Poetics. Aristotle. Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator). London. 1857.
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.
17.
mvp-aristotle-comment-778
πεποιημένον.
A
πεποιημένον ὄνομα is a word coined by the poet for the occasion, and in this respect unlike the words hitherto considered (the
κύριον ὄνομα, the
γλῶττα, and the
μεταφορά), which are parts of an already existing vocabulary. Such coining of new words was termed
ὀνοματοποιία (
Volkmann,
Rhetorik p. 425).
καλούμενον: comp. 21, 1458a 6
ὀνομαζομένου.
17.
mvp-aristotle-comment-779
b 34
τίθεται.
For the middle comp.
H. A. 7. 12, 588 a 9
διὸ καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα τότε τίθενται, ὡς πιστεύοντες ἤδη μᾶλλον τῇ σωτηρίᾳ. —
Rhet. 3. 13, 1414 b 15
:
δεῖ δὲ εἰδός τι λέγοντα καὶ διαφορὰν ὄνομα τίθεσθαι.
δοκεῖ γὰρ ἔνια εἶναι τοιαῦτα is a parenthesis giving a reason for the instances that come after it; comp. 25, 1460b 24, and the note on
Eth. N. 5. 1, 1129 a 29
in my
Textual Criticism of the Nic. Ethics p. 43; also
Kühner,
Gr. Gr. 2 p. 853.
17.
mvp-aristotle-comment-780
35
ἐρνύγας,
scil.
καλεῖ or
λέγει, to be understood from
τίθεται in the preceding line; comp.
Top. 6. 2, 140 a 3
(quoted on b 25),
Rhet. 3. 3, 1406 a 7
(quoted on b 4), and
Eth. N. 6. 7, 1141 a 9
τὴν δὲ σοφίαν ἔν τε ταῖς τέχναις τοῖς ἀκριβεστάτοις τὰς τέχνας ἀποδί- δομεν, οἷον Φειδίαν λιθουργὸν σοφὸν καὶ Πολύκλειτον ἀνδριαντοποιόν [scil. λέγομεν]. We do not know where
Aristotle found the word, and there is no evidence for the form of the nom. sing.; the correction of
Victorius,
ἔρνυγας, assumes it to have been
ἔρνυξ, like
ἄντυξ; but it is just as likely that it was
ἐρνύγη. An explanation of the word survives in
Hesychius:
ἔρνυτας [sic] ἔρνη. βλαστήματα, κλάδοι. The form in
Hesychius, with a
τ instead of a
γ, has been defended by
Meineke as the acc. pl. of a Cretan word
ἔρους (=
ἔρνος) supposed to be implied in
Ἐπιρνύτιος, a Cretan name for Zeus according to
Hesychius
s. v. (see note in
M. Schmidt's ed.).
Aristotle's view of it, however, is that it is a coined word, not a
γλῶττα as a Cretan word would be; it is to be remembered too that he shows himself elsewhere (25, 1461a 14) not wholly unfamiliar with the Cretan dialect.
17.
mvp-aristotle-comment-781
ἀρητῆρα.
The reference is no doubt to the use of the word in
Il. 1. 11
οὕνεκα τὸν Χρύσην ἠτίμασεν ἀρητῆρα.
Hesychius has the same explanation:
ἀρητῆρα· ἱερέα.
190.
mvp-aristotle-comment-190
NOTE 190. P. 109.
21.17
AN INVENTED WORD, &C.Between this and the preceding definition Aristotle must have placed that of
Κοσμος the ornament, or ornamental word. That it was purposely passed over by him is hardly credible. This is, most probably, one of the lamentable
διαβρωματα that
Strabo
talks of.
1
The commentators differ widely as to the meaning of
κοσμος.
Castelvetro
says, the word admits, here, of five different senses, which he sets up, like nine-pins, for the pleasure of knocking them all down. — The only reasonable account of the matter seems to be that given by
Dacier
from
Victorius
. It seems clear enough, that what Aristotle here calls
κοσμος, is included, at least, under what he calls
ὀικειον in the Rhetoric. For he says, at the end of the next chapter (cap. xxii.) speaking of those species of words that are used in prose, that they are these three,
το κύριον, και
μεταφορα, και
ΚΟΣΜΟΣ: and in the Rhetoric, after referring to the very enumeration of words in this chapter, and setting aside such as he calls poetical, (i. e.
γλωτται, διπλα ὀνοματα, &c.) he says,
το δε κυριον, και το ΟΙΚΕΙΟΝ, και μεταφοραι, μοναι χρησιμοι προς την των ψίλων λόγων λεξιν· παντες γαρ μεταφοραις διαλεγονται, και τοις ΟΙΚΕΙΟΙΣ, και τοις κυρίοις.
2
And these
ὀικεια ὀνοματα, again, seem plainly synonymous with
ἐπιθετα, mentioned presently after: —
δει δε και τα ἐπιθετα και τας μεταφ. κ. τ. λ. — By
ὀικεια and
ἐπιθετα, Aristotle seems to have expressed the genus, of which,
κοσμος, the ornamental or embellishing epithet, was a species. But as he has not, by any means, explained himself fully, nor given any definition either of
ὀικειον or
ἐπιθετον, the mist which he has left upon this subject must remain. I shall only remark, that the word
κοσμος is once, (and I think but once,) used by him in his Rhetoric, apparently in the same sense as in this chapter. For, speaking of the propriety of diction, and its correspondence to the subject, he observes, that "an ornament should not be applied to a mean word; for this," says he, "has the appearance of burlesque; which is the case with
Cleophon
, who has used expressions of this sort as ridiculous, as it would be to talk of an "AUGUST fig-tree."
3
The word
κοσμος here, and the example by which he explains it, seem to prove, that
κοσμος, in the treatise on Poetry, means such an epithet as embellishes or elevates the thing to which it is applied. For I do not imagine that the term includes what the Grammarians call perpetual epithets, such as
"humida vina,"
γαλα λευκον, &c. because Aristotle expressly says, that the
κοσμος is used in common speech: now these redundant epithets are banished, both by him, and by
Quintilian
, even from oratory; much more from ordinary discourse.
4
It may be objected, as it has been objected by
Piccolomini (p. 337)
, that, as an epithet may, at the same time, be a foreign word, a metaphorical, an extended, or of any of the other sorts, it could not be enumerated by Aristotle as a distinct species of words among the rest. But the truth is, that he is not there enumerating so many distinct species of words, which exclude each other, but only a number of distinct properties of words, several of which may subsist together in the same word. Thus, an extended word may, manifestly, be, at the same time, a metaphorical, or a foreign word, or both: a metaphorical word may be, also, an invented, extended, altered word, &c. But none of these words can be, at the same time,
κυρια, common words; and the only exclusive distinction that Aristotle intended, is between the common word, and the others; all of which are words, on some account or other, uncommon.
9.
mvp-aristotle-comment-155
Ritter, cap. 21 § 9
πεποιημένον - ἀρητῆρα:
πεποιημένον est factum fictumque a poeta. eiusmodi verba novata appellat Cicero de Orat. III, 38, 154. novantur autem verba quae ab eo qui dicit ipso gignuntur ac fiunt. pro exemplis ibidem affert expectorare, versutiloquus, incurviscere. -
δοκεῖ γὰρ ἔνια εἶναι τοιαῦτα: dubitat, et recte quidem, utrum eiusmodi voces scriptoris ingenio an usui antiquo et obsoleto tribuat.
οἷον τὰ κέρατα ἔρνυγας.
κτλ. quemadmodum cornua ramulos et sacerdotem precatorem. recte ab Hermanno observatum est
ἔρνυξ eiusdem esse significationis atque
ἔρνος, sed formatum ut
ἄντυξ. Bekkerus cum antiquis editoribus
ἐρνύγας dedit, nominativum
ἐρνύγη accipiens, non
ἔρνυξ. Hesychius et Favorinus :
ἐρνύ)
τας (sic),
ἔρνη,
βλαστήματα,
κλάδους. hoc vocabulum ex cyclico quodam carmine sumptum videtur.
ἀρητὴρ Homeri est Il. A. 94. Е. 78.