Chapter 31: Colloquial Idioms
… most nourishing and fertile, and that line of Anacreon’s:
No longer do I tum for the Thracian filly.
In the same way, this passage from Theopompus is to be praised; in my opinion, he has put it most expressively because of the proportion, which Caecilius (I don’t understand why) downgrades. Theopompus says:
Philip was powerful at stomaching things.
Such a colloquial idiom by its own nature is sometimes more clearly suggestive than an ornamental effect: you see, it is understood at once as coming from common life, and what is familiar is more convincing. Now, then, in the case of a man who prevails by enduring shameful and sordid things patiently and with pleasure for the sake of his acquisitiveness, the phrase “stomaching things” is most vividly envisioned. 2. The Herodo tean expressions also have, in a way, the same effect:
Cleomenes, being mad, hacked his flesh to bits with a dagger until, making mincemeat of his whole body, he perished,
and
Pythes fought on the ship until he was butchered.
These things almost brush against the edge of vulgarity but because of their expressiveness are not vulgar.
Commentary
most nourishing and fertile: the text picks up in the middle of a sentence, after the lacuna. Missing in the lacuna is Longinus’ treatment of the first sub division of “phrasing,” which he had called “the selection of words” (see ch. 8; also ch. 30). By the end of the lacuna he is discussing the second subdivision, itself divided into two parts, “trope” and “made up elaboration” of style in diction.
Ch. 31 deals with the vigor and vital ity to be gained from a judicious use of colloquial language.
of Anacreon’s: because the text is cor rupt, we cannot be sure where the quo tation begins; the fragment is #196 (Bergk.)
Anacreon was a sixth century bce lyric poet, known especially for his light-heartedness and wit. Longinus has used the Greek word for “analogy,” and in doing so has made an academic joke: he has transferred the word for one of Aristotle’s species to the genus. The joke is further complicated by the standard definition of metaphor given in the rhetorical handbooks (e.g., Spengel III. 191, 208, 228, 232, 245): a use of a non-standard for a standard word. Metaphors are reduced analogies, in which only two of the four relevant terms are used. For example, from the proportion eveningold age daylife we may derive two metaphors—the evening of life and the old age of day. In Theopompus’ metaphor the four rele vant terms are
Philip’s mind
Philip’s stomach
the proportion:we would say “metaphor,” which Aristotle defines (Poetics l 457b7 ff.) as a transfer of an alien word either from species to genus or from species to species or by “analogy.” Here unpalatable wordsunpalatable food
Theopompus: an historian of the fourth century bc, brother of a rhetorician, and a pupil of Isocrates. His work survives only in fragments. Dio nysius of Halicarnassus says that he was the best of Isocrates’ pupils and that he was the first historian worthy of praise from a rhetorical point of view-a damning indictment by today’s defini tion of an historian.
Demetrius (On Style 75) remarks that Theopompus says powerful things in a way that is not powerful; in a later paragraph (240) he supports the charge: although Theopompus brought into a particular description such items as flute-girls, brothels, and men singing and dancing there, he only seems to be powerful, but really speaks feebly.
colloquial idiom: colloquial idioms would be part of “standard ways of say ing things,” but a “low” way. Such Ianguage was, of course, legitimate in comedy or in parts of the Platonic dia logues. Its function was smaller in for mal rhetoric. It is to Longinus’ credit that he does not consistently observe such a refined and fastidious decorum as led Pope to object to Homer’s mention of vomit and flies or Johnson to censure Shakespeare’s use of the word “knife.”
Earthy and colloquial language, which generally conveys a speaker’s sincerity, carries conviction and hence is a kind of proof or assurance. Speakers who use such language either are, or seem to be, of a character whose sincer ity we trust.
the same effect: the first passage is con densed from Herodotus 6.75, the second from 7.181. Both colloquial idioms are just like those in English: “making mince-meat” and “butchered.”
