Aristotle, Rhetoric, John Henry Freese (Translator), 3.12.3

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[3] (But one must vary the expression when one repeats the same thing, for this as it were paves the way for declamation:¹ as, This is he who robbed you, this is he who deceived you, this is he who at last attempted to betray you. This is what Philemon the actor did in The Old Man's Folly of Anaxandrides, when he says Rhadamanthus and Palamedes, and when he repeats the word I in the prologue to The Pious.² For unless such expressions are varied by action, it is a case of the man who carries the beam³ in the proverb.)

Rhetoric. Aristotle. John Henry Freese (Translator). London. 1926.

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Current edition Perseus

The "Art" of Rhetoric (English) (Aristotle. The "Art" of Rhetoric. Freese, John Henry, translator. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1926 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Ῥητορική Perseus (Aristotle. Aristotelis Ars Rhetorica. Ross, William David, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1959 (printing).) — 3.12.3 focus

[3] ἀνάγκη δὲ μεταβάλλειν τὸ αὐτὸ λέγοντας, ὅπερ ὥσπερ ὁδοποιεῖ τῷ ὑποκρίνεσθαι· οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κλέψας ὑμῶν, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐξαπατήσας, οὗτος ὁ τὸ ἔσχατον προδοῦναι 25 ἐπιχειρήσας, οἷον καὶ Φιλήμων ὁ ὑποκριτὴς ἐποίει ἔν τε τῇ Ἀναξανδρίδου Γεροντομαχίᾳ, ὅτε λέγοι Ῥαδάμανθυς καὶ Παλαμήδης, καὶ ἐν τῷ προλόγῳ τῶν Εὐσεβῶν τὸ ἐγώ· ἐὰν γάρ τις τὰ τοιαῦτα μὴ ὑποκρίνηται, γίγνεται ὁ τὴν δοκὸν φέρων.

Notes on the current edition

Rhetoric

1. The variation in the form of the expression suggests a similar variation in the form of the delivery or declamation.

2. The meaning of this has not been satisfactorily explained. On the face of it, it seems to mean that the excellence of Philemon's delivery consisted in his way of declaiming passages in which the same words were repeated. Philemon is not to be confused with the writer of the New Comedy, the rival and contemporary of Menander.

3. Used of a stiff, ungraceful speaker.

Aristotle Rhetoric 3.12.3

John Henry Freese (Translator)

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