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But of all things it is most necessary, and no less profitable if we design to receive profit and not hurt from the poets, that we understand how they make use of the names of Gods, as also of the terms of Evil and Good; and what they mean by Fortune and Fate; and whether these words be always taken by them in one and the same sense or rather in various senses, as also many other words are. For so the word οἶκος sometimes signifies a material house, as, Into the high-roofed house; and sometimes estate, as, My house is devoured. So the word βίοτος sometimes signifies life, and sometimes wealth. And ἀλύειω is sometimes taken for being uneasy and disquieted in mind, as in Ὤς ἔφαθ᾽· ἡ δ᾽ὐλύουσ᾽ὐπεβήσατο, τείρετο δ᾽αἰνῶς, Il. V. 352. and elsewhere for boasting and rejoicing, as in Ἤ ὐλείς, ὅτι Ἶρον ἐρνίκησας τόν ἀλήτην Odyss. XVIII. 333. In like manner θοάζειν signifies either to move, as in Euripides when he saith, Κῆτος θούζον ἐκ Ἀτλαντικῆς ἁλός— or to sit, as in Sophocles when he writes thus, Τίνας πόθ᾽ἕρας τάσδε μοι θοάζετε, Ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν ἑξεστεμμένοι. Soph. Oed. Tyr. 2.
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It is elegant also when they a᾽dapt to the present matter, as grammarians teach, the use of words which are commonly of another signification. As here:— Νῆ᾽ὀλίγου αἰνεῖν, μεγάλῃ δ᾽ἐνί φορτία θέσθαι. For here αἰνεῖν signifies to praise (instead of ἐμαινεῖν), and to praise is used for to refuse. So in conversation it is common with us to say, καλῶς ἔχει, it is well (i.e., No, I thank you), and to bid any thing fare well (χαίρειν); by which forms of speech we refuse a thing which we do not want, or receive it not, but still with a civil compliment. So also some say that Proserpina is called ἐπαινή in the notion of παραιτητή, to be deprecated, because death is by all men shunned.
