Aristotle Poetics 21.14

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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and yet this has a similar relation to the sun that sowing has to grain. Hence, it is said, Sowing his god-created flame. This mode of metaphor may likewise be used differ- 1 This mode of metaphor may likewise be used differently, when, calling a thing by a foreign name, something belonging to it is denied of it; as if one should call a shield not the cup of Mars, but the wineless cup. 2 But an invented noun is that, in short, which, not being adopted by others, is introduced by the poet himself. For it appears that there are certain nouns of this kind ; as substituting ἒρνυγες instead of κέρατα for horns 13, and calling a priest άρητήρ14 instead of ίερεύς. 3

Poetics. Aristotle. Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator). London. 1857.

Current edition Experimental

The Poetic of Aristotle (Theodore Alois Buckley) (OCR draft) (English) (Theodore Alois Buckley's English translation, first published in 1850 and represented from the Henry G. Bohn 1857 printing; corrected against a second OCR and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (4)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 21 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 21 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 21 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Franz Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) Experimental (Franz Ritter's 1839 Greek edition, corrected against OCR of the represented copy and aligned to the conventional Perseus chapter-and-subchapter sequence.) — 21 focus
Translations (13)
Poetics (W. H. Fyfe) (OCR draft) Perseus (William Hamilton Fyfe's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, Loeb Classical Library, 1939 printing.) — 21 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 21 focus
Poetics (S. H. Butcher, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (S. H. Butcher's English translation from Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, fourth edition, 1911.) — 21 focus
Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 21 focus
Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) Experimental (Thomas Twining's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1789 and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 21.14 focus
It sometimes happens, that there is no proper analogous term, answering to the term borrowed; which yet may be used in the same manner, as if there were. For instance: to sow, is the term appropriated to the action of dispersing seed upon the earth; but the dispersion of rays from the sun is expressed by no appropriated term; it is, however, with respect to the sun's light, what sowing is with respect to seed. Hence the Poet's expression, of the sun- - SOWING abroad "His heaven-created flame.".
The Poetic of Aristotle (Henry James Pye, revised 1792) (OCR draft) Experimental (Henry James Pye's revised 1792 English translation, corrected against the 1788 first edition, aligned to the Kassel reference edition, and supplied with a selective apparatus of substantive 1788 readings.) — 21.14 focus
and yet that has the same analogy to the sun, that sowing has to grain. Hence the expression of the Poet, [H] 'Sowing abroad his heaven-created fire.' 1 2 3
Poetica Latine conversa (Franciscus Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) Experimental (Franz Ritter's Latin translation, corrected against OCR of the represented copy and aligned to the conventional Perseus chapter-and-subchapter sequence.) — 21 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 21.14 focus
Il arrive quelquefois qu'on tombe ſur des choſes qui n'ont point de terme analogique; mais on ne laiſſe pas de s'en ſervir de la même maniére. Par exemple, ce mot ſemer ſignifie l'action du laboureur, qui répand la ſemence dans le ſein de la terre; & pour exprimer l'action du ſoleil, qui répand par tout ſes rayons, on manque de terme propre, cependant cette choſe que je veux exprimer a le même raport avec la lumiere, que ſemer a avec les grains, c'eſt pourquoy un Poëte a dit en parlant du Soleil, ſemant ſa lumiere divine.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 21 focus
De poetica (Antonio Riccobono, 1587) (OCR draft) Experimental (Antonio Riccobono's Latin translation, first published in 1587; text represented from Immanuel Bekker's 1831 edition.) — 21 focus
De arte poetica liber (William of Moerbeke, ca. 1277) (OCR draft) Experimental (William of Moerbeke's medieval Latin translation, represented by the 1953 Aristoteles Latinus edition.) — 21 focus
Arabic Poetics (Abū Bishr Mattā; Tkatsch edition) (OCR draft) Experimental (The Arabic translation attributed to Abū Bishr Mattā, edited by Jaroslaus Tkatsch in 1928 and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 21 focus
Arabic Poetics (Abū Bishr Mattā; Tkatsch edition, unaligned) (OCR draft) Experimental (Tkatsch's edition of the medieval Arabic translation in its original, unaligned segmentation.) — 21 focus

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. 8.
2. 9. Invented words.
3. 10. tended and con tracted.

Commentary

Commentary on the Poetics (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) (Ingram Bywater's English commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-772

ὄνομα κείμενον, an existing or established name, as in Top. 6. 2, 140b 3
ἔτι εἰ μὴ κειμένοις ὀνόμασι χρῆται, οἷον Πλάτων ὀφρυόσκιον τὸν ὀφθαλμόν, ἢ τὸ φαλάγγιον σηψιδακές, ἢ τὸν μυελὸν ὀστεογενές· πᾶν γὰρ ἀσαφὲς τὸ μὴ εἰωθός
; comp. also Top. 2. 1, 109a 28
εἰσὶ διτταί [scil. καὶ ἁμαρτίαι], ἢ τῷ ψεύδεσθαι ἢ τῷ παραβαίνειν τὴν κειμένην λέξιν οἱ τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ὀνόμασι τὰ πράγματα προσαγορεύοντες, οἷον τὴν πλάτανον ἄνθρωπον, παραβαίνουσι τὴν κειμένην ὀνομασίαν
 (comp. Bon. Ind. 380b 31). Metaphor is often a way of supplying the deficiencies of ordinary language ( Meteor. 4. 3, 380 a 18, b 28 ; Rhet. 3. 2, 1405a 36 ; Quintilian 8. 6, 5, 18 ). In the present passage Aristotle reminds us that, if one of the terms in an analogy has no special name of its own, it may still be described in just the same way as in the preceding instances ( ὁμοίως λεχθήσεται), i. e. by a metaphor softened or explained by the mention of that to which the nameless thing or act is relative. Thus the sowing (B) of seed (A) on the part of the husbandman is analogous to the scattering (D) abroad of light or flame (C) on the part of the sun. This act of the sun has no special name; but we may metaphorically call it 'sowing' (B), and then qualify the metaphor by adding the term to which the act (D) itself is relative, viz. 'flame' (C), and speak of the sun as 'sowing flame' — σπείρων φλόγα (B+C) σπείρων φλόγα is a qualified metaphor on exactly the same lines as φιάλη Ἄρεως (see on b 16); the only difference is that in the one case there is an ὄνομα κείμενον for the thing meant (viz. ἀσπίς), whereas in the other such a name does not exist in actual language.

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-773

27 ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνώνυμον: for the preposition, comp. Pol. 3. 1, 1275a 30
ἀνώνυμον τὸ κοινὸν ἐπὶ δικαστοῦ καὶ ἐκκλησιαστοῦ
. Aristotle's use of ἀνώνυμος has been already considered (on 1, 1447b 9).

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-774

b 28 πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον. Aristotle, unconsciously passing from one sense of ἥλιος to another, is now using it as the prosaic equivalent for the word φλόξ in the poetical quotation in the next line, i. e. in the sense of sunshine or sunlight, the meaning ἥλιος has in Herodotus 8. 23
ἅμα ἡλίῳ σκιδναμένῳ πᾶσα ἡ στρατιὴ ἐπέπλεε ἁλὴς ἐπὶ τὸ Ἀρτεμίσιον
, and in several well-known expressions.

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-775

b 29 πρὸς τὸν καρπόν. Castelvetro's πρὸς τὸν ἀφιέντα τὸν καρπόν, which has been accepted by several editors, rests on the assumption that the analogy in Aristotle's mind was simply that between sowing (B) on the part of the husbandman (A), and the nameless act, the emission of light (D), on the part of the sun (C). In that case the epithet θεοκτίσταν in the quotation must be taken to represent the addition required to soften the metaphor.

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-776

30 διὸ εἴρηται: comp. ὅθεν πεποίηται and ὅθεν εἴρηται in 25, 1461a 28–29. Quotations similarly introduced will be found in Rhet. 2. 9, 1387a 33 , and in 2. 10, 1388a 7, 15 . That in the text was perhaps from a tragedy ( Nauck, TGF.2 p. 856).
31

Remarques sur la poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (André Dacier's French commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

18. mvp-aristotle-comment-502

21.14 18. Il arrive quelquefois qu'on tombe ſur des choses qui n'ont point de terme analogique; mais on ne laiſſe pas de s'en ſervir de la même manière.) 1

Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

187. mvp-aristotle-comment-187

NOTE 187. P. 108.

21.14 THERE IS NO PROPER ANALOGOUS TERM, &C.
Όνομα κειμενον
. —
Κειμενον
, here, is equivalent to
κυριον
; a word established by common usage.
Ετι, ἐι ΜΗ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟΙΣ όνομασι χρηται, διον Πλατων, ὀφρυοσκιον, τον ὀφθαλμον· παν γαρ ἀσαφες το ΜΗ ΕΙΩΘΟΣ.
— Topic. VI. 2. p. 242. See also, Categ. c. vii. p. 23, C.

188. mvp-aristotle-comment-188

NOTE 188. P. 109.

21.14 SOWING ABROAD HIS HEAVEN-CREATED FLAME.
Σπειρων θεοκτισταν φλογα
. — Part of an Iambic verse, and probably from some Tragic Poet. The commentators quote Virgil's
"Spargebat lumine terras."
This, however, is not exactly applicable, because
spargere
does not, I think, appear to have been the proper, specific word, for sowing, as
σπειρειν
was. The passage of Lucretius is more apposite: —
Sol etiam summo de vertice dissupat omnes / Ardorem in partes, et lumine CONSERIT arva.
p. 211.
Every reader will recollect Milton's beautiful application of this metaphor to the stars: —
And sow'd with stars the heav'n, thick as a field. —
P. L. VII. 358.
— and to the dew-drops, metaphorized into pearls, V. 1. But the idea of pouring, applied to the great fountain of light, seems both a more just, and a more elevated, metaphor. It is happily touched by Virgil in this line: —
Jam sole infuso, jam rebus luce retectis.
Æn. IX. 461.
— a sketch which Thomson has finely filled up, and finished: —
young day pours in apace, / And opens all the lawny prospect wide: / The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top, / Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawn; / Blue, thro' the dusk, the smoaking currents shine.
Summer, 52.
In his hymn, he has taken up the metaphor in a sublimer tone: —
Great source of day! best image here below / Of thy Creator, ever POURING wide, / From world to world, the vital ocean round!
l. 66.
— To which I cannot restrain myself from adding a fine passage of the same kind in the hymn of Dionysius to the sun: —
᾿Ακτινα πολυστρεφον ἀμπλεκων, / ᾿Αιγλας πολυδερκεα ΠΑΓΑΝ / Περι γαιαν άπασαν ἑλισσων. / ΠΟΤΑΜΟΙ δε σεθεν ΠΥΡΟΣ ΑΜΒΡΟΤΟΥ / Τικτουσιν ἐπηρατον άμεραν.
1

Commentarius in Aristotelis Poeticam (Franciscus Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) (Ritter's Latin commentary, extracted from the 1839 volume, divided by Ritter's chapters and sections, and linked to the corresponding Perseus reference subsections.) focus

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-153

Ritter, cap. 21 § 7

ἐνίοις δ' οὐκ ἔστιν ὄνομα κείμενον τό ἀνάλογον: per ὄνομα et nomen et verbum hoc loco complectitur vulgarem dicendi usum secutus, idemque bis factum ante, §. 2 et 4. τὸ δὲ τὴν φλόγα ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνώνυμον: h. e. solis radios demittere per unum verbum Graece enuntiari nequit. καὶ τὸ σπείρειν πρὸς τὸν καρπόν: ut analogia constet, καρπός intelligendus est moles frumenti, unde particulae proiiciuntur in agrum. iam radios demittere se habet ad solem sicut serere (frumenti particulas demittere) ad saccum frumenti plenum. unde σπείρων θεοκτίσταν φλόγα sumptum sit, nobis haud compertum. Latinos poetas eadem uti metaphora monent interpretes afferentes Virgil. Aen. II, 584. Lucret. II, 211.