The Poetics of Aristotle
of Empedocles, 'life's setting sun.' For some of the terms of the
proportion there is at times no word in existence; still the metaphor
may be used. For instance, to scatter seed is called sowing: but the
action of the sun in scattering his rays is nameless. Still this process
bears to the sun the same relation as sowing to the seed. Hence the
expression of the poet 'sowing the god-created light.' There is another
way in which this kind of metaphor may be employed. We may apply an
alien term, and then deny of that term one of its proper attributes; as
if we were to call the shield, not 'the cup of Ares,' but 'the wineless
cup.'
{An ornamental word...}
A newly-coined word is one which has never been even in local use, but
is adopted by the poet himself. Some such words there appear to be: as
{epsilon rho nu upsilon gamma epsilon sigma}, 'sprouters,' for {kappa
epsilon rho alpha tau alpha}, 'horns,' and {alpha rho eta tau eta rho},
'supplicator,' for {iota epsilon rho epsilon upsilon sigma}, 'priest.'
A word is lengthened when its own vowel is exchanged for a longer one,
or when a syllable is inserted. A word is contracted when some part of
it is removed. Instances of lengthening are,--{pi omicron lambda eta
omicron sigma} for {pi omicron lambda epsilon omega sigma}, and {Pi eta
lambda eta iota alpha delta epsilon omega} for {Pi eta lambda epsilon
iota delta omicron upsilon}: of contraction,--{kappa rho iota}, {delta
omega}, and {omicron psi}, as in {mu iota alpha / gamma iota nu epsilon
tau alpha iota / alpha mu phi omicron tau episilon rho omega nu /
omicron psi}.
An altered word is one in which part of the ordinary form is left
unchanged, and part is re-cast; as in {delta epsilon xi iota-tau epsilon
rho omicron nu / kappa alpha tau alpha / mu alpha zeta omicron nu},
{delta epsilon xi iota tau epsilon rho omicron nu} is for {delta epsilon
xi iota omicron nu}.
[Nouns in themselves are either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Masculine are such as end in {nu}, {rho}, {sigma}, or in some letter
compounded with {sigma},--these being two, and {xi}. Feminine, such as
end in vowels that are always long, namely {eta} and {omega}, and--of
vowels that admit of lengthening--those in {alpha}. Thus the number of
letters in which nouns masculine and feminine end is the same; for {psi}
and {xi} are equivalent to endings in {sigma}. No noun ends in a mute
or a vowel short by nature. Three only end in {iota},--{mu eta lambda
iota}, {kappa omicron mu mu iota}, {pi epsilon pi epsilon rho iota}:
five end in {upsilon}. Neuter nouns end in these two latter vowels; also
in {nu} and {sigma}.]
XXII
The perfection of style is to be clear without being mean. The clearest
style is that which uses only current or proper words; at the same
time it is mean:--witness the poetry of Cleophon and of Sthenelus. That
diction, on the other hand, is lofty and raised above the commonplace
which employs unusual words. By unusual, I mean strange (or rare) words,
metaphorical, lengthened,--anything, in short, that differs from the
normal idiom. Yet a style wholly composed of such words is either a
riddle or a jargon; a riddle, if it consists of metaphors; a jargon, if
it consists of strange (or rare) words. For the essence of a riddle is
to express true facts under impossible combinations. Now this cannot be
done by any arrangement of ordinary words, but by the use of metaphor it
can. Such is the riddle:--'A man I saw who on another man had glued the
bronze by aid of fire,' and others of the same kind. A diction that
is made up of strange (or rare) terms is a jargon. A certain infusion,
therefore, of these elements is necessary to style; for the strange (or
rare) word, the metaphorical, the ornamental, and the other kinds above
mentioned, will raise it above the commonplace and mean, while the use
of proper words will make it perspicuous. But nothing contributes more
to produce a clearness of diction that is remote from commonness than
the lengthening, contraction, and alteration of words. For by deviating
in exceptional cases from the normal idiom, the language will gain
distinction; while, at the same time, the partial conformity with usage
will give perspicuity. The critics, therefore, are in error who censure
these licenses of speech, and hold the author up to ridicule. Thus
Eucleides, the elder, declared that it would be an easy matter to be
a poet if you might lengthen syllables at will. He caricatured the
practice in the very form of his diction, as in the verse: '{Epsilon pi
iota chi alpha rho eta nu / epsilon iota delta omicron nu / Mu alpha rho
alpha theta omega nu alpha delta epsilon / Beta alpha delta iota zeta
omicron nu tau alpha}, or, {omicron upsilon kappa / alpha nu / gamma /
epsilon rho alpha mu epsilon nu omicron sigma / tau omicron nu / epsilon
kappa epsilon iota nu omicron upsilon /epsilon lambda lambda epsilon
beta omicron rho omicron nu}. To employ such license at all obtrusively
is, no doubt, grotesque; but in any mode of poetic diction there must
be moderation. Even metaphors, strange (or rare) words, or any similar
forms of speech, would produce the like effect if used without propriety
and with the express purpose of being ludicrous. How great a difference
is made by the appropriate use of lengthening, may be seen in Epic
poetry by the insertion of ordinary forms in the verse. So, again, if
we take a strange (or rare) word, a metaphor, or any similar mode of
expression, and replace it by the current or proper term, the truth of
our observation will be manifest. For example Aeschylus and Euripides
each composed the same iambic line. But the alteration of a single word
by Euripides, who employed the rarer term instead of the ordinary one,
makes one verse appear beautiful and the other trivial. Aeschylus in his
Philoctetes says: {Phi alpha gamma epsilon delta alpha iota nu alpha /
delta / eta / mu omicron upsilon / sigma alpha rho kappa alpha sigma /
epsilon rho theta iota epsilon iota / pi omicron delta omicron sigma}.
Euripides substitutes {Theta omicron iota nu alpha tau alpha iota}
'feasts on' for {epsilon sigma theta iota epsilon iota} 'feeds on.'
Again, in the line, {nu upsilon nu / delta epsilon / mu /epsilon omega
nu / omicron lambda iota gamma iota gamma upsilon sigma / tau epsilon /
kappa alpha iota / omicron upsilon tau iota delta alpha nu omicron sigma
/ kappa alpha iota / alpha epsilon iota kappa eta sigma), the difference
will be felt if we substitute the common words, {nu upsilon nu / delta
epsilon / mu / epsilon omega nu / mu iota kappa rho omicron sigma /
tau epsilon / kappa alpha iota / alpha rho theta epsilon nu iota kappa
omicron sigma / kappa alpha iota / alpha epsilon iota delta gamma
sigma}. Or, if for the line, {delta iota phi rho omicron nu / alpha
epsilon iota kappa epsilon lambda iota omicron nu / kappa alpha tau
alpha theta epsilon iota sigma / omicron lambda iota gamma eta nu /
tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon iota sigma / omicron lambda iota
gamma eta nu / tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon zeta alpha nu,}
We read, {delta iota phi rho omicron nu / mu omicron chi theta eta rho
omicron nu / kappa alpha tau alpha theta epsilon iota sigma / mu iota
kappa rho alpha nu / tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon zeta alpha
nu}.
Or, for {eta iota omicron nu epsilon sigma / beta omicron omicron omega
rho iota nu, eta iota omicron nu epsilon sigma kappa rho alpha zeta
omicron upsilon rho iota nu}
Again, Ariphrades ridiculed the tragedians for using phrases which no
one would employ in ordinary speech: for example, {delta omega mu alpha
tau omega nu / alpha pi omicron} instead of {alpha pi omicron / delta
omega mu alpha tau omega nu}, {rho epsilon theta epsilon nu}, {epsilon
gamma omega / delta epsilon / nu iota nu}, {Alpha chi iota lambda lambda
epsilon omega sigma / pi epsilon rho iota} instead of {pi epsilon rho
iota / 'Alpha chi iota lambda lambda epsilon omega sigma}, and the like.
It is precisely because such phrases are not part of the current idiom
that they give distinction to the style. This, however, he failed to
see.
It is a great matter to observe propriety in these several modes of
expression, as also in compound words, strange (or rare) words, and so
forth. But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor.
This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for
to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.
Of the various kinds of words, the compound are best adapted to
Dithyrambs, rare words to heroic poetry, metaphors to iambic. In heroic
poetry, indeed, all these varieties are serviceable. But in iambic
verse, which reproduces, as far as may be, familiar speech, the most
appropriate words are those which are found even in prose. These
are,--the current or proper, the metaphorical, the ornamental.
Concerning Tragedy and imitation by means of action this may suffice.
XXIII
As to that poetic imitation which is narrative in form and employs
a single metre, the plot manifestly ought, as in a tragedy, to be
constructed on dramatic principles. It should have for its subject a
single action, whole and complete, with a beginning, a middle, and
an end. It will thus resemble a living organism in all its unity, and
produce the pleasure proper to it. It will differ in structure from
historical compositions, which of necessity present not a single action,
but a single period, and all that happened within that period to one
person or to many, little connected together as the events may be. For
as the sea-fight at Salamis and the battle with the Carthaginians in
Sicily took place at the same time, but did not tend to any one result,
so in the sequence of events, one thing sometimes follows another, and
yet no single result is thereby produced. Such is the practice, we may
say, of most poets. Here again, then, as has been already observed, the
transcendent excellence of Homer is manifest. He never attempts to make
the whole war of Troy the subject of his poem, though that war had
a beginning and an end. It would have been too vast a theme, and not
easily embraced in a single view. If, again, he had kept it within
moderate limits, it must have been over-complicated by the variety of
the incidents. As it is, he detaches a single portion, and admits as
episodes many events from the general story of the war--such as the
Catalogue of the ships and others--thus diversifying the poem. All other
poets take a single hero, a single period, or an action single indeed,
but with a multiplicity of parts. Thus did the author of the Cypria
and of the Little Iliad. For this reason the Iliad and the Odyssey
each furnish the subject of one tragedy, or, at most, of two; while the
Cypria supplies materials for many, and the Little Iliad for eight--the
Award of the Arms, the Philoctetes, the Neoptolemus, the Eurypylus, the
Mendicant Odysseus, the Laconian Women, the Fall of Ilium, the Departure
of the Fleet.
XXIV
Again, Epic poetry must have as many kinds as Tragedy: it must be
simple, or complex, or 'ethical,' or 'pathetic.' The parts also, with
the exception of song and spectacle, are the same; for it requires
Reversals of the Situation, Recognitions, and Scenes of Suffering.
Moreover, the thoughts and the diction must be artistic. In all these
respects Homer is our earliest and sufficient model. Indeed each of
his poems has a twofold character. The Iliad is at once simple and
'pathetic,' and the Odyssey complex (for Recognition scenes run through
it), and at the same time 'ethical.' Moreover, in diction and thought
they are supreme.
Epic poetry differs from Tragedy in the scale on which it is
constructed, and in its metre. As regards scale or length, we have