Kitap 2
23.29
Another topic is derived from the meaning of a name. For instance, Sophocles says, Certainly thou art iron, like thy name.Sophocles, Tyro, Frag. 597 (T.G.F.). The reference is to Sidero ( σίδηρος, iron), the cruel stepmother of Tyro. This topic is also commonly employed in praising the gods. Conon used to call Thrasybulus the man bold in counsel, and Herodicus said of Thrasymachus, Thou art ever bold in fight, and of Polus, Thou art ever Polus (colt) by name and colt by nature,Thompson's rendering (Introd. to his edition of Plato's Gorgias p. 5). Colt refers to Polus's skittishness and frisking from one subject to another. and of Draco the legislator that his laws were not those of a man, but of a dragon, so severe were they. Hecuba in EuripidesEur. Tro. 990. speaks thus of Aphro-dite: And rightly does the name of the goddess begin like the word aphro-syne (folly); and ChaeremonFrag. 4 (T.G.F.). The name Pentheus is from πένθος (sorrow). of Pentheus, Pentheus named after his unhappy future.
23.30
Enthymemes that serve to refute are more popular than those that serve to demonstrate, because the former is a conclusion of oppositesAdmitting the apparent correctness of the opposing argument, we may prove the contradictory of its conclusion by an unassailable argument of our own, which is then called an elenchus (Thomson, Laws of Thought, section 127). in a small compass, and things in juxtaposition are always clearer to the audience. But of all syllogisms, whether refutative or demonstrative, those are specially applauded, the result of which the hearers foresee as soon as they are begun, and not because they are superficial (for as they listen they congratulate themselves on anticipating the conclusion); and also those which the hearers are only so little behind that they understand what they mean as soon as they are delivered.
