‘Further, they must not be far-fetched, but from things kindred (cognate) and of like form must be transferred notions (in the form of words) hitherto nameless in the fashion of names (so as to become new names), any one of which as soon as spoken will be clearly perceived to be near of kin, as in the popular (famous) aenigma, ‘I saw man gluing upon man bronze with fire’; for the process was nameless, but both of them are a kind of application (the common genus); and accordingly he (the author of verses) gave the name of ‘gluing’ to the application of the cupping glass.’ πόρρωθεν] infra c. 3. 4, ἀσαφεῖς δὲ ἂν πόρρωθεν. Demetrius, περὶ ἑρμηνείας, 78, μήτε μὴν πόῤῥωθεν μετενηνεγμέναις (μεταφοραῖς. χρηστέον), ἀλλ᾽ αὐτόθεν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου. Cic. de Or. III 41. 163, Deinde videndum est ne longe simile sit ductum. Syrtem patrimonii, scopulum libentius dixerim; Charybdim bonorum, voraginem potius. Facilius enim ad ea quae visa, quam quae audita, mentis oculi feruntur. Ib. II 63. 255, of jokes, in quo, ut ea quae sint frigidiora vitemus—etenim cavendum est ne arcessitum dictum putetur... Quint. VIII Proem. 23, sunt optima minime arcessita. Similarly of arguments supra, I 2. 12, II 22. 3. Top. A 105 a 8. ἀνώνυμα ὠνομασμένως] Cic. de Or. III 38. 155, tertius ille modus transferendi verbi late patet, quem necessitas genuit inopia coacta et angustiis, post autem iucunditas delectatioque celebravit. In fact, to say nothing of others, words which stand for moral and intellectual operations, notions, abstractions, conceptions, are and must be ultimately derived by metaphor from objects of sense: see Locke, who gives a list of them, Essay, Bk. III ch. 1. 5, Berkeley, Three Dialogues, Dial. III Vol. 1 p. 202 (4to. ed.), “most part of the mental operations” (this is saying far too little) “being signified by words borrowed from sensible things; as is plain in the terms, comprehend, reflect, discourse, &c.” Whewell, Nov. Org. Renov. Bk. IV 1, p. 260. Renan, Orig. du Langage, p. 128, seq. Leibnitz, Nouv. Essais sur l'entend. hum. III 1. 5 (quoted by Renan), Max Müller, Lect. on science of Lang. 1st series, Vol. 1 p. 377 seq. The second line of this aenigma, which completes it, is found in Athen. X 452 C, the only author, says Victorius, who gives it entire, οὕτω συγκόλλως ὥστε σύναιμα ποιεῖν. τοῦτο δὲ σημαίνει τῆς σικύας προσβολήν. It is inserted amongst the αἰνίγματα, No. VIII in the Anthology, Vol. IV p. 288, Jacobs' ed., and preceded by another on the same subject in four lines. The first line is also quoted, Poet. XXII 5, Demetr. περὶ ἑρμηνείας § 102, (Demetrius recommends that aenigmatical expressions of this kind should be avoided), and Plut. Symp. Sept. Sap. 154 B (Victorius). Harris, Philol. Inq. Pt. II ch. 10, on aenigmas. [On the cupping-instrument referred to in the riddle, compare Juvenal XIV 58 (with Mayor's note), iam pridem caput hoc ventosa cucurbita quaerit. Bronze specimens about four inches high, found by Pompeii, may be seen in the Museum at Naples.] ‘And in general, from all ingenious, well-constructed, aenigmas good metaphors may be derived: for all metaphors convey (imply) an aenigma, plainly therefore a metaphor (so borrowed from a good aenigma) must be itself well converted (i. e. a well-selected metaphor)’. Cicero thought less highly of aenigmas as a source of metaphors; at all events metaphors, accumulated till they become aenigmas, are reprehensible. De Or. III 42. 167, est hoc (translatio) magnum ornamentum orationis, in quo obscuritas fugienda est: etenim hoc genere fiunt ea quae dicuntur aenigmata. εὖ μετενήνεκται] is rendered by Cicero (according to Victorius) ratione translata, and quae sumpta ratione est, de Or. III 40. 160. τὸ ἐπιεικὲς μεταφέρομεν ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, Eth. N. V. 14, sub init.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a medium level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.