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Book i
and
and there is also the proverb about 'breaking the pitcher at the door'.
Again, that is good which has been distinguished by the favour of a discerning or virtuous man or woman, as Odysseus was distinguished by Athena, Hele
More generally: the hard thing is better than the easy, because it is rarer: and reversely, the easy thing is better than the hard, for it is as we wi
The same effect is produced by piling up facts in a climax after the manner of Epicharmus. The reason is partly the same as in the case of division (f
So Iphicrates used to extol himself by describing the low estate from which he had risen. Again, what is natural is better than what is acquired, sinc
And the best part of a good thing is particularly good as when Pericles in his funeral oration said that the country's loss of its young men in battl
Sappho wrote
Those things, also, are noble for which men strive anxiously, without feeling fear for they feel thus about the good things which lead to fair fame.
A woman whose father, whose husband, whose
Since we praise a man for what he has actually done, and fine actions are distinguished from others by being intentionally good, we must try to prove
So all acts of concentration, strong effort, and strain are necessarily painful they all involve compulsion and force, unless we are accustomed to th
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers
The reason of this is that it is pleasant even to be merely free from evil. The things it is pleasant to expect are those that when present are felt t
for no one grows angry with a person on whom there is no prospect of taking vengeance, and we feel comparatively little anger, or none at all, with th
Revenge, too, is pleasant it is pleasant to get anything that it is painful to fail to get, and angry people suffer extreme pain when they fail to ge
That is why what comes to us only at long intervals is pleasant, whether it be a person or a thing for it is a change from what we had before, and, b
Similarly, since amusement and every kind of relaxation and laughter too belong to the class of pleasant things, it follows that ludicrous things are
And so Empedocles, when he bids us kill no living creature, says that doing this is not just for some people while unjust for others,
The actions that we ought to do or not to do have also been divided into two classes as affecting either the whole community or some one of its member
We shall argue that justice indeed is true and profitable, but that sham justice is not, and that consequently the written law is not, because it does
These witnesses are concerned with past events. As to future events we shall also appeal to soothsayers: thus Themistocles quoted the oracle about 'th
Or if you are urging that he who has made away with fathers should also make away with their sons, quote,
'Recent' witnesses are well-known people who have expressed their opinions about some disputed matter: such opinions will be useful support for subseq
It is as if a strong man were to challenge a weakling to strike, or be struck by, him.
Book ii
It is also attended by a certain pleasure because the thoughts dwell upon the act of vengeance, and the images then called up cause pleasure, like the
Like an alien honoured by none,
meaning that this is why he is angry. A man expects to be specially respected by his inferiors in birth, in capacity, in goodness, and generally in an
Yea, but his rancour abideth long afterward also,
their great resentment being due to their great superiority. Then again a man looks for respect from those who he thinks owe him good treatment, and t
implying that Odysseus would not have considered himself avenged unless the Cyclops perceived both by whom and for what he had been blinded. Consequen
It is now plain that when you wish to calm others you must draw upon these lines of argument you must put your hearers into the corresponding frame o
And those who desire the same things as we desire, if it is possible for us both to share them together otherwise the same trouble arises here too. A
but also, even apart from that, when the inferior in any sense contends with his superior a musician, for instance, with a just man, for justice is a
Also our fellow-competitors, who are indeed the people just mentioned-we do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those not yet b
We also envy those whose possession of or success in a thing is a reproach to us: these are our neighbours and equals for it is clear that it is our
That if anything is possible to inferior, weaker, and stupider people, it is more so for their opposites thus Isocrates said that it would be a stran
Here we have a Maxim add the reason or explanation, and the whole thing is an Enthymeme thus -
Again,
There is no man among us all is free,
are maxims but the latter, taken with what follows it, is an Enthymeme -
From this definition of a maxim it follows that there are four kinds of maxims. In the first Place, the maxim may or may not have a supplement. Proof
this being the general opinion: or because, as soon as the view is stated, it is clear at a glance, e.g.
Of the Maxims that do have a supplement attached, some are part of an Enthymeme, e.g.
Others have the essential character of Enthymemes, but are not stated as parts of Enthymemes these latter are reckoned the best they are those in wh
To say 'it is not right to nurse immortal wrath' is a maxim the added words 'mortal man' give the reason. Similarly, with the words Mortal creatures
Or, if he is calling on them to attack a stronger force -
Or, if he is urging people to destroy the innocent children of their enemies -
Some proverbs are also maxims, e.g. the proverb 'An Attic neighbour'. You are not to avoid uttering maxims that contradict such sayings as have become
Since in this world liars may win belief,
2. Another line of proof is got by considering some modification of the key-word, and arguing that what can or cannot be said of the one, can or canno
Why, there are two things to examine here.
And when Alphesiboea asks what he means, he rejoins:
4. Another line of proof is the 'a fortiori'. Thus it may be argued that if even the gods are not omniscient, certainly human beings are not. The prin
And, again, 'if Theseus did no wrong, neither did Paris' or 'the sons of Tyndareus did no wrong, neither did Paris' or 'if Hector did well to slay P
To slay no boar, but to be witnesses
Or the argument in the Ajax of Theodectes, that Diomede chose out Odysseus not to do him honour, but in order that his companion might be a lesser man
O steel in heart as thou art steel in name.
This line of argument is common in praises of the gods. Thus, too, Conon called Thrasybulus rash in counsel. And Herodicus said of Thrasymachus, 'You
Pentheus-a name foreshadowing grief (penthos) to come.
The Refutative Enthymeme has a greater reputation than the Demonstrative, because within a small space it works out two opposing arguments, and argume
or we may argue that, because there is much disgrace in there not being a dog about, there is honour in being a dog. Or that Hermes is readier than an
'It is right, too, that the son should avenge his father. Very good: these two things are what Orestes has done.' Still, perhaps the two things, once
For what is improbable does happen, and therefore it is probable that improbable things will happen. Granted this, one might argue that 'what is impro
Book iii
is inappropriate the word 'king' goes beyond the dignity of the subject, and so the art is not concealed. A metaphor may be amiss because the very sy
the process is nameless but both it and gluing are a kind of application, and that is why the application of the cupping-glass is here called a 'glui
though of course they were daughters of asses too. The same effect is attained by the use of diminutives, which make a bad thing less bad and a good t
this is a simile when he says of him 'the lion leapt', it is a metaphor-here, since both are courageous, he has transferred to Achilles the name of '
Diviners use these vague generalities about the matter in hand because their predictions are thus, as a rule, less likely to be falsified. We are more
Here are my letter's many-leaved folds.
(4) Do not bracket two words under one article, but put one article with each e.g. 'that wife of ours.' The reverse to secure conciseness e.g. 'our
A subject can be developed indefinitely along these lines. You may apply this method of treatment by negation either to good or to bad qualities, acco
Chruseokom | a Ekate | pai Dios.
The other paean begins, conversely, with three short syllables and ends with a long one, as
This kind of paean makes a real close: a short syllable can give no effect of finality, and therefore makes the rhythm appear truncated. A sentence sh
By a wrong division of the words the hearer may take the meaning to be the reverse of what it is: for instance, in the passage quoted, one might imagi
Which applies likewise to long-membered orators. Periods whose members are altogether too short are not periods at all and the result is to bring the
dorhetoi t epelonto pararretoi t epeessin
ouk wethesan auton paidion tetokenai,
en pleiotals de opontisi kai en elachistais elpisin
An example of inflexions of the same word is
su d' auton kai zonta eleges kakos kai nun grafeis kakos.
ti d' an epaoes deinon, ei andrh' eides arhgon
It is possible for the same sentence to have all these features together-antithesis, parison, and homoeoteleuton. (The possible beginnings of periods
10
Polyeuctus said of a paralytic man named Speusippus that he could not keep quiet, 'though fortune had fastened him in the pillory of disease'. Cephiso
where 'up sprang' gives us activity as well as metaphor, for it at once suggests swiftness. So with Homer's common practice of giving metaphorical lif
The (bitter) arrow flew
Flying on eagerly
Stuck in the earth, still panting to feed on the flesh of the heroes
And the point of the spear in its fury drove
In all these examples the things have the effect of being active because they are made into living beings shameless behaviour and fury and so on are
Here he represents everything as moving and living and activity is movement.
where one imagined the word would be 'sandals'. But the point should be clear the moment the words are uttered. Jokes made by altering the letters of
Do not the words 'thou must not be', &c., amount to saying that the stranger must not always be strange? Here again is the use of one word in differen
This amounts to saying 'it is a fit thing to die when you are not fit to die', or 'it is a fit thing to die when death is not fit for you', i.e. when
Just like Philammon struggling with his punchball.
These are all similes and that similes are metaphors has been stated often already.
is equivalent to 'you would have thought he was Philammon struggling with his punchball' and
is equivalent to 'his legs are so curly that you would have thought they were not legs but parsley leaves'. Hyperboles are for young men to use they
(The Attic orators are particularly fond of this method of speech.) Consequently it does not suit an elderly speaker.
If many things are said about a man, his name must be mentioned many times and therefore people think that, if his name is mentioned many times, many
Introductions to speeches of display, then, may be composed of some piece of praise or censure, of advice to do or not to do something, or of appeals
In prologues, and in epic poetry, a foretaste of the theme is given, intended to inform the hearers of it in advance instead of keeping their minds in
The tragic poets, too, let us know the pivot of their play if not at the outset like Euripides, at least somewhere in the preface to a speech like So
and so in Comedy. This, then, is the most essential function and distinctive property of the introduction, to show what the aim of the speech is and
heard for terror, or for wonder. This is what Prodicus called 'slipping in a bit of the fifty-drachma show-lecture for the audience whenever they bega
Why all this preface?
Introductions are popular with those whose case is weak, or looks weak it pays them to dwell on anything rather than the actual facts of it. That is
Euripides said that his opponent himself was guilty in bringing into the law-courts cases whose decision belonged to the Dionysiac contests. 'If I hav
If you have no such cause to suggest, just say that you are aware that no one will believe your words, but the fact remains that such is our nature, h
a true touch-people beginning to cry do put their hands over their eyes.
where the speaker has attacked the silliest argument first. So much for the Arguments.
and puts into the mouth of Charon the carpenter the lampoon which begins
So too Sophocles makes Haemon appeal to his father on behalf of Antigone as if it were others who were speaking.