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

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‘Generalising, where there is no generality (stating a proposition or maxim universally which is only partially true), is most appropriate in complaint and exaggeration, and in these either at the commencement (of either of the two processes), or after the case has been made out (proved, ἀποδεικνύναι here again in a vague and general sense)’.

σχετλιασμός, “conquestio, h. e. ea pars orationis qua conquerimur et commoti sumus ex iniuria vel adversa fortuna’. Ernesti, Lex. Technologiae Graecae, s.v. Conquestio est oratio auditorum misericordiam captans, Cic. Inv. 155. 106, who gives a long account of it divided into 16 topics. This was the subject of Thrasymachus' treatise, the ἔλεοι (miserationes Cic. [Brutus § 82]), referred to by Arist., Rhet. III 1. 7; the contents are satirically described by Plat., Phaedr. 267 C. It was “a treatise, accompanied with examples, on the best modes of exciting compassion” (Thompson ad loc.). What follows, ὀργίσαι τε αὖ κ.τ.λ. describes the art of δείνωσις, which no doubt accompanied the σχετλιασμός in Thrasymachus' work. On Thrasymachus' ἔλεοι see Camb. Journ. of Cl. and Sacred Phil. Vol. III 274, No. 9. σχετλιασμός therefore is the act of complaining, or the art of exciting the compassion of the audience for the supposed sufferings of the speaker himself or his client by age, penury, distress, or wrong or injury from others: and its appropriate place is the ἐπίλογος, the peroration of the speech. See Rhet. III 19. 3.

δείνωσις is a second variety of the same κοινὸς τόπος, viz. αὔξησις and μείωσις, to which both of these are subordinate. There is in fact a natural connexion between the two: pity for the person wronged is usually accompanied by indignation against the wrong-doer. This is indignatio, of which Cicero treats de Inv. I 53. 100—54. 105. Indignatio est oratio per quam conficitur ut in aliquem hominem magnum odium aut in rem gravis offensio concitetur. The art of exciting indignation or odium against any person or thing, by exaggeration or intensification; vivid description heightening the enormity or atrocity of that against which you wish to rouse the indignation of the audience. “δείνωσις invidiae atque odii exaggeratio,” Ernesti, Lex. Techn. Gr. s. v. Quint. VI 2. 24, Haec est illa quae δείνωσις vocatur, rebus indignis asperis invidiosis addens vim oratio; qua virtute praeter alios plurimum Demosthenes valuit. Ib. VIII 3. 88, δείνωσις in exaggeranda indignitate. IX 2. 104, intendere crimen, quod est δείνωσις. Comp. Rhet. III 19. 3, on the ἐπίλογος.

Macrobius Saturn. IV 6 (ap. Ernesti u. s.), Oportet enim, ut oratio pathetica aut ad indignationem aut ad misericordiam dirigatur, quae a Graecis οἶκτος καὶ δείνωσις appellatur: horum alterum accusatori necessarium est, alterum reo; et necesse est initium abruptum habeat, quoniam satis indignanti leniter incipere non convenit.

The illicit generalisation above mentioned is one of the arts employed to heighten the two πάθη which are most serviceable to the orator, ἔλεος and ὀργή or νέμεσις by σχετλιασμός and δείνωσις. The first is well illustrated by Victorius from Catullus, Epith. Pel. et Thet. 143, the deserted Ariadne exclaims, Iam iam nulla viro iuranti femina credat, Nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles &c. (similarly Ovid, Fasti III 475, Nunc quoque ‘nulla viro’ clamabo ‘femina credat’) and Eur. Hec. 254, ἀχάριστον ὑμῶν σπέρμ᾽ ὅσοι δημηγόρους ζηλοῦτε τιμάς. This is a generalisation from the single case of Ulysses. Add Cymbeline, Act II 5. 1; Posthumus. Is there no way men to be, but women must be halfworkers? We are bastards all &c. and (already quoted in Introd.) Virg. Aen. IV 569, varium et mutabile semper femina; and Hamlet, Act I Sc. 2, [146], Frailty, thy name is woman. So οὐδὲν γειτονίας χαλεπώτερον § 15.