Aristotle Poetics 21.14

Thomas Twining (Translator)

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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.".

Poetics. Aristotle. Thomas Twining (Translator). London, UK. 1789.

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Current edition Experimental

Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (English) (Thomas Twining's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1789 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
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
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.) — 21.14 focus
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
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

Commentary

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

25. mvp-aristotle-comment-792

οὐδὲ εἰς φωνῆεν βραχύ. It is to be remembered that there is no Greek noun ending in Ε or Ο. A neuter pronoun, like τοῦτο τοιοῦτο (comp. Herodian 2 p. 764 Lentz), would be in Aristotle's classification (see on 20, 1457 b 18 ) not an ὄνομα proper but a πτῶσις ὀνόματος.

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-793

τρία. No mention is made here of κίκι, which Plato had used in Tim. 60 A . This and sundry other words of the same order (see Lobeck, Phryn. p. 288) may perhaps have been in Aristotle's view not sufficiently naturalized to require recognition.

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-794

16 πέντε. The old editions (with some few of the apographs) explain this by adding τὸ πῶν τὸ νᾶπυ τὸ γόνυ τὸ δόρυ τὸ ἄστυ after πέντε. The nouns ending in Υ are certainly more than five in number (comp. Herodian 1 p. 354 Lentz). We may perhaps suppose Aristotle to have arrived at this number by ignoring words like γλάφυ, δάκρυ, μέθυ, μῶλυ φῖτυ as antiquated, and taking account only of those which formed part of the existing Attic vocabulary.

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-795

τὰ δὲ μεταξύ: see above on 8. Our word 'neuters', which represents the οὐδέτερα of the grammarians, points to the difference between the neuters and the masculines and feminines; Aristotle's τὰ μεταξύ to their resemblance; they are said to occupy an intermediate position, because in their terminations some of them resemble the masculine and others the feminine nouns; they have in fact no distinctive terminations of their own.

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-796

εἰς ταῦτα καὶ Ν καὶ Ρ καὶ Σ. The text, as thus amended, acknowledges the neuters ending in Ρ ( ὕδωρ, ἧπαρ, etc.); but it apparently says nothing of those ending in Α ( κῦμα, ποίημα, κάρα, etc.). It has been proposed accordingly to insert καὶ Α after ταῦτα, so as to complete the list of neuter endings (comp. Herodian 2 p. 646 Lentz
τελικὰ οὐδετέρων ὀνομάτων ἔξ, ᾶ, ι, ν, ρ, υ, ς
). It is just possible to keep to the traditional text here, by supposing that in a statement so loosely drafted as this ταῦτα was meant to recall not only the two vowels ( Ι and Υ) just considered, but also Α, which has been described in the preceding context ( a 12 ) as one of the ἐπεκτεινόμενα or dichronous vowels. In that case ταῦτα will stand allusively for τὰ ἐπεκτεινόμενα, and include Α as well as Ι and Υ.

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

25. mvp-aristotle-comment-509

21.26 25. On n'en trouve que trois qui se terminent en
ι
,
μέλι
,
κόμμι
,
πέπερι
.] 1

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-510

21.26 26. Et cinq en
υ
.] 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

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-158

Ritter, cap. 21 § 12

αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν ὀνομάτων - καὶ Ν καὶ Σ:quae hinc usque ad finem capitis leguntur, ab Aristotele scribi potuisse nego: ille enim non canones grammaticos voluit perscribere sed ex rebus grammaticis nonnisi eligere quae ad illustrandam dictionem poeticam pertinerent. sed haec de genere nominum disputatio et ab illo consilio utique aliena est et absurdo ludi magistro digna. ipsa quae docentur gravibus vitiis laborant. nimirum nomina in Net Pet ∑ desinentia mascula esse audimus, quamquam permulta et neutrius et feminini generis esse constat, ut ὀστέον, φρέαρ πέρας, νῆσος et sexcenta alia. paulo post sibi ipse non constat scribens τὰ δὲ μεταξὺ (neutrius generis nomina) εἰς ταῦτα καὶ Σ. vulgaris et ineptus grammaticus agnoscitur etiam in illis ὥστε ἴσα συμβαίνει 'πλήθει εἰς ὅσα τὰ ἄρρενα καὶ τὰ θήλεα. εἰς δὲ τὸ Ιτρία μόνον, μέλι κόμμι πέπερι: doctius Athenaeus II. p. 66 F: τοῦτο δὲ ἡμᾶς τηρῆσαι δεῖ, ὅτι οὐδέτερον ὄνομα οὐδέν ἐστι παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εἰς Ι λῆγον, εἰ μὴ μόνον τὸ μέλι. τὸ γὰρ πέπερι καὶ κόμμι καὶ κοῖφι ξενικά.