20
ἐπιρρήματα διεῖλον ἀπὸ τῶν ῥημάτων καὶ τὰς προθέσεις ἀπὸ

[71]

feature of each, and which of them I believe to be the most effective; and still further, what is that poetical element, so pleasant on the tongue and so sweet to the ear, which naturally accompanies composition in prose, and wherein lies the effectiveness of that poetical art which imitates plain prose and succeeds excellently in doing so, and by what method each of those two results may be attained. Such, in broad outline, are the topics with which I intend to deal, and on this programme my treatise is based.

CHAPTER II

COMPOSITION DEFINED

Composition is, as the very name indicates, a certain arrangement of the parts of speech, or elements of diction, as some call them. These were reckoned as three only by Theodectes and Aristotle and the philosophers of those times, who regarded nouns, verbs and connectives as the primary parts of speech. Their successors, particularly the leaders of the Stoic school, raised the number to four, separating the articles from the connectives. Then the later inquirers divided the appellatives from the substantives, and represented the primary parts of speech as five. Others detached the pronouns from the nouns, and so introduced a sixth element. Others, again, divided the adverbs from the verbs, the prepositions

1 εἶναι F: om PMV   4 ποιητικῆς τε om. P || ἐκμημουμένης P^1   5 ποῦ] αὐτοῦ PV: τοῦτο FM: αὐτῷ s   6 ἐγγένοιτο F: γένοιτο PMV   8 ἄρχεται δὲ ἐνθένδ’ ἡ πραγματεία om. s || δὲ om. V || ἔνθεν PF^2: ἐντεῦθεν F^1MV   9 ἔστι μὲν EFM: ἐστιν PV   13 προῆγον F   14 μετὰ τούτους F: μετ’ αὐτοὺς PMV   16 τεσσάρων F   19 ἀντωνυμίας V   20 τοῦτο PMV   21 ἐπ[ι]ρρήματα cum litura P || διεῖλον PMV: διελόντες F

4. κατασκευῆς: see Gloss., s.v.

5. Usener’s conjecture εὖ τί may derive some colour from the manuscript readings in 72 10. But 270 11 shows that εὖ is not necessary here, and ποῦ is nearer the manuscript tradition. Cp. also 250 3 (κατορθουμένοις), 198 11 (κατόρθωμα), de Thucyd. c. 1 (τῆς δυνάμεως οὐκ ἐν ἅπασι τοῖς ἔργοις κατορθούσης). Other examples are quoted in Long. p. 202.

7. ὑπέρ: cp. 72 3, 17: περί, 68 12.

10. de Demosth. c. 48 τοῖς πρώτοις μορίοις τῆς λέξεως, ἃ δὴ στοιχεῖα ὑπό τινων καλεῖται, εἴτε τρία ταῦτ’ ἐστίν, ὡς Θεοδέκτῃ τε καὶ Ἀριστοτέλει δοκεῖ, ὀνόματα καὶ ῥήματα καὶ σύνδεσμοι, εἴτε τέτταρα, ὡς τοῖς περὶ Ζήνωνα τὸν Στωικόν, εἴτε πλείω, δύο ταῦτα ἀκολουθεῖ μέλος καὶ χρόνος ἴσα. Quintil. i. 4. 18, 19 “tum videbit, ad quem hoc pertinet, quot et quae partes orationis; quamquam de numero parum convenit. veteres enim, quorum fuerunt Aristoteles quoque atque Theodectes, verba modo et nomina et convinctiones tradiderunt; videlicet quod in verbis vim sermonis, in nominibus materiam (quia alterum est quod loquimur, alterum de quo loquimur), in convinctionibus autem complexus eorum esse iudicaverunt; quas coniunctiones a plerisque dici scio, sed haec videtur ex συνδέσμῳ magis propria translatio. paulatim a philosophis ac maxime Stoicis auctus est numerus, ac primum convinctionibus articuli adiecti, post praepositiones: nominibus appellatio, deinde pronomen, deinde mixtum verbo participium, ipsis verbis adverbia. noster sermo articulos non desiderat, ideoque in alias partes orationis sparguntur.” Quintilian elsewhere (ii. 15. 10) writes: “a quo non dissentit Theodectes, sive ipsius id opus est, quod de rhetorice nomine eius inscribitur, sive ut creditum est Aristotelis.” It is hardly likely that in i. 4. 18 Quintilian is translating from the de C.V. c. 2; the coincidences are, rather, due to the use of common sources.—Dionysius does not mention Dionysius Thrax, the author of the first Greek Grammar, nor does he seem to take account of Aristot. Poet. c. 20.

13. The Arabic grammarians in the same way reckon ‘verbs,’ ‘nouns,’ and ‘particles.’

15. Cp. 96 8, 12 infra.

17. τὰ προσηγορικὰ διελόντες: cp. Dionysius Thrax Ars Gramm. p. 23 (Uhlig) τοῦ δὲ λόγου μέρη ἐστὶν ὀκτώ· ὄνομα, ῥῆμα, μετοχή, ἄρθρον, ἀντωνυμία, πρόθεσις, ἐπίρρημα, σύνδεσμος· ἡ γὰρ προσηγορία ὡς εἶδος τῷ ὀνόματι ὑποβέβληται.

21. This seems to imply that adverbs were originally included in verbs—that, for example, εὖ ποιεῖν (like bene facere in Plautus) was regarded as a quasi-compound. It is to be remembered that the division of words in writing is a later invention.

τῶν συνδέσμων καὶ τὰς μετοχὰς ἀπὸ τῶν προσηγορικῶν, οἱ δὲ
καὶ ἄλλας τινὰς προσαγαγόντες τομὰς πολλὰ τὰ πρῶτα μόρια
τῆς λέξεως ἐποίησαν· ὑπὲρ ὧν οὐ μικρὸς ἂν εἴη λόγος. πλὴν
ἥ γε τῶν πρῶτων εἴτε τριῶν ἢ τεττάρων εἴθ’ ὅσων δήποτε
ὄντων μερῶν πλοκὴ καὶ παράθεσις τὰ λεγόμενα ποιεῖ      5
κῶλα, ἔπειθ’ ἡ τούτων ἁρμονία τὰς καλουμένας συμπληροῖ
περιόδους, αὗται δὲ τὸν σύμπαντα τελειοῦσι λόγον. ἔστι δὴ
τῆς συνθέσεως ἔργα τά τε ὀνόματα οἰκείως θεῖναι παρ’ ἄλληλα
καὶ τοῖς κώλοις ἀποδοῦναι τὴν προσήκουσαν ἁρμονίαν καὶ ταῖς
περιόδοις διαλαβεῖν εὖ τὸν λόγον.      10

δευτέρα δ’ οὖσα μοῖρα τῶν περὶ τὸν λεκτικὸν τόπον
θεωρημάτων κατὰ γοῦν τὴν τάξιν (ἡγεῖται γὰρ ἡ τῶν
ὀνομάτων ἐκλογὴ καὶ προϋφίσταται ταύτης κατὰ φύσιν)
ἡδονὴν καὶ πειθὼ καὶ κράτος ἐν τοῖς λόγοις οὐκ ὀλίγῳ
κρεῖττον ἐκείνης ἔχει. καὶ μηδεὶς ἡγήσηται παράδοξον, εἰ      15
πολλῶν καὶ μεγάλων ὄντων θεωρημάτων περὶ τὴν ἐκλογήν,
ὑπὲρ ὧν πολὺς ἐγένετο φιλοσόφοις τε καὶ πολιτικοῖς ἀνδράσι
λόγος, ἡ σύνθεσις δευτέραν ἔχουσα χώραν τῇ τάξει καὶ λόγων
οὐδέ, πολλοῦ δεῖ, τῶν ἴσων ἐκείνῃ τυχοῦσα τοσαύτην ἰσχὺν
ἔχει καὶ δύναμιν ὥστε περιεῖναι πάντων τῶν ἐκείνης ἔργων      20
καὶ κρατεῖν, ἐνθυμούμενος ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν,
ὅσαι διαφόρους ὕλας λαμβάνουσαι συμφορητὸν ἐκ τούτων
ποιοῦσι τὸ τέλος, ὡς οἰκοδομική τε καὶ τεκτονικὴ καὶ ποικιλτικὴ
καὶ ὅσαι ταῖς τοιαύταις εἰσὶν ὁμοιογενεῖς, αἱ συνθετικαὶ
δυνάμεις τῇ μὲν τάξει δεύτεραι τῶν ἐκλεκτικῶν εἰσι, τῇ δὲ      25
δυνάμει πρότεραι· ὥστ’ εἰ καὶ τῷ λόγῳ τὸ αὐτὸ συμβέβηκεν,
οὐκ ἄτοπον ἡγητέον. οὐδὲν δὲ κωλύει καὶ πίστεις παρασχεῖν

[73]

from the connectives and the participles from the appellatives; while others introduced still further subdivisions, and so multiplied the primary parts of speech. The subject would afford scope for quite a long discussion. Enough to say that the combination or juxtaposition of these primary parts, be they three, or four, or whatever may be their number, forms the so-called “members” (or clauses) of a sentence. Further, the fitting together of these clauses constitutes what are termed the “periods,” and these make up the complete discourse. The function of composition is to put words together in an appropriate order, to assign a suitable connexion to clauses, and to distribute the whole discourse properly into periods.

Although in logical order arrangement of words occupies the second place when the department of expression is under investigation, since the selection of them naturally takes precedence and is assumed to be already made; yet it is upon arrangement, far more than upon selection, that persuasion, charm, and literary power depend. And let no one deem it strange that, whereas many serious investigations have been made regarding the choice of words,—investigations which have given rise to much debate among philosophers and political orators,—composition, though it holds the second place in order, and has been the subject of far fewer discussions than the other, yet possesses so much solid strength, so much active energy, that it triumphantly outstrips all the other’s achievements. It must be remembered that, in the case of all the other arts which employ various materials and produce from them a composite result,—arts such as building, carpentry, embroidery, and the like,—the faculties of composition are second in order of time to those of selection, but are nevertheless of greater importance. Hence it must not be thought abnormal that the same principle obtains with respect to discourse. But we may as well submit proofs of this statement,

2 προσαγαγόντες F: εἰσάγοντες PVa: προεισαγαγόντες M   3 οὐ μικρὸς PMV: πολλὺς sic F   4 τῶν τριῶν PMV: * * * τριῶν * * * * F   5 καὶ om. P^1   8 οἰκείως θεῖναι τά τε ὀνόματα (verbis in hunc modum dispositis) PMV || παράλληλα PM, corr. F^1   9 ἀποδιδόναι F || ἀρμονίαν FP: sic passim   10 λαβεῖν F^1 || εὖ τὸν EF: αὐτὸν ὅλον τὸν PMV   11 δὲ PMV   12 κατὰ γοὖν F: κατανοοῦντι EPMV   14 τοῖς EF: om. PMV || ὀλίγον M   15 κρεῖττον EFM: κρείττω PV || ἡγήσεται F   17 καὶ ῥητορικοῖς PMV || ἀνδρᾶσι F: ἀνδράσιν P   18 χώραν ἔχουσα F || συντάξει F^1   19 ἐκείνη (sine iota) FP   21 ἐπὶ EF: αἱ περὶ PMV   22 δ(ια)αφόρους P^1 || λαμβάνουσιν F: λαμβάνουσι M   23 τε om. EF || πολιτικὴ E   24 ταῖς τοιαύταις PMV: ταύτης F || ὁμοιογενεῖς P: ὁμογενεῖς FMV   25 τῶν λεκτικῶν E

6. ἁρμονία: see Gloss., s.v.

8. Cic. de Orat. iii. 43. 171 “sequitur continuatio verborum, quae duas res maxime, collocationem primum, deinde modum quendam formamque desiderat. collocationis est componere et struere verba sic, ut neve asper eorum concursus neve hiulcus sit, sed quodam modo coagmentatus et levis; in quo lepide soceri mei persona lusit is, qui elegantissime id facere potuit, Lucilius:

quam lepide λέξεις compostae! ut tesserulae omnes
arte pavimento atque emblemate vermiculato.”

9. In the actual contents of his treatise Dionysius pays more attention to the ὀνόματα than to the κῶλα and περίοδοι. The importance of employing periods judiciously is indicated in 118 15.

12. κατανοοῦντι (the more difficult and better supported reading) may be right, cp. 90 12 εἰσπλέοντι (from Thucydides).

13. Cic. Brut. 72. 253 “primoque in libro dixerit (Caesar) verborum dilectum originem esse eloquentiae.”

25. For the antithesis cp. Demosth. Olynth. iii. 15 τὸ γὰρ πράττειν τοῦ λέγειν καὶ χειροτονεῖν ὕστερον ὂν τῇ τάξει, πρότερον τῇ δυνάμει καὶ κρεῖττόν ἐστιν.

τοῦ προκειμένου, μή τι δόξωμεν ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαμβάνειν τῶν ἀμφισβήτησιν ἐχόντων λόγων.

III
ἔστι τοίνυν πᾶσα λέξις ᾗ σημαίνομεν τὰς νοήσεις ἡ μὲν
ἔμμετρος, ἡ δὲ ἄμετρος· ὧν ἑκατέρα καλῆς μὲν ἁρμονίας
τυχοῦσα καλὸν οἵα τ’ ἐστὶ ποιεῖν καὶ τὸ μέτρον καὶ τὸν      5
λόγον, ἀνεπιστάτως δὲ καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν ῥιπτομένη προσαπόλλυσι
καὶ τὸ ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ χρήσιμον. πολλοὶ γοῦν καὶ
ποιηταὶ καὶ συγγραφεῖς φιλόσοφοί τε καὶ ῥήτορες λέξεις
πάνυ καλὰς καὶ πρεπούσας τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις ἐκλέξαντες
ἐπιμελῶς, ἁρμονίαν δὲ αὐταῖς ἀποδόντες εἰκαίαν τινὰ καὶ      10
ἄμουσον οὐδὲν χρηστὸν ἀπέλαυσαν ἐκείνου τοῦ πόνου. ἕτεροι
δ’ εὐκαταφρόνητα καὶ ταπεινὰ λαβόντες ὀνόματα, συνθέντες
δ’ αὐτὰ ἡδέως καὶ περιττῶς πολλὴν τὴν ἀφροδίτην τῷ λόγῳ
περιέθηκαν. καὶ σχεδὸν ἀνάλογόν τι πεπονθέναι δόξειεν ἂν
ἡ σύνθεσις πρὸς τὴν ἐκλογήν, ὃ πάσχει τὰ ὀνόματα πρὸς      15
τὰ νοήματα. ὥσπερ γὰρ οὐδὲν ὄφελος διανοίας ἐστὶ χρηστῆς,
εἰ μή τις αὐτῇ κόσμον ἀποδώσει καλῆς ὀνομασίας, οὕτω
κἀνταῦθα οὐδέν ἐστι προὔργου λέξιν εὑρεῖν καθαρὰν καὶ καλλιρήμονα,
εἰ μὴ καὶ κόσμον αὐτῇ τις ἁρμονίας τὸν προσήκοντα
περιθήσει.      20

ἵνα δὲ μὴ δόξω φάσιν ἀναπόδεικτον λέγειν, ἐξ ὧν
ἐπείσθην κρεῖττον εἶναι καὶ τελειότερον ἄσκημα τῆς ἐκλογῆς

[75]

that we may not be thought to assume off-hand the truth of a doubtful proposition.

CHAPTER III

THE MAGICAL EFFECT OF COMPOSITION, OR WORD-ORDER

Every utterance, then, by which we express our thoughts is either in metre or not in metre. Whichever it be, it can, when aided by beautiful arrangement, attain beauty whether of verse or prose. But speech, if flung out carelessly at random, at the same time spoils the value of the thought. Many poets, and prose-writers (philosophers and orators), have carefully chosen expressions that are distinctly beautiful and appropriate to the subject matter, but have reaped no benefit from their trouble because they have given them a rude and haphazard sort of arrangement: whereas others have invested their discourse with great beauty by taking humble, unpretending words, and arranging them with charm and distinction. It may well be thought that composition is to selection what words are to ideas. For just as a fine thought is of no avail unless it be clothed in beautiful language, so here too pure and elegant expression, is useless unless it be attired in the right vesture of arrangement.

But to guard myself against the appearance of making an unsupported assertion, I will try to show by an appeal to facts

4 ἄμετρος ἣ δ’ (ex ἥδ’ corr.) ἔμμετρος F,E || καλ(ῶς) P || μὲν om. M   5 οἵα τ’ M: οἷά τ’ PV: οἷά τε F,E || καὶ τὸ FE: τὸ PMV   6 ἔτυχεν] ἔοικε M || ῥιπτομένη PMVE: ῥιπτουμένη F   7 τὸ om. F^1 || γοὖν καὶ F,E: γοῦν PMV   10 ἀποδόντες E γρ M: [ἀποδόν]τες cum litura F: περιθέντες PV: παραθέντες M   12 δὲ PMV   13 δε PV || ἀντὰ P^1 || ἰδίως EFM^1: ἡδέως ex ἱδίως P^1: ἰδέως M^2 || τ(ῶ) λόγ(ω) P: τῶν λόγων M   14 ἂν om. M   16 ἐστὶ ante διανοίας ponunt EF   17 κόσμον * * * * * P || ἀποδώσῃ F   18 καὶ ἐνταῦθα EF || πούργου P^1 (ρ suprascr. P^2): προὔργον V || καλλιῥήμονα FM,P: καλλιῤῥήμονα V   19 τίς F: τ(ῆς) P,MV   21 φασὶν libri: corr. Krueger || ἀναπόδεικτον P: ἀναπόδεικτα F^2MV: ἀπόδεικτα F^1   22 κρεῖττον] καὶ κρεῖττον F || τελεώτερον M

1. ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαμβάνειν: cp. 78 13 ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαβὼν ἐχρήσατο.

9. There is much similarity, both in thought and in expression, between this passage and the de Sublimitate xl. 2: ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι γε πολλοὶ καὶ συγγραφέων καὶ ποιητῶν οὐκ ὄντες ὑψηλοὶ φύσει, μήποτε δὲ καὶ ἀμεγέθεις, ὅμως κοινοῖς καὶ δημώδεσι τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ οὐδὲν ἐπαγομένοις περιττὸν ὡς τὰ πολλὰ συγχρώμενοι, διὰ μόνου τοῦ συνθεῖναι καὶ ἁρμόσαι ταῦτα δ’ ὅμως ὄγκον καὶ διάστημα καὶ τὸ μὴ ταπεινοὶ δοκεῖν εἶναι περιεβάλοντο, καθάπερ ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Φίλιστος, Ἀριστοφάνης ἔν τισιν, ἐν τοῖς πλείστοις Εὐριπίδης, ἱκανῶς ἡμῖν δεδήλωται. The author of the de Subl. had, as he himself tells us, dealt with the subject of composition ἐν δυσὶν συντάγμασιν (xxxix. 1 ibid.).

13. ἰδίως may be right, meaning with περιττῶς ‘in a special and distinctive manner.’

14. The Aristotelian ἀναλογία is before the author’s mind here, just as is the Aristotelian doctrine of τὸ μέσον later in the treatise (246 16).

17. de Demosth. c. 18 οὐχ ἅπαντα δέ γε τὰ πράγματα τὴν αὐτὴν ἀπαιτεῖ διάλεκτον, ἀλλ’ ἔστιν ὥσπερ σώμασι πρέπουσά τις ἐσθής, οὕτως καὶ νοήμασιν ἁρμόττουσά τις ὀνομασία.

18. προὔργου: cp. Plato Alcib. II. 149 E ὥστε οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς ἦν προὔργου θύειν τε καὶ δῶρα τελεῖν μάτην.

21. MS. Canon. 45 has φάσιν, ἀναπόδεικτον, as reported (Journal of Philology xxvii. 84) by A. B. Poynton, who compares Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1143 b 12 ὥστε δεῖ προσέχειν τῶν ἐμπείρων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων ἢ φρονίμων ταῖς ἀναποδείκτοις φάσεσι καὶ δόξαις οὐχ ἧττον τῶν ἀποδείξεων. διὰ γὰρ τὸ ἔχειν ἐκ τῆς ἐμπειρίας ὄμμα ὁρῶσιν ὀρθῶς. Probably Dionysius has this passage of Aristotle in his mind, and wishes it to be understood that he does not mean to dogmatize simply on the score of being an old and experienced teacher. In the Rhet. ad Alex. 1432 a 33, an oath is defined as: μετὰ θείας παραλήψεως φάσις ἀναπόδεικτος.

τὴν σύνθεσιν, ἔργῳ πειράσομαι δεικνύναι, ἐμμέτρων τε καὶ
πεζῶν λόγων ἀπαρχὰς ὀλίγας προχειρισάμενος. λαμβανέσθω
δὲ ποιητῶν μὲν Ὅμηρος, συγγραφέων δὲ Ἡρόδοτος· ἀπόχρη
γὰρ ἐκ τούτων καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων εἰκάσαι. ἔστι δὴ παρ’
Ὁμήρῳ μὲν ὁ παρὰ τῷ συβώτῃ καταγόμενος Ὀδυσσεὺς περὶ      5
τὴν ἑωθινὴν ὥραν ἀκρατίζεσθαι μέλλων, ὡς τοῖς παλαιοῖς
ἔθος ἦν· ἔπειτα ὁ Τηλέμαχος αὐτοῖς ἐπιφαινόμενος ἐκ τῆς εἰς
Πελοπόννησον ἀποδημίας· πραγμάτια λιτὰ καὶ βιωτικὰ
ἡρμηνευμένα ὑπέρευ. ποῦ δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ τῆς ἑρμηνείας ἀρετή;
τὰ ποιήματα δηλώσει παρατεθέντα αὐτά·      10

τὼ δ’ αὖτ’ ἐν κλισίῃς Ὀδυσεὺς καὶ δῖος ὑφορβὸς
ἐντύνοντ’ ἄριστον ἅμ’ ἠοῖ κειαμένω πῦρ
ἔκπεμψάν τε νομῆας ἅμ’ ἀγρομένοισι σύεσσι.
Τηλέμαχον δὲ περίσσαινον κύνες ὑλακόμωροι
οὐδ’ ὕλαον προσιόντα. νόησε δὲ δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς      15
σαίνοντάς τε κύνας, ὑπὸ δὲ κτύπος ἦλθε ποδοῖιν·
αἶψα δ’ ἄρ’ Εὔμαιον προσεφώνεεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντα·
Εὔμαι’, ἦ μάλα τίς τοι ἐλεύσεται ἐνθάδ’ ἑταῖρος
ἢ καὶ γνώριμος ἄλλος, ἐπεὶ κύνες οὐχ ὑλάουσιν,
ἀλλὰ περισσαίνουσι· ποδῶν δ’ ὑπὸ δοῦπον ἀκούω.      20
οὔπω πᾶν εἴρητο ἔπος, ὅτε οἱ φίλος υἱὸς
ἔστη ἐνὶ προθύροισι. ταφὼν δ’ ἀνόρουσε συβώτης·

[77]

the reasons which have convinced me that composition is a more important and effective art than mere selection of words. I will first examine a few specimen passages in prose and verse. Among poets let Homer be taken, among prose-writers Herodotus: from these may be formed an adequate notion of the rest.

Well, in Homer we find Odysseus tarrying in the swineherd’s hut and about to break his fast at dawn, as they used to do in ancient days. Telemachus then appears in sight, returning from his sojourn in the Peloponnese. Trifling incidents of everyday life as these are, they are inimitably portrayed. But wherein lies the excellence of expression? I shall quote the lines, and they will speak for themselves:—

As anigh came Telemachus’ feet, the king and the swineherd wight
Made ready the morning meat, and by this was the fire alight;—
They had sent the herdmen away with the pasturing swine at the dawning;—
Lo, the dogs have forgotten to bay, and around the prince are they fawning!
And Odysseus the godlike marked the leap and the whine of the hounds
That ever at strangers barked; and his ear caught footfall-sounds.
Straightway he spake, for beside him was sitting the master of swine:
“Of a surety, Eumaeus, hitherward cometh a comrade of thine,
Or some one the bandogs know, and not with barking greet,
But they fawn upon him; moreover I hear the treading of feet.”
Not yet were the words well done, when the porchway darkened: a face
Was there in the door,—his son! and Eumaeus sprang up in amaze.

1 ἔργω F || δεικνῦναι F || ἐνμέτρων F   4 εἰκᾶσαι F   5 ὁμήρ(ω) P || τῳ om. P || σϊβώτηι P: corr. in margine P^2 || ὀδυσεὺς P   8 πραγμάτια λιτὰ καὶ PV: πραγμάτια ἅττα F: πραγματιάττα λιτὰ καὶ M   9 δ’ ἔστιν F: δέ (ἐστιν) P   11 κλισίησ’ EFV: κλισίῃ Hom. || ὀδυσσεὺς FP^2M^1V   12 ἐντύνοντ(ες) P,V   13 ἐκπέμψαντε EFPM || ἀγρομένοισ(ιν) P   14 περίσαινον FEV   15 ὀδυσεὺς P   16 περί τε κτύπος Hom.   17 ἂρ sic FP || ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα Hom.   18 ἐῦμαι’ P: εὔμαιε V   20 περισαίνουσι FV   22 ἐπὶ F || προθύροισ(ιν) P

5. The extract from the Odyssey well illustrates that Homeric nobleness which pervades even the homeliest scenes; and Dionysius is right in pointing out that this nobleness does not depend on any striking choice of phrase, since Homer’s language is usually quite plain and straightforward.

6. On Odyss. xvi. 2 (ἄριστον) there is the following scholium, ὅτι καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἰλιάδι ἅμα τῇ ἀνατολῇ ἐσθίουσιν: and similarly on Theocr. i. 50, πρωΐας ἔτι οὔσης ὀλίγον τινὰ ἐσθίομεν ἄρτον καὶ ἄκρατον οἶνον πίνομεν.

9. The charm of a simple scene, simply but beautifully described, is seen in Virg. Ecl. vii. 1-15; Georg. ii. 385-9; Aen. v. 328-30, 357-60. (The Latin illustrations, here and elsewhere, are for the most part the exempla Latina suggested by Simon Bircov (Bircovius), a Polish scholar who lived early in the seventeenth century.)

11. By “Hom.” in the critical notes is meant the best attested reading in the text of Homer. κλισίῃς, however, has some support among the manuscripts of Homer; and so has the form ἂρ in 76 17, and πέσεν in 78 1.

14. Monro (Odyss. xiv. 29) regards ὑλακόμωρος as a kind of parody of the heroic epithets ἐγχεσίμωρος and ἰόμωρος, and thinks that we cannot tell what precise meaning (if any) was conveyed by the latter part of the compound. See, further, his note on Iliad ii. 692.

20. The construction must be ὑπὸ ποδῶν: cp. Il. ii. 465 ὑπὸ χθὼν σμερδαλέον κονάβιζε ποδῶν. The force of ὑπό is half-way between the literal sense of ‘under’ and the derived sense of ‘caused by’ (Monro).

ἐκ δ’ ἄρα οἱ χειρῶν πέσεν ἄγγεα, τοῖς ἐπονεῖτο
κιρνὰς αἴθοπα οἶνον. ὁ δ’ ἀντίος ἔδραμ’ ἄνακτος·
κύσσε δέ μιν κεφαλήν τε καὶ ἄμφω φάεα καλὰ
χεῖράς τ’ ἀμφοτέρας· θαλερὸν δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε δάκρυ.

ταῦθ’ ὅτι μὲν ἐπάγεται καὶ κηλεῖ τὰς ἀκοὰς ποιημάτων      5
τε τῶν πάνυ ἡδίστων οὐδενὸς ἥττω μοῖραν ἔχει, πάντες ἂν
οἶδ’ ὅτι μαρτυρήσειαν. ποῦ δὴ αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ πειθὼ καὶ
διὰ τί τοιαῦτά ἐστι, πότερον διὰ τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων
ἢ διὰ τὴν σύνθεσιν; οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴποι διὰ τὴν ἐκλογήν, ὡς
ἐγὼ πείθομαι· διὰ γὰρ τῶν εὐτελεστάτων καὶ ταπεινοτάτων      10
ὀνομάτων πέπλεκται πᾶσα ἡ λέξις, οἷς ἂν καὶ γεωργὸς καὶ
θαλαττουργὸς καὶ χειροτέχνης καὶ πᾶς ὁ μηδεμίαν ὤραν τοῦ
λέγειν εὖ ποιούμενος ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαβὼν ἐχρήσατο. λυθέντος
γοῦν τοῦ μέτρου φαῦλα φανήσεται τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἄζηλα·
οὔτε γὰρ μεταφοραί τινες ἐν αὐτοῖς εὐγενεῖς ἔνεισιν οὔτε      15
ὑπαλλαγαὶ οὔτε καταχρήσεις οὔτ’ ἄλλη τροπικὴ διάλεκτος
οὐδεμία, οὐδὲ δὴ γλῶτται πολλαί τινες οὐδὲ ξένα ἢ πεποιημένα
ὀνόματα. τί οὖν λείπεται μὴ οὐχὶ τὴν σύνθεσιν τοῦ
κάλλους τῆς ἑρμηνείας αἰτιᾶσθαι; τοιαῦτα δ’ ἐστὶ παρὰ τῷ

[79]

Dropped from his hands to the floor the bowls, wherein erst he began
The flame-flushed wine to pour, and to meet his lord he ran;
And he kissed that dear-loved head, and both his beautiful eyes;
And he kissed his hands, and he shed warm tears in his glad surprise.[89]

Everybody would, I am sure, testify that these lines cast a spell of enchantment on the ear, and rank second to no poetry whatsoever, however exquisite it may be. But what is the secret of their fascination, and what causes them to be what they are? Is it the selection of words, or the composition? No one will say “the selection”: of that I am convinced. For the diction consists, warp and woof, of the most ordinary, the humblest words, such as might have been used off-hand by a farmer, a seaman, an artisan, or anybody else who takes no account of elegant speech. You have only to break up the metre, and these very same lines will seem commonplace and unworthy of admiration. For they contain neither noble metaphors nor hypallages nor catachreses nor any other figurative language; nor yet many unusual terms, nor foreign or new-coined words. What alternative, then, is left but to attribute the beauty of the style to the composition? There are countless

1 πέσον Hom.   2 αἴθωπα PM || ἔδραμ(εν) F: ἔδραμ’ E: ἦλθεν PMV Hom.   3 καὶ φαλήν P   5 ἐπάγεταί τε καὶ F   6 τῶν F: καὶ τῶν PMV || οὐδ’ ἑνὸς F^1 || ἥττων F   7 εὖ ante οἶδ’ habet F   8 τοιαύτη F^1 || πότερα F   9 ἐκλογ[ὴ]ν cum litura P || ὡς ἐγὼ πείθομαι om. F   10 καὶ FE: τε καὶ PMV   12 ὤραν Sylburgius: ὥραν PMV: ὧραν F γρ φροντίδα in marg. M   13 λαβῶν P   14 γοὖν F: γ’ οὖν P   15 ἐν αὐτοῖς (αὐταῖς P) εὐγενεῖς ἔνεισιν PMV: εἰσὶν εὐγενεῖς ἐν αὐτοῖς EF   16 οὔτε ἄλλη PV || οὐδεμία διάλεκτος F   17 οὐδεδὴ P: οὔτε δὴ FMV || γλῶσσαι F || οὐδὲ Sauppius: οὔτε PMV: ἢ in rasura F^2   19 τοιαῦτ(α) (εστι) P,MV

7. Perhaps ποῦ δὲ δή: cp. 116 9.

9. Cp. Hor. Ars P. 47 “dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum | reddiderit iunctura novum.”

On the other hand, the importance of ἐκλογή is illustrated by Aristotle’s comparison (Poetics xxii. 7) of νῦν δέ μ’ ἐὼν ὀλίγος τε καὶ οὐτιδανὸς καὶ ἀεικής with νῦν δέ μ’ ἐὼν μικρός τε καὶ ἀσθενικὸς καὶ ἀειδής.

10. Cp. J. W. Mackail in Class. Rev. xxii. 70, “A quality of the finest Greek poetry, from Homer to the late anthologists, is its power of taking common language and transforming it into poetry by an all but imperceptible touch.” The quality is exemplified in Euripides, though it did not originate with him (κλέπτεται δ’ εὖ, ἐάν τις ἐκ τῆς εἰωθυίας διαλέκτου ἐκλέγων συντιθῇ· ὅπερ Εὐριπίδης ποιεῖ καὶ ὑπέδειξε πρῶτος, Aristot. Rhet. iii. 2, 4: cp. Long. p. 146). So “tantum series iuncturaque pollet, | tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris” (Hor. Ars P. 242-3).

13. λυθέντος γοῦν, κτλ. Cp. Isocr. Evag. 10 οἱ μὲν (sc. ποιηταὶ) μετὰ μέτρων καὶ ῥυθμῶν ἅπαντα ποιοῦσιν ... ἃ τοσαύτην ἔχει χάριν, ὥστ’ ἂν καὶ τῇ λέξει καὶ τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασιν ἔχῃ κακῶς, ὅμως αὐταῖς ταῖς εὐρυθμίαις καὶ ταῖς συμμετρίαις ψυχαγωγοῦσι τοὺς ἀκούοντας. γνοίη δ’ ἄν τις ἐκεῖθεν τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῶν· ἢν γάρ τις τῶν ποιημάτων τῶν εὐδοκιμούντων τὰ μὲν ὀνόματα καὶ τὰς διανοίας καταλίπῃ, τὸ δὲ μέτρον διαλύσῃ, φανήσεται πολὺ καταδεέστερα τῆς δόξης ἧς νῦν ἔχομεν περὶ αὐτῶν.

14. ἄζηλα: this adjective occurs also in the de Demosth. c. 28, and more than once in the Antiqq. Rom.

16. ὑπαλλαγαί, καταχρήσεις: see Glossary, s. vv.

17. Usener reads γλῶτται παλαιαί τινες. But (1) γλῶτται are usually παλαιαί (cp. Galen Gloss. Hipp. xix. 63 ὅσα τοίνυν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐν μὲν τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ἦν συνήθη, νῦν δὲ οὐκέτι ἐστί, τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα γλώττας καλοῦσι, κτλ.): (2) the phrase πολλοί τινες is elsewhere used by Dionysius, e.g. de Lysia c. 1 οὔτε πολλοῖς τισι κατέλιπεν ὑπερβολήν, κτλ.

18, 19. An interesting modern parallel is that passage in Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (c. 18) which touches on the stanza (in Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads) beginning “In distant countries I have been.” Coleridge remarks, “The words here are doubtless such as are current in all ranks of life; and of course not less so in the hamlet and cottage than in the shop, manufactory, college, or palace. But is this the order in which the rustic would have placed the words? I am grievously deceived, if the following less compact mode of commencing the same tale be not a far more faithful copy, ‘I have been in many parts, far and near, and I don’t know that I ever saw before a man crying by himself in the public road; a grown man I mean that was neither sick nor hurt,’” etc.—In this connexion see also F. W. H. Myers’ Wordsworth, pp. 106 ff., for the music in Wordsworth’s Affliction of Margaret.

ποιητῇ μυρία, ὡς εὖ οἶδ’ ὅτι πάντες ἴσασιν· ἐμοὶ δ’ ὑπομνήσεως
ἕνεκα λέγοντι ἀρκεῖ ταῦτα μόνα εἰρῆσθαι.

φέρε δὴ μεταβῶμεν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πεζὴν διάλεκτον καὶ
σκοπῶμεν, εἰ κἀκείνῃ τοῦτο συμβέβηκε τὸ πάθος, ὥστε περὶ
μικρὰ καὶ φαῦλα πράγματά τε καὶ ὀνόματα συνταχθέντα      5
καλῶς μεγάλας γίνεσθαι τὰς χάριτας. ἔστι δὴ παρὰ τῷ
Ἡροδότῳ βασιλεύς τις Λυδῶν, ὃν ἐκεῖνος Κανδαύλην ‹καλεῖ,
Μυρσίλον δὲ› καλεῖσθαί φησιν ὑφ’ Ἑλλήνων, τῆς ἑαυτοῦ
γυναικὸς ἐρῶν, ἔπειτα ἀξιῶν τινα τῶν ἑταίρων αὐτοῦ γυμνὴν
τὴν ἄνθρωπον ἰδεῖν, ὁ δὲ ἀπομαχόμενος μὴ ἀναγκασθῆναι, ὡς      10
δὲ οὐκ ἔπειθεν, ὑπομένων τε καὶ θεώμενος αὐτήν—πρᾶγμα
οὐχ ὅτι σεμνὸν ἢ καλλιλογεῖσθαι ἐπιτήδειον, ἀλλὰ καὶ
ταπεινὸν καὶ ἐπικίνδυνον καὶ τοῦ αἰσχροῦ μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ καλοῦ
ἐγγυτέρω· ἀλλ’ εἴρηται σφόδρα δεξιῶς, καὶ κρεῖττον γέγονεν
ἀκουσθῆναι λεγόμενον ἢ ὀφθῆναι γινόμενον. ἵνα δὲ μή τις      15
ὑπολάβῃ τὴν διάλεκτον εἶναι τῆς ἡδονῆς αἰτίαν τῇ λέξει,
μεταθεὶς αὐτῆς τὸν χαρακτῆρα εἰς τὴν Ἀτθίδα γλῶτταν καὶ
οὐδὲν ἄλλο περιεργασάμενος οὕτως ἐξοίσω τὸν διάλογον.

“Γύνη, οὐ γάρ σε δοκῶ πείθεσθαί μοι λέγοντι περὶ τοῦ
εἴδους τῆς γυναικός· ὦτα γὰρ τυγχάνει ἀνθρώποις ὄντα      20
ἀπιστότερα ὀφθαλμῶν· ποίει ὅπως ἐκείνην θεάσῃ γυμνήν. ὁ

[81]

passages of this kind in Homer, as everybody of course is well aware. It is enough to quote this single instance by way of reminder.

Let us now pass on to the language of prose and see if the same principle holds good of it too—that great graces invest trifling and commonplace acts and words, when they are cast into the mould of beautiful composition. For instance, there is in Herodotus a certain Lydian king whom he calls Candaules, adding that he was called Myrsilus by the Greeks. Candaules is represented as infatuated with admiration of his wife, and then as insisting on one of his friends seeing the poor woman naked. The friend struggled hard against the constraint put upon him; but failing to shake the king’s resolve, he submitted, and viewed her. The incident, as an incident, is not only lacking in dignity and, for the purpose of embellishment, intractable, but is also vulgar and hazardous and more akin to the repulsive than to the beautiful. But it has been related with great dexterity: it has been made something far better to hear told than it was to see done. And, that no one may imagine that it is to the dialect that the charm of the story is due, I will change its distinctive forms into Attic, and without any further meddling with the language will give the conversation as it stands:—

“‘Of a truth, Gyges, I think that thou dost not believe what I say concerning the beauty of my wife; indeed, men trust their ears less fully than their eyes. Contrive, therefore, to see her

1 δε P,MV   2 εἰρεῖσθαι P   3 μ[ε]ταβῶμεν cum litura P || ἤδη ante καὶ ἐπὶ add. F || διάλεξιν F   4 καὶ ἐκείνη F || τοῦτο F: τὸ αὐτὸ PV: τοῦτο αὐτὸ M || τὸ F: om. PMV   6 ἡδονὰς post μεγάλας add. F || τὰς PMV: καὶ F   7 καλεῖ Μυρσίλον δὲ om. FM: καλεῖ Μυρσίλον δὲ καλεῖσθαι om. PV: supplevit Sylburgius coll. Herod. i. 7   9 τινα post αὐτοῦ ponit F   10 ὁ δὲ PMV: ὃσ F   11 δὲ om. F || αὐτὴν· πρᾶγμα F: αὐτὴν τὸ πρᾶγμα P: αὐτὴν ἦν· τὸ δὲ πρᾶγμα MV   12 ἐπιτήδειον] δυνάμενον E   13 ταπεινὸν EPMV: παιδικὸν F   14 ἀλλὰ PM   16 τηῖ P   17 γλῶσσαν F   18 περιειργασμένος P || τὸν λόγον F   19 περὶ] τ(ους) περι P: τὰ περὶ Va   20 τυγχάνει] ὑπάρχει F

4. Usener’s conjecture παρὰ (for περὶ) may be held to find some support from 92 21 and 256 10, but on the other hand Dionysius’ love of μεταβολή has always to be remembered.

6. F’s reading ἡδονὰς γίνεσθαι καὶ adds still another καί to the four already used in this sentence. The two nouns ἡδονὰς ... χάριτας are superficially attractive, but the plural ἡδοναί is not common in this sense.

9. γυμνήν: some light is thrown on various phases of Greek and non-Greek feeling with regard to any exposure of the person by such passages as Thucyd. i. 6, Plato Menex. 236 D, Herod. i. 10 (ad f.). As to the women of Sparta cp. Gardner and Jevons Greek Antiquities pp. 352, 353.

10. For the participles cp. p. 76 ll. 5-7.

12. οὐχ ὅτι (in a context which gives it the meaning of non solum non) occurs elsewhere in Dionysius: e.g. Antiqq. Rom. ii. c. 18 καὶ οὐχ ὅτι θεῶν ἀλλ’ οὐδ’ ἀνθρώπων ἀγαθῶν ἀξίους.

13. ταπεινόν (which is weightily supported) seems to correspond better than παιδικόν to σεμνόν.—F’s reading παιδικὸν might perhaps be translated ‘sportive’ or ‘freakish’ (with a reference to boyish pranks); cp. D.H. p. 196 (s.v. μειρακιώδης) and p. 199 (s.v. παιδιώδης), and Aristot. Rhet. iii. 11 fin. εἰσὶ δὲ ὑπερβολαὶ μειρακιώδεις ... διὸ πρεσβυτέρῳ λέγειν ἀπρεπές.

17. So, in de Demosth. c. 41, μετακεκόμισται δ’ εἰς τὴν Ἀτθίδα διάλεκτον ἡ λέξις (the passage in question being Herod. vii. 8). For the charm of the Ionic dialect cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 18 “in Herodoto vero cum omnia (ut ego quidem sentio) lenitur fluunt, tum ipsa διάλεκτος habet eam iucunditatem, ut latentes etiam numeros complexa videatur.”

18. οὐδὲν ἄλλο περιεργασάμενος: notwithstanding this undertaking, the variations from the traditional text of Herodotus are (as will be seen on reference to the critical footnotes) considerable.

It is no doubt possible that F’s reading τὸν λόγον (‘the story’) is original, and was changed to τὸν διάλογον (‘the conversation’) because the whole story is not quoted. But such readings of F as ὑπάρχει (for τυγχάνει l. 20: against the MSS. of Herodotus) show that its unsupported testimony must be received with much reserve.

20. This passage of Herodotus may have been before Horace’s mind (Ars P. 180): “segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem | quam quae sunt oculis subiecta fidelibus et quae | ipse sibi tradit spectator.” Cp. also Shakespeare Coriolanus iii. 2 “the eyes of the ignorant | (are) more learned than the ears.” In the Greek the emphatic position of both ὦτα and ὀφθαλμῶν is to be noticed; cp. Introduction, pp. 19-25, for emphasis at the end and at the beginning of clauses.

δ’ ἀναβοήσας εἶπε· Δέσποτα, τίνα λόγον λέγεις οὐχ ὑγιᾶ,
κελεύων με δέσποιναν τὴν ἐμὴν θεάσασθαι γυμνήν; ἅμα δὲ
χιτῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή. πάλαι
δὲ τὰ καλὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐξεύρηται, ἐξ ὧν μανθάνειν δεῖ· ἐν οἷς
ἓν τόδ’ ἐστίν, ὁρᾶν τινα τὰ ἑαυτοῦ. ἐγὼ δὲ πείθομαι ἐκείνην      5
εἶναι πασῶν γυναικῶν καλλίστην, καὶ σοῦ δέομαι μὴ
δεῖσθαι ἀνόμων. ὁ μὲν δὴ λέγων ταῦτα ἀπεμάχετο, ὁ δ’
ἠμείβετο τοῖσδε· Θάρσει Γύγη, καὶ μὴ φοβοῦ μήτ’ ἐμέ, ὡς
πειρώμενόν σου λέγω λόγον τόνδε, μήτε γυναῖκα τὴν ἐμήν,
μή τί σοι ἐξ αὐτῆς γένηται βλάβος. ἀρχὴν γὰρ ἐγὼ μηχανήσομαι      10
οὕτως, ὥστε μηδὲ μαθεῖν αὐτὴν ὀφθεῖσαν ὑπὸ σοῦ.
ἀγαγὼν γάρ σε εἰς τὸ οἴκημα, ἐν ᾧ κοιμώμεθα, ὄπισθε τῆς
ἀνοιγομένης θύρας στήσω· μετὰ δὲ ἐμὲ εἰσελθόντα παρέσται
καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἐμὴ εἰς κοίτην. κεῖται δ’ ἐγγὺς τῆς εἰσόδου
θρόνος· ἐπὶ τοῦτον τῶν ἱματίων καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον ἐκδῦσα      15
θήσει, καὶ καθ’ ἡσυχίαν πολλὴν παρέσται σοι θεάσασθαι.
ὅταν δ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ θρόνου πορεύηται ἐπὶ τὴν εὐνὴν κατὰ νώτου
τε αὐτῆς γένῃ, σοὶ μελέτω τὸ ἐντεῦθεν, ὅπως μή σε ὄψεται
ἀπιόντα διὰ θυρῶν. ὁ μὲν δὴ ὡς οὐκ ἐδύνατο διαφυγεῖν,
ἕτοιμος ἦν [ποιεῖν ταῦτα].”      20

[83]

naked.’ But he cried out and said: ‘My lord, what is this foolish word thou sayest, bidding me look upon my lady naked? for a woman, when she puts off her dress, puts off her shamefastness also. Men of old time have found out excellent precepts, which it behoves us to learn and observe; and among them is this—“Let a man keep his eyes on his own.” As for me, I am fully persuaded that she is the fairest of all women, and I beseech thee not to require of me aught that is unlawful.’ Thus he spoke, and strove with him. But the other answered and said: ‘Be of good cheer, Gyges, and fear not that I say this to prove thee, or that harm will come to thee from my wife. For, in the first place, I will contrive after such a fashion that she shall not even know that she has been seen by thee. I will bring thee into the room where we sleep, and set thee behind the door that stands ajar; and after I have entered, my wife will come to bed. Now, near the entrance there is a seat; and on this she will place each of her garments as she puts them off, so that thou wilt have time enough to behold. But when she passes from the seat to the couch, and thou art behind her back, then take heed that she see thee not as thou goest away through the door.’ Forasmuch, then, as he could not escape, he consented to do after this manner.”[90]

1 δ’ F: δὲ PMV: δὲ μέγα Her. (exc. ACP) || λέγεις λόγον Her.   3 ἐκδυομένῳ F, Her.: ἐκδυομένη PMV   5 ἐν τώδε (τῶδε corr.) F, MV: ἐν τωῖ δε P || ἔνεστιν corr. F^1, M   6 εἶναι post γυναικῶν traiciunt PMV   7 δεῖσθαι F, Her.: χρήιζειν P, MV || ἀνομῶν P || ταῦτα] τοιαῦτα Her. || post ἀπεμάχετο haec verba habet Her., ἀρρωδέων μή τί οἱ ἐξ αὐτῶν γένηται κακόν || δὲ P   8 ὡς σέο πειρώμενον (vel πειρώμενος) Her.   9 λόγον λέγω PMV || τόνδε ... ἐγὼ om. add. in marg. P^2   10 τ[ι] σοι cum litura F: τισ P   12 ἄγων P: ἐγὼ Her. || ἐσ P,M || ὄπισθεν PMV   13 θυραστήσω P^1   14 καὶ post παρέσται om F || ἐς PMV || δὲ PMV   15 ἐκδῦσα ante καθ’ ponunt PMV || ἐκδύνουσα Her.   16 παρέξει Her.   17 ὅτ’ ἂν FP ut solent: ἐπεὰν Her. || δε P, MV   18 μελέτω σοι F   19 ἰόντα Her. || δ[ι]α cum litura P || ἐδύνατο F, Her. (exc. RSVb): ἠδύνατο PMV || διαφεύγειν P   20 ἦν ἕτοιμος Her. || ποιεῖν ταῦτα (τά γ’ αὐτά P) om. Her.

3. Cp. Diog. Laert. Vit. Pythag. § 43 τῇ δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα μελλούσῃ πορεύεσθαι παρῄνει (sc. Θεανὼ) ἅμα τοῖς ἐνδύμασι καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην ἀποτίθεσθαι, ἀνισταμένην τε πάλιν ἅμ’ αὐτοῖσιν ἀναλαμβάνειν.

14. εἰς κοίτην and ἐγγὺς τῆς εἰσόδου are Dionysius’ Attic equivalents for ἐς κοῖτον and ἀγχοῦ τῆς ἐσόδου.

15. καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον: cp. Herod. viii. 113 ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων συμμάχων ἐξελέγετο κατ’ ὀλίγους.

20. Perhaps the effect of Herodotus’ style is best conveyed by the Elizabethan translation (published in 1584) of Barnaby Rich, which is, however, confined to books i. and ii. In The Famous History of Herodotus, by B. R. (i.e., probably, Barnaby Rich), Dionysius’ extract from Herod. i. 8 is freely Englished thus: “My faithful servant Gyges, whereas thou seemest not to credit the large vaunts and often brags which I make of my lady’s beauty and comeliness (the ears of men being much more incredulous than their eyes), behold I will so bring to pass that thou shalt see her naked. Whereat the poor gentleman greatly abashed, and in no wise willing to assent thereto, made answer as followeth, My lord (quoth he) what manner of speech is this which unadvisedly you use in persuading me to behold my lady’s secrets, for a woman, you know, the more in sight the less in shame: who together with her garments layeth aside her modesty. Honest precepts have been devised by our elders which we ought to remember, whereof this is one, that every man ought to behold his own. For mine own part I easily believe you that of all women in the world there is none comparable unto her in beauty. Wherefore I beseech your grace to have me excused, if in a case so heinous and unlawful I somewhat refuse to obey your will. Gyges having in this sort acquitted himself, fearing the danger that might ensue, the king began afresh to reply, saying, My good Gyges, take heart at grace, and fear not, lest either myself do go about to examine and feel thy meaning by the coloured glose of feigned speech, or that the queen my lady take occasion to work thy displeasure hereby. Pull up thy spirits, and leave all to me: it is I that will work the means, whereby she shall never know any part of herself to have been seen by any creature living. Listen then awhile and give ear to my counsel:—When night is come, the door of the chamber wherein we lie being wide set open, I will covertly place thee behind the same: straight at my entrance thereinto, her custom is not to be long after me, directly at her coming in, there standeth a bench, whereat unclothing herself, she accustometh to lay her garments upon it, propounding her divine and angelical body, to be seen and viewed for a long space. This done, as she turns from the bench to bedward, her back being toward thee, have care to slip privily out of the doors lest haply she espy thee.—The gentleman seeing himself taken in a trap, that in no wise he could escape without performance of his lord’s folly, gave his assent.” [From the rare copy in the British Museum, with the spelling modernized.]

If Dionysius does not quote the sequel of the story, the reason may well be that he expects his readers to find it, or to have found it, in the pages of Herodotus himself.

οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι τις οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα εἰπεῖν, ὅτι τὸ ἀξίωμα καὶ
ἡ σεμνότης τῶν ὀνομάτων εὔμορφον πεποίηκε τὴν φράσιν·
ἀνεπιτήδευτα γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἀνέκλεκτα, οἷα ἡ φύσις τέθεικεν
σύμβολα τοῖς πράγμασιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἥρμοττεν ἴσως κρείττοσι
χρήσασθαι ἑτέροις. ἀνάγκη δὲ δήπου, ὅταν τοῖς κυριωτάτοις      5
τε καὶ προσεχεστάτοις ὀνόμασιν ἐκφέρηται τὰ νοήματα, μηδὲν
σεμνότερον εἶναι, ἢ οἷά ἐστιν. ὅτι δὲ οὐδὲν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐστι
σεμνὸν οὐδὲ περιττόν, ὁ βουλόμενος εἴσεται μεταθεὶς οὐδὲν
ὅτι μὴ τὴν ἁρμονίαν. πολλὰ δὲ καὶ παρὰ τούτῳ τῷ ἀνδρὶ
τοιαῦτά ἐστιν, ἐξ ὧν ἄν τις τεκμήραιτο, ὅτι οὐκ ἐν τῷ κάλλει      10
τῶν ὀνομάτων ἡ πειθὼ τῆς ἑρμηνείας ἦν, ἀλλ’ ἐν τῇ συζυγίᾳ.
καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων ἱκανὰ ταῦτα.

IV
ἵνα δὲ πολὺ μᾶλλον αἴσθηταί τις, ὅσην ἔχει ῥώμην ἡ
συνθετικὴ δύναμις ἔν τε ποιήμασι καὶ λόγοις, λήψομαί τινας
εὖ ἔχειν δοκούσας λέξεις, ὧν τὰς ἁρμονίας μεταθεὶς ἀλλοῖα      15
φαίνεσθαι ποιήσω καὶ τὰ μέτρα καὶ τοὺς λόγους. λαμβανέσθω
δὲ πρῶτον μὲν ἐκ τῶν Ὁμηρικῶν ταυτί·

ἀλλ’ ἔχεν ὥστε τάλαντα γυνὴ χερνῆτις ἀληθής,
ἥ τε σταθμὸν ἔχουσα καὶ εἴριον ἀμφὶς ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσ’, ἵνα παισὶν ἀεικέα μισθὸν ἄροιτο.      20

τοῦτο τὸ μέτρον ἡρωϊκόν ἐστιν ἑξάπουν τέλειον, κατὰ δάκτυλον

[85]

Here again no one can say that the grace of the style is due to the impressiveness and the dignity of the words. These have not been picked and chosen with studious care; they are simply the labels affixed to things by Nature. Indeed, it would perhaps have been out of place to use other and grander words. I take it, in fact, to be always necessary, whenever ideas are expressed in proper and appropriate language, that no word should be more dignified than the nature of the ideas. That there is no stately or grandiose word in the present passage, any one who likes may prove by simply changing the arrangement. There are many similar passages in this author, from which it can be seen that the fascination of his style does not after all lie in the beauty of the words but in their combination. We need not discuss this question further.

CHAPTER IV

TO CHANGE ORDER IS TO DESTROY BEAUTY

To show yet more conclusively the great force wielded by the faculty of composition both in poetry and prose, I will quote some passages which are universally regarded as fine, and show what a different air is imparted to both verse and prose by a mere change in their arrangement. First let these lines be taken from the Homeric poems:—

But with them was it as with a toil-bowed woman righteous-souled—
In her scales be the weights and the wool, and the balance on high doth she hold
Poised level, that so may the hard-earned bread to her babes be doled.[91]

This metre is the complete heroic metre of six feet, the basis

1 οὐδὲν F   2 πεποίηκεν P   3 ἡ om. PV || τέθεικεν FP: τέθεικε EMV   4 κρείττοσ(ιν) P   5 δὲ δὴ [που] FM: δε P: δὴ Vs   8 περιττὸν οὐδὲ σεμνὸν F   9 τοῦτο (-τω corr.) τ(ω) P   11 ἦν * * ἀλλ’ P   12 καὶ] ἦν καὶ M: ἦ καὶ V   13 τις FM: om. PV   14 ποιήμασιν P   15 ἀλλοίας P   17 μὲν om. PMV || ταυτί PMV: ταῦτα F   18 ἔχεν FM: ἔχον PV Hom.   19 εἰριον deleto accentu P   20 ἄρηται Hom.   21 ἡρωϊκόν PMV: ἡρῷόν F

3. P gives ἀφηκέναι in 262 22, and τέθηκεν may possibly be right here. The -η- forms are found in some MSS. of Eurip. Hel. 1059 and Demosth. Chers. 34. But cp. 108 13.

9. καὶ παρὰ τούτῳ: perhaps ‘in Herodotus as well as in Homer.’ Reiske, πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ‹ἄλλα› παρὰ τούτῳ τῷ ἀνδρὶ τοιαῦτά ἐστιν.

10. Dionysius seems to allow too little for the charming naïveté of Herodotus’ mental attitude, which is surely characteristic, whether or no Herodotus was the first to tell the story. Cp. D.H. p. 11 n. 1. The narrative which opens in Livy xxxix. c. 9 may be compared and contrasted.

18. The verse illustrations used on pp. 84, 86 are similarly treated by Hermogenes (Walz Rhett. Gr. iii. 230, 231; cp. p. 715 ibid.).

21. It seems better to read ἡρωϊκόν here (with PMV) rather than ἡρῷον (with F), as the form ἡρωϊκός is found consistently elsewhere (86 3, 88 7, 172 17, 206 10).

Dionysius tends to regard the Homeric hexameter as the original and perfect metre, from which all others are inferior deflexions. Metres, after all, have their associations; the associations of the Homeric hexameter were eminently noble; and so even the choral odes of Aeschylus gain where the heroic line is most employed. So much, at any rate, may be conceded to Dionysius’ point of view, prone though he is to the kind of exaggeration which Tennyson (Life i. 469, 470) so effectively parodies.

πόδα βαινόμενον. ἐγὼ δὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων τούτων μετακινήσας
τὴν σύνθεσιν τοὺς αὐτοὺς στίχους ἀντὶ μὲν ἑξαμέτρων ποιήσω
τετραμέτρους, ἀντὶ δὲ ἡρωϊκῶν προσοδιακοὺς τὸν τρόπον
τοῦτον·

ἀλλ’ ἔχεν ὥστε γυνὴ χερνῆτις τάλαντ’ ἀληθής,      5
ἥ τ’ εἴριον ἀμφὶς καὶ σταθμὸν ἔχουσ’ ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσ’, ἵν’ ἀεικέα παισὶν ἄροιτο μισθόν.

τοιαῦτά ἐστι τὰ πριάπεια, ὑπό τινων δ’ ἰθυφάλλια λεγόμενα,
ταυτί·

οὐ βέβηλος, ὦ τελέται τοῦ νέου Διονύσου,      10
κἀγὼ δ’ ἐξ εὐεργεσίης ὠργιασμένος ἥκω.

ἄλλους πάλιν λαβὼν στίχους Ὁμηρικούς, οὔτε προσθεὶς
αὐτοῖς οὐδὲν οὔτε ἀφελών, τὴν δὲ σύνθεσιν ἀλλάξας μόνον
ἕτερον ἀποδώσω γένος τὸ τετράμετρον καλούμενον Ἰωνικόν·

ὣς ὁ πρόσθ’ ἵππων καὶ δίφρου κεῖτο τανυσθείς,      15
βεβρυχώς, κόνιος δεδραγμένος αἱματοέσσης.

ὣς ὁ πρόσθ’ ἵππων καὶ δίφρου κεῖτο τανυσθείς,
αἱματοέσσης κόνιος δεδραγμένος, βεβρυχώς.

[87]

of which is the dactyl. I will change the order of the words, and will turn the same lines into tetrameters instead of hexameters, into prosodiacs instead of heroics. Thus:—

But it was with them as with a righteous-souled woman toil-bowed,
In her scales weights and wool lie, on high doth she hold the balance
Level-poised, so that bread hardly-earned may be doled to her babes.

Such are the following Priapean, or (as some call them) ithyphallic, lines:—

I am no profane one, O young Dionysus’ votaries;
By his favour come I too initiate as one of his.[92]

Taking again other lines of Homer, and neither adding nor withdrawing anything, but simply varying the order, I will produce another kind of verse, the so-called Ionic tetrameter:—

So there outstretched was he lying, his steeds and his chariot before,
Groaning, convulsively clutching the dust that was red with his gore.[93]

So there outstretched was he lying, his steeds and his chariot before,
At the dust that was red with his gore clutching convulsively, groaning.

1 πόδα δάκτυλον PMV || τῶν] τῶν αὐτῶν PV   3 προσωιδιακοὺς FP: προσῳδικοὺς MV   5 ἔχεν FMV: ἔχον P scholl. Hermogenis || τάλαντ’ F: τάλαντα PMV   6 ἥ τ’ FM: ἣ PV || ἐχ(ων)ουσ’ P: ἔχουσα F || ἄνελκει P: ἕλκει F   8 [ὑ]πό τινων δὲ ἰθυφάλλια cum litura F, MV: διφίλια P   10 συμβέβηλος F || τελεταί (sic) P: λέγεται FMV || δρονύσου P   11 εὐεργεσίης P: ἐργασίης MV: ἐργασίας F || ὀργιασμένος F: ὡργια*σμένος P   13 οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς PV   14 γένος τὸ F: μέλος PMV || τὸ ante καλούμενον dant PMV   16, 17 om. F   16 αἱματοσέσ(η)ς P: αἱματοέσης V

3. Maximus Planudes (Walz Rhett. Gr. v. 491), referring to this passage, says: ἃ πῶς ἂν εἶεν προσῳδικὰ (v. προσῳδιακὰ) καὶ προσόμοια τοῖς πριαπείοις, ἢ πάλιν πῶς ταῦτα πριάπεια, οὐδαμῶς ἔχω συνορᾶν. For the prosodia (προσόδια, sc. ᾄσματα: also called προσοδιακοί), or processional songs, see Weir Smyth’s Greek Melic Poets p. xxxiii.; and for the various metres employed see pp. xxxiv., xxxv. ibid. It is clear that Dionysius is not here thinking specially of the so-called προσοδιακὸς πούς (– – ᴗ). Cp. Bacchyl. Fragm. 19 (Bergk: 7, Jebb).—Reading προσῳδικοὺς (with the inferior MSS.), and translating by ‘accentual,’ A. J. Ellis (English, Dionysian, and Hellenic Pronunciation of Greek p. 37) thinks that Dionysius means “verses in which the effect of high pitch was increased by superadding stress, so as to give it preponderance over mere quantity”; and he points out that E. M. Geldart shows (Journal of Philology 1869, vol. ii. p. 160) that these transformed lines of Homer, if read as modern Greek, would give rather rough στίχοι πολιτικοί, or the usual modern accentual verse [the ‘city verses’ referred to by Gibbon, c. 53]. Though it is perhaps unlikely that Dionysius makes any direct reference to such a change, a stress-accent may, even in his day, have gradually been triumphing over that pitch-accent which was consistent with the observance of metrical quantity. Cp. F. Spencer French Verse p. 70.

5. The metrical difficulties presented by these sections of the C. V. are discussed in Amsel’s de Vi atque Indole Rhythmorum quid Veteres Iudicaverint pp. 32 ff. The unprofitably ingenious efforts of some ancient writers to derive every kind of metre from the heroic hexameter and the iambic trimeter might be capped, and parodied, by an attempt to turn such a line as Il. xxiii. 644 (ἔργων τοιούτων. ἐμὲ δὲ χρὴ γήραϊ λυγρῷ) into an iambic trimeter: the only thing needed being that the ι of γήραϊ should be not adscript but subscript. So Schol. Ven. A (ad loc.) ὅτι ὁ στίχος οὗτος καὶ ἑξάμετρος γίνεται καὶ τρίμετρος παρὰ τὴν ἀγωγὴν τῆς προφορᾶς, and Schol. Townl. ἐπιτέτευκται ὁ στίχος ταῖς κοιναῖς, ὥστ’ ἢν θέλωμεν καὶ ἴαμβος ἔσται, ὡς τὸ “σμύρνης ἀκράτου καὶ κέδρου νηλεῖ καπνῷ” (for the doubtful ascription of this last line to Callimachus see Schneider’s Callimachea ii. 777).

10. For the author of these Priapean verses—Euphorion (or Euphronius) ‘of the Chersonese’—see the long discussion in Susemihl’s Gesch. d. griech. Litt. in der Alexandrinerzeit i. 281, 283. It is Hephaestion (de Metris Enchiridion c. 16, ed. Westphal) who attributes the lines Εὐφορίωνι τῷ Χερρονησιώτῃ.

15. The commentators on Hermogenes secure trochees by changing the order of the words in this line—ἔκειτο καὶ δίφρου τανυσθείς, or τανυσθεὶς κεῖτο καὶ δίφρου.

τοιαῦτ’ ἐστὶ τὰ Σωτάδεια ταυτί·

ἔνθ’ οἱ μὲν ἐπ’ ἄκραισι πυραῖς νέκυες ἔκειντο
γῆς ἐπὶ ξένης, ὀρφανὰ τείχεα προλιπόντες
Ἑλλάδος ἱερῆς καὶ μυχὸν ἑστίης πατρῴης,
ἥβην τ’ ἐρατὴν καὶ καλὸν ἡλίου πρόσωπον.      5

δυναίμην δ’ ἂν ἔτι πολλὰς ἰδέας μέτρων καὶ διαφόρους εἰς τὸν
ἡρωϊκὸν ἐμπιπτούσας στίχον ἐπιδεικνύναι, τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ καὶ τοῖς
ἄλλοις ὀλίγου δεῖν πᾶσι συμβεβηκὸς μέτροις τε καὶ ῥυθμοῖς
ἀποφαίνειν, ὥστε τῆς μὲν ἐκλογῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων τῆς αὐτῆς
μενούσης, τῆς δὲ συνθέσεως μόνης μεταπεσούσης τά τε      10
μέτρα μεταρρυθμίζεσθαι καὶ συμμεταπίπτειν αὐτοῖς τὰ
σχήματα, τὰ χρώματα, τὰ ἤθη, τὰ πάθη, τὴν ὅλην τῶν
ποιημάτων ἀξίωσιν· ἀλλ’ ἀναγκασθήσομαι πλειόνων ἅψασθαι
θεωρημάτων, ὧν ἔνια ὀλίγοις πάνυ ἐστὶ γνώριμα. ἐπὶ πολλῶν
δ’ ἴσως καὶ οὐχ ἥκιστα ἐπὶ τῶν τοιούτων καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι      15
τὰ Εὐριπίδεια ταῦτα ἐπενεγκεῖν·

μή μοι
λεπτῶν θίγγανε μύθων, ψυχή·
τί περισσὰ φρονεῖς; εἰ μὴ μέλλεις
σεμνύνεσθαι παρ’ ὁμοίοις.      20

ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐάσειν μοι δοκῶ κατὰ τὸ παρόν. ὅτι δὲ
καὶ ἡ πεζὴ λέξις τὸ αὐτὸ δύναται παθεῖν τῇ ἐμμέτρῳ μενόντων
μὲν τῶν ὀνομάτων, ἀλλαττομένης δὲ τῆς συνθέσεως,
πάρεστι τῷ βουλομένῳ σκοπεῖν. λήψομαι δ’ ἐκ τῆς Ἡροδότου
λέξεως τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ἱστορίας, ἐπειδὴ καὶ γνώριμός ἐστι      25
τοῖς πολλοῖς, μεταθεὶς τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῆς διαλέκτου μόνον.

[89]

Such are the following Sotadean lines:—

There upon the summit of the burning pyres their corpses lay
In an alien land, the widowed walls forsaken far away,
Walls of sacred Hellas; and the hearths upon the homeland shore,
Winsome youth, the sun’s fair face—forsaken all for evermore![94]

I could, if I wished, adduce many more different types of measures all belonging to the class of the heroic line, and show that the same thing is true of almost all the other metres and rhythms, namely that, when the choice of words remains unaltered and only the arrangement is changed, the verses invariably lose their rhythm, while their formation is ruined, together with the complexion, the character, the feeling, and the whole effectiveness of the lines. But in so doing I should be obliged to touch on a number of speculations, with some of which very few are familiar. To many speculations, perhaps, and particularly to those bearing on the matter in hand, the lines of Euripides may fitly be applied:—

With subtleties meddle not thou, O soul of mine:
Wherefore be overwise, except in thy fellows’ eyes
Thou lookest to be revered as for wisdom divine?[95]

So I think it wise to leave this ground unworked for the present. But anyone who cares may satisfy himself that the diction of prose can be affected in the same way as that of verse when the words are retained but the order is changed. I will take from the writings of Herodotus the opening of his History, since it is familiar to most people, simply changing the

1 τοιαῦτα PMV || Σωτάδεια Planudes: σωτάδια libri   2 ἄκραισι FM: ἄκραις PV || ἔγκειντο F   5 ἥβη, suprascr. ν P^1 || ἐρατὴν Hermannus: ἐραστὴν F: ἐρατεινὴν PMV   6 δυναίμην PV: ἐδυνάμην FM   7 δὲ PMV || καὶ P: κἂν F: κἀν MV   8 τε om. F   9 ὀμάτων, suprascr. νο P^1   10 μεταπιπτούσης (πεσούσης in marg.) F: μεταπεσούσης M: μάλιστα πεσούσης PV   12 τὰ πάθη om. P   13 ἀλλ’ ἀναγκασθήσομαι] ἀναγκασθήσομαι δὲ F: ἀλλ’ ἀν(αν)κασθήσομαι P || ἅπτεσθαι P   14 γνώρισμα F^1   15 δὲ PMV || καὶ om. P   19 μέλλοις F   21 οὗν F   22 ἐμμέτρω ὄντων PMV   23 τῶν F: τῶν αὐτῶν E: om. PMV || ἀλλασομένης P: ἀλλασσομένης MV   24 τῶ βουλομέν(ω) P || δὲ PMV et 90 1   25 ἐπειδὴ F: ἐπεὶ PMV

1. These lines of Sotades are quoted by two of the commentators on Hermogenes—by John of Sicily (Walz vi. 243) and by an anonymous scholiast (Walz vii. 985). See further in Glossary, s.v. Σωτάδειος.

7. Palaeographically κἀν (MV) is tempting, since the other readings (κἂν and καὶ) could easily be derived from it. But the difficulty is that Dionysius seems elsewhere to use the simple dative with συμβαίνω, and would probably have expressed the meaning ‘in the case of’ by ἐπί with the genitive. καὶ ἔν γε τῇ ἀρχαίᾳ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ φωνῇ αὐτὸ συμβαίνει τὸ ὄνομα (Plato Crat. 398 B) is not parallel.

12. Quintil. Inst. Or. ix. 4. 14, 15 “nam quaedam et sententiis parva et elocutione modica virtus haec sola commendat. denique quod cuique visum erit vehementer, dulciter, speciose dictum, solvat et turbet: aberit omnis vis, iucunditas, decor ... illud notasse satis habeo, quo pulchriora et sensu et elocutione dissolveris, hoc orationem magis deformem fore, quia neglegentia collocationis ipsa verborum luce deprehenditur.”

21. ἐάσειν μοι δοκῶ = omittere mihi placet; cp. Aristoph. Plut. 1186, Aves 671, Vespae 177.

22. Compare the interesting passage in Cic. Orat. 70. 232 “Quantum autem sit apte dicere, experire licet, si aut compositi oratoris bene structam collocationem dissolvas permutatione verborum; corrumpatur enim tota res ... perierit tota res ... videsne, ut ordine verborum paululum commutato, eisdem tamen verbis stante sententia, ad nihilum omnia recidant, cum sint ex aptis dissoluta?” [Various examples are given in the course of the section.]

23. The Epitome here has μενόντων γὰρ τῶν αὐτῶν ὀνομάτων, ἀλλαττομένης δὲ τῆς συνθέσεως, καταφανὲς τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ ἄμουσόν τε καὶ ἀκαλλώπιστον.

“Κροῖσος ἦν Λυδὸς μὲν γένος, παῖς δ’ Ἀλυάττου, τύραννος δ’
ἐθνῶν τῶν ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ· ὃς ῥέων ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας
μεταξὺ Σύρων τε καὶ Παφλαγόνων ἐξίησι πρὸς βορέαν ἄνεμον
εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον καλούμενον πόντον.” μετατίθημι τῆς λέξεως
ταύτης τὴν ἁρμονίαν, καὶ γενήσεταί μοι οὐκέτι ὑπαγωγικὸν      5
τὸ πλάσμα οὐδ’ ἱστορικόν, ἀλλ’ ὀρθὸν μᾶλλον καὶ ἐναγώνιον·
“Κροῖσος ἦν υἱὸς μὲν Ἀλυάττου, γένος δὲ Λυδός, τύραννος δὲ
τῶν ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ ἐθνῶν· ὃς ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας ῥέων
μεταξὺ Σύρων καὶ Παφλαγόνων εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον καλούμενον
πόντον ἐκδίδωσι πρὸς βορέαν ἄνεμον.” οὗτος ὁ χαρακτὴρ οὐ      10
πολὺ ἀπέχειν ἂν δόξειεν τῶν Θουκυδίδου τούτων· “Ἐπίδαμνός
ἐστι πόλις ἐν δεξιᾷ εἰσπλέοντι τὸν Ἰόνιον κόλπον· προσοικοῦσι
δ’ αὐτὴν Ταυλάντιοι βάρβαροι, Ἰλλυρικὸν ἔθνος.”
πάλιν δὲ ἀλλάξας τὴν αὐτὴν λέξιν ἑτέραν αὐτῇ μορφὴν ἀποδώσω
τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον· “Ἀλυάττου μὲν υἱὸς ἦν Κροῖσος,      15
γένος δὲ Λυδός, τῶν δ’ ἐντὸς Ἅλυος ποταμοῦ τύραννος ἐθνῶν·
ὃς ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας ῥέων Σύρων τε καὶ Παφλαγόνων μεταξὺ
πρὸς βορέαν ἐξίησιν ἄνεμον ἐς τὸν καλούμενον πόντον
Εὔξεινον.” Ἡγησιακὸν τὸ σχῆμα τοῦτο τῆς συνθέσεως,
μικρόκομψον, ἀγεννές, μαλθακόν· τούτων γὰρ τῶν λήρων      20

[91]

nature of the dialect: “Croesus was a Lydian by birth and the son of Alyattes. He was lord over all the nations on this side of the river Halys, which flows from the south between Syria and Paphlagonia, and falls, towards the north, into the sea which is called the Euxine.”[96] I change the order here, and the cast of the passage will become no longer that of a spacious narrative, but tense rather and forensic: “Croesus was the son of Alyattes, and by birth a Lydian. He was lord, on this side of the river Halys, over all nations; which river from the south flowing between Syria and Paphlagonia runs into the sea which is called the Euxine and debouches towards the north.” This style would seem not to differ widely from that of Thucydides in the words: “Epidamnus is a city on the right as you enter the Ionian Gulf: its next neighbours are barbarians, the Taulantii, an Illyrian race.”[97] Once more I will recast the same passage and give a new form to it as follows: “Alyattes’ son was Croesus, by birth a Lydian. Lord over all nations he was, on this side of the river Halys; which river, from the south flowing between Syria and Paphlagonia, falls, with northward run, into the Euxine-called sea.” This affected, degenerate, emasculate way of arranging words resembles that of Hegesias, the high-priest of this kind of nonsense. He

1 κροῖσσος P || ἀλυάττεω E   2 ἄλυος FMV ut 8, 16 infra FPMV   3 ἐξίησιν P   4 μαιτατίθημι P: μάρτυρα τίθημι M   5 γενησετέμοι suprascr. αί P^1 || ὑπαγωγικὸν F: ἐπαγ(ω)γικον suprascr. ϋ P: ἐπαγωγικὸν MV   6 οὐδε P,MV   7 ἦν Ἀλυάττου μὲν παῖς E || ἀλυ*άττου P   9 παφλαγόνων καὶ σύρων F   10 ὁ suprascr. P^1   11 δόξειε F   12 (εστι) * * P || πρ(οσ)οικοῦσιν P   13 δὲ PV   14 δὲ ἀλλάξας F: διαλλάξας PMV || αὐτῆι add. in margine F^1: αὐτὴν PM   16 δ’ om. PV   18 ἐξίησιν FM: ἔξεισιν PV || ἐς F: εἰς PMV ut supra   20 ἀγεννες P,V: ἀγενὲς FMa

3. Hude (following Dionysius) conjecturally restores τε in the text of Herodotus. Usener, on the other hand, thinks that Dionysius has deliberately inserted τε here and in l. 17 while omitting it in l. 9.

10. This rugged re-writing of Herodotus shows a real appreciation of style and should be compared with the remarks which Demetrius (de Eloc. § 48) makes on Thucydides’ avoidance of smoothness and evenness of composition, and on his liking for jolting rhythms (e.g. “from other maladies this year, by common consent, was free,” rather than “by common consent, this year was free from other maladies”): καὶ ὁ Θουκυδίδης δὲ πανταχοῦ σχεδὸν φεύγει τὸ λεῖον καὶ ὁμαλὲς τῆς συνθέσεως, καὶ ἀεὶ μᾶλλόν τι προσκρούοντι ἔοικεν, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰς τραχείας ὁδοὺς πορευόμενοι, ἐπὰν λέγῃ ὅτι “τὸ μὲν δὴ ἔτος, ὡς ὡμολόγητο, ἄνοσον ἐς τὰς ἄλλας ἀσθενείας ἐτύγχανεν ὄν.” ῥᾷον μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἥδιον ὧδ’ ἄν τις εἶπεν, ὅτι “ἄνοσον ἐς τὰς ἄλλας ἀσθενείας ὂν ἐτύγχανεν,” ἀφῄρητο δ’ αὐτοῦ τὴν μεγαλοπρέπειαν.—Hermogenes (Walz Rhett. Gr. iii. 206) shows how the passage would be changed for the worse by such a πλαγιασμός as the use of a genitive absolute at the start: e.g. Κροίσου ὄντος κτλ.

11. From this point onwards, the less important of the manuscript variants are not recorded in the critical apparatus, except in the case of P which the editor has examined personally.

12. Demetrius (de Eloc. § 199), in quoting this passage, reads ἐσπλέοντι εἰς: and this may be correct reading in Thucyd. i. 24.

19. Hegesias, in the eyes of Dionysius, was a writer whose originality displayed itself in unnatural contortions of language; cp. Introduction, pp. 52-55 supra. The merits of a natural, untutored prose-order have been indicated once for all by Molière (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme ii. 4): “Monsieur Jourdan. Je voudrais donc lui mettre dans un billet: Belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour; mais je voudrais que cela fût mis d’une manière galante, que cela fût tourné gentiment ... Non, vous dis-je, je ne veux que ces seules paroles-là dans le billet; mais tournées à la mode, bien arrangées comme il faut. Je vous prie de me dire un peu, pour voir, les diverses manières dont on les peut mettre.—Maître de Philosophie. On les peut mettre premièrement comme vous avez dit: Belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour. Ou bien: D’amour mourir me font, belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux. Ou bien: Vos yeux beaux d’amour me font, belle Marquise, mourir. Ou bien: Mourir vos beaux yeux, belle Marquise, d'amour me font. Ou bien: Me font vos yeux beaux mourir, belle Marquise, d’amour. [This is, apparently the crowning absurdity.]—M. Jourdain. Mais de toutes ces façons-là, laquelle est la meilleure?—Maître de Philosophie. Celle que vous avez dite: Belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour.—M. Jourdain. Cependant je n’ai point étudié, et j’ai fait cela tout du premier coup.”

20. The phrase is perhaps suggested by Aristoph. Nub. 359 σύ τε, λεπτοτάτων λήρων ἱερεῦ, φράζε πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὅ τι χρῄζεις. Cp. Cic. pro Sestio 17. 39 “stuprorum sacerdos,” and also D.H. p. 169 (note on καὶ πολὺς ὁ τελέτης ἐστὶν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις παρ’ αὐτῷ). ‘Hierophant,’ ‘adept,’ ‘past master,’ will give something of the idea.

ἱερεὺς ἐκεῖνος ἀνὴρ τοιαῦτα γράφων· “Ἐξ ἀγαθῆς ἑορτῆς
ἀγαθὴν ἄγομεν ἄλλην.” “Ἀπὸ Μαγνησίας εἰμὶ τῆς μεγάλης
Σιπυλεύς.” “Οὐ γὰρ μικρὰν εἰς Θηβαίων ὕδωρ ἔπτυσεν ὁ
Διόνυσος· ἡδὺς μὲν γάρ ἐστι, ποιεῖ δὲ μαίνεσθαι.”

ἅλις ἔστω παραδειγμάτων. ἱκανῶς γὰρ οἴομαι πεποιηκέναι      5
φανερὸν ὃ προὔκειτό μοι, ὅτι μείζονα ἰσχὺν ἔχει τῆς
ἐκλογῆς ἡ σύνθεσις. καί μοι δοκεῖ τις οὐκ ἂν ἁμαρτεῖν
εἰκάσας αὐτὴν τῇ Ὁμηρικῇ Ἀθηνᾷ· ἐκείνη τε γὰρ τὸν
Ὀδυσσέα τὸν αὐτὸν ὄντα ἄλλοτε ἀλλοῖον ἐποίει φαίνεσθαι,
τοτὲ μὲν μικρὸν καὶ ῥυσὸν καὶ αἰσχρὸν      10

πτωχῷ λευγαλέῳ ἐναλίγκιον ἠδὲ γέροντι,

τοτὲ δὲ τῇ αὐτῇ ῥάβδῳ πάλιν ἐφαψαμένη

μείζονά τ’ εἰσιδέειν καὶ πάσσονα θῆκεν ἰδέσθαι, κὰδ δὲ κάρητος
οὔλας ἧκε κόμας ὑακινθίνῳ ἄνθει ὁμοίας,      15

αὕτη τε τὰ αὐτὰ λαμβάνουσα ὀνόματα τοτὲ μὲν ἄμορφα καὶ
πτωχὰ καὶ ταπεινὰ ποιεῖ φαίνεσθαι τὰ νοήματα, τοτὲ δ’
ὑψηλὰ καὶ πλούσια [καὶ ἁδρὰ] καὶ καλά. καὶ τοῦτ’ ἦν
σχεδὸν ᾧ μάλιστα διαλλάττει ποιητής τε ποιητοῦ καὶ ῥήτωρ
ῥήτορος, τὸ συντιθέναι δεξιῶς τὰ ὀνόματα. τοῖς μὲν οὖν      20
ἀρχαίοις ὀλίγου δεῖν πᾶσι πολλὴ ἐπιτήδευσις ἦν αὐτοῦ, παρ’
ὃ καὶ καλά ἐστιν αὐτῶν τά τε μέτρα καὶ τὰ μέλη καὶ οἱ
λόγοι· τοῖς δὲ μεταγενεστέροις οὐκέτι πλὴν ὀλίγων· χρόνῳ δ’

[93]

writes, for instance, “After a goodly festival another goodly one keep we.” “Of Magnesia am I, the mighty land, a man of Sipylus I.” “No little drop into the Theban waters spewed Dionysus: Oh yea, sweet it is, but madness it engendereth.”[98]

Enough of examples. I think I have I sufficiently proved my point that composition is more effective than selection. In fact, it seems to me that one might fairly compare the former to Athena in Homer. For she used to make the same Odysseus appear now in one form, now in another,—at one time puny and wrinkled and ugly,

In semblance like to a beggar wretched and eld-forlorn,[99]

at another time, by a fresh touch of the selfsame wand,

She moulded him taller to see, and broader: his wavy hair
She caused o’er his shoulders to fall as the hyacinth’s purple rare.[100]

So, too, composition takes the same words, and makes the ideas they convey appear at one time unlovely, beggarly and mean; at another, exalted, rich and beautiful. A main difference between poet and poet, orator and orator, really does lie in the aptness with which they arrange their words. Almost all the ancients made a special study of this; and consequently their poems, their lyrics, and their prose are things of beauty. But among their successors, with few exceptions, this was no longer so.

1 ἀνὴρ libri: cf. D.H. p. 169   5 ἅλις F: ἂν P || ἔστω F: ἔστω τῶν PMV || ἱκαν(ῶς) P^1   7 δοκεῖ τις οὐκ ἂν PV: οὐ δοκεῖ τις EFM || ἁμαρτάνειν PMV   10 μὲν μικρὸν καὶ ῥυσὸν EF: μὲν ῥυσὸν καὶ μικρὸν PMV   11 ἠδὲ] ἠδὲ καὶ F || γέροντα P   12 ῥάβδω P   15 ὑακινθίν(ω) P   16 αὕτη Sylburgius: αὐτή libri   17 πτωχὰ καὶ ταπεινὰ PMV: ταπεινὰ καὶ πτωχὰ EF || δὲ PMV   18 καὶ ἁδρὰ delevit Sadaeus || τοῦτ’ ἦν σχεδὸν ὧι PE: τοῦτ’ ἦν ὃ (ᾧ M) FM: τούτῳ V   19 διαλάττει P   20 τὸ EFP: τῷ MV   21 πᾶσιν P || ἐπιτήδευσις Sylburgius: ἐπίδοσις libri   22 τε om. PV   23 οὐκ ἔστι P || χρον(ω) P

2. Possibly Hegesias began one of his books in this grandiloquent fashion, referring to his birth in Magnesia at the foot of Mount Sipylus.

3. μικράν: understand ψακάδα or λιβάδα. Casaubon conjectured μιαρὰν: Reiske, μικρὰν ‹χολὴν›.

4. ἡδύς: sc. ὁ ποταμός. An easy course would be to change ἡδύς to ἡδύ with Reiske; but there is no manuscript variant, and the ambiguity and awkward ellipse may be part of Hegesias’ offence.

13. Vettori suggested the omission here of θῆκεν ἰδέσθαι.

16. Cp. Isocr. Paneg. § 8 ἐπειδὴ δ’ οἱ λόγοι τοιαύτην ἔχουσι τὴν φύσιν, ὥσθ’ οἷον τ’ εἶναι περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν πολλαχῶς ἐξηγήσασθαι, καὶ τά τε μεγάλα ταπεινὰ ποιῆσαι καὶ τοῖς μικροῖς περιθεῖναι, κτλ.

17. The antitheses are ὑψηλά)(ταπεινά, πλούσια)(πτωχά, καλά)(ἄμορφα. The order πτωχὰ καὶ ταπεινά in PMV gives a chiasmus. ἁδρά is the gloss of some rhetorician on ὑψηλά (cp. de Demosth. c. 34, where this gloss actually occurs in one of the manuscripts). The word ἁδρός does not belong to Dionysius’ rhetorical terminology; cp. Long. p. 194.

18. ἦν, ‘was all the time,’ ‘is after all’ (cp. 192 8, etc.).

20. Quintil. ix. 4. 16 “itaque ut confiteor, paene ultimam oratoribus artem compositionis, quae quidem perfecta sit, contigisse: ita illis quoque priscis habitam inter curas, in quantum adhuc profecerant, puto. neque enim mihi quamlibet magnus auctor Cicero persuaserit, Lysian, Herodotum, Thucydiden parum studiosos eius fuisse”; Dionys. Hal. de Demosth. c. 36 πολλή τις ἐγένετο ἐν τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἐπιθυμία καὶ πρόνοια τοῦ καλῶς ἁρμόττειν τὰ ὀνόματα ἔν τε μέτροις καὶ δίχα μέτρων, καὶ πάντες, ὅσοι σπουδαίας ἐβουλήθησαν ἐξενεγκεῖν γραφάς, οὐ μόνον ἐζήτησαν ὀνομάσαι τὰ νοήματα καλῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὰ ‹τὰ ὀνόματα› εὐκόσμῳ συνθέσει περιλαβεῖν.

21. The conjecture ἐπιτήδευσις may be illustrated by 70 6, 212 19, 256 18, and also by de Demosth. c. 36 (the sentence preceding that just quoted).—The manuscript reading ἐπίδοσις might possibly be retained and translated “made numerous contributions to it.” Disselbeck suggests δόσις, and compares de Demosth. cc. 18, 48, 51.

ὕστερον παντάπασιν ἠμελήθη καὶ οὐδεὶς ᾤετο δεῖν ἀναγκαῖον
αὐτὸ εἶναι οὐδὲ συμβάλλεσθαί τι τῷ κάλλει τῶν λόγων·
τοιγάρτοι τοιαύτας συντάξεις κατέλιπον οἵας οὐδεὶς ὑπομένει
μέχρι κορωνίδος διελθεῖν, Φύλαρχον λέγω καὶ Δοῦριν καὶ
Πολύβιον καὶ Ψάωνα καὶ τὸν Καλλατιανὸν Δημήτριον      5
Ἱερώνυμόν τε καὶ Ἀντίγονον καὶ Ἡρακλείδην καὶ Ἡγησιάνακτα
καὶ ἄλλους μυρίους· ὧν ἁπάντων εἰ τὰ ὀνόματα
βουλοίμην λέγειν, ἐπιλείψει με ὁ τῆς ἡμέρας χρόνος. καὶ τί
δεῖ τούτους θαυμάζειν, ὅπου γε καὶ οἱ φιλοσοφίαν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι
καὶ τὰς διαλεκτικὰς ἐκφέροντες τέχνας οὕτως εἰσὶν      10
ἄθλιοι περὶ τὴν σύνθεσιν τῶν ὀνομάτων ὥστε αἰδεῖσθαι καὶ
λέγειν; ἀπόχρη δὲ τεκμηρίῳ χρήσασθαι τοῦ λόγου Χρυσίππῳ
τῷ Στωϊκῷ (περαιτέρω γὰρ οὐκ ἂν προβαίην)· τούτου γὰρ
οὔτ’ ἄμεινον οὐδεὶς τὰς διαλεκτικὰς τέχνας ἠκρίβωσεν οὔτε
ἁρμονίᾳ χείρονι συνταχθέντας ἐξήνεγκε λόγους τῶν γοῦν      15
ὀνόματος καὶ δόξης ἀξιωθέντων. καίτοι σπουδάζειν γέ τινες

[95]

At last, in later times, it was utterly neglected; no one thought it absolutely indispensable, or that it contributed anything to the beauty of discourse. Consequently they left behind them lucubrations that no one has the patience to read from beginning to end. I mean men like Phylarchus, Duris, Polybius, Psaon, Demetrius of Callatis, Hieronymus, Antigonus, Heracleides, Hegesianax, and countless others: a whole day would not be enough if I tried to repeat the bare names of them all.[101] But why wonder at these, when even those who call themselves professors of philosophy and publish manuals of dialectic fail so wretchedly in the arrangement of their words that I shrink from even mentioning their names? It is quite enough to point, in proof of my statement, to Chrysippus the Stoic: for farther I will not go. Among writers who have achieved any name or distinction, none have written their treatises on dialectic with greater accuracy, and none have published discourses which are worse specimens of composition. And yet some of them claimed

1 οὐδεῖσ P   2 τι om. P || τ(ω) P   3 κατέλειπον P   4 φύταρχον PM   5 σάωνα PMV: σφτατωνα F || καλατιανὸν P: καλαντιανὸν MV: καλανδιανὸν F   6 ἀντίγονον F: ἀντίλογον PMV || ἡγησι(α)νακτα P,F: ἡγησίννακτα M: ἡγησίαν μάγνητα V   7 εἰ post ὀνόματα ponunt PMV   9 οἱ F^2P: om. F^1: οἱ τὴν MV   12 τῶι λόγωι χρυσίππου τοῦ στωικοῦ PMV   13 τοῦτο F   14 οὔτε (ante ἄμεινον) PMV   15 χείρονι ante ἁρμονίᾳ habent PMV || γ’ οὖν F,M: om. PV   16 σπουδάζειν PMV: σπουδάζεσθαι F

1. ᾤετο δεῖν ἀναγκαῖον αὐτὸ εἶναι: pleonasm. Perhaps ᾤετ’ ἀσκεῖν ἀναγκαῖον αὐτὸ εἶναι, or the like.

4. Phylarchus: a native of Athens, or (acc. to some ancient authorities) of Naucratis in Egypt. He flourished under Ptolemy Euergetes (247-222 B.C.), and continued (in 28 books) the historical works of Hieronymus and Duris. The period covered was that from Pyrrhus’ invasion of the Peloponnese to the death of Cleomenes (272-220 B.C.). Remains in C. Müller Fragm. Hist. Gr. i. 334-58.

Duris of Samos: a pupil of Theophrastus. Flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.); wrote a history which extended from the battle of Leuctra to the year 281 or later. Among his other writings was a Life of Agathocles. Fragments in C. Müller ii. 466-88. He is mentioned in Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. 18: “num idcirco Duris Samius, homo in historia diligens, quod cum multis erravit, irridetur?”

5. Polybius: see Introduction, pp. 51, 52 supra.

Psaon, of Plataea: a third-century historian, who wrote in thirty books. Cp. C. Müller iii. 198 (and ii. 360).

Demetrius (of Callatis, Calatis, Callatia, or Callantia: the town appears under all these names): wrote thirty books of history in the third century. Cp. C. Müller iv. 380, 381.

6. Hieronymus, of Cardia: wrote, in the third century, a history of the Diadochi and the Epigoni. Fragments in C. Müller ii. 450-61.

Antigonus: of uncertain date (probably second century) and country, but apparently identical with the Antigonus mentioned, among writers who had touched on early Roman history, in Antiqq. Rom. i. 6 πρῶτον μέν, ὅσα κἀμὲ εἰδέναι, τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἀρχαιολογίαν ἐπιδραμόντος Ἱερωνύμου τοῦ Καρδιανοῦ συγγραφέως, ἐν τῇ περὶ τῶν Ἐπιγόνων πραγματείᾳ· ἔπειτα Τιμαίου τοῦ Σικελιώτου, τὰ μὲν ἀρχαῖα τῶν ἱστοριῶν ἐν ταῖς κοιναῖς ἱστορίαις ἀφηγησαμένου, τοὺς δὲ πρὸς Πύρρον τὸν Ἠπειρώτην πολέμους εἰς ἰδίαν καταχωρίσαντος πραγματείαν· ἅμα δὲ τούτοις Ἀντιγόνου τε καὶ Πολυβίου, καὶ Σιληνοῦ, καὶ μυρίων ἄλλων τοῖς αὐτοῖς πράγμασιν οὐχ ὁμοίως ἐπιβαλόντων· ὧν ἕκαστος ὀλίγα, καὶ οὐδὲ αὐτὰ διεσπουδασμένως οὐδὲ ἀκριβῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων ἀκουσμάτων συνθείς, ἀνέγραψεν.—In the present passage Ἀντίλογον, Ἀντίλοχον, Ἀντίοχον, and Ἀμφίλοχον are also read or conjectured.

Heracleides: a historian who probably flourished during the reign of Ptolemy Philometor (181-146 B.C.).

Hegesianax: a second-century historian, who seems to have written on the history and legends of Troy (Τρωϊκά). Cp. C. Müller iii. 68-70.

8. Cp. Demosth. de Cor. § 296 ἐπιλείψει με λέγοντα ἡ ἡμέρα τὰ τῶν προδοτῶν ὀνόματα, and Epist. ad. Hebr. xi. 32 καὶ τί ἔτι λέγω; ἐπιλείψει με γὰρ διηγούμενον ὁ χρόνος περὶ Γεδεών, κτλ. So Cic. Rosc. Am. 32. 89 “tempus, hercule, te citius quam oratio deficeret,” and Verr. ii. 2, 21, 52 “nam me dies, vox, latera deficiant, si hoc nunc vociferari velim, quam miserum indignumque sit,” etc.

9. ὅπου γε: cp. Long. de Subl. iv. 4 τί δεῖ περὶ Τιμαίου λέγειν, ὅπου γε καὶ οἱ ἥρωες ἐκεῖνοι, Ξενοφῶντα λέγω καὶ Πλάτωνα, καίτοιγε ἐκ τῆς Σωκράτους ὄντες παλαίστρας, ὅμως διὰ τὰ οὕτως μικροχαρῆ ποτε ἑαυτῶν ἐπιλανθάνονται;

12. The reading τῷ λόγῳ Χρυσίππου τοῦ Στωικοῦ (PMV) would mean “to point, in proof, to the style (τῷ λόγῳ = ‘discourse,’ ‘writing,’ ‘style’; cp. 96 2) of Chrysippus.” With the general estimate compare Cic. de Fin. iv. 3. 7 “quamquam scripsit artem rhetoricam Cleanthes, Chrysippus etiam, sed sic, ut, si quis obmutescere concupierit, nihil aliud legere debeat.”

13. The manuscript reading προβαίην should be retained, as against Usener’s conjecture προβαῖεν, which perhaps could hardly mean ‘none could sink to greater depths than he,’—if that is the sense intended by Usener. Cp. Aesch. Prom. V. 247 μή πού τι προὔβης τῶνδε καὶ περαιτέρω—words which Dionysius may have had in mind; and Plato Phaedr. 239 D ἃ δῆλα καὶ οὐκ ἄξιον περαιτέρω προβαίνειν.

16. σπουδάζειν: Usener adopts F’s reading σπουδάζεσθαι, with the remark “medii rari vestigium servandum erat.” But he quotes no examples; and Dionysius elsewhere uses the active (e.g. σπουδαζόντων, 66 8 supra). The verb is so frequently found in a passive form and signification, that it seems unlikely that forms common to passive and middle would be used in the middle when the active was available. A middle future, σπουδάσομαι, occurs in Plato Euthyphro 3 B and in Demosth. Mid. 213; but the future middle in many verbs stands quite by itself, and in the passage of Demosthenes we have σπουδάσεται ... σπουδάσατε, while in the passage of Plato there is an important variation in the reading.

προσεποιήθησαν αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ὡς ἀναγκαῖον
ὂν τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τέχνας γέ τινας ἔγραψαν ὑπὲρ τῆς συντάξεως
τῶν τοῦ λόγου μορίων· ἀλλὰ πολύ τι πάντες ἀπὸ τῆς
ἀληθείας ἀπεπλάγχθησαν καὶ οὐδ’ ὄναρ εἶδον, τί ποτ’ ἐστὶ
τὸ ποιοῦν ἡδεῖαν καὶ καλὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν. ἐγὼ γοῦν ὅτε      5
διέγνων συντάττεσθαι ταύτην τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, ἐζήτουν εἴ τι
τοῖς πρότερον εἴρηται περὶ αὐτῆς καὶ μάλιστα τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς
Στοᾶς φιλοσόφοις, εἰδὼς τοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ μικρὰν φροντίδα τοῦ
λεκτικοῦ τόπου ποιουμένους· δεῖ γὰρ αὐτοῖς τἀληθῆ μαρτυρεῖν.
οὐδαμῇ δ’ οὐδὲν εἰρημένον ὑπ’ οὐδενὸς ὁρῶν τῶν γοῦν      10
ὀνόματος ἠξιωμένων οὔτε μεῖζον οὔτ’ ἔλαττον εἰς ἣν ἐγὼ
προῄρημαι πραγματείαν, ἃς δὲ Χρύσιππος καταλέλοιπε
συντάξεις διττὰς ἐπιγραφὴν ἐχούσας “περὶ τῆς συντάξεως
τῶν τοῦ λόγου μερῶν” οὐ ῥητορικὴν θεωρίαν ἐχούσας ἀλλὰ
διαλεκτικήν, ὡς ἴσασιν οἱ τὰς βίβλους ἀνεγνωκότες, ὑπὲρ      15
ἀξιωμάτων συντάξεως ἀληθῶν τε καὶ ψευδῶν καὶ δυνατῶν
καὶ ἀδυνάτων ἐνδεχομένων τε καὶ μεταπιπτόντων καὶ ἀμφιβόλων
καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν τοιουτοτρόπων, οὐδεμίαν οὔτ’ ὠφέλειαν
οὔτε χρείαν τοῖς πολιτικοῖς λόγοις συμβαλλομένας εἰς γοῦν
ἡδονὴν καὶ κάλλος ἑρμηνείας, ὧν δεῖ στοχάζεσθαι τὴν      20
σύνθεσιν· ταύτης μὲν τῆς πραγματείας ἀπέστην, ἐσκόπουν
δ’ αὐτὸς ἐπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ γενόμενος, εἴ τινα δυναίμην εὑρεῖν
φυσικὴν ἀφορμήν, ἐπειδὴ παντὸς πράγματος καὶ πάσης ζητήσεως
αὕτη δοκεῖ κρατίστη εἶναι ἀρχή. ἁψάμενος δέ τινων
θεωρημάτων καὶ δόξας ὁδῷ μοι τὸ πρᾶγμα χωρεῖν ὡς ἔμαθον      25
ἑτέρωσέ ποι ταύτην ἄγουσαν ἐμὲ τὴν ὁδόν, οὐχ ὅποι προὐθέμην

[97]

to make a serious study of this department also, as being absolutely essential to good writing, and wrote some manuals on the grouping of the parts of speech. But they all went far astray from the truth and never even dreamt what it is that makes composition attractive and beautiful. At any rate, when I resolved to treat of this subject methodically, I tried to find out whether anything at all had been said about it by earlier writers, and particularly by the philosophers of the Porch, because I knew that these worthies were accustomed to pay no little attention to the department of discourse: one must give them their due. But in no single instance did I light upon any contribution, great or small, made by any author, of any reputation at all events, to the subject of my choice. As for the two treatises which Chrysippus has bequeathed to us, entitled “on the grouping of the parts of speech,” they contain, as those who have read the books are aware, not a rhetorical but a dialectical investigation, dealing with the grouping of propositions, true and false, possible and impossible, admissible and variable, ambiguous, and so forth. These contribute no assistance or benefit to civil oratory, so far at any rate as charm and beauty of style are concerned; and yet these qualities should be the chief aim of composition. So I desisted from this inquiry, and falling back upon my own resources proceeded to consider whether I could find some starting-point indicated by nature itself, since nature is generally accepted as the best first principle in every operation and every inquiry. So applying myself to certain lines of investigation, I was beginning to think that the plan was making fair progress, when I became aware that my path of progress was leading me in a quite different direction, and not towards the goal which I

1 αὐτῶι F,M   2 ὂν F: om. P || τ(ω) λογ(ω) P || γε om. PMV || ἔγραψαν PM: ἔγραψεν F: ἐπέγραψαν V || ὑπερ * * P   4 ἀπεπλανήθησαν PMV || οὐδε P, MV   5 ἐγὼ γ’ οὖν F: ἔγωγ’ οὖν PMV || ὅτε διέγνων PMV: ὅτ’ ἔγνων F   9 τόπου] λόγου F || τε ποιημένους P   10 οὐδαμεῖ (suprascr. ηι) P^1 || δ’ om. P || εἰρημένον om. PMV || γοῦν om. PV   13 περὶ] οὐ περὶ PM   14 οὐ] καὶ P   16 τε] δὲ PMV   17 ἀμφιλόβων P   18 οὔτ’ ὠφέλειαν om. P   19 συμβαλλομένων PMV   20 καὶ F: ἢ PMV   22 δὲ PMV   24 δοκεῖ] δοκεῖ καὶ P   25 μοι FP: τινι MV || τὰ πράγματα προχωρεῖν F   26 ἐμὲ om. F || προὐθέμην PMV: πρ[ου]θέμην ‘πορευοίμην cum litura F

4. οὐδ’ ὄναρ εἶδον = ‘ne somnio quidem viderunt,’ ‘ne per somnia quidem viderunt.’

6. For ἔγνων (as a v.l. for διέγνων) συντάττεσθαι cp. Antiqq. Rom. i. 1 ... οὔτε διαβολὰς καθ’ ἑτέρων ἐγνωκὼς ποιεῖσθαι συγγραφέων. The passage which begins here and ends with the words πραγματείας ἀπέστην is quoted under the head Dialectica in von Arnim’s Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta ii. 67.

9 ff. Cic. Brut. 31. 118 “Tum Brutus: Quam hoc idem in nostris contingere intellego quod in Graecis, ut omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id arte faciant sintque architecti paene verborum, idem traducti a disputando ad dicendum inopes reperiantur.”

13. Diogenes Laertius (vii. 192. 3), in enumerating Chrysippus’ logical works, writes: σύνταξις δευτέρα· περὶ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ λόγου καὶ τῶν λεγομένων ε′, περὶ τῆς συντάξεως τῶν λεγομένων δ′, περὶ τῆς συντάξεως καὶ στοιχείων τῶν λεγομένων πρὸς Φίλιππον γ′, περὶ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ λόγου πρὸς Νικίαν α′, περὶ τοῦ πρὸς ἕτερα λεγομένου α′.

23. φυσικὴν ἀφορμήν: this suggests the Stoic point of view.

26. The reading of F looks like an attempt to gloss προὐθέμην.

καὶ ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ἐλθεῖν, ἀπέστην. κωλύσει δ’ οὐδὲν
ἴσως κἀκείνης ἅψασθαι τῆς θεωρίας καὶ τὰς αἰτίας εἰπεῖν δι’
ἃς ἐξέλιπον αὐτήν, ἵνα μή με δόξῃ τις ἀγνοίᾳ παρελθεῖν
αὐτὴν ἀλλὰ προαιρέσει.

V
ἐδόκει δή μοι τῇ φύσει μάλιστα ἡμᾶς ἑπομένους οὕτω      5
δεῖν ἁρμόττειν τὰ μόρια τοῦ λόγου, ὡς ἐκείνη βούλεται.
αὐτίκα τὰ ὀνόματα πρῶτα ἡγούμην τάττειν τῶν ῥημάτων (τὰ
μὲν γὰρ τὴν οὐσίαν δηλοῦν, τὰ δὲ τὸ συμβεβηκός, πρότερον
δ’ εἶναι τῇ φύσει τὴν οὐσίαν τῶν συμβεβηκότων), ὡς τὰ
Ὁμηρικὰ ἔχει ταυτί·      10

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον

καὶ

μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά

καὶ

ἠέλιος δ’ ἀνόρουσε λιπών      15

καὶ τὰ παραπλήσια τούτοις· ἡγεῖται μὲν γὰρ ἐν τούτοις τὰ
ὀνόματα, ἕπεται δὲ τὰ ῥήματα. πιθανὸς ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ’ οὐκ
ἀληθὴς ἔδοξεν εἶναί μοι. ἕτερα γοῦν παράσχοιτ’ ἄν τις παραδείγματα
παρὰ τῷ αὐτῷ ποιητῇ κείμενα ἐναντίως συντεταγμένα
ἢ ταῦτα συντέτακται, καλὰ δὲ οὐχ ἧττον καὶ πιθανά. τίνα      20
οὖν ἐστι ταῦτα;

[99]

sought and which I felt I must attain; and so I gave up the attempt. I may as well, perhaps, touch on that inquiry also, and state the reasons which led me to abandon it, so that I may not be open to the suspicion of having passed it by in ignorance, and not of deliberate choice.

CHAPTER V

NO GRAMMATICAL ORDER PRESCRIBED BY NATURE

Well, my notion was that we ought to follow mother nature to the utmost, and to link together the parts of speech according to her promptings. For example, I thought I must place nouns before verbs: the former, you see, indicate the substance, the latter the accident, and in the nature of things the substance takes precedence of its accidents! Thus we find in Homer:—

The hero to me chant thou, Song-queen, the resourceful man;[102]

and

The Wrath sing, Goddess, thou;[103]

and

The sun leapt up, as he left;[104]

and other lines of the same kind, where the nouns lead the way and the verbs follow. The principle is attractive, but I came to the conclusion that it was not sound. At any rate, a reader might confront me with other instances in the same poet where the arrangement is the opposite of this, and yet the lines are no less beautiful and attractive. What are the instances in point?

1 δὲ PV   3 ἀγνοία F   6 ἐκείνηι βεβούληται P   7 πρῶτα post ὀνόματα om. PMV || ἡγούμην PMV: ἠξίουν F || πρὸ ante τῶν add. PMV   8 οὐσίαν FV: αἰτίαν PM || δηλοῖ F   9 δε P, V || τῇ φύσει om. F   10 ταυτί om. PMV   18 παράσχοιτ’ ἄν τις PMV: παράσχοι τις ἂν F   19 τ(ω) αυτ(ω) P   20 δὲ Sauppius: τε libri

5. There seems to be a touch of quiet humour in Dionysius’ retrospection (during this causerie of his) on the simplicity which had led him to think that he could frame a priori rules as to Nature’s Order. Cp. 102 15 in particular.

7. F’s reading, πρῶτα τῶν ῥημάτων, receives some support from 174 18 infra. But cp. Steph. s.v. πρῶτος.—F’s reading ἠξίουν is probably due to some corrector who was unaware that there is good classical authority for ἡγοῦμαι = ἡγοῦμαι δεῖν.

The following passage of Quintilian (ix. 4. 23-27) illustrates this chapter in many ways: “est et alius naturalis ordo, ut viros ac feminas, diem ac noctem, ortum et occasum dicas potius quam retrorsum. quaedam ordine permutato fiunt supervacua, ut fratres gemini; nam si gemini praecesserint, fratres addere non est necesse. illa nimia quorundam fuit observatio, ut vocabula verbis, verba rursus adverbiis, nomina appositis et pronominibus essent priora. nam fit contra quoque frequenter non indecore. nec non et illud nimiae superstitionis, uti quaeque sint tempore, ita facere etiam ordine priora; non quin frequenter sit hoc melius, sed quia interim plus valent ante gesta ideoque levioribus superponenda sunt. verbo sensum cludere, multo, si compositio patiatur, optimum est. in verbis enim sermonis vis est. si id asperum erit, cedet haec ratio numeris, ut fit apud summos Graecos Latinosque oratores frequentissime. sine dubio erit omne, quod non cludet, hyperbaton, et ipsum hoc inter tropos vel figuras, quae sunt virtutes, receptum est. non enim ad pedes verba dimensa sunt, ideoque ex loco transferuntur in locum, ut iungantur, quo congruunt maxime. sicut in structura saxorum rudium etiam ipsa enormitas invenit, cui applicari et in quo possit insistere. felicissimus tamen sermo est, cui et rectus ordo et apta iunctura et cum his numerus opportune cadens contigit.”

8. πρότερον: probably adverbial; cp. Hom. Il. vii. 424 and ix. 551.

15. The completed line (Odyss. iii. 1) is: ἠέλιος δ’ ἀνόρουσε, λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην κτλ.

18. παράσχοιτ’ ἄν τις: for the middle voice cp. 214 6 and 122 14.

20. Usener’s οἷά τινα seems a needless and somewhat violent change for the manuscript reading τίνα οὖν. No doubt οἷά ἐστι ταῦτα is found in 100 27; but (1) Dionysius’ love of μεταβολή in style should be remembered, (2) οἷά τινα is not a usual phrase, (3) the lively rhetorical question is characteristic.

κλῦθί μευ, αἰγιόχοιο Διὸς τέκος Ἀτρυτώνη

καὶ

ἔσπετε νῦν μοι, Μοῦσαι, Ὀλύμπια δώματ’ ἔχουσαι ...
μνῆσαι πατρὸς σεῖο, θεοῖς ἐπιείκελ’ Ἀχιλλεῦ.

ἐν γὰρ τούτοις ἡγεῖται μὲν τὰ ῥήματα, ὑποτέτακται δὲ τὰ      5
ὀνόματα· καὶ οὐδεὶς ἂν αἰτιάσαιτο τὴν σύνταξιν αὐτῶν ὡς
ἀηδῆ.

ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ἄμεινον ἐδόκουν εἶναι τὰ ῥήματα πρότερα
τάττειν τῶν ἐπιρρημάτων, ἐπειδὴ πρότερόν ἐστι τῇ φύσει τὸ
ποιοῦν ἢ πάσχον τῶν συνεδρευόντων αὐτοῖς, τρόπου λέγω καὶ      10
τόπου καὶ χρόνου καὶ τῶν παραπλησίων, ἃ δὴ καλοῦμεν
ἐπιρρήματα, παραδείγμασι χρώμενος τούτοις·

τύπτε δ’ ἐπιστροφάδην, τῶν δὲ στόνος ὤρνυτ’ ἀεικής ...
ἤριπε δ’ ἐξοπίσω, ἀπὸ δὲ ψυχὴν ἐκάπυσσεν ...
ἐκλίνθη δ’ ἑτέρωσε, δέπας δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε χειρός.      15

ἐν ἅπασι γὰρ δὴ τούτοις ὕστερα τέτακται [ἅμα] τῶν ῥημάτων
τὰ ἐπιρρήματα. καὶ τοῦτο πιθανὸν μὲν ὡς τὸ πρῶτον, οὐκ
ἀληθὲς δὲ ὡς οὐδ’ ἐκεῖνο. τάδε γὰρ δὴ παρὰ τῷ αὐτῷ ποιητῇ
ἐναντίως ἢ ἐκεῖνα εἴρηται·

βοτρυδὸν δὲ πέτονται ἐπ’ ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσι ...      20
σήμερον ἄνδρα φάοσδε μογοστόκος Εἰλείθυια
ἐκφανεῖ.

ἆρ’ οὖν τι χείρω γέγονε τὰ ποιήματα ὑποταχθέντων ἐνταῦθα
τοῖς ἐπιρρήμασι τῶν ῥημάτων; οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴποι.

ἔτι καὶ τόδε ᾤμην δεῖν μὴ παρέργως φυλάττειν, ὅπως τὰ      25
πρότερα τοῖς χρόνοις καὶ τῇ τάξει πρότερα λαμβάνηται· οἷά
ἐστι ταυτί·

[101]

Hear me, thou Child of the Aegis-bearer, unwearied Power;[105]

and

Tell to me, Muses, now in Olympian halls that abide;[106]

and

Remember thy father, Achilles, thou godlike glorious man.[107]

In these lines the verbs are in the front rank, and the nouns stationed behind them. Yet no one would impugn the arrangement of the words as unpleasant.

Moreover, I imagined it was better to place verbs in front of adverbs, since in the nature of things what acts or is acted upon takes precedence of those auxiliaries, modal, local, temporal, and the like, which we call adverbs. I relied on the following as examples:—

Smote them on this side and on that, and arose the ghastly groan;[108]
Fell she backward-reeling, and gasped her spirit away;[109]
Reeled he backward: the cup from his hand-grasp fell to the floor.[110]

In all these cases the adverbs are placed after the verbs. This principle, like the other, is attractive; but it is equally unsound. For here are passages in the same poet expressed in the opposite way:

Clusterwise hover they ever above the flowers of spring;[111]
To-day shall Eileithyia the Queen of Travail bring
A man to the light.[112]

Well, are the lines at all inferior because the verbs are placed after the adverbs? No one can say so.

Once more, I imagined that I ought always most scrupulously to observe the principle that things earlier in time should be inserted earlier in the sentence. The following are examples:—

3 ἕσπετε F || ἔχουσαι. καὶ M   4 σοῖο Hom.   5 τὰ prius om. PMV   6 αὐτῶν PMV: ταύτην F   8 πρότερα τάττειν PMV: προτάττειν F   9 ἐστι πρότερον F   10 πάσχειν F^1   12 παραδείγμασιν P   13 ὄρνυτ’ PMV   16 γὰρ δὴ F: γὰρ PMV || ἅμα τῶν FPM: καὶ τῶν V^1: τῶν V^2   18 οὐδὲ PMV || τάδε γὰρ δὴ F: καὶ γὰρ δὴ καὶ ταῦτα PMV || αὐτῶι F: om. PMV   19 ἢ ἐκεῖνα PMV: ἐκείνοις F   21 φάος δὲ F: φάωσδε P || εἰλήθυια PM   23 χείρω τι PMV || γέγονεν P || ἐνταῦθα PMV: ἐνθάδε F   24 οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴποι F: om. PMV   25 τόδε Sylburgius: τάδε libri || ὠιμην F, M: ὠιόμην P, V   26 τῆι τάξει καὶ τοῖς χρόνοις F   27 ταυτί PMV: ταῦτα F

8. πρότερα τάττειν ... ἐπειδὴ πρότερον ἐστι: probably this pointed repetition is intentional on the part of Dionysius. πρότερα τάττειν might afterwards be changed to προτάττειν for the sake of brevity.

18. ταῦτα (PMV) may be right, as ταῦτα in Dionysius can be used of what follows as well as of what precedes; cp. n. on 106 5. So in Plato Rep. vi. 510 ῥᾷον γὰρ τούτων προειρημένων μαθήσει, and Xen. Anab. iii. 1. 41 ὡς μὴ τοῦτο μόνον ἐννοῶνται τί πείσονται ἀλλὰ καὶ τί ποιήσουσι. For Thucydides’ usage cp. Shilleto’s note on Thucyd. i. 31 § 4. In 100 16-102 25 (and further) there are several instances in which F’s readings (though given in the text) may emanate from some early Greek editor rather than from Dionysius himself: cp. 100 24 with 112 5.

26. Cp. Ter. Andr. i. 1. 100 “funus interim | procedit: sequimur; ad sepulcrum venimus; | in ignem impositast; fletur.”

αὖ ἔρυσαν μὲν πρῶτα καὶ ἔσφαξαν καὶ ἔδειραν

καὶ

λίγξε βιός, νευρὴ δὲ μέγ’ ἴαχεν, ἆλτο δ’ ὀϊστός

καὶ

σφαῖραν ἔπειτ’ ἔρριψε μετ’ ἀμφίπολον βασίλεια·      5
ἀμφιπόλου μὲν ἅμαρτε, βαθείῃ δ’ ἔμβαλε δίνῃ.

νὴ Δία, φαίη τις ἄν, εἴ γε μὴ καὶ ἄλλα ἦν πολλὰ οὐχ οὕτω
συντεταγμένα ποιήματα οὐδὲν ἧττον ἢ ταῦτα καλά·

πλῆξε δ’ ἀνασχόμενος σχίζῃ δρυός, ἣν λίπε κείων.

πρότερον γὰρ δήπου τὸ ἐπανατείνασθαί ἐστι τοῦ πλῆξαι. καὶ      10
ἔτι

ἤλασεν ἄγχι στάς, πέλεκυς δ’ ἀπέκοψε τένοντας
αὐχενίους.

πρῶτον γὰρ δήπου προσῆκεν τῷ μέλλοντι τὸν πέλεκυν
ἐμβάλλειν εἰς τοὺς τένοντας τοῦ ταύρου τὸ στῆναι αὐτοῦ      15
πλησίον. ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ἠξίουν τὰ μὲν ὀνοματικὰ προτάττειν
τῶν ἐπιθέτων, τὰ δὲ προσηγορικὰ τῶν ὀνοματικῶν,
τὰς δ’ ἀντονομασίας τῶν προσηγορικῶν, ἔν τε τοῖς ῥήμασι
φυλάττειν, ἵνα τὰ ὀρθὰ τῶν ἐγκλινομένων ἡγῆται καὶ τὰ
παρεμφατικὰ τῶν ἀπαρεμφάτων, καὶ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα πολλά.      20
πάντα δὲ ταῦτα διεσάλευεν ἡ πεῖρα καὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἄξια
ἀπέφαινε. τοτὲ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ τούτων ἐγίνετο καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων
αὐτοῖς ἡδεῖα ἡ σύνθεσις καὶ καλή, τοτὲ δ’ ἐκ τῶν μὴ τοιούτων
ἀλλ’ ἐναντίων. διὰ ταύτας μὲν δὴ τὰς αἰτίας τῆς τοιαύτης
θεωρίας ἀπέστην. ἐμνήσθην δ’ αὐτῶν καὶ νῦν οὐχ ὡς σπουδῆς      25

[103]

They drew back the beasts’ necks first, then severed the throats and flayed;[113]

and

Clangeth the horn, loud singeth the sinew, and leapeth the shaft;[114]

and

The ball by the princess was tossed thereafter to one of her girls;
But it missed the maid, and was lost in the river’s eddying swirls.[115]

“Certainly,” a reader might reply,—“if it were not for the fact that there are plenty of other lines not arranged in this order of yours, and yet as fine as those you have quoted; as

And he smote it, upstrained to the stroke, with an oak-billet cloven apart.[116]

Surely the arms must be raised before the blow is dealt! And further:—

He struck as he stood hard by, and the axe through the sinews shore
Of the neck.[117]

Surely a man who is about to drive his axe into a bull’s sinews should take his stand near it first!”

Still further: I imagined it the correct thing to put my substantives before my adjectives, appellatives before substantives, pronouns before appellatives; and with verbs, to be very careful that primary should precede secondary forms, and indicatives infinitives,—and so on. But trial invariably wrecked these views and revealed their utter worthlessness. At one time charm and beauty of composition did result from these and similar collocations,—at other times from collocations not of this sort but the opposite. And so for these reasons I abandoned all such speculations as the above. Nor is it for any serious value it

3 ἆλτο P   5 ἔρριψεν P   7 εἴ γε μὴ F: εἰ PM || καὶ ἄλλα PMV: οὐχ * F^1: ἄλλα suprascr. F^2 || ἦν πολλὰ F: πολλὰ ἦν PMa || οὕτως FP^1   8 ἢ FV: ἦ M: ἦν P   9 πλῆξε δ’ F: πλῆξεν PMV: κόψε δ’ Hom. || ἣν λίπε] κάλλιπε P || κιών libri   14 προσῆκεν F: προσήκει PMV   16 τούτοις καὶ MVs || ἠξίου P   18 δὲ PMV || ἀντωνομασίας PF^2M^2: ὠνομασίας M^1: ἀντωνυμίας F^1V || ῥήμασιν P   19 ἐγκεκλιμένων PMV   20 ἀπαρεμφατικὰ PV || παρεμφατικῶν P   21 διεσάλευσεν MV   22 ἀπέφαινεν P: ἀπέφηνε MV   23 τότε δ’ F: τοτὲ δὲ PV: τὸ δὲ M   24 ἀλλ’] μηδ’ F || τοιαύτης F: om. PMV   25 δὲ PMV

1. In Homer αὖ ἔρυσαν should probably be printed as one word, αὐέρυσαν. Cp. note on 71 21 supra.

7. All this passage is in close correspondence with Quintil. ix. 4. 24, as quoted in the note on 98 7 supra.

9. Homer’s line actually begins with κόψε δ’ ἀνασχόμενος. Here Dionysius gives πλῆξε δ’ ἀνασχόμενος, while in Antiqq. Rom. vii. 62 he has κόψε δ’ ἀπαρχόμενος. In both cases he is, doubtless, quoting from memory.

10. The order actually adopted by Homer in these passages is that which the rhetoricians describe as πρωθύστερον, ὕστερον πρότερον, ὑστερολογία.

16. ἠξίουν τὰ μὲν ὀνοματικὰ προτάττειν τῶν ἐπιθέτων: the Greek adjective (unless emphatic) is usually placed after the noun. But it could easily be shown from the varying usage of the modern European nations that there is no ‘law of nature,’ one way or the other, on the subject. In general, however, these logical notions of grammatical order which Dionysius felt himself prompted to reject on behalf of Greek (which is synthetic in character) tally with the actual practice of the modern analytical languages.

ἀξίων, καὶ τὰς διαλεκτικὰς παρεθέμην τέχνας οὐχ ὡς ἀναγκαίας,
ἀλλ’ ἵνα μηδεὶς δοκῶν ἔχειν τι αὐτὰς χρήσιμον εἰς τὴν
παροῦσαν θεωρίαν περὶ πολλοῦ ποιῆται εἰδέναι, θηρευθεὶς ταῖς
ἐπιγραφαῖς τῶν πραγματειῶν ὁμοιότητά τινα ἐχούσαις καὶ τῇ
δόξῃ τῶν συνταξαμένων αὐτάς.      5

ἐπάνειμι δ’ ἐπὶ τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὑπόθεσιν ἀφ’ ἧς εἰς ταῦτ’
ἐξέβην, ὅτι πολλὴ πρόνοια τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἦν καὶ ποιηταῖς καὶ
συγγραφεῦσι φιλοσόφοις τε καὶ ῥήτορσι τῆς ἰδέας ταύτης, καὶ
οὔτε τὰ ὀνόματα τοῖς ὀνόμασιν οὔτε τὰ κῶλα τοῖς κώλοις
οὔτε τὰς περιόδους ἀλλήλαις εἰκῇ συνάπτειν ᾤοντο δεῖν, τέχνη      10
δέ τις ἦν παρ’ αὐτοῖς καὶ θεωρήματα οἷς χρώμενοι συνετίθεσαν
εὖ. τίνα δ’ ἦν τὰ θεωρήματα ταῦτα, ἐγὼ πειράσομαι διδάσκειν,
ὡς ἂν οἷός τε ὦ, ὅσα μοι δύναμις ἐγένετο συνεξευρεῖν,
οὐχ ἅπαντα λέγων ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ τὰ ἀναγκαιότατα.

VI
δοκεῖ μοι τῆς συνθετικῆς ἐπιστήμης τρία ἔργα εἶναι· ἓν      15
μὲν ἰδεῖν, τί μετὰ τίνος ἁρμοττόμενον πέφυκε καλὴν καὶ
ἡδεῖαν λήψεσθαι συζυγίαν· ἕτερον δὲ γνῶναι τῶν ἁρμόττεσθαι
μελλόντων πρὸς ἄλληλα πῶς ἂν ἕκαστον σχηματισθὲν κρείττονα
ποιήσειε φαίνεσθαι τὴν ἁρμονίαν· τρίτον δ’ εἴ τι δεῖται μετασκευῆς
τῶν λαμβανομένων, ἀφαιρέσεως λέγω καὶ προσθέσεως      20
καὶ ἀλλοιώσεως, γνῶναί τε καὶ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν χρείαν
οἰκείως ἐξεργάσασθαι. ὅ τι δὲ τούτων ἕκαστον δύναται, σαφέστερον
ἐρῶ χρησάμενος εἰκόσι τῶν δημιουργικῶν τεχνῶν τισιν

[105]

possesses that I recall this mental process now. I have cited those manuals on dialectic not because I think it necessary to have them, but in order to prevent anyone from supposing that they contain anything of real service for the present inquiry, and from regarding it as important to study them. It is easy to be inveigled by their titles, which suggest some affinity with the subject; or by the reputation of their compilers.

I will now revert to the original proposition, from which I have strayed into these digressions. It was that the ancients (poets and historians, philosophers and rhetoricians) were greatly preoccupied with this branch of inquiry. They never thought that words, clauses, or periods should be combined at haphazard. They had rules and principles of their own; and it was by following these that they composed so well. What these principles were, I shall try to explain so far as I can; stating, not all, but just the most essential, of those that I have been able to investigate.

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 PM^1V

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 P^1 || 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 EFMV^1 || 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. F^1EM || 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 P^1, 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.

VII
μία μὲν δὴ θεωρία τῆς συνθετικῆς ἐπιστήμης ἡ περὶ
αὐτὰ τὰ πρῶτα μόρια καὶ στοιχεῖα τῆς λέξεως ἥδε· ἑτέρα
δέ, ὥσπερ καὶ κατ’ ἀρχὰς ἔφην, ἡ περὶ τὰ καλούμενα κῶλα,      10
ποικιλωτέρας τε δεομένη πραγματείας καὶ μείζονος, ὑπὲρ ἧς
αὐτίκα δὴ πειράσομαι λέγειν ὡς ἔχω γνώμης. καὶ γὰρ
ταῦτα ἁρμόσαι πρὸς ἄλληλα δεῖ ὥστ’ οἰκεῖα φαίνεσθαι καὶ
φίλα καὶ σχηματίσαι ὡς ἂν ἐνδέχηται κράτιστα προσκατασκευάσαι
τε, εἴ πού τι δέοι, μειώσει καὶ πλεονασμῷ καὶ εἰ      15
δή τιν’ ἄλλην μετασκευὴν δέχεται τὰ κῶλα· τούτων δ’
ἕκαστον ἡ πεῖρα αὐτὴ διδάσκει· πολλάκις γὰρ τουτὶ τὸ
κῶλον τούτου μὲν προτεθὲν ἢ ἐπὶ τούτῳ τεθὲν εὐστομίαν
τινὰ ἐμφαίνει καὶ σεμνότητα, ἑτέραν δέ τινα συζυγίαν λαβὸν
ἄχαρι φαίνεται καὶ ἄσεμνον. ὃ δὲ λέγω, σαφέστερον ἔσται,      20
εἴ τις αὐτὸ ἐπὶ παραδείγματος ἴδοι. ἔστι δή τις παρὰ τῷ
Θουκυδίδῃ λέξις ἐν τῇ Πλαταιέων δημηγορίᾳ πάνυ χαριέντως
συγκειμένη καὶ μεστὴ πάθους ἥδε· “ὑμεῖς τε, ὦ Λακεδαιμόνιοι,

[111]

discourse through the elisions. So again by using “ἐποίησε” (without the ν) in place of ἐποίησεν, and “ἔγραψε” in place of ἔγραψεν, and “ἀφαιρήσομαι” in place of ἀφαιρεθήσομαι, and all instances of the kind; and by saying “ἐχωροφίλησε” for ἐφιλοχώρησε and “λελύσεται” for λυθήσεται, and things of that sort:—by such devices an author puts his words into a new shape, in order that he may fit them together more beautifully and appropriately.

CHAPTER VII

GROUPING OF CLAUSES

The foregoing, then, is one branch of the art of composition which requires consideration: namely, that which relates to the primary parts and elements of speech. But there is another, as I said at the beginning, which is concerned with the so-called “members” (“clauses”), and this requires fuller and more elaborate treatment. My views on this topic I will try to express forthwith.

The clauses must be fitted to one another so as to present an aspect of harmony and concord; they must be given the best form which they admit of; they must further be remodelled if necessary by shortening, lengthening, and any other change of form which clauses admit. As to each of these details experience itself must be your teacher. It will often happen that the placing of one clause before or after another brings out a certain euphony and dignity, while a different grouping sounds unpleasing and undignified. My meaning will be clearer if illustrated by an example. There is a well-known passage of Thucydides in the speech of the Plataeans, a delightfully arranged sentence full of deep feeling, which is as follows: “And we fear, men of Sparta, lest you, our only hope, should

1 κἀποκέκρουκέ Us.: καὶ π(ερι)κέκρ(ου)κέ P,EFM: καὶ παρακέκρουκε V || ὁ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐποίησεν ἐποίησε F: ὁ ἐποίησε ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐποίησεν P: ὃ (τὸ V) ἐποίησεν ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐποίησε M, V   2 ἔγραψε ἀντὶ τοῦ ἔγραψεν λέγων καὶ om. EF   4 ἐχωροφίλησε E: χωροφίλησε F: χωροφιλῆσαι PMV   5 φιλοχωρῆσαι PMV || τὸ F: λέγων τὸ PMV   6 ΐνα P, MV || ἁρμοσθεῖσαι PMV || καλλίονες EF   8 συνθετικῆς] συνθέσεως F   9 πρῶτα om. F || καὶ] καὶ τὰ EF || ἥδε EFM: om. PV   10 δέ om. P || ὥπερ P || καὶ κατ’] κατ’ F || ἔφην F: ἔφαμεν PMV   13 ὥστ’ P: ὥστε F: ὡς MV   14 προκατασκευάσαι E   16 μετασκευὴν Schaefer: κατασκευὴν libri   17 ἕκαστα EF   23 ἡμεῖς EF

2. χωρὶς τοῦ ν̄: Dionysius implies that, in his opinion, the so-called νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν is, or has become, an integral part of the verbal termination and is not reserved for use before vowels only. His view has some support in the usage of the best manuscripts.

Usener brackets the words ἔγραψε ... καί. But πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα suggests their retention, and their omission in an epitome (E) is natural. Dionysius wishes to indicate that his statement is general and does not apply simply to the particular verb ἐποίησε.

4. φιλοχωρεῖν and χωροφιλεῖν: see Glossary, under φιλοχωρεῖν.

5. Cp. Demosth. περὶ τῶν Συμμοριῶν § 2, πᾶς ὁ παρὼν φόβος λελύσεται.

9. ἥδε = ‘the foregoing,’ cp. n. on ταῦτα p. 106 supra.

10. ὥσπερ καὶ κατ’ ἀρχὰς ἔφην: 72 9, 104 9. The reading ἔφην (rather than ἔφαμεν) accords best with Dionysius’ usage.

23. Cp. Cic. Orat. cc. 63, 66 for similar Latin instances of the effect of a change in word-order.—The complete sentence in Thucyd. iii. 57 runs: καὶ οὔτε τῶν τότε ξυμμάχων ὠφελεῖ οὐδείς, ὑμεῖς τε, ὦ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, ἡ μόνη ἐλπίς, δέδιμεν μὴ οὐ βέβαιοι ἦτε.

ἡ μόνη ἐλπίς, δέδιμεν μὴ οὐ βέβαιοι ἦτε.” φέρε δή τις
λύσας τὴν συζυγίαν ταύτην μεθαρμοσάτω τὰ κῶλα οὕτως·
“ὑμεῖς τε, ὦ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, δέδιμεν μὴ οὐ βέβαιοι ἦτε, ἡ
μόνη ἐλπίς.” ἆρ’ ἔτι μένει τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἡρμοσμένων τῶν
κώλων ἡ αὐτὴ χάρις ἢ τὸ αὐτὸ πάθος; οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴποι. τί      5
δ’ εἰ τὴν Δημοσθένους λέξιν ταύτην “τὸ λαβεῖν οὖν τὰ
διδόμενα ὁμολογῶν ἔννομον εἶναι, τὸ χάριν τούτων ἀποδοῦναι
παρανόμων γράφῃ” λύσας τις καὶ μεταθεὶς τὰ κῶλα τουτονὶ
τὸν τρόπον ἐξενέγκαι· “ὁμολογῶν οὖν ἔννομον εἶναι τὸ λαβεῖν
τὰ διδόμενα, παρανόμων γράφῃ τὸ τούτων χάριν ἀποδοῦναι,”      10
ἆρ’ ὁμοίως ἔσται δικανικὴ καὶ στρογγύλη; ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ
οἴομαι.

VIII
ἡ μὲν δὴ περὶ τὴν ἁρμογὴν τῶν κώλων θεωρία τοιαύτη,
ἡ δὲ περὶ τὸν σχηματισμὸν ποδαπή; οὐκ ἔστιν εἷς τρόπος
τῆς ἐκφορᾶς ἁπάντων τῶν νοημάτων, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ὡς      15
ἀποφαινόμενοι λέγομεν, τὰ δ’ ὡς πυνθανόμενοι, τὰ δ’ ὡς
εὐχόμενοι, τὰ δ’ ὡς ἐπιτάττοντες, τὰ δ’ ὡς διαποροῦντες, τὰ
δ’ ὡς ὑποτιθέμενοι, τὰ δὲ ἄλλως πως σχηματίζοντες, οἷς
ἀκολούθως καὶ τὴν λέξιν πειρώμεθα σχηματίζειν. πολλοὶ δὲ
δήπου σχηματισμοὶ καὶ τῆς λέξεώς εἰσιν ὥσπερ καὶ τῆς      20
διανοίας, οὓς οὐχ οἷόν τε κεφαλαιωδῶς περιλαβεῖν, ἴσως δὲ
καὶ ἄπειροι· περὶ ὧν καὶ πολὺς ὁ λόγος καὶ βαθεῖα ἡ θεωρία.
οὐ δὴ τὸ αὐτὸ δύναται ποιεῖν τὸ αὐτὸ κῶλον οὕτω σχηματισθὲν

[113]

fail in steadfastness.”[121] Now let this order be disturbed and the clauses be re-arranged as follows: “And we fear, men of Sparta, lest you should fail in steadfastness, that are our only hope.” When the clauses are arranged in this way, does the same fine charm remain, or the same deep feeling? Plainly not. Again, take this passage of Demosthenes, “So you admit as constitutional the acceptance of the offerings; you indict as unconstitutional the rendering of thanks for them.”[122] Let the order be disturbed, and the clauses interchanged and presented in the following form: “So the acceptance of the offerings you admit as constitutional; the rendering of thanks for them you indict as unconstitutional.” Will the sentence be equally neat and effective? I, for my part, do not think so.

CHAPTER VIII

SHAPING OF CLAUSES

The principles governing the arrangement of clauses have now been stated. What principles govern their shaping?

The complete utterance of our thoughts takes more than one form. We throw them at one time into the shape of an assertion, at another into that of an inquiry, or a prayer, or a command, or a doubt, or a supposition, or some other shape of the kind; and into conformity with these we try to mould the diction itself. There are, in fact, many figures of diction, just as there are of thought. It is not possible to classify them exhaustively; indeed, they are perhaps innumerable. Their treatment would require a long disquisition and profound investigation. But that the same clause is not equally telling in all its various modes of presentation,

1 ἡ μόνη ἐλπίς add. in marg. F || ἡ μόνη] ἡμῶν ἡ EF^1M^1 || φέρε ... (4) ἦτε add. in marg. F   6 δ’ F: δὲ M: δαὶ PV   8 παρανόμον P: παράνομον F || γράφηι· F: γράφηι· εἰ P, MV | τοῦτον PMV   10 παράνομον FP: παρανόμῳ V || ἀποδιδόναι P   14 ποταπή PMV   15 τῆς om. P || ἁπάντων EF: om. PMV: τῶν om. F || ὀνομάτων PMV

2. It is impossible to give real English equivalents in cases like this,—partly because of the fundamental differences between the two languages, and partly because we do not know Dionysius’ own estimate of the exact effect which the changes he introduces have upon the rhythm, emphasis, and clearness of the sentence. The same considerations apply in lines 6-10, where the English principle of emphasis makes it necessary to depart widely from the Greek order in both the original and the re-written form. See Introduction, pp. 17 ff. supra (under Emphasis). A striking instance of effective emphasis in English is Macduff’s passionate out-burst:—

Not in the legions
Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn’d
In ills to top Macbeth.

“If you dispose the words in the usual manner, and say, ‘A more damned devil in the legions of horrid hell cannot come to top Macbeth in ills,’ we shall scarcely be persuaded that the thought is the same,” Campbell Philosophy of Rhetoric p. 496. Biblical instances are: (1) “Nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin” (Nehem. xiii. 26); (2) “Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?” (Zech. i. 5).

8. Sometimes the manuscript testimony is quite clear as between such forms as τουτονί and τοῦτον: cp. 116 9 n. In doubtful cases the -ί form might be adopted—in 64 6 and 84 17 as well as in 112 8 and 178 10.

14. Cp. Quintil. vi. 3. 70 “figuras quoque montis, quae σχήματα διανοίας dicuntur, res eadem recipit omnes, in quas nonnulli diviserunt species dictorum. nam et interrogamus et dubitamus et affirmamus et minamur et optamus, quaedam ut miserantes, quaedam ut irascentes dicimus,” and Hor. Ars. P. 108 “format enim natura prius nos intus ad omnem | fortunarum habitum; iuvat aut impellit ad iram | aut ad humum maerore gravi deducit et angit; | post effert animi motus interprete lingua.”

ἢ οὕτως. ἐρῶ δὲ ἐπὶ παραδείγματος· εἰ τοῦτον ἐξήνεγκε
τὸν τρόπον ὁ Δημοσθένης τὴν λέξιν ταύτην “ταῦτ’ εἰπὼν
ἔγραψα, γράψας δ’ ἐπρέσβευσα, πρεσβεύσας δ’ ἔπεισα Θηβαίους,”
ἆρ’ οὕτως ἂν συνέκειτο χαριέντως, ὡς νῦν σύγκειται;
“οὐκ εἶπον μὲν ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔγραψα δέ· οὐδ’ ἔγραψα μέν, οὐκ      5
ἐπρέσβευσα δέ· οὐδ’ ἐπρέσβευσα μέν, οὐκ ἔπεισα δὲ Θηβαίους.”
πολὺς δ’ ἂν εἴη μοι λόγος, εἰ περὶ πάντων βουλοίμην λέγειν
τῶν σχηματισμῶν ὅσους τὰ κῶλα ἐπιδέχεται. ἀπόχρη δὲ
εἰσαγωγῆς ἕνεκα τοσαῦτα εἰρῆσθαι.

IX
ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι γε καὶ μετασκευὰς δέχεται τῶν κώλων ἔνια      10
τοτὲ μὲν προσθήκας λαμβάνοντα οὐκ ἀναγκαίας ὡς πρὸς τὸν
νοῦν, τοτὲ δὲ ἀφαιρέσεις ἀτελῆ ποιούσας τὴν διάνοιαν, ἃς οὐκ
ἄλλου τινὸς ἕνεκα ποιοῦσι ποιηταί τε καὶ συγγραφεῖς ἢ τῆς
ἁρμονίας, ἵν’ ἡδεῖα καὶ καλὴ γένηται, πάνυ ὀλίγου δεῖν οἴομαι
λόγου. τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ὁμολογήσαι τήνδε τὴν λέξιν ἣν ὁ      15
Δημοσθένης εἴρηκε προσθήκῃ πλεονάζειν οὐκ ἀναγκαίᾳ τῆς
ἁρμονίας ἕνεκα; “ὁ γὰρ οἷς ἂν ἐγὼ ληφθείην, ταῦτα πράττων
καὶ κατασκευαζόμενος, οὗτος ἐμοὶ πολεμεῖ, κἂν μήπω βάλλῃ
μηδὲ τοξεύῃ.” ἐνταῦθα γὰρ οὐχὶ τοῦ ἀναγκαίου χάριν πρόσκειται
τὸ τοξεύειν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα τὸ τελευταῖον κῶλον τὸ “κἂν      20
μήπω βάλλῃ” τραχύτερον τοῦ δέοντος ὂν καὶ οὐχ ἡδὺ ἀκουσθῆναι

[115]

I will show by an example. If Demosthenes had expressed himself thus in the following passage, “Having spoken thus, I moved a resolution; and having moved a resolution, I joined the embassy; and having joined the embassy, I convinced the Thebans,” would the sentence have been composed with the charm of its actual arrangement,—“I did not speak thus, and then fail to move a resolution; I did not move a resolution, and then fail to join the embassy; I did not join the embassy, and then fail to convince the Thebans”?[123] It would take me a long time to deal with all the modes of expression which clauses admit. It is enough to say thus much by way of introduction.

CHAPTER IX

LENGTHENING AND SHORTENING OF CLAUSES AND PERIODS

I think I can in a very few words show that some clauses admit changes which take the form now of additions not necessary to the sense, now of curtailments rendering the sense incomplete; and that these changes are introduced by poets and prose-writers simply in order to add charm and beauty to the rhythm. Thus the following expression used by Demosthenes indisputably contains a pleonastic addition made for the sake of the rhythm: “He who contrives and prepares means whereby I may be captured is at war with me, though not yet shooting javelins or arrows.”[124] Here the reference to “arrows” is added not out of necessity, but in order that the last clause “though not yet shooting javelins,” being rougher than it ought to be and not pleasant to

2 εἰπ(ων) P, MV: εἴπ(ας) F, E   5 οὐκ prim. Dem.: καὶ οὐκ libri   6 δὲ alt om. F   7 δ’ F: om. PMV   14 γένοιτο PMV   15 ὁμολογῆσαι PV: ὁμολογήσηι F || μὲν post τήνδε habet F   19 ἐνταῦθα ... (21) βάλλῃ servarunt FM   21 βραχύτερον V: βραχυτέρα ex βραχύτερα P

1. Cicero (Philipp. xii. 3. 7) has the following climax: “Quid enim potest, per deos immortales! rei publicae prodesse nostra legatio? Prodesse dico? quid, si etiam obfutura est? Obfutura? quid, si iam nocuit atque obfuit?” Obviously it would be fatal to re-write this passage thus: “nostra legatio non poterit prodesse rei publicae, immo obfutura est, et iam nocuit.”

2. With εἰπών (rather than εἴπας) cp. line 5 (εἶπον, not εἶπα), though P gives προεῖπα in 280 19. In the Epitome εἴπας is found in V only, the other three MSS. giving εἰπών.—In Hellenistic times the non-sigmatic aorists constantly occur with the -α of the sigmatic aorists; but it is hardly likely that so good an Atticist as Dionysius would attribute εἴπας to Demosthenes, and introduce cacophony.

4. Cp. Demetr. de Eloc. § 270 λαμβάνοιτ’ ἂν καὶ ἡ κλῖμαξ καλουμένη, ὥσπερ Δημοσθένει τὸ “οὐκ εἶπον μὲν ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔγραψα δέ· οὐδ’ ἔγραψα μέν, οὐκ ἔπεισα δὲ Θηβαίους”· σχεδὸν γὰρ ἐπαναβαίνοντι ὁ λόγος ἔοικεν ἐπὶ μειζόνων μείζονα· εἰ δὲ οὕτως εἴποι τις ταῦτα, “εἰπὼν ἐγὼ καὶ γράψας ἐπρέσβευσά τε καὶ ἔπεισα Θηβαίους,” διήγημα ἐρεῖ μόνον, δεινὸν δὲ οὐδέν.

8. Dionysius seems subsequently to have written a special treatise περὶ σχημάτων: cp. Quintil. ix. 3. 89 “haec omnia copiosius sunt exsecuti, qui non ut partem operis transcurrerunt sed proprie libros huic operi dedicaverunt, sicut Caecilius, Dionysius, Rutilius, Cornificius, Visellius aliique non pauci.” The use of νῦν in de Demosth. c. 39 seems to point to an intention of the kind on Dionysius’ part: ἐξαριθμεῖσθαι δὲ νῦν, ὅσα γένη σχηματισμῶν ἐστι τῶν τε κατωνομασμένων καὶ τῶν ἀκατονομάστων, καὶ τίσιν αὐτῶν ἡ τοιαύτη μάλιστα πέφυκεν ἁρμονία χαίρειν, οὐκ ἔχω καιρόν.

10. This sentence of Dionysius himself may serve to show how successfully and conveniently Greek, as compared with English, can make a conjunction depend on words which came long after (viz. πάνυ ὀλίγου δεῖν οἴομαι λόγου in line 14).

16. προσθήκῃ οὐκ ἀναγκαίᾳ: compare, for example, such harmonious redundancies as οἱ δ’ ἐπεὶ οὖν ἤγερθεν ὁμηγερέες τ’ ἐγένοντο (Il. i. 57) and “when we assemble and meet together” (Book of Common Prayer).

20. Quintil. ix. 4. 63 “namque eo fit ut, cum Demosthenis severa videatur compositio, πρῶτον μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις, et illa (quae ab uno, quod sciam, Bruto minus probatur, ceteris placet) κἂν μήπω βάλλῃ μηδὲ τοξεύῃ, Ciceronem carpant in his: Familiaris coeperat esse balneatori, et Non minimum dura archipiratae. Nam balneatori et archipiratae idem finis est qui πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις et qui μηδὲ τοξεύῃ: sed priora sunt severiora.”

21. In τραχύτερον Dionysius is apparently referring to the sound of two spondees (each forming a separate word) at the end of a sentence, and to the improvement effected by the addition of a cretic followed by a spondee.—P and V give βραχύτερον, which is perhaps right, since a clause that is shorter than it ought to be can be improved (cp. 114 16) by extension.

τῇ προσθήκῃ ταύτῃ γένηται χαριέστερον. καὶ ἔτι τὴν
Πλατωνικὴν ἐκείνην περίοδον, ἣν ἐν τῷ ἐπιταφίῳ ὁ ἀνὴρ
γράφει, τίς οὐκ ἂν φαίη παραπληρώματι λέξεως οὐκ ἀναγκαίῳ
προσηρανίσθαι; “ἔργων γὰρ εὖ πραχθέντων λόγῳ καλῶς
ῥηθέντι μνήμη καὶ κόσμος γίνεται τοῖς πράξασι παρὰ τῶν      5
ἀκουσάντων.” ἐνταυθοῖ γὰρ τὸ “παρὰ τῶν ἀκουσάντων” πρὸς
οὐδὲν ἀναγκαῖον λέγεται, ἀλλ’ ἵνα τὸ τελευταῖον κῶλον τὸ
“τοῖς πράξασι” πάρισόν τε καὶ ἐφάμιλλον τοῖς πρὸ αὐτοῦ
γένηται. τί δὲ δὴ τὸ παρ’ Αἰσχίνῃ λεγόμενον τουτί “ἐπὶ
σαυτὸν καλεῖς, ἐπὶ τοὺς νόμους καλεῖς, ἐπὶ τὴν δημοκρατίαν      10
καλεῖς,” τρίκωλον ἐν τοῖς πάνυ ἐπαινούμενον, οὐχὶ τῆς αὐτῆς
ἰδέας ἔχεται; ὃ γὰρ οἷόν τε ἦν ἑνὶ κώλῳ περιληφθῆναι τόνδε
τὸν τρόπον “ἐπὶ σεαυτὸν καὶ τοὺς νόμους καὶ τὴν δημοκρατίαν
καλεῖς,” τοῦτο εἰς τρία διῄρηται, τῆς αὐτῆς λέξεως οὐ τοῦ
ἀναγκαίου ἕνεκα, τοῦ δὲ ἡδίω ποιῆσαι τὴν ἁρμονίαν πολλάκις      15
τεθείσης [καὶ προσέτι πάθος τῷ λόγῳ]. τῆς μὲν δὴ προσθέσεως
ἣ γίνεται τοῖς κώλοις οὗτος ὁ τρόπος· τῆς ἀφαιρέσεως
δὲ τίς; ὅταν τῶν ἀναγκαίων τι λέγεσθαι λυπεῖν μέλλῃ καὶ
διοχλεῖν τὴν ἀκρόασιν, ἀφαιρεθὲν δὲ χαριεστέραν ποιῇ τὴν
ἁρμονίαν· οἷά ἐστιν ἐν μὲν τοῖς μέτροις τὰ Σοφόκλεια ταυτί·      20

μύω τε καὶ δέδορκα κἀξανίσταμαι
πλέον φυλάσσων αὐτὸς ἢ φυλάσσομαι·

ἐνταυθοῖ γὰρ ὁ δεύτερος στίχος ἐκ δυεῖν σύγκειται κώλων οὐχ
ὅλων· τελεία γὰρ ἂν ἡ λέξις ἦν οὕτως ἐξενεχθεῖσα “πλεῖον

[117]

the ear, may be made more attractive by this addition. Again, the famous period of Plato which that author inserts in the Funeral Speech has beyond dispute been extended by a supplement not necessary to the sense: “When deeds have been nobly done, then through speech finely uttered there come honour and remembrance to the doers from the hearers.”[125] Here the words “from the hearers” are not at all necessary to the sense; they are added in order that the last clause, “to the doers,” may correspond with and balance what has preceded it. Again, take these words found in Aeschines, “you summon him against yourself; you summon him against the laws; you summon him against the democracy,”[126] a sentence of great celebrity, formed of three clauses: does it not belong to the class we are considering? What could have been embraced in one clause as follows, “you summon him against yourself and the laws and the democracy,” has been divided into three, the same expression being repeated not from any necessity but in order to make the rhythm more agreeable.

In such ways, then, may clauses be expanded: how can they be abridged? This comes about when something necessary to the sense is likely to offend and jar on the ear, and when, consequently, its removal adds to the charm of the rhythm. An example, in verse, is afforded by the following lines of Sophocles:—

I close mine eyes, I open them, I rise—
Myself the warder rather than the warded.[127]

Here the second line is composed of two imperfect clauses. The expression would have been complete if it had run thus,

1 γεγένηται PMV || χαριέστερα F   6 ἐνταυθοῖ ... ἀκουσάντων F, E: om. PMV   7 τὸ ante τοῖς om. EF   11 ἐπαινουμένοις F   15 ἡδείαν F, M   16 καὶ ... λόγῳ secl. Us.: προσἔτι F, M: πρόσεστι PV   19 ποιῆι P, M: ποιεῖ EFV: ποιεῖν coni. Reiskius   20 ἁρμονίαν F: ἐρμηνείαν P, MV || οἵα F: οἷάπέρ PMV || μὲν F: om. PMV   21 καὶ ξυνίσταμαι P   22 πλέον ... (24) ἐξενεχθεῖσα om. P

2. ὁ ἀνήρ is used by Dionysius with various shades of meaning,—‘the author,’ ‘the Master,’ ‘the worthy,’ etc. Cp. 96 8, 182 2, 184 12, 186 2, 198 4, 228 15, 264 25.

5. In the actual text of Menex. 236 E there is a slight difference of order, viz. τοῖς πράξασι γίγνεται instead of γίνεται τοῖς πράξασι (as Dionysius gives it).

6. The Epitome makes the meaning quite plain by inserting παραπλήρωμα τῆς λέξεως between ἀκουσάντων and πρὸς οὐδέν.

9. Here all MSS. agree in giving the form τουτί. The same agreement will be found in 86 9, 110 17, 116 20, 120 24, 156 15, 158 5, etc.

10. Demetrius, de Eloc. § 268, regards this sentence as an example of three ‘figures,’—anaphora, asyndeton, and homoeoteleuton. He adds, “Were we to write ‘you summon him against yourself and the laws and the democracy,’ the force would vanish together with the figures.”—Similarly, “Appius eos [servos] postulavit et produxit” would be less telling than “Quis eos postulavit? Appius. Quis produxit? Appius. Unde? ab Appio” (Cic. pro Milone 22. 59).

11. τῆς αὐτῆς ἰδέας, ‘the same form of expression,’ i.e. the effectively pleonastic.

16. If the words καὶ προσέτι πάθος τῷ λόγῳ are retained, ποιῆσαι (in a slightly different sense) must be repeated in order to govern πάθος: unless some such word as γίγνεται can be supplied.

21. The context of these lines of Sophocles is not known, but the idea may well be that of ‘uneasy lies the head’ or οὐ χρὴ παννύχιον εὕδειν βουληφόρον ἄνδρα (Il. ii. 24). The ‘elliptical’ effect (an ellipse being implied by ἀφαίρεσις, cp. 116 17) is produced by the presence of αὐτός, which suggests that ἑτέρους and ὑφ’ ἑτέρων are to be mentally supplied.—Cp. Cic. in Q. Caec. Divin. 18. 58 “hic tu, si laesum te a Verre esse dices, patiar et concedam: si iniuriam tibi factam quereris, defendam et negabo”; and Racine Andromaque iv. 5 “Je t’aimais inconstant; qu’aurais-je fait fidèle?”

φυλάσσων αὐτὸς ἑτέρους ἢ φυλασσόμενος ὑφ’ ἑτέρων,” τὸ δὲ
μέτρον ἠδίκητο καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἔσχεν ἣν νυνὶ χάριν ἔχει. ἐν δὲ
τοῖς πεζοῖς λόγοις τὰ τοιαῦτα· “ἐγὼ δ’ ὅτι μὲν τινῶν κατηγοροῦντα
πάντας ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὴν ἀτέλειαν τῶν ἀδίκων ἐστίν,
ἐάσω.” μεμείωται γὰρ κἀνταῦθα τῶν πρώτων δυεῖν κώλων      5
ἑκάτερον· αὐτοτελῆ δ’ ἂν ἦν, εἴ τις αὐτὰ οὕτως ἐξήνεγκεν·
“ἐγὼ δ’ ὅτι μὲν τινῶν κατηγοροῦντα ὡς οὐκ ἐπιτηδείων ἔχειν
τὴν ἀτέλειαν πάντας ἀφαιρεῖσθαι καὶ τοὺς δικαίως αὐτῆς
τυχόντας τῶν ἀδίκων ἐστίν, ἐάσω.” ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐδόκει τῷ
Δημοσθένει πλείονα ποιεῖσθαι πρόνοιαν τῆς ἀκριβείας τῶν      10
κώλων ἢ τῆς εὐρυθμίας.

τὰ δ’ αὐτὰ εἰρήσθω μοι καὶ περὶ τῶν καλουμένων περιόδων·
καὶ γὰρ ταύτας χρὴ τάς τε προηγουμένας καὶ τὰς ἑπομένας
οἰκείως συναρμόττειν, ὅταν ἐν περιόδοις προσήκῃ τὸν λόγον
ἐκφέρειν· οὐ γὰρ δὴ πανταχῇ γε τὸ ἐμπερίοδον χρήσιμον.      15
καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο τὸ θεώρημα τῆς συνθετικῆς ἐπιστήμης ἴδιον,
πότε δεῖ χρῆσθαι περιόδοις καὶ μέχρι πόσου καὶ πότε μή.

X
διωρισμένων δή μοι τούτων ἀκόλουθον ἂν εἴη τὸ λέγειν,
τίνα ἐστὶν ὧν δεῖ στοχάζεσθαι τὸν βουλόμενον συντιθέναι τὴν
λέξιν εὖ καὶ διὰ τίνων θεωρημάτων τυγχάνοι τις ἂν ὧν      20
βούλεται. δοκεῖ δέ μοι δύο ταῦτ’ εἶναι ‹τὰ› γενικώτατα, ὧν
ἐφίεσθαι δεῖ τοὺς συντιθέντας μέτρα τε καὶ λόγους, ἥ τε ἡδονὴ
καὶ τὸ καλόν· ἀμφότερα γὰρ ἐπιζητεῖ ταῦτα ἡ ἀκοή, ὅμοιόν
τι πάσχουσα τῇ ὁράσει· καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνη πλάσματα καὶ γραφὰς

[119]

“myself warding others rather than being warded by others.” But violence would have been done to the metre, and the line would not have acquired the charm which it actually has. In prose there are such instances as: “I will pass by the fact that it is a piece of injustice, simply because a man brings charges against some individuals, to attempt to withhold exemption from every one.”[128] Here, too, each of the two first clauses is abbreviated. They would have been each complete in itself if worded thus: “I will pass by the fact that it is a piece of injustice, simply because a man brings charges against some individuals and declares them unfit for exemption, to attempt to withhold that privilege from every one—even those who are justly entitled to it.” But Demosthenes did not approve of paying more heed to the exactitude of the clauses than to the beauty of the rhythm.

I wish what I have just said to be understood as applying also to what are called “periods.” For, when it is fitting to express one’s meaning in periods, these too must be arranged so as to precede or follow each other appropriately. It must, of course, be understood that the periodic style is not suitable everywhere: and the question when periods should be used and to what extent, and when not, is precisely one of those with which the science of composition deals.

CHAPTER X

AIMS AND METHODS OF GOOD COMPOSITION

Now that I have laid down these broad outlines, the next step will be to state what should be the aims kept in view by the man who wishes to compose well, and by what methods his object can be attained. It seems to me that the two essentials to be aimed at by those who compose in verse and prose are charm and beauty. The ear craves for both of these. It is affected in somewhat the same way as the sense of sight which,

2 νυνὶ χάριν ἔχει EPMV: νῦν ἔχει χάριν F   4 ἀτέλειαν] δωρειὰν Demosth.   6 ἀτελῆ δὲ F   12 τὰ δ’ αὐτὰ F: ταῦτα δὲ MV: ταῦ(τα) δι’ P   13 ταύτας E: ταῦτα F: ταύταις PMV || ταῖς τε προηγουμέναις καὶ ταῖς ταύταις (ταύταις om. E) ἑπομέναις EPMV   14 ἐν FE: ἐν ταῖς PMV   17 περιόδωι P   18 ὡρισμένων P || τὸ λέγειν PMV: λέγειν F   21 τὰ add. Sauppius || γενικώτατα F, M: τελικ(ω)τατα P, M^1V   22 μέτρα FP: εὖ μέτρα MV

4. Dionysius does not appear to feel that τῶν ἀδίκων is in any way ambiguous,—that it might, at first sight, seem to depend on τὴν ἀτέλειαν. In Greek a dependent genitive usually (at any rate in Thucydides; see p. 337 infra) precedes the noun on which it depends; and, in any case, the speaker would here pause slightly between τὴν ἀτέλειαν and τῶν ἀδίκων.

15. οὐ γὰρ δὴ πανταχῇ γε τὸ ἐμπερίοδον χρήσιμον. For an instance of the ‘running’ style, interspersed with the periodic, see Thucyd. i. 9. 2, where Shilleto remarks: “This paragraph seems to me to convey far more than any other which I have read an exemplification of the εἰρομένη λέξις of Aristot. Rhet. iii. 9. 2 (λέγω δὲ εἰρομένην, ἣ οὐδὲν ἔχει τέλος καθ’ αὑτήν, ἂν μὴ τὸ πρᾶγμα λεγόμενον τελειωθῇ). How Thukydides, so great a master of the κατεστραμμένη, ἐν περιόδοις, λέξις, should have written it, is to me a marvel.”

καὶ γλυφὰς καὶ ὅσα δημιουργήματα χειρῶν ἐστιν ἀνθρωπίνων
ὁρῶσα ὅταν εὑρίσκῃ τό τε ἡδὺ ἐνὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ τὸ καλόν,
ἀρκεῖται καὶ οὐδὲν ἔτι ποθεῖ. καὶ μὴ παράδοξον ἡγήσηταί
τις, εἰ δύο ποιῶ τέλη καὶ χωρίζω τὸ καλὸν ἀπὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς,
μηδ’ ἄτοπον εἶναι νομίσῃ, εἴ τινα ἡγοῦμαι λέξιν ἡδέως μὲν      5
συγκεῖσθαι, μὴ καλῶς δέ, ἢ καλῶς μέν, οὐ μὴν καὶ ἡδέως·
φέρει γὰρ ἡ ἀλήθεια τὸ τοιοῦτον καὶ οὐδὲν ἀξιῶ καινόν· ἥ
γε τοι Θουκυδίδου λέξις καὶ ἡ Ἀντιφῶντος τοῦ Ῥαμνουσίου
καλῶς μὲν σύγκειται νὴ Δία, εἴπερ τινὲς καὶ ἄλλαι, καὶ
οὐκ ἄν τις αὐτὰς ἔχοι μέμψασθαι κατὰ τοῦτο, οὐ μὴν ἡδέως      10
γε πάνυ· ἡ δέ γε τοῦ Κνιδίου συγγραφέως Κτησίου καὶ ἡ
τοῦ Σωκρατικοῦ Ξενοφῶντος ἡδέως μὲν ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα, οὐ
μὴν καλῶς γ’ ἐφ’ ὅσον ἔδει· λέγω δὲ κοινότερον, ἀλλ’ οὐχὶ
καθάπαξ, ἐπεὶ καὶ παρ’ ἐκείνοις ἥρμοσταί τινα ἡδέως καὶ
παρὰ τούτοις καλῶς. ἡ δὲ Ἡροδότου σύνθεσις ἀμφότερα      15
ταῦτα ἔχει, καὶ γὰρ ἡδεῖά ἐστι καὶ καλή.

XI
ἐξ ὧν δ’ οἶμαι γενήσεσθαι λέξιν ἡδεῖαν καὶ καλήν, τέτταρά
ἐστι ταῦτα τὰ κυριώτατα καὶ κράτιστα, μέλος καὶ ῥυθμὸς καὶ
μεταβολὴ καὶ τὸ παρακολουθοῦν τοῖς τρισὶ τούτοις πρέπον.
τάττω δὲ ὑπὸ μὲν τὴν ἡδονὴν τήν τε ὥραν καὶ τὴν χάριν καὶ      20
τὴν εὐστομίαν καὶ τὴν γλυκύτητα καὶ τὸ πιθανὸν καὶ πάντα
τὰ τοιαῦτα, ὑπὸ δὲ τὸ καλὸν τήν τε μεγαλοπρέπειαν καὶ τὸ
βάρος καὶ τὴν σεμνολογίαν καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα καὶ τὸν πίνον καὶ
τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. ταυτὶ γάρ μοι δοκεῖ κυριώτατα εἶναι καὶ
ὥσπερ κεφάλαια τῶν ἄλλων ἐν ἑκατέρῳ. ὧν μὲν οὖν στοχάζονται      25
πάντες οἱ σπουδῇ γράφοντες μέτρον ἢ μέλος ἢ τὴν
λεγομένην πεζὴν λέξιν, ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ καὶ οὐκ οἶδ’ εἴ τι παρὰ

[121]

when it looks upon moulded figures, pictures, carvings, or any other works of human hands, and finds both charm and beauty residing in them, is satisfied and longs for nothing more. And let not anyone be surprised at my assuming that there are two distinct objects in style, and at my separating beauty from charm; nor let him think it strange if I hold that a piece of composition may possess charm but not beauty, or beauty without charm. Such is the verdict of actual experience; I am introducing no novel axiom. The styles of Thucydides and of Antiphon of Rhamnus are surely examples of beautiful composition, if ever there were any, and are beyond all possible cavil from this point of view, but they are not remarkable for their charm. On the other hand, the style of the historian Ctesias of Cnidus, and that of Xenophon the disciple of Socrates, are charming in the highest possible degree, but not as beautiful as they should have been. I am speaking generally, not absolutely; I admit that in the former authors there are instances of charming, in the latter of beautiful arrangement. But the composition of Herodotus has both these qualities; it is at once charming and beautiful.

CHAPTER XI

GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SOURCES OF CHARM AND BEAUTY IN COMPOSITION

Among the sources of charm and beauty in style there are, I conceive, four which are paramount and essential,—melody, rhythm, variety, and the appropriateness demanded by these three. Under “charm” I class freshness, grace, euphony, sweetness, persuasiveness, and all similar qualities; and under “beauty” grandeur, impressiveness, solemnity, dignity, mellowness, and the like. For these seem to me the most important—the main heads, so to speak, in either case. The aims set before themselves by all serious writers in epic, dramatic, or lyric poetry, or in the so-called “language of prose,” are those specified, and I think

1 ἐστιν F: εἰσιν M: om. PV   2 ἐνὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς F: ἐνὸν αὐτοῖς PMV   8 καὶ ἡ PMV: καὶ EF   9 καὶ οὐκ ... τοῦτο F: om. PMV   14 ἐπεὶ κἀκείνοις P || καὶ posterius] ὡς καὶ EF: ὡς M   17 γενέσθαι FE   18 κράτιστα PMV: τὰ κράτιστα F   20 τήν τε EFM: τὴν PV   23 τὸν πίνον] τοπι(θα)ν(ον) P, EFM^1V: πῖνος suprascr. M   26 μέτρον ἡ μέλος P, MV: μέλος ἢ μέτρον F

2. τὸ καλόν: see Glossary, s.v. καλός.

11. For Ctesias cp. Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 213-16, where a fine passage is quoted from him; also p. 247 ibid. Photius (Bibl. Cod. 72) says of Ctesias: ἔστι δὲ οὗτος ὁ συγγραφεὺς σαφής τε καὶ ἀφελὴς λίαν· διὸ καὶ ἡδονῇ αὐτῷ σύγκρατός ἐστιν ὁ λόγος.

12. Ξενοφῶντος: cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 6. 57 ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ καὶ Ἀττικὴ Μοῦσα γλυκύτητι τῆς ἑρμηνείας, and Cic. Orat. 19. 63 “et Xenophontis voce Musas quasi locutas ferunt.”—For τοῦ Σωκρατικοῦ cp. Quintil. x. 1. 75 “Xenophon non excidit mihi sed inter philosophos reddendus est.”

14. καθάπαξ, ‘absolutely,’ ‘universally,’ ‘exclusively.’ So in 132 16.

18. Cp de Demosth. c. 47 εὕρισκε δὴ τὰ μὲν αὐτὰ ἀμφοτέρων ὄντα αἴτια, τὰ μέλη καὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς καὶ τὰς μεταβολὰς καὶ τὸ παρακολουθοῦν ἅπασιν αὐτοῖς πρέπον, οὐ μὴν κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἑκάτερα σχηματιζόμενα.

25. ἑκάτερον means (here and in 122 1) ἥ τε ἡδονὴ καὶ τὸ καλόν.

ταῦθ’ ἕτερον· οἱ δὲ πρωτεύσαντες ἐν ἑκατέρῳ τε τούτων καὶ
ἐν ἀμφοτέροις πολλοί τε καὶ ἀγαθοὶ ἄνδρες· παραδείγματα δὲ
αὐτῶν ἑκάστου φέρειν ἐν τῷ παρόντι οὐκ ἐγχωρεῖ, ἵνα μὴ
περὶ ταῦτα κατατρίψω τὸν λόγον· καὶ ἅμα εἴ τι λεχθῆναι
περί τινος αὐτῶν καθήκει καὶ δεήσει που μαρτυριῶν, ἕτερος      5
αὐτοῖς ἔσται καιρὸς ἐπιτηδειότερος, ὅταν τοὺς χαρακτῆρας τῶν
ἁρμονιῶν ὑπογράφω. νῦν δὲ ταῦτ’ εἰρῆσθαι περὶ αὐτῶν
ἀπόχρη. ἐπάνειμι δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὰς διαιρέσεις, ἃς ἐποιησάμην
τῆς θ’ ἡδείας συνθέσεως καὶ τῆς καλῆς, ἵνα μοι καὶ καθ’ ὁδόν,
ὥς φασι, χωρῇ ὁ λόγος.      10

ἔφην δὴ τὴν ἀκοὴν ἥδεσθαι πρώτοις μὲν τοῖς μέλεσιν,
ἔπειτα τοῖς ῥυθμοῖς, τρίτον ταῖς μεταβολαῖς, ἐν δὲ τούτοις
ἅπασι τῷ πρέποντι. ὅτι δὲ ἀληθῆ λέγω, τὴν πεῖραν αὐτὴν
παρέξομαι μάρτυρα, ἣν οὐχ οἷόν τε διαβάλλειν τοῖς κοινοῖς
πάθεσιν ὁμολογουμένην· τίς γάρ ἐστιν ὃς οὐχ ὑπὸ μὲν ταύτης      15
τῆς μελῳδίας ἄγεται καὶ γοητεύεται, ὑφ’ ἑτέρας δέ τινος οὐδὲν
πάσχει τοιοῦτον, καὶ ὑπὸ μὲν τούτων τῶν ῥυθμῶν οἰκειοῦται,
ὑπὸ δὲ τούτων διοχλεῖται; ἤδη δ’ ἔγωγε καὶ ἐν τοῖς πολυανθρωποτάτοις
θεάτροις, ἃ συμπληροῖ παντοδαπὸς καὶ ἄμουσος
ὄχλος, ἔδοξα καταμαθεῖν, ὡς φυσική τις ἁπάντων ἐστὶν ἡμῶν      20
οἰκειότης πρὸς ἐμμέλειάν τε καὶ εὐρυθμίαν, κιθαριστήν τε
ἀγαθὸν σφόδρα εὐδοκιμοῦντα ἰδὼν θορυβηθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ
πλήθους, ὅτι μίαν χορδὴν ἀσύμφωνον ἔκρουσε καὶ διέφθειρεν
τὸ μέλος, καὶ αὐλητὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας ἕξεως χρώμενον τοῖς
ὀργάνοις τὸ αὐτὸ τοῦτο παθόντα, ὅτι σομφὸν ἐμπνεύσας ἢ μὴ

[123]

these are all. There are many excellent authors who have been distinguished in one or both of these qualities. It is not possible at present to adduce examples from the writings of each one of them; I must not waste time over such details; and besides, if it seems incumbent on me to say something about some of them individually, and to quote from them anywhere in support of my views, I shall have a more suitable opportunity for doing so, when I sketch the various types of literary arrangement. For the present, what I have said of them is quite sufficient. So I will now return to the division I made of composition into charming and beautiful, in order that my discourse may “keep to the track,” as the saying is.

Well, I said that the ear delighted first of all in melody, then in rhythm, thirdly in variety, and finally in appropriateness as applied to these other qualities. As a witness to the truth of my words I will bring forward experience itself, for it cannot be challenged, confirmed as it is by the general sentiment of mankind. Who is there that is not enthralled by the spell of one melody while he remains unaffected in any such way by another,—that is not captivated by this rhythm while that does but jar upon him? Ere now I myself, even in the most popular theatres, thronged by a mixed and uncultured multitude, have seemed to observe that all of us have a sort of natural appreciation for correct melody and good rhythm. I have seen an accomplished harpist, of high repute, hissed by the public because he struck a single false note and so spoilt the melody. I have seen, too, a flute-player, who handled his instrument with the practised skill of a master, suffer the same fate because he blew thickly or, through

1 τε om. M || τούτων om. PV   3 αὐτῶν FM: αὐτὴν P || ἑκάστου FM: καθ’ ἕκαστον PV || ἐν τῷ παρόντι om. P   4 εἴ τι V: εἴ τινα F: καὶ εἴ τι P: καὶ εἴ τινα M   6 ἐπιτήδειος F   7 νυνὶ F   9 καὶ καθ’ ὁδόν] καὶ om. PMV   11 δὴ F: δὲ PMV   12 ἐν F: ἐπὶ PMV   14 παρέξω F   18 τούτων δὲ EF   20 ἐστὶν ἁπάντων PMV   24 ἀπὸ F: κα(τὰ) P, MV   25 τὸ αὐτὸ F: καὶ αὐτὸ PV: καὶ αὐτὸν M || σομφὸν F γρ M: ἀσύμφων(ον) P, M^1V

9. καθ’ ὁδόν, ὥς φασι, χωρῇ ὁ λόγος. The metaphor here may be rendered ‘keep to the track’ or ‘keep to the path prescribed.’ But possibly it is not felt much more strongly than in Cicero’s “non quo ignorare vos arbitrer, sed ut ratione et via procedat oratio” (de Finibus i. 9. 29). Ratione et via (‘rationally and methodically,’ ‘on scientific principles’) often corresponds to μεθόδῳ in Greek. In 96 25 ὁδῷ χωρεῖν is found, and ὁδοῦ τε καὶ τέχνης χωρίς in 262 21.

13. A clearer rendering might be “the appropriateness which these three require.”

19. παντοδαπός: cp. Hor. Ars P. 212 “indoctus quid enim saperet liberque laborum | rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto?”

20. Probably Dionysius has in mind a Greek theatre. But Roman theatres also contained sensitive hearers: cp. Cic. de Orat. iii. 196 “quotus enim quisque est qui teneat artem numerorum ac modorum? at in eis si paulum modo offensum est, ut aut contractione brevius fieret aut productione longius, theatra tota reclamant. quid, hoc non idem fit in vocibus, ut a multitudine et populo non modo catervae atque concentus, sed etiam ipsi sibi singuli discrepantes eiciantur? mirabile est, cum plurimum in faciendo intersit inter doctum et rudem, quam non multum differat in iudicando”; id. ibid. iii. 98 “quanto molliores sunt et delicatiores in cantu flexiones et falsae voculae quam certae et severae! quibus tamen non modo austeri, sed, si saepius fiunt, multitudo ipsa reclamat”; id. Parad. iii. 26 “histrio si paulum se movit extra numerum aut si versus pronuntiatus est syllaba una brevior aut longior, exsibilatur, exploditur.” In modern Italy (so it is sometimes stated) the least slip on the part of a singer excites the audience to howls of derision and execration. At Athens, an actor’s false articulation was as fatal as a singer’s false note: cp. the case of Hegelochus (Aristoph. Ran. 303, 304).

25. ἀσύμφωνον (found in P and in other MSS.) is probably an echo from line 23.

πιέσας τὸ στόμα θρυλιγμὸν ἢ τὴν καλουμένην ἐκμέλειαν
ηὔλησε. καίτοι γ’ εἴ τις κελεύσειε τὸν ἰδιώτην τούτων τι ὧν
ἐνεκάλει τοῖς τεχνίταις ὡς ἡμαρτημένων, αὐτὸν ποιῆσαι λαβόντα
τὰ ὄργανα, οὐκ ἂν δύναιτο. τί δήποτε; ὅτι τοῦτο μὲν
ἐπιστήμης ἐστίν, ἧς οὐ πάντες μετειλήφαμεν, ἐκεῖνο δὲ πάθους      5
ὃ πᾶσιν ἀπέδωκεν ἡ φύσις. τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ῥυθμῶν
γινόμενον ἐθεασάμην, ἅμα πάντας ἀγανακτοῦντας καὶ δυσαρεστουμένους,
ὅτε τις ἢ κροῦσιν ἢ κίνησιν ἢ φωνὴν ἐν ἀσυμμέτροις
ποιήσαιτο χρόνοις καὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς ἀφανίσειεν. καὶ
οὐχὶ τὰ μὲν ἐμμελῆ καὶ εὔρυθμα ἡδονῆς ἀγωγά ἐστι καὶ      10
πάντες ὑπ’ αὐτῶν κηλούμεθα, αἱ μεταβολαὶ δὲ καὶ τὸ πρέπον
οὐκ ἔχουσι τὴν αὐτὴν ὥραν καὶ χάριν οὐδ’ ὑπὸ πάντων
ὁμοίως διακούονται· ἀλλὰ κἀκεῖνα πάνυ κηλεῖ πάντας ἡμᾶς
κατορθούμενα καὶ εἰς πολλὴν ὄχλησιν ἄγει διαμαρτανόμενα·
τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ὁμολογήσειεν; τεκμαίρομαι δέ, ὅτι καὶ τῆς      15
ὀργανικῆς μούσης καὶ τῆς ἐν ᾠδῇ καὶ τῆς ἐν ὀρχήσει χάριτος
‹μὲν› ἐν ἅπασι διευστοχούσης, μεταβολὰς δὲ μὴ ποιησαμένης
εὐκαίρους ἢ τοῦ πρέποντος ἀποπλανηθείσης βαρὺς μὲν ὁ κόρος,
ἀηδὲς δὲ τὸ μὴ τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις ἁρμόττον φαίνεται. καὶ οὐκ
ἀλλοτρίᾳ κέχρημαι τοῦ πράγματος εἰκόνι. μουσικὴ γάρ τις      20
ἦν καὶ ἡ τῶν πολιτικῶν λόγων ἐπιστήμη τῷ ποσῷ διαλλάττουσα
τῆς ἐν ᾠδῇ καὶ ὀργάνοις, οὐχὶ τῷ ποιῷ· καὶ γὰρ ἐν
ταύτῃ καὶ μέλος ἔχουσιν αἱ λέξεις καὶ ῥυθμὸν καὶ μεταβολὴν
καὶ πρέπον, ὥστε καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτης ἡ ἀκοὴ τέρπεται μὲν τοῖς
μέλεσιν, ἄγεται δὲ τοῖς ῥυθμοῖς, ἀσπάζεται δὲ τὰς μεταβολάς,      25

[125]

not compressing his lips, produced a harsh sound or so-called “broken note” as he played. Nevertheless, if the amateur critic were summoned to take up the instrument and himself to render any of the pieces with whose performance by professionals he was just now finding fault, he would be unable to do it. Why so? Because this is an affair of technical skill, in which we are not all partakers; the other of feeling, which is nature’s universal gift to man. I have noticed the same thing occur in the case of rhythms. Everybody is vexed and annoyed when a performer strikes an instrument, takes a step, or sings a note, out of time, and so destroys the rhythm.

Again, it must not be supposed that, while melody and rhythm excite pleasure, and we are all enchanted by them, variety and appropriateness have less freshness and grace, or less effect on any of their hearers. No, these too fairly enchant us all when they are really attained, just as their absence jars upon us intensely. This is surely beyond dispute. I may refer, in confirmation, to the case of instrumental music, whether it accompanies singing or dancing; if it attains grace perfectly and throughout, but fails to introduce variety in due season or deviates from what is appropriate, the effect is dull satiety and that disagreeable impression which is made by anything out of harmony with the subject. Nor is my illustration foreign to the matter in hand. The science of public oratory is, after all, a sort of musical science, differing from vocal and instrumental music in degree, not in kind. In oratory, too, the words involve melody, rhythm, variety, and appropriateness; so that, in this case also, the ear delights in the melodies, is fascinated by the rhythms, welcomes the variations, and craves always

3 ἐγκαλεῖ F   5 πάθους PMV: πᾶθος F   8 φωνὴν PMV: μορφὴν F   10 εὐμελῆ PMV || ἀγωγά F, suprascr. M: μεστὰ PM^1V   13 διακούονται V: διοικοῦνται FPM   14 ἁμαρτανόμενα PMV   16 ὠιδῆι F, E: ὠιδαῖς γοητείας P, MV   17 μὲν ins. Us. ex E   19 φαίνεται EF: ἐφάνη PMV   21 διαλλάττουσι τοῖς F   22 ὠιδῆι F: ὠιδαῖς EPMV Syrianus   23 ῥυθμὸν PMV Syrianus: ῥυθμοὺς EF

3. It would weaken the argument to add (as has been suggested) ὀρθῶς or ἄμεινον. The critic may be right, even if he cannot play at all; and the player may retort, ‘Play it yourself, then,’ without adding ‘right’ or ‘better.’

5. ἐπιστήμης: cp. Ov. ex Ponto iii. 9. 15 “non eadem ratio est sentire et demere morbos: | sensus inest cunctis, tollitur arte malum,” and Cic. de Orat. iii. 195 “omnes enim tacito quodam sensu sine ulla arte aut ratione quae sint in artibus ac rationibus recta ac prava diiudicant; idque cum faciunt in picturis et in signis et in aliis operibus, ad quorum intellegentiam a natura minus habent instrumenti, tum multo ostendunt magis in verborum, numerorum vocumque iudicio; quod ea sunt in communibus infixa sensibus nec earum rerum quemquam funditus natura esse voluit expertem. itaque non solum verbis arte positis moventur omnes, verum etiam numeris ac vocibus.”

If πάθος be read, the meaning will be ‘the other is an instinct imparted to all by nature.’

8. With μορφήν the translation will run: ‘when a note on an instrument, a step in dancing, or a gesture (pose, attitude) in dancing, is rendered by a performer out of time, and so the rhythm is lost.’

14. διαμαρτανόμενα, manqué: cp. ἡμαρτημέναι πολιτεῖαι, and the like, in Plato.

16. χάριτος depends on διευστοχούσης (the same construction as with the uncompounded verb εὐστοχεῖν).

20. This passage (μουσικὴ γάρ ... οἰκεῖον) is quoted (after Syrianus) in Walz Rhett. Gr. v. 474.

21. ἦν, ‘was all along,’ ‘is after all’: cp. 92 18.

22. For the passage that follows cp. Aristoxenus Harmonics i. 3 πρῶτον μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων τὴν τῆς φωνῆς κίνησιν διοριστέον τῷ μέλλοντι πραγματεύεσθαι περὶ μέλους αὐτὴν τὴν κατὰ τόπον. οὐ γὰρ εἷς τρόπος αὐτῆς ὢν τυγχάνει· κινεῖται μὲν γὰρ καὶ διαλεγομένων ἡμῶν καὶ μελῳδούντων τὴν εἰρημένην κίνησιν, ὀξὺ γὰρ καὶ βαρὺ δῆλον ὡς ἐν ἀμφοτέροις τούτοις ἔνεστιν—αὕτη δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ κατὰ τόπον καθ’ ἣν ὀξύ τε καὶ βαρὺ γίγνεται—ἀλλ’ οὐ ταὐτὸν εἶδος τῆς κινήσεως ἑκατέρας ἐστίν.

ποθεῖ δ’ ἐπὶ πάντων τὸ οἰκεῖον, ἡ δὲ διαλλαγὴ κατὰ τὸ
μᾶλλον καὶ τὸ ἧττον.

διαλέκτου μὲν οὖν μέλος ἑνὶ μετρεῖται διαστήματι τῷ
λεγομένῳ διὰ πέντε ὡς ἔγγιστα, καὶ οὔτε ἐπιτείνεται πέρα
τῶν τριῶν τόνων καὶ ἡμιτονίου ἐπὶ τὸ ὀξὺ οὔτ’ ἀνίεται τοῦ      5
χωρίου τούτου πλέον ἐπὶ τὸ βαρύ. οὐ μὴν ἅπασα λέξις ἡ
καθ’ ἓν μόριον λόγου ταττομένη ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς λέγεται τάσεως,
ἀλλ’ ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς ὀξείας, ἡ δ’ ἐπὶ τῆς βαρείας, ἡ δ’ ἐπ’
ἀμφοῖν. τῶν δὲ ἀμφοτέρας τὰς τάσεις ἐχουσῶν αἱ μὲν κατὰ
μίαν συλλαβὴν συνεφθαρμένον ἔχουσι τῷ ὀξεῖ τὸ βαρύ, ἃς      10
δὴ περισπωμένας καλοῦμεν· αἱ δὲ ἐν ἑτέρᾳ τε καὶ ἑτέρᾳ
χωρὶς ἑκάτερον ἐφ’ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν οἰκείαν φυλάττον φύσιν. καὶ
ταῖς μὲν δισυλλάβοις οὐδὲν τὸ διὰ μέσου χωρίον βαρύτητός
τε καὶ ὀξύτητος· ταῖς δὲ πολυσυλλάβοις, ἡλίκαι ποτ’ ἂν
ὦσιν, ἡ τὸν ὀξὺν τόνον ἔχουσα μία ἐν πολλαῖς ταῖς ἄλλαις      15
βαρείαις ἔνεστιν. ἡ δὲ ὀργανική τε καὶ ᾠδικὴ μοῦσα διαστήμασί
τε χρῆται πλείοσιν, οὐ τῷ διὰ πέντε μόνον, ἀλλ’ ἀπὸ
τοῦ διὰ πασῶν ἀρξαμένη καὶ τὸ διὰ πέντε μελῳδεῖ καὶ τὸ διὰ
τεττάρων καὶ τὸ διὰ ‹τριῶν καὶ τὸν› τόνον καὶ τὸ ἡμιτόνιον,
ὡς δέ τινες οἴονται, καὶ τὴν δίεσιν αἰσθητῶς· τάς τε λέξεις      20
τοῖς μέλεσιν ὑποτάττειν ἀξιοῖ καὶ οὐ τὰ μέλη ταῖς λέξεσιν,
ὡς ἐξ ἄλλων τε πολλῶν δῆλον καὶ μάλιστα ἐκ τῶν Εὐριπίδου
μέλων, ἃ πεποίηκεν τὴν Ἠλέκτραν λέγουσαν ἐν Ὀρέστῃ πρὸς
τὸν χορόν·

[127]

what is in keeping with the occasion. The distinction between oratory and music is simply one of degree.

Now, the melody of spoken language is measured by a single interval, which is approximately that termed a fifth. When the voice rises towards the acute, it does not rise more than three tones and a semitone; and, when it falls towards the grave, it does not fall more than this interval. Further, the entire utterance during one word is not delivered at the same pitch of the voice throughout but one part of it at the acute pitch, another at the grave, another at both. Of the words that have both pitches, some have the grave fused with the acute on one and the same syllable—those which we call circumflexed; others have both pitches falling on separate syllables, each retaining its own quality. Now in disyllables there is no space intermediate between low pitch and high pitch; while in polysyllabic words, whatever their number of syllables, there is but one syllable that has the acute accent (high pitch) among the many remaining grave ones. On the other hand, instrumental and vocal music uses a great number of intervals, not the fifth only; beginning with the octave, it uses also the fifth, the fourth, the third, the tone, the semitone, and, as some think, even the quarter-tone in a distinctly perceptible way. Music, further, insists that the words should be subordinate to the tune, and not the tune to the words. Among many examples in proof of this, let me especially instance those lyrical lines which Euripides has represented Electra as addressing to the Chorus in the Orestes:—

2 καὶ τὸ EF: καὶ PMV   4 πέρα] παρα F   5 τόνων om. P || ἡμιτόνιον P: ἡμιτονίων M   7 ἐπὶ om. PMV   10 συνδιεφθαρμένον FE   11 ἐν ἑτέρῳ τε καὶ ἑτέρῳ MV: ἕτεραί τε καὶ ἕτεραι P   14 ἡλίκαι ποτ’ ἂν Us.: ἡλίκαι ἂν E: εἰ καί ποτ’ ἂν PM: εἰ καί ποτ’ ἡλικἂν F: οἷαί ποτ’ ἂν V   15 ταῖς ἄλλαις EFM: om. PV   19 τὸ διὰ ‹τριῶν καὶ τὸν› τόνον Radermacher: τόνον F: διάτονον P: διὰ τόνον M: τὸ διάτονον EV   22 ἐκ τῶν EF: τῶν PMV

3. μετρεῖται, ‘is measured,’ ‘is confined,’—terminatur, coërcetur.—For various points in this chapter see Introduction, pp. 39-43 supra. With regard to the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone’s oratorical delivery, on a special occasion, Sir Walter Parratt obligingly makes the following communication to the editor: “I heard him make his famous ‘Upas tree’ speech at Wigan, in a wooden erection, and watched with some care the inflection of his voice. Addressing so large a crowd I think he put more tone into the voice than usual. Roughly I found that he began his sentences on , generally ending on

, but sometimes falling the full octave to .”

4. ὡς ἔγγιστα, ‘as nearly as possible,’ ‘approximately.’

5. “Which measure a Fifth, C to D one Tone, D to E one Tone, E to F half a Tone, F to G one Tone,—total C to G, or a Fifth, three Tones and half. In Norwegian the interval is said by Professor Storm to be usually a Fourth, and in Swedish it is said by Weste to be about a Third or less,” A. J. Ellis English, Dionysian, and Hellenic Pronunciations of Greek, p. 38. (Under the initial “A. J. E.” occasional quotations will be made from this pamphlet, to which the phonetic studies of its author lend special interest, even when his conclusions cannot be accepted.)

10. “That is, the voice glides from the high to the low pitch, and does not jump from high to low,” A. J. E.

12. “That is, one pitch does not glide into the other, but each is distinctly separated, as the notes on a piano.” A. J. E.

20. δίεσιν: see Gloss., s.v. δίεσις.

23. Line 140 of the Orestes is assigned to Electra (rather than to the Chorus) not only by Dionysus but seemingly also by Diogenes Laert. vii. 5 (Cleanthes). 172 ἐρομένου τινὸς τί ὑποτίθεσθαι δεῖ τῷ υἱῷ, “τὸ τῆς Ἠλέκτρας, ἔφη: σῖγα σῖγα, λεπτὸν ἴχνος.”—If the reading λευκὸν (rather than λεπτὸν) is right, the word may possibly be understood (like ἀργός) of swift, glancing feet, though the notion of rest rather than of movement is prominent here.

24. Reference may be made to Ruelle’s “Note sur la musique d’une passage d’Euripide” in the Annuaire de l’Association des Études grecques, 1882, pp. 96 ff.

σῖγα σῖγα, λευκὸν ἴχνος ἀρβύλης
τίθετε, μὴ κτυπεῖτ’·
ἀποπρόβατ’ ἐκεῖσ’, ἀποπρό μοι κοίτας.

ἐν γὰρ δὴ τούτοις τὸ “σῖγα σῖγα λευκὸν” ἐφ’ ἑνὸς φθόγγου
μελῳδεῖται, καίτοι τῶν τριῶν λέξεων ἑκάστη βαρείας τε τάσεις      5
ἔχει καὶ ὀξείας. καὶ τὸ “ἀρβύλης” τῇ μέσῃ συλλαβῇ τὴν
τρίτην ὁμότονον ἔχει, ἀμηχάνου ὄντος ἓν ὄνομα δύο λαβεῖν
ὀξείας. καὶ τοῦ “τίθετε” βαρυτέρα μὲν ἡ πρώτη γίνεται,
δύο δ’ αἱ μετ’ αὐτὴν ὀξύτονοί τε καὶ ὁμόφωνοι. τοῦ τε
“κτυπεῖτε” ὁ περισπασμὸς ἠφάνισται· μιᾷ γὰρ αἱ δύο συλλαβαὶ      10
λέγονται τάσει. καὶ τὸ “ἀποπρόβατε” οὐ λαμβάνει τὴν τῆς
μέσης συλλαβῆς προσῳδίαν ὀξεῖαν, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τὴν τετάρτην
συλλαβὴν μεταβέβηκεν ἡ τάσις ἡ τῆς τρίτης. τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ
γίνεται καὶ περὶ τοὺς ῥυθμούς. ἡ μὲν γὰρ πεζὴ λέξις
οὐδενὸς οὔτε ὀνόματος οὔτε ῥήματος βιάζεται τοὺς χρόνους      15
οὐδὲ μετατίθησιν, ἀλλ’ οἵας παρείληφεν τῇ φύσει τὰς συλλαβὰς
τάς τε μακρὰς καὶ τὰς βραχείας, τοιαύτας φυλάττει· ἡ δὲ
μουσική τε καὶ ῥυθμικὴ μεταβάλλουσιν αὐτὰς μειοῦσαι καὶ
παραύξουσαι, ὥστε πολλάκις εἰς τἀναντία μεταχωρεῖν· οὐ

[129]

Hush ye, O hush ye! light be the tread
Of the sandal; no jar let there be!
Afar step ye thitherward, far from his bed.[129]

In these lines the words σῖγα σῖγα λευκόν are sung to one note; and yet each of the three words has both low pitch and high pitch. And the word ἀρβύλης has its third syllable sung at the same pitch as its middle syllable, although it is impossible for a single word to take two acute accents. The first syllable of τίθετε is sung to a lower note, while the two that follow it are sung to the same high note. The circumflex accent of κτυπεῖτε has disappeared, for the two syllables are uttered at one and the same pitch. And the word ἀποπρόβατε does not receive the acute accent on the middle syllable; but the pitch of the third syllable has been transferred to the fourth.

The same thing happens in rhythm. Ordinary prose speech does not violate or interchange the quantities in any noun or verb. It keeps the syllables long or short as it has received them by nature. But the arts of rhythm and music alter them by shortening or lengthening, so that often they pass into their opposites: the time of production is not regulated by the

1 σῖγα σῖγα M^2: σίγα σίγα cett. (necnon codd. Eur.) || λευκὸν codd. Dionys.: λεπτὸν Eurip.   2 τίθετ(αι) P^1: τιθεῖτ(αι) P^2: τιθεῖτε FEMV || κτυπῆτε P^1: κτυπεῖτε cett.   3 ἀποπρόβατ’ V: ἄπο προβᾶτ’ PM: ἄπο πρόβατ’ FE || ἐκεῖσε libri || ἀποπρόμοι F, EPM: ἀπόπροθι Vs   6 τῆι F, E: ἐπὶ PMV   8 τίθεται FP: τιθεῖτε EMV   9 δ’ αἱ Us.: δὲ libri   11 ἀποπρόβατ’ V: ἄπο*προβᾶτε P: ἄπο πρόβατε EF: ἄπο προβᾶτ’ ἐκεῖσε M   13 καταβέβηκεν PMV   18 καὶ αὔξουσαι PMV

2. τίθετε is clearly right, notwithstanding the strong manuscript evidence (FEMV) for τιθεῖτε.

4. The general sense is that σῖγα is sung upon a monotone, though the spoken word had two tones or pitches (the acute and the grave, the high and the low), and, “indeed, both of them combined in the circumflex accent of its first syllable” (Hadley Essays p. 113).

7. Dionysius clearly means “in speaking,” and “on two successive syllables.” Without the latter addition, the case of an enclitic throwing back its accent on a proparoxytone word seems to be left out of account.

14. D. B. Monro Modes of Ancient Greek Music p. 117 writes: “In English the time or quantity of syllables is as little attended to as the pitch. But in Greek the distinction of long and short furnished a prose rhythm which was a serious element in their rhetoric. In the rhythm of music, according to Dionysius, the quantity of syllables could be neglected, just as the accent was neglected in the melody. This, however, does not mean that the natural time of the syllables could be treated with the freedom which we see in a modern composition. The regularity of lyric metres is sufficient to prove that the increase or diminution of natural quantity referred to by Dionysius was kept within narrow limits, the nature of which is to be gathered from the remains of the ancient system of Rhythmic. From these sources we learn with something like certainty that the rhythm of ordinary speech, as determined by the succession of long or short syllables, was the basis of metres not only intended for recitation, such as the hexameter and the iambic trimeter, but also of lyrical rhythm of every kind.” With this statement should be compared the extract (given below, l. 17) from Goodell’s Greek Metric.

16. τῇ φύσει: cp. Cic. Orat. 51. 173 “et tamen omnium longitudinum et brevitatum in sonis sicut acutarum graviumque vocum iudicium ipsa natura in auribus nostris collocavit.” And with regard to accentuation as well as quantities: id. ib. 18. 57 “est autem etiam in dicendo quidam cantus obscurior ... in quo illud etiam notandum mihi videtur ad studium persequendae suavitatis in vocibus: ipsa enim natura, quasi modularetur hominum orationem, in omni verbo posuit acutam vocem nec una plus nec a postrema syllaba citra tertiam; quo magis naturam ducem ad aurium voluptatem sequatur industria.”

17 ff. Cp. Goodell Chapters on Greek Metric p. 52: “We find ample recognition [sc. in these two sentences] of the fact that in Greek lyric metres, so far as they come under what we have seen called μέλη and ῥυθμοί or ‘rhythmi,’ long and short syllables alike were more or less variable. In some way the reader knew in what rhythmical scheme or pattern the poet intended the verses to be rendered. To reproduce the rhythmical pattern which the poet had in mind, the singer, if not also the reader, made some long syllables longer and others shorter than two χρόνοι πρῶτοι, and made some short syllables longer than one χρόνος πρῶτος. It seemed to Dionysius in those cases that one did not so much regulate the times by the syllables, but rather regulated the syllables by the times.”

19. The compound παραύξουσαι, as given by EF, may be compared with παραυξηθεῖσα in 152 18. Dionysius does not avoid hiatus after καί, and so he would not prefer παραύξουσαι to αὔξουσαι on this account, though an early reviser of his text might do so.

εἰς τἀναντία μεταχωρεῖν: e.g., a short syllable will sometimes be treated as if it were long and were circumflexed.

γὰρ ταῖς συλλαβαῖς ἀπευθύνουσι τοὺς χρόνους, ἀλλὰ τοῖς
χρόνοις τὰς συλλαβάς.

δεδειγμένης δὴ τῆς διαφορᾶς ᾗ διαφέρει μουσικὴ λογικῆς,
λοιπὸν ἂν εἴη κἀκεῖνα λέγειν, ὅτι τὸ μὲν τῆς φωνῆς μέλος,
λέγω δὲ οὐ τῆς ᾠδικῆς ἀλλὰ τῆς ψιλῆς, ἐὰν ἡδέως διατιθῇ      5
τὴν ἀκοήν, εὐμελὲς λέγοιτ’ ἄν, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐμμελές· ἡ δ’ ἐν τοῖς
χρόνοις τῶν μορίων συμμετρία σῴζουσα τὸ μελικὸν σχῆμα
εὔρυθμος, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔνρυθμος· πῇ δὲ διαφέρει ταῦτα ἀλλήλων,
κατὰ τὸν οἰκεῖον καιρὸν ἐρῶ. νυνὶ δὲ τἀκόλουθ’ ἀποδοῦναι
πειράσομαι, πῶς ἂν γένοιτο λέξις πολιτικὴ παρ’ αὐτὴν τὴν      10
σύνθεσιν ἡδύνουσα τὴν ἀκρόασιν κατά τε τὰ μέλη τῶν
φθόγγων καὶ κατὰ τὰς συμμετρίας τῶν ῥυθμῶν καὶ κατὰ τὰς
ποικιλίας τῶν μεταβολῶν καὶ κατὰ τὸ πρέπον τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις,
ἐπειδὴ ταῦθ’ ὑπεθέμην τὰ κεφάλαια.

XII
οὐχ ἅπαντα πέφυκε τὰ μέρη τῆς λέξεως ὁμοίως διατιθέναι      15
τὴν ἀκοήν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὴν ὁρατικὴν αἴσθησιν τὰ ὁρατὰ
πάντα οὐδὲ τὴν γευστικὴν τὰ γευστὰ οὐδὲ τὰς ἄλλας αἰσθήσεις
τὰ κινοῦντα ἑκάστην· ἀλλὰ καὶ γλυκαίνουσιν αὐτήν τινες
ἦχοι καὶ πικραίνουσι, καὶ τραχύνουσι καὶ λεαίνουσι, καὶ
πολλὰ ἄλλα πάθη ποιοῦσι περὶ αὐτήν. αἰτία δὲ ἥ τε      20
τῶν γραμμάτων φύσις ἐξ ὧν ἡ φωνὴ συνέστηκεν, πολλὰς
καὶ διαφόρους ἔχουσα δυνάμεις, καὶ ἡ τῶν συλλαβῶν πλοκὴ
παντοδαπῶς σχηματιζομένη. τοιαύτην δὴ δύναμιν ἐχόντων
τῶν τῆς λέξεως μορίων ἐπειδὴ μεταθεῖναι τὴν ἑκάστου φύσιν
οὐχ οἷόν τε, λείπεται τὸ τῇ μίξει καὶ κράσει καὶ παραθέσει      25
συγκρύψαι τὴν παρακολουθοῦσαν αὐτῶν τισιν ἀτοπίαν, τραχέσι

[131]

quantity of the syllables, but the quantity of the syllables is regulated by the time.

The difference between music and speech having thus been shown, some other points remain to be mentioned. If the melody of the voice—not the singing voice, I mean, but the ordinary voice—has a pleasant effect upon the ear, it will be called melodious rather than in melody. So also symmetry in the quantities of words, when it preserves a lyrical effect, is rhythmical rather than in rhythm. On the precise bearing of these distinctions I will speak at the proper time. For the present I will pass on to the next question, and try to show how a style of civil oratory can be attained which, simply by means of the composition, charms the ear with its melody of sound, its symmetry of rhythm, its elaborate variety, and its appropriateness to the subject. These are the headings which I have set before myself.

CHAPTER XII

HOW TO RENDER COMPOSITION CHARMING

It is not in the nature of all the words in a sentence to affect the ear in the same way, any more than all visible objects produce the same impression on the sense of sight, things tasted on that of taste, or any other set of stimuli upon the sense to which they correspond. No, different sounds affect the ear with many different sensations of sweetness, harshness, roughness, smoothness, and so on. The reason is to be found partly in the many different qualities of the letters which make up speech, and partly in the extremely various forms in which syllables are put together. Now since words have these properties, and since it is impossible to change the fundamental nature of any single one of them, we can only mask the uncouthness which is inseparable from some of them, by means of

3 δὴ τῆς PMV: τῆς F   4 τὸ μὲν] μὲν τὸ F   5 ἐὰν Us.: κἂν PV: ὃ μὲν FM || διατίθησι FM   6 εὐμενὲς P   7 συμμετρία σώζουσα FPM: συμμετριάζουσα V   8 πῆ F: τῆι P || ἀλλήλων om. P   14 ἐπειδὴ δὲ ταῦθ’ F   18 αὐτὴν τινὲς EF: τινες αὐτὴν PMV   20 ἥ τε] ἡ EF   23 δὴ] ἤδη F: δὲ ἤδη E   25 τὸ τῆι F, E: τῆι P, MV   25 καὶ τῆι κράσει F   26 συγκρύπτειν EF || ἀτοπίαν om. F

1. The subject of ἀπευθύνουσι is, of course, ἡ μουσική τε καὶ ῥυθμική.

7. συμμετρία: cp. l. 12 τὰς συμμετρίας τῶν ῥυθμῶν, and 254 10 τεταγμένους σῴζουσα ῥυθμούς.

9. κατὰ τὸν οἰκεῖον καιρόν: i.e. in cc. 25, 26.

10. παρ’ αὐτὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν. With this use of παρά cp. 156 12 παρ’ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἕτερον ἢ τὰς τῶν συλλαβῶν κατασκευάς, 160 9 παρὰ τὰς τῶν γραμμάτων συμπλοκάς κτλ., 202 11 καὶ παρὰ τί γέγονε τούτων ἕκαστον;—In αὐτὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν the contrast implied is with ἡ ἐκλογὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων: cp. 252 21 κατὰ γοῦν τὴν σύνθεσιν αὐτήν· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ ἐκλογὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων μέγα τι δύναται.

23. If ἤδη be read (with F and E) the meaning will be, “the data being the letters with their invariable qualities.” Cp. the German schon.

25. Quintil. ix. 91 “miscendi ergo sunt, curandumque, ut sint plures, qui placent, et circumfusi bonis deteriores lateant. nec vero in litteris syllabisque natura mutatur, sed refert, quae cum quaque optime coeat.”

λεῖα μίσγοντα καὶ σκληροῖς μαλακὰ καὶ κακοφώνοις εὔφωνα
καὶ δυσεκφόροις εὐπρόφορα καὶ βραχέσι μακρά, καὶ τἆλλα
τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον εὐκαίρως συντιθέντα καὶ μήτ’ ὀλιγοσύλλαβα
πολλὰ ἑξῆς λαμβάνοντα (κόπτεται γὰρ ἡ ἀκρόασις) μήτε
πολυσύλλαβα πλείω τῶν ἱκανῶν, μήδε δὴ ὁμοιότονα παρ’      5
ὁμοιοτόνοις μήδ’ ὁμοιόχρονα παρ’ ὁμοιοχρόνοις. χρὴ δὲ καὶ
τὰς πτώσεις τῶν ὀνοματικῶν ταχὺ μεταλαμβάνειν (μηκυνόμεναι
γὰρ ἔξω τοῦ μετρίου πάνυ προσίστανται ταῖς ἀκοαῖς) καὶ
τὴν ὁμοιότητα διαλύειν συνεχῶς ὀνομάτων τε τῶν ἑξῆς
τιθεμένων πολλῶν καὶ ῥημάτων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων μερῶν τὸν      10
κόρον φυλαττομένους, σχήμασί τε μὴ ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀεὶ
μένειν ἀλλὰ θαμινὰ μεταβάλλειν καὶ τρόπους μὴ τοὺς αὐτοὺς
ἐπεισφέρειν, ἀλλὰ ποικίλλειν, μηδὲ δὴ ἄρχεσθαι πολλάκις ἀπὸ
τῶν αὐτῶν μηδὲ λήγειν εἰς τὰ αὐτὰ ὑπερτείνοντας τὸν ἑκατέρου
καιρόν.      15

καὶ μηδεὶς οἰηθῇ με καθάπαξ ταῦτα παραγγέλλειν ὡς
ἡδονῆς αἴτια διὰ παντὸς ἐσόμενα ἢ τἀναντία ὀχλήσεως· οὐχ
οὕτως ἀνόητός εἰμι· οἶδα γὰρ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν γινομένην πολλάκις
ἡδονήν, τοτὲ μὲν ἐκ τῶν ὁμοιογενῶν, τοτὲ δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἀνομοιογενῶν·
ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ πάντων οἴομαι δεῖν τὸν καιρὸν ὁρᾶν· οὗτος      20
γὰρ ἡδονῆς καὶ ἀηδίας κράτιστον μέτρον. καιροῦ δὲ οὔτε
ῥήτωρ οὐδεὶς οὔτε φιλόσοφος εἰς τόδε χρόνου τέχνην ὥρισεν,
οὐδ’ ὅσπερ πρῶτος ἐπεχείρησε περὶ αὐτοῦ γράφειν Γοργίας

[133]

mingling and fusion and juxtaposition,—by mingling smooth with rough, soft with hard, cacophonous with melodious, easy to pronounce with hard to pronounce, long with short; and generally by happy combinations of the same kind. Many words of few syllables must not be used in succession (for this jars upon the ear), nor an excessive number of polysyllabic words; and we must avoid the monotony of setting side by side words similarly accented or agreeing in their quantities. We must quickly vary the cases of substantives (since, if continued unduly, they greatly offend the ear); and in order to guard against satiety, we must constantly break up the effect of sameness entailed by placing many nouns, or verbs, or other parts of speech, in close succession. We must not always adhere to the same figures, but change them frequently; we must not re-introduce the same metaphors, but vary them; we must not exceed due measure by beginning or ending with the same words too often.

Still, let no one think that I am proclaiming these as universal rules—that I suppose keeping them will always produce pleasure, or breaking them always produce annoyance. I am not so foolish. I know that pleasure often arises from both sources—from similarity at one time, from dissimilarity at another. In every case we must, I think, keep in view good taste, for this is the best criterion of charm and its opposite. But about good taste no rhetorician or philosopher has, so far, produced a definite treatise. The man who first undertook to write on the subject, Gorgias of Leontini, achieved nothing

2 εὐπρόφορα] εὔφορα F   3 συντεθέντα F   4 πολλὰ ... (5) πολυσύλλαβα om. P.   7 μηκυνόμενά τε γὰρ F: μηκυνόμεναί τε γὰρ M   8 προίστανται F   9 τε τῶν Us.: τέ τινων F, E: τινῶν PMV   11 φυλασσομένους EF: φυλαττόμενον s || ἐπὶ FE: om. PMV || ἀεὶ μένειν EF: διαμένειν PMV   14 ὑπερτείνοντας Us.: ὑπερτείνοντα libri   17 τἀναντία FE: τοὐναντίον PMV   19 ὁμοιογενῶν EM: ὁμοίων γενῶν F: ἀνομοίων PV || ἀνομοιογενῶν EFM: ὁμογενῶν PV   22 τόδε χρόνου FMV: τὸ λέγειν P   23 πρῶτον P

2. Compare the scholia of Maximus Planudes on the π. ἰδ. of Hermogenes: τοῦτο γάρ φησι καὶ Διονύσιος, ὅτι δεῖ μιγνύειν βραχέσι μακρὰ καὶ πολυσυλλάβοις ὀλιγοσύλλαβα, τοῦτο γὰρ ἡδέως διατίθησι τὴν ἀκοήν (Walz Rhett. Gr. v. 520).

12. Cp. Anonymi scholia on Hermog. π. ἰδ. (Walz vii. 1049), διὰ τοῦτο κάλλους ἴδιον ὁ ῥυθμός, εἴτε βέβηκεν εἴτε μή· ἐπειδὴ κατὰ Διονύσιον ἡδύνει τὴν ἀκοὴν καὶ ποικίλλει, καὶ μὴ ἄρχεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν, μηδὲ λήγειν εἰς αὐτά, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐξ ἁπάντων καλῶν ῥυθμῶν, τουτέστι ποδῶν, συγκεῖσθαι τὸν λόγον· ἀνάγκη γὰρ αὐτὸν οὕτω καλὸν εἶναι· τάττει δὲ τὸν σπονδεῖον μετ’ αὐτῶν.

14. ὑπερτείνοντας ... καιρόν: lit. ‘exceeding due measure in either case.’ On the whole, Usener is perhaps right in reading the plural here and in l. 11; clearness, and variety of termination, recommend the change. But (1) all MSS. have ὑπερτείνοντα, (2) the singular has been used in ll. 1, 3, 4 supra, and so might as well be maintained to the end, while φυλαττομένους (instead of φυλαττόμενον) might arise from the initial σ of σχήμασι.

20. τὸν καιρὸν ὁρᾶν, ‘to have an eye to (or observe) the rules of good taste,’ is a natural and appropriate expression. The use of θηρατός in 134 3 is no argument for reading θηρᾶν here, but rather tells against the anticipation of so pronounced a metaphor. Moreover, the middle voice is found in this sense in de Demosth. c. 40 τὴν εὐφωνίαν θηρωμένη καὶ τὴν εὐμέλειαν. With ὁρᾶν cp. de Demosth. c. 49 ἄλλως τε καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ τὰ μέτρα ὁρῶν and de Thucyd. c. 1 τῆς προαιρέσεως οὐχ ἅπαντα κατὰ τὸν ἀκριβέστατον λογισμὸν ὁρώσης (where θηρώσης is given in Usener-Radermacher’s text).

21. Quintil. xi. 1. 1 “parata, sicut superiore libro continetur, facultate scribendi cogitandique et ex tempore etiam, cum res poscet, orandi, proxima est cura, ut dicamus apte; quam virtutem quartam elocutionis Cicero demonstrat, quaeque est meo quidem iudicio maxime necessaria. nam cum sit ornatus orationis varius et multiplex conveniatque alius alii: nisi fuerit accommodatus rebus atque personis, non modo non illustrabit eam sed etiam destruet et vim rerum in contrarium vertet.”

22. τόδε χρόνου: Usener reads τόδε γε (without χρόνου), in view of P’s τὸ λέγειν. But τόδε γε is unusual in this sense, whereas ἔτι καὶ εἰς τόδε χρόνου is found in Antiqq. Rom. i. 16. Cp. i. 38 ibid. καὶ παρὰ Κελτοῖς εἰς τόδε χρόνου γίνεται: also i. 61, 68, iii. 31, vi. 13.

ὁ Λεοντῖνος οὐδὲν ὅ τι καὶ λόγου ἄξιον ἔγραψεν· οὐδ’ ἔχει
φύσιν τὸ πρᾶγμα εἰς καθολικὴν καὶ ἔντεχνόν τινα περίληψιν
πεσεῖν, οὐδ’ ὅλως ἐπιστήμῃ θηρατός ἐστιν ὁ καιρὸς ἀλλὰ
δόξῃ. ταύτην δ’ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ πολλῶν καὶ πολλάκις γυμνάσαντες
ἄμεινον τῶν ἄλλων εὑρίσκουσιν αὐτόν, οἱ δ’      5
ἀγύμναστον ἀφέντες σπανιώτερον καὶ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τύχης.

ἵνα δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων εἴπω, ταῦτ’ οἴομαι χρῆναι
φυλάττειν ἐν τῇ συνθέσει τὸν μέλλοντα διαθήσειν τὴν ἀκοὴν
ἡδέως· ἢ τὰ εὐμελῆ καὶ εὔρυθμα καὶ εὔφωνα ὀνόματα, ὑφ’
ὧν γλυκαίνεταί τε καὶ ἐκμαλάττεται καὶ τὸ ὅλον οἰκείως      10
διατίθεται ἡ αἴσθησις, ταῦτα ἀλλήλοις συναρμόττειν, ἢ τὰ
μὴ τοιαύτην ἔχοντα φύσιν ἐγκαταπλέκειν τε καὶ συνυφαίνειν
τοῖς δυναμένοις αὐτὴν γοητεύειν, ὥστε ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκείνων χάριτος
ἐπισκοτεῖσθαι τὴν τούτων ἀηδίαν· οἷόν τι ποιοῦσιν οἱ
φρόνιμοι στρατηλάται κατὰ τὰς συντάξεις τῶν στρατευμάτων·      15
καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι ἐπικρύπτουσι τοῖς ἰσχυροῖς τὰ ἀσθενῆ, καὶ
γίνεται αὐτοῖς οὐδὲν τῆς δυνάμεως ἄχρηστον. διαναπαύειν
δὲ τὴν ταυτότητά φημι δεῖν μεταβολὰς εὐκαίρους εἰσφέροντα·
καὶ γὰρ ἡ μεταβολὴ παντὸς ἔργου χρῆμα ἡδύ. τελευταῖον
δὲ ὃ δὴ καὶ πάντων κράτιστον, οἰκείαν ἀποδιδόναι τοῖς      20
ὑποκειμένοις καὶ πρέπουσαν ἁρμονίαν. δυσωπεῖσθαι δ’ οὐδὲν
οἴομαι δεῖν οὔτε ὄνομα οὔτε ῥῆμα, ὅ τι καὶ τέτριπται, μὴ
σὺν αἰσχύνῃ λέγεσθαι μέλλον· οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω ταπεινὸν ἢ
ῥυπαρὸν ἢ ἄλλην τινὰ δυσχέρειαν ἔχον ἔσεσθαί φημι λόγου
μόριον, ᾧ σημαίνεταί τι σῶμα ἢ πρᾶγμα, ὃ μηδεμίαν ἕξει      25
χώραν ἐπιτηδείαν ἐν λόγοις. παρακελεύομαι δὲ τῇ συνθέσει

[135]

worth mentioning. The nature of the subject, indeed, is not such that it can fall under any comprehensive and systematic treatment, nor can good taste in general be apprehended by science, but only by personal judgment. Those who have continually trained this latter faculty in many connexions are more successful than others in attaining good taste, while those who leave it untrained are rarely successful, and only by a sort of lucky stroke.

To proceed. I think the following rules should be observed in composition by a writer who looks to please the ear. Either he should link to one another melodious, rhythmical, euphonious words, by which the sense of hearing is touched with a feeling of sweetness and softness,—those which, to put it broadly, come home to it most; or he should intertwine and interweave those which have no such natural effect with those that can so bewitch the ear that the unattractiveness of the one set is overshadowed by the grace of the other. We may compare the practice of good tacticians when marshalling their armies: they mask the weak portions by means of the strong, and so no part of their force proves useless. In the same way I maintain we ought to relieve monotony by the tasteful introduction of variety, since variety is an element of pleasure in everything we do. And last, and certainly most important of all, the setting which is assigned to the subject matter must be appropriate and becoming to it. And, in my opinion, we ought not to feel shy of using any noun or verb, however hackneyed, unless it carries with it some shameful association; for I venture to assert that no part of speech which signifies a person or a thing will prove so mean, squalid, or otherwise offensive as to have no fitting place in discourse. My advice is that, trusting to the

1 οὐδὲν F: οὐδ’ MV: om. P || καὶ F: om. PMV   5 αὐτόν FM: om. PV   6 ἀγύμναστον F, γρ M: ἀνάσκητον PM^1V || σπανιωτέρ(αν) P, MV   9 ἢ EFM: om. PV   10 ἐκμαλάττεται F: μαλάττεται PMV   15 συντάξεις FM: τάξ[ει]ς cum litura P, V   16 ἐπικρύπτουσι EF: συγκρύπτουσιν P, MV   17 ἄχρηστον FE: μέρος ἄχρηστον PMV   20 κράτιστον EF: ἐστὶ κράτιστον PMV   21 καὶ πρέπουσαν om. F   22 δεῖν om. F || ὅτι καὶ τέτριπται EF: ὅτ’ (οὔτ’ V) ἐπιτέτραπται PMV   23 μέλλον EF: om. PMV   24 ῥυπαρὸν EF: ῥυπαρὸν ἢ μιαρὸν PV: μιαρὸν M || ἔχον om. F   26 δὲ EF: δὲ ἐν PMV

1. For οὐδ’ ὅτι (as read by Schaefer) Dobree suggested a number of alternatives,—οἶδ’ (= οἶδα), οὐδὲν, οὐδ’ ὁτιοῦν.

7. The passage that begins here is, itself, a good example of rhythmical and melodious writing.

10. τὸ ὅλον: cp. Long. p. 207, s.v. σύνολον.

15. The description in Iliad iv. 297-300 may be in Dionysius’ mind. Cp. Cic. Brut. 36. 139 “omnia veniebant Antonio in mentem; eaque suo quaeque loco, ubi plurimum proficere et valere possent, ut ab imperatore equites pedites levis armatura, sic ab illo in maxime opportunis orationis partibus collocabantur”; Xen. Cyrop. vii. 5. 5 ἀναπτυχθείσης δ’ οὕτω τῆς φάλαγγος ἀνάγκη τοὺς πρώτους ἀρίστους εἶναι καὶ τοὺς τελευταίους, ἐν μέσῳ δὲ τοὺς κακίστους τετάχθαι.

19. Cp. Dionys. Hal. Ep. ad Cn. Pompeium c. 3 ὡς ἡδὺ χρῆμα ἐν ἱστορίας γραφῇ μεταβολὴ καὶ ποικίλον: Aristot. Eth. vii. 1154 b μεταβολὴ δὲ πάντων γλυκύ, κατὰ τὸν ποιητήν: Eurip. Orest. 234 μεταβολὴ πάντων γλυκύ. Dionysius’ whole-hearted faith in the virtues of μεταβολή (considered in its widest bearings) rests on a basis of permanent truth. If we open Shakespeare at random, we can see how the verbal forms (‘remember,’ ‘bequeathed,’ ‘sayest,’ ‘charged,’ ‘begins’) are varied in the opening sentence of As You Like It; and this though our language is almost wholly analytical. And the words that fall from Lear in his madness (King Lear iv. 6) are full of the most moving μεταβολαί, as well as of the most pathetic variations from τὸ εὐμελὲς to τὸ ἐμμελές.

πιστεύοντας ἀνδρείως πάνυ καὶ τεθαρρηκότως αὐτὰ ἐκφέρειν
Ὁμήρῳ τε παραδείγματι χρωμένους, παρ’ ᾧ καὶ τὰ
εὐτελέστατα κεῖται τῶν ὀνομάτων, καὶ Δημοσθένει καὶ
Ἡροδότῳ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις, ὧν ὀλίγῳ ὕστερον μνησθήσομαι
καθ’ ὅ τι ἂν ἁρμόττῃ περὶ ἑκάστου. ταῦτά μοι περὶ τῆς      5
ἡδείας εἰρήσθω συνθέσεως, ὀλίγα μὲν ὑπὲρ πολλῶν θεωρημάτων,
ἱκανὰ δὲ ὡς κεφάλαια εἶναι.

XIII
εἶἑν. καλὴ δ’ ἁρμονία πῶς γένοιτ’ ἂν εἴ τις ἔροιτό με
καὶ ἐκ ποίων θεωρημάτων, οὐκ ἄλλως πως μὰ Δία φαίην ἂν
οὐδ’ ἐξ ἄλλων τινῶν ἢ ἐξ ὧνπερ ἡ ἡδεῖα· τὰ γὰρ αὐτὰ      10
ποιητικὰ ἀμφοῖν, μέλος εὐγενές, ῥυθμὸς ἀξιωματικός, μεταβολὴ
μεγαλοπρεπής, τὸ πᾶσι τούτοις παρακολουθοῦν πρέπον.
ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡδεῖά τις γίνεται λέξις, οὕτω καὶ γενναία τις
ἑτέρα, καὶ ῥυθμὸς ὥσπερ γλαφυρός τις, οὕτω καὶ σεμνός τις
ἕτερος, καὶ τὸ μεταβάλλειν ὥσπερ χάριν ἔχει, οὕτω καὶ      15
πίνον· τὸ δὲ δὴ πρέπον εἰ μὴ τοῦ καλοῦ πλεῖστον ἕξει
μέρος, σχολῇ γ’ ἂν ἄλλου τινός. ἐξ ἁπάντων δή φημι
τούτων ἐπιτηδεύεσθαι δεῖν τὸ καλὸν ἐν ἁρμονίᾳ λέξεως ἐξ
ὧνπερ καὶ τὸ ἡδύ. αἰτία δὲ κἀνταῦθα ἥ τε τῶν γραμμάτων
φύσις καὶ ἡ τῶν συλλαβῶν δύναμις, ἐξ ὧν πλέκεται τὰ ὀνόματα·      20
ὑπὲρ ὧν καιρὸς ἂν εἴη λέγειν, ὥσπερ ὑπεσχόμην.

XIV
ἀρχαὶ μὲν οὖν εἰσι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φωνῆς καὶ ἐνάρθρου

[137]

effect of the composition, we should bring out such expressions with a bold and manly confidence, following the example of Homer, in whom the most commonplace words are found, and of Demosthenes and Herodotus and others, whom I will mention a little later so far as is suitable in each case. I think I have now spoken at sufficient length on charm of style. My treatment has been but a brief survey of a wide field, but will furnish the main heads of the study.

CHAPTER XIII

HOW TO RENDER COMPOSITION BEAUTIFUL

So far, so good. But, if some one were to ask me in what way, and by attention to what principles, literary structure can be made beautiful, I should reply: In no other way, believe me, and by no other means, than those by which it is made charming, since the same elements contribute to both, namely noble melody, stately rhythm, imposing variety, and the appropriateness which all these need. For as there is a charming diction, so there is another that is noble; as there is a polished rhythm, so also is there another that is dignified; as variety in one passage adds grace, so in another it adds mellowness; and as for appropriateness, it will prove the chief source of beauty, or else the source of nothing at all. I repeat, the study of beauty in composition should follow the same lines throughout as the study of charm. The prime cause, here as before, is to be found in the nature of the letters and the phonetic effect of the syllables, which are the raw material out of which the fabric of words is woven. The time may perhaps now have come for redeeming my promise to discuss these.

CHAPTER XIV

THE LETTERS: THEIR CLASSIFICATION, QUALITIES, AND MODE OF PRODUCTION

There are in human and articulate speech a number of first-beginnings

2 χρωμένους EFMV: χρ(ω)μεν(ος) P   4 ὀλίγον F: sed cf. 154 7 7 εἶναι· εἶἑν sic P, FM: εἶεν V   8 με καὶ F: ἢ PMV   9 μὰ PMV: νὴ F   10 οὐδ’] οὐκ PV || ἡ F: om. PMV   13 οὕτω καὶ PMV: οὕτω F   14 ἑτέρα PMV: ἄρα F || σεμνός τις F: σεμνὸς PMV   15 ἔχει P: ἔχει (ἔχειν V) τινὰ FMV   16 πινόν (θ suprascripto) P: πιθανόν V: τὸ πῖνον M: πόνον F   18 δεῖν] δὴ F   20 ὀνόματα PE: ὀνόματα ταῦτα FMV   22 φωνῆς καὶ ἐνάρθρου REF: καὶ ἐνάρθρου φωνῆς αἱ PMVs

6. ὑπέρ = περί: l. 21 infra, 96 2, etc. Reiske’s ἀπό is attractive; but does ὀλίγα really = ὀλίγα θεωρήματα?

8. εἶἑν = “So!” The breathing on the last syllable (as given by the best manuscripts, here and in other authors) helps to distinguish this word from the third pers. plur. optat. of εἰμί.

9. In a negative sentence, μὰ Δία is to be preferred to νὴ Δία.

13. λέξις: μέλος (cp. l. 11 supra) is here in question. Hence Usener suggests μέλισις. Perhaps λέξις (‘the words,’ ‘the libretto’) is here felt to include the music,—‘a passage set to music’: cp. 124 22 καὶ γὰρ ἐν ταύτῃ καὶ μέλος ἔχουσιν αἱ λέξεις (‘the words’) καὶ ῥυθμὸν καὶ μεταβολὴν καὶ πρέπον, and contrast 126 20-1.

16. πίνον, ‘mellowness,’ ‘ripeness’ (see Gloss.). The readings of FPMV seem all to point in this direction. πόνον (F’s reading) might possibly mean either ‘involve trouble’ (to the author) or ‘suggest painstaking’ (to the reader). Usener conjectures τόνον.

22. Chapter xiv., which in some respects is the most interesting in the treatise, might easily be ridiculed by one of those scoffers whom Dionysius elsewhere (252 17) mentions with aversion. In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (ii. 4) there is much that could serve for a parody of the C. V.—the Maître de Philosophie with his “Sans la science, la vie est presque une image de la mort” (nam sine doctrina vita est quasi mortis imago), his “tout ce qui n’est point prose est vers; et tout ce qui n’est point vers est prose,” and (particularly) his remarks on l’orthographie: “Pour bien suivre votre pensée et traiter cette matière en philosophe, il faut commencer selon l’ordre des choses, par une exacte connaissance de la nature des lettres, et de la différente manière de les prononcer toutes. Et là-dessus j’ai à vous dire que les lettres sont divisées en voyelles, ainsi dites voyelles parce qu’elles expriment les voix; et en consonnes, ainsi appelées consonnes parce qu’elles sonnent avec les voyelles, et ne font que marquer les diverses articulations des voix.” These remarks include descriptions (many of which are taken almost verbatim from De Cordemoy’s Discours physique de la parole, published in 1668) of the mode in which various letters are formed, and (incidentally) M. Jourdain’s exclamation, “A, E, I, I, I, I. Cela est vrai. Vive la science!”

μηκέτι δεχόμεναι διαίρεσιν, ἃ καλοῦμεν στοιχεῖα καὶ γράμματα·
γράμματα μὲν ὅτι γραμμαῖς τισι σημαίνεται, στοιχεῖα δὲ ὅτι
πᾶσα φωνὴ τὴν γένεσιν ἐκ τούτων λαμβάνει πρώτων καὶ τὴν
διάλυσιν εἰς ταῦτα ποιεῖται τελευταῖα. τῶν δὴ στοιχείων τε
καὶ γραμμάτων οὐ μία πάντων φύσις, διαφορὰ δὲ αὐτῶν      5
πρώτη μέν, ὡς Ἀριστόξενος ὁ μουσικὸς ἀποφαίνεται, καθ’ ἣν
τὰ μὲν φωνὰς ἀποτελεῖ, τὰ δὲ ψόφους· φωνὰς μὲν τὰ
λεγόμενα φωνήεντα, ψόφους δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα. δευτέρα δὲ
καθ’ ἣν τῶν μὴ φωνηέντων ἃ μὲν καθ’ ἑαυτὰ ψόφους ὁποίους
δή τινας ἀποτελεῖν πέφυκε, ῥοῖζον ἢ σιγμὸν ἢ μυγμὸν ἢ      10
τοιούτων τινῶν ἄλλων ἤχων δηλωτικούς· ἃ δ’ ἐστὶν ἁπάσης
ἄμοιρα φωνῆς καὶ ψόφου καὶ οὐχ οἷά τε ἠχεῖσθαι καθ’ ἑαυτά·
διὸ δὴ ταῦτα μὲν ἄφωνα τινὲς ἐκάλεσαν, θάτερα δὲ ἡμίφωνα.
οἱ δὲ τριχῇ νείμαντες τὰς πρώτας τε καὶ στοιχειώδεις τῆς
φωνῆς δυνάμεις φωνήεντα μὲν ἐκάλεσαν, ὅσα καὶ καθ’ ἑαυτὰ      15

[139]

admitting no further division which we call elements and letters: “letters” (γράμματα) because they are denoted by certain lines (γραμμαί), and “elements” (στοιχεῖα) because every sound made by the voice originates in these, and is ultimately resolvable into them. The elements and letters are not all of the same nature. Of the differences between them, the first is, as Aristoxenus the musician makes clear, that some represent vocal sounds, while others represent noises: the former being represented by the so-called “vowels,” the latter by all the other letters. A second difference is that some of the non-vowels by their nature give rise to some noise or other,—a whizzing, a hissing, a murmur, or suggestions of some such sounds, whereas others are devoid of all voice or noise and cannot be sounded by themselves. Hence some writers have called the latter “voiceless” (“mutes”), the others “semi-voiced” (“semi-vowels”). Those writers who make a threefold division of the first or elemental powers of the voice give the name of voiced (vowels) to all letters which can be uttered, either by themselves or

1 ἃ R: ἃς libri   3 πρώτων F: πρτω P: πρῶτον RMVs   4 τελευταῖα P: τελευταῖον R: τελευταῖαν FVs: τελευταίαν M   9 μὴ φωνηέντων REFM: μὲν φωνηέντων PRb: φωνηέντων Vs   10 σιγμὸν REF: συριγμὸν PMVs || μυγμὸν RE: μιγμὸν F: ποππυσμὸν P: ἀποπτυσμὸν Vs: ποππυσμὸν ἢ μυγμὸν M   11 δηλωτικούς RF: δηλωτικά EPMVs   13 διὸ δὴ REF: om. PMVs || θάτερα] καθάπερ F   14 τῆς φωνῆς RFM: φωνῆς PVs

1. The following note, given in Usener-Radermacher ii. 1, p. 48, is important for its bearing on the text of the C. V.: “Scholiasta Hermogenis Περὶ ἰδεῶν I 6 in Walzii rhet. gr. VII. p. 964, 23 (correctus ex codd. Paris. 1983 = Ra et 2977 = Rb) ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν στοιχείων ἄριστα παραδίδωσιν ὁ Διονύσιος ἐν τῷ περὶ συνθήκης ὀνομάτων συγγράμματι· λέγει γὰρ τί συμβέβηκεν ἑκάστῳ τῶν στοιχείων καὶ ποίαν μὲν δύναμιν ἔχει τὰ φωνήεντα, ποίαν δὲ τὰ σύμφωνα καὶ πάλιν αὖ τὰ ἡμίφωνα· πλὴν ἵνα τι καὶ θαυμάσωμεν τὸν ἄνδρα τῆς δεξιότητος, αὐτὴν παραθώμεθα τὴν λέξιν· Ἀρχαὶ μὲν ... εἶναι ἐκεῖνα (p. 969. 18 W.). καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Διονύσιος· οἷς προσέχων οὐκ ἂν διαμάρτοις τοῦ προσήκοντος. εἰ γὰρ σεμνὸν ποιεῖν ἐθέλεις (sic b: ἐθέλοις a Walzius) τὸν λόγον, ἐκλεξάμενος τὰ μακρὰ καὶ ὅσα τεταμένον (τεταγμένον W) λαμβάνει καὶ διηνεκῆ τὸν αὐλὸν τοῦ πνεύματος λάμβανε· φεῦγε δὲ τὰ βραχέως ἐξ ἀποκοπῆς τε λεγόμενα καὶ μιᾷ πληγῇ πνεύματος καὶ τῆς ἀρτηρίας ἐπὶ βραχὺ κινηθείσης ἐκφερόμενα· τὰ γὰρ μακρὰ τῶν φωνηέντων τῷ σεμνῷ μᾶλλον ἁρμόττει ἅτε (εἴ τε b) μηκυνόμενα κατὰ τὴν ἐκφορὰν καὶ πολὺν ἠχοῦντα χρόνον· ἀνοίκεια (Walzius: ἀνοίκειον a b) δὲ τὰ βραχέως λεγόμενα καὶ σπαδονίζοντα (σπαδωνίζοντα b σπανίζοντα Walzius) τὸν ἦχον. ἀλλ’ οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὐδὲ (οὔτε libri) τὰ μακρὰ δεῖ λαμβάνειν, ἀλλὰ τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἐκφορὰν διογκοῦντα τὸ στόμα καὶ ὅσα λέγεται τοῦ στόματος ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀνοιγομένου καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἄνω φερομένου (ἀναφερομένου b) πρὸς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἢ ὅσα περιστέλλει τὰ χείλη καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ποιεῖ περὶ τὸ ἀκροστόμιον. ὥστε δεῖ μάλιστα χρῆσθαι ταῖς λέξεσιν ὅσαι πλεονάζουσι τῷ τε ᾱ καὶ τῷ ω̄.”

2. Dionysius Thrax Ars Gramm. § 6 (Uhlig p. 9) γράμματα δὲ λέγεται διὰ τὸ γραμμαῖς καὶ ξυσμαῖς τυποῦσθαι· γράψαι γὰρ τὸ ξῦσαι παρὰ τοῖς παλαιοῖς.

3. With this passage generally cp. Aristot. Poet. c. 20 στοιχεῖον μὲν οὖν ἐστιν φωνὴ ἀδιαίρετος, οὐ πᾶσα δὲ ἀλλ’ ἐξ ἧς πέφυκε συνετὴ γίγνεσθαι φωνή· καὶ γὰρ τῶν θηρίων εἰσὶν ἀδιαίρετοι φωναί, ὧν οὐδεμίαν λέγω στοιχεῖον· ταύτης δὲ μέρη τό τε φωνῆεν καὶ τὸ ἡμίφωνον καὶ ἄφωνον. ἔστιν δὲ φωνῆεν μὲν ‹τὸ› ἄνευ προσβολῆς ἔχον φωνὴν ἀκουστήν, οἷον τὸ Σ καὶ τὸ Ρ, ἄφωνον δὲ τὸ μετὰ προσβολῆς καθ’ αὑτὸ μὲν οὐδεμίαν ἔχον φωνήν, μετὰ δὲ τῶν ἐχόντων τινὰ φωνὴν γιγνόμενον ἀκουστόν, οἷον τὸ Γ καὶ τὸ Δ. ταῦτα δὲ διαφέρει σχήμασίν τε τοῦ στόματος καὶ τόποις καὶ δασύτητι καὶ ψιλότητι καὶ μήκει καὶ βραχύτητι, ἔτι δὲ ὀξύτητι καὶ βαρύτητι καὶ τῷ μέσῳ· περὶ ὧν καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐν τοῖς μετρικοῖς προσήκει θεωρεῖν.

6. Aristoxenus, of Tarentum, the great musical theorist of Greece, lived during the times of Alexander the Great. Dionysius refers to him also in de Demosth. c. 48.

9. Cp. Sext. Empir. adv. Math. i. 102 καὶ ἡμίφωνα μὲν ὅσα δι’ αὑτῶν ῥοῖζον ἢ σιγμὸν ἢ μυγμὸν ἤ τινα παραπλήσιον ἦχον κατὰ τὴν ἐκφώνησιν ἀποτελεῖν πεφυκότα, κτλ.

10. ποππυσμόν, the reading of P, might mean ‘a popping sound.’

13. The division into vowels, consonants, and mutes appears in Plato Cratyl. 424 C ἆρ’ οὖν καὶ ἡμᾶς οὕτω δεῖ πρῶτον μὲν τὰ φωνήεντα (‘vowels’) διελέσθαι, ἔπειτα τῶν ἑτέρων κατὰ εἴδη τά τε ἄφωνα (‘consonants’) καὶ ἄφθογγα (‘mutes’); ἄφωνα seems in this passage to mean ‘consonants’; in later times σύμφωνα was often so used. In the Philebus 18 D the originator of an ‘art of grammar’ is attributed to the Egyptian

Theuth.

φωνεῖται καὶ μεθ’ ἑτέρων καὶ ἔστιν αὐτοτελῆ· ἡμίφωνα δ’ ὅσα
μετὰ μὲν φωνηέντων αὐτὰ ἑαυτῶν κρεῖττον ἐκφέρεται, καθ’
ἑαυτὰ δὲ χεῖρον καὶ οὐκ αὐτοτελῶς· ἄφωνα δ’ ὅσα οὔτε τὰς
τελείας οὔτε τὰς ἡμιτελεῖς φωνὰς ἔχει καθ’ ἑαυτά, μεθ’
ἑτέρων δ’ ἐκφωνεῖται.      5

ἀριθμὸς δὲ αὐτῶν ὅστις ἐστίν, οὐ ῥᾴδιον εἰπεῖν ἀκριβῶς,
ἐπεὶ πολλὴν παρέσχε καὶ τοῖς πρὸ ἡμῶν ἀπορίαν τὸ πρᾶγμα·
οἱ μὲν γὰρ ᾠήθησαν εἶναι τριακαίδεκα τὰ πάντα τῆς φωνῆς
στοιχεῖα, κατεσκευάσθαι δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἐκ τούτων· οἱ δὲ καὶ
τῶν εἰκοσιτεσσάρων οἷς χρώμεθα νῦν πλείω. ἡ μὲν οὖν ὑπὲρ      10
τούτων θεωρία γραμματικῆς τε καὶ μετρικῆς, εἰ δὲ βούλεταί
τις, καὶ φιλοσοφίας οἰκειοτέρα· ἡμῖν δὲ ἀπόχρη μήτ’ ἐλάττους
τῶν κ̅δ̅ μήτε πλείους ὑποθεμένοις εἶναι τὰς τῆς φωνῆς ἀρχὰς
τὰ συμβεβηκότα αὐτοῖς λέγειν, τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ τῶν φωνηέντων
ποιησαμένοις.      15

ἔστι δὴ ταῦτα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ζ̄, δύο μὲν βραχέα τό τε ε̄
καὶ τὸ ο̄, δύο δὲ μακρὰ τό τε η̄ καὶ τὸ ω̄, τρία δὲ δίχρονα
τό τε ᾱ καὶ τὸ ῑ καὶ τὸ ῡ, καὶ γὰρ ἐκτείνεται ταῦτα καὶ
συστέλλεται· καὶ αὐτὰ οἱ μὲν δίχρονα, ὥσπερ ἔφην, οἱ δὲ
μεταπτωτικὰ καλοῦσιν. φωνεῖται δὲ ταῦτα πάντα παρὰ τῆς      20
ἀρτηρίας συνηχούσης τῷ πνεύματι καὶ τοῦ στόματος ἁπλῶς
σχηματισθέντος τῆς τε γλώττης οὐδὲν πραγματευομένης ἀλλ’

[141]

together with others, and are self-sufficing; semi-vowels to all which are pronounced better in combination with vowels, worse and imperfectly when taken singly; mutes to all which by themselves admit of neither perfect nor half-perfect utterance, but are pronounced only in combination with others.

It is not easy to say exactly what the number of these elements is, and our predecessors also have felt much doubt upon the question. Some have held that there are only thirteen elements of speech all told, and that the rest are but combinations of these; others that there are more than even the twenty-four which we now recognize. The discussion of this point belongs more properly to grammar and prosody, or even, perhaps, to philosophy. It is enough for us to assume the elements of speech to be neither more nor less than twenty-four, and to specify the properties of each, beginning with the vowels.

These are seven in number: two short, viz. ε and ο; two long, viz. η and ω; and three common, viz. α, ι and υ. These last can be either long or short, and some call them “common,” as I have just done, others “variable.” All these sounds are produced from the windpipe, which resounds to the breath, while the mouth assumes a simple shape; the tongue takes no part

2 αὐτὰ ἑαυτῶν REF: om. PMVs   4 ἡμιτελεῖς REF: ἡμιτελείας PMVs   5 δὲ ἐκφωνεῖται REFMVs: δὲ καὶ φωνεῖται P   6 ἀριθμὸς RFM: ὁ ἀριθμὸς PVs   11 εἰ δὲ RF: εἰ PMVs   14 τὰ RF: καὶ τὰ PMVs || αὐτοῖς RF: αὐτὴι P, MVs   16 μὲν βραχέα τότε (τὸ R) έ καὶ τὸ ό, δύο δὲ μακρὰ F, ER: μὲν μακρὰ PMVs   18 καὶ γὰρ ἐκτείνεται ταῦτα RFE: ἃ καὶ ἐκτείνεται PMVs   19 καὶ αὐτὰ RF: ἃ PMVs || μὲν] μὲν ἤδη R   20 φωνεῖται RF: ἐκφωνεῖται EPMVs || παρὰ τῆς EF: ἀπὸ τῆς M: τῆς RPVs   21 συνηχούσης R: συνεχούσης libri || τῶι πνεύματι R: τὸ π̅ν̅ι̅ F: τὸ πνεῦμα EPMVs || στόματος] σώματος R

5. “On referring to the treatise of Aristotle περὶ ἀκουστῶν, the notion which underlies all Greek phonetics will be seen to be as follows. Breath is expelled by the lungs through the windpipe into the mouth, whence it passes out. The chief differences of speech-sounds are effected by ‘the strokes of the air’ (αἱ τοῦ ἀέρος πληγαί) and the configurations of the mouth (οἱ τοῦ στόματος σχηματισμοί). On the state of the lungs, their hardness, dryness, thickness, or softness, moistness, freedom, much stress is laid; and also on the amount and strength of the ‘stroke,’ which drives out the air forcibly (ἐκθλίβῃ τὸν ἀέρα βιαίως). Much is said of a long and short windpipe. ‘All that have long necks speak forcibly, as geese, cranes, and cocks. When the windpipe is short, the breath necessarily falls out quickly, and the stroke of the air becomes stronger, and all such persons must speak sharper (ὀξύτερον) because of the rapidity with which the breath is borne on.’ But there is not the least reference to the larynx or vocal chords, to the real organ by which voice proper is formed. No doubt Dionysius was not wiser than Aristotle in these matters. This must be well borne in mind for the full appreciation of what follows,” A. J. E. [But for λάρυγξ cp. the note on l. 21 infra.]

14. αὐτοῖς: στοιχεῖα (cp. ll. 9 and 10), rather than αἱ τῆς φωνῆς ἀρχαί, seems to determine the grammar here. The reference of αὐτά, αὐτό, τοῦτο, etc., is often very general; e.g. Aristoph. Ran. 1025 ἀλλ’ ὑμῖν αὔτ’ [sc. τὰ πολεμικά, to be supplied from τὸν πόλεμον in the previous line] ἐξῆν ἀσκεῖν, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐπὶ τοῦτ’ [sc. τὸ ἀσκεῖν] ἐτράπεσθε, and 1464 εὖ, πλήν γ’ ὁ δικαστὴς αὐτὰ [sc. τὰ χρήματα, implied in πόρος] καταπίνει μόνος; Thucyd. vii. 55 2 τὰ πρὸ αὐτῶν (‘before the late events’). Cp. also note on 198 18 infra.

Dionysius makes no specific reference, here or elsewhere in his treatise, to the diphthongs. The probable inference is that he regarded them as true diphthongs, formed from the simple vowels whose pronunciation is separately described by him.

16. See Introduction, p. 46 supra, as to Sir Thomas Smith on this passage.—It is interesting also to notice the praise which Smith, in the same treatise on Greek pronunciation (Havercamp ii. p. 537), lavishes on Dionysius’ description of various vowels: “Quis Apelles aut Parrhasius faciem hominis penicillo vel coloribus exprimere potuit felicius, differentiamque constituere inter diversos vultus, quam hic verbis vocalium naturam distinxit ac separavit?”

21. With συνεχούσης τὸ πνεῦμα the meaning would be ‘while the windpipe constricts the breath.’ But the reading given by R represents the facts with a fair degree of accuracy, and it may be compared with Aristot. Hist. An. ix. 4 τὰ μὲν οὖν φωνήεντα ἡ φωνὴ καὶ ὁ λάρυγξ ἀφίησιν, τὰ δ’ ἄφωνα ἡ γλῶττα καὶ τὰ χείλη.

ἁπλῶς σχηματισθέντος: “meaning perhaps that the mouth is not continually varied in shape,” A. J. E.

22. οὐδὲν πραγματευομένης: “that is, it does not move about, though it directs the breath,” A. J. E.

ἀλλ’ ἠρεμούσης: “meaning that it does not vibrate as for λ and ρ,” A. J. E.

ἠρεμούσης. πλὴν τὰ μὲν μακρὰ καὶ τῶν διχρόνων ἃ μακρῶς
λέγεται τεταμένον λαμβάνει καὶ διηνεκῆ τὸν αὐλὸν τοῦ πνεύματος,
τὰ δὲ βραχέα ἢ βραχέως λεγόμενα ἐξ ἀποκοπῆς τε καὶ
μιᾷ πληγῇ πνεύματος καὶ τῆς ἀρτηρίας ἐπὶ βραχὺ κινηθείσης
ἐκφέρεται. τούτων δὴ κράτιστα μέν ἐστι καὶ φωνὴν ἡδίστην      5
ἀποτελεῖ τά τε μακρὰ καὶ τῶν διχρόνων ὅσα μηκύνεται κατὰ
τὴν ἐκφοράν, ὅτι πολὺν ἠχεῖται χρόνον καὶ τὸν τοῦ πνεύματος
οὐκ ἀποκόπτει τόνον· χείρω δὲ τὰ βραχέα ἢ βραχέως λεγόμενα,
ὅτι μικρόφωνά τ’ ἐστὶ καὶ σπαδονίζει τὸν ἦχον. αὐτῶν
δὲ τῶν μακρῶν πάλιν εὐφωνότατον μὲν τὸ ᾱ, ὅταν ἐκτείνηται·      10
λέγεται γὰρ ἀνοιγομένου τε τοῦ στόματος ἐπὶ πλεῖστον καὶ
τοῦ πνεύματος ἄνω φερομένου πρὸς τὸν οὐρανόν. δεύτερον δὲ
τὸ η̄, διότι κάτω τε περὶ τὴν βάσιν τῆς γλώττης ἐρείδει τὸν
ἦχον ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἄνω, καὶ μετρίως ἀνοιγομένου τοῦ στόματος.
τρίτον δὲ τὸ ω̄· στρογγυλίζεται γὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ στόμα καὶ      15
περιστέλλεται τὰ χείλη τήν τε πληγὴν τὸ πνεῦμα περὶ τὸ
ἀκροστόμιον ποιεῖται. ἔτι δ’ ἧττον τούτου τὸ ῡ· περὶ γὰρ
αὐτὰ τὰ χείλη συστολῆς γινομένης ἀξιολόγου πνίγεται καὶ
στενὸς ἐκπίπτει ὁ ἦχος. ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων τὸ ῑ· περὶ τοὺς

[143]

in the process but remains at rest. But the long vowels, and those common vowels that are pronounced long, have an extended and continuous passage of breath, while those that are short or pronounced as short are uttered abruptly, with one burst of breath, the movement of the windpipe being but brief. Of these the strongest, which also produce the most pleasing sound, are the long ones and those common ones which are lengthened in utterance, the reason being that they are sounded for a long time, and do not cut short the tension of the breath. The short ones, or those pronounced short, are inferior, because they lack sonorousness and curtail the sound. Again, of the long vowels themselves the most euphonious is α, when prolonged; for it is pronounced with the mouth open to the fullest extent, and with the breath forced upwards to the palate. η holds the second place, inasmuch as it drives the sound down against the base of the tongue and not upwards, and the mouth is fairly open. Third comes ω: in pronouncing this the mouth is rounded, the lips are contracted, and the impact of the breath is on the edge of the mouth. Still inferior to this is υ; for, through a marked contraction taking place right round the lips, the sound is strangled and comes out thin. Last of

7 ἠχεῖ R (ut videtur)   8 οὐκ ἀποκόπτει τόνον RF: οὐκ ἀποκόπτει χρόνον E: οὐ κατακόπτει τὸν τόνον PMVs   9 σπαδονίζει PMVs: σπανίζει R (sed vid. n. 138 1) EF   10 πάλιν REF: om. PMs   12 ἄνω φερομένου RaPMVs: ἀναφερομένου RbEF   13 διότι REF: ὅτι PMVs || κάτω τε F: τε κάτω R: κάτω EPMVs   14 ἀλλ’ οὐκ REF: ἀκόλουθον ἀλλ’ οὐκ PMVs || τοῦ στόματος REFM: om. PVs   16 περιστέλλεται REF: περιστέλλει PMVs   17 ἔτι RF: ἔστι EPMVs   18 γινομένης REF: γενομένης PMVs

5. With regard to the euphoniousness of the Egyptian vowels there is an interesting passage in Demetr. de Eloc. § 71: “In Egypt the priests, when singing hymns in praise of the gods, employ the seven vowels, which they utter in due succession; and the sound of these letters is so euphonious that men listen to it in preference to flute and lyre.”

9. σπαδονίζει: see Gloss., s.v.

10. For the effect of the a sound in Latin cp. Cic. Tusc. Disp. ii. 9. 22 “haec dextra Lernam taetram, mactata excetra, | placavit: haec bicorporem afflixit manum: | Erymanthiam haec vastificam abiecit beluam: | haec e Tartarea tenebrica abstractum plaga | tricipitem eduxit Hydra generatum canem” (a translation of Soph. Trach. 1094-99).

11. Cp. Le Bourg. Gent. ii. 4 “la voix A se forme en ouvrant fort la bouche”; and the rest of Molière’s comic phonetics furnish similar points of coincidence with this chapter of Dionysius.

12. “The position of the tongue has to be inferred from the presumed direction of the breath, on which many other writers besides Dionysius have laid stress; for A probably the tongue was depressed, so as to allow the breath to enter the mouth freely, and the sound was either a in ‘father,’ or, with a still more depressed tongue, the French a in ‘passer,’ which is a common Scotch pronunciation of the vowel a,” A. J. E.

13. “The description which Dionysius gives of the production of η and of ε is unfortunately not of such a kind that we can with any certainty infer the distinction of an open or closed sound,” Blass Pronunciation of Ancient Greek p. 36 (Purton’s translation).

14. The καί introduces a specification which is parallel to those which follow κάτω.

15. For the effect of the o sound (notwithstanding any differences in the two languages) cp. Cic. Cat. iv. init. “video, patres conscripti, in me omnium vestra ora atque oculos conversos. video, vos non solum de vestro ac reipublicae, verum etiam, si id depulsum sit, de meo periculo esse sollicitos.” And in Greek, the Homeric lines quoted on 154 23, 156 4 infra.—The question whether ω = ‘open’ or ‘closed’ o depends upon what position of the lips Dionysius’ description is taken to indicate.

17. ἧττον, ‘less,’ might mean inferior either in quality of tone or in the degree of opening of the mouth (A. J. E.).

τὸ ῡ: this vowel can, as in Aristoph. Plut. 895, be so pronounced as to convey the sensations of a sycophant in the presence of roasted meats:—
ἀρνεῖσθον; ἔνδον ἐστίν, ὦ μιαρωτάτω,
πολὺ χρῆμα τεμαχῶν καὶ κρεῶν ὠπτημένων.
ὒ ὗ ὒ ὗ ὒ ὗ ὒ ὗ ὒ ὗ ὒ ὗ,

where B. B. Rogers remarks: “This line [ὒ ὗ etc.], as Bentley pointed out, is naso, non ore, efferendus. It represents a succession of sniffings, produced by the nose; and not words or inarticulate sounds spoken with the mouth.”

18. Cp. scholium on Dionysius Thrax p. 691. 27 B: τὸ ῡ τὰ χείλη συστέλλει κατὰ τὴν ἐκφώνησιν. φησὶ γὰρ Διονύσιος ὁ Ἁλικαρνασσεὺς ἐν τῷ περὶ στοιχείων καὶ συλλαβῶν λόγῳ ὅτι περὶ αὐτὰ τὰ χείλη συστολῆς γινομένης ἀξιολόγου πνίγεται καὶ στενὸς ἐκπίπτει ὁ ἦχος.

19. “So far as the lips are concerned, this description would suit either the French u or the English oo, but the latter part of the description is better suited to French u, and from the Latins having at this time represented this sound by their new sign Y (the usual form of Greek Υ in inscriptions) in place of their own V (which was our oo), we may feel sure that the sound was not English oo, and, if not, that it was most probably French u, as we know that it was so subsequently,” A. J. E.

τοὺς ὀδόντας: “as the lips are not closed, there are only the teeth to limit the aperture,” A. J. E.—The position (ἔσχατον πάντων) assigned to iota is to be noticed: cp. Hermog. π. ἰδ. p. 225 (Walz Rhett. Gr. vol. iii.) τὸ ῑ ... ἥκιστα σεμνὴν ποιεῖ τὴν λέξιν πλεονάσαν.

ὀδόντας τε γὰρ ἡ κροῦσις τοῦ πνεύματος γίνεται μικρὸν
ἀνοιγομένου τοῦ στόματος καὶ οὐκ ἐπιλαμπρυνόντων τῶν
χειλῶν τὸν ἦχον. τῶν δὲ βραχέων οὐδέτερον μὲν εὔμορφον,
ἧττον δὲ δυσειδὲς τοῦ ε̄ τὸ ο̄· διίστησι γὰρ τὸ στόμα κρεῖττον
θατέρου καὶ τὴν πληγὴν λαμβάνει περὶ τὴν ἀρτηρίαν      5
μᾶλλον.

φωνηέντων μὲν οὖν γραμμάτων αὕτη φύσις· ἡμιφώνων δὲ
τοιάδε· ὀκτὼ τὸν ἀριθμὸν ὄντων αὐτῶν πέντε μέν ἐστιν ἁπλᾶ
τό τε λ̄ καὶ τὸ μ̄ καὶ τὸ ν̄ καὶ τὸ ρ̄ καὶ τὸ σ̄· διπλᾶ δὲ
τρία τό τε ζ̄ καὶ τὸ ξ̄ καὶ τὸ ψ̄. διπλᾶ δὲ λέγουσιν αὐτὰ      10
ἤτοι διὰ τὸ σύνθετα εἶναι, τὸ μὲν ζ̄ διὰ τοῦ σ̄ καὶ δ̄, τὸ δὲ
ξ̄ διὰ τοῦ κ̄ καὶ σ̄, τὸ δὲ ψ̄ διὰ τοῦ π̄ καὶ σ̄ συνεφθαρμένων
ἀλλήλοις ἰδίαν φωνὴν λαμβάνοντα, ἢ διὰ τὸ χώραν ἐπέχειν
δυεῖν γραμμάτων ἐν ταῖς συλλαβαῖς παραλαμβανόμενον ἕκαστον.
τούτων δὴ κρείττω μέν ἐστι τὰ διπλᾶ τῶν ἁπλῶν,      15
ἐπειδὴ μείζονά ἐστι τῶν ἑτέρων καὶ μᾶλλον ἐγγίζειν δοκεῖ
τοῖς τελείοις· ἥττω δὲ τὰ ἁπλᾶ διὰ τὸ εἰς βραχυτέρους
τόπους συνάγεσθαι τὸν ἦχον. φωνεῖται δ’ αὐτῶν ἕκαστον
τοιόνδε τινὰ τρόπον· τὸ μὲν λ̄ τῆς γλώττης πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν
ἱσταμένης καὶ τῆς ἀρτηρίας συνηχούσης· τὸ δὲ μ̄ τοῦ μὲν      20
στόματος τοῖς χείλεσι πιεσθέντος, τοῦ δὲ πνεύματος διὰ τῶν
ῥωθώνων μεριζομένου· τὸ δὲ ν̄ τῆς γλώττης τὴν φορὰν τοῦ
πνεύματος ἀποκλειούσης καὶ μεταφερούσης ἐπὶ τοὺς ῥώθωνας
τὸν ἦχον· τὸ δὲ ρ̄ τῆς γλώττης ἄκρας ἀπορριπιζούσης τὸ
πνεῦμα καὶ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐγγὺς τῶν ὀδόντων ἀνισταμένης·      25

[145]

all stands ι: for the impact of the breath is on the teeth as the mouth is slightly open and the lips do not clarify the sound. Of the short vowels none has beauty, but ο is less ugly than ε: for the former parts the lips better than the latter, and receives the impact more in the region of the windpipe.

So much for the nature of the vowels. The semi-vowels are as follows. They are eight in number, and five of them are simple, viz. λ, μ, ν, ρ, and σ, while three are double, viz. ζ, ξ, ψ. They are called double either because they are composite, receiving a distinctive sound through the coalescence respectively of σ and δ into ζ, of κ and σ into ξ, and of π and σ into ψ; or because they each occupy the room of two letters in the syllables where they are found. Of these semi-vowels, the double are superior to the single, since they are ampler than the others and seem to approximate more to perfect letters. The simple ones are inferior because their sounds are confined within smaller spaces. They are severally pronounced somewhat as follows: λ by the tongue rising to the palate, and by the windpipe helping the sound; μ by the mouth being closed tight by means of the lips, while the breath is divided and passes through the nostrils; ν by the tongue intercepting the current of the breath, and diverting the sound towards the nostrils; ρ by the tip of the tongue sending forth the breath in puffs and rising to the palate

1 κροῦσις R: κρίσις EF: κρότησις PVs   2 οὐκ ἐπιλαμπρυνόντων] οὐκέτι λαμπρυνόντων P   3 εὔμορφον REF: εὔηχον PMVs   4 δυσειδὲς REF: δυσηχὲς PMVs || τοῦ ε̄ τὸ ο̄ Us.: τὸ ε̄ REFMV, τὸ ο̄ Ps   5 καὶ τὴν REF: τὴν δὲ PMVs   8 ὀκτὼ RF: ὀκτὼ γὰρ EPMVs || πέντε] ε̄ PVs   9 διπλὰ δὲ τρία F, RbE: διπλᾶ δὲ καὶ τρία Ra: τρία (γ̄ P) δὲ διπλᾶ PMVs   11 τοῦ δ̄ καὶ τοῦ σ̄ Ra: τοῦ δ̄ καὶ σ̄ Rb   13 ἰδίαν RF: καὶ ἰδίαν PMVs   14 παραλαμβανόμενον ἕκαστον RF: παραλαμβανόμενα. ἑκάστου PMVs   17 βραχυτέρους F: βαρυτέρους R: βραχυτέρους αὐτῶν E, PM   18 τόπους RFM^2: τόνους EPM^1Vs   20 ἱσταμένης REF: ἀνισταμένης PMVs || συνηχούσης REF: συνηχούσης τὸ πνεῦμα M: συνεχούσης τὸ πνεῦμα PVs   21 διὰ τῶν ... (23) πνεύματος REFM: om. P   22 ν̄] π̄ R   23 τοὺς ῥώθωνας RPMs: τὸν ῥώθωνα FE   24 ἀπορριπιζούσης RF: ἀπορραπιζούσης EVs: ἀποραπιζούσης (ρ alt. suprascr.) P, M

1. μικρὸν ἀνοιγομένου: “no limitation is necessary, the lips may be as open for our ee as for our ah, but they may also be slightly open from the centre to the corners, no part being in contact,” A. J. E.

2. “There can be no doubt that our ee is meant, and, although this is usually considered to be a ‘bright’ sound, it will be found that if, while singing it, and without moving the tongue, the lips be as much closed as for oo, the result, which will be French u, is much more musical. Whatever doubt may remain from this description of the precise shades of sound, there can be none that η, υ, ι had different sounds, as indeed transcripts of Greek into Latin letters and Latin into Greek letters shew that they had, partially at least, down to the 12th century A.D., although the confusion was complete in the 15th, as it has since remained. Dionysius does not describe the diphthongs ΑΥ, ΕΥ, or the digraphs ΑΙ, ΕΙ, ΟΙ, ΟΥ,” A. J. E.

5. “This would best suit our aw in awn shortened, that is, very nearly our o in on. Short ε is not referred to, nor the short sounds of α, ι, υ,” A. J. E.

11. For the pronunciation of ζ see Introduction, p. 44, and cp. Dionysius Thrax Ars Gramm. § 7 (Uhlig p. 14): ἔτι δὲ τῶν συμφώνων διπλᾶ μέν ἐστι τρία· ζ̄, ξ̄, ψ̄. διπλᾶ δὲ εἴρηται, ὅτι ἓν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἐκ δύο συμφώνων σύγκειται, τὸ μὲν ζ̄ ἐκ τοῦ σ̄ καὶ δ̄, τὸ δὲ ξ̄ ἐκ τοῦ κ̄ καὶ σ̄, τὸ δὲ ψ̄ ἐκ τοῦ π̄ καὶ σ̄.—For the late use of διά (with the genitive) of the means or material by or of which a thing is composed cp. 154 10 and 180 6; also Antiqq. Rom. i. ἐν ὄρεσι τὰ πολλὰ πηξαμένοις διὰ ξύλων καὶ καλάμων σκηνὰς αὐτορόφους.

17. ἥττω ... ἦχον: a true phonetic explanation.

20. For m and n in Greek and Latin (especially at the end of clauses) cp. Quintil. xii. 10. 31 “Quid? quod pleraque nos illa quasi mugiente littera cludimus M, in quam nullum Graece verbum cadit: at illi ny iucundam et in fine praecipue quasi tinnientem illius loco ponunt, quae est apud nos rarissima in clausulis.”

25. οὐρανὸν ... ὀδόντων. Demosthenes’ difficulty in pronouncing this letter (the trilled palato-dental r) is well known: e.g. Quintil. i. 11. 5 “(rho littera), qua Demosthenes quoque laboravit.”

τὸ δὲ σ̄ τῆς μὲν γλώττης προσαγομένης ἄνω πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν
ὅλης, τοῦ δὲ πνεύματος διὰ μέσων αὐτῶν φερομένου καὶ περὶ
τοὺς ὀδόντας λεπτὸν καὶ στενὸν ἐξωθοῦντος τὸ σύριγμα. τρία
δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ ἡμίφωνα μικτὸν λαμβάνει τὸν ψόφον ἐξ ἑνὸς μὲν
τῶν ἡμιφώνων τοῦ σ̄, τριῶν δὲ ἀφώνων τοῦ τε δ̄ καὶ τοῦ κ̄      5
καὶ τοῦ π̄.

οὗτοι σχηματισμοὶ γραμμάτων ἡμιφώνων. δύναται δ’
οὐχ ὁμοίως κινεῖν τὴν ἀκοὴν ἅπαντα· ἡδύνει μὲν γὰρ αὐτὴν
τὸ λ̄, καὶ ἔστι τὼν ἡμιφώνων γλυκύτατον· τραχύνει δὲ τὸ ρ̄
καὶ ἔστι τῶν ὁμογενῶν γενναιότατον· μέσως δέ πως διατίθησι      10
τὰ διὰ τῶν ῥωθώνων συνηχούμενα τό τε μ̄ καὶ τὸ ν̄
κερατοειδεῖς ἀποτελοῦντα τοὺς ἤχους. ἄχαρι δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς
τὸ σ̄ καὶ πλεονάσαν σφόδρα λυπεῖ· θηριώδους γὰρ καὶ
ἀλόγου μᾶλλον ἢ λογικῆς ἐφάπτεσθαι δοκεῖ φωνῆς ὁ συριγμός·
τῶν γοῦν παλαιῶν τινες σπανίως ἐχρῶντο αὐτῷ καὶ      15

[147]

near the teeth; and σ by the entire tongue being carried up to the palate and by the breath passing between tongue and palate, and emitting, round about the teeth, a light, thin hissing. The sound of the three remaining semi-voiced letters is of a mixed character, being formed of one of the semi-voiced letters (σ) and three of the voiceless letters (δ, κ and π).

Such are the formations of the semi-vowels. They cannot all affect the sense of hearing in the same way. λ falls pleasurably on it, and is the sweetest of the semi-vowels; while ρ has a rough quality, and is the noblest of its class. The ear is affected in a sort of intermediate way by μ and ν, which are pronounced with nasal resonance, and produce sounds similar to those of a horn. σ is an unattractive, disagreeable letter, positively offensive when used to excess. A hiss seems a sound more suited to a brute beast than to a rational being. At all events, some of the ancients used it sparingly and guardedly.

1 προσαγομένης R: προαγομένης EF: προσἀναγομένης P, Vs: προανοιγομένης M   2 ὅλης REF: ὅλως δὲ M: om. PVs || μέσων αὐτῶν R: μέσον αὐτῶν F: μέσουν αὐτοῦ M: μέσου αὐτοῦ EPVs   5 δ̄ καὶ τοῦ κ̄ REF: κ̄ καὶ τοῦ δ̄ PMVs   13 καὶ πλεονάσαν REF: καὶ εἰ πλεονάσαι PM: καὶ εἰ πλεονάσειε Vs   14 ἀλόγου RPMVs: ἀλάλου EF

2. Perhaps the variations in the readings here (cp. also 148 16) indicate that one or two of the words originally stood in the dual number.—διὰ μέσου αὐτοῦ (EPV) would mean ‘through the middle of the palate.’

9. As in Virgil (Aen. viii. 140: cp. v. 217), “at Maiam, auditis si quicquam credimus, Atlas, | idem Atlas generat caeli qui sidera tollit.”—The same view of l is expressed in Demetr. de Eloc. § 174 πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἀκοὴν (sc. ἡδέα ἐστι) “Καλλίστρατος, Ἀννοῶν.” ἥ τε γὰρ τῶν λάμβδα σύγκρουσις ἠχῶδές τι ἔχει, καὶ ἡ τῶν νῦ γραμμάτων (for the effect of the double l and n cp. such words as ‘bella’ and ‘donna’ in Italian).

12. It is well known that the Comic Poets make fun of Euripides’ line ἔσωσά σ’, ὡς ἴσασιν Ἑλλήνων ὅσοι (Med. 476: with Porson’s note). Pericles is said to have led the way in substituting ττ for the less pleasing σσ (see Lucian’s Iudicium Vocalium for the substitution itself). On the other hand, it has been observed (with reference to de Corona § 208 ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως ἡμάρτετε, ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἁπάντων ἐλευθερίας καὶ σωτηρίας κίνδυνον ἀράμενοι, μὰ τοὺς Μαραθῶνι προκινδυνεύσαντας τῶν προγόνων καὶ τοὺς ἐν Πλαταιαῖς παραταξαμένους καὶ τοὺς ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ναυμαχήσαντας καὶ τοὺς ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ καὶ πολλοὺς ἑτέρους τοὺς ἐν τοῖς δημοσίοις μνήμασι κειμένους, ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας, οὓς ἅπαντας ὁμοίως ἡ πόλις τῆς αὐτῆς ἀξιώσασα τιμῆς ἔθαψεν, Αἰσχίνη, οὐχὶ τοὺς κατορθώσαντας αὐτῶν οὐδὲ τοὺς κρατήσαντας μόνους): “in defence of English we may note that this renowned passage, perhaps the most effective ever spoken by an orator, has no less than fifty sigmas in sixty-seven words” (Goodwin’s edition of Demosth. de Cor. p. 148). There is also an interesting article on “Sigmatism in Greek Dramatic Poetry” in the American Journal of Philology xxix. 1 (cp. xxxi. 1). Mr. J. A. Scott there proves by means of examples that Homer, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and the Comic Poets, do not avoid recurrent sigmas; and he adds that “the phrases ὁ φιλοσίγματος and ‘Euripidean sigmatism,’ which rest on the assumption that Euripides in a peculiar way marred his style by an excessive use of sigma, have no basis of truth to support them.” He further remarks, “It is Lasus of Hermione [Athen. 455 c], the so-called teacher of Pindar, who won a certain kind of fame by producing asigmatic verses; but it was evidently a species of poetic gymnastics such as was later achieved by the poets of the Ἰλιὰς λειπογράμματος and the Ὀδύσσεια λειπογράμματος, where the trick was to write the first book of each poem without α, the second without β, and so on.” In Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite (C. V. c. 23) there is no lack of sigmas. But we may be sure that neither Demosthenes, nor any good reader of Sappho, would be guilty of undue sibilation in the actual delivery of the speech or of the lines: it is the continual hissing that, as in English, has to be avoided. (For the pronunciation of σ, σβ, σγ, σμ, σσ see Report of Classical Association on Greek Pronunciation, p. 349 infra, and Giles’ Comparative Philology p. 115).—Instances of not unpleasant accumulations of the s sound in Latin are to be found in Virg. Aen. v. 46 “annuus exactis completur mensibus orbis”; Virg. Georg. i. 389 “et sola in sicca secum spatiatur harena”; Cic. Topic. i. 1 “maiores nos res scribere ingressos, C. Trebati, et iis libris, quos brevi tempore satis multos edidimus, digniores e cursu ipso revocavit voluntas tua.” Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 37 “ceterum consonantes quoque, earumque praecipue quae sunt asperiores, in commissura verborum rixantur, ut si s ultima cum x proxima confligat; quarum tristior etiam, si binae collidantur, stridor est, ut ars studiorum. quae fuit causa et Servio, ut dixi, subtrahendae s litterae, quotiens ultima esset aliaque consonante susciperetur; quod reprehendit Luranius, Messala defendit.” An example of the recurrence of the s sound in English poetry is:—

O the golden sheaf, the nestling treasure-armful!
O the nutbrown tresses nodding interlaced!

George Meredith,
Love in the Valley;

or Shakespeare’s

“This precious stone set in the silver sea;”

or many of the lines in Marlowe’s ‘smooth song’ “Come live with me, and be my love.” Of its deliberate elimination an instance is furnished by John Thelwall’s English Song without a Sibilant, entitled “The Empire of the Mind,” in which the last of the four stanzas runs:—

But when to radiant form and feature,
Internal worth and feeling join
With temper mild and gay goodnature,—
Around the willing heart, they twine
The empire of the mind.

πεφυλαγμένως, εἰσὶ δ’ οἳ καὶ ἀσίγμους ὅλας ᾠδὰς ἐποίουν·
δηλοῖ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ Πίνδαρος ἐν οἷς φησι·

πρὶν μὲν εἷρπε σχοινότενειά τ’ ἀοιδὰ διθυράμβω
καὶ τὸ σὰν κίβδηλον ἀνθρώποις.

τριῶν δὲ τῶν ἄλλων γραμμάτων ἃ δὴ διπλᾶ καλεῖται τὸ ζ̄      5
μᾶλλον ἡδύνει τὴν ἀκοὴν τῶν ἑτέρων· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ξ̄ διὰ τοῦ
κ̄ καὶ τὸ ψ̄ διὰ τοῦ π̄ τὸν συριγμὸν ἀποδίδωσι ψιλῶν ὄντων
ἀμφοτέρων, τοῦτο δ’ ἡσυχῇ τῷ πνεύματι δασύνεται καὶ ἔστι
τῶν ὁμογενῶν γενναιότατον. καὶ περὶ μὲν τῶν ἡμιφώνων
τοσαῦτα.      10

τῶν δὲ καλουμένων ἀφώνων ἐννέα ὄντων τρία μέν ἐστι
ψιλά, τρία δὲ δασέα, τρία δὲ μεταξὺ τούτων· ψιλὰ μὲν τὸ
κ̄ καὶ τὸ π̄ καὶ τὸ τ̄, δασέα δὲ τὸ θ̄ καὶ τὸ φ̄ καὶ τὸ χ̄,
κοινὰ δὲ ἀμφοῖν τὸ β̄ καὶ τὸ γ̄ καὶ τὸ δ̄. φωνεῖται δὲ
αὐτῶν ἕκαστον τρόπον τόνδε· τρία μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν χειλῶν      15
ἄκρων, ὅταν τοῦ στόματος πιεσθέντος τὸ προβαλλόμενον
ἐκ τῆς ἀρτηρίας πνεῦμα λύσῃ τὸν δεσμὸν αὐτοῦ. καὶ
ψιλὸν μέν ἐστιν αὐτῶν τὸ π̄, δασὺ δὲ τὸ φ̄, μέσον δὲ ἀμφοῖν
τὸ β̄· τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ψιλότερόν ἐστι, τοῦ δὲ δασύτερον. μία
μὲν αὕτη συζυγία τριῶν γραμμάτων ἀφώνων ὁμοίῳ σχήματι      20
λεγομένων, ψιλότητι δὲ καὶ δασύτητι διαφερόντων. τρία δὲ
ἄλλα λέγεται τῆς γλώττης ἄκρῳ τῷ στόματι προσερειδομένης
κατὰ τοὺς μετεώρους ὀδόντας, ἔπειθ’ ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος

[149]

There are writers who used actually to compose entire odes without a sigma. Pindar shows the same feeling when he writes:—

Ere then crept in the long-drawn dithyrambic song,
And san that rang false on the speaker’s tongue.[130]

Of the three other letters which are called “double,” ζ falls more pleasurably on the ear than the others. For ξ and ψ give the hiss in combination with κ and π respectively, both of which letters are smooth, whereas ζ is softly rippled by the breath and is the noblest of its class. So much with regard to the semi-vowels.

Of the so-called “voiceless letters,” which are nine in number, three are smooth, three rough, and three between these. The smooth are κ, π, τ; the rough θ, φ, χ; the intermediate, β, γ, δ. They are severally pronounced as follows: three of them (π, θ, β) from the edge of the lips, when the mouth is compressed and the breath, being driven forward from the windpipe, breaks through the obstruction. Among these π is smooth, φ rough, and β comes between the two, being smoother than the latter and rougher than the former. This is one set of three mutes, all three spoken with a like configuration of our organs, but differing in smoothness and roughness. The next three are pronounced by the tongue being pressed hard against the extremity of the mouth near the upper teeth, then being blown

1 καὶ REF: om. PMVs || ὅλας [ὠιδὰ]ς cum litura F, E: ὅλας αὐδὰς R: ὠιδὰς ὅλας P, MVs   2 δηλοῖ ... (4) ἀνθρώποις om. R || τοῦτο καὶ EF: τοῦτο PVs   3 ἧρπε F: ἦρχε MV: ἤριπε EPs || σχοινοτενεῖ[ατα] οἶδα cum rasura F: σχοινοτονει [-τενὴς ἀδα M] φωνήεντα P, V: σχοινοτενῆ φωνήεντα Es || διθυράμβου F: διθυράμβων EPMVs: om. Athenaeus   4 κίβδηλον EF Athenaeus: κίβδαλον PMVs || ἀνθρώποις EFM: ἄνθρωποι PVs   7 καὶ τὸ ψ̄ RE: τὸ δὲ ψ̄ FPMVs   11 καλουμένων RPMVs: om. EF   14 ἐκφωνεῖται MVs   16 ἄκρων RFM: ἄκρων τὸ π̄ καὶ τὸ φ̄ καὶ τὸ β̄ EPVs || τό τε P   17 τὸ πνεῦμα P || θεσμὸν R   18 αὐτῶν] αὐτοῦ P   23 μετεώρους REF: μετεωροτέρους PMVs

1. Athenaeus quotes the lines of Pindar (ll. 3, 4 infra) in x. 455 C and in xi. 467 B. The former passage closely illustrates Dionysius’ remarks: Πίνδαρος δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀσιγμοποιηθεῖσαν ᾠδήν, ὡς ὁ αὐτός φησι Κλέαρχος, οἱονεὶ γρίφου τινὸς ἐν μελοποιίᾳ προβληθέντος, ὡς πολλῶν τούτῳ προσκρουόντων διὰ τὸ ἀδύνατον εἶναι ἀποσχέσθαι τοῦ σίγμα καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ δοκιμάζειν, ἐποίησε·
πρὶν μὲν εἷρπε σχοινοτένειά τ’ ἀοιδὰ
καὶ τὸ σὰν κίβδηλον ἀνθρώποις.

ταῦτα σημειώσαιτ’ ἄν τις πρὸς τοὺς νοθεύοντας Λάσου τοῦ Ἑρμιονέως τὴν ἄσιγμον ᾠδήν, ἥτις ἐπιγράφεται Κένταυροι, καὶ ὁ εἰς τὴν Δήμητρα δὲ τὴν ἐν Ἑρμιόνῃ ποιηθεὶς τῷ Λάσῳ ὕμνος ἄσιγμός ἐστιν, ὥς φησιν Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς ἐν τρίτῳ περὶ μουσικῆς, οὗ ἐστιν ἀρχή·

Δάματρα μέλπω Κόραν τε Κλυμένοι’ ἄλοχον.

In Pindar’s own text the right reading possibly is:—
πρὶν μὲν ἕρπε σχοινοτένειά τ’ ἀοιδὰ
διθυράμβων καὶ τὸ σὰν κίβδηλον ἀνθρώποισιν ἀπὸ στομάτων.

Mr. P. N. Ure suggests that Pindar’s real reference was not to the sound of san but to its form, and that κίβδηλον means either ‘misleading’ with reference to the similarity in form of san to mu, or ‘spurious,’ as not being the form for the sibilant employed at Thebes, where letters were introduced into Greece.

3. σχοινοτένεια: unusual feminine of σχοινοτενής, ‘stretched out like a measuring line.’

5. “That the σ in σδ meant z appears from what Dionysius presently says, that ζ is ‘quietly roughened by the breath,’ implying that it was voiced,” A. J. E. p. 44. The statement (p. 43 ibid.) that dz was probably an impossible initial combination to a Greek may be compared with Classical Review xix. 441 as well as with more ancient evidence.

13. Dionysius’ various statements as to the aspirates are discussed in E. A. Dawes’ Pronunciation of the Greek Aspirates pp. 29 ff. (as well as in Blass’s Ancient Greek Pronunciation).

15. Dionysius does not actually use Greek equivalents for the adjectives labial, dental, and guttural; but he clearly knows the physiological facts in which those terms have their origin.

18. As illustrating Dionysius’ own love of variety, compare μέσον ἀμφοῖν here with κοινὰ ἀμφοῖν (l. 14), μεταξὺ τούτων (l. 12), μετρίως καὶ μεταξὺ ἀμφοῖν (150 9), μέσον δὲ καὶ ἐπίκοινον (150 4).

23. κατὰ τοὺς μετεώρους ὀδόντας. “The pronunciation of the Greek and Roman t by placing the tongue against the roots of the gums in lieu of the upper teeth is not one of the more serious errors [in the modern pronunciation of Greek and Latin], at least it does not strike our ears as such. But it has always seemed to me that the taunting verses of Ennius,

O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tyranne tulisti,

as of Sophocles,
τυφλὸς τά τ’ ὦτα τόν τε νοῦν τά τ’ ὄμματ’ εἶ,

lose a good deal of their effect if the t’s are muffled behind the gums instead of being hurled out from the rampart of the teeth,” J. P. Postgate How to pronounce Latin p. 11.

ἀπορριπιζομένης καὶ τὴν διέξοδον αὐτῷ κάτω περὶ τοὺς
ὀδόντας ἀποδιδούσης· διαλλάττει δὲ ταῦτα δασύτητι καὶ
ψιλότητι· ψιλὸν μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἐστι τὸ τ̄, δασὺ δὲ τὸ θ̄,
μέσον δὲ καὶ ἐπίκοινον τὸ δ̄. αὕτη δευτέρα συζυγία τριῶν
γραμμάτων ἀφώνων. τρία δὲ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἀφώνων λέγεται      5
μὲν τῆς γλώττης ἀνισταμένης πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐγγὺς τοῦ
φάρυγγος καὶ τῆς ἀρτηρίας ὑπηχούσης τῷ πνεύματι, οὐδὲν
οὐδὲ ταῦτα διαφέροντα τῷ σχήματι ἀλλήλων, πλὴν ὅτι τὸ
μὲν κ̄ ψιλῶς λέγεται, τὸ δὲ χ̄ δασέως, τὸ δὲ γ̄ μετρίως καὶ
μεταξὺ ἀμφοῖν. τούτων κράτιστα μέν ἐστιν ὅσα τῷ πνεύματι      10
πολλῷ λέγεται, δεύτερα δὲ ὅσα μέσῳ, κάκιστα δὲ ὅσα ψιλῷ·
ταῦτα μὲν γὰρ τὴν αὑτῶν δύναμιν ἔχει μόνην, τὰ δὲ δασέα
καὶ τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος προσθήκην, ὥστ’ ἐγγύς που τελειότερα
εἶναι ἐκείνων.

XV
ἐκ δὴ τῶν γραμμάτων τοσούτων τε ὄντων καὶ δυνάμεις      15
τοιαύτας ἐχόντων αἱ καλούμεναι γίνονται συλλαβαί. τούτων
δὲ εἰσὶ μακραὶ μὲν ὅσαι συνεστήκασιν ἐκ τῶν φωνηέντων
τῶν μακρῶν ἢ τῶν διχρόνων ὅταν μακρῶς ἐκφέρηται, καὶ
ὅσαι λήγουσιν εἰς μακρὸν ἢ μακρῶς λεγόμενον γράμμα ἢ εἴς
τι τῶν ἡμιφώνων τε καὶ ἀφώνων· βραχεῖαι δὲ ὅσαι συνεστήκασιν      20
ἐκ βραχέος φωνήεντος ἢ βραχέως λαμβανομένου,
καὶ ὅσαι λήγουσιν εἰς ταῦτα. μήκους δὲ καὶ βραχύτητος

[151]

back by the breath, and affording it an outlet downwards round the teeth. These differ in roughness and smoothness, τ being the smoothest of them, θ the roughest, and δ medial or common. This is the second set of three mutes. The three remaining mutes are spoken with the tongue rising to the palate near the throat, and the windpipe echoing to the breath. These, again, differ in no way from one another as regards formation; but κ is pronounced smoothly, χ roughly, γ moderately and between the two. Of these the best are those which are uttered with a full breath; next those with moderate breath; worst those with smooth breath, since they have their own force alone, while the rough letters have the breath also added, so that they are somewhere nearer perfection than the others.

CHAPTER XV

SYLLABLES AND THEIR QUALITIES

Such is the number of the letters, and such are their properties. From them are formed the so-called syllables. Of these syllables, those are long which contain long vowels or variable vowels when pronounced long, and those which end in a long letter or a letter pronounced long, or in one of the semi-vowels and one of the mutes. Those are short which contain a short vowel or one taken as short, and those which end in such vowels. There is

1 ἀποῤῥιπιζομένης RF: ἀπορραπιζομένης E: ἀποραπιζομένης P: ὑποραπιζομένης M: ὑπορραπιζομένης Vs || αὐτῶν κάτω E: κάτω RF: αὐτῶν PM: αὐτῷ Vs   2 ἀποδιδούσης RF: ἀποδιδούσης τὸ τ̄ καὶ τὸ θ̄ καὶ τὸ δ̄ PMVs   4 τριῶν RFM: om. PVs   6 πρὸς REF: κατὰ PMVs || τοῦ φάρυγγος REF: τῆς φάρυγγος PMVs   7 πνεύματι RF: πνεύματι τὸ κ̄ καὶ τὸ χ̄ καὶ τὸ γ̄ EPMVs || οὐδὲν οὐδὲ Us.: οὐδὲν δὲ οὐδὲ R: οὐδὲν δὲ οὐ F: οὐδενὶ PMVs   10 ἀμφοῖν. τούτων κράτιστα μέν ἐστιν F [E]: ἀμφοῖν τούτοιν (τούτων b)· κράτιστα μὲν οὖν ἐστιν R: τούτων. κράτιστα μὲν οὖν ἐστιν PMVs   11 δὲ REPMVs: δ’ F || μέσω EPMV,s: μ[έσωι] cum rasura F: μέσα R || κάκιστα REF: κακίω PMVs || ψιλῷ] ψιλῶι P, EMVs: ψιλῶ F: ψιλῶς Ra: ψιλά Rb   13 ἐγγύς που R: ἐγγὺς τοῦ libri || τελειότερα REF: τελειότερον P: τελειότατα MVs   14 ἐκείνων P: ἐκεῖνα RFMs, V: om. E   19 ἢ εἴς τι] εἴς τι F: ἤ τι EP: ἤτοι MV   20 τε καὶ EF: ἢ PMV   21 ἢ βραχέος V

11. Usener seems to carry his faith in F to excess when, in one and the same line, he prints δ’ ὅσα and δὲ ὅσα. Dionysius can hardly have extended his love for μεταβολή so far as that.

20. Batteaux (p. 208), when comparing French with the ancient languages in relations to long and short syllables, has the following interesting remarks: “Il n’est pas question de prouver ici que nous avons des syllabes brèves: nous sommes presque persuadés que toutes nos syllabes le sont, tant nous sommes pressés quand nous parlons. Nous traitons de même les syllabes latines; nous les faisons presque toutes brèves, quand nous lisons: il n’y a guère que le ω et les η grecs que nous allongions en lisant. Selon toute apparence, les Grecs and les Italiens anciens, qui, à en juger par les modernes, n’étaient pas moins vifs que nous, ne devaient guère se donner plus de temps pour peser sur leurs syllabes longues. Aussi n’était-ce pas dans la conversation qu’ils mesuraient leurs syllabes; c’était dans les discours oratoires, et encore plus dans leurs vers; c’était là qu’on pouvait observer les longues et les brèves, et c’est là aussi que nous les devons observer dans notre langue.”

συλλαβῶν οὐ μία φύσις, ἀλλὰ καὶ μακρότεραί τινές εἰσι τῶν
μακρῶν καὶ βραχύτεραι τῶν βραχειῶν. ἔσται δὲ τοῦτο
φανερὸν ἐπὶ τῶν παραδειγμάτων.

ὁμολογεῖται δὴ βραχεῖα εἶναι συλλαβή, ἣν ποιεῖ φωνῆεν
γράμμα βραχὺ τὸ ο̄, ὡς λέγεται ὁδός. ταύτῃ προστεθήτω      5
γράμμα ἓν τῶν ἡμιφώνων τὸ ρ̄ καὶ γενέσθω Ῥόδος· μένει
μὲν ἔτι βραχεῖα ἡ συλλαβή, πλὴν οὐχ ὁμοίως, ἀλλ’ ἕξει τινὰ
παραλλαγὴν ἀκαρῆ παρὰ τὴν προτέραν. ἔτι προστεθήτω
ταύτῃ τῶν ἀφώνων γραμμάτων ἓν τὸ τ̄ καὶ γενέσθω τρόπος·
μείζων αὕτη τῶν προτέρων ἔσται συλλαβῶν καὶ ἔτι βραχεῖα      10
μένει. τρίτον ἔτι γράμμα τῇ αὐτῇ συλλαβῇ προστεθήτω τὸ
σ̄ καὶ γενέσθω στρόφος· τρισὶν αὕτη προσθήκαις ἀκουσταῖς
μακροτέρα γενήσεται τῆς βραχυτάτης μένουσα ἔτι βραχεῖα.
οὐκοῦν τέτταρες αὗται βραχείας συλλαβῆς διαφοραὶ τὴν
ἄλογον αἴσθησιν ἔχουσαι τῆς παραλλαγῆς μέτρον. ὁ δ’ αὐτὸς      15
λόγος καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς μακρᾶς. ἡ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ η̄ γινομένη συλλαβὴ
μακρὰ τὴν φύσιν οὖσα τεττάρων γραμμάτων προσθήκαις
παραυξηθεῖσα τριῶν μὲν προταττομένων, ἑνὸς δὲ ὑποταττομένου,
καθ’ ἣν λέγεται σπλήν, μείζων ἂν δήπου λέγοιτο εἶναι
τῆς προτέρας ἐκείνης τῆς μονογραμμάτου· μειουμένη γοῦν      20
αὖθις καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον τῶν προστεθέντων γραμμάτων τὰς
ἐπὶ τοὔλαττον παραλλαγὰς αἰσθητὰς ἂν ἔχοι. αἰτία δὲ τίς
ἐστι τοῦ μήτε τὰς μακρὰς ἐκβαίνειν τὴν αὑτῶν φύσιν μέχρι
γραμμάτων πέντε μηκυνομένας μήτε τὰς βραχείας εἰς ἓν ἀπὸ
πολλῶν γραμμάτων συστελλομένας ἐκπίπτειν τῆς βραχύτητος,      25
ἀλλὰ κἀκείνας ἐν διπλασίῳ λόγῳ θεωρεῖσθαι τῶν βραχειῶν
καὶ ταύτας ἐν ἡμίσει τῶν μακρῶν, οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον ἐν τῷ
παρόντι σκοπεῖν. ἀρκεῖ γὰρ ὅσον εἰς τὴν παροῦσαν ὑπόθεσιν
ἥρμοττεν εἰρῆσθαι, ὅτι διαλλάττει καὶ βραχεῖα συλλαβὴ

[153]

more than one kind of length and shortness of syllables: some are longer than the long and some shorter than the short. And this will be made clear by consideration of the examples which I am about to adduce.

It will be admitted that a syllable is short which is formed by the short vowel ο, as, for example, in the word ὁδός. To this let the semi-vowel ρ be prefixed and Ῥόδος be formed. The syllable still remains short; but not equally so, for it will show some slight difference when compared with the former. Further, let one of the mutes, τ, be prefixed and τρόπος be formed. This again will be longer than the former syllables; yet it still remains short. Let still a third letter, σ, be prefixed to the same syllable and στρόφος be formed. This will have become longer than the shortest syllable by three audible prefixes; and yet it still remains short. So, then, here are four grades of short syllables, with only our instinctive feeling for quantity as a measure of the difference. The same principle applies to the long syllable. The syllable formed from η, though long by nature, yet when augmented by the addition of four letters, three prefixed and one suffixed, as in the word σπλήν, would surely be said to be ampler than that syllable, in its original form, that consisted of a single letter. At all events, if it were in turn deprived, one by one, of the added letters, it would show perceptible changes in the way of diminution. As to the reason why long syllables do not transcend their natural quality when lengthened to five letters, nor short syllables drop from their shortness when reduced from many letters to one, the former being still regarded as double the shorts, and the latter as half the longs,—this does not at present demand examination. It is sufficient to say what is really germane to the present subject, namely, that one short syllable

4 δὴ] δεῖ P || βραχεῖα EM: βραχέα F: βραχεῖαν PV || συλλαβὴν PV   5 γράμμα βραχὺ EF: βραχὺ γράμμα V: γράμμα P || προστεθήτω EPV: προστιθέτω M: τίς προσθέτω F   8 ἀκαρὴ P: ἀκαρεὶ MV: om. EF || προστεθήτω EPMV: προσθέτω F   9 ἓν EF: om. PMV   15 ἄλογον EFV: ἀνάλογον PM   19 μείζονα ἂν F   20 μειουμένη] μειουμένης P: μειουμένων M || γ’ οὖν αὖθις P, M: τε οὖν αὖθις F: τε αὖ πάλιν E: δ’ αὖ πάλιν V   21 ἓν PMV: om. EF   22 τοὔλαττον] τὸ λεῖπον PM || τίς ex τί corr. F: ἣ τίς PM, V   23 αὐτῶν F: ἑαυτῶν PMV   24 ε̄ μηκυνομένας ... (25) γραμμάτων om. F || πέντε Uptonus, ε̄ Us.: ἑπτὰ PM: δ̄ V

2. Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 84 “sit in hoc quoque aliquid fortasse momenti, quod et longis longiores et brevibus sunt breviores syllabae; ut, quamvis neque plus duobus temporibus neque uno minus habere videantur, ideoque in metris omnes breves longaeque inter sese sint pares, lateat tamen nescio quid, quod supersit aut desit. nam versuum propria condicio est, ideoque in his quaedam etiam communes.”

8. ἀκαρῆ: cp. de Isocr. c. 20 ἀκαρῆ δέ τινα ... ἐνθυμήματα.

12. τρισὶν ... προσθήκαις: the meaning apparently is that the first prefix increases the length by one augmentation; the second, by two; the third, by three. αὕτη = ἡ συλλαβή στρόφ-.

22. ἐπὶ τοὔλαττον: cp. Aristot. Eth. Nic. ii. 7. 12 ἡ δὲ προσποίησις ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον ἀλαζονεία καὶ ὁ ἔχων αὐτὴν ἀλαζών, ἡ δ’ ἐπὶ τὸ ἔλαττον εἰρωνεία καὶ εἴρων [ὁ ἔχων], iv. 7. 14 οἱ δ’ εἴρωνες ἐπὶ τὸ ἔλαττον λέγοντες χαριέστεροι μὲν τὰ ἤθη φαίνονται; and Long. de Sublim. c. 38 αἱ δ’ ὑπερβολαὶ καθάπερ ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον, οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τοὔλαττον.

26. θεωρεῖσθαι here (and in 204 3, 210 9) may perhaps supply a parallel (though not a complete one) of the kind desired in Classical Quarterly i. 41 n. 1.

βραχείας καὶ μακρὰ μακρᾶς καὶ οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχει δύναμιν
οὔτ’ ἐν λόγοις ψιλοῖς οὔτ’ ἐν ποιήμασιν ἢ μέλεσιν διὰ μέτρων
ἢ ῥυθμῶν κατασκευαζομένοις πᾶσα βραχεῖα καὶ πᾶσα μακρά.

πρῶτον μὲν δὴ θεώρημα τοῦτο τῶν ἐν ταῖς συλλαβαῖς
παθῶν· ἕτερον δὲ τοιόνδε· τῶν γραμμάτων πολλὰς ἐχόντων      5
διαφορὰς οὐ μόνον περὶ τὰ μήκη καὶ τὰς βραχύτητας ἀλλὰ
καὶ περὶ τοὺς ἤχους, ὑπὲρ ὧν ὀλίγῳ πρότερον εἴρηκα, πᾶσα
ἀνάγκη καὶ τὰς ἐκ τούτων συνισταμένας συλλαβὰς ἢ διὰ
τούτων πλεκομένας ἅμα τήν τε ἰδίαν ἑκάστου σῴζειν δύναμιν
καὶ τὴν κοινὴν ἁπάντων, ἣ γίνεται διὰ τῆς κράσεώς τε καὶ      10
παραθέσεως αὐτῶν· ἐξ ὧν μαλακαί τε φωναὶ γίνονται καὶ
σκληραὶ καὶ λεῖαι καὶ τραχεῖαι, γλυκαίνουσαί τε τὴν ἀκοὴν
καὶ πικραίνουσαι, καὶ στύφουσαι καὶ διαχέουσαι, καὶ πᾶσαν
ἄλλην κατασκευάζουσαι διάθεσιν φυσικήν· αὗται δ’ εἰσὶ μυρίαι
τὸ πλῆθος ὅσαι.      15

ταῦτα δὴ καταμαθόντες οἱ χαριέστατοι ποιητῶν τε καὶ
συγγραφέων τὰ μὲν αὐτοὶ κατασκευάζουσιν ὀνόματα συμπλέκοντες
ἐπιτηδείως ἀλλήλοις, τὰ δὲ γράμματα καὶ τὰς συλλαβὰς
οἰκείας οἷς ἂν βούλωνται παραστῆσαι πάθεσιν ποικίλως
φιλοτεχνοῦσιν, ὡς ποιεῖ πολλάκις Ὅμηρος, ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν      20
προσηνέμων αἰγιαλῶν τῇ παρεκτάσει τῶν συλλαβῶν τὸν
ἄπαυστον ἐκφαίνειν βουλόμενος ἦχον

ἠϊόνες βοόωσιν ἐρευγομένης ἁλὸς ἔξω·

[155]

may differ from another short, and one long from another long, and that every short and every long syllable has not the same quality either in prose, or in poems, or in songs, whether these be metrically or rhythmically constructed.

The foregoing is the first aspect under which we view the different qualities of syllables. The next is as follows. As letters have many points of difference, not only in length and shortness, but also in sound—points of which I have spoken a little while ago—it must necessarily follow that the syllables, which are combinations or interweavings of letters, preserve at once both the individual properties of each component, and the joint properties of all, which spring from their fusion and juxtaposition. The sounds thus formed are soft or hard, smooth or rough, sweet to the ear or harsh to it; they make us pull a wry face, or cause our mouths to water, or bring about any of the countless other physical conditions that are possible.

These facts the greatest poets and prose-writers have carefully noted, and not only do they deliberately arrange their words and weave them into appropriate patterns, but often, with curious and loving skill, they adapt the very syllables and letters to the emotions which they wish to represent. This is Homer’s way when he is describing a wind-swept beach and wishes to express the ceaseless reverberation by the prolongation of syllables:—

Echo the cliffs, as bursteth the sea-surge down on the strand.[131]

1 οὐ F: οὔτε PMV   2 μέτρων ἢ ῥυθμῶν F: ῥυθμῶν ἢ μέτρων PMV   8 καὶ EF: om. PMV   10 καὶ (posterius) EF: καὶ τῆς PMV   13 πᾶσαν EFM: πᾶσαν τὴν PV   16 δὴ PMV: ἤδη EF   17 αὐτοὶ EF: αὐτοί τε PMV   18 τὰ δὲ FM: τὰ EPV   19 οἰκείας F: δὲ οἰκείας E: οἰκείως PM: δὲ οἰκείως V   20 τῶν EF: om. PMV   21 τὸν om. P   22 ἐκφαίνειν EF: ἐμφαίνειν PMV

1. H. Richards (Classical Review xix. 252) suggests οὔτι, in place of the οὔτε of PMV and the οὐ of F.

3. If this passage (from 152 4 up to this point) be taken in connexion with one from the scholia to Hephaestion and another from Marius Victorinus (see Goodell’s Greek Metric pp. 6, 7), we find the following difference indicated as between the school of the metrici and that of the rhythmici: “The metrici considered the long syllable as always twice the length of the short; whatever variation from this ratio the varying constitution of syllables produced was treated as too slight to affect the general flow of verse. The rhythmici, on the other hand, held that long syllables differed greatly from each other in quantity, and that short syllables differed from each other in some degree, apart from variations in tempo. The doctrine of ἀλογία or irrationality, whereby some syllables were longer or shorter by a small undefined amount than the complete long, was associated by some with this theory, as in a passage of Dionysius Halic. (C. V. c. 17 οἱ δ’ ἀπὸ τῆς μακρᾶς ... τῶν πάνυ καλῶν οἱ ῥυθμοί: cp. c. 20 ibid.). Some, at least, affirmed also that a single consonant required half the time of a short vowel, and that two consonants or a double consonant required the same time as a short vowel; those writers accordingly set up a scale of measurement for syllables, simply counting the number of time-units required, on this theory, by the constituent vowels and consonants,” Goodell Greek Metric pp. 8, 9.

20. Cp. the use of the long o in such passages as Virg. Aen. iii. 670 ff. “verum ubi nulla datur dextra adfectare potestas | nec potis Ionios fluctus aequare sequendo, | clamorem immensum tollit, quo pontus et omnes | contremuere undae”; v. 244 ff. “tum satus Anchisa cunctis ex more vocatis | victorem magna praeconis voce Cloanthum | declarat viridique advelat tempora lauro, | muneraque in navis ternos optare iuvencos | vinaque et argenti magnum dat ferre talentum.” See also Demetr. p. 42 for A. C. Bradley’s comments on Virgil’s line “tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.”

23. Aristotle (Poetics c. 22) points out that it would be disastrous to substitute the trivial κράζουσιν for βοόωσιν in this passage.—With regard to the sound of the line cp. schol. on Il. xvii. 265 καὶ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν κῦμα μέγα θαλάσσης ἐπιφερόμενον ποταμοῦ ῥεύματι καὶ τῷ ἀνακόπτεσθαι βρυχώμενον, καὶ τὰς ἑκατέρωθεν τοῦ ποταμοῦ θαλασσίας ἠϊόνας ἠχούσας, ὃ ἐμιμήσατο διὰ τῆς ἐπεκτάσεως τοῦ βοόωσιν. αὕτη ἡ εἰκὼν Πλάτωνος ἔκαυσε τὰ ποιήματα· οὕτως ἐναργέστερον τοῦ ὁρωμένου τὸ ἀκουόμενον παρέστησεν ... τῆς γὰρ ἐπαλλήλου τῶν ὑδάτων ἐκβολῆς ἡ τοῦ “βοόωσιν” ἀναδίπλωσις ὁμοίαν ἀπετέλεσε συνῳδίαν.

ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ τετυφλωμένου Κύκλωπος τό τε τῆς ἀλγηδόνος
μέγεθος καὶ τὴν διὰ τῶν χειρῶν βραδεῖαν ἔρευναν τῆς τοῦ
σπηλαίου θύρας

Κύκλωψ δὲ στενάχων τε καὶ ὠδίνων ὀδύνῃσιν,
χερσὶ ψηλαφόων·      5

καὶ ἄλλοθί που δέησιν ἐνδείξασθαι βουλόμενος πολλὴν καὶ
κατεσπουδασμένην

οὐδ’ εἴ κεν μάλα πολλὰ πάθῃ ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων,
προπροκυλινδόμενος πατρὸς Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο.

μυρία ἔστιν εὑρεῖν παρ’ αὐτῷ τοιαῦτα, χρόνου μῆκος ἢ      10
σώματος μέγεθος ἢ πάθους ὑπερβολὴν ἢ στάσεως ἠρεμίαν ἢ
τῶν παραπλησίων τι δηλοῦντα παρ’ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἕτερον ἢ τὰς
τῶν συλλαβῶν κατασκευάς· καὶ ἄλλα τούτοις ἐναντίως εἰργασμένα
εἰς βραχύτητα καὶ τάχος καὶ σπουδὴν καὶ τὰ τούτοις
ὁμοιογενῆ, ὡς ἔχει ταυτί      15

ἀμβλήδην γοόωσα μετὰ δμωῇσιν ἔειπεν

καὶ

ἡνίοχοι δ’ ἔκπληγεν, ἐπεὶ ἴδον ἀκάματον πῦρ.

ἐφ’ ἧς μὲν γὰρ ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος δηλοῦται συγκοπὴ καὶ τὸ
τῆς φωνῆς ἄτακτον, ἐφ’ ὧν δ’ ἡ τῆς διανοίας ἔκστασις καὶ τὸ      20
τοῦ δείματος ἀπροσδόκητον· ποιεῖ δὲ τούτων ἑκάτερον ἡ τῶν
συλλαβῶν τε καὶ γραμμάτων ἐλάττωσις.

[157]

Or again when, after the Cyclops has been blinded, Homer desires to express the greatness of his anguish, and his hands’ slow search for the door of the cavern:—

The Cyclops, with groan on groan and throes of anguish sore,
With hands slow-groping.[132]

And when in another place he wishes to indicate a long impassioned prayer:—

Not though in an agony Phoebus the Smiter from Far should entreat
Low-grovelling at Father Zeus the Aegis-bearer’s feet.[133]

Such lines are to be found without number in Homer, representing length of time, hugeness of body, stress of emotion, immobility of position, or similar effects, simply by the manipulation of the syllables. Conversely, others are framed to give the impression of abruptness, speed, hurry, and the like. For instance,

Wailing with broken sobs amidst of her handmaids she cried,[134]

and

And scared were the charioteers, that tireless flame to behold.[135]

In the first passage the stoppage of Andromache’s breath is indicated, and the tremor of her voice; in the second, the startled dismay of the charioteers, and the unexpectedness of the terror. The effect in both cases is due to the docking of syllables and letters.

1 τετυφλωμένου E: τετυφωμένου F: τυφλουμένου PMV   2 τὴν διὰ EMV: διὰ τὴν FP   8 πάθῃ EF: πάθοι PMV Hom.   10 εὑρεῖν om. F   11 ἠρεμίαν] ὁμιλίαν FM   15 ὁμοιογενῆ F: ὁμο*γενῆ P: ὁμογενῆ MV   16 δμωιῆισιν P: Τρῴῃσιν Hom.   18 ἔκπληγον PMV   19 ἧς F: ὧν PMV   20 ἔκστασις FM: ἔκτασις PV   21 δείγματος PV

1. ἀλγηδών: a somewhat poetical word, though used by Herodotus and Plato. Its use in a highly figurative passage of Herodotus (v. 18) is censured in the de Sublim. iv. 7 καὶ τὸ Ἡροδότειον οὐ πόρρω, τὸ φάναι τὰς καλὰς γυναῖκας “ἀλγηδόνας ὀφθαλμῶν.”

4. In these lines, and in 154 23, the reiteration of the long ω, and of the long η, is particularly to be noted.

9. προπροκυλινδόμενος: imitated by Ap. Rhod. Argon. i. 386 προπροβιαζόμενοι, and ii. 595 προπροκαταΐγδην. Cp. Odyss. xvii. 524 ἔνθεν δὴ νῦν δεῦρο τόδ’ ἵκετο πήματα πάσχων, | προπροκυλινδόμενος.

10. χρόνου μῆκος: cp. Virg. Aen. i. 272 “hic iam ter centum totos regnabitur annos,” and iii. 284 “interea magnum sol circumvolvitur annum.”

11. σώματος μέγεθος: cp. Virg. Aen. vii. 783 “ipse inter primos praestanti corpore Turnus.”—πάθους ὑπερβολήν: cp. Virg. Aen. ix. 475 “at subitus miserae calor ossa reliquit, | excussi manibus radii revolutaque pensa.”

12. A blending of (1) παρ’ οὐδὲν οὕτως ὡς, (2) παρ’ οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἤ.

16. Cp. Virg. Aen. ix. 477 “evolat infelix et femineo ululatu | scissa comam muros amens atque agmina cursu | prima petit,” etc.

18. Batteux (Réflexions pp. 219-21) quotes and analyzes the well-known passage of Racine’s Phèdre (v. 6) which begins: “Un effroyable cri, sorti du fond des flots, | Des airs en ce moment a troublé le repos.” He says: “Dans le dernier morceau de Racine qui peint l’objet terrible, il n’y a pas un vers qui n’ait le caractère de la chose exprimée. Ce sont des sons aigus et perçans, des syllabes chargée de consonnes, et de consonnes épaisses: sorti du fond des flots; notre sang s’est glacé; L’onde approche, se brise; Son front large est armé. Des mots qui se heurtent: effroyable cri; cri redoutable; le crin s’est hérissé. D’autres mots larges et spacieux: Cependant, sur le dos de la plaine liquide, S’élève à gros bouillons (S’élève rejeté à l’autre vers comme celui-ci de Despréaux, S’élève un lit de plume) une montaigne humide; cornes menaçantes; écailles jaunissantes; Indomptable taureau, dragon impétueux. Des syllabes qui se renversent les unes sur le autres: Sa croupe se recourbe en replis tortueux. Ce vers, dans un poëme ancient, eût été célébré de siècle en siècle.”

XVI
καὶ αὐτοὶ μὲν δὴ κατασκευάζουσιν οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ λογογράφοι
πρὸς χρῆμα ὁρῶντες οἰκεῖα καὶ δηλωτικὰ τῶν ὑποκειμένων
τὰ ὀνόματα, ὥσπερ ἔφην· πολλὰ δὲ καὶ παρὰ τῶν
ἔμπροσθεν λαμβάνουσιν ὡς ἐκεῖνοι κατεσκεύασαν, ὅσα μιμητικὰ
τῶν πραγμάτων ἐστίν· ὡς ἔχει ταυτί      5

ῥόχθει γὰρ μέγα κῦμα ποτὶ ξερὸν ἠπείροιο.

αὐτὸς δὲ κλάγξας πέτετο πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο.

αἰγιαλῷ μεγάλῳ βρέμεται, σμαραγεῖ δέ τε πόντος.

σκέπτετ’ ὀιστῶν τε ῥοῖζον καὶ δοῦπον ἀκόντων.

μεγάλη δὲ τούτων ἀρχὴ καὶ διδάσκαλος ἡ φύσις ἡ ποιοῦσα      10
μιμητικοὺς καὶ θετικοὺς ἡμᾶς τῶν ὀνομάτων, οἷς δηλοῦται τὰ
πράγματα κατά τινας εὐλόγους καὶ κινητικὰς τῆς διανοίας
ὁμοιότητας· ὑφ’ ἧς ἐδιδάχθημεν ταύρων τε μυκήματα λέγειν
καὶ χρεμετισμοὺς ἵππων καὶ φριμαγμοὺς τράγων πυρός τε

[159]

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. XTU^2, 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 EM^2V   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.

XVII
ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς ἔφην οὐ μικρὰν μοῖραν ἔχειν      5
τῆς ἀξιωματικῆς καὶ μεγαλοπρεποῦς συνθέσεως, ἵνα μηδεὶς
εἰκῇ με δόξῃ λέγειν ῥυθμοὺς καὶ μέτρα μουσικῆς οἰκεῖα θεωρίας
εἰς οὐ ῥυθμικὴν οὐδ’ ἔμμετρον εἰσάγοντα διάλεκτον, ἀποδώσω
καὶ τὸν ὑπὲρ τούτων λόγον. ἔχει δ’ οὕτως·

πᾶν ὄνομα καὶ ῥῆμα καὶ ἄλλο μόριον λέξεως, ὅ τι μὴ      10
μονοσύλλαβόν ἐστιν, ἐν ῥυθμῷ τινι λέγεται· τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ καλῶ
πόδα καὶ ῥυθμόν. δισυλλάβου μὲν οὖν λέξεως διαφοραὶ τρεῖς.
ἢ γὰρ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἔσται βραχειῶν ἢ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων μακρῶν
ἢ τῆς μὲν βραχείας, τῆς δὲ μακρᾶς. τοῦ δὲ τρίτου τούτου
ῥυθμοῦ διττὸς ὁ τρόπος· ὁ μέν τις ἀπὸ βραχείας ἀρχόμενος      15
καὶ λήγων εἰς μακράν, ὁ δ’ ἀπὸ μακρᾶς καὶ λήγων εἰς βραχεῖαν.
ὁ μὲν οὖν βραχυσύλλαβος ἡγεμών τε καὶ πυρρίχιος
καλεῖται, καὶ οὔτε μεγαλοπρεπής ἐστιν οὔτε σεμνός· σχῆμα
δ’ αὐτοῦ τοιόνδε

λέγε δὲ σὺ κατὰ πόδα νεόχυτα μέλεα.      20

[169]

think there is need to multiply examples. All his Catalogue of the towns is on the same high level, and so are many other passages in which, being compelled to take words not naturally beautiful, he places them in a setting of beautiful ones, and neutralizes their offensiveness by the shapeliness of the others. On this branch of my subject I have now said enough.

CHAPTER XVII

ON RHYTHMS, OR FEET

I have mentioned that rhythm contributes in no small degree to dignified and impressive composition; and I will treat of this point also. Let no one suppose that rhythm and metre belong to the science of song only; that ordinary speech is neither rhythmical nor metrical; and that I am going astray in introducing those subjects here.

In point of fact, every noun, verb, or other part of speech, which does not consist of a single syllable only, is uttered in some sort of rhythm. (I am here using “rhythm” and “foot” as convertible terms.) A disyllabic word may take three different forms. It may have both syllables short, or both long, or one short and the other long. Of this third rhythm there are two forms: one beginning in a short and ending in a long, the other beginning in a long and ending in a short. The one which consists of two shorts is called hegemon or pyrrhich, and is neither impressive nor solemn. Its character is as follows:—

Pick up the limbs at thy feet newly-scattered.[149]

1 αὐτῷ Toupius: αὐτῶν libri   6 μηδεὶς EF: μή κέ (καὶ M^2) τις PM: μή μέ τις V   7 με om. PMV   10 καὶ ῥῆμα om. P   12 τέσσαρες E   13 βραχέων FM   20 νεόχυτα EF: νεόλυτα PMV

1. Usener’s αὐτῷ (“all his Catalogue is on the same high level”) is perhaps preferable to the manuscript reading αὐτῶν, which, however, may be taken to refer to πόλεσιν (166 13). Usener’s suggestion has, it should be pointed out, been anticipated by Toup (ad Longin. p. 296).

5. In this chapter Dionysius seems to have specially in view Aristotle’s Rhetoric iii. 8 (cp. note on 255 25 infra) and the Ῥυθμικὰ στοιχεῖα of Aristoxenus. But his general standpoint probably comes nearer to that of Aristophanes of Byzantium and Dionysius Thrax: he is, that is to say, primarily a metrist and a grammarian, and at times looks upon the rhythmists and musicians with some distrust.

11, 12. Dionysius agrees here with Aristoxenus, Ῥυθμικὰ στοιχεῖα ii. 16 ᾧ δὲ σημαινόμεθα τὸν ῥυθμὸν καὶ γνώριμον ποιοῦμεν τῇ αἰσθήσει, πούς ἐστιν εἷς ἢ πλείους ἑνός: and § 18 ibid. ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἐξ ἑνὸς χρόνου ποὺς οὐκ ἂν εἴη φανερόν, κτλ.

17. See Introduction (p. 6 supra) for a classified list of the metrical feet mentioned in this chapter. Voss says as to the πυρρίχιος, “nullum ex eo alicuius momenti constitui potest carmen, cum numero et pondere paene careat. aptus dumtaxat ad celeres motus exprimendos, cuius modi erant armati saltus Corybantum apud Graecos, et Saliorum apud Romanos”; see also Hermog. II. ἰδ. i. (Walz iii. p. 293, lines 1-11). Some sensible remarks on the whole question are made by Quintil. ix. 4. 87: “miror autem in hac opinione doctissimos homines fuisse, ut alios pedes ita eligerent aliosque damnarent, quasi ullus esset, quem non sit necesse in oratione deprehendi. licet igitur paeona sequatur Ephorus, inventum a Thrasymacho, probatum ab Aristotele, dactylumque, ut temperatos brevibus ac longis; fugiat molossum et trochaeum, alterius tarditate alterius celeritate damnata; herous, qui est idem dactylus, Aristoteli amplior, iambus humanior videatur; trochaeum ut nimis currentem damnet eique cordacis nomen imponat; eademque dicant Theodectes ac Theophrastus, similia post eos Halicarnasseus Dionysius: irrumpent etiam ad invitos, nec semper illis heroo aut paeone suo, quem, quia versum raro facit, maxime laudant, uti licebit. ut sint tamen aliis alii crebriores, non verba facient, quae neque augeri nec minui nec sicuti modulatione produci aut corripi possint, sed transmutatio et collocatio.”

20. λέγε δὲ σύ κτλ.: source unknown; perhaps the reference is to the tearing of Pentheus limb from limb.—A similar line in Latin would be: “id agite peragite celeriter,” Marius Victorinus Ars Gramm. iii. 1.

ὁ δ’ ἀμφοτέρας τὰς συλλαβὰς μακρὰς ἔχων κέκληται μὲν
σπονδεῖος, ἀξίωμα δ’ ἔχει μέγα καὶ σεμνότητα πολλήν·
παράδειγμα δ’ αὐτοῦ τόδε

ποίαν δῆθ’ ὁρμάσω, ταύταν
ἢ κείναν, κείναν ἢ ταύταν;      5

ὁ δ’ ἐκ βραχείας τε καὶ μακρᾶς συγκείμενος ἐὰν μὲν τὴν
ἡγουμένην λάβῃ βραχεῖαν, ἴαμβος καλεῖται, καὶ ἔστιν οὐκ
ἀγεννής· ἐὰν δ’ ἀπὸ τῆς μακρᾶς ἄρχηται, τροχαῖος, καὶ ἔστι
μαλακώτερος θατέρου καὶ ἀγεννέστερος· παράδειγμα δὲ τοῦ
μὲν προτέρου τοιόνδε      10

ἐπεὶ σχολὴ πάρεστι, παῖ Μενοιτίου.

τοῦ δ’ ἑτέρου

θυμέ, θύμ’ ἀμηχάνοισι κήδεσιν κυκώμενε.

δισυλλάβων μὲν δὴ μορίων λέξεως διαφοραί τε καὶ ῥυθμοὶ
καὶ σχήματα τοσαῦτα· τρισυλλάβων δ’ ἕτερα πλείω τῶν      15
εἰρημένων καὶ ποικιλωτέραν ἔχοντα θεωρίαν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐξ
ἁπασῶν βραχείων συνεστώς, καλούμενος δὲ ὑπό τινων χορεῖος
[τρίβραχυς πούς], οὗ παράδειγμα τοιόνδε

Βρόμιε, δορατοφόρ’, ἐνυάλιε, πολεμοκέλαδε,

ταπεινός τε καὶ ἄσεμνός ἐστι καὶ ἀγεννής, καὶ οὐδὲν ἂν ἐξ      20

[171]

That which has both its syllables long is called a spondee, and possesses great dignity and much stateliness. Here is an example of it:—

Ah, which way must I haste?—had I best flee
By this path? or by that path shall it be?[150]

That which is composed of a short and a long is called iambus if it has the first syllable short; it is not ignoble. If it begins with the long syllable, it is called a trochee, and is less manly than the other and more ignoble. The following is an example of the former:—

My leisure serves me now, Menoetius’ son.[151]

Of the other:—

Heart of mine, O heart in turmoil with a throng of crushing cares![152]

These are all the varieties, rhythms, and forms of disyllabic words. Those of the trisyllabic are distinct; they are more numerous than those mentioned, and the study of them is more complicated. First comes that which consists entirely of short syllables, and is called by some choree (or tribrach), of which the following is an example:—

Bromius, wielder of spears,
Lord of war and the onset-cheers.[153]

This foot is mean and wanting in dignity and nobility, and

5 ἢ κείναν κείναν ἢ ταύταν PMV: ἢ κείναν ἢ ταύταν E, F   10 μὲν om. PMV   11 ἐπεὶ σχολὴ EMV: ἐπὶ σχολῆι FP   13 κήδεσι κεκυκώμενε sic F   14 μὲν EPMV: om. F   17 χορεῖος MV: om. FP   18 τρίβραχυς] τροχαῖος F. uncinis includendum vel τρίβραχυς πούς vel χορεῖος tamquam glossema quod, margini olim adscriptum, in textum postea irrepserit   20 καὶ ἀγεννής om. P

2. The high rank assigned to the spondee is noted in schol. anon. ad Hermog. II. ἰδ. (Walz Rhett. Gr. vii. 1049): τάττει (sc. Διονύσιος) δὲ τὸν σπονδεῖον μετ’ αὐτῶν (sc. μετὰ τῶν καλῶν ῥυθμῶν).—For Dionysius’ view of the spondee and other feet see also Walz viii. 980 Διονύσιος μὲν ἐν τῷ περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων φησὶν ὅτι ὁ δάκτυλος κτλ.

4. Euripides’ Hec. 162-4 runs thus in G. G. A. Murray’s text:—
ποίαν ἢ ταύταν ἢ κείναν
στείχω; †ποῖ δ’ ἥσω; †ποῦ τις θεῶν
†ἢ δαιμόνων †ἐπαρωγός;

As the editor remarks later, “metrum nec in se perfectum,” etc. See also Porson’s note on the same passage of the Hecuba.—For a Latin spondaic line cp. Ennius “olli respondit rex Albai longai” (Annal. Reliq. i. 31 Vahlen).

7. The iambus and the trochee abound in ordinary speech, and must therefore be used in oratory with moderation: cp. Cic. de Oratore iii. 47 “nam cum sint numeri plures, iambum et trochaeum frequentem segregat ab oratore Aristoteles, Catule, vester, qui natura tamen incurrunt ipsi in orationem sermonemque nostrum; sed sunt insignes percussiones eorum numerorum et minuti pedes”; Orator 56. 189 “versus saepe in oratione per imprudentiam dicimus; quod vehementer est vitiosum, sed non attendimus neque exaudimus nosmet ipsos; senarios vero et Hipponacteos effugere vix possumus; magnam enim partem ex iambis nostra constat oratio”; Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 4 ὁ δ’ ἴαμβος αὐτή ἐστιν ἡ λέξις ἡ τῶν πολλῶν· διὸ μάλιστα πάντων τῶν μέτρων ἰαμβεῖα φθέγγονται λέγοντες: Poet. iv. 14 μάλιστα γὰρ λεκτικὸν τῶν μέτρων τὸ ἰαμβεῖόν ἐστιν· σημεῖον δὲ τούτου· πλεῖστα γὰρ ἰαμβεῖα λέγομεν ἐν τῇ διαλέκτῳ τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἑξάμετρα δὲ ὀλιγάκις καὶ ἐκβαίνοντες τῆς λεκτικῆς ἁρμονίας: Demetr. de Eloc. § 43 ὁ δὲ ἴαμβος εὐτελὴς καὶ τῇ τῶν πολλῶν λέξει ὅμοιος. πολλοὶ γοῦν μέτρα ἰαμβικὰ λαλοῦσιν οὐκ εἰδότες.

9. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8 ὁ δὲ τροχαῖος κορδακικώτερος· δηλοῖ δὲ τὰ τετράμετρα· ἔστι γὰρ ῥυθμὸς τροχαῖος τὰ τετράμετρα.

11. As in Hor. Epod. ii. 1 “Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis.”

13. This line of Archilochus is preserved (together with the six that follow it) in Stobaeus Florileg. i. 207 (Meineke). For a similar Latin trochaic verse see Marius Victorinus i. 12 “Roma, Roma cerne, quanta sit Deum benignitas.”

18. For the effect of tribrachs in Latin cp. Marius Victorinus i. 12 “nemus ave reticuit, ager homine sonat.”

20. καὶ ἀγεννής: these words are absent from P; perhaps rightly. They do not sort well with καὶ οὐδὲν ... γενναῖον.

αὐτοῦ γένοιτο γενναῖον. ὁ δ’ ἐξ ἁπασῶν μακρῶν, μολοττὸν δ’
αὐτὸν οἱ μετρικοὶ καλοῦσιν, ὑψηλός τε καὶ ἀξιωματικός ἐστι
καὶ διαβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ πολύ· παράδειγμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τοιόνδε

ὦ Ζηνὸς καὶ Λήδας κάλλιστοι σωτῆρες.

ὁ δ’ ἐκ μακρᾶς καὶ δυεῖν βραχειῶν μέσην μὲν λαβὼν τὴν      5
μακρὰν ἀμφίβραχυς ὠνόμασται, καὶ οὐ σφόδρα τῶν εὐσχήμων
ἐστὶ ῥυθμῶν ἀλλὰ διακέκλασταί τε καὶ πολὺ τὸ θῆλυ καὶ
ἀγεννὲς ἔχει, οἷά ἐστι ταυτί

Ἴακχε θρίαμβε, σὺ τῶνδε χοραγέ.

ὁ δὲ προλαμβάνων τὰς δύο βραχείας ἀνάπαιστος μὲν καλεῖται, 10 σεμνότητα δ’ ἔχει πολλήν· καὶ ἔνθα δεῖ μέγεθός τι περιτιθέναι τοῖς πράγμασιν ἢ πάθος, ἐπιτήδειός ἐστι παραλαμβάνεσθαι· τούτου τὸ σχῆμα τοιόνδε
βαρύ μοι κεφαλᾶς ἐ πίκρανον ἔχειν.

ὁ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς μακρᾶς ἀρχόμενος, λήγων δὲ εἰς τὰς βραχείας      15
δάκτυλος μὲν καλεῖται, πάνυ δ’ ἐστὶ σεμνὸς καὶ εἰς τὸ κάλλος
τῆς ἑρμηνείας ἀξιολογώτατος, καὶ τό γε ἡρωϊκὸν μέτρον ἀπὸ
τούτου κοσμεῖται ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ· παράδειγμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τόδε

Ἰλιόθεν με φέρων ἄνεμος Κικόνεσσι πέλασσεν.

οἱ μέντοι ῥυθμικοὶ τούτου τοῦ ποδὸς τὴν μακρὰν βραχυτέραν      20

[173]

nothing noble can be made out of it. But that which consists entirely of long syllables—molossus, as the metrists call it—is elevated and dignified, and has a mighty stride. The following is an example of it:—

O glorious saviours, Zeus’ and Leda’s sons.[154]

That which consists of a long and two shorts, with the long in the middle, bears the name of amphibrachys, and has no strong claim to rank with the graceful rhythms, but is enervated and has about it much that is feminine and ignoble, e.g.—

Triumphant Iacchus that leadest this chorus.[155]

That which commences with two shorts is called an anapaest, and possesses much dignity. Where it is necessary to invest a subject with grandeur or pathos, this foot may be appropriately used. Its form may be illustrated by—

Ah, the coif on mine head all too heavily weighs.[156]

That which begins with the long and ends with the shorts is called a dactyl; it is decidedly impressive, and remarkable for its power to produce beauty of style. It is to this that the heroic line is mainly indebted for its grace. Here is an example:—

Sped me from Ilium the breeze, and anigh the Ciconians brought me.[157]

The rhythmists, however, say that the long syllable in this foot

3 διαβεβηκῶς (ῶ suprascripto) P: διαβέβηκεν ὡς M^1: διαβεβηκὼς ὡς M^2V: διαβέβηκεν F || τοιόνδε F: τόδε PMV   5 δυεῖν P: δυοῖν MV: β F   6 μακρὰν F: μακρὰν ἑκατέρας τῶν βραχειῶν PMV || εὐσχήμων EF: εὐσχημόνων PMV   7 διακεκόλασται F: κέκλασται E   8 ἀγεννες P, M: ἀγενὲς V: ἀηδὲς F   9 θρίαμβε L. Dindorfius: διθύραμβε libri   11 μέγεθός τι F: μέγεθος PV: μεγέθη M || περιτιθέναι F: περιθεῖναι PMV   12 περιλαμβάνεσθαι F   14 κεφαλᾶς E: κεφαλὰς F: κεφαλῆς PMV || ἔχειν P: ἔχει EFMV   16 δάκτυλος EFM: δακτ̑ P: δακτυλικὸς V || τὸ κάλλος τῆς ἑρμηνείας EF: κάλλος ἁρμονίας PMV   17 ὑπὸ R

2. ἀξιωματικός: various modern examples of the rhythmical effect of long and short syllables will be found in Demetr., e.g. p. 219. Here may be added, from George Meredith’s Love in the Valley—

Thicker crowd the shades as the grave East deepens
Glowing, and with crimson a long cloud swells.
Maiden still the morn is; and strange she is, and secret;
Strange her eyes; her cheeks are cold as cold sea-shells.

Here the long syllables in italics may be contrasted with:

Deals she an unkindness, ’tis but her rapid measure, – ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ Even as in a dance; and her smile can heal no less.

9. Virg. Ecl. viii. 68 might be fancifully divided in such a way as to present several feet of this kind:

ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ “[ducite] ab urbe | domum me|a carmin|a, ducit|e Daphnim.”

16. Cp. Long. de Sublim. xxxix. 4 ὅλον τε γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν δακτυλικῶν εἴρηται ῥυθμῶν· εὐγενέστατοι δ’ οὗτοι καὶ μεγεθοποιοί, διὸ καὶ τὸ ἡρῷον, ὧν ἴσμεν κάλλιστον, μέτρον συνιστᾶσιν.

19. This is of course the very start of Odysseus’ adventures as recounted by himself. He sails away from Ilium on as many dactyls as possible.—For dactyls freely used in the Virgilian hexameter cp. Aen. ix. 503 “at tuba terribilem sonitum procul aere canoro [increpuit, etc.]”; Georg. iii. 284 “sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.”

20. τούτου τοῦ ποδός. “Unless a lacuna be assumed, a rather violent assumption, the phrase [i.e. τούτου τοῦ ποδός] must simply resume the αὐτοῦ just before the hexameter, the τούτου just before that, and the δάκτυλος two lines earlier, which immediately follows the phrase of description,” Goodell Greek Metric p. 172.

εἶναί φασι τῆς τελείας, οὐκ ἔχοντες δ’ εἰπεῖν ὅσῳ, καλοῦσιν
αὐτὴν ἄλογον. ἕτερός ἐστιν ἀντίστροφον ἔχων τούτῳ ῥυθμόν,
ὃς ἀπὸ τῶν βραχειῶν ἀρξάμενος ἐπὶ τὴν ἄλογον τελευτᾷ·
τοῦτον χωρίσαντες ἀπὸ τῶν ἀναπαίστων κυκλικὸν καλοῦσι
παράδειγμα αὐτοῦ φέροντες τοιόνδε      5

κέχυται πόλις ὑψίπυλος κατὰ γᾶν.

περὶ ὧν ἂν ἕτερος εἴη λόγος· πλὴν ἀμφότεροί γε τῶν πάνυ
καλῶν οἱ ῥυθμοί. ἓν ἔτι λείπεται τρισυλλάβων ῥυθμῶν γένος,
ὃ συνέστηκεν ἐκ δύο μακρῶν καὶ βραχείας, τρία δὲ ποιεῖ
σχήματα· μέσης μὲν γὰρ γινομένης τῆς βραχείας, ἄκρων δὲ      10
τῶν μακρῶν κρητικός τε λέγεται καὶ ἔστιν οὐκ ἀγεννής.
ὑπόδειγμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τοιοῦτον

οἱ δ’ ἐπείγοντο πλωταῖς ἀπήναισι χαλκεμβόλοις.

ἂν δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν αἱ δύο μακραὶ κατάσχωσιν, τὴν δὲ τελευτὴν
ἡ βραχεῖα, οἷά ἐστι ταυτί      15

σοὶ Φοῖβε Μοῦσαί τε σύμβωμοι,

ἀνδρῶδες πάνυ ἐστὶ τὸ σχῆμα καὶ εἰς σεμνολογίαν ἐπιτήδειον.
τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ συμβήσεται κἂν ἡ βραχεῖα πρώτη τεθῇ τῶν
μακρῶν· καὶ γὰρ οὗτος ὁ ῥυθμὸς ἀξίωμα ἔχει καὶ μέγεθος·
παράδειγμα δὲ αὐτοῦ τόδε      20

τίν’ ἀκτάν, τίν’ ὕλαν δράμω; ποῖ πορευθῶ;

τούτοις ἀμφοτέροις ὀνόματα κεῖται τοῖς ποσὶν ὑπὸ τῶν μετρικῶν
βακχεῖος μὲν τῷ προτέρῳ, θατέρῳ δὲ ὑποβάκχειος. οὗτοι
δώδεκα ῥυθμοί τε καὶ πόδες εἰσὶν οἱ πρῶτοι καταμετροῦντες

[175]

is shorter than the perfect long. Not being able to say by how much, they call it “irrational.” There is another foot having a rhythm corresponding to this, which starts with the short syllables and ends with the “irrational” one. This they distinguish from the anapaest and call it “cyclic,” adducing the following line as an example of it:—

On the earth is the high-gated city laid low.[158]

This question cannot be discussed here; but both rhythms are of the distinctly beautiful sort. One class of trisyllabic rhythms still remains, which is composed of two longs and a short. It takes three shapes. When the short is in the middle and the longs at the ends, it is called a cretic and has no lack of nobility. A sample of it is:—

On they sped, borne on sea-wains with prows brazen-beaked.[159]

But if the two long syllables occupy the beginning, and the short one the end, as in the line

Phoebus, to thee and the Muses worshipped with thee,[160]

the structure is exceptionally virile, and is appropriate for solemn language. The effect will be the same if the short be placed before the longs; for this foot also has dignity and grandeur. Here is an example of it:—

To what shore, to what grove shall I flee for refuge?[161]

To the former of these two feet the name of bacchius is assigned by the metrists, to the other that of hypobacchius. These are the twelve fundamental rhythms and feet which measure all

1 ὅσω F: πόσω PMV   2 ἕτερός ἐστιν F: ἕτερον δὲ PMV || ἔχων F: τινα PMV   3 ἐπὶ τὴν ἄλογον FP^1V: ἐπί τιν’ ἄλογον P^2: ἐπί τινα λόγον M || τελευτᾶι τοῦτον FM: τοῦτον τελευτᾷ V: τελευτᾶι P   4 κυκλικὸν FM^2: κύκλον PM^1V   6 ὑψί*πολος cum rasura F: ὑψίπυλον PMV   8 τρισύλλαβον F   9 συνέστηκεν F: συνέστηκε μὲν PMV || δὲ ποιεῖ F: δὲ ἔχει PV   12 τοιοῦτον PM: τοιόνδε FV   13 πρώταις FM^2 || ἀπήναισι EP: ἀπήνεσι MV: ἀπήνεσσι F || χαλκεμβόλοις EF: χαλκεμβόλοισιν PMV   14 ἂν F: ἐὰν PMV   15 ἡ F: om. PMV   16 σοὶ EPMV: σὺ F || σύμβωμοι EFMV: συμβῶμεν Ps   17 πάνυ ἐστὶ τὸ EF: δὲ πάνυ τοῦτο PMV || εἰσ σεμνότητα (σ pr. suprascripto) λογίαν P   18 πρώτη τεθῆι P, MV: συντεθῆι F   21 τίν’ ἀκτάν, τίν’ ὕλαν] τίνα γᾶν τινυδἂν F   22 τοῖς ποσὶν FPM: ῥυθμοῖς V   23 παλιμβάκχειος E

1. ὅσῳ: cp. 190 9, where there is the same divergence between F and PMV.

2, 4. See Glossary under ἄλογος and κυκλικός.

13. Usener suggests that this line may possibly come from the Persae of Timotheus, some newly-discovered fragments of which were issued by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in 1903.—Similarly, in Latin, cretics may be found in such lines of Terence as “tum coacti necessario se aperiunt” (Andr. iv. 1).

16.

– – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ᴗ “O Phoebus | O Muses | co-worshipped”

might give the metrical effect, in a rough and uncouth way. In Latin cp. “baccare, laetare praesente Frontone” (Rufinus de Metris Comicorum).

18. πρώτη τεθῇ τῶν μακρῶν, ‘at the head of’; cp. note on 98 7 supra.

21. After πορευθῶ P has a gap which would contain a dozen letters, and in the middle of the gap the original copyist has written οὐδ(ὲν) λείπ(ει).

ἅπασαν ἔμμετρόν τε καὶ ἄμετρον λέξιν, ἐξ ὧν γίνονται στίχοι
τε καὶ κῶλα· οἱ γὰρ ἄλλοι πόδες καὶ ῥυθμοὶ πάντες ἐκ
τούτων εἰσὶ σύνθετοι. ἁπλοῦς δὲ ῥυθμὸς ἢ ποὺς οὔτ’ ἐλάττων
ἔσται δύο συλλαβῶν οὔτε μείζων τριῶν. καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων
οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅτι δεῖ τὰ πλείω λέγειν.      5

XVIII
ὧν δ’ ἕνεκα νῦν ὑπήχθην ταῦτα προειπεῖν (οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὴν
ἄλλως γέ μοι προὔκειτο μετρικῶν καὶ ῥυθμικῶν ἅπτεσθαι
θεωρημάτων, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀναγκαίου ἕνεκα), ταῦτ’ ἐστίν, ὅτι διὰ
μὲν τῶν γενναίων καὶ ἀξιωματικῶν καὶ μέγεθος ἐχόντων
ῥυθμῶν ἀξιωματικὴ γίνεται σύνθεσις καὶ γενναία καὶ μεγαλοπρεπής,      10
διὰ δὲ τῶν ἀγεννῶν τε καὶ ταπεινῶν ἀμεγέθης τις
καὶ ἄσεμνος, ἐάν τε καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς ἕκαστοι τούτων λαμβάνωνται
τῶν ῥυθμῶν, ἐάν τε ἀλλήλοις κατὰ τὰς ὁμοζυγίας
συμπλέκωνται. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἔσται δύναμις ἐξ ἁπάντων τῶν
κρατίστων ῥυθμῶν συνθεῖναι τὴν λέξιν, ἔχοι ἂν ἡμῖν κατ’      15
εὐχήν· εἰ δ’ ἀναγκαῖον εἴη μίσγειν τοῖς κρείττοσι τοὺς
χείρονας, ὡς ἐπὶ πολλῶν γίνεται (τὰ γὰρ ὀνόματα κεῖται τοῖς
πράγμασιν ὡς ἔτυχεν), οἰκονομεῖν αὐτὰ χρὴ φιλοτέχνως καὶ
διακλέπτειν τῇ χάριτι τῆς συνθέσεως τὴν ἀνάγκην ἄλλως τε
καὶ πολλὴν τὴν ἄδειαν ἔχοντας· οὐ γὰρ ἀπελαύνεται ῥυθμὸς      20
οὐδεὶς ἐκ τῆς ἀμέτρου λέξεως, ὥσπερ ἐκ τῆς ἐμμέτρου.

μαρτύρια δὲ ὧν εἴρηκα παραθεῖναι λοιπόν, ἵνα μοι καὶ
πίστιν ὁ λόγος λάβῃ. ἔσται δ’ ὀλίγα περὶ πολλῶν. φέρε
δή, τίς οὐκ ἂν ὁμολογήσειεν ἀξιωματικῶς τε συγκεῖσθαι καὶ

[177]

language, metrical or unmetrical, and from them are formed lines and clauses. All other feet and rhythms are but combinations of these. A simple rhythm, or foot, will not be less than two syllables, nor will it exceed three. I do not know that more need be said on this subject.

CHAPTER XVIII

EFFECT OF VARIOUS RHYTHMS

The reason why I have been led to make these preliminary remarks (for certainly it was no part of my design to touch without due cause on metrical and rhythmical questions, but only so far as it was really necessary) is this, that it is through rhythms which are noble and dignified, and contain an element of greatness, that composition becomes dignified, noble, and splendid, while it is made a paltry and unimpressive sort of thing by the use of those rhythms that are ignoble and mean, whether they are taken severally by themselves, or are woven together according to their mutual affinities. If, then, it is within human capacity to frame the style entirely from the finest rhythms, our aspirations will be realized; but if it should prove necessary to blend the worse with the better, as happens in many cases (for names have been attached to things in a haphazard way), we must manage our material artistically. We must disguise our compulsion by the gracefulness of the composition: the more so that we have full liberty of action, since no rhythm is banished from non-metrical language, as some are from metrical.

It remains for me to produce proofs of my statements, in order that my argument may carry conviction. Wide as the field is, a few proofs will suffice. Thus it is surely beyond dispute

4 ἔσται EF: ἐστὶ PMV || δύο EF: δυεῖν P: δυοῖν MV   5 τὰ πλείω FM: πλείω PV   7 μετρικῶν καὶ ῥυθμικῶν F: ῥυθμικῶν (ῥυθμῶν MV) τε καὶ μετρικῶν PMV   10 γενναία F: βεβαία PMV   14 δῆλον post συμπλέκωνται praestant FMV: om. P || ἁπάντων τῶν PMV: ἁπάντων F   17 κεῖται F: ἔκκειται PM: ἔγκειται V   20 οὐ FP: οὐδὲ MV   23 ἔσται FPM: ἔστι V

3. ἁπλοῦς δὲ ... μείζων τριῶν. A. J. Ellis (p. 48) says, “This gives a simple and convenient rule for practising the quantitative pronunciation of words of more than three syllables.... The effect of quantity in prose is the most difficult thing for moderns to appreciate. Hence the only easy pronunciation of Greek is the modern, where quantity is entirely neglected, and a force-accent used precisely as in English.”

5. On the subject of metrical feet Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 8) is brief; Cicero (Orator cc. 63, 64) is fuller; while Dionysius in this chapter enters into still further details. Reference may also be made to Quintil. ix. 4. 45 ff. and to Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 38 ff.

6. This passage (down to l. 21) brings out clearly the importance of rhythm in prose-writing.

16. εἴη: the less agreeable alternative is pleasantly treated as though it were the more remote. Cp. εἴη on 166 8 (though there ἐγχωροίη stands in the earlier clause, 166 6).

17. H. Richards (Classical Review xix. 252) suggests ἐπίκειται (or σύγκειται), in order to account for the ἔκκειται of PM and the ἔγκειται of V.

21. Would not ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐκ τῆς ἐμμέτρου (or the like: cp. 100 18) be required if the meaning were “any more than from the metrical”? The author’s point is brought out more clearly in 192 21, 196 8, etc. Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 87, “miror autem in hac opinione doctissimos homines fuisse, ut alios pedes ita eligerent aliosque damnarent, quasi ullus esset, quem non sit necesse in oratione deprehendi” (the passage is more fully quoted on p. 169 supra).

23. περί: no change in the reading is necessary; cp. 200 4 ὀλίγα περὶ πολλῶν, and 136 6 ὀλίγα ὑπὲρ πολλῶν θεωρημάτων.

μεγαλοπρεπῶς τὴν Θουκυδίδου λέξιν τὴν ἐν τῷ ἐπιταφίῳ
ταύτην· “Οἱ μὲν πολλοὶ τῶν ἐνθάδε ἤδη εἰρηκότων ἐπαινοῦσι
τὸν προσθέντα τῷ νόμῳ τὸν λόγον τόνδε, ὡς καλὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς
ἐκ τῶν πολέμων θαπτομένοις ἀγορεύεσθαι αὐτόν.” τί οὖν
ἐστιν ὃ πεποίηκε ταύτην μεγαλοπρεπῆ τὴν σύνθεσιν; τὸ ἐκ      5
τοιούτων συγκεῖσθαι ῥυθμῶν τὰ κῶλα. τρεῖς μὲν γὰρ οἱ τοῦ
πρώτου προηγούμενοι κώλου σπονδεῖοι πόδες εἰσίν, ὁ δὲ
τέταρτος ἀνάπαιστος, ὁ δὲ μετὰ τοῦτον αὖθις σπονδεῖος, ἔπειτα
κρητικός, ἅπαντες ἀξιωματικοί. καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον κῶλον
διὰ ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ σεμνόν· τὸ δὲ ἑξῆς τουτί “ἐπαινοῦσι τὸν      10
προσθέντα τῷ νόμῳ τὸν λόγον τόνδε” δύο μὲν ὑποβακχείους
ἔχει τοὺς πρώτους πόδας, κρητικὸν δὲ τὸν τρίτον, εἶτ’
αὖθις ὑποβακχείους δύο καὶ συλλαβὴν ὑφ’ ἧς τελειοῦται τὸ
κῶλον· ὥστ’ εἰκότως σεμνόν ἐστι καὶ τοῦτο ἐκ τῶν εὐγενεστάτων
τε καὶ καλλίστων ῥυθμῶν συγκείμενον. τὸ δὲ δὴ      15
τρίτον κῶλον “ὡς καλὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐκ τῶν πολέμων θαπτομένοις
ἀγορεύεσθαι αὐτόν” ἄρχεται μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ κρητικοῦ
ποδός, δεύτερον δὲ λαμβάνει τὸν ἀνάπαιστον καὶ τρίτον
σπονδεῖον καὶ τέταρτον αὖθις ἀνάπαιστον, εἶτα δύο τοὺς ἑξῆς
δακτύλους, καὶ σπονδείους δύο τοὺς τελευταίους, εἶτα κατάληξιν.      20
εὐγενὲς δὴ καὶ τοῦτο διὰ τοὺς πόδας γέγονεν. τὰ

[179]

that the following passage in the Funeral Speech of Thucydides is composed with dignity and grandeur: “Former speakers on these occasions have usually commended the statesman who caused an oration to form part of this funeral ceremony: they have felt it a fitting tribute to men who were brought home for burial from the fields of battle where they fell.”[162] What has made the composition here so impressive? The fact that the clauses are composed of impressive rhythms. For the three feet which usher in the first clause are spondees, the fourth is an anapaest, the next a spondee once more, then a cretic,—all stately feet. Hence the dignity of the first clause. The next clause, “have usually commended the statesman who caused an oration to form part of this funeral ceremony,”[163] has two hypobacchii as its first feet, a cretic as its third, then again two hypobacchii, and a syllable by which the clause is completed; so that this clause too is naturally dignified, formed as it is of the noblest and most beautiful rhythms.

The third clause, “they have felt it a fitting tribute to men who were brought home for burial from the fields of battle where they fell,” begins with the cretic foot, has an anapaest in the second place, a spondee in the third, in the fourth an anapaest again, then two dactyls in succession, closing with two spondees and the terminal syllable. So this passage also owes its noble ring to its rhythmical structure; and most of the

2 ἤδη εἰρηκότων EP: ἤδη om. MV: εἰρηκότων ἤδη F (perperam: cf. vv. 6, 7)   3 τὸν (ante λόγον) om. F   9 κριτικός PM || πρῶτον FM: πρῶτον αὐτῶ PV   10 τοῦτο PMV   11 ὑποβακχείους ... αὖθις om. P   14 συγγενεστάτων P   21 δὴ PV: δὲ FM

3. τὸν προσθέντα κτλ.: viz. τὸν νομοθέτην, δηλονότι τὸν Σόλωνα (schol. ad Thucyd. ii. 35). Dionysius has this passage of Thucydides in view when he writes (Antiqq. Rom. v. 17) ὀψὲ γάρ ποτ’ Ἀθηναῖοι προσέθεσαν τὸν ἐπιτάφιον ἔπαινον τῷ νόμῳ, εἴτ’ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπ’ Ἀρτεμισίῳ καὶ περὶ Σαλαμῖνα καὶ ἐν Πλαταιαῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρίδος ἀποθανόντων ἀρξάμενοι, εἴτ’ ἀπὸ τῶν περὶ Μαραθῶνα ἔργων.—Bircovius illustrates the rhythmical effect of the Greek by a similar analysis of the exordium of Livy’s History, “facturusne operae pretium sim, si a primordio urbis res populi Romani perscripserim, nec satis scio nec, si sciam, dicere ausim, quippe qui cum veterem tum vulgatam esse rem videam, dum novi semper scriptores aut in rebus certius aliquid allaturos se aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem superaturos credunt.”

6. The first clause is clearly meant to be divided as follows:

– – – – – – ᴗ ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – οἱ μὲν | πολλοὶ | τῶν ἐν|θάδε ἤ|δη εἰ|ρηκότων.

The formation of the anapaest is noticeable, and in other ways the metrical division seems rather arbitrary. For ἐνθάδε ἤδη (without elision of the final ε) cp. n. on 180 8. [Here and elsewhere, no attempt has been made to secure metrical equivalence between the Greek original and the English version.]

Goodell (Chapters on Greek Metric p. 42) says of the analysis which begins here: “It is incredible that the rhetor supposed he was describing the actual spoken rhythm, in the sense of Aristoxenus; he was giving the quantities of the syllables in the conventional way, and his readers so understood him.”

9. Cp. the metrical effect of

– ᴗ – ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – – ᴗ – – “Who is this | that cometh | from Edom | with dyed garm(ents) | from Bozrah?”

10. Second clause:

ᴗ – – ᴗ – – – ᴗ – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ἐπαινοῦ|σι τὸν προσ|θέντα τῷ | νόμῳ τὸν | λόγον τόν|δε.

16. Third clause:

– ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ – – – ᴗ ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ ᴗ –– – – ὡς καλὸν | ἐπὶ τοῖς | ἐκ τῶν | πολέμων | θαπτομέ|νοις ἀγο|ρεύε|σθαι αὐ|τόν.

It is to be noticed that Dionysius treats the final syllable of ἀγορεύεσθαι as long before αὐτόν, and (more unaccountably) the final syllable of καλὸν as long before ἐπί. The length of the diphthong -αι might, no doubt, be maintained in prose utterance; but it is not easy to see on what principle -ο̆ν could be pronounced -ο̄ν before ἐπί. It might indeed be urged that the final syllable of a rhythmical phrase must (like that of a metrical line) be regarded as indifferent (long or short): cp. Cic. Orat. 63. 214 “persolutas;—dichoreus; nihil enim ad rem, extrema illa longa sit an brevis.” But this is to remind us once more that, though there is a sound general basis for the observations of Dionysius, it is easy for both ancient and modern theorists to frame rules more definite than the facts warrant.

πλεῖστα δ’ ἐστὶ παρὰ Θουκυδίδῃ τοιαῦτα, μᾶλλον δὲ ὀλίγα
τὰ μὴ οὕτως ἔχοντα, ὥστ’ εἰκότως ὑψηλὸς εἶναι δοκεῖ καὶ
καλλιεπὴς ὡς εὐγενεῖς ἐπάγων ῥυθμούς.

τὴν δὲ δὴ Πλατωνικὴν λέξιν ταυτηνὶ τίνι ποτὲ ἄλλῳ
κοσμηθεῖσαν οὕτως ἀξιωματικὴν εἶναι φαίη τις ἂν καὶ καλήν,      5
εἰ μὴ τῷ συγκεῖσθαι διὰ τῶν καλλίστων τε καὶ ἀξιολογωτάτων
ῥυθμῶν; ἔστι γὰρ δὴ τῶν πάνυ φανερῶν καὶ περιβοήτων,
ᾗ κέχρηται ὁ ἀνὴρ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἐπιταφίου ἀρχήν· “ἔργῳ
μὲν ἡμῖν οἵδε ἔχουσιν τὰ προσήκοντα σφίσιν αὐτοῖς· ὧν
τυχόντες πορεύονται τὴν εἱμαρμένην πορείαν.” ἐν τούτοις δύο      10
μέν ἐστιν ἃ συμπληροῖ τὴν περίοδον κῶλα, ῥυθμοὶ δὲ οἱ
ταῦτα διαλαμβάνοντες οἵδε· βακχεῖος μὲν ὁ πρῶτος· οὐ γὰρ
δή γε ὡς ἰαμβικὸν ἀξιώσαιμ’ ἂν ἔγωγε τὸ κῶλον τουτὶ ῥυθμίζειν
ἐνθυμούμενος ὅτι οὐκ ἐπιτροχάλους καὶ ταχεῖς ἀλλ’
ἀναβεβλημένους καὶ βραδεῖς τοῖς οἰκτιζομένοις προσῆκεν ἀποδίδοσθαι      15
τοὺς χρόνους· σπονδεῖος δ’ ὁ δεύτερος· ὁ δ’ ἑξῆς
δάκτυλος διαιρουμένης τῆς συναλοιφῆς· εἶθ’ ὁ μετὰ τοῦτον
σπονδεῖος· ὁ δ’ ἑξῆς μᾶλλον κρητικὸς ἢ ἀνάπαιστος· ἔπειθ’,
ὡς ἐμὴ δόξα, σπονδεῖος· ὁ δὲ τελευταῖος ὑποβάκχειος, εἰ δὲ
βούλεταί τις, ἀνάπαιστος· εἶτα κατάληξις. τούτων τῶν      20
ῥυθμῶν οὐδεὶς ταπεινὸς οὐδὲ ἀγεννής. τοῦ δὲ ἑξῆς κώλου
τουδί “ὧν τυχόντες πορεύονται τὴν εἱμαρμένην πορείαν”
δύο μέν εἰσιν οἱ πρῶτοι πόδες κρητικοί, σπονδεῖοι δὲ
οἱ μετὰ τούτους δύο· μεθ’ οὓς αὖθις κρητικός, ἔπειτα τελευταῖος
ὑποβάκχειος. ἀνάγκη δὴ τὸν ἐξ ἁπάντων συγκείμενον      25

[181]

passages in Thucydides are of this stamp; indeed, there are few that are not so framed. So he thoroughly deserves his reputation for loftiness and beauty of language, since he habitually introduces noble rhythms.

Again, take the following passage of Plato. What can be the device that produces its perfect dignity and beauty, if it is not the beautiful and striking rhythms that compose it? The passage is one of the best known and most often quoted, and it is found near the beginning of our author’s Funeral Speech: “In very truth these men are receiving at our hands their fitting tribute: and when they have gained this guerdon, they journey on, along the path of destiny.”[164] Here there are two clauses which constitute the period, and the feet into which the clauses fall are as follows:—The first is a bacchius, for certainly I should not think it correct to scan this clause as an iambic line, bearing in mind that not swift, tripping movements, but retarded and slow times are appropriate to those over whom we make mourning. The second is a spondee; the next is a dactyl, the vowels which might coalesce being kept distinct; after that, a spondee; next, what I should call a cretic rather than an anapaest; then, according to my view, a spondee; in the last place a hypobacchius or, if you prefer to take it so, an anapaest; then the terminal syllable. Of these rhythms none is mean nor ignoble. In the next clause, “when they have gained this guerdon, they journey on, along the path of destiny,” the two first feet are cretics, and next after them two spondees; after which once more a cretic, then lastly a hypobacchius. Thus the discourse is composed entirely of beautiful rhythms, and it necessarily follows that it is itself

1 ὀλίγα τὰ F: ὀλίγα PMV   3 καλλίστης P || ὡς] καὶ FMV: om. P || εὐγενείας P: εὐγενὴς MV || ἐπάγων F: ὡς ἐκλέγων τοὺς PMV   4 ταυτηνὶ Us.: ταύτην εἰ F: ταύτην PMV   7 φανερὸν καὶ περιβόητον F   9 οἵδ’ ἔχουσιν P: οἵδ’ ἔχουσι FMV   13 ἰαμβικὸν FP: ἴαμβον MV   15 προσήκει F   16 δ ὁ δεύτερος F: δε ἕτερος P, V: δ’ ἕτερος M   17 εἴθ’ ὁ F: εἶτα PMV   19 ὡς F: ὡς ἡ PMV   25 δὴ] δεῖ F

4. The passage from the Menexenus is quoted by Dionysius in the de Demosth. c. 24, with the remark ἡ μὲν εἰσβολὴ θαυμαστὴ καὶ πρέπουσα τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις πράγμασι κάλλους τε ὀνομάτων ἕνεκα καὶ σεμνότητος καὶ ἁρμονίας, τὰ δ’ ἐπιλεγόμενα οὐκέθ’ ὅμοια τοῖς πρώτοις κτλ. It is also given, as an illustration of the musical and other effects of periphrasis, in the de Sublimitate c. 28: ἆρα δὴ τούτοις μετρίως ὤγκωσε τὴν νόησιν, ἢ ψιλὴν λαβὼν τὴν λέξιν ἐμελοποίησε, καθάπερ ἁρμονίαν τινὰ τὴν ἐκ τῆς περιφράσεως περιχεάμενος εὐμέλειαν;—A somewhat similar period in Latin is that of Sallust (Bell. Catilin. i. 1), “omnes homines, qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibus, summa ope niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri oboedientia finxit.”

8. First clause:

– – ᴗ – – – ᴗ ᴗ – – ⏓ ᴗ – – – ᴗ ⏓ – ἔργῳ μὲν | ἡμῖν | οἵδε ἔ|χουσιν | τὰ προσή|κοντα | σφίσιν αὐ|τοῖς.

Here three points call for comment: (1) οἵδε ἔχουσιν (and not οἵδ’ ἔχουσιν with FPMV) was clearly (cp. l. 16) read by Dionysius: so in the text of Plato himself; (2) the lengthening of τά before προσήκοντα (although the usage of Comedy would seem to show that such lengthening was uncommon in the language of ordinary life) is preferred as giving a cretic; (3) very strangely, it is thought possible to scan the final syllable of σφίσιν as long (cp. 178 17, 184 2, 8).

13. We have a considerable part of an iambic line if we scan thus:

– – ᴗ – – – ᴗ – ᴗ ἔργῳ | μὲν ἡ|μῖν οἵδ’ | ἔχου|σι.

19. For ὡς ἐμὴ δόξα cp. de Demosth. c. 39.

22. Second clause:

– ᴗ – – ᴗ – – – – – – ᴗ – ᴗ –– ὧν τυχόν|τες πορεύ|ονται | τὴν εἱ|μαρμένην | πορείαν.

καλῶν ῥυθμῶν καλὸν εἶναι λόγον. μυρία τοιαῦτ’ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν
καὶ παρὰ Πλάτωνι. ὁ γὰρ ἀνὴρ ἐμμέλειάν τε καὶ εὐρυθμίαν
συνιδεῖν δαιμονιώτατος, καὶ εἴ γε δεινὸς ἦν οὕτως ἐκλέξαι τὰ
ὀνόματα ὡς συνθεῖναι περιττός, καί νύ κεν ἢ παρέλασσεν
τὸν Δημοσθένη κάλλους ἑρμηνείας ἕνεκεν, ἢ ἀμφήριστον      5
ἔθηκεν. νῦν δὲ περὶ μὲν τὴν ἐκλογὴν ἔστιν ὅτε διαμαρτάνει,
καὶ μάλιστα ἐν οἷς ἂν τὴν ὑψηλὴν καὶ περιττὴν καὶ ἐγκατάσκευον
διώκῃ φράσιν, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἑτέρωθί μοι δηλοῦται σαφέστερον.
συντίθησι δὲ τὰ ὀνόματα καὶ ἡδέως καὶ καλῶς νὴ
Δία, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις αὐτὸν ἔχοι κατὰ τοῦτο μέμψασθαι τὸ      10
μέρος.

ἑνὸς ἔτι παραθήσομαι λέξιν, ᾧ τὰ ἀριστεῖα τῆς ἐν λόγοις
δεινότητος ἀποδίδωμι. ὅρος γὰρ δή τίς ἐστιν ἐκλογῆς τε
ὀνομάτων καὶ κάλλους συνθέσεως ὁ Δημοσθένης. ἐν δὴ τῷ
περὶ τοῦ στεφάνου λόγῳ τρία μέν ἐστιν ἃ τὴν πρώτην      15
περίοδον συμπληροῖ κῶλα, οἱ δὲ ταῦτα καταμετροῦντες οἵδε
εἰσὶν ῥυθμοί· “πρῶτον μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοῖς
θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις.” ἄρχει δὲ τοῦδε τοῦ
κώλου βακχεῖος ῥυθμός, ἔπειθ’ ἕπεται σπονδεῖος, εἶτ’ ἀνάπαιστός      20
τε καὶ μετὰ τούτον ἕτερος σπονδεῖος, εἶθ’ ἑξῆς
κρητικοὶ τρεῖς, σπονδεῖος δ’ ὁ τελευταῖος. τοῦ δὲ δευτέρου
κώλου τοῦδε “ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ τῇ τε

[183]

beautiful. Countless instances of this kind are to be found in Plato as well as in Thucydides. For this author has a perfect genius for discovering true melody and fine rhythm, and if he had only been as able in the choice of words as he is unrivalled in the art of combining them, he “had even outstript” Demosthenes, so far as beauty of style is concerned, or “had left the issue in doubt.”[165] As it is, he is sometimes quite at fault in his choice of words; most of all when he is aiming at a lofty, unusual, elaborate style of expression. With respect to this I explain myself more explicitly elsewhere. But he does most assuredly put his words together with beauty as well as charm; and from this point of view no one could find any fault with him.

I will cite a passage of one other writer,—the one to whom I assign the palm for oratorical mastery. Demosthenes most certainly forms a sort of standard alike for choice of words and for beauty in their arrangement. In the Speech on the Crown there are three clauses which constitute the first period; and the rhythms by which they are measured are as follows: “first of all, men of Athens, I pray to all the gods and goddesses.”[166] A bacchius begins this first clause; then follows a spondee; next an anapaest, and after this another spondee; then three cretics in succession, and a spondee as the last foot. In the second clause, “that all the loyal affection I bear my whole life through to the

1 ἐστιν εὑρεῖν F, E: ἐστι PMV   2 ἐμμέλειαν EFM: εὐμέλειαν PV   3 οὕτως EF: οὗτος PMV   5 δημοσθένην EPV: δημοσθένεα M || κάλλους FMV: καὶ ἄλλους P: κάλλος E   6 ὅτε EF: ἃ PV: ἃ καὶ M   9 συντίθησι δὲ EF: δὲ συντίθησιν P, MV   12 ἑνὸς] ἐν οἷς P   13 ἀποδίδωμι F: καταδίδωμι PMV   16 ταῦτα] κατὰ ταῦτα PV   17 ῥυθμοί F: οἱ ῥυθμοί PMV   18 δὲ τοῦδε V: τοῦδε PM: δὲ F

2. ἐμμέλειαν: cp. 122 21, unless 130 6 should seem to support the reading εὐμέλειαν in the present passage.

5. For Δημοσθένην (as given by some manuscripts) cp. Demetr. de Eloc. § 175 καὶ ὅλως τὸ νῦ δι’ εὐφωνίαν ἐφέλκονται οἱ Ἀττικοί, “Δημοσθένην” λέγοντες καὶ “Σωκράτην.”

7. Cp. Long. de Sublim. c. iii. ὀλισθαίνουσι δ’ εἰς τοῦτο τὸ γένος ὀρεγόμενοι μὲν τοῦ περιττοῦ καὶ πεποιημένου καὶ μάλιστα τοῦ ἡδέος, ἐποκέλλοντες δὲ εἰς τὸ ῥωπικὸν καὶ κακόζηλον.—Dionysius perhaps fails to see that a high-pitched style may sometimes be used μετ’ εἰρωνείας, as Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 7. 11) says in reference to the Phaedrus.

8. ἑτέρωθι: cp. de Demosth. cc. 6, 7, 24-29, and Ep. ad Cn. Pomp. cc. 1, 2.—For the probable order in which the ‘Scripta Rhetorica’ appeared see D.H. pp. 5-7. The de Comp. Verb. is referred to twice in the de Demosth. (cc. 49, 50).—With δηλοῦται (not δεδήλωται, de Din. c. 13, de Demosth. c. 49; nor δηλωθήσεται, de Lysia cc. 12, 14) cp. de Isaeo c. 2, de Demosth. c. 57.

9. Dionysius is fond of the asseveration νὴ Δία, ‘mehercule.’

17. First clause:

– – ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – – πρῶτον μέν, | ὦ ἄνδρ|ες Ἀθη|ναῖοι, | τοῖς θεοῖς | εὔχομαι | πᾶσι καὶ | πάσαις.

—The expression καταμετροῦντες may indicate that Dionysius himself wrote marks of quantity over the syllables in question: such marks are given by F in 178 2-4, 10, 11, 16, 17, and are also found in the Paris Manuscript (1741) of Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 38, 39.—With the rhythmical effect of this passage of Demosthenes, Bircovius compares “Si, patres conscripti, pro vestris immortalibus in me fratremque meum liberosque nostros meritis parum vobis cumulate gratias egero, quaeso obtestorque, ne meae naturae potius, quam magnitudini vestrorum beneficiorum, id tribuendum putetis” (Cic. Post Reditum in Senatu Oratio init.).

22. Second clause:

ᴗ – – –⏓ ᴗ – ᴗ – ᴗᴗ ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ ⏓ – – ⏓ – – ὅσην εὔ|νοιαν ἔ|χων ἐγὼ | διατελῶ | τῇ τε πόλει | καὶ πᾶσιν | ὑμῖν.

—There are fresh difficulties in the “scansion” here. Dionysius speaks as if the last syllable of εὔνοιαν may (and indeed preferably) be counted long: this involves the lengthening of a short vowel before a single consonant, cp. n. on 180 8.—With regard to the paeons, διατελῶ will form a “catalectic” paeon (ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ –), but τῇ τε πόλει will not form a “procatarctic” paeon (– ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ) unless the final syllable of πόλει is reckoned short.—To extract a molossus from καὶ πᾶσιν, the last syllable of πᾶσιν must be lengthened. Strange as it appears, the cumulative evidence seems (if our text is sound) to show that Dionysius would (at any rate, for the purpose of prose rhythm) lengthen a short vowel before a single consonant.

πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν” πρῶτος μὲν ὑποβάκχειός ἐστι πούς,
εἶτα βακχεῖος, εἰ δὲ βούλεταί τις, δάκτυλος· εἶτα κρητικός·
μεθ’ οὕς εἰσι δύο σύνθετοι πόδες οἱ καλούμενοι παιᾶνες· οἷς
ἕπεται μολοττὸς ἢ βακχεῖος, ἐγχωρεῖ γὰρ ἑκατέρως αὐτὸν
διαιρεῖν· τελευταῖος δὲ ὁ σπονδεῖος. τοῦ δὲ τρίτου κώλου τοῦδε      5
“τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν
ἀγῶνα” ἄρχουσι μὲν ὑποβάκχειοι δύο, ἕπεται δὲ κρητικός,
ᾧ συνῆπται σπονδεῖος· εἶτ’ αὖθις βακχεῖος ἢ κρητικός, καὶ
τελευταῖος πάλιν κρητικός, εἶτα κατάληξις. τί οὖν ἐκώλυε
καλὴν ἁρμονίαν εἶναι λέξεως, ἐν ᾗ μήτε πυρρίχιός ἐστι ποὺς      10
μήτε ἰαμβικὸς μήτε ἀμφίβραχυς μήτε τῶν χορείων ἢ τροχαίων
μηδείς; καὶ οὐ λέγω τοῦτο, ὅτι τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων ἕκαστος
οὐ κέχρηταί ποτε καὶ τοῖς ἀγεννεστέροις ῥυθμοῖς. κέχρηται
γάρ· ἀλλ’ εὖ συγκεκρύφασιν αὐτοὺς καὶ συνυφάγκασι διαλαβόντες
τοῖς κρείττοσι τοὺς χείρονας.      15

οἷς δὲ μὴ ἐγένετο πρόνοια τούτου τοῦ μέρους, οἱ μὲν ταπεινάς,
οἱ δὲ κατακεκλασμένας, οἱ δ’ ἄλλην τινὰ αἰσχύνην καὶ
ἀμορφίαν ἐχούσας ἐξήνεγκαν τὰς γραφάς. ὧν ἐστι πρῶτός τε
καὶ μέσος καὶ τελευταῖος ὁ Μάγνης ὁ σοφιστὴς Ἡγησίας·
ὑπὲρ οὗ μὰ τὸν Δία καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους θεοὺς ἅπαντας οὐκ οἶδα τί      20
χρὴ λέγειν, πότερα τοσαύτη περὶ αὐτὸν ἀναισθησία καὶ παχύτης
ἦν ὥστε μὴ συνορᾶν, οἵτινές εἰσιν ἀγεννεῖς ἢ εὐγενεῖς ῥυθμοί,
ἢ τοσαύτη θεοβλάβεια καὶ διαφθορὰ τῶν φρενῶν ὥστ’ εἰδότα
τοὺς κρείττους ἔπειτα αἱρεῖσθαι τοὺς χείρονας, ὃ καὶ μᾶλλον
πείθομαι· ἀγνοίας μὲν γάρ ἐστι καὶ τὸ κατορθοῦν πολλαχῇ,      25

[185]

city and all of you,”[167] first comes a hypobacchius; then a bacchius or, if you prefer to take it so, a dactyl; then a cretic; after which there are two composite feet called paeons. Next follows a molossus or a bacchius, for it can be scanned either way. Last comes the spondee. The third clause, “may as fully be accorded by you to support me in this trial,”[167b] is opened by two hypobacchii. A cretic follows, to which a spondee is attached. Then again a bacchius or a cretic; last a cretic once more; then the terminal syllable. Is not a beautiful cadence inevitable in a passage which contains neither a pyrrhic, nor an iamb, nor an amphibrachys, nor a single choree or trochee? Still, I do not affirm that none of those writers ever uses the more ignoble rhythms also. They do use them; but they have artistically masked them, and have only introduced them at intervals, interweaving the inferior with the superior.

Those authors who have not given heed to this branch of their art have published writings which are either mean, or flabby, or have some other blemish or deformity. Among them the first and midmost and the last is the Magnesian, the sophist Hegesias. Concerning him, I swear by Zeus and all the other gods, I do not know what to say. Was he so dense, and so devoid of artistic feeling, as not to see which the ignoble or noble rhythms are? or was he smitten with such soul-destroying lunacy, that though he knew the better, he nevertheless invariably chose the worse? It is to this latter view that I incline. Ignorance often blunders into the right path: only wilfulness

2 εἶτα κρητικός F: ἔπειτα κρητικός PMV   3 παιᾶνες F: παίωνες PMV   4 ἐκατέρως F: ἑκατέρους PMV || αὐτὸν PV: αὐτῶν FM   5 τοῦδε F: τοῦ PMV   7 ἔπεται δὲ F: ἔπειτα δε P, M: ἔπειτα V   8 καὶ F: καὶ ὁ PMV   11 ἴαμβος F || τροχαίων F: τῶν τροχαίων PMV   17 κατακεκλεισμένας F || καὶ F: ἢ PMV   19 μέσος καὶ τελευταῖος F: τελευταῖος καὶ μέσος PMV || ὁ σοφιστὴς F: σοφιστὴς PMV   20 οἶδα τί F: οἶδ’ ὅ τι PMV   22 ἀγεννεῖς F: εὐγενεῖς PMV || εὐγενεῖς F: ἀγενεῖς PV^1: ἀγεννεῖς MV^2   25 πολλαχῆι FP, M: πολλαχοῦ V

4. ἐγχωρεῖ γὰρ ἑκατέρως αὐτὸν διαιρεῖν: this statement should be noted, together with the a priori grounds on which Dionysius elsewhere (e.g. 180 12-16) makes his choice between the alternatives which present themselves.

6. Third clause:

ᴗ – – ᴗ – – – ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – ⏓ ᴗ – τοσαύτην | ὑπάρξαι | μοι παρ’ ὑ|μῶν εἰς | τουτονὶ | τὸν ἀγῶ|να.

—If τουτονὶ is a bacchius, it must be scanned

– – ⏓ τουτονὶ:

and if τὸν ἀγῶν(α) is a cretic, it must be scanned

– ᴗ – τὸν ἀγῶν|α!

There are, no doubt, many cases of abnormal lengthening in Homeric versification (e.g. φίλε κασίγνητε at the beginning of a line, Il. iv. 155), but not to such an extent as would satisfy ‘Eucleides the elder’: οἷον Εὐκλείδης ὁ ἀρχαῖος, ὡς ῥᾴδιον ποιεῖν, εἴ τις δώσει ἐκτείνειν ἐφ’ ὁπόσον βούλεται, ἰαμβοποιήσας ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ λέξει,—“Ἐπιχάρην εἶδον Μαραθῶνάδε βαδίζοντα” (Aristot. Poet. c. xxii.).

11. μήτε ἰαμβικὸς ... τροχαίων μηδείς: it is obvious that we could discover some of these feet in the passage if we were to choose our own way of dividing it. If in Latin, for example, we were to take such a sentence as quonam igitur pacto probari potest insidias Miloni fecisse Clodium? (Cic. pro Milone 12. 32), we could extract dactyls, spondees, trochees, iambi, cretics, anapaests, etc. from the various section into which we chose to divide it: e.g.

– ᴗ ᴗ – – – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ– ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – ᴗ⏓ (1) quonam igi|tur pac|to pro|bari | potest | insi|dias | Milo|ni fe|cisse | Clodium?

– ᴗ ᴗ – – – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ– ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – ᴗ⏓ (2) quonam i|gitur | pacto | proba|ri po|test in|sidias | Milo|ni fe|cisse Clo|dium?

– ᴗ ᴗ – – – ᴗ – – ᴗ – – ᴗ ᴗ – ᴗ – – – – ᴗ – ᴗ⏓ (3) quonam igi|tur pac|to proba|ri potest | insidi|as Milo|ni fe|cisse Clo|dium?

And so with several other possible scansions (cp. Laurand Études sur le style de Cicéron p. 138).

19. For Hegesias cp. Introduction, pp. 52-5 supra.

20. μὰ τὸν Δία ... λέγειν: reminiscent of Demosth. Philipp. iii. 54, Fals. Leg. 220.

προνοίας δὲ τὸ μηδέποτε. ἐν γοῦν ταῖς τοσαύταις γραφαῖς,
αἷς καταλέλοιπεν ὁ ἀνήρ, μίαν οὐκ ἂν εὕροι τις σελίδα
συγκειμένην εὐτυχῶς. ἔοικεν δὴ ταῦτα ὑπολαβεῖν ἐκείνων
κρείττω καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς αὐτὰ ποιεῖν, εἰς ἃ δι’ ἀνάγκην ἄν
τις ἐμπεσὼν ἐν λόγῳ σχεδίῳ δι’ αἰσχύνης θεῖτο φρόνημα ἔχων      5
ἀνήρ. θήσω δὲ καὶ τούτου λέξιν ἐκ τῆς ἱστορίας, ἵνα σοι
γένηται δῆλον ἐκ τῆς ἀντιπαραθέσεως, ὅσην μὲν ἀξίωσιν ἔχει
τὸ εὐγενὲς ἐν ῥυθμοῖς, ὅσην δ’ αἰσχύνην τὸ ἀγεννές. ἔστιν δ’
ὃ λαμβάνει πρᾶγμα ὁ σοφιστὴς τοιόνδε. Ἀλέξανδρος πολιορκῶν
Γάζαν χωρίον τι τῆς Συρίας πάνυ ἐχυρὸν τραυματίας      10
τε γίνεται κατὰ τὴν προσβολὴν καὶ τὸ χωρίον αἱρεῖ χρόνῳ.
φερόμενος δ’ ὑπ’ ὀργῆς τούς τ’ ἐγκαταληφθέντας ἀποσφάττει
πάντας, ἐπιτρέψας τοῖς Μακεδόσι τὸν ἐντυχόντα κτείνειν, καὶ
τὸν ἡγεμόνα αὐτῶν αἰχμάλωτον λαβών, ἄνδρα ἐν ἀξιώματι
καὶ τύχης καὶ εἴδους, ἐξ ἁρματείου δίφρου δῆσαι κελεύσας      15
ζῶντα καὶ τοὺς ἵππους ἐλαύνειν ἀνὰ κράτος ἐν τῇ πάντων
ὄψει διαφθείρει. τούτων οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι τις εἰπεῖν δεινότερα
πάθη οὐδ’ ὄψει φοβερώτερα. πῶς δὴ ταῦτα ἡρμήνευκεν ὁ
σοφιστής, ἄξιον ἰδεῖν, πότερα σεμνῶς καὶ ὑψηλῶς ἢ ταπεινῶς
καὶ καταγελάστως.      20

“ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἔχων τὸ σύνταγμα προηγεῖτο. καί πως

[187]

never does. At all events, in the host of writings which the man has left behind him, you will not find one single page successfully put together. He seems, indeed, to have regarded his own methods as better than those of his predecessors, and to have followed them with enthusiasm; and yet anybody else, if he were to be driven into such errors in an impromptu speech, would blush for them, were he a man of any self-respect. Well, I will quote a passage from him also, taken from his History, in order to make clear to you, by means of a comparison, how splendid noble rhythms are, and how disgraceful are their opposites. The following is the subject treated by the sophist. Alexander when besieging Gaza, an unusually strong position in Syria, is wounded during the assault and takes the position after some delay. In a transport of anger he massacres all the prisoners, permitting the Macedonians to slay all who fall in their way. Having captured their commandant, a man of distinction for his high station and good looks, he gives orders that he should be bound alive to a war-chariot and that the horses should be driven at full speed before the eyes of all; and in this way he kills him. No one could have a story of more awful suffering to narrate, nor one suggesting a more horrible picture. It is worth while to observe in what style our sophist has represented this scene—whether with gravity and elevation or with vulgarity and absurdity:—

“The King advanced, at the head of his division. It seems

2 αἷς F: ἃς PMV   3 δὴ F: δε P, MV   4 ἄν τις ἐμπεσὼν PMV: ἐμπεσὼν ἄν τις F   5 θεῖτο F: ἔθετο PMV   6 ἐκ τῆς F: ἐξ PMV   8 ἔστιν δ’ F: τί δὲ PMV   10 ἐχυρὸν] εὐχερῶς F   11 χρόνῳ φερόμενος δ’ F: χρόνῳ φερόμενος ὁ δ’ PMV   12 τε ἐγκαταληφθέντας PMV: τε καταλειφθέντας F   14 αὐτὸν PMV   16 ἐλαύνων MV   17 τούτων F: τοῦτον PMV   18 οὐδὲ ὄψεις φοβεροτέρας (-ωτ- M) PMV   19 πότερα F: πότερον PMV   21 καὶ πῶς F

1-3. Cp. Dryden Mac Flecknoe ll. 19, 20, “The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, | But Shadwell never deviates into sense.” The wilfulness and malice prepense (πρόνοια) of Hegesias’ stupidity may be illustrated by Dr. Johnson’s remark about Thomas Sheridan: “Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an access of stupidity, Sir, is not in nature” (Boswell’s Life of Johnson i. 453).

4. The reading of PMV seems preferable, since ἄν is not infrequently attached to adverbs or adverbial phrases such as δι’ ἀνάγκην.

5. θεῖτο: τίθεμαι used for ἡγοῦμαι, as in 208 13 and 232 25.—Contrast the active θήσω in the next line.

9. Arrian (Exped. Alexandri ii. 25. 4) thus describes the commencement of Alexander’s siege, and Batis’ defence, of Gaza (332 B.C.): Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ἐπ’ Αἰγύπτου ἔγνω ποιεῖσθαι τὸν στόλον. καὶ ἦν αὐτῷ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τῆς Παλαιστίνης καλουμένης Συρίας προσκεχωρηκότα ἤδη· εὐνοῦχος δέ τις, ᾧ ὄνομα ἦν Βάτις, κρατῶν τῆς Γαζαίων πόλεως, οὐ προσεῖχεν Ἀλεξάνδρῳ, ἀλλὰ Ἄραβάς τε μισθωτοὺς ἐπαγόμενος καὶ σῖτον ἐκ πολλοῦ παρεσκευακὼς διαρκῆ ἐς χρόνιον πολιορκίαν καὶ τῷ χωρίῳ πιστεύων, μήποτε ἂν βίᾳ ἁλῶναι, ἔγνω μὴ δέχεσθαι τῇ πόλει Ἀλέξανδρον. In continuing and completing (cc. 26, 27) his narrative of the siege, Arrian makes no mention of the fate of Batis. On this point Plutarch, too, is silent (Vit. Alex. c. 25), and so is Diodorus Siculus xvii. 48. 7. The obviously rhetorical cast of Hegesias’ narrative, and of that of Curtius (Histor. Alexandri Magni iv. 6, 7-30), should cause it to be accepted with greater reserve than Grote (xi. 469 n. 1) thinks needful to maintain.—For the probable share of Cleitarchus in propagating this story about Alexander see C. Müller Scriptores Rerum Alexandri Magni pp. 75, 142; and for his bombast cp. Long. de Sublim. iii. 2 and Demetr. de Eloc. § 304.

11. χρόνῳ: viz. after a two months’ siege (Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ στρατεύσας ἐπὶ Γάζαν φρουρουμένην ὑπὸ Περσῶν καὶ δίμηνον προσεδρεύσας εἷλε κατὰ κράτος τὴν πόλιν, Diod. Sic. xvii. 48. 7).—Batis was supported by only a small force: “modico praesidio muros ingentis operis tuebatur,” Curtius iv. 6. 7.

14. ἡγεμόνα: Curtius iv. 6. 7 “praeerat ei Betis, eximiae in regem suum fidei.” Josephus (Ant. Iud. xi. 8. 3 Naber) gives the name of the governor as Βαβημήσης. Arrian gives Batis. ‘Baetis’ seems the right form in 188 13, and so perhaps in Curtius.

15. εἴδους. It must have been from the point of view of his countrymen that Batis possessed εἶδος (cp. 188 16). Usener suggests ἤθους.

ἐξ ἁρματείου δίφρου: cp. Xen. Cyrop. vi. 4. 9 ταῦτ’ εἰπὼν κατὰ τὰς θύρας τοῦ ἁρματείου δίφρου ἀνέβαινεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἅρμα, where (as here) δίφρος = sella aurigae.

21. τὸ σύνταγμα: no doubt the ὑπασπισταί are meant: Alexander is represented as advancing at the head of his Guards.—In the English translation of the passage that follows no attempt has been made to reproduce all the peculiarities of Hegesias’ style.

ἐβεβούλευτο τῶν πολεμίων τοῖς ἀρίστοις ἀπαντᾶν ἐπιόντι·
τοῦτο γὰρ ἔγνωστο, κρατήσασιν ἑνὸς συνεκβαλεῖν καὶ τὸ
πλῆθος. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐλπὶς αὕτη συνέδραμεν εἰς τὸ τολμᾶν,
ὥστ’ Ἀλέξανδρον μηδέποτε κινδυνεῦσαι πρότερον οὕτως. ἀνὴρ
γὰρ τῶν πολεμίων εἰς γόνατα συγκαμφθεὶς ἔδοξε τοῦτ’ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ      5
τῆς ἱκετείας ἕνεκα πρᾶξαι. προσέμενος δ’ ἐγγὺς μικρὸν
ἐκνεύει τὸ ξίφος ἐνέγκαντος ὑπὸ τὰ πτερύγια τοῦ θώρακος,
ὥστε γενέσθαι τὴν πληγὴν οὐ καιριωτάτην. ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν
αὐτὸς ἀπώλεσεν κατὰ κεφαλῆς τύπτων τῇ μαχαίρᾳ, τοὺς δ’
ἄλλους ὀργὴ πρόσφατος ἐπίμπρα. οὕτως ἄρα ἑκάστου τὸν      10
ἔλεον ἐξέστησεν ἡ τοῦ τολμήματος ἀπόνοια τῶν μὲν ἰδόντων,
τῶν δ’ ἀκουσάντων, ὥσθ’ ἑξακισχιλίους ὑπὸ τὴν σάλπιγγα
ἐκείνην τῶν βαρβάρων κατακοπῆναι. τὸν μέντοι Βαῖτιν αὐτὸν
ἀνήγαγον ζῶντα Λεόνατος καὶ Φιλωτᾶς. ἰδὼν δὲ πολύσαρκον
καὶ μέγαν καὶ βλοσυρώτατον (μέλας γὰρ ἦν καὶ τὸ χρῶμα),      15
μισήσας ἐφ’ οἷς ἐβεβούλευτο καὶ τὸ εἶδος ἐκέλευσεν διὰ τῶν
ποδῶν χαλκοῦν ψάλιον διείραντας ἕλκειν κύκλῳ γυμνόν.
πιλούμενος δὲ κακοῖς περὶ πολλὰς τραχύτητας ἔκραζεν. αὐτὸ
δ’ ἦν, ὃ λέγω, τὸ συνάγον ἀνθρώπους. ἐπέτεινε μὲν γὰρ ὁ

[189]

that the leaders of the enemy had formed the design of meeting him as he approached. For they had come to the conclusion that, if they overcame him personally, they would be able to drive out all his host in a body. Now this hope ran with them on the path of daring, so that never before had Alexander been in such danger. One of the enemy fell on his knees, and seemed to Alexander to have done so in order to ask for mercy. Having allowed him to approach, he eluded (not without difficulty) the thrust of a sword which he had brought under the skirts of his corselet, so that the thrust was not mortal. Alexander himself slew his assailant with a blow of his sabre upon the head, while the king’s followers were inflamed with a sudden fury. So utterly was pity, in the breasts of those who saw and those who heard of the attempt, banished by the desperate daring of the man, that six thousand of the barbarians were cut down at the trumpet-call which forthwith rang out. Baetis himself, however, was brought before the king alive by Leonatus and Philotas. And Alexander seeing that he was corpulent and huge and most grim (for he was black in colour too), was seized with loathing for his very looks as well as for his design upon his life, and ordered that a ring of bronze should be passed through his feet and that he should be dragged round a circular course, naked. Harrowed by pain, as his body passed over many a rough piece of ground, he began to scream. And it was just this detail which I now mention that brought people together. The torment racked him,

1 ἐβεβούλευτο PMV: ἐβουλεύετο F || ἀπαντᾶν om. F || ἐπιόντι Radermacher: ἐπιών F: εἰσιῶν P, MV   2 συνεκβαλεῖν FMV: συνεκβάλλειν Ps   3 εἰς τὸ τολμᾶν PMV: om. F   4 πρότερον ἢ οὕτως F   5 συγκαμφθεὶς PMV: συγκαθίσας F   6 ἰκετείας F || προσέμενος F: προέμενος PMV   7 ὑπὸ PMV: ἐπὶ F   8 τὴν F: καὶ τὴν PMV   10 ἐπίμπρα F: ἐπίμπρατο MV: ἐπὶ παλαιαῖς P || οὕτως ἄρα F: οὕτως γὰρ PMV   11 ἐξέστησεν] ἐξήτασεν F || τολμήματος F: τολμήσαντος PMV   12 εξακισχιλίους F, MV: τετρακισχιλίους P   13 βαῖστ[ϊ]ν cum litura P: βασιλέα FMV || αὐτὸν] Sylburgius: αὐτῶν FM: αὐτοῦ PV   15 καὶ (ante βλοσυρώτατον) F: ὡς PMV || βροσυρώτατον P: βδελυρώτατον FMV || καὶ τὸ χρῶμα PMV: τὸ σῶμα F   17 ψαλ(ιον) P: ψαλλίον V: ψέλιον F: ψέλλιον M   18 ἔκραξεν F

1. Blass (Rhythm. Asian. p. 19) would read εἰσιόντι, comparing intravit in Curtius iv. 6. 23.

3. συνέδραμεν: cp. Propert. iii. 9. 17 “est quibus Eleae concurrit palma quadrigae; | est quibus in celeres gloria nata pedes.”

6. τῆς ἱκετείας: Hegesias may have used the article in order to avoid the hiatus Ἀλεξάνδρῳ ἱκετείας. F omits it (as unnecessary).

7. τὰ πτερύγια τοῦ θώρακος: cp. Schol. Venet. B ad Hom. Il. iv. 132 ἵνα μὴ χαλεπὴ γένηται ἡ πληγή, εἰς τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ἄγει, καθ’ ὃ ἀλλήλοις ἐπιφερόμενα τὰ πτερύγια τοῦ θώρακος ἐσφίγγετο ὑπὸ τοῦ ζωστῆρος. See also the references given under πτέρυξ in L. & S., and in Stephanus.—Perhaps Hegesias has Il. iv. 132 directly in mind. The meaning will then be (with F’s reading ἐπί), “as his assailant had struck it [the sword] against the skirts of Alexander’s corselet.” But the account in Curtius iv. 6. 15 seems to confirm ὑπό: “quo conspecto, Arabs quidam, Darei miles, maius fortuna sua facinus ausus, gladium clipeo tegens, quasi transfuga genibus regis advolvitur. ille adsurgere supplicem, recipique inter suos iussit. at barbarus gladio strenue in dextram translato cervicem adpetiit regis: qui exigua corporis declinatione evitato ictu in vanum manum barbari lapsam amputat gladio.”

10. ἐπίμπρα: cp. Curtius iv. 6. 24 “inter primores dimicat; ira quoque accensus, quod duo in obsidione urbis eius vulnera acceperat.” The reading of P, ἐπὶ παλαιαῖς, apparently means ‘over and above the ancient ὀργαί,’ and it is possible that Hegesias wrote both this and ἐπίμπρα: or ἐπὶ παλαιαῖς may gloss πρόσφατος.

12. The number, as given by Curtius (iv. 6. 30), was “circa decem milia.”

ὑπὸ τὴν σάλπιγγα ἐκείνην = ὑπὸ τὸ σάλπισμα ἐκεῖνο: cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 6 οἷον τὸ φάναι τὴν σάλπιγγα εἶναι μέλος ἄλυρον.

15. βλοσυρώτατον: cp. Curtius iv. 6. 27 “non interrito modo sed contumaci quoquo vultu intuens regem.” Usener conjectures βλοσυρωπόν, with considerable probability: cp. 162 19 supra.

17. ψάλιον: cp. Hesych. ψάλια· κρίκοι, δακτύλιοι, and Antiq. Rom. ii. 38 καὶ αὐτὴν (Τάρπειαν) ἔρως εἰσέρχεται τῶν ψαλίων, ἃ περὶ τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς βραχίοσιν ἐφόρουν (οἱ Σαβῖνοι), καὶ τῶν δακτυλίων.—Probably here a large curb-chain is meant, rather than a cheek-ring, which would be too small. So Curtius iv. 6. 29 “per talos enim spirantis lora traiecta sunt [cp. Virg. Aen. ii. 273], religatumque ad currum traxere circa urbem equi gloriante rege, Achillen, a quo genus ipse deduceret, imitatum se esse poena in hostem capienda.” In Homer ἱμάντες are employed (190 13).

18. πιλεῖν (‘to pound,’ ‘to knead’) is one of the many forced metaphors in this excerpt from Hegesias.

πόνος, βάρβαρον δ’ ἐβόα, δεσπότην καθικετεύων· γελᾶν δὲ ὁ
σολοικισμὸς ἐποίει. τὸ δὲ στέαρ καὶ τὸ κύτος τῆς σαρκὸς
ἐνέφαινε Βαβυλώνιον ζῷον ἕτερον ἁδρόν. ὁ μὲν οὖν ὄχλος
ἐνέπαιζε, στρατιωτικὴν ὕβριν ὑβρίζων εἰδεχθῆ καὶ τῷ τρόπῳ
σκαιὸν ἐχθρόν.”      5

ἆρά γε ὅμοια ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ τοῖς Ὁμηρικοῖς ἐκείνοις, ἐν οἷς
Ἀχιλλεύς ἐστιν αἰκιζόμενος Ἕκτορα μετὰ τὴν τελευτήν; καίτοι
τό γε πάθος ἐκεῖνο ἔλαττον· εἰς ἀναίσθητον γὰρ σῶμα ἡ
ὕβρις· ἀλλ’ ὅμως ἄξιόν ἐστιν ἰδεῖν, ὅσῳ διενήνοχεν ὁ ποιητὴς
τοῦ σοφιστοῦ·      10

ἦ ῥα, καὶ Ἕκτορα δῖον ἀεικέα μήδετο ἔργα·
ἀμφοτέρων μετόπισθε ποδῶν τέτρηνε τένοντε
ἐς σφυρὸν ἐκ πτέρνης, βοέους δ’ ἐξῆπτεν ἱμάντας,
ἐκ δίφροιο δ’ ἔδησε· κάρη δ’ ἕλκεσθαι ἔασεν·
ἐς δίφρον δ’ ἀναβὰς ἀνά τε κλυτὰ τεύχε’ ἀείρας      15
μάστιξεν δ’ ἐλάαν, τὼ δ’ οὐκ ἀέκοντε πετέσθην.
τοῦ δ’ ἦν ἑλκομένοιο κονίσαλος· ἀμφὶ δὲ χαῖται
κυάνεαι πίμπλαντο, κάρη δ’ ἅπαν ἐν κονίῃσι
κεῖτο πάρος χαρίεν· τότε δὲ Ζεὺς δυσμενέεσσι
δῶκεν ἀεικίσσασθαι ἑῇ ἐν πατρίδι γαίῃ.      20
ὣς τοῦ μὲν κεκόνιτο κάρη ἅπαν· ἡ δέ νυ μήτηρ
τίλλε κόμην, ἀπὸ δὲ λιπαρὴν ἔρριψε καλύπτρην
τηλόσε, κώκυσεν δὲ μάλα μέγα παῖδ’ ἐσιδοῦσα·
ᾤμωξεν δ’ ἐλεεινὰ πατὴρ φίλος, ἀμφὶ δὲ λαοὶ

[191]

and he kept uttering outlandish yells, asking mercy of Alexander as ‘my lord’; and his jargon made them laugh. His fat and his bulging corpulence suggested to them another creature, a huge-bodied Babylonian animal. So the multitude scoffed at him, mocking with the coarse mockery of the camp an enemy who was so repulsive of feature and so uncouth in his ways.”[168]

Is this description, I ask, comparable with those lines of Homer in which Achilles is represented as maltreating Hector after his death? And yet the suffering in the latter case is less, for it is on a mere senseless body that the outrage is inflicted. But it is worth while, nevertheless, to note the vast difference between the poet and the sophist:—

He spake, and a shameful mishandling devised he for Hector slain;
For behind each foot did he sunder therefrom the sinews twain
From the ankle-joint to the heel: hide-bands through the gashes he thrust;
To his chariot he bound them, and left the head to trail in the dust.
He hath mounted his car, and the glorious armour thereon hath he cast,
And he lashed the horses, and they with eager speed flew fast.
And a dust from the haling of Hector arose, and tossed wide-spread
His dark locks: wholly in dust his head lay low—that head
Once comely: ah then was the hero delivered over of Zeus
In his very fatherland for his foes to despitefully use.
So dust-besprent was his head; but his mother was rending her hair
The while, and she flung therefrom her head-veil glistering-fair
Afar, and with wild loud shriek as she looked on her son she cried;
And in piteous wise did his father wail, and on every side

1 καθικετεύων Schaefer: καὶ ἱκετεύων libri   2 κοῖτος F: κῦτος MV || σαρκὸς F: γαστρὸς PMV   3 ἐνέφαινε MV^2: ἀνέφαινε F: ἐνεφαίνετο P || ἀδρὸν F: ἁδρόν MV: ἀνδρος P   9 ἐστιν om. P || ὅσω F: πόσω PMV   12 τένοντε F: τένοντας PMV   14 ἔασεν] ἔδησεν F   16 μάστιξέν ῥ’ Hom. || ἀέκοντε FMV Hom.: ἄκοντε P   18 πίμπλαντο] πίτναντο Hom.   22 τίλλε F Hom.: τῆλε PM: τεῖλε V

1. It is not clear whether the strict distinction between βαρβαρισμός (wrong vocabulary, spelling, or pronunciation) and σολοικισμός (wrong syntax) is here maintained. Possibly Batis may have offended (1) by using a word (δεσπότης) abhorrent to all free men of Greek blood, or (2) by using it in the wrong case, or (3) by mispronouncing it: cp. Sandys History of Classical Scholarship i. 148, for the comprehensiveness of the term σολοικισμός. But if it be held that σολοικισμός cannot occur in one isolated word (cp. Quintil. i. 5. 36), then it may be supposed that the reference here is to grammatical blunders in other words ejaculated by the unhappy Batis.

3. Βαβυλώνιον ζῷον: a comparison suggests itself with the Assyrian bulls represented in reliefs (cp. Tennyson’s Maud, “That oil’d and curl’d Assyrian Bull”).—The reading of P, ἕτερον ἀνδρός, might mean ‘far different from a man’ (viri: not ἀνθρώπου, hominis).

4. Hegesias’ use of στρατιωτικός may be compared with de Lys. c. 12 (of Iphicrates) ἥ τε λέξις πολὺ τὸ φορτικὸν καὶ στρατιωτικὸν ἔχει καὶ οὐχ οὕτως ἐμφαίνει ῥητορικὴν ἀγχίνοιαν ὡς στρατιωτικὴν αὐθάδειαν καὶ ἀλαζονείαν.

7. ἐστιν αἰκιζόμενος: not simply a periphrasis for αἰκίζεται.

8. For Hector’s insensibility cp. Murray’s Rise of the Greek Epic pp. 118, 132.—The savagery of Achilles was, nevertheless, generally felt to need extenuation, as may be seen from the curious explanations proffered in the scholia: e.g. ὁ δὲ Καλλίμαχός φησιν ὅτι πάτριόν ἐστι Θεσσαλοῖς τοὺς τῶν φιλτάτων φονέας σύρειν περὶ τοὺς τῶν φονευθέντων τάφους, κτλ.

11. Cp. Virg. Aen. ii. 268 ff. (the vision of the mangled Hector).

κωκυτῷ τ’ εἴχοντο καὶ οἰμωγῇ κατὰ ἄστυ.
τῷ δὲ μάλιστ’ ἂρ ἔην ἐναλίγκιον, ὡς εἰ ἅπασα
Ἴλιος ὀφρυόεσσα πυρὶ σμύχοιτο κατ’ ἄκρης.

οὕτως εὐγενὲς σῶμα καὶ δεινὰ πάθη λέγεσθαι προσῆκεν ὑπ’
ἀνδρῶν φρόνημα καὶ νοῦν ἐχόντων. ὡς δὲ ὁ Μάγνης εἴρηκεν,      5
ὑπὸ γυναικῶν ἢ κατεαγότων ἀνθρώπων λέγοιτ’ ἂν καὶ οὐδὲ
τούτων μετὰ σπουδῆς, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ καὶ καταγέλωτι.
τί οὖν αἴτιον ἦν ἐκείνων μὲν τῶν ποιημάτων τῆς εὐγενείας,
τούτων δὲ τῶν φλυαρημάτων τῆς ταπεινότητος; ἡ τῶν
ῥυθμῶν διαφορὰ πάντων μάλιστα, καὶ εἰ μὴ μόνη. ἐν      10
ἐκείνοις μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ εἷς ἄσεμνος στίχος οὐδ’ ἀδόκιμος,
ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐδεμία περίοδος ἥτις οὐ λυπήσει.

εἰρηκὼς δὴ καὶ περὶ τῶν ῥυθμῶν ὅσην δύναμιν ἔχουσιν,
ἐπὶ τὰ λειπόμενα μεταβήσομαι.

XIX
ἦν δέ μοι τρίτον θεώρημα τῶν ποιούντων καλὴν ἁρμονίαν      15
ἡ μεταβολή. λέγω δὲ οὐ τὴν ἐκ τῶν κρειττόνων ἐπὶ τὰ
χείρω (πάνυ γὰρ εὔηθες), οὐδέ γε τὴν ἐκ τῶν χειρόνων ἐπὶ
τὰ κρείττω, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐν τοῖς ὁμοειδέσι ποικιλίαν. κόρον γὰρ
ἔχει καὶ τὰ καλὰ πάντα, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ ἡδέα, μένοντα ἐν τῇ
ταυτότητι· ποικιλλόμενα δὲ ταῖς μεταβολαῖς ἀεὶ καινὰ μένει.      20
τοῖς μὲν οὖν τὰ μέτρα καὶ τὰ μέλη γράφουσιν οὐχ ἅπαντα

[193]

Through the city the folk brake forth into shriek and wail at the sight.
It was like unto this above all things, as though, from her topmost height
To the ground, all beetling Troy in flame and in smoke were rolled.[169]

That is the way in which a noble corpse and terrible sufferings should be described by men of feeling and understanding. But after the fashion of this Magnesian they could be described by women only or effeminate men, and even by them not in earnest, but in a spirit of derision and mockery. To what, then, is due the nobility of these lines, as compared with the miserable absurdities of the other passage? Chiefly, if not entirely, to the difference in the rhythms. In the quotation from Homer there is not one unimpressive or unworthy verse, while in that from Hegesias every single sentence will prove offensive.

Having now discussed the importance of rhythm, I will pass on to the topics that remain.

CHAPTER XIX

ON VARIETY

The third cause of beautiful arrangement that was to be examined is variety. I do not mean the change from the better to the worse (that would be too foolish), nor yet that from the worse to the better, but variety among things that are similar. For satiety can be caused by all beautiful things, just as by things sweet to the taste, when there is an unvarying sameness about them; but if diversified by changes, they always remain new. Now writers in metre and in lyric measures cannot introduce

2 ἂρ FP: ἄρ’ MV   4 εὐγενὲς σῶμα F: εὐγενῶς ἅμα PMV || δεινὰ FPM: δεινῶς V   6 ὑπὸ F: ὡς ὑπὸ PMV   8 ἦν F: om. PMV   10 πάντων FM: om. PV || καὶ εἰ FPM: εἰ καὶ V || ἐν om. P   11 οὐδὲ εἷς P, MV: οὐδεὶς F || οὐδὲ (οὐδ’ V) ἀδόκιμος MV: ἢ ἀδόκιμος F: om. P   12 ἥτις οὐ λυπήσει om. F   13 δὴ F: δὲ PMV   15 δέ] δή F   19 μένοντα PMV: ὄντα EF   20 δὲ EF: δ’ ἐν PMV || ἀεὶ EF: ὡς ἀεὶ MV: om. P   21 τοῖς EF: ἐν τοῖς PV: ἐν οἷς M

5. φρόνημα, ‘pride,’ ‘spirit,’ ‘mettle,’ ‘feeling,’ ‘self-respect’: cp. 186 5.

6. κατεαγότων, ‘enervated,’ ‘effeminate’ (Lat. fractus): cp. Philo Jud. i. 262 (Mangey) ἄνανδροι καὶ κατεαγότες καὶ θηλυδρίαι τὰ φρονήματα, i. 273 πάθεσι τοῖς κατεαγόσι καὶ τεθηλυμμένοις.

8, 9. ἐκείνων refers to the passage last quoted, τούτων to that quoted first. The remoteness implied in ἐκείνων is here that of greatness and antiquity; the nearness in τούτων, that of the commonplace and recent.

10. The reading εἰ καὶ (‘although’) would perhaps be preferable in sense, if only it had better manuscript attestation. [In 198 15 there is a similar fluctuation between καὶ εἰ and εἰ καί.]

13. For various points of rhythm and metre raised in cc. 18, 19, and elsewhere, reference may be made to the Introduction, pp. 33-9.

16. For the importance of variety (especially in relation to rhythm) cp. a well-known fragment of Isocrates’ Art of Rhetoric: ὅλως δὲ ὁ λόγος μὴ λόγος ἔστω, ξηρὸν γάρ· μηδὲ ἔμμετρος, καταφανὲς γάρ. ἀλλὰ μεμίχθω παντὶ ῥυθμῷ, μάλιστα ἰαμβικῷ ἢ τροχαϊκῷ (“prose must not be merely prose, or it will be dry; nor metrical, or its art will be undisguised; but it should be compounded with every sort of rhythm, particularly iambic or trochaic”). The views of Theophrastus on the point are reported in Cic. de Orat. iii. 48. 184 ff. “namque ego illud adsentior Theophrasto, qui putat orationem, quae quidem sit polita atque facta quodam modo, non astricte, sed remissius numerosam esse oportere,” etc.

18. κόρον: cp. Ep. ad Cn. Pomp. c. 3 κόρον δ’ ἔχει, φησὶν ὁ Πίνδαρος [Nem. vii. 52], καὶ μέλι καὶ τὰ τέρπν’ ἄνθε’ ἀφροδίσια, and Hom. Il. xiii. 636 πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστί, κτλ.

19. μένοντα avoids the awkward hiatus ἡδέα ὄντα. The fact that μένει follows shortly is not a conclusive objection, since Dionysius, and Greek authors generally, were free from the bad taste which avoids, at all costs, repetitions of this kind: cp. λαμβανόμενα ... λήψεται (106 18).

ἔξεστι μεταβάλλειν ἢ οὐχ ἅπασιν οὐδ’ ἐφ’ ὅσον βούλονται.
αὐτίκα τοῖς μὲν ἐποποιοῖς μέτρον οὐκ ἔξεστι μεταβάλλειν,
ἀλλ’ ἀνάγκη πάντας εἶναι τοὺς στίχους ἑξαμέτρους· οὐδέ
γε ῥυθμόν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀπὸ μακρᾶς ἀρχομένοις συλλαβῆς
χρήσονται καὶ οὐδὲ τούτοις ἅπασι. τοῖς δὲ τὰ μέλη γράφουσιν      5
τὸ μὲν τῶν στροφῶν τε καὶ ἀντιστρόφων οὐχ οἷόν τε
ἀλλάξαι μέλος, ἀλλ’ ἐάν τ’ ἐναρμονίους ἐάν τε χρωματικὰς
ἐάν τε διατόνους ὑποθῶνται μελῳδίας, ἐν πάσαις δεῖ ταῖς
στροφαῖς τε καὶ ἀντιστρόφοις τὰς αὐτὰς ἀγωγὰς φυλάττειν·
οὐδέ γε τοὺς περιέχοντας ὅλας τὰς στροφὰς ῥυθμοὺς καὶ      10
τὰς ἀντιστρόφους, ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ τούτους τοὺς αὐτοὺς διαμένειν·
περὶ δὲ τὰς καλουμένας ἐπῳδοὺς ἀμφότερα κινεῖν ταῦτα
ἔξεστι τό τε μέλος καὶ τὸν ῥυθμόν. τά τε κῶλα ἐξ ὧν
ἑκάστη συνέστηκε περίοδος ἐπὶ πολλῆς ἐξουσίας δέδοται
αὐτοῖς ποικίλως διαιρεῖν ἄλλοτε ἄλλα μεγέθη καὶ σχήματα      15
αὐταῖς περιτιθέντας, ἕως ἂν ἀπαρτίσωσι τὴν στροφήν· ἔπειτα
πάλιν δεῖ τὰ αὐτὰ μέτρα καὶ κῶλα ποιεῖν. οἱ μὲν οὖν
ἀρχαῖοι μελοποιοί, λέγω δὲ Ἀλκαῖόν τε καὶ Σαπφώ, μικρὰς
ἐποιοῦντο στροφάς, ὥστ’ ἐν ὀλίγοις τοῖς κώλοις οὐ πολλὰς
εἰσῆγον τὰς μεταβολάς, ἐπῳδοῖς τε πάνυ ἐχρῶντο ὀλίγοις· οἱ      20
δὲ περὶ Στησίχορόν τε καὶ Πίνδαρον μείζους ἐργασάμενοι τὰς
περιόδους εἰς πολλὰ μέτρα καὶ κῶλα διένειμαν αὐτὰς οὐκ
ἄλλου τινὸς ἢ τῆς μεταβολῆς ἔρωτι. οἱ δέ γε διθυραμβοποιοὶ

[195]

change everywhere; or rather, I should say, cannot all introduce change, and none as much as they wish. For instance, epic writers cannot vary their metre, for all the lines must necessarily be hexameters; nor yet the rhythm, for they must use those feet that begin with a long syllable, and not all even of these. The writers of lyric verse cannot vary the melodies of strophe and antistrophe, but whether they adopt enharmonic melodies, or chromatic, or diatonic, in all the strophes and antistrophes the same sequences must be observed. Nor, again, must the rhythms be changed in which the entire strophes and antistrophes are written, but these too must remain unaltered. But in the so-called epodes both the tune and the rhythm may be changed. Great freedom, too, is allowed to an author in varying and elaborating the clauses of which each period is composed by giving them different lengths and forms in different instances, until they complete a strophe; but after that, similar metres and clauses must be composed for the antistrophe. Now the ancient writers of lyric poetry—I refer to Alcaeus and Sappho—made their strophes short, so that they did not introduce many variations in the clauses, which were few in number, while the use they made of the epode was very slight. Stesichorus and Pindar and their schools framed their periods on a larger scale, and divided them into many measures and clauses, simply from the love of variety. The dithyrambic poets used to change the modes also,

8 ὑποθῶνται FE: ὑπόθωνται PMV   9 τε καὶ PMV (cf. l. 6 supra): καὶ EF   11 τὰς ἀντιστροφὰς PM: τοὺς ἀντιστρόφους F: ἀντιστροφὰς V   12 ἐπῳδὰς V || ταῦτά ἐστιν F   14 ἑκάστη συνέστηκεν περίοδος PMV: συνέστηκε περίοδος ἑκάστη E: συνέστηκε περίοδος F   15 αὐτοῖς secl. Usener   16 αὐταῖς PMV: αὐτοῖς EF || ἂν om. F   18 δὲ om. EF   20 εἰσῆγον τὰς PMV: εἰσῆγον EF

5. οὐδὲ τούτοις ἅπασι: e.g. not the cretic, and (strictly) not the trochee.

7. ἐναρμονίους ... χρωματικὰς ... διατόνους: the distinction between these scales is indicated in Macran’s Harmonics of Aristoxenus p. 6: “Was it then possible to determine for practical purposes the smallest musical interval? To this question the Greek theorists gave the unanimous reply, supporting it by a direct appeal to facts, that the voice can sing, and the ear perceive, a quarter-tone; but that any smaller interval lies beyond the power of ear and voice alike. Disregarding then the order of the intervals, and considering only their magnitudes, we can see that one possible division of the tetrachord was into two quarter-tones and a ditone, or space of two tones; the employment of these intervals characterized a scale as of the Enharmonic genus. Or again, employing larger intervals one might divide the tetrachord into, say, two-thirds of a tone, and the space of a tone and five-sixths: or into two semitones, and the space of a tone and a half. The employment of these divisions or any lying between them marked a scale as Chromatic. Or finally, by the employment of two tones one might proceed to the familiar Diatonic genus, which divided the tetrachord into two tones and a semitone. Much wonder and admiration has been wasted on the Enharmonic scale by persons who have missed the true reason for the disappearance of the quarter-tone from our modern musical system. Its disappearance is due not to the dulness or coarseness of modern ear or voice, but to the fact that the more highly developed unity of our system demands the accurate determination of all sound-relations by direct or indirect resolution into concords; and such a determination of quarter-tones is manifestly impossible.”

18. ἀρχαῖοι: as compared, say, with Pindar.

20. οἱ δὲ περὶ Στησίχορόν τε καὶ Πίνδαρον: the two possible senses of this and similar phrases may be illustrated from Plutarch, viz. (1) the man and his followers, e.g. οἱ περὶ Δημοσθένην (Plutarch Vit. Demosth. 28. 2); (2) the man himself, e.g. τοὺς περὶ Αἰσχίνην καὶ Φιλοκράτην (ibid. 16. 2: cp. 30. 2) = ‘Aeschines and Philocrates.’ So with οἱ ἀμφί and οἱ κατά. But sense (2) needs careful scrutiny wherever it seems to occur; the meaning may simply be ‘men like Aeschines,’ etc.—For the ‘graves Camenae’ of Stesichorus cp. Hor. Carm. iv. 9. 8, and Quintil. x. 1. 62 “Stesichorus quam sit ingenio validus, materiae quoque ostendunt, maxima bella et clarissimos canentem duces et epici carminis onera lyra sustinentem.”

21. Such long periods are particularly effective (cp. 196 13) when they include clauses of various lengths and end with an impressive one: e.g. Cic. Catil. ii. 1. 1 “Tandem aliquando, Quirites, L. Catilinam, | furentem audacia, | scelus anhelantem, | pestem patriae nefarie molientem, | vobis atque huic urbi ferro flammaque minitantem, | ex urbe vel eiecimus, | vel emisimus, | vel ipsum egredientem verbis prosecuti sumus”; and similarly Bossuet Oraison funèbre de Henriette-Marie de France: “Celui qui règne dans les cieux | et de qui relèvent tous les empires, | à qui seul appartient la gloire, la majesté et l’indépendance | est aussi le seul qui se glorifie de faire la loi aux rois, | et de leur donner, quand il lui plaît, de grandes et de terribles leçons.”

καὶ τοὺς τρόπους μετέβαλλον, Δωρίους τε καὶ Φρυγίους καὶ
Λυδίους ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ ᾄσματι ποιοῦντες, καὶ τὰς μελῳδίας
ἐξήλλαττον, τοτὲ μὲν ἐναρμονίους ποιοῦντες, τοτὲ δὲ χρωματικάς,
τοτὲ δὲ διατόνους, καὶ τοῖς ῥυθμοῖς κατὰ πολλὴν
ἄδειαν ἐνεξουσιάζοντες διετέλουν, οἵ γε δὴ κατὰ Φιλόξενον καὶ      5
Τιμόθεον καὶ Τελεστήν, ἐπεὶ παρά γε τοῖς ἀρχαίοις τεταγμένος
ἦν καὶ ὁ διθύραμβος.

ἡ δὲ πεζὴ λέξις ἅπασαν ἐλευθερίαν ἔχει καὶ ἄδειαν
ποικίλλειν ταῖς μεταβολαῖς τὴν σύνθεσιν, ὅπως βούλεται.
καὶ ἔστι λέξις κρατίστη πασῶν, ἥτις ἂν ἔχῃ πλείστας      10
ἀναπαύλας τε καὶ μεταβολὰς ἐναρμονίους, ὅταν τουτὶ μὲν ἐν
περιόδῳ λέγηται, τουτὶ δ’ ἔξω περιόδου, καὶ ἥδε μὲν ἡ
περίοδος ἐκ πλειόνων πλέκηται κώλων, ἥδε δ’ ἐξ ἐλαττόνων,
αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν κώλων τὸ μὲν βραχύτερον ᾖ, τὸ δὲ μακρότερον,
καὶ τὸ μὲν αὐτουργότερον, τὸ δὲ ἀκριβέστερον, ῥυθμοί τε      15
ἄλλοτε ἄλλοι καὶ σχήματα παντοῖα καὶ τάσεις φωνῆς αἱ
καλούμεναι προσῳδίαι διάφοροι κλέπτουσαι τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τὸν
κόρον. ἔχει δέ τινα χάριν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις καὶ τὸ οὕτω
συγκείμενον ὥστε μὴ συγκεῖσθαι δοκεῖν. καὶ οὐ πολλῶν δεῖν
οἶμαι λόγων εἰς τοῦτο τὸ μέρος· ὅτι γὰρ ἥδιστόν τε καὶ      20
κάλλιστον ἐν λόγοις μεταβολή, πάντας εἰδέναι πείθομαι.
παράδειγμα δὲ αὐτῆς ποιοῦμαι πᾶσαν μὲν τὴν Ἡροδότου
λέξιν, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν Πλάτωνος, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν Δημοσθένους·
ἀμήχανον γὰρ εὑρεῖν τούτων ἑτέρους ἐπεισοδίοις τε πλείοσι
καὶ ποικιλίαις εὐκαιροτέραις καὶ σχήμασι πολυειδεστέροις      25
χρησαμένους· λέγω δὲ τὸν μὲν ὡς ἐν ἱστορίας σχήματι, τὸν

[197]

introducing Dorian and Phrygian and Lydian modes in the same song; and they varied the melodies, making them now enharmonic, now chromatic, now diatonic; and in the rhythms they continually showed the boldest independence,—I mean Philoxenus, Timotheus, Telestes, and men of their stamp,—since among the ancients even the dithyramb had been subject to strict metrical laws.

Prose-writing has full liberty and permission to diversify composition by whatever changes it pleases. A style is finest of all when it has the most frequent rests and changes of harmony; when one thing is said within a period, another without it; when one period is formed by the interweaving of a larger number of clauses, another by that of a smaller; when among the clauses themselves one is short, another longer, one roughly wrought, another more finished; when the rhythms take now one form, now another, and the figures are of all kinds, and the voice-pitches—the so-called “accents”—are various, and skilfully avoid satiety by their diversity. There is considerable charm, among efforts of this kind, in what is so composed that it does not seem to be artificially composed at all. I do not think that many words are needed on this point. Everybody, I believe, is aware that, in prose, variety is full of charm and beauty. And as examples of it I reckon all the writings of Herodotus, all those of Plato, and all those of Demosthenes. It is impossible to find other writers who have introduced more episodes than these, or better-timed variations, or more multiform figures: the first in the narrative form, the second in graceful dialogue,

7 καὶ F: om. PMV   8 ἔχει καὶ ἄδειαν PMV: καὶ ἄδειαν ἔχει F: ἔχει E   10 ἔχη F: ἔχει P: ἔχοι EMV   11 ἐναρμονίους EF: ἁρμονίας PMV   14 ᾖ] τι F   15 αὐτουργότερον F: αὐτῶν (om. E) γοργότερον τὸ δὲ βραδύτερον EPMV || τὸ δὲ ἀκριβέστερον om. EF   18 ἐν P^2MV: ἐτι P^1: om. F   19 καὶ F: om. PMV || δεῖν οἶμαι F: δὲ οἴομαι δεῖν PMV   20 τοῦτο PMV: τουτὶ F   21 μεταβολή FP: ἡ μεταβολή MV   24 ἀμήχανον PMV: ἀδύνατον EF   25 ποικίλαις F || εὐκαιροτέροις EF: εὐροωτέραις PMV   26 μὲν ὡς] μὲν P || ἱστορίαις PMV || σχήματι EF: σχηματισμὸν PM: σχηματισμῷ V

1. For the characteristics of the various modes cp. (besides the Republic and the Politics) Lucian Harmonides i. 1 καὶ τῆς ἁρμονίας ἑκάστης διαφυλάττειν τὸ ἴδιον, τῆς Φρυγίου τὸ ἔνθεον, τῆς Λυδίου τὸ Βακχικόν, τῆς Δωρίου τὸ σεμνόν, τῆς Ἰωνικῆς τὸ γλαφυρόν.

3. τοτὲ μὲν ... τοτὲ δέ: cp. 132 19, where (as here) F and P have τότε.

5. ἐνεξουσιάζοντες, ‘using full liberty,’ ‘showing their independence.’ Cp. de Thucyd. c. 8 ... οὔτε προστιθεὶς τοῖς πράγμασιν οὐδὲν ὃ μὴ δίκαιον οὔτε ἀφαιρῶν, οὐδὲ ἐνεξουσιάζων τῇ γραφῇ, ἀνέγκλητον δὲ καὶ καθαρὰν τὴν προαίρεσιν ἀπὸ παντὸς φθόνου καὶ πάσης κολακείας φυλάττων, and c. 24 ibid. ἐν δὲ τοῖς συνθετικοῖς καὶ τοῖς προθετικοῖς μορίοις καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς διαρθροῦσι τὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων δυνάμεις ποιητοῦ τρόπον ἐνεξουσιάζων (translated in D.H. p. 135). So Hor. Carm. iv. 2. 10 “seu per audaces nova dithyrambos | verba devolvit numerisque fertur | lege solutis.”

οἱ κατά may refer simply to the individuals mentioned, or to them and their contemporaries: cp. note on 194 20.

For Philoxenus, Timotheus (including the newly discovered Persae), and Telestes see Jebb’s Bacchylides pp. 47-55; Weir Smyth’s Greek Melic Poets pp. 460-7; W. von Christ Gesch. der Griech. Litt.3 pp. 188, 189.

8. ἐλευθερίαν ἔχει καὶ ἄδειαν: it is a mistake to cut out καὶ ἄδειαν on the authority of E alone. An Epitomizer would naturally omit the words, while Dionysius’ liking for amplitude and rhythm would as naturally lead him to use them. Cp. Demosth. Timocr. § 205 εἰ δέ τις εἰσφέρει νόμον ἐξ οὗ τοῖς ὑμᾶς βουλομένοις ἀδικεῖν ἡ πᾶσ’ ἐξουσία καὶ ἄδεια γενήσεται, οὗτος ὅλην ἀδικεῖ τὴν πόλιν καὶ καταισχύνει πάντας. The word ἄδεια is found also in l. 5 supra and 176 20. The repetition within a few sentences is not inconsistent with Dionysius’ practice in such matters: cp. note on 192 19 supra.

δ’ ὡς ἐν διαλόγων χάριτι, τὸν δ’ ὡς ἐν λόγων ἐναγωνίων
χρείᾳ. ἀλλ’ οὐχ ἥ γε Ἰσοκράτους καὶ τῶν ἐκείνου γνωρίμων
αἵρεσις ὁμοία ταύταις ἦν, ἀλλὰ καίπερ ἡδέως καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς
πολλὰ συνθέντες οἱ ἄνδρες οὗτοι περὶ τὰς μεταβολὰς καὶ τὴν
ποικιλίαν οὐ πάνυ εὐτυχοῦσιν· ἀλλ’ ἔστι παρ’ αὐτοῖς εἷς      5
περίοδου κύκλος, ὁμοειδὴς σχημάτων τάξις, φυλακὴ συμπλοκῆς
φωνηέντων ἡ αὐτή, ἄλλα πολλὰ τοιαῦτα κόπτοντα τὴν
ἀκρόασιν. οὐ δὴ ἀποδέχομαι τὴν αἵρεσιν ἐκείνην κατὰ τοῦτο
τὸ μέρος. καὶ αὐτῷ μὲν ἴσως τῷ Ἰσοκράτει πολλαὶ χάριτες
ἐπήνθουν ἄλλαι ταύτην ἐπικρύπτουσαι τὴν ἀμορφίαν, παρὰ      10
δὲ τοῖς μετ’ ἐκεῖνον ἀπ’ ἐλαττόνων τῶν ἄλλων κατορθωμάτων
περιφανέστερον γίνεται τοῦτο τὸ ἁμάρτημα.

XX
εἷς ἔτι καταλείπεταί μοι λόγος ὁ περὶ τοῦ πρέποντος.
καὶ γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις χρώμασιν ἅπασι παρεῖναι δεῖ τὸ πρέπον,
καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο ἔργον ἀτυχεῖ τούτου τοῦ μέρους, καὶ εἰ μὴ      15
τοῦ παντός, τοῦ κρατίστου γε ἀτυχεῖ. περὶ μὲν οὖν ὅλης τῆς
ἰδέας ταύτης οὐχ οὗτος ὁ καιρὸς ἀνασκοπεῖν· βαθεῖα γάρ τις
αὐτοῦ καὶ πολλῶν πάνυ δεομένη λόγων ἡ θεωρία. ὅσα δὲ εἰς
τοῦτο συντείνει τὸ μέρος ὑπὲρ οὗ τυγχάνω ποιούμενος τὸν
λόγον, εἰ μὴ καὶ τὰ πάντα, μηδὲ τὰ πλεῖστα, ὅσα γε οὖν      20
ἐγχωρεῖ, λεγέσθω.

ὁμολογουμένου δὴ παρὰ πᾶσιν ὅτι πρέπον ἐστὶ τὸ τοῖς
ὑποκειμένοις ἁρμόττον προσώποις τε καὶ πράγμασιν, ὥσπερ
ἐκλογὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων εἴη τις ἂν ἡ μὲν πρέπουσα τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις
ἡ δὲ ἀπρεπής, οὕτω δήπου καὶ σύνθεσις. παράδειγμα      25
δὲ τούτου χρὴ λαμβάνειν τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ὃ δὲ λέγω, τοιοῦτόν

[199]

the third in the practical work of forensic oratory. As for the methods of Isocrates and his followers, they are not to be compared with the styles of those writers. The Isocratic authors have composed much with charm and distinction; but in regard to change and diversity they are anything but happy. We find in them one continually recurring period, a monotonous order of figures, the invariable observance of vowel-blending, and many other similar things which fatigue the ear. I cannot approve that school on this side. In Isocrates himself, it may be conceded, many charms were displayed which helped to hide this blemish. But among his successors, by reason of their fewer redeeming excellences, the fault mentioned stands out more glaringly.

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 EFM^2V: βραδὺ PM^1 || 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 EFM^1: τούτω PM^2V   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.

XXI
ἐγὼ τῆς συνθέσεως εἰδικὰς μὲν διαφορὰς πολλὰς σφόδρα
εἶναι τίθεμαι καὶ οὔτ’ εἰς σύνοψιν ἐλθεῖν δυναμένας οὔτ’ εἰς
λογισμὸν ἀκριβῆ, οἴομαί τε ἴδιον ἡμῶν ἑκάστῳ χαρακτῆρα
ὥσπερ ὄψεως, οὕτω καὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων παρακολουθεῖν,      15
οὐ φαύλῳ παραδείγματι χρώμενος ζῳγραφίᾳ· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν
ἐκείνῃ τὰ αὐτὰ φάρμακα λαμβάνοντες ἅπαντες οἱ τὰ ζῷα
γράφοντες οὐδὲν ἐοικότα ποιοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις τὰ μίγματα, τὸν
αὐτὸν τρόπον ἐν ποιητικῇ τε διαλέκτῳ καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ πάσῃ
τοῖς αὐτοῖς ὀνόμασι χρώμενοι πάντες οὐχ ὁμοίως αὐτὰ συντίθεμεν.      20
τὰς μέντοι γενικὰς αὐτῆς διαφορὰς ταύτας εἶναι
πείθομαι μόνας τὰς τρεῖς, αἷς ὁ βουλόμενος ὀνόματα θήσεται
τὰ οἰκεῖα, ἐπειδὰν τούς τε χαρακτῆρας αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς διαφορὰς
ἀκούσῃ. ἐγὼ μέντοι κυρίοις ὀνόμασιν οὐκ ἔχων αὐτὰς προσαγορεῦσαι
ὡς ἀκατονομάστους μεταφορικοῖς ὀνόμασι καλῶ τὴν
μὲν αὐστηράν, τὴν δὲ γλαφυράν [ἢ ἀνθηράν], τὴν δὲ τρίτην

[209]

are the different styles of composition and what the usual distinguishing mark of each is. I will include some mention of those who have been eminent in them, and will also add examples from each author. When the treatment of these points is completed, I must proceed to dispose of certain difficulties very generally felt: what it can be that makes prose appear like a poem though retaining the form of prose, and verse like prose though maintaining the loftiness of poetry; for almost all the best writers of prose or poetry have these excellences in their style. I must do my best, then, to set forth my views on these matters also. I will begin with the first.

CHAPTER XXI

THREE MODES, OR STYLES, OF COMPOSITION

I assert without any hesitation that there are many specific differences of composition, and that they cannot be brought into a comprehensive view or within a precise enumeration; I think too that, as in personal appearance, so also in literary composition, each of us has an individual character. I find not a bad illustration in painting. As in that art all painters from life take the same pigments but mix them in the most diverse ways, so in poetry and in prose, though we all use the same words, we do not put them together in the same manner. I hold, however, that the essentially different varieties of composition are the three following only, to which any one who likes may assign the appropriate names, when he has heard their characteristics and their differences. For my own part, since I cannot find recognized names for them, inasmuch as none exist, I call them by metaphorical terms—the first austere, the second smooth (or florid), the third

1 hiatum indicavit Schottius   2 τε om. F   4 κακεῖνα P, MV: καὶ ταῦτα F || διευκρινήσω V || τοῖς FM: om. PV   5 μὲν F: om. PMV   7 λόγῳ om. PV   9 ἢ om. P   11 δὲ ἀπὸ MV: δὲ κατὰ P   12 εἰδικὰς F (E): ἰδικὰς PMV || διαφορὰς πολλὰς F: πολλὰς διαφορὰς PMV   13 εἰς συλλογισμὸν F   14 ἴδιον ἡμῶν ἑκάστῳ χαρακτῆρα] ἰδιώματα ἑκάστῳ χαρακτῆρι F   16 φαύλω F: φαύλως PMV || ζωγραφία F: ζωγραφιαίω PM   19 πάσῃ Us.: ἁπάση libri   20 ἅπαντες F   22 μόνας EF: om. PMV   25 ἀκατονομάστοις PV   26 ἢ ἀνθηράν om. P

3. As the sentence stands, the infinitives μνησθῆναι, παρασχεῖν and διευκρινῆσαι are without regular government. βουλόμενος may be inserted after μνησθῆναι, or (as Usener prefers to think) something like ἀναγκαῖον γὰρ ἡγοῦμαι πρῶτον μὲν παραστῆσαι may be supposed to have fallen out between παύσομαι and τίνες.

7. Dionysius’ practice of variety in his own style is shown by his use of ἐμφερῆ here, as compared with ὁμοίαν in l. 6.

12. This and the following chapters should be compared carefully with de Demosth. cc. 36 ff.

21. For Greek views as to types of style in general (not simply ἁρμονίαι) reference may be made to Demetr. pp. 28 ff.

24. At this point in the Epitome, the Darmstadt codex has (in the margin) ὁ δὲ Πλούταρχος τὸ μὲν τῆς συνθέσεως ἁδρόν, τὸ δὲ ἰσχνόν, τὸ δὲ μέσον καλεῖ.

26. ἢ ἀνθηράν: cp. 232 25 (where P again omits the second epithet) and 248 9 (with critical note).

εὔκρατον· ἣν ὅπως ποτὲ γίνεσθαι φαίην ἄν, ἔγωγε ἀπορῶ,
καὶ “δίχα μοι νόος ἀτρέκειαν εἰπεῖν,” εἴτε κατὰ στέρησιν
τῶν ἄκρων ἑκατέρας εἴτε κατὰ μῖξιν· οὐ γὰρ ῥᾴδιον
εἰκάσαι τὸ σαφές. μή ποτ’ οὖν κρεῖττον ᾖ λέγειν, ὅτι κατὰ
τὴν ἄνεσίν τε καὶ τὴν ἐπίτασιν τῶν ἐσχάτων ὅρων οἱ διὰ      5
μέσου γίνονται πολλοὶ πάνυ ὄντες· οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐν μουσικῇ
τὸ ἴσον ἀπέχει τῆς νήτης καὶ τῆς ὑπάτης ἡ μέση, τὸν αὐτὸν
τρόπον καὶ ἐν λόγοις ὁ μέσος χαρακτὴρ ἑκατέρου τῶν ἄκρων
ἴσον ἀφέστηκεν, ἀλλ’ ἔστι τῶν ἐν πλάτει θεωρουμένων ὡς
ἀγέλη τε καὶ σωρὸς καὶ ἄλλα πολλά. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐχ οὗτος      10
ὁ καιρὸς ἁρμόττων τῇ θεωρίᾳ ταύτῃ· λεκτέον δ’, ὥσπερ ὑπεθέμην,
καὶ περὶ τῶν χαρακτήρων οὐχ ἅπανθ’ ὅσ’ ἂν εἰπεῖν
ἔχοιμι (μακρῶν γὰρ ἄν μοι πάνυ δεήσειε λόγων), ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ
τὰ φανερώτατα.

XXII
τῆς μὲν οὖν αὐστηρᾶς ἁρμονίας τοιόσδε ὁ χαρακτήρ·      15
ἐρείδεσθαι βούλεται τὰ ὀνόματα ἀσφαλῶς καὶ στάσεις λαμβάνειν
ἰσχυράς, ὥστ’ ἐκ περιφανείας ἕκαστον ὄνομα ὁρᾶσθαι,
ἀπέχειν τε ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων τὰ μόρια διαστάσεις ἀξιολόγους
αἰσθητοῖς χρόνοις διειργόμενα· τραχείαις τε χρῆσθαι πολλαχῇ
καὶ ἀντιτύποις ταῖς συμβολαῖς οὐδὲν αὐτῇ διαφέρει, οἷαι      20
γίνονται τῶν λογάδην συντιθεμένων ἐν οἰκοδομίαις λίθων αἱ
μὴ εὐγώνιοι καὶ μὴ συνεξεσμέναι βάσεις, ἀργαὶ δέ τινες καὶ

[211]

harmoniously blended. How I am to say the third is formed I am at a loss to know—“my mind is too divided to utter truth”[173]: I cannot see whether it is formed by eliminating the two extremes or by fusing them—it is not easy to hit on any clear answer. Perhaps, then, it is better to say that it is by relaxation and tension of the extremes that the means, which are very numerous, arise. The case is not as in music, where the middle note is equally removed from the lowest and the highest. The middle style in writing does not in the same way stand at an equal distance from each of the two extremes; “middle” is here a vague general term, like “herd,” “heap,” and many others. But the present is not the right time for the investigation of this particular point. I must say what I undertook to say with regard to the several styles—not all that I could (I should need a very long treatise to do that), but just the most salient points.

CHAPTER XXII

AUSTERE COMPOSITION

The characteristic feature of the austere arrangement is this:—It requires that the words should be like columns firmly planted and placed in strong positions, so that each word should be seen on every side, and that the parts should be at appreciable distances from one another, being separated by perceptible intervals. It does not in the least shrink from using frequently harsh sound-clashings which jar on the ear; like blocks of building stone that are laid together unworked, blocks that are not square and smooth, but preserve their natural roughness and irregularity.

1 εὔκρατον EF: κοινὴν PMV   2 κατὰ E: κατὰ τὴν FPMV   3 μίξιν F   4 ἦι P: ἦν F || κατὰ τὴν FPMV: κατὰ E   5 τε καὶ τὴν PMV: τε καὶ F: καὶ E   6 ἐν om. P   7 νήτης F: νεάτης PMV   8 χαρακτὴρ om. PV   9 ἴσως F   11 ὥσπερ F: ὡς PMV   12 καὶ F: om. PMV || ὅσα εἰπεῖν codd.: ἂν ins. Schaeferus   13 ἄν μοι F: ἂν οἶμαι PMV || δεήσειε F: δεήσει P: δεήσειν MV   17 περιφερίας F   18 διατάσεις F   20 οἷαι F: οἳ P: οἷον MV   21 αἱ μη F: αἱ μὴτε P, MV   22 καὶ μὴ F: μὴδε P || ἀργαὶ δὲ] γὰρ αἷδε F

1. Here (and in 246 11) it is open to question whether κοινήν does not fit the context better than εὔκρατον.

2. The passage of Pindar is quoted in Cic. Ep. ad Att. xiii. 38 “nunc me iuva, mi Attice, consilio, ‘πότερον δίκᾳ τεῖχος ὕψιον,’ id est utrum aperte hominem asperner et respuam, ‘ἢ σκολιαῖς ἀπάταις.’ ut enim Pindaro sic ‘δίχα μοι νόος ἀτρέκειαν εἰπεῖν.’ omnino moribus meis illud aptius, sed hoc fortasse temporibus.”

3. κατὰ μῖξιν: sc. τῶν ἄκρων. —Cp. de Demosth. c. 36 οἱ δὲ συνθέντες ἀφ’ ἑκατέρας τὰ χρησιμώτατα τὴν μικτὴν καὶ μέσην ἐζήλωσαν ἀγωγήν.

4. μή ποτ’ ... ᾖ: a favourite Platonic usage, e.g. Gorgias 462 E μὴ ἀγροικότερον ᾖ τὸ ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, Apol. 39 A ἀλλὰ μὴ οὐ τοῦτ’ ᾖ χαλεπόν, ὦ ἄνδρες, θάνατον ἐκφυγεῖν, ἀλλὰ πολὺ χαλεπώτερον πονηρίαν.

5. The intermediate, or eclectic, styles are numerous and differ greatly according as they relax or strain the extreme, or pronounced, styles: cp. de Demosth. c. 37 init.

8. A point worth considering is how far this may seem to make for or against the view that the Dionysian doctrine of styles is Peripatetic in origin, being derived from Theophrastus.

10. σωρός: cp. σωρείτης (Lat. acervalis, Cic. de Div. ii. 4. 11), in the sense which it bears in Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 45-47 and Cic. Academ. ii. 16. 49.

15. Batteux (p. 249) would illustrate the austere style from Rousseau’s Ode i. 2 (tirée du Psaume xviii.), “Les cieux instruisent la terre | À révérer leur auteur; | Tout ce que leur globe enserre | Célèbre un Dieu créateur,” etc.—With c. 22 of the C.V. should be compared, throughout, cc. 38, 39 of the de Demosth.

18. ἀπέχειν τε κτλ.: i.e. it (the austere style) aims at dividing its clauses from one another by appreciable pauses.

αὐτοσχέδιοι· μεγάλοις τε καὶ διαβεβηκόσιν εἰς πλάτος ὀνόμασιν
ὡς τὰ πολλὰ μηκύνεσθαι φιλεῖ· τὸ γὰρ εἰς βραχείας συλλαβὰς
συνάγεσθαι πολέμιον αὐτῇ, πλὴν εἴ ποτε ἀνάγκη βιάζοιτο.

ἐν μὲν δὴ τοῖς ὀνόμασι ταῦτα πειρᾶται διώκειν καὶ
τούτων γλίχεται· ἐν δὲ τοῖς κώλοις ταῦτά τε ὁμοίως ἐπιτηδεύει      5
καὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς τοὺς ἀξιωματικοὺς καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεῖς,
καὶ οὔτε πάρισα βούλεται τὰ κῶλα ἀλλήλοις εἶναι οὔτε
παρόμοια οὔτε ἀναγκαίᾳ δουλεύοντα ἀκολουθίᾳ, ἀλλ’ εὐγενῆ
καὶ λαμπρὰ καὶ ἐλεύθερα, φύσει τ’ ἐοικέναι μᾶλλον αὐτὰ
βούλεται ἢ τέχνῃ, καὶ κατὰ πάθος λέγεσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ κατ’      10
ἦθος. περιόδους δὲ συντιθέναι συναπαρτιζούσας ἑαυταῖς τὸν
νοῦν τὰ πολλὰ μὲν οὐδὲ βούλεται· εἰ δέ ποτ’ αὐτομάτως ἐπὶ
τοῦτο κατενεχθείη, τὸ ἀνεπιτήδευτον ἐμφαίνειν θέλει καὶ
ἀφελές, οὔτε προσθήκαις τισὶν ὀνομάτων, ἵνα ὁ κύκλος
ἐκπληρωθῇ, μηδὲν ὠφελούσαις τὸν νοῦν χρωμένη, οὔτε ὅπως αἱ      15
βάσεις αὐτῶν γένοιντο θεατρικαί τινες ἢ γλαφυραί, σπουδὴν
ἔχουσα, οὐδ’ ἵνα τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ λέγοντος ὦσιν αὐτάρκεις
συμμετρουμένη μὰ Δία, οὐδ’ ἄλλην τινὰ [πραγματείαν] τοιαύτην
ἔχουσα ἐπιτήδευσιν οὐδεμίαν. ἔτι τῆς τοιαύτης ἐστὶν
ἁρμονίας καὶ ταῦτα ἴδια· ἀγχίστροφός ἐστι περὶ τὰς πτώσεις,      20
ποικίλη περὶ τοὺς σχηματισμούς, ὀλιγοσύνδεσμος, ἄναρθρος,
ἐν πολλοῖς ὑπεροπτικὴ τῆς ἀκολουθίας, ἥκιστ’ ἀνθηρά,
μεγαλόφρων, αὐθέκαστος, ἀκόμψευτος, τὸν ἀρχαϊσμὸν καὶ τὸν
πίνον ἔχουσα κάλλος.

ταύτης δὲ τῆς ἁρμονίας πολλοὶ μὲν ἐγένοντο ζηλωταὶ κατά      25

[213]

It is prone for the most part to expansion by means of great spacious words. It objects to being confined to short syllables, except under occasional stress of necessity.

In respect of the words, then, these are the aims which it strives to attain, and to these it adheres. In its clauses it pursues not only these objects but also impressive and stately rhythms, and tries to make its clauses not parallel in structure or sound, nor slaves to a rigid sequence, but noble, brilliant, free. It wishes them to suggest nature rather than art, and to stir emotion rather than to reflect character. And as to periods, it does not, as a rule, even attempt to compose them in such a way that the sense of each is complete in itself: if it ever drifts into this accidentally, it seeks to emphasize its own unstudied and simple character, neither using any supplementary words which in no way aid the sense, merely in order that the period may be fully rounded off, nor being anxious that the periods should move smoothly or showily, nor nicely calculating them so as to be just sufficient (if you please) for the speaker’s breath, nor taking pains about any other such trifles. Further, the arrangement in question is marked by flexibility in its use of the cases, variety in the employment of figures, few connectives; it lacks articles, it often disregards natural sequence; it is anything rather than florid, it is aristocratic, plain-spoken, unvarnished; an old-world mellowness constitutes its beauty.

This mode of composition was once zealously practised by

1 εἰς F: ἐκ PMV   2 συλλαβὰς F: συλλαβῆς PMV   3 ποτε καὶ ἡ ἀνάγκη F   5 ὁμοίως Us.: ὁμοίως ἢ οὐχ ἧττον P: οὐχ ἧττον ὁμοίως F: οὐχ ἧττον MV   6 καὶ (alt.) EF: καὶ τοὺς PMV   7 καὶ οὔτε EF: ἐκλέγεται καὶ οὔτε PMV || εἶναι om. P   8 παρ’ ὅμοια F || ἀναγκαίαι P, M: ἀνάγκηι F, E: ἀναγκαῖα V || ἀκολουθίαι ἀλλ’ P, MV: ἀκόλουθα δὲ καὶ EF   9 λαμπρὰ EF: ἁπλᾶ PMV   10 ἡ τέχνη F || λέγεται EF   11 συναπαρτιζούσας E: συναπαρτιζούσαις F: συναρτιζούσας PM: συναρμοζούσας V || ἑαυταῖς EF (coniecerat Uptonus): om. PMV   12 οὐδὲ EF: οὔτε PMV   17 ἔχουσα Sylburgius: ἔχουσαι libri || τοῦ δέοντος P   18 συμμετρουμένη Schaeferus: συμμετρούμεναι libri || πραγματείαν secl. Usenerus   19 ἔχουσα P: ἔχουσαν FM: om. V || ἐπίτηδ’ οὐδεμι(αν) P: ἐπιτηδεύει οὐδὲ FMV || ἔτι Uptonus: ἐπὶ libri || ἐστὶν F: om. PMV   20 καὶ FP: κατὰ MV || ἴδια] δὲ MV || ἀγχίστροφός PM: ἀντίρροπός F   21 ἄναρθρος] ἀναίσθιος F   22 ὑπεροπτικὴ] ὑποδεκτικὴ F   23 ἀκόμψευστον F || τὸν EF: τὸ PMV   24 πῖνον libri || ἔχοντα F || κάλλος om. F   25 δὲ om. EF

8. Perhaps ἀνάγκῃ δουλεύοντα, ἀνακόλουθα δὲ καί: with ἐπὶ (‘in the case of’) retained in l. 19.

11. The meaning is that the austere style does not seek for periods containing a complete thought, and that, if accidentally it stumbles into them, it wishes to emphasize (by means of careful abstention from all artificial means of rounding off the sentence) the absence of premeditation.—With regard to Upton’s conjecture ἑαυταῖς it should be noticed that this is only one of many instances in which his acuteness has since been confirmed by manuscript authority.

18. μὰ Δία: cp. (for the order) νὴ Δία 120 9. μά is here used because of the preceding negatives.

22. ἐν πολλοῖς ὑπεροπτική κτλ.: in other words, such a style delights in anacolutha.

19-24. It is to be noticed, in this and other sentences, that Dionysius often so writes as to reflect the character of the style he is for the moment describing.—Baudat (p. 58) illustrates the style in question by quotations from Malherbe and Boileau, and adds: “Chacun connaît ces vers du Cor d’Alf. de Vigny:

Roncevaux! Roncevaux! dans ta sombre vallée
L’ombre du grand Roland n’est donc pas consolée!

Le son on y revient six fois, le son an trois fois, le son au deux fois; ils sont tous trois sourds et la rime en ée seule est sonore. La succession de ces sons produit une harmonie dure, qui a quelque chose de voilé et de funèbre; on croit entendre le grondement de l’orage.”

τε ποίησιν καὶ ἱστορίαν καὶ λόγους πολιτικούς, διαφέροντες
δὲ τῶν ἄλλων ἐν μὲν ἐπικῇ ποιήσει ὅ τε Κολοφώνιος Ἀντίμαχος
καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ὁ φυσικός, ἐν δὲ μελοποιίᾳ Πίνδαρος,
ἐν τραγῳδίᾳ δ’ Αἰσχύλος, ἐν ἱστορίᾳ δὲ Θουκυδίδης, ἐν δὲ
πολιτικοῖς λόγοις Ἀντιφῶν. ἐνταῦθα ἡ μὲν ὑπόθεσις ἀπῄτει      5
πολλὰ παρασχέσθαι τῶν εἰρημένων ἑκάστου παραδείγματα,
καὶ ἴσως οὐκ ἀηδὴς ἂν ὁ λόγος ἐγένετο πολλοῖς ὥσπερ ἄνθεσι
διαποικιλλόμενος τοῖς ἐαρινοῖς· ἀλλ’ ὑπέρμετρον ἔμελλε φανήσεσθαι
τὸ σύνταγμα καὶ σχολικὸν μᾶλλον ἢ παραγγελματικόν·
οὐ μὲν δὴ οὐδ’ ἀνεξέλεγκτα παραλιπεῖν τὰ ῥηθέντα ἥρμοττεν,      10
ὡς δὴ φανερὰ καὶ οὐ δεόμενα μαρτυρίας· ἔδει δέ πως τὸ
μέτριον ἀμφοῖν λαβεῖν καὶ μήτε πλεονάσαι τοῦ καιροῦ μήτ’
ἐλλιπεῖν τῆς πίστεως. τοῦτο δὴ πειράσομαι ποιῆσαι δείγματα
λαβὼν ὀλίγα παρὰ τῶν ἐπιφανεστάτων ἀνδρῶν. ποιητῶν μὲν
οὖν Πίνδαρος ἀρκέσει παραληφθείς, συγγραφέων δὲ Θουκυδίδης·      15
κράτιστοι γὰρ οὗτοι ποιηταὶ τῆς αὐστηρᾶς ἁρμονίας. ἀρχέτω
δὲ Πίνδαρος, καὶ τούτου διθύραμβός τις οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ἀρχή·

δεῦτ’ ἐν χορόν, Ὀλύμπιοι,
ἐπί τε κλυτὰν πέμπετε χάριν, θεοί,
πολύβατον οἵ τ’ ἄστεος ὀμφαλὸν θυόεντα      20
ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς Ἀθάναις

[215]

many authors in poetry, history, and civil oratory; pre-eminently in epic poetry by Antimachus of Colophon and Empedocles the natural philosopher, in lyric poetry by Pindar, in tragedy by Aeschylus, in history by Thucydides, and in civil oratory by Antiphon. At this point the subject would naturally call for the presentation of numerous examples of each author cited, and possibly the discourse would have been rendered not unattractive if bedecked with many such flowers of spring. But then the treatise would probably be felt to be excessively long—more like a course of lectures than a manual. On the other hand, it would not be fitting to leave the statements unsubstantiated, as though they were obvious and not in need of proof. The right thing, no doubt, is after all to take a sort of middle course, neither to exceed all measure, nor yet to fall short of carrying conviction. I will endeavour to do so by selecting a few samples from the most distinguished authors. Among poets it will be enough to cite Pindar, among prose-writers Thucydides; for these are the best writers in the austere style of composition. Let Pindar come first, and from him I take a dithyramb which begins—

Shed o’er our choir, Olympian Dominations,
The glory of your grace,
O ye who hallow with your visitations
The curious-carven place,

1 ποιητικοὺς F   2 ἐπικῇ Sylburgius: ἐπιεικη F: ἐπιεικεῖ PMV: om. E   5 ποιητικοῖς F   8 ἐαρινοῖς] ἀριθμ(οις) P   10 οὐδ’ ἀνεξέλεγκτα P: οὐδ’ ἀνεξέλεκτα M: οὐδ’ ἂν ἐξέλεγκτα F   12 μέτριον PV: μέτρον FM   13 δὴ F   17 τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἀρχῆι P || ἡ ἀρχὴ E: ἀρχὴ FMV   18 δεῦτ’ EFM^2V: ΐδετ’ P, M^1 || ἐν χορὸν EFV: ἐν σχορ(ὸν) P   19 πέμπεται P   20 οἵ τ’] οἳ F || ἄστεως F (ἄστεος praestat idem 222 14)   21 ἀθήναις libri: sed cf. n. crit. ad 222 14

2. For Antimachus of Colophon cp. de Imitat. ii. 6 Ἀντίμαχος δὲ εὐτονίας [ἐφρόντισεν] καὶ ἀγωνιστικῆς τραχύτητος καὶ τοῦ συνήθους τῆς ἐξαλλαγῆς: Catullus xcv. 20 “at populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho”: Quintil. x. 1. 53 “contra in Antimacho vis et gravitas et minime vulgare eloquendi genus habet laudem. sed quamvis ei secundas fere grammaticorum consensus deferat, et affectibus et iucunditate et dispositione et omnino arte deficitur, ut plane manifesto appareat, quanto sit aliud proximum esse, aliud parem.” Plato’s admiration for his poetry is said to have been great.

3. For Empedocles as being a physicist rather than a poet see Aristot. Poet. i. 9 καὶ γὰρ ἂν ἰατρικὸν ἢ φυσικόν τι διὰ τῶν μέτρων ἐκφέρωσιν, οὕτω καλεῖν εἰώθασιν, οὐδὲν δὲ κοινόν ἐστιν Ὁμήρῳ καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλεῖ πλὴν τὸ μέτρον, διὸ τὸν μὲν ποιητὴν δίκαιον καλεῖν, τὸν δὲ φυσιολόγον μᾶλλον ἢ ποιητήν. But on the other side cp. Lucret. i. 731 “carmina quin etiam divini pectoris eius | vociferantur et exponunt praeclara reperta, | ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus.” The fragments of Empedocles go far to justify Lucretius’ opinion; and the true poetic gifts of Empedocles, as of Lucretius himself, may have been seen in his work as a whole, even more than in its parts.

3, 4. The μεγαλοπρέπεια of Pindar is emphasized in the de Imitat. B. vi. 2.—Similarly, ibid., as to Aeschylus: ὁ δ’ οὖν Αἰσχύλος πρῶτος ὑψηλός τε καὶ τῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας ἐχόμενος, κτλ.

5. For other references to Antiphon see de Isaeo c. 20, de Thucyd. c. 51, de Demosth. c. 8, Ep. i. ad Amm. c. 2, and C.V. c. 10. Also Thucyd. viii. 68 Ἀντιφῶν ἀνὴρ Ἀθηναίων τῶν καθ’ ἑαυτὸν ἀρετῇ τε οὐδενὸς δεύτερος καὶ κράτιστος ἐνθυμηθῆναι γενόμενος καὶ ἃ γνοίη εἰπεῖν.—For Thucydides himself see D.H. passim (especially pp. 30-34, 104 ff., 130 ff.).

17. G. S. Farnell Greek Lyric Poetry p. 417: “The excited nature of the rhythm throughout, and the rapturous enthusiasm with which the approach of spring is described, are eminently characteristic of the dithyramb at its best; and it is easy to understand how such a style, in the hands of inferior poets, degenerated into the florid inanity which characterizes the later dithyrambic poets.”

18. δεῦτ’ ἐν χορόν, ‘come ye to the dance.’ “ἐν cum accus. (eight times in Pindar, chiefly in the Aeolic odes) is a relic of the original stage of the language when this preposition had the functions of the Latin in. It is preserved in Boeotian, Thessalian, North-West Greek, Eleian, Arcadian, Cyprian, and perhaps even in the Attic ἔμβραχυ. The accusative use was abandoned on the rise of ἐν-ς (cf. ab-s), which, before a vowel, became εἰς, before a consonant, ἐς” (Weir Smyth Greek Melic Poets p. 359). P’s curious reading ἐν σχορ(ὸν) is to be noticed.

20. ὀμφαλόν: the reference is to the Athenian Acropolis, and the passage suggested a fitting motto to Otto Jahn for his Pausaniae Descriptio Arcis Athenarum.

οἰχνεῖτε πανδαίδαλόν τ’ εὐκλέ’ ἀγοράν,
ἰοδέτων λάχετε στεφάνων τᾶν τ’ ἐαριδρόπων ἀοιδᾶν·
Διόθεν τέ με σὺν ἀγλαΐᾳ
ἴδετε πορευθέντ’ ἀοιδᾶν δεύτερον
ἐπὶ τὸν κισσοδέταν θεόν,      5
τὸν Βρόμιον ἐριβόαν τε βροτοὶ καλέομεν,
γόνον ὑπάτων μὲν πατέρων μέλπομεν
γυναικῶν τε Καδμεϊᾶν [ἔμολον].
ἐναργέα τελέων σάματ’ οὐ λανθάνει,
φοινικοεάνων ὁπότ’ οἰχθέντος Ὡρᾶν θαλάμου      10
εὔοδμον ἐπάγῃσιν ἔαρ φυτὰ νεκτάρεα·
τότε βάλλεται, τότ’ ἐπ’ ἄμβροτον χέρσον ἐραταὶ
ἴων φόβαι, ῥόδα τε κόμαισι μίγνυται
ἀχεῖ τ’ ὀμφαὶ μελέων σὺν αὐλοῖς,
ἀχεῖ τε Σεμέλαν ἑλικάμπυκα χοροί.      15

ταῦθ’ ὅτι μέν ἐστιν ἰσχυρὰ καὶ στιβαρὰ καὶ ἀξιωματικὰ καὶ
πολὺ τὸ αὐστηρὸν ἔχει τραχύνει τε ἀλύπως καὶ πικραίνει
μετρίως τὰς ἀκοὰς ἀναβέβληταί τε τοῖς χρόνοις καὶ διαβέβηκεν
ἐπὶ πολὺ ταῖς ἁρμονίαις καὶ οὐ τὸ θεατρικὸν δὴ
τοῦτο καὶ γλαφυρὸν ἐπιδείκνυται κάλλος ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀρχαϊκὸν      20
ἐκεῖνο καὶ αὐστηρόν, ἅπαντες ἂν εὖ οἶδ’ ὅτι μαρτυρήσειαν οἱ

[217]

The heart of Athens, steaming with oblations,
Wide-thronged with many a face.
Come, take your due of garlands violet-woven,
Of songs that burst forth when the buds are cloven.

Look on me—linked with music’s heaven-born glamour
Again have I drawn nigh
The Ivy-wreathed, on earth named Lord of Clamour,
Of the soul-thrilling cry.
We hymn the Babe that of the Maid Kadmeian
Sprang to the Sire throned in the empyrean.

By surest tokens is he manifested:—
What time the bridal bowers
Of Earth and Sun are by their crimson-vested
Warders flung wide, the Hours.
Then Spring, led on by flowers nectar-breathing,
O’er Earth the deathless flings
Violet and rose their love-locks interwreathing:
The voice of song outrings
An echo to the flutes; the dance his story
Echoes, and circlet-crowned Semele’s glory.[174]

That these lines are vigorous, weighty and dignified, and possess much austerity; that, though rugged, they are not unpleasantly so, and though harsh to the ear, are but so in due measure; that they are slow in their time-movement, and present broad effects of harmony; and that they exhibit not the showy and decorative prettiness of our day, but the austere beauty of a distant past: this will, I am sure, be attested by all readers

2 ιοδέτ(ων) P, MV: ἰαδέτων E: ὅδ’ ἐγὼν F || λαχετε P, EMV: λάχει F (cp. 224 4) || τᾶν τ’ ἐαριδρόπων Us.: ἄντε ἀριδρόπων F: τ’ ἀντ’ ἐαριδρέπων P: τάν τε ἀριδρέπτων E: τ’ ἀντ’ ἐπαριδρέπων M: τῶν ἐαριδρέπτων V || ἀοιδάν EFV: λοιβάν PM   3 Διόθεν τέ με] διατεθέντε F   4 πορευθέντα· οἱ δἂν F: πορευθέντες ἀοιδαὶ (ἀοιδαῖς EV) ceteri   5 κισσοδέταν s: κισσοδόνταν deleto ν priore P (κισσοδόταν leg. Us.): κισσοδαη F, EMV   6 τὸν P: ὃν ceteri || βρόμιον ὃν EFMV: βρόμι(ον). τ(ον) P   7 μὲν P: τε EV: μέν τε FM || μέλπε P: μέλπομεν ceteri   8 ἔμολον P: σεμέλαν EV: σεμέλην FM   9 ἐναργέα τελέων Us.: ἐναργεα νεμέω P, E: ἐν ἄλγεα τεμεῶι F: ἐν ἀργέα νεμέα MV || σάματ’ Us.: τεμάντιν F: μάντιν cett.   10 φοινικοεάνων Kock: φοινικοεάων F: φοίνικος ἐανῶν cett. || οἰχθόντες F || ὧραν F: ὥραν cett. || θάλαμοι F   11 εὐόαμον F || ἐπάγοισιν F: ἐπαΐωσιν cett.   12 τότε om. F || ἄμβροτον χέρσον EFV: ἀμβρόταν (αμσβρόταν P) χθόν’ PM   12-13 ἐραταὶ (ἐρατὰς V) ἴων φόβαι ῥόδατε EV: ἐρατέων φοβερόδατε F: ἐρατὰν· ΐον φοβεράτε P, M   13 κόμισι F || μίγνυται PM: μίγνυνται EFV   14 ἀχεῖ τε F: οἰχνεῖ τ’ EPM: οἰχνεῖτε V: ὑμνεῖτε s || ὀμφᾶι F: ὀμφᾶ E: ὀμφα V: ὀμφαῖς PM   15 ἀχεῖ τε Hermannus: οἰχνεῖ τε libri: ὑμνεῖτε s   18 ἀναβέβληται F: ἀνακέκληται PMV   19 ἐπὶ F: ἐπὶ τὸ PMV || καὶ οὐ τὸ Us.: καὶ οὔτε PMV: οὐ τὸ F   21 καὶ FM: καὶ τὸ PV || εὖ F: om. PMV

2. λαχεῖν would be infinitive for imperative, or (rather) infinitive of purpose after a verb of motion (just as Boeckh, in l. 7 infra, reads μελπέμεν).

λοιβᾶν (λοιβάν PM) might be taken to refer to honey, or to ‘drink-offerings of spring-gathered herbs.’

4. δεύτερον: “post Iovem patrem secundo loco ad Bacchum filium,” Boeckh. Or the reference may be to a previous visit of Pindar to Athens.

9. ‘The clear-seen tokens of his rites are not unnoticed.’ In other words, the return of spring indicates to the god that his festival is at hand: cp. Aristoph. Nub. 311 (Weir Smyth).

12. βάλλεται ... ἀχεῖ ... ἀχεῖ: schema Pindaricum.

15. “Metre: paeonic-logaoedic as Ol. 10, Pyth. 5. Schmidt (Eurythmie 428) regards the metre as logaoedic throughout. The fragment belongs to the ἀπολελυμένα μέλη, that is, it is not divided into strophes,” Weir Smyth.

21. It is convenient to use ‘readers’ occasionally in the translation. But ‘hearers’ (οἱ ἀκούοντες) would more naturally be used by a Greek: just as λόγους (218 1) is strictly ‘discourse’ rather than ‘literature.’

μετρίαν ἔχοντες αἴσθησιν περὶ λόγους. τίνι δὲ κατασκευασθέντα
ἐπιτηδεύσει τοιαῦτα γέγονεν (οὐ γὰρ ἄνευ γε τέχνης
καὶ λόγου τινός, αὐτοματισμῷ δὲ καὶ τύχῃ χρησάμενα τοῦτον
εἴληφε τὸν χαρακτῆρα), ἐγὼ πειράσομαι δεικνύναι.

τὸ πρῶτον αὐτῷ κῶλον ἐκ τεττάρων σύγκειται λέξεως      5
μορίων, ῥήματος καὶ συνδέσμου καὶ δυεῖν προσηγορικῶν· τὸ
μὲν οὖν ῥῆμα καὶ ὁ σύνδεσμος συναλοιφῇ κερασθέντα οὐκ
ἀηδῆ πεποίηκε τὴν ἁρμονίαν· τὸ δὲ προσηγορικὸν τῷ συνδέσμῳ
συντιθέμενον ἀποτετράχυκεν ἀξιολόγως τὴν ἁρμογήν· τὸ γὰρ
ἐν χορὸν καὶ ἀντίτυπον καὶ οὐκ εὐεπές, τοῦ μὲν συνδέσμου      10
λήγοντος εἰς ἡμίφωνον στοιχεῖον τὸ ν̄, τοῦ δὲ προσηγορικοῦ
τὴν ἀρχὴν λαμβάνοντος ἀφ’ ἑνὸς τῶν ἀφώνων τοῦ χ̄· ἀσύμμικτα
δὲ τῇ φύσει ταῦτα τὰ στοιχεῖα καὶ ἀκόλλητα· οὐ γὰρ
πέφυκε κατὰ μίαν συλλαβὴν τοῦ χ̄ προτάττεσθαι τὸ ν̄,
ὥστε οὐδὲ συλλαβῶν ὅρια γινόμενα συνάπτει τὸν ἦχον, ἀλλ’      15
ἀνάγκη σιωπήν τινα γενέσθαι μέσην ἀμφοῖν τὴν διορίζουσαν
ἑκατέρου τῶν γραμμάτων τὰς δυνάμεις. τὸ μὲν δὴ πρῶτον
κῶλον οὕτω τραχύνεται τῇ συνθέσει. κῶλα δέ με δέξαι
λέγειν οὐχ οἷς Ἀριστοφάνης ἢ τῶν ἄλλων τις μετρικῶν
διεκόσμησε τὰς ᾠδάς, ἀλλ’ οἷς ἡ φύσις ἀξιοῖ διαιρεῖν τὸν      20
λόγον καὶ ῥητόρων παῖδες τὰς περιόδους διαιροῦσι.

τὸ δὲ τούτῳ παρακείμενον κῶλον τὸ “ἐπί τε κλυτὰν
πέμπετε χάριν θεοί” διαβέβηκεν ἀπὸ τοῦ προτέρου διάβασιν
ἀξιόλογον καὶ περιείληφεν ἐν αὑτῷ πολλὰς ἁρμονίας ἀντιτύπους.
ἄρχει μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ στοιχεῖον ἓν τῶν φωνηέντων τὸ      25
ε̄ καὶ παράκειται ἑτέρῳ φωνήεντι τῷ ῑ· εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ἔληγε

[219]

whose literary sense has been tolerably developed. I will attempt to show by what method such results have been achieved, since it is not by spontaneous accident, but by some kind of artistic design, that this passage has acquired its characteristic form.

The first clause consists of four words—a verb, a connective, and two appellatives. Now the mingling and the amalgamation of the verb and the connective have produced a rhythm which is not without its charm; but the combination of the connective with the appellative has resulted in a junction of considerable roughness. For the words ἐν χορόν are jarring and uneuphonious, since the connective ends with the semivowel ν, while the appellative begins with one of the mutes, χ. These letters by their very nature cannot be blended and compacted, since it is unnatural for the combination νχ to form part of a single syllable; and so, when ν and χ are the boundaries of adjacent syllables, the voice cannot be continuous, but there must necessarily be a pause separating the letters if each of them is uttered with its proper sound. So, then, the first clause is roughened thus by the arrangement of its words. (You must understand me to mean by “clauses” not those into which Aristophanes or any of the other metrists has arranged the odes, but those into which Nature insists on dividing the discourse and into which the disciples of the rhetoricians divide their periods.)

The next clause to this—ἐπί τε κλυτὰν πέμπετε χάριν θεοί—is separated from the former by a considerable interval and includes within itself many dissonant collocations. It begins with one of the vowels, ε, in close proximity to which is another vowel, ι—the letter which came at the end of the preceding

1 λόγους ... τέχνης καὶ om. F || τινὶ δε P   3 δὲ καὶ F: καὶ PMV || χρησάμενον F   4 ἐγὼ PMV: ὃν ἐγὼ F   5 αὐτὸ F   10 καὶ ἀντίτυπον EF: ἀντίτυπόν τε PMV || εὐεπὲς EF: εὐπετὲς PMV   13 τῆι φύσει P, M in marg. F: om. F^1: τῆ ῥύσει V   14 προτάττεσθαι F: προτετάχθε P, MV   15 οὐδὲ PMV: οὔτε F || ὅρια] ὄρια F: δύο (β̄ P) μόρια EPM: δύο τὰ μόρια V || συνάπτει] τύπτει F   16 γενέσθαι EF: γίγνεσθαι P: γίνεσθαι MV || μέσοιν EM   17 ἑκατέρων EF   18 με δέξαι PV: μ’ ἔδοξε FM   19 λέγειν F: νυνὶ λέγειν PMV   22 δὲ τούτω PV: δ’ επι τούτων F, M   23 θεοὶ FM: om. PV || διαβέβηκεν F: βέβηκέ τε PMV   24 αὑτῷ] Sch., αὐτῷ libri   26 ἔληγεν ὁ F: ἔληξεν τὸ P, MV

5. αὐτῷ: sc. in this author, or in this passage. Cp. 168 1, 230 29.

13. Dionysius’ general object is to show that there is a kind of intentional discord or clash in Pindar’s dithyramb.

17. ‘If each of the letters is uttered with its proper quality,’ viz. if we say ἐν χορόν and not ἐγ χορόν.

19. Ἀριστοφάνης: not, of course, the comic poet of Athens, but the grammarian of Byzantium.—From this passage, and from 278 5 infra, it would appear that Aristophanes divided the text of Pindar and other lyric poets into metrical cola. Such cola are found in the recently-discovered Bacchylides papyrus (written probably in Dionysius’ own century—the first century B.C.), which is also the earliest manuscript in which accents are used.

21. ῥητόρων παῖδες: cp. 266 8 ζωγράφων τε καὶ τορευτῶν παισίν, ‘the generation of painters and sculptors.’ So ζωγράφων παῖδες Plato Legg. 769 B, παῖδες ῥητόρων Luc. Anach. 19. The term will include pupils or apprentices, as well as sons: cp. Plato Rep. v. 467 A ἢ οὐκ ᾔσθησαι τὰ περὶ τὰς τέχνας, οἷον τοὺς τῶν κεραμέων παῖδας, ὡς πολὺν χρόνον διακονοῦντες θεωροῦσι πρὶν ἅπτεσθαι τοῦ κεραμεύειν; Earlier still we have the schools of the bards—the Ὁμηρίδαι or Ὁμήρου παῖδες, like ‘the sons of the prophets’ in the Old Testament. As used by later writers, the periphrasis with παῖδες may be compared with οἱ περί, οἱ ἀμφί (cp. note on 194 20 supra).

26. “The passages relating to Ὀλύμπιοι ἐπί, and καὶ Ἀθηναίων (Thuc. i. 1), where the word in each case is said to end in ι, have led some persons to suppose that Dionysius pronounced οι and αι as real diphthongs of two vowels ending in ι. We know, however, that at this time αι was a single vowel ε prolonged, and that it was only called a diphthong because written with two letters, just as ea in each, great are often spoken of as a diphthong, in place of a digraph. We know also that ι subscript was not pronounced, and yet Dionysius speaks of ἀγλαΐᾳ as ending with ι. Consequently there is no need to suppose that οι was a real diphthong either. The language is merely orthographical. As to the amount of pause, we find similar combinations within the same Greek word: οι and ε in οἴεται, ν and δ in ἄνδρα, αι and α in Αἴας; while ν before τ is quite common as in ὄντων, and ν before π, κ becomes μ, γ, as in ἔμπορος, ἐγκρατής. Hence much of this criticism may be fanciful. But it is certain that there is a different feeling respecting the collision of letters which end and begin a word, and those which come together in the same word. Thus in French poetry open vowels are entirely forbidden. It is impossible to say ‘cela ira’ in serious French verse. Yet ‘haïr’ is quite admissible. Hence there may be some foundation for the preceding observations, which, however, like many others in the treatise, ride a theory very hard,” A. J. E. [The observations of the critic, himself, must obviously be accepted with considerable reserve: see, for example, the note on 230 19 infra.]

τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ. οὐ συναλείφεται δὲ οὐδὲ ταῦτ’ ἀλλήλοις, οὐδὲ
προτάττεται κατὰ μίαν συλλαβὴν τὸ ῑ τοῦ ε̄· σιωπὴ δέ τις
μεταξὺ ἀμφοῖν γίνεται, διερείδουσα τῶν μορίων ἑκάτερον καὶ
τὴν βάσιν αὐτοῖς ἀποδιδοῦσα ἀσφαλῆ. ἐν δὲ τῇ κατὰ μέρος
συνθέσει τοῦ κώλου τοῖς μὲν ἐπί τε συνδέσμοις ἀφ’ ὧν      5
ἄρχεται τὸ κῶλον, εἴτε ἄρα πρόθεσιν αὐτῶν δεῖ τὸ ἡγούμενον
καλεῖν, τὸ προσηγορικὸν ἐπικείμενον μόριον τὸ κλυτὰν
ἀντίτυπον πεποίηκε καὶ τραχεῖαν τὴν σύνθεσιν· κατὰ τί
ποτε; ὅτι βούλεται μὲν εἶναι βραχεῖα ἡ πρώτη συλλαβὴ
τοῦ κλυτάν, μακροτέρα δ’ ἐστὶ τῆς βραχείας ἐξ ἀφώνου τε      10
καὶ ἡμιφώνου καὶ φωνήεντος συνεστῶσα. τὸ δὲ μὴ εἰλικρινῶς
αὐτῆς βραχὺ καὶ ἅμα τὸ ἐν τῇ κράσει τῶν γραμμάτων
δυσεκφόρητον ἀναβολήν τε ποιεῖ καὶ ἐγκοπὴν τῆς ἁρμονίας.
εἰ γοῦν τὸ κ̄ τις ἀφέλοι τῆς συλλαβῆς καὶ ποιήσειεν ἐπί
τε λυτάν, λυθήσεται καὶ τὸ βραδὺ καὶ τὸ τραχὺ τῆς      15
ἁρμονίας. πάλιν τῷ κλυτὰν προσηγορικῷ τὸ πέμπετε
ῥηματικὸν ἐπικείμενον οὐκ ἔχει συνῳδὸν οὐδ’ εὐκέραστον τὸν
ἦχον, ἀλλ’ ἀνάγκη στηριχθῆναι τὸ ν̄ καὶ πιεσθέντος ἱκανῶς
τοῦ στόματος τότε ἀκουστὸν γενέσθαι τὸ π̄· οὐ γὰρ ὑποτακτικὸν
τῷ ν̄ τὸ π̄. τούτου δ’ αἴτιον ὁ τοῦ στόματος      20
σχηματισμὸς οὔτε κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον οὔτε τῷ αὐτῷ
τρόπῳ τῶν γραμμάτων ἐκφέρων ἑκάτερον· τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ν̄
περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν γίνεται ὁ ἦχος καὶ τῆς γλώττης ἄκροις
τοῖς ὀδοῦσι προσανισταμένης καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος διὰ τῶν
ῥωθώνων μεριζομένου, τοῦ δὲ π̄ μύσαντός τε τοῦ στόματος      25

[221]

clause. These letters, again, do not coalesce with one another, nor can ι stand before ε in the same syllable. There is a certain silence between the two letters, which thrusts apart the two elements and gives each a firm position. In the detailed arrangement of the clause the postposition of the appellative part of speech κλυτάν to the connectives ἐπί τε with which the phrase opens (though perhaps the first of these connectives should rather be called a preposition) has made the composition dissonant and harsh. For what reason? Because the first syllable of κλυτάν is ostensibly short, but actually longer than the ordinary short, since it is composed of a mute, a semi-vowel, and a vowel. It is the want of unalloyed brevity in it, combined with the difficulty of pronunciation involved in the combination of the letters, that causes retardation and interruption in the harmony. At all events, if you were to remove the κ from the syllable and to make it ἐπί τε λυτάν, there would be an end to both the slowness and the roughness of the arrangement. Further: the verbal form πέμπετε, subjoined to the appellative κλυτάν, does not produce a harmonious or well-tempered sound. The ν must be firmly planted and the π be heard only when the lips have been quite pressed together, for the π cannot be tacked on to the ν. The reason of this is the configuration of the mouth, which does not produce the two letters either at the same spot or in the same way. ν is sounded on the arch of the palate, with the tongue rising towards the edge of the teeth and with the breath passing in separate currents through the nostrils; π with the lips closed, the tongue

2 προτάττεται] παρ’ οἷς τάττεται F || τις FM: τις ἡ PV   4 ἀσφαλῆι· ἐν δὴ P   5 τοῦ κώλου F: τῶν κώλων PMV || σύνδεσμον F   6 δεῖ] δὴ F   8 κατα τί ποτε· ὅτι F: κατά τι δήποτε PMV   9 μὲν εἶναι] μένειν F   11 καὶ ἡμιφώνου om. P || ἑστῶσα P   13 δυσεκφόρητον F: δυσεκφώνητον E: δυσέκφορον PMV   14 ποιήσει EF   17 τὸν om. EF   18 ἀνάγκηι P   19 τοῦ στόματος τότε E: το̈́ῦτοτε et in margine στομ(ατος) F: τοῦ π̄ τότε M: τότε V: τούτου Ps   20 αἴτιον EF: αἴτιος PMV || στόματος] σχήματος V.   22 ἐκφέρον F || ἑκάτερον F: ἑκάτερον τὸ π̄ καὶ τὸ ν̄ PMV || νῦ FM: om. PV   23 γίνεται F: τε γίνεται PMV || γλώττης F: γλώσσης PMV   24 προἀνισταμένης F, M   25 τε τοῦ στόματος om. F

15. λυτάν, λυθήσεται: possibly an intentional play on words.

18. Clearly Dionysius does not believe that, in this passage, final ν before initial π was pronounced as μ—κλυτάν as κλυτάμ: though final ν sometimes appears under this form in inscriptions, as also does medial ν in such compounds as συμπόσιον. The literal meaning of the passage seems to be, ‘The ν must be firmly planted [pronounced distinctly, dwelt upon], and κλυτὰν πέμπετε cannot be run together in one word, as κλυταμπέμπετε or the like might be.’

καὶ οὐδὲν τῆς γλώττης συνεργούσης τοῦ τε πνεύματος κατὰ
τὴν ἄνοιξιν τῶν χειλῶν τὸν ψόφον λαμβάνοντος ἀθροῦν, ὡς
καὶ πρότερον εἴρηταί μοι· ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταλαμβάνειν τὸ στόμα
σχηματισμὸν ἕτερον ἐξ ἑτέρου μήτε συγγενῆ μήτε παρόμοιον
ἐμπεριλαμβάνεταί τις χρόνος, ἐν ᾧ διίσταται τὸ λεῖόν τε      5
καὶ εὐεπὲς τῆς ἁρμονίας. καὶ ἅμα οὐδ’ ἡ προηγουμένη τοῦ
πέμπετε συλλαβὴ μαλακὸν ἔχει τὸν ἦχον ἀλλ’ ὑποτραχύνει
τὴν ἀκοὴν ἀρχομένη τε ἐξ ἀφώνου καὶ λήγουσα εἰς ἡμίφωνον.
τῷ τε χάριν τὸ θεοὶ παρακείμενον ἀνακόπτει τὸν ἦχον καὶ
ποιεῖ διερεισμὸν ἀξιόλογον τῶν μορίων, τοῦ μὲν εἰς ἡμίφωνον      10
λήγοντος τὸ ν̄, τοῦ δὲ ἄφωνον ἔχοντος ἡγούμενον τὸ θ̄·
οὐδενὸς δὲ πέφυκε προτάττεσθαι τῶν ἀφώνων τὰ ἡμίφωνα.

τούτοις ἐπιφέρεται τρίτον κῶλον τουτί “πολύβατον οἵ
τ’ ἄστεος ὀμφαλὸν θυόεντα ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς Ἀθάναις
οἰχνεῖτε.” ἐνταῦθα τῷ τε ὀμφαλὸν εἰς τὸ ν̄ λήγοντι τὸ      15
θυόεντα παρακείμενον ἀπὸ τοῦ θ̄ ἀρχόμενον ὁμοίαν ἀποδίδωσιν
ἀντιτυπίαν τῇ πρότερον, καὶ τῷ θυόεντα εἰς φωνῆεν
τὸ ᾱ λήγοντι ζευγνύμενον τὸ “ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς” ἀπὸ
φωνήεντος τοῦ ε̄ λαμβάνον τὴν ἀρχὴν διέσπακε τῷ μεταξὺ
χρόνῳ τὸν ἦχον οὐκ ὄντι ὀλίγῳ. τούτοις ἐκεῖνα ἕπεται      20
“πανδαίδαλόν τ’ εὐκλέ’ ἀγοράν”· τραχεῖα κἀνταῦθα καὶ
ἀντίτυπος ἡ συζυγία· ἡμιφώνῳ γὰρ ἄφωνον συνάπτεται τῷ
ν̄ τὸ τ̄ καὶ διαβέβηκεν ἀξιόλογον διάβασιν ὁ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε
προσηγορικοῦ τοῦ πανδαίδαλον καὶ τῆς συναλοιφῆς τῆς
συναπτομένης αὐτῷ χρόνος· μακραὶ μὲν γὰρ ἀμφότεραι,      25
μείζων δὲ οὐκ ὀλίγῳ τῆς μετρίας ἡ συναλείφουσα τὰ δύο
συλλαβή, ἐξ ἀφώνου τε καὶ δυεῖν συνεστῶσα φωνηέντων· εἰ

[223]

doing none of the work, and the breath forming a concentrated noise when the lips are opened, as I have said before. While the mouth is taking one after another shapes that are neither akin nor alike, some time is consumed, during which the smoothness and euphony of the arrangement is interrupted. Moreover, the first syllable of πέμπετε has not a soft sound either, but is rather rough to the ear, as it begins with a mute and ends with a semi-vowel. θεοί coming next to χάριν pulls the sound up short and makes an appreciable interval between the words, the one ending with the semi-vowel ν, the other beginning with the mute θ. And it is unnatural for a semi-vowel to stand before any mute.

Next follows this third clause, πολύβατον οἵ τ’ ἄστεος ὀμφαλὸν θυόεντα ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς Ἀθάναις οἰχνεῖτε. Here θυόεντα which begins with θ, being placed next to ὀμφαλὸν which ends in ν, produces a dissonance similar to that previously mentioned; and ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς which opens with the vowel ε, being linked to θυόεντα which ends with the vowel α, interrupts the voice by the considerable interval of time there is between them. Following these come the words πανδαίδαλόν τ’ εὐκλέ’ ἀγοράν. Here, too, the combination is rough and dissonant. For the mute τ is joined to the semi-vowel ν; and the interval between the appellative πανδαίδαλον and the elided syllable which follows it is quite an appreciable gap; for both syllables are long, but the syllable which unites the two letters ε and υ, consisting as it does of a mute and two vowels, is considerably longer than the average. At any rate, if the τ in the syllable

1 γλώττης F: γλώσσης PMV || συνεργούσης] μεριζομένη συνεργούσης F: ἐνεργούσης PV   2 ὡς F: ὡς δὴ PMV   3 δὲ F: δὴ PMV || τὸ στόμα PMV: τὸν F   5 εν ὧι διίσταται P: δι’ οὗ συνίσταται FMV || λεῖόν τε F: λεῖον PMV   6 εὐεπὲς F: εὐπετὲς PV: εὐτελὲς M   7 μακρὸν P   8 ἀρχομένη F: ἄρχουσά PMV   10 ποιεῖ F: ποιεῖ τὸν PMV || διερεισμὸν Us.: ἐρισμὸν P: διορισμὸν FMV   11 τὸ ν̄ Sylburgius: τοῦ ν̄ (νῦ F) FMV: om. P || θῆτα F   14 ἀθάναις F: ἀθήναις PMV   16 θῆτα F   18 ζευγνύμενον F: ἐπεζευγμένον PMV   19 λαμβάνοντος F   20 ἦχον] χρόνον F   21 τραχεῖα κἀνταῦθα om. F   22 συνάπτεται F: συνάπτεται γράμμα PMV   23 διάβασιν FM^1: διάστασιν PVM^2   25 συναπτομένης F: ἐπισυναπτομένης PMV || χρόνος F: om. PMV || μακρὰ et ἀμφότερα F || μὲν γὰρ] μὲν P: γὰρ F: γάρ εἰσιν MV   26 μετρίας F: συμμετρίας PMV || τὰ δύο συλλαβή Us.: τὰς δύο (β̄ P) συλλαβὰς libri   27 δυεῖν FP: δυοῖν MV

2. ὡς καὶ πρότερον εἴρηταί μοι: the passages which seem to be meant (144 22 and 148 15) do not exactly tally with the present one.

12. We must supply κατὰ μίαν συλλαβήν, which words are found in 218 14 and 220 2 (cp. 230 4): otherwise we are confronted with such examples to the contrary as ἔνθα and (in this immediate context) μεταλαμβάνειν, ἀρχόμενον, etc.

21. τ’ εὐ- are treated as one syllable. So in 218 22, Dionysius probably intends us to divide as follows:

ᴗ ᴗ – ἐπιτε|κλυτάν,
etc.

23. In Dionysius’ own words, it might be said that the interval between the article ὁ and the noun χρόνος with which it agrees is quite an ‘appreciable gap.’ Cp. Introduction, p. 12 supra.

24. τῆς συναλοιφῆς: the fused or blended syllable—τ’ εὐ-.

γοῦν τις αὐτῆς ἀφέλοι τὸ τ̄ καὶ ποιήσειε πανδαίδαλον
εὐκλέ’ ἀγοράν, εἰς τὸ δίκαιον ἐλθοῦσα μέτρον εὐεπεστέραν
ποιήσει τὴν ἁρμονίαν.

ὅμοια τούτοις ἐστὶ κἀκεῖνα “ἰοδέτων λάχετε στεφάνων.”
παράκειται γὰρ ἡμίφωνα δύο ἀλλήλοις τὸ ν̄ καὶ τὸ λ̄, φυσικὴν      5
οὐκ ἔχοντα συζυγίαν τῷ μήτε κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς ‹τόπους μήτε
καθ’› ὁμοίους σχηματισμοὺς τοῦ στόματος ἐκφέρεσθαι. καὶ τὰ
ἐπὶ τούτοις λεγόμενα μηκύνεταί τε ταῖς συλλαβαῖς καὶ διέστηκε
ταῖς ἁρμονίαις ἐπὶ πολύ “στεφάνων τᾶν τ’ ἐαριδρόπων”·
μακραὶ γὰρ καὶ δεῦρο συγκρούονται συλλαβαὶ τὸ δίκαιον      10
ὑπεραίρουσαι μέτρον, ἥ τε λήγουσα τοῦ στεφάνων μορίου δυσὶ
περιλαμβάνουσα ἡμιφώνοις φωνῆεν γράμμα φύσει μακρὸν καὶ
ἡ συναπτομένη ταύτῃ τρισὶ μηκυνομένη γράμμασιν ἀφώνῳ καὶ
φωνήεντι μακρῶς λεγομένῳ καὶ ἡμιφώνῳ· διερεισμός τε οὖν
γέγονε τοῖς μήκεσι τῶν συλλαβῶν, καὶ ἀντιτυπία τῇ παραθέσει      15
τῶν γραμμάτων, οὐκ ἔχοντος τοῦ τ̄ συνῳδὸν τῷ ν̄ τὸν ἦχον,
ὃ καὶ πρότερον εἴρηκα. παράκειται δὲ καὶ τῷ ἀοιδᾶν εἰς τὸ
ν̄ λήγοντι ἀπὸ τοῦ δ̄ ἀρχόμενον ἀφώνου τὸ Διόθεν τε καὶ
τῷ σὺν ἀγλαΐᾳ εἰς τὸ ῑ λήγοντι τὸ ἴδετε πορευθέντ’
ἀοιδᾶν ἀρχόμενον ἀπὸ τοῦ ῑ. πολλά τις ἂν εὕροι τοιαῦτα      20
ὅλην τὴν ᾠδὴν σκοπῶν.

ἵνα δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν εἰπεῖν ἐγγένηταί μοι,
Πινδάρου μὲν ἅλις ἔστω, Θουκυδίδου δὲ λαμβανέσθω λέξις ἡ
ἐκ τοῦ προοιμίου ἥδε·

Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος ξυνέγραψε τὸν πόλεμον τῶν      25

[225]

be removed and πανδαίδαλον εὐκλέ’ ἀγοράν be read, the syllable, falling into the normal measure, will make the composition more euphonious.

The words ἰοδέτων λάχετε στεφάνων are open to the same criticism as those already mentioned. For here two semi-vowels, ν and λ, come together, although they do not naturally admit of amalgamation owing to the fact that they are not pronounced ‹at the same regions nor› with the same configurations of the mouth. The words that follow these have their syllables lengthened and are widely divided from one another in arrangement: στεφάνων τᾶν τ’ ἐαριδρόπων. For here also there is a concurrence of long syllables which exceed the normal measure,—the final syllable of the word στεφάνων which embraces between two semi-vowels a vowel naturally long, and the syllable linked with it, which is lengthened by means of three letters, a mute, a vowel pronounced long, and a semi-vowel. Separation is produced by the lengths of the syllables, and dissonance by the juxtaposition of the letters, since the sound of τ does not accord with that of ν, as I have said before. Next to ἀοιδᾶν, which ends in ν, comes Διόθεν τε, which begins with the mute δ, and next to σὺν ἀγλαΐᾳ, which ends in ι, comes ἴδετε πορευθέντ’ ἀοιδᾶν, which begins with ι. Many such features may be found on a critical examination of the whole ode.

But in order to leave myself time for dealing with what remains, no more of Pindar. From Thucydides let us take this passage of the Introduction:—

“Thucydides, an Athenian, composed this history of the war

1 ἀφέλοι Us. (coll. 220 14): ἀφέλοιτο libri   2 εὐπετεστέραν PM^1V: εὐεπεστέραν M^2: εὐεπεστάτην F   4 ἰωδέτων M: ὃ δ’ ἐγὼν F || λάχετε στεφάνων PMV: λάχει F   5 γὰρ F: om. PMV   6 αὐτοὺς ὁμοίους F: ὁμοίους PMV: τόπους μήτε καθ’ ins. Usenerus   9 τᾶν τ’] τ’ αὖτ’ P: τ’ αὖ M: ἄν τ’ F: τῶν τ’ V || ἐαριδρόπων F: ἔαριδρέπων PM: ἐἀριδρέπτων V   13 ἡ] μὴ F || μηκυνομένη FM^2: μηκυνθεῖσα PM^1V   14 διερισμός M: διορισμός V   17 ὃ F: ὡς PMV || δὲ] τε F || ἀοιδὰν codd.: λοιβὰν s   18 ἀφώνου FM: ἄφωνον PV || διατεθὲν τε F: διόθεν τέ με PMV   19 πορευθέντα· οἱ δε F: πορευθέντες ἀοιδαν (-δὰν M, -δανὶ V) PMV   20 ἀρχόμενον] ἀρχαῖοι μόνον F   22 μοι F: μοι χρόνος PV: μοι χρόνων M   25 τῶν] τὸν P

1. ποιήσειε ... ποιήσει: cp. 220 14, 256 23.

6. If Usener’s supplement be not accepted, we might read τῷ μηδὲ κατὰ τοὺς ὁμοίους σχηματισμούς, κτλ.

10. δεῦρο συγκρούονται, ‘meet here with a clash,’ as it were.

17. παράκειται κτλ.: viz. the ν of ἀοιδᾶν comes next to the δ in διόθεν, and the ι at the end of ἀγλαΐᾳ precedes the ι in ἴδετε.—For ν and δ in juxtaposition cp. English and (where the d is often slurred in pronunciation) and, on the other hand, English sound (where the d is not original).

19. The ι at the end of ἀγλαΐᾳ seems, therefore, to have been regarded by Dionysius as a separate letter, and not as an ι ἀνεκφώνητον. Perhaps it was sounded in music; cp. the final e in French. In Dionysius’ time it was not uncommon to omit it even in writing: πολλοὶ γὰρ χωρὶς τοῦ ι γράφουσι τὰς δοτικάς, καὶ ἐκβάλλουσι δὲ τὸ ἔθος φυσικὴν αἰτίαν οὐκ ἔχον (Strabo xiv. 1. 50).

22. ἐγγένηταί μοι: cp. de Lysia c. 16 ἵνα δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἰδεῶν ἐγγένηταί μοι τὰ προσήκοντα εἰπεῖν, κτλ.

23. Bircovius compares, with the following passage of Thucydides, the opening of Sallust’s Bell. Iug. v. 1: “Bellum scripturus sum, quod populus Romanus cum Iugurtha rege Numidarum gessit, primum quia magnum et atrox variaque victoria fuit, dehinc quia tum primum superbiae nobilitatis obviam itum est; quae contentio divina et humana cuncta permiscuit eoque vecordiae processit ut studiis civilibus bellum atque vastitas Italiae finem faceret.”

24. τοῦ προοιμίου: probably the first twenty-three chapters are meant—as far as the word Ἐπίδαμνός ἐστι πόλις κτλ.

25. In the English translation no attempt has been made to reproduce the style of the original Greek. For this purpose the long sentences employed in early English prose-writers are most suitable; e.g. Francis Bacon’s rendering (Considerations touching a War with Spain iii. 516, in Harleian Miscellany v. 84) of Thucyd. i. 23: “The truest cause of this war, though least voiced, I conceive to have been this: that the Athenians being grown great, to the terror of the Lacedemonians, did impose upon them the necessity of a war; but the causes that went abroad in speeches were these,” etc. Thomas Hobbes’ translation of the opening of the History keeps close to the sentence-structure of the original: “Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the war of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians as they warred against each other, beginning to write as soon as the war was on foot; with expectation it should prove a great one, and most worthy the relation of all that had been before it: conjecturing so much, both from this, that they flourished on both sides in all manner of provision; and also because he saw the rest of Greece siding with the one or the other faction, some then presently and some intending so to do,” etc. Hobbes’ version is well known; but the unpublished translation of Francis Hickes [1566-1631], from which the following extract has been taken by the courtesy of the Librarian of Christ Church, Oxford, is also of much interest: “Thucydides the Athenian hath written the warres of the Peloponnesians and Athenians, with all the manner and fashion of their fight, and tooke in hande to put the same in writinge, as soone as ever the said warres weare begone, for a hope he had, that they would be great, and more worthy of memorie, than all the warres of former tyme have been: conjecturinge so much, because he sawe them both so richlie abound with all provisions thereunto belonginge, and all the rest of the Grecian nations, readie to joyne themselves to the one side or the other; some, presentlie upon their fallinge out, and the rest intendinge to do the like. This, no doubt, was the greatest stirre, that ever was amonge the Grecians, consistinge likewise partly of the Barbarians, and to speake in a word, of many and sundrie nations. As for the acts achieved by them before the tyme of this warre, or former matters yet of more antiquitie, it is impossible to finde out any certaintie, because the tyme is so long past, since they weare performed: but, by these conjectures, which upon due examination of former tymes, I believe to be true, I must thinke they weare of no great moment, either for the course of warre, or any other respect. Now it is most probable, that the country which we now call Grece, had not in old tyme any settled inhabitants, but did often change her dwellers, who weare still easie to be removed from their possessions if they weare urged by any greater forces, for when there was as yet no trade of Merchandise amongst men: no free entercourse of traffique one with another, either by land or sea: none that tilled any more ground, than what would serve to sustaine their present lives: none that had any money in this purse nor any that planted the earth with fruits for they knewe not how soone others would come and bereave them of it, their cities beinge all unwalled and bearing the mind, that they should everie where finde enough to serve their turnes for their dailie sustenance, they weare therefore easie to be driven out of any place; and for that cause, did nether strengthen themselves with great cities, nor warlike furniture for defence.”

Πελοποννησίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων ὡς ἐπολέμησαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους,
ἀρξάμενος εὐθὺς καθισταμένου καὶ ἐλπίσας μέγαν
τε ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἀξιολογώτατον τῶν προγεγενημένων,
τεκμαιρόμενος ὅτι ἀκμάζοντές τε ᾖσαν ἐς αὐτὸν ἀμφότεροι
παρασκευῇ τῇ πάσῃ, καὶ τὸ ἄλλο Ἑλληνικὸν ὁρῶν      5
ξυνιστάμενον πρὸς ἑκατέρους, τὸ μὲν εὐθύς, τὸ δὲ καὶ
διανοούμενον. κίνησις γὰρ αὕτη μεγίστη δὴ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν
ἐγένετο καὶ μέρει τινὶ τῶν βαρβάρων, ὡς δ’ εἰπεῖν καὶ
ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀνθρώπων. τὰ γὰρ πρὸ αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἔτι
παλαιότερα σαφῶς μὲν εὑρεῖν διὰ χρόνου πλῆθος ἀδύνατα      10
ἦν· ἐκ δὲ τεκμηρίων, ὧν ἐπὶ μακρότατον σκοποῦντί μοι
πιστεῦσαι ξυμβαίνει, οὐ μεγάλα νομίζω γενέσθαι οὔτε
κατὰ τοὺς πολέμους οὔτε ἐς τὰ ἄλλα. φαίνεται γὰρ ἡ
νῦν Ἑλλὰς καλουμένη οὐ πάλαι βεβαίως οἰκουμένη, ἀλλὰ
μεταναστάσεις τε οὖσαι τὰ πρότερα καὶ ῥᾳδίως ἕκαστοι      15
τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀπολείποντες βιαζόμενοι ὑπό τινων ἀεὶ
πλειόνων. τῆς γὰρ ἐμπορίας οὐκ οὔσης οὐδ’ ἐπιμιγνύντες
ἀδεῶς ἀλλήλοις οὔτε κατὰ γῆν οὔτε διὰ θαλάσσης,
νεμόμενοί τε τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστοι ὅσον ἀποζῆν καὶ περιουσίαν
χρημάτων οὐκ ἔχοντες οὐδὲ γῆν φυτεύοντες, ἄδηλον      20

[227]

which the Peloponnesians and the Athenians waged against one another. He began as soon as the war broke out, in the expectation that it would be great and memorable above all previous wars. This he inferred from the fact that both parties were entering upon it at the height of their military power, and from noticing that the rest of the Greek races were ranging themselves on this side or on that, or were intending to do so before long. No commotion ever troubled the Greeks so greatly: it affected also a considerable section of the barbarians, and one may even say the greater part of mankind. Events previous to this, and events still more remote, could not be clearly ascertained owing to lapse of time. But from such evidence as I find I can trust however far back I go, I conclude that they were not of great importance either from a military or from any other point of view. It is clear that the country now called Hellas was not securely settled in ancient times, but that there were migrations in former days, various peoples without hesitation leaving their own land when hard pressed by superior numbers of successive invaders. Commerce did not exist, nor did men mix freely with one another on land or by sea. Each tribe aimed at getting a bare living out of the lands it occupied. They had no reserve of capital, nor did they plant the ground with fruit-trees, since it was uncertain, especially as they had

1 καὶ] τε καὶ P   4 τε om. EF || ἦσαν libri: sed apud Thucydidem lectio potior ᾖσαν [“ᾖσαν F g Schol. Plat. Rep. 449 A Suid. Phot.: ἦσαν cett.”]   6 πρὸς ... διανοούμενον om. P   9 πλεῖστον EF: πλεῖστων sic P: πλείστων MV || καὶ τὰ EFs: καὶ PMV   10 ἐρεῖν P   11 μακρότερον F   13 πολεμίους P || τὰ ἄλλα PMV: τ’ ἄλλα F   16 ἀπολιπόντες F   17 ἐπιμιγνῦντες ἀλλήλοις (om. ἀδεῶς) F   20 οὐδὲ γῆν φυτεύοντες om. F

4. ᾖσαν: cp. schol. ad Thucyd. i. 1 ᾖσαν] μετὰ σπουδῆς ἐπορεύοντο.

9. τά (before ἔτι) is omitted by the Palatine and the Ambrosian MSS. in de Thucyd. c. 20.

ὂν ὁπότε τις ἐπελθὼν καὶ ἀτειχίστων ἅμα ὄντων ἄλλος
ἀφαιρήσεται, τῆς τε καθ’ ἡμέραν ἀναγκαίου τροφῆς πανταχοῦ
ἂν ἡγούμενοι ἐπικρατεῖν οὐ χαλεπῶς ἀνίσταντο.

αὕτη ἡ λέξις ὅτι μὲν οὐκ ἔχει λείας οὐδὲ συνεξεσμένας
ἀκριβῶς τὰς ἁρμονίας οὐδ’ ἔστιν εὐεπὴς καὶ μαλακὴ καὶ      5
λεληθότως ὀλισθάνουσα διὰ τῆς ἀκοῆς ἀλλὰ πολὺ τὸ ἀντίτυπον
καὶ τραχὺ καὶ στρυφνὸν ἐμφαίνει, καὶ ὅτι πανηγυρικῆς
μὲν ἢ θεατρικῆς οὐδὲ κατὰ μικρὸν ἐφάπτεται χάριτος, ἀρχαϊκὸν
δέ τι καὶ αὔθαδες ἐπιδείκνυται κάλλος, ὡς πρὸς εἰδότας
ὁμοίως τοὺς εὐπαιδεύτους ἅπαντας οὐδὲν δέομαι λέγειν, ἄλλως      10
τε καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦτό γε τοῦ συγγραφέως ὁμολογήσαντος, ὅτι
εἰς μὲν ἀκρόασιν ἧττον ἐπιτερπὴς ἡ γραφή ἐστι, “κτῆμα δ’
εἰσαεὶ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀγώνισμα εἰς τὸ παραυτίκα ἀκούειν
σύγκειται.” τίνα δ’ ἐστὶ τὰ θεωρήματα οἷς χρησάμενος ὁ
ἀνὴρ οὕτως ἀπηνῆ καὶ αὐστηρὰν πεποίηκε τὴν ἁρμονίαν, δι’      15
ὀλίγων σοι σημανῶ· ῥᾴδιον γὰρ ἔσται μικρὰ μεγάλων εἶναι
δείγματα τοῖς μὴ χαλεπῶς ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου τε καὶ ἀκολούθου
μεταβαίνουσιν θεωρίαν.

[229]

no fortifications, when some invader would come and rob them of their property. They also thought that they could command the bare necessities of daily life anywhere; and so, for all these reasons, they made no difficulty about giving up their land.”[175]

There is no need for me to say, when all educated people know it as well as I, that this passage is not smooth or nicely finished in its verbal arrangement, and is not euphonious and soft, and does not glide imperceptibly through the ear, but shows many features that are discordant and rough and harsh; that it does not make the slightest approach to attaining the grace appropriate to an oration delivered at a public festival or to a speech on the stage, but is marked by a sort of antique and self-willed beauty. Indeed, the historian himself admits that his narrative is but little calculated to give pleasure when heard: “it has been composed as a possession for all time rather than as an essay to be recited at some particular competition.”[176] I will briefly point out to you the principles by following which the author has made the arrangement so rugged and austere. Small things will readily serve you as samples of great: you can easily go on noting resemblances and making comparisons for yourself.

3 ἀνίστατο F: ἀπανίσταντο Thucyd.   4 αὕτη EF: αὕτη πάλιν PMV || συνεζευγμένας EV   5 καὶ μαλακὴ EFM: om. PV   6 ὀλισθάνουσα P: ὀλισθαίνουσα FMV   7 καὶ τραχὺ om. EF || στριφνὸν F   11 αὐτοῦ τοῦτό γε PMV: αὐτοῦ τε F: αὐτοῦ E   14 ὁ ἀνὴρ EF: ἀνὴρ PMV   15 ἀπηνῆ M: ἀπεινῆ F: εὐπινῆ PV || διαλόγων F^1   16 σοι σημανῶ PM: σημανῶ EFV || ῥᾴδιον Us.: ῥαιδία F: ῥαῖον P, MV || ἐσται F: ἐστι PMV   18 μεταβαίνουσαι F: μεταβαίνουσι MV

3. For estimates of Thucydides’ style in general cp. not only this passage of Dionysius but also D.H. pp. 131-59, 175-82 (Text and Translation of Ep. ii. ad Amm., together with notes and some references to Marcellinus); Croiset Thucydide: Livres i.-ii. pp. 102 ff. and Histoire de la littérature grecque iv. pp. 155 ff.; Girard Essai sur Thucydide pp. 210-19; Blass Att. Bereds. i. pp. 203-44; Norden Kunstprosa i. pp. 96-101; Jebb in Hellenica pp. 306 ff.

4. This long sentence (Il. 4-14) is, itself, a good example of Greek word-order and the lucidity possible to it.

7. Batteux (pp. 250-3) maintains, in detail, that these comments on the style of Thucydides would also apply to a passage of Bossuet (in the Oraison funèbre de Henriette Anne d’ Angleterre, duchesse d’Orléans), which “a tous les caractères d’une composition austère; c’est partout un style robuste, nerveux, âpre même quelquefois, et presque rustique.” The passage is that which describes the abasement of all human grandeur by Death: “La voilà, malgré ce grand cœur, cette princesse si admirée et si chérie; la voilà, telle que la mort nous l’a faite. Encore ce reste tel quel va-t-il disparaître; cette ombre de gloire va s’évanouir, et nous l’allons voir dépouillée même de cette triste décoration. Elle va descendre à ces sombres lieux, à ces demeures souterraines, pour y dormir dans la poussière avec les grands de la terre, comme parle Job; avec ces rois et ces princes anéantis, parmi lesquels à peine peut-on la placer, tant les rangs y sont pressés, tant la mort est prompte à remplir ces places,” etc. Batteux begins his careful and interesting analysis as follows: “Nul choix des sons. Malgré ce grand cœur est dur. Cette princesse si est sifflant: si admirée et si; choc de voyelles. La voilà telle que la mort nous l’a faite: mots jetés plutôt que placés. Encore ce reste tel quel va-t-il dis: pointes de rochers. De cette triste décoration n’est guère plus doux. Et ces trois monosyllables brefs et rocailleux, comme parle Job, etc.

9. αὔθαδες ... κάλλος: this happy description of Thucydides’ style shows that Dionysius saw in style a mirror of the man (cp. ἀνδρὸς χαρακτὴρ ἐκ λόγου γνωρίζεται, Menand. Fragm. 72, and Dionys. H. Antiqq. Rom. i. 1 ἐπιεικῶς γὰρ ἅπαντες νομίζουσιν εἰκόνας εἶναι τῆς ἑκάστου ψυχῆς τοὺς λόγους).—The general drift of Dionysius’ phrase is, of course, commendatory: he does not (cp. 120 8, 9) mean ‘but such beauty as it (Thucydides’ style) displays is archaic and perverse.’

12. These well-known words of Thucydides (i. 22. 4) are quoted also in de Thucyd. c. 7.—A scholium on Thucyd. (l.c.) runs: κτῆμα] κέρδος. κτῆμα, τὴν ἀλήθειαν· ἀγώνισμα, τὸν γλυκὺν λόγον. αἰνίττεται δὲ τὰ μυθικὰ Ἡροδότου. The passage is well elucidated by Lucian, and by Pliny the Younger: (1) Lucian de conscribenda historica c. 42 ὁ δ’ οὖν Θουκυδίδης εὖ μάλα τοῦτ’ ἐνομοθέτησε, καὶ διέκρινεν ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν συγγραφικήν, ὁρῶν μάλιστα θαυμαζόμενον τὸν Ἡρόδοτον, ἄχρι τοῦ καὶ Μούσας κληθῆναι αὐτοῦ τὰ βιβλία. κτῆμα γάρ φησι μᾶλλον ἐς ἀεὶ συγγράφειν ἤπερ ἐς τὸ παρὸν ἀγώνισμα, καὶ μὴ τὸ μυθῶδες ἀσπάζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν τῶν γεγενημένων ἀπολείπειν τοῖς ὕστερον, (2) Pliny Ep. v. 8 “nam plurimum refert, ut Thucydides ait, κτῆμα sit an ἀγώνισμα: quorum alterum oratio, alterum historia est.”

13. εἰσαεί: Thucydides himself no doubt wrote ἐς αἰεί: see Marcellinus § 52 for αἰεί (rather than ἀεί) as constituting a mark of ἡ ἀρχαία Ἀτθίς in Thucydides.

14. ὁ ἀνὴρ (divisim) should probably be read: cp. 230 23.

17. The meaning possibly is, “you can easily proceed with the same line of observation right through work which is consistently of a similar character to this.”

αὐτίκα ἐν ἀρχῇ τῷ Ἀθηναῖος προσηγορικῷ τὸ ξυνέγραψε
ῥῆμα ἐφαρμοττόμενον διίστησιν ἀξιολόγως τὴν ἁρμονίαν·
οὐ γὰρ προτάττεται τὸ σ̄ τοῦ ξ̄ κατὰ συνεκφορὰν
τὴν ἐν μιᾷ συλλαβῇ γινομένην· δεῖ δὲ τοῦ σ̄ σιωπῇ καταληφθέντος
τότε ἀκουστὸν γενέσθαι τὸ ξ̄. τοῦτο δὲ τραχύτητα      5
ἐργάζεται καὶ ἀντιτυπίαν τὸ πάθος. ἔπειθ’ αἱ μετὰ τοῦτο
γινόμεναι συγκοπαὶ τῶν ἤχων, τοῦ τε ν̄ ‹καὶ τοῦ π̄› καὶ τοῦ
τ̄ καὶ τοῦ π̄ καὶ τοῦ κ̄ τετράκις ἑξῆς ἀλλήλοις παρακειμένων,
χαράττουσιν εὖ μάλα τὴν ἀκοὴν καὶ διασαλεύουσιν ἀξιολόγως
τὰς ἁρμονίας, ὅταν φῇ “τὸν πόλεμον τῶν Πελοποννησίων      10
καὶ Ἀθηναίων”· τούτων γὰρ τῶν μορίων τῆς λέξεως οὐδὲν
ὅ τι οὐ καταληφθῆναί τε δεῖ καὶ πιεσθῆναι πρότερον ὑπὸ
τοῦ στόματος περὶ τὸ τελευταῖον γράμμα, ἵνα τὸ συναπτόμενον
αὐτῷ τρανὴν καὶ καθαρὰν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ λάβῃ δύναμιν.
ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ἡ τῶν φωνηέντων παράθεσις ἡ κατὰ τὴν      15
τελευταίαν τοῦ κώλου τοῦδε γενομένη ἐν τῷ καὶ Ἀθηναίων
διακέκρουκε τὸ συνεχὲς τῆς ἁρμονίας καὶ διέστακεν πάνυ
αἰσθητὸν τὸν μεταξὺ λαβοῦσα χρόνον· ἀκέραστοι γὰρ αἱ
φωναὶ τοῦ τε ῑ καὶ τοῦ ᾱ καὶ ἀποκόπτουσαι τὸν ἦχον· τὸ
δ’ εὐεπὲς οἱ συνεχεῖς τε καὶ οἱ συλλεαινόμενοι ποιοῦσιν ἦχοι.      20

καὶ αὖθις ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ περιόδῳ τὸ προηγούμενον κῶλον
τουτί “ἀρξάμενος εὐθὺς καθισταμένου” μετρίως ἁρμόσας
ὁ ἀνὴρ ὡς ἂν εὔφωνόν τε μάλιστα φαίνοιτο καὶ μαλακόν, τὸ
μετὰ τοῦτο πάλιν ἀποτραχύνει καὶ διασπᾷ τοῖς διαχαλάσμασι
τῶν ἁρμονιῶν· “καὶ ἐλπίσας μέγαν τε ἔσεσθαι καὶ      25
ἀξιολογώτατον τῶν προγεγενημένων.” τρὶς γὰρ ἀλλήλοις
ἑξῆς οὐ διὰ μακροῦ παράκειται τὰ φωνήεντα συγκρούσεις
ἐργαζόμενα καὶ ἀνακοπὰς καὶ οὐκ ἐῶντα τὴν ἀκρόασιν ἑνὸς
κώλου συνεχοῦς λαβεῖν φαντασίαν· ἥ τε περίοδος αὐτῷ
λήγουσα εἰς τὸ “τῶν προγεγενημένων” οὐκ ἔχει τὴν      30
βάσιν εὔγραμμον καὶ περιφερῆ, ἀλλ’ ἀκόρυφός τις φαίνεται

[231]

At the very beginning the verb ξυνέγραψε, being appended to the appellative Ἀθηναῖος, makes an appreciable break in the verbal structure, since σ is never placed before ξ with a view to being pronounced in the same syllable with it. The sound of σ must be sharply arrested by an interval of silence before the ξ is heard; and this circumstance causes roughness and dissonance. Moreover, the interruptions of the voice in what follows, in consequence of the four successive juxtapositions νπ, ντ, νπ, νκ, grate violently upon the ear, and cause a remarkable succession of jolts when he says τὸν πόλεμον τῶν Πελοποννησίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων. Of these words there is not one that must not first be checked by the mouth with a stress on the last letter, in order that the next letter to it may be uttered clearly and purely with its own proper quality. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of vowels which is found at the end of this clause in the words καὶ Ἀθηναίων has broken and made a gap in the continuity of the arrangement, by demanding quite an appreciable interval, since the sounds of ι and α are unmingled and there is an interruption of the voice between them: whereas euphony is caused by sounds which are continuous and smoothly blended.

Again, in the second period the first clause ἀρξάμενος εὐθὺς καθισταμένου has been pretty successfully arranged by the author in the way in which it would produce the most smooth and euphonious effect. But he roughens and dislocates the very next clause by sundering its joints: καὶ ἐλπίσας μέγαν τε ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἀξιολογώτατον τῶν προγεγενημένων. For thrice in close succession vowels are juxtaposed which cause clashings and obstructed utterance, and make it impossible for the ear to take in the impression of one continuous clause; and the period which he ends with the words τῶν προγεγενημένων has no well-defined and rounded close, but seems to be without beginning or

2 ἐφαμαρτόμεν(ον) F: ἐπαγόμενον E   6 μετὰ τούτων F   7 καὶ τοῦ π̄ (post ν̄) ins. Uptonus   8 παρακειμένων Us.: παρακείμεναι libri   11 οὐδὲν PMV: οὐθὲν EF   12 οὖν F: οὐχὶ EPMV: οὐ ‹σιωπῇ› Us.   13 ὑπὸ] ἐπὶ P || τελευταῖαν F, MV: om. P   17 διέστακεν P, MV: διέστηκε EF   18 γὰρ EF: τε γὰρ PMV   21 καὶ αὖτις F: αὖθις PMV || τὸ F: om. PMV   24 ἀποτραχύνει PV: ἐπιτραχύνει FM || διαχαλάσμασιν P: ἀπὸχαλασμασι F   26 τρὶς Sauppe: τρία libri   27 ἑξῆς οὐ] ἐξ ἴσου P   29 λαβεῖν φαντασίαν F: φαντασίαν λαμβάνειν PMV

9. Perhaps an effect analogous to that of syncopation in music is meant.

10, 11. Different words, and a different order, seem hardly possible here. If πόλεμον were put after Ἀθηναίων, the juxtaposed letters would be much the same as in the existing arrangement.

16. τελευταίαν: it may be that some word like συγκοπήν is to be supplied. Or τελευτὴν may be read: or τελευταῖα.

19. The present passage (lines 15-19) shows, as Blass (Ancient Greek Pronunciation p. 66) remarks, that the educated pronunciation of the Augustan period did not confuse αι with ε.

22-5. Here, again, the author would hardly have much choice in the arrangement of the words in question.

26. τρίς: viz. in the words καὶ ἐλπίσας, τε ἔσεσθαι, καὶ ἀξιολογώτατον.

καὶ ἀκατάστροφος, ὥσπερ μέρος οὖσα τῆς δευτέρας ἀλλ’ οὐχὶ
[τῆς πρώτης] τέλος.

τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ πέπονθε καὶ ἡ τρίτη περίοδος· καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνης
ἀπερίγραφός ἐστι καὶ ἀνέδραστος ἡ βάσις τελευταῖον ἐχούσης
μόριον “τὸ δὲ καὶ διανοούμενον”· πολλὰς ἅμα καὶ αὐτὴ      5
περιέχουσα φωνηέντων τε πρὸς φωνήεντα ἀντιτυπίας καὶ
ἡμιφώνων πρὸς ἡμίφωνα καὶ ἄφωνα, ἅσπερ ἐργάζεται τὰ μὴ
συνῳδὰ τῇ φύσει τραχύτητας. ἵνα δὲ συνελὼν εἴπω, δώδεκά
που περιόδων οὐσῶν ἃς παρεθέμην, εἴ τις αὐτὰς συμμέτρως
μερίζοι πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα, κώλων δὲ περιλαμβανομένων ἐν      10
ταύταις οὐκ ἐλαττόνων ἢ τριάκοντα, τὰ μὲν εὐεπῶς συγκείμενα
καὶ συνεξεσμένα ταῖς ἁρμονίαις οὐκ ἂν εὕροι τις ἓξ ἢ ἑπτὰ
τὰ πάντα κῶλα, φωνηέντων δὲ συμβολὰς ἐν ταῖς δώδεκα
περιόδοις ὀλίγου δεῖν τριάκοντα, ἡμιφώνων τε καὶ ἀφώνων
ἀντιτύπων καὶ πικρῶν καὶ δυσεκφόρων παραβολάς, ἐξ ὧν αἵ      15
τε ἀνακοπαὶ καὶ τὰ πολλὰ ἐγκαθίσματα τῇ λέξει γέγονε,
τοσαύτας τὸ πλῆθος ὥστε ὀλίγου δεῖν καθ’ ἕκαστον αὐτῆς
μόριον εἶναί τι τῶν τοιούτων. πολλὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ τῶν κώλων
ἀσυμμετρία πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ ἡ τῶν περιόδων ἀνωμαλία καὶ
ἡ τῶν σχημάτων καινότης καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀκολουθίας ὑπεροπτικὸν      20
καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὅσα χαρακτηρικὰ τῆς ἀκομψεύτου τε καὶ
αὐστηρᾶς ἐπελογισάμην ὄντα ἁρμονίας. ἅπαντα γὰρ διεξιέναι
πάλιν ἐπὶ τῶν παραδειγμάτων καὶ καταδαπανᾶν εἰς ταῦτα
τὸν χρόνον οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον ἡγοῦμαι.

XXIII
ἡ δὲ γλαφυρὰ [καὶ ἀνθηρὰ] σύνθεσις, ἣν δευτέραν ἐτιθέμην

[233]

conclusion, as if it were part of the second period and not its termination.

The third period has the same characteristics. There is a lack of roundness and stability in its foundation, since it has for its concluding portion τὸ δὲ καὶ διανοούμενον. Further, it too contains many clashings of vowel against vowel and of semi-vowels against semi-vowels and mutes—discords produced by things in their very nature inharmonious. To sum up, here are some twelve periods adduced by me—if the breathing-space be taken as the criterion for the division of period from period; and they contain no fewer than thirty clauses. Yet of these not six or seven clauses in all will be found to be euphoniously composed and finished in their structure; while of hiatus between vowels in the twelve periods there are almost thirty instances, together with meetings of semi-vowels and mutes which are dissonant, harsh, and hard to pronounce. It is to this that the stoppages and the many retardations in the passage are due; and so numerous are these concurrences that there is one of the kind in almost every single section of it. There is a great lack of symmetry in the clauses, great unevenness in the periods, much innovation in the figures, disregard of sequence, and all the other marks which I have already noted as characteristic of the unadorned and austere style. I do not consider it necessary to waste our time by going over the whole ground once more with the illustrative passages.

CHAPTER XXIII

SMOOTH COMPOSITION

The smooth (or florid) mode of composition, which I regarded

2 τῆς πρώτης uncis inclusit Usenerus   4 ἐχούσης Us.: ἔχουσα libri   7 καὶ ... ἐργάζεται om. F || καὶ ἄφωνα P: om. FMV || ἅσπερ] ἅπερ PMV   8 τραχύτητας F: καὶ τραχύτητας PMV   9 εἴ τις] εἴπερ F   10 δὲ F: δὲ τῶν PMV || περιλαμβανομένων F: ἐμπεριλαμβανομένων PMV   11 ταύταις F: αὐταῖς PMV   12 τις ἑξῆς ἢ πάντα ταῦτα κῶλα F   13 συλλαβὰς F   14 καὶ ἀφώνων καὶ ἀντιτύπων P   17 τοσαύτας Uptonus: τοσαῦτα libri (cf. 160 20)   20 σχημάτων F: σχηματισμῶν PMV   21 τὰ ἄλλα PMV: τἆλλα F || χαρακτηρικὰ F: χαρακτηριστικὰ PV: χαρακτηριστικὰ καὶ M || ἀκομψεύστου FMV   22 αὐστηρᾶς] ἰσχυρᾶς F || ἀπελογησάμην PM^2: ἐπελογησάμην M^1V || διεξιέναι F: ἐπεξιέναι PMV   25 καὶ ἀνθηρὰ om. P || ἐτιθέμην F: ἐθέμην PMV

1. Dionysius seems to discern three periods in the first sentence of Thucydides, viz. (1) Θουκυδίδης ... ἀλλήλους (2) ἀρξάμενος ... προσγεγενημένων, (3) τεκμαιρόμενος ... διανοούμενον. The general sense here is: ‘as there is no connexion between ἀρξάμενος and τεκμαιρόμενος, we must take the latter as beginning a new period, and yet logically ἀρξάμενος belongs to it.’ If the words τῆς πρώτης are to be retained at all, they might possibly be transported with τῆς δευτέρας: ‘as though it were a part of the first period and not the end of the second.’

4. Usener’s ἐχούσης seems likely, though the words καὶ γὰρ ... ἡ βάσις might be regarded as parenthetical and ἔχουσα as in agreement with περίοδος.

18. πολλὴ δὲ καί κτλ.: cp. Cic. Orat. ix. 32. 33 “itaque numquam est (Thucydides) numeratus orator ... sed, cum mutila quaedam et hiantia locuti sunt, quae vel sine magistro facere potuerunt, germanos se putant esse Thucydidas.”

25. For ἀνθηρά cp. n. on 208 26 supra.—The whole chapter should be compared with de Demosth. c. 40. In c. 49 of that treatise Dionysius refers expressly to his previously written de Compositione: εἰ δέ τις ἀπαιτήσει καὶ ταῦτ’ ἔτι μαθεῖν ὅπῃ ποτ’ ἔχει, τοὺς ὑπομνηματισμοὺς ἡμῶν λαβών, οὓς περὶ τῆς συνθέσεως τῶν ὀνομάτων πεπραγματεύμεθα, πάντα ὅσα ποθεῖ τῶν ἐνθάδε παραλειπομένων εἴσεται (cp. c. 50 ibid.).

τῇ τάξει, χαρακτῆρα τοιόνδε ἔχει· οὐ ζητεῖ καθ’ ἓν
ἕκαστον ὄνομα ἐκ περιφανείας ὁρᾶσθαι οὐδὲ ἐν ἕδρᾳ πάντα
βεβηκέναι πλατείᾳ τε καὶ ἀσφαλεῖ οὐδὲ μακροὺς τοὺς μεταξὺ
αὐτῶν εἶναι χρόνους, οὐδ’ ὅλως τὸ βραδὺ καὶ σταθερὸν τοῦτο
φίλον αὐτῇ, ἀλλὰ κεκινῆσθαι βούλεται τὴν ὀνομασίαν καὶ      5
φέρεσθαι θάτερα κατὰ τῶν ἑτέρων ὀνομάτων καὶ ὀχεῖσθαι
τὴν ἀλληλουχίαν λαμβάνοντα βάσιν ὥσπερ τὰ ῥέοντα καὶ
μηδέποτε ἀτρεμοῦντα· συνηλεῖφθαί τε ἀλλήλοις ἀξιοῖ καὶ
συνυφάνθαι τὰ μόρια ὡς μιᾶς λέξεως ὄψιν ἀποτελοῦντα εἰς
δύναμιν. τοῦτο δὲ ποιοῦσιν αἱ τῶν ἁρμονιῶν ἀκρίβειαι,      10
χρόνον αἰσθητὸν οὐδένα τὸν μεταξὺ τῶν ὀνομάτων περιλαμβάνουσαι·
ἔοικέ τε κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος εὐητρίοις ὕφεσιν ἢ
γραφαῖς συνεφθαρμένα τὰ φωτεινὰ τοῖς σκιεροῖς ἐχούσαις.
εὔφωνά τε εἶναι βούλεται πάντα τὰ ὀνόματα καὶ λεῖα καὶ
μαλακὰ καὶ παρθενωπά, τραχείαις δὲ συλλαβαῖς καὶ ἀντιτύποις      15
ἀπέχθεταί που· τὸ δὲ θρασὺ πᾶν καὶ παρακεκινδυνευμένον
δι’ εὐλαβείας ἔχει.

οὐ μόνον δὲ τὰ ὀνόματα τοῖς ὀνόμασιν ἐπιτηδείως
συνηρμόσθαι βούλεται καὶ συνεξέσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ κῶλα
τοῖς κώλοις εὖ συνυφάνθαι καὶ πάντα εἰς περίοδον τελευτᾶν,      20
ὁρίζουσα κώλου τε μῆκος, ὃ μὴ βραχύτερον ἔσται μηδὲ μεῖζον
τοῦ μετρίου, καὶ περιόδου μέτρον, οὗ πνεῦμα τέλειον ἀνδρὸς
κρατήσει· ἀπερίοδον δὲ λέξιν ἢ περίοδον ἀκώλιστον ἢ κῶλον

[235]

as second in order, has the following features. It does not intend that each word should be seen on every side, nor that all its parts should stand on broad, firm bases, nor that the time-intervals between them should be long; nor in general is this slow and deliberate movement congenial to it. It demands free movement in its diction; it requires words to come sweeping along one on top of another, each supported by that which follows, like the onflow of a never-resting stream. It tries to combine and interweave its component parts, and thus give, as far as possible, the effect of one continuous utterance. This result is produced by so nicely adjusting the junctures that they admit no appreciable time-interval between the words. From this point of view the style resembles finely woven stuffs, or pictures in which the lights melt insensibly into the shadows. It requires that all its words shall be melodious, smooth, soft as a maiden’s face; and it shrinks from harsh, clashing syllables, and carefully avoids everything rash and hazardous.

It requires not only that its words should be properly dove-tailed and fitted together, but also that the clauses should be carefully inwoven with one another and all issue in a period. It limits the length of a clause so that it is neither shorter nor longer than the right mean, and the compass of the period so that a man’s full breath will be able to cover it. It could not endure to construct a passage without periods, nor a period

1 ἓν EPM: om. FV   5 κεκινῆσθαι EF: κ[αὶ] κινῆσθαι cum rasura P: καὶ κινεῖσθαι MV   6 φέρεσθαι EFM: φέρεσθαι καὶ PV || τῶν ἑτέρων PMV: τῶν θατέρων F: θατέρων E || καὶ FMV: om. P || ὀχλεῖσθαι F   7 βάσιν om. F || τὰ ῥέοντα EF: τὰ ῥέοντα νάματα PMV   8 συνηλεῖφθαι F: συνειλῆφθ[αι] cum rasura P, MV   9 ὡς E: om. FPMV || μιᾶς EF: τῆς PMV || ἀποτελοῦντα PMV: διατελεῖν E: διατελοῦντα F   11 περιλαμβάνουσαι EFM: λαμβάνουσαι PV   12 τοῦτο τὸ om. EF || εὐκτρίοις PM || ὑφέσιν F: ὑφαίσιν M: ὑφαῖσιν cum rasura P, V: ὑφαῖς Es   13 τάφω τινα (sed suprascripto ε) P || σκιαροις P   14 τὰ EF: om. PMV   16 που ... παρακεκινδυνευμένον om. P   17 δι’ EF: καὶ δι’ PMV   20 εὖ E: om. FPMV   21 ὁρίζουσα Schaefer: ὁρίζουσαν EFPM   22 μέτρον EF: χρόνον PMV

1. ‘It does not expect its words to be looked at individually, and from every side, like statues.’ Cp. 210 17 supra.

7. More literally, ‘finding firmness in mutual support.’

9. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 τὸ γὰρ ὅλον ἐστὶν αὐτῆς βούλημα καὶ ἡ πολλὴ πραγματεία περὶ τὸ συσπασθῆναί τε καὶ συνυφάνθαι πάντα τὰ μόρια τῆς περιόδου, μιᾶς λέξεως ἀποτελοῦντα φαντασίαν, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτῳ περὶ τὸ πᾶσαν εἶναι τὴν λέξιν, ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς μουσικαῖς συμφωνίαις, ἡδεῖαν καὶ λιγυράν. τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν αἱ τῶν ἁρμονιῶν ἀκρίβειαι ποιοῦσι, κτλ.

14, 15. That is to say: the words it uses must be beautiful in sound and smoothly syllabled.

20. εὖ, which Usener adopts from E, helps to balance ἐπιτηδείως supra. At the same time, it could be spared and may have arisen from a dittography of the first two letters in συνυφάνθαι. Similarly, in l. 9 supra, the ὡς which E gives (together with the infinitive διατελεῖν, as it should be noticed) cannot be regarded as indispensable.

22. μέτρον: the reading of PMV (περιόδου χρόνον) may be right, in the sense of periodi ambitum. In the Epitome, μέτρον has possibly been substituted (as a clearer word) for χρόνον. F’s reading is μέτρον οὐκ ἂν ὑπομείνειεν ἐργάσασθαι, with all the four last words dotted out as having been written in error: which suggests that μέτρον may be no more than the last syllable of ἀσύμμετρον.

οὗ πνεῦμα τέλειον ἀνδρὸς κρατήσει: much will, clearly, depend on the person in question, since some men (as Lord Rosebery once said of Mr. Gladstone) have lungs which can utter sentences like “Biscayan rollers.” The Greeks were so rhetorical that they tended to look at a written passage constantly from the rhetorical point of view, and if a ‘period’ was too long for one breath they would try to analyze it into two periods if they could: cp. note on 232 1 supra.

ἀσύμμετρον οὐκ ἂν ὑπομείνειεν ἐργάσασθαι. χρῆται δὲ καὶ
ῥυθμοῖς οὐ τοῖς μεγίστοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς μέσοις τε καὶ βραχυτέροις·
καὶ τῶν περιόδων τὰς τελευτὰς εὐρύθμους εἶναι
βούλεται καὶ βεβηκυίας ὡς ἂν ἀπὸ στάθμης, τἀναντία
ποιοῦσα ἐν ταῖς τούτων ἁρμογαῖς ἢ ταῖς τῶν ὀνομάτων·      5
ἐκεῖνα μὲν γὰρ συναλείφει, ταύτας δὲ διίστησι καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκ
περιόπτου βούλεται φανερὰς εἶναι. σχήμασί τε οὐ τοῖς
ἀρχαιοπρεπεστάτοις οὐδ’ ὅσοις σεμνότης τις ἢ βάρος ἢ πίνος
πρόσεστιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τρυφεροῖς τε καὶ κολακικοῖς ὡς τὰ
πολλὰ χρῆσθαι φιλεῖ, ἐν οἷς πολὺ τὸ ἀπατηλόν ἐστι καὶ      10
θεατρικόν. ἵνα δὲ καὶ κοινότερον εἴπω, τοὐναντίον ἔχει σχῆμα
τῆς προτέρας κατὰ τὰ μέγιστα καὶ κυριώτατα, ὑπὲρ ὧν οὐδὲν
δέομαι πάλιν λέγειν.

ἀκόλουθον δ’ ἂν εἴη καὶ τοὺς ἐν ταύτῃ πρωτεύσαντας
καταριθμήσασθαι. ἐποποιῶν μὲν οὖν ἔμοιγε κάλλιστα τουτονὶ      15
δοκεῖ τὸν χαρακτῆρα ἐξεργάσασθαι Ἡσίοδος, μελοποιῶν δὲ
Σαπφὼ καὶ μετ’ αὐτὴν Ἀνακρέων τε καὶ Σιμωνίδης, τραγῳδοποιῶν
δὲ μόνος Εὐριπίδης, συγγραφέων δὲ ἀκριβῶς μὲν
οὐδείς, μᾶλλον δὲ τῶν πολλῶν Ἔφορός τε καὶ Θεόπομπος,
ῥητόρων δὲ Ἰσοκράτης. θήσω δὲ καὶ ταύτης παραδείγματα      20
τῆς ἁρμονίας, ποιητῶν μὲν προχειρισάμενος Σαπφώ, ῥητόρων
δὲ Ἰσοκράτην. ἄρξομαι δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς μελοποιοῦ.

[237]

without clauses, nor a clause without symmetry. The rhythms it uses are not the longest, but the intermediate, or shorter than these. It requires its periods to march as with steps regulated by line and rule, and to close with a rhythmical fall. Thus, in fitting together its periods and its words respectively, it employs two different methods. The latter it runs together; the former it keeps apart, wishing that they may be seen as it were from every side. As for figures, it is wont to employ not the most time-honoured sort, nor those marked by stateliness, gravity, or mellowness, but rather for the most part those which are dainty and alluring, and contain much that is seductive and fanciful. To speak generally: its attitude is directly opposed to that of the former variety in the principal and most essential points. I need not go over these points again.

Our next step will be to enumerate those who have attained eminence in this style. Well, among epic poets Hesiod, I think, has best developed the type; among lyric poets, Sappho, and, after her, Anacreon and Simonides; of tragedians, Euripides alone; of historians, none exactly, but Ephorus and Theopompus more than most; of orators, Isocrates. I will quote examples of this style also, selecting among poets Sappho, and among orators Isocrates. And I will begin with the lyric poetess:—

1 χρήσεται P   2 ῥυθμοῖς EFM: ῥυθμῶν PV || μεγίστοις EF: μηκίστοις PMV   3 καὶ om. P   4 ἂν EF: om. PMV   6 ταύτας EV: ταῦτα F: τας αυτας P, M   7 φανεροὺς F   8 ὅσοις F: ὅσοις ἢ PMV || πῖνος PV: τὸ πῖνος M: τόνος F   9 πρόσεστιν PMV: πάρεστιν F || κολακικοῖς FPM: μαλακοῖς V: θεατρικοῖς E   11 δὲ καὶ F: δὲ PMV   12 τῆς προτέρας EFM: τῆι προτέρα P, V || καὶ κυριώτατα FM: om. PV   14 ταύτη F: αυτῆι P, MV   15 ἔμοιγε EF: ἔγωγε PMV || κάλλιστα EFP: κάλλιστα νομίζω M: μάλιστα νομίζω V   16 δοκεῖ EFP: om. MV   17 μετ’ αὐτὴν EF: μετὰ ταύτην PMV   20 ταύτης EF: ταῦτα PMV

6. ἐκ περιόπτου, ‘ex edito loco,’ ‘undique.’

16-20. The list that follows may seem somewhat ill-assorted if it be not remembered that the point of contact between the authors mentioned is simply smoothness of word-arrangement.—For Hesiod cp. de Imitat. B. vi. 2 Ἡσίοδος μὲν γὰρ ἐφρόντισεν ἡδονῆς δι’ ὀνομάτων λειότητος καὶ συνθέσεως ἐμμελοῦς: and Quintil. x. 1. 52 “raro assurgit Hesiodus, magnaque pars eius in nominibus est occupata; tamen utiles circa praecepta sententiae levitasque verborum et compositionis probabilis, daturque ei palma in illo medio genere dicendi.”—In de Demosth. c. 40 Hesiod, Sappho, Anacreon, and Isocrates are (as here) considered to be examples of the ἁρμονία γλαφυρά.

17. Simonides is thus characterized in de Imitat. B. vi. 2: Σιμωνίδου δὲ παρατήρει τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων, τῆς συνθέσεως τὴν ἀκρίβειαν· πρὸς τούτοις, καθ’ ὃ βελτίων εὑρίσκεται καὶ Πινδάρου, τὸ οἰκτίζεσθαι μὴ μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἀλλὰ παθητικῶς. The Danaë (quoted in c. 26) will illustrate the concluding clause of this estimate.

18. Euripides: cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 2 κλέπτεται δ’ εὖ, ἐάν τις ἐκ τῆς εἰωθυίας διαλέκτου ἐκλέγων συντιθῇ· ὅπερ Εὐριπίδης ποιεῖ καὶ ὑπέδειξε πρῶτος, and Long. de Subl. c. xl. διότι τῆς συνθέσεως ποιητὴς ὁ Εὐριπίδης μᾶλλόν ἐστιν ἢ τοῦ νοῦ.

19. With respect to Ephorus the opinions of Diodorus and of Suidas are somewhat at variance: (1) Diodorus Sic. v. 1 Ἔφορος δὲ τὰς κοινὰς πράξεις ἀναγράφων οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὴν λέξιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἐπιτέτευχεν, (2) Suidas ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ἔφορος ἦν τὸ ἦθος ἁπλοῦς, τὴν δὲ ἑρμηνείαν τῆς ἱστορίας ὕπτιος καὶ νωθρὸς καὶ μηδεμίαν ἔχων ἐπίτασιν.

Theopompus: cp. an article, by the present writer, in the Classical Review xxii. 118 ff. on “Theopompus in the Greek Literary Critics: with special reference to the newly discovered Greek historian (Grenfell & Hunt Oxyrhynchus Papyri part v. pp. 110-242).” Reference may also be made to D.H. pp. 18, 96, 120-6, etc. Gibbon (Decline and Fall c. 53) classes Theopompus in high company: “we must envy the generation that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander, and the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho.”

20. Isokrates: see D.H. pp. 18, 20-22, 41, etc., and Demetr. pp. 8-11, 47, etc.

Ποικιλόθρον’, ἀθάνατ’ Ἀφροδίτα,
παῖ Δίος, δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε,
μή μ’ ἄσαισι μηδ’ ὀνίαισι δάμνα,
πότνια, θῦμον·

ἀλλὰ τυῖδ’ ἔλθ’, αἴ ποτα κἀτέρωτα      5
τᾶς ἔμας αὔδως ἀίοισα πήλυι
ἔκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα
χρύσιον ἦλθες

ἄρμ’ ὐπασδεύξαισα. κάλοι δέ σ’ ἆγον
ὠκέες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας      10
πύκνα διννῆντες πτέρ’ ἀπ’ ὠράνω αἴθε-
ρος διὰ μέσσω.

αἶψα δ’ ἐξίκοντο· τὺ δ’, ὦ μάκαιρα,
μειδιάσαισ’ ἀθανάτῳ προσώπῳ,
ἤρε’, ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι      15
δηὖτε κάλημι·

κὤττι ἔμῳ μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι
μαινόλᾳ θύμῳ· τίνα δηὖτε πείθω
μαῖς ἄγην ἐς σὰν φιλότατα, τίς σ’, ὦ
Ψάπφ’, ἀδικήει;      20

καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,
αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ δώσει,
αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει
κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα.

[239]

Rainbow-throned immortal one, Aphrodite,
Child of Zeus, spell-weaver, I bow before thee—
Harrow not my spirit with anguish, mighty
Queen, I implore thee!

Nay, come hither, even as once thou, bending
Down from far to hearken my cry, didst hear me,
From thy Father’s palace of gold descending
Drewest anear me

Chariot-wafted: far over midnight-sleeping
Earth, thy fair fleet sparrows, through cloudland riven
Wide by multitudinous wings, came sweeping
Down from thine heaven,

Swiftly came: thou, smiling with those undying
Lips and star-eyes, Blessed One, smiling me-ward,
Said’st, “What ails thee?—wherefore uprose thy crying
Calling me thee-ward?

Say for what boon most with a frenzied longing
Yearns thy soul—say whom shall my glamour chaining
Hale thy love’s thrall, Sappho—and who is wronging
Thee with disdaining?

Who avoids thee soon shall be thy pursuer:
Aye, the gift-rejecter the giver shall now be:
Aye, the loveless now shall become the wooer,
Scornful shalt thou be!”

2 διὸς δολοπλόκε FP   4 θυμὸν FP   5 τυδ’ ἐλθε ποκα κατ ἔρωτα P: τὺ δ’ ὲ|||λ’|||θε||| ποτὲ κατ’ έρωτα F   6 ἀΐοισ ἀπόλυ P   8 χρύσειον FP   9 ἀρμύ πᾶσδευξαισα F: ἁρμα ὑποζεύξασα P   10 γ(ας) P: τὰς F   11 διννῆν τεσ F: δινῆντες P || πτερα· πτωρανω θερος F: πτὲρ’ ἀπ’ ὠρανὼ· θέρο σ P   12 διαμέσω F: δ’ άμεσ πω P   13 αἶψαδ’ F: ἀῖψ’ ἄλλ’ P || τὺ δ’ ὦ μάκαιρα P: συ δῶμα καιρα F   14 ἀθανάτω προσώπω FP sine iota (item vv. 17, 18 F)   15 ἤρε’ ὅττι δ ῆυ (ἦν E) τὸ P, E   16 δ’ ηυτε καλημμι P: δευρο καλλημμι F   17 κωττε μω F: κ’ όττ’ ἐμῶι P   18 μαινολαθυμῶι P: λαιθυμω F || δηϋτε πειθω F: δ’ ἐυτεπεί θω P   19 μαι (βαι corr.) σαγηνεσσαν P: καὶ σαγήνεσσαν FE: μαῖς Bergkius   20 ἀδικήει Gaisfordius ex Etym. Magn. 485. 41: τισ σωψαπφα δίκη· P: τισ ω ψαπφα δίκησ· F   24 κωϋ κεθέλουσα F: κ’ ώυ κ’ ἐθέλοισ, P

1. To Dionysius here, and to the de Sublimitate c. x., we owe the preservation of the two most considerable extant fragments of Sappho’s poetry. The Ode to Anactoria is quoted by ‘Longinus’ as a picture of παθῶν σύνοδος: it is imitated in Catullus li. Ad Lesbiam (“Ille mi par esse deo videtur”). The Hymn to Aphrodite has been rendered repeatedly into English: some eight versions are printed in H. T. Wharton’s Sappho pp. 51-64. Two recent English translations are of special interest: (1) that of the late Dr. Walter Headlam—immatura eheu morte praerepti—in his Book of Greek Verse pp. 6-9; (2) that of Dr. Arthur Way, which is printed in the present volume. Dr. Way has, it will be observed, succeeded in maintaining a double rhyme throughout.

24. “Bloomfeld’s ἐθέλοισαν was strenuously defended by Welcker RM 11. 266, who held that the subject of φιλήσει was a man. No MS. whose readings were known before 1892 settled the dispute. Now Piccolomini’s VL show ἐθέλουσα (Hermes 27),” Weir Smyth Greek Lyric Poets p. 233. Notes on the entire ode will be found in Weir Smyth op. cit. pp. 230-3, and in G. S. Farnell’s Greek Lyric Poetry pp. 327-9, and a few also in W. G. Headlam’s Book of Greek Verse pp. 265-7.

ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλεπᾶν δὲ λῦσον
ἐκ μεριμνᾶν, ὄσσα δέ μοι τέλεσσαι
θῦμος ἰμμέρρει, τέλεσον· σὺ δ’ αὔτα
σύμμαχος ἔσσο.

ταύτης τῆς λέξεως ἡ εὐέπεια καὶ ἡ χάρις ἐν τῇ συνεχείᾳ καὶ      5
λειότητι γέγονε τῶν ἁρμονιῶν· παράκειται γὰρ ἀλλήλοις τὰ
ὀνόματα καὶ συνύφανται κατὰ τινας οἰκειότητας καὶ συζυγίας
φυσικὰς τῶν γραμμάτων· τὰ γὰρ φωνήεντα τοῖς ἀφώνοις τε
καὶ ἡμιφώνοις συνάπτεται μικροῦ διὰ πάσης τῆς ᾠδῆς, ὅσα
προτάττεσθαί τε καὶ ὑποτάττεσθαι πέφυκεν ἀλλήλοις κατὰ      10
μίαν συλλαβὴν συνεκφερόμενα· ἡμιφώνων δὲ πρὸς ἡμίφωνα ἢ
ἄφωνα ‹καὶ ἀφώνων› καὶ φωνηέντων πρὸς ἄλληλα συμπτώσεις
αἱ διασαλεύουσαι τοὺς ἤχους ὀλίγαι πάνυ ἔνεισιν· ἐγὼ
γοῦν ὅλην τὴν ᾠδὴν ἀνασκοπούμενος πέντε ἢ ἓξ ἴσως ἐν τοῖς
τοσούτοις ὀνόμασι καὶ ῥήμασι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις μορίοις ἡμιφώνων      15
τε καὶ ἀφώνων γραμμάτων συμπλοκὰς τῶν μὴ πεφυκότων
ἀλλήλοις κεράννυσθαι καὶ οὐδὲ ταύτας ἐπὶ πολὺ τραχυνούσας
τὴν εὐέπειαν εὑρίσκω, φωνηέντων δὲ παραθέσεις τὰς μὲν ἐν
τοῖς κώλοις αὐτοῖς γινομένας ἔτι ἐλάττους ἢ τοσαύτας, τὰς δὲ
συναπτούσας ἀλλήλοις τὰ κῶλα ὀλίγῳ τινὶ τούτων πλείονας.      20
εἰκότως δὴ γέγονεν εὔρους τις ἡ λέξις καὶ μαλακή, τῆς ἁρμονίας
τῶν ὀνομάτων μηδὲν ἀποκυματιζούσης τὸν ἦχον.

ἔλεγον δ’ ἂν καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς συνθέσεως ταύτης ἰδιώματα,
καὶ ἀπεδείκνυον ἐπὶ τῶν παραδειγμάτων τοιαῦτα ὄντα οἷα
ἐγώ φημι, εἰ μὴ μακρὸς ἔμελλεν ὁ λόγος γενήσεσθαι καὶ      25
ταυτολογίας τινὰ παρέξειν δόξαν. ἐξέσται γὰρ σοὶ καὶ παντὶ

[241]

Once again come! Come, and my chains dissever,
Chains of heart-ache! Passionate longings rend me—
Oh fulfil them! Thou in the strife be ever
Near, to defend me.[177]

Here the euphonious effect and the grace of the language arise from the coherence and smoothness of the junctures. The words nestle close to one another and are woven together according to certain affinities and natural attractions of the letters. Almost throughout the entire ode vowels are joined to mutes and semi-vowels, all those in fact which are naturally prefixed or affixed to one another when pronounced together in one syllable. There are very few clashings of semi-vowels with semi-vowels or mutes, and of mutes and vowels with one another, such as cause the sound to oscillate. When I review the entire ode, I find, in all those nouns and verbs and other kinds of words, only five or perhaps six unions of semi-vowels and mutes which do not naturally blend with one another, and even they do not disturb the smoothness of the language to any great extent. As for juxtaposition of vowels, I find that those which occur in the clauses themselves are still fewer, while those which join the clauses to one another are only a little more numerous. As a natural consequence the language has a certain easy flow and softness; the arrangement of the words in no way ruffles the smooth waves of sound.

I would go on to mention the remaining characteristics of this kind of composition, and would show as before by means of appropriate illustrations that they are such as I say, were it not that my treatise would become too long and would create an impression of needless repetition. It will be open to you, as to

3 ϊμαρερερει F: ϊμέρει P   4 ἔσο F: ἔστω compendio F   5 συνεχεία EF: συνεπεία PMV   8 τε καὶ ἡμιφώνους om. EF   9 διὰ πάσης EF: δεῖν δι’ ὅλης PMV   10 πέφυκεν ... συνεκφερόμενα EF: om. PMV   11 συνεκφερόμενα E: συνεκφέρεσθαι F || ἢ ἄφωνα PM: καὶ ἀφώνων FE   13 ἔνεισιν EF: εἰσίν PMV   14 ἐν F: εὗρον ἐν PMV   15 τοσούτοις Sylburgius: τοιούτοις PMV   16 καὶ ἀφώνων F: om. PMV   18 εὑρίσκω MV: εὑρίσκων F: om. P   19 ἔτι] ὅτι F   21 εὔνους τις F   23 δὲ ἂν F   24 ἀπεδείκνυ F   25 ἐιμιμακρ(ῶς) P   26 παρέξειν δόξαν F: δόξαν παρέχειν PMV

5. W. G. Headlam (Book of Greek Verse p. 265) well says that Dionysius’ comments on the smooth style (especially in relation to Sappho) are worth the attention of those who would gather the effect which Sappho’s language made upon a Greek ear practised in the minute study of expression; and he proceeds: “There is always in the verse of Sappho a directness and unlaboured ease of language, as if every lovely sentence came by nature from the mouth at once; as though she spoke in song, and what she sang were the expression of her very soul, the voice of languorous enjoyment and desire of beauty:

My blood was hot wan wine of love,
And my song’s sound the sound thereof,
The sound of the delight of it.”

22. Dionysius shows good judgement in not subjecting Sappho’s Hymn to a detailed analysis, letter by letter.

24. ἐπὶ τῶν παραδειγμάτων, ‘in the light of the appropriate examples.’ Cp. 152 3, 232 23. The phrase sometimes indicates ‘familiar,’ ‘stock,’ or ‘previous’ examples; cp. de Demosth. c. 40 ἵνα δὲ μὴ δόξωμεν διαρτᾶν τὰς ἀκολουθίας, τοὺς ἀναγινώσκοντας ἐπὶ τὰ ἐν ἀρχαῖς ῥηθέντα παραδείγματα κελεύοντες ἀναστρέφειν, κτλ.—In 242 2 infra, ‘with illustrations’ (no article in PMV, though F has τῶν).

ἄλλῳ καθ’ ἓν ἕκαστον τῶν ἐξηριθμημένων ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ κατὰ τὴν
προέκθεσιν τοῦ χαρακτῆρος ἐπιλέγεσθαί τε καὶ σκοπεῖν ἐπὶ
παραδειγμάτων κατὰ πολλὴν εὐκαιρίαν καὶ σχολήν· ἐμοὶ δ’
οὐκ ἐγχωρεῖ τοῦτο ποιεῖν, ἀλλ’ ἀπόχρη παραδεῖξαι μόνον
ἀρκούντως ἃ βούλομαι τοῖς δυνησομένοις παρακολουθῆσαι.      5

ἑνὸς ἔτι παραθήσομαι λέξιν ἀνδρὸς εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν κατεσκευασμένου
χαρακτῆρα, Ἰσοκράτους τοῦ ῥήτορος, ὃν ἐγὼ
μάλιστα πάντων οἴομαι τῶν πεζῇ λέξει χρησαμένων ταύτην
ἀκριβοῦν τὴν ἁρμονίαν. ἔστι δὲ ἡ λέξις ἐκ τοῦ Ἀρεοπαγιτικοῦ
ἥδε·      10

πολλοὺς ὑμῶν οἴομαι θαυμάζειν, ἥντινά ποτε γνώμην
ἔχων περὶ σωτηρίας τὴν πρόσοδον ἐποιησάμην, ὥσπερ
τῆς πόλεως ἐν κινδύνοις οὔσης ἢ σφαλερῶς αὐτῇ τῶν
πραγμάτων καθεστώτων, ἀλλ’ οὐ πλείους μὲν τριήρεις ἢ
διακοσίας κεκτημένης, εἰρήνην δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν χώραν      15
ἀγούσης καὶ τῶν κατὰ θάλατταν ἀρχούσης, ἔτι δὲ συμμάχους
ἐχούσης πολλοὺς μὲν τοὺς ἑτοίμους ἡμῖν ἤν τι
δέῃ βοηθήσοντας, πολὺ δὲ πλείους τοὺς τὰς συντάξεις
ὑποτελοῦντας καὶ τὸ προσταττόμενον ποιοῦντας. ὧν
ὑπαρχόντων ἡμᾶς μὲν ἄν τις φήσειεν εἰκὸς εἶναι θαρρεῖν      20
ὡς πόρρω τῶν κινδύνων ὄντας, τοῖς δ’ ἐχθροῖς τοῖς ἡμετέροις
προσήκειν δεδιέναι καὶ βουλεύεσθαι περὶ σωτηρίας.
ὑμεῖς μὲν οὖν οἶδ’ ὅτι τούτῳ χρώμενοι τῷ λογισμῷ καὶ

[243]

any one else, at your full leisure and convenience, to take each single point enumerated by me in describing the type, and to examine and review them with illustrations. But I really have no time to do this. It is quite enough simply to give an adequate indication of my views to all who will be able to follow in my steps.

I will quote a passage of one more writer who has fashioned himself into the same mould—Isocrates the orator. Of all prose-writers he is, I think, the most finished master of this style of composition. The passage is from the Areopagiticus, as follows:—

“Many of you, I imagine, are wondering what can be my view in coming before you to speak on the question of the public safety, as though the State were actually in danger, or its interests imperilled, and as though it did not as a matter of fact possess more than two hundred warships, and were not at peace throughout its borders and supreme at sea, and had not many allies ready to help us in case of need, and many more who regularly pay their contributions and perform their obligation. Under these circumstances it might be said that we have every reason for confidence on the ground that all danger is remote; and that it is our enemies who have reason to be afraid and to form plans for self-preservation. Now you, I know, are inclined on this account

1 τὴν] τ(ων) P   2 πρόθεσιν F   3 παραδειγμάτων PMV: τῶν παραδειγμάτων F || δὲ F   4 ποιεῖ P || παραδεῖξαι Us.: πᾶσι δεῖξαι FM: δεῖξαι PV   5 ἀρκοῦντος F   6 παραθήσομαι F: παραθήσω PMV || αὐτὸν om. F || κατεσκευασμένου P: κατεσκευασμένον FV: κατεσκευασμένην M   7 ὃν] ἡ F   8 πεζῆ F: πεζῆι τῆι P, MV   9 ἀρεοπαγητικου ἡδε F   11 ὑμῶν] τούτων F || οἴομαι] οἶμαι Isocratis libri   12 ὥσπερ EPMV Isocr.: ὡς περὶ εἰ F   14 καθεστηκότων Isocr.   15 εἰρήνης F || καὶ τὰ PMV Isocr.: τὰ EF   16 [ἐ]χούσης cum litura P, MV || ἔτι ... ἐχούσης om. F   17 τοὺς om. E   18 τοὺς om. PM   19 ὑποτελοῦντας PMV Isocr.: ἐπιτελοῦντας EF   20 ἡμᾶς PMV Isocr.: ὑμᾶς EF   21 ὑμετέροις F   23 ἡμεῖς PV || οἶδ’] οἵ δ’ F

6. παραθήσομαι: the Middle, as given by F, is to be preferred (cp. 182 12). In 122 14, on the other hand, F gives παρέξω, where the other MSS. supply the right reading παρέξομαι.

11. In the English translation of this passage of Isocrates no attempt has been made to reproduce the effects to which Dionysius calls attention: to do so would involve sacrificing equivalence of meaning to equivalence of letter-combinations.—Bircovius compares, in Latin, the opening passage of Cic. pro Caecina: “si, quantum in agro locisque desertis audacia potest, tantum in foro atque in iudiciis impudentia valeret, non minus nunc in caussa cederet A. Caecina Sex. Aebutii impudentiae, quam tum in vi facienda cessit audaciae. verum et illud considerati hominis esse putavit, qua de re iure decertare oporteret, armis non contendere: et hoc constantis, quicum vi et armis certare noluisset, eum iure iudicioque superare.” Batteux (p. 253) quotes from Fléchier’s oratorical picture of M. de Turenne: “Soit qu’il fallût préparer les affaires ou les décider; chercher la victoire avec ardeur, ou l’attendre avec patience; soit qu’il fallût prévenir les desseins des ennemis par la hardiesse, ou dissiper les craintes et les jalousies des alliés par la prudence; soit qu’il fallût se modérer dans les prospérités, ou se soutenir dans les malheurs de la guerre, son âme fut toujours égale. Il ne fit que changer vertus, quand la fortune changeait de face; heureux sans orgueil, malheureux avec dignité. ... Si la licence fut réprimée; si les haines publiques et particulières furent assoupies; si les lois reprirent leur ancienne vigueur; si l’ordre et le repos furent rétablis dans les villes et dans les provinces; si les membres furent heureusement réunis à leur chef; c’est à lui, France, que tu le dois.” Batteux maintains that this passage shows the same qualities of style as Dionysius’ extract from Isocrates.

13. ἢ σφαλερῶς: Koraes would read καὶ σφαλερῶς. His note (Isocr. ii. 102) runs: “οὐκ ἀλόγως ὑπενόησεν ὁ Λάγγιος γραπτέον εἶναι, Καὶ σφαλερῶς· ἔοικε δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰταλὸς μεταφραστής, συμπλεκτικῶς, οὐ διαζευκτικῶς, ἀνεγνωκέναι, ἢ ἀναγνωστέον εἶναι κεκρικέναι, Quasi che la città in alcun pericolo si trovasse, et le cose sue in pessima conditione fossero.”

18. συντάξεις: Koraes l.c. κακῶς τὸ ἐμὸν ἀντίγραφον, Συνάξεις. Συντάξεις δὲ λέγει, κατ’ εὐφημισμὸν Ἀττικόν, τοὺς φόρους, ἐπειδή, ὥς φησιν Ἁρποκρατίων (λέξ. Σύνταξις), χαλεπῶς ἔφερον οἱ Ἕλληνες τὸ τῶν φόρων ὄνομα. ὡσαύτως ἡ τῶν Γαλλῶν φωνή, τὴν πρόθεσιν παραλιποῦσα, Taxe ὠνόμασε τὴν σύνταξιν, τὴν τοῖς Ἰταλοῖς καλουμένην Tassa, καὶ ῥῆμα ἐποίησε Taxer (Ἰταλ. Tassare), ἐπὶ τοῦ τάσσειν καὶ ἐπιβάλλειν τοὺς φόρους· ὅθεν ἡ τῶν Γραικῶν φωνή, τὰ ἴδια παρὰ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων λαμβάνουσα, ἐσχημάτισε τὰ χυδαῖα, Τάσσα καὶ Τασσάρω.

τῆς ἐμῆς προσόδου καταφρονεῖτε καὶ πᾶσαν ἐλπίζετε τὴν
Ἑλλάδα ταύτῃ τῇ δυνάμει κατασχήσειν· ἐγὼ δὲ δι’
αὐτὰ ταῦτα τυγχάνω δεδιώς. ὁρῶ γὰρ τῶν πόλεων τὰς
ἄριστα πράττειν οἰομένας κάκιστα βουλευομένας, καὶ τὰς
μάλιστα θαρρούσας εἰς πλείστους κινδύνους καθισταμένας.      5
αἴτιον δὲ τούτων ἐστίν, ὅτι τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν κακῶν
οὐδὲν αὐτὸ καθ’ αὑτὸ παραγίνεται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ
συντέτακται καὶ συνακολουθεῖ τοῖς μὲν πλούτοις καὶ ταῖς
δυναστείαις ἄνοια καὶ μετὰ ταύτης ἀκολασία, ταῖς δὲ
ἐνδείαις καὶ ταῖς ταπεινότησιν σωφροσύνη καὶ πολλὴ      10
μετριότης. ὥστε χαλεπὸν εἶναι διαγνῶναι, ποτέραν ἄν
τις δέξαιτο τῶν μερίδων τούτων τοῖς παισὶ τοῖς αὑτοῦ
καταλιπεῖν· ἴδοιμεν γὰρ ἂν ἐκ μὲν τῆς φαυλοτέρας εἶναι
δοκούσης ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ τὰς πράξεις
ἐπιδιδούσας, ἐκ δὲ τῆς κρείττονος φαινομένης ἐπὶ τὸ      15
χεῖρον εἰθισμένας μεταπίπτειν.

ταῦθ’ ὅτι συνήλειπταί τε καὶ συγκέχρωσται, καὶ οὐ καθ’
ἓν ἕκαστον ὄνομα ἐν ἕδρᾳ περιφανεῖ καὶ πλατείᾳ βέβηκεν
οὐδὲ μακροῖς τοῖς μεταξὺ χρόνοις διείργεται καὶ διαβέβηκεν
ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων, ἀλλ’ ἐν κινήσει τε ὄντα φαίνεται καὶ φορᾷ καὶ      20
ῥύσει συνεχεῖ, πραεῖαί τε αὐτῶν εἰσι καὶ μαλακαὶ καὶ
προπετεῖς αἱ συνάπτουσαι τὴν λέξιν ἁρμονίαι, τὸ ἄλογον
ἐπιμαρτυρεῖ τῆς ἀκοῆς πάθος. ὅτι δ’ οὐκ ἄλλα τινὰ τούτων
ἐστὶν αἴτια ἢ τὰ προειρημένα ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ περὶ τῆς ἀγωγῆς
ταύτης τῶν λόγων, ῥᾴδιον ἰδεῖν. φωνηέντων μὲν γὰρ ἀντιτυπίαν      25
οὐκ ἂν εὕροι τις οὐδεμίαν ἐν γοῦν οἷς παρεθέμην
ἀριθμοῖς, οἴομαι δ’ οὐδ’ ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ λόγῳ, πλὴν εἴ τί με
διαλέληθεν· ἡμιφώνων δὲ καὶ ἀφώνων ὀλίγας καὶ οὐ πάνυ

[245]

to make light of my appeal; you expect to maintain supremacy over the whole of Greece by means of your existing forces. But it is precisely on these grounds that I really am alarmed. I observe that it is those States which think they are at the height of prosperity that adopt the worst policy, and that it is the most confident that incur the greatest danger. The reason is that no good or evil fortune comes to men entirely by itself: folly and its mate intemperance have been appointed to wait on wealth and power, self-restraint and great moderation to attend on poverty and low estate. So that it is hard to decide which of these two lots a man would desire to bequeath to his children, since we can see that from what is popularly regarded as the inferior condition men’s fortunes commonly improve, while from that which is apparently the better they usually decline and fall.”[178]

The instinctive perception of the ear testifies that these words are run and blended together; that they do not individually stand on a broad foundation which gives an all-round view of each; and that they are not separated by long time-intervals and planted far apart from one another, but are plainly in a state of motion, being borne onwards in an unbroken stream, while the links which bind the passage together are gentle and soft and flowing. And it is easy to see that the sole cause lies in the character of this style as I have previously described it. For no dissonance of vowels will be found, at any rate in the harmonious clauses which I have quoted, nor any, I think, in the entire speech, unless some instance has escaped my notice. There are also few dissonances of semi-vowels and mutes, and those not very glaring or

2 ταύτηι (ταύτην M) τῆι δυνάμει P, MV Isocr.: τῆι δυνάμει ταύτη F, E   5 πλείστους κινδύνους PM Isocr.: πλείους κινδύνους V: πλεῖστον κίνδυνον EF   8 πλουσίοις F (cum Isocratis codd. quibusdam)   9 ἄνοια ... ἐνδείαις om. F || ἀκολασίαι PMV   10 σωφροσύνη EPMV Isocr.: καὶ σωφροσύνη F   12 δέξαιτο PMV Isocr.: εὔξαιτο EF || τῶν μερίδων τούτων PMV Isocr.: τούτων τῶν μερίδων EF || αὐτοῦ libri   13 καταλιπεῖν PMV Isocr.: om. EF || ἴδοιμεν PV Isocr.: ἴδοι μὲν M: ἴδοι EF || ἂν om. F: ἄν τις E || εἶναι δοκούσης PMV Isocr.: om. EF   17 συνείληπταί τε EPMV: συνήλειπτέται F || οὐ καθ’ ἓν PMV: οὐδὲν EF   18 ἕδρα ... πλατεία (sine iota) P   19 οὐδὲ EF: οὐδ’ ἐν PMV   20 φορᾶι P   21 τε ... μαλακαὶ om. F   22 προπετεῖς PV: προσφυεῖς FM γρ V   25 ῥαίδιον P   26 εὕροι F: om. PM, post οὐδεμίαν ponit V   27 οὐθ F || ὅλωι τωῖ λόγωι P   28 πάνυ PMV: σφόδρα F

17 ff. When expressing admiration, Dionysius often tends (as here) to reproduce the style admired.—For further estimates of Isokrates’s style reference may be made to Dionysius’ separate essay on Isokrates (in his de Antiq. Or.); Jebb Att. Or. ii. 54 ff.; Blass Att. Bereds. ii. 131 ff.

19. The reading οὐδ’ ἐν is possibly right, viz. ‘at long time-intervals’; cp. 222 5.

ἐκφανεῖς οὐδὲ συνεχεῖς. ταῦτα δὲ τῆς εὐεπείας αἴτια τῇ λέξει
γέγονε καὶ ἡ τῶν κώλων συμμετρία πρὸς ἄλληλα, τῶν τε
περιόδων ὁ κύκλος ἔχων τι περιφερὲς καὶ εὔγραμμον καὶ
τεταμιευμένον ἄκρως ταῖς συμμετρίαις. ὑπὲρ ἅπαντα δὲ
ταῦτα οἱ σχηματισμοὶ πολὺ τὸ νεαρὸν ἔχοντες· εἰσὶ γὰρ      5
ἀντίθετοι καὶ παρόμοιοι καὶ πάρισοι καὶ οἱ παραπλήσιοι
τούτοις, ἐξ ὧν ἡ πανηγυρικὴ διάλεκτος ἀποτελεῖται. οὐκ
ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι δοκῶ μηκύνειν καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ διεξιών· ἱκανῶς
γὰρ εἴρηται καὶ περὶ ταύτης τῆς συνθέσεως ὅσα γε ἥρμοττεν.

XXIV
ἡ δὲ τρίτη καὶ μέση τῶν εἰρημένων δυεῖν ἁρμονιῶν, ἣν      10
εὔκρατον καλῶ σπάνει κυρίου τε καὶ κρείττονος ὀνόματος,
σχῆμα μὲν ἴδιον οὐδὲν ἔχει, κεκέρασται δέ πως ἐξ ἐκείνων
μετρίως καὶ ἔστιν ἐκλογή τις τῶν ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ κρατίστων.
αὕτη δοκεῖ μοι τὰ πρωτεῖα ἐπιτηδεία εἶναι φέρεσθαι, ἐπειδὴ
μεσότης μέν τίς ἐστι (μεσότης δὲ ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ βίων καὶ      15
ἔργων [καὶ τεχνῶν], ὡς Ἀριστοτέλει τε δοκεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις
ὅσοι κατ’ ἐκείνην τὴν αἵρεσιν φιλοσοφοῦσιν), ὁρᾶται δ’,
ὥσπερ ἔφην καὶ πρότερον, οὐ κατὰ ἀπαρτισμὸν ἀλλ’ ἐν
πλάτει, καὶ τὰς εἰδικὰς ἔχει διαφορὰς πολλάς· οἵ τε χρησάμενοι

[247]

continuous. The euphonious flow of the passage is due to these circumstances, combined with the balance of the clauses and the cycle of the periods which has about it something rounded and well-defined and perfectly regulated in respect of symmetrical adjustment. Above all there are the rhetorical figures, full of youthful exuberance: antithesis, parallelism in sound, parallelism in structure, and others like these, by which the language of panegyric is brought to its highest perfection. I do not think it necessary to lengthen the book by dealing with the points that are still untouched. This kind of composition also has now received adequate treatment on all points where it was appropriate.

CHAPTER XXIV

HARMONIOUSLY-BLENDED, OR INTERMEDIATE, COMPOSITION

The third kind of composition is the mean between the two already mentioned. I call it harmoniously blended for lack of a proper and better name. It has no form peculiar to itself, but is a sort of judicious blend of the two others and a selection from the most effective features of each. This kind, it seems to me, deserves to win the first prize; for it is a sort of mean, and excellence in life and conduct [and the arts] is a mean, according to Aristotle and the other philosophers of his school. As I said before, it is to be viewed not narrowly but broadly. It has many specific varieties. Those who have adopted it have not all had the same

1 δὲ PMV: δὴ F || εὐπρεπείας P   2 τε om. P   3 ἔχων τι] ἔχοντι P || περιφερὲς F: περιφανὲς PMV || καὶ εὐθύγραμμον F   4 ἄκρως F: ἄκραις PMV   5 πολὺ F: οἱ πολὺ PM: οἱ πολλοὶ V   7 συντελεῖται cum rasura P   8 δοκῶ FP: μοι δοκῶ MV   9 συνθέσεως FP: θέσεως MV   10 τρίτη EF: τρίτη τε PMV || δυεῖν FPM: δυοῖν V   11 εὔκρατον F: κοινὴν PMV || σπάνει τε PMV: ἐγὼ ἀντὶ F: τε delevit Usenerus || τε F: om. PMV   12 δή P || πως PMV: ὡς EF || ἐκείνων] ἐκείνου F   13 ἑκατέραι P || κρατίστων] κρατίστη· ὧν F: κρατίστων· ὧν E   14 αὐτὴ PV   15 τις ἐστὶ E: τις F: ἐστι PMV   16 καὶ τεχνῶν om. FE   17 ὅσοι] οἳ F || αἴρεσιν FP || δὲ PMVE   19 εἰδικὰς EF: ἰδίας PMV

8. καὶ: i.e. ‘by going through details as well (as by taking this general view).’

9. This chapter (c. 23) should be compared throughout with chapter 40 of the de Demosth., which begins ἡ δὲ μετὰ ταύτην ἡ γλαφυρὰ καὶ θεατρικὴ καὶ τὸ κομψὸν αἱρουμένη πρὸ τοῦ σεμνοῦ τοιαύτη, κτλ.

10. The treatment of the third harmony in this chapter seems somewhat curt and vague.

12. The third style (Dionysius means) has no special character of its own: it is a combination of the best things in the two others: this, in fact, constitutes its superiority, since, according to Aristotle, virtue is a mean (Aristot. Eth. Nic. ii. 5, 1106 b 27 μεσότης τις ἄρα ἐστὶν ἡ ἀρετή, στοχαστική γε οὖσα τοῦ μέσου).

13. ἐκλογή τις τῶν ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ κρατίστων: it is interesting to find Homer represented (248 8-10) as a kind of eclectic in style. There are many indications that Dionysius regards him as a diligent literary craftsman. See generally de Demosth. c. 41 init. τῆς δὲ τρίτης ἁρμονίας ... ῥήτορες.

16. καὶ τεχνῶν: it may possibly be better to bracket these words, as they are omitted by F as well as by E. But their retention would not be inconsistent with Aristotelian doctrine. Cp. Eth. Nic. ii. 5, 1106 b 8 εἰ δὴ πᾶσα ἐπιστήμη οὕτω τὸ ἔργον εὖ ἐπιτελεῖ, πρὸς τὸ μέσον βλέπουσα καὶ εἰς τοῦτο ἄγουσα τὰ ἔργα (ὅθεν εἰώθασιν ἐπιλέγειν τοῖς εὖ ἔχουσιν ἔργοις ὅτι οὔτ’ ἀφελεῖν ἔστιν οὔτε προσθεῖναι, ὡς τῆς μὲν ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλείψεως φθειρούσης τὸ εὖ, τῆς δὲ μεσότητος σῳζούσης, οἱ δ’ ἀγαθοὶ τεχνῖται, ὡς λέγομεν, πρὸς τοῦτο βλέποντες ἐργάζονται), ἡ δ’ ἀρετὴ πάσης τέχνης ἀκριβεστέρα καὶ ἀμείνων ἐστίν, ὥσπερ καὶ ἡ φύσις, τοῦ μέσου ἂν εἴη στοχαστική. Reference may also be made to Politics iii. 13, 1284 b 7-13, and to Eth. Eud. ii. 1220 b 21 ἐν ἅπαντι συνεχεῖ καὶ διαιρετῷ ἐστιν ὑπεροχὴ καὶ ἔλλειψις καὶ μέσον, καὶ ταῦτα ἢ πρὸς ἄλληλα ἢ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, οἷον ἐν γυμναστικῇ, ἐν ἰατρικῇ, ἐν οἰκοδομικῇ, ἐν κυβερνητικῇ, καὶ ἐν ὁποιᾳοῦν πράξει, καὶ ἐπιστημονικῇ καὶ ἀνεπιστημονικῇ, καὶ τεχνικῇ καὶ ἀτέχνῳ, κτλ.

18. πρότερον: cp. 210 6-10.

19. Batteux (p. 257) well explains Dionysius’ meaning, and suggests the names of certain French authors who may be held to exemplify and adorn the ‘mean’ (‘middle’) style: “Denys d’Halicarnasse observe avec justesse que le mélange des deux extrêmes dans la composition mixte ne se fait pas dans un milieu précis, mais avec une certaine latitude; qu’on ne pouvait être plus près et plus loin de l’un des deux extrêmes; que le même auteur pouvait l’être plus dans une partie de son ouvrage, et l’être moins dans une autre partie. C’est ce que nous venons d’observer dans l’oraison funèbre de M. de Turenne, et qu’ainsi il n’est pas aisé de fixer avec précision la place des auteurs qui tiennent le milieu entre les deux compositions. Avec cette restriction, nous pouvons placer dans le milieu Fénelon, Racine, Despréaux, Molière, La Fontaine, Voltaire, qui ont les deux mérites de la force et de l’élégance, qui ont les nerfs et la grâce, les fruits et les fleurs.”

αὐτῇ οὐ τὰ αὐτὰ πάντες οὐδ’ ὁμοίως ἐπετήδευσαν, ἀλλ’
οἱ μὲν ταῦτα μᾶλλον, οἱ δ’ ἐκεῖνα, ἐπέτεινάν τε καὶ ἀνῆκαν
ἄλλως ἄλλοι τὰ αὐτά, καὶ πάντες ἐγένοντο λόγου ἄξιοι κατὰ
πάσας τὰς ἰδέας τῶν λόγων. κορυφὴ μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων καὶ
σκοπός,      5

ἐξ οὗ περ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα
καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι,

δικαίως ἂν Ὅμηρος λέγοιτο. πᾶς γὰρ αὐτῷ τόπος, ὅτου τις
ἂν ἅψηται, ταῖς τε αὐστηραῖς καὶ ταῖς γλαφυραῖς ἁρμονίαις
εἰς ἄκρον διαπεποίκιλται. τῶν δ’ ἄλλων ὅσοι τὴν αὐτὴν      10
μεσότητα ἐπετήδευσαν, ὕστεροι μὲν Ὁμήρου μακρῷ παρ’
ἐκεῖνον ἐξεταζόμενοι φαίνοιντ’ ἄν, καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς δὲ εἰ θεωροίη
τις αὐτούς, ἀξιοθέατοι, μελοποιῶν μὲν Στησίχορός τε καὶ
Ἀλκαῖος, τραγῳδοποιῶν δὲ Σοφοκλῆς, συγγραφέων δὲ Ἡρόδοτος,
ῥητόρων δὲ Δημοσθένης, φιλοσόφων δὲ κατ’ ἐμὴν δόξαν Δημόκριτός      15
τε καὶ Πλάτων καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης· τούτων γὰρ
ἑτέρους εὑρεῖν ἀμήχανον ἄμεινον κεράσαντας τοὺς λόγους. καὶ
περὶ μὲν τῶν χαρακτήρων ταῦθ’ ἱκανά. παραδείγματα γὰρ
τούτων οὐκ οἴομαι δεῖν φέρειν, φανερῶν πάνυ ὄντων καὶ οὐδὲν
δεομένων λόγου.      20

εἰ δέ τινι δοκεῖ καὶ πόνου πολλοῦ ταῦτα καὶ πραγματείας

[249]

aims nor the same methods; some have made more use of this method, others of that; while the same methods have been pursued with less or greater vigour by different writers, who have yet all achieved eminence in the various walks of literature. Now he who towers conspicuous above them all,

Out of whose fulness all rivers, and every sea, have birth,
And all upleaping fountains,[179]

is, we must admit, Homer. For whatever passage you like to take in him has had its manifold charms brought to perfection by a union of the severe and the polished forms of arrangement. Of the other writers who have cultivated the same golden mean, all will be found to be far inferior to Homer when measured by his standard, but still men of eminence when regarded in themselves: among lyric poets Stesichorus and Alcaeus, among tragedians Sophocles, among historians Herodotus, among orators Demosthenes, and among philosophers (in my opinion) Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle. It is impossible to find authors who have succeeded better in blending their writings into harmonious wholes. As regards types of composition the foregoing remarks will suffice. I do not think it necessary to quote specimen passages from the authors just mentioned, since they are known to all and need no illustration.

Now if any one thinks that these things are worth much toil

8 ἂν om. F || ὅτου EF: ὅπου M: τὸ οὗ P   9 ἅψοιτο EF || ταῖς γλαφυραῖς] ἀνθηραῖς EF   10 αὐτὴν EF: αὐτὴν ἐκείνωι P, MV   11 μὲν] μέντοι EF   13 Στησίχορος ... τραγῳδοποιῶν δὲ om. F   16 γὰρ F: δὲ PMV   19 φέρειν om. F   21 τινι MV (τῳ Demosth.): τι μοι F: τις P

5. Homer is a beacon (a watchtower) set upon a hill.—The close correspondence between Dionysius and Quintilian has often been illustrated in these notes; and with the present page should be compared Quintil. x. 1. 46 “igitur, ut Aratus ab Iove incipiendum putat, ita nos rite coepturi ab Homero videmur. hic enim, quemadmodum ex Oceano dicit ipse amnium fontiumque cursus initium capere, omnibus eloquentiae partibus exemplum et ortum dedit.”

10. Neither here nor elsewhere does Dionysius say anything about the poets of the Epic Cycle. Attention is called to his silence by T. W. Allen in the Classical Quarterly ii. 87.

13. Stesichorus: cp. de Imitat. B. vi. 2 ὅρα δὲ καὶ Στησίχορον ἔν τε τοῖς ἑκατέρων τῶν προειρημένων πλεονεκτήμασι κατορθοῦντα, κτλ.; Long. de Sublim. xiii. 3 (as to Stesichorus, Herodotus and Plato, in relation to Homer) μόνος Ἡρόδοτος Ὁμηρικώτατος ἐγένετο; Στησίχορος ἔτι πρότερον ὅ τε Ἀρχίλοχος, πάντων τε τούτων μάλιστα ὁ Πλάτων ἀπὸ τοῦ Ὁμηρικοῦ κείνου νάματος εἰς αὑτὸν μυρίας ὅσας παρατροπὰς ἀποχετευσάμενος.

14. Alcaeus: de Imitat. B. vi. 2 Ἀλκαίου δὲ σκόπει τὸ μεγαλοφυὲς καὶ βραχὺ καὶ ἡδὺ μετὰ δεινότητος κτλ.; Quintil. x. 1. 63 “Alcaeus in parte operis aureo plectro merito donatur, qua tyrannos insectatus multum etiam moribus confert; in eloquendo quoque brevis et magnificus et diligens et plerumque oratori similis: sed et lusit et in amores descendit, maioribus tamen aptior.”

Sophocles: Σοφοκλῆς δὲ ἔν τε τοῖς ἤθεσι καὶ τοῖς πάθεσι κτλ. (de Imitat., ut supra).

Herodotus: cp. D.H. pp. 10, 11, 12, etc.

15. Demosthenes: cp. D.H. pp. 13, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, etc., and Demetr. pp. 11, 12, etc.

Democritus: cp. Cic. Orat. 20, 67 “itaque video visum esse nonnullis, Platonis et Democriti locutionem, etsi absit a versu, tamen, quod incitatius feratur et clarissimis verborum luminibus utatur, potius poëma putandum quam comicorum poëtarum”; id. de Orat. i. 49 “quam ob rem, si ornate locutus est, sicut et fertur et mihi videtur, physicus ille Demokritus, materies illa fuit physici, de qua dixit, ornatus vero ipse verborum oratoris putandus est”; id. ib. i. 42 “Democritii ... ornati homines in dicendo et graves.”

16. Plato: cp. D.H. pp. 16, 19, 27-30, 36, etc. and Demetr. pp. 12, 13, 14, etc.

Aristotle: cp. de Imitat. B. vi. 4 παραληπτέον δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλην εἰς μίμησιν τῆς τε περὶ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν δεινότητος καὶ τῆς σαφηνείας, καὶ τοῦ ἡδέος καὶ πολυμαθοῦς· τοῦτο γὰρ ἔστι μάλιστα παρὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τούτου λαβεῖν.

μεγάλης ἄξια εἶναι, καὶ μάλα ὀρθῶς δοκεῖ κατὰ τὸν
Δημοσθένην· ἀλλ’ ἐὰν λογίσηται τοὺς ἐξακολουθοῦντας αὐτοῖς
κατορθουμένοις ἐπαίνους καὶ τὸν καρπὸν τὸν ἀπ’ αὐτῶν ὡς
γλυκύς, εὐπαθείας ἡγήσεται τοὺς πόνους. Ἐπικουρείων δὲ
χορόν, οἷς οὐδὲν μέλει τούτων, παραιτοῦμαι· τὸ γὰρ “οὐκ      5
ἐπιπόνου τοῦ γράφειν ὄντος,” ὡς αὐτὸς Ἐπίκουρος λέγει, “τοῖς
μὴ στοχαζομένοις τοῦ πυκνὰ μεταπίπτοντος κριτηρίου” πολλῆς
ἀργίας ἦν καὶ σκαιότητος ἀλεξιφάρμακον.

XXV
τούτων δή μοι τέλος ἐχόντων, ἐκεῖνά σε οἴομαι ποθεῖν ἔτι
ἀκοῦσαι, πῶς γίνεται λέξις ἄμετρος ὁμοία καλῷ ποιήματι ἢ      10
μέλει, καὶ πῶς ποίημά γε ἢ μέλος πεζῇ λέξει καλῇ παραπλήσιον.
ἄρξομαι δὲ πρῶτον ἀπὸ τῆς ψιλῆς λέξεως, ἕνα
τῶν ἀνδρῶν προχειρισάμενος ὃν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα οἶμαι τὴν
ποιητικὴν ἐκμεμάχθαι φράσιν, βουλόμενος μὲν καὶ πλείους,
οὐκ ἔχων δὲ χρόνον ἱκανὸν ἅπασι. φέρε δὴ τίς οὐκ ἂν      15
ὁμολογήσειεν τοῖς κρατίστοις ἐοικέναι ποιήμασί τε καὶ μέλεσι

[251]

and great effort, he is, according to Demosthenes, decidedly in the right.[180] Nay, if he considers the credit which attends success in them and the sweetness of the fruit they yield, he will count the toil a pleasure. I beg pardon of the Epicurean choir who care nothing for these things. The doctrine that “writing,” as Epicurus himself says, “is no trouble to those who do not aim at the ever-varying standard”[181] was meant to forestall the charge of gross laziness and stupidity.

CHAPTER XXV

HOW PROSE CAN RESEMBLE VERSE

Now that I have finished this part of the subject, I think you must be eager for information on the next point—how unmetrical language is made to resemble a beautiful poem or lyric, and how a poem or lyric is brought into close likeness to beautiful prose. I will begin with the language of prose, choosing by preference an author who has, I think, in a pre-eminent degree taken the impress of poetical style. I could wish to mention a larger number, but have not time for all. Who, then, will not admit that the speeches of Demosthenes

3 τὸν ἀπ’ αὐτῶν F: τῶν ἁπάντων PMV   5 οὐκἐπὶ πόνου P, MV   6 ἐπίπονον F   10 λέξις ἄμετρος] πεζὴ λέξις F || ἄμετρος ... πεζῇ om. F   13 ὃν ... βουλόμενος om. P

1. κατὰ τὸν Δημοσθένην: cp. de Demosth. c. 52 εἰ δὲ τῷ δοκεῖ ταῦτα καὶ πόνου πολλοῦ καὶ πραγματείας μεγάλης εἶναι, καὶ μάλα ὀρθῶς δοκεῖ κατὰ τὸν Δημοσθένην· οὐδὲν γὰρ τῶν μεγάλων μικρῶν ἐστι πόνων ὤνιον. ἀλλ’ ἐὰν ἐπιλογίσηται τοὺς ἀκολουθοῦντας αὐτοῖς καρπούς, μᾶλλον δ’ ἐὰν ἕνα μόνον τὸν ἔπαινον, ὃν ἀποδίδωσιν ὁ χρόνος καὶ ζῶσι καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτήν, πᾶσαν ἡγήσεται τήν [τε] πραγματείαν ἐλάττω τῆς προσηκούσης. The reference in both cases is to Demosth. Chers. § 48 εἰ δέ τῳ δοκεῖ ταῦτα καὶ δαπάνης μεγάλης καὶ πόνων πολλῶν καὶ πραγματείας εἶναι, καὶ μάλ’ ὀρθῶς δοκεῖ· ἀλλ’ ἐὰν λογίσηται τὰ τῇ πόλει μετὰ ταῦτα γενησόμενα, ἂν ταῦτα μὴ ’θέλῃ, εὑρήσει λυσιτελοῦν τὸ ἑκόντας ποιεῖν τὰ δέοντα.

4. For the general attitude of Epicurus cp. Quintil. ii. 17. 15 “nam de Epicuro, qui disciplinas omnes fugit, nihil miror,” and ib. xii. 2. 24 “nam in primis nos Epicurus a se ipse dimittit, qui fugere omnem disciplinam navigatione quam velocissima iubet [Diog. Laert. Vit. Epic. 6 παιδείαν δὲ πᾶσαν (i.e. τὴν ἐγκύκλιον παιδείαν), μακάριε, φεῦγε τὸ ἀκάτιον ἀράμενος]”; Cic. de Finibus i. 5. 14 “sed existimo te minus ab eo [sc. Epicuro] delectari, quod ista Platonis, Aristotelis, Theophrasti orationis ornamenta neglexerit.”—Probably the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus is among those who are criticized in the πραγματεία ἣν συνεταξάμην ὑπὲρ τῆς πολιτικῆς φιλοσοφίας πρὸς τοὺς κατατρέχοντας αὐτῆς ἀδίκως (de Thucyd. c. 2).

5-8. Usener (Epicurea, fragm. 230) gave this passage as follows: τὸ γὰρ ἐπίπονον τοῦ γράφειν ὄντως, ὡς αὐτὸς Ἐπίκουρος λέγει, τοῖς μὴ στοχαζομένοις τοῦ πυκνὰ μεταπίπτοντος κριτηρίου πολλῆς ἀργίας ἦν καὶ σκαιότητος ἀλεξιφάρμακον.

5. οὐκ ἐπιπόνου: cp. Sheridan Clio’s Protest: “You write with ease, to shew your breeding; | But easy writing’s vile hard reading”; Quintil. x. 3. 10 “summa haec est rei: cito scribendo non fit, ut bene scribatur; bene scribendo fit, ut cito.”

7. κριτηρίου: for κριτήριον as an Epicurean term cp. Diog. Laert. Vit. Epic. 147 ὥστε τὸ κριτήριον ἅπαν ἐκβαλεῖς. The ‘variable criterion’ or ‘shifting standard,’ in Dionysius’ quotation, is either the judgment of the ear (regarded as a part of sensation generally) or the literary fashion of the day.

8. Chapter 24 may be compared throughout with de Demosth. c. 41.

9. For the relations of Prose to Verse see Introduction, pp. 33-9.

16. The metrical lines which Dionysius thinks he detects in Demosthenes are not more (nor less) convincing than the rude hexameters which have been pointed out in Cicero: latent lines cannot be expected to be obvious. Ad Quirites post reditum 16 “sed etiam rerum mearum gestarum auctores, testes, laudatoresque fuere” [but the better reading here is laudatores fuerunt]. Pro Archia Poëta i. 1 “si quid est in me ingenii, iudices, quod sentio quam sit exiguum, aut si qua exercitatio dicendi, in qua me non infiteor mediocriter esse versatum,” etc. Tusc. Disp. iv. 14. 31 “illud animorum corporumque dissimile, quod animi valentes morbo temptari possunt, ut corpora possunt.” Pro Roscio Amer. i. 1 “credo ego vos, iudices, mirari quid sit quod, cum tot summi oratores hominesque nobilissimi sedeant, ego potissimum surrexerim.” Cp. Livy xxi. 9 “nec tuto eos adituros inter tot tam effrenatarum gentium arma, nec Hannibali in tanto discrimine rerum operae esse legationes audire,” and Tacitus Ann. i. 1 “urbem Romam a principio reges habuere.” In most of these passages except the last, the natural pauses in delivery would destroy any real hexameter effect. See further in Quintil. ix. 4. 72 ff.—Among later Greek writers, St. John Chrysostom, in his de Sacerdotio iii. 14 and 16, is supposed to yield one entire hexameter and part of another: [ἀπ’ ἐκείνου] τοῦ καπνοῦ προέφλεξε καὶ ἠμαύρωσεν ἅπασαν, and βιάζωνται διὰ τὴν τῆς γαστρὸς ἀνάγκην.

τοὺς Δημοσθένους λόγους, καὶ μάλιστα τάς τε κατὰ Φιλίππου
δημηγορίας καὶ τοὺς δικανικοὺς ἀγῶνας τοὺς δημοσίους; ὧν
ἐξ ἑνὸς ἀρκέσει λαβεῖν τὸ προοίμιον τουτί·

“Μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ με μήτ’
ἰδίας ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα      5
τουτουί, μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον
ἁμάρτημα ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς
ἀπέχθειαν· ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἆρ’ ὀρθῶς ἐγὼ λογίζομαι καὶ
σκοπῶ, περὶ τοῦ Χερόνησον ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς ὑμᾶς καὶ
μὴ παρακρουσθέντας ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς, περὶ      10
τούτου ἐστί μοι ἅπασα ἡ σπουδή.”

πειρατέον δὴ καὶ περὶ τούτων λέγειν ἃ φρονῶ. μυστηρίοις
μὲν οὖν ἔοικεν ἤδη ταῦτα καὶ οὐκ εἰς πολλοὺς οἷά τε ἐστὶν
ἐκφέρεσθαι, ὥστ’ οὐκ ἂν εἴην φορτικός, εἰ παρακαλοίην “οἷς
θέμις ἐστὶν” ἥκειν ἐπὶ τὰς τελετὰς τοῦ λόγου, “θύρας δ’      15
ἐπιθέσθαι” λέγοιμι ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τοὺς “βεβήλους.” εἰς γέλωτα
γὰρ ἔνιοι λαμβάνουσι τὰ σπουδαιότατα δι’ ἀπειρίαν, καὶ ἴσως
οὐδὲν ἄτοπον πάσχουσιν. ἃ δ’ οὖν βούλομαι λέγειν, τοιάδε
ἐστί.

πᾶσα λέξις ἡ δίχα μέτρου συγκειμένη ποιητικὴν μοῦσαν      20
ἢ μελικὴν χάριν οὐ δύναται προσλαβεῖν κατὰ γοῦν τὴν σύνθεσιν
αὐτήν· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ ἐκλογὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων μέγα τι
δύναται, καὶ ἔστι τις ὀνομασία ποιητικὴ γλωττηματικῶν τε
καὶ ξένων καὶ τροπικῶν καὶ πεποιημένων, οἷς ἡδύνεται ποίησις,
εἰς κόρον ἐγκαταμιγέντων τῇ ἀμέτρῳ λέξει, ὃ ποιοῦσιν ἄλλοι      25
τε πολλοὶ καὶ οὐχ ἥκιστα Πλάτων· οὐ δὴ λέγω περὶ τῆς
ἐκλογῆς, ἀλλ’ ἀφείσθω κατὰ τὸ παρὸν ἡ περὶ ταῦτα σκέψις.
περὶ τῆς συνθέσεως αὐτῆς ἔστω ἡ θεωρία τῆς ἐν τοῖς κοινοῖς
ὀνόμασι καὶ τετριμμένοις καὶ ἥκιστα ποιητικοῖς τὰς ποιητικὰς

[253]

are like the finest poems and lyrics: particularly his harangues against Philip and his pleadings in public law-suits? It will be enough to take the following exordium from one of these:—

“Let none of you, O ye Athenians, think that I have come forward to accuse the defendant Aristocrates with intent to indulge personal hate of my own, or that it is because I have got my eye on some small and petty error that I am thrusting myself with a light heart in the path of his enmity. No, if my calculations and point of view be right, my one aim and object is that you should securely hold the Chersonese, and should not again be deprived of it by political chicanery.”[182]

I must endeavour, here again, to state my views. But the subject we have now reached is like the Mysteries: it cannot be divulged to people in masses. I shall not, therefore, be discourteous in inviting those only “for whom it is lawful” to approach the rites of style, while bidding the “profane” to “close the gates of their ears.”[183] There are some who, through ignorance, turn the most serious things into ridicule, and no doubt their attitude is natural enough. Well, my views are in effect as follows:—

No passage which is composed absolutely without metre can be invested with the melody of poetry or lyric grace, at any rate from the point of view of the word-arrangement considered in itself. No doubt, the choice of words goes a long way, and there is a poetical vocabulary consisting of rare, foreign, figurative and coined words in which poetry takes delight. These are sometimes mingled with prose-writing to excess: many writers do so, Plato particularly. But I am not speaking of the choice of words: let the consideration of that subject be set aside for the present. Let our inquiry deal exclusively with word-arrangement, which can reveal possibilities of poetic grace in common everyday

3 ἀρκέσει] ἀρμόσει F   4 με om. P, Demosth. || μήτε F   5 ἔχθρας ἐμὲ Demosth. || μηδεμιᾶς om. F || ἕνεκα PMV   7 ἐπὶ τούτῳ om. EF   8 ἆρ’ E: ἆρα P: ἄρα M: οὖν V: om. F || ὀρθῶς ἐγὼ EFM: ἐγὼ ὀρθῶς PV   9 περὶ] ὑπὲρ Demosth. || τοῦ EFPM: τοῦ τὴν V || χερόνησον PV^1: χερρόνησον FMV^2 || ἀσφαλῶς ὑμᾶς PMV: ὑμᾶς ἀσφαλῶς EF, D   11 τούτου] τούτων EF || ἔστι μοι M: νῦν ἐστί μοι P: τοίνυν ἔστι μοι V: ἔστι μοι νῦν E: ἐστὶν F: μοί ἐστιν D || ἡ EPM D.: ἡ ἐμὴ F: om. V   12 cum φρονῶ voce deficit codex Florentinus (F)   16 ἐπίθεσθε PM: ἐπίθεσθαι V || μέλωτ(α) P: γελοῖα MV   18 οὐδὲν] οὐδ’ P   20 συγκειμένη EP: ἐγκειμένη MV || μοῦσαν MV: οὖσαν P: om. E   23 τις ὀνομασίας P: τὴν ὀνομασίαν MV   25 ἐγκατατεταγμένους EPM: ἐγκαταμεμιγμένους V

4-11. In Butcher’s and in Weil’s texts (which are here identical) the opening of the Aristocrates runs as follows: μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας ἐμὲ μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’ ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα τουτουί, 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 minute differences between this text and that presented with metrical comments by Dionysius deserve careful notice.—The collocation τῆς ἰδίας ἕνεκ’ ἔχθρας is found in de Cor. § 147.

12. Here, with the word φρονῶ, the codex Florentinus Laurentianus (F) unfortunately ends.

24. It is hardly necessary to insert ὀνομάτων before οἷς, since the word may be supplied from l. 22 supra.

χάριτας ἐπιδεικνυμένης. ὅπερ οὖν ἔφην, οὐ δύναται ψιλὴ
λέξις ὁμοία γενέσθαι τῇ ἐμμέτρῳ καὶ ἐμμελεῖ, ἐὰν μὴ περιέχῃ
μέτρα καὶ ῥυθμούς τινας ἐγκατατεταγμένους ἀδήλως. οὐ μέντοι
προσήκει γε ἔμμετρον οὐδ’ ἔρρυθμον αὐτὴν εἶναι δοκεῖν (ποίημα
γὰρ οὕτως ἔσται καὶ μέλος ἐκβήσεταί τε ἁπλῶς τὸν αὑτῆς      5
χαρακτῆρα), ἀλλ’ εὔρυθμον αὐτὴν ἀπόχρη καὶ εὔμετρον φαίνεσθαι
μόνον· οὕτως γὰρ ἂν εἴη ποιητικὴ μέν, οὐ μὴν ποίημά
γε, καὶ ἐμμελὴς μέν, οὐ μέλος δέ.

τίς δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ τούτων διαφορά, πάνυ ῥᾴδιον ἰδεῖν. ἡ μὲν
ὅμοια περιλαμβάνουσα μέτρα καὶ τεταγμένους σῴζουσα ῥυθμοὺς      10
καὶ κατὰ στίχον ἢ περίοδον ἢ στροφὴν διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν σχημάτων
περαινομένη κἄπειτα πάλιν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ῥυθμοῖς καὶ μέτροις
ἐπὶ τῶν ἑξῆς στίχων ἢ περιόδων ἢ στροφῶν χρωμένη καὶ
τοῦτο μέχρι πολλοῦ ποιοῦσα ἔρρυθμός ἐστι καὶ ἔμμετρος, καὶ
ὀνόματα κεῖται τῇ τοιαύτῃ λέξει μέτρον καὶ μέλος· ἡ δὲ      15
πεπλανημένα μέτρα καὶ ἀτάκτους ῥυθμοὺς ἐμπεριλαμβάνουσα
καὶ μήτε ἀκολουθίαν ἐμφαίνουσα αὐτῶν μήτε ὁμοζυγίαν μήτε
ἀντιστροφὴν εὔρυθμος μέν ἐστιν, ἐπειδὴ διαπεποίκιλταί τισιν
ῥυθμοῖς, οὐκ ἔρρυθμος δέ, ἐπειδὴ οὐχὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ κατὰ
τὸ αὐτό. τοιαύτην δή φημι πᾶσαν εἶναι λέξιν ἄμετρον, ἥτις      20
ἐμφαίνει τὸ ποιητικὸν καὶ μελικόν· ᾗ δὴ καὶ τὸν Δημοσθένη
κεχρῆσθαί φημι. καὶ ὅτι ἀληθῆ ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ καὶ οὐδὲν ἐγὼ
καινοτομῶ, λάβοι μὲν ἄν τις καὶ ἐκ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους μαρτυρίας
τὴν πίστιν· εἴρηται γὰρ τῷ φιλοσόφῳ τά τε ἄλλα
περὶ τῆς λέξεως τῆς πολιτικῆς ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ βίβλῳ τῶν ῥητορικῶν      25
τεχνῶν οἵαν αὐτὴν εἶναι προσῆκεν, καὶ δὴ καὶ περὶ τῆς
εὐρυθμίας ἐξ ὧν ἂν τοιαύτη γένοιτο· ἐν ᾗ τοὺς ἐπιτηδειοτάτους

[255]

words that are by no means reserved for the poets’ vocabulary. Well, as I said, simple prose cannot become like metrical and lyrical writing, unless it contains metres and rhythms unobtrusively introduced into it. It does not, however, do for it to be manifestly in metre or in rhythm (for in that case it will be a poem or a lyric piece, and will absolutely desert its own specific character); it is enough that it should simply appear rhythmical and metrical. In this way it may be poetical, although not a poem; lyrical, although not a lyric.

The difference between the two things is easy enough to see. That which embraces within its compass similar metres and preserves definite rhythms, and is produced by a repetition of the same forms, line for line, period for period, or strophe for strophe, and then again employs the same rhythms and metres for the succeeding lines, periods or strophes, and does this at any considerable length, is in rhythm and in metre, and the names of “verse” and “song” are applied to such writing. On the other hand, that which contains casual metres and irregular rhythms, and in these shows neither sequence nor connexion nor correspondence of stanza with stanza, is rhythmical, since it is diversified by rhythms of a sort, but not in rhythm, since they are not the same nor in corresponding positions. This is the character I attribute to all language which, though destitute of metre, yet shows markedly the poetical or lyrical element; and this is what I mean that Demosthenes among others has adopted. That this is true, that I am advancing no new theory, any one can convince himself from the testimony of Aristotle; for in the third book of his Rhetoric the philosopher, speaking of the various requisites of style in civil oratory, has described the good rhythm which should contribute to it.[184] He

3 ἀδήλως MV: ἀδήλους EP   5 αὐτῆς PV   6 ἔμμετρον E   9 ῥάιδιον P   10 σωίζουσα P   20 ἄμετρον EPM: ἔμμετρον V   21 μελιχρὸν M || δημοσθένην EM   25 τρίτω P   26 προσηκ(εν) P: προσήκει MV   27 ἂν MV: τίσ P

1. Cp. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. c. 18: “Whatever is combined with metre must, though it be not itself essentially poetic, have nevertheless some property in common with poetry.”

3. So de Demosth. c. 50 οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἄλλως γένοιτο πολιτικὴ λέξις παρ’ αὐτὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν ἐμφερὴς ποιήμασιν, ἂν μὴ περιέχῃ μέτρα καὶ ῥυθμούς τινας ἐγκατακεχωρισμένους ἀδήλως. οὐ μέντοι γε προσήκει αὐτὴν ἔμμετρον οὐδ’ ἔρρυθμον εἶναι δοκεῖν, ἵνα μὴ γένηται ποίημα ἢ μέλος, ἐκβᾶσα τὸν αὑτῆς χαρακτῆρα, ἀλλ’ εὔρυθμον αὐτὴν ἀπόχρη φαίνεσθαι καὶ εὔμετρον. οὕτω γὰρ ἂν εἴη ποιητικὴ μέν, οὐ μὴν ποίημά γε, καὶ μελίζουσα μέν, οὐ μὴν μέλος.

4. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8 τὸ δὲ σχῆμα τῆς λέξεως δεῖ μήτε ἔμμετρον εἶναι μήτε ἄρρυθμον ... διὸ ῥυθμὸν δεῖ ἔχειν τὸν λόγον, μέτρον δὲ μή· ποίημα γὰρ ἔσται: and Cic. Orat. 56. 187 “perspicuum est igitur numeris astrictam orationem esse debere, carere versibus,” and 57. 195 ibid. “quia nec numerosa esse, ut poëma, neque extra numerum, ut sermo vulgi, esse debet oratio.” So Isocr. (fragm. of his τέχνη preserved by Joannes Siceliotes, Walz Rhett. Gr. vi. 156) ὅλως δὲ ὁ λόγος μὴ λόγος ἔστω· ξηρὸν γάρ· μηδὲ ἔμμετρος· καταφανὲς γάρ. ἀλλὰ μεμίχθω παντὶ ῥυθμῷ, μάλιστα ἰαμβικῷ καὶ τροχαϊκῷ (Isocr. Tech. fr. 6 Benseler-Blass).

5. ἐκβήσεται ... τὸν αὑτῆς χαρακτῆρα: cp. the construction of excedere and egredi with the accusative.

6. ἔμμετρον is given not only by E but by Joannes Sicel. (Walz Rhett. Gr. vi. 165. 28) and by Maximus Planudes (ibid. v. 473. 4) καὶ Διονύσιος δέ φησιν, ἀπόχρη τὴν πολιτικὴν λέξιν εὔρυθμον εἶναι καὶ ἔμμετρον.

17. Cp. Cic. de Orat. iii. 44. 176 “nam cum [orator] vinxit [sententiam] forma et modis, relaxat et liberat immutatione ordinis, ut verba neque alligata sint quasi certa aliqua lege versus neque ita soluta, ut vagentur.”

25. The reference is to Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8 (the passage of which part is quoted in the note on l. 4 supra).

27. τοιαύτη: i.e. εὔρυθμος, the subject to γένοιτο being ἡ πολιτικὴ λέξις. The τίσ of P may be due to a dittography of the first syllable of τοιαύτη: or it may originally have stood with τοιαύτη (τοιαύτη τις = talis fere).

ὀνομάζει ῥυθμοὺς καὶ πῇ χρήσιμος ἕκαστος αὐτῶν καταφαίνεται,
καὶ λέξεις παρατίθησί τινας αἷς πειρᾶται βεβαιοῦν
τὸν λόγον. χωρὶς δὲ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους μαρτυρίας, ὅτι ἀναγκαῖόν
ἐστιν ἐμπεριλαμβάνεσθαί τινας τῇ πεζῇ λέξει ῥυθμούς,
εἰ μέλλοι τὸ ποιητικὸν ἐπανθήσειν αὐτῇ κάλλος, ἐκ τῆς πείρας      5
τις αὐτῆς γνώσεται.

αὐτίκα ὁ κατὰ Ἀριστοκράτους λόγος οὗ καὶ μικρῷ πρότερον
ἐμνήσθην ἄρχεται μὲν ἀπὸ κωμικοῦ στίχου τετραμέτρου δι’
ἀναπαίστων τῶν ῥυθμῶν ἐγκειμένου, λείπεται δὲ ποδὶ τοῦ
τελείου, παρ’ ὃ καὶ λέληθεν· “μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες      10
Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ με”· τοῦτο γὰρ εἰ προσλάβοι τὸ μέτρον
πόδα ἤτοι κατ’ ἀρχὰς ἢ διὰ μέσου ἢ ἐπὶ τελευτῆς, τέλειον
ἔσται τετράμετρον ἀναπαιστικόν, ὃ καλοῦσίν τινες Ἀριστοφάνειον·

μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ με παρεῖναι,      15

ἴσον δὲ τῷ

λέξω τοίνυν τὴν ἀρχαίαν παιδείαν ὡς διέκειτο.

τάχα τις ἐρεῖ πρὸς ταῦτα, ὅτι οὐκ ἐξ ἐπιτηδεύσεως τοῦτο
ἀλλ’ ἐκ ταὐτομάτου ἐγένετο· πολλὰ γὰρ αὐτοσχεδιάζει μέτρα
ἡ φύσις. ἔστω τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἶναι. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ συναπτόμενον      20
τούτῳ κῶλον, εἰ διαλύσειέ τις αὐτοῦ τὴν δευτέραν
συναλοιφὴν ἣ πεποίηκεν αὐτὸ ἄσημον ἐπισυνάπτουσα τῷ
τρίτῳ κώλῳ, πεντάμετρον ἐλεγειακὸν ἔσται συντετελεσμένον
τουτί

μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεκα

ὅμοιον τούτοις

κοῦραι ἐλαφρὰ ποδῶν ἴχνι’ ἀειράμεναι.

[257]

names the most suitable rhythms, shows where each of them is clearly serviceable, and adduces some passages by which he endeavours to establish his statement. But apart from the testimony of Aristotle, experience itself will show that some rhythms must be included in prose-writing if there is to be upon it the bloom of poetical beauty.

For example, the speech against Aristocrates which I mentioned a moment ago begins with a comic tetrameter line (set there with its anapaestic rhythms), but it is a foot short of completion and in consequence escapes detection: μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ με. If this line had an additional foot either at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, it would be a perfect anapaestic tetrameter, to which some give the name “Aristophanic.”

Let none of you, O ye Athenians, think that I am standing before you,

corresponds to the line

Now then shall be told what in days of old was the fashion of boys’ education.[185]

It will perhaps be said in reply that this has happened not from design, but accidentally, since a natural tendency in us often improvises metrical fragments. Let the truth of this be granted. Yet the next clause as well, if you resolve the second elision, which has obscured its true character by linking it on to the third clause, will be a complete elegiac pentameter as follows:—

Come with intent to indulge personal hate of my own,

similar to these words:—

Maidens whose feet in the dance lightly were lifted on high.[186]

3 ἀναγκαῖον V γρ M: ἂν δίκαιον PM^1   6 τ(ις) P, V: τῆς M   8 δι’ MV: δις sic P   11 με παρεῖναι M   15 μηδεὶς] μηδε P   18 τουτω M, E: τοῦτο PV   24 τουτί EP: ἀκριβῶς τουτί MV   27 ἐλαφροποδῶν sic P: ἐλαφροπόδων MV || ἴχνι’ PM: ἴχνεα V

7. πρότερον: viz. 252 3 supra.

9. ἀναπαιστικῶν has been suggested here and in 260 2; but cp. δάκτυλον πόδα 84 21 and ῥυθμοῖς δακτύλοις 202 19.

10. παρ’ ὅ: cp. note on 80 4 supra.

11. νομίσῃ με: this (together with the other remarks that follow) confirms the reading adopted in 252 4 supra.—Dionysius’ metrical arrangement of the clauses may be indicated thus:—
μηδεὶς ὑμῶν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, νομίσῃ με
μήτ’ ἰδίας ἔχθρας μηδεμιᾶς ἕνεχ’
[ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα τουτουΐ,]
μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον ἁμάρτημα ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ
προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειαν·
ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἆρ’ ὀρθῶς ἐγὼ λογίζομαι [καὶ σκοπῶ,]
περὶ τοῦ Χερόνησον ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς ὑμᾶς
καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθέντας
ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς,
[περὶ τούτου ἐστί μοι ἅπασα ἡ σπουδή.]

Lines, or truncated lines, of verse are thus interspersed with pieces of pure prose,—those here inclosed in brackets. In constituting the verse-lines Dionysius has damaged a rather strong case by overstating it.

21. διαλύσειε: from this it is clear that ἕνεχ’ (rather than ἕνεκα) should be read in 252 5. The verse-arrangement in line 25 infra shows the same thing and also that we must not follow F in reading μήτε (without elision) in 252 4.

27. For this line cp. Schneider’s Callimachea pp. 789, 790, where it is classed among the Fragmenta Anonyma.

καὶ τοῦτ’ ἔτι κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν ὑπολάβωμεν αὐτοματισμὸν ἄνευ
γνώμης γεγονέναι. ἀλλ’ ἑνὸς τοῦ μεταξὺ κώλου συγκειμένου
λεκτικῶς τοῦ “ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα
τουτουί” τὸ συμπλεκόμενον τούτῳ πάλιν κῶλον ἐκ δυεῖν συνέστηκεν
μέτρων· “μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον      5
ἁμάρτημα, ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ”· εἰ γὰρ τὸ
Σαπφικόν τις ἐπιθαλάμιον τουτί

οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀτέρα πάϊς, ὦ γαμβρέ, τοιαύτα ‹ποτα›

καὶ τοῦ κωμικοῦ τετραμέτρου, λεγομένου δὲ Ἀριστοφανείου
τουδί      10

ὅτ’ ἐγὼ τὰ δίκαια λέγων ἦνθουν καὶ σωφροσύνη ’νενόμιστο

τοὺς τελευταίους πόδας τρεῖς καὶ τὴν κατάληξιν ἐκλαβὼν
συνάψειε τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον

οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀτέρα πάϊς, ὦ γαμβρέ, τοιαύτα ‹ποτα› καὶ      15
σωφροσύνη ’νενόμιστο·

οὐδὲν διοίσει τοῦ “μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον
ἁμάρτημα, ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ.” τὸ δ’ ἀκόλουθον
ἴσον ἐστὶν ἰαμβικῷ τριμέτρῳ τὸν ἔσχατον ἀφῃρημένῳ πόδα
“προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειαν”· τέλειον γὰρ ἔσται      20
πόδα προσλαβὸν καὶ γενόμενον τοιοῦτο

προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειάν τινα.

παρίδωμεν ἔτι καὶ ταῦτα ὡς οὐκ ἐξ ἐπιτηδεύσεως ἀλλ’
αὐτοματισμῷ γενόμενα; τί οὖν βούλεται πάλιν τὸ προσεχὲς
τούτῳ κῶλον; ἰαμβεῖον γάρ ἐστι καὶ τοῦτο τρίμετρον ὀρθόν      25

ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἆρ’ ὀρθῶς ἐγὼ λογίζομαι,

τοῦ ἄρα συνδέσμου μακρὰν λαμβάνοντος τὴν πρότεραν συλλαβήν,
καὶ ἔτι γε, νὴ Δία, μέσου παρεμπεσόντος τοῦ “καὶ

[259]

Let us suppose that this, too, has happened once more in the same spontaneous way without design. Still, after one intermediate clause arranged in a prose order, viz. ἥκειν Ἀριστοκράτους κατηγορήσοντα τουτουί, the clause which is joined to this consists of two metrical lines, viz. μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον ἁμάρτημα ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ. For if we were to take this line from Sappho’s Bridal Song—

For never another maiden there was, O son-in-law, like unto
this one,[187]

and were also to take the last three feet and the termination of the following comic tetrameter, the so-called “Aristophanic”

When of righteousness I was the popular preacher, and temperance
was in fashion,[188]

and then were to unite them thus—
οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀτέρα πάις, ὦ γαμβρέ, τοιαύτα ‹ποτα› καὶ σωφροσύνη
’νενόμιστο,

it will precisely correspond to μήτε μικρὸν ὁρῶντά τι καὶ φαῦλον ἁμάρτημα, ἑτοίμως οὕτως ἐπὶ τούτῳ. What follows is like an iambic trimeter docked of its final foot, προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειαν. It will be complete if a foot is added and it takes this shape:—
προάγειν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀπέχθειάν τινα.

Are we once more to neglect these facts as if they were brought about not on purpose but by accident? What, then, is the significance of the next clause to this? For this too is a correct iambic trimeter line—
ἀλλ’ εἴπερ ἆρ’ ὀρθῶς ἐγὸ λογίζομαι,

if the connective ἄρα has its first syllable made long, and if further—by your leave!—the words καὶ σκοπῶ are regarded as

1 καὶ P: εἰ δὲ καὶ M: ἐὰν καὶ V   4 δυεῖν P: δυοῖν MV   5 μέτρων V et suprascr. ῥυθμῶν M: μερῶν P   6 εἰ γὰρ τὸ Sauppius: εἰ γέ τοι P: καὶ τὸ M: γάρ τοι V   7 τις PV: om. M   8 ἦν ἀτέρα] ἑτέρα νῦν PM: ἑτέραν ὗν V: correxit Blomfieldius: ἀτέρα Seidlerus || ποτα add. Usenerus   10-11 τοῦδε τοτ’ P, i.e. τουδεί ὅτ’: τοῦδε ὅτ’ MV   13 τοὺς PM: τούς τε V || ἐκλαβὼν Sauppius: ἐκβαλῶν P: ἐμβαλὼν MV   15 ἑτέρα νῦν PM: ἑτέραν ϋν V: cf. adnot. ad l. 8 supra   21 πόδα προσλαβὸν PM: προσλαβὸν πόδα V || τοιοῦτο P: τοιοῦτον MV   22 τινά PM: τινι V   24 γενόμεν(ον); P   25 ἰάμβιων P: ἰάμβειον MV   26 ἄρ’ P, V: ἄρα M   27 ἄρα compendio P

8. ‘For no other girl, O bridegroom, was like unto her.’—Usener’s insertion of ποτα, here and in l. 15 infra, will secure metrical correspondence between this passage and that of Demosthenes. Blass would attain the same result by reading ἁμάρτημ’ ἰταμῶς in the passage of Demosthenes. If ἁμάρτημ’ ἑτοίμως be read (as in the best texts of Demosthenes), then the choice will be to suppose either (1) that the first syllable of ἑτοίμως is to be suppressed in the ‘scansion’, or (2) that Dionysius has pressed his case too far and that it is just by means of this extra syllable that Demosthenes escapes any unduly poetical rhythm.

26. The scansion here supports those manuscripts which give ἆρ’ in 252 8.

For ἆρα as being “in Poets sometimes much like ἄρα” see L. & S. s.v. (with the examples there quoted).

28. νὴ Δία: cp. μὰ Δία in 260 25. The general sense of the passage is well brought out in the Epitome: καὶ ἔτι τὸ “καὶ σκοπῶ” παρεμπεσὸν ἐπισκοτούμενον τὸ μέτρον ἠφάνισε.

σκοπῶ,” ὑφ’ οὗ δὴ τὸ μέτρον ἐπισκοτούμενον ἠφάνισται. τὸ
δ’ ἐπὶ τούτῳ παραλαμβανόμενον κῶλον ἐξ ἀναπαίστων σύγκειται
ῥυθμῶν καὶ προάγει μέχρι ποδῶν ὀκτὼ τὸ αὐτὸ σχῆμα
διασῷζον

περὶ τοῦ Χερόνησον ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς ὑμᾶς καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθέντας,      5

ὁμοίον τῷ παρ’ Εὐριπίδῃ τῷδε

βασιλεῦ χώρας τῆς πολυβώλου
Κισσεῦ, πεδίον πυρὶ μαρμαίρει.

καὶ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο πάλιν κείμενον τοῦ αὐτοῦ κώλου μέρος      10
τουτί “ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς” ἰαμβικὸν τρίμετρόν
ἐστι ποδὶ καὶ ἡμίσει λειπόμενον· ἐγένετο δ’ ἂν τέλειον οὕτως

ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς ἐν μέρει.

ταῦτ’ ἔτι φῶμεν αὐτοσχέδια εἶναι καὶ ἀνεπιτήδευτα, οὕτω
ποικίλα καὶ πολλὰ ὄντα; ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ ἀξιῶ· καὶ γὰρ τὰ      15
ἑξῆς τούτοις ὅμοια εὑρεῖν ἔστι, πολλῶν καὶ παντοδαπῶν
ἀνάμεστα μέτρων τε καὶ ῥυθμῶν.

ἀλλ’ ἵνα μὴ τοῦτον ὑπολάβῃ τις μόνον οὕτως αὐτῷ
κατεσκευάσθαι τὸν λόγον, ἑτέρου πάλιν ἅψομαι τοῦ πάνυ
ἡρμηνεῦσθαι δαιμονίως δοκοῦντος, τοῦ ὑπὲρ Κτησιφῶντος, ὃν      20
ἐγὼ κράτιστον ἀποφαίνομαι πάντων λόγων· ὁρῶ δὴ κἀν
τούτῳ μετὰ τὴν προσαγόρευσιν τῶν Ἀθηναίων εὐθέως τὸν
κρητικὸν ῥυθμόν, εἴτε ἄρα παιᾶνά τις αὐτὸν βούλεται καλεῖν
(διοίσει γὰρ οὐδέν), τὸν ἐκ πέντε συγκείμενον χρόνων, οὐκ
αὐτοσχεδίως μὰ Δία ἀλλ’ ὡς οἷόν τε μάλιστα ἐπιτετηδευμένως      25
δι’ ὅλου τοῦ κώλου πλεκόμενον τούτου

τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις.

οὐ τοιοῦτος μέντοι κἀκεῖνός ἐστιν ὁ ῥυθμός

[261]

an intermediate excrescence by means of which the metre is obscured and vanishes from sight. The clause placed next to this is composed of anapaestic feet, and extends to eight feet, still keeping the same form:—
πρὸ τοῦ Χερόνησον ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς ὑμᾶς καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθέντας,

like to this in Euripides—

O King of the country with harvests teeming,
O Cisseus, the plain with a fire is gleaming.[189]

And the part of the same clause which comes next to it—ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς—is an iambic trimeter short of a foot and a half. It would have been complete in this form—
ἀποστερηθῆναι πάλιν αὐτῆς ἐν μέρει.

Are we to say that these effects too are spontaneous and unstudied, many and various as they are? I cannot think so; for it is easy to see that the clauses which follow are similarly full of many metres and rhythms of all kinds.

But lest it be thought that he has constructed this speech alone in this way, I will touch on another where the style is admitted to show astonishing genius, that on behalf of Ctesiphon, which I pronounce to be the finest of all speeches. In this, too, immediately after the address to the Athenians, I notice that the cretic foot, or the paeon if you like to call it so (for it will make no difference),—the one which consists of five time-units,—is interwoven, not fortuitously (save the mark!) but with the utmost deliberation right through the clause—
τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις.[190]

Is not the following rhythm of the same kind—

4 διασωῖζον P   5 χερόνησον P: χερρόνησον MV   7 τῷδε Us.: τῶι P, M: ὦ V   8 βασιλεῦ MV: βασιλεῖ P   9 πεδίον MV: παιδι(ον) P   10 μέρος om. P   11 τρίμετρον MV: μέτρον P   12 λειπόμενον Us.: λεῖπον libri   14 ταῦτ’ ἔτι Us.: ταῦτα τί PMV: ταυτὶ s   15 καὶ πολλὰ om. P   17 ἀνάμεστα MV: ἀναλύεσθαι P   18 οὕτως αὐτῷ Us.: οὕτω MV: αὐτ(ω) P   23 βούλεται αὐτὸν PV   26 τούτου Us.: τοῦτον libri

5. Here, again, is a serious metrical difficulty. We can hardly believe that Dionysius scanned ἀσφαλῶς (or βεβαίως) as an anapaest: it is more likely that he regarded the middle syllable of ἀσφαλῶς as slurred (compare note on 258 8 supra, and also the reading λιποῦσ’ ἀνδρότητα καὶ ἥβην in Il. xvi. 857).—If (against the manuscripts) we should omit ἀσφαλῶς and read περὶ τοῦ τὴν Χερρόννησον ἔχειν ὑμᾶς καὶ μὴ παρακρουσθέντας, the metre would be comparatively normal.

12. A comparison of this line with 256 9 seems to confirm the conjecture λειπόμενον, though λείπω is sometimes intransitive.

13. A rude iambic trimeter of the colloquial kind: cp. 258 26 supra.

26. The metrical analysis of the following passage of Demosthenes should be compared and contrasted with its previous division into feet—on 182 17 ff.

27. A rough metrical equivalent in English might be: ‘Hear me, each god on high, hear me, each goddess.’ Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 63 (as quoted on 114 20 supra).—Demosthenes’ much-admired exordium in the Crown may be compared with the Homeric invocation—
κέκλυτέ μευ πάντες τε θεοί, πᾶσαί τε θέαιναι.

Κρησίοις ἐν ῥυθμοῖς παῖδα μέλψωμεν;

ἐμοὶ γοῦν δοκεῖ· ἔξω γὰρ τοῦ τελευταίου ποδὸς τά γε ἄλλα
παντάπασιν ἴσα. ἔστω καὶ τοῦτο, εἰ βούλεταί τις, αὐτοσχέδιον·
ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ συναπτόμενον τούτῳ κῶλον ἰαμβεῖόν
ἐστιν ὀρθόν, συλλαβῇ τοῦ τελείου δέον, ἵνα δὴ κἀνταῦθα      5
ἄσημον γένηται τὸ μέτρον, ἐπεὶ μιᾶς γε συλλαβῆς προστεθείσης
τέλειον ἔσται

“ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ.”

κἄπειτα ὁ παιὰν ἢ ὁ κρητικὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁ πεντάχρονος ἥξει
ῥυθμὸς ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς τούτοις “τῇ πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν      10
τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν
ἀγῶνα.” τοῦτο γοῦν ἔοικεν, ὅ τι μὴ κατακλωμένους ἔχει
δύο πόδας ἐν ἀρχαῖς, κατὰ γοῦν τὰ ἄλλα πάντα τῷ παρὰ
Βακχυλίδῃ

οὐχ ἕδρας ἔργον οὐδ’ ἀμβολᾶς,      15
ἀλλὰ χρυσαίγιδος Ἰτωνίας
χρὴ παρ’ εὐδαίδαλον ναὸν ἐλ-
θόντας ἁβρόν τι δεῖξαι.

ὑφορῶμαί τινα πρὸς ταῦτα καταδρομὴν ἀνθρώπων τῆς
μὲν ἐγκυκλίου παιδείας ἀπείρων, τὸ δὲ ἀγοραῖον τῆς ῥητορικῆς      20
μέρος ὁδοῦ τε καὶ τέχνης χωρὶς ἐπιτηδευόντων, πρὸς οὓς
ἀναγκαῖον ἀπολογήσασθαι, μὴ δόξωμεν ἔρημον ἀφεικέναι τὸν
ἀγῶνα. ἐροῦσι δὴ ταῦτα· ὁ Δημοσθένης οὖν οὕτως ἄθλιος

[263]

Cretan strains practising, Zeus’s son sing we?[191]

In my judgment, at all events, it is; for with the exception of the final foot there is complete correspondence. But suppose this too, if you will have it so, to be accidental. Well, the adjacent clause is a correct iambic line, falling one syllable short of completion, with the object (here again) of obscuring the metre. With the addition of a single syllable the line will be complete—
ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ.

Further, that paeon or cretic rhythm of five beats will appear in the words which follow: τῇ πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα. This, except that it has two broken feet at the beginnings, resembles in all respects the passage in Bacchylides:—

This is no time to sit still nor wait:
Unto yon carven shrine let us go,
Even gold-aegis’d Queen Pallas’ shrine,
And the rich vesture there show.[192]

I have a presentiment that an onslaught will be made on these statements by people who are destitute of general culture and practise the mechanical parts of rhetoric unmethodically and unscientifically. Against these I am bound to defend my position, lest I should seem to let the case go by default. Their argument will doubtless be: “Was Demosthenes, then, so poor a creature

3 παντάπασιν Us.: ἐν ἁπάση PM: ἐν πᾶσιν V || ἴσα ἔστω· PM: ἴσα ὥρισται V   4 ἀλλὰ] μάλα P || ἰαμβι(ον) P: ἰαμβικὸν MV   10 τῇ τε πόλει Demosth.   11 ὑπάρξαί μοι P   12 κατ(α)κλ(ω)μεν(ως) P: κατακλώμενος M: κατακεκλωμένους V: κατακεκλασμένους Sylburgius   13 τῷ V: τὸ PM   15 ἀμβολας P: ἀμβολὰς V   22 ἀναγκαίωνον P: ἀναγκαῖόν μοι M || δόξομ(εν) P || ἀφεικέναι MV: ἀφηκέναι P

1. ῥυθμοῖς: with the first syllable short, as (e.g.) in Aristoph. Nub. 638. As already pointed out, the lengthening of such syllables would be abnormal in prose. Cp. mediocriter in the passage of Cicero on p. 251 supra.

7. Dionysius can surely only mean that we have here the materials, so to say, for an iambic line, and that but one additional syllable is needed (e.g. the substitution of διατελέω for διατελῶ). He can hardly have intended to retain εὔνοιαν in its present position, but must have had in mind some such order as ὅσην ἔχων εὔνοιαν. His language, however, has subjected him to grave suspicion, and Usener reads ἔγωγε in place of ἐγώ, remarking that “Dionysius numerorum in verbo εὔνοιαν vitium non sensit.” This particular insensibility of Dionysius does not seem borne out by 182 22 supra (see note ad loc.), where the last, but not the first, syllable of εὔνοιαν is represented as doubtful.

12. Here, too, there are metrical difficulties. The close correspondence of which Dionysius speaks is not obvious; and, in particular, the reference of ἐν ἀρχαῖς is far from clear. According to Usener, “Dionysius pedes τῇ πόλει καὶ et (τοσαύ)την ὑπάρξαι dicit.” Perhaps the ἀρχαί rather are: (1) τῇ [τε] πόλει (if the τε be added, in l. 10, from Demosthenes), and (2) [καὶ] πᾶσιν ὑμ-.

14. See Long. de Sublim. xxxiii. 3 for an estimate of Bacchylides’ poetry which has been confirmed by the general character of the newly discovered poems (first published by Kenyon in 1897).

15. The prose translation of this hyporcheme, as given in Jebb’s edition (p. 416), is: “This is no time for sitting still or tarrying: we must go to the richly-wrought temple of Itona [viz. Athena Itonia] with golden aegis, and show forth some choice strain of song”: δεῖξαι ‹μέλος›. Jebb’s notes (pp. 415, 416 ibid.) may be consulted.

19. καταδρομήν, ‘vehement attack,’ ‘invective.’ Used in this sense by Aeschines and Polybius, as well as by Dionysius (e.g. de Thucyd. c. 3 ἔστι δὴ τὸ βούλημά μου τῆς πραγματείας οὐ καταδρομὴ τῆς Θουκυδίδου προαιρέσεώς τε καὶ δυνάμεως). Cp. the verb κατατρέχειν, and D.H. p. 194; and our own use of ‘run down.’

22. ἔρημον: cp. de Antiqq. Rom. iv. 4 ἐὰν δὲ ἐρήμους ἀφῶσιν (τὰς κρίσεις), and iv. 11 ibid. τάς τε δίκας ἐρήμους ἐκλιπόντας.

23. With this and the following pages should be compared the later version found in the de Demosth. cc. 51, 52. There ἄθλιος (which in itself as a good prose word, used frequently by Demosthenes himself as well as by Dionysius 94 11 supra) is represented by κακοδαίμων. The Philistine critics of Dionysius’ day, and indeed of that of Demosthenes, regarded the capacity for taking pains as anything but a necessary adjunct of genius: cp. Plut. Vit. Demosth. c. 8 ἐκ τούτου δόξαν ἔσχεν ὡς οὐκ εὐφυὴς ὤν, ἀλλ’ ἐκ πόνου συγκειμένῃ δεινότητι καὶ δυνάμει χρώμενος. ἐδόκει δὲ τούτου σημεῖον εἶναι μέγα τὸ μὴ ῥᾳδίως ἀκοῦσαί τινα Δημοσθένους ἐπὶ καιροῦ λέγοντος, ἀλλὰ καθήμενον ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ πολλάκις τοῦ δήμου καλοῦντος ὀνομαστὶ μὴ παρελθεῖν, εἰ μὴ τύχοι πεφροντικὼς καὶ παρεσκευασμένος. εἰς τοῦτο δ’ ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ τῶν δημαγωγῶν ἐχλεύαζον αὐτὸν καὶ Πυθέας ἐπισκώπτων ἐλλυχνίων ἔφησεν ὄζειν αὐτοῦ τὰ ἐνθυμήματα. The really artistic Athens had, as Dionysius so forcibly indicates in this passage, always considered as a crime not preparation, but the want of preparation.

ἦν, ὥσθ’, ὅτε γράφοι τοὺς λόγους, μέτρα καὶ ῥυθμοὺς ὥσπερ
οἱ πλάσται παρατιθέμενος, ἐναρμόττειν ἐπειρᾶτο τούτοις τοῖς
τύποις τὰ κῶλα, στρέφων ἄνω καὶ κάτω τὰ ὀνόματα, καὶ
παραφυλάττων τὰ μήκη καὶ τοὺς χρόνους, καὶ τὰς πτώσεις
τῶν ὀνομάτων καὶ τὰς ἐγκλίσεις τῶν ῥημάτων καὶ πάντα τὰ      5
συμβεβηκότα τοῖς μορίοις τοῦ λόγου πολυπραγμονῶν; ἠλίθιος
μέντἂν εἴη εἰς τοσαύτην σκευωρίαν καὶ φλυαρίαν ὁ τηλικοῦτος
ἀνὴρ ἑαυτὸν διδούς. ταῦτα δὴ καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια
κωμῳδοῦντας αὐτοὺς καὶ καταχλευάζοντας οὐ χαλεπῶς ἄν
τις ἀποκρούσαιτο ταῦτα εἰπών· πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι οὐδὲν ἄτοπον      10
ἦν, εἰ ‹ὁ› τοσαύτης δόξης ἠξιωμένος ἀνὴρ ὅσης οὐδεὶς τῶν
πρότερον ὀνομασθέντων ἐπὶ δεινότητι λόγων, ἔργα συνταττόμενος
αἰώνια καὶ διδοὺς ἑαυτὸν ὑπεύθυνον τῷ πάντα βασανίζοντι
φθόνῳ καὶ χρόνῳ ἐβουλήθη μηδὲν εἰκῇ μήτε πρᾶγμα παραλαμβάνειν
μήτ’ ὄνομα, πολλὴν δ’ ἀμφοῖν ἔχειν τούτων      15
πρόνοιαν τῆς τε ἐν τοῖς νοήμασιν οἰκονομίας καὶ τῆς εὐμορφίας
τῆς περὶ τὰ ὀνόματα, ἄλλως τε καὶ τῶν τότε ἀνθρώπων οὐ
γραπτοῖς ἀλλὰ γλυπτοῖς καὶ τορευτοῖς ἐοικότας ἐκφερόντων
λόγους, λέγω δὲ Ἰσοκράτους καὶ Πλάτωνος τῶν σοφιστῶν·
ὁ μὲν γὰρ τὸν πανηγυρικὸν λόγον, ὡς οἱ τὸν ἐλάχιστον      20
χρόνον γράφοντες ἀποφαίνουσιν, ἐν ἔτεσι δέκα συνετάξατο, ὁ
δὲ Πλάτων τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ διαλόγους κτενίζων καὶ βοστρυχίζων
καὶ πάντα τρόπον ἀναπλέκων οὐ διέλειπεν ὀγδοήκοντα
γεγονὼς ἔτη· πᾶσι γὰρ δήπου τοῖς φιλολόγοις γνώριμα τὰ
περὶ τῆς φιλοπονίας τἀνδρὸς ἱστορούμενα τά τε ἄλλα καὶ      25
δὴ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν δέλτον, ἣν τελευτήσαντος αὐτοῦ λέγουσιν

[265]

that, whenever he was writing his speeches, he would work in metres and rhythms after the fashion of clay-modellers, and would try to fit his clauses into these moulds, shifting the words to and fro, keeping an anxious eye on his longs and shorts, and fretting himself about cases of nouns, moods of verbs, and all the accidents of the parts of speech? So great a man would be a fool indeed were he to stoop to all this niggling and peddling.” If they scoff and jeer in these or similar terms, they may easily be countered by the following reply: First, it is not surprising after all that a man who is held to deserve a greater reputation than any of his predecessors who were distinguished for eloquence was anxious, when composing eternal works and submitting himself to the scrutiny of all-testing envy and time, not to admit either subject or word at random, and to attend carefully to both arrangement of ideas and beauty of words: particularly as the authors of that day were producing discourses which suggested not writing but carving and chasing—those, I mean, of the sophists Isocrates and Plato. For the former spent ten years over the composition of his Panegyric, according to the lowest recorded estimate of the time; while Plato did not cease, when eighty years old, to comb and curl his dialogues and reshape them in every way. Surely every scholar is acquainted with the stories of Plato’s passion for taking pains, especially that of the tablet which they say was found after his

1 ὥσθ’] ὥστ’ ἔστιν M || ὅτε compendio P: ὅταν MV || γράφη MV   4 τὰ μήκη ... ὀνομάτων om. P   8 διδουσα· P   10 ᾱ μὲν P   11 ὁ inseruit Sadaeus (coll. commentario de adm. vi dic. in Dem. c. 51)   13 διδοῦσ(ιν) P || ἑαυτὸν EM: αὐτὸν PV   14 φθόνω καὶ χρόνω PMV: χρόνῳ E || ἠβουλήθη E: om. PMV || εἰκῆι P   20 μὲν γὰρ MV: μέν γε EP   21 ἀποφαίνουσιν, ἐν MV: om. EP || συνετάξαντο V   23 διέλειπεν PM: διέλιπεν EV   24 γνώριμα PV: γνώρισμα E: γνωρίσματα M

4. τὰ μήκη: we cannot (for example) imagine Thucydides as anxiously counting the long syllables that find a place in his striking dictum οὕτως ἀταλαίπωρος τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡ ζήτησις τῆς ἀληθείας (i. 20). But they are there, all the same, and add greatly to the dignity of the utterance.

6. ἠλίθιος: a slight word-play on ἄθλιος in 262 23 supra may be intended.

14. φθόνῳ καὶ χρόνῳ: the word-play might be represented in English by some such rendering as “submitting himself to the revision of those scrutineers of all immortality, the tooth of envy and the tooth of time,” or (simply) “envious tongues and envious time.” To such jingles Dionysius shows himself partial in the C.V. (cp. note on 64 11 supra). It may be that, in his essay on Demosthenes, he omits the words φθόνῳ καί deliberately and on the grounds of taste; but the later version differs so greatly from the earlier that not much significance can be attached to slight variations of this kind.

18. γραπτοῖς, ‘mere mechanical writing,’ ‘scratching,’ ‘scribbling.’

21. For this period of ten years cp. Long. de Sublim. iv. 2, and also Quintil. x. 4. 4. Quintilian writes: “temporis quoque esse debet modus. nam quod Cinnae Smyrnam novem annis accepimus scriptam, et Panegyricum Isokratis, qui parcissime, decem annis dicunt elaboratum, ad oratorem nihil pertinet, cuius nullum erit, si tam tardum fuerit, auxilium.” In using the words “qui parcissime” Quintilian may have had the present passage of the C.V. in mind.

26. δέλτον, ‘tablet’: originally so called because of its delta-like, or triangular, shape.

εὑρεθῆναι ποικίλως μετακειμένην τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς Πολιτείας
ἔχουσαν τήνδε “Κατέβην χθὲς εἰς Πειραιᾶ μετὰ Γλαύκωνος
τοῦ Ἀρίστωνος.” τί οὖν ἦν ἄτοπον, εἰ καὶ Δημοσθένει
φροντὶς εὐφωνίας τε καὶ ἐμμελείας ἐγένετο καὶ τοῦ μηδὲν
εἰκῇ καὶ ἀβασανίστως τιθέναι μήτε ὄνομα μήτε νόημα; πολύ      5
τε γὰρ μᾶλλον ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ προσήκειν ἀνδρὶ κατασκευάζοντι
λόγους πολιτικοὺς μνημεῖα τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεως αἰώνια μηδενὸς
τῶν ἐλαχίστων ὀλιγωρεῖν, ἢ ζῳγράφων τε καὶ τορευτῶν
παισὶν ἐν ὕλῃ φθαρτῇ χειρῶν εὐστοχίας καὶ πόνους ἀποδεικνυμένοις
περὶ τὰ φλέβια καὶ τὰ πτίλα καὶ τὸν χνοῦν καὶ      10
τὰς τοιαύτας μικρολογίας κατατρίβειν τῆς τέχνης τὴν ἀκρίβειαν.
τούτοις τε δὴ τοῖς λόγοις χρώμενος δοκεῖ μοί τις ἂν οὐδὲν
ἔξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἀξιοῦν καὶ ἔτι ἐκεῖνα εἰπών, ὅτι μειράκιον
μὲν ὄντα καὶ νεωστὶ τοῦ μαθήματος ἁπτόμενον αὐτὸν οὐκ
ἄλογον πάντα περισκοπεῖν, ὅσα δυνατὰ ἦν εἰς ἐπιτήδευσιν      15

[267]

death, with the beginning of the Republic (“I went down yesterday to the Piraeus together with Glaucon the son of Ariston”[193]) arranged in elaborately varying orders. What wonder, then, if Demosthenes also was careful to secure euphony and melody and to employ no random or untested word or thought? For it appears to me far more reasonable for a man who is composing public speeches, eternal memorials of his own powers, to attend even to the slightest details, than it is for the disciples of painters and workers in relief, who display the dexterity and industry of their hands in a perishable medium, to expend the finished resources of their art on veins and down and bloom and similar minutiae.

These arguments seem to me to make no unreasonable claim; and we may further add that though when Demosthenes was a lad, and had but recently taken up the study of rhetoric, he naturally had to ask himself consciously what the effects attainable

3 Ἀρίστωνος] κεφάλου P   4 εὐμελείας M^1   5 εἰκῆι P || νόημα Schaeferus (dittographiam suspicatus et coll. 264 16, 66 5): μήτ’ (μήτε V) ἐννόημα MV: om. P   9 ἀποδεικνομένοις Us.: ὑποδεικνυμένοις libri   10 φλέβια PMV: φλεβία E   12 τούτοις τε PM: τούτοις V || τις ἂν PM: τις V

2. Demetrius (de Eloc. § 21) calls attention to the studied ease and intentional laxity of the opening period of the Republic: “The period of dialogue is one which remains lax, and is also simpler than the historical. It scarcely betrays the fact that it is a period. For instance: ‘I went down to the Piraeus,’ as far as the words ‘since they were now celebrating it for the first time.’ Here the clauses are flung one upon the other as in the disjointed style, and when we reach the end we hardly realize that the words form a period” (see also § 205 ibid.). In the passage of Dionysius it may well be meant that the words whose order was changed by Plato were not merely κατέβην ... Ἀρίστωνος, but the sentence, or sentences, which these introduce. (Usener suggests that P’s reading Κεφάλου points to a longer quotation than that actually found in existing manuscripts; and Persius’ Arma virum, and Cicero’s O Tite, i.e. the De Senectute, may be recalled.) Quintilian, however, seems to think that the first four words only, or chiefly, are meant: though the possible permutations of these are few and would hardly need to be written down. He says (Inst. Or. viii. 6. 64): “nec aliud potest sermonem facere numerosum quam opportuna ordinis permutatio; neque alio ceris Platonis inventa sunt quattuor illa verba, quibus in illo pulcherrimo operum in Piraeeum se descendisse significat, plurimis modis scripta, quam quod eum quoque maxime facere experiretur.” Diog. Laert. iii. 37 makes a more general statement: Εὐφορίων δὲ καὶ Παναίτιος εἰρήκασι πολλάκις ἐστραμμένην εὑρῆσθαι τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς Πολιτείας. But be the words few or many, the main point is that trouble of this kind was reckoned an artistic (and even a patriotic) duty. Upton has stated the case well, in reference to Cicero’s anxiety to express the words ‘to the Piraeus’ in good Latin: “Quod si Platonis haec industria quibusdam curiosa nimis et sollicita videtur, ut quae nec aetati tanti viri, nec officio congruat: quid Cicero itidem fecerit, quantum latinitatis curam gravissimis etiam reipublicae negotiis districtus habuerit, in memoriam revocent. is annum iam agens sexagesimum, inter medios civilium bellorum tumultus, qui a Caesare Pompeioque excitarentur, cum nesciret, quo mittenda esset uxor, quo liberi; quem ad locum se reciperet, missis ad Atticum litteris [ad Att. vii. 3], ab eo doceri, an esset scribendum, ad Piraeea, in Piraeea, an in Piraeum, an Piraeum sine praepositione, impensius rogabat. quae res etsi levior, et grammaticis propria, patrem eloquentiae temporibus etiam periculosissimis adeo exercuit, ut haec verba, quae amicum exstimularent, addiderit: Si hoc mihi ζήτημα persolveris, magna me molestia liberaris.” Nor was Julius Caesar less scrupulous in such matters than Cicero himself: their styles, different as they are, agree in exhibiting the fastidiousness of literary artists. Compare the modern instances mentioned in Long. p. 33, to which may be added that of Luther as described by Spalding: “non dubito narrare in Bibliotheca nostrae urbis regia servari chirographum Martini Lutheri, herois nostri, in quo exstat initium versionis Psalmorum mirifice et ipsum immutatum et subterlitum, ad conciliandos orationi, quamquam salutae, numeros.” See also Byron’s Letters (ed. Prothero) Nos. 247-255 and passim, and Antoine Albalat’s Le Travail du style enseigné par les corrections manuscrites des grands écrivains, passim.

8. τῶν ἐλαχίστων: an interesting addition is made in the de Demosth. c. 51 πολιτικὸς δ’ ἄρα δημιουργός, πάντας ὑπεράρας τοὺς καθ’ αὑτὸν φύσει τε καὶ πόνῳ, τῶν ἐλαχίστων τινὸς εἰς τὸ εὖ λέγειν, εἰ δὴ καὶ ταῦτα ἐλάχιστα, ὠλιγώρησε.

9. ἐνδεικνυμένοις may perhaps be suggested in place of ἀποδεικνυμένοις: cp. de Demosth. c. 51 οὐ γὰρ δή τοι πλάσται μὲν καὶ γραφεῖς ἐν ὕλῃ φθαρτῇ χειρῶν εὐστοχίας ἐνδεικνύμενοι τοσούτους εἰσφέρονται πόνους, ὥστε κτλ. If, on the other hand, ὑποδεικνυμένοις be retained, we may perhaps translate ‘pupils who have exercises in manual dexterity, and studies of veins, etc., given them to copy (cp. ὑπόδειγμα).’—With χειρῶν εὐστοχίας cp. χερὸς εὐστοχίαν (‘well-aimed shafts’) in Eurip. Troad. 811.

10. τὸν χνοῦν: cp. Hor. Ars P. 32 “Aemilium circa ludum faber imus et ungues | exprimet et molles imitabitur aere capillos, | infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum | nesciet.” χνοῦς is the ‘lanugo plumea.’ Cp. de Demosth. c. 38 χνοῦς ἀρχαιοπινής.

11. κατατρίβειν κτλ. = κατατήκειν εἰς ταῦτα τὰς τέχνας, de Demosth. c. 51.

15. After ἄλογον, ἦν may be inserted with Sauppe, who compares de Demosth. c. 52 ὅτι μειράκιον μὲν ἔτι ὄντα καὶ νεωστὶ τοῦ μαθήματος ἁπτόμενον αὐτὸν οὐκ ἄλογον ἦν καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τἆλλα πάντα διὰ πολλῆς ἐπιμελείας τε καὶ φροντίδος ἔχειν. But the verb may have been omitted in the C.V. in order to avoid its repetition with ὅσα δυνατὰ ἦν.

ἀνθρωπίνην πεσεῖν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἡ χρόνιος ἄσκησις ἰσχὺν
πολλὴν λαβοῦσα τύπους τινὰς ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ παντὸς τοῦ
μελετωμένου καὶ σφραγῖδας ἐνεποίησεν, ἐκ τοῦ ῥᾴστου τε
καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἕξεως αὐτὰ ἤδη ποιεῖν. οἷόν τι γίνεται κἀν
ταῖς ἄλλαις τέχναις, ὧν ἐνέργειά τις ἢ ποίησις τὸ τέλος·      5
αὐτίκα οἱ κιθαρίζειν τε καὶ ψάλλειν καὶ αὐλεῖν ἄκρως εἰδότες
ὅταν κρούσεως ἀκούσωσιν ἀσυνήθους, οὐ πολλὰ πραγματευθέντες
ἀπαριθμοῦσιν αὐτὴν εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τῶν ὀργάνων ἅμα
νοήσει· μανθάνοντες δέ γε χρόνῳ τε πολλῷ καὶ πόνῳ τὰς
δυνάμεις τῶν φθόγγων ἀναλαμβάνουσιν, καὶ οὐκ εὐθὺς αἱ      10
χεῖρες αὐτῶν ἐν ἕξει τοῦ δρᾶν τὰ παραγγελλόμενα ἦσαν, ὀψὲ
δέ ποτε καὶ ὅτε ἡ πολλὴ ἄσκησις αὐταῖς εἰς φύσεως ἰσχὺν
κατέστησε τὸ ἔθος, τότε τῶν ἔργων ἐγένοντο ἐπιτυχεῖς. καὶ
τί δεῖ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων λέγειν; ὃ γὰρ ἅπαντες ἴσμεν, ἀπόχρη
καὶ πᾶσαν αὐτῶν διακόψαι τὴν φλυαρίαν. τί δ’ ἐστὶ τοῦτο;      15
τὰ γράμματα ὅταν παιδευώμεθα, πρῶτον μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα
αὐτῶν ἐκμανθάνομεν, ἔπειτα τοὺς τύπους καὶ τὰς δυνάμεις,
εἶθ’ οὕτω τὰς συλλαβὰς καὶ τὰ ἐν ταύταις πάθη, καὶ μετὰ
τοῦτο ἤδη τὰς λέξεις καὶ τὰ συμβεβηκότα αὐταῖς, ἐκτάσεις
τε λέγω καὶ συστολὰς καὶ προσῳδίας καὶ τὰ παραπλήσια      20
τούτοις· ὅταν δὲ τὴν τούτων ἐπιστήμην λάβωμεν, τότε
ἀρχόμεθα γράφειν τε καὶ ἀναγινώσκειν, κατὰ συλλαβὴν
‹μὲν› καὶ βραδέως τὸ πρῶτον· ἐπειδὰν δὲ ὁ χρόνος ἀξιόλογος
προσελθὼν τύπους ἰσχυροὺς αὐτῶν ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς
ἡμῶν ἐμποιήσῃ, τότε ἀπὸ τοῦ ῥᾴστου δρῶμεν αὐτὰ καὶ πᾶν      25
ὅ τι ἂν ἐπιδῷ τις βιβλίον ἀπταίστως διερχόμεθα ἕξει τε
καὶ τάχει ἀπίστῳ. τοιοῦτο δὴ καὶ περὶ τὴν σύνθεσιν τῶν
ὀνομάτων καὶ περὶ τὴν εὐέπειαν τῶν κώλων ὑποληπτέον
γίνεσθαι παρὰ τοῖς ἀθληταῖς τοῦ ἔργου. τοὺς δὲ τούτου

[269]

by human skill were, yet when long training had issued in perfect mastery, and had graven on his mind forms and impressions of all that he had practised, he henceforth produced his effects with the utmost ease from sheer force of habit. Something similar occurs in the other arts whose end is activity or production. For example, when accomplished players on the lyre, the harp, or the flute hear an unfamiliar tune, they no sooner grasp it than with little trouble they run over it on the instrument themselves. They have mastered the values of the notes after much toiling and moiling, and so can reproduce them. Their hands were not at the outset in condition to do what was bidden them; they attained command of this accomplishment only after much time, when ample training had converted custom into second nature.

Why pursue the subject? A fact familiar to all of us is enough to silence these quibblers. What may this be? When we are taught to read, first we learn off the names of the letters, then their forms and their values, then in due course syllables and their modifications, and finally words and their properties, viz. lengthenings and shortenings, accents, and the like. After acquiring the knowledge of these things, we begin to write and read, syllable by syllable and slowly at first. And when the lapse of a considerable time has implanted the forms of words firmly in our minds, then we deal with them without the least difficulty, and whenever any book is placed in our hands we go through it without stumbling, and with incredible facility and speed. We must suppose that something of this kind happens in the case of the trained exponent of the literary profession as regards the arrangement of words and the euphony of clauses. And it is not unnatural that those who

1 πεσεῖν EP: ἐλθεῖν MV   3 σφαγίδας P: σφραγίδας V   4 ᾔδει ποιεῖν E   8 ἅμα Us.: ἀλλὰ PMV^1: ἀλλὰ καὶ V^2   21 δὲ EM: τε PV   23 μὲν inseruit Sadaeus coll. comment. de Demosth. c. 52 || ἐπειδὰν E: ἐπεὶ PV: ἔπειτα M   25 ποιήση EM^1: ποιήσει PM^2V   27 τοιοῦτο EM: τοιούτω P: τοιοῦτον V   29 τοὺς ... ἀπείρους E: τοῖς ... ἀπείροις PMV

3. ἐκ τοῦ ῥᾴστου: cp. ἀπὸ τοῦ ῥᾴστου l. 25 infra.

5. Dionysius is thinking of Aristot. Eth. Nic. i. 1 διαφορὰ δέ τις φαίνεται τῶν τελῶν· τὰ μὲν γάρ εἰσιν ἐνέργειαι, τὰ δὲ παρ’ αὐτὰς ἔργα τινά. ὧν δ’ εἰσὶ τέλη τινὰ παρὰ τὰς πράξεις, ἐν τούτοις βελτίω πέφυκε τῶν ἐνεργείων τὰ ἔργα.

8. If ἀλλὰ νοήσει be retained, the meaning will be ‘not with much trouble, but by means of their acquired skill.’ But ἅμα νοήσει derives support from the parallel passages in de Demosth. c. 52 ἅμα νοήσει [νοήσει Sylburg, for the manuscript reading νοήσεις] and ὥστε ἅμα νοήσει κεκριμένον τε καὶ ἄπταιστον αὐτῆς εἶναι τὸ ἔργον.

16. Referring to this description in the Cambridge Companion to Greek Studies p. 507, the late Dr. A. S. Wilkins remarks: “Some have supposed that Dionysius here describes the method of acquiring the power of reading, not by learning the names of the letters first, but by learning their powers, so combining them at once into syllables. But this is hardly consistent with his language, and is directly contradicted by a passage in Athenaeus, which tells how there was a kind of chant used in schools:—βῆτα ἄλφα βα, βῆτα εἶ βε, etc. A terracotta plate found in Attica, doubtless intended for use in schools, contains a number of syllables αρ βαρ γαρ δαρ ερ βερ γερ δερ κτλ.”

26. ἀπταίστως: Usener reads ἀπταίστῳ. But the adverb goes better with διερχόμεθα than the adjective would with ἕξει τε καὶ τάχει. Cp. de Demosth. c. 51 (the later version of the present passage) ἀπταίστως τε καὶ κατὰ πολλὴν εὐπέτειαν, and Plato Theaet. 144 B ὁ δὲ οὕτω λείως τε καὶ ἀπταίστως καὶ ἀνυσίμως ἔρχεται ἐπὶ τὰς μαθήσεις τε καὶ ζητήσεις μετὰ πολλῆς πρᾳότητος, οἷον ἐλαίου ῥεῦμα ἀψοφητὶ ῥέοντος (these last words are echoed in the de Demosth. c. 20).

29. ἀθληταῖς: cp. de Demosth. c. 18 καίτοι γε τοῖς ἀθληταῖς τῆς ἀληθινῆς λέξεως ἰσχυρὰς τὰς ἁφὰς προσεῖναι δεῖ καὶ ἀφύκτους τὰς λαβάς, and de Isocr. c. 11 fin.; also δεινοὺς ἀγωνιστάς 282 3 infra.

ἀπείρους ἢ ἀτριβεῖς ἔργου ὁτουοῦν θαυμάζειν καὶ ἀπιστεῖν,
εἴ τι κεκρατημένως ὑφ’ ἑτέρου γίνεται διὰ τέχνης, οὐκ ἄλογον.
πρὸς μὲν οὖν τοὺς εἰωθότας χλευάζειν τὰ παραγγέλματα τῶν
τεχνῶν ταῦτα εἰρήσθω.

XXVI
περὶ δὲ τῆς ἐμμελοῦς τε καὶ ἐμμέτρου συνθέσεως τῆς      5
ἐχούσης πολλὴν ὁμοιότητα πρὸς τὴν πεζὴν λέξιν τοιαῦτά
τινα λέγειν ἔχω, ὡς πρώτη μέν ἐστιν αἰτία κἀνταῦθα τὸν
αὐτὸν τρόπον ὅνπερ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀμέτρου ποιητικῆς ἡ τῶν ὀνομάτων
αὐτῶν ἁρμογή, δευτέρα δὲ ἡ τῶν κώλων σύνθεσις, τρίτη
δὲ ἡ τῶν περιόδων συμμετρία. τὸν δὴ βουλόμενον ἐν τούτῳ      10
τῷ μέρει κατορθοῦν τὰ τῆς λέξεως μόρια δεῖ πολυειδῶς στρέφειν
τε καὶ συναρμόττειν καὶ τὰ κῶλα ἐν διαστήμασι ποιεῖν
συμμέτρως, μὴ συναπαρτίζοντα τοῖς στίχοις ἀλλὰ διατέμνοντα
τὸ μέτρον, ἄνισά τε ποιεῖν αὐτὰ καὶ ἀνόμοια, πολλάκις δὲ
καὶ εἰς κόμματα συνάγειν βραχύτερα κώλων, τάς τε περιόδους      15
μήτε ἰσομεγέθεις μήτε ὁμοιοσχήμονας τὰς γοῦν παρακειμένας
ἀλλήλαις ἐργάζεσθαι· ἔγγιστα γὰρ φαίνεται λόγοις
τὸ περὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς καὶ τὰ μέτρα πεπλανημένον. τοῖς μὲν
οὖν τὰ ἔπη καὶ τοὺς ἰάμβους καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ ὁμοειδῆ μέτρα
κατασκευάζουσιν οὐκ ἔξεστι πολλοῖς διαλαμβάνειν μέτροις ἢ      20
ῥυθμοῖς τὰς ποιήσεις, ἀλλ’ ἀνάγκη μένειν ἀεὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ
σχήματος· τοῖς δὲ μελοποιοῖς ἔξεστι πολλὰ μέτρα καὶ
ῥυθμοὺς εἰς μίαν ἐμβαλεῖν περίοδον· ὥσθ’ οἱ μὲν τὰ μονόμετρα

[271]

are ignorant of this or unversed in any profession whatsoever should be surprised and incredulous when they hear that anything is executed with such mastery by another as a result of artistic training. This may suffice as a rejoinder to those who are accustomed to scoff at the rules of the rhetorical manuals.

CHAPTER XXVI

HOW VERSE CAN RESEMBLE PROSE

Concerning melodious metrical composition which bears a close affinity to prose, my views are of the following kind. The prime factor here too, just as in the case of poetical prose, is the collocation of the words themselves; next, the composition of the clauses; third, the arrangement of the periods. He who wishes to succeed in this department must change the words about and connect them with each other in manifold ways, and make the clauses begin and end at various places within the lines, not allowing their sense to be self-contained in separate verses, but breaking up the measure. He must make the clauses vary in length and form, and will often also reduce them to phrases which are shorter than clauses, and will make the periods—those at any rate which adjoin one another—neither equal in size nor alike in construction; for an elastic treatment of rhythms and metres seems to bring verse quite near to prose. Now those authors who compose in epic or iambic verse, or use the other regular metres, cannot diversify their poetical works with many metres or rhythms, but must always adhere to the same metrical form. But the lyric poets can include many metres and rhythms in a single period. So that when the writers of monometers break up

1 ἀτριβεῖς Reiskius: ἀτριβέσιν libri   2 κεκρατημένως PM: κεκροτημένως V   5 συνθήκης M   10 συμμετρία M: ἐμμετρία EPV   17 ἀλλήλαις EM: ἀλλήλοις PV

2. κεκρατημένως, ‘vigorously’: cp. Sext. Empir. p. 554 (Bekker) οὐ κεκρατημένως ὑπέγραψαν οἱ δογματικοὶ τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τοῦ τε ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ. The other reading κεκροτημένως would mean ‘with tumult of applause’; or perhaps ‘in a welded, well-wrought way.’

5. For the relation of Verse to Prose see Introduction, pp. 33-9.

8. Other references to poetical prose occur in 208 5, 250 10, 16 supra.

13. μὴ συναπαρτίζοντα τοῖς στίχοις, ‘not allowing the sense of the clauses to be self-contained in separate lines,’ lit. ‘not completing the clauses together with the lines.’ Dionysius means that verse-writers must (for the sake of variety) practise enjambement, i.e. the completion of the sense in another line. It is the neglect of this principle that makes the language of French classical tragedy [with exceptions, of course; e.g. Racine Athalie i. 1 “Celui qui met un frein,” etc.] so monotonous when compared with that of the Greek or Shakespearian tragedy. Besides the examples adduced by Dionysius, compare that quoted from Callimachus in the note on 272 4 infra and, in English, Tennyson’s Dora and Wordsworth’s Michael. Such English poems without rhyme might be written out as continuous prose, and their true character would pass unsuspected by many readers, pauses at the ends of lines being often studiously avoided; e.g. the opening of Tennyson’s Dora: “With farmer Allen at the farm abode William and Dora. William was his son, and she his niece. He often look’d at them, and often thought, ‘I’ll make them man and wife.’ Now Dora felt her uncle’s will in all, and yearn’d toward William; but the youth, because he had been always with her in the house, thought not of Dora.” Similarly Homer’s “ἀλλά μ’ ἀνήρπαξαν Τάφιοι ληίστορες ἄνδρες ἀγρόθεν ἐρχομένην, περάσαν δέ με δεῦρ’ ἀγαγόντες τοῦδ’ ἀνδρὸς πρὸς δώμαθ’· ὁ δ’ ἄξιον ὦνον ἔδωκε” (Odyss. xv. 427-9) might almost be an extract from a speech of Lysias. Some remarkable examples of enjambement (or ‘overflow’) might also be quoted from Swinburne’s recent poem, The Duke of Gandia.

17. Cp. Cic. de Orat. i. 16. 70 “est enim finitimus oratori poëta, numeris astrictor paulo, verborum autem licentia liberior, multis vero ornandi generibus socius, ac paene par.”

συντιθέντες ὅταν διαλύσωσι τοὺς στίχους τοῖς κώλοις
διαλαμβάνοντες ἄλλοτε ἄλλως, διαχέουσι καὶ ἀφανίζουσι τὴν
ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὅταν τὰς περιόδους μεγέθει τε καὶ
σχήματι ποικίλας ποιῶσιν, εἰς λήθην ἐμβάλλουσιν ἡμᾶς τοῦ
μέτρου· οἱ δὲ μελοποιοὶ πολυμέτρους τὰς στροφὰς ἐργαζόμενοι      5
καὶ τῶν κώλων ἑκάστοτε πάλιν ἀνίσων τε ὄντων καὶ ἀνομοίων
ἀλλήλοις ἀνομοίους τε καὶ ἀνίσους ποιούμενοι τὰς διαιρέσεις,
δι’ ἄμφω δὲ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐῶντες, ἡμᾶς ὁμοειδοῦς ἀντίληψιν
λαβεῖν ῥυθμοῦ πολλὴν τὴν πρὸς τοὺς λόγους ὁμοιότητα κατασκευάζουσιν
ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν, ἔνεστί τε καὶ τροπικῶν καὶ      10
ξένων καὶ γλωττηματικῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ποιητικῶν ὀνομάτων
μενόντων ἐν τοῖς ποιήμασιν μηδὲν ἧττον αὐτὰ φαίνεσθαι
λόγῳ παραπλήσια.

μηδεὶς δὲ ὑπολαμβανέτω με ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι κακία ποιήματος
ἡ καλουμένη λογοείδεια δοκεῖ τις εἶναι, μηδὲ καταγινωσκέτω      15
μου ταύτην τὴν ἀμαθίαν, ὡς ἄρα ἐγὼ κακίαν τινὰ ἐν ἀρεταῖς
τάττω ποιημάτων ἢ λόγων· ὡς δὲ ἀξιῶ διαιρεῖν κἀν τούτοις
τὰ σπουδαῖα ἀπὸ τῶν μηδενὸς ἀξίων, ἀκούσας μαθέτω. ἐγὼ
τοὺς λόγους τὸν μὲν ἰδιώτην ἐπιστάμενος ὄντα, τὸν ἀδολέσχην
τοῦτον λέγω καὶ φλύαρον, τὸν δὲ πολιτικόν, ἐν ᾧ τὸ πολὺ      20
κατεσκευασμένον ἐστὶ καὶ ἔντεχνον, ὅ τι μὲν ἂν τῶν ποιημάτων
ὅμοιον εὑρίσκω τῷ φλυάρῳ καὶ ἀδολέσχῃ, γέλωτος ἄξιον
τίθεμαι, ὅ τι δ’ ἂν τῷ κατεσκευασμένῳ καὶ ἐντέχνῳ, ζήλου
καὶ σπουδῆς ἐπιτήδειον τυχάνειν οἴομαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν
διαφόρου προσηγορίας τῶν λόγων ἑκάτερος ἐτύγχανεν, ἀκόλουθον      25
ἦν ἂν καὶ τῶν ποιημάτων ἃ τούτοις ἔοικεν διαφόροις
ὀνόμασι καλεῖν ἑκάτερον· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὅ τε σπουδαῖος καὶ ὁ
τοῦ μηδενὸς ἄξιος ὁμοίως καλεῖται λόγος, οὐκ ἂν ἁμαρτάνοι
τις τὰ μὲν ἐοικότα τῷ καλῷ λόγῳ ποιήματα καλὰ ἡγούμενος,

[273]

the lines by distributing them into clauses now one way now another, they dissolve and efface the regularity of the metre; and when they diversify the periods in size and form, they make us forget the metre. On the other hand, the lyric poets compose their strophes in many metres; and again, from the fact that the clauses vary from time to time in length and form, they make the divisions unlike in form and size. From both these causes they hinder our apprehension of any uniform rhythm, and so they produce, as by design, in lyric poems a great likeness to prose. It is quite possible, moreover, for the poems to retain many figurative, unfamiliar, exceptional, and otherwise poetical words, and none the less to show a close resemblance to prose.

And let no one think me ignorant of the fact that the so-called “pedestrian character” is commonly regarded as a vice in poetry, or impute to me, of all persons, the folly of ranking any bad quality among the virtues of poetry or prose. Let my critic rather pay attention and learn how here once more I claim to distinguish what merits serious consideration from what is worthless. I observe that, among prose styles, there is on the one side the uncultivated style, by which I mean the prevailing frivolous gabble, and on the other side the language of public life which is, in the main, studied and artistic; and so, whenever I find any poetry which resembles the frivolous gabble I have referred to, I regard it as beneath criticism. I think that alone to be fit for serious imitation which resembles the studied and artistic kind. Now, if each sort of prose had a different appellation, it would have been only consistent to call the corresponding sorts of poetry also by different names. But since both the good and the worthless are called “prose,” it may not be wrong to regard as noble and bad “poetry” that which

1 διαλύσωσι P: διαλείπωσι M: διαλίπωσι V   3 μεγέθη P   5 τὰσ τροφὰς P   6 ἑκάστοτε Us.: ἑκάστου libri || τε ὄντων M: ὄντων PV   8 ἄμφω δὲ M: ἄμφω PV   11 τῶν ἄλλων Us.: τῶν ἄλλων τῶν libri   15 καλουμένη om. M || τις] τησ P || καταγινωσκέτω MV: καταγιγνωσκέτω P (sed cf. 278 7 et alibi)   17 κ’ ἂν P   19 τοὺς λόγους Schaeferus: τοῦ λόγου libri || ἁδολέσχην P   20 τὸ πολὺ PM: πολὺ τὸ V   21 ποιημάτων PM: ποιητῶν V   22 ἁδολέσχηι P || ἄξιον P: ἄξιον αὐτὸ MV   28 ὁμοίως compendio P: om. MV

4. εἰς λήθην ἐμβάλλουσιν: the following Epigram of Callimachus will illustrate Dionysius’ meaning:—
ἠῷοι Μελάνιππον ἐθάπτομεν, ἠελίου δέ
δυομένου Βασιλὼ κάτθανε παρθενική
αὐτοχερί· ζώειν γὰρ ἀδελφεὸν ἐν πυρὶ θεῖσα
οὐκ ἔτλη. δίδυμον δ’ οἶκος ἐσεῖδε κακόν
πατρὸς Ἀριστίπποιο, κατήφησεν δὲ Κυρήνη
πᾶσα τὸν εὔτεκνον χῆρον ἰδοῦσα δόμον.

(The text is that of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Callimachi Hymni et Epigrammata p. 59. Upton, who quotes the epigram, adds: “En tibi ea omnia, quae tradit Dionysius, accurate praestita: sententiae inaequales, disparia membra: ipsi adeo versus dissecti, nec sensu, nec verborum structura, nisi in sequentem usque progrediatur, absoluta. quibus factum est, ut prosaicae orationi, salva tamen dignitate, quam proxime accedatur.” Compare also the first eight lines of Mimnermus Eleg. ii.)

6. ἑκάστοτε: Upton here conjectures ἑκάστης, Schaefer ἑκάστων.

15. τις to be connected with κακία. In the next line κακίαν τινά come close together.

19. μαθέτω: supply πᾶς τις, or the like, from μηδείς in l. 14. Cp. Hor. Serm. i. 1. 1 “qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem | seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa | contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?”

τὰ δὲ τῷ μοχθηρῷ πονηρά, οὐδὲν ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ λόγου ὁμοειδείας
ταραττόμενος. κωλύσει γὰρ οὐδὲν ἡ τῆς ὀνομασίας ὁμοιότης
κατὰ διαφόρων ταττομένης πραγμάτων τὴν ἑκατέρου φύσιν
ὁρᾶν.

εἰρηκὼς δὴ καὶ περὶ τούτων, παραδείγματά σοι τῶν      5
εἰρημένων ὀλίγα θεὶς αὐτοῦ κατακλείσω τὸν λόγον. ἐκ μὲν
οὖν τῆς ἐπικῆς ποιήσεως ταῦτα ἀπόχρη·

αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ἐκ λιμένος προσέβη τρηχεῖαν ἀταρπόν·

ἓν μὲν δὴ τοῦτο κῶλον. ἕτερον δὲ

χῶρον ἀν’ ὑλήεντα      10

ἔλαττόν τε τοῦ προτέρου καὶ δίχα τέμνον τὸν στίχον. τρίτον
δὲ τουτί

δι’ ἄκριας

ἔλαττον κώλου κομμάτιον. τέταρτον δὲ

ᾗ οἱ Ἀθήνη      15
πέφραδε δῖον ὑφορβόν

ἐξ ἡμιστιχίων δύο συγκείμενον καὶ τοῖς προτέροις οὐδὲν
ἐοικός. ἔπειτα τὸ τελευταῖον

ὅ οἱ βιότοιο μάλιστα
κήδετο οἰκήων οὓς κτήσατο δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς      20

ἀτελῆ μὲν τὸν τρίτον ποιοῦν στίχον, τοῦ δὲ τετάρτου τῇ
προσθήκῃ τὴν ἀκρίβειαν ἀφῃρημένον. ἔπειτ’ αὖθις

τὸν δ’ ἄρ’ ἐνὶ προδόμῳ εὗρ’ ἥμενον

οὐ συνεκτρέχον οὐδὲ τοῦτο τῷ στίχῳ.

ἔνθα οἱ αὐλὴ      25
ὑψηλὴ δέδμητο

[275]

resembles noble and contemptible prose respectively, and not to be in any way disturbed by mere identity of terms. The application of similar names to different things will not prevent us from discerning the true nature of the things in either case.

As I have gone so far as to deal with this subject, I will end by subjoining a few examples of the features in question. From epic poetry it will be enough to quote the following lines:—

But he from the haven went where the rugged pathway led.[194]

Here we have one clause. Observe the next—

Up the wooded land.

It is shorter than the other, and cuts the line in two. The third is—
through the hills:

a segment still shorter than a clause. The fourth—
unto where Athene had said
That he should light on the goodly swineherd—

consists of two half-lines and is in no way like the former. Then the conclusion—
the man who best
Gave heed to the goods of his lord, of the thralls that Odysseus
possessed,

which leaves the third line unfinished, while by the addition of the fourth it loses all undue uniformity. Then again—

By the house-front sitting he found him,

where once more the words do not run out the full course of the line.

there where the courtyard wall
Was builded tall.

1 οὐδὲν ... ταραττόμενος MV: om. P   3 ταττομένης Sauppius: ταττομένη libri   5 εἰρηκὼς ... θεὶς Us.: καὶ περὶ τούτων [μὲν add. MV] ἅλις. ὧν δὲ προυθέμην τὰ παραδείγματα θεὶς PMV   8 ὅ γ’] ὁ Hom.   11 τέμνον EV: τέμνοντος PM   14 τέταρτον δὲ E: om. PMV   15 ᾗ Hom.: ἧ V: οἷ [fort. οἷ] PM, E   22 ἔπειτ’ ... ἥμενον om. P   25 ἔνθά οἱ PM

3. κατὰ ... ταττομένης: cp. Ven. A Schol. on Il. xv. 347 ὅτι Ζηνόδοτος γράφει ἐπισσεύεσθον. συγχεῖται δὲ τὸ δυϊκὸν κατὰ πλειόνων τασσόμενον.

6. αὐτοῦ, ‘here,’ ‘on the spot.’ Cp. Diod. Sic. ii. 60 ἡμεῖς δὲ τὴν ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς βίβλου γεγενημένην ἐπαγγελίαν τετελεκότες αὐτοῦ περιγράψομεν τήνδε τὴν βίβλον.—With κατακλείσω cp. Antiq. Rom. vii. 14 τελευτῶν δ’ ὁ Βροῦτος, εἰς ἀπειλήν τινα τοιάνδε κατέκλεισε τὸν λόγον, ὡς κτλ.

7. In Latin, Bircovius well compares Virg. Aen. i. 180-91.

8. Dionysius’ point will be better appreciated if the passage of the Odyssey (xiv. 1-7) be given not bit by bit but as a whole:—
αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ἐκ λιμένος προσέβη τρηχεῖαν ἀταρπὸν
χῶρον ἀν’ ὑλήεντα δι’ ἄκριας, ᾗ οἱ Ἀθήνη
πέφραδε δῖον ὑφορβόν, ὅ οἱ βιότοιο μάλιστα
κήδετο οἰκήων, οὓς κτήσατο δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς.
τὸν δ’ ἄρ’ ἐνὶ προδόμῳ εὗρ’ ἥμενον, ἔνθα οἱ αὐλὴ
ὑψηλὴ δέδμητο, περισκέπτῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ,
καλή τε μεγάλῃ τε, περίδρομος.

15. Compare (in Latin) the opening of Terence’s Phormio, if written continuously: “Amicus summus meus et popularis Geta heri ad me venit. erat ei de ratiuncula iam pridem apud me relicuom pauxillulum nummorum: id ut conficerem. confeci: adfero. nam erilem filium eius duxisse audio uxorem: ei credo munus hoc corraditur. quam inique comparatumst. ei qui minus habent ut semper aliquid addant ditioribus!”

ἄνισον καὶ τοῦτο τῷ πρότερῳ. κἄπειτα ὁ ἑξῆς νοῦς ἀπερίοδος
ἐν κώλοις τε καὶ κόμμασι λεγόμενος· ἐπιθεὶς γὰρ

περισκέπτῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ,

πάλιν ἐποίσει

καλή τε μεγάλη τε      5

βραχύτερον κώλου κομμάτιον, εἶτα

περίδρομος

ὄνομα καθ’ ἑαυτὸ νοῦν τινα ἔχον. εἶθ’ ἑξῆς τὰ ἄλλα τὸν
αὐτὸν κατασκευάσει τρόπον· τί γὰρ δεῖ μηκύνειν;

ἐκ δὲ τῆς ποιήσεως τῆς ἰαμβικῆς τὰ παρ’ Εὐριπίδου      10
ταυτί

Ὦ γαῖα πατρὶς ἣν Πέλοψ ὁρίζεται,
χαῖρ’,

τὸ πρῶτον ἄχρι τούτου κῶλον.

ὅς τε πέτραν Ἀρκάδων δυσχείμερον      15
‹Πὰν› ἐμβατεύεις

τὸ δεύτερον μέχρι τοῦδε.

ἔνθεν εὔχομαι γένος.

τοῦτο τρίτον. τὰ μὲν πρότερα μείζονα στίχου, τοῦτο δὲ
ἔλαττον.      20

Αὔγη γὰρ Ἀλέου παῖς με τῷ Τιρυνθίῳ
τίκτει λαθραίως Ἡρακλεῖ·

μετὰ τοῦτο

ξύνοιδ’ ὄρος
Παρθένιον,      25

οὐθέτερον αὐτῶν στίχῳ συμμετρούμενον. εἶτ’ αὖθις ἕτερον
στίχου τε ἔλαττον καὶ στίχου μεῖζον

[277]

This, too, does not balance the former. Further, the order of ideas in the continuation of the passage is unperiodic, though the words are cast into the form of clauses and sections. For, after adding

In a place with a clear view round about,

we shall find him subjoining:

Massy and fair to behold,

which is a segment shorter than a clause. Next we find

Free on every side,

where the one Greek word (περίδρομος) by itself carries a certain meaning. And so on: we shall find him elaborating everything that follows in the same way. Why go into unnecessary detail?

From iambic poetry may be taken these lines of Euripides:—

Fatherland, ta’en by Pelops in possession,
Hail![195]

Thus far the first clause extends.

And thou, Pan, who haunt’st the stormy steeps
Of Arcady.[195]

So far the second extends.

Whereof I boast my birth.[195]

That is the third. The former are longer than a line; the last is shorter.

Me Auge, Aleus’ daughter, not of wedlock
Bare to Tirynthian Heracles.[195]

And afterwards—

This knows
Yon hill Parthenian.[195]

Not one of these corresponds exactly to a line. Then once more we find another clause which is from one point of view less than a line and from the other longer—

1 καὶ V: κατὰ PM   4 ἐποίει P   5 καλήν τε μεγάλην τε PM   9 μηκύνειν P: μηκύνειν τὸν λόγον MV   10 παρ’ εὐριπδι sic P: εὐριπίδου MV   15 ὅς τε s: ὥστε PMV || δυσχείμερον ἀρκάδων PMV: transposuit Sylburgius   16 Πὰν inseruit Musgravius   19 μείζονα om. P || στίχου MV: στχι P: στίχον s   21 αὐγὴ M: αὐτὴ PV   24 ξύνοιδ’ s: ξύνοιδε P: ξυνοὶδὲ MV   26 οὔθ’ ἕτερον PM: οὐδέτερον V

12. ὁρίζεται: sibi vindicat, ‘annexes.’—The fragment of Euripides, taken as a whole, runs thus in Nauck’s collection:—
ὦ γαῖα πατρίς, ἣν Πέλοψ ὁρίζεται,
χαῖρ’, ὅς τε πέτρον Ἀρκάδων δυσχείμερον
‹Πὰν› ἐμβατεύεις, ἔνθεν εὔχομαι γένος.
Αὔγη γὰρ Ἀλέου παῖς με τῷ Τιρυνθίῳ
τίκτει λαθραίως Ἡρακλεῖ· ξύνοιδ’ ὄρος
Παρθένιον, ἔνθα μητέρ’ ὠδίνων ἐμὴν
ἔλυσεν Εἰλείθυια.

25. Παρθένιον: cp. Callim. Hymn. in Delum 70 φεῦγε μὲν Ἀρκαδίη, φεῦγεν δ’ ὄρος ἱερὸν Αὔγης | Παρθένιον, together with the scholium ὄρος Ἀρκαδίας τὸ Παρθένιον, ἔνθα τὴν Αὔγην τὴν Ἀλεοῦ θυγατέρα, ἱέρειαν τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, ἔφθειρεν Ἡρακλῆς.

ἔνθα μητέρ’ ὠδίνων ἐμὴν
ἔλυσεν Εἰλείθυια

καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς τούτοις παραπλήσια.

ἐκ δὲ τῆς μελικῆς τὰ Σιμωνίδεια ταῦτα· γέγραπται δὲ
κατὰ διαστολὰς οὐχ ὧν Ἀριστοφάνης ἢ ἄλλος τις κατεσκεύασε      5
κώλων ἀλλ’ ὧν ὁ πεζὸς λόγος ἀπαιτεῖ. πρόσεχε δὴ τῷ μέλει
καὶ ἀναγίνωσκε κατὰ διαστολάς, καὶ εὖ ἴσθ’ ὅτι λήσεταί σε ὁ
ῥυθμὸς τῆς ᾠδῆς καὶ οὐχ ἕξεις συμβαλεῖν οὔτε στροφὴν οὔτε
ἀντίστροφον οὔτ’ ἐπῳδόν, ἀλλὰ φανήσεταί σοι λόγος εἷς
εἰρόμενος. ἔστι δὲ ἡ διὰ πελάγους φερομένη Δανάη τὰς      10
ἑαυτῆς ἀποδυρομένη τύχας·

ὅτε λάρνακι ἐν δαιδαλέᾳ
ἄνεμός τε μιν πνέων ‹ἐφόρει›
κινηθεῖσά τε λίμνα,
δείματι ἤριπεν οὐκ ἀδιάντοισι παρειαῖς      15
ἀμφί τε Περσέϊ βάλλε φίλαν χέρα

[279]

where the Travail-queen
From birth-pangs set my mother free.[196]

And similarly with the lines which follow these.

From lyric poetry the subjoined lines of Simonides may be taken. They are written according to divisions: not into those clauses for which Aristophanes or some other metrist laid down his canons, but into those which are required by prose. Please read the piece carefully by divisions: you may rest assured that the rhythmical arrangement of the ode will escape you, and you will be unable to guess which is the strophe or which the antistrophe or which the epode, but you will think it all one continuous piece of prose. The subject is Danaë, borne across the sea lamenting her fate:—

And when, in the carved ark lying,
She felt it through darkness drifting
Before the drear wind’s sighing
And the great sea-ridges lifting,
She shuddered with terror, she brake into weeping,
And she folded her arms round Perseus sleeping;

5 ἄλλός τις P || κατεστεύασε P   6 ἀπετεῖ P || δὴ PM: δὲ V   7 κατὰ P: ταῦτα κατὰ MV   9 ἀντίστροφον PM: ἀντιστροφὴν V || λόγος εἰσειρόμενος P: λόγος οὑτωσὶ διειρόμενος MV   10 Δανάη] δ’ ἀν ἡ P   13 τέ μιν Schneidewinus: τε μὴν PM: τ’ ἐμῇ V || ἐφόρει ante μιν Bergkius inseruit, post πνέων Usenerus   14 τε Brunckius: δὲ PMV   15 ἤριπεν Brunckius: ἔριπεν P: ἔρειπεν MV || οὐκ Thierschius: οὐτ’ P: οὔτ’ MV

4. Bircovius points out that Hor. Carm. iii. 27. 33 ff. might be printed as continuous prose, thus: “quae simul centum tetigit potentem oppidis Creten: ‘Pater, o relictae filiae nomen, pietasque’ dixit ‘victa furore! unde quo veni? levis una mors est virginum culpae. vigilansne ploro turpe commissum, an vitiis carentem ludit imago vana, quae porta fugiens eburna somnium ducit?’” etc. The short rhymeless lines of Matthew Arnold’s Rugby Chapel might be run together in the same way, e.g. “There thou dost lie, in the gloom of the autumn evening. But ah! that word, gloom, to my mind brings thee back, in the light of thy radiant vigour, again; in the gloom of November we pass’d days not dark at thy side; seasons impair’d not the ray of thy buoyant cheerfulness clear. Such thou wast! and I stand in the autumn evening, and think of by-gone evenings with thee.” The word-arrangement from line to line is such that this passage might almost be read as prose, except for a certain rhythm and for an occasional departure from the word-order of ordinary prose.

5. Aristophanes: cp. note on 218 19 supra.

8. Compare, for example, the last two stanzas, printed continuously, of Tennyson’s In Memoriam cxv.: “Where now the seamew pipes, or dives in yonder greening gleam, and fly the happy birds, that change their sky to build and brood, that live their lives from land to land; and in my breast spring wakens too; and my regret becomes an April violet, and buds and blossoms like the rest.”

11. ἀποδυρομένη: probably the Danaë was a θρῆνος, and in any case it illustrates, to the full, the “maestius lacrimis Simonideis” of Catullus (Carm. xxxviii. 8), or Wordsworth’s “one precious, tender-hearted scroll | Of pure Simonides.” Cp. also de Imitat. ii. 6. 2 καθ’ ὃ βελτίων εὑρίσκεται καὶ Πινδάρου, τὸ οἰκτίζεσθαι μὴ μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἀλλὰ παθητικῶς: and Quintil. x. 1. 64 “Simonides, tenuis alioqui, sermone proprio et iucunditate quadam commendari potest; praecipua tamen eius in commovenda miseratione virtus, ut quidam in hac eum parte omnibus eius operis auctoribus praeferant.”

12. Verse-translations of the Danaë will be found also in J. A. Symonds’ Studies of the Greek Poets i. 160, and in Walter Headlam’s Book of Greek Verse pp. 49-51. Headlam observes that the Danaë is a passage extracted from a longer poem, and that the best commentary on it is Lucian’s Dialogues of the Sea 12. Weir Smyth (Greek Lyric Poetry p. 321) remarks: “It must be confessed that, if we have all that Dionysius transcribed, he has proved his point [viz. that by an arrangement into διαστολαί the poetical rhythm can be so obscured that the reader will be unable to recognize strophe, antistrophe, or epode] so successfully that no one has been able to demonstrate the existence of all three parts of the triad. Wilamowitz (Isyllos 144) claims to have restored strophe (ἄνεμος ... δούρατι), epode (χαλκεογόμφῳ ... δεινὸν ἦν), and antistrophe (καὶ ἐμῶν ...); ὅτε ... δαιδαλέᾳ belonging to another triad. To accept this adjustment one must have faith in the extremely elastic ionics of the German scholar. Nietzsche, R. M. 23. 481, thought that 1-3 formed the end of the strophe, 4-12 the antistrophe (1-3 = 10-12). In v. 1 he omitted ἐν and read τ’ ἐμάνη πνείων with ἀλεγίζεις in 10, but even then the dactyls vary with spondees over frequently. By a series of reckless conjectures Hartung extricated strophe and antistrophe out of the lines, while Blass’ (Philol. 32. 140) similar conclusion is reached by conjectures only less hazardous than those of Hartung. Schneidewin and Bergk, adopting the easier course, which refuses all credence to Dionysius, found only antistrophe and epode; and so, doubtfully, Michelangeli; while Ahrens (Jahresber. des Lyceums zu Hannover, 1853), in despair, classed the fragment among the ἀπολελυμένα. Since verses 2-3 may = 11-12, I have followed Nietzsche, though with much hesitation. The last seven verses suit the character of a concluding epode.”

15. ἤριπεν = ἐξεπλάγη (same sense as Usener’s conjecture φρίττεν).

εἶπέν τ’· ὦ τέκος,
οἷον ἔχω πόνον, σὺ δ’ ἀωτεῖς·
γαλαθηνῷ δ’ ἤθεϊ κνοώσσεις
ἐν ἀτερπέι δούρατι χαλκεογόμφῳ δίχα νυκτὸς ἀλαμπεῖ
κυανέῳ τε δνόφῳ σταλείς.      5
ἅλμαν δ’ ὕπερθεν τεᾶν κομᾶν βαθεῖαν
παριόντος κύματος οὐκ ἀλέγεις
οὐδ’ ἀνέμου φθόγγον, πορφυρέᾳ
κείμενος ἐν χλανίδι πρὸς κόλπῳ καλὸν πρόσωπον.
εἰ δέ τοι δεινὸν τό γε δεινὸν ἦν,      10
καί κεν ἐμῶν ῥημάτων λεπτὸν ὑπεῖχες οὖας·
κέλομαι, εὗδε βρέφος,
εὑδέτω δὲ πόντος, εὑδέτω ἄμετρον κακόν.
μεταβουλία δέ τις φανείη,
Ζεῦ πάτερ, ἐκ σέο·      15
ὅ τι δὴ θαρσαλέον ἔπος εὔχομαι
νόσφι δίκας, σύγγνωθί μοι.

τοιαῦτά ἐστι τὰ ὅμοια τοῖς καλοῖς λόγοις μέτρα καὶ μέλη,
διὰ ταύτας γινόμενα τὰς αἰτίας ἃς προεῖπόν σοι.

τοῦθ’ ἕξεις δῶρον ἡμέτερον, ὦ Ῥοῦφε, “πολλῶν ἀντάξιον      20
ἄλλων,” εἰ βουληθείης ἐν ταῖς χερσί τε αὐτὸ συνεχῶς ὥσπερ

[281]

And “Oh my baby,” she moaned, “for my lot
Of anguish!—but thou, thou carest not:
Adown sleep’s flood is thy child-soul sweeping,
Though beams brass-welded on every side
Make a darkness, even had the day not died
When they launched thee forth at gloaming-tide.
And the surf-crests fly o’er thy sunny hair
As the waves roll past—thou dost not care:
Neither carest thou for the wind’s shrill cry,
As lapped in my crimson cloak thou dost lie
On my breast, little face so fair—so fair!
Ah, were these sights, these sounds of fear
Fearsome to thee, that dainty ear
Would hearken my words—nay, nay, my dear,
Hear them not thou! Sleep, little one, sleep;
And slumber thou, O unrestful deep!
Sleep, measureless wrongs; let the past suffice:
And oh, may a new day’s dawn arise
On thy counsels, Zeus! O change them now!
But if aught be presumptuous in this my prayer,
If aught, O Father, of sin be there,
Forgive it thou.”[197]

Such are the verses and lyrics which resemble beautiful prose; and they owe this resemblance to the causes which I have already set forth to you.

Here, then, Rufus, is my gift to you, which you will find “outweigh a multitude of others,”[198] if only you will keep it in

1 τέκος Athen. ix. 396 E: τέκνον PMV   2 σὺ δ’ ἀωτεῖς Casaubonus: οὐδ’ αυταις P: σὺ δ’ αὖτε εἷς Athen. (l.c.)   3 ἐγαλαθηνωδει θει P, V: γαλαθηνῷ δ’ ἤτορι Athen.: corr. Bergkius || κνοώσσεισ P, V: κνώσσεις Athen.   4 δούρατι Guelf.: δούνατι PM: δούναντι V || δίχα νυκτὸς ἀλαμπεῖ Us.: δενυκτι λαμπεῖ P, MV   5 σταλείς Bergkius: ταδ’ εἰσ P, MV   6 ἅλμαν δ’ Bergkius: αὐλεαν δ’ P, V: αὐλαίαν δ’ M   9 πρὸς κόλπῳ κ. πρ. Us.: πρόσωπον καλον πρόσωπον P: πρόσωπον καλὸν MV   10 ἦν Sylburgius: ἦι P: ἦ M: ἢ V   11 καί M: κἀί V: κε cum litura P || λεπτὸν s: λεπτῶν PMV   14 μαιτ(α)βουλία (i.e. μεταβουλία: cp. 90 4 supra) P: μαιτ(α)βουλίου M: ματαιοβουλία V   17 νόσφι δίκας Victorius: ηνοφι δικασ P: ἣν ὀφειδίασ MV   19 προεῖπά PMV (cf. εἴπειεν P, Aristot. Rhet. 1408 a 32)   21 αὐτὸ Sylburgius: αὐτὰ PMV

4. δίχα νυκτός: cp. δίχα μελέτης τε καὶ γυμνασίας (282 4), which may be an unconscious echo of this passage. “To me the expression seems to indicate that Simonides took a view of the story different from the ordinary one, and imagined that the chest was not open or boat-like but closed over,—a ‘Noah’s ark.’ This would not have suited the vase-painters, but there is nothing inconsistent with it in the poem. Danaë does not speak of seeing the waves, nor of the wind ruffling the child’s hair, but only of ἀνέμου φθόγγον—she heard it. Hence I think the words imply—‘which, even apart from its being night, would be gloomy, and thou wert so launched forth in the darksome gloaming.’ She makes no reference to seeing the stars” (A. S. Way).

5. Schneidewin reads ταθείς.

7. ἀλέγεις: rarely constructed with the accusative case.

11. ἐμῶν ῥημάτων: constructio ad sensum with ὑπεῖχες οὖας (= ὑπήκουες).

12. εὗδε βρέφος: the βαυκάλημα (‘cradle-song, lullaby’) was familiar to the Greeks, and the mother does not forget it amid the perils of the sea. Cp. Theocr. xxiv. 7-9—
εὕδετ’ ἐμὰ βρέφεα γλυκερὸν καὶ ἐγέρσιμον ὕπνον·
εὕδετ’ ἐμὰ ψυχά, δύ’ ἀδελφεώ, εὔσοα τέκνα·
ὄλβιοι εὐνάζοισθε καὶ ὄλβιοι ἀῶ ἵκοισθε.

20. From Hom. Il. xi. 514, 515—
ἰητρὸς γὰρ ἀνὴρ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος ἄλλων
ἰούς τ’ ἐκτάμνειν ἐπί τ’ ἤπια φάρμακα πάσσειν.

‘For more than a multitude availeth the leech for our need,
When the shaft sticketh deep in the flesh, when the healing salve must be spread.’

τι καὶ ἄλλο τῶν πάνυ χρησίμων ἔχειν καὶ συνασκεῖν αὑτὸν
ταῖς καθ’ ἡμέραν γυμνασίαις. οὐ γὰρ αὐτάρκη τὰ παραγγέλματα
τῶν τεχνῶν ἐστι δεινοὺς ἀγωνιστὰς ποιῆσαι τοὺς βουλομένους
γε δίχα μελέτης τε καὶ γυμνασίας· ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τοῖς
πονεῖν καὶ κακοπαθεῖν βουλομένοις κεῖται σπουδαῖα εἶναι τὰ      5
παραγγέλματα καὶ λόγου ἄξια ἢ φαῦλα καὶ ἄχρηστα.

[283]

your hands constantly like any other really useful thing, and exercise yourself in its lessons daily. No rules contained in rhetorical manuals can suffice to make experts of those who are determined to dispense with study and practice. They who are ready to undergo toil and hardship can alone decide whether such rules are trivial and useless, or worthy of serious consideration.

1 αὑτὸν ταῖς Us.: αὐτὸν ταῖσ P: αὐτὸ ταῖς M: αὐταῖς V   3 ἀγωνιστὰς Sylburgius: δεινοῦσ αν ταγωνιστασ sic P: ἀνταγωνιστὰς etiam MV   4 γε Us.: τε P: om. MV   5 βουλομένοις PM: om. V || σπουδαῖαν εἶναι (sic) P: ἢ σπουδαῖα εἶναι MV   6 Διονυσίου αλικαρνα(σεως) πε(ρὶ) συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων: ~ litteris maiusculis subscripsit P

2. The training meant would consist chiefly in that general reading of Greek authors which is indicated in this treatise or in the de Imitatione, and in Quintilian’s Tenth Book: it would carry out the precept “vos exemplaria Graeca | nocturna versate manu, versate diurna.” Afterwards would follow the technical and systematic study of style or eloquence, regarded as a preparation for public life.

3. ἀγωνιστάς: cp. note on 268 29 supra and Plato Phaedr. 269 D τὸ μὲν δύνασθαι, ὦ Φαῖδρε, ὥστε ἀγωνιστὴν τέλεον γενέσθαι, εἰκός—ἴσως δὲ καὶ ἀναγκαῖον—ἔχειν ὥσπερ τἆλλα· εἰ μέν σοι ὑπάρχει φύσει ῥητορικῷ εἶναι, ἔσῃ ῥήτωρ ἐλλόγιμος, προσλαβὼν ἐπιστήμην τε καὶ μελέτην, ὅτου δ’ ἂν ἐλλείπῃς τούτων, ταύτῃ ἀτελὴς ἔσῃ.

4. The best Greeks and Romans at all times believed in work, and in genius as including the capacity for taking pains. Compare (in addition to the passage of the Phaedrus) Soph. El. 945 ὅρα· πόνου τοι χωρὶς οὐδὲν εὐτυχεῖ: Eurip. Fragm. 432 τῷ γὰρ πονοῦντι χὠ θεὸς συλλαμβάνει: Aristoph. Ran. 1370 ἐπίπονοί γ’ οἱ δεξιοί: Cic. de Offic. i. 18. 60 “nec medici, nec imperatores, nec oratores, quamvis artis praecepta perceperint, quidquam magna laude dignum sine usu et exercitatione consequi possunt”: Quintil. Inst. Or. Prooem. § 27 “sicut et haec ipsa (bona ingenii) sine doctore perito, studio pertinaci, scribendi, legendi, dicendi multa et continua exercitatione per se nihil prosunt.” See also note on page 264 supra.

GLOSSARY

(Including Terms of Rhetoric, Grammar, Prosody, Music, Phonetics, and Literary Criticism)

In the Glossary, as in the Notes, the following abbreviations are used:—

Long. = ‘Longinus on the Sublime.’
D.H. = ‘Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters.’
Demetr. = ‘Demetrius on Style.’

ἀγεννής. 90 20, 170 9, etc. Ignoble, mean: in reference to style. Lat. ignobilis, degener.

ἀγοραῖος. 262 20. Vulgar, colloquial, mechanical. Lat. circumforaneus, circulatorius. Cp. Lucian de conscrib. hist. § 44 μήτε ἀπορρήτοις καὶ ἔξω πάτου ὀνόμασι μήτε τοῖς ἀγοραίοις τούτοις καὶ καπηλικοῖς.

ἀγχίστροφος. 212 20. Quick-changing, flexible. Lat. mutabilis. Instances of its rhetorical use are cited in Long. p. 194. The word has more warrant as a term of rhetoric than ἀντίρροπος, which is given by F.

ἀγωγή. 68 1, training. 194 9, sequence, movement. 244 24, cast, or tendency. Cp. some uses of Lat. ductus. Other examples in D.H. p. 184: to which may be added de Isocr. c. 12 and de Thucyd. c. 27; Macran’s Harmonics of Aristoxenus pp. 121, 143; Strabo xiv. 1. 41 παραφθείρας τὴν τῶν προτέρων μελοποιῶν ἀγωγήν, and (later) ἀπεμιμήσατο τὴν ἀγωγὴν τῶν παρὰ τοῖς κιναίδοις διαλέκτων καὶ τῆς ἠθοποιΐας.—In 124 10 the adjective ἀγωγός is used (as in Eurip. Hec. 536, Troad. 1131) with the genitive in the sense provocative of, conducive to: cp. de Demosth. c. 55 ἃ δὴ τῶν τοιούτων ἔσται παθῶν ἀγωγά. [In Troad. 1131 Dindorf, ed. v., gives ἀρωγός without comment, against the MSS.]

ἀγών. 252 2, 262 23. Contest, pleading, trial. Lat. certamen, actio. Cp. Long. p. 194, D.H. p. 184, Demetr. p. 263.

ἀδολέσχης. 272 19, 22. Garrulous. Lat. loquax. Cp. Demetr. p. 263.

ἀηδής. 100 7, 124 19, etc. Unpleasant, disagreeable. Lat. iniucundus, molestus. Similarly ἀηδία, 132 21, 134 14.

ἀθρόος. 222 2. Compressed, concentrated. Lat. consertus, stipatus. In the passage specified it would seem that Dionysius compares the issue of the breath to the exit of people through a narrow door, whereby they are crowded together. The sound of p, which is under discussion, approaches whistling; and that is the maximum of breath-compression.

αἵρεσις. 70 15, 198 3, 8, 246 17. School, following. Lat. secta.

αἴσθησις. 130 17, 134 11, 152 15, 218 1. Sense, perception. Lat. sensus. So αἰσθητός, perceptible, 152 22, 206 6, etc.; and αἰσθητῶς, perceptibly, 126 20, 202 18.

ἀκατάστροφος. 232 1. Without rounding or conclusion. Lat. idonei exitus expers. Used of a period which does not turn back upon itself—which is, in fact, not a περίοδος. Cp. the use of εὐκαταστρόφως in Demetr. de Eloc. § 10.

ἀκατονόμαστος. 208 25. Unnamed, nameless. Lat. appellationis expers.

ἀκέραστος. 230 18. Unmixed, or incapable of mixture. Lat. non permixtus, s. qui permisceri non potest.

ἀκοή. 70 3, 118 23, 146 8, etc. The sense of hearing: ‘the ear.’ Lat. auditus. So ἀκρόασις, 116 19, 198 8, etc.

ἀκόλλητος. 218 13. Uncompacted, or incapable of being compacted. Lat. non compactus, s. qui compingi non potest.

ἀκολουθία. 212 22, 232 20, 254 17. Sequence, the orderly progression of words. Lat. consecutio, ordo, series. ἐν πολλοῖς ὑπεροπτικὴ τῆς ἀκολουθίας, 212 22 = prone to anacolouthon. Cp. Long. p. 102, D.H. p. 184, Demetr. p. 263. Similarly ἀκόλουθος is used of what follows naturally, 130 9, 228 17, etc.

ἀκόμψευτος. 212 23, 232 21. Unadorned. Lat. incomptus. Used of a style which is sans recherche, sans parure. Cp. Cic. Orat. 24. 78 “nam ut mulieres esse dicuntur non nullae inornatae, quas id ipsum deceat, sic haec subtilis oratio etiam incompta delectat.”

ἀκόρυφος. 230 31. Without a capital or beginning. Lat. sine fastigio, sine initio. Used of a period without a proper beginning and therefore imperfectly rounded: whereas true periods are εὐκόρυφοι καὶ στρογγύλαι ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τόρνου (de Demosth. c. 43).

ἀκρίβεια. 118 10, 206 8, 266 11, etc. Exactitude, precision, finish. Lat. perfectio, absolutio, subtilitas. Used of an ars exquisita, a style soigné. So ἀκριβής 196 15, and ἀκριβοῦν 94 14 and 242 9. Cp. D.H. p. 184, and Demetr. p. 264 (where the slightly depreciatory sense of ‘correctness,’ ‘nicety,’ is also illustrated: cp. C.V. 274 22).

ἀκροστόμιον. 142 17. The edge of the mouth or lips. Lat. summum os, labrorum margo. Cp. 148 22 τῆς γλώττης ἄκρῳ τῷ στόματι προσερειδομένης κατὰ τοὺς μετεώρους ὀδόντας.

ἀκώλιστος. 234 23. Without members or clauses. Lat. sine membris. Used of a period not divided, or jointed, into clauses.

ἀλήθεια. 198 26. Human experience. Lat. veritas vitae, usus rerum, vita, usus. The actual facts of life are meant, as opposed to the theories of the schools. Cp. de Isaeo c. 18 ὅτι μοι δοκεῖ Λυσίας μὲν τὴν ἀλήθειαν (‘the truth of nature,’ ‘a natural simplicity’) διώκειν μᾶλλον, Ἰσαῖος δὲ τὴν τέχνην.

ἄλογος. 66 18, 146 14, 152 15, 174 2, 3, 206 13, 244 22. Irrational; unguided by reason; subconscious; incalculable; instinctive; spontaneous. Lat. rationis expers. With the use in 146 14 (where the Epitome has ἀλάλου) may be compared the process by which ἄλογον in Modern Greek has come to mean ‘horse.’ With ἄλογος αἴσθησις in 152 15 and 244 22 cp. the use of “tacitus sensus” in Cic. de Orat. iii. 195 “omnes enim tacito quodam sensu sine ulla arte aut ratione quae sint in artibus ac rationibus recta ac prava diiudicant” and Orat. 60. 203 “aures ipsae tacito eum (modum) sensu sine arte definiunt”: see also de Lysia c. 11, de Demosth. c. 24, de Thucyd. c. 27. For the doctrine of ἀλογία in relation to metre see p. 154 supra and Goodell Greek Metric pp. 109 ff. (with references to Aristoxenus, Westphal, etc., pp. 150 ff.). The notion of incommensurability is, of course, present in the term: cp. Aristox. p. 292 ὥρισται δὲ τῶν ποδῶν ἕκαστος ἤτοι λόγῳ τινὶ ἢ ἀλογίᾳ τοιαύτῃ, ἥτις δύο λόγων γνωρίμων τῇ αἰσθήσει ἀνὰ μέσον ἔσται, which Goodell (p. 110) translates, “each of the feet is determined and defined either by a precise ratio or by an incommensurable ratio such that it will be between two ratios recognizable by the sense.”

ἀμεγέθης. 176 11. Wanting in size or dignity. Lat. exilis. Cp. Long. de Sublim. xl. 2 οὐκ ὄντες ὑψηλοὶ φύσει, μήποτε δὲ καὶ ἀμεγέθεις.

ἄμετρος. 74 4, 176 1, 21, etc. Unmetred, unmetrical. Lat. (oratio) soluta. It is interesting to note the variety of Dionysius’ expressions for ‘prose’ or ‘in prose’—λέξις ἄμετρος, λέξις πεζή, λέξις ψιλή, λόγος ἀποίητος, λόγοι ἄμετροι, λόγοι or λόγος simply (272 9, 13), δίχα μέτρου (252 20), λεκτικῶς (258 3), etc. Cp. Plato Rep. 366 E, 390 A, etc.

ἀμορφία. 184 18, 198 10. Unsightliness. Lat. deformitas. So ἄμορφος 92 16.

ἄμουσος. 74 11, 122 19. Rude, uncultured. Lat. insulsus, illiteratus, infacetus.

ἀμυδρός. 206 22. Faint, obscure. Lat. subobscurus.

ἀμφίβολος. 96 17. Ambiguous. Lat. dubius, ambiguus, qui in duos pluresve sensus verti potest.

ἀμφίβραχυς. 172 6, 184 11. Amphibrachys. The metrical foot ᴗ – ᴗ.

ἀναβολή. 164 5, 220 13. Retardation. Lat. mora, intervallum. So ἀναβάλλειν 180 15, 216 18: cp. de Demosth. c. 54 (ταῦτ’ ἐσπευσμένως εἰπέ, ταῦτ’ ἀναβεβλημένως), and c. 43.

ἀναισθησία. 184 21. Insensibility, stupidity. Lat. stupor. Compare ἀναίσθητος 190 8, and see the editor’s Ancient Boeotians pp. 4-8.

ἀνακοπή. 164 5, 230 28, 232 16. Stoppage, clashing. Lat. impedimentum, offensio. Fr. refoulement. Cp. de Demosth. c. 38, and also the verb ἀνακόπτειν 222 9.

ἀνάπαιστος. 172 10, etc. Anapaest. The metrical foot ᴗ ᴗ –.

ἀνάπαυλα. 196 11. Rest, pause. Lat. mora, intermissio. The ‘reliefs’ afforded by variety of structure, etc., are meant.

ἀναπλέκειν. 264 23. To bind up the hair. Lat. caesariem reticulo colligere.

ἄναρθρος. 212 21. Without joints or articles. Lat. sine articulis.

ἀνδρώδης. 174 17. Manly, virile. Lat. virilis. Cp. de Demosth. cc. 39, 43, and Quintil. v. 12. 18.

ἀνέδραστος. 232 4. Unsteady. Lat. instabilis. Used of a period which has no proper base or termination. The opposite of ἑδραῖος (Demetr. p. 277).

ἀνεπιτήδευτος. 84 3, 212 13, 260 14. Unsought, unstudied. Lat. nullo studio delectus, non exquisitus. So ἀνέκλεκτος 84 3: not picked with care.

ἄνεσις. 210 5. Loosening. Lat. remissio. Cp. Plato Rep. i. 349 E ἐν τῇ ἐπιτάσει καὶ ἀνέσει τῶν χορδῶν πλεονεκτεῖν, and ἀνίεται 126 5.

ἀνθηρός. 212 22 (cp. 208 26, 232 25). Florid. Lat. floridus. Fr. fleuri. Cp. Quintil. xii. 10. 58 “namque unum [dicendi genus] subtile, quod ἰσχνόν vocant, alterum grande atque robustum, quod ἁδρόν dicunt, constituunt; tertium alii medium ex duobus, alii floridum (namque id ἀνθηρόν appellant) addiderunt.” ‘Florid’ (like ‘flowery’) has acquired rather a bad sense, whereas the Greek word suggests ‘flower-like,’ ‘full of colour,’ ‘with delicate touches and associations.’

ἀντίθετος. 246 6. Antithetic (σχηματισμοὶ ... ἀντίθετοι). Cp. Demetr. pp. 266, 267, s.v. ἀντίθεσις.

ἀντιστηριγμός. 164 6. Resistance, stumbling-block. Lat. impedimentum, obstaculum. Cp. de Demosth. c. 38 ἀνακοπὰς καὶ ἀντιστηριγμοὺς λαμβάνειν καὶ τραχύτητας ἐν ταῖς συμπλοκαῖς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπιστυφούσας τὴν ἀκοὴν ἡσυχῇ [ἡ αὐστῆρα ἁρμονία] βούλεται.

ἀντίστροφος. 174 2, 194 6, 9, 11, 278 9. Corresponding, counterpart. Lat. respondens. Frequently used by Dionysius of the second stanza (ἀντιστροφή, 254 18), sung by the Chorus in its counter-movement. Cp. schol. ad Aristoph. Plut. 253 μεταξὺ τῆς τε στροφῆς καὶ τῆς ἀντιστρόφου: and de Demosth. c. 50 κἄπειτα πάλιν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ῥυθμοῖς καὶ μέτροις ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν στίχων ἢ περίοδων, ἃς ἀντιστρόφους ὀνομάζουσι, χρωμένη.

ἀντιτυπία. 202 25, 222 17, 224 15, 230 6, 232 6, 244 25. Repulsion, clashing, dissonance. Lat. conflictio, asperitas. So the adjective ἀντίτυπος in 162 23, 210 20, etc. Hesychius, ἀντιτύποις· σκληροῖς.

ἀντονομασία. 70 19, 102 18. Pronoun. Lat. pronomen. In 108 14 ἀντωνυμία is found; and this (the more usual) form should perhaps be read throughout.

ἀνωμαλία. 232 19. Unevenness. Lat. inaequalitas. Fr. inégalité.

ἀξίωμα. 84 1, 120 23, 170 2, 174 19. Dignity. Lat. dignitas. Fr. dignité. In 96 16 the sense is a proposition (pronuntiatum, Cic. Tusc. i. 7. 14; enuntiatio, Cic. de Fato 10. 20).—The adjective ἀξιωματικός (‘dignified’) occurs in 136 11, 168 6, etc., and the adverb ἀξιωματικῶς in 176 24.—In 88 13, 186 7, ἀξίωσις = reputation, excellence.

ἀπαγγελία. 204 18. Narration. Lat. narratio. Sometimes the word is used, like ἑρμηνεία, of style (elocutio) in general: cp. de Demosth. c. 25, and Chrysostom (in a passage which, as revealing the pupil of Libanius and as illustrating many things in the C.V., may be quoted at some length): ἐγὼ δὲ εἰ μὲν τὴν λειότητα Ἰσοκράτους ἀπῄτουν, καὶ τὸν Δημοσθένους ὄγκον, καὶ τὴν Θουκυδίδου σεμνότητα, καὶ τὸ Πλάτωνος ὕψος, ἔδει φέρειν εἰς μέσον ταύτην τοῦ Παύλου τὴν μαρτυρίαν. νῦν δὲ ἐκεῖνα μὲν πάντα ἀφίημι, καὶ τὸν περίεργον τῶν ἔξωθεν καλλωπισμόν, καὶ οὐδέν μοι φράσεως, οὐδὲ ἀπαγγελίας μέλει· ἀλλ’ ἐξέστω καὶ τῆ λέξει πτωχεύειν, καὶ τὴν συνθήκην τῶν ὀνομάτων ἁπλῆν τινα εἶναι καὶ ἀσφαλῆ, μόνον μὴ τῇ γνώσει τις καὶ τῇ τῶν δογμάτων ἀκριβείᾳ ἰδιώτης ἔστω (de Sacerdotio iv. 6).—The verb ἀπαγγέλλειν occurs in 200 9, 11.

ἀπαρέμφατος. 102 20. Infinitive. Lat. infinitivus (sc. modus). [The infinitive, unlike the indicative and other moods, does not indicate difference of meaning by means of inflexions denoting number and person. Whence the Greek name: cp. παρεμφατικός, p. 315 infra.]

ἀπαριθμεῖν. 268 8. To recount, to run over. Lat. percensere.

ἀπαρτίζειν. 194 16. To round off, to complete. Lat. adaequare, absolvere. Cp. de Demosth. c. 50 καὶ μέτρα τὰ μὲν ἀπηρτισμένα καὶ τέλεια, τὰ δ’ ἀτελῆ: Ev. Luc. xiv. 28 τίς γὰρ ἐξ ὑμῶν, θέλων πύργον οἰκοδομῆσαι, οὐχὶ πρῶτον καθίσας ψηφίζει τὴν δαπάνην, εἰ ἔχει τὰ πρὸς ἀπαρτισμόν (completion); So κατὰ ἀπαρτισμόν, in 246 18, means completely, absolutely, narrowly. In Classical Review xxiii. 82, the present writer has suggested that κατὰ ἀπαρτισμόν are the words missing in Oxyrhynchus Papyri vi. 116, where Grenfell and Hunt give ἐν πλάτει καὶ οὐ κ[.............]ν. θεωρητέα ἐστίν, or the like, may have preceded: cp. 152 26 supra (and note).

ἀπαρχαί. 76 2. Firstfruits. Lat. primitiae. Used here in connexion with the verb προχειρισάμενος, cum delibavero.

ἀπατηλός. 236 10. Seductive. Lat. suavis et oblectans, illecebrosus.

ἀπερίγραφος. 232 4. Not circumscribed. Lat. nullis limitibus circumscriptus.

ἀπερίοδος. 234 23, 276 1. Without a period. Lat. periodo non absolutus.

ἀπευθύνειν. 130 1. To regulate. Lat. tamquam ad regulam dirigere.

ἀπηνής. 228 15. Crabbed, rugged. Lat. durus.

ἁπλοῦς. 144 8, 17, 176 3. Simple, uncompounded. Lat. simplex.

ἀποίητος. 70 4. In plain prose. Lat. prosaicus. Cp. s.v. ἄμετρος.

ἀποκλείειν. 144 23. To shut off, to intercept. Lat. intercludere.

ἀποκόπτειν. 142 8, 230 19. To cut short. Lat. rescindere. So ἐξ ἀποκοπῆς (142 3) = with a snap, abruptly. See the exx. given, s.v. ἀποκοπή, in Demetr. p. 268.

ἀποκυματίζειν. 240 22. To ruffle. Lat. reddere inquietum, fluctibus agitare.

ἀπορριπίζειν. 144 24, 150 1. To blow away. Lat. flatu abigere. In both these passages there is some manuscript support for ἀπορραπίζειν. In 144 24 the sense (with ἀπορραπιζούσης) would be ‘to send out the breath in beats,’ ‘to cause the breath to vibrate.’

ἀποτραχύνειν. 218 9, 230 24. To roughen. Lat. exasperare.

ἀργός. 210 22. Unwrought. Lat. rudis. In 250 8 ἀργία is used for ‘idleness,’ with reference to the Epicurean attitude towards the refinements of style.

ἄρθρον. 70 17. Article. Lat. articulus. See D.H. pp. 185, 186; Demetr. p. 269. ἄρθρον (‘joint’) and σύνδεσμος (‘sinew’ or ‘ligament’) are terms borrowed from anatomy.

ἀριθμοί. 244 27. Numbers, cadences. Lat. numeri, numeri oratorii. Cp. de Demosth. c. 53 φέρε γὰρ ἐπιχειρείτω τις προφέρεσθαι τούσδε τοὺς ἀριθμούς· Ὄλυνθον μὲν δὴ καὶ Μεθώνην κτλ. As Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 8. 2) says, περαίνεται δὲ ἀριθμῷ πάντα· ὁ δὲ τοῦ σχήματος τῆς λέξεως ἀριθμὸς ῥυθμός ἐστιν, οὗ καὶ τὰ μέτρα τμητά.

ἀριστεῖα. 182 12. Lead, supremacy. Lat. primas (dare).

Ἀριστοφάνειος. 256 13, 258 9. Aristophanic. Lat. Aristophaneus. The reference is to the anapaestic tetrameter called ‘Aristophanic.’ Hephaestion (Ench. c. 8) explains the term thus: κέκληται δὲ Ἀριστοφάνειον, οὐκ Ἀριστοφάνους αὐτὸ εὑρόντος πρῶτον, ἐπεὶ καὶ παρὰ Κρατίνῳ ἐστί·
χαίρετε δαίμονες οἳ Λεβάδειαν Βοιώτιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρης·
ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ τὸν Ἀριστοφάνην πολλῷ αὐτῷ κεχρῆσθαι.

ἁρμογή. 112 13, 218 9, 236 5, 270 9. Junction, combination. Lat. coagmentatio.

ἁρμονία. 72 6, 9, 74 4, 10, 19, 84 9, 15, 90 5, 94 15, 104 19, 114 14, 17, 116 15, 20, passim. Adjustment, arrangement, balance, harmonious composition. Lat. apta structura, concinna orationis compositio, aptus ordo partium inter se cohaerentium. Fr. enchaînement. But, as distinguished from ἁρμογή or from σύνθεσις, ἁρμονία seems usually to connote ‘harmony’ in the more restricted (musical) sense of notes in fitting sequence: cp. our ‘arrangement’ of a song or piece of music. In fact, Dionysius’ three ἁρμονίαι might well be described as three ‘modes of composition,’ and ‘tune’ (the meaning which ἁρμονία bears in Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1. 4) might sometimes serve as a suitable rendering even in reference to literary composition or oratorical rhythm. The original use of the word in Greek carpentry (which employed dovetailing in preference to nails) finds an excellent illustration in the words of a contemporary of Dionysius, Strabo (Geogr. iv. 4): διόπερ οὐ συνάγουσι τὰς ἁρμονίας τῶν σανίδων, ἀλλ’ ἀραιώματα καταλείπουσιν. We have perhaps no single English word which can, like ἁρμονία, incline, according to the context, to the literal sense (‘a fitting,’ ‘a juncture’), or to the metaphorical meaning (‘harmony,’ as ‘harmony’ was understood by the Greeks); but see T. Wilson’s definition of ‘composition’ under σύνθεσις, p. 326 infra, and compare one of the definitions of ‘harmony’ in the New English Dictionary: “pleasing combination or arrangement of sounds, as in poetry or in speaking: sweet or melodious sound.”—The verb ἁρμόττειν is found in 98 6, 104 17, etc.

ἀρρενικός. 106 21. Of the masculine gender. Lat. masculinus.

ἀρτηρία. 140 21, 142 4, 144 5, 20, 148 17. Windpipe. Lat. arteria.

ἀρχαϊσμός. 212 23. A touch of antiquity. Lat. sermonis prisci imitatio. Cp. ἀρχαϊκός, 216 20, 228 8. So ἀρχαιοπρεπῆ σχήματα (236 8) = figurae orationis quae vetustatem redolent. As Quintilian (viii. 3. 27) says, “quaedam tamen adhuc vetera vetustate ipsa gratius nitent.” Cp. D.H. p. 186 (s.v. ἀρχαιοπρεπής) and Demetr. p. 269 (s.v. ἀρχαιοειδής): also de Demosth. c. 48.

ἀρχαί. 136 22, 140 13. First beginnings. Lat. principia.

ἄσεμνος. 110 20, 170 20, 176 12, 192 11. Undignified. Lat. dignitatis expers, minime venerandus. Cp. D.H. p. 269.

ἄσημος. 256 22, 262 6. Unnoticed. Lat. obscurus.

ἄσιγμος. 148 1. Without a sigma. Lat. carens littera sigma.

ᾆσμα. 196 2. Song, lay. Lat. carmen, canticum.

ἀσύμμετρος. 124 8, 236 1. Incommensurable, disproportionate, incorrect. Lat. incommensurabilis, sine iusta proportione, inconcinnus. So ἀσυμμετρία 232 19. Some good illustrations (drawn from Cicero) of constructions symétriques will be found in Laurand’s Études sur le style des discours de Cicéron pp. 118-21.

ἀσύμμικτος. 218 12. Unblended, or incapable of being blended. Lat. non permixtus, s. qui permisceri non potest.

ἀσύμφωνος. 122 23. Out of tune. Lat. dissonus.

ἄτακτος. 156 20, 254 16. Disordered, irregular. Lat. perturbatus, nullo ordine compositus, incompositus.

ἀτοπία. 130 26. Awkwardness, clumsiness. Lat. rusticitas, ineptia.

αὐθάδης. 228 9. Wilful, headstrong, unbending. Lat. ferox, pertinax. Cp. Long. de Subl. xxxii. 3 ὁ δὲ Δημοσθένης οὐχ οὕτως μὲν αὐθάδης ὥσπερ οὗτος (sc. ὁ Θουκυδίδης), κτλ.

αὐθέκαστος. 212 23. Outspoken, downright. Lat. rigidus. In Plutarch’s Cato c. 6 Cato is described as ἀπαραίτητος ὢν ἐν τῷ δικαίῳ καὶ τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡγεμονίας προστάγμασιν ὄρθιος καὶ αὐθέκαστος (cp. the rigida innocentia attributed to him by Livy xxxix. 40. 10). In Aristotle (Eth. Nic. iv. 7. 4) the αὐθέκαστος hits the mean between the ἀλαζών and the εἴρων.

αὐλός. 142 2. Passage, channel. Lat. meatus.

αὐστηρός. 208 26, 210 15, 216 17, 21, 228 15, 232 22, 248 9. Austere, severe. Lat. severus (cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 97, 120, 128). Compare the antithetic expressions quoted from Dionysius in D.H. p. 186, and add de Demosth. c. 38 init. Also see s.v. στρυφνός, p. 323 infra.

αὐτάρκης. 212 17, 282 2. Sufficient, self-sufficing. Lat. sufficiens, per se sufficiens.

αὐτίκα. 98 7, 194 2, 256 7, 268 6. To begin with, for example. Lat. exempli gratia.

αὐτόματος. 256 19. Self-acting, spontaneous. Lat. spontaneus, ultroneus. Cp. αὐτομάτως 212 12; αὐτοματίζειν 204 5; αὐτοματισμός 218 3, 258 1, 24. In 256 19 ἐκ τοῦ αὐτομάτου = sponte sua, fortuito.

αὐτοσχέδιος. 212 1, 260 14, 262 3. Improvised. Lat. fortuitus, extemporalis, inelaboratus, tumultuarius. So αὐτοσχεδίως 260 25, and αὐτοσχεδιάζειν 256 19 (πολλὰ γὰρ αὐτοσχεδιάζει μέτρα ἡ φύσις = multos versus sponte solet natura effundere). Cp. Demetr. p. 270 s.v. αὐτοσχεδιάζειν, and see σχέδιος p. 327 infra.

αὐτοτελής. 118 6, 140 1. Complete in itself, absolute. Lat. perfectus, absolutus. So αὐτοτελῶς 140 3. The meaning of the word is well illustrated by Diodorus Siculus xii. 1 init. οὔτε γὰρ τῶν νομιζομένων ἀγαθῶν οὐδὲν ὁλόκληρον εὑρίσκεται δεδομένον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οὔτε τῶν κακῶν αὐτοτελὲς ἄνευ εὐχρηστίας.

αὐτουργός. 196 15. Self-wrought, rudely wrought. Lat. rudis. Cp. de Demosth. c. 39 (as quoted s.v. συναπαρτίζειν, p. 325 infra).—The active sense of αὐτουργός finds a good illustration in Euripides’ well-known line: αὐτουργός, οἵπερ καὶ μόνοι σῴζουσι γῆν (Orest. 920).

ἀφαίρεσις. 104 20, 114 12, 116 17. Deduction, abridgment. Lat. detractio. In 116 17 τῆς ἀφαιρέσεως δὲ τίς (τρόπος) almost = ‘what is the nature of ellipsis?’ As line 18 shows, something necessary to the sense is supposed to be omitted: e.g. the presence of αὐτός in 116 22 implies a contrast with ἕτερος (118 1).

ἀφανίζειν. 166 10, 260 1, 272 2. To put out of sight. Lat. abscondere.

ἀφελής. 212 14. Simple, plain. Lat. simplex, subtilis. Cp. D.H. p. 187.

ἀφορμή. 96 23. Starting-point. Lat. initium, principium. Cp. Dionys. Hal. Antiq. Rom. i. 4 τῆς ἀοιδίμου γενομένης καθ’ ἡμᾶς πόλεως, ἀδόξους πάνυ καὶ ταπεινὰς τὰς πρώτας ἀφορμὰς λαβούσης.

ἀφροδίτη. 74 13. Beauty. Lat. venustas, venus. Cp. de Lysia c. 11 ἐὰν δὲ μηδεμίαν ἡδονὴν μηδὲ ἀφροδίτην ὁ τῆς λέξεως χαρακτὴρ ἔχῃ, δυσωπῶ καὶ ὑποπτεύω μήποτ’ οὐ Λυσίου ὁ λόγος, καὶ οὐκέτι βιάζομαι τὴν ἄλογον αἴσθησιν: also c. 18 ibid.

ἄφωνος. 138 13, 140 3, 146 5, 148 11, 20, 220 10. Voiceless, mute. Lat. vocis expers, mutus. From the standpoint of the modern science of phonetics, in which the term ‘voiceless’ is reserved for sounds that are not accompanied by a vibration of the vocal chords, it might be well in the translation of this word to substitute ‘non-vocalic’ for ‘voiceless,’ and ‘vocalic’ for ‘voiced.’

ἄχαρις. 110 20, 146 12. Graceless. Lat. invenustus.

βαίνειν. 86 1. To scan. Lat. scandere. Cp. Aristot. Metaph. xiii. 6, 1093 a 30 βαίνεται δὲ [τὸ ἔπος] ἐν μὲν τῷ δεξιῷ ἐννέα συλλαβαῖς, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἀριστερῷ ὀκτώ.—In 236 4 βεβηκώς is used of a firm, regular tread: Lat. incedere.

βακχεῖος. 174 23, 180 12, 182 19. Bacchius. The metrical foot – – ᴗ.

βαρύς. 126 6, 8, 10, 16, 128 5, 8. Grave (accent), low (pitch). Lat. gravis. Cp. Monro Modes of Ancient Greek Music p. 113: “Our habit of using Latin translations of the terms of Greek grammar has tended to obscure the fact that they belong in almost every case to the ordinary vocabulary of music. The word for ‘accent’ (τόνος) is simply the musical term for ‘pitch’ or ‘key.’ The words ‘acute’ (ὀξύς) and ‘grave’ (βαρύς) mean nothing more than ‘high’ and ‘low’ in pitch. A syllable may have two accents, just as in music a syllable may be sung with more than one note.” So βαρύτης 126 13 = ‘low pitch.’—In 120 23 and 236 8 βάρος = ‘gravity’ (in the sense of ‘dignity’), Fr. gravité.

βάσις. 142 13, 210 22, 212 16, 220 4, 230 31, 232 4, 234 7. Base. Lat. basis, fundamentum.—The word is specially used of a measured step or metrical movement,—of a rhythmical clause in a period and particularly of its rhythmical close (Lat. clausula). In 230 30 and 232 5 it is the iambic endings προγεγενημένων and διανοούμενον that are considered objectionable (ἀνέδραστοι, ἀπερίγραφοι: endings such as πορείαν and ἀκουσάντων would be regarded as ἀσφαλεῖς, de Demosth. cc. 24, 26). Terminations of this kind will be avoided in a style (like the γλαφυρὰ σύνθεσις) which desires τῶν περιόδων τὰς τελευτὰς εὐρύθμους εἶναι,—desires that the chutes of the periods should be nombreuses.—Further light on the meaning of βάσις will be found in de Demosth. cc. 24, 39, 43, 45.

βοστρυχίζειν. 264 22. To curl, to dress the hair. Lat. crines calamistro convertere. Cp. the use of concinni in Cic. de Orat. iii. 25. 100.

βούλεσθαι. 220 9, 234 5, 14, 19, 236 4, 7, etc. To aim, to aspire. Lat. studere. Cp. D.H. p. 187, Demetr. p. 271. This meaning (‘aims at being,’ ‘tends to be’) is, of course, Platonic and Aristotelian.

βραχυσύλλαβος. 168 17. Consisting of short syllables. Lat. brevibus syllabis constans.

βραχύτης. 150 22, 154 6. Shortness. Lat. brevitas.

γένεσις. 138 3. Origin. τὴν γένεσιν λαμβάνει = Lat. originem sumit.

γενικός. 68 20, 118 21, 208 21. General, generic. Lat. generalis.

γενναῖος. 68 4, 136 13, 146 10, 148 9, 172 1, 176 9, 10. Noble. Lat. generosus. Such English renderings as ‘virile,’ ‘robust,’ ‘gallant,’ ‘splendid,’ ‘high-spirited’ may also be suggested. In Plato Rep. ii. 372 B μάζας γενναίας = ‘lordly cakes’; in Long. de Subl. xv. 7 οἱ γενναῖοι = ‘fine, grand, gallant fellows.’ Cp. C.V. 170 9 μαλακώτερος θατέρου καὶ ἀγεννέστερος.

γλαφυρός. 136 14, 208 26, 212 16, 216 20, 232 25, 248 9. Smooth, polished, elegant. Lat. politus, ornatus, elegans. Fr. élégant, orné, poli. Cp. Demetr. p. 272, and de Isocr. c. 2 ὁ γὰρ ἀνὴρ οὕτος τὴν εὐέπειαν ἐκ παντὸς διώκει καὶ τοῦ γλαφυρῶς λέγειν στοχάζεται μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἀφελῶς, and de Demosth. c. 40 ἡ δὲ μετὰ ταύτην ἡ γλαφυρὰ καὶ θεατρικὴ καὶ τὸ κομψὸν αἱρουμένη πρὸ τοῦ σεμνοῦ τοιαύτη.

γλυκαίνειν. 130 18, 134 10, 154 12. To touch with sweetness. Lat. delenire, voluptate perfundere. Cp. γλυκύτης 120 21, γλυκύς 146 9.

γλυπτός. 264 18. Carven, chiselled. Lat. caelatus. So γλυφή, carving, 120 1.

γλῶττα. 78 17. An unfamiliar term. Lat. vocabulum inusitatum. So γλωττηματικός, 252 23, 272 11, and D.H. p. 187, s.v. Obsolete, or obsolescent, words (mots surannés) are often meant.—In 80 17 γλῶττα = διάλεκτος (88 26).

γοητεύειν. 122 16, 134 13. To entice. Lat. pellicere.

γράμμα. 130 21, 138 5, etc. Letter of the alphabet. Lat. littera. ἡ γραμματική (140 11) = grammar; γραμμαί (138 2) = the lines, or strokes, from which γράμματα are formed. In 264 18 γραπτός = written.

γραφή. 68 12, 184 18, 186 1, 206 23, 228 12. Writing, composition (in the wider sense). In 118 24 and 234 13 γραφαί = pictures.

γυμνασία. 206 24, 282 2, 4. Exercise, lesson. Lat. exercitatio. So γυμνάζειν (134 4), to practise, to train.

δάκτυλος. 84 21, 172 16, 202 19. Dactyl. The metrical foot – ᴗ ᴗ.

δασύς. 148 12, 13, 18, 19, 150 3, 12. Rough, aspirated. Lat. asper. So δασύτης 148 21, 150 2 and δασύνειν 148 8. Cp. Aristot. Poet. c. 20 for δασύτης and ψιλότης, and see A. J. Ellis English, Dionysian, and Hellenic Pronunciations of Greek pp. 45, 46, where δασύς and ψιλός are translated by ‘rough’ and ‘smooth,’ which seems the safest course to follow when (as here) the terminology of Dionysius’ phonetics is full of difficulties. Aristotle (De audibilibus 804 b 8) defines thus: δασεῖαι δ’ εἰσὶ τῶν φωνῶν ὅσαις ἔσωθεν τὸ πνεῦμα εὐθέως συνεκβάλλομεν μετὰ τῶν φθόγγων, ψιλαὶ δ’ εἰσὶ τοὐναντίον ὅσαι γίγνονται χωρὶς τῆς τοῦ πνεύματος ἐκβολῆς.

δαψιλής. 108 11. Plentiful. Lat. abundans.

δεῖγμα. 200 4, 208 3, 214 13, 228 17. Sample. Lat. exemplum.

δεινότης. 182 13, 264 12. Oratorical mastery. Lat. facultas dicendi, eloquentia. So δεινός 282 3: see also 182 3. Cp. D.H. pp. 187, 188; Demetr. pp. 273, 274.

δεξιῶς. 80 14, 92 20. Deftly. Lat. sollerter, feliciter. In 80 14 σφόδρα δεξιῶς = ‘with great dexterity, or adroitness,’ ‘with great delicacy of touch.’

δεσμός. 148 17. Fastening. Lat. vinculum.

δηλωτικός. 158 2. Indicative of. Lat. significans.

δημηγορία. 110 22, 252 2. A public discourse, or harangue. Lat. contio. Cp. D.H. p. 188.

δημιούργημα. 64 8, 120 1. A piece of workmanship. Lat. opus, opificium. So δημιουργικός (‘industrial’) 104 23. Cp. D.H. p. 274. Quintil. (ii. 15. 4) translates πειθοῦς δημιουργός by persuadendi opifex.

διαβεβηκέναι. 172 3, 202 16, 212 1, 216 18, 218 23, 222 23, 244 19. To have a mighty stride, to be planted wide apart. Lat. latis passibus incedere. Fr. marcher à grands pas. In 202 17, 20, 218 23, and 222 23 the noun διάβασις is used with reference to the intervals which long syllables and clashing consonants make in pronunciation by retarding the utterance. The μεγάλα τε καὶ διαβεβηκότα εἰς πλάτος ὀνόματα of 212 1 are les grands mots à larges allures.

διάθεσις. 154 14, 160 18. Condition, arrangement. Lat. affectus, dispositio.

διαιρεῖν. 180 17, 184 5, 194 15, 218 20, 21, 272 17. To divide, to resolve. Lat. seiungere, resolvere. So διαίρεσις 122 8, 138 1, 272 7.

διακεκλάσθαι. 172 7. To be broken or enervated. Lat. frangi, corrumpi, in delicias effundi. Cp. similar uses of διαθρύπτεσθαι. In de Demosth. c. 43 ῥυθμοὶ διακλώμενοι are opposed to ῥυθμοὶ ἀνδρώδεις.

διακλέπτειν. 176 19. To disguise. Lat. obscurare, occulere.

διακόπτειν. 268 15. To cut short, to silence. Lat. praecidere.

διακοσμεῖν. 218 20. To arrange. Lat. ordinare.

διακρούειν. 230 17. To break into. Lat. interrumpere.

διαλαμβάνειν. 72 10, 166 17, 180 12, 184 14, 270 20, 272 2. To divide, to diversify. Lat. distinguere.

διαλέγεσθαι. 208 9. To write in prose. Lat. soluta oratione uti.

διάλειμμα. 204 1. A pause. Lat. intermissio.

διάλεκτος. 78 16, 80 3, 16, 88 26, 126 3, 160 14, 168 8, 208 19, 246 7. Language. Lat. sermo. Sometimes used with special reference to a ‘dialect,’ as in 80 16, 88 26 (so τὴν Ἀτθίδα γλῶτταν 80 17 = τὴν Ἀτθίδα διάλεκτον de Demosth. c. 41); and in other passages, with much the same sense as λέξις (elocutio).—In 68 9, 94 10, 14, 96 15, 104 1, the adjective διαλεκτικός means ‘pertaining to dialectic.’

διαλλαγή. 126 1. Difference. Lat. differentia. So διαλλάττειν, 92 19, 150 2, 152 29.

διάλογος. 198 1, 264 22. Dialogue. Lat. dialogus. Cp. Demetr. p. 274.

διαλύειν. 132 9, 272 1. To break up, to resolve. Lat. dissolvere. So διάλυσις 138 4.

διαναπαύειν. 134 17. To relieve, to break up. Lat. diluere.

διάνοια. 74 7, 16, 112 21. Mind, thought. Lat. mens, cogitatio.

διὰ πέντε. 126 4, 17. The interval of a fifth. Lat. diapente, quinque tonorum intervallum. So διὰ πασῶν 126 18, of the octave.

διαποικίλλειν. 214 8, 248 10, 254 18. To variegate. Lat. depingere, distinguere.

διαρτᾶν. 206 6. To separate, to break up. Lat. seiungere. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 ἵνα δὲ μὴ δόξωμεν διαρτᾶν τὰς ἀκολουθίας.

διασαλεύειν. 102 21, 230 9, 240 13. To shake (as by storm), to disturb. Lat. perturbare, concutere. In 230 9 and 240 13 the reference is to troubling the smooth waters of the cadences by sounds that jolt and jar.

διασπᾶν. 222 19, 230 24. To dislocate. Lat. divellere. Cp. Demetr. p. 274, s.v. διασπασμός, and Quintil. ix. 4. 33 “tum vocalium concursus; qui cum accidit, hiat et intersistit et quasi laborat oratio.”

διάστασις. 206 3, 5, 210 18. Distance. Lat. distantia.

διάστημα. 126 3, 16, 270 12. Interval. Lat. spatium, intervallum.

διαστολή. 278 5, 7. Division. Lat. divisio. By διαστολαί (which he opposes to metrical cola) Dionysius means the natural divisions, or pauses, observed in prose in order to bring out the sense and to secure good delivery, in accordance with the requirements of grammar and rhetoric. Cp. the later use of διαστολή for division by means of a comma—for punctuation, as we should say.

διατέμνειν. 270 13. To cut up. Lat. discindere, concidere.

διατιθέναι. 130 5, 15, 134 8, 11. To affect. Lat. adficere.

διάτονος. 194 8, 196 4. Diatonic. Lat. diatonicus. For the diatonic scale see n. on 194 8.

διαφορά. 68 21, 152 14, etc. Difference, variety. Lat. differentia.

διαχάλασμα. 230 24. Loosening. Lat. resolutio. Cp. Epicrates (ap. Athen. xiii. 570 B) on Lais in her old age: ἐπεὶ δὲ δολιχὸν τοῖς ἔτεσιν ἤδη τρέχει | τὰς ἁρμονίας τε διαχαλᾷ τοῦ σώματος.

διελκυσμός. 204 3. Struggle, tussle. Lat. luctatio. Cp. argum. Aristoph. Acharn. εἶτα γενομένου διελκυσμοῦ κατενεχθεὶς ὁ χορὸς ἀπολύει τὸν Δικαιόπολιν, i.e. “a tussle (wrangle) arises, in which the Chorus is overborne and lets go Dicaeopolis.”

διέξοδος. 150 1. Outlet, egress. Lat. exitus.

διερείδειν. 220 3. To thrust apart. Lat. disiungere. The object of the thrusting apart (or separation) is to give each word a firm position (as with the combination of strut and tie in Caesar’s bridge over the Rhine, for which see E. Kitson Clark in Classical Review xxii. 144-147). So διερεισμός 222 10, 224 14. In 202 9 διερείδεσθαι = conniti.

δίεσις. 126 20. A quarter-tone, or any interval smaller than a semitone. Lat. diesis. As to the reason for the disappearance of the quarter-tone from our modern musical system see n. on 194 7 (extract from Macran’s Harmonics of Aristoxenus). See, further, L. and S., s.v. δίεσις and λεῖμμα. The word occurs also in de Lys. c. 11 ὥστε μηδὲ τὴν ἐλαχίστην ἐν τοῖς διαστήμασι δίεσιν ἀγνοεῖν. Suidas defines δίεσις as τὸ ἐλάχιστον μέτρον τῶν ἐναρμονίων διαστημάτων. Cp. Vitruv. de Arch. v. 3.

διευκρινεῖν. 208 4. To determine. Lat. diiudicare.

διευστοχεῖν. 124 17. To go straight to the mark. Lat. recta ad scopum tendere. For the genitive cp. Polyb. ii. 45 (of Aratus) ἄνδρα δυνάμενον πάσης εὐστοχεῖν περιστάσεως.

διηνεκής. 142 2. Unbroken, uninterrupted. Lat. continuus, perpetuus.

διθυραμβοποιός. 194 23. Writer of dithyrambs. Lat. dithyrambicus poëta. Cp. D.H. p. 188, s.v. διθύραμβος.

διιστάναι. 144 4, 202 17, 204 21, 206 4, 222 5, 224 8, 236 6. To keep apart. Lat. diducere. Cp. Diog. Laert. iv. 6 ἦν δὲ [ὁ Ἀρκεσίλαος] ἐν τῇ λαλιᾷ διαστατικὸς τῶν ὀνομάτων, i.e. distinct in his enunciation. In 230 17 διέστακεν = διέσπακεν.

δίκαιος. 224 2, 10. Legitimate, regular. Lat. iustus. The normal measure of a long syllable is meant.

δικανικός. 112 11, 252 2. Forensic. Lat. iudicialis, forensis.

διορίζειν. 218 16. To separate by a boundary. Lat. disterminare.

διοχλεῖν. 116 19, 122 18. To distress. Lat. sollicitare.

διπλοῦς. 144 9, 10, 15. Double, compound. Lat. duplex. Cp. Demetr. p. 276.

δισύλλαβος. 126 13, 168 12, 170 14, 202 14. Disyllabic. Lat. disyllabus. αἱ δισύλλαβοι (λέξεις) = disyllables.

δίχρονος. 140 17, 19, 142 1, 6, 150 18. Double-timed, doubtful, common. Lat. communis, anceps.

δόξα. 134 4. Opinion, personal judgment. Lat. opinio. Opposed to ἐπιστήμη.

δύναμις. 72 25, 26, 130 22, 23, 134 17, 136 20, etc. Power, faculty, function. Lat. potentia, facultas. Used, more than once in this treatise, of ‘phonetic value’ or ‘effect.’ Fr. valeur. In 266 7 τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεως denotes ‘mental powers,’ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ διανοίας being used in the parallel passage of de Demosth. c. 51.

δυσειδής. 144 4. Ungraceful. Lat. deformis.

δυσέκφορος. 132 2, 162 5, 16, 232 15. Hard to pronounce. Lat. difficilis pronuntiatu. Cp. δυσεκφόρητος in 220 13.

δυσηχής. 162 15. Ill-sounding. Lat. ingratus auditu. [According to Sauppe’s conjecture on p. 163 n.: cp. δυσηχές 144 4, as given by PMV.]

δυσπερίληπτος. 206 23. Not easily included. Lat. qui facile includi nequit.

δυσχέρεια. 134 24, 168 3. Offensiveness. Lat. molestia.

δυσωπεῖσθαι. 134 21. To be shy of. Lat. prae pudore reformidare. The active voice is found in de Lys. c. 11.

Δώριος. 196 1. Dorian. Lat. Dorius, Doricus. Cp. Monro’s Modes of Ancient Greek Music, passim.

ἐγγίζειν. 144 16. To approach. Lat. appropinquare.

ἐγκάθισμα. 202 25, 232 16. Dwelling on a syllable, prolongation. Lat. sessio, mora vocis tamquam considentis. Fr. temps d’arrêt. Cp. de Demosth. c. 43 ἐν τούτοις γὰρ δὴ τά τε φωνήεντα πολλαχῇ συγκρουόμενα δῆλά ἐστι καὶ τὰ ἡμίφωνα καὶ ἄφωνα, ἐξ ὧν στηριγμούς τε καὶ ἐγκαθισμοὺς αἱ ἁρμονίαι λαμβάνουσι καὶ τραχύτητας αἱ φωναὶ συχνάς.

ἐγκαταπλέκειν. 134 12. To interweave. Lat. innectere. The uncompounded πλέκειν occurs in 154 9.

ἐγκατάσκευος. 182 7. Highly-wrought. Lat. elaboratus. Cp. Demetr. de Eloc. § 15 οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ἐγκατάσκευος ἔσται (ὁ λόγος) καὶ ἁπλοῦς ἅμα, καὶ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἡδύς, καὶ οὔτε μάλα ἰδιωτικὸς οὔτε μάλα σοφιστικός. See, further, D.H. pp. 189, 194, and Demetr. p. 276.

ἔγκλισις. 108 3, 264 5. Mood (of verb). Lat. modus. Cp. de Demosth. c. 52 γένη, πτώσεις, ἀριθμούς, ἐγκλίσεις. In 102 19 τῶν ἐγκλινομένων = ‘derivative, or secondary, forms.’

ἐγκοπή. 220 13. Hindrance, interruption. Lat. impedimentum. Cp. Ep. i. ad Cor. ix. 12 ἵνα μὴ ἐγκοπήν τινα δῶμεν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. [In Long. de Subl. xli. 3 κατ’ ἐγκοπάς seems to refer to notches or incisions as made by carpenters in dovetailing.]

ἐγκύκλιος. 262 20. Broad, general (of education). Lat. orbis doctrinae. (Quintil. i. 10. 1.) Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Greek Historical Writing p. 15: “At latest in the school of Posidonius—and I think a little earlier—the so-called ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, or ‘universal instruction,’ was formed into a system which has continued to our own Universities in the form of ‘the seven liberal arts.’ The study of history has no place in it; astronomy, architecture, and medicine have.”

ἕδρα. 108 4, 234 2, 244 18. Position, foundation. Lat. sedes. Cp. Demetr. p. 277. So ἑδράσαι 106 7, ἀνέδραστος 232 4, δύσεδρος 106 8, εὔεδρος 106 9.

εἰδικός. 208 12, 246 19. Specific. Lat. specialis.

εἰκαῖος. 74 10. Random, casual. Lat. temerarius.

εἰκών. 124 20. Illustration. Lat. similitudo.

εἰλικρινῶς. 220 11. Completely, with no alloy. Lat. sincere.

εἰσαγωγή. 114 9. Introduction. Lat. praefatio.

ἐκλογή. 68 4, 12, 74 15, 78 8, 182 6, 200 15, 246 13, 252 27. Choice. Lat. delectus. The ἐκλογή of words is constantly contrasted with their σύνθεσις. Cp. ἐκλέγειν 74 9, 182 3.

ἐκλογίζεσθαι. 200 6. To consider fully. Lat. expendere, percensere.

ἐκμαλάττειν. 134 10. To soften. Lat. emollire, mulcere.

ἐκμάττεσθαι. 250 14. To take the impress of. Lat. exprimere, imitari. Cp. de Demosth. c. 4 τὴν ἐπίθετον καὶ κατεσκευασμένην φράσιν τῶν περὶ Γοργίαν ἐκμέμακται, and c. 13 τὸν Λυσιακὸν χαρακτῆρα ἐκμέμακται εἰς ὄνυχα (i.e. ad unguem, ad amussim).

ἐκμέλεια. 124 1. False note. Lat. dissonantia.

ἐκμιμεῖσθαι. 70 4. To copy. Lat. imitari, imitando effingere.

ἐκπληροῦν. 212 15. To fill out, to round off. Lat. orbem orationis implere.

ἔκστασις. 156 20. Astonishment. Lat. stupor. Cp. Ev. Marc. xvi. 8 εἶχε δὲ αὐτὰς τρόμος καὶ ἔκστασις.

ἔκτασις. 204 3, 268 19. Stretching, lengthening. Lat. productio. Cp. Demetr. p. 277.

ἐκτείνειν. 140 18, 142 10. To lengthen, to prolong. Lat. producere.

ἐκφαίνειν. 154 22. To reproduce. Lat. referre.

ἐκφανής. 246 1. Prominent. Lat. conspicuus.

ἐκφέρειν. 68 12, 84 6, 94 10, 15, 106 19, 108 3, 112 9, 114 1, 116 24, 118 6, 15, etc. To utter, to produce: with various cognate meanings. Lat. edere, promere.

ἐκφορά. 112 15, 142 7. Utterance. Lat. pronuntiatio.

ἐκφωνεῖν. 140 5. To pronounce. Lat. pronuntiare. Cp. Demetr. p. 278.

ἐλάττωσις. 156 22. Curtailment. Lat. imminutio.

ἐλεγειακός. 256 23. Elegiac. Lat. elegiacus. Coupled with πεντάμετρον.

ἐλεύθερος. 212 9. Unfettered. Lat. liber. Epithet applied to κῶλα.

ἐμπερίοδος. 118 15. In periods, periodic. Lat. periodo inclusus.

ἐμφαίνειν. 110 19, 212 13, 228 7, 254 17, 21. To indicate. Lat. indicare, ostendere.

ἐναγώνιος. 90 6, 198 1. Forensic. Lat. forensis. With some notion of combative, incisive, vehement. Cp. δικανικός, p. 196 supra.

ἔναρθρος. 136 22. Articulate. Lat. articulatus.

ἐναρμόνιος. 194 7, 196 3, 11. Enharmonic. Lat. enarmonicus. For the enharmonic scale see note on 194 7.—In 108 10 and 196 11 the word is used in a less restricted sense. Cp. de Demosth. c. 24 νῦν μὲν γὰρ δυσὶ περιλαμβανομένη κώλοις σύμμετρός ἐστι [ἡ περίοδος] καὶ ἐναρμόνιος καὶ στρογγύλη καὶ βάσιν εἴληφεν ἀσφαλῆ.

ἐνδεχομένων. 96 17. Admissible. Lat. licitus.

ἐνεξουσιάζειν. 196 5: see n. ad loc.

ἐνέργεια. 204 1, 268 5. Activity. Lat. actio.

ἑνικῶς. 106 18. In the singular number. Lat. singulariter.

ἔντεχνος. 134 2, 272 21, 23. According to the rules of art, artistic, systematic. Lat. artificiosus.

ἑξάμετρος. 194 3. Of six measures, hexameter (line: στίχος). Lat. hexameter.

ἑξάπους. 84 21. Of six feet. Lat. sex constans pedibus.

ἕξις. 66 1, 122 24, 268 4, 11, 26. State or habit (of body or mind); skill based on practice. Lat. habitus, habilitas, peritia.

ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι. 94 9. To profess to teach a subject. Lat. profiteri.

ἐπαγωγός. 162 2. Conducive to. Lat. aptus ad inducendum. For the genitive cp. s.v. ἀγωγή, p. 285 supra.

ἐπανθεῖν. 198 10. To bloom. Lat. efflorescere.

ἐπεισόδιον. 196 24. Pleasure-giving addition, episode. Lat. episodium.

ἐπιγραφή. 96 13, 104 4. Title. Lat. inscriptio.

ἐπιδείκνυσθαι. 162 2, 228 9, 254 1. To make a display of. Lat. prae se ferre, ostentare.

ἐπιθαλάμιον (sc. ποίημα). 258 7. Bridal song. Lat. epithalamium.

ἐπίθετον. 102 17. An addition, epithet, adjective (‘the qualifier,’ Puttenham’s sixteenth-century Arte of English Poesie). Lat. ad nomen adiunctum, appositum (Quintil. viii. 3. 43; 6. 29). The ἐπίθετον seems to be regarded by Dionysius as a separate part of speech: cp. Steinthal Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei den Griechen und Römern ii. p. 251 “Was das ἐπίθετον, das Adjectivum betrifft: so ist es im Alterthum vielleicht von Niemandem, höchstens aber nur von dem einen oder andren Grammatiker zum besonderen Redetheil gemacht.”

ἐπικίνδυνος. 80 13. Hazardous. Lat. periculosus. Aventuré would perhaps be a better French equivalent, in this context, than risqué.

ἐπίκοινος. 150 4. Common (i.e. belonging equally to both). Lat. communis.

ἐπικός. 214 2, 274 7. Epic. Lat. epicus. ἐπικὴ ποίησις = epic poetry.

ἐπικρύπτειν. 134 16, 198 10. To hide, to veil. Lat. occultare.

ἐπιλαμπρύνειν. 144 2. To make crisp and clear. Lat. clarum reddere. Cp. Plut. Mor. 912 C καὶ οἱ βάτραχοι, προσδοκῶντες ὄμβρον, ἐπιλαμπρύνουσι τὴν φωνὴν ὑπὸ χαρᾶς.

ἐπίρρημα. 70 21. Adverb. Lat. adverbium.

ἐπισκοτεῖν. 134 14, 260 1. To overshadow. Lat. obscurare.

ἐπίστασις. 68 1. Attention. Lat. cura. Cp. ἀνεπιστάτως, heedlessly, 74 6: so Long. de Subl. xxxiii. 4 ὑπὸ μεγαλοφυΐας ἀνεπιστάτως παρενηνεγμένα, ‘introduced with all the heedlessness of genius.’

ἐπιστήμη. 104 15, 110 8, 124 5, 21, 134 3. Knowledge, science. Lat. scientia.

ἐπίτασις. 210 5. Tightening. Lat. intentio.

ἐπιτάφιος. 116 2, 178 1, 180 8. Funeral speech (sub. λόγος). Lat. oratio funebris.

ἐπιταχύνειν. 204 8, 22. To quicken. Lat. accelerare.

ἐπιτείνειν. 126 4. To raise the pitch. Lat. intendere.

ἐπιτερπής. 228 12. Delightful. Lat. iucundus.

ἐπιτετηδευμένως. 260 25. Deliberately. Lat. de industria. Cp. ἐπιτηδεύειν 136 18, and ἀνεπιτήδευτος (p. 288 supra).

ἐπιτήδευσις. 70 6, 212 19. Pains, study. Lat. studium, industria.

ἐπιτρόχαλος. 180 14. Running, tripping. Lat. velox, volubilis. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 ἐπιτρόχαλος δή τις γίνεται καὶ καταφερὴς ἡ ῥύσις τῆς λέξεως, ὥσπερ κατὰ πρανοῦς φερόμενα χωρίου νάματα μηδενὸς αὐτοῖς ἀντικρούοντος.—In Hom. Il. iii. 213 ἐπιτροχάδην = trippingly, unfalteringly.

ἐπιτυχής. 268 13. Successful. Lat. voti compos.

ἐπιφέρειν. 88 16. To quote. Lat. citare, laudare, proferre. Cp. Demetr. p. 281.

ἐποποιός. 194 2, 236 15. Epic poet. Lat. poëta epicus. So τὰ ἔπη (270 19) = versus epici.

ἐποχή. 204 2. Delay, suspense. Lat. impedimentum, retentio.

ἐπῳδός. 194 12, 278 9. After-song, coda, epode. In this sense (that of the part of a lyric ode which is sung after the strophe and antistrophe) the word is feminine. In 194 20, if the masculine ὀλίγοις is rightly read, the special meaning of ἐπῳδός will be refrain, burden: a meaning somewhat nearer that of the Latin epodos.

ἐρείδειν. 142 13. To thrust. Lat. trudere. So ἔρεισις 204 4. In 210 16 ἐρείδεσθαι = to be firmly planted.

ἑρμηνεία. 66 18, 76 9, 78 19, 84 11, 172 17, 182 5. Expression, style. Lat. elocutio. The word appears in the title of the treatise περὶ ἑρμηνείας which passes under the name of Demetrius. So ἑρμηνεύειν (to express) in 76 9, 186 18, 204 8, 260 20. Cp. Demetr. p. 282 (s.v. ἑρμηνεία and ἑρμηνεύειν).

ἐτυμολογία. 160 6. Etymology: with reference to Plato’s Cratylus. For Latin equivalents cp. Quintil. i. 6. 28 “etymologia, quae verborum originem inquirit, a Cicerone dicta est notatio, quia nomen eius apud Aristotelem invenitur σύμβολον, quod est nota; nam verbum ex verbo ductum, id est veriloquium, ipse Cicero, qui finxit, reformidat. sunt qui vim potius intuiti originationem vocent.”

εὐγενής. 136 11, 178 14, 21, 180 3. Well-born, noble. Lat. generosus. So εὐγενεία 192 8. The εὐγενής is not necessarily γενναῖος (Aristot. Rhet. ii. 15. 3).

εὔγλωσσος. 70 2. Pleasant on the tongue. Lat. suavis.

εὔγραμμος. 230 31, 246 3. Well-drawn, well-defined. Lat. definitus.

εὐγώνιος. 210 22. Four-square. Lat. qui angulis rectis constat, quadratus.

εὐέπεια. 240 5, 18, 246 1, 268 28. Beauty of language. Lat. verborum elegantia. In this treatise Dionysius clearly uses the word with special reference to his main subject—beauty of sound, euphony. So also εὐεπής 218 10, 222 6, 224 2, 228 5, 230 20; and εὐεπῶς 232 11. In the Classical Review xviii. 19 the present writer has tried to show that, even in an author so early as Sophocles (Oed. Tyr. 928), the word εὐέπεια is to be understood in a rhetorical sense (‘elegant language,’ ‘neatly-turned phrase’: with direct reference to the employment of a ‘figure’ of rhetoric). But, later, the word was used of ‘eloquence’ generally (as in the well-known epigram of Simmias on the tomb of Sophocles himself); and to this wider meaning Dionysius here gives a special turn of his own.

εὐήτριος. 234 12. With fine thread, well-woven. Lat. bene textus.

εὔκαιρος. 134 18, 196 25. Timely. Lat. opportunus, tempestivus. So εὐκαίρως 132 3, εὐκαιρίαν 242 3.

εὐκαταφρόνητος. 74 12. Contemptible. Lat. abiectus, humilis.

εὔκρατος. 210 1, 246 11. Well-blended. Lat. temperatus. Cp. de Demosth. c. 3 ἡ Θρασυμάχειος ἑρμηνεία, μέση τοῖν δυεῖν καὶ εὔκρατος: Cic. Orat. 6. 21 “est autem quidam interiectus inter hos medius et quasi temperatus,” etc.—Both in 210 1 and in 246 11 the well-supported variant κοινήν is to be noted: it may conceivably have originated in a gloss on εὔκρατον.—In 220 17 the similar adjective εὐκέραστος is used, though not in reference to the three ἁρμονίαι.

εὐλάβεια. 234 17. Caution. Lat. cautio. Used in the phrase δι’ εὐλαβείας ἔχει.

εὔλογος. 158 12. Reasonable. Lat. rationi consentaneus. The reference is to resemblances which are not ἄλογοι, but have a natural basis and are grounded in reason.

εὐμελής. 130 6, 134 9. Melodious. Lat. canorus.—On the other hand, ἐμμελής = in melody, set to music: 124 10, 130 6, 254 2, 8, 270 5; and so ἐμμέλεια 122 21, 182 2, 266 4.

εὔμετρος. 254 6. Metrical; possessing good metrical qualities. Lat. metricus.—On the other hand, ἔμμετρος = in metre: 74 4, 76 1, 168 8, 176 1, 21, 254 2, 4, 14, 270 5. In 270 10 ἐμμετρία has good manuscript authority. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 1 τὸ δὲ σχῆμα τῆς λέξεως δεῖ μήτε ἔμμετρον εἶναι μήτε ἄρρυθμον.

εὔμορφος. 84 2, 144 3, 162 1. Of beautiful form. Lat. formosus. So εὐμορφία 168 4, 264 16.

εὐπάθεια. 250 4. Pleasure. Lat. voluptas. Plur. εὐπάθειαι = Lat. deliciae.

εὐπαίδευτος. 228 10. Scholarly, cultured. Lat. doctus.

εὐπετής. 218 10, 222 6. Flowing easily. Lat. volubilis. [According to the reading of P in each passage. But εὐεπές should probably be read.] Cp. εὔρους in 240 21 and (according to P) in 196 25.

εὐπρόφορος. 132 2. Easy to pronounce. Lat. facilis pronuntiatu.

εὔρους. 240 21. Flowing, copious. Lat. copiosus. See also s.v. εὐπετής, supra.

εὔρυθμος. 124 10, 130 8, 134 9, 236 3, 254 6, 18. Rhythmical. Lat. numerosus, moderatus (Cic. de Orat. iii. 48. 184; ii. 8. 34). So εὐρυθμία 118 11, 122 21, 182 2, 254 27: cp. Cic. Orat. 65. 220 “multum interest utrum numerosa sit, id est, similis numerorum, an plane e numeris constet oratio,” and Quintil. ix. 4. 56 “idque Cicero optime videt, ac testatur frequenter, se, quod numerosum sit, quaerere; ut magis non ἄρρυθμον, quod esset inscitum atque agreste, quam ἔνρυθμον, quod poëticum est, esse compositionem velit.” For ἔνρυθμος see 130 8.

εὐστομία. 110 18, 120 21. Beauty of sound. Lat. soni suavitas. Cp. Plato Crat. 405 D, 412 E.

εὔσχημος. 172 6. Graceful. Lat. decorus, speciosus.

εὐτελής. 78 10, 136 3. Commonplace, cheap, vulgar. Lat. vilis. Cp. D.H. p. 193, and Aristot. Rhet. iii. 7. 2.

εὔτροχος. 206 14. Running easily. Lat. celer, volubilis. Cp. γλῶσσα εὔτροχος = a glib tongue (Eur. Bacch. 268).

εὐτυχῶς. 186 3. Happily, successfully. Lat. feliciter. Cp. εὐτυχοῦσιν 198 5, and ἀτυχεῖ 198 16.

εὐφωνία. 266 4. Euphony, musical sound. Lat. vocis dulcedo s. suavitas. So εὔφωνος 132 1, 134 9, 142 10, 166 7, 17, 230 23, 234 14. For a modern view of the effect of euphony cp. the words of Jowett (Dialogues of Plato i. 310): “In all the higher uses of language the sound is the echo of the sense, especially in poetry, in which beauty and expressiveness are given to human thoughts by the harmonious composition of the words, syllables, letters, accents, quantities, rhythms, rhymes, varieties and contrasts of all sorts.” Hence, though no lover of the vicious style sometimes termed “poetic prose,” Jowett says in his Notes and Sayings: “If I were a professor of English, I would teach my men that prose writing is a kind of poetry.”

ἐφάμιλλος. 116 8. Rivalling, a match for. Lat. aemulus, haud impar.

ἡγεμών. 168 17. Hegemon. The metrical foot ᴗ ᴗ. Cp. de Demosth. c. 47 ὥσπερ οἴονταί τινες καὶ καλοῦσι τὸν οὕτως κατασκευασθέντα ῥυθμὸν ἡγεμόνα.

Ἡγησιακός. 90 19. Hegesian, recalling Hegesias. Lat. Hegesiacus. For Hegesias see Introduction, pp. 52-55 supra.

ἡδονή. 80 16, 118 22, 120 20, 132 19, 21. Charm. Lat. iucunditas, dulcedo. Fr. charme, agrément, attrait. Cp. 120 20-24 τάττω δὲ ὑπὸ μὲν τὴν ἡδονὴν τήν τε ὥραν καὶ τὴν χάριν καὶ τὴν εὐστομίαν καὶ τὴν γλυκύτητα καὶ τὸ πιθανὸν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα, ὑπὸ δὲ τὸ καλὸν τήν τε μεγαλοπρέπειαν καὶ τὸ βάρος καὶ τὴν σεμνολογίαν καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα καὶ τὸν πίνον καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. See also Demetr. p. 284. So ἡδύς (suavis, iucundus; sweet, pleasing, agreeable, attractive, charming), 68 6, 74 13, etc.

ἡδύνειν. 130 11, 146 8, 148 6, 160 15, 164 13. To sweeten; to delight, to charm. Lat. dulce reddere; demulcere.

ἦθος. 88 12, 160 17, 212 11. Character. Lat. mos, indoles. Cp. Demetr. p. 284, D.H. p. 193. See Jebb’s Attic Orators i. 30, 31 for pathos and ethos in Antiphon (with reference to C.V. 212 10). According to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, a speech may be in, or out of, character in reference to (1) speaker, (2) audience, (3) subject.

ἡμιστίχιον. 274 17. A half-line, half-verse. Lat. hemistichium. Cp. Demetr. p. 284, s.v. ἡμίμετρον.

ἡμιτελής. 140 4. Half-perfect. Lat. semiperfectus.

ἡμιτόνιον. 126 5, 19. A half-tone, semitone. Lat. hemitonium.

ἡμίφωνος. 138 13, 140 1, 144 7, 146 5, 220 11. Semi-voiced, semi-vocal. Lat. semivocalis. ἡμίφωνα γράμματα = litterae semivocales. Cp. s.v. ἄφωνος, p. 292 supra.

ἠρεμία. 156 11, 160 4. Rest, immobility. Lat. quies, tranquillitas. So ἠρεμεῖν 142 1.

ἡρωϊκός. 84 21, 86 3, 88 7, 172 17, 206 10. Heroic (sc. στίχος: the hexameter line). Lat. heroicus. In 172 17 and 206 10, with μέτρον.

ἡσυχῇ. 148 8. Softly, gently. Lat. sensim.

ἠχεῖσθαι. 138 12, 142 7. To be sounded. Lat. pronuntiari, sonare.

ἦχος. 130 19, 138 11, 142 14, 19, etc. Sound. Lat. sonus.

θεατρικός. 212 16, 216 19, 228 8, 236 11. Theatrical, showy. Lat. theatralis. Cp. de Demosth. c. 25 ἐπὶ τὰ θεατρικὰ τὰ Γοργίεια ταυτὶ παραγίνεται, τὰς ἀντιθέσεις καὶ τὰς παρισώσεις λέγω.

θεοβλάβεια. 184 23. Madness, blindness. Lat. mens divinitus laesa.

θεώρημα. 72 12, 16, 88 14, 96 25, 104 11, etc. Investigation, speculation; rule. Lat. quaestio; praeceptum artis. Cp. θεωρία 66 8, 96 14, 98 2, 102 25, 104 3, etc., and θεωρεῖν 152 26, 204 3, 210 9.

θηλυκός. 106 21. Of the feminine gender. Lat. femininus.

θῆλυς. 172 7. Effeminate. Lat. muliebris, effeminatus. Cp. Larue van Hook Metaphorical Terminology of Greek Rhetoric, p. 26, s.v. ἀνδρώδης.

θηριώδης. 146 13. Beast-like. Lat. ferinus. The term will, of course, apply to vipers as well as other animals: cp. τὸ θηρίον in Acta Apost. xxviii. 4, and ἡ θηριακή (‘antidote against a poisonous bite’), whence the word treacle.

θορυβεῖν. 122 22. To hiss off the stage. Lat. explodere.

θρυλιγμός. 124 1. Harsh sound, false note. Lat. murmur inconcinnum, dissonantia. Cp. Hymn. Hom. in Merc. 486 ὃς δέ κεν αὐτὴν | νῆϊς ἐὼν τὸ πρῶτον ἐπιζαφελῶς ἐρεείνῃ, | μὰψ αὔτως κεν ἔπειτα μετήορά τε θρυλίζοι.

ἰαμβεῖον. 258 25, 262 4. Iambic line. Lat. versus iambicus.

ἴαμβος. 170 7, 270 19. Iambus. The metrical foot ᴗ –. The adjective ἰαμβικός in 184 11, 258 19, 276 10.

ἰδέα. 88 6, 104 8, 116 12, 198 17, 200 5, 248 4. Kind, aspect. Lat. genus, aspectus.

ἰδίωμα. 240 23. Peculiarity. Lat. proprietas. Cp. Long. p. 278, D.H. p. 193.

ἰδιώτης. 124 2, 272 19. Amateur, uncultivated. Lat. imperitus. Idiots long bore this meaning of ‘ordinary persons’ in English: cp. Jeremy Taylor, “humility is a duty in great ones as well as in idiots.”

ἰθυφάλλιον. 86 8. Ithyphallic poem. Lat. carmen ithyphallicum. A poem composed in the measure of the hymns to Priapus. Cp. Masqueray Abriss der griechischen Metrik pp. 191, 192.

ἰσομεγέθης. 270 16. Equal in size. Lat. par magnitudine.

ἱστορία. 214 1. History. Lat. historia. So ἱστορικός, suited to narrative, 90 6. In 66 14 ἱστορία = inquiry, investigation.

ἰσχυρός. 162 23, 210 17, 216 16. Strong, vigorous. Lat. firmus, robustus. In 216 16 there may be some sense of nerveux.—ἰσχύς occurs in 68 19, 72 19, etc.; ῥώμη in 84 13; κράτος in 72 14.

Ἰωνικός. 86 14. Ionic. Lat. Ionicus. The Ionic tetrameter is meant. Cp. Masqueray, op. cit. pp. 137 ff.

καθαρός. 68 4, 74 18, 230 14. Pure. Lat. purus. For Greek and Latin authors as conscious purists, cp. Terence’s “in hac est pura oratio,” or Dionysius’ τὸ καθαρεύειν τὴν διάλεκτον (de Lysia c. 2). See C. N. Smiley’s dissertation on Latinitas and Ἑλληνισμός, and L. Laurand’s Études sur le style des discours de Cicéron pp. 19 ff. (the section headed “Pureté de la langue”).

καθολικός. 134 2. General. Lat. universalis.

καινότης. 232 20. Novelty. Lat. novitas. Used in a condemnatory sense: ‘innovation,’ ‘singularity,’ ‘eccentricity.’

καινοτομεῖν. 254 23. To break new ground. Lat. novare. It is a mining metaphor—from the opening of a new vein. Cp. de Thucyd. c. 2.

καινουργεῖν. 200 18. To introduce new features. Lat. novitati studere.

καιρός. 132 15, 20, 21. Sense of measure, tact, taste. See S. H. Butcher’s Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects, pp. 117-120, for καιρός as a word without any single or precise equivalent in any other language. Cp. εὔκαιρος 134 18, 196 25; εὐκαίρως 132 3; εὐκαιρία 242 3.

κακόφωνος. 132 1, 164 11. Ill-sounding. Lat. male sonans. Cp. Demetr. p. 286.

καλλιεπής. 180 3. Choice in diction. Lat. suaviloquens. It is the word used of Agathon in Aristoph. Thesm. 49 (Classical Review xviii. 20). Cp. D.H. p. 193, with the passages there quoted: to which may be added Plato Apol. 17 B κεκαλλιεπημένους λόγους, and (for ἔπος only) Thucyd. iii. 67 λόγοι ἔπεσι κοσμηθέντες and ii. 41 ὅστις ἔπεσι μὲν τὸ αὐτίκα τέρψει.

καλλιλογία. 164 20, 166 12. Elegant language. Lat. venusta elocutio. So καλλιλογεῖν of ‘verbal embellishment,’ 80 12.

καλλιρήμων. 74 18, 166 7. Couched in elegant phrase. Lat. elegantibus ornatus verbis.

κάλλος. 78 19, 84 10, 94 2, 160 13, 172 16, 182 5, 256 5. Beauty (of language). Lat. pulchritude. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 2. 13.

καλός. 118 23, 120 22, 136 8, 160 13, 14, 178 15, passim. Beautiful. Lat. pulcher. The word is inadequately translated by ‘beautiful’; and ‘fine’ has unfortunate associations of its own, especially in relation to writing. ‘Noble’ would often be nearer the mark, but that rendering is needed for γενναῖος and εὐγενής (cp. 136 13, 178 15, etc.). In English we lack a single word to denote that noble beauty which is sometimes seen in a human face, and which suggests an ultimate harmony of things. The meaning of καλός, as distinguished from ἡδύς (in reference to composition), may be gathered from such passages as 68 5 (τῷ σεμνῷ τὸ ἡδύ) and 120 22-24 (see under ἡδονή, p. 302 supra). The antithesis is not, as has sometimes been thought, that of pleasure to the ear and beauty to the mind. In this treatise Dionysius is dealing not with subject matter (ὁ πραγματικὸς τόπος) but with expression, and that chiefly from the euphonic point of view. καλός includes certain forms of pleasure—of the ear as well as of the mind: cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1405 b and Demetr. de Eloc. § 177 ὡρίσατο δ’ αὐτὰ (καλὰ ὀνόματα) Θεόφραστος οὕτως· κάλλος ὀνόματός ἐστι τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἀκοὴν ἢ πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν ἡδύ, ἢ τὸ τῇ διανοίᾳ ἔντιμον. Cp., further, gravitas)(suavitas, Cic. Or. §§ 62, 182; honestus)(iucundus, Quintil. ix. 4. 146; ἡδεῖαν καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῆ Aristot. Rhet. iii. 12.

κατακεκλασμένος. 184 17. Broken, nerveless. Lat. fractus, mollis. Fr. faible, maigre, rompu. Cp. κατακλωμένους, 262 12, where Dionysius seems to indicate the broken (but by no means nerveless) foot

– ᴗ – – (τοσαύ)την ὑπάρξαι.

So Long. de Subl. xli. 1 μικροποιοῦν δ’ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐν τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς, ὡς ῥυθμὸς κεκλασμένος λόγων καὶ σεσοβημένος, οἷον δὴ πυρρίχιοι καὶ τροχαῖοι καὶ διχόρειοι, τέλεον εἰς ὀρχηστικὸν συνεκπίπτοντες. Cp. Demetr. p. 287.

καταλαμβάνειν. 230 4, 12. To check. Lat. cohibere, premere. Usener’s insertion of σιωπῇ in 230 12 is perhaps unnecessary. Herod. v. 21 ὁ τῶν Περσέων θάνατος οὕτω καταλαμφθεὶς ἐσιγήθη (i.e. “Persarum caedes ita silentio compressa est”) does not decide the point.

κατάληξις. 178 20, 184 9, 258 13. Final syllable. Lat. syllaba terminalis. With 178 20 cp. 178 13 καὶ συλλαβὴν ὑφ’ ἧς τελειοῦται τὸ κῶλον. See also Long. de Subl. xli. 2 τὰς ὀφειλομένας καταλήξεις, and Demetr. p. 287 (s.v. καταληκτικός).

κατάλογος. 168 1. Catalogue. Lat. enumeratio. The Homeric ‘Catalogue’ (in Il. ii.) is meant.

καταμετρεῖν. 174 24, 182 16. To measure. Lat. emetiri. Cp. de Demosth. c. 39.

καταπυκνοῦν. 162 4, 16. To pack. Lat. stipare. Fr. charger.

κατασκευή. 70 4, 156 13, 160 19, 164 12. Artistic treatment. Lat. ornatus. The Latin apparatus, and French apprêt, will also give something of the meaning. Cp. κατασκευάζειν 106 3, 140 9, 154 3, 14, 17, 158 1, 4, etc. See also D.H. p. 194, under κατασκευή (with the passages there quoted) and κατασκευάζειν.

κατασπᾶν. 204 24. To pull down. Lat. detrahere. Cp. the use of κατεσπευσμένα and κατεσπεῦσθαι in Long. de Subl. xix. 2, xl. 4. [It is possible that κατεσπεῦσθαι should be read in C.V. 204 24.]

κατάστασις. 200 8. State. Lat. condicio.

καταφορά. 204 19. Downrush. Lat. decursus.

καταχλευάζειν. 264 9. To jeer. Lat. cavillari, irridere.

κατάχρησις. 78 16. Catachresis. Lat. abusio. A definition is given by Quintil. viii. 6. 34 “eo magis necessaria κατάχρησις, quam recte dicimus abusionem, quae non habentibus nomen suum accommodat, quod in proximo est: sic Equum divina Palladis arte Aedificant.” Cp. Cic. Orat. 27. 94, where the same Latin equivalent is given, though not the same description of the figure: “Aristoteles autem translationi et haec ipsa subiungit et abusionem, quam κατάχρησιν vocant, ut cum minutum dicimus animum pro parvo, et abutimur verbis propinquis, si opus est, vel quod delectat vel quod decet” (cp. Auct. ad Her. iv. c. 33). In Cic. Acad. ii. 47. 143, “Quid ergo Academici appellamur? an abutimur gloria nominis?” the meaning probably is: ‘do we use the glorious name of ‘Academic’ in an unnatural way?’

κατεσπουδασμένος. 156 7. Earnest. Lat. anxius, instans. Cp. Herod. ii. 174.

κεραννύναι. 218 7, 240 17, 246 12, 248 17, etc. To mix, to temper. Lat. commiscere, temperare. Cp. the adjectives εὔκρατος and εὐκέραστος, p. 301 supra. The general sense in 248 17 is, ‘qui aient su mieux qu’eux faire un heureux mélange des couleurs.’

κερατοειδής. 146 12. Sounding like a horn. Lat. sonus veluti corneus. κερατοειδεῖς ἤχους = ‘sounds like (the sounds of) a horn’: cp. Hymn. Hom. in Merc. 81 μυρσινοειδέας ὄζους, ‘branches like (the branches of) myrtle.’

κεφάλαιον. 68 18, 120 25, 130 14, 136 7, 160 8. Heading, topic, sum and substance. Lat. caput, summa. So κεφαλαιωδῶς, 112 21, under heads.

κηλεῖν. 124 13. To charm. Lat. permulcere.

κινεῖν. 146 8, 194 12. To excite, to disturb. Lat. movere. So κίνησις, movement, 124 8, 160 3, 244 20; and κινητικός, 158 12.

κλέπτειν. 196 17. To cheat, to disguise. Lat. dissimulare, obtegere. Cp. Demetr. p. 288.

κοινός. 120 13, 122 14, 148 14, 164 22, 200 7, 210 1 (according to one reading), 236 11, 252 28. Common, mixed, general. Lat. communis. For the meaning ‘in general terms’ cp. de Dinarcho c. 8 λέγω δὲ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐν τῷ καθόλου τρόπῳ, ὡς μηδὲν τούτων κατορθοῦντος, ἀλλ’ ἐν τῷ κοινοτέρῳ καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ.

κολακικός. 236 9. Alluring. Lat. blandus.

κόμμα. 270 15, 276 2. Short clause, phrase. Lat. incisum (Cic. Orat. 62. 211; Quintil. ix. 4. 22). Fr. incise. Cp. Demetr. p. 288; Quintil, ix. 4. 122 “incisum (quantum mea fert opinio) erit sensus non expleto numero conclusus, plerisque pars membri”; C.V. 270 15 κόμματα ... βραχύτερα κώλων. So κομμάτιον 274 14, 276 6. [The terms comma, colon, and period are now specially applied to punctuation.] For illustrations of κῶλα and κόμματα drawn from Cicero see Laurand’s Études p. 128. In de Demosth. c. 39 the adjective κομματικῶς is found: ἀποιήτως δέ πως καὶ ἀφελῶς καὶ τὰ πλείω κομματικῶς (i.e. per brevia commata et incisa) κατεσκευάσθαι βούλεται.

κόπτειν. 132 4, 198 7. To smite upon, to weary. Lat. obtundere. Used in reference to the ear, when it receives ‘hammer-strokes of sound.’

κόρος. 124 18, 132 11, 192 18, 196 18, 252 25. Satiety. Lat. satietas (Cic. Orat. 65. 219). In using this word Dionysius often has in mind Pindar Nem. vii. 52 (κόρον δ’ ἔχει καὶ μέλι καὶ τὰ τέρπν’ ἄνθε’ ἀφροδίσια): a passage which he quotes in Ep. ad Pomp. c. 3.

κορυφή. 248 4. Top, head. Lat. caput. Cp. κορυφαῖος (headman) and ἀκόρυφος (230 31).

κορωνίς. 94 4. Colophon, finis. Lat. coronis. μέχρι κορωνίδος διελθεῖν = ‘usque ad calcem perlegere,’ ‘from title to colophon.’

κρᾶσις. 130 25, 154 10, 220 12. A mixing, blending. Lat. mistura.

κράτιστος. 70 1, 120 18, 134 20, 142 5, 150 10, 160 5, 162 3, 15, 176 15, 196 10, 206 21, 214 16, 250 16, 260 21. Strongest, finest, best. Lat. fortissimus, optimus. It is not always easy to determine in these passages whether the meaning is general or special. But in 162 3 κρατίστοις is opposed to μαλακωτάτοις. When he wishes to be quite explicit, Dionysius can use ἰσχυρός (162 23), or βέλτιστος.

κράτος. 70 5, 72 14, etc. Force, power. Lat. vis, robur.

κρητικός. 174 11, 260 23, 262 9. Cretic. The metrical foot – ᴗ –. For the cretic foot cp. Cic. de Orat. iii. 47. 183 and Or. 64. 218; Quintil. ix. 4. 81, 97, 104, 107. In the Epitome c. 17 the equivalent term ἀμφίμακρος is used instead of κρητικός. For the excessive use in prose of the cretic (as, indeed, of any other distinctly metrical) rhythm cp. Walter C. Summers in Classical Quarterly ii. 173.

κριτήριον. 250 7. Criterion. Lat. iudicium.

κροῦσις. 124 8, 144 1, 268 7. Stroke; note (of an instrument). Lat. pulsus.

κτενίζειν. 264 22. To comb. Lat. pectere. Parallel metaphors from Latin literature are quoted in Larue van Hook’s Metaphorical Terminology of Greek Rhetoric p. 23.

κυκλικός. 174 4. Cyclic. Lat. cyclicus. Goodell (Greek Metric pp. 168 ff.) points out that the much-debated question of ‘cyclic’ or ‘three-timed’ anapaests and dactyls hinges on this passage (174 4), together with part of c. 20 (204 16-206 16). As he says (p. 175 ibid.), “It is clear that Dionysius does not regard even these irrational dactyls as three-timed merely; the nearest approach to that view is in the remark that some are not much longer than trochees. But that implies that even the briefest are somewhat longer than trochees.” Goodell also suggests (p. 181) that κυκλικός in Dionysius corresponds to στρογγύλος in a passage of Aristides Quintilianus. Clearly the elaborate structure of the ‘cyclic dactyl’ cannot stand securely upon so slight a foundation as these statements of Dionysius. See further in Goodell (op. cit.), and also in L. Vernier Traité de métrique grecque et latine c. 14 pp. 169 ff.

κύκλος. 198 6, 212 14, 246 3. A circle, a round. Lat. orbis, ambitus.

κύριος. 84 5, 208 24, 246 11. Accredited, regular, proper. Lat. proprius. Fr. propre (in le mot propre). Cp. D.H. p. 195, Demetr. p. 289; and (in addition to the passages there quoted) Quintil. i. 5. 71 “propria sunt verba, cum id significant, in quod primo denominata sunt: translata, cum alium natura intellectum, alium loco praebent.” The meaning ‘proper,’ ‘literal,’ is well illustrated by 208 24, where κυρίοις (‘used in the ordinary sense’) is opposed to μεταφορικοῖς.

κῶλον. 72 6, 9, 104 9, 110 10, 176 2, 178 6, 7, 194 13, 22, 218 18, 230 16, 234 20, 21, 276 2, 6, 14, 278 6, etc., passim. Member, clause, group of words. Lat. membrum. Fr. membre de phrase. Cp. Demetr. p. 289, and Aristot. Rhet. iii. 9. 5 κῶλον δ’ ἐστὶν τὸ ἕτερον μόριον ταύτης [sc. περιόδου], Quintil. ix. 4. 22 “membra, quae κῶλα (dicuntur),” Long, de Subl. xl. 1 ἡ τῶν μελῶν [this illustrates the metaphor in κῶλον] ἐπισύνθεσις. For the length of the κῶλον cp. Sandys’ Orator of Cicero p. 222 and Laurand’s Études pp. 127-9; and see, generally, A. du Mesnil Über die rhetorischen Kunstformen, Komma, Kolon, Periode.

κωμῳδεῖν. 264 9. To scoff. Lat. iocari, illudere.

λαμβάνειν. 100 26, 104 17, 20, 106 18, 19, 108 2, 5, 8, passim. To take, to employ. Lat. sumere, adhibere.

λεαίνειν. 130 19, 164 12. To smooth, to fall softly on. Lat. polire, mulcere.

λεῖος. 132 1, 154 12, 162 23, 222 5, 228 4, 234 14. Smooth. Lat. levis. So λειότης (douceur) 240 6. Cp. Demetr. de Eloc. § 176 παρὰ δὲ τοῖς μουσικοῖς λέγεταί τι ὄνομα λεῖον, καὶ ἕτερον τὸ τραχύ, καὶ ἄλλο εὐπαγές, καὶ ἄλλ’ ὀγκηρόν. λεῖον μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ὄνομα τὸ διὰ φωνηέντων ἢ πάντων ἢ διὰ πλειόνων, οἷον Αἴας, τραχὺ δὲ οἷον βέβρωκεν.

λεκτικός. 66 7, 96 9. Relating to style or expression. Lat. qui ad elocutionem spectat. ὁ λεκτικὸς τόπος = the province of expression, as distinguished from ὁ πραγματικὸς τόπος.—λεκτικῶς, 258 3, = after the manner of prose.

λέξις. 66 16, 70 3, 11, 14, 74 3, 8, 84 15 (‘passages’), 88 22, 25, 90 4, 110 9, 112 6, passim. Speech or language; utterance; diction; style; word, expression, passage. Lat. dictio, elocutio, verbum s. locutio. For the broad meaning ‘word’ or ‘phrase,’ common in Greek writers of the later periods, cp. 66 16, 124 23, 128 5, 168 10, 202 22, 206 6, 268 19.

λῆρος. 90 20. Trumpery. Lat. ineptiae. Cp. de Demosth. c. 25 καὶ διὰ τῶν λήρων τούτων κοσμεῖ τὴν φράσιν.

λιτός. 76 8. Trifling. Lat. exiguus, humilis. For λιτός = plain, simple, cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 16 ποικίλος καὶ οὐ λιτός.

λογάδην. 210 21. Casually. Lat. fortuito. Dionysius has in mind not selected stones, but stones collected (picked up) as they lie. Cp. Joseph. Antiqq. Iud. iv. 8. 5 (Naber) καὶ βωμὸς εἷς ἐκ λίθων μὴ κατειργασμένων ἀλλὰ λογάδην συγκειμένων (i.e. collecticiis), and Thucyd. iv. 31 καὶ γάρ τι καὶ ἔρυμα αὐτόθι ἦν παλαιὸν λίθων λογάδην πεποιημένον, vi. 66 καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ Δάσκωνι ἔρυμά τι, ᾗ εὐεφοδώτατον ἦν τοῖς πολεμίοις, λίθοις λογάδην καὶ ξύλοις διὰ ταχέων ὤρθωσαν.

λογικός. 146 14. Rational. Lat. rationalis. This passage (θηριώδους γὰρ καὶ ἀλόγου μᾶλλον ἢ λογικῆς ἐφάπτεσθαι δοκεῖ φωνῆς ὁ συριγμός) helps to illustrate the use of λογικός in 130 3 (δεδειγμένης τῆς διαφορᾶς ᾗ διαφέρει μουσικὴ λογικῆς), where singing and ordinary speech (the sounds of music and those of spoken language) are contrasted.

λογογράφος. 158 1. Prose-writer. Lat. solutae orationis scriptor. So perhaps Aristot. Rhet. ii. 11 καὶ ὧν ἔπαινοι καὶ ἐγκώμια λέγονται ἢ ὑπὸ ποιητῶν ἢ λογογράφων, and Thucyd. i. 21 καὶ οὔτε ὡς ποιηταὶ ὑμνήκασι ... οὔτε ὡς λογογράφοι ξυνέθεσαν κτλ.: though in both these passages ‘chroniclers’ may be specially meant. For the meaning ‘professional speech-writer’ cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 12. 2. In C.V. 154 17 συγγραφέων is found in the same sense (‘prose-writers’) as λογογράφοι in 158 1.

λογοείδεια. 272 15. Prose-character. Lat. color prosaicus. Fr. la couleur prosaïque. The word is well explained and illustrated by a scholiast on Hephaestion (Westphal Scriptores Metrici Graeci i. 167): πολιτικὸν δέ ἐστι τὸ ἄνευ πάθους ἢ τρόπου πεποιημένον, οἷον
ἵππους τε ξανθὰς ἑκατὸν καὶ πεντήκοντα [Il. xi. 680],

ὅπερ ταὐτόν ἐστι τῷ λογοειδεῖ.—In Demetr. de Eloc. § 41 τὸ λογικόν is found in the same sense.

λόγος. 64 13, 66 5, 8, 70 10, 72 7, 10, 14, 74 6, 76 2, 84 14, 16, 92 23, 94 2, passim. Discourse, language. Lat. oratio, sermo. Often used of prose, as opposed to poetry: cp. 84 14, 16, 108 11 (λόγοις πεζοῖς), 118 22, 154 2 (λόγοις ψιλοῖς), 166 4, 208 6, 270 17, 272 9, 13, 17, 19, 28, 278 6, 9 (where the meaning probably is ‘a piece of continuous prose’), 280 18; so καὶ ἐν ποιήσει καὶ ἐν λόγοις (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 2. 7; further references in Bonitz’ Index Aristotelicus p. 433). In many passages (e.g. 66 5, 210 8, 218 1, 248 4) ‘writing’ or ‘literature’ (cp. ἡ τῶν λόγων φιλοσοφία = ‘the study of literature,’ Rhet. ad Alex. c. 1) will be a possible modern equivalent, though we must always bear in mind the Greek point of view, that what we call ‘literature’ was something conveyed by the living voice,—something spoken or read aloud.—See also s.v. ἄμετρος p. 287 supra.

Λύδιος. 196 2. Lydian. Lat. Lydius. Cp. Monro’s Modes of Ancient Greek Music, passim.

μαλακός. 132 1, 154 11, 162 3, etc. Soft. Lat. mollis. So μαλθακός 90 20. In some passages (90 20, 170 9) the word suggests the idea of ‘lacking in backbone,’ ‘unmanly,’ ‘effeminate.’ Fr. délicat, or (rather) mou.

μεγαλοπρεπής. 136 12, 166 2, 18, etc. Grand, impressive, splendid. Lat. magnificus. Fr. magnifique. So μεγαλοπρέπεια (la grandeur), 120 22, 164 20.

μέγεθος. 172 11, 174 19. Grandeur, elevation. Lat. magnitudo, sublimitas. Fr. ampleur. Cp. Demetr. p. 292.

μεθαρμόζειν. 112 2. To arrange differently, to re-arrange. Lat. aliter componere.

μειοῦν. 128 18, 152 20. To lessen, to curtail. Lat. minuere. Fr. retrancher. So μείωσις 110 15. The word does not, in the C.V., bear the special sense of extenuare.

μελικός. 130 7, 252 21, 254 21, 278 4. Melodious, lyric. Lat. lyricus. In English ‘lyric’ is a more generally intelligible rendering than ‘melic,’ though less exact. “To the writers of the Alexandrian age, who introduced and gave currency to the expression, ‘lyric’ meant primarily what the name imports—poetry sung to the accompaniment of the lyre.... More appropriate than ‘lyric,’ as an exact and comprehensive designation of all poetry that was sung to a musical accompaniment, is ‘melic,’ the term in vogue among the Greeks of the classic ages,” Weir Smyth Greek Melic Poets pp. xvii, xviii. Apparently the adjectives μελικός and λυρικός are both late.

μελιχρός. 70 2. Honey-sweet. Lat. mellitus. Cp. de Demosth. c. 48 ἔν τε ταῖς μεταβολαῖς τοτὲ μὲν τὸ ἀρχαιοπρεπὲς καὶ αὐστηρόν, τοτὲ δὲ τὸ μελιχρὸν καὶ φιλόκαινον ἐμφαινόμενον.

μέλος. 204 3, limb: 122 24, 126 21 (bis), 194 7, 13, tune, melody: 120 18, 122 11, 130 4, 11, melodious effect, tunefulness: 92 22, 120 26, 126 23, 154 2, 192 21, 194 5, 250 11, 16, 254 5, 8, 15, 272 10, 278 6, 280 18, words set to music, song, aria, chant, lay, lyric. Lat. cantus, carmen, etc. Similarly also μελοποιία 214 3: μελοποιός 194 18, 236 16, 22, 248 13, 270 22, 272 5: μελῳδεῖν 126 18, 128 5: μελῳδία 122 16, 194 8, 196 2.

μερίζειν. 144 22, 220 25. To divide. Lat. distribuere.

μέρος. 68 6, 70 14, 96 1, etc. Part. Lat. pars. τὰ τῆς λέξεως μέρη = ‘the parts of speech,’ 70 14, 96 14, etc. See also μόριον, p. 311.

μέσος. 148 18, 150 11, 210 6, 7, 8, 236 2, 246 10. Middle, intermediate, average. Lat. medius. So μέσως 146 10, and μεσότης 246 15 (bis) (with reference to Aristotle’s use of the word for le juste milieu), 248 11.

μεταβάλλειν. 194 1, 2. To change, to vary. Lat. mutare. As its passive, μετακειμένην 266 1.

μεταβολή. 120 19, 122 12, 124 11, 25, 134 18, 19. Variety. Lat. varietas, diversitas. The object of μεταβολή, as conceived by Dionysius, is to diversify style in order to avoid a monotonous uniformity. Variety is one of the chief essentials of good writing, not only in Greek but in all other languages.

μεταλαμβάνειν. 132 7. To interchange. Lat. commutare.

μεταπτωτικός. 140 20. Variable. Lat. mutabilis. So μεταπίπτειν 96 17, 250 7.

μετασκευή. 104 19, 108 9, 110 16 (e coni. Schaef.), 114 10. Modification. Lat. mutatio. So μετασκευάζειν 110 6. Cp. text in 110 16 with 104 19, 108 9.

μεταφορά. 78 15. Transference, metaphor. “The figure of transport,” Puttenham. Lat. translatio.

μετέωρος. 148 23. Upper. Lat. superior (τοὺς μετεώρους ὀδόντας = dentes superiores).

μετοχή. 72 1. Participle. Lat. participium. Cp. D.H. p. 196.

μετρικός. 140 11, 172 2, 174 22, 176 7, 218 19. Metrical. Lat. metricus. 172 2 and 174 22 οἱ μετρικοί = ‘the metrists,’ ‘the theorists on metre’: cp. οἱ ῥυθμικοί 172 20.

μέτριος. 132 8, 150 9, 214 12, 222 26, 230 22, 234 22, 246 13. Moderate, fair. Lat. aequus.

μέτρον. 74 5, 84 16, 88 6, 8, 92 22, 118 22, 120 26, 172 17, passim. Measure, metre, verse, line. Lat. metrum, versus. In Aristot. Poet. iv. 7 metres are described as sections of rhythm (τὰ γὰρ μέτρα ὅτι μόρια τῶν ῥυθμῶν ἐστι φανερόν): that is, they are ‘measures,’ or ‘verses’; ‘parts of rhythm,’ which is indefinite and never comes to an end—μέτρον being rhythm cut, as it were, into definite lengths (Cope Introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric p. 387). When contrasted with μέλη (cp. Plato Gorg. 502 C τό τε μέλος—‘the music’—καὶ τὸν ῥυθμὸν καὶ τὸ μέτρον), μέτρα seems to denote the non-lyrical metres generally (hexameters, iambic trimeters, etc.): see 92 22, 120 26, 192 21, and especially 270 18-23.

μῆκος. 150 22, 154 6, 204 2, 224 15, 264 4. Length. Lat. longitudo. So μηκύνειν (to lengthen) 132 7, 152 24, 224 8, 13, 246 8. In 246 8 (and also in 276 9, where P gives μηκύνειν and MV give μηκύνειν τὸν λόγον) μηκύνειν is used absolutely (= μακρηγορεῖν: cp. Aristoph. Lys. 1131 πόσους εἴποιμ’ ἂν ἄλλους, εἴ με μηκύνειν δέοι;). In 132 7 the meaning is ‘to prolong, or continue, in the same case with similar terminations’: just as Dionysius himself, inadvertently no doubt, repeats -ων in 132 9, 10.

μῖγμα. 208 18. Mixture, blend. Lat. mistura. Cp. μῖξις 130 25, 166 9; and also D.H. p. 197. It is possible that Dionysius may have written μεῖγμα, as in earlier Greek: in Ep. ad Pomp. c. 2 it is to be noticed that the manuscripts give δεῖγμα, where the sense clearly calls for μεῖγμα.

μικρόκομψος. 90 20. Affected, finical. Lat. bellulus.

μικρολογία. 266 11. Trifling, pettiness. Lat. rerum minutarum cura. In Theophrastus’ Characters the word is used of attention to trifles on the part of the mean or parsimonious man. Cp. also Demetr. p. 293, s.v. μικρολογεῖν.

μικρόφωνος. 142 9. Small-voiced, non-resonant. Lat. qui vocem habet exiguam, sonum exiliorem.

μίμημα. 160 2. Imitation. Lat. imitamentum. [F.’s reading here is μηνύματα, ‘expressions which indicate’: cp. de Demosth. c. 51 init.]

μιμητικός. 158 4, 11, 200 11. Imitative. Lat. ad imitandum aptus. So μιμητικῶς 202 1.

μνημεῖον. 266 7. Memorial. Lat. monumentum.

μολοττός. 172 1, 184 4. Molossus. Lat. molossus. The metrical foot – – –.

μονογράμματος. 152 20. Consisting of a single letter. Lat. qui unius est litterae.

μονόμετρος. 270 23. Consisting of one metre. Lat. monometer. Applicable to poems, like the Iliad and the Aeneid, which are written throughout in a single metre.

μονοσύλλαβος. 168 11, 202 14. Monosyllabic. Lat. monosyllabus.

μόριον. 70 10, 96 3, 98 6, 106 11, 12, passim. Part, especially part of speech. Lat. pars, pars orationis. The meaning ‘part of speech’ appears in such passages as ποῖον ὄνομα ἢ ῥῆμα ἢ τῶν ἄλλων τι μορίων (106 12), τὰ μόρια τοῦ λόγου (110 1), ἓν μόριον λόγου (126 7), πᾶν ὄνομα καὶ ῥῆμα καὶ ἄλλο μόριον λέξεως (168 10). ‘Words’ simply might serve as a rendering in many cases, except that it is usually well to preserve Dionysius’ idea of ‘words in their syntactical relations,’ ‘words in a sentence.’ In 232 18 the meaning may be ‘in every word’: so 130 7, 134 25, 220 3, 222 10, 224 11.

μοῦσα. 126 16, 252 20. Music, melody. Lat. musica concinnitas. So μουσική 124 20, 128 18; ὁ μουσικός 138 6.

μυγμός. 138 10. A moaning, muttering, murmur, humming. Lat. gemitus. Cp. Demetr. p. 294, and Aesch. Eum. 117, 120.

μύκημα. 158 13. Bellowing. Lat. mugitus.

νεαρός. 66 16, 246 5. Youthful. Lat. iuvenilis. Cp. note on μειρακιώδης in D.H. p. 196.

νήτη. 210 7. Lowest note. Lat. ima chorda. See L. & S. s.v. νεάτη.

νόημα. 66 5, 74 16, 84 6, 92 17, 112 15, 264 16. Idea. Lat. sententia. Cp. νόησις (thought, perception) 74 3, 268 9; and D.H. p. 197.

νοῦς. 212 15, 276 1, 8. Meaning. Lat. sententia. Fr. sens, pensée.

ξένος. 78 17, 252 24, 272 11. Foreign, strange, unfamiliar. Lat. peregrinus, inusitatus, arcessitus. Cp. D.H. p. 197, Demetr. p. 294, and Classical Review xviii. 20 (as to ξενικός).

οἰκεῖος. 110 13, 126 1, 134 20, 140 12, 154 19, 158 2, 168 7. Akin, appropriate, fitting. Lat. cognatus, domesticus, decorus. So οἰκείως 72 8, 118 14, 134 10: οἰκειότης 122 21, 240 7: οἰκειοῦν 122 17. If the metaphors are to be fully pressed, we might render οἰκεῖα καὶ φίλα in 110 13 by ‘to seem loving members of the same family,’ and οἰκείως in 118 14 by ‘in harmony with their inner significance.’ In 122 21 οἰκειότης is ‘a natural inclination or instinct.’ On 122 17 there is the following scholium in M: οἰκειοῦται ἀντὶ τοῦ εὐσταθῶς ἥδεται. In 126 1 τὸ οἰκεῖον (appropriateness) seems almost to stand for τὸ πρέπον and to be an illustration of Dionysius’ own love for variety. It is this unusually copious vocabulary of his that does much to relieve the dull monotony of a technical treatise. “In the works of Dionysius, the great representative of a later school of criticism [sc. than that of Aristotle], we meet for the first time a wealth of rhetorical terminology. In his numerous writings we find freely used a fully developed vocabulary, which is completely adequate for the purposes of the professional rhetorician and the broad literary critic” (Larue van Hook Metaphorical Terminology, etc. p. 8).

οἰκονομεῖν. 176 18. To manage. Lat. administrare, tractare. So οἰκονομία 264 16. Cp. Aristot. Poet. xiii. 6 καὶ ὁ Εὐριπίδης, εἰ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα μὴ εὖ οἰκονομεῖ, ἀλλὰ τραγικώτατός γε τῶν ποιητῶν φαίνεται: Long. de Subl. i. 4 καὶ τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων τάξιν καὶ οἰκονομίαν: Quintil. Inst. Or. iii. 3. 9 “oeconomiae, quae Graece appellata ex cura rerum domesticarum et hic per abusionem posita nomine Latino caret.”

ὀλιγοσύλλαβος. 132 3. Consisting of few syllables. Lat. qui paucis constat syllabis.

ὀλιγοσύνδεσμος. 212 21. Sparing in connectives. Lat. qui paucis utitur convinctionibus.

ὁμογενής. 146 10, 148 9. Of the same race or family. Lat. congener. Cp. ὁμοιογενής (of like kind) 72 24, 132 19, 156 15; also ἀνομοιογενής 132 19.

ὁμοειδής. 192 18, 198 6, 270 19. Of the same species or kind. Lat. uniformis. So ὁμοείδεια 274 1. Cp. Cic. ad Att. ii. 6 “etenim γεωγραφικά quae constitueram magnum opus est ... et hercule sunt res difficiles ad explicandum et ὁμοειδεῖς nec tam possunt ἀνθηρογραφεῖσθαι quam videbantur.”

ὁμοζυγία. 176 13, 254 17. Connexion, affinity. Lat. coniugatio.

ὁμοιοσχήμων. 270 16. Like in shape. Lat. forma consimilis.

ὁμοιότονος. 132 6. Similarly accented. Lat. qui similis est toni.

ὁμοιόχρονος. 132 6 (bis). Of like quantity. Lat. qui similia habet tempora.

ὁμότονος. 128 7. Of the same pitch or accent. Lat. eiusdem toni s. accentus.

ὁμόφωνος. 128 9. With the same note. Lat. eiusdem chordae s. soni.

ὄνομα. 66 5, 70 9, 13, 20, 74 12, 84 6 passim. Word, noun. Lat. vocabulum, nomen. In 168 10, 264 5, etc., the meaning is ‘noun’; in 264 3, etc., ‘word.’

ὀνομασία. 74 17, 234 5, 252 23, 274 2. Wording, naming, language. Lat. elocutio, appellatio. Cp. Rhet. ad Alex. c. 27 ἀντίθετον μὲν οὖν ἐστι τὸ ἐναντίαν τὴν ὀνομασίαν ἅμα καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τοῖς ἀντικειμένοις ἔχον, ἢ τὸ ἕτερον τούτων: Aristot. Poet. vi. 18 λέγω δέ, ὥσπερ πρότερον εἴρηται, λέξιν εἶναι τὴν διὰ τῆς ὀνομασίας ἑρμηνείαν: Dionys. Hal. de Demosth. cc. 18, 34, 40: Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 91, 304.

ὀνοματικά, τά. 70 18, 102 16, 17, 132 7. Nouns substantive. Lat. nomina substantiva.

ὀξύς. 126 5, 8, 10, 128 6, 8. Acute (accent), high (pitch). Lat. acutus. So ὀξύτης 126 14. Cp. s.v. βαρύς, p. 292 supra. In Aristot. Poet. c. 20 ὀξύτητι καὶ βαρύτητι καὶ τῷ μέσῳ = ‘according as they [the letters] are acute, grave, or of an intermediate tone.’

ὀξύτονος. 128 9. With high pitch or acute accent. Lat. qui acutum tonum s. accentum habet.

ὅρασις. 118 24. Seeing, the act of sight. Lat. visus.

ὄργανον. 122 25, 124 4, 22. Musical instrument. Lat. instrumentum. So the adjective ὀργανικός (instrumental) in 124 16, 126 16.

ὀρθός. 106 19. Nominative. Lat. rectus (casus): viz. ‘uninflected.’ In 102 19 ‘primary,’ as opposed to ‘secondary’; in 108 3 ‘active,’ as opposed to ‘passive.’ In 258 25 and 262 5 the meaning is ‘correct’; in 90 6 perhaps ‘tense’ (see the exx. given in L. & S. under the heading ‘excited’), the opposite of ὕπτιος (supinus).

ὁρίζειν. 132 22, 166 1, 234 21. To define, to limit. Lat. definire.

ὅρος. 182 13, 200 25, 210 5. Standard, condition, boundary. Lat. regula, condicio, finis. With the sense norma et regula in 182 13 cp. Long. de Subl. xxxii. 1 ὁ γὰρ Δημοσθένης ὅρος καὶ τῶν τοιούτων, Dionys. H. de Demosth. c. 1 ἧς (λέξεως) ὅρος καὶ κανὼν ὁ Θουκυδίδης.

οὐδέτερος. 106 21. Neuter. Lat. qui neutri generis est. Cp. D.H. p. 198.

οὐρανός. 142 12, 144 19, 150 6, 220 23. Palate. Lat. palatum. In the margin of R (with reference to 142 12) there is the note: τὴν ὑπερῴαν φησίν. This sense of οὐρανός is found several times in Aristotle (see Bonitz’ Index), and not (as has sometimes been supposed) for the first time in Dionysius. Cp. the converse caeli palatum in Ennius apud Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 18. 48 “sed dum, palato quid sit optimum, iudicat [Epicurus], caeli palatum (ut ait Ennius) non suspexit.”

οὐσία. 98 8. Substance, essence. Lat. substantia.

ὄχλησις. 132 17. Annoyance, disgust. Lat. molestia.

ὄψις. 162 1, 14, 234 9. Appearance, visage. Lat. vultus, aspectus.

πάθος. 66 15, 88 12, 110 23, 112 5, 122 15, passim. Feeling, experience, emotion, affection, passion. Lat. affectus (Quintil. vi. 2. 8), animi motus (Cic. de Or. i. 5. 17), perturbatio (id. Tusc. iv. 5. 10). Cp. D.H. pp. 198, 199.—In 154 5, 268 18 πάθη = ‘properties,’ ‘modifications,’ ‘differences.’

παιάν. 184 3, 260 23, 262 9. Paeon. Lat. paeon. The metrical foot so called, consisting of three short syllables and one long in four possible orders—(1) –ᴗᴗᴗ, (2) ᴗ–ᴗᴗ, (3) ᴗᴗ–ᴗ, (4) ᴗᴗᴗ–. These four varieties are sometimes called the first, second, third, and fourth paeon respectively. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 4-6, Cic. de Orat. iii. 47. 183, Quintil. ix. 4. 47; and see Demetr. p. 296, s.v. παιών. Demetrius (§§ 38, 39) refers to two varieties only: cp. the note on 182 22 supra.

παιδεία. 64 11, 262 20. Culture. Lat. doctrina, humanitas.

πανηγυρικός. 228 7, 246 7. Festal, panegyrical. Lat. panegyricus. With the notion of ornate: cp. de Demosth. c. 8 (διάλεκτον) μεγαλοπρεπῆ λιτήν, περιττὴν ἀπέριττον, ἐξηλλαγμένην συνήθη, πανηγυρικὴν ἀληθινήν, αὐστηρὰν ἱλαράν, σύντονον ἀνειμένην, ἡδεῖαν πικράν, ἠθικὴν παθητικήν.

παραβολή. 232 15. Meeting, juxtaposition. Lat. concursus.

παράγγελμα. 270 3, 282 2, 7. Rule, precept. Lat. artis praeceptum. Cp. Long. de Subl. c. 2 τεχνικὰ παραγγέλματα, c. 6 ὡς εἰπεῖν ἐν παραγγέλματι (‘if I must speak in the way of precept’). So παραγγέλλειν 132 16, 268 11 (cp. de Lysia c. 24 ταῦτα μὲν δὴ παραγγέλλουσι ποιεῖν οἱ τεχνογράφοι), and παραγγελματικός 214 9 (= plenus praeceptis, doctrinis, regulis).

παράδειγμα. 92 5, 136 2, 152 3, 214 6, 232 23, 240 24, etc. Instance. Lat. exemplum. τὰ παραδείγματα is often used of appropriate (perhaps customary, or stock) examples: cp. de Isocr. cc. 10, 15, de Demosth. cc. 13 (middle), 53, and contrast de Lysia c. 34 and de Demosth. cc. 13 (end), 20.

παραδιώκειν. 206 13. To hurry along. Lat. abripere. Cp. the use of συνδεδιωγμένον in Long. de Subl. c. 21, and of κατεσπευσμένα c. 19 ibid.—Usener adopts, in this passage, his own conjecture παραμεμιγμένας.

παράθεσις. 130 25, 154 11, 166 9, etc. Placing. Lat. collocatio.

παρακεκινδυνευμένος. 234 16. Daring, bold, venturesome. Lat. audax (as in Hor. Carm. iv. 2. 10). Fr. aventuré. Cp. Aristoph. Ran. 99 τοιουτονί τι παρακεκινδυνευμένον, | αἰθέρα Διὸς δωμάτιον, ἢ χρόνου πόδα: and see s.v. ἐπικίνδυνος p. 299 supra. The word is used also in de Lys. c. 13, de Isocr. c. 13, Ep. ad Pomp. c. 2.

παρακολουθεῖν. 108 6, 130 26, 136 12. To accompany. Lat. accidere, consequi.

παραλαμβάνειν. 144 14, 172 12, 260 2, 264 14. To introduce, to employ. Lat. assumere, adhibere.

παραλλαγή. 152 8, 15, 22. Divergence. Lat. discrimen, permutatio.

παραπλήρωμα. 116 3, 166 17. Supplement, expletive. Lat. explementum, complementum. Cp. Cic. Or. 69. 230 “apud alios autem et Asiaticos maxime numero servientes inculcata reperias inania quaedam verba quasi complementa numerorum”; and also Demetr. p. 296, s.v. παραπληρωματικός. The word occurs elsewhere in Dionysius: de Isocr. c. 3, de Demosth. cc. 19, 39.

παρατιθέναι. 104 1. To bring forward, to cite. Lat. apponere, in medium adducere.

παραυξάνειν (παραύξειν). 128 19, 152 18. To lengthen, to augment. Lat. augere.

παρέκτασις. 154 21. Prolongation. Lat. extensio.

παρεμφαίνειν. 108 5. To hint at, to indicate. Lat. obiter indicare. Cp. Demetr. p. 297.

παρεμφατικός. 102 20. Indicative. Lat. indicativus. Cp. ἀπαρέμφατος p. 289 supra.

παρέργως. 100 25. By the way, cursorily. Lat. obiter.

παρθενωπός. 234 15. Of maiden aspect. Lat. qui virgineo vultu est. The word seems to occur elsewhere only in Eurip. El. 948 ἀλλ’ ἔμοιγ’ εἴη πόσις | μὴ παρθενωπός, ἀλλὰ τἀνδρείου τρόπου [Gilbert Murray: “Ah, that girl-like face! | God grant not that, not that, but some plain grace | Of manhood to the man who brings me love”]. Cp. Cic. Orat. 19. 64 “nihil iratum habet [oratio philosophorum], nihil invidum, nihil atrox, nihil miserabile, nihil astutum; casta, verecunda, virgo incorrupta quodam modo.”

πάρισος. 116 8, 212 7, 246 6. Parallel in structure. Lat. qui constat similibus membris. Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 9. 9 παρίσωσις δ’ ἐὰν ἴσα τὰ κῶλα, παρομοίωσις δ’ ἐὰν ὅμοια τὰ ἔσχατα ἔχῃ ἑκάτερον τὸ κῶλον (where ὅμοια τὰ ἔσχατα indicates final letters that rhyme).

παριστάναι. 154 19. To represent, to describe. Lat. depingere. Cp. Long. p. 282.

παρόμοιος. 212 8, 246 6. Parallel in sound. Lat. qui constat similibus sonis.

παχύτης. 184 21. Stupidity, fat-headedness. Lat. stupor, ingenium crassum. Cp. D.H. p. 200, s.v. παχύς.

πεζός. 70 3, 76 2, 80 3, 108 11, etc. In prose, prosaic. Lat. pedester. πεζὴ λέξις, πεζὴ διάλεκτος, πεζὸς λόγος, πεζοὶ λόγοι = oratio soluta. Cp. Quintil. x. 1. 81 “multum enim supra prosam orationem et quam pedestrem Graeci vocant surgit [Plato].” In 120 27 the metaphor seems still to be strongly felt—‘marching on foot,’ ‘pedestrian.’

πειθώ. 84 11. Persuasiveness. Lat. persuadendi vis.

πεῖρα. 66 14, 102 21, 256 5, etc. Experience. Lat. experientia.

πεντάμετρος. 256 23. Consisting of five metrical feet. Lat. pentameter.

πεντάχρονος. 262 9. Consisting of five times. Lat. qui constat temporibus quinque. See s.v. χρόνοι p. 333 infra.

πεποιημένος. 78 17, 252 24. Invented, original, newly-coined. Lat. factus, novatus (Cic. de Orat. iii. 38. 154; i. 34. 155). Fr. forgé tout exprès. Cp. Aristot. Poet. xxi. 9; Demetr. p. 297; Quintil. viii. 6. 32 “vix illa, quae πεποιημένα vocant, quae ex vocibus in usum receptis quocunque modo declinantur, nobis permittimus, qualia sunt Sullaturit et proscripturit.”

περιβόητος. 180 7. Notorious, celebrated. Lat. decantatus, celebratus.

περίοδος. 72 7, 10, 104 10, 116 2, etc. Period. Lat. periodus, comprehensio, verborum ambitus, etc. See Demetr. p. 298 for various references and equivalents, and also p. 323 (Index); Sandys’ Orator p. 217; Laurand’s Études pp. 126, 128.—According to Dionysius, the period should not be used to excess [see n. on 118 15]. Another weakness of the periodic construction is elsewhere noted by him: τοῦτο δὲ [sc. τὸ παθητικὸν] ἥκιστα δέχεται περίοδος (de Isocr. c. 2).

περισπασμός. 128 10. The circumflex accent. Lat. circumflexio, accentus circumflexus. Cp. περισπωμένας 126 11: ‘drawn around,’ ‘twisted,’ ‘circumflexed.’ Aristotle denotes the circumflex accent by the term ‘middle’: ἔστιν δὲ αὐτὴ μὲν ἐν τῇ φωνῇ, πῶς αὐτῇ δεῖ χρῆσθαι πρὸς ἕκαστον πάθος, οἷον πότε μεγάλῃ καὶ πότε μικρᾷ καὶ μέσῃ, καὶ πῶς τοῖς τόνοις, οἷον ὀξείᾳ καὶ βαρείᾳ καὶ μέσῃ, καὶ ῥυθμοῖς τίσι πρὸς ἕκαστα (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1. 4).

περιστέλλειν. 142 16. To contract, to pucker up. Lat. contrahere.

περιττός. 74 13, 84 8, 182 4, 7. Extraordinary, richly wrought; exceedingly good, unsurpassed. Lat. excellens, curiosus, elaboratus. Cp. Long. de Subl. xl. 2 (where the word is opposed to κοινὸς καὶ δημώδης), iii. 4, xxxv. 3. See also de Isocr. c. 3, de Demosth. cc. 8, 56, Ep. ad Pomp. c. 2 (περιττολογία): also Demetr. p. 298 (περισσοτεχνία).

περιφανής. 244 18. Seen on every side. Lat. conspicuus. So περιφάνεια 210 17, 234 2 (‘so that each word should admit an all-round view of it’).—PMV give περιφανές (not περιφερές) in 246 3.

περιφερής. 206 15, 230 31, 246 3. Circular, rounded. Lat. rotundus. Cp. [Dionys. Hal.] Ars Rhet. x. 13 τὰ στρογγύλα καὶ τὰ περιφερῆ λέγειν προοίμια. In Demetr. de Eloc. § 13 περιφερεῖς στέγαι = vaulted roofs.

πεφυκέναι (c. infin.). 66 16, 70 3, 104 16, etc. To have a gift for, a liking for. Lat. solere, amare.

πεφυλαγμένως. 148 1. Guardedly. Lat. caute. The word is used in the Attic period by Xenophon and Isocrates.

πιέζειν. 144 21, 148 16, 220 18, 230 12. To close tight, to compress. Lat. comprimere.

πιθανός. 98 17, 20, 100 17, 120 21. Attractive, plausible. Lat. probabilis, verisimilis.

πικρός. 232 15. Bitter, harsh. Lat. acerbus. So πικραίνειν 130 19, 154 13, 216 17.

πίνος. 120 23, 136 16, 212 24, 236 8. Mellowing deposit, tinge of antiquity, flavour of archaism. Lat. antiquitas, antiquitas impexa (Tac. Dial. c. 20), nitor obsoletus (Auct. ad Her. iv. 4. 46). There is a suggestion of négligé or abandon about the word, but on the whole it is not uncomplimentary: cp. Ep. ad Pomp. c. 2 ὅ τε πίνος ὁ τῆς ἀρχαιότητος ἠρέμα αὐτῇ καὶ λεληθότως ἐπιτρέχει, and de Demosth. c. 38 ἀλλ’ [ἵνα] ἐπανθῇ τις αὐταῖς χνοῦς ἀρχαιοπινὴς καὶ χάρις ἀβίαστος. The compound εὐπίνεια is found in Long. de Subl. xxx. 1. There is a scholium (preserved in M) on 120 23, which is, unfortunately, vague and uncertain: πῖνος κυρίως ὁ ῥύπος, ἀφ’ οὗ πιναρὰ ῥάκη. λέγεται δὲ καὶ τὸ ἐπανθοῦν τισὶ χνοῶδες ὡς ἐπὶ μήλων καὶ ἀπίων. ἀπὸ τούτου καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἐπιφαινόμενον αὐτῷ ἐν τῇ συνθήκῃ τῆς λέξεως ποιὸν πίνον ὀνομάζει. ἔστι δὲ πῖνος καὶ ὄνομα τόπου.

πλάγιος. 106 20. Oblique. Lat. obliquus (casus).

πλανᾶσθαι. 254 16, 270 18. To wander, to be irregular. Lat. vagari. Used in reference to vague, elastic metre. So περιπεπλανημένα μέτρα in de Demosth. c. 50.

πλάσμα. 90 6, 118 24. Cast, form. Lat. imago, forma dicendi. Cp. Ep. ad Pomp. c. 4 ὕψος δὲ καὶ κάλλος καὶ μεγαλοπρέπειαν καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον ἰδίως πλάσμα ἱστορικὸν Ἡρόδοτος ἔχει (viz. “elevation, beauty, stateliness, and what is specifically called the ‘historical vein’”); Long. de Subl. xv. 8 ποιητικὸν τοῦ λόγου καὶ μυθῶδες τὸ πλάσμα (the ‘form’). In de Demosth. c. 34 πλάσμα seems to have the same meaning as χαρακτῆρ in c. 33 ibid. [The musical meaning of moulded delivery, modulation does not emerge in the C.V.]

πλάστης. 264 2. Modeller, in clay or wax. Lat. fictor.

πλάτος. 210 9, 212 1, 246 19. Breadth. Lat. latitudo. So πλατύς 244 18. In 210 9 the meaning is, ‘belongs to the class of ideas which are regarded with a wide indefiniteness.’ So in Latin platice = πλατικῶς = ‘broadly,’ ‘generally’: cp. Usener Rhein. Mus. xxiv. 311. See also under ἀπαρτίζειν, p. 289 supra.

πλεονάζειν. 146 13, 214 12. To exceed due bounds. Lat. redundare. So πλεονασμός, redundantia, 110 15.

πληγή. 142 4, 16, 144 5. Stroke, impact. Lat. ictus, percussio.

πληθυντικῶς. 106 18. In the plural number. Lat. pluraliter.

πλοκή. 72 5, 130 22, 166 9. Combination. Lat. copulatio.

πλούσιος. 92 18. Rich. Lat. opulentus. The word is contrasted with πτωχός (92 17), beggarly, mendicus: for which cp. the expression τῇ λέξει πτωχεύειν in the passage quoted, from Chrysostom, under ἀπαγγελία p. 288 supra.

πνίγειν. 142 18. To stifle, to smother. Lat. suffocare.

ποίημα. 76 10, 78 5, 100 23, 154 2, 166 4, 192 8, 250 10, 16, 254 4, 7, 272 14. Poem; line of a poem (in this sense, more commonly στίχος or ἔπος). Lat. poëma, versus. So ποιεῖν 208 9, ‘to write poetry,’ and ποιητής 74 8 (but in 214 16 ποιηταί means ‘writers’ generally: cp. de Demosth. c. 37 παρ’ οὐδενὶ οὔτε ἐμμέτρων οὔτε πεζῶν ποιητῇ λόγων). ποίημα sometimes refers specially to epic and dramatic poetry (in contrast to song-poetry). In 64 10 the meaning is ‘product’ simply. For ‘poetry’ ποίησις is found: 214 1, 2, 252 24, 270 21, 274 7, 276 10.

ποιητικός. 70 2, 4, 108 11, 206 20, 208 8, 19, 252 20, 23, 29, etc. Poetical. Lat. poëticus. In 136 11 the meaning is ‘productive of.’

ποικιλία. 130 13, 192 18, 196 17, 25, 198 5. Variety, decoration. Lat. varietas. So ποικίλλειν 132 13, 192 20, 196 9; and ποικίλος 110 11, 154 19, 160 10, etc. ποικίλος may be rendered by such adjectives as ‘elaborate,’ ‘curious,’ ‘laborious,’ ‘multifarious,’ ‘kaleidoscopic,’ ‘ever-varying.’

πολιτικός. 64 15, 72 17, 124 21, 130 10, 214 1, 5, 254 25, 266 7, 272 20. Civil, parliamentary, political, public. Lat. civilis. See D.H. p. 203 for an explanatory note on πολιτικός. In 72 17, P has ῥητορικοῖς ἀνδράσι, which is an unlikely periphrasis for ῥήτορσι (104 8), but may well indicate the general meaning of πολιτικοῖς ἀνδράσι: cp. de Demosth. c. 23 ταῦτα δὲ πολιτικοῖς καὶ ῥήτορσιν ἀνδράσι μελήσει. Compare generally, in Aristot. Poet. c. vi., the words τῆς πολιτικῆς καὶ ῥητορικῆς ἔργον ἐστίν, and οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀρχαῖοι πολιτικῶς ἐποίουν λέγοντας, οἱ δὲ νῦν ῥητορικῶς.

πολύμετρος. 272 5. Of many measures or metres. Lat. qui multis constat metris.

πολύμορφος. 160 12. Of many forms. Lat. multiformis. Cp. πολυειδής 196 25, πολυειδῶς 270 11.

πολυπραγμονεῖν. 264 6. To bother about. Lat. summa cura elaborare.

πολυσύλλαβος. 126 14, 132 5. With many syllables. Lat. qui syllabis pluribus constat.

πολύφωνος. 160 23. Of many voices. Lat. qui multas voces emittit. Used of the variety of tones in Homer’s ‘composition.’ In the de Sublim. c. xxxiv. the term is applied to Hypereides, who οὐ πάντα ἑξῆς καὶ μονοτόνως [i.e. at one sustained high pitch] ὡς ὁ Δημοσθένης λέγει.

πούς. 86 1, 168 12, 172 20, 174 22, 24, 178 7, 184 1, 256 9, 12, 258 19, 260 3. Metrical foot. Lat. pes. τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ καλῶ πόδα καὶ ῥυθμόν 168 11. Aristoxenus, Ῥυθμικὰ στοιχεῖα ii. 16, writes: ᾧ σημαινόμεθα τὸν ῥυθμὸν καὶ γνώριμον ποιοῦμεν τῇ αἰσθήσει, πούς ἐστιν εἷς ἢ πλείους. Cope (Introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric p. 383) thinks that Dionysius neglects the important distinction between βάσις, the unit of rhythm, and πούς, the unit of metre. Goodell (Greek Metric p. 47) thus paraphrases a passage of Marius Victorinus (p. 44 K.): “Between foot and ‘rhythmus’ there is this difference, that a foot cannot exist without rhythm, but a ‘rhythmus’ moves rhythmically without being divisible into feet.” [It is this kind of ‘rhythmus’ that counts in rhythmical prose.]

πραγματεία. 68 8, 14, 17, 70 8, etc. Inquiry, treatise, work. Lat. studium, commentatio, opus. So πραγματεύεσθαι 106 5, 10, 140 22, 268 7.

πραγματικός. 66 6. Pertaining to subject matter or invention. Lat. negotialis. Cp. Quintil. iii. 7. 1 “a parte negotiali, hoc est πραγματικῇ.” The πραγματικὸς τόπος (“tractatio rerum et sententiarum”) covers subject matter, things, thoughts; the λεκτικὸς τόπος includes expression, form, style.

πραΰς. 162 5, 244 21. Gentle. Lat. lenis. Cp. Demetr. p. 299.

πρέπον, τό. 120 19, 122 13, 124 11, 136 12, 198 13, 14. Propriety, appropriateness, fitness. Lat. decorum. Fr. la convenance. Cp. Cic. Orat. 21. 70 “ut enim in vita, sic in oratione nihil est difficilius quam quid deceat videre. πρέπον appellant hoc Graeci; nos dicamus sane decorum; de quo praeclare et multa praecipiuntur et res est cognitione dignissima: huius ignoratione non modo in vita, sed saepissime et in poëmatis et in oratione peccatur.” The Greek rhetoricians drew the term from the language of ethics. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 7. 1 τὸ δὲ πρέπον ἕξει ἡ λέξις, ἐὰν ᾖ παθητική τε καὶ ἠθικὴ καὶ τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις πράγμασιν ἀνάλογον. So πρεπώδης 106 17.

πριάπειος. 86 8. Priapean: as a metrical term. Lat. Priapeius. Effeminate and ribald verse, written in honour of Priapus, and involving a mutilation of the heroic line.

προέκθεσις. 242 2. A prefatory account. Lat. expositio antea data.

πρόθεσις. 70 21, 108 16, 220 6. Preposition. Lat. praepositio.

πρόνοια. 184 16, 186 1. Deliberation. Lat. consilium.

προοίμιον. 224 24, 252 3. Introduction. Lat. exordium.

προπετής. 244 22. Flowing. Lat. volubilis, profluens.

προσαγόρευσις. 260 22. Address. Lat. allocutio, compellatio.

προσερανίζειν. 116 4. To augment. Lat. cumulare. The period in question has been aided (so to say) by the alms of expletives. For the metaphor cp. συνερανιζόμενα de Isocr. c. 3 and ἔρανον de Imitat. B. vi. 2.

προσερείδειν. 148 22. To drive against. Lat. impingere, allidere. In 220 24 προσανίστασθαι is similarly used of ‘rising against.’

προσεχής. 84 6. Obvious, natural, allied, appropriate. Lat. proximus, cognatus (cum re coniunctus). In 258 24 the sense is ‘adjoining.’

προσηγορικός. 70 17, 102 17, 18, 218 6, 11, 220 7, 16, 222 24, 230 1. Appellative. Lat. appellativus. ὄνομα προσηγορικόν = common noun, Lat. nomen appellativum. It would appear from Dionysius Thrax (Ars Grammatica p. 23 Uhlig) that ὄνομα might include προσηγορία (= ὄνομα προσηγορικόν), while προσηγορία could cover participles (μετοχαί) and adjectives (ἐπίθετα) as well as common nouns. But the strict division is that of proper names and general terms, as given by Dionysius Thrax (ibid. pp. 33, 34): κύριον μὲν οὖν ἐστι τὸ τὴν ἰδίαν οὐσίαν, σημαῖνον, οἷον Ὅμηρος, Σωκράτης. προσηγορικὸν δέ ἐστι τὸ τὴν κοινὴν οὐσίαν σημαῖνον, οἷον ἄνθρωπος, ἵππος. In such passages as 222 24 and 230 1 ‘adjective’ would be an appropriate modern rendering. Quintil. i. 4. 21 “vocabulum an appellatio dicenda sit προσηγορία et subicienda nomini necne, quia parvi refert, liberum opinaturis relinquo.” In 272 25 προσηγορία = appellation.

προσίστασθαι. 132 8. To offend. Lat. obstrepere. Cp. de Isocr. c. 2 προσιστάμενος ταῖς ἀκοαῖς, c. 14 ibid. τῷ γὰρ μὴ ἐν καιρῷ γίνεσθαι, μηδ’ ἐν ὥρᾳ, προσίστασθαί φημι ταῖς ἀκοαῖς, Antiqq. Rom. i. 8 μονοειδεῖς γὰρ ἐκεῖναί τε καὶ ταχὺ προσιστάμεναι (= cito offendunt) τοῖς ἀκούουσιν.

προσκατασκευάζειν. 110 14 (v.l. προκατασκευάζειν). To model further, remodel. Lat. insuper instruere.

προσοδιακός. 86 3. Processional: see n. ad loc.

προσῳδία. 128 12, 196 17, 268 20. Accent. Lat. accentus. The word is defined in 196 17 τάσεις φωνῆς αἱ καλούμεναι προσῳδίαι. See further s.v. τόνος p. 329 infra, and compare Bywater Aristotle on the Art of Poetry p. 336 “προσῳδία with Aristotle comprises accent, breathing, and quantity—all the elements in the spoken word which in the ancient mode of writing were left to be supplied by the reader.” The symbols used in accentuation are supposed to have been introduced by Aristophanes of Byzantium, if not by some still earlier scholar, in order to recall to Greeks and teach foreign learners the true intonation of the language, which was in danger of being corrupted and forgotten when the Greek world grew vast and came to include so many foreign elements.

πρόσωπον. 160 18, 198 23. Person, character. Lat. persona. Cp. Demetr. p. 300.

πτῶσις. 106 20, 108 4, 132 7, 212 20, 264 4. Grammatical case. Lat. casus. ‘Verbal cases’ are mentioned in 108 4; in Aristotle the term πτῶσις includes inflexions in general.

πυρρίχιος. 168 17. Pyrrhic. Lat. pyrrhichius. The metrical foot ᴗ ᴗ.

ῥῆμα. 70 13, 21, 168 10, 218 6, 7, 264 5. Verb. Lat. verbum. So ῥηματικός 108 4 (verbal), 220 17 (verbal form).

ῥήτωρ. 74 8, 132 22, 166 12, 200 14, 206 25, 218 21, 236 20, 242 7, 248 15. Orator, rhetorician. Lat. orator, rhetor. As in English we have no similarly two-sided word, it is often hard to decide between the renderings, ‘speaker’ and ‘teacher of speaking.’ So ῥητορικός 68 9, 254 25, 262 20.

ῥοῖζος. 138 10. A whizzing. Lat. stridor.

ῥυθμίζειν. 180 13. To bring into rhythm, to scan. Lat. scandere. Cp. the use of βαίνειν and διαιρεῖν.

ῥυθμός. 120 18, 122 12, 124 6, 9, passim. Rhythm, harmonious movement of speech. Lat. numerus. For le nombre oratoire in Cicero (whose prose, however, like Roman prose generally, must not be taken to follow exclusively Attic standards) see Laurand’s Études pp. 109-11, and cp. Cic. Orat. 20. 67 “quicquid est enim, quod sub aurium mensuram aliquam cadat, etiamsi abest a versu—nam id quidem orationis est vitium—numerus vocatur, qui Graece ῥυθμός dicitur.” Quintil. Inst. Or. ix. 4. 45 “omnis structura ac dimensio et copulatio vocum constat aut numeris (numeros ῥυθμούς accipi volo) aut μέτροις, id est dimensione quadam.” It was a suggestive saying of Scaliger’s that metre gives the exact ‘measure’ of the line, rhythm its ‘temperament.’ As Dionysius identifies ῥυθμός and πούς (168 11; cp. 176 2, 3), we may translate ῥυθμός by ‘foot’ in 180 11, 182 19 (cp. σπονδεῖος πούς 178 7), 200 17, 206 9, etc.—Cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 2 τὸ δὲ ἄρρυθμον ἀπέραντον, δεῖ δὲ πεπεράνθαι μέν, μὴ μέτρῳ δέ· ἀηδὲς γὰρ καὶ ἄγνωστον τὸ ἄπειρον. περαίνεται δὲ ἀριθμῷ πάντα· ὁ δὲ τοῦ σχήματος τῆς λέξεως ἀριθμὸς ῥυθμός ἐστιν, οὗ καὶ τὰ μέτρα τμητά· διὸ ῥυθμὸν δεῖ ἔχειν τὸν λόγον, μέτρον δὲ μή· ποίημα γὰρ ἔσται. ῥυθμὸν δὲ μὴ ἀκριβῶς· τοῦτο δὲ ἔσται ἐὰν μέχρι του ᾖ. So ῥυθμικός 128 18 (where the reference is to lyric metres), 168 8, 172 20 (cp. οἱ μετρικοί), 176 7. Quintilian (ix. 4. 68) provides a good example of the divisions recognized by the rhythmici: “quis enim dubitet, unum sensum in hoc et unum spiritum esse: animadverti, iudices, omnem accusatoris orationem in duas divisam esse partes? tamen et duo prima verba et tria proxima et deinceps duo rursus ac tria suos quasi numeros habent spiritum sustinentes, sicut apud rhythmicos aestimantur.”

ῥυπαρός. 134 24. Filthy, sordid. Lat. sordidus.

ῥύσις. 244 21. Flow. Lat. fluxus.

ῥυσός. 92 10. Wrinkled. Lat. rugosus.

ῥώθωνες. 144 22, 23, 146 11, 220 25. Nostrils. Lat. nares. In 146 11 διὰ τῶν ῥωθώνων συνηχούμενα = nasal.

Σαπφικός. 258 7. Of Sappho. Lat. Sapphicus.

σαφήνεια. 160 22. Clearness, lucidity. Lat. perspicuitas. Fr. clarté, netteté. The adjective σαφής occurs in 210 4.

σελίς. 186 2. Page. Lat. pagina libri.

σεμνότης. 84 2, 110 19, 164 20, 166 12, 170 2, 172 11, 236 8. Gravity, majesty. Lat. granditas, dignitas, gravitas. Fr. majesté. So σεμνολογία 120 23, 174 17; σεμνός 68 5, 80 12, 84 8, etc. It is not easy to find a good equivalent for σεμνός, as ‘dignified’ comes nearer to ἀξιωματικός; ‘impressive’ (or the like) to μεγαλοπρεπής; ‘lofty,’ ‘elevated,’ or ‘sublime,’ to ὑψηλός. ‘Solemn,’ ‘majestic,’ ‘august,’ or ‘stately’ will sometimes serve.

σημαίνειν. 74 3, 134 25. To betoken, to express. Lat. significare.

σιγμός. 138 10. A hissing. Lat. sibilus. Fr. sifflement.

σιωπή. 218 16, 220 2, 230 4. Silence, interval, pause. Lat. silentium, intermissio. Modern metrists who confine their attention to syllables are apt to neglect the interrelations of silence and sound. Dionysius would, on the contrary, have recognized that the pauses denoted by punctuation are the key to the metre in such lines as “Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require” (Tempest v. 1).

σκαιότης. 250 8. Clumsiness, stupidity. Lat. rusticitas, imperitia. Fr. gaucherie: cp. the editor’s Ancient Boeotians p. 6.

σκευωρία. 264 7. Elaboration. Lat. cura artificiosa. Cp. de Thucyd. c. 5 σκευωρίαν τεχνικήν, c. 29 μᾶλλον δὲ διθυραμβικῆς σκευωρίας οἰκειότερον: Hesych. σκευωρία· κατασκευή.

σκιερός. 234 13. Shady, dark. Lat. obscurus.

σκληρός. 132 1, 154 12. Hard. Lat. durus. Cp. D.H. p. 205.

σομφός. 122 25. Thick, husky. Lat. subraucus, fuscus. Cp. Schol. in M, σομφὸν ἤγουν θρυλιγμὸν καὶ ἐκμέλειαν. Some of the MSS. give ἀσύμφωνον, thus repeating a word used a few lines earlier.

σοφιστής. 190 10, 264 19. Sophist. Lat. sophista. The comprehensiveness of the term is well illustrated by the fact that in the former passage it is applied to Hegesias, in the latter to Isocrates and Plato. In the parallel passage of the de Demosth. (c. 51) ὁρῶν γε δὴ τούτους τοὺς θαυμαζομένους ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ καὶ κρατίστων λόγων ποιητὰς νομιζομένους Ἰσοκράτην καὶ Πλάτωνα γλυπτοῖς καὶ τορευτοῖς ἐοικότας ἐκφέροντας λόγους. Cp. Demetr. p. 301.

σπαδονίζειν. 142 9. To emasculate, to cramp. Lat. spadonium sonum reddere. This reading seems preferable on several grounds: (1) it is the more difficult of the two; (2) the sense of ‘choke the voice’ seems to agree well with οὐδὲ συγκόψει τοὺς ἤχους (162 4 ‘and will not impede the voice’); (3) σπανίζειν (intransitive: cp. de Demosth. c. 32, de Thucyd. c. 19) τοῦ ἤχου would be more common than σπανίζειν τὸν ἦχον: (4) σπαδονισμοὺς τῶν ἤχων (‘impediments to sound,’ ‘arrested sounds’) occurs, without variant, in de Demosth. c. 40, and is adopted by U.-R. as well as by other editors; (5) the authority of R seems to support σπαδονίζει rather than (as U.-R. think) σπανίζει.

σπονδεῖος. 170 2, 178 7 (with πόδες), 202 20. Spondee. The metrical foot – –. Vossius thus describes the effect of the spondee: “hic pes incessum habet tardum et magnificum; itaque rebus gravibus, et maxime sacris, vel ipso attestante vocabulo, imprimis adhibetur.” Cp. Hor. Ars Poet. 255 “tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad aures, | spondeos stabiles in iura paterna recepit [sc. iambus],” and Cic. Orat. 64. 216.

σπουδάζειν. 66 8, 94 16. To be eager. Lat. studere, sedulo operam navare. For the middle voice of this verb see note on p. 95 supra. The noun σπουδή occurs in 156 14, 186 4, 192 7, 212 16.

σταθερός. 234 4. Steadfast. Lat. stabilis. τὸ σταθερόν = la lenteur grave.

στάθμη. 236 4. A carpenter’s line or rule. Lat. amussis. ἀπὸ στάθμης = velut ad amussim, ‘regulated by line and rule, by square and level.”

στενός. 142 19, 146 3. Narrow. Lat. angustus. In 146 3 it is coupled with λεπτός.

στηριγμός. 202 24. A sustaining (of the voice on certain syllables), a pause. Lat. mora. See under ἐγκάθισμα, p. 297 supra; and under ἀντιστηριγμός, p. 288 supra. So στηριχθῆναι 220 18, ‘to be firmly planted,’ ‘to be sustained.’

στιβαρός. 216 16. Hardy, robust. Lat. robustus. The word occurs also in de Thucyd. c. 24. Cp. the French nerveux. Hesych. στιβαρόν· εὔρωστον, βαρύ, εὔτονον, στεῤῥόν, ἰσχυρόν. As is pointed out by Larue van Hook (Metaphorical Terminology of Greek Rhetoric p. 20), both Latin and English abound in similar terms of style drawn from good physical condition: nervi, vires, vigor, lacerti, ossa, robur: full-blooded, hearty, lively, lusty, muscular, nervous, robust, sinewy, supple, strenuous, vigorous, etc.

στίχος. 86 2, 12, 88 7, etc. A line of poetry. Lat. versus. In de Thucyd. c. 19 the word is used with reference to prose: ὅτι πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα πράγματα παραλιπών, τὸ προοίμιον τῆς ἱστορίας μέχρι πεντακοσίων ἐκμηκύνει στίχων.

στοιχεῖον. 70 11, 20, 108 10, 110 9, 138 1, etc. Element. Lat. elementum. So στοιχειώδης 138 14. With the use of στοιχεῖον in c. 14 cp. Aristot. Poet. c. 20, where the word is defined as φωνὴ ἀδιαίρετος, οὐ πᾶσα δέ, ἀλλ’ ἐξ ἧς πέφυκε συνετὴ γίγνεσθαι φωνή. In 108 10 the meaning practically is ‘principle,’ ‘rule.’

στρέφειν. 264 3, 270 11. To turn, to twist. Lat. torquere. In 270 11 the meaning may be conveyed by ‘to change the words about,’ ‘to permute or vary the order of the words,’ ‘to give a new turn to the sentence.’

στρογγύλος. 112 11. Compact, rounded, terse. Lat. rotundus. Fr. arrondi. See the examples quoted in D.H. p. 205, and add de Lys. c. 9 στρογγύλη καὶ πυκνή, de Isaeo c. 3 στρογγύλη τε καὶ δικανικὴ οὐχ ἧττόν ἐστιν ἡ Ἰσαίου λέξις τῆς Λυσίου. So στρογγυλίζειν 142 15. Latin equivalents, or parallels, may be found in Horace’s ore rotundo (Ars P. 323), Cicero’s contortus (Orat. 20. 66), Quintilian’s corrotundare (xi. 3. 102). “στρογγύλος is used of the new stylistic artifices of the sophistical rhetoric by Aristophanes Acharn. 686 (στρογγύλοις τοῖς ῥήμασι), and by Plato Phaedr. 234 E. In later usage it is constantly used of periodic composition” (G. L. Hendrickson in American Journal of Philology xxv. 138).

στροφή. 194 6, 9, 10, 16, 19, 254 13, 272 5, 278 8. Strophe, stanza. Lat. stropha.

στρυφνός. 228 7. Harsh, astringent. Lat. acerbus. See D.H. p. 205 (s.v. στριφνός: in C.V. 228 7 F has στριφνόν), with the reference to Jebb’s equivalent ‘biting flavour’ (Att. Orr. i. 35).

στύφειν. 154 13. To draw up the mouth. Lat. astringere. Used of sounds that make the hearer pull a wry face and screw up his lips. Cp. de Demosth. c. 38 ἀνακοπὰς καὶ ἀντιστηριγμοὺς λαμβάνειν καὶ τραχύτητας ἐν ταῖς συμπλοκαῖς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπιστυφούσας τὴν ἀκοὴν ἡσυχῇ βούλεται.

συγγραφεύς. 74 8, 76 3, 154 17, 206 25, 214 15, 228 11, 236 18, 248 14. Prose-writer, historian. Lat. scriptor (prosaicus); (scriptor) historicus. ἱστοριογράφος (de Thucyd. c. 2) is a less ambiguous expression than συγγραφεύς (c. 5 ibid.) or than λογογράφος (c. 20 ibid.).—In 68 9 συγγράφειν = to compose (a treatise).

συγκοπή. 156 19, 230 7. Stoppage. Lat. impeditio. So συγκόπτειν (‘impede the voice,’ ‘check the utterance’) 162 4. [This meaning seems to bring the three passages fairly into line: otherwise συγκοπαὶ τῶν ἤχων, in 230 7, might well mean ‘durae sonorum collisiones et concursiones.’]

συγκροτεῖν. 206 16. To weld together. Lat. compingere, coagmentare.

σύγκρουσις. 230 27. Collision, concurrence, consonance. Lat. concursus. Fr. rencontre. So συγκρούειν 202 18, 224 10. Cp. Demetr. p. 302. The reference is to a succession of two vowels which do not form a diphthong, either in the same word (e.g. λᾶαν) or with hiatus between two words (e.g. ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα: or καὶ ἐλπίσας, τε ἔσεσθαι, καὶ ἀξιολογώτατον). Cp. de Demosth. c. 43. Cicero’s opinion of the ‘concourse of vowels’ (quoted by Quintil. ix. 4. 37) is given in Orat. 23. 77 “verba etiam verbis quasi coagmentare neglegat; habet enim ille tamquam hiatus et concursus vocalium molle quiddam et quod indicet non ingratam neglegentiam de re hominis magis quam de verbis laborantis.” On the other hand, Pope (Essay on Criticism) states and exemplifies the weak side of hiatus by means of the line, ‘Tho’ oft the ear the open vowels tire’; and Cicero himself (Orat. 44. 150) writes, “quod quidem Latina lingua sic observat, nemo ut tam rusticus sit qui vocales nolit coniungere.” In English, the question of hiatus raises sundry points of an interesting kind. Should we, for example, say ‘an historian’ and ‘an historical book,’ on the ground that the initial aspirate is evanescent when the accent falls on the second syllable; and similarly ‘an united family’ but ‘a union of hearts’?

συγκρύπτειν. 130 26. To hide, to disguise. Lat. occulere.

συγξεῖν. 210 22, 228 4, 232 12, 234 19. To polish. Lat. expolire. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 πολλὴν σφόδρα ποιουμένη φροντίδα τοῦ συνεξέσθαι καὶ συνηλεῖφθαι καὶ προπετεῖς ἁπάντων αὐτῶν εἶναι τὰς ἁρμονίας.

συγχρώζεσθαι. 244 17. To be closely joined. Lat. cohaerere, mutuo se contingere.

συζυγία. 84 11, 104 17, 106 19, etc. Coupling, grouping, combination. Lat. coniunctio. Fr. liaison. So de Demosth. c. 40 (the passage quoted s.v. συμβολή, infra).

συλλαβή. 150 16. Syllable. Lat. syllaba. Words like this serve to remind us how much of our modern rhetorical and grammatical terminology is taken direct from the Greek.

συλλεαίνειν. 230 20. To rub smooth, to polish. Lat. levigare, polire. Cp. de Demosth. c. 43 ἐν δὲ τῇ δευτέρᾳ περιόδῳ τραχύνεται μὲν ἡ σύνθεσις ἐν τῷ “μεγάλη γὰρ ῥοπή” διὰ τὸ μὴ συναλείφεσθαι τὰ δύο ρ ρ, καὶ ἐν τῷ “ἀνθρώπων πράγματα” διὰ τὸ μὴ συλλεαίνεσθαι ‹τὸ ν› τῷ ἑξῆς.

συμβεβηκότα, τά. 98 8, 9, 140 14, 264 6, 268 19. The accidental, non-essential, qualities of a thing. Lat. accidentia. In 268 19 the reference is to the changes which words undergo in the way of contraction, expansion, acute or grave accentuation, etc.

συμβολή. 210 20, 232 13. Clashing. Lat. concursus. In 232 13 the reference is to les chocs des voyelles. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 καὶ διὰ τοῦτο φεύγει μὲν ἁπάσῃ σπουδῇ τὰς τῶν φωνηέντων συμβολὰς ὡς τὴν λειότητα καὶ τὴν εὐέπειαν διασπώσας, φεύγει δέ, ὅση δύναμις αὐτῇ, τῶν ἡμιφώνων τε καὶ ἀφώνων γραμμάτων τὰς συζυγίας, ὅσαι τραχύνουσι τοὺς ἤχους καὶ ταράττειν δύνανται τὰς ἀκοάς.

σύμβολον. 84 4. Token, label. Lat. signum.

συμμετρία. 130 7, 12, 246 2, 4, 270 10. Due proportion. Lat. iusta mensura. In 270 10 συμμετρία would seem to mean the arrangement of the periods within the lines or verses (μέτρα: the variant ἐμμετρία is to be noticed); and with it should be compared συμμέτρως in 270 13, though there Upton suggests ἀσυμμέτρως and Schaefer συμμέτροις. συμμέτρως occurs also in 232 9; and συμμετρεῖν in 212 18, 276 26. Cp. de Demosth. c. 43 ὥστε συμμετρηθῆναι πρὸς ἀνδρὸς πνεῦμα.

συμπληροῦν. 180 11, 182 16. To complete, to constitute. Lat. absolvere.

συμπλοκή. 160 9, 198 6, 240 16. Intertwining, blending. Lat. implicatio. So συμπλέκειν 154 17, 258 4. For the metaphor from weaving cp. ῥάπτειν and ὑφαίνειν: Pindar Nem. iv. 153 ῥήματα πλέκων: Swinburne Erechtheus 1487 “I have no will to weave too fine or far, | O queen, the weft of sweet with bitter speech.”

σύμπτωσις. 240 12. Concurrence. Lat. concursus.

συμφορητός. 72 22. Collected promiscuously, miscellaneous. Lat. collatus, collecticius.

συνάγειν. 144 18, 212 3. To contract. Lat. contrahere, coarctare.

συναλοιφή. 108 18, 180 17, 218 7, 222 24, 256 22. Blending, fusion, amalgamation. Lat. coitus, vocalium elisio. Fr. synalèphe (contraction, ou jonction de plusieurs voyelles). So συναλείφειν 220 1, 222 26, 234 8, 236 6, 244 17. Compare Demetr. p. 303, together with the passage there quoted from Quintil. ix. 4. 35-7 (including the words “coëuntes litterae, quae συναλοιφαί dicuntur”), and see (as to hiatus) Sandys’ Orator pp. 160 ff. and Laurand’s Études pp. 114-6. Cp. de Demosth. c. 43 καὶ κατ’ ἄλλους δύο τόπους ἢ τρεῖς τὰ ἡμίφωνα ‹καὶ ἄφωνα› παραπίπτοντα ἀλλήλοις τὰ φύσιν οὐκ ἔχοντα συναλείφεσθαι ἔν τε τῷ “τὸν Φίλιππον” καὶ ἐν τῷ “ταύτῃ φοβερὸν προσπολεμῆσαι” ταράττει τοὺς ἤχους μετρίως καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ φαίνεσθαι μαλακούς· ἐν δὲ τῇ δευτέρᾳ περιόδῳ κτλ. (the remainder of the passage is given under συλλεαίνειν, p. 324 supra).

συναπαρτίζειν. 212 11, 270 13. To complete (the sense) simultaneously. Cp. Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 2, 10 (together with ἀπαρτίζειν in Glossary p. 267 ibid.), and also the note on pp. 270, 271 supra. Cp. de Demosth. c. 39 ἔτι τῆς ἁρμονίας ταύτης οἰκεῖόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ τὰς περιόδους αὐτουργούς τινας εἶναι καὶ ἀφελεῖς καὶ μήτε συναπαρτιζούσας ἑαυταῖς τὸν νοῦν μήτε συμμεμετρημένας τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ λέγοντος μηδέ γε παραπληρώμασι τῶν ὀνομάτων οὐκ ἀναγκαίοις ὡς πρὸς τὴν ὑποκειμένην διάνοιαν χρωμένας μηδ’ εἰς θεατρικούς τινας καὶ γλαφυροὺς καταληγούσας ῥυθμούς.

συνάπτειν. 202 19, 240 20, 262 4. To link together. Lat. adiungere, connectere. Dionysius’ love of variety may be seen by comparing together 262 4, 258 4, 256 20, 22, 258 24.

συναρμόττειν. 118 14, 134 11, 234 19. To adapt one thing to another. Lat. accommodare. Used with reference to adjusting, dovetailing, interlinking.

συνασκεῖν. 282 1. To practise simultaneously. Lat. simul exercere.

σύνδεσμος. 70 14, 17, 72 1, 218 7, 220 5, 258 27. Conjunction, connective, connecting word. Lat. copula, coniunctio. ‘Particle,’ or ‘connecting-particle,’ will sometimes be a suitable rendering, as the term includes particles like ἄρα (258 27) and μέν and δή (Demetr. de Eloc. §§ 55, 56, 196), and may even be applied to prepositions (220 5, 6). In a difficult passage of Aristot. Poetics (xx. 6), among the examples offered of σύνδεσμος are ἀμφί, περί, μέν, ἤτοι, as well as δέ. A good account of the word will be found in Cope’s Introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric pp. 371-4, 392-7. See further Quintil. i. 4. 18; Aristot. Rhet. iii. 6. 6.

συνεδρεύειν. 100 10, 160 19. To attend, to accompany. Lat. assidere, adiungi. Used, in 100 10, of the accompanying relations (mode, place, time, etc.), which adverbs denote in reference to verbs.

συνεκτρέχειν. 274 24. To run out together, to be of the same length. Lat. aequis passibus concurrere.

συνεκφέρειν. 240 11. To pronounce concurrently. Lat. simul pronuntiare. Cp. συνεκφορά 230 3.

συνεφθαρμένος. 126 10, 144 12, 234 13. Imperceptibly blended, melting into each other. Lat. commistus. φθορά is the technical term for the mixing of colours in painting: e.g. Plut. Mor. 346 A καὶ γὰρ Ἀπολλόδωρος ὁ ζωγράφος, ἀνθρώπων πρῶτος ἐξευρὼν φθορὰν καὶ ἀπόχρωσιν σκιᾶς, Ἀθηναῖος ἦν. Perhaps it is this sense of ‘fusion’ that led to φθορά being used, in Byzantine music, in some such sense as ‘modulation.’

συνεχής. 230 17, 20, 244 21, 246 1. Continuous, unbroken. Lat. continuus. So συνεχῶς 132 9, 230 29, 280 21. συνέχεια (240 5) = coherence, ‘continuus compositionis tenor.’

συνηχεῖν. 140 21, 144 20, 146 11. To sound at the same time. Lat. consonare. In 140 21 the translation of the manuscript reading συνεχούσης may be “while all these are pronounced, the windpipe constricts the breath,” A. J. Ellis op. cit. p. 41 (with the note, “probably this is what Dionysius considered the cause of voice”).

σύνθεσις. 68 5, 7, 19, 70 3, 9, 72 8, 74 15, 78 9, 86 2, 13, 90 19, 134 26 etc., 200 10, 16, 202 1, 7, 204 9, 232 25, 240 23, 270 9. Composition. Lat. compositio. ‘Composition’ (with the addition of ‘literary,’ to mark it off from other kinds of composition) seems the least inadequate English rendering of σύνθεσις, and comes nearest to the usual Latin title. To judge by the actual contents of the treatise (which go beyond Dionysius’ occasional and fragmentary definitions), the term ‘putting-together’ can be applied not only to ὀνόματα, but (on the one side) to γράμματα and συλλαβαί and (on the other) to κῶλα and περίοδοι, and to a poem of Sappho or the proem of Thucydides. Hence ‘arrangement (or order, ordonnance) of words’ proves, in practice, too narrow a title, though the euphonic and symphonic arrangement of words and the elements of words is the main theme, and though there is (as has been pointed out in the Introduction, p. 11 supra) some danger of ‘literary composition’ seeming to promise a treatment of the πραγματικὸς τόπος. One of the definitions of composition in the New English Dictionary will apply very fairly to the de Compositione Verborum: “the due arrangement of words into sentences, and of sentences into periods; the art of constructing sentences and of writing prose or verse,” while ἁρμονία (which is σύνθεσις in special reference to skilful and melodious combination) might well be defined in the words there quoted from the Arte of Rhetorique of T. Wilson (1553 A.D.): “composition ... is an apt joyning together of wordes in such order, that neither the eare shall espie any jerre, nor yet any man shalbe dulled with overlong drawing out of a sentence.” The form συνθήκη is found, in practically the same sense as σύνθεσις, in the Epitome c. 3; in Lucian de conscrib. hist. c. 46 καὶ μὴν καὶ συνθήκῃ τῶν ὀνομάτων εὐκράτῳ καὶ μέσῃ χρηστέον; and in Chrysostom de Sacerdotio iv. 6 (quoted under ἀπαγγελία p. 288 supra). As Latin equivalents (in addition to ‘de Compositione Verborum’), ‘de Collocatione Verborum’ or ‘de Constructione Verborum’ might be supported out of Cicero’s Orator and de Oratore; and something might be said, too, in favour of ‘de Structura Orationis’ or (more fully) ‘de compositione, seu orationis partium apta inter se collocatione.’—συνθετικός occurs in 104 15, and σύνθετος in 144 11, 176 3, 184 3.

σύνοψις. 208 13. A general view. Lat. conspectus. εἰς σύνοψιν ἐλθεῖν δυνάμενος would, in Aristotle’s conciser phrase, be: εὐσύνοπτος.—The verb συνορᾶν occurs in 184 22, συνιδεῖν 182 3.

συντάττεσθαι. 80 5, 94 15, 96 6, 98 19, 20, 104 5, 106 13, 264 21. To put together, to compose, to treat of. Lat. componere, tractare. So σύνταγμα 214 9, and σύνταξις (‘arrangement,’ ‘co-ordination,’ ‘treatise’) 94 3, 96 2, 13, 16, etc.

συντιθέναι. 68 3, 74 12, 106 11, etc. To arrange words or sounds, to compose. Lat. componere.

συνυφαίνειν. 134 12, 166 17, 184 14, 234 9, 20, 240 7. To weave together. Lat. contexere. Lucian (de conscrib. hist. 48) uses the word: καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀθροίσῃ ἅπαντα ἢ τὰ πλεῖστα, πρῶτα μὲν ὑπόμνημά τι συνυφαινέτω αὐτῶν κτλ. [The passage is given in full under χρῶμα, p. 333 infra.]

συνῳδός. 220 17, 224 16, 232 8. In harmony with, accordant. Lat. concors.

συριγμός. 146 14, 148 7, 160 1. A hissing. Lat. sibilus. So σύριγμα 146 3. In 160 1 the reference is to the ‘whistling of ropes,’ the ‘shrieking of tackle’: cp. Virg. Aen. i. 87 “insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum.”

σύρρυσις. 162 21. A flowing together, conflux. Lat. concursus. Two forms of the word are found: σύρρευσις and (as here) σύρρυσις.

συστέλλειν. 140 19, 152 25, 206 1. To compress. Lat. contrahere, corripere. So συστολή 142 18, 268 20.

συστρέφειν. 204 9. To abbreviate. Lat. contrahere. Cp. D.H. p. 206, and Demetr. p. 305 (s.v. συστροφή). The condensation indicated in 204 9 consists in the fact that the rolling down of the stone is described in a single line, whereas the rolling up takes four lines.

σφραγίς. 268 3. Seal, impression of a seal. Lat. signum.

σχέδιος. 186 5. Sudden, off-hand, impromptu. Lat. extemporalis. Cp. αὐτοσχέδιος p. 291 supra.

σχῆμα. 88 12, 90 19, 130 7, 132 11, 148 20 etc., 196 25, 26, 198 6, passim. Figure, attitude. Lat. figura. See D.H. p. 206, and Demetr. p. 305, for various quotations and references (to which may be added Causeret La Langue de la rhétorique et de la critique littéraire dans Ciceron pp. 176 ff.). Sometimes ‘construction’ will be a good rendering (e.g. de Isocr. c. 3), or ‘form’ (de Thucyd. c. 37): cp. Cic. Brut. 17. 69 (‘sententiarum orationisque formae’). ‘Turns of expression’ (tours de phrase) will also serve occasionally.

σχηματίζειν. 104 18, 106 15, 108 1, 110 14, 112 18, 19, etc. To use a figure, to shape, to construct. Lat. figurare. Cp. D.H. p. 206, Demetr. p. 305.

σχηματισμός. 112 14, 20, 146 7, 212 21, etc. Configuration, construction; the employment of figures or turns of phrase. Lat. conformatio, figuratio.

σχολικός. 214 9. After the manner of lectures, tedious. Lat. longus. Dionysius has in mind treatises which are ‘academic’ rather than practical. Cp. Long. de Sublim. iii. 5 πολλὰ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἐκ μέθης τινὲς εἰς τὰ μηκέτι τοῦ πράγματος, ἴδια ἑαυτῶν καὶ σχολικὰ παραφέρονται πάθη.

σῶμα. 134 25. Person. Lat. persona. Same sense as πρόσωπον: compare, in Ep. ii. ad Amm. c. 14, πρόσωπα δὲ παρ’ αὐτῷ τὰ πράγματα γίνεται with πράγματα δὲ ἀντὶ σωμάτων τὰ τοιαῦτα ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ γίνεται.

Σωτάδειος. 88 1. Sotadean. Lat. Sotadeus. So called from Sotades, a native of Maroneia or of Crete, who lived under the early Ptolemies. The structure of the Sotadean verse is analyzed in P. Masqueray’s Abriss der griechischen Metrik pp. 141-4. For some further references see Demetr. p. 244.

ταμιεύειν. 246 4. To regulate, to manage. Lat. temperare, dispensare.

τάξις. 72 12, 18, 198 6, etc. Order. Lat. dispositio. Not identical in sense with σύνθεσις, which (in 72 18) forms part of one and the same sentence as τάξις. τάξις often (e.g. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 12. 6) refers to the marshalling of the subject matter of a speech.—The verb τάττειν occurs (with various senses) in 126 7, 196 6, 254 10, etc.

ταπεινός. 74 12, 78 10, 80 13, 92 17, 134 23, 166 3, 176 11, 186 19. Low, mean, vulgar. Lat. humilis, abiectus. So ταπεινότης 192 9.

τάσις. 126 7, 9, 128 5, 11, 196 16. Tension, pitch, accent. Lat. intentio (vocis), accentus. Cp. προσῳδία p. 320 supra, and τόνος p. 329 infra. Definition in 196 16: τάσεις φωνῆς αἱ καλούμεναι προσῳδίαι. Quintil. i. 5. 22 “adhuc difficilior observatio est per tenores, (quos quidem ab antiquis dictos tonores comperi, videlicet declinato a Graecis verbo, qui τόνους dicunt) vel accentus, quas Graeci προσῳδίας vocant,” etc.

ταυτολογία. 240 26. Verbal reiteration, tautology. Lat. eiusdem verbi iteratio. This is, apparently, the earliest recorded use of the word, though Polybius employs the verb ταυτολογεῖν. Quintil. viii. 3. 50 “sicut ταυτολογία, id est eiusdem verbi aut sermonis iteratio. haec enim quamquam non magnopere a summis auctoribus vitata, interim vitium videri potest, in quod saepe incidit etiam Cicero, securus tam parvae observationis: sicut hoc loco, Non solum igitur illud iudicium iudicii simile, iudices, non fuit.” The English word tautology must have been unfamiliar when Philemon Holland translated the Morals of Plutarch, since it is one of the terms included in the “explanation of certain obscure words” appended to Holland’s volume.

ταυτότης. 134 18, 192 20. Sameness, monotony. Lat. rerum earundem iteratio. Contrasted with μεταβολή: as in 134 18 διαναπαύειν δὲ τὴν ταυτότητά φημι δεῖν μεταβολὰς εὐκαίρους εἰσφέροντα.—Aristotle uses the word several times, in the sense of ‘identity.’

τέλειος. 84 21, 116 24, 144 17, 150 13, etc. Complete, perfect. Lat. absolutus, perfectus. See, further, note on 204 24.—So τελειοῦν 178 13.—In 120 4, 268 5, τέλος = ‘end,’ ‘object.’

τελεταί. 252 15. Rites, mysteries. Lat. sacra arcana, ritus et caerimoniae. αἱ τελεταὶ τοῦ λόγου = sacra eloquentiae.

τετράμετρος. 86 3, 14, 256 8, 13. Consisting of four metres or measures. Lat. tetrametrus (sc. versus: στίχος).

τετριμμένος. 252 29. Homely, ordinary. Lat. tritus. Fr. ordinaire. The word sometimes inclines to the sense ‘vulgar,’ ‘hackneyed,’ ‘banal,’ ‘rebattu’: cp. τέτριπται 134 22.

τέχνη. 68 9, 94 10, 14, 96 2, 104 10, 132 22, etc. Art, handbook. Lat. ars. αἱ τέχναι in Dionysius (cp. αἱ τέχναι τῶν λόγων, Aristot. Rhet. i. 1. 3) refers specially to rhetorical handbooks: e.g. 270 4, 282 3. αἱ ῥητορικαὶ τέχναι is often used to designate the Rhetoric of Aristotle: e.g. 254 25, and Ep. i. ad Amm. cc. 1, 2, etc.—In 124 3 τεχνίτης = ‘craftsman,’ ‘professional.’

τὴν ἄλλως. 176 6. To no purpose. Lat. temere. Coupled here with a negative: cp. Suidas, τηνάλλως. μάτην. καὶ οὐ τηνάλλως μετὰ τῆς ἀποφάσεως λέγεται.

τομή. 72 2. Division. Lat. partitio. Fr. partie, subdivision.

τόνος. 126 5, 15, 19, 142 8. Tone, tension, pitch, accent. Lat. tonus, intentio (vocis), accentus. If τόνον be read in 136 16 and τόνος in 236 8, the meaning will be energy: cp. D.H. p. 207. See also under τάσις p. 328 supra, and under περισπασμός p. 316 supra (for a passage of Aristot Rhet. iii. 1. 4).

τόπος. 66 6, 96 9, 144 18, 164 17, 248 8. Place, heading, department. Lat. locus. The πραγματικὸς τόπος (66 6) is the locus rerum, as opposed to the λεκτικὸς τόπος (96 9). In this connexion not only τόπος, but τρόπος, τύπος, χαρακτήρ and μέρος are sometimes used by Dionysius.

τορευτός. 264 18. Worked in relief, chased. Lat. caelatus. So τορευτής = caelator, 266 8.

τραγῳδοποιός. 236 17, 248 14. Tragic poet, tragedian. Lat. tragicus poëta. [For the Greek expressions used to denote tragic and comic poets see H. Richards in the Classical Review xiv. 211.]

τρανός. 230 14. Clear, distinct. Lat. perspicuus. In earlier Greek the form τρανής is used: cp. Soph. Ajax 23 ἴσμεν γὰρ οὐδὲν τρανές, ἀλλ’ ἀλώμεθα.

τραχύτης. 230 5, 232 8. Roughness. Lat. asperitas. Fr. âpreté, dureté. So τραχύς 130 26, 154 12, 228 7, 234 15, etc.; and τραχύνειν 130 19, 146 9, 202 26, 206 4, 216 17, 218 18, 240 17. By ‘rough’ letters, in 202 26, Dionysius may probably mean the following letters found in the four lines quoted in 202 3-6: Σ, σ, φ (?), σ, γ, χ, στ, ζ, σ, σκ, πτ, σχ, σκ, φ (?); and among these, σκ, σχ and πτ may be regarded as ‘juxtapositions of rough letters.’

τρίκωλον. 116 11. A sentence consisting of three members or clauses. Lat. oratio trimembris. τὸ τρίκωλον is here a noun: on the same principle as, for example, ἡ τρίοδος (= trivium).

τρίμετρος. 258 19, 25. Consisting of three metres or measures. Lat. trimetrus (sc. versus: στίχος).

τρισύλλαβος. 170 15, 174 8. Consisting of three syllables. Lat. trisyllabus.

τρόπος. 196 1. Mode (in music). Lat. modus. Cp. Monro’s Modes of Ancient Greek Music p. 2. In 132 12 the word means trope (metaphor particularly: cp. Quintil. viii. 6. 4): so τροπικός (figurative; Fr. figuré) 78 16, 252 24, 272 10.

τροχαῖος. 170 8, 184 11. Trochee. The metrical foot – ᴗ.

τρυφερός. 236 9. Delicate, dainty. Lat. delicatus, nitidus.

τύπος. 70 7, 268 2, 17, 24. Outline, form. Lat. forma, figura.

ὕλη. 266 9. Material. Lat. materia. Fr. matière.

ὑπαγωγικός. 90 5. Drawn slowly out, prolonged. Lat. dilatatus. Cp. de Demosth. c. 4 διώκει δ’ ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου τὴν περίοδον οὐδὲ ταύτην στρογγύλην καὶ πυκνὴν ἀλλ’ ὑπαγωγικήν τινα καὶ πλατεῖαν καὶ πολλοὺς ἀγκῶνας, ὥσπερ οἱ μὴ κατ’ εὐθείας ῥέοντες ποταμοὶ ποιοῦσιν, ἐγκολπιζομένην. It is possible, however, that in the de Comp. Verb. the word has an active meaning similar to that of ἐπαγωγικός, in which case the rendering will be ‘the effect of the passage will no longer be that of a narrative which gently carries the reader on.’

ὑπαλλαγή. 78 16. Hypallage. Lat. hypallage. Quintil. ix. 6. 23 “nec procul ab hoc genere discedit μετωνυμία, quae est nominis pro nomine positio. cuius vis est, pro eo, quod dicitur, causam, propter quam dicitur, ponere; sed, ut ait Cicero, ὑπαλλαγήν rhetores dicunt. haec inventas ab inventore et subiectas res ab obtinentibus significat: ut Cererem corruptam undis, et receptus Terra Neptunus classes Aquilonibus arcet.” Cp. Cic. Orat. 27. 93 “hanc ὑπαλλαγήν rhetores, quia quasi summutantur verba pro verbis, μετωνυμίαν grammatici vocant, quod nomina transferuntur.”

ὑπάτη. 210 7. Top note. Lat. chorda suprema. See L. & S. s.v.

ὑπεραίρειν. 224 11. To exceed. Lat. transgredi.

ὑπερβολή. 156 11. Excess, violence. Lat. impetus, ardor. [Not here used in the technical sense of superlatio, traiectio.]

ὑπέρμετρος. 214 8. Exceeding due measure, excessively long. Lat. excedens mensuram. [Not here used in the technical sense of passing beyond the bounds of metre: Demetr. de Eloc. § 118 ποίημα γὰρ ἄκαιρον ψυχρόν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ ὑπέρμετρον, ‘a bit of verse out of place is just as inartistic as the disregard of metrical rules in poetry.’]

ὑπεροπτικός. 232 20. Disdainful. Lat. ad contemnendum pronus.

ὑπερτείνειν. 132 14. To exceed. Lat. transcendere.

ὑπηχεῖν. 150 7. To sound in answer to, to re-echo. Lat. resonare.

ὑποβάκχειος. 174 23, 178 11, 13. Hypobacchius. The metrical foot ᴗ – –. The Epitome (c. 17) gives παλιμβάκχειος in the same sense as ὑποβάκχειος.

ὑπογράφειν. 122 7. To sketch. Lat. adumbrare. Fr. esquisser.

ὑπόδειγμα. 174 12. Pattern, specimen. Lat. documentum, exemplum.

ὑπόθεσις. 104 6. Subject, theme. Lat. argumentum operis. So τὰ ὑποκείμενα (the subject matter) 74 9, 106 17, 130 13, 134 21, 158 2.

ὑπόμνησις. 80 1. Reminder. Lat. admonitio. ὑπομνήσεως ἕνεκα = memoriae causa.

ὑποτακτικός. 220 19. Subordinate. Lat. subditus. Dionysius seems to mean that π is not apt to be amalgamated with, or absorbed in, a preceding ν. [The second vowel in a diphthong could be described as ὑποτακτικὸν φωνῆεν.] The verb ὑποτάττειν occurs in 100 23 and 126 21.

ὑποτίθεσθαι. 194 8. To take as a subject. Lat. argumentum sibi sumere. This (rather than ‘to postulate’) seems to be the meaning.

ὑποτραχύνειν. 222 7. To grate slightly on the ear. Lat. leni horrore aures afficere.

ὕπτιος. 108 3. Passive. Lat. supinus.

ὕφος. 234 12. Woven stuff, a web. Lat. tela. The word is used metaphorically in Long. de Subl. i. 4 τοῦ ὅλου τῶν λόγων ὕφους.

ὑψηλός. 92 18, 172 2, 180 2, 182 7. Lofty, elevated. Lat. sublimis.

φαντασία. 230 29. Representation, image. Lat. imago.

φάρμακον. 208 17. Colour (for painting). Lat. pigmentum. For φάρμακα (= βάμματα, χρώματα) cp. Horace’s “lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno” (Ep. ii. 1. 207).

φάρυγξ. 150 7. Throat. Lat. guttur. Here used in the masculine gender, according to the best-supported reading. Galen (on Hippocr. Progn. p. 45), ὅτι φάρυγγα τὴν προκειμένην χώραν στομάχου τε καὶ λάρυγγος ὀνομάζει δῆλόν ἐστι.

φθαρτός. 266 9. Perishable. Lat. mortalis, periturus.

φθόγγος. 128 4, 130 12, 268 10. Sound, note. Lat. sonus.

φιλόκαλος. 66 16. Loving beauty, artistic. Lat. pulchritudinis studiosus.

φιλόλογος. 264 24. Loving literature, literary; a scholar. Lat. litterarum studiosus; litteratus, philologus.

φιλοπονία. 264 25. Loving care; industry. Lat. diligentia: which (etymologically) contains the same suggestion of ‘work done con amore.’

φιλόσοφος. 74 8, 132 22, 164 22, 248 15. Philosopher. Lat. philosophus. The comprehensive sense in which philosophy is understood may be illustrated from φιλοσοφία (140 12) and φιλοσοφεῖν (70 12). Cp. in modern times such academic vestiges of ancient usage as ‘Natural Philosophy’ or ‘Ph. D.’ In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (ii. 4) rhetoric is taught by the Maître de Philosophie; and Dionysius is fond of contrasting the philosophical, or scientific, rhetoric (ἡ φιλόσοφος ῥητορική) of the best Attic times with the later and purely empirical Asiatic rhetoric, to which he applies the epithet ἀμαθής. See further in D.H. p. 208.

φιλοτεχνεῖν. 154 20, 200 18. To practise an art lovingly, to be devoted to it. Lat. artem amare, in artem incumbere. So φιλοτέχνως 176 18. φιλοτεχνεῖν, φιλότεχνος and φιλοτεχνία are all used by Plato in reference to art pursued con amore; and Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 40. 1) uses φιλοτέχνημα of an elaborate work of art—a chef-d’œuvre: “Ubi igitur φιλοτέχνημα illud tuum quod vidi in Parthenone, Ahalam et Brutum?”

φιλοχωρεῖν. 110 5. To cling to a place, to haunt it. Lat. libenter in loco commorari. φιλοχωρεῖν is used repeatedly by Dionysius in the Antiqq. Rom. (e.g. i. 13 Ἀρκαδικὸν γὰρ τὸ φιλοχωρεῖν ὄρεσιν and v. 63 παρεκελεύοντο ἀλλήλοις μὴ φιλοχωρεῖν ἐν πόλει μηδενὸς αὐτοῖς ἀγαθοῦ μεταδιδούσῃ) and φιλοχωρία in i. 27 (ὑπὸ τῆς φιλοχωρίας κρατουμένους). Plutarch uses the word in reference to his birthplace Chaeroneia, telling us that he ‘clung fondly to the spot,’ lest by leaving it he should make a small place, but one which had witnessed thrilling scenes, ‘smaller yet’ (ἡμεῖς δὲ μικρὰν οἰκοῦντες πόλιν, καὶ ἵνα μὴ μικροτέρα γένηται φιλοχωροῦντες, Plut. Demosth. c. 2). The form χωροφιλεῖν seems to occur twice only in good Greek authors: (1) Antiphon de Caede Herodis § 78 εἰ δ’ ἐν Αἴνῳ χωροφιλεῖ [probably it is to this passage that Dionysius here refers]; (2) Ep. Thaletis ap. Diog. L. i. 44 σὺ μέντοι χωροφιλέων ὀλίγα φοιτέεις ἐς Ἰωνίην.

φλυαρία. 264 7, 268 15. Nonsense, foolery. Lat. nugae, ineptiae. So φλυάρημα (futility) 192 9. Notwithstanding the remarks in Stephanus, it would seem more natural to take φλύαρος as an adjective (than as a noun) in 272 20, 22, and this for two reasons: (1) the form φλυαρία has been used shortly before; (2) the adjectival use is sufficiently established by Hesychius’ note (φαῦλος, εὐήθης) and by that of Thom. M. p. 376 Ritschl (πολύλογος), while ἡ φλύαρος φιλοσοφία occurs in the Septuagint (Maccab. iv. 5, 10) and καὶ ὅλως ἀποδείκνυσι τὸν Πυθαγόρου λόγον φλύαρον in Plut. Mor. 169 E.

φορά. 144 22, 204 17, 244 20. Current, rush. Lat. cursus, impetus.

φορτικός. 252 14. Coarse, rude. Lat. insolens, importunus, insulsus.

φράσις. 84 2, 166 3, 182 8, 206 1, 15, 208 7, 250 14. Style, expression. Lat. elocutio. Cp. Quintil. viii. 1. 1 “igitur, quam Graeci φράσιν vocant, Latine dicimus elocutionem. ea spectatur verbis aut singulis aut coniunctis.”

φριμαγμός. 158 14. Snorting. Lat. fremitus. It is hardly likely that the word here means no more than βληχή, bleating.

Φρύγιος. 196 1. Phrygian. Lat. Phrygius. Cp. Monro’s Modes of Ancient Greek Music, passim.

φυλακή. 198 6. Preservation. Lat. conservatio.—In the de Imitat. B. vi. 3 the reading φυλακή (if correct) will correspond to the middle φυλάττεσθαι (not to φυλάττειν).

φυσικός. 96 23, 214 3, 224 5, 240 8, etc. Natural. Lat. naturalis. So φυσικῶς 200 12. ὁ φυσικός, in 214 3, = ‘the natural philosopher,’ ‘the physicist’ (of Empedocles). In 134 2 οὐδ’ ἔχει φύσιν τὸ πρᾶγμα ... πεσεῖν the meaning is ‘nor is the subject of such a nature that it can fall.’

φωνή. 130 4, 21, 136 22, 138 7, etc. Voice, sound. Lat. vox, sonus, sonus vocalis. Cp. φωνεῖν (‘to pronounce,’ etc.) 140 1, 20, 144 18, 148 14.

φωνήεις. 138 8, 9, 15, 140 2, 144 7, 150 17, 152 4, 220 11. Voiced. Lat. vocalis. φωνήεντα γράμματα = litterae vocales = vowels. For the term ‘voiced’ see s.v. ἄφωνος p. 292 supra. Cp. Dionys. Thrax Ars Gramm. p. 9 (ed. Uhlig) φωνήεντα δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι φωνὴν ἀφ’ ἑαυτῶν ἀποτελεῖ.

φωτεινός. 234 13. Full of light. Lat. lucidus, luminosus.

χαρακτήρ. 68 21, 80 17, 90 10, etc. Characteristic stamp, type. Lat. forma, nota. So the adjective χαρακτηρικός in 232 21 (cp. de Demosth. c. 39 init.). See further in D.H. p. 208, Demetr. p. 308.—In 230 9 the verb χαράττειν = ‘to irritate.’

χάρις. 112 5, 120 20, 124 12, etc. Charm, grace. Lat. venustas, lepor. Fr. grâce. Cp. Demetr. p. 308. So χαρίεις (‘refined,’ ‘elegant,’ ‘accomplished,’ ‘consummate’) 106 16, 116 1, 154 16; χαριέντως 110 22.

χλευασμός. 192 7. Scoffing, satire. Lat. derisio, illusio. χλευάζειν 270 3.

χορδή. 122 23. String, note. Lat. chorda.

χορεῖος. 170 17, 184 11. Choree. Lat. choreus. The metrical foot ᴗ ᴗ ᴗ. In 170 18 the reading τρίβραχυς πούς (τροχαῖος πούς F) seems to be a gloss. The term χορεῖος is applied to the trochee more commonly than to the tribrach. The Epitome (c. 17) gives χορεῖος (without addition).

χρεία. 104 21, 198 2. Use, practical work. Lat. usus. Cp. de Demosth. c. 45, de Thucyd. c. 55. There may also be some notion of practical need, stress: cp. ἐν χρείᾳ δορός (Soph. Aj. 963) and ὑπὸ τῆς χρείας αὐτῆς (schol. on Hom. Odyss. viii. 163).

χρεμετισμός. 158 14. Neighing, whinnying. Lat. hinnitus.

χρῆμα. 158 2. Object. Lat. res ipsa. Cp. note on p. 158 supra.

χρόνοι. 130 1, 164 5, 204 22 (lit. ‘does not divide the times’), 210 19, 216 18, 234 4, 244 19, 264 4. Times, time-intervals, time-spaces, rests, pauses. Lat. tempora, morae. So in 128 15 χρόνους = ‘the length of syllables,’ and in 130 7 ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις τῶν μορίων = ‘in the duration of words,’ ‘in quantity.’ χρόνων = ‘tenses,’ 108 5; χρόνιος = diuturnus, 202 23; χρονίζειν = immorari, 164 12.

χρῶμα. 88 12, 198 14. Colour. Lat. color. In 198 14 χρώμασιν should be retained (in place of Usener’s χρήμασιν) in the sense of ‘ornaments’; the ornaments in question being μέλος εὐγενές, ῥυθμὸς ἀξιωματικός, μεταβολὴ μεγαλοπρεπής (136 11, where compare τὸ πᾶσι τούτοις παρακολουθοῦν πρέπον with τοῖς ἄλλοις χρώμασιν ἅπασι παρεῖναι δεῖ τὸ πρέπον in 198 14). Compare too de Demosth. c. 22 κοσμοῦντος ἅπαντα καὶ χρωματίζοντος τῇ πρεπούσῃ ὑποκρίσει ἧς δεινότατος ἀσκητὴς ἐγένετο, and the use of χρῶμα (or χρώματα) in de Isaeo c. 4 and de Thucyd. c. 42. Photius (Bibl. Cod. 214) has ἔστι δὲ ἡ φράσις τῷ ἀνδρὶ σαφὴς μὲν καὶ καθαρὰ καὶ σπουδῇ φιλοσόφῳ πρέπουσα, οὐ μήν γε τοῖς κεκαλλωπισμένοις καὶ περιττοῖς ἐξωραϊζομένη χρώμασι καὶ ποικίλμασι τῆς ῥητορείας. Similarly color in Quintil. x. 1. 116, and Cic. de Orat. iii. 25. 100. The stage at which the χρῶμα would best be introduced in a historical work is suggested in a passage of Lucian (de conscrib. hist. 48): καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀθροίσῃ ἅπαντα ἢ τὰ πλεῖστα, πρῶτα μὲν ὑπόμνημά τι συνυφαινέτω αὐτῶν καὶ σῶμα ποιείτω ἀκαλλὲς ἔτι καὶ ἀδιάρθρωτον· εἶτα ἐπιθεὶς τὴν τάξιν ἐπαγέτω τὸ κάλλος καὶ χρωννύτω (i.e. ‘tinge’) τῇ λέξει καὶ σχηματιζέτω καὶ ῥυθμιζέτω. But might it not be more truly said that a great historian like Gibbon has his χρῶμα from the beginning, —from the moment when he stands in the Forum and conceives his vast theme? It is in fact one aspect of his inspiration.

χρωματικός. 194 7, 196 3. Chromatic. Lat. chromaticus. For the chromatic scale see note on 194 7.

χώρα. 144 13. Room, space. Lat. locus, spatium. χωρίον in 126 6 = ‘distance,’ ‘interval.’

ψιλός. 130 5, 148 7, 12 (bis), 18, 19, 150 3, 9, 154 2, 250 12, 254 1. Bare, smooth, unaspirated. Lat. lenis. So ψιλότης 148 21. See s.v. δασύς p. 294 supra, with the reference there given to A. J. Ellis’ pamphlet. In 148 7 Ellis takes ‘smooth’ to mean ‘unaccompanied by voice, but in this case possibly not mute.’ In 130 5 the ‘ordinary’ voice, the voice ‘pure and simple’ (or ‘without addition’), is meant: cp. 154 2, 250 12, 254 1. So ἐν τοῖς ψιλοῖς λόγοις Aristot. Rhet. iii. 2. 3, and “nuda oratio” Cic. Orat. 55. 183.

ψοφοειδής. 162 15. Sounding. Lat. sonans. If the term is technical, it may perhaps be translated by fricative; it can hardly be so wide as consonantal.

ψόφος. 138 7, 8, 9, 12, 146 4, 222 2. A sound, a noise. Lat. sonus, strepitus. The consonants (litterae consonantes) are called ψόφοι, as contrasted with the φωνήεντα γράμματα.

ψῦγμα. 202 26. Inhalation. Lat. respiratio. Used particularly of the ‘catch of the breath’ (interspiratio) between one word and another. [ψῦγμα must, of course, be distinguished from ψῆγμα: cp. Long. p. 174.]

ᾠδή. 124 16, 22, 148 1, 224 21, 278 8. Song, lay, ode. Lat. cantus, carmen. So ᾠδικός = vocal (of the voice accompanied by music), 126 16, 130 5.

ὤρα. 78 12. Care, heed. Lat. cura. Cp. Hesychius: ὥρα ... ψιλῶς δὲ φροντίς, ἐπιμέλεια· ὅθεν ὀλίγωρον (i.e. ‘a poco curante,’ ‘a Hippocleides’) λέγομεν τὸν ὀλίγην ἔχοντα φροντίδα. In 78 12 M has γρ φροντίδα in the margin.

ὥρα. 120 20, 124 12, 162 1. Freshness, bloom, beauty. Lat. venustas, flos. Fr. fraîcheur. Cp. Ep. ad Cn. Pomp. c. 2 (quoted from de Demosth. c. 5: in reference to Plato’s style ὅ τε πίνος ὁ τῆς ἀρχαιότητος ἠρέμα αὐτῇ καὶ λεληθότως ἐπιτρέχει ἱλαρόν τέ τι καὶ τεθηλὸς καὶ μεστὸν ὥρας ἄνθος ἀναδίδωσι, καὶ ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τῶν εὐωδεστάτων λειμώνων αὔρα τις ἡδεῖα ἐξ αὐτῆς φέρεται).—In 68 14 and 76 6 ὥρα = ‘time,’ ‘season.’

ὡραϊσμός. 66 18. Adornment, elegance. Lat. elegantia.

APPENDIX A

OBSCURITY IN GREEK

The natural lucidity of the Greek language is sometimes assumed by its modern admirers to extend to all the writings of Greek authors. But the ancients themselves made no such extravagant claims. They might praise Lysias as a model of clearness; but they knew well the difficulties, of subject matter or expression, to be met with not only in Heracleitus[199] or Lycophron, but in masters so great as Pindar, Aeschylus, Thucydides, and the author of that excellent definition which sees in lucidity a fundamental virtue of style—Aristotle himself. Thucydides (to take one writer only out of this group of four) is taxed with obscurity by critics other than Dionysius. Marcellinus, although not otherwise in entire agreement with Dionysius, attributes this particular defect to Thucydides and regards it as deliberate: ἀσαφῶς δὲ λέγων ἐπίτηδες, ἵνα μὴ πᾶσιν εἴη βατὸς μηδὲ εὐτελὴς φαίνηται παντὶ τῷ βουλομένῳ νοούμενος εὐχερῶς, ἀλλὰ τοῖς λίαν σοφοῖς δοκιμαζόμενος παρὰ τούτοις θαυμάζηται ... τὸ δὲ τῆς συνθέσεως τραχύτητος μεστὸν καὶ ἐμβριθὲς καὶ ὑπερβατικόν, ἐνίοτε δὲ ἀσαφές ... ἀσαφὴς τὴν διάνοιαν διὰ τὸ ὑπερβατοῖς χαίρειν (Marcell. Vita Thucyd. §§ 35, 50, 56). An epigram in the Greek Anthology is pitched in the same key:—
ὦ φίλος, εἰ σοφὸς εἶ, λάβε μ’ ἐς χέρας· εἰ δέ γε πάμπαν
νῆϊς ἔφυς Μουσέων, ῥίψον ἃ μὴ νοέεις.
εἰμὶ δέ γ’ οὐ πάντεσσι βατός· παῦροι δ’ ἀγάσαντο
Θουκυδίδην Ὀλόρου, Κεκροπίδην τὸ γένος.

Anth. Pal. ix. 583.

And Cicero, in a more uncompromising way, condemns the Speeches as scarcely intelligible: “ipsae illae contiones ita multas habent obscuras abditasque sententias, vix ut intellegantur; quod est in oratione civili vitium vel maximum” (Cic. Orat. 9. 30).

Obscurity in matter and obscurity in expression are intimately allied. Euripides, in the Frogs, says of Aeschylus that he was obscure in setting forth his plots (ἀσαφὴς γὰρ ἦν ἐν τῇ φράσει τῶν πραγμάτων, Aristoph. Ran. 1122). Dionysius attributes to Lysias, as compared with Thucydides and Demosthenes, a lucidity which embraces matter as well as expression and treats words as the servants of thought: τρίτην ἀρετὴν ἀποφαίνομαι περὶ τὸν ἄνδρα τὴν σαφήνειαν, οὐ μόνον τὴν ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς πράγμασιν· ἔστι γάρ τις καὶ πραγματικὴ σαφήνεια οὐ πολλοῖς γνώριμος. τεκμαίρομαι δέ, ὅτι τῆς μὲν Θουκυδίδου λέξεως καὶ Δημοσθένους, οἳ δεινότατοι πράγματα ἐξειπεῖν ἐγένοντο, πολλὰ δυσείκαστά ἐστιν ἡμῖν καὶ ἀσαφῆ καὶ δεόμενα ἐξηγητῶν ... τούτου δὲ αἴτιον, ὅτι οὐ τοῖς ὀνόμασι δουλεύει τὰ πράγματα παρ’ αὐτῷ [sc. Λυσίᾳ], τοῖς δὲ πράγμασιν ἀκολουθεῖ τὰ ὀνόματα (de Lysia, c. 4). So far as the two can be separated, it is with wording rather than with subject matter that the present appendix is concerned.

One principal cause of obscurity is the anxious search for brevity. Dionysius sees this, especially in regard to Thucydides; and “brevis esse laboro, | obscurus fio” has many an analogue in his critical pages (e.g. ἀσαφὲς γίνεται τὸ βραχύ and διὰ τὸ τάχος τῆς ἀπαγγελίας ἀσαφὴς ἡ λέξις γίνεται, de Thucyd. c. 24 and Ep. ii. ad Amm. c. 2). At the same time, he does not seem to concede enough to the claims of brevity in C.V. 118 1, 2, where it is not simply a question of ‘offending the ear,’ or of ‘spoiling the metre,’ or even of ‘charm.’ The two lines there quoted from Sophocles have something of that πολύνους βραχυλογία which has been justly attributed to Thucydides.[200]

But too many words may be just as fatal to clearness as too few. As Aristotle says (Rhet. iii. 12. 6), lucidity is imperilled when a style is prolix, no less than when it is condensed. A disjointed and rambling diffuseness is condemned by Demetrius (de Eloc. § 192); and Dionysius (Ep. ii. ad Amm. c. 15) remarks that numerous parentheses make the meaning hard to follow (... αἱ μεταξὺ παρεμπτώσεις πολλαὶ γινόμεναι καὶ μόλις ἐπὶ τὸ τέλος ἀφικνούμεναι, δι’ ἃς ἡ φράσις δυσπαρακολούθητος γίνεται).[201]

It is, however, the arrangement of words (even more than their number, large or small) that contributes to lucidity or its opposite. Quintilian (ix. 4. 32) says “amphiboliam quoque fieri vitiosa locatione verborum, nemo est qui nesciat”; and certainly the importance of a right order, in its bearing on clearness, is very great even in the highly inflected languages. Elsewhere (viii. 2. 16) Quintilian gives some good examples of ambiguities to be avoided: “vitanda est in primis ambiguitas, non haec solum, de cuius genere supra dictum est, quae incertum intellectum facit, ut Chremetem audivi percussisse Demean,[202] sed illa quoque, quae, etiamsi turbare non potest sensum, in idem tamen verborum vitium incidit, ut si quis dicat, visum a se hominem librum scribentem. nam etiamsi librum ab homine scribi patet, male tamen composuerit feceritque ambiguum, quantum in ipso fuit.” Quintilian’s ideal is a fine one, but it is not always possible to attain it in Latin or in Greek. The freedom of the classical word-order, so desirable on other grounds, stands in the way here.

Illustrations of a certain degree of ambiguity will be found in some instances of the dependent genitive in Greek, as used especially in Thucydides. Thucydides usually places the dependent genitive before the noun on which it depends.[203] As, however, his rule is not invariable, it cannot be said that in all the following examples (which are designedly of a promiscuous character) the reader is absolved, as Quintilian evidently thinks he should be, from making his conception of the general sense help in determining the grammatical construction:—

(1) καὶ μετὰ τῆς ἥσσονος ἅμα ἐλπίδος ὀλίγων ἡμερῶν ἕνεκα μεγάλου μισθοῦ δόσεως ἐκείνοις ξυναγωνίζεσθαι, Thucyd. i. 143.

(2) εἴ τις ὑπομένοι καὶ μὴ φόβῳ ῥοθίου καὶ νεῶν δεινότητος κατάπλου ὑποχωροίη, iv. 10.

(3) Κερκυραῖοι δὲ μετὰ τῆς ξυμμαχίας τῆς αἰτήσεως καὶ ταῦτα πιστεύοντες ἐχυρὰ ὑμῖν παρέξεσθαι ἀπέστειλαν ἡμᾶς, i. 32.

(4) οἵπερ τῶν ὁλκάδων ἕνεκα τῆς ἐς Σικελίαν κομιδῆς ἀνθώρμουν πρὸς τὰς ἐν Ναυπάκτῳ ναῦς, vii. 34.

(5) ἄπιστα μὲν ἴσως, ὥσπερ καὶ ἄλλοι τινές, δόξω ὑμῖν περὶ τοῦ ἐπίπλου τῆς ἀληθείας λέγειν, vi. 33.

(6) τά τε τῆς ἀντιμιμήσεως αὐτῶν τῆς παρασκευῆς ἡμῶν τῷ μὲν ἡμετέρῳ τρόπῳ ξυνήθη τέ ἐστι κτλ., vii. 67.

(7) τοὺς γὰρ ἂν ψιλοὺς τοὺς σφῶν καὶ τὸν ὄχλον τῶν Συρακοσίων τοὺς ἱππέας πολλοὺς ὄντας, σφίσι δ’ οὐ παρόντων ἱππέων, βλάπτειν ἂν μεγάλα, vi. 64.

(8) καὶ τοῦ Κλέωνος καίπερ μανιώδης οὖσα ἡ ὑπόσχεσις ἀπέβη, iv. 39.

(9) καὶ τριήρης τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἁλίσκεται τῶν Ἀθηναίων ὑπὸ τῶν Συρακοσίων ἐφορμοῦσα τῷ λιμένι, vii. 3.[204]

Similarly in other authors: e.g. καὶ δὴ καὶ τότε τοῦ Θρασυμάχου τὴν ἀπόρρησιν οὐκ ἀπεδέξατο, Plato Rep. ii. 357 A (where, however, the meaning may be “would not accept from Thrasymachus his withdrawal”); and ὣς φάτο, τῷ δ’ ἄρα πατρὸς ὑφ’ ἵμερον ὦρσε γόοιο, Hom. Il. xxiv. 507; and
τούτων ἐγὼ οὐκ ἔμελλον, ἀνδρὸς οὐδενὸς
φρόνημα δείσασ’, ἐν θεοῖσι τὴν δίκην
δώσειν.

Soph. Antig. 458-60.[205]

If in some of these instances the order is not absolutely unambiguous, still less is it so in other and more miscellaneous extracts about to be given. The writer of artistic prose, as of poetry, has to satisfy claims which are often hard to reconcile: those of clearness, of emphasis, and of euphony.[206] The result may often be a more or less unconscious compromise in which one of the elements prospers at the expense of the others. Euphony, to take that element alone, is expected to please the ear in many different ways—by the avoidance of harsh letters (found singly or in combination), of short syllables in close succession, of monotony in word-terminations, of monotony in every shape and form. Obscurity may well ensue, especially in a literature which does not aid the eye by means of punctuation, capital letters (to denote proper names or the beginning of a sentence), italic type, or division into paragraphs and chapters. To set against these deficiencies, there was the help provided by the reciter or the skilled anagnostes; and it is often interesting to speculate how, by a slight pause or modulation of the voice, a practised reader would be able to remove a seeming ambiguity. In poetry, again, metre would often be an aid to clear delivery, though its exigencies might on the other hand have led to some ambiguities in the actual writing. No careful modern student of a highly-wrought speech, like the Crown of Demosthenes, can have failed to be arrested momentarily, here and there, by some slight ambiguity which, as far as he can judge, might have been removed by an equally slight change in the word-order; and he gains much in the appreciation of Demosthenes if he is thus led to consider what are the subtle laws of rhythm and melody to which an absolutely unimpeachable lucidity has (in however small a degree) given way. He will certainly be led to the conclusion that, in Greek, good order is by no means the simple thing it may seem when achieved, but rather is the highly complex result of the play of many forces. The following examples, drawn from various authors in poetry and in prose, may be found suggestive. They are of set purpose presented without any attempt at sequence or classification, except that a considerable number of extracts from the de Corona are grouped together:—

(1) καί μοι τὸν υἱόν, εἰ μεμάθηκε τὸν λόγον
ἐκεῖνον, εἴφ’, ὃν ἀρτίως εἰσήγαγες.

Aristoph. Nub. 1148.

(2) ἀλλά μιν αὖτις ἀναρπάξασα θύελλα
πόντον ἐπ’ ἰχθυόεντα φέρεν βαρέα στενάχοντα.

Hom. Odyss. xxiii. 316.[207]

(3) ἠδ’ ὡς εἰς Ἀίδεω δόμον ἤλυθεν εὐρώεντα,
ψυχῇ χρησόμενος Θηβαίου Τειρεσίαο,
νηῒ πολυκλήιδι.

id. ib. xxiii. 322.[207]

(4) ὅτι Ἱππίας μὲν πρεσβύτατος ὢν ἦρχε τῶν Πεισιστράτου υἱέων.

Thucyd. i. 20.

Here τῶν Πεισιστράτου υἱέων depends on πρεσβύτατος ὤν, not on ἦρχε.

(5) κράτιστα τοίνυν τῶν παρόντων ἐστὶ νῷν
θεῶν ἰόντε προσπεσεῖν του πρὸς βρέτας.

Aristoph. Eq. 30, 31.

Here the actor would pause slightly after νῷν, at the end of the metrical line.

(6) τοῦτ’ οὖν ἔβλαψα τί δράσας;

id. Ran. 1064.

Careful delivery would make it quite plain that the meaning is: τί οὖν ἔβλαψα, δράσας τοῦτο;

(7) σαφῶς γὰρ ἄν, εἰ πείθοιμι ὑμᾶς καὶ τῷ δεῖσθαι βιαζοίμην ὀμωμοκότας, θεοὺς ἂν διδάσκοιμι μὴ ἡγεῖσθαι ὑμᾶς εἶναι.

Plato Apol. c. 24.

(8) καὶ ἐς τύχας πρὸς πολλῷ δυνατωτέρους ἀγωνιζόμενοι καταστῆναι.

Thucyd. i. 69.

(9) οὐδ’ ἐκλογίσασθαι πώποτε πρὸς οἵους ὑμῖν Ἀθηναίους ὄντας καὶ ὅσον ὑμῶν καὶ ὡς πᾶν διαφέροντας ὁ ἀγὼν ἔσται.

id. i. 70.

ὑμῖν is probably to be connected with ὁ ἀγὼν ἔσται. Its present position has the effect of marking the contrast between ὑμῖν and Ἀθηναίους, and further of breaking the monotony of the accusative-endings οἵους Ἀθηναίους ὄντας. It should, however, be remembered that in a highly inflected language like Greek a noun may stand in a vague general case relation (genitive, dative, or accusative) to the whole sentence in a way that is impossible in an uninflected language. This may be so here, and in some of the other passages quoted.

(10) ῥηθήσεται δὲ οὐ παραιτήσεως μᾶλλον ἕνεκα ἢ μαρτυρίου καὶ δηλώσεως πρὸς οἵαν ὑμῖν πόλιν μὴ εὖ βουλευομένοις ὁ ἀγὼν καταστήσεται.

id. i. 73.

Similarly ὑμῖν (‘you will find,’ etc.) is to be taken with ὁ ἀγὼν καταστήσεται. It is contrasted with πόλιν and paves the way for βουλευομένοις.

(11) ἔνθ’ ὅ γε τοὺς ἐλεεινὰ κατήσθεε τετριγῶτας·
μήτηρ δ’ ἀμφεποτᾶτο ὀδυρομένη φίλα τέκνα.

Hom. Il. ii. 314-15.

Connect ἐλεεινὰ τετριγῶτας, and ἀμφεποτᾶτο φίλα τέκνα.

(12) ὡς οὖν δεινὰ πέλωρα θεῶν εἰσῆλθ’ ἑκατόμβας.

id. ib. ii. 321.

Connect θεῶν ἑκατόμβας.

(13) καίτοι σ’ ἐγὼ ’τίμησα τοῖς φρονοῦσιν εὖ.

Soph. Antig. 904.

εὖ with ἐτίμησα. The line occurs in the suspected portion of the Antigone. But, so far as this particular point is concerned, cp. the order of μόνος in—
τὰ κοινὰ χαίρων οὐ δίκαια δρᾷ μόνος.

Eurip. Ion 358.

(14) τίνος δ’ Ἀτρεῖδαι τοῦδ’ ἄγαν οὕτω χρόνῳ
τοσῷδ’ ἐπεστέφοντο πράγματος χάριν,
ὅν γ’ εἶχον ἤδη χρόνιον ἐκβεβληκότες;

Soph. Philoct. 598.

Here strict lucidity is sacrificed to emphasis. τίνος must be joined with πράγματος (not with τοῦδε).

(15) στέμματ’ ἔχων ἐν χερσὶν ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος
χρυσέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ.

Hom. Il. i. 14.

(16) περὶ τούτων δ’ ὄντος τουτουὶ τοῦ ἀγῶνος, ἀξιῶ καὶ δέομαι πάντων ὁμοίως ὑμῶν ἀκοῦσαί μου περὶ τῶν κατηγορημένων ἀπολογουμένου δικαίως, ὥσπερ οἱ νόμοι κελεύουσιν, οὓς ὁ τιθεὶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς Σόλων κτλ.

Demosth. de Cor. § 6.

δικαίως qualifies ἀκοῦσαι: cp. the position of γενναίως in de Cor. § 97 (quoted in Introduction p. 24 supra). The present order is not only emphatic, but also serves to connect δικαίως closely with ὥσπερ κτλ., and thus to a certain extent actually to avoid ambiguity.

(17) σκέψασθ’ ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ θεωρήσατε ὅσῳ καὶ ἀληθέστερον καὶ ἀνθρωπινώτερον ἐγὼ περὶ τῆς τύχης τούτου διαλεχθήσομαι.

Demosth. de Cor. § 252.

(18) τὸ μὲν τοίνυν προελέσθαι τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ τὸ τῶν οἰηθέντων Ἑλλήνων, εἰ πρόοιντο ἡμᾶς, ἐν εὐδαιμονίᾳ διάξειν, αὐτῶν ἄμεινον πράττειν τῆς ἀγαθῆς τύχης τῆς πόλεως εἶναι τίθημι.

id. ib. § 254.

(19) τοῦ μὲν οὖν γράψαι πράττοντα καὶ λέγοντα τὰ βέλτιστά με τῷ δήμῳ διατελεῖν καὶ πρόθυμον εἶναι ποιεῖν ὅ τι ἂν δύνωμαι ἀγαθόν, καὶ ἐπαινεῖν ἐπὶ τούτοις, ἐν τοῖς πεπολιτευμένοις τὴν κρίσιν εἶναι νομίζω.

id. ib. § 56.

(20) οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἥψατ’ αὐτῶν | παρόντων ἡμῶν, κτλ.

id. ib. § 30.

The vertical stroke, here and elsewhere, may serve to indicate the possibility of a slight pause in utterance, and Aristotle’s remarks on the obscurity of Heracleitus may be recalled: τὰ γὰρ Ἡρακλείτου διαστίξαι (‘to punctuate’) ἔργον διὰ τὸ ἄδηλον εἶναι ποτέρῳ πρόσκειται, τῷ ὕστερον ἢ τῷ πρότερον, οἷον ἐν τῇ ἀρχῇ αὐτοῦ τοῦ συγγράμματος· φησὶ γὰρ “τοῦ λόγου τοῦδ’ ἐόντος ἀεὶ ἀξύνετοι ἄνθρωποι γίγνονται”· ἄδηλον γὰρ τὸ ἀεί, πρὸς ὁποτέρῳ ‹δεῖ› διαστίξαι.

Aristot. Rhet. iii. 5.

(21) λοιπὸν τοίνυν ἦν καὶ ἀναγκαῖον ἅμα | πᾶσιν οἷς ἐκεῖνος ἔπραττ’ ἀδικῶν ὑμᾶς ἐναντιοῦσθαι δικαίως.

Demosth. de Cor. § 69.

(22) ταῦτα τοίνυν εἰδὼς Αἰσχίνης οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐμοῦ | πομπεύειν ἀντὶ τοῦ κατηγορεῖν εἵλετο.

id. ib. § 124.

(23) συνέβαινε δ’ αὐτῷ | τῷ πολέμῳ κρατοῦντι, κτλ.

id. ib. § 146.

(24) τότε τοίνυν κατ’ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν ὁ Παιανεὺς ἐγὼ Βάτταλος Οἰνομάου τοῦ Κοθωκίδου σοῦ | πλείονος ἄξιος ὢν ἐφάνην τῇ πατρίδι.

id. ib. § 180.

(25) εἰ γὰρ ὡς οὐ τὰ βέλτιστα ἐμοῦ πολιτευσαμένου | τουδὶ καταψηφιεῖσθε, ἡμαρτηκέναι δόξετε, οὐ τῇ τῆς τύχης ἀγνωμοσύνῃ τὰ συμβάντα παθεῖν.

id. ib. § 207.

(26) οὐκ ἂν οἷα σὺ νῦν ἔλεγες, τοιαῦτα κατηγόρει, παραδείγματα πλάττων | καὶ ῥήματα καὶ σχήματα μιμούμενος κτλ.

id. ib. § 232.

(27) σὺ τοίνυν ταῦτ’ ἀφεὶς ἐμὲ τὸν παρὰ τουτοισὶ πεπολιτευμένον αἰτιᾷ, καὶ ταῦτ’ | εἰδὼς ὅτι, καὶ εἰ μὴ τὸ ὅλον, μέρος γ’ ἐπιβάλλει τῆς βλασφημίας ἅπασι, καὶ μάλιστα σοί.

id. ib. § 272.

Here may be added, from R. Y. Tyrrell’s edition of Eurip. Bacchae p. 36, an interesting note suggested by the distance which parts μόσχων from ἀγελαῖα βοσκήματα in Bacch. 678: “The Greek writers are not nearly so sensitive about the order of words as we are. Surely we have something at least as strange in the order of words in 684 where ἐλάτης certainly depends on φόβην not on νῶτα. See Comm. on 860 for more curious inversions of the natural order; and compare in Soph. Oed. R. 1251 χὤπως μὲν ἐκ τῶνδ’ οὐκέτ’ οἶδ’ ἀπόλλυται; O.C. 1427 τίς δὲ τολμήσει κλύων | τὰ τοῦδ’ ἕπεσθαι τἀνδρός; Perhaps the best instance in Greek of a violent hyperbaton is Ar. Thesm. 811 οὐδ’ ἂν κλέψασα γυνὴ ζεύγει κατὰ πεντήκοντα τάλαντα | ἐς πόλιν ἔλθοι τῶν δημοσίων ‘nor would a lady ride in her chariot to the town after pilfering the public exchequer to the tune of 50 talents.’” Probably the Greek authors, in such instances, were not blind to the liberties they were taking with the natural and lucid order of words; but they trusted to delivery’s artful aid. And about the order adopted in the passage quoted from the Thesmophoriazusae there seems to be a touch of intentional comedy.

It is worth notice, in connexion with Thucydides and word-order, that the Vatican manuscript B, which is at its best from vi. 92 to the end of viii., frequently exhibits an order of words which is peculiar to it and may point to a reviser’s deliberate effort after greater lucidity. In reference to the text presented by the newly discovered Commentary on Thucydides ii., Grenfell and Hunt (Oxyrhynchus Papyri vi. p. 113) say: “As usual, the text of the papyrus is of an eclectic character and does not consistently agree with either family [of the MSS. of Thucydides]; but it supports the ABEFM group seven times against only four agreements with the other [viz. CG]. Several new readings occur of which we append a list.”

With regard to the 27 passages quoted above from various authors it may be remarked in general that, while in some of them there are real obscurities, in others the ambiguity is purely grammatical. And it might almost be laid down as a principle of Greek language that grammatical rules may be freely neglected where the neglect of them does not make the meaning seriously ambiguous, and is desirable in order to secure emphasis, euphony, or some similar object.

APPENDIX B

ILLUSTRATIONS OF WORD-ORDER IN GREEK AND MODERN LANGUAGES

A few modern translations of some short Greek passages may be appended, in order to exemplify some of the leading differences, in regard to word-order, between ancient and modern languages. From these it will be seen how much English, French, and German differ among themselves; and, indeed, how great is the variety presented by good English versions of one and the same Greek passage. Dionysius himself (p. 266 supra) refers to the opening of Plato’s Republic, and that opening passage may here be given at sufficient length to illustrate sentence-order and clause-order as well as word-order. Then will be added, from the de Corona (which Dionysius regards as the greatest of all speeches), the opening, the conclusion, and a famous piece of narrative.

MODERN TRANSLATIONS

I. Opening of Plato’s Republic

(1) Κατέβην χθὲς εἰς Πειραιᾶ μετὰ Γλαύκωνος τοῦ Ἀρίστωνος προσευξόμενός τε τῇ θεῷ καὶ ἅμα τὴν ἑορτὴν βουλόμενος θεάσασθαι τίνα τρόπον ποιήσουσιν ἅτε νῦν πρῶτον ἄγοντες. καλὴ μὲν οὖν μοι καὶ ἡ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων πομπὴ ἔδοξεν εἶναι, οὐ μέντοι ἧττον ἐφαίνετο πρέπειν ἣν οἱ Θρᾷκες ἔπεμπον. προσευξάμενοι δὲ καὶ θεωρήσαντες ἀπῇμεν πρὸς τὸ ἄστυ. κατιδὼν οὖν πόρρωθεν ἡμᾶς οἴκαδε ὡρμημένους Πολέμαρχος ὁ Κεφάλου ἐκέλευσε δραμόντα τὸν παῖδα περιμεῖναί ἑ κελεῦσαι. καί μου ὄπισθεν ὁ παῖς λαβόμενος τοῦ ἱματίου, Κελεύει ὑμᾶς, ἔφη, Πολέμαρχος περιμεῖναι. Καὶ ἐγὼ μετεστράφην τε καὶ ἠρόμην ὅπου αὐτὸς εἴη. Οὗτος, ἔφη, ὄπισθεν προσέρχεται· ἀλλὰ περιμένετε. Ἀλλὰ περιμενοῦμεν, ἦ δ’ ὃς ὁ Γλαύκων.

(2) J’étais descendu hier au Pirée avec Glaucon, fils d’Ariston, pour faire notre prière à la déesse et voir aussi comment se passerait la fête, car c’était la première fois qu’on la célébrait. La pompe, formée par nos compatriotes, me parut belle, et celle des Thraces ne l’était pas moins. Après avoir fait notre prière et vu la cérémonie, nous regagnâmes le chemin de la ville. Comme nous nous dirigions de ce côté, Polémarque, fils de Céphale, nous aperçut de loin, et dit à son esclave de courir après nous et de nous prier de l’attendre. Celui-ci m’arrêtant par derrière par mon manteau: Polémarque, dit-il, vous prie de l’attendre. Je me retourne et lui demande où est son maître: Le voilà qui me suit, attendez-le un moment. Eh bien, dit Glaucon, nous l’attendrons.

Victor Cousin.

(3) Ich ging gestern mit Glaukon, dem Sohne des Ariston, in den Peiraieus hinunter; theils um die Göttin anzubeten, dann aber wollte ich auch zugleich das Fest sehen, wie sie es feiern wollten, da sie es jetzt zum ersten Mal begehen. Schön nun dünkte mich auch unserer Einheimischen Aufzug zu sein; nicht minder vortrefflich jedoch nahm sich auch der aus, den die Thrakier geschickt hatten. Nachdem wir nun gebetet und die Feier mit angeschaut hatten, gingen wir fort nach der Stadt. Wie nun Polemarchos, der Sohn des Kephalos, uns von fern nach Hause zu steigen sah, hiess er seinen Knaben laufen und uns heissen, ihn erwarten. Der Knabe also fasste mich von hinten beim Mantel und sprach: Polemarchos heisst Euch, ihn erwarten. Ich wendete mich um und fragte, wo denn er selbst wäre. Hier, sprach er, kommt er hinter Euch, wartet nur. Nun ja, wir wollen warten, sagte Glaukon.

Friedrich Schleiermacher.

(4) I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, to offer up prayer to the goddess, and also from a wish to see how the festival, then to be held for the first time, would be celebrated. I was very much pleased with the native Athenian procession; though that of the Thracians appeared to be no less brilliant. We had finished our prayers and satisfied our curiosity, and were returning to the city, when Polemarchus the son of Cephalus caught sight of us at a distance, as we were on our way towards home, and told his servant to run and bid us wait for him. The servant came behind me, took hold of my cloak, and said, ‘Polemarchus bids you wait.’ I turned round and asked him where his master was. ‘There he is,’ he replied, ‘coming on behind: pray wait for him.’ ‘We will wait,’ answered Glaucon.

Davies and Vaughan.

(5) I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess; and also because I wanted to see in what manner they would celebrate the festival, which was a new thing. I was delighted with the procession of the inhabitants; but that of the Thracians was equally, if not more, beautiful. When we had finished our prayers and viewed the spectacle, we turned in the direction of the city; and at that instant Polemarchus the son of Cephalus chanced to catch sight of us from a distance as we were starting on our way home, and told his servant to run and bid us wait for him. The servant took hold of me by the cloak behind, and said: Polemarchus desires you to wait. I turned round, and asked him where his master was. There he is, said the youth, coming after you, if you will only wait. Certainly we will, said Glaucon.

B. Jowett.

(6) I went down to the Peiraeus yesterday with Glaucon, the son of Ariston. As this was the first celebration of the festival, I wished to make my prayers to the goddess and see the ceremony. I liked the procession of the residents, but I thought that the Thracian ordered theirs quite as successfully. We had offered our prayers and finished our sight-seeing, and were leaving for the city, when from some way off, Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, saw that we were starting homewards, and sent his slave to run after us and bid us wait. The lad caught my cloak from behind and said: ‘Polemarchus bids you wait.’ I turned round and asked him where his master was. ‘He is coming behind,’ he said; ‘but will you please wait?’ ‘Surely we will,’ said Glaucon.

A. D. Lindsay.

II. Opening of Demosthenes’ Speech on the Crown

(1) Πρῶτον μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις, ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ τῇ τε πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν, τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα, ἔπειθ’ ὅπερ ἐστὶ μάλισθ’ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν καὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας εὐσεβείας τε καὶ δόξης, τοῦτο παραστῆσαι τοὺς θεοὺς ὑμῖν, μὴ τὸν ἀντίδικον σύμβουλον ποιήσασθαι περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἀκούειν ὑμᾶς ἐμοῦ δεῖ (σχέτλιον γὰρ ἂν εἴη τοῦτό γε), ἀλλὰ τοὺς νόμους καὶ τὸν ὅρκον, ἐν ᾧ πρὸς ἅπασι τοῖς ἄλλοις δικαίοις καὶ τοῦτο γέγραπται, τὸ ὁμοίως ἀμφοῖν ἀκροάσασθαι. τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶν οὐ μόνον τὸ μὴ προκατεγνωκέναι μηδέν, οὐδὲ τὸ τὴν εὔνοιαν ἴσην ἀποδοῦναι, ἀλλὰ τὸ καὶ τῇ τάξει καὶ τῇ ἀπολογίᾳ, ὡς βεβούληται καὶ προῄρηται τῶν ἀγωνιζομένων ἕκαστος, οὕτως ἐᾶσαι χρήσασθαι.

(2) Athéniens, j’adresse d’abord une prière à tous les dieux, à toutes les déesses. Si j’ai toujours voulu le bien de la république et de vous tous, fassent ces dieux qu’aujourd’hui, dans cette lutte, je trouve en vous la même bienveillance! Puissent-ils vous persuader aussi, comme le veulent votre intérêt, votre religion, votre gloire, que, sur la manière de m’entendre, ce n’est pas mon adversaire qu’il est juste de consulter,—ma condition en deviendrait trop dure,—ce sont les lois et votre serment! Votre serment, où sont écrites ces paroles, pleines d’équité, comme tout le reste: écouter également les deux parties. Cela ne veut pas dire seulement: nous n’apporterons aucune prévention, et nous donnerons à tous deux une faveur égale. Cela veut dire aussi: nous ne contraindrons personne, ni dans la disposition de ses moyens ni dans l’ordre de sa défense; quel que soit le plan adopté par celui qui vient plaider sa cause, nous lui permettrons de le suivre en toute liberté.

Rodolphe Dareste.

(3) Für das Erste, Ihr Männer Athens, flehe ich alle Götter und Göttinnen an, dass so viel Wohlwollen, als ich jederzeit der Stadt und Euch allen bewiesen, mir in gleichem Maasse von Euch für den gegenwärtigen Handel zu Theil werde; dann, dass die Götter Euch das in den Sinn geben, was Euch und Euerm Gewissen und Ansehn am meisten ziemt: nicht von dem Gegner Rath zu nehmen, wie Ihr mich anhören sollt—denn arg wäre das—sondern von den Gesetzen und dem Eide, in welchem, ausser allen andern Rechten, auch diess verordnet ist: beiden Parteien auf gleiche Weise Gehör zu geben. Diess heisst aber nicht bloss, keine Meinung vorher zu fassen; auch nicht, beiden gleiches Wohlwollen zu schenken; sondern ebenfalls, Jedem der Streitenden diejenige Anordnung und Vertheidigungsart zu gestatten, die er gut gefunden und gewählt hat.

Friedrich Jacobs.

(4) I begin, men of Athens, by praying to every God and Goddess, that the same goodwill, which I have ever cherished towards the commonwealth and all of you, may be requited to me on the present trial. I pray likewise—and this specially concerns yourselves, your religion, and your honour—that the Gods may put it in your minds, not to take counsel of my opponent touching the manner in which I am to be heard—that would indeed be cruel!—but of the laws and of your oath; wherein (besides the other obligations) it is prescribed that you shall hear both sides alike. This means, not only that you must pass no pre-condemnation, not only that you must extend your goodwill equally to both, but also that you must allow the parties to adopt such order and course of defence as they severally choose and prefer.

C. R. Kennedy.

III. Conclusion of Demosthenes’ Speech on the Crown

(1) Μὴ δῆτ’, ὦ πάντες θεοί, μηδεὶς ταῦθ’ ὑμῶν ἐπινεύσειεν, ἀλλὰ μάλιστα μὲν καὶ τούτοις βελτίω τινὰ νοῦν καὶ φρένας ἐνθείητε, εἰ δ’ ἄρ’ ἔχουσιν ἀνιάτως, τούτους μὲν αὐτοὺς καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς ἐξώλεις καὶ προώλεις ἐν γῇ καὶ θαλάττῃ ποιήσατε, ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς λοιποῖς τὴν ταχίστην ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶν ἐπηρτημένων φόβων δότε καὶ σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ.

(2) Dieux puissants! n’écoutez pas ces vœux impies! inspirez plutôt à ces hommes un autre esprit et des pensées meilleures! Ou, si leur méchanceté est incurable, frappez-les, exterminez-les sur terre et sur mer. Pour nous, délivrez-nous au plus tôt des dangers qui nous menacent, sauvez-nous, protégez-nous à jamais!

R. Dareste.

(3) Möchte doch, o all’ Ihr Götter! keiner von Euch dieses billigen, sondern Ihr vor allen Dingen auch diesen hier einen bessern Sinn und besseres Gemüth verleihen; wenn sie aber unheilbar sind, sie allein für sich dem Verderben überliefern, uns, den Übrigen, aber die schnellste Befreiung von den obschwebenden Besorgnissen und unerschütterte Wohlfahrt gewähren.

F. Jacobs.

(4) Never, Powers of Heaven, may any brow of the Immortals be bent in approval of that prayer! Rather, if it may be, breathe even into these men a better mind and heart; but if so it is that to these can come no healing, then grant that these, and these alone, may perish utterly and early on land and on the deep: and to us, the remnant, send the swiftest deliverance from the terrors gathered above our heads, send us the salvation that stands fast perpetually.

R. C. Jebb.

(5) Never, ye gods, vouchsafe assent to such a prayer! Rather, if it may be, inspire even these men with a better mind and heart; but, if they are indeed past healing, bring them, and them alone, to swift and utter ruin by land and sea; and to us who yet remain grant the speediest release from the terrors that hang over us; grant us a sure salvation!

S. H. Butcher.

IV. Narrative Passage from Demosthenes’ Speech on the Crown

(§§ 169, 170)

(1) Ἑσπέρα μὲν γὰρ ἦν, ἧκε δ’ ἀγγέλλων τις ὡς τοὺς πρυτάνεις ὡς Ἐλάτεια κατείληπται. καὶ μετὰ ταῦθ’ οἱ μὲν εὐθὺς ἐξαναστάντες μεταξὺ δειπνοῦντες τοὺς τ’ ἐκ τῶν σκηνῶν τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐξεῖργον καὶ τὰ γέρρ’ ἐνεπίμπρασαν, οἱ δὲ τοὺς στρατηγοὺς μετεπέμποντο καὶ τὸν σαλπιγκτὴν ἐκάλουν· καὶ θορύβου πλήρης ἦν ἡ πόλις. τῇ δ’ ὑστεραίᾳ, ἅμα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, οἱ μὲν πρυτάνεις τὴν βουλὴν ἐκάλουν εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον, ὑμεῖς δ’ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἐπορεύεσθε, καὶ πρὶν ἐκείνην χρηματίσαι καὶ προβουλεῦσαι πᾶς ὁ δῆμος ἄνω κάθητο. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ὡς ἦλθεν ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ἀπήγγειλαν οἱ πρυτάνεις τὰ προσηγγελμέν’ ἑαυτοῖς καὶ τὸν ἥκοντα παρήγαγον κἀκεῖνος εἶπεν, ἠρώτα μὲν ὁ κῆρυξ “τίς ἀγορεύειν βούλεται;” παρῄει δ’ οὐδείς. πολλάκις δὲ τοῦ κήρυκος ἐρωτῶντος οὐδὲν μᾶλλον ἀνίστατ’ οὐδείς, ἁπάντων μὲν τῶν στρατηγῶν παρόντων, ἁπάντων δὲ τῶν ῥητόρων, καλούσης δὲ τῆς κοινῆς τῆς πατρίδος φωνῆς τὸν ἐροῦνθ’ ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας· ἣν γὰρ ὁ κῆρυξ κατὰ τοὺς νόμους φωνὴν ἀφίησι, ταύτην κοινὴν τῆς πατρίδος δίκαιον ἡγεῖσθαι.

(2) C’était le soir. Arrive un homme qui annonce aux prytanes que l’Élatée est prise. Aussitôt les uns se lèvent de table, chassent les marchands de la place publique et brûlent leurs tentes; les autres mandent les stratéges, appellent le trompette; ce n’est que trouble dans toute la ville. Le lendemain, au point du jour, les prytanes convoquent le conseil. Vous, de votre côté, vous vous rendez à l’assemblée, et avant que le conseil eût rien agité, rien résolu, tout le peuple était rangé à ses places sur la colline. Bientôt après, les membres du conseil arrivent; les prytanes déclarent la nouvelle, et font paraître celui qui l’a apportée; cet homme parle lui-même. Le héraut demande: ‘Qui veut monter à la tribune?’ Personne ne se lève. Il recommence plusieurs fois. Personne encore. Et tous les stratéges, tous les orateurs étaient présents; et la patrie, de cette voix qui est la voix de tous, appelait un citoyen qui parlât pour la sauver; car la voix du héraut qui se fait entendre, quand les lois l’ordonnent, c’est la voix de la patrie.

R. Dareste.

(3) Es war Abend. Da kam Einer mit der Meldung zu den Prytanen, dass Elateia eingenommen sey. Hierauf standen diese sogleich von der Mahlzeit auf, trieben die Leute aus den Buden auf dem Markte fort, und steckten das Holzwerk davon in Brand; andere schickten nach den Strategen, und riefen den Trompeter herbei. Die Stadt war in grösster Bewegung. Am folgenden Morgen, bei Tages Anbruch, riefen die Prytanen den Senat auf das Stadthaus, Ihr aber begabt Euch in die Versammlung, und ehe der Senat noch sein Geschäft vollbracht und einen vorläufigen Beschluss gefasst hatte, sass das ganze Volk schon oben. Und als hierauf der Senat eintrat, und die Prytanen das, was ihnen gemeldet worden war, öffentlich bekannt machten, und den Überbringer der Nachricht vorführten, und auch dieser gesprochen hatte, fragte der Herold: Wer will sprechen? Niemand aber meldete sich. Wiewohl nun der Herold seine Frage oft wiederholte, trat darum, doch Keiner auf, obgleich alle Strategen gegenwärtig waren, und alle Redner und das Vaterland mit gemeinsamer Stimme einen Sprecher für seine Rettung aufrief; denn die Stimme, die der Herold dem Gesetze gemäss ertönen lässt, kann mit allem Rechte für die Stimme des gesammten Vaterlandes gehalten werden.

F. Jacobs.

(4) It was evening when a courier came to the presidents of the assembly with the news that Elateia had been seized. The presidents instantly rose from table—they were supping at the moment: some of them hastened to clear the market-place of the shopmen, and to burn the wickerwork of the booths: others, to send for the generals and order the sounding of the call to the Assembly. The city was in a tumult. At dawn next day the presidents convoked the Senate, you hurried to the Ekklesia, and before the Senate could go through its forms or could report, the whole people were in assembly on the hill. Then, when the Senate had come in, when the presidents had reported the news that they had received, and had introduced the messenger, who told his tale, the herald repeatedly asked, Who wishes to speak? But no one came forward. Again and again he put the question—in vain. No one would rise, though all the generals, though all the public speakers were present, though our Country was crying aloud, with the voice that comes home to all, for a champion of the commonwealth—if in the solemn invitation given by the herald we may truly deem that we hear our Country’s summons.

R. C. Jebb.

APPENDIX C

GREEK PRONUNCIATION: SCHEME OF THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION

In October 1908 the Classical Association adopted a number of recommendations made by its Greek Pronunciation Committee, and has since published them for the use of teachers and others. They are put forward “not as constituting a complete scientific scheme, but as approximations which, for teaching purposes, may be regarded as practicable, and at the same time as a great advance on the present usage, both for clearness in teaching and for actual likeness to the ancient sounds.” The period (the early fourth century B.C.) to which they are intended mainly to apply is one whose literature Dionysius studied rather than that in which he lived (cp. pages 43-46 above). But his scattered hints are of great moment in the whole inquiry; and if they are read with care and with reference to their bearing, not only on disputed points, but on points which (largely through the evidence they furnish) are undisputed, it will be seen how much we owe to them when making any attempt to reconstruct the pronunciation of the classical period. The principal passages of Dionysius’ text which throw light upon the question of Greek pronunciation and accentuation will be found on pages 126-130, 136-150, 218-224, 230 above. The following are the suggestions made by the Classical Association:—

Vowels
ᾱ and α, ῑ and ι, ε and ο, η and ω may be pronounced as the corresponding vowels in Latin, i.e.

ᾱ, as a in father,

α, as a in aha.

ῑ, as ee in feed.

ι, as i in Fr. piquet, nearly as Eng. i in fit.

ε, as e in fret.

ο, as o in not.

η (long e), as e in Lat. mēta, Eng. a in mate.

ω (long o), as o in Lat. Rōma, Eng. home.

The pronunciation recommended for η and ω is dictated by practical considerations. But in any school where the pupils have been accustomed to distinguish the sounds of French è and é, the Committee feels that the open sound (of è in il mène), which is historically correct for η, may well be adopted. In the same way there is no doubt that the pronunciation of ω in the fifth century B.C. was the open sound of oa in Eng. broad, not that of the ordinary English ō. But since the precise degree of openness varied at different epochs, the Committee, though preferring the open pronunciation, sees no sufficient reason for excluding the obviously convenient practice of sounding ω just as Latin ō. For both Greek and Latin the diphthongal character of the English vowels in mate and home, i.e. the slight ĭ sound in mate and the slight ŭ sound in home, own, is incorrect. But the discrepancy is not one which any but fairly advanced students need be asked to notice, unless indeed they happen to be already familiar with the pure vowel sounds of modern Welsh or Italian.

υ as French ŭ in du pain.
ῡ as French ū in rue or Germ. ü in grün.

In recommending this sound for the Greek υ, the Committee is partly guided by the fact that its correct production is now widely and successfully taught in English schools in early stages of instruction in French and German. But in any school where the sound is strange to the pupils at the stage at which Greek is begun, if it is felt that the effort to acquire the sound would involve a serious hindrance to progress, the Committee can only suggest that, for the time, the υ should be pronounced as Latin u (short as oo in Eng. took, long as oo in Eng. loose), though this obscures the distinction between words like λύω and λούω.

Diphthongs
αι = α + ι nearly as ai in Isaiah (broadly pronounced), Fr. émail.

οι = ο + ι as Eng. oi in oil.

υι = υ + ι as Fr. ui in lui.

In ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ the first vowel was long, and the second only faintly heard.

ει. The precise sound of ει is difficult to determine, but in Attic Greek it was never confused with η till a late period, and to maintain the distinction clearly it is perhaps best for English students to pronounce it as Eng. eye, though in fact it must have been nearer to Fr. ée in passée, Eng. ey in grey. The Greek Ἀλφειός is Latin Alphēus.

αυ = au, as Germ. au in Haus, nearly as Eng. ow in gown.

ευ = eu, nearly as Eng. ew in few, u in tune.

ου as Eng. oo in moon, Fr. ou in roue.

Consonants
π, β, τ, δ, κ, and γ as p, b, t, d, k, and g respectively in Latin; except that γ (before γ, κ, and χ) is used to denote the nasal sound heard in Eng. ankle, anger.

ρ, λ, μ, ν as Lat. r, l, m, n.

σ, ς always as Lat. s (Eng. s in mouse), except before β, γ and μ, where the sound was as in Eng. has been, has gone, has made: e.g. ἄσβεστος, φάσγανον, ἑσμός.

ξ as Eng. x in wax, and ψ as Eng. ps in lapse.

ζ as Eng. dz in adze, ds in treads on.

Aspirates

The Committee has carefully considered the pronunciation of the aspirated consonants in Greek. It is certain that the primitive pronunciation of χ, θ, φ was as k.h, t.h, p.h, that is as k, t, p followed by a strong breath, and the Committee is not prepared to deny that this pronunciation lasted down into the classical period. Further, there is no doubt that the adoption of this pronunciation makes much in Greek accidence that is otherwise obscure perfectly comprehensible. If φαίνω be pronounced πhαίνω, it is readily understood why the reduplicated perfect is πεπhηνα; but if it be pronounced fαινω, the perfect, pronounced πεfηνα, is anomalous. The relation of ἀφίστημι and the like to ἵστημι, of φροῦδος to ὁδός, of θρίξ to τρίχα becomes intelligible when it is seen that θ, φ, and χ contain a real h-sound. This advantage seems to be one of the reasons why it has been adopted in practice by a certain number of English teachers.

In the course of time the pronunciation of the aspirates changed by degrees to that of fricatives, which is now current in most districts of Greece, φ becoming f, θ pronounced as th, in English thin, and χ acquiring the sound of the German ch.[208]

If the later sounds are accepted, no change in the common pronunciation of θ and φ in England will be required, but it will remain desirable to distinguish between the sounds of κ and χ, which are at present confused: ἄκος and ἄχος, καίνω and χαίνω being now pronounced alike. This may be done by giving χ the sound of kh, or of German ch, as in auch. The Committee would, on the whole, recommend the latter alternative as being more familiar in German, Scotch, and Irish place-names.[209]

The Committee, though loath to do anything to discourage the primitive pronunciation of the aspirates, has not been able to satisfy itself that it would be easy to introduce this pronunciation into schools to which it is strange; and it is of opinion that it is not advisable to recommend anything at present that might increase the labour of the teacher or the student of Greek. It therefore abstains from recommending any change in the common pronunciation of the aspirates except in the case of χ.

Accentuation

There is no doubt that in the Classical period of Greek the accented syllables were marked by a higher pitch or note than the unaccented, and not by more stress, not, that is, with a stronger current of breath and more muscular effort. Therefore, unless the student is capable of giving a musical value to the Greek signs of accent, it is doubtful whether he should attempt to represent them in pronunciation; for in many cases we should make our pronunciation more, not less remote from that of the Greeks themselves if we gave to their accented syllables the same stress as we do to the accented syllables in English; for example, in paroxytone dactyls (κεχρημένος) when the penult is stressed, the quantity of the long antepenult is apt to be shortened and its metrical value destroyed.[210] But where there is no conflict between accent and quantity (ἀγαθός), something may be said for stressing moderately the accented syllable, and so distinguishing e.g. καλῶς and κάλως, Διός and δῖος, ταὐτά and ταῦτα.[211]

Footnotes

[1] Regarded from this point of view, the Chronological Table given on page 50 is full of interest.

[2] Reference may also be made to pages 27-29, 33, 34, 40-55, 74-85, 92-95, 98 ff., 122-127, 134-137, 154-167, 184-193, 200-207, 236-241, 264-281. Especially to be noticed is that warm praise of simplicity (pp. 76-85, 134-137) which should suffice to prove that Dionysius is not a ‘rhetorician’ in any invidious sense.

[3] See Glossary, s.v. σύνθεσις.

[4] de Isocrate c. 2, δουλεύει γὰρ ἡ διάνοια πολλάκις τῷ ῥυθμῷ τῆς λέξεως, καὶ τοῦ κομψοῦ λείπεται τὸ ἀληθινόν ... βούλεται δὲ ἡ φύσις τοῖς νοήμασιν ἕπεσθαι τὴν λέξιν, οὐ τῇ λέξει τὰ νοήματα.

[5] The Greek word (κεφάλαια, capita) corresponding to ‘chapters’ occurs several times in the C.V. (see Glossary, s.v.); and one (περιοχή) of the words corresponding to ‘paragraph’ is found in the de Thucyd. c. 25. The paramount importance and dignity of the πραγματικὸς τόπος is indicated in the C.V. 66 9-15, and in the de Demosth. c. 58 fin.

[6] Quintilian (Inst. Or. ix. 4. 23) applies the term naturalis ordo to such collocations as viros ac feminas, diem ac noctem, ortum et occasum. But even here the order, though perhaps natural, is certainly not necessary.

[7] A good example of the severance of χρόνος from its article by an adjectival phrase will be found in the C. V. itself, 222 22: ἡμιφώνῳ γὰρ ἄφωνον συνάπτεται τῷ ν̄ τὸ τ̄ καὶ διαβέβηκεν ἀξιόλογον διάβασιν ὁ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε προσηγορικοῦ τοῦ “πανδαίδαλον” καὶ τῆς συναλοιφῆς τῆς συναπτομένης αὐτῷ χρόνος. The convenience of this articular bracket is obvious.

[8] Cp. ὀρνίθων ... προκαθιζόντων, Hom. Il. ii. 459-63.

[9] Attention is called to the elaborate word-order by Mr. P. N. Ure in his edition of this portion of Thucydides. The extent to which prepositions can be parted from cases, in post-Homeric as well as in Homeric Greek, is worth notice as a somewhat different illustration of the freedom of Greek order. See, for example, the remarks in Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon on the position of εἰς.

[10] In Caesar B.G. ii. 25 more than a hundred words come between the subject, Caesar and the main verb processit.

[11] e.g. ‘A quarrel had arisen between a big and a little boy about a big and a little coat.’

[12] A good illustration of the freedom of order possible (at any rate theoretically) in Greek, even within the limits of verse, is supplied in a letter from Richard Porson to Andrew Dalzel: “There is a passage of Sophocles three times quoted by Plutarch, and always in a different order, but so as in the three variations to remain a senarian. Now the fragment consists of five words, and the sense is this: ‘(The physicians) wash away bitter bile with bitter drugs [πικροῖς πικρὰν κλύζουσι φαρμάκοις χολήν].’ The five words, you know, will admit of one hundred and twenty permutations, and what is extremely odd, these words will admit twenty transpositions [which Porson proceeds to indicate], and still constitute a trimeter iambic.”—Luard’s Correspondence of Richard Porson pp. 91, 92.

[13] Horace Ars Poetica 40,
cui lecta potenter erit res,
nec facundia deseret hunc nec lucidus ordo.

Can the obscure potenter here be a Latin translation of some such technical term (found by Horace or Neoptolemus in the Greek writers on literary criticism) as δυνατῶς or δεινῶς or πιθανῶς?

[14] Demetrius, for example, evidently expects to find more lucidity in the plain style (the ἰσχνὸς χαρακτήρ) of a Lysias than in the elevated style (μεγαλοπρεπὴς χαρακτήρ) of a Thucydides: see the summary in Demetrius on Style pp. 33, 34. And a principal reason for this is that the former keeps more closely than the latter to the normal order of words in Greek (de Eloc. §§ 191 ff.). For Herodotus as compared with Thucydides cp. de Imit. ii. 3. 1 τῆς σαφηνείας δὲ ἀναμφισβήτως Ἡροδότῳ τὸ κατόρθωμα δέδοται (quoted in the editor’s Dionysius of Halicarnassus: the Three Literary Letters p. 173).

[15] εὐαρίθμητοι γάρ τινές εἰσιν οἷοι πάντα τὰ Θουκυδίδου συμβαλεῖν, καὶ οὐδ’ οὗτοι χωρὶς ἐξηγήσεως γραμματικῆς ἔνια, de Thucyd. c. 51.

[16] οὐ γὰρ ἀγοραίοις ἀνθρώποις οὐδ’ ἐπιδιφρίοις ἢ χειροτέχναις οὐδὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις οἳ μὴ μετέσχον ἀγωγῆς ἐλευθερίου ταύτας κατασκευάζεσθαι τὰς γραφάς, ἀλλ’ ἀνδράσι διὰ τῶν ἐγκυκλίων μαθημάτων ἐπὶ ῥητορικήν τε καὶ φιλοσοφίαν ἐληλυθόσιν, οἷς οὐδὲν φανήσεται τούτων ξένον, de Thucyd. c. 50. A comprehensive condemnation of ἀσάφεια is found in the same essay, c. 52: ἡ πάντα λυμαινομένη τὰ καλὰ καὶ σκότον παρέχουσα ταῖς ἀρεταῖς ἀσάφεια.

[17] See, further, the Appendix headed “Obscurity in Greek.”

[18] In the same way, Dionysius must surely feel the loss both of clearness and of emphasis involved in transferring ἡ μόνη ἐλπίς (112 1 and 4) from the middle to the end of the sentence. χάρις and πάθος may cover these cardinal points: “no clearness no charm,” he might well say,—“no emphatic order no full expression of feeling.”

[19] Cp. Demetrius on Style p. 278 (Glossary, s.v. ἔμφασις).

[20] Cp. Lewis Campbell in the Classical Review iv. 301, and Goodell in the paper named on p. 33 infra. In the matter of emphasis, Greek sentences are usually constructed on a diminuendo, English sentences on a crescendo principle. The English of μὴ ’φευρεθῇς ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων ἅμα (Soph. Antig. 281) is, as Jebb gives it, “lest thou be found at once an old man and foolish.” As fuller examples, in prose and verse, Mr. L. H. G. Greenwood suggests the Phaedrus 230 B, C (Νὴ τὴν Ἥραν ... Φαῖδρε) and the Rhesus 78-85, 119-130.

[21] The views of Quintilian and Demetrius with regard to rhythm are applicable also to emphasis: Quintil. ix. 4. 67 “nam ut initia clausulaeque plurimum momenti habent, quotiens incipit sensus aut desinit: sic in mediis quoque sunt quidam conatus, iique leviter insistunt. currentium pes, etiamsi non moratur, tamen vestigium facit”; Demetrius (de Eloc. § 39) πάντες γοῦν ἰδίως τῶν τε πρώτων μνημονεύομεν καὶ τῶν ὑστάτων, καὶ ὑπὸ τούτων κινούμεθα, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν μεταξὺ ἔλαττον ὥσπερ ἐγκρυπτομένων ἢ ἐναφανιζομένων.

[22] The initial emphasis is here reinforced by μέν and δέ: elsewhere by the chiastic arrangement, as in (10).

[23] Compare the occasional postponement of a relative pronoun with the same object: e.g. Thucyd. i. 77 βιάζεσθαι γὰρ οἷς ἂν ἐξῇ, δικάζεσθαι οὐδὲν προσδέονται.

[24] Our poets can, and do, imitate the emphatic position of a word placed at the beginning of a line with a stop immediately following (as βάλλ’ in Hom. Il. i. 52, κόπτ’ in Odyss. ix. 290, and haesit in Virg. Aen. xi. 803):—

And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delayed to strike.

Milton Paradise Lost xi. 491.

Or (still nearer to the ‘me, me, adsum,’ of Virgil):—

Me, though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven,
Did first create your leader—next, free choice,
With what besides in council or in fight
Hath been achieved of merit—yet this loss,
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
Established in a safe, unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent.

Milton Paradise Lost ii. 18-24.

[25] Here τούτους is emphasized by καί as well as by its position well in front of the verb which governs it, while μισθοῦ depends for its emphasis on its position alone. ‘But even these hidden piles did divers (entering the water) saw off—for pay.’ Compare the analysis which Quintilian (ix. 4. 29) gives of Cicero’s “ut tibi necesse esset in conspectu populi Romani vomere postridie.”

[26] For the rhetorical and metrical effect Sandys (ad loc.) compares Milton Paradise Lost vi. 912, “Firm they might have stood, | Yet fell.”

[27] In this sentence the orator would probably pause slightly before γενναίως, and thus (1) emphasize it; (2) separate it from διδῷ. Other means (illustrated by various examples in this Introduction) of throwing a word into relief are: the interposition of a number of unemphatic words, the use of particles such as μέν and δέ, the placing of emphatic words in contrasted pairs near together or remote from one another.

[28] The order here (1) avoids the juxtaposition of too many accusative-terminations; (2) provides a conclusion which satisfies ear and mind alike.

[29] The position of τἄμ’ here may be compared with that of ἐμούς in Eurip. Med. 1045 ἄξω παῖδας ἐκ γαίας ἐμούς (‘for they are mine’). In English, too, both the end and the beginning may be emphatic: e.g. “silver and gold have I none.”

[30] Quoted by Dionysius (C.V. c. 3), though without any special reference to the point of emphasis.

[31] Quoted by T. D. Goodell School Grammar of Attic Greek p. 296. ἡμεῖς seems to owe some at least of its emphasis to its late insertion. If placed immediately after ηὐξήσαμεν, it would, surely, lose a little in weight. Goodell does right to include some treatment of the question of Greek word-order in a Grammar intended primarily for use in schools. It should be pointed out even to beginners that so simple a sentence as οἱ δ’ Ἀθηναῖοι ἐνίκησαν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους can be arranged in half-a-dozen ways, each with its own separate shade of meaning. Compare the remarks of W. H. D. Rouse with regard to the teaching of Latin: “It is possible by question and answer to make clear from the first the essential structure of an inflected language, as depending for emphasis on the order of words; and this lies at the root of style. Thus a simple sentence may give matter for several questions. Take Caesar Labienum laudat. I may ask, Quem laudat Caesar? Answer: Labienum laudat Caesar. Question: Quid facit Caesar? Answer: Laudat Labienum Caesar. If all the texts read are treated in this way, the pupils become used to correct accidence, syntax, and order, and learn the elements of style” (Classical Review xxi. 130; cp. also W. H. S. Jones The Teaching of Latin p. 33). An instructive contrast might be drawn, with reference to the context in either case, between Romanus sum civis in Livy ii. 12, and Civis Romanus sum in Cicero Verr. II. v. 65, 66.

[32] With “verbi transgressio” cp. “verborum concinna transgressio” in Cic. de Orat. iii. 54. 207.

[33] A modern reader might be disposed to see an example of emphasis in the illustrative passage which “Longinus” here quotes from Herodotus vi. 11. In hyperbata the Treatise on the Sublime itself greatly abounds, being much influenced (in this as in other ways) by Plato. For examples of hyperbaton in Plato see Riddell’s edition of the Apology, pp. 228 ff. Among modern English writers, Matthew Arnold had a curious and perhaps half-humorous trick of securing emphasis by a “bold and hazardous” hyperbaton (cp. de Sublim. xxii. 4), which keeps back the verb till the end of the sentence: e.g. “And a good deal of ignorance about these there certainly, among English public men, is”; “the grand thing in teaching is to have faith that some aptitudes for this every one has”; “one thing that Protestants have, and that the Catholics think they have a right, where they are in great numbers, to have too, this thing to the Prussian Catholics Prussia has given.” Such oddities are, in English, usually of a playful and undress character: e.g. “it was really a party that one might feel proud of having been asked to; at least I might, and did, very” (Life and Letters of Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb p. 93; cp. J. D. Duff’s remarks, on the same page, with regard to the literary adequacy of the following English translation of a pathetic sentence in one of Demosthenes’ greatest speeches: “this woman in the first instance merely quietly to drink and eat dessert they tried to force, I should suppose”).

[34] The immediately preceding sentence in Quintilian is “venio nunc ad ornatum, in quo sine dubio plus quam in ceteris dicendi partibus sibi indulget orator.” This may be compared with Dionysius’ view that it is the accessory arts (such as the heightening of style) that best reveal the orator’s power: ἐξ ὧν μάλιστα διάδηλος ἡ τοῦ ῥήτορος γίνεται δύναμις (de Thucyd. c. 23). In this attitude there is always some danger (unless, like Dionysius himself, a writer has a saving belief in the virtue of simplicity) of falling into that vice of écrire trop bien, which, according to M. Anatole France, is the worst of all literary vices.

[35] If we were to say that in a Greek sentence there are two kinds of arrangement, viz. (1) grammatical arrangement which aims at clearness, and (2) rhetorical arrangement which aims at (α) emphasis, and (β) euphony; then it must be admitted that Dionysius’ real subject is (2) (β)

[36] The lines quoted from Homer in c. 16 are particularly telling.

[37] C.V. 244 23. Perhaps ‘spontaneous’ or ‘subconscious’ would be a better translation than ‘instinctive.’ Dionysius certainly does not intend to exclude training.

[38] The judgment of the ear appears to be indicated by the words τοῦ πυκνὰ μεταπίπτοντος κριτηρίου at the end of c. 24.

[39] Cp. C.V. c. 6.

[40] Cic. ad Att. xiv. 20. Dionysius Halic. Ant. Rom. i. 1 ἐπιεικῶς γὰρ ἅπαντες νομίζουσιν εἰκόνας εἶναι τῆς ἑκάστου ψυχῆς τοὺς λόγους. Buffon Discours de réception à l’Académie, 1753: “le style est l’homme même.” Cp. Plato Rep. iii. 400 D τί δ’ ὁ τρόπος τῆς λέξεως, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, καὶ ὁ λόγος; οὐ τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἤθει ἕπεται;

[41] Cp. p. 24 supra. The desire to avoid monotony of termination would seem to be the main explanation of such collocations as οὗ τοῖς ἄλλοις εἴργεσθαι προαγορεύουσι τοῖς τοῦ φόνου φεύγουσι τὰς δίκας and τῷ αὐτῷ χρῶνται νόμῳ τούτῳ [Antiphon v.]. Additional emphasis, too, falls on τοῖς ἄλλοις and τῷ αὐτῷ, as on σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ in Demosthenes’ peroration.

[42] In describing the smooth or elegant style of composition (as practised by Isocrates and his followers, including Theopompus), Dionysius notes, as one of its characteristics, the avoidance of hiatus. This avoidance is to be noticed in the recently discovered Hellenica; and without basing any positive conclusion on the fact, Grenfell and Hunt point out that the author usually avoids hiatus “even at the cost of producing an unnatural order of words, e.g. ἐπηρμένοι μισεῖν ἦσαν τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους and ἴωμεν, ὦ ἄνδρες, ἔφη, πολῖται, ἐπὶ τοὺς τυράννους” (Oxyrhynchus Papyri v. 124).

[43] e.g. the greater tendency in Latin to place the principal verb at the end of the sentence. Cp. Quintil. ix. 4. 26 “verbo sensum cludere, multo, si compositio patiatur, optimum est. in verbis enim sermonis vis est. si id asperum erit, cedet haec ratio numeris, ut fit apud summos Graecos Latinosque oratores frequentissime. sine dubio erit omne quod non cludet, hyperbaton, et ipsum hoc inter tropos vel figuras, quae sunt virtutes, receptum est.” In Latin the words μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον Εὔβοια ἀπέστη ἀπ’ Ἀθηναίων would naturally run “haud multum postea Euboea ab Atheniensibus defecit” (J. P. Postgate Sermo Latinus p. 7).

[44] On the other side, the classical writers not seldom yield to the temptation to write long and rambling sentences, whereas the best English authors are stimulated by the very absence of inflexions to arrange their thoughts with great care and clearness within the sentence and the paragraph. By these and other means English prose becomes, in the hands of a great master, an instrument of surpassing force and beauty. As there are differences in word-order between Greek and Latin, so are there among the modern analytical languages, though (in a comparison) it may be legitimate to group those languages together. An order regarded as natural (i.e. customary) in one modern language will not be so regarded in another. Further, a language like German (though it is often unable to follow the Greek order without ambiguity: cp. Lessing’s Laocoon c. 18) possesses a greater number of inflexions than English or French. Welsh, too, has certain syntactical features which enable it often to reproduce the Greek order more faithfully than English can do. For example: in St. John’s Gospel xvii. 9 where the Greek has οὐ περὶ τοῦ κόσμου ἐρωτῶ, ἀλλὰ περὶ ὧν δέδωκάς μοι, ὅτι σοί εἰσιν, the Welsh version gives Nid dros y byd yr wyf yn gweddio, ond dros y rhai a roddaist i mi; canys eiddot ti ydynt. And Plato Apol. c. 33 καὶ ἐὰν ταῦτα ποιῆτε, δίκαια πεπονθὼς ἐγὼ ἔσομαι ὑφ’ ὑμῶν, αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ υἱεῖς: Welsh, Ac os hyn a wnewch, yr hyn sydd gyfiawn fyddaf fi wedi ei dderbyn oddiar eich llaw, myfi a’m meibion. [These Welsh instances are given on p. 38 of the present editor’s chapter on the Teaching of Greek, in F. Spencer’s Aims and Practice of Teaching.] In Appendix II. at the end of this volume will be found a few idiomatic modern renderings (in English, French, and German) from Greek prose originals.

[45] Lemaître Les Contemporains i. 205.

[46] Boileau L’Art poétique i. 133.

[47] Edinburgh edition of Stevenson’s works, iii. 236-61 (Miscellanies). “It is a singularly suggestive inquiry into a subject which has always been considered too vague and difficult for analysis, at any rate since the days of the classical writers on rhetoric, whom Stevenson had never read” (Graham Balfour’s Life of Robert Louis Stevenson ii. 11). S. H. Butcher (Harvard Lectures pp. 242, 243) regards the essay as “a pretty precise modern parallel to the speculations of Dionysius,” and quotes some passages in proof. The following is an example of such points of contact. Stevenson: “Each phrase in literature is built of sounds, as each phrase in music consists of notes. One sound suggests, echoes, demands and harmonizes with another; and the art of rightly using these concordances is the final art in literature.” Dionysius (C.V. c. 16): ὥστε πολλὴ ἀνάγκη καλὴν μὲν εἶναι λέξιν ἐν ᾗ καλά ἐστιν ὀνόματα, καλῶν δὲ ὀνομάτων συλλαβάς τε καὶ γράμματα καλὰ αἴτια εἶναι, ἡδεῖάν τε διάλεκτον ἐκ τῶν ἡδυνόντων τὴν ἀκοὴν γίνεσθαι. Compare p. 40 infra as to the music of sounds; and see Demetrius on Style p. 43, as to Stevenson and other English writers on style.

[48] Compare especially the speeches in Il. ix., and the warm eulogies they have drawn from Quintilian (x. 1. 47; cp. x. 1. 27, with reference to Theophrastus) and from many others since his time. Dionysius’ versification of Demosthenes, and prosification of Simonides, in c. 25 and c. 26, may not seem altogether happy, but one or two points should be remembered in his favour. He does not recognize merely mechanical conceptions of literature: such as are implied in the Latin-derived words prose and verse, or in literature itself. He would probably have agreed with Aristotle that “Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common but the metre, so that it would be right to call the one poet, the other physicist rather than poet” (Aristot. Poet. i. 9, S. H. Butcher). He might probably have also maintained that, in essentials, Theognis is less of a poet than Plato. And in modern times, if he had known them, he might have called attention to the rhymed rhetoric which often passed as poetry in eighteenth-century England, and have asked whether the elevation of thought and the measured cadences of Demosthenes did not entitle him to a higher poetic rank than that.

[49] Of Thucydides: ποιητοῦ τρόπον ἐνεξουσιάζων (de Thucyd. c. 24). Of Plato: ᾔσθετο γὰρ τῆς ἰδίας ἀπειροκαλίας καὶ ὄνομα ἔθετο αὐτῇ τὸ διθύραμβον, ὃ νῦν ἂν ᾐδέσθην ἐγὼ λέγειν ἀληθὲς ὄν. τοῦτο δὲ παθεῖν ἔοικεν, ὡς ἐγὼ νομίζω, τραφεὶς μὲν ἐν τοῖς Σωκρατικοῖς διαλόγοις ἰσχνοτάτοις οὖσι καὶ ἀκριβεστάτοις, οὐ μείνας δ’ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλλὰ τῆς Γοργίου καὶ Θουκυδίδου κατασκευῆς ἐρασθείς (Ep. ad Cn. Pomp. c. 2; de Demosth. c. 6. See further in Demetrius on Style p. 14, n. 1).

[50] It will be noticed that the only question here is about differences of form. But it is one of Dionysius’ great merits to have proclaimed so clearly the leading part which beauty of form (not simply verse, but expression generally) plays in all high poetry. Aristotle was by no means insensible to this essential element, but he is apt to dwell more fully (though we must remember the fragmentary condition of the Poetics) on the associations of ποιητής than on those of ἀοιδός. It is in connexion with prose rather than with poetry, that it seems necessary to lay most stress upon the intellectual and logical elements involved, and to pay heed not only to the nature of the subject matter itself but to the sustained argument in which it is presented. Reason in prose and emotion in poetry: these are perhaps the two leading elements, if any distinction of the kind is to be attempted.

[51] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1. 9; 8. 1 and 3; 2. 1. Cp. Cic. Orat. 56. 187 “perspicuum est igitur numeris astrictam orationem esse debere, carere versibus; sed ei numeri poëticine sint an ex alio genere quodam deinceps est videndum”; 57. 195 “ego autem sentio omnes in oratione esse quasi permixtos et confusos pedes; nec enim effugere possemus animadversionem, si semper eisdem uteremur, quia nec numerosa esse, ut poëma, neque extra numerum, ut sermo vulgi, esse debet oratio: alterum nimis est vinctum, ut de industria factum appareat, alterum nimis dissolutum, ut pervagatum ac vulgare videatur.” Also ibid. 51. 172; 57. 194-196; 58. 198; 68. 227. Cicero’s correct attitude is the more noticeable that he is commonly supposed to have been swayed by Asiatic rather than by Attic influences.

[52] C.V. c. 25 χωρὶς δὲ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους μαρτυρίας, ὅτι ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν ἐμπεριλαμβάνεσθαί τινας τῇ πεζῇ λέξει ῥυθμούς, εἰ μέλλοι τὸ ποιητικὸν ἐπανθήσειν αὐτῇ κάλλος, ἐκ τῆς πείρας τις αὐτῆς γνώσεται.

[53] The modern custom is to view with some suspicion these inversions when found in prose composition, though in German prose they are common enough. It would be interesting to take two such sentences of the New Testament as μεγάλη ἡ Ἄρτεμις Ἐφεσίων (Acts xix. 28, 34) and ἔπεσεν, ἔπεσεν Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη (Apoc. xiv. 8), and see how they have been rendered into various modern languages by translators generally (both in authorised and unauthorised versions). It would probably be found that the French language here has been true to what Dionysius would call its λογοείδεια, or essentially prose character. In English the justification of the inversion would be the emotional nature of the original passages, which may be held to raise them to the same plane as poetry. [It would, on the other hand, be not good but bad journalism to write, “Uproarious were the proceedings at yesterday’s meeting of the Grand Committee.”] For the effect of word-order in English verse see an extract from Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria in the notes, p. 79 infra. Coleridge was fond of offering, as a rough definition of poetry, “the best words in the best order.”

[54] See the notes on c. 25; particularly that on 256 11.

[55] The words “How art thou” are, it will be noticed, differently divided in these two lines with a kind of Dionysian freedom.

[56] Ruskin continually, and Carlyle often (e.g. Sartor Resartus bk. iii. c. 8), provides examples of iambic rhythm. So George Eliot Mill on the Floss bk. vii.: “living through again, in one supreme moment, the days when they had clasped their little hands in love, and roamed the daisied fields together.” And Blackmore, in Lorna Doone c. 3: “The sullen hills were flanked with light, and the valleys chined with shadow, and all the sombrous moors between awoke in furrowed anger.” [Blackmore sometimes falls also into the hexameter rhythm, as in the same chapter: “And suddenly a strong red light, cast by the cloud-weight | downwards, | spread like | fingers | over the | moorland, || opened the | alleys of | darkness, and | hung on the | steel of the | riders.”]

[57] Cicero’s conception of the requirements of rhythmical prose (as compared with those of verbal fidelity) is curiously illustrated by the way in which he is supposed to have recast the letter sent by Lentulus to Catiline. Sallust Cat. 44 “quis sim ex eo quem ad te misi cognosces: fac cogites in quanta calamitate sis et memineris te virum esse: consideres quid tuae rationes postulent: auxilium petas ab omnibus etiam ab infimis.” Cicero Cat. iii. 12 “quis sim scies ex eo quem ad te misi: cura ut vir sis et cogita quem in locum sis progressus: vide ecquid tibi iam sit necesse et cura ut omnium tibi auxilia adiungas, etiam infimorum.” Cp. A. C. Clark (reviewing Zieliňski) Classical Review xix. 172.

[58] Cp. C.V. 176 20 οὐ γὰρ ἀπελαύνεται ῥυθμὸς οὐδεὶς ἐκ τῆς ἀμέτρου λέξεως, ὥσπερ ἐκ τῆς ἐμμέτρου. With regard to the occasional presence in prose of metrical or quasi-metrical lines, the likely explanation seems often to be one which Dionysius does not favour (πολλὰ γὰρ αὐτοσχεδιάζει μέτρα ἡ φύσις, 256 19), rather than one which recognizes μέτρα καὶ ῥυθμούς τινας ἐγκατατεταγμένους ἀδήλως (254 3).

[59] D. B. Monro Modes of Ancient Greek Music p. 118.

[60] From the essay (already mentioned) on Style in Literature.

[61] de Demosth. c. 22.

[62] So that, in 126 15, τὸν ὀξὺν τόνον = ‘the high pitch’ = ‘the acute accent.’

[63] W. H. D. Rouse’s edition of Matthew Arnold on translating Homer Introd. p. 7.

[64] A. J. Ellis and F. Blass (in the publications mentioned later).

[65] Arnold and Conway Restored Pronunciation of Greek and Latin pp. iv. 3, 7, 20-26. Cp. also the pamphlet on the Pronunciation of Greek issued by the Classical Association in 1908 (pp. 348-51 infra). In the Contemporary Review of March 1897 the history of Greek pronunciation in England is ably sketched by J. Gennadius.

[66] Even the pronunciation of the poet’s name has changed with the lapse of centuries; and the spelling Shakspere is preferred by some authorities not only because it has excellent manuscript authority, but because it may serve to remind us that “he and his fellows pronounced his name Shahk-spare, with the a of father in Shahk, and with the French e (our a) in spare” (Furnivall).

[67] Quintil. i. 10. 17 “siquidem Archytas atque Aristoxenus etiam subiectam grammaticen musicae putaverunt,” etc.

[68] C.V. 68 7-11, ... τὴν περὶ τῆς συνθέσεως τῶν ὀνομάτων πραγματείαν ὀλίγοις μὲν ἐπὶ νοῦν ἐλθοῦσαν, ὅσοι τῶν ἀρχαίων ῥητορικὰς ἢ διαλεκτικὰς συνέγραψαν τέχνας, οὐδενὶ δ’ ἀκριβῶς οὐδ’ ἀποχρώντως μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος ἐξειργασμένην, ὡς ἐγὼ πείθομαι.

[69] Some reference to Quintilian’s own apparent indebtedness to the de Imitatione of Dionysius will be found in Demetrius on Style p. 25.

[70] de Sublim. xxxix. 1. In the editor’s article on the “Literary Circle of Dionysius of Halicarnassus” (Classical Review xiv. 439-42), an endeavour is made to view the literary life of Dionysius in relation to its Roman surroundings.

[71] The more recent writers on rhetoric (οἱ νέοι τεχνογράφοι, de Isaeo c. 14) would not greatly appeal to Dionysius.

[72] Cp. 254 23, 256 3, 164 22, 138 6.

[73] The quotations from Aristotle and other writers in the Notes will serve to indicate roughly the obligations of Dionysius to his predecessors.

[74] Among the shorter fragments preserved by him are one of Bacchylides (in c. 25), and another from the Telephus of Euripides (in c. 26). Two lines of the Danaë are, it should in strict accuracy be stated, quoted as follows by Athenaeus ix. 396 E:—
ὦ τέκος, οἷον ἔχω πόνον·
σὺ δ’ ἀωτεῖς, γαλαθηνῷ δ’ ἤτορι κνώσσεις.

[75] de C.V. 214 7. There is, perhaps, room for a book or dissertation on Quotation in Classical Antiquity: with reference to such points as the citation or non-citation of authorities, the employment of literary illustrations, the poetical quotations in the Orators or in the Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία or in the Poets themselves; and so forth. On the question of verbal fidelity, something is said in the present editor’s brief article on ‘Dionysius of Halicarnassus as an authority for the Text of Thucydides’ (Classical Review xiv. 244-246); and such quotations as that from Odyss. xvi. 1-16 in c. 3 of the present treatise might be critically examined from the same point of view. A similar study of Translation in Classical Antiquity would also be a useful piece of work.

[76] de C.V. 94 4. Of Phylarchus as a historian Polybius himself gives an unflattering account.

[77] S. H. Butcher Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects p. 114. Cp. J. L. Strachan Davidson in Hellenica pp. 414, 416: “The Nemesis of his contempt for the form and style of his writing has come on Polybius in the neglect which he has experienced at the hands of the modern world.... He has not the genius, and will not take the trouble to acquire the trained sensitiveness of art which might have supplied its place; and thus his writing has no distinction and no charm, and we miss in reading him what gives half their value to great writers—the consciousness that we are in the hands of a master.” But, on the other hand, see J. B. Bury’s Ancient Greek Historians, e.g. pp. 196, 218, 220.

[78] Cicero (Or. 63. 212) says, with reference to the various ways of ending the period, “e quibus unum est secuta Asia maxime, qui dichoreus vocatur, cum duo extremi chorei sunt.” And Quintilian (ix. 4. 103) “claudet et dichoreus, id est idem pes sibi ipse iungetur, quo Asiani usi plurimum; cuius exemplum Cicero ponit: Patris dictum sapiens temeritas fili comprobavit.” The dichoree is condemned also in the de Sublim. c. 41 μικροποιοῦν δ’ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐν τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς, ὡς ῥυθμὸς κεκλασμένος λόγων καὶ σεσοβημένος, οἷον δὴ πυρρίχιοι καὶ τροχαῖοι καὶ διχόρειοι, τέλεον εἰς ὀρχηστικὸν συνεκπίπτοντες ... ὡς ἐνίοτε προειδότας τὰς ὀφειλομένας καταλήξεις αὐτοὺς ὑποκρούειν τοῖς λέγουσι καὶ φθάνοντας ὡς ἐν χορῷ τινι προαποδιδόναι τὴν βάσιν. It is the constant recurrence of the same feet that is to be deprecated (cp. Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8. 1, and Theon. Progymn. in Walz Rhet. Gr. i. 169); a single dichoree would not be avoided even by Dionysius himself, e.g. νοῦν ἐχόντων (192 5). Cicero’s appreciation of Carbo’s patris dictum sapiens temeritas fili comprobavit may be instructively compared with Dionysius’ attitude towards the general question of good and bad rhythms. They both seem to allow too little for other considerations; one of them approves, and the other disapproves, the final dichoree; and both agree in the main point, that there should be plenty of variety: “hoc dichoreo (sc. comprobavit) tantus clamor contionis excitatus est, ut admirabile esset. quaero nonne id numerus effecerit? verborum ordinem immuta, fac sic: ‘comprobavit fili temeritas,’ iam nihil erit, etsi ‘temeritas’ ex tribus brevibus et longa est, quam Aristoteles ut optimum probat, a quo dissentio. ‘at eadem verba, eadem sententia.’ animo istuc satis est, auribus non satis. sed id crebrius fieri non oportet; primum enim numerus agnoscitur, deinde satiat, postea cognita facilitate contemnitur” (Cic. Orat. 63. 214). Hegesias’ lack of ear seems, further, to be shown in the awkward accumulation of disyllables; e.g. διὰ τῶν ποδῶν χαλκοῦν ψάλιον διείραντας ἕλκειν κύκλῳ γυμνόν (188 17), and τρόπῳ σκαιὸν ἐχθρόν (190 5). Cp. 132 3 μήτ’ ὀλιγοσύλλαβα πολλὰ ἑξῆς λαμβάνοντα.

[79] Modern parallels are dangerous, but the detractors of Macaulay might be disposed to compare his short detached sentences (so different from the elaborate periods of some earlier English prose-writers) with those of Hegesias.

[80] In this last extract, all the sentences end in dichorees. The fragments of Hegesias have been collected by C. Müller Scriptores Rerum Alexandri Magni pp. 138-144.

[81] With παραφθείρας cp. Cic. Brut. 83. 286 “atque Charisi [an imitator of Lysias] vult Hegesias esse similis, isque se ita putat Atticum, ut veros illos prae se paene agrestes putet. at quid est tam fractum, tam minutum, tam in ipsa, quam tamen consequitur, concinnitate puerile?” For the influence which Hegesias had on style as late as the time of Pausanias cp. J. G. Frazer’s Pausanias i. lxix. lxx., and Blass Die Rhythmen der asianischen und römischen Kunstprosa pp. 91 ff.

[82] e.g. καθάπερ 138 13; ἀναίσθιος, ὑποδεκτική, ἀκόμψευστον, ἔχοντα 212 21-24; see also 196 24, 25. The issue is often so perplexing that no editor can feel certain whether F’s reading or P’s should be placed in his text: he only knows that both readings must be recorded either in the text or in the critical footnotes. For the strong points of F see such passages as pp. 182, 184 in c. 18.

[83] Other examples of these variae lectiones, pointing perhaps sometimes to a sort of double recension, are such as οὐδέτερον μὲν εὔμορφον, ἧττον δὲ δυσειδὲς τὸ ε̄ (144 4: REF), compared with οὐδέτερον μὲν εὔηχον, ἧττον δὲ δυσηχὲς τὸ ο̄ (144 4: PMV), 66 2 νεωστὶ PMV, ἄρτι F; 100 23 ἐνταῦθα PMV, ἐνθάδε F; 198 18 and 244 28 πάνυ PMV, σφόδρα F. Continually F’s readings differ from P’s in such a way that either alternative is quite satisfactory and neither could well have originated in any manuscript corruption of the other. Under the same head will come minute variations (not always recorded in this edition) of word-order in the traditions represented by F and P. So, too, with such minutiae as the elision or non-elision of final vowels, and the insertion or non-insertion of ν ἐφελκυστικόν.

[84] F’s πλεῖστον κίνδυνον for πλείστους κινδύνους in 244 5 seems due to a desire to diminish the number of sigmas in the sentence, while some minute changes in word-order look like deliberate attempts to improve the flow and sound of the passage. Such discrepancies in the word-order of F and P occur in other parts of the treatise, and not simply in the quotations.

[85] Homer Odyssey xv. 125.

[86] Homer Odyssey xv. 126, 127.

[87] Bergk Poetae Lyrici Graeci, Fragm. Adesp. 85.

[88] Bergk ibid.; Philoxenus Fragm. 6.

[89] Homer Odyssey xvi. 1-16. The verse-translations, here and throughout, are from the hand of Mr. A. S. Way.

[90] Herodotus i. 8-10.

[91] Homer Iliad xii. 433-5.

[92] Euphorio Chersonesita; cp. Hephaest. c. 16.

[93] Homer Iliad xiii. 392, 393.

[94] Sotades Fragm.

[95] Euripides Fragm. 924 (Nauck).

[96] Herodotus i. 6.

[97] Thucydides i. 24.

[98] Hegesias Fragm.; cp. C. Müller Scriptores Rerum Alexandri Magni p. 138.

[99] Homer Odyssey xvi. 273, xvii. 202, xxiv. 157.

[100] Cp. Homer Odyssey vi. 230, 231; viii. 20; xxiii. 157, 158; xxiv. 369.

[101] Cp. Demosthenes de Corona 296.

[102] Homer Odyssey i. 1.

[103] Homer Iliad i. 1.

[104] Homer Odyssey iii. 1.

[105] Homer Iliad v. 115; Odyssey iv. 762, vi. 324.

[106] Homer Iliad ii. 484.

[107] Homer Iliad xxiv. 486.

[108] Homer Iliad xxi. 20.

[109] Homer Iliad xxii. 467.

[110] Homer Odyssey xxii. 17.

[111] Homer Iliad ii. 89.

[112] Homer Iliad xix. 103-4.

[113] Homer Iliad i. 459, ii. 422 etc.

[114] Homer Iliad iv. 125.

[115] Homer Odyssey vi. 115-6.

[116] Homer Odyssey xiv. 425.

[117] Homer Odyssey iii. 449-50.

[118] Demosthenes de Corona, init.

[119] Demosthenes de Pace 6.

[120] Demosthenes Aristocr. 1.

[121] Thucydides iii. 57.

[122] Demosthenes de Corona 119.

[123] Demosthenes de Corona 179.

[124] Demosthenes Philipp. iii. 17.

[125] Plato Menex. 236 E.

[126] Aeschines c. Ctes. 202.

[127] Sophocles Fragm. 706 (Nauck).

[128] Demosthenes Lept. 2.

[129] Euripides Orestes 140-2.

[130] Pindar Fragm. 79 (Schroeder).

[131] Homer Iliad xvii. 265.

[132] Homer Odyssey ix. 415-16.

[133] Homer Iliad xxii. 220-1.

[134] Homer Iliad xxii. 476.

[135] Homer Iliad xviii. 225.

[136] Homer Odyssey v. 402.

[137] Homer Iliad xii. 207.

[138] Homer Iliad ii. 209 (and 210).

[139] Homer Iliad xvi. 361.

[140] Homer Odyssey xvii. 36-7; xix. 53-4.

[141] Homer Odyssey vi. 162-3.

[142] Homer Odyssey xi. 281-2.

[143] Homer Odyssey vi. 137.

[144] Homer Odyssey xi. 36-7.

[145] Homer Iliad iv. 452-3.

[146] Homer Iliad xxi. 240-2.

[147] Homer Odyssey ix. 289-90.

[148] Homer Iliad ii. 494-501.

[149] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 112; Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 136.

[150] Cp. Euripides Hecuba 163-4.

[151] Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 138.

[152] Archilochus Fragm. 66 (Bergk P.L.G.).

[153] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 108.

[154] Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 139.

[155] Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 140.

[156] Euripides Hippolytus 201.

[157] Homer Odyssey ix. 39.

[158] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 111; Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 141.

[159] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 117; Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 142.

[160] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 110; Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 143.

[161] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 116; Nauck T.G.F., Fragm. Adesp. 144.

[162] Thucydides ii. 35.

[163] Here and elsewhere, no attempt has been made to secure metrical equivalence between the Greek original and the English version. A metrical analysis, or “scansion,” of the original Greek is given in the notes.

[164] Plato Menexenus 236 D.

[165] Homer Iliad xxiii. 382.

[166] Demosthenes de Corona init.

[167] Demosthenes de Corona init.

[168] C. Müller Scriptores Rerum Alexandri Magni p. 141 (Hegesiae Fragmenta).

[169] Homer Iliad xxii. 395-411.

[170] Homer Odyssey xi. 593-6.

[171] Homer Odyssey xi. 596-7.

[172] Homer Odyssey xi. 597-8.

[173] Pindar Fragm. 213 (Schroeder).

[174] Pindar Fragm. 75 (Schroeder).

[175] Thucydides i. 1.

[176] Thucydides i. 22.

[177] Sappho Fragm. i. (Bergk): translated by A. S. Way.

[178] Isocrates Areopagiticus §§ 1-5.

[179] Homer Iliad xxi. 196-7.

[180] cp. Demosthenes Chers. 48.

[181] Epicurus Fragm. 230 (Usener).

[182] Demosthenes Aristocr. 1.

[183] Fragm. Orphica, Mullach i. 166.

[184] Aristot. Rhet. iii. 8.

[185] Aristophanes Nubes 961.

[186] Callimachus Fragm. 391 (Schneider).

[187] Sappho Fragm. 106 (Bergk).

[188] Aristophanes Nubes 962.

[189] Euripides Archelaus; Nauck T.G.F., Eurip. Fragm. 229.

[190] Demosthenes de Corona § 1.

[191] Bergk P.L.G., Fragm. Adesp. 118.

[192] Bacchylides Fragm. 11 (Jebb).

[193] Plato Republic i. 1.

[194] Homer Odyssey xiv. 1-7.

[195] Euripides Telephus; Nauck T.G.F., Eurip. Fragm. 696.

[196] Euripides Telephus; Nauck T.G.F., Eurip. Fragm. 696.

[197] Simonides Fragm. 37 (Bergk): translated by A. S. Way.

[198] Homer Iliad xi. 514.

[199] ὁ σκοτεινός: cp. Dionys. Hal. de Thucyd. c. 46, Demetr. de Eloc. § 192, Aristot. Rhet. iii. 5. 6.

[200] A good practical recipe for brevity combined with clearness is given in the Rhet. ad Alex. c. 30: συντόμως δὲ [δηλώσομεν], ἐὰν ἀπὸ τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων περιαιρῶμεν τὰ μὴ ἀναγκαῖα ῥηθῆναι, ταῦτα μόνα καταλείποντες, ὧν ἀφαιρεθέντων ἀσαφὴς ἔσται ὁ λόγος.

[201] He illustrates from the Introduction (προοίμιον) of Thucydides—the passage quoted in C.V. c. 22. A good example of the εἰρομένη λέξις in Thucydides (who is an acknowledged master of the κατεστραμμένη λέξις) is furnished by Thucyd. i. 9. 2: cp. p. 119 supra.

[202] Earlier (vii. 9. 6) in his treatise, Quintilian has quoted ‘Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse’; and these oracular ambiguities had been glanced at previously by Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 5. 4).

[203] In a passage of Aristotle (Eth. Nic. vi. 1142 b ἀλλ’ ὀρθότης τίς ἐστιν ἡ εὐβουλία βουλῆς) βουλῆς seems to be emphatic because so far separated from ὀρθότης. Cp. L. H. G. Greenwood in the Classical Review xix. 18, and the same writer’s translation (Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics Book Six p. 111), “But deliberative excellence is rightness in deliberation.”

[204] Short and simple as it is, this last sentence is a good example of effective word-order. τριήρης is put early, to contrast it with φρούριον in the previous sentence. Then the time is indicated. Next τῶν Ἀθηναίων (removed from Thucydides’ usual position for a dependent genitive) is put in expressive juxtaposition to ὑπὸ τῶν Συρακοσιών. Lastly, the reason or circumstance is given: ἐφορμοῦσα τῷ λιμένι. And the rhythm of the sentence is not unpleasant.

[205] Aristotle (Rhet. i. 15), in quoting the first line only, gives ταῦτ’ οὖν ἐγὼ κτλ.

[206] In English it would be interesting to test, by these criteria, such usages (for usages they may be called in so far as they rest on the authority of many good writers) as the ‘split infinitive,’ or the preposition coming at the end of a sentence.

[207] The authenticity of these portions of the Odyssey was suspected in antiquity. But compare Iliad xviii. 587-8 (quoted in Introduction p. 13 supra) or Odyss. xi. 160-1.

[208] The dates and stages of these changes cannot as yet be settled with precision. But the practical choice seems to be between the earliest and the latest values, though there is no doubt whatever that a distinct h was heard in all these sounds long after the fourth century B.C.

[209] It is not easy to determine precisely the sound of χθ, φθ (χθών, φθόνος) at the beginning of words, and the Committee therefore thinks it best to leave the option of (1) sounding the first consonants as κ and π respectively, and the θ as it is in other positions (this applies both to students who adopt the fricative and to those who adopt the primitive aspirate pronunciation of the letters in other positions), or (2) where the fricative pronunciation is adopted, of sounding χ and φ, in this position also, respectively as Scotch ch and English f.

[210] This had actually happened in spoken Greek by the second century A.D.

[211] This paragraph is taken from The Restored Pronunciation of Greek and Latin, 4th edition, Cambridge, 1908.

A. INDEX OF PASSAGES QUOTED IN THE DE COMPOSITIONE

The thick numerals indicate the pages on which the quotations are found.

Aeschines Ctes. 202, 116

Archilochus Fragm. 66, 170

Aristophanes Nubes 961, 256; ib. 962, 258

Aristotle Rhet. iii. 8, 254

Bacchylides Fragm. 11, 262

Callimachus Fragm. 391, 256

Demosthenes Aristocr. 1, 108, 252. Chers. 48, 250. De Cor. 1, 108, 182, 184, 260; 119, 112; 179, 114. Lept. 2, 118. De Pace 6, 108. Philipp. iii. 17, 114

Epicurus Fragm. 230, 250.

Euphorio Chersonesita Fragm., 86

Euripides Hecuba 163-4, 170. Hippolytus 201, 172. Orestes 140-2, 128. Fragm. 229 (Archelaus), 260; 696 (Telephus), 276-8; 924, 88

Hegesias Fragm., 92; 186-90

Herodotus i. 6, 90; i. 8-10, 80-82.

Homer Iliad i. 1, 98; i. 459, 102; ii. 89, 100; ii. 209, 158; ii. 422, 102; ii. 484, 100; ii. 494-501, 166; iv. 125, 102; iv. 452-3, 164; v. 115, 100; xi. 514, 280; xii. 207, 158; xii. 433-5, 84; xiii. 392-3, 86; xvi. 361, 158; xvii. 265, 154; xviii. 225, 156; xix. 103-4, 100; xxi. 20, 100; xxi. 196-7, 248; xxi. 240-2, 164; xxii. 220-1, 156; xxii. 395-411, 190-2; xxii. 467, 100; xxii. 476, 156; xxiii. 382, 182; xxiv. 486, 100. Odyssey i. 1, 98; iii. 1, 98; iii. 449-50, 102; v. 402, 158; vi. 115-6, 102; vi. 137, 162; vi. 162-3, 162; vi. 230-1, 92; ix. 39, 172; ix. 289-90, 164; ix. 415-6, 156; xi. 36-7, 162; xi. 281-2, 162; xi. 593-8, 202-4; xiv. 1-8, 274-6; xiv. 425, 102; xv. 125-7, 64; xvi. 1-16, 76-78; xvi. 273, 92; xvii. 36, 37, 162; xix. 53, 54, 162; xxii. 17, 100

Isocrates Areop. 1-5, 242-4

Orphica Fragm., 252

Philoxenus Fragm. 6, 68

Pindar Fragm. 75, 214-6; 79, 148; 213, 210

Plato Menex. 236 D, 180; 236 E, 116; Rep. i. 1, 266

Sappho Fragm. 1 (Hymn to Aphrodite), 238-40; 106, 258

Simonides Fragm. 37 (Danaë), 278-80

Sophocles Fragm. 706, 116

Sotades Fragm., 88

Thucydides i. 1, 224-28; i. 22, 228; i. 24, 90; ii. 35, 178; iii. 57, 110

Anonymous Fragments (chiefly Lyrical) on pages 68 (Bergk 85), 168 (Bergk 112, Nauck 136), 170 (N. 138; B. 108); 172 (N. 139, 140); 174 (B. 110, N. 143; B. 111, N. 141; B. 116, N. 144; B. 117, N. 142); 262 (B. 118)

B. INDEX OF NAMES AND MATTERS

The numerals indicate the pages to which reference is made. As the contents of the Greek text are fully summarized on pp. 1-9 supra, and as many of the more characteristic Greek words find a place in the Glossary, the brief entries in Index B will be found to refer mainly to the Introduction and the Notes.

Accent 41-43, 126 ff., 196, 292, 320, 328, 329

Adjective 102, 103, 299

Adverb 70, 100, 299

Aeschines 116

Aeschylus 12, 20, 214, 215

Agathon 304

Alcaeus 194, 248, 249

Alexander of Macedon 186, 187

Amphibrachys 172, 184, 287

Anacreon 236

Anagnostes 338

Anapaest 172, 287

Anaximenes xi (Preface). See also under ‘Rhetorica ad Alexandrum,’ p. 357 infra

Anthology, epigrams from 66, 335

Antigonus 94

Antimachus 214

Antiphon 29, 120, 332

Antithesis 247, 288

Aphrodite, Sappho’s Hymn to 238-41

Apollonius Rhodius 156

Appellative 71, 319

Archaism 212, 290

Archilochus 171

Architecture in relation to literary composition 28, 106

Aristophanes 12, 22, 123, 143, 290, 304, 311, 314, 335

Aristophanes of Byzantium 218, 278, 320

Aristotle x-xii (Preface), 15, 34, 35, 39, 40, 48, 71, 75, 139, 153, 155, 163, 165, 166, 168, 171, 176, 189, 214, 246, 247, 248, 249, 254, 255, 268, 290, 291, 292, 301, 308, 309, 310, 312, 313, 315, 316, 318, 319, 320, 325, 329, 334, 336, 337, 340, passim

Aristoxenus 42, 43, 48, 125, 138, 168, 287, 318

Arnold, Matthew 26, 158, 167, 278

Arrian 186, 187

Article 70, 289

Aspirates 149, 294, 350

Athenaeus 148, etc.

Auctor ad Herennium 316

Audiences, their sensitiveness to the music of sounds 40, 120 ff.

Austere composition or harmony 210 ff.

Bacchius 174, 292

Bacchylides 49, 219, 262, 263

Bacon, Francis 225

Beauty of style. See under ‘nobility’

Biblical illustrations 24, 31, 36, 37, 113, 178, 289, 297, 298, 303, 332, etc.

Blackmore, R. D. 37

Boeotian towns 166-68

Boileau 31

Bossuet 195, 228

Buchanan, George 46

Buffon 29

Caesar, Julius 13, 267, 296

Callimachus 87, 256 (attribution doubtful), 272, 277

Candaules, story of 81

Carlyle 37

Case 320, with references there given

Catullus 239, 278

Chapters, division into 9, 11

Charm of style 120 ff., 130 ff.

Cheke, Sir John 45, 46

Chiastic arrangement 14, 19

Choice, or selection, of words 69, 73, 79, etc.

Choree 170, 333

Chromatic scale 194

Chronological table of authors quoted or mentioned in the C.V. 50

Chrysippus 94, 95, 96, 97

Chrysostom 67, 251, 288

Cicero 15, 18, 25, 26, 28, 35, 37, 38, 48, 53, 54, 55, 72, 73, 89, 114, 124, 159, 203, 266, 271, 286, 301, 305, 306, 315, 316, 319, 330, 331, 334, 335, passim

Circumflex accent 126 ff.

Clearness in Greek word-order 12-13, 15-17. See also under ‘Obscurity,’ p. 356 infra

Cleitarchus 187

Climax 114

Coleridge, S. T. 36, 38, 79, 254

Colon. See under ‘Member’

‘Comma’ 306, with references there given

Common vowels. See under ‘Doubtful’

Comparative Method (in relation to literary study) 48

Composition 10, 71 ff., 208 ff., 326, passim

Conjunctions or connectives 71, 325

Coray 243

Cousin, Victor 343

‘Cratylus’ of Plato 160

Cretic 174, 307

Ctesias 120

Curtius 187, 188, 189

‘Cyclic’ 174, 307

Dactyl 172, 173

‘Danaë’ of Simonides 278-81

Dareste, Rodolphe 344, 345, 346

Date of the ‘de Compositione’ 1, 60

Delphi, hymns found at 43

Demetrius of Callatis 94

Demetrius, the supposed author of the De Elocutione 16, 18, 19, 90, 91, 286, 305, 308, passim

Democritus 248, 249

Demosthenes 13, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 25, 29, 33, 34, 39, 41, 146, 182, 196, 248, 249, 339, 340, passim. See also Index A

Dentals 149

Dependent genitive, order of 337

Dialectic 69, 94, 104

Diatonic scale 194

Diodorus Siculus 187, 237, 274

Diogenes Laertius 82, 97, 251

Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 29, 48, 207, 229, passim

Dionysius Thrax 47, 71, 139, 145, 319, 332

Diphthongs 219

Dithyramb 214

Dorian mode 196

Doubtful vowels 296, with references there given (s.v. δίχρονος)

Dryden 186

Duris 94

Eliot, George 37

Empedocles 34, 214, 332

Emphasis 17-26

English language 31, 35, 36, 342 ff., passim

Enharmonic scale 194

‘Enjambement’ 270-73, 275, 278, 325

Ennius 170, 314

Ephorus 236, 237

Epic Cycle, poets of the 248

Epic poetry 214, 274, passim. See also under ‘Homer,’ p. 356 infra

Epicurus 250, 251

Epitome: Greek Epitome of C.V. 10, 57, 65, 89, 116, 197, 209

Epode 300, with references there given

Erasmus 45, 159

Etymology 160, 300

Euphony 27-29, 338, etc.

Euphorio Chersonesita 87

Euripides 22, 23, 24, 146, 236, 237. See also Index A

Eustathius 202

Fifth, the musical interval so called 126

Flaubert, Gustav 28

Fléchier 243

Fletcher 46 (‘Elder Brother’)

Florentine manuscript of the C.V. 56-58

Foot, metrical 168

France, Anatole 27

Freedom of Greek word-order 11-14

French language 31, 36, 270, 342 ff., passim

Galen 331

Gardiner, Stephen 46

Gellius, Aulus 28

Gender 106, 107

German language 33, 36, 342 ff., passim

Gibbon, Edward 46, 86, 237

Gladstone, William Ewart 126, 235

Glossary 285-334 (cp. Preface ix, x)

Goethe 36

Gorgias 132

Grammar 46, 47

Grave accent 126 ff.

Gutturals 149

‘Harmony’ 290, with references there given

Havercamp 45

Hector and Achilles 190, 191

Hegemon 168

Hegesianax 94, 95

Hegesias 52-55, 90, 184-92

Heracleides 94, 95

Heracleitus 335, 340

Hermogenes 26, 85, 87, 90

Herodotus 16, 24, 26, 30, 80 ff., 90, 120, 196, 248, 249

Hesiod 236, 237

Hesychius, 69, 189, 288, 322, 332

Hexameter 85, 87

Hiatus 39, 323

Hibeh Papyri xi (Preface), 41

Hickes, Francis 226

Hieronymus 94

Hobbes, Thomas 226

Holland, Philemon 328

Homer vii-ix (Preface), 13, 14, 19, 33, 34, 76 ff., 136, 248, 274, 337, passim. See also Index A

Horace ix (Preface), 15, 48, 78, 81, 113, 195, 197, 200, 267, 273, 278, 322, 323, 336, passim

Hypallage 78, 330

Hyperbaton 26, 340

Hypobacchius 174

Hysteron proteron 102

Iambus 170

Intermediate or harmoniously blended composition 246 ff., 301

Invention (of subject matter) 1, 67, 318, etc.

Ionic tetrameter 86, 304

‘Irrational’ 154, 174, 207, 286, 287

Isocrates 11, 29, 78, 92, 192, 198, 236, 237, 242 ff., 264

Ithyphallic poem 86, 303

Jacobs, Friedrich 345, 346

James I., King 46

Johnson, Samuel 186

Josephus 187, 308

Labials 149

Latin (especially Latin word-order, as compared with that of Greek and the modern languages) 13, 21, 25, 29-33, 48, etc.

Lemaître, Jules 31

Lessing 31

Letters 138 ff.

‘Literature’ 34, 217, 309

Livy 178

‘Longinus’ de Sublimitate 14, 26, 48, 74, 239, passim

Lucian 68, 196, 229, 279, 327, 333

Lucidity. See under ‘Clearness’

Lucretius 204, 214

Luther 267

Lydian mode 196

Lysias 16, 55

Malherbe 31

Manuscripts of the C.V. x (Preface), 56-59

Marcellinus 228, 229, 335

Marlowe 35, 147

Maximus Planudes 86

Melic poetry 309, with references there given

Member (clause, ‘colon’) 73, 110 ff., 307

Menander 229

Meredith, George 147, 172

Metaphor 54, 310

Metre 33-39, 310

Metrici 154, 172, 174, 218, 310

Milton 22, 23, 36, 167

Mimnermus 273

Modern languages (especially in relation to word-order) 12, 29-33, 103, etc.; 342-47

Modes, musical 196

Molière 91, 138

Molossus 172

Music 39-41, 124 ff.

Mute letters 138 ff., 292

Natural order of words 98 ff.

Neoptolemus 15

Nobility of style 120 ff., 136

Normal word-order in Greek 14, 15

Noun 71, 98-100, 313

Number, grammatical 106, 107

Obscurity 16, 17, 335-41. See also under ‘Clearness,’ p. 355 supra

Onomatopoeia 158, 159, 316

Order of words in Greek and other languages 11-39, 98 ff., passim

Orphic fragments 252

Ovid 33, 124

Oxyrhynchus Papyri 29, 237, 289

Paeon 314, with references there given

Painting in relation to literary composition 208

Paris Manuscript of the C.V. x (Preface), 56-58

Participle 72, 310

Parts of speech 71 ff.

Passion 314, with references there given

Pentameter 256, 315

Period 13, 73, 118

Peripatetics 48. See also under ‘Aristotle’ (p. 354 supra), and ‘Theophrastus’ (p. 357 infra)

Philo Judaeus 192

‘Philosophy’ 331

Philoxenus 196, 197

Phonetics 43, 44, 140 ff.

Photius 333

‘Phrase’ 306, with references there given

Phrygian mode 196

Phylarchus 94

Pindar 49, 194, 214 ff. See also under Index A

Plato 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 29, 31, 33, 34, 139, 180, 182, 196, 248, 249, 264 ff., passim. See also under Index A

Pliny the Younger 229

Plural 106, 107

Plutarch 67, 187, 264, 299, 326, 330, 332

Poetry (in relation to prose) 33-39, 250 ff., etc.

Polybius 51, 52, 94, 296

Pope, Alexander vii (Preface), 202, 205, 324

Porson, Richard 14, 146

Preposition 71, 319

Pronoun 70, 102, 288

Pronunciation 43-46, 140 ff., 348-51, passim

Propertius 188

‘Propriety’ 39, 198 ff., 318, 319, passim

Prose (in relation to poetry) 33-39, 250 ff., 287 (ἄμετρος), 309 (λόγος), etc.

Prosodiacs 86

Psaon 94

Punctuation 306, 340

Puttenham 299

Pyrrhic 168

Quantity, effect of syllabic quantity in prose 29

Quintilian 11, 15, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 34, 38, 46, 47, 53, 70, 71, 81, 89, 93, 98, 145, 152, 168, 195, 203, 248, 250, 265, 266, 300, 301, 305, 306, 315-21, 325, 328, 330, 332, 336, passim

Quotations in the C.V. 49-56. See also Index A

Racine 118, 157, 205, 270

Reading (learning to read) 268, 269

Renan, Ernest 31

‘Rhetor Graecus’ 57, 138

Rhetorica ad Alexandrum xi (Preface), 26, 75, 313, 336

Rhetorical Handbooks 270, 282, 329

Rhyme or jingle 64, 65, 315

Rhythm 33-39, 168 ff., 176 ff., 320

Rhythmici 154, 172

Rich, Barnaby 82

Rousseau 211

Rufus Metilius xii (Preface), 1, 66

Ruskin 37

Sallust 38, 180, 225

San 148, 149

Sappho vii-viii (Preface), 49, 194, 236 ff., 258. See also Index A

Scales, musical 194

Schema Pindaricum 217

Schleiermacher, Friedrich 343

Scholia (to Homer and other authors) 76, 132, 155, 158, 170, 188, 191, 229, 274, 277, 288, 333, etc.

Semivowels 138 ff., 302

Sextus Empiricus 139

Shakespeare 44, 81, 112, 135, 147, 161, 321

Sheridan 250

Sigmatism 146, 147

Simonides vii-viii (Preface), 49, 236, 278 ff.

Simplicity of diction illustrated and commended 75-85, 134-37

Smith, Sir Thomas 45, 46, 141

Smooth composition or harmony 232 ff., 293

Socrates 120, 160

Solecism 190

Sophist 184, 264, 321

Sophocles 248, 249, 337. See also Index A

Sotades 88, 328

Sound an echo to the sense 156 ff., 200 ff.

Sources of the C.V. 47-49

Spondee 170, 322

Stesichorus 194, 195, 248

Stevenson, Robert Louis 32, 40

Stoics 48, 71, 94-97, 104

Strabo 55, 285, 290

Strophe 194 etc., 323

Styles of composition 208 ff.

Substance and Form viii (Preface); cp. Demetr. pp. 34 ff.

Suidas 237, 296

Summary of the C.V. 1-9

‘Suspense’ 13

Swinburne, Algernon Charles 271, 325

Syllables 150 ff., 324

Synaloepha 108 etc., 325

Tacitus 316

Taste 132, 134, 304

‘Tautology’ 240, 328

Taylor, Jeremy 303

Telestes 196, 197

Tennyson 86, 190, 271, 278

Tense 108, 333

Terence 101, 275

Tetrameters 87, 329

Text of the C.V. x (Preface), 56-59, passim

Thelwall, John 147

Theocritus 281

Theodectes 47, 71

Theophrastus 34, 37, 48, 164, 165, 193, 305, etc.

Theopompus 29, 236, 237

Thucydides 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 33, 34, 120, 178, 214, 224 ff., 335-7, passim. See also Index A

Timotheus 175, 196, 197

Title of the C.V. 10, 326

Tragic poets 236, 248, 329

Tribrach 170. See also under ‘Choree,’ p. 354 supra

Trimeter 258, 329

Trisyllable 170, 329

Trochee 170, 330

Types of style 208 ff.

Usage as the sovereign arbiter 102

Variety 29, 39, 192 ff., 310

Vedic Sanskrit 42

Verbs 71, 98-100, 108, 320

Vigny, Alfred de 213

Virgil 19, 21, 156, 157, 164, 173, 204, 327, etc.

Vowels 138 ff., 332

Welsh language 31

Wilson, Thomas [of Eton and King’s College, Cambridge; earliest translator of any part of Demosthenes into English] 326

Wordsworth viii (Preface), 79, 271

Xenophon 14, 19, 23, 120

Zeta, pronunciation of 44, 45

THE END

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

Cambridge University Press.

By Professor W. RHYS ROBERTS.

The following contributions made to Greek literary and literary-historical study by Dr. Roberts are published at the Cambridge University Press. The volumes are arranged in the order of their original appearance.

THE ANCIENT BOEOTIANS: their Character and Culture, and their Reputation. With a Map, a Table of Dates, and a List of Authorities. Demy 8vo. 5s.

STUDY OF GREEK. A Chapter in Frederic Spencer’s Chapters on the Aims and Practice of Teaching. Third Impression, 1903. Crown 8vo. 6s.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. The Greek Text edited after the Paris Manuscript, with Translation, Facsimiles, and Appendices (Textual, Linguistic, Literary, and Bibliographical). Second Edition, 1907. Demy 8vo. 9s.

DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS: The Three Literary Letters. The Greek Text edited with Translation, Facsimile, Notes, Glossary of Rhetorical Terms, Bibliography, and Introductory Essay on Dionysius as a Literary Critic. Demy 8vo. 9s.

DEMETRIUS ON STYLE. The Greek Text of Demetrius de Elocutione. Edited after the Paris Manuscript, with Translation, Facsimiles, Glossary, etc., and Introductory Essay on the Greek Study of Prose Style. Demy 8vo. 9s. net.

EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS OF DEMETRIUS ON STYLE.

Professor B. L. Gildersleeve in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY.—“It is to me a welcome sign of the times that Mr. Roberts has attracted so much attention and gained so much reputation by his admirable editions of Longinus on the Sublime and of The Three Literary Letters of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, to which he has now added Demetrius on Style.... As for Demetrius, nothing could be more timely than the revival of his admirable manual.... No wonder that one hails with satisfaction the prospect of a new edition of the De Compositione by so competent a hand as Mr. Roberts, if indeed we may construe his suggestion as a promise.”

ATHENÆUM.—“We have to congratulate Professor Roberts on the completion of another preliminary study for his projected work on ‘Ancient Literary Criticism,’ which is a worthy companion to his Longinus and The Three Literary Letters of Dionysius.... These three books are indispensable to the student of Greek literature.... In the translation Professor Roberts seems to have improved on his former versions; this is more easy and effective.”

TIMES.—“Dr. Roberts has introduced to English readers some choice literary morsels. His Longinus on the Sublime, the first of the ancient works on literary criticism which he edited—we might almost say, to our shame, rescued from oblivion—is a most able and inspiring book.... Demetrius on Style is edited equally well. The translation, indeed, is even better; idiomatic and pleasant to read, it is often most happy, and there are very few passages where we should differ in our rendering of the Greek.”

SPECTATOR.—“Dr. Roberts is to be congratulated upon the accomplishment of a worthy task. His edition of the famous treatise known as Demetrius on Style is a credit to our English learning. The editor is not merely a scholar, he is a man of letters as well; and in his notes he has applied the maxims of the ancient Greek to the literature of to-day with the utmost skill. Indeed, though Greek lies at this moment under a cloud of suspicion, we can none the less recommend this work without diffidence or fear, since no English writer can study Dr. Roberts’s translation and notes without purging his own composition of faults innumerable.”

GUARDIAN.—“Dr. Rhys Roberts here gives us a third instalment of his work on the Greek literary critics, and the further he proceeds the greater becomes the benefit that he is conferring on classical scholars. It is much to have made the masterpieces of the later Greek criticism generally accessible, and especially to have rescued Dionysius of Halicarnassus from a neglect and contempt that were wholly undeserved, to have given him new utterance, to have shown that even for moderns his precepts are not obsolete. Nor is the chorus of approval with which Dr. Roberts’s work has been received, both at home and abroad, any louder than is warranted. His own style and taste are above reproach, and his learning is abundant.”

WESTMINSTER REVIEW.—“Dr. W. Rhys Roberts has taken for his province the whole subject of Greek literary criticism. In 1899 appeared his scholarly and exhaustive edition of Longinus on the Sublime, which was followed, two years later, by an admirable edition of The Three Literary Letters of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He has now laid English scholarship under a further obligation by his even more admirable edition of Demetrius on Style. Each of these three texts is accompanied by a translation at once accurate, terse, lucid, and idiomatic.”

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.—“We make no doubt that Professor Roberts’s earlier books—Longinus on the Sublime and The Three Literary Letters of Dionysius—are known to those of our readers who are serious students of Greek. We believe they have done a good deal already to restore ancient criticism to the place which it used to hold. The present volume is a worthy companion to the other two.”

Professor R. Y. Tyrrell in HERMATHENA.—“This edition is of wide scope and excellent design. It includes an Essay on Greek Prose Style, a full summary of the treatise itself, and a careful treatment of the difficult questions concerning its date and authorship. The fact that this is the first English text and the first English translation of a very valuable and interesting work gives it an added importance, and opens up what will be a new field for many scholars.... The translation, which is exceedingly vigorous, elegant and ingenious, has one other signal merit: it never ‘hedges’: the translator never hides a doubt about the meaning under ambiguous language; he leaves no uncertainty about the meaning which he attaches to the text; and in the few places where we may venture to take a different view we feel that there is always something to be said for the version which we reject.... Dr. Roberts has a very keen eye and ear for literary beauty; and the treatise affords ample scope for the employment of his wide and various knowledge of modern literature.... The De Elocutione is a treatise full of interesting and suggestive comment; and all lovers of literature owe their best thanks to Professor Roberts for the edition of it which he has put in their hands.”

The volume has also been favourably reviewed by the following Continental scholars: Dr. Ph. Weber (Neue Philologische Rundschau), M. Théodore Reinach (Revue des Études Grecques), Professor Amédée Hauvette (Revue Critique d’histoire et de littérature), Professor Ch. Michel (Revue de l’Instruction publique en Belgique), and Professor Giovanni Setti (La Cultura).

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Table of Contents

Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Literary Composition

PREFACE

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

- I Summary of the de Compositione

- II The Order of Words in Greek

- A. Freedom and Elasticity
- B. Normal Order
- C. Lucidity
- D. Emphasis
- E. Euphony

- F. Greek and Latin compared with Modern Languages, in regard to Word-Order

- G. Prose and Poetry: Rhythm and Metre

- III Other Matters arising in the de Compositione

- A. Greek Music: in Relation to the Greek Language

- B. Accent in Ancient Greek
- C. Pronunciation of Ancient Greek
- D. Greek Grammar
- E. Sources of the de Compositione

- F. Quotations and Literary References in the de Compositione

- G. Manuscripts and Text

- H. Recent Writings connected with the de Compositione

ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΛΙΚΑΡΝΑΣΕΩΣ

- I

- CHAPTER I OCCASION AND PURPOSE OF THE TREATISE

- II

- CHAPTER II COMPOSITION DEFINED

- III

- CHAPTER III THE MAGICAL EFFECT OF COMPOSITION, OR WORD-ORDER

- IV

- CHAPTER IV TO CHANGE ORDER IS TO DESTROY BEAUTY

- V

- CHAPTER V NO GRAMMATICAL ORDER PRESCRIBED BY NATURE

- VI

- CHAPTER VI THREE PROCESSES IN THE ART OF COMPOSITION

- VII

- CHAPTER VII GROUPING OF CLAUSES

- VIII

- CHAPTER VIII SHAPING OF CLAUSES

- IX

- CHAPTER IX LENGTHENING AND SHORTENING OF CLAUSES AND PERIODS

- X

- CHAPTER X AIMS AND METHODS OF GOOD COMPOSITION

- XI

- CHAPTER XI GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SOURCES OF CHARM AND BEAUTY IN COMPOSITION

- XII

- CHAPTER XII HOW TO RENDER COMPOSITION CHARMING

- XIII

- XIV

- CHAPTER XIII HOW TO RENDER COMPOSITION BEAUTIFUL

- CHAPTER XIV THE LETTERS: THEIR CLASSIFICATION, QUALITIES, AND MODE OF PRODUCTION

- XV

- CHAPTER XV SYLLABLES AND THEIR QUALITIES

- XVI

- CHAPTER XVI POETIC SKILL IN THE CHOICE AND IN THE COMBINATION OF WORDS

- XVII

- CHAPTER XVII ON RHYTHMS, OR FEET

- XVIII

- CHAPTER XVIII EFFECT OF VARIOUS RHYTHMS

- XIX

- CHAPTER XIX ON VARIETY

- XX

- CHAPTER XX ON APPROPRIATENESS

- XXI

- CHAPTER XXI THREE MODES, OR STYLES, OF COMPOSITION

- XXII

- CHAPTER XXII AUSTERE COMPOSITION

- XXIII

- CHAPTER XXIII SMOOTH COMPOSITION

- XXIV

- CHAPTER XXIV HARMONIOUSLY-BLENDED, OR INTERMEDIATE, COMPOSITION

- XXV

- CHAPTER XXV HOW PROSE CAN RESEMBLE VERSE

- XXVI

- CHAPTER XXVI HOW VERSE CAN RESEMBLE PROSE

GLOSSARY

APPENDIX A

- OBSCURITY IN GREEK

APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
Footnotes

A. INDEX OF PASSAGES QUOTED IN THE DE COMPOSITIONE

B. INDEX OF NAMES AND MATTERS

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