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

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‘Now the prooemium is the beginning of a speech and stands in the place of the prologue in poetry (i. e. tragedy, and specially of Euripides' tragedy), and of the prelude in flute music’.

προαύλιον] an introduction, ornamental, and preparatory to, not an essential part of, the theme or subject of the composition; for all these are beginnings, and as it were a paving of the way (preparation, pioneering of the road) for what follows (ὁδοποίησις, note on I 1. 2).

‘Now the flute-prelude is like the prooemium of the epideictic branch: that is to say, as the flute-players first open their performance with whatever they can play best (in order to gain attention and favour of the audience) which they then join on to the ἐνδόσιμον (the actual opening, preliminary notes, of the subject which gives the tone, or cue, to the rest), so in the epideictic speeches the writing (of the προοίμιον) ought to be of this kind: for (in these the speaker) may say first (εἰπόντα) anything he pleases, and then should at once sound the note of preparation, and join on (the rest)’.

This represents the epideictic prooemium, like the flute-prelude, as hardly at all connected with what follows; it is a preliminary flourish, anything that he knows to be likely to be most successful, as already observed, to conciliate the audience and put them in good humour. “For here, as there is no real interest at stake, the author is allowed a much greater liberty in his choice of topics for amusing (and gaining over) an audience; a license which would be intolerable in a case of life and death, or in the suggestion of a course of action which may involve the safety or ruin of the state. Here the audience are too eager to come to the point to admit of any trifling with their anxiety.” Introd. pp. 337, 8. Cic. de Or. II 80. 325, Connexum autem ita sit principium consequenti orationi, ut non tanquam citharoedi prooemium affictum aliquod, sed cohaerens cum omni corpore membrum esse videatur (Victorius). Quint. II 8. 8, in demonstrativis (Arist.) prooemia esse maxime libera existimat.

The ἐνδόσιμον (subaudi ἆσμα or κροῦσμα, Bos, Ellips. s. v.) occurs again Pol. V (VIII) 5 init. apparently in the same sense as here, ‘introduction’; also Pseudo-Arist. de Mundo, c. 6 § 20, where we have κατὰ γὰρ τὸ ἄνωθεν ἐνδόσιμον ὑπὸ τοῦ φερωνύμως ἂν κορυφαίου προσαγορευθέντος κινεῖται μὲν τὰ ἄστρα κ.τ.λ. ‘for according to the law above, by him who might be rightly called leader of the chorus, the stars are set in motion, &c.’ I have given this in full because it throws some light upon the meaning of ἐνδόσιμον, and explains its metaphorical application, God is here represented as the leader of a chorus who gives the time, the keynote, and the mode or tune, to the rest, and thus acts as a guide to be followed, or (in a similar sense) as an introduction, or preparatory transition to something else. It thus has the effect of the ‘key-note’, and takes the secondary sense of a ‘guide’, ‘preparation for’, ‘introduction to’, anything. So Plut. de disc. adul. ab amico, c. 55, 73 B, ὥσπερ ἐνδόσιμον ἕξει πρὸς τὰ μείζονα τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ubi Wyttenbach, occasio, incitamentum; similarly Ib. c. 30, 70 B, καὶ ψόγος...ἢ ἔπαινος ὥσπερ ἐνδόσιμον εἰς παῤῥησίαν ἐστιν, ‘gives the tone, the cue, i.e. the occasion or incitement, to freedom (taking liberties).’ See other passages from Plutarch and others in Wyttenbach's note on 73 B. Gaisford and Wyttenbach refer to Gataker ad Anton. XI 20, p. 336 (G), XI 26 (W), “ἐνδ. usurpatur pro modulationis exordio, quo praecentor sive chori praefectus cantandi reliquis auspicium facit. Hesychius, ἐνδόσιμον, τὸ πρὸ τῆς ᾠδῆς κιθάρισμα.” ap. Gaisford Not. Var. Wyttenbach describes ἐνδόσιμον as “signum et adhortatio in certaminibus et musicis et gymnicis: tum ad alias res translatum.” Lastly Athen. XIII 2, 556 A, of certain authors, οἷς τὸ ἐνδόσιμον Ἀριστοτέλης ἔδωκεν ἱστορῶν τοῦτο ἐν τῷ περὶ εὐγενείας, ‘gave the tone, i.e. hint’, furnished the occasion for their statement. Schweighäuser, ad loc. says, “Dalecampius vertit quos ad id scribendum provocavit Ar. Dicitur autem proprie praecentus praeludium, exordium melodiae quod praeit chorodidascalus cui dein accinere oportet chorum. H. Stephanus' Thesaurus. Budaeus in Comm. Gr. Ling. p. 874 sq. ἐνδόσιμον διδόναι or παρέχειν is expressed in one word ἐνδιδόναι XII 520 D,” as it is here by Aristotle.

‘And this is done by all. An example is the prooemium of Isocrates' Helen: for there is nothing in common between the disputatious dia lecticians, and Helen’. The prooemium, which occupies the first thirteen sections of the speech, includes many other subjects besides the ἐριστικοί, and is certainly an excellent illustration of the want of connexion between proem and the rest in an epideictic speech. Quint. III 8. 8, In demonstrativis vero prooemia esse maxime libera existimat (Ar.). Nam et longe a materia duci hoc, ut in Helenae laude Isocrates fecerit; et ex aliqua rei vicinia, ut idem in Panegyrico, cum queritur plus honoris corporum quam animorum virtutibus dari.

‘And at the same time also (it has this further recommendation) that if (the speaker thus) migrate into a foreign region, there is this propriety in it, that the entire speech is not of the same kind’ (it removes the wearisome monotony which is characteristic of this branch of Rhetoric).

ἐκτοπίζειν is to ‘change one's residence’, and applied especially to migratory birds and animals. It is always neuter in Aristotle. Hist. Anim. VIII 12. 3 and 8, IX 10. 1, IV 8. 23, ἐκτοπισμοὺς ποιοῦνται, VIII 13. 14, ἐκτοπιστικὰ ζῷα, I 1. 26. In the primary sense of absence from one's proper or ordinary place, Pol. VIII (v) 11, 1314 b 9, τοῖς ἐκτοπίζουσι τυράννοις ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκείας, and so ἔκτοπος, ἐκτόπιος, ἄτοπος ‘out of their proper place’.