[6] Another method, again, which transfers from the worse to the better sense suspicious passages in poetry, is that which works through the normal usage of words, in which it were better to have the young man trained than in what are called
glosses.
1
It is indeed learned, and not unpleasing, to know that
rhigedanos
2
means
dying miserably (for the Macedonians call death
danos ), that the Aeolians call a victory won by patience and perseverance an
outlasting,
3
that the Dryopians call the divinities
popoi.
4
But it is necessary and useful, if we are to be helped and not harmed by poetry, to know how the poets employ the names of the gods, and again the names of bad and of good things, and what they mean when they speak of Fortune or of Fate, and whether these belong to the class of words which in their writings are used in one sense only or in several senses, as the case is with many other words. For, to illustrate, they apply the term
house sometimes to a dwelling house, as
Into the lofty house,
5
and sometimes to property, as
My house is being devoured;
6
and the term
living they apply sometimes to life, as
But dark-haired Poseidon Thwarted his spear, nor would let him end his foeman’s living,
7
and sometimes to possessions, as
And others are eating my living;
8
and the expression
be distraught is used sometimes instead of
be chagrined and
be at one’s wits’ end :
Thus he spoke, and she departed distraught and sore troubled
9
and at other times, instead of
to be arrogant and
be delighted, as
Are you now distraught since you vanquished Irus, the vagrant?
10
and by
huddle they mean either
be in motion, as Euripides says:
11
A monster huddling from th’ Atlantic’s surge, or
sit down and
be seated, as Sophocles
12
says: What means your huddling in these places here With suppliant garlands on the boughs ye bear? It is a graceful accomplishment also to adapt the usage of the words to fit the matter in hand, as the grammarians teach us to do, taking a word for one signification at one time, and at another time for another, as for example,
Better commend a small ship, but put your goods on a big one.
13
For by
commend is meant
recommend, and the very expression of
recommend to another is used nowadays instead of deprecating for one’s self, as in everyday speech we say,
It’s very kind, and
Very welcome, when we do not want a thing and do not accept it. In this way also some persons will have it that it must be
commendable Persephone because she is deprecated. Let us then observe closely this distinction and discrimination of words in greater and more serious matters, and let us begin with the gods, in teaching the young that when the poets employ the names of the gods, sometimes they apprehend in their conception the gods themselves, and at other times they give the same appellation to certain faculties of which gods are the givers and authors. To take an obvious example, it is clear that Archilochus, when he says in his prayer,
Hear my praver, O Lord Hephaestus, and propitious Lend thy aid, and bestow what thy mercy bestows,
14
is calling on the god himself; but when, lamenting his sister’s husband who was lost at sea and received no formal burial, he says that he could have borne the calamity with greater moderation,
If upon his head and his body so fair, All in garments clean, Hephaestus had done his office,
15
it is fire that he called by this name and not the god. And again when Euripides
16
said in an oath,
By Zeus amidst the stars and Ares murderous, he named the gods themselves; but when Sophocles
17
says,
Blind and unseeing Ares, worthy dames, With snout like that of swine upturns all ills, the name is to be understood as meaning war; just as again it suggests weapons of bronze in the passage where Homer
18
says,
Dark red blood of these men by the fair-flowing river Scamander Keen-edged Ares has shed.
Since, then, many words are used in this way, it is necessary to know and to remember that under the name Zeus also (or Zen) the poets address sometimes the god, sometimes Fortune, and oftentimes Fate. For when they say,
Father Zeus, enthroned on Ida, most glorious and mighty, Grant to Ajax victory,
19
and
O Zeus! who boasts to be more wise than thou?
20
they mean the god himself; but when they apply the name of Zeus to the causes of all that happens, and say,
Many valiant souls it sent to the realm of Hades, Goodly men, and their bodies gave to the dogs as ravin And to birds a feast—the design of Zeus in fulfilment,
21
they mean Fate. For the poet does not imagine that it is the god who contrives evils for mankind, but by the name he rightly implies the compelling force of circumstances, that States and armies and leaders, if they show self-control, are destined to succeed and to prevail over their enemies, but if they fall into passions and errors, if they disagree and quarrel among themselves, as these heroes did, then are they destined to act discreditably and to become disorganized and to come to a bad end, as Sophocles says
22
:
For fated is it that from evil plans An evil recompense shall mortals reap;
and certainly Hesiod
23
in representing Prometheus as exhorting Epimetheus
Never to welcome Any gifts from Zeus of Olympus, but always return them,
employs the name of Zeus as a synonym for the power of Fortune. For he has given the name of
gifts of Zeus to the blessings of Fortune, such as wealth, marriage, office, and, in a word, all outward things, the possession of which is unprofitable to those who cannot make good use of them. Wherefore he thinks that Epimetheus, who is a worthless man and a fool, ought to be on his guard against any piece of good fortune, and be fearful of it, as he is likely to be injured and corrupted by it. And again when the poet says,
Never dare to reproach any man for accursed and woeful Poverty, gift of the blessed gods whose life is for ever,
24
he now speaks of what happens by chance as godgiven, with the suggestion that it is not meet to impugn those who are poor through misfortune, but to reproach the penury that is accompanied by laziness, soft living, and extravagance, since then it is disgraceful and reprehensible. For at a time when men did not as yet use the name
Fortune, but knew the force of causation as it traverses its irregular and indeterminate course, so strong, so impossible for human reason to guard against, they tried to express this by the names of the gods, exactly as we are wont to call deeds and characters, and in fact even words and men,
divine and
godlike. In this manner, then, a corrective is to be found for most of the seemingly unjustifiable statements regarding Zeus, among which are the following:
Fixed on Zeus’ floor two massive urns stand ever, Filled with happy lives the one, the other with sorrows,
25
and
Cronos’ son, enthroned on high, hath made naught of our pledges, But for both our hosts with evil thought is planning,
26
and
Then rolled forth the beginning of trouble Both on Trojans and Greeks through designs of Zeus the almighty.
27
These are to be interpreted as referring to Fortune or Fate, in which guise are denoted those phases of causation which baffle our logic, and are, in a word, beyond us. But wherever there is appropriateness, reason, and probability in the use of the name, let us believe that there the god himself is meant, as in the following:
But he ranged to and fro ’gainst the lines of the rest of the fighters; Only with Ajax, Telamon’s son, he avoided a conflict, Seeing that Zeus was wroth if he fight with a man far better,
28
and
For Zeus takes thought for mortals’ greatest weal; The little things he leaves to other gods.
29
Particular attention must be paid to the other words also, when their signification is shifted about and changed by the poets according to various circumstances. An example is the word
virtue. For inasmuch as virtue not only renders men sensible, honest, and upright in actions and words, but also often enough secures for them repute and influence, the poets, following this notion, make good repute and influence to be virtue, giving them this name in exactly the same way that the products of the olive and the chestnut are called
olives and
chestnuts, the same names as the trees that bear them. So then when poets say,
Sweat the gods have set before the attainment of virtue,
30
and
Then the Greeks by their virtue broke the line of their foemen,
31
and
If to die be our fate, Thus to die is our right Merging our lives into virtue,
32
let our young man at once feel that these sayings relate to the best and godliest estate to which we can attain, which we think of as correctness of reasoning, the height of good sense, and a disposition of soul in full agreement therewith. But when at another time, in his reading, he finds this line,
Zeus makes virtue in men both to increase and diminish,
33
or this,
Virtue and glory are attendant on riches,
34
let him not
sit astounded and
amazed at the rich, as though they were able to purchase virtue without ado for money, nor let him believe either that the increase or diminution of his own wisdom rests with Fortune, but let him consider that the poet has employed
virtue instead of repute, or influence, or good fortune, or the like. For assuredly by
evil the poets sometimes signify badness in its strict sense, and wickedness of soul, as when Hesiod
35
says, Evil may always be had by all mankind in abundance, and sometimes some other affliction or misfortune, as when Homer
36
says, Since full soon do mortals who live in evil grow aged. And so too anybody would be sadly deceived, should he imagine that the poets give to
happiness the sense which the philosophers give to it, namely, that of complete possession or attainment of good, or the perfection of a life gliding smoothly along in accord with nature, and that the poets do not oftentimes by a perversion of the word call the rich man happy and blessed, and call influence or repute happiness. Now Homer
37
has used the words correctly:
No delight
38
have I in ruling these possessions,
and so has Menander:
39
A great estate have I, and rich am called By all, but I am called by no man blest.
But Euripides
40
works much disturbance and confusion when he says,
May I ne’er have a painful happy life,
and
Why do you honour show to tyranny, Happy iniquity?
41
unless, as has been said, one follows the figurative and perverted use of the words. This, then, is enough on this subject. Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1927.
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