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 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.