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if this is much done, the prose character disappears entirely. We now see why
the language of compounds is just the thing for writers of dithyrambs, who
love sonorous noises; strange words for writers of epic poetry, which is a
proud and stately affair; and metaphor for iambic verse, the metre which (as
has been already’ said) is widely used to-day.
(4) There remains the fourth region in which bad taste may be shown,
metaphor. Metaphors like other things may be inappropriate. Some are so
because they are ridiculous; they are indeed used by comic as well as tragic
poets. Others are too grand and theatrical; and these, if they are far-fetched,
may also be obscure. For instance, Gorgias talks of ‘events that are green and
full of sap’, and says ‘foul was the deed you sowed and evil the harvest you
reaped’. That is too much like poetry. Alcidamas, again, called philosophy ‘a
fortress that threatens the power of law’, and the Odyssey ‘a goodly looking-
glass of human life’,’ talked about ‘offering no such toy to poetry’: all these
expressions fail, for the reasons given, to carry the hearer with them. The
address of Gorgias to the swallow, when she had let her droppings fall on him
as she flew overhead, is in the best tragic manner. He said, ‘Nay, shame, O
Philomela’. Considering her as a bird, you could not call her act shameful;
considering her as a girl, you could; and so it was a good gibe to address her
as what she was once and not as what she is.
4
The Simile also is a metaphor; the difference is but slight. When the poet
says of Achilles that he
Leapt on the foe as a lion,
this is a simile; when he says of him ‘the lion leapt’, it is a metaphor-here,
since both are courageous, he has transferred to Achilles the name of ‘lion’.
Similes are useful in prose as well as in verse; but not often, since they are of
the nature of poetry. They are to be employed just as metaphors are employed,
since they are really the same thing except for the difference mentioned.
The following are examples of similes. Androtion said of Idrieus that he
was like a terrier let off the chain, that flies at you and bites you-Idrieus too
was savage now that he was let out of his chains. Theodamas compared
Archidamus to an Euxenus who could not do geometry-a proportional simile,
implying that Euxenus is an Archidamus who can do geometry. In Plato’s
Republic those who strip the dead are compared to curs which bite the stones
thrown at them but do not touch the thrower, and there is the simile about the
Athenian people, who are compared to a ship’s captain who is strong but a
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Buch The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Titel
- The Complete Aristotle
- Autor
- Aristotle
- Datum
- ~322 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 2328
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156