On Literary Composition — Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus: On Literary Composition, ed. W. Rhys Roberts You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Literary Composition Author : of Halicarnassus Dionysius Editor : W. Rhys Roberts Release date : October 14, 2015 [eBook #50212] Most recently updated: October 22, 2024 Language : English, Greek, Ancient Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50212 Credits : Produced by David Garcia, Jim Dishington, Ted Garvin, Laura J. Wisewell, Stephen Rowland, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF In the e-text, the metrical notation is placed on a separate line above the text and uses the following Unicode symbols: metrical short: ᴗ (U+1D17) metrical long: – (U+2013) metrical short over long: ⏓ (U+23D3) metrical long over short: ⏒ (U+23D2) When Greek letters are cited as examples in the original book they have an overline printed above them (e.g., λ̅, ν̄), much as in English cited letters are underlined or italicized. A combining macron (U+0304) is used in this e-text above single letters to represent the overline. In cases where the overline extends above more than one letter, combining overline U+0305 is used because it gives a better result (e.g., κ̅δ̅). Since there is no precomposed Unicode character for omicron with acute and diaeresis (e.g., το̈́ῦτοτε), this e-text uses U+0308 combining diaeresis and U+0301 combining acute accent above the omicron. 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Page images of a different copy, but the same edition, of the original book can be viewed at The Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026465165 The cover image that appears in e-book versions was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. Errata: Page 40: ὠδῇ -> ᾠδῇ Page 108, note 16: οὐδεμίας -> οὐδεμιᾶς Page 109, line 21: μηδεμίας -> μηδεμιᾶς Page 112, note 14: διάνοιας -> διανοίας Page 182, note 9: Διά -> Δία Page 188, critical apparatus to line 5: συγκαμφθείς -> συγκαμφθεὶς Page 204, line 11: ἀλλ -> ἀλλ’ Page 232, line 1: οὐχι -> οὐχὶ Page 334, s.v. ᾠδή: ὠδικός -> ᾠδικός Dionysius of Halicarnassus On Literary Composition BEING THE GREEK TEXT OF THE DE COMPOSITIONE VERBORVM EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, TRANSLATION, NOTES GLOSSARY, AND APPENDICES BY W. RHYS ROBERTS Litt.D. (Cambridge), Hon. Ll.D. (St. Andrews) PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS FORMERLY FELLOW OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE EDITOR OF ‘DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS: THE THREE LITERARY LETTERS,’ ETC. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1910 EQVITI INSIGNI NATHAN BODINGTON VNIVERSITATIS LOIDENSIS VICE-CANCELLARIO PRIMO HVNC LIBRVM DAT DICAT DEDICAT EDITOR COLLEGA AMICVS Tantum series iuncturaque pollet, Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris. Horace Ars Poetica 242, 243. See Dionysius Homer’s thoughts refine, And call new beauties forth from every line. Pope Essay on Criticism 665, 666. PREFACE It is a happy instinct that leads Pope to find in Dionysius a gifted interpreter of Homer’s poetry, who can ‘call new beauties forth from every line.’ In his entire attitude, not only towards Homer but towards Sappho and Simonides, Herodotus and Demosthenes, Dionysius has proved that he can rise above the debased standards of the ages immediately preceding his own, and can discern and proclaim a classic excellence. He has thus contributed not a little to confirm our belief in the essential continuity of critical principles—in the existence of a firm and permanent basis for the judgments of taste. [1] The breadth of interest and the discriminating enthusiasm with which in the present treatise Dionysius of Halicarnassus (or ‘Denis of Halicarnasse’, as we might prefer to call him) approaches his special subject of literary composition, or word-order, may be inferred from the table of contents, the detailed summary, and the brief statement on page 10 of the Introduction. [2] It is an interest which impels him to touch, incidentally but most suggestively, on such topics as Greek Pronunciation, Accent, Music. It is an enthusiasm which prompts him to speak of ‘words soft as a maiden’s cheek’ (ὀνόματα μαλακὰ καὶ παρθενωπά), to describe Homer as ‘of all poets the most many-voiced’ (πολυφωνότατος ἁπάντων τῶν ποιητῶν), and to attribute to Thucydides ‘an old-world and masterful nobility of style’ (ἀρχαϊκόν τι καὶ αὔθαδες κάλλος). Expressions so apt and vivid as these, together with the easy flow and natural arrangement of the whole treatise, tend to prove that Dionysius is not laboriously compiling his matter as he goes along, but is writing out of a full mind, is dealing with a subject which has long occupied his thoughts, and is imparting one section only of a large and well-ordered body of critical doctrine in the command of which he feels secure. That to the Greeks literature was an art—that with them, the sound was echo to the sense—