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‘I mean then that things are set before our eyes by all expressions that indicate realized activity. For instance; to say that a good man is ‘square’ (i. e. complete) is a metaphor; for both are complete, but still don't signify a state of realized action (or activity). On the other hand, the phrase “with his vigour and prime in full bloom” (Isocr. Phil. § 10) does convey the notion of life and activity, as is also, “but thee, free to roam at large” (Ib. § 127); and again, in the verse, “so thereupon the Greeks (with a rush) darting forward with the spear”’ (δορί, Eur. Iph. Aul. 80: I believe the otiose ποσί to be a mere misquotation of Ar.), ‘the word ‘darting forward’ is at once life-like and metaphorical’. ἐνεργοῦντα...ἐνέργειαν] See ante, note on c. 10. 5. Comp. the explanation of πρὸ ὀμμάτων there given, ὁρᾷν γὰρ δεῖ τὰ πραττόμενα μᾶλλον ἢ μέλλοντα; the representation must be life-like, the action must seem to be actually carried on before us. Poet. XVII 1. Cic. de Or. III 53. 202. Auct. ad Heren. IV 55. 68. Demonstratio, quum ita verbis res exprimitur ut geri negotium et res ante oculos esse videatur: with examples. Cic. de Inv. I 54. 104, 55. 107; II 26. 78. Quint. VIII 3. 81. ἐνέργεια, Ib. § 89. Infra § 3, ἔμψυχα εἶναι ἐνεργοῦντα. φαίνεται, § 4, κινούμενα καὶ ζῶντα ποιεῖ. See Whately's Rhetoric above referred to. This ‘energy’ includes Prosopopoeia or Personification: illustrated in Whately's note ‡. Demetr. π. ἑρμηνείας §§ 81, 82, quotes ἔφριξεν δὲ μάχη. Campbell, Phil. of Rhet., has a section, III 1. 4, on “Things animate for things lifeless.” τετράγωνος comes from Simonides—or rather from the Pythagoreans, who by a square number or figure symbolized (or, as Aristotle tells us, Met. A, actually identified it with) completeness, and perfect equality in the shape of justice. It was their type of perfection. Bergk, Fr. Lyr. Gr. p. 747 [p. 869, ed. 2], Simon. Fr. 5, ἄνδρ᾽ ἀγαθὸν...χερσί τε καὶ ποσὶ καὶ νόῳ τετράγωνον. Plat. Protag. 339 B. Arist. Eth. N. I 11, 1100 b 21, ὅ γ̓ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀγαθὸς καὶ τετράγω<*>ος ἄνευ ψόγου. Comp. Hor. Sat. II vii. 86, in se ipso totus teres atque rotundus. The second extract quoted from Isocr. Phil. § 127 requires the context to justify its selection as an example of animated style; with that, it becomes very striking. The orator is contrasting the entire freedom of view which Philip's commanding position allows him, as compared with the narrow patriotism enforced upon those who are ‘fast bound’ in the constitution and laws of their native cities; which he expresses by σὲ δ᾽ ὥσπερ ἄφετον γεγενημένον ἅπασαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα πατρίδα νομίζειν κ.τ.λ.—a flight quite beyond Isocrates' ordinary range of imagination. The metaphor is of course derived from the sacred cattle which were devoted to the worship of some god, and left free from the ordinary labours of the plough and cart, to roam and graze at large in the sacred precincts, the τέμενος of his temple. See Plat. Protag. 320 A, Rep. VI 498 C, and the notes of the Comm.: Aesch. Prom. Vinct. 666, 684 (Paley) and the note there (also Blomfield's Glossary, 687), Eur. Ion 822, ὁ δ᾽ ἐν θεοῦ δόμοισιν ἄφετος, ὡς λάθοι, παιδεύεται. The difference between the mere metaphor τετράγωνος, and the metaphor which also vivifies and animates, is this: in a square there is neither life nor action; in ‘blooming’ we have the life of a plant, in ἄφετον of an animal, in ᾁξαντες the vigour and impetuosity of living human beings.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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