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

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‘And sanguine; for youths, like men when in a state of drunkenness, are pervaded by a heat due to their nature (i. e. their physical structure); and also at the same time because they have not as yet had much experience of failure’. The first is the physical, the second the intellectual or logical, explanation of the phenomenon.

οἰνώμενοι] This is one of the verbs beginning with οι which “seldom or never receive the augment”, as οἰστρᾷν p. p. οἰστρημένος, “compounds of οἴαξ and οἰωνός, οἴχωκα Aesch. Pers. 13, Soph. Aj. 896.” Matth. Gr. Gr. § 168 obs. “This seems,” he adds, “to have originated from the old orthography, in which ω was as yet unknown.” οἰμωγμένον, Eur. Bacch. 1284. Similarly, ευ for ηυ, in εὑρεῖν, εὑρηκέναι, καθεῦδε, εὐλόγησα. See Ellendt's Lex. Soph. s. v. οἰνόω, Elmsley ad Bacch. 686, who (following Porson) writes ὠνωμένος, though the manuscript authority is against him. See his note ad loc., and on εὑρεῖν see Lobeck ad Phrynichum, p. 140. οἰνώμενος occurs no less than five times in Eth. N. VII, from c. 5 to 15.

With διά-θερμος, as a compound, ‘hot or heated all through’, pervaded. saturated, with heat, compare διάλευκος Ar. Probl. XXIII 6. 2, διάλεπτος Arist. Nub. 160, Hermann (διὰ λεπτοῦ, Dindorf and Meineke), διαμελαίνειν Plut., διαμυδαλέος Aesch. Pers. 538, Porson, διάξηρος, διαπρύσιος, διάπυρος Plutarch, de virtute morali, XI (p. 403) [quoted supra on p. 139], Xenoph., Eurip., &c.

With the statement comp. Plutarch (already referred to), and the rest of the preliminary note on c. XII. The heat in youth is supposed to be caused by the boiling of the blood, this being the physical origin of the πάθη, (as anger, de Anima I 1, 403 a 31, already cited,) which are specially characteristic of the young, see note supra § 3. The young are again compared to drunken men, Eth. Nic. VII 15, 1154 b 10, ὁμοίως δ᾽ ἐν μὲν τῆ νεότητι διὰ τὴν αὔξησιν ὥσπερ οἱ οἰνώμενοι διάκεινται, καὶ ἡδὺ ἡ νεότης. The physical explanation of both these comparisons is given in Probl. XXX 1. 27, τὸ δὲ θερμὸν τὸ περὶ τὸν τόπον ᾧ φρονοῦμεν καὶ ἐλπίζομεν ποιεῖ εὐθύμους: καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τὸ πίνειν εἰς μέθην πάντες ἔχουσι προθύμως, ὅτι πάντας ὁ οἶνος ὁ πολὺς εὐέλπιδας ποιεῖ, καθάπερ ἡ νεότης τοὺς παῖδας (cited by Zell): which not only serves as a commentary on the present passage, but also proves that Zell's, and not Fritzsche's (ad Eth. Eudem. Z 15, 1154 b 9—11), interpretation of the second is the true one. “Inde igitur iuventutis et ebrietatis affinitas, quia utraque corpori calorem impertit.” (Fritzsche in alia omnia abit: q. v. si tanti est.) That διάθερμοι here and θερμοί c. 13. 7, are to be interpreted literally as well as metaphorically will further appear by a comparison of the passage referred to in the note on II 13. 7 [p. 154].

‘And their lives are passed chiefly in hope (“eam sibi propositam habent in vita ac sequuntur ut omnium suarum actionum ducem.” Victorius); for hope is of the future, but memory of the past, whilst to youth the future is long but the past short; for in their earliest years’ (so Victorius; comp. τῇ τελευταίᾳ ἡμέρᾳ, c. 13.8) ‘it is impossible for them to remember anything (i. e. they have nothing or hardly anything to remember), whilst everything is to be hoped for’. I have adopted (as also Spengel) Bekker's conjecture οἷόν τε for οἴονται, which has little or no meaning. τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ may also very well be interpreted literally ‘on the first day of their existence’, the extreme case being taken for the purpose of illustration. With this interpretation οἴονται may be retained; for it now will have the meaning, that on the very first day of their existence, even then, they suppose— they can't be sure—that they remember nothing, &c.

The phrase ζῶσιν ἐλπίδι, which recurs in § 12, τῷ ἤθει ζῶσι μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ λογισμῷ, and c. 13. 12, expresses the same thing, viz. ‘living in the exercise or practice of’, as ζῇν κατὰ πάθος and τοῖς πάθεσιν ἀκολουθητικοί, Eth. Noc. I 1, 1095 a 5 and 9, comp. infra 13. 14, and ἐπιθυμιῶν ἀκολουθητικοί, supra § 3. It is otherwise rendered by ζῇν πρός τι, c. 13. 9; 14. 2, 3, πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ζῶντες κ.τ.λ. Victorius quotes Probl. XXX (11), ὁ μὲν οὖν ἄνθρωπος τῷ νῷ τὰ πλεῖστα ζῇ, τὰ δὲ θηρία ὀρέξει καὶ θυμῷ καὶ ἐπιθυμίᾳ.

‘And easy to deceive for the reason already mentioned, that is, the readiness with which their hopes are excited’.