Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 8.6.41

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[41] But its decorative effect is greatest when it is metaphorical, as in the phrases

unbridled greed

¹ or

those mad piles of masonry.

² The epithet is generally made into a trope by the addition of something to it, as when Virgil speaks of

disgraceful poverty

sad old age.

³ But the nature of this form of embellishment is such that, while style is bare and inelegant without any epithets at all, it is overloaded when a large number are employed.

Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian. Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1920-1922.

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Current edition Perseus

Institutio Oratoria (English) (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.)

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Institutio Oratoria Perseus (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, editor. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.) — 8.6.41 focus

[41] qualia sunt O scelus abominandum, o deformem libidinem. exornatur autem res tota maxime translationibus, cupiditas effrenata et insanae substructiones. et solet fieri aliis adiunctis epitheton tropus, ut apud Vergilium turpis egestas et tristis senectus. verum tamen talis est ratio huiusce virtutis, ut sine appositis nuda sit et velut incompta oratio, oneretur tamen multis.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. Cic. in Cat. I. x. 25.

2. Pro Mil. xx. 53.

3. Aen. vi. 276 and 275. Here the addition is metonymy, turpis and tristis both substituting effect in place of cause: cp. § 27.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 8.6.41

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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