Aristote Poetics 24.22

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Dans l'Odyſſée l'endroit où Ulyſſe eſt expoſé par les Pheaciens ſur le rivage d'Itaque, eſt plein de ces abſurditez qui ne ſeroient pas ſupportables ſi un méchant Poëte nous les eût données. Mais ce grand homme les cache toutes ſous une infinité de choſes admirables, dont il aſſaiſonne toute cette partie de ſon Poëme, & qui ſont comme autant de charmes qui nous empêchent d'en appercevoir le défaut.

Poetics. Aristote. Paris. 1692.

Current edition Experimental

La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (fra) (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.)

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.) — 24 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 24 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24.22 focus
Thus in the Odyssey 1 , the improbable account of the manner in which Ulysses was landed upon the shore of Ithaca, is such, as in the hands of an ordinary Poet, would evidently have been intolerable: but here, the absurdity is concealed under the various beauties, of other kinds, with which the Poet has embellished it.
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.) — 24.22 focus
as the account of Ulysses being cast on shore,) would have been intolerable, if they had been written by an indifferent poet; but there the poet entirely conceals the absurdity by other pleasing circumstances [N].
The Poetic of Aristotle (Theodore Alois Buckley) (OCR draft) Experimental (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.) — 24.22 focus
but there irrational circumstances in the Odyssey, such as Ulysses being left [on the shore of Ithaca by the Phoeacians], would evidently have been intolerable, if they had been fabricated by a bad poet. But now the poet conceals the absurdity, and renders it pleasing by the addition of other beauties. 1
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.) — 24 focus
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24 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.) — 24 focus

Commentary

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

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-927

Ὅμηρος. In 5, 1449 a and 6, 1449 b 26 the narrative form ( ἀπαγγελία) was noted as one of differences between the Epic and Tragedy; and it has been also assumed in this discussion on the Epic, in 23, 1459 a 17 . Aristotle now passes on to this, but without any formal introduction or hint as to the connexion in his statement. His aim apparently is to show that, although narrative is an element in every epic, it is reduced to a minimum in the best Epic, that of Homer; so that this point of difference is not so serious as might be supposed. The semi-dramatic character of Homer's mode of statement is directly or indirectly recognized in 3, 1448 a 21 , and in 4, 1448 b 37 (see note on the passage). In his reference to the practice of 'the other poets' ( οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄλλοι, 8) Aristotle must be supposed to mean 'not only the more recent epic writers, like Antimachus and Choerilus, but also the immediate continuators of Homer, the Cyclic poets' ( Bergk, Gr. Litt. 1 p. 830 ).

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-928

6 ὃ δεῖ ποιεῖν αὐτόν. αὐτόν is emphatic, as in Top. 8. 2, 157 a 29
πειρατέον ἐπὶ πάντων τῶν τοιούτων ὀνοματοποιεῖν αὐτόν
.— Pol. 8. 5, 1339 b 42
ταῦτα γὰρ τί δεῖ μανθάνειν αὐτούς ;

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

20. mvp-aristotle-comment-576

24.13 20. Homere merite d'être loüé pour pluſieurs chofes, mais ſur tout, parce qu'il est le feul de tous les Poetes qui connoiſſe bien ce qu'il faut faire le Poete doit peu parler luy-même, car ce n'est pas en cela qu'il est imitateur.] 1

21. mvp-aristotle-comment-577

24.13 21. Tous les autres Poetes n'imitent que rarement, & ne pouſſent pas loin leur imitation.] 2

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-179

Ritter, cap. 24 § 7

Ὅμηρος δὲ κτλ. nova Homeri laus eo continetur, quod ipse pauca narrando exsequitur sed alios plerumque narrantes et dicentes inducit. conf. c. 4, 9. οὐκ ἀγνοεῖ ὃ δεῖ ποιεῖν αὐτὸν : quid sit ποιεῖν αὐτὸς (perse enim ambiguum est), continuo declaratur adiectis αὐτὸν γὰρ δεῖ τὸν ποιητὴν ἐλάχιστα λέγειν. in his ὁ ποιητής est is de quo agitur, h. e. poeta epicus. οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄλλοι κτλ. vituperantur illi poetae quos indicavimus ad c. 23, 3. p. 246. ἀλλ᾽ ἔχοντα ἤθη: debuit ἀλλ᾽ ἔχον ἦθος, ut Aldus scripsit refragantibus codicibus, quamquam vel hoc tolerari vix potest post καὶ οὐδὲν ἀηθές. istud ἀλλ᾽ ἔχοντα ἤθη nihil est nisi vitiosa periphrasis commatis praecedentis καὶ οὐδὲν ἀηθές.