Chapter 28: Periphrasis

And certainly, I think, no one would doubt that periphrasis contributes to the sublime. You see, as in music the principal melody turns out more pleasing because of what are called pralltrillers, so periphrasis often harmonizes with the principal standard of speech and resonates with it for more ornamental effect, especially if it has nothing blown up and unrefined, but is pleasantly mixed in. 2. We may infer this sufficiently in Plato, in the introduction to his Funeral Oration:

And indeed they have from us what is their due, and having gotten it, they go on their assigned passage, escorted by the whole city in common, and privately each by his kinfolk.

Now, then, death he has said to be an “assigned passage,” and their getting what is considered the custom in these matters he has said to be a kind of public ceremonial escort by the fatherland. Indeed, has he emboldened the conception in a measured way by these words? Or—having assumed a bare style in speaking and writing—has he made it melodic, pouring around it, like a harmony, the melodiousness of periphrasis? 3. And Xenophon says:

You consider toil to be the leader of a pleasant life; and you have received into your souls the finest and most warlike possession of all, for you rejoice more in being praised than in everything else.

Instead of having said, “You want to toil,” he says “You make toil the leader of a pleasant life,” and by similarly stretching out the other parts of the sentence, he has added to his praise a great perception. 4. And this passage of Herodotus is inimitable:

On the Scythians who plundered her temple the goddess cast a female disease.

Commentary

periphrasis: Tiberius, in his book On Figures (Spengel 111.75), says that peri­ phrasis consists of varying the simple and self-sufficient structure of the sen­ tence, for the sake of ornament, emotion, or appropriate greatness, by the use of more words than those needed to express the idea in standard speech. Alexander, in his On Figures (Spengel III.32), says that periphrasis strikes him as peculiar to poetry, but it can be found in prose: he cites examples from Demosthenes and Thucydides, adding that Thucy­ dides is especially fond of it.

The simple and normal way of say­ ing something is called phrasis; peri­ phrasis is a roundabout way of saying the same thing. Hence the Venerable Bede, in his book On Figures (Halm, p. 614), translates it circumlocutio. Greek critics had a much sharper sense of standard idiom than we do, and, as a result, they classified much as periphra­ sis which we would not. Alexander cites a line from Xenophon—”A thought once came to me” as a periphrasis for “I once thought.”

The device is perhaps most conspic­ uously seen in Dante’slnfemo, where— since the name of God cannot be mentioned—Dante must find hundreds of periphrases for it, e.g., “The Emperor of that high Imperium” (1.24); “Hell’s great Foeman” (11.16); “Another” (XXVl.141) [Translations and referen­ ces are from the version by Dorothy Say­ ers). Milton, too, is a master of the device, e.g., “the dear might of him that walked the waves” (Lycidas I73). This last is a particularly good example, for it echoes the common Greek periphra­ sis, cited regularly in the rhetorical handbooks, “the might of Heracles.”

All periphrasis depends for its success on a simultaneous knowledge of two things: one, the original standard refer­ ence (the story of Jesus and his walking on waters for the allusion from Lycidas) and two, the meaning of the words used in the periphrasis (“emperor” and “imperium” in the first citation from Dante).

Sometimes, of course, periphrasis is almost absurd, especially when it seeks to signify low or trivial things; Henn (p. 59) cites this periphrasis for a pipe from Cowper: “The short tube/That fumes beneath his nose.” The coprophilic periphrases of Pope’s Dunciad are at once an illustration and a parody of the device (11.93 ff.):

In office here fair Cloacina stands…
From her black grottos near the temple-wall. ..
Renewed by ordure’s sympathetic force
As oiled with magic juices for the course…
Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face.

the principal melody: The following notes are connected, for they explain Longinus’ analogy between music and literature. The explanations are tenta­ tive, for our knowledge of ancient music is only sketchy. Russell cites some recent articles on the passage. The Greek word we have translated as “principal melody” always refers in Longin us to the sound emanating from either a human voice or a musical instrument.

pralltrillers: in music these are notes played at a higher pitch than the notes of the melody (“the principal melody”), partly as variation, partly as accompan­ iment. The English technical term “pralltriller” is approximate in mean­ ing: a pralltriller is an inverted mor­ dent, that is, it rises above the main note, whereas a mordent goes below it. An analogy can be found in the “figura­ tion” or “ornamentation” performed by such masters as Handel and Mozart; in surviving musical scores this is sketched in only the slightest terms, for the eighteenth century masters often improvised their accompaniments.

Such accompanying trills may be one note or several, just as a periphrasis may be one word (e.g., Dante’s “Another” for “God”: see above) or several.

ornamental effect: Longinus says that the general effect of periphrasis is ornamental effect (see ch. 23); such emphasis would not exclude the effects of “emotion” and “greatness” listed by Tiberius (see above, n. on periphrasis). Throughout these middle chapters, the word “ornamental effect” is used to suggest, periphrastically, the combination of “emotion and sublimity.” In the opening line of this chapter, Longinus remarks that no one doubts that peri­ phrasis contributes to the sublime.

blown up and unrefined: the word “blown up” looks back to the image of the flautist who blew at top breath in an effort to be sublime (3.2), with its at­ tendant notions of “paratragic,” “swel­ ling,” and bombast. The word “un­ refined” in Greek literally means “lacking in the ‘muse’ and in music”; it is a pun, since “music” in antiquity covered both musical and cultural activities.

We may now put the parts of the analogy together: pralltrillers are to the melody as periphrasis is to standard speech. Just as the “figuration” and “ornamentation” performed by virtuosi like Handel and Mozart enhanced their melodic lines, so periphrasis enhances normal ways of saying things. The analogy breaks down at one point, and just because it does break down the analogy becomes clearer. In music one does not have pralltrillers or figuration or ornamentation without a melody; in literature, however, the standard way of saying things is not voiced—although the reader must carry it in his mind as he reads the periphrasis.

As usual, Longin us cautions against excess; we are familiar with “show-offs” whose concern for the ornamentation is greater than for the melody. A striking example of such excess for comic pur­ poses is Mable’s endless coloratura in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

Funeral Oration: Plato’s Menexenus (236D); perhaps Longinus chose his first example from this famous imaginary funeral oration as a piece of wit. In the Menexenus, Socrates says that it is easy to write funeral orations and promptly proceeds to do so. The tone of the dia­ logue is unclear, for the epideictic fun­ eral oration seems too good just to be parody.

public ceremonial escort by the father­ land: a magnificent periphrasis in the form of a periphrasis; Longinus does Plato one better. For Plato’s word “es­ corted” Longinus substitutes the noun “ceremonial escort.” For Plato’s “in common” Longinus substitutes “pub­ lic.” And for Plato’s “city” Longinus substitutes “fatherland.”

Periphrases for death are common and range from the ridiculous to the sublime, e.g., “he kicked the bucket” or “pushing up daisies” to Hamlet’s famous phrase (III.i): “The undiscovered country from whose bourne/No tra­ veller returns.” As Henn remarks (p. 60), “There is no suggestion whatever of equivalence of meaning in the periph­ rasis”; we do not just “add dignity, but …invoke a new series of attitudes to the thought.”

melodic: among late rhetoricians, the word refers to writing that is particu­ larly rhythmical and musical (Athe­ naeus 14.632d). By using it here Longi­ nus sustains both his periphrastic note and his musical analogy.

Xenophon says: from the Education of Cyrus (1.5.12). The passage is epideictic and encomiastic in nature, like a fu­ neral oration. Such speeches allowed for more poetic style than courtroom speeches.

You consider...pleasant life: Russell remarks on the “curious inconsistency”; having just quoted the text, Longinus mixes paraphrase with quotation in singling out phrases for comment. Probably Longinus was led into the alteration by the structure of his own sentence and his desire for parallelism; critics are often trapped into this habit. Of course, there were no standards, or standard forms, for quotations in antiquity.

inimitable: Longinus, having imitated and emulated the periphrases in Plato and Xenophon, topping theirs with his own, now apparently despairs of cap­ ping Herodotus. The passage, from Herodotus 1.105, discusses the impo­ tency which the Greeks found prevalent among the Scythians; it is studied medi­ cally in Hippocrates’ Airs, Waters, Pla­ ces (22).

On the Scythians…female disease: Her­ odotus’ wording is full of jokes. The phrase “female disease” is more pregnant with meaning for the Greeks than for us, since, at the time of Herodotus, at least, they did not believe the woman to be more than a receptacle for the male seed. Such is the basis of Apol­ lo’s defense of Orestes from the charge of having slain a blood-kin, in Aeschy­ lus’ play the Eumenides. Moreover, the phrase is an almost genteel periphrasis for the normal way of referring to impo­ tence; what this was can be found in Tiberius’ book On Figures (Spengel III.76), for the quotation from Herodo­ tus is a stock example. There Tiberius says Herodotus wrote this periphrasis instead of “she made them androgynes or fractured.” The example lingers on as late as the Venerable Bede, who cites it in his book On Tropes (Halm, p. 614) as a periphrasis or circumlocution for the purpose of avoiding vulgarity. Some of the jokes in the quotation cannot be duplicated in English. For example, in the words translated “the goddess” Herodotus has put the feminine article with the masculine form for “god.” It is no wonder that Longinus thought the Herodotean passage “inimitable.”