[13]
But they are excellent when there is a
proportional metaphor; for it is possible to liken a shield to the goblet of
Ares and a ruin to the rag of a house; to say that Niceratus is a Philoctetes
bitten by Pratys, to use the simile of Thrasymachus, when he saw Niceratus,
defeated by Pratys in a rhapsodic competition, still dirty with his hair
uncut.1 It is herein that poets are especially condemned if they fail,
but applauded if they succeed. I mean, for instance, when they introduce an
answering clause:2
“
He carries his legs twisted like parsley,
” or again, “
Like Philammon punching the leather sack.
” All such expressions are similes, and similes, as has been often said,
are metaphors of a kind.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.