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In the first clause of this section, as Schrader has noticed, there is a momentary transition from the persons who feel shame to the things which produce it; in the second, a return is made to the masculine. Supply αἰσχύνονται. ‘And of things that take place, of acts done, under our very eyes, and openly (in broad daylight, or very prominent and conspicuous in position) men are more ashamed: whence also the proverb, the seat of shame is in the eyes. And the shame is deeper in the presence of those who will be always with us (constantly in our society, as members of our family, intimate friends; and the closer the intimacy the deeper the shame), and those who pay attention to, take particular notice of us (study our character and actions); because both these are cases of special observation’.

ἀμφότερα] the abstract neuter; ‘both the preceding things, or cases’; these two facts, or observations on the manifestation of shame, that it is more felt in the presence (1) of intimate associates and (2) curious observers, are confirmed by the proverb that the seat of shame is in the eyes; —when we are very much ashamed of anything we turn away our eyes, and dare not look our friend in the face. So Sappho to Alcaeus, supra I 9. 20—whatever the true reading may be—directly expresses this in the phrase αἰδὼς ἔχει ὄμματα.

The principal organ by which the emotion is expressed or manifested is naturally regarded as the seat of that emotion: and this is by no means confined to shame, but is extended not only to other emotions, but even to justice by Eurip. Med. 219, δίκη γὰρ οὐκ ἔνεστ᾽ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς βροτῶν: the eyes are in this case represented as the organs of injustice, not discerning right and wrong. So Eur. Hippol. 246, καὶ ἐπ᾽ αἰσχύνην ὄμμα τέτραπται. Id. C<*>esph. Fr. XVIII (Dind.), αἰδὼς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσι γίγνεται τέκνον (apud Stobaeum). Arist. Vesp. 446, ἀλλὰ τούτοις γ᾽ οὐκ ἔνι οὐδ̓ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσιν αἰδὼςτῶν παλαιῶν ἐμβάδων. Athen. XIII 564 B (Gaisford), καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ ἔφη τοὺς ἐραστὰς εἰς οὐδὲν ἄλλο τοῦ σώματος τῶν ἐρωμένων ἀποβλέπειν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, ἐν οἷς τὴν αἰδὼ κατοικεῖν. Theogn. 85, οἷσιν ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ τε καὶ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἔπεστιν αἰδώς. Theocr. XXVII 69, ὄμμασιν αἰδομένη. (Paley ad Suppl. 195, Latin ed.) Apollon. Rhod. III 92 (Victorius). Suidas s. v. αἰδώς. καὶ ἑτέρα παροιμίααἰδὼς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς,” παρ᾽ ὅσον οἱ κεκακωμένοι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς οὐκ αἰδοῦνται, ὅτι τοὺς παρόντας ὁρῶντες αἰδοῦνται μᾶλλον οἱ ἄνθρωποι τοὺς ἀπόντας. Eustath. ad Il. N 923. 18 (Gaisford), Ἀριστοτέλους γὰρ φιλοσοφώτατα παραδομένου οἰκητήριον αἰδοῦς εἶναι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. Id. ad Odys. ξ́ 1754. 39, Ἀριστοτέλους φαμένου τὴν αἰδῶ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς εἶναι, ......οἷα τῶν αἰδημόνων καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ὄψεως χαρακτηριζομένων, οἱ ἐφ᾽ οἷς αἰδεῖσθαι χρὴ χαλῶσι τὰ βλέφαρα καὶ βλέπειν ἀτενὲς ὀκνοῦσιν. In Probl. XXXI 3, 957 b 11, this is directly stated as a matter of fact without any reference to the proverb or to vulgar opinion, ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς γὰρ αἰδώς, as an explanation of something else.

So of love, the eye is the medium or channel by which it is conveyed; Eur. Hippol. 527, ἔρως, ἔρως, κατ᾽ ὀμμάτων στάζεις πόθον. Aesch. Agam. 419, ὀμμάτων δ᾽ ἐν ἀχηνίαις ἔῤῥει πᾶς᾿ Ἀφροδίτα, on which see Donaldson, New Crat. § 478. Ib. 742 (Dind.) μαλθακὸν ὀμμάτων βέλος δηξίθυμον ἔρωτος ἄνθος. Plat. Phaedr. 251 B, τοῦ κάλλους τὴν ἀποῤῥοὴν διὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων—the Emanation theory—which is afterwards explained, ib. 251 C, Cratyl. 420 B, ἔρως δέ, ὅτι ἐσρεῖ ἔξωθεν...ἐπείσακτος διὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων ...ἐκαλεῖτο. Arist. Eth. Nic. IX 12, init. ὥσπερ τοῖς ἐρῶσι τὸ ὁρᾷν ἀγαπητοτατόν ἐστι καὶ μᾶλλον αἱροῦνται ταύτην τὴν αἴσθησιν τὰς λοιπὰς ὡς κατὰ ταυτην μάλιστα τοῦ ἔρωτος ὄντος καὶ γενομένου κ.τ.λ. Heliodorus III 8, quoted by King, Gnostic Gems, p. 113—4, on βασκανία ‘the envious’ or ‘evil eye’. In the same passage love is described as a kind of ophthalmia, or infection by the eye. Similarly φθόνος, ‘the evil eye’, Aesch. Agam. 947 (Dind.), μή τις πρόσωθεν ὀμμάτων βάλοι φθόνος—where Paley quotes Eur. Inûs Fragm. 11, ἐν χερσίν, σπλάγχνοισιν, παρ᾽ ὄμματα ἔσθ̓ ἧμιν ( φθόνος).—φόβος, Aesch. Pers. 168 (Dind.), ἀμφὶ δ: ὀφθαλμοῖς φόβος. ἄχος, Soph. Aj. 706, ἔλυσεν αἰνὸν ἄχος ἀπ᾽ ὀμμάτων Ἄρης. S. Petr. Ep. II ii. 14, ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες μεστοὺς μοιχαλίδος, S. Joh. Ep. I ii. 16, ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. χαρά, ‘tears of joy’, Soph. Electr. 894, 1304, 1231, γεγηθὸς ἕρπει δάκρυον ὀμμάτων ἄπο. Aesch. Agam. 261, χαρά μ᾽ ὑφέρπει δάκρυον ἐκκαλουμένη. Ib. 527. Prov. vi. 17, haughty eyes are an abomination to the Lord. Isaiah v. 15, the eyes (i. e. pride) of the lofty shall be humbled. Ezekiel v. 11, neither shall mine eyes (i. e. either mercy or justice) spare. Habak. i. 13, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. All these various examples shew, what may also be inferred from our own ordinary language, in which we speak indifferently of the eye of mercy and of pity on the one hand, and of the eye of anger, of envy, of scorn, of hatred, of jealousy on the other, that the eye may be taken to represent in language any emotion whatsoever, good or bad, of which it is in nature the most prominent organ of expression.

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