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” Combination and building up, as employed by Epicharmus,3 produce the same effect as division, and for the same reason; for combination is an exhibition of great superiority and appears to be the origin and cause of great things.
1 Or, “superiority over a greater number of things.”
2 After πεῖσαι all the MSS. except A Paris have λέγουσαν. If this is retained, it must refer to Meleager's wife Cleopatra, who “persuaded him . . . by quoting.” As the text stands, the literal rendering is: “the poet says that (the recital of the three verses) persuaded.” The passage is from Hom. Il. 9.592-594 (slightly different).
3 Epicharmus (c. 550-460 B.C.) writer of comedies and Pythagorean philosopher, was born at Megara in Sicily (according to others, in the island of Cos). His comedies, written in the Doric dialect, and without a chorus, were either mythological or comedies of manners, as extant titles show. Plato speaks of him as “the prince of comedy” and Horace states definitely that he was imitated by Plautus.
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