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Hence it is, that the ILIAD, and the ODYSSEY, each of them, furnish matter for one Tragedy, or two, at most; but from the Cypriacs many may be taken, and from the Little Iliad, more than eight; as, The Contest for the Armour¹, Philoctetes², Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Vagrant³, The Spartan Women, The Fall of Troy, The Return of the Fleet⁴, Sinon⁵, and The Trojan Women⁶.

[1]

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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.) — 23 focus

Περὶ δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς καὶ ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς, ὅτι δεῖ τοὺς μύθους καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις συνιστάναι δραματικούς, καὶ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν ὅλην καὶ τελείαν, ἔχουσαν ἀρχὴν καὶ μέσον καὶ τέλος, ἵν᾿ ὥσπερ ζῷον ἓν ὅλον ποιῇ τὴν οἰκείαν ἡδονήν, δῆλον,

καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις εἶναι, ἐν αἷς ἀνάγκη οὐχὶ μιᾶς πράξεως ποιεῖσθαι δήλωσιν ἀλλ᾿ ἑνὸς χρόνου, ὅσα ἐν τούτῳ συνέβη περὶ ἕνα ἢ πλείους, ὧν ἕκαστον ὡς ἔτυχεν ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα.

Ὥσπερ γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους ἥ τ᾿ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ἐγένετο ναυμαχία καὶ ἡ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Καρχηδονίων μάχη, οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸ αὐτὸ συντείνουσαι τέλος, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς χρόνοις ἐνίοτε γίνεται θάτερον μετὰ θατέρου, ἐξ ὧν ἓν οὐδὲν γίνεται τέλος.

Σχεδὸν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦτο δρῶσιν.

Διό, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν ἤδη, καὶ ταύτῃ θεσπέσιος ἂν φανείη Ὅμηρος παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους, τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον, καίπερ ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος, ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν ὅλον· λίαν γὰρ ἂν μέγας καὶ οὐκ εὐσύνοπτος ἔμελλεν ἔσεσθαι· ἢ τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ. Νῦν δ᾿ ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβὼν ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται αὐτῶν πολλοῖς, οἷον νεῶν καταλόγῳ καὶ ἄλλοις ἐπεισοδίοις, οἷς διαλαμβάνει τὴν ποίησιν.

Οἱ δ᾿ ἄλλοι περὶ ἕνα ποιοῦσι καὶ περὶ ἕνα χρόνον, καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πολυμερῆ, οἷον ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας καὶ τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα.

Τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας μία τραγῳδία ποιεῖται ἑκατέρας ἢ δύο μόναι, ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαί, καὶ ἐκ τῆς μικρᾶς Ἰλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ, οἷον ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης, Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις καὶ ἀπόπλους καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρῳάδες.

Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 23 focus

περὶ δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς καὶ ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς, ὅτι δεῖ τοὺς μύθους καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις συνιστάναι δραματικοὺς καὶ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν ὅλην καὶ τελείαν 20 ἔχουσαν ἀρχὴν καὶ μέσα καὶ τέλος, ἵν’ ὥσπερ ζῷον ἓν ὅλον ποιῇ τὴν οἰκείαν ἡδονήν, δῆλον,

καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίαις τὰς συνθέσεις εἶναι, ἐν αἷς ἀνάγκη οὐχὶ μιᾶς πράξεως ποιεῖσθαι δήλωσιν ἀλλ’ ἑνὸς χρόνου, ὅσα ἐν τούτῳ συνέβη περὶ ἕνα ἢ πλείους, ὧν ἕκαστον ὡς ἔτυχεν ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα.

ὥσπερ 25 γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους ἥ τ’ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ἐγένετο ναυμαχία καὶ ἡ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Καρχηδονίων μάχη οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸ αὐτὸ συντείνουσαι τέλος, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς χρόνοις ἐνίοτε γίνεται θάτερον μετὰ θάτερον, ἐξ ὧν ἓν οὐδὲν γίνεται τέλος.

σχεδὸν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦτο 30 δρῶσι.

διὸ ὥσπερ εἴπομεν ἤδη καὶ ταύτῃ θεσπέσιος ἂν φανείη Ὅμηρος παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους, τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον καίπερ ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν ὅλον· λίαν γὰρ ἂν μέγας καὶ οὐκ εὐσύνοπτος ἔμελλεν ἔσεσθαι ὁ μῦθος, ἢ τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ. 35 νῦν δ’ ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβὼν ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται αὐτῶν πολλοῖς, οἷον νεῶν καταλόγῳ καὶ ἄλλοις ἐπεισοδίοις δὶς διαλαμβάνει τὴν ποίησιν.

οἱ δ’ ἄλλοι περὶ ἕνα ποιοῦσι καὶ 1459b 1 περὶ ἕνα χρόνον καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πολυμερῆ, οἷον ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας καὶ τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα.

τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας μία τραγῳδία ποιεῖται ἑκατέρας ἢ δύο μόναι, ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαὶ καὶ τῆς μικρᾶς 5 Ἰλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ, οἷον ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης, Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις καὶ ἀπόπλους καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρῳάδες.

Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 23 focus

Περὶ δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς καὶ ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς,
ὅτι δεῖ τοὺς μύθους καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις συνιστάναι
δραματικοὺς καὶ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν ὅλην καὶ τελείαν ἔχουσαν
ἀρχὴν καὶ μέσα καὶ τέλος, ἵν᾽ ὥσπερ ζῷον ἓν ὅλον
ποιῇ τὴν οἰκείαν ἡδονήν, δῆλον,

καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίαις τὰς
συνήθεις θεῖναι, ἐν αἷς ἀνάγκη οὐχὶ μιᾶς πράξεως ποιεῖσθαι
δήλωσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἑνὸς χρόνου, ὅσα ἐν τούτῳ συνέβη περὶ ἕνα
ἢ πλείους, ὧν ἕκαστον ὡς ἔτυχεν ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα.

ὥσπερ
γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους ἥ τ᾽ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ἐγένετο
ναυμαχία καὶ ἡ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Καρχηδονίων μάχη οὐδὲν
πρὸς τὸ αὐτὸ συντείνουσαι τέλος, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς
χρόνοις ἐνίοτε γίνεται θάτερον μετὰ θάτερον, ἐξ ὧν ἓν
οὐδὲν γίνεται τέλος.

σχεδὸν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦτο
δρῶσι.

διὸ ὥσπερ εἴπομεν ἤδη καὶ ταύτῃ θεσπέσιος ἂν
φανείη Ὅμηρος παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους, τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον
καίπερ ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν ὅλον·
λίαν γὰρ ἂν μέγας καὶ οὐκ εὐσύνοπτος ἔμελλεν ἔσεσθαι,
ἢ τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ.
νῦν δ᾽ ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβὼν ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται αὐτῶν
πολλοῖς, οἷον νεῶν καταλόγῳ καὶ ἄλλοις ἐπεισοδίοις διαλαμβάνει
τὴν ποίησιν.

οἱ δ᾽ ἄλλοι περὶ ἕνα ποιοῦσι
καὶ περὶ ἕνα χρόνον καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πολυμερή, οἷον ὁ τὰ
Κύπρια ποιήσας καὶ τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα.

τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν
Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας μία τραγῳδία ποιεῖται ἑκατέρας
ἢ δύο μόναι, ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαὶ καὶ τῆς μικρᾶς
Ἰλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ, οἷον ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης,
Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις
καὶ ἀπόπλους, καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρῳάδες.

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.) — 23 focus

καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις εἶναι, ἐν αἷς ἀνάγκη οὐχὶ μιᾶς πράξεως ποιεῖσθαι δήλωσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἑνὸς χρόνου, ὅσα ἐν τούτῳ συνέβη περὶ ἕνα ἢ πλείους, ὧν ἕκαστον ὡς ἔτυχεν ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα.

ὥσπερ γὰρ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους ἥ τ᾽ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ἐγένετο ναυμαχία καὶ ἡ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Καρχηδονίων μάχη, οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸ αὐτὸ συντείνουσαι τέλος, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς χρόνοις ἐνίοτε γίνεται θάτερον μετὰ θατέρου, ἐξ ὧν ἓν οὐδὲν γίνεται τέλος.

σχεδὸν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦτο δρῶσιν.

διό, ὥσπερ¹ εἴπομεν ἤδη, καὶ ταύτῃ θεσπέσιος ἂν φανείη Ὅμηρος παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους, τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον, καίπερ ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος, ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν ὅλον, λίαν γὰρ ἂν μέγας καὶ οὐκ εὐσύνοπτος ἔμελλεν ἔσεσθαι, ἢ τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ. νῦν δ᾽ ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβών ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται [αὐτῶν] πολλοῖς, οἷον νεῶν καταλόγῳ καὶ ἄλλοις ἐπεισοδίοις, οἷς διαλαμβάνει τὴν ποίησιν.

οἱ δ᾽ ἄλλοι περὶ ἕνα ποιοῦσι καὶ περὶ ἕνα χρόνον, καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πο λυμερῆ, οἷον ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας καὶ τὴν μικρὰν Ιλιάδα. [

τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας μία τραγῳδία ποιεῖται ἑκατέρας ἢ δύο μόναι, ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαὶ καὶ τῆς μικρᾶς Ιλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ, οἷον ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης, Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις καὶ ἀπόπλους καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρῳάδες.]

Translations (13)

Poetics (W. H. Fyfe) (OCR draft) Perseus (William Hamilton Fyfe's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, Loeb Classical Library, 1939 printing.) — 23 focus

We come now to the art of representation which is narrative and in metre.¹ Clearly the story must be constructed as in tragedy, dramatically, round a single piece of action, whole and complete in itself, 20 with a beginning, middle and end, so that like a single living organism it may produce its own peculiar form of pleasure.

It must not be such as we normally find in history, where what is required is an exposition not of a single piece of action but of a single period of time, showing all that within the period befell one or more persons, events that have a merely casual relation to each other.

For just as the battle of Salamis occurred at the same time as the Carthaginian battle in Sicily , but they do not converge to the same result²; so, too, in any sequence of time one event may follow another and yet they may not issue in any one result.

Yet most of the poets do this.

So in this respect, too, compared with all other poets Homer may seem, as we have already said, divinely inspired, in that even with the Trojan war, which has a beginning and an end, he did not endeavor to dramatize it as a whole, since it would have been either too long to be taken in all at once or, if he had moderated the length, he would have complicated it by the variety of incident. As it is, he takes one part of the story only and uses many incidents from other parts, such as the Catalogue of Ships and other incidents with which he diversifies his poetry.

The others, on the contrary, all write about a single hero or about a single period or about a single action with a great many parts, the authors, 1459b 1 for example, of the Cypria and the Little Iliad.³

The result is that out of an Iliad or an Odyssey only one tragedy can be made, or two at most, whereas several have been made out of the Cypria, and out of the Little Iliad more than eight, e.g. The Award of Arms, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Begging, The Laconian Women, The Sack of Troy , and Sailing of the Fleet, and Sinon, too, and The Trojan Women.

Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 23 focus

〈وحدة الفعل: فى الملحمة، وعند هوميروس〉

وأما الاقتصاصى والوزن المحاكى فقد 〈ينبغى〉 أن نخبرعنها بالخرافات وحكاية الحديث على ما فى المديحات وأن يقوم المتقينين والقينات نحو العمل الواحد متكامل بأسره، وهو الذى له أول ووسط وآخر، وهو الذى كما الحيوان العـ〈ـامـ〉ـل للذة خاصية؛ ومن حيث لا يدخل فى هذه التركيبات اقتصاصات تشبه، وهى التى قد ينظر فيها أن الاستدلال ليس إنما هو لعمل واحد، لكن لزمان واحد، بمبلغ ما يعرض فى هذا وعمل واحد أو كثير، وكيف كل واحد واحد منها، على مالها انضافت إلى قرينها كما كانت 〈الأزمـ〉ـنة أنفسها، أما فى سالامانا فحروب المراكب، وفى سيقيليا حرب القركدونيا، فان كلا هذين ليس شيئاً آخر غير أنها تنتهى إلى انقضاء واحد واحد. وكذلك فى الأزمنة التى 〈تكون〉 بعد فى وقت بعد وقت يكون واحد منها الذى لا يكون له شىء آخر هو آخر وانقضاء؛ وكثير من الشعراء قد يفعلون هذا قريباً.

ولذلك كما قلنا وفرغنا من القول 〈فى ذلك〉 فليـر أوميروس فى هذا ذو سنة وناموس هاد؛ ومن هذا الوجه أيضاً يرى أوميروس أنه متبع للناموس، وأنه لازم للصواب والاستقامة أكثر من هؤلاء الأخر، 〈و〉هو الذى عمل الحرب وقد كان له أول وآخر من حيث يرى أن يأتى به بأسره، هذا على أنه قد كان عظيما جداً ولم تكن تسهل رؤيته، ولا أيضاً كان مزمعاً أن ينتهى فى خرافته بهذه الحال، من قبل أنها قد كانت عندما كانت تتركب وتقترن قد كانت تصغر فى عظمها، والآن فى هذه المداخل التى تقتضب جزءً ما، وهو ما الذى يفعل الإنسان.

وأما هؤلاء الأخر فيقتضبوا بحسب واحد واحد فى واحد واحد من الزمان خرافات كثيرة الأجزاء، بمنزلة ذاك الذى عمل هذه التى هى معروفة «بقوفوانيا» وجعل «الإلياذا صغيرة». ولذلك عمل «إلياذا» و«أودوسيا» كلتيهما مديحاً واحداً أو بعد كراثنتين، وأما فى المعروفة «بقوفوانيا» فكثيرة، وإلى الإلياذا الصغيرة فثمانية، وأكثر التى تقال بالسلاح منها المعروفة بنا أوفطلامس وفيلوقطيطس 〈و〉المعروف بأفطوخيا و〈لاقـ〉ـينس، إلياس، ورجوع المراكب، واينن وطرواس.

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.) — 23 focus

As to that poetic imitation which is narrative in
form and employs a single metre, the plot manifestly
ought, as in a tragedy, to be constructed on dramatic
principles. It should have for its subject a single
action, whole and complete, with a beginning, a middle,
and an end. It will thus resemble a living organism
in all its unity, and produce the pleasure proper to
it.

It will differ in structure from historical composi-
tions, which of necessity present not a single action,
but a single period, and all that happened within
that period to one person or to many, little connected
together as the events may be.

For as the sea-fight at 2
Salamis and the battle with the Carthaginians in Sicily
took place at the same time, but did not tend to any one
result, so in the sequence of events, one thing sometimes
follows another, and yet no single result is thereby
produced.

Such is the practice, we may say, of
most poets.

Here again, then, as has been already 3
observed, the transcendent excellence of Homer is
manifest. He never attempts to make the whole war of
Troy the subject of his poem, though that war had a
beginning and an end. It would have been too vast a
theme, and not easily embraced in a single view. If,
again, he had kept it within moderate limits, it must
have been over-complicated by the variety of the in-
cidents. As it is, he detaches a single portion, and
admits as episodes many events from the general story
of the war—such as the Catalogue of the ships and
others—thus diversifying the poem.

All other poets take a single hero, a single
period, or an action single indeed, but with a multiplicity
of parts. Thus did the
author of the Cypria and of the Little Iliad.

For this 4
reason the Iliad and the Odyssey each furnish the
subject of one tragedy, or, at most, of two; while the
Cypria supplies materials for many, and the Little Iliad
for eight—the Award of the Arms, the Philoctetes, the
Neoptolemus, the Eurypylus, the Mendicant Odysseus,
the Laconian Women, the Fall of Ilium, the Departure
of the Fleet.

Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 23 focus

As for the poetry which merely narrates, or imitates by
means of versified language (without action), it is evident
that it has several points in common with Tragedy. I. The
construction of its stories should clearly be like that in
a drama; they should be based on a single action,
one that is a complete whole in itself, with a beginning,
middle, and end, so as to enable the work to produce its
own proper pleasure with all the organic unity of a living
creature.

Nor should one suppose that there is anything
like them in our usual histories.
A history has to deal not
with one action, but with one period and all that happened
in that to one or more persons, however disconnected the
several events may have been.

Just as two events may
take place at the same time, e.g. the sea-fight off Salamis
and the battle with the Carthaginians in Sicily, without
converging to the same end, so too of two consecutive
events one may sometimes come after the other with no
one end as their common issue.

Nevertheless most of our
epic poets, one may say, ignore the distinction.

Herein, then, to repeat what we have said before, we have
a further proof of Homer's marvellous superiority to the
rest. He did not attempt to deal even with the Trojan war
in its entirety, though it was a whole with a definite beginning
and end—through a feeling apparently that it was too long
a story to be taken in in one view, or if not that, too
complicated from the variety of incident in it. As it is,
he has singled out one section of the whole; many of the
other incidents, however, he brings in as episodes, using
the Catalogue of the Ships, for instance, and other episodes
to relieve the uniformity of his narrative.

As for the other
epic poets, they treat of one man, or one period; or else
of an action which, although one, has a multiplicity of
parts in it.

This last is what the authors of the
Cypria and Little Iliad have done. And the result is that,
whereas the Iliad or Odyssey supplies materials for only
one, or at most two tragedies, the Cypria does that for
several, and the Little Iliad for more than eight: for an
Adjudgment of Arms, a Philoctetes, a Neoptolemus, a
Eurypylus, a Ulysses as Beggar, a Laconian Women, a Fall
of Ilium, and a Departure of the Fleet; as also a Sinon, and
a Women of Troy.

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.) — 23.7 focus

and from the lesser Iliad more than eight. As the Judgment of the arms, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, the Ptochia [G], the Lacænæ, the Destruction of Troy, the Return of the Greeks, Sinon and the Troades.¹²³

Chapter 24

OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EPOPEE AND TRAGEDY. THE [A] species also of the epopee are the same with those of tragedy.

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.) — 23.7 focus

such as the Judgment of the Arms 4, Philoctetes5, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus6, the Begging [of Ulysses], the Lacaenae, the Destruction of Troy, the Return of the Greeks, Sinon, and the Troades.

On the Species, Parts, etc. of Epic Poetry.

[1] 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.) — 23 focus

Quod attinet ad artem narrativam metrisque imitativam, opus esse ut fabulas sicut in tragoediis componas dramaticas, ac circa unam actionem totam et absolutam, quae habeat principium et medium et finem, ut tamquam animal unum ac totum propriam suam faciat voluptatem, perspicuum est,

neque vulgares historias ei similes esse licere, in quibus necesse non est unius actionis proponere explicationem sed unius temporis, quaecumque intra hoc acciderunt circa unum aut plures, quorum singula ut casus fert sese contingunt.

nam quemadmodum isdem temporibus ad Salaminem pugna navalis facta est et Carthaginiensium in Sicilia praelium, nihil ad eundem finem contendentia, sic etiam in temporibus succedentibus interdum accidit unum cum altero, ex quibus unus non fit finis.

fere autem plerique poetarum hoc committunt.

quare, ut iam diximus, etiam in hoc genere divinus videatur Homerus prae ceteris, propterea quod neque bellum illud, quamvis praeditum principio et fine, adgressus est pangere totum, quippe nimis magnum nec facile contuendum futurum erat, neque in brevius contractum varietate implicatum. nunc vero una parte delecta, episodiis usus est [ipsarum] multis, ut navium indice et aliis episodiis, quibus distinguit poesin.

ceteri autem circa unum canunt et circa unum tempus, et unam actionem pluribus partibus constantem, ut qui Cypria fecit et parvam Iliadem.

[itaque ex Hiade et Odyssea una tragoedia conficitur ex utravis vel duae solae, ex Cypriis autem multae et parva Iliade plus quam octo, veluti armorum iudicium, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, mendicitas, Lacaenae, Ilii excidium et discessio et Sinon et Troades.]

La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 23.7 focus

Auſſi voit-on que dans Homere, ni l'Iliade, ni l'Odiſſée ne peuvent fournir chacune qu'un ſeul ſujet de Trage- die, ou deux tout au plus, au lieu qu'on en peut tirer pluſieurs du Poëme des Cypriaques, & que la petite Iliade en peut donner plus de huit, comme le jugement des armes; le Philoctete, le Neopto- leme, l'Eurypyle; le Mendiant; l'Helene; la prise de Troye; le retour des Grecs; le Sinon; les Troades.

CHAPITRE VINGT-CINQUIEME.

Des differentes eſpeces de Poëme Epique. Les parties de ce Poëme les mêmes que celles de la Tragedie. Caractère de l'Iliade & de l'odyſſée. Bornes de la longueur du Poëme Epique, & pourquoy il peut être plus étendu que la Tragedie. Quel vers luy convient le mieux. Le Centaure de Cheremon, quelle ſorte de Poëme. Eloge d'Homere. Comment il n'introduit rien qui n'ayt des mœurs. Le merveilleux du Poëme Epique va juſqu'au deraiſonnable, & pourquoy; Exemple tiré d'Homere. Comment ce Poëte a enſeigné aux autres à mentir comme il faut. Paralone. Impoſſible en quel cas doit être preferé au poſſible. Tous les Incidens du Poëme doivent avoir leur cauſe & leur raiſon, & ce qu'il faut obſerver ſi cela eſt impoſſible. Faute de Sophocle dans l'Electre & dans ſa piece des Myſiens. Abſurdité comment peut être ſoufferte. Abſurditez d'Homere déguiſées admirablement. Endroits foibles demandent tous les ornemens de la diction. Endroits où ces mêmes ornemens ſont inutiles & vicieux.

1.

Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 23 focus

Tquanto alla imitatione narratiua, & che fi fa col verſo, che quiui ſi debba, aſſettare le Fauole da poterſi rappreſentare fi come nelle Tragedie; & che elle debbino effere intorno à vna attione intera, & perfetta, che habbia & principio, & mezo, & fine :¹

acciochè ella non altrimenti che vno animale intero, par toriſca il piacere, che ſia propio di lei, è manifeſtiſsimo; & che elle non debbino eſſer' fimili alle Hiſtorie conſuete, le quali è di neceſsità, che dieno notitia non pure d'una fola attione, ma di tutte quelle, che in vn tempo medefimo accaddono;

non tanto circa ad vn' folo, quanto circa à piu:inquel modo cioè, che ciascuna d'ef fe cofe (come dette la ſorte) interuene, Perchè coſi come circa à vn' medefimo tempo fu fatta la guerra di mare appreſſo di Salamina, & quella de' Cartagineſi in - Sicilia, le quali non tendono adun' medefimo fine;medefimamente ne tempi ſuſſequenti accade alcuna volta, ch'un fatto vi fuccede doppo l'altro, delquale non ne rieſce vn' medefimo fine.

Et queſto vſan'di fare la piu parte de' Poeti.

Onde & per queſte cagioni ancora (ſi come io hò detto innanzi) Homero appariſce diuino ſopra di tutti gli altri Poeti, perchè e non tenta di fingere tutta la guerra (benchè ella haueſſe & principio,& fine) come ſe ella fuſſe ſtata per riuſcir' troppo grande;& perciò difficile à potere eſſer' confiderata: VV vero perchè gli ſtimò che ſe e' l'haueſſe riſtretta à vna moderata grandezza, che'l Poema non haueſſe à parer ripieno di troppe varietà. Ma hauendone egli preſa à raccontar vna parte, v'interpone dentro molti Epiſodii, come è il Catalago delle naui, & altri, Onde egli fa il ſuo Poema ricchiſsimo; doue gli altri Poeti ſtanno intorno ad vn' ſolo huomo, & intorno ad vn' fol tem po, & conſtituiſcono vna attione, che habbia molte parti, come fe quegli, che finſe nel ſuo Poemale coſe fatte da' Cipriani; & come quegli, che fece il Poema detto La piccola Iliade.

Ma l'Iliade, & l'Odiſſea ciaſcuna d'eſſe da vna fola Tragedia, ò da due al più poſſono effere racchiuſe; & il Poema de Cipriani non può efle re racchiuſo, ſenon da molte, & quello della piccola Iliade e racchiuſo da piu, che da otto, come è il giudicio dell'arme, il Filottete, Neoptolemo, Euripilo, LaPo uera, la Lacena, l'Eccidio di Troia, La Ritornata del le naui, Sinone, Et le Troiade.

E'anchora di neceſsità, che il Poema Heroico ſi diuida in tante ſpetie, in quan te fi diuide eſſo Poema Tragico; Conciofia che e' debba eſſere,ò ſcempio, ò intrecciato,ò morale, ò affettuo fo. Le parti anchora,ò dell'uno,ò dell'altro Poema(eccetto l'Apparato & la Muſica) ſono le medeſime; douendo eſſere in luile Peripetie, le Recognitioni, gli Affetti,i Difcorfi, & la buona Locutione. Lequali tut te parti Homero prima di tutti hà vſato tanto che baſta, perchè l'uno de' ſuoi due Poemi, l'Iliade cioè e' com poſto ſcempio, & è affettuoſo; & l'Odiſſea è intrecciato, eſſendoui per tutto la recognitione, & il costume. Oltradiqueſto ha egli tutti gli altri auanzato con la Locutione, & col Diſcorſo.

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.) — 23 focus

De narrativa autem et in metro imitatione oportet fabnlas constituere, quemadmodum dramaticus in tragoediis, et circa unam actionem totam et perfectam, habentem principium et medium et finem,

ut quemadmodum animal unum totum efficiat propriam voluptatem, nec similes esse historias consuetas, in quibus necesse est non unius actionis efficere expositionem sed unius temporis,

quaecunque in eo evenerunt circa unum vel plures, quorum unumquodque, ut sors tulit, alterum respicit. quemadmodum enim secundum eadem tempora et in Salamine facta est navalis pugna et in Sicilia Carthaginiensium pugna,

nequaquam ad eundem tendentes finem,

sic et in temporibus consequentibus aliquando fit alterum cum altero, ex quibus non est unus finis. ac ferme id faciunt poëtarum multi. quamobrem, ut iam dicebamus, et in hac parte divinns apparere Homerus praeter ceteros potest, et quia neque bellum, quamvis habens principium et finem, aggressus est versibus totum describere (valde enim magnum, et quod non facile conspici poterat, evasurum erat) vel magnitudine se modice habens intertextum varietate. nunc autem cum abstulisset unam partem, episodiis usus est ipsorum multis, ut navium catalogo et aliis episodiis, quibus distinguit poësim.

alii vero circa unum canunt et circa unum tempus et unam actionem multarum partium, ut qui Cyprica fecit et parvam Iliadem.

igitur ex Iliade et Odyssea una tragoedia fit ex utraque, vel duae solae; at ex Cypriis multae, et ex parva Iliade plus quam octo, ut armorum iudicium, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, mendicatio, Lacaenae, Hii direptio et reditus classis et Sinon et Troades.

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.) — 23 focus

De narrativa autem et in metro imitativa, quod oportet fabulas sicut in tragodiis consistere actitivas et circa unam actionem totam et perfectam, habentem principium et media et finem, que sicut animal unum totum facit propriam delectationem, palam ;

et non similes hystorias consuetas esse, in quibus necesse non unius actionis fieri manifestationem, sed unius temporis, quecumque in hoc accidunt circa unum aut plures, quorum unumquodque ut contingit habet ad invicem.

Sicut enim secundum eadem tempora et in Salamina factum fuit navale bellum, et in Sicilia Carthaginensium bellum nichil ad eundem contendentia finem, sic et in hiis que deinceps temporibus aliquando fit alterum cum altero, ex quibus unus nullus fit finis.

Fere autem multi poetarum hoc actitant. Propter

quod, sicut diximus iam, et sic admirandus utique apparebit Homerus preter alios, eo quod neque bellum quamvis habens principium et finem conatus est poetizare totum ; valde enim utique magnum et non facile conspicabile debebat fore magnitudine moderantem complexum varietate. Nunc autem unam partem absumens usus est superadventitiis ipsi multis, puta katalogo et aliis superinductitiis bis bis intercipit poesim.

Alii autem circa unum faciunt et circa unum tempus et unam actionem multarum partium, velut qui Cyprica poetizavit et Parvam Nileidem.

Namque ex Iliade quidem et Odysseia unam tragodiam efficit utriusque aut duas solas, ex Cypriis autem multas et ex Parva Iliade plus quam octo, puta Oplon Krisis, Filoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, Ptocheia, Lakena, Iliu Persis, et Apoplus, et Sinon et Proiades. —

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.) — 23 focus

‏ومن حيث لا يدخل فى هذه التركيبات اقتصاصات تشبه وهى التى قد ٮٮطر***ـا ان الاستدلال ليس انما هو لعمل واحد لكن لزمان واحد بمبلغ ما يعرض فى هذا وعمل واحد او كثير وكيف كل واحد واحد منها على ما لها انضافت الى قرينها كما كانت ا**رمنه انفسها

‏اما فى سالامانا فحروب المراكب وفى سيقيليا حرب الڡركوٮٮا ڡـ*ں كلى هذين ليسا شى احر غير انها تنتهى الى انقضا واحد واحد وكذلك فى الازمنة التى **ٮ بعد فى وقت بعد وقت يكون واحد منها الذى لا يكون له شى اخر هو اخر واىقصـ*

‏*كثير من الشعرا قد يفعلون هذا قريبا

‏ولذلك كما قلنا وفرغنا من القول ڡـ*ل فليرا اوميروس فى هذا ذو سبه وناموس هدو من هذا الوجه ايضا يرى اوميروس انه متبع للناموس وانه لازم للصواب والاستقامة اكثر من هولا الاخر *هو الذى عمل الحرر وقد كان له اول واحد من حيث يرى ان ياتى به باسره هذا على انه قد كان عظيم جد ولم يكن يسهل رويته ولا ايضا كان مزمع ان يبين فى خرافته بهذه الحال من قبل انها قد كانت عند ما كانت تتركب وتقترن قد كانت تصغر فى عظمها والان فى هذه المداخل التى ٮقبصت جزو ما وهو ما الذى يفعل الانسان

‏واما هولا الاخر فيقتضبوا بحسب واحد واحد فى واحد واحد من الزمان خرافات كثيرة الاجزا بمنزلة ذلك الذى عمل هذه التى هى معروفة ٮقوٯواٮٮا وجعل الاليادا صغيرة

‏ولذلك عمل اليادا واودوسيا كلتيهما مديحا واحدا او بعد كر اثنتين واما *** المعروفة ٮٯوٯواٮٮا فكثيرة والى الاليادا الصغيرة فثمانية واكثر التى تقال السلاح منها المعروفة ٮٮااوفطلامس وفيلوقطيطس المعروف بافطوخيلا وكبس الياس ورجوع المراكب واسين وطرواس

Arabic Poetics (Abū Bishr Mattā; Tkatsch edition, unaligned) (OCR draft) Experimental (Tkatsch's edition of the medieval Arabic translation in its original, unaligned segmentation.) — 23 focus

‏واما الاقتصاصى والوزن المحاكى فقد بين ان نخبر عنها الخرافات وحكاية الحديث على ما فى المديحات وان تقوم المتقينين والقينات نحو العمل الواحد متكامل باسره وهو الذى له اول ووسط واخر وهو الذى كما الحيوان العـ**ل للذة حاصية ومن حيث لا يدخل فى هذه التركيبات اقتصاصات تشبه وهى التى قد ٮٮطر***ـا ان الاستدلال ليس انما هو لعمل واحد لكن لزمان واحد بمبلغ ما يعرض فى هذا وعمل واحد او كثير وكيف كل واحد واحد منها على ما لها انضافت الى قرينها كما كانت ا**رمنه انفسها

‏يفعلون هذا قريبا

‏ولا ايضا كان مزمع ان يبين فى خرافته بهذه الحال من قبل انها قد كانت عند ما كانت تتركب وتقترن قد كانت تصغر فى عظمها والان فى هذه المداخل التى ٮقبصت جزو ما وهو ما الذى يفعل الانسان

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. i. e. Between Ajax and Ulysses. Aeschylus wrote a Tragedy on this subject, of which the Ajax of Sophocles is the sequel.-Dacier.

2. The Philoctetes of Sophocles only remains.

3. Of the subject of this, and the preceding drama, we know nothing. See Pope's Odyssey, IV. 335. but what is there rendered slave, is, in Homer, beggar, or vagrant. The story is also touched by Euripides, in his Hecuba. See Potter's Transl. v. 210, &c.

4. See the latter part of NOTE 116.

5. The story is well known from Virgil, Aen. 2.-Sophocles wrote a Tragedy of this title.

6. A Tragedy of this name by Euripides is extant. See The Trojan Dames, in Mr. Potter's translation.

Commentary

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-867

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-868

17 περὶ δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς καὶ ἐν μέτρῳ κτέ. The natural division in the matter of this and the next chapter would be at 24, 1459 b 17 , so as to make διαφέρει δὲ the beginning of the second half of the discussion. Throughout these two chapters Aristotle has Homer constantly in view; if he mentions other epic writings, it is only to show their artistic inferiority to the Iliad and Odyssey. The general intention of the present statement is to bring the Epic under the rules of construction laid down for Tragedy. Though the enumeration of the points of agreement and difference between the two is so much longer than that in 5, 1449b 9-20 , it ignores one characteristic of the Epic, its being a μίμησις σπουδαίων—on which no little stress was laid in the earlier chapters (3, 1448 a 26; 4, 1448 b38 sqq.) . Taking this for granted, it would seem, Aristotle proceeds to insist (1) that a good epic must conform to the tragic rule of Unity of story (1459 a 18-b 7) ; (2) that epic poetry divides into the same species as Tragedy (1459 b 8-10) ; and (3) that it involves the same literary elements (1459b10-17) . After this he passes on to its points of difference, its length (b 17-31) , its metre (b 31-1460 a 4) , its form (a 5-11) , and its greater tolerance of ἄλογα (a 11-b 5) . A valuable discussion on Aristotle's theory of the Epic will be found in Schoemann's Opuscula(3 p. 30) . For traces of Aristotelian ideas in later Greek writers see Adam, Die Aristotelische Theorie vom Epos (Wiesbaden 1889).

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-869

περὶ δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς. περί = 'as for', or 'as regards' (comp. Metaph. H 6, 1045 a 7 ).

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-870

διηγηματικῆς, scil. μιμήσεως, understood from 15 (comp. 24, 1459 b 33 , and the note on 1, 1447 a 27

αἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν

). The καί that follows is the appositional καί (= i.e.), which is so common in Aristotle. ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς may be compared with 6, 1449 a 21

τῆς ἐν ἑξαμέτροις μιμητικῆς

. ἐν μέτρῳ, 'in verse' (= ἐν λόγῳ ἐμμέτρῳ), is the opposite of ἐν τῷ πράττειν, just as in the definition of Tragedy in 6, 1449 a 26

δι' ἀπαγγελίας

( scil. μιμουμένων) is the opposite of δρώντων.

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-871

18 συνιστάναι δραματικούς. A predicative adjective after συνιστάναι is found also in 24, 1459 b 14 , 1460 a 34 , and in Plato Phaedr. 268 E

τὴν τούτων σύστασιν πρέπουσαν ἀλλήλοις τε καὶ τῷ ὅλῳ συνισταμένην

. For the construction συνιστάναι περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν comp. 8, 1451 a 28

περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν οἷαν λέγομεν τὴν Ὀδύσσειαν συνέστησεν

. δραματικούς, which means properly 'such as is required for a drama' (comp. 4, 1448 b 35 ), is explained by what follows ( καὶ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν κτέ.) as referring more especially to the Unity of the dramatic story. Aristotle now definitely applies to the Epic the rule of Unity laid down for Tragedy in chaps. 7-8; its applicability, however, has already been assumed in the digression on the Epic in 8, 1451 a 19-29 .

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-872

20 ὥσπερ ζῷον ἓν ὅλον. If it is permissible to restore ὅλον (ὄν) here, the expression will be equivalent to οὖσα ἓν ὅλον ὥσπερ ζῷον (see Bernhardy, Syntax p. 337, and Riddell, Digest of Idioms § 202 b). For the meaning of ζῷον see on 7, 1450 b 34 .

καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις θεῖναι is another instance of parallelismus antitheticus; it is the negative complement of the precept in 18 δεῖ τοὺς μύθους συνιστάναι δραματικούς, the construction being δῆλον ὅτι δεῖ τοὺς μύθους ... συνιστάναι δραματικοὺς ... καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας [scil. αὐτοῖς] ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις θεῖναι. For the position of δῆλον comp. De sensu 3, 440b 14

ὅτι ἀνάγκη μιγνυμένων καὶ τὰς χρόας μίγνυσθαι, δῆλον, καὶ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν εἶναι κυρίαν τοῦ πολλὰς εἶναι χρόας

. ὁμοίας θεῖναι may very well mean 'to regard as like them' (comp. Bon. Ind. 761 a 27). According to this view of the text, the general sense of the passage is shortly this: Epic stories should be in structure like those of Tragedy ( δραματικούς), and not, as is so often supposed (see 8, 1451 a 21 and 9, 1451b 4 ), like the records of ordinary history. This latter point, however, Aristotle puts in a somewhat different form, 'One must not assume our ordinary histories to be like them'; he inverts the order of the terms, in fact, as he sometimes does in comparisons introduced by ὅμοιος (see Vahlen ad loc., and my Textual Criticism of the Nic. Ethics p. 63). The reading εἶναι, which I have altered into θεῖναι¹ (on the assumption that EINAI represents OINAI), makes him say that our ordinary histories should not be like tragedies or epics, as though there were something in the practice of the historians that he wished to set right. The absurdity of such a notion was felt by one of the Renaissance correctors and by Dacier; but the correction they proposed, καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίαις τὰς συνθέσεις εἶναι, is to my mind too artificial, and too great a departure from the reading of the MS., to deserve a place in the text. In saying ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις Aristotle seems to be aware of there being exceptions to the rule. We have been told in 9, 1451 b 30 that a poetical subject may sometimes be found in history.

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-873

23 ἑνὸς χρόνου: comp. a 25 περὶ ἕνα χρόνον. Aristotle's conception of a history is that it is a sort of chronicle (see on 9, 1451 a 36 ) recording all the various occurrences within a certain period of time, however loose and separate they may have been in themselves. As an instance of such a disconnected event he cites Gelo's defeat of the Carthaginians in 480; it happened about the same time— Herodotus 7, 166 says on the same day—as the Battle of Salamis, but it obviously had no connexion with that battle, or with the issue of the Persian War. And the same would have to be said, if it had taken place just before or after Salamis ( ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς χρόνοις a 27). In this way Aristotle reasserts the point on which he has insisted in the earlier chapters (8, 1451 a 27; 10, 1452 a 20) , that two events may come in succession without forming part of one single action.

25 ἐν Σαλαμίνι: Rhet. 2. 22, 1396 a 12

τὴν ἐν Σαλαμίνι ναυμαχίαν

. Comp. Thuc. 1. 57 , Isocr. 112 A , Aeschines in Ctes. 222 for this use of the preposition.

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-874

τοῦτο δρῶσι = ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις τιθέασι (v. a 21).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-875

ἤδη: 8, 1451 a 23 sqq.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-876

33 εὐσύνοπτος: see on 7, 1451 a 4 .

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-877

34 ἢ τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα κτέ. Vahlen supposes ἔδει or ἀναγκαῖον ἦν εἶναι to be understood from the ἔμελλεν ἔσεσθαι in the preceding clause. The sense of the passage is clear enough: The Trojan War was a real whole in itself ( ἔχοντα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος = ὅλον; v. 7, 1450 b 26 ); but Homer declined to deal with it in its entirety ( ποιεῖν ὅλον), through a feeling apparently that it was too long for his purpose ( λίαν μέγας; comp. 7, 1451 a 15 ), or if not too long ( τῷ μεγέθει μετριάζοντα), too full of matter through the variety of incident in it ( καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ). The explanation of the grammatical difficulty may perhaps be that Aristotle has lapsed into obliqua oratio. λίαν γὰρ ἂν μέγας κτέ. is virtually oratio obliqua, like the clause of explanation in 3, 1448 a 33.

μετριάζοντα

is intransitive, as it generally is in Aristotle ( Bon. Ind. 463 b 23). For the dative with it comp. Pol. 5. 11, 1314 b 33

μετριάζειν τοῖς τοιούτοις

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-878

35 ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβών: comp. Bon. Ind. 82 b 49, and Plato Rep. 392 E

οὐ κατὰ ὅλον ἀλλ᾽ ἀπολαβὼν μέρος τι πειράσομαί σοι ἐν τούτῳ δηλώσαι βούλομαι

. By this ἓν μέρος in the history of the Trojan War Aristotle means the 'Wrath of Achilles' and its consequences; see Adam l. c. p. 43. αὐτῶν, scil. τῶν ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ πραγμάτων, a construction κατὰ σύνεσιν such as we often find with pronouns (comp. 13, 1453 a 24 ; 23, 1459 a 29 , and Kühner, Gr. Gr. 2. 1, p. 54). Vahlen quotes Eth. N. 4. 1, 1120 a 2

δοκεῖ δ᾽ ἀπώλειά τις αὑτοῦ εἶναι καὶ ἡ τῆς οὐσίας φθορά, ὡς τοῦ ζῆν διὰ τούτων

(= τῶν χρημάτων, implied in τῆς οὐσίας)

ὄντος

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-879

37 διαλαμβάνει: comp. Dionysius Hal. 5 p. 543 R.

τὸ διαλαμβάνεσθαι τὴν ὁμοείδειαν ἰδίαις μεταβολαῖς καὶ ξένοις ἐπεισοδίοις

. The proper meaning of the word is 'to break the continuity of' a thing, as in Phys. 4. 6, 213 b 32

οὐκ ἔστι διάστημα . . διαλαμβάνει τὸ πᾶν σῶμα ὥστε εἶναι μὴ συνεχές

. Its present meaning, that of to 'break the uniformity of', or 'diversify', is found also in Plato Phaed. 110 B

γῆ . . χρώμασι διειλημμένη

. Closely allied to this is the sense in Pol. 7. 12, 1331 a 20

τὰ δὲ τείχη διειλῆφθαι φυλακτηρίοις καὶ πύργοις

—where it denotes to 'break the line of the walls', not the walls themselves. The use of episodes as giving an element of variety in the Epic is noted again in 24, 1459 b 30 . An echo of Aristotle's approval of Homer's episodes survives in Eustathius on Il. 3. 230, p. 409, 20 R. :

οὕτως εὐμηχάνως Ὅμηρος τὰς ἔξω τε [? ἔξωθεν] τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ ἱστορίας ἐπεισοδιάζει τῇ ποιήσει καὶ ταῖς μεθόδοις αὐτὴν καταποικίλλει τῶν ἀφηγήσεων

, and in the Schol. on Od. 1. 284 :

τῆς Ὀδυσσείας οὐκ ἐχούσης ἐξ αὐτῆς ποικιλίαν ἱκανὴν τὸν Τηλέμαχον ἐξελθεῖν εἰς Σπάρτην καὶ Πύλον ποιεῖ, ὅπως ἂν τῶν Ἰλιακῶν ἐν παρεκβάσεσι πολλὰ λεχθείη διά τε τοῦ Νέστορος καὶ τοῦ Μενελάου

(comp. the second Schol. ad loc.:

ὑπόθεσιν αὐτὴν [scil. τὴν ἀποδημίαν Τηλεμάχου] πεποίηκεν ὁ ποιητὴς ποικιλίας λόγων καὶ ἐξαλλαγῆς ἰδεῶν, ἵνα μὴ μονότροπος ᾖ τῆς ποιήσεως ὁ τρόπος

1459b

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-880

περὶ ἕνα ποιοῦσι κτέ.: i. e. they write just like chroniclers (comp. 23) or biographers (comp. 8, 1451 a 21 ). In some of the inferior epics, however, there is, says Aristotle, a certain Unity of story; but it is not of the right kind (comp. 8, 1451 a 28

περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν οἷαν λέγομεν

), as the action there consists of a plurality of parts ( πολυμερή), each of them easily detached from the rest of the work. The consequence is that several tragedies may be made out of a single epic of this type; whereas the Iliad or Odyssey does not supply materials for more than one or two. This emphatic assertion of the Unity of action in the Homeric epic, and of its affinity in this respect to Tragedy, is not quite in harmony with what we read elsewhere in the Poetics. In 18, 1456 a 13 the story of the Iliad is said to be a πολύμυθον σύστημα, one with a plurality of stories in it, and therefore incapable of being successfully dramatized in one single tragedy. And in 26, 1462 b 3 we are expressly told that the action in the Iliad and Odyssey is made up of several actions ( ἐκ πλειόνων πράξεων) and of many parts ( ἔχει πολλὰ τοιαῦτα μέρη); in other words, it is conceived to be a μία πρᾶξις πολυμερής, and not so unlike that of the inferior epics as is assumed in the present passage. μίαν πρᾶξιν = περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν (comp. 8, 1451 a 28 ).

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-881

2 ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας: Herodotus 2. 117

δηλοῖ ὅτι οὐκ Ὁμήρου τὰ Κύπρια ἔπεά ἐστι ἀλλ᾽ ἄλλου τινός

. — Athenaeus 334 B

ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας ἔπη, εἴτε Κύπριός τίς ἐστιν Στασῖνος ἢ ὅστις δή ποτε χαίρει ὀνομαζόμενος

. For the ancient ideas as to the authorship of the Κύπρια see Welcker, Ep. Cycl.p. 279 (comp. Wilamowitz, Phil. Untersuch.7 p. 337 ).

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-882

3 τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα = ὁ τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα (comp. Bon. Ind. 109 b 48). The book is treated as anonymous even by Pausanias (3. 26, 7 and 10. 26, 2) and by several of the grammarians who quote from it (comp. Wilamowitz l.c. p. 341). Ἰλιάδος, 'a poem like the Iliad' (see on 4, 1448 b 38 ).

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-883

4 ἢ δύο μόναι. The reference here is apparently rather to the Odyssey with its διπλῆ σύστασις (13, 1453 a 31) ; the double story would supply a subject for two tragedies, one dealing more especially with the fortunes of Ulysses, and the other with those of the Suitors. ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαί. Welcker, Gr. Trag.p. 873 , gives a list of the plays supposed to be based on stories in the Κύπρια. An abstract of the poem survives in the Chrestomathy of Proclus (Kinkel, EGF. 1 p. 16) . τῆς μικρᾶς Ἰλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ. The names in Aristotle's list of possible tragedies are sufficient indication of the ground covered by the Μικρὰ Ἰλιάς as he knew it; it is clear that the poem must have taken up the story of the war at the death of Achilles, and carried it down to the departure of the Greeks after the sack of Troy. The Fragments also show that it must have included the last scenes of the war and the division of the spoils. Some difficulty may perhaps be felt from the fact that the abstract in Proclus (Kinkel l. c. p. 36) makes the Little Iliad end somewhat abruptly with the admission of the Wooden Horse within the walls, and that, to complete the record of the war, he subjoins an abstract of what he regards as a distinct poem, an Ἰλίου πέρσις sometimes ascribed to Arctinus. In all probability this Ἰλίου πέρσις was only the concluding part of the Little Iliad under another name (comp. Wilamowitz l. c. p. 350).

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-884

5 ὅπλων κρίσις: Proclus l. c.

ἡ τῶν ὅπλων κρίσις γίνεται καὶ Ὀδυσσεὺς κατὰ βούλησιν Ἀθηνᾶς λαμβάνει, Αἴας δ᾽ ἐμμανὴς γενόμενος τήν τε λείαν τῶν ᾿Ἀχαιῶν λυμαίνεται καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἀναιρεῖ

. Besides the existing Ajax of Sophocles, there was a ὅπλων κρίσις by Aeschylus (Nauck, TGF. p. 57) , based presumably on this section of the Little Iliad.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-885

Φιλοκτήτης: Proclus l. c.

μετὰ ταῦτα Ὀδυσσεὺς λοχήσας Ἕλενον λαμβάνει, καὶ χρήσαντος περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως τούτου Διομήδης ἐκ Λήμνου Φιλοκτήτην ἀνάγει· ἰαθεὶς δὲ οὗτος ὑπὸ Μαχάονος καὶ μονομαχήσας Ἀλεξάνδρῳ κτείνει

. Several lost plays are recorded as bearing this title (Nauck l. c. p. 968 ; Welcker, Kl. Schr.4, p. 180 ); and we still have the Philoctetes of Sophocles.

6 Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος: Proclus l. c.

καὶ Νεοπτόλεμον Ὀδυσσεὺς ἐκ Σκύρου ἀγαγὼν τὰ ὅπλα δίδωσι τὰ τοῦ πατρός· καὶ Ἀχιλλεὺς αὐτῷ φαντάζεται. Εὐρύπυλος δὲ ὁ Τηλέφου ἐπίκουρος τοῖς Τρωσὶ παραγίνεται, καὶ ἀριστεύοντα αὐτὸν ἀποκτείνει Νεοπτόλεμος

. A Νεοπτόλεμος is mentioned in Suidas' list of the plays of Nicomachus (v. Welcker, Gr. Trag. p. 1015, and Kayser, Hist. Trag. Gr. p. 316). There is no record of Εὐρύπυλος as the title of a tragedy.

πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι: Proclus l. c.

Ὀδυσσεύς τε αἰκισάμενος ἑαυτὸν κατάσκοπος εἰς Ἴλιον παραγίνεται καὶ ἀναγνωρισθεὶς ὑφ᾽ Ἑλένης περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως τῆς πόλεως συντίθεται, κτείνας τέ τινας τῶν Τρώων ἐπὶ τὰς ναῦς ἀφικνεῖται. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα σὺν Διομήδει τὸ Παλλάδιον ἐκκομίζει ἐκ τῆς Ἰλίου

. The story of Ulysses entering Troy in the guise of a beggar is briefly told in Od. 4. 247

ἄλλῳ δ᾽ αὐτὸν φωτὶ κατακρύπτων ἤισκε δέκτῃ, ὃς οὐδὲν τοῖος ἔην ἐπὶ νηυσὶν ᾿Ἀχαιῶν· τῷ ἴκελος κατέδυ Τρώων πόλιν κτέ.

; and referred to in Eurip. Rhes. 503

ἤδη δ᾽ ἀγύρτης πτωχικὴν ἔχων στολὴν εἰσῆλθε πύργους

(comp. Plautus Bacch. 936 ). There is no tradition of πτωχεία as the title of a tragedy. Λάκαιναι was the name of a play of Sophocles (Nauck, TGF. p. 210) , turning apparently on the carrying off of the Palladium, with which Helen seems to have been associated in some form of the legend (v. Roscher's Lexicon 1, 1944); the title was no doubt taken from the chorus of Laconian women, whom we may suppose to have been brought in as Helen's handmaids.

6 1459b6 Ἰλίου πέρσις: one play certainly is mentioned as having this title, the Ἰλίου πέρσις of Iophon. There was also a Πέρσις ἢ Πολυξένη attributed to Nicomachus, and a Πέρσις attributed to Cleophon (comp. Meineke, Hist. Com. Gr. p. 497 ).

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-886

ἀπόπλους may very well have been the title of a play, but if it was, no record has come down to us of one so named. The closing scene of the war, the division of the spoils and the fate of the Trojan captives, was naturally fitted for Tragedy, as one may see from the abstract in Proclus of the final section of the Ἰλίου πέρσις :

ἔπειτα ἐμπρήσαντες τὴν πόλιν Πολυξένην σφαγιάζουσιν ἐπὶ τὸν τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως τάφον. καὶ Ὀδυσσέως Ἀστυάνακτα ἀνελόντος Νεοπτόλεμος Ἀνδρομάχην γέρας λαμβάνει [comp. Μικρὰ Ἰλ. fr. 18]· καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ λάφυρα διανέμονται. Δημοφῶν δὲ καὶ Ἀκάμας Αἴθραν εὑρόντες ἄγουσι μεθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν [comp. Μικρὰ Ἰλ. fr. 17]. ἔπειτα ἀποπλέουσιν οἱ Ἕλληνες.

Welcker ( Gr. Trag. p. 179) suggests that ἀπόπλους may possibly have been an alternative title for the Polyxena of Sophocles ( Nauck, TGF. p. 245 ), the scene of which, as we know from Strabo ( 10, 470

Σοφοκλῆς ποιήσας τὸν Μενέλαον ἐκ τῆς Τροίας ἀπαίρειν σπεύδοντα ἐν τῇ Πολυξένῃ

), was placed at the time of the departure of the Greek host. Whether we accept this suggestion or not, it seems pretty clear from the position of the title in Aristotle's list that the ἀπόπλους must have related to the concluding act of the war, and not (as Vahlen thinks) to the withdrawal of the Greek fleet to Tenedos before the treachery of Sinon.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-887

καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρωάδες. Having thus run over the eight sections of the Μικρὰ Ἰλιάς and mentioned a tragedy, actual or possible, in connexion with each, Aristotle appends two additional names to show how easily the list might be enlarged. The first is a Σίνων— the name of a play of Sophocles ( Nauck, TGF. p. 251 ); the second a Τρωάδες — the name of a still extant play of Euripides. Α Σίνων proves the possibility of more than one tragedy on the seventh section of the poem; and a Τρωάδες proves the same of the eighth. One can hardly doubt that Aristotle means the existing play of Euripides, the scene of which is placed at the time of the ἀπόπλους or departure from Troy (comp. Troad. 18

πολὺς δὲ χρυσὸς Φρύγιά τε σκυλεύματα πρὸς ναῦς Ἀχαιῶν πέμπεται· μένουσι δὲ πρύμνηθεν οὖρον, ὡς δεκασπόρῳ χρόνῳ ἀλόχους τε καὶ τέκν᾽ εἰσίδωσιν ἄσμενοι

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-532

23.1 1. Pour ce qui est de l'imitation qui conſiſte dans la narration, & qui est faite en vers hexametres, il est évident qu'il en faut dreſſer la fable, de manière qu'elle soit Dramatique, comme celle de la Tragedie.)¹

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-533

23.1 2. Et qu'elle doit renfermer une seule action qui ſoit entiere, parfaite, & achevée, & qui ait par confequent, un commencement, un milieu, & une fin.]²

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-534

23.1 3. Car il faut neceſſairement, que, comme un feul corps vivant est animé, elle donne le plaisir qui luy est propre.]³

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-535

23.2 4. Pour cet effet elle doit s'éloigner des regles de l'Histoire, où l'on est aſſujetti à raconter, non pas une seule action, mais tous les évenemens arrivez dans un certain temps.]⁴

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-536

23.2 5. Et qui n'ont qu'une liaiſon telle quelle, les uns avec les autres.]⁵

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-537

23.3 6. Car fi le combat naval de Salamine, & la bataille des Carthaginois en Sicile, quoyqu'arrivez environ dans le méme temps, ne se raportent pas tous deux à la mème fin, à plus forte raison voit-on tres fouvent, que les chofes qui font faites en differens temps, & les unes après les autres, ne vont pas toutes au mème but.]⁶

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-538

23.5 7. C'est pourtant en cela que pechent la plupart des Poëtes, c'est auſſi en cela comme je l'ay déja dit, qu' Homere me paroît divin au prix d'eux, car ayant devant luy une guerre qui avoit un commencement & une fin, il n'a pas entrepris de la traiter toute entiere.]⁷

8. mvp-aristotle-comment-539

23.5 8. C'est pourquoy il n'en a pris qu'une seule partie.]⁸

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-540

23.5 9. Et il tire du reſte quantité d'Epiſodes, comme le Catalogue des Vaiſſeaux, & pluſieurs autres, dont il enrichit & diverſifie fon Poëme.]⁹

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-541

23.6 10. Il n'en eſt pas de mème des autres Poëtes, ils s'imaginent conſerver cette unité de ſujet, lorſqu'ils s'attachent à décrire les actions d'un ſeul homme.]¹⁰

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-542

23.6 11. Ou les accidens arrivez dans un certain temps.]¹¹

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-543

23.6 12. Et telle est la conduite du Poëte qui a fait les Cypriaques.]¹²

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-544

23.6 13. Et de celuy qui a fait la petite Iliade.]¹³

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-545

23.7 14. Auſſi voit-on, que dans Homere, ny l'Iliade, ny l'Odyßée, ne peuvent fournir chacune, qu'un ſeul fujet de Tragedie, ou deux tout au plus. ]¹⁴

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-546

23.7 15. Au lieu qu'on en peut tirer plufieurs du Poëme des Cypriaques, & que la petite Iliade en peut donner plus de huit.]¹⁵

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-547

23.7 16. Comme le jugement des armes.]¹⁶

17. mvp-aristotle-comment-548

23.7 17. Le Philoctete.]¹⁷

18. mvp-aristotle-comment-549

23.7 18. Le Neoptoleme.]¹⁸

19. mvp-aristotle-comment-550

23.7 19. L'Eurypyle.]¹⁹

20. mvp-aristotle-comment-551

23.7 20. Le Mendiant.]²⁰

21. mvp-aristotle-comment-552

23.7 21. L'Helene.]²¹

22. mvp-aristotle-comment-553

23.7 22. La prise de Troye.]²²

23. mvp-aristotle-comment-554

23.7 23. Le retour des Grecs.]²³

24. mvp-aristotle-comment-555

23.7 24. Sinon.]²⁴

25. mvp-aristotle-comment-556

23.7 25. Les Troades.]²⁵

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

210. mvp-aristotle-comment-210

NOTE 210.

23.4 P. 115. EVEN IN THIS, THEREFORE, &C.

Ἤδη καὶ ταύτῃ.

already even in the first operation of his genius—the very choice of his subject, and formation of his plan. Such appears to me to be the force of

ἤδη

in this passage, which, I think, is injured by those commentators who punctuate—

ὥσπερ ἔιπομεν ἤδη

"as we have already said."

211. mvp-aristotle-comment-211

NOTE 211.

23.4 P. 115. HE HAS, FROM THE REST, INTRODUCED MANY EPISODES—

Νῦν δὲ, ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβὼν, ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται ΑΥΤΩΝ πολλοῖς.

—i. e. as the commentators explain it, of the other parts of the war. But, what should we think of this English—

"Selecting one part of the war, he introduces many episodes of them?"

If Aristotle meant the other parts of the war,

ἀυτῶν

must, surely, be wrong: if

ἀυτῶν

be right, I confess I cannot see what he meant. I wish we had manuscript authority for the

ἀυτοῦ

of Heinsius, which is adopted and explained by Le Bossu, II. 5, and 6. —But a learned friend has suggested to me a conjecture still more probable; that Aristotle wrote

ΑΛΛΩΝ. Νῦν δὲ, ἝΝ μέρος ἀπολαβὼν, ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται ΑΛΛΩΝ [sc. μερῶν] πολλοῖς.

"Selecting one part only of the war, he has, from other parts, introduced many Episodes,"

&c.

212. mvp-aristotle-comment-212

NOTE 212.

23.6 P. 115. THE AUTHOR OF THE CYPRIACS, AND OF THE LITTLE ILIAD.

To the authors usually referred to on the subject of these Poems, it may now be useful to add Heyne, Excursu primo ad Æn. II. p. 228, 229 —a very learned and curious dissertation concerning the writers on the Trojan war.

213. mvp-aristotle-comment-213

NOTE 213.

23.6 P. 116. THE FALL OF TROY.

See Heyne, Excursu primo ad Æn. II. p. 230, 231.

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

23.1. mvp-aristotle-comment-96 23.1

EVEN IN THE EPOPEE THE FABLES SHOULD HAVE A DRAMATIC FORM, AND RELATE TO ONE ENTIRE AND COMPLEAT ACTION, WHICH HAS A BEGINNING, A MIDDLE, AND AN END.

It has been already observed that in every fictitious tale, independently of technical rules, it is impossible to keep up the attention and interest of the piece without confining the time of the fable within a certain boundary. This rule of nature is confirmed by the practice of all our good novel writers. I will not only instance the novels of Fielding, who as being a scholar, and rather fond of shewing he was, may be supposed to display his acquaintance with the precepts of the Stagirite, or rather the models from whence they are drawn: but those of Richardfon, of Mrs. Smith, and of Miss Burney, who cannot be supposed to be influenced by any pedantry of this kind. Even in those novels which are written on what Dr. Beattie calls the historical plan, such as Peregrine Pickle and Roderick Random, though they begin with the infancy of the hero, they by no means compleat his life. The first events are rather preparatory to, than part of the main object of the story, the body of which, or to speak dramatically, the plot, is the love of the principal characters, as the solution of it, or catastrophe, is their marriage [A].. The [A] This is exactly true with regard to Tom Jones. The action properly begins with the banishment of Jones from Allworthy's house; and from that time to the conclufion, according

The mode used by the orientals to give a species of unity to their complicated fables is very fingular. Of this the Arabian Nights exhibit a curious specimen. A general story, or ground-work for the whole, is first formed. This is the bloody vow of the sultan in consequence of the sultana's infidelity, the generous resolution of the vizir's daughter, and her final triumph. Into this the other stories are woven, but the introductory tale is continually brought to our recollection by the conversation that precedes the narrative of every night. Every story is befides branched out into a number of others, to each of which it ferves as a common bond of union, as the original one is to the whole. By this strange contrivance an appearance of general unity is kept up though without the least of that effect which is proposed as the consequence of unity; as the mind is disagreeably perplexed by the broken chain of the narrative, expectation is suspended till all interest in the fable is lost, and instead of perfpicuity confusion is produced. This arrangement is preserved in the first half of Mr. Galland's tranflation. In the latter part he has given such separate stories as struck him, without dividing the nights, or preserving any connexion between them, except the catastrophe of the leading fable. Mr. Andrews in his Anecdotes [B], gives a humorous reason for M. Galland's change of conduct. But I believe the principal cause of it was the length of the original work, which he has greatly abridged, as will be apparent on comparing the number of nights in that part of his tranflation where they are according to the author's own calculation, just forty-two days intervene, and yet this is five days more than the compleat action of the Iliad occupies. [B] Appendix. Article AUTHOR. noticed,

POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. noticed [c], which is a full half of the work, with the compleat number of a thousand and one. Dr. Beattie [D] seems to question the authenticity of this work. I think the reason he urges; (the French features given it by M. Galland,) can have no weight with a person who has ever read a French translation from any language. Whoever will compare this work even through the medium of a French tranflation with the many WESTERN oriental tales, to which it has given birth, will fee strong marks of original and real character. But I believe the authenticity of this work is capable of stronger proof. I have been informed that Profeffor White has a compleat copy in Arabic. Mr. Richardson also, in his Arabic Grammar, has printed one of the fables at length in the original language, and quoted verses from another [E] which are not tranflated by M. Galland, though the tale from which they are taken is. This mode of narration was adopted by Ariosto, and was copied from him by our countryman Spenfer. As for Ariosto, his imagination is so brilliant, his subject so wonderfully varied • From grave to gay, from lively to severe :' there is such a mingled vein of fublimity, pathos, and humour, running [c] The last night noticed is the two hundred and thirty-second. Therefore half the translation is not a quarter of the original work. [D] Essay on Fable and Romance, page 509. [E] Page 181. through

A COMMENTARY ON THE CHAP. XXIII. through the whole work, that notwithstanding the many absurdities it contains, and fuch a total want of connexion in the incidents, that to enable the reader at all to follow the thread of the scattered tales, the commentators have been obliged to have recourse to inartificial assistance of marginal references; yet we can hardly with it to have been in any refpect different from what it is. But as the work of Spenser is entirely of a serious cast, our taste is more faftidious, and indeed the attempt at uniformity, which is avowed by the author [F], causes us to be more disgusted both with the want of it in the Cantos that are preserved, and the apparent inadequacy of the whole plan proposed, had it been compleatly carried into execution. The unity produced by the introduction of a general kind of secondary hero pervading the whole, must have been very awkward and very uninteresting. Prince Arthur engaged as an afsistant to the several allegorical heroes in their respective adventures, would have exactly resembled the pentathléte, as described by [G] Plato, who, however skilful he might be in the contest with those who like himself were trained to the practice of various exercises, was always inferior to those athletes who applied themselves to one only, in that peculiar exercise. [F] Letter from the author to Sir Walter Raleigh. [G] In his Εραςαι, NOTE

23.2. mvp-aristotle-comment-97 23.2

AND NOT FOLLOW THE CUSTOM OF HISTORY, WHERE IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO CONFINE THE SUBJECT TO ONE ACTION, BUT TO ONE PERIOD OF TIME, AND WHERE EVERY THING MAY BE INTRODUCED THAT HAPPENED IN THAT TΙΜΕ.

THIS conduct of history is exactly exemplified in the work of that most entertaining of all writers Herodotus. Like Ariosto he hurries his reader from event to event, and from scene to scene, as his own lively fancy suggests, without giving him time to recollect himself, and fafcinates him at the same time so agreeably with beauty of style, and variety of matter, that he has no wish to awaken from his delirium. [H] Later historians however have found unity, of subject at least, necessary to make their works agreeable; and this circumstance is the striking distinction between the historian and the annalist. History generally confines itself to the affairs of one country, and cotemporary events of other countries are never interwoven into the thread of the story, except such as may be connected with the principal subject. Writers of general history have a great difficulty to arrange their matter so as to produce any unity of design. The only method by which this is at all attainable is breaking their history into parts, each concluding with some memorable era or striking revolution, which all the preceding events may be conceived, in some degree, as instrumental in producing. A history of Greece, from the number of independent states, is subject to [H] See Note 1. Chap. VIII. 3 L the

the fame disadvantage. In producing unity here, Col. Mitford has fucceeded wonderfully, as I augur he will when he comes to the increasing difficulties attending the divided interests of the successors of Alexander, where he will have no points of union like the superior states of Athens and Sparta to afsist him. The Roman historian from Romulus to Conftantine, has the double advantage of unity of story and concluding eras, arifing, if I may use the poetical expreffion, both from action and manners. But the task Mr. Gibbon has executed is the most difficult one that ever employed the pen of an historian, and nothing but the voice of hypercriticism can cenfure him for not giving a unity to events of which they were utterly incapable. The history of Greece, however diversified in its course, has a great and striking catastrophe in becoming a Roman province; and the preceding events have a strong bond of union in treating of a people, however divided, still resembling each other in origin, in country, and in manners. But from the time of Constantine, the Roman history diverges from its common channel. The Grecian name appears again, mixes with, and almost overpowers it, till mingling with a thoufand various and unconnected streams, it gradually loses itself in the vaft ocean of modern history, in which that event, (the taking of Conftantinople,) which is generally confidered as the final period of the Roman empire, fo far from being a decisive boundary, is a mere point that hardly attracts our obfervation. Dr. Robertson saw the neceffity of this historical unity so strongly, that he did not chuse to interweave the affairs of America with his History of Charles the Fifth, but reserved them for a feparate work; a work, for the completion of which the public impatience is strongly excited, as the obstacle mentioned is entirely removed; and the history of British

POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. British America may conclude with one of the greatest and most compleat political revolutions to be found in the annals of mankind.

23.3. mvp-aristotle-comment-98 23.3

FOR AS THE SEA FIGHT AT SALAMIS, AND THE BATTLE WITH THE CARTHAGENIANS IN SICILY, THOUGH THEY HAPPENED AT THE SAME TIME, BY NO MEANS CONDUCED TO THE SAME END; SO ALSO EVEN IN PROGRESSIVE TIME, EVENTS MAY

" “ " SOMETIMES BE CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER, AND YET NO PARTICULAR COMMON CONSEQUENCES MAY ARISE FROM " THEM." THIS passage is passed over by all the tranflators and commentators that I have had an opportunity of consulting, as if it were not attended with any difficulty, but it appears to me totally irreconcileable both with itself and with the preceding sentence without allowing some latitude of conjecture. Aristotle observes that history differs from poetry in confidering unity of time only without at all regarding unity of action: and that if two events happen at the same period of time, however unconnected they or the objects to which they relate may be, they have sufficient unity for the purpose of the historian: and this is well illustrated by the battles of Salamis and Sicily, both which, according to Herodotus, happened on the fame day, and are mentioned by that historian in the fame book, though they had not the most distant relation to each other. Here all would be perfectly clear, if the part between the inverted commas in the quotation that is at the head of this note, and which in the original commences with ὕτω και, and concludes with τέλος, were omitted, as Mr. Winstanley says it is in a Ms. in the Medician 3 L2

Medicean library. But admitting this part as genuine, (which I think we ought from the authority of fo many Mss. and editions, against this single one,) the example so exactly in point with the observation seems introduced merely for the purpose of bringing in a sentence which is diametrically in opposition to it, and which it appears to me can be only reconciled with the context by supposing something prior to the quotation intervening in the original between ἄλληλα and ὥσπερ, perhaps to this effect. That even successive and connected events may not always be sufficient for the purpose of the poet. And then all that follows is perfectly natural and explains the reason, which is afterwards compleatly illustrated by the examples from the lesser Iliad at the conclusion of the chapter, which though happening in successive time and connected with each other, had not yet that degree of unity which was requisite for an epic poem. Mr. Twining has not translated this passage with his usual accuracy. • So also in successive events we fometimes fee one thing follow another * without being CONNECTED TO IT BY SUCH RELATION.' However we may differ in opinion as to the reading of θάτερον μεθὰ θαζέρα, whether we conceive the preposition μεθὰ as governing the genitive or [1] the accufative, still ἐξ ὧν ἓν ἐδὲν γίνεθαι τέλος can never fignify any relation between the successive events, but must mean some common consequence to arife from both. The sentence seems to imply, that if the events should be even so connected as to be proper for the beginning and middle of a poetic fable, they may yet be incapable of producing a proper end, a catastrophe conducive to the [K] purpose of epic or tragic imitation. [1] See note on the tranflation. [K] See Chapter VII. It is observable that Aristotle, at the beginning of this chapter, uses τέλος exactly in the same sense he does τελευτή in that. NOTE

23.4. mvp-aristotle-comment-99 23.4

HE DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE TROJAN WAR.

MR. ADDISON I believe thought he paid the Duke of Marlborough an hyperbolical compliment, when he called the transactions of the summer, in which the battle of Blenheim was fought, • An Iliad rifing out of one campaign." When on examination the action of the Iliad takes up only forty-feven days. Bossu has alfo calculated the duration of the action of the Odyssey and the Æneid. He fixes the former at fifty-eight days, and the latter at half a year. It is impossible to apply these critical compasses to a poem whose action passes • Beyond the flaming bounds of space and time. It is obvious however that the Paradise Lost is confined within such a period, that the connection of the [L] beginning, the middle, and the end is easily comprehended; and that though the action is continued, it enters sufficiently into detail to be perfectly interesting [M]. [L] See Chap. VIII.. [M] See Note 11. Chap. xxiv. NOTE

23.5. mvp-aristotle-comment-100 23.5

TAKING THEREFORE ONLY ONE PART FOR HIS SUBJECT, НЕ INTRODUCES ABUNDANCE OF EPISODES FROM THE OTHER PARTS.

- FROM what is said by Aristotle in Chapter XVII. where he gives the plain story of the Iphigenia in Tauris, and the Odyssey, it appears that he confiders every thing as episode that is at all extraneous to the fimple story. Every thing in short, that if either taken away or altered, would make no essential change in the principal event of the fable; and even the episode, he adds, should be nearly connected with the story, as he instances in the madness of Orestes. The fame injunction as to the epopee is infinuated here, as the episodes of Homer are faid to be taken from the events of the war, of which he brings the catalogue of the ships as an example. However Homer did not confine himself always to these congenial episodes as in the history of Bellerophon given by Glaucus in the fixth Iliad.

From what Ariftotle says, and the examples he produces in both places, he feems to make this distinction between the dramatic and epic episode. That the first should be an event, though not essentially, yet closely connected with the story, and happening to one of the characters as the madness of Orestes, and not any detached circumstance, any interesting under-plot which in so short a composition as a tragedy would hurt the unity, and divide the interest of the fable. (N) But that the epopee from [N] See Chap. xxvi. its

POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. its greater extent, to which variety was more necessary, and from its interest being less compressed, and in which so powerful an effect was not requifite, was indulged with a freer use of episodes, in themselves interesting, provided they were connected at all with the main fubject; even so interesting as to form a proper basis for a tragedy. This however he does not propose so much as an addition to the excellencies of the epopee, as an indulgence allowed to its defects. The Paradife Loft abounds with episodes, all of which are connected with the fable. The modern comic epopee affords examples of all forts. The worst are those like the novels introduced in Don Quixote, such as [o] the 'Ill-timed Curiosity,' which Fielding has imitated in the story of, The Man of the Hill' in Tom Jones, and Paul and Leonard' in Joseph Andrews. These episodes exactly resemble the eastern arrangement of fable. The story of Cardenio and Lucinda' in Don Quixote, and still more • Nightingale and Mrs. Miller's Daughter' in Tom Jones, are episodes connected with the fable. Perhaps the true criterion of the propriety of an epic episode is the possibility of the reader's passing it over without breaking, in the least degree, the chain of the narrative. [O] IL CURIOSO IMPERTINENTE, which has been wisely rendered in English, THE CU- RIOUS IMPERTINENT, CHAP.

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-169

Ritter, cap. 23 § 1

Quae sit unitas epici carminis et qua in re ab historia differre illud debeat significatur. unitatem epopoeiae ab uno Homero rite servatam esse. , Quod in principio huius capitis dicitur manifestum ( δῆλον) esse fabulas epicae poesi subiectas aeque ac tragicas pangendas esse activas ( δραματικάς), ac circa unam actionem totam et absolutam, id sane nondum ostensum est. nam c. 4, 9. nonnisi obscure significatum est ab Homero imitationes nonsolum bene sed etiam δραματικάς exhiberi. sed hoc ipsum, tam fabulas epicas quam tragicas δραματικάς conformandas esse, falso pronuntiari videtur aut temere, nisi si ante dictum est quid sit τοὺς μύθους δραματικούς συνιστάναι, ubi hoc de epico carmine dicitur. agendi scilicet rationem non eandem obtinere in epopoeia quam in tragoedia, id et sponte patet et ab Aristotele obscure sub initium huius libri (c. 3, 1) indicatum est, unde igitur clarum illud est, quod huius operis lectoribus, si non aliunde didicerunt, etiamnum obscurum esse debet? sed ad hanc dubitationem respondere in Praefatione operam dedimus. περί δὲ τῆς διηγηματικῆς καὶ ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς: cum narrativa poesi non solum epopoeia quae vulgo dicitur sed mimi etiam prosa oratione conscripti et dialogi Socratici contineantur, id quod c. 1, 7. propositum est, vocibus ἐν μέτρῳ μιμητικῆς adiectis aperire voluit se iam disputaturum esse de poesi narrativa quam vulgo intelligant, sufficiebat autem generalis nota ἐν μέτρῳ, neque opus erat ἐν ἑξαμέτρῳ, ut nonnulli crediderunt, propterea quod imitatio narrativa versibus adstricta nonnisi metro heroo usque ad aevum Aristotelis inclusa ferebatur. conf. c. 1, 6. et Comment. pag. 82 seq. καὶ καὶ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν ὅλην καὶ τελείαν: quantum attinet ad fabulam sive argumentum tragoediae, hoc explanatum est c. 7 et praecipue c. 8, 4. quod c. 8, 3. etiam Homeri mentio facta est, id quomodo cohaereat in Commentario ad

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-170

Ritter, cap. 23 § 2

illius capitis exposui. quapropter de hoc argumento epicae poesis ratione habita nihil adhuc explicatum est. ὥσπερ ζῷον ἓν ὅλον: hoc exsecutus est c. 7,5-7., sed tragoediam respiciens, non epopoeiam. - καὶ μὴ ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις εἶναι; variandae orationis gratia subiectum mutatur. in vulgari rerum gestarum enarratione non ea unitas inest, quae dominari debet in epico carmine, sed eodem tempore saepe accidunt quae nullo vinculo continentur; quae si ab annalium scriptore narrantur, unitatis legem turbari necesse est. ὡς ἔτυχεν est ut casus* 245 tulit, ita ut alia arto aut laxo vinculo cohaereant, alia nulla cognatione se contingant. haec in sequentibus exemplo ex historia petito declarantur. §. 2. ὥσπερ γάρ - Καρχηδονίων μάχη: isdem temporibus esse κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους apparet ex oppositis οὕτω καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς χρόνοις: nimirum inter se componuntur tempora eadem quibus in diversis spatiis varia gesta sunt et tempora sibi succedentia quibus una res continuo post alteram ( θάτερον μετά θατέρου) accidit. fama hoc vulgatum esse Herodotus VII, 155. scribit, devicisse Gelonem eodem die ingentem Hamilcaris Carthaginiensis exercitum, quo classis Persarum ad Salaminem a Graecis fugata est aut submersa : πρὸς δὲ καὶ τάδε λέγουσι, ὡς συνέβη τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρης ἔν τε τῇ Σικελίῃ Γέλωνα καὶ Θήρωνα νικᾶν ᾿Αμίλκαν τὸν Καρχηδόνιον καὶ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι τοὺς Ἕλληνας τὸν Πέρσην. quid Aristoteles de huius famae veritate aut mendacio senserit quaerere nihil attinet. ut inde exemplum peteret ad illustrandum id de quo loquitur, satis erat quod illud fama ferebatur. θάτερον μετά θατέρου: unum cum altero, h. e. alterum continuo post alterum accidit, neque tamen unum quoddam inde consequitur. quae poeta narrat, ea ad unum finem contendunt.

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-171

Ritter, cap. 23 § 3

σχεδόν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦ - το δρῶσιν : sententiam hanc sane gravem ac fortasse subiniquam mitigavit addito σχεδόν. ceteri Graecorum epici poetae Homero excepto non eam unitatis normam secuti sunt, quam summus artis poeticae magister praescripsit, sed ita tantummodo observaverunt ut accederent aliquatenus ad rationem in rerum scriptoribus probatam. διό, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν ἤδη-καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ : quod auctor occasione oblata iam ante (c. 8, 3) monuerat et Odysseae exemplo illustraverat, idem h. 1. ita persequitur ut Iliadem solam respiciat. Homerus in condenda Iliade duobus modis excellit, primum quod bellum Troianum non totum carmine celebrare adgressus est, deinde quod ne summa quidem fastigia rerum in modicam magnitudinem con-... tracta sed nimía varietate implicata poemati materiam substravit. enuntiati duo membra coordinata sunt, unum τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποεῖν ὅλον, alterum ἢ τῷ (intellige μηδ' ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν) μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ. Iliada esse ἁπλῆν non multo post (c. 24, 3) iterum monuit. ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται [ αὐτῶν] πολλοῖς: pronomen αὐτῶν adhuc explicare nemo ita potuit, ut linguae Graecae legibus satisfaceret. Victorius et Hermannus belli Troiani partes ab Homero omissas designari putant, sed id quomodo fieri possit, neuter explicuit. Hermannus auctoris negligentiam agnoscit; alii coniecturis sanare locum tentaverunt. mihi haec vox plane supervacanea casu illata videtur esse: nimirum adversus ἀπολαβών in margine aliquis posuit αὐτῶν, isque intellexit μερῶν τοῦ πολέμου ex praecedente ἓν μέρος, ut ne lectorem fugeret quo ἀπολαβών referendum esset. hinc nota in verborum contextum, sed alieno loco, recepta est. οἱ δ᾽ ἄλλοι: intelligit poetas cyclicos et Panyasin Halicarnassensem, Choerilum Samium, Antimachum Colophonium. conf. c. 8. · καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πολυμερῆ: actio carmini epico subiecta non solum ita una esse debet ut unius hominis et unius temporis sit, sed etiam una parte primaria illam contineri oportet. minus epopoeiae vitii inest quae circa unam actionem eamque πολυμερή versatur quam quae duplex argumentum vel multiplex admisit. vitium illud prius et levius in Cypriis et parva Iliade deprehendit, et rectissime quidem, ut etiamnum ex illis Chrestomathiae Proculianae excerptis videre licet. μία πρᾶξις Cyprio carmini subiecta origo erat belli Troiani, sed eam vel maxime πολυμερῆ fuisse fragmenta quae dixi probant. parvae Iliadis nonnisi priorum quattuor librorum summaria excerpta illa praestant: nam Proclus rerum gestarum seriem contexturus ubi quattuor libros parvae Iliadis excerpsit, hanc mittit et ad Arctini Ἰλίου Πέρσιν pergit, quamquam etiam a parvae Iliadis poeta (Lesches a plerisque fertur carminis auctor, ab aliis in incerto relinquitur in quibus Aristoteles) Ilii excidium enarratum fuisse constat. conf. Hermanni ad h. 1. Commentarii, Wüllneri de Cyclo epico Commentatio p. 85 sqq., Welckeri opus quod patria lingua scripsit de Cyclo epico p. 214 sqq. Nitzschii de Historia Homeri Meletem. fasc. II. p. 38 sqq. de Cypriis praeter alios exposuerunt Wüllnerus et Welckerus in libris modo laudatis, et peculiari scriptione Henrichsen: de Carminibus Cypriis, Hafniae 1828.

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-172

Ritter, cap. 23 § 4

τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος - Σίνων καὶ Τρωάδες: haec ab aliena manu assuta leguntur, quod paucis ostendere ita conabor ut omnia interpolationis indicia ordine persequar. nam cum ante a vero Aristotele monitum esset, in Homeri Iliade non totum bellum Troianum sed eius particulam tractari, continuo inde explicatur, cur fiat ex Iliade et Odyssea una tragoedia ex utravis vel duae solae: scilicet non multum rerum gestarum (wenig historischen Stoff) illae continent, ideoque nonnisi una fit ex utravis tragoedia. pinguem hanc sententiam falsamque haec admonitio continet, nihil amplius: verba enim et sententiae nexus necessario hanc explicationem suggerunt. sed ut magis offendat semidocti hominis observatio, hoc efficere videtur, quod adhuc Odyssea in huius capitis disputatione ne verbo quidem memorata sed unius Iliadis compositionis virtus laudata est. accedunt duo sermonis vitia, denique tertium nugatoris documentum in paucis illis verbis τοιγαροῦν ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας μία τραγωδία ποιεῖται ἑκατέρας ἢ δύο μόναι. pro ἐκ μὲν Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας verus Aristoteles scripsisset ἐκ μὲν τῆς Ἰλιάδος καὶ τῆς Ὀδυσσείας. lege quae in genuinis antecedunt, ὁ τὰ Κύπρια ποιήσας καὶ τὴν μικρὰν Ἰλιάδα. conf. c. 24, 2. ἡ μὲν Ἰλιὰς ἡ δὲ Ὀδύσσεια. c. 8, 3. τὴν Ὀδύσσειαν συνέστησεν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἰλιάδα 1). c. 15, 7. ἐν τῇ Ἰλιάδι. hanc loquendi • • 1) Ibidem (c. 8, 3) articulus recte abest Ὀδύσσειαν γὰρ ποιῶν. cf. Comment. ad h. 1. neque articulum requirimus in illis (c. 4, 9)consuetudinem cum in aliis Aristotelis operibus agnoscimus, tum in Rhetoricis et in genuinis Poeticae reliquiis ille tenuit. conf. prae ceteris Rhetor. III, 16., ubi ὁ ᾿Αλκίνου ἀπόλογος, ἐν τῷ Οἰνεῖ, ἐκ τῆς ᾿Αντιγόνης, ἐν τῷ Οἰδίποδι, et II, 23. (p. 1399 b 25- 1400 b 10) ἐκ τοῦ Μελεάγρου, ἐκ τοῦ Αἰαντος, ἐν τῷ Αἴαντι, ἐν τῇ Μηδείᾳ. ΙΙΙ, 2. ἐν τοῖς Βαβυλωνί οις. conf. II, 24. III, 17. Ethic. Nicom. VII, 3. οἷον ὁ Σοφοκλέους Νεοπτόλεμος ἐν τῷ Φιλοκτήτῃ. ibid. c. 8. ὁ Καρκί νου ἐν τῇ ᾿Αλόπη Κερκύων. ibid. VI, 7. Ὅμηρος ἐν τῷ Μαργίτῃ. ibid. ΙΧ, 6. οἱ ἐν ταῖς Φοινίσσαις. de Anima 1,2. Πλά των ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ. – alterum sermonis vitium est quod scripsit ποιεῖται. ⚫num fortasse conficitur illa una tragoedia, dum iste haec conscribillat? scilicet scribere voluit fieri posse ( ποιεῖται ἂν vel ἔστι ποιεῖσθαι), aut factam esse ( πεποίηται). sed cur ἢ δύο μόναι addit ? num incertus erat utrum una an duae tragoediae ex utrovis Homeri poemate conficerentur ? sed tum scripsisset μία τραγωδία ἢ δύο ποιοῦνται ἑκατέρας: ut nunc verba posita sunt, ἢ δύο μόναι praecedentium explicationem continent, h. e. insignem paucitatem tragoediarum quae ex tam amplis epopoeiis fiant premunt (oder zwei einzige), ut ἢ non disiungendi sed explanandi vim habeat. hisce paucis ( δυοῖν μόναις) statim multae illae tragoediae opponuntur quae ex Cypriis et parva Iliade fiunt. veram rei rationem perscrutantibus facile liquebit hanc non fuisse veri Aristotelis sententiam, tamquam Iliadi et Odysseae non multum rerum gestarum subsit, ut paucae inde tragoediae peti possint. immo multae et peti possunt et petitae sunt, verbi causa Aeschyli Myrmidones, Nereides, Phryges ( Ἕκτορος λύτρα), etiam 2) Ψυχοστασία (quamquam personarum nomina et fata ex Arctini Milesii Aethiopide sumpta erant), Psychagogi, Penelopa, Sophoclis Chryses, ὁ γὰρ Μαργίτης, ὥσπερ Ἰλιὰς καὶ Ὀδύσσεια κτλ., neque in his (c. 24, 10) τὰ ἐν Ὀδυσσεία ἄλογα. 2) Vid. Plutarch. de Audiendis poetis p. 16 F. cf. G. Hermanni Disputatio de Aeschyli Psychostasia p. 10 sq.Phryges, Thamyris, Tyro, Sisyphus, Nausicaa (satyrica), Phaeaces (satyrica), aliaeque aliorum poetarum tragoediae ex eodem hoc fonte uberrimo haustae erant 3). sequuntur illa ἐκ δὲ Κυπρίων πολλαὶ καὶ τῆς 4) μικρᾶς Ἰλιάδος πλέον ὀκτώ : utique sibi constat scriptor negligentissimus. primum nobis narrat ex Cypriis multas confici tragoedias et ex parva Iliade plus quam octo. iam hanc habemus gradationem duae solae, multae, plus quam octo. porro pro πλέον ἢ ὀκτώ vel ὀκτὼ πλέον hic noster suo more scribit πλέον ὀκτώ, iam videamus quas tragoedias ex parva Iliade fieri dicat, ὅπλων κρίσιν, Φιλοκτήτην, Νεοπτόλεμον, Εὐρύπυλον, πτωχείαν, Λακαίνας, Ἰλίου πέρσιν, ἀπόπλουν, Σίνωνα, Τρωάδας. sunt decem fabularum tituli, non octo, quod quomodo explicandum sit in fine huius adnotationis dicetur. sed ipsos titulos consideremus, cum praesertim ad sex priores parvae Iliadis argumenta librorum quattuor priorum ex Proculi Chrestomathiae reliquiis 5) adhibere possimus. quae primo loco comparet ὅπλων κρίσις, eodem nomine quidem Aeschyli tragoedia et nonnulla eius fragmenta memorantur, sed si cetera considero mox declaranda, interpolator non tam fabulam Aeschyliam quam primi parvae Iliadis libri inscriptionem ( ὅπλων κρίσις) secutus videtur. Proculus enim hoc primi libri summarium exhibet: ἡ τῶν ὅπλων κρίσις γίνεται, καὶ Ὀδυσσεὺς κατὰ βούλησιν ᾿Αθηνᾶς λαμβάνει, Αίας δὲ 3) De Sophocle eius vitae scriptor: καὶ τὴν Ὀδύσσειαν ἐν πολλοῖς δράμασιν ἀπογράφεται, cet. 4) Vulgo καὶ ἐκ τῆς μικρᾶς Ἰλιάδος legitur, sed praepositionem iz ab Aldo additam esse inde manifestum fit, quod abest a codicibus AcBcNa et GLQ, neque ex ullo libro scripto nomina-- tim affertur. quod a Mediceis prius ex omitti dicitur, error videtur esse. 5) Excerpta illa praeclara edita sunt in Bibliotheca antiq. litt. et art. Gotting. vol. I., repetita a Gaisfordio (ad Hephaestionem p. 465), Bekkero (ante Ioannis Tzetzae Antehomerica, Homerica et Posthomerica), aliis. ἐμμανὴς γενόμενος τήν τε λείαν τῶν ᾿Αχαιῶν λυμαίνεται καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἀναιρεῖ. haec omnia ὅπλων κρίσει falsus Aristoteles comprehendit, fabulas quae re vera exsisterent nihil curando : id enim si fecisset, post ὅπλων κρίσιν nominare debuit nobilissimi tragoediarum scriptoris Αἴαντα μαστιγοφόρον, quem hodieque admiramur. sed tragoedias quae erant nihil respiciens alteri loco Φιλοκτήτην assignat. nimirum Proculus primi libri parvae Iliadis argumentum enarrans pergit: μετὰ ταῦτα Ὀδυσσεὺς λοχήσας Ἕλενον λαμβάνει, καὶ χρήσαντος περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως τούτου Διομήδης ἐκ Λήμνου Φιλοκτήτην ἀνάγει. ἰαθεὶς δὲ οὗτος ὑπὸ Μαχάονος καὶ μονομαχήσας ᾿Αλεξάνδρῳ κτείνει· καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν ὑπὸ Μενελάου καταικισθέντα ἀνελόμενοι θάπτουσιν οἱ Τρῶες. ex his neque prima neque postrema multum habent atrocitatis, sed media habent; eo respiciens interpolator Φιλοκτήτην protulit. vix dubitare licet illam primae rhapsodiae partem parvae Iliadis, qua Philoctetae res gestae et fata narrabantur, eius nomen inscriptum tulisse. si tragoedias vere scriptas respexisset, Φιλοκτήτην τὸν ἐν Λήμνῳ ab Aeschylo, Sophocle, Euripide aliisque editum et praeterea Sophoclis τὸν ἐν Τροίᾳ memorare debuit. Proculus ad alteram rhapsodiam progressus refert haec : μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα Δηΐφοβος Ἑλένην γαμεῖ· καὶ Νεοπτό λεμον Ὀδυσσεὺς ἐκ Σκύρου ἀγαγὼν τὰ ὅπλα δίδωσι τὰ τοῦ πατρός. καὶ ᾿Αχιλλεὺς αὐτῷ φαντάζεται. adhuc nihil inest atrocitatis qualem circumspicit falsus auctor: sed Proculus pergit Εὐρύπυλος δὲ ὁ Τηλέφου ἐπίκουρος τοῖς Τρωσί παραγίνεται, καὶ ἀριστεύοντα αὐτὸν ἀποκτείνει Νεοπτόλεμος. in his duarum tragoediarum argumenta deprehendere hic noster sibi videbatur, quamquam nonnisi unum inest. ille autem Ευρύπυλον et Νεοπτόλεμον fortiter elicuit, hic quoque inscriptiones libri alterius parvae Iliadis, opinor, secutus. quod Nicomachus tragoediam Νεοπτόλεμον scripsit (cf. Suidas s. ν. Νικόμαχος), id nihil huc videtur pertinere. tragoediam Ευρύπυλον nemo veterum unquam memoravit, neque nobis licet hoc loco fretis litteras Graecas inaudita fabula ditare. tertii summarium hoc Proculus nobiscum communicavit: καὶ οἱ Τρῶες πολιορκοῦνται· καὶ Ἐπειὸς κατ᾿ ᾿Αθηνᾶς προαίρεσιν τὸν δούρειον ἵππον κατασκευάζει. haec (quippe parum inest atrocitatis) interpolator silentio transmisit. pergit Proculus : Ὀδυσσεὺς δὲ αἰκισάμενος ἑαυτὸν κατάσκοπος εἰς Ἴλιον παραγίνεται, καὶ ἀναγνωρισθεὶς ὑφ᾽ Ἑλένης περὶ τῆς ἁλώσεως τῆς πόλεως συντίθεται. κτείνας τέ τινας τῶν Τρώων ἐπὶ τὰς ναῦς ἀφικνεῖται. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα σὺν Διομήδει τὸ Παλλά διον ἐκκομίζει ἐκ τῆς Ἰλίου. quod Ulixes sumpto mendici habitu deformis Troiam venit ibique plures occidit (cf. Odyss. 4. 252-264), id ad efficiendam tragoediam rursus sufficere videbatur. dedit igitur πτωχείαν sive mendicitatem (non mendicationem), quo nomine nunquam poeta Graecus quispiam tragoediam inscribere sustinuit. sed unde rarum hoc nomen sumpsit? hausit ex eodem fonte unde sua omnia sumpsisse illum indicavimus, ex titulis illius carminis partibus suprascriptis. nimirum illa tertii libri particula πτωχείας nomen gessisse hinc sive verisimile admodum sive manifestum fit. qui sequitur tragoediae index Λάκαιναι, is ad Palladii ex Troia surreptionem perpatratam ab Ulixe et Diomede, qui fortasse adiuti sunt a Lacaenis Helenae ancillis, videtur pertinere. utrum Sophoclis fabulam Λακαίνας (unde pauca fragmenta servata sunt) cognitam habuerit an hunc etiam titulum ex eodem illo fonte sumpserit non decerno. septimo loco et octavo iam sequitur Ἰλίου πέρσις et ἀπόπλους, h. e. ἀπόπλους τῶν ᾿Αχαιῶν. ne his quidem nominibus tragoedias Graecorum tragicorum significavit 6). itaque 5) Non temere haec scribo neque nescius eorum quae viri doctissimi, Hermannus in Commentariis ad Poet. p. 162. de tragicis qui Ἰλίου πέρσιν scripserint, et praecipue Welckerus in Diurnis antiquariis Zimmermanni a. 1831. n. 152. et in Museo Rhenano philolog. tom. V. p. 483 sqq. erudite sane et acute disputaverunt. sed ad id obtinendum quod volo non requiri videtur, ut contrariae meae sententiae rationes longa disputatione promam: nam si ἀπόπλουν tragoediam non fuisse vel certe nunquam memorari omnes concedunt, nihil sane causae adest cur alteroquarti parvae Iliadis libri partem ἀπόπλουν et quintum librum Ἰλίου πέρσιν inscriptum fuisse statuo, quam carminis partem Pausanias peculiari nomine Ἰλίου πέρσιν saepius vocavit X, 25-27. nam quamquam Proculi summaria nihil de Ἰλίου πέρσιδι referunt, nihilo minus Leschis carmen ultra equi lignei intra muros Troianos receptionem et Achivorum in Tenedum discessum (ibi subsistit Proculus) productum fuisse certum est et probatum a viris illis egregiis quorum nomina et libros ante laudavi. utrum ἀπόπλουν intelligam illum simulatum Graecorum ad Tenedum discessum an verum post urbem eversam incertus haereo. sed prius utique praeferendum puto, quamquam sic nomen ἀπόπλους ante Ἰλίου πέρσιν ponendum erat. iam habemus octo tragoediarum argumenta sive materiam fabulosam, non tragoedias; apteque illa series concluditur particula καὶ ( καὶ ἀπόπλους). sed ecce accedunt Σίνων et Τρωάδες, quarum prior ante Ἰλίου πέρσιν ponenda erat, altera ad parvam Iliadem plane non pertinere videtur: nemo certe ultra Ilii excidium quidquam ex parva Iliade commemoravit. haec duo nomina igitur ab _altero interpolatore adiecta esse statuo, qui Sinonem a Sophocle, Troades ab Euripide scriptas esse meminisset. prior igitur interpolator hanc seriem titulorum tragoediarum posuit: ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης, Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις καὶ ἀπόπλους. has fere tragoedias aut plures etiam ( πλέον ὀκτώ) ex illa materia mythica confici posse credidit. alter certiora proferre cupiens addidit καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρωάδες. iam vides cur septem nomina fabularum sine particula iuxta se posita compareant, illo nomine freti Ἰλίου πέρσιν tragoediam vindicemus. de alio Poeticae loco (c. 18, 5), unde Ἰλίου πέρσιν tragoediam falso plures viri docti elicuerunt, in Commentario ad 1. c. diximus. haec ad causam quae iam agitur sufficiunt. alia illa est quaestio, utrum tragoedia Ἰλίου πέρσις unquam apud Graecos exstiterit nec ne. mihi non exstitisse persuasum est: sed de hac re alias.24. §. 1. 253 tum vero particula καὶ non semel sed ter adiiciatur: καὶ ἀπόπλους (hic prior interpolator seriem suam claudit) καὶ Σίνων καὶ Τρωάδες.

Aristotle Poetics 23.7

Thomas Twining (Translator)