[3]
And as Homer often, by making use of
metaphor, speaks of inanimate things as if they were animate; and it is to
creating actuality in all such cases that his popularity is due, as in the
following examples: “
Again the ruthless stone rolled down to the plain.1
”
“
The arrow flew.2
”
“
[The arrow] eager to fly [towards the
crowd].3
”
“
[The spears] were buried in the ground, longing to
take their fill of flesh.4
”
“
The spear-point sped eagerly through his breast.5
”. For in all these examples there is appearance of actuality, since the
objects are represented as animate: “the shameless stone,”
“the eager spear-point,” and the rest express actuality.
Homer has attached these attributes by the employment of the proportional
metaphor; for as the stone is to Sisyphus, so is the shameless one to the one
who is shamelessly treated.
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Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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