Aristotle Rhetoric 1.6

John Henry Freese (Translator)

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

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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

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).) — 1.6 focus
Translations (1)
Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric (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 of the same printing.) — 1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Rhetoric

1. The excellence of anything is proportionate to its success in the performance of its proper function. The function of acquisition is to get something valuable, such as money, and its excellence may be judges by the amount of wealth obtained.
2. Hom. Il.1.255 . The words are those of Nestor to Achilles and Agamemnon, in which he points out how their enemies would rejoice if they heard all the story of their quarrel.
3. Reading ὅ. The ordinary reading οὗ is taken to mean that which does not permit excess, that which is midway between two extremes, the mean. Another suggested rendering is, that of which one cannot have too much.
4. Hom. Il. 2.160 . Addressed by Hera to Athene, begging her to prevent the Greeks departing from Troy and leaving Helen behind.
5. Hom. Il. 2.298 . Spoken by Odysseus. While sympathizing with the desire of the army to leave, he points out that it would be disgraceful after waiting so long to return unsuccessful, and exhorts them to hold out.
6. Proverbial for lost labor. Cf. French faire naufrage au port, and the English there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.
7. Meaning that they cannot have done their duty against their enemies, who would then have blamed them. Another suggested reading is οὓς οἱ φίλοι ψέγουσι καὶ οὓς οἱ ἐχθροὶ μὴ ψέγουσι ( those whom their friends blame and whom their enemies do not blame.)
8. In the Iliad Glaucus, a Corinthian, is described as an ally of the Trojans. Simonides meant to praise, but the Corinthians were suspicious and thought his words were meant satirically, in accordance with the view just expressed by Aristotle. The Simonides referred to is Simonides of Ceos (Frag. 50, P.L.G. 3, where the line is differently given). Aristotle is evidently quoting from memory, as he often does, although not always accurately.
9. γενόμενα ἄν: Spengel omits ἄν: i.e. things which have happened.
10. Or which no one else has done (Jebb).