The Poetics of Aristotle

The perfection of style is to be clear without being mean.  The clearest style is that which uses only current or proper words; at the same time it is mean:—­witness the poetry of Cleophon and of Sthenelus.  That diction, on the other hand, is lofty and raised above the commonplace which employs unusual words.  By unusual, I mean strange (or rare) words, metaphorical, lengthened,—­anything, in short, that differs from the normal idiom.  Yet a style wholly composed of such words is either a riddle or a jargon; a riddle, if it consists of metaphors; a jargon, if it consists of strange (or rare) words.  For the essence of a riddle is to express true facts under impossible combinations.  Now this cannot be done by any arrangement of ordinary words, but by the use of metaphor it can.  Such is the riddle:—­’A man I saw who on another man had glued the bronze by aid of fire,’ and others of the same kind.  A diction that is made up of strange (or rare) terms is a jargon.  A certain infusion, therefore, of these elements is necessary to style; for the strange (or rare) word, the metaphorical, the ornamental, and the other kinds above mentioned, will raise it above the commonplace and mean, while the use of proper words will make it perspicuous.  But nothing contributes more to produce a clearness of diction that is remote from commonness than the lengthening, contraction, and alteration of words.  For by deviating in exceptional cases from the normal idiom, the language will gain distinction; while, at the same time, the partial conformity with usage will give perspicuity.  The critics, therefore, are in error who censure these licenses of speech, and hold the author up to ridicule.  Thus Eucleides, the elder, declared that it would be an easy matter to be a poet if you might lengthen syllables at will.  He caricatured the practice in the very form of his diction, as in the verse:  ’{Epsilon pi iota chi alpha rho eta nu / epsilon iota delta omicron nu / Mu alpha rho alpha theta omega nu alpha delta epsilon / Beta alpha delta iota zeta omicron nu tau alpha}, or, {omicron upsilon kappa / alpha nu / gamma / epsilon rho alpha mu epsilon nu omicron sigma / tau omicron nu / epsilon kappa epsilon iota nu omicron upsilon epsilon lambda lambda epsilon beta omicron rho omicron nu}.  To employ such license at all obtrusively is, no doubt, grotesque; but in any mode of poetic diction there must be moderation.  Even metaphors, strange (or rare) words, or any similar forms of speech, would produce the like effect if used without propriety and with the express purpose of being ludicrous.  How great a difference is made by the appropriate use of lengthening, may be seen in Epic poetry by the insertion of ordinary forms in the verse.  So, again, if we take a strange (or rare) word, a metaphor, or any similar mode of expression, and replace it by the current or proper term, the truth of our observation will be manifest.  For example Aeschylus and Euripides each composed the same iambic line.  But the alteration of a single word by Euripides, who employed the rarer term instead of the ordinary one, makes one verse appear beautiful and the other trivial.  Aeschylus in his Philoctetes says:  {Phi alpha gamma epsilon delta alpha iota nu alpha delta / eta / mu omicron upsilon / sigma alpha rho kappa alpha sigma / epsilon rho theta iota epsilon iota / pi omicron delta omicron sigma}.

Euripides substitutes {Theta omicron iota nu alpha tau alpha iota} ‘feasts on’ for {epsilon sigma theta iota epsilon iota} ‘feeds on.’  Again, in the line, {nu upsilon nu / delta epsilon / mu epsilon omega nu omicron lambda iota gamma iota gamma upsilon sigma / tau epsilon / kappa alpha iota / omicron upsilon tau iota delta alpha nu omicron sigma / kappa alpha iota / alpha epsilon iota kappa eta sigma, the difference will be felt if we substitute the common words, {nu upsilon nu / delta epsilon / mu / epsilon omega nu / mu iota kappa rho omicron sigma / tau epsilon / kappa alpha iota / alpha rho theta epsilon nu iota kappa omicron sigma / kappa alpha iota / alpha epsilon iota delta gamma sigma}.  Or, if for the line, {delta iota phi rho omicron nu / alpha epsilon iota kappa epsilon lambda iota omicron nu / kappa alpha tau alpha theta epsilon iota sigma / omicron lambda iota gamma eta nu / tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon iota sigma / omicron lambda iota gamma eta nu / tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon zeta alpha nu),} We read, {delta iota phi rho omicron nu / mu omicron chi theta eta rho omicron nu / kappa alpha tau alpha theta epsilon iota sigma / mu iota kappa rho alpha nu / tau epsilon / tau rho alpha pi epsilon zeta alpha nu}.

Or, for {eta iota omicron nu epsilon sigma / beta omicron omicron omega rho iota nu, eta iota omicron nu epsilon sigma kappa rho alpha zeta omicron upsilon rho iota nu}

Again, Ariphrades ridiculed the tragedians for using phrases which no one would employ in ordinary speech:  for example, {delta omega mu alpha tau omega nu / alpha pi omicron} instead of {alpha pi omicron / delta omega mu alpha tau omega nu}, {rho epsilon theta epsilon nu}, {epsilon gamma omega / delta epsilon / nu iota nu}, {Alpha chi iota lambda lambda epsilon omega sigma / pi epsilon rho iota} instead of (pi epsilon rho iota / ’Alpha chi iota lambda lambda epsilon omega sigma}, and the like.  It is precisely because such phrases are not part of the current idiom that they give distinction to the style.  This, however, he failed to see.

It is a great matter to observe propriety in these several modes of expression, as also in compound words, strange (or rare) words, and so forth.  But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor.  This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.

Of the various kinds of words, the compound are best adapted to Dithyrambs, rare words to heroic poetry, metaphors to iambic.  In heroic poetry, indeed, all these varieties are serviceable.  But in iambic verse, which reproduces, as far as may be, familiar speech, the most appropriate words are those which are found even in prose.  These are,—­the current or proper, the metaphorical, the ornamental.

Concerning Tragedy and imitation by means of action this may suffice.