Aristotle Poetics 25.14

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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as, 1 The other gods and men " Slept all the night. And at the same time he says :
ἤτοι ὅτ᾽ ἐς πέδιον τὸ Τρωικὸν ἀθρήσειεν
αὐλῶν συρίγγων θ᾽ ὁμαδόν.
 For all is said metaphorically, instead of many, all' being a species of many.

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.) — 25 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 25 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25.14 focus
Again-What the Poet has exhibited is, perhaps, not what is best, but it is the fact; as in the passage about the arms of the sleeping soldiers: --fixed upright in the earth Their spears stood by 1 .- For such was the custom at that time, as it is now among the Illyrians 2 .
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.) — 25.14 focus
And τὸ μὲν ὁ καζαπύθεζαι ὄμβρῳ, with the circumflex on the ou, will have the absurd signification of dry wood rotted الي by the rain; but remove the circumflex [L] and it will be, which was not rotted by the rain [M].' [1] Though Pope (whom I quote when he does not deviate too widely from the original) has a long note on this observation of Aristotle, he has taken no notice of oin in his translation, *on which account I have been obliged to alter it. 1 2
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.) — 25 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 25.14 focus
Il arrive quelquefois que la choſe n'eſt pas mieux, comme le Poëte la dit; mais il la raporte, comme elle eſt, & c'eſt ainſi qu'on répond à la Critique qu'on fait à Homere ſur cet endroit, où il dit que les Troupes de Diomede dormoient prés de leurs piques toutes droites, qu'ils avoient fichées en terre; car c'étoit alors la coûtume de ces peuples, comme cela paroît encore par ce que font aujourd'huy les Illyriens.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 focus

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. 10. Metaphor.

Commentary

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

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-997

ἔγχεα δέ σφιν κτέ.: Ιλ. 10. 152
ἔγχεα δέ σφιν ὄρθ᾽ ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρος ἐλήλατο.
 The difficulty here is thus stated in a fragment of the Ἀπορήματα Ομηρικά ( fr. 160 Teubn. = Porphyr. in Il. 1. c. p. 145 Schrader), where the same solution is suggested:
φαύλη δοκεῖ εἶναι ἡ τῶν δοράτων ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρας στάσις· καὶ δὴ πανταχοῦ θόρυβον ἤδη πεποίηκε νύκτωρ ἓν μόνον πεσόν. λύει δ᾽ Ἀριστοτέλης λέγων ὅτι τοιαῦτα ἀεὶ ποιεῖ Ὅμηρος οἷα ἦν τότε. ἦν δὲ τοιαῦτα τὰ παλαιὰ οἱάπερ καὶ νῦν ἐν τοῖς βαρβάροις· πολλοὶ δὲ οὕτω χρῶνται τῶν βαρβάρων.
A similar justification of Homer, by reference to a primitive custom still surviving among barbarians, is found in fr. 166 (= Porphyr. in Il. 24. 15, p. 267 Schr.):
διὰ τί ὁ Ἀχιλλεὺς τὸν Ἕκτορα εἶλκε περὶ τὸν τάφον τοῦ Πατρόκλου παρὰ τὰ νενομισμένα ποιῶν εἰς τὸν νεκρόν ; . . . ἔστι δὲ λύειν, φησὶν Ἀριστοτέλης, καὶ εἰς τὰς ὑπάρχοντα ἀνάγοντα ἔθη, ὅτι τοιαῦτα ἦν, ἐπεὶ καὶ νῦν ἐν Θετταλίᾳ περιέλκουσι περὶ τοὺς τάφους.

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-998

1461a3 σαυρωτῆρος. If the form in the quotation in the Ἀπορήματα Ομηρικά is to be trusted, Aristotle's text of Homer would seem to have had σαυρωτῆρας, the reading of Aristophanes.
1461a4
καλῶς ἢ μὴ καλῶς = πότερον καλῶς ἢ μὴ καλῶς ( v. Kühner, Gr. Gr. 2. 2 p. 532). The objection Aristotle is now considering is the moral objection, the criticism that something said or done by a personage in a poem was not morally right ( οἷον εἶναι δεῖ 1460b11 ). His point is that, before admitting the validity of such an objection, it is proper to take the circumstances of the word or deed into account, e. g. (1) the person to whom it was said or done, (2) the moment, (3) the instrument used, and (4) the motive in the mind of the speaker or agent. Eth. N. 3, 1, 1111 a 4 contains a fuller statement of the circumstances that may lead us to modify the severity of our moral judgements ( comp. fr. 174 Teubn. ).

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

22. mvp-aristotle-comment-617

25.14 22. Il arrive quelquefois que la chose n'est pas mieux, comme le Poëte la dit; mais il la raporte comme elle eft, & c'est ainsi qu'on répond à la Critique qu'on fait à Homere ſur cet endroit, où il dit que les Troupes de Diomede dormoient prés de leurs piques toutes droites.] 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

239. mvp-aristotle-comment-239

NOTE 239.

25.14 P. 125. WHETHER WHAT IS SAID, OR DONE, &c.
I believe Victorius is right in referring this to the accusation, or
ἐπιτίμησις
, which Aristotle, at the end of the chapter, expresses by
ὡς βλαβερά
.
"Arbitror autem rationem hanc pertinere ad formam eam, quam vocavit, ὡς βλαβερά. Docet enim nunc, si poeta arguitur, quod personam aliquam induxerit, quæ quippiam dixerit aut fecerit, quod meritò reprehendi possit, aut speciem habeat nocendi, quomodo illud defendi purgarique debeat."
p. 278. It is true, the word
βλαβερόν
does not here occur: but Aristotle uses other words, as synonymous, at the conclusion of the chapter;
ἀλογία, μοχθηρία, πονηρία
: and here, the same thing is sufficiently indicated by the moral expressions,
μὴ καλῶς
, and
φαῦλον
. And though this solution cannot, that I see, be considered as arising from the application of any of the three principles laid down at the beginning of the chapter, yet it seems plainly connected, as I have observed in the notes on the translation, with what precedes.

Commentary on the Poetics (Henry James Pye, 1792) (OCR draft) (Henry James Pye's 1792 English commentary, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

25.10. mvp-aristotle-comment-118 25.14

OR BY AMBIGUOUS EXPRESSIONS.

ARISTOTLE explains his meaning fully as to this, in his Treatise DE SOPHISTICIS ELENCHIS, L. 1. Chap. Iv. He clearly there shews, as Mr. Twining fays, that by ambiguity ([υ] ἀμφιβολία) he designs such different senses, as two or more words are capable of independently of their punctuation. As juxta-position is the principal sign of connexion in English, it is difficult to give instances of this, independent [x] of the punctuation. The example given by the philosopher in the place above cited, τὸ βέλεσθαι λαβεῖν με τοὺς πολεμίους. ' Velle capere me hoftes,' it is impossible to tranflate into English, and preserve the ambiguity, which confifts in its being doubtful whether it expresses a wish that I should take, or be taken by the enemy [Y]. Perhaps the best instance that can be given of this kind of ambiguity in English, is the promiscuous use [z] of 'he,' ' him,' ' she,' ' her,' [U] The French have naturalized the Greek word, AMPHIBOLOGIE. [x] See Note v1. Chap. xxII. [Y] In Home's Elements of Criticism, Chap. XVIII. Sect. II. many instances of ambiguity are cited from English writers, but most of them may be made clear by the punctuation [z] See Encyclopedie, Article AMPHIBOLOGIE. Such an expression as, he fights him- › self,' comes under this class exactly. when
5.19 POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. when a number of persons are spoken of, and which occafion the frequent, though necessary repetition of he the said A. B.' in our deeds and law proceedings. Sometimes however in our verse an alteration of the usual arrangement of the words, will create an ambiguity that punctuation cannot elucidate. An instance occurs in a translation I have feen of two lines of the fifth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. ، Now Actor's fon, whose hands a pole-ax wield, Without a fword the gallant Perfeus kill'd.' Taking these verses by themselves it would appear that the fon of Actor had killed Perfeus, both from the position of the words, and the circumstance of the pole-axe. From the advantage the Latin has of diftinguishing the governing and governed cafe by the termination, no such ambiguity appears in the original. • At non Actoriden Erithen, cui lata bipennis • Telum erat, admoto petit enfe.' There is a striking instance in Thomson's tragedy of Tancred and Sigifmunda, where the construction of the sentence and the sense are in opposition to each other. Sigifmunda says, • Retire! for tho' th' emotions of my HEART Can ne'er alarm my VIRTUE; yet, alas! • They tear IT so, they pierce IT with such anguish, Oh, 'tis too much! I cannot bear the conflict!' Here the conftruction points to VIRTUE, but the sense obviously to HEART as the antecedent of IT. NOTE

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-190

Ritter, cap. 25 § 7

εἰ δὲ μηδετέρως, ὅτι οὕτω φασίν : si neque ea excusatio fieri potest, contra accidens peccatum esse, neque altera, id quod oporteat poetam fingere, dicatur sic ferri hominum fama. inepta excusatio, quae quid valeat perbene intellexit verus Aristoteles c. 24, 10. ὥστε τὸ λέ γειν ὅτι ἀνήρητο ἂν ὁ μῦθος γελοῖον, cet. cf, c. 14, 5. 15,8. 17,3. ἀλλ᾽ ἔτυχεν ὡς παρά Ξενοφάνει: sed acciderunt ut est apud Xenophanem. haec pertinent ad Xenophanis de dis deorumque natura iudicium, quod multum distabat a ceteris poetis vulgarem opinionem et fabulas popularium sectantibus, partim in opere περὶ Φύσεως partim in Sillis sive Iambis pronuntiatum. vid. Sext. Empiricus adv. Mathem. VII, 49 et IX, 193. sententia igitur haec est: fortasse mala sunt et falsa quae de dis feruntur, et potius sic se habuere 6) Fortasse hoc ipsum ex Aristophanis fabula quadam, v. c. ex Gerytade vel alia, profectum est. quae in Ranis Aeschylus de sua poesi et Euripides de sua gloriatur v. 907 - 1073., alter alterum irridens, haec eo recurrunt ut Aeschylus dicat se ostendisse homines quales esse oporteat, Euripides contra dicat se fecisse quales sint.ut est apud Xenophanem, sed haec non dicunt. relicuum est ut de loci scriptura dispiciamus. codices fere (cf. not. crit.) praebent Ξενοφάνει vel Ξενοφάνη vel Ξενοφάνῃ, quarum formarum altera et tertia leviter a prima aberrant. hanc igitur ex pluribus et fidelioribus codicibus sumptam recipio, et leve ac vulgare vitium ὥσπερ in ὡς παρὰ corrigendum existimo. hoc ipsum vitium quartam illius nominis formam Ξενοφάνης videtur procreasse, quae apud Aldum et in libro Bc (si fides est silentio) reperitur: sed ἔτυχεν ὥσπερ Ξενοφάνης quid sit nemo explicare poterit. Victorius in sequentibus ἀλλ' οὐ φασι τάδε vitium latere suspicatus scribendum coniecit ἀλλ' οὐ σαφῆ τάδε, quo recepto nonnulli legunt ἀλλ' ἔτυχεν ὥσπερ Ξενοφάνει οὐ σαφῆ τάδε : sed haec quo pertineant neque satis liquet et illa ἀλλ' οὐ φασι τάδε certe ab omni dubitatione tuta sunt. ἴσως οὐ βέλτιον μέν: δὲ ab Aldo post ἴσως additum conducere videatur ad iuvandam iustam orationis iuncturam, sed ea ipsa apud hunc hominem saepius desideratur. οἷον τὰ περὶ τῶν ὅπλων κτλ. intelligit verba Homeri Il. K. 152. ἔγχεα δέ σφιν ὄρθ᾽ ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρος ἐνήλατο. quid vitii in his invenerint critici illi ad controversias nimium proclives ex Porphyrii ad versum illum adnotatione (vid. Schol. in Homeri Il. ed. Bekker. pag. 279 b 42) discimus: φαύλη δοκεῖ ἡ τῶν δοράτων ἐπὶ σαυρωτῆρας στάσις· καὶ δὴ πολλαχοῦ θόρυβον ἤδη πεποίηκε νύκτωρ ἓν μόνον πεσόν. λύει δ' ᾿Αριστοτέλης (respicit Problemata Homerica, non hunc Poeticae locum) λέγων ὅτι τοιαῦ τα ἀεὶ ποιεῖ Ὅμηρος οἷα ἦν τότε. quid sit σαυρωτήρ explicat scholiasta anonymus in eadem illa farragine 1. c. in hunc modum : σαυρωτήρ δέ ἐστι τὸ ἀπολῆγον μέρος τοῦ δόρατος, ὅπερ ἀντίκειται τῇ αἰχμῇ, ὃν καὶ οὐρίαχον καλοῦσιν. οὕτω γὰρ τότ᾽ ἐνόμιζον, ὥσπερ καὶ νῦν Ἰλλυριοί: similia his Porphyrius 1. c. ἦν δὲ τοιαῦτα τὰ· παλαιὰ οἷάπερ καὶ νῦν ἐν τοῖς βαρβάροις· πολλοὶ δὲ οὕτω χρῶνται τῶν βαρβάρων.