ἃς ἅπαντες ἴσασιν, οἰκοδομικῇ λέγω καὶ ναυπηγικῇ καὶ ταῖς
παραπλησίαις· ὅ τε γὰρ οἰκοδόμος ὅταν πορίσηται τῆν ὕλην
ἐξ ἧς μέλλει κατασκευάζειν τὴν οἰκίαν, λίθους καὶ ξύλα καὶ
κέραμον καὶ τἆλλα πάντα, συντίθησιν ἐκ τούτων ἤδη τὸ
ἔργον τρία ταῦτα πραγματευόμενος, ποίῳ δεῖ λίθῳ τε καὶ ξύλῳ 5
καὶ πλίνθῳ ποῖον ἁρμόσαι λίθον ἢ ξύλον ἢ πλίνθον, ἔπειτα πῶς
τῶν ἁρμοζομένων ἕκαστον καὶ ἐπὶ ποίας πλευρᾶς ἑδράσαι, καὶ
τρίτον, εἴ τι δύσεδρόν ἐστιν, ἀποκροῦσαι καὶ περικόψαι καὶ
αὐτὸ τοῦτο εὔεδρον ποιῆσαι· ὅ τε ναυπηγὸς τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα
πραγματεύεται. τὰ δὴ παραπλήσιά φημι δεῖν ποιεῖν καὶ τοὺς 10
μέλλοντας εὖ συνθήσειν τὰ τοῦ λόγου μόρια, πρῶτον μὲν
σκοπεῖν, ποῖον ὄνομα ἢ ῥῆμα ἢ τῶν ἄλλων τι μορίων ποίῳ
συνταχθὲν ἐπιτηδείως ἔσται κείμενον καὶ πῶς οὐκ ἄμεινον
(οὐ γὰρ δὴ πάντα γε μετὰ πάντων τιθέμενα πέφυκεν ὁμοίως διατιθέναι
τὰς ἀκοάς)· ἔπειτα διακρίνειν, πῶς σχηματισθὲν τοὔνομα 15
ἢ τὸ ῥῆμα ἢ τῶν ἄλλων ὅ τι δήποτε χαριέστερον ἱδρυθήσεται
καὶ πρὸς τὰ ὑποκείμενα πρεπωδέστερον· λέγω δὲ ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν
ὀνομάτων, πότερον ἑνικῶς ἢ πληθυντικῶς λαμβανόμενα κρείττω
λήψεται συζυγίαν, καὶ πότερον κατὰ τὴν ὀρθὴν ἐκφερόμενα
πτῶσιν ἢ κατὰ τῶν πλαγίων τινά, καὶ εἴ τινα πέφυκεν ἐξ 20
ἀρρενικῶν γίνεσθαι θηλυκὰ ἢ ἐκ θηλυκῶν ἀρρενικὰ ἢ οὐδέτερα
familiar to all—house-building, ship-building, and the like. When a builder has provided himself with the material from which he intends to construct a house—stones, timbers, tiling, and all the rest—he then puts together the structure from these, studying the following three things: what stone, timber and brick can be united with what other stone, timber and brick; next, how each piece of the material that is being so united should be set, and on which of its faces; thirdly, if anything fits badly, how that particular thing can be chipped and trimmed and made to fit exactly. And the shipwright proceeds in just the same way. A like course should, I affirm, be followed by those who are to succeed in literary composition. They should first consider in what groupings with one another nouns, verbs, or other parts of speech, will be placed appropriately, and how not so well; for surely every possible combination cannot affect the ear in the same way—it is not in the nature of things that it should be so. Next they should decide the form in which the noun or verb, or whatever else it may be, will occupy its place most gracefully and most in harmony with the ground-scheme. I mean, in the case of nouns, whether they will offer a better combination if used in the singular or the plural; whether they should be put in the nominative or in one of the oblique cases; or which gender should be chosen if they admit of a feminine instead of a masculine form,
1 ναυτικῆι P, MV 3 λίθοις F 5 δεῖ EV: ex δηῖ P: δὴ FM || ξύλ(ω) et πλίνθ(ω) P 8 κα(τα)κροῦσαι P1 || καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ EF 9 ἑδραῖον P 10 τὰ δὴ] τὰ F: δή PMV ||ποιεῖν om. F 12 ποί(ω) P 14 μετα πάτν sic P 16 ϊδρυθήσεται P: ϊδρυνθήσεται F, EMV 18 πληθυντικῶς] π suprascripto θ̑ P || κρείτω P: κρείττονα E: κρείττο F 19 πότερα FE 20 καὶ τίνα F 21 ἀρρενι(κων) P, M: ἀρ’ ἐνικῶν V: ἀρρενων F, E: ἀρσενικῶν s
2. For comparisons between literary composition and civil or marine architecture cp. C.V. c. 22, Quintil. Inst. Or. vii. 1 (proem.), Cic. de Or. iii. 171. A metaphor from building underlies the rhetorical use in all or most of such words as: κανών, γόμφος, πυργοῦν, ἀντερείδειν, στηριγμός, ἀντιστηριγμός, ἕδρα, τέκτων, ὕλη, κατασκευάζειν, ἐγκατάσκευος.
5. ταῦτα refers forward here, cp. [112] 8 with [112] 4. In [110] 9 ἥδε refers backward—‘the foregoing.’
7. ἐπὶ ποίας πλευρᾶς, ‘on what side,’ i.e. ‘with what attention to stratification or grain.’ A builder likes to place stone in courses as it lay in the quarry: he knows that, if what lay horizontally is set perpendicularly, it will not last so well. Or the reference here may be simply to the difference in general appearance made by laying a stone in one of several possible ways.
10. If ποιεῖν be omitted with F, it must be mentally supplied from the general sense of the verbs that follow. Cp. Plato Gorg. 491 D ἢ τοῦτο μὲν οὐδὲν δεῖ, αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἄρχειν, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων; Demosth. de Cor. § 139 καίτοι δυοῖν αὐτὸν ἀνάγκη θάτερον, ἢ μηδὲν ἐγκαλεῖν κτλ., Soph. Philoct. 310 ἐκεῖνο δ’ οὐδείς, ἡνίκ’ ἂν μνησθῶ, θέλει | σῶσαί μ’ ἐς οἴκους, id. Antig. 497 θέλεις τι μεῖζον ἢ κατακτεῖναί μ’ ἑλών;
13. For οὐκ ἄμεινον Usener substitutes εὖ ἢ ἄμεινον. The corruption of εὖ ἢ to οὐκ might easily happen in uncial writing, and the reading οὐκ is as old as the Epitome. But the εὖ comes unexpectedly after ἐπιτηδείως, and the emendation is not convincing. The manuscript reading has, therefore, been kept, though οὐκ ἄμεινον is a difficult litotes.