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

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‘In speeches of display you must introduce laudations into your speech by way of episode, as Isocrates does; for he is always bringing in some character’. The reference to Isocr. is explained by his laudatory episode on Theseus in the Helen §§ 22—38; on Agamemnon in the Panathenaicus §§ 72—84; and on Timotheus in the ἀντίδοσις § 107 seq. Spengel, who gives the first two references, also cites some less striking instances, the episode on Paris in Hel. §§ 41—48, on Pythagoras and the Egyptian priests in Busiris §§ 21—29, and on poets ib. §§ 38—40. Comp. Dionys. Halic. de Isocr. Iud. c. 4, where, among the points in which Isocrates appears superior to Lysias, special mention is made of τὸ διαλαμβάνεσθαι τὴν ὁμοειδίαν ἰδίαις μεταβολαῖς καὶ ξένοις ἐπεισοδίοις.

ἐπεισοδιοῦν] Poet. XVII 7, ὑποθέντα τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπεισοδιοῦν, ὅπως δὲ ἔσται οἰκεῖα τὰ ἐπεισόδια σκοπεῖν. ib. XXIV 7, (of epic poetry) τοῦτ᾽ ἔχει τὸ ἀγαθὸν εἰς μεγαλοπρέπειαν καὶ τὸ μεταβάλλειν τὸν ἀκούοντα καὶ ἐπεισοδιοῦν ἀνομοίοις ἐπεισοδίοις. Quintil. III 9. 4, egressio vero vel...excessus, sive est extra causam, non potest esse pars causae; sive est in causa, adiutorium vel ornamentum partium est earum ex quibus egreditur.

‘And this is what Gorgias meant when he remarked that he was never at a loss for something to say; for if (for instance) he speaks of Achilles, he (naturally) praises Peleus, next Aeacus, then Zeus himself (the father of Aeacus); and similarly valour also (the special virtue of Achilles), and so and so (so ad infinitum) ; and this is just what I have been describing’.

From this passage of Gorgias the existence of a panegyric oration ‘in praise of Achilles’, is inferred by Dr Thompson (on p. 178 of his ed. of the Gorgias), who also suggests that “a fragment preserved by the Scholiast on Iliad IV 450 may have belonged to this speech: ἀνεμίσγοντο δὲ λίταις ἀπειλαὶ καὶ εὐχαῖς οἰμωγαί.”

The unfailing resource of complimentary episodes on which Gorgias appears to have prided himself, may be paralleled by Pindar's favourite device of leading up by easy transitions to the praises of the Aeacidae (Isthm. IV (V) 20, τὸ δ᾽ ἐμὸν οὐκ ἄτερ Αἰακιδῶν κέαρ ὕμνων γεύεται); and also by the artifice adopted by the rhetorician Lycophron, de Soph. El. 15, 174 b 30, as explained by Alexander Aphrodisiensis:—“the sophist Lycophron, when he was compelled by some persons to write an encomium upon the lyre, and found that he hadn't very much to say about it, first very briefly touched upon the praises of the sensible lyre, which we have here on earth, and then mounted up to that in heaven,...the constellation called the Lyre, upon which he composed a long and beautiful and excellent discourse” (from Cope's translation in Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Vol. II, No. V, p. 141).

ἢ τὰ καὶ τὰ ποιεῖ] In Vol. III, No. VII, p. 75 of the Journal above mentioned, Mr Cope has the following note: “The sentence hangs so ill together, and the ἢ has so little meaning, that I think we ought to change it into the relative pronoun ἥ: and then the sentence will run ‘and in like manner valour, which performs such and such feats,’ i. e. he first praises valour generally, and then proceeds to enumerate different acts of prowess; which may be multiplied ad infinitum.” This suggestion, it may be remarked, harmonizes fairly with the reading of MS A^{c} ἢ τὰ καὶ τὰ ποιεῖ ἢ (not ὃ) τοιόνδε ἐστίν. It has been anticipated by Foss (de Gorgia p. 77 ap. Spengel) who proposes ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἀνδρίαν ἣ τὰ καὶ τὰ ποιεῖ ὃ τοῖόν γέ ἐστιν.

Spengel's own suggestion is εἰ γὰρ Ἀχιλλέα λέγων (A^{c}, Q, Z^{b}) Πηλέα ἐπαινεῖ...ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἀνδρίαν ἢ τὰ καὶ τὰ, ποιεῖ ὃ τοιόνδε ἐστίν.