[23]
For παραβολή, which Cicero1 translates
by “comparison,” is often apt to compare things whose
resemblance is far less obvious. Nor does it merely
compare the actions of men as Cicero does in the
pro Murena2 : “But if those who have just come
into harbour from the high seas are in the habit of
showing the greatest solicitude in warning those who
are on the point of leaving port of the state of the
weather, the likelihood of falling in with pirates, and
the nature of the coasts which they are like to visit
(for it is a natural instinct that we should take a
kindly interest in those who are about to face the
dangers from which we have just escaped), what
think you should be my attitude who am now in
sight of land after a mighty tossing on the sea,
towards this man who, as I clearly see, has to face
the wildest weather?” On the contrary, similes of
this kind are sometimes drawn from dumb animals
and inanimate objects.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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