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‘And this again is the reason why, even when (the beloved) (becomes painful) causes pain (to his admirer) by his absence, there is still some pleasure that finds its way into (grows up, is engendered, in) his lamentations and wailings; for the pain that he feels is at the want of him, but with that, there is a pleasure in the recollection and, in a sense, sight of himself, and what he used to do, and how to look and behave, (οἷος what sort of person he was, in external appearance, and character, i. e. conduct)’. The very absence, and the pain that it causes, and the expression of grief, have a charm in them which affords some compensation by the recollection of all that he is and does. ‘Hence the appropriateness of the saying’,—meaning especially the use of the word ἵμερος, which implies eager desire, in relation to γόος—‘thus spake he, and in them all aroused longing desire for wailing’. This is a familiar phrase in Homer, and occurs several times both in the Iliad and Odyssey. See in Damm's Lexicon, s. v. ἵμερος. Andromache looking back at Hector as she was taking leave of him, δακρυόεν γελάσασα, is a picture of the mixture of pleasure and pain (Il. Z 484).
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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