Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/369

Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 343 Of words some are single, by which I mean composed of parts not Cap. xxi. significant, and some double : of which last some have one part signifi- Jt^^iJo"* cant, and the other not significant j and some, both parts significant. A ^^■'^^*^- word may also be triple, quadruple, &c. ; such are most of the bombastic expressions, like Hermocaico-xanthus Every word is either strictly appropriate (/cvptov), or foreign (yXwrra), or metaphorical, or ornamental, or invented, or extended, or contracted, or altered. By appropriate words I mean such as are in general and established use. By foreign, such as belong to a different language : so that the same word may evidently be both appropriate and foreign, though not to the same people. The word aiyvvov, "a spear," to the Cyprians is appi'opriate, to ns foreign. A metaphorical word is a word transferred from its proper sense; either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from one species to another, or in the way of analogy. 1. From genus to species: as vqv^ U fiOL ^d' earrjKe (Od. I. 185). Secure in yonder port my vessel stands. For to he at anclwr is one sp)ecies of standing or hemg fixed. 2. From species to genus : as 97 St; fivp'C 'Odv<r<T€vs ia-6k iopyev (TI. II. 272). To Ulysses A thousand generous deeds we owe For a thousand is a certain definite many, which is here used for many in general. 3. From one species to anotJier : as XaX>c(p airb i/'i'xV a picas. And ^ejxCjv dreip^'i x^^i^V- For here the poet uses ra/xetv, to cut off, instead of dpva-ai, to draw forth; and oipva-aL, instead of ra/aeiv; each being a species of taking away. 4. In the way of analogy — when, of four terms, the second beai-s the same relation to the first, as the fourth to the third; in which case the fourth may be substituted for the second, and the second for the fourth. [And sometimes the proper term is also introduced, besides its relative term.] ^ I have not hesitated to adopt Tjrwhitt's emendation, fieyoKeiuv ws for Me7a- lcotuv. It is sufficiently confirmed by Xen. Mem. ii. i, § 34, which he quotes, and the instance given of a compound containing the names of three rivers deserved some such description. Aristophanes abounds in similar compounds. Ritter proposes TroWa7rofji.€yd(»}Tros. — J. W. D.