Book 3
10.7
Of the four kinds of metaphorIn Aristot. Poet. 21 metaphor and its four classes are defined: Metaphor consists in assigning to a thing the name of something else; and this may take place either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or proportionally. An instance of a metaphor from genus to species is ‘here stands my ship,’ for ‘standing’ is a genus, ‘being moored’ a species; from species to genus: ‘Odysseus truly has wrought a myriad good deeds,’ for ‘myriad’ is a specific large number, used for the generic ‘multitude’; from species to species: ‘having drawn off the life with the bronze’ and ‘having cut it with the unyielding bronze,’ where ‘drawn off’ is used in the sense of ‘cut,’ and ‘cut’ in the sense of ‘drawn off,’ both being species of ‘taking away.’ For the proportional metaphor see note on 4.4 above. the most popular are those based on proportion. Thus, Pericles said that the youth that had perished during the war had disappeared from the State as if the year had lost its springtime.1.7.34. Leptines, speaking of the Lacedaemonians, said that he would not let the Athenians stand by and see Greece deprived of one of her eyes. When Chares was eager to have his accounts for the Olynthian war examined, Cephisodotus indignantly exclaimed that, now he had the people by the throat, he was trying to get his accounts examinedεὔθυνα was the technical term for the examination of accounts to which all public officers had to submit when their term of office expired. Cephisodotus and Chares were both Athenian generals. Having the people by the throat may refer to the condition of Athens financially and his unsatisfactory conduct of the war. But the phrase εἰς πνῖγμα τὸν δῆμον ἔχοντα is objected to by Cope, who reads ἀγαγόντα and translates: that he drove the people into a fit of choking by his attempts to offer his accounts for scrutiny in this way, i.e. he tried to force his accounts down their throats, and nearly choked them. Another reading suggested is ἄγχοντα (throttling so as to choke).; on another occasion also he exhorted the Athenians to set out for Euboea without delay and provision themselves there, like the decree of Miltiades.This may refer to a decree of Miltiades which was so speedily carried out that it became proverbial. The expedition was undertaken to assist Euboea against Thebes. After the Athenians had made peace with Epidaurus and the maritime cities, Iphicrates indignantly declared that they had deprived themselves of provisions for the war.By making peace, Iphicrates said that the Athenians had deprived themselves of the opportunity of attacking and plundering a weak maritime city, and so securing provisions for the war. The word ἐφόδια properly means provisions for a journey and travelling expenses. Pitholaus called the ParalusThe Paralus and Salaminia were the two sacred galleys which conveyed state prisoners. the bludgeon of the people, and Sestos the corn-chestIt commanded the trade of the Euxine. of the Piraeus. Pericles recommended that Aegina, the eyesore of the Piraeus, should be removed. Moerocles, mentioning a very respectable person by name, declared that he was as much a scoundrel as himself; for whereas that honest man played the scoundrel at 33 per cent. he himself was satisfied with 10 per cent.Moerocles was a contemporary of Demosthenes, and an anti-Macedonian in politics. He seems to have been a money-grubber and was once prosecuted for extortion. The degree of the respectability (or rather, the swindling practices) of each is calculated by their respective profits. And the iambic of Anaxandrides,Poet of the Middle Comedy: Frag. 68 (Kock, Com. Att. Frag. 2.). The metaphor in ὑπερήμενοι is from those who failed to keep the term of payment of a fine or debt. Cope translates: I find ( μοι) the young ladies are . . . on girls who were slow to marry, My daughters are past the time of marriage. And the saying of PolyeuctusAthenian orator, contemporary of Demosthenes upon a certain paralytic named Speusippus, that he could not keep quiet, although Fortune had bound him in a five-holed pillory of disease. Cephisodotus called the triremes parti-colored mills,As grinding down the tributary states. They differed from ordinary mills in being gaily painted. and [Diogenes] the Cynic used to say that the tavernsContrasted with the Spartan messes, which were of a plain and simple character, at which all the citizens dined together. The tavern orgies, according to Diogenes, represented these at Athens. were the messes of Attica. AesionAthenian orator, opponent of Demosthenes. used to say that they had drained the State into Sicily,Referring to the disastrous Sicilian expedition. which is a metaphor and sets the thing before the eyes. His words so that Greece uttered a cry are also in a manner a metaphor and a vivid one. And again, as Cephisodotus bade the Athenians take care not to hold their concourses too often; and in the same way Isocrates, who spoke of those who rush together in the assemblies.Isoc. 5.12. Both συνδρομάς and συντρέχοντας refer to the collecting of a mob in a state of excitement. And as Lysias says in his Funeral Oration, that it was right that Greece should cut her hair at the tomb of those who fell at Salamis, since her freedom was buried along with their valor. If the speaker had said that it was fitting that Greece should weep, her valor being buried with them, it would have been a metaphor and a vivid one, whereas freedom by the side of valor produces a kind of antithesis. And as Iphicrates said, The path of my words leads through the center of the deeds of Chares; here the metaphor is proportional and the words through the center create vividness. Also, to say that one calls upon dangers to help against dangers is a vivid metaphor. And Lycoleon on behalf of Chabrias said, not even reverencing the suppliant attitude of his statue of bronze,The statue of Chabrias, erected after one of his victories, represented him as kneeling on the ground, the position which he had ordered his soldiers to take up when awaiting the enemy. The statue was in the agora and could be seen from the court. Lycoleon points to it, and bases his appeal on its suppliant attitude. a metaphor for the moment, not for all time, but still vivid; for when Chabrias is in danger, the statue intercedes for him, the inanimate becomes animate, the memorial of what he has done for the State. And in every way studying poorness of spirit,Isoc. 4.151. for studying a thing implies to increase it.Metaphor from species to genus (10.7, first note.), studying being a species of increasing. As a rule one studies to increase some good quality, not a bad one. And that reason is a light that God has kindled in the soul, for both the words reason and light make something clear. For we do not put an end to wars, but put them off,Isoc. 4.172. for both ideas refer to the future—putting off and a peace of such a kind. And again, it is a metaphor to say that such a treaty is a trophy far more splendid than those gained in war; for the latter are raised in memory of trifling advantages and a single favor of fortune, but the former commemorates the end of the whole war;Isoc. 4.180 (apparently from memory). for both treaty and trophy are signs of victory. Again, that cities also render a heavy account to the censure of men; for rendering an accountεὔθυνα (see 10.7, third note) further implies the punishment for an unsatisfactory statement of accounts. is a sort of just punishment.
