Frigidity of
style arises from four causes: first, the use of compound words, as when
Lycophron1
speaks of the “many-faced sky of the mighty-topped earth,”
“narrow-passaged shore”; and Gorgias of “a
begging-poet flatterer,”
“those who commit perjury and those who swear right
solemnly.2” And as Alcidamas says,
“the soul full of anger and the face fire-colored,”
“he thought that their zeal would be end-accomplishing,”
“he made persuasive words end-accomplishing,” and
“the azure-colored floor of the sea,” for all these appear
poetical because they are compound.
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1 A sophist, not the poet （author of the obscure Alexander or Cassandra）, who was later than Aristotle.
2 Lobeck conjectured κατεπιορκήσαντας, “who commit out-and-out perjury.”
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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