1. ‘It does not expect its words to be looked at individually, and from every side, like statues.’ Cp. [210] 17 supra.
7. More literally, ‘finding firmness in mutual support.’
9. Cp. de Demosth. c. 40 τὸ γὰρ ὅλον ἐστὶν αὐτῆς βούλημα καὶ ἡ πολλὴ πραγματεία περὶ τὸ συσπασθῆναί τε καὶ συνυφάνθαι πάντα τὰ μόρια τῆς περιόδου, μιᾶς λέξεως ἀποτελοῦντα φαντασίαν, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτῳ περὶ τὸ πᾶσαν εἶναι τὴν λέξιν, ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς μουσικαῖς συμφωνίαις, ἡδεῖαν καὶ λιγυράν. τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν αἱ τῶν ἁρμονιῶν ἀκρίβειαι ποιοῦσι, κτλ.
14, 15. That is to say: the words it uses must be beautiful in sound and smoothly syllabled.
20. εὖ, which Usener adopts from E, helps to balance ἐπιτηδείως supra. At the same time, it could be spared and may have arisen from a dittography of the first two letters in συνυφάνθαι. Similarly, in l. 9 supra, the ὡς which E gives (together with the infinitive διατελεῖν, as it should be noticed) cannot be regarded as indispensable.
22. μέτρον: the reading of PMV (περιόδου χρόνον) may be right, in the sense of periodi ambitum. In the Epitome, μέτρον has possibly been substituted (as a clearer word) for χρόνον. F’s reading is μέτρον οὐκ ἂν ὑπομείνειεν ἐργάσασθαι, with all the four last words dotted out as having been written in error: which suggests that μέτρον may be no more than the last syllable of ἀσύμμετρον.
οὗ πνεῦμα τέλειον ἀνδρὸς κρατήσει: much will, clearly, depend on the person in question, since some men (as Lord Rosebery once said of Mr. Gladstone) have lungs which can utter sentences like “Biscayan rollers.” The Greeks were so rhetorical that they tended to look at a written passage constantly from the rhetorical point of view, and if a ‘period’ was too long for one breath they would try to analyze it into two periods if they could: cp. note on [232] 1 supra.
ἀσύμμετρον οὐκ ἂν ὑπομείνειεν ἐργάσασθαι. χρῆται δὲ καὶ
ῥυθμοῖς οὐ τοῖς μεγίστοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς μέσοις τε καὶ βραχυτέροις·
καὶ τῶν περιόδων τὰς τελευτὰς εὐρύθμους εἶναι
βούλεται καὶ βεβηκυίας ὡς ἂν ἀπὸ στάθμης, τἀναντία
ποιοῦσα ἐν ταῖς τούτων ἁρμογαῖς ἢ ταῖς τῶν ὀνομάτων· 5
ἐκεῖνα μὲν γὰρ συναλείφει, ταύτας δὲ διίστησι καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκ
περιόπτου βούλεται φανερὰς εἶναι. σχήμασί τε οὐ τοῖς
ἀρχαιοπρεπεστάτοις οὐδ’ ὅσοις σεμνότης τις ἢ βάρος ἢ πίνος
πρόσεστιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τρυφεροῖς τε καὶ κολακικοῖς ὡς τὰ
πολλὰ χρῆσθαι φιλεῖ, ἐν οἷς πολὺ τὸ ἀπατηλόν ἐστι καὶ 10
θεατρικόν. ἵνα δὲ καὶ κοινότερον εἴπω, τοὐναντίον ἔχει σχῆμα
τῆς προτέρας κατὰ τὰ μέγιστα καὶ κυριώτατα, ὑπὲρ ὧν οὐδὲν
δέομαι πάλιν λέγειν.
ἀκόλουθον δ’ ἂν εἴη καὶ τοὺς ἐν ταύτῃ πρωτεύσαντας
καταριθμήσασθαι. ἐποποιῶν μὲν οὖν ἔμοιγε κάλλιστα τουτονὶ 15
δοκεῖ τὸν χαρακτῆρα ἐξεργάσασθαι Ἡσίοδος, μελοποιῶν δὲ
Σαπφὼ καὶ μετ’ αὐτὴν Ἀνακρέων τε καὶ Σιμωνίδης, τραγῳδοποιῶν
δὲ μόνος Εὐριπίδης, συγγραφέων δὲ ἀκριβῶς μὲν
οὐδείς, μᾶλλον δὲ τῶν πολλῶν Ἔφορός τε καὶ Θεόπομπος,
ῥητόρων δὲ Ἰσοκράτης. θήσω δὲ καὶ ταύτης παραδείγματα 20
τῆς ἁρμονίας, ποιητῶν μὲν προχειρισάμενος Σαπφώ, ῥητόρων
δὲ Ἰσοκράτην. ἄρξομαι δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς μελοποιοῦ.