Πῶς δεῖ τὸν νέον ποιημάτων ἀκούειν.

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İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

13 This illustration at once reminds us to consider carefully instances of censure and commendation, particularly in Homer’s poems. For he gives us expressly to understand that bodily and adventitious characteristics are unworthy of serious attention. For, to begin with, in their greetings and salutations, they do not call one another handsome or rich or strong, but they employ such fair words as these— Heaven-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices,Homer, Il. ii. 173. and Hector, son of Priam, peer of Zeus in counsel, Ib. vii. 47. and Son of Peleus, Achilles, great glory to the Achaeans, Ib. xix. 216. and Noble son of Menoetius, in whom my soul finds pleasure. Ib. xi. 608. In the second place they reproach without touching at all upon bodily characteristics, but they direct their censure to faults: Drunken sot, with eyes of a dog and the wild deer’s courage, Ib. i. 225. and Ajax, excelling at wrangling, ill advised, Ib. xxiii. 483. and Why, Idomeneus do you brag so soon? Unfitting Is it for you to be braggart, Ib. xxiii. 474, 478. and Ajax, blundering boaster, Ib. xiii. 824. and finally Thersites is reproached Ib. ii. 246. by Odysseus, not as lame or bald or hunchbacked, but as indiscreet in his language, while on the other hand the mother of Hephaestus affectionately drew an epithet from his lameness when she addressed him thus: Up with you, club-foot, my child!Homer, Il. xxi. 331. Thus Homer ridicules those who feel ashamed of lameness or blindness, in that he does not regard as blameworthy that which is not shameful, or as shameful that which is brought about, not through our own acts, but by fortune.