E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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And men are disposed to feel shame, ‘whenever they have attached to them any disgraceful deeds or belongings, derived either from themselves or their ancestors, or any others with whom they are in near relation’. ἀγχιστεία, ‘nearness of kin’, gives the right of succession under the Attic law. Victorius quotes Eur. Hippol. 424, δουλοῖ γὰρ ἄνδρα, κἂν θρασυσπλαγχνός τις ᾖ, ὅταν συνειδῇ μητρὸς ἢ πατρὸς κακά.

ἃ καταισχυνοῦσιν ἔργα] The subject of the neut. plur. with verb singular, and the exceptions, is well treated in Jelf's Gr. Gr. §§ 384, 385. Porson, Addenda ad Eur. Hec. 1149, had restricted the exceptions to persons or animate objects: Hermann, ad Soph. Electr. 430, corrects this too limited statement. Lobeck, Phrynichus, p. 425. On Aristotle's use of this licence, see Zell ad Eth. Nic. vol. II. p. 4, Waitz ad Organ. vol. I. p. 535.

‘And, as a general rule, those on whose behalf (account) we ourselves feel ashamed (when they are guilty of any shameful act). These are such as have been just named (sc. πρόγονοι ἢ ἄλλοι τινές κ.τ.λ.) as well as all such as fall back upon us (ἀναφερόμενοι, re-lati, who refer to us, as patrons or authorities), those, that is, to whom we have stood in the relation of instructors or admirers; or indeed if there be any others, like ourselves, to whom we look up as competitors for distinction: for there are many things which out of consideration for such we either do or avoid doing from a feeling of shame’.