‘And further, with those who shew slight to us before (in respect of) five different kinds of persons; (1) to those whom we are ambitious of rivalling1 (in the race for distinction; φιλοτιμεῖσθαι expresses the ambitious views, and πρὸς οὕς the competition, comp. c. 4. 24, 6. 15, 10. 5, &c.); (2) πρὸς (τούτους) οὕς, to those whom we respect and admire; (3) those by whom we wish to be respected and admired; (4) those of whom we stand in awe; (5) ἢ (τοῖς ὀλιγωροῦσιν ἡμῶν, or αὐτῶν as Ar. writes it,) or, (we are angry with those who slight us) when in the company of (ἐν) those who hold us in awe. In the society of any of these, a slight offered is provocative of a greater degree of anger (than it would be elsewhere)’. αἰσχύνεσθαι, with the accus. of the person, means to ‘be ashamed in a man's presence, or before him; to be afraid to look one in the face, from reverence; to stand in awe of him’. Soph. Phil. 1382, οὐ καταισχύνει θεούς; τὸν προστρόπαιον τὸν ἱκέτην; The accusative is the local accus., an extension of the cognate accus., the person, whose presence causes the shame or awe, being represented as the seat of it, as when we say ἀλγεῖν τὴν κεφαλήν. Matth., Gr. Gr. 441, has given a few examples of this use of αἰσχύνεσθαι and αἰδεῖσθαι—four from Eur. Ion, 353, 379, 952, and 1093, αἰσχύνομαι τὸν πολύϋμνον θεόν, and one from Xen. de Rep. Lac. II 11. Add Hom. Il. A 23, αἰδεῖσθαί θ᾽ ἱερῆα, Z (VI) 442, αἰδεόμαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρώαδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους: so αἰδεῖσθαι ἱκέτην, as Hom. Il. X (XXII) 124. Aesch. Agam. 362, (Dind.), Δία τοι ξένων μέγαν αἰδοῦμαι. Aristoph. Thesm. 848, 903, Eccles. 381, Plut. 1077. Plat. Theaet. 183 E, Μέλισσον...ἧττον αἰσχύνομαι. Symp. 216 B, 218 D, Protag. 312 A, οὐκ ἂν αἰσχύνοιο σαυτόν; Rep. VIII 562 E, αἰσχύνεσθαι τοὺς γονέας, κ.τ.λ. Comp. Lat. pudere, suppudere, aliquem alicuius, Cic. Ep. ad Fam. IX 1 sed quod eorum me suppudebat. Orator 155 ‘Patris mei, meum factum (i. e. meorum factorum) pudet.’
1 The phrase has been otherwise understood, ‘those whom they are anxious to stand well with’. But to say nothing of its not properly representing the Greek, this interpretation leaves no difference between this first class and the third.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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