It would be a long task to attempt to adduce specimens of all the artistic touches of which examples might be demanded in this one field. So, contenting myself with what has been said, I will pass to the next point.
I hold that those who wish to fashion a style which is beautiful in the collocation of sounds must combine in it words which all carry the impression of elegance, grandeur, or dignity. Something has been said about these matters, in a general way, by the philosopher Theophrastus in his work on Style, where he
2 ὄβριμον FP: ὄμβριμον EM2V 9 στηρίξασθαι F Hom.: στηρίζεσθαι PMV 10 δραττομένων F || περι F, V: παρα P, M 11 ἐπιδεικνύμενος F: ἐνδεικνύμενος PMV 14 ποτι F, MV: προτὶ P: cf. [202] 6 infra. 17 κατὰ τὸν τόπον τόνδε ὧν ἄν τις ἀπαιτήσειε (hoc verborum ordine) PV || κατὰ F: καὶ κατὰ PV 20 καλλιλογίαν ἢ F: καλλιλογίαν καὶ PMV 21 τὸ αὐτὸ F: τοῦτο PMV
1. Cp. Virg. Aen. ii. 496 “non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis | exiit oppositasque evicit gurgite moles, | fertur in arva furens cumulo camposque per omnes | cum stabulis armenta trahit.”
7. Cp. Virg. Aen. x. 305 “solvitur (sc. puppis Tarchontis) atque viros mediis exponit in undis, | fragmina remorum quos et fluitantia transtra | impediunt retrahitque pedes simul unda relabens.”
14. Cp. Virg. Aen. v. 478, “durosque reducta | libravit dextra media inter cornua caestus | arduus, effractoque illisit in ossa cerebro.”—Demetr. (de Eloc. § 219), in quoting this passage of Homer, couples with it Il. xxiii. 116 πολλὰ δ’ ἄναντα κάταντα πάραντά τε δόχμιά τ’ ἦλθον (Virgil’s “quadripedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum,” Aen. viii. 596).—Another good Virgilian instance of adaptation of sound to sense is Georg. iv. 174 “illi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt | in numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum.”
18. φημί seems (cp. the legal use of aio) to approximate to the sense of κελεύω (as in Pind. Nem. iii. 28, Soph. Aj. 1108). Either so, or (as Upton suggested) we may insert δεῖν, or the sense may simply be, “I say that the man who aims ... does combine, etc. (i.e. when he knows his own business).”
19. For the construction λέξιν καλὴν ἐν τῷ συντιθέναι τὰς φωνάς cp. Fragm. of Duris of Samos, Ἔφορος δὲ καὶ Θεόπομπος τῶν γενομένων πλεῖστον ἀπελείφθησαν, οὔτε γὰρ μιμήσεως μετέλαβον οὐδεμίας οὔτε ἡδονῆς ἐν τῷ φράσαι, αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ γράφειν μόνον ἐπεμελήθησαν.
20. Here, again, the Aristotelian ‘mean’ may possibly be intended.
22. Theophrastus: for other references to Theophrastus in the Scripta Rhetorica of Dionysius see de Lysia cc. 6, 14; de Isocr. c. 3; de Din. c. 2; de Demosth. c. 3. The passage of Theophrastus which Dionysius has in mind here is no doubt that mentioned by Demetr. de Eloc. § 173 ποιεῖ δὲ εὔχαριν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα καλὰ ὀνόματα. ὡρίσατο δ’ αὐτὰ Θεόφραστος οὕτως· κάλλος ὀνόματός ἐστι τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἀκοὴν ἢ πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν ἡδύ, ἢ τὸ τῇ διανοίᾳ ἔντιμον.