Book 9
15.2
He said they were three,—φορά, σχῆμα, and δεῖξις. For dancing is made up of motion and manner (σχέσις), as a song of sounds and stops; stops are the ends of motion. Now the motions they call φοραί, and the gestures and likeness to which the motions tend, and in which they end, they call σχήματα: as, for instance, when by their own motions they represent the figure of Apollo, Pan, or any of the raging Bacchae. The third, δεῖξις, is not an imitation, but a plain downright indication of the things represented. For the poets, when they would speak of Achilles, Ulysses, the earth, or heaven, use their proper names, and such as the vulgar usually understand. But for the more lively representation, they use words which by their very sound express some eminent quality in the thing, or metaphors; as when they say that streams do babble and flash; that arrows fly desirous the flesh to wound; or when they describe an equal battle by saying the fight had equal heads. They have likewise a great many significative compositions in their verses. Thus Euripides of Perseus, He that Medusa slew, and flies in air; and Pindar of a horse, When by the smooth Alpheus’ banks He ran the race, and never felt the spur; and Homer of a race, The chariots, overlaid with tin and brass, By fiery horses drawn ran swiftly on. Euripides, Frag. 975; Pindar, Olymp. I. 31; Il. XXIII. 503. So in dancing, the σχῆμα represents the shape and figure, the φορά shows some action, passion, or power; but by the δεῖξις are properly and significatively shown the things themselves, for instance, the heaven, earth, or the company. Which, being done in a certain order and method, resembles the proper names used in poetry, decently clothed and attended with suitable epithets. As in these lines, Themis the venerable and admired, And Venus beauteous with her bending brows, Dione fair, and Juno crowned with gold. Hesiod, Theog. 16. And in these, From Hellen kings renowned for giving laws, Great Dorus and the mighty Xuthus, sprang, And Aeolus, whose chief delight was horse. These verses are quoted by Tzetzes with three others as belonging to Hesiod’s Heroic Genealogy. If they are genuine, they contain the earliest reference to Hellen and his three sons. See Fragment XXXII. in Göttling’s Hesiod. (G.) For if poets did not take this liberty, how mean, how grovelling and flat, would be their verse! As suppose they wrote thus, From this came Hercules, from the other Iphitus. Her father, husband, and her son were kings,
