12
So no one has composed a long poem in any metre other than the heroic hexameter. As we said above, Nature shows that this is the right metre to choose.
13
Homer deserves praise for many things and especially for this, that alone of all poets he does not fail to understand what he ought to do himself. The poet should speak as seldom as possible in his own character, since he is not representing the story in that sense.This takes us back to the beginning of chapter 3, where the various manners of representation are distinguished. Homer represents life partly by narration, partly by assuming a character other than his own. Both these manners come under the head of Imitation. When Aristotle says the poet speaks himself and plays a part himself he refers not to narrative, of which there is a great deal in Homer, but to the preludes (cf. φροιμιασάμενος below) in which the poet, invoking the Muse, speaks in his own person. Ridgeway points out that in the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey Homer thus speaks himself only 24 lines.
14
Now the other poets play a part themselves throughout the poem and only occasionally represent a few things dramatically, but Homer after a brief prelude at once brings in a man or a woman or some other character, never without character, but all having character of their own.
15
Now the marvellous should certainly be portrayed in tragedy, but epic affords greater scope for the inexplicable(which is the chief element in what is marvellous), because we do not actually see the persons of the story.
16
The incident of Hector’s pursuitIliad, xxii. 205. sq. “And to the host divine Achilles nodded with his head a sign and let them not launch their bitter darts at Hector, lest another should win glory by shooting him and Achilles himself come second.” would look ridiculous on the stage, the people standing still and not pursuing and Achilles waving them back, but in epic that is not noticed.
