n general use in a country; and by a strange word, one in use
elsewhere. So that the same word may obviously be at once strange and
ordinary, though not in reference to the same people; _sigunos_, for
instance, is an ordinary word in Cyprus, and a strange word with us.
Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something
else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from
species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy.
That from genus to species is eXemplified in 'Here stands my ship'; for
lying at anchor is the 'standing' of a particular kind of thing. That
from species to genus in 'Truly ten thousand good deeds has Ulysses
wrought', where 'ten thousand', which is a particular large number,
is put in place of the generic 'a large number'. That from species to
species in 'Drawing the life with the bronze', and in 'Severing with the
enduring bronze'; where the poet uses 'draw' in the sense of 'sever' and
'sever' in that of 'draw', both words meaning to 'take away' something.
That from analogy is possible whenever there are four terms so related
that the second (B) is to the first (A), as the fourth (D) to the third
(C); for one may then metaphorically put B in lieu of D, and D in lieu
of B. Now and then, too, they qualify the metaphor by adding on to it
that to which the word it supplants is relative. Thus a cup (B) is
in relation to Dionysus (A) what a shield (D) is to Ares (C). The
cup accordingly will be metaphorically described as the 'shield _of
Dionysus_' (D + A), and the shield as the 'cup _of Ares_' (B + C). Or to
take another instance: As old age (D) is to life (C), so is evening (B)
to day (A). One will accordingly describe evening (B) as the 'old age
_of the day_' (D + A)--or by the Empedoclean equivalent; and old age (D)
as the 'evening' or 'sunset of life'' (B + C). It may be that some of
the terms thus related have no special name of their own, but for all
that they will be metaphorically described in just the same way. Thus to
cast forth seed-corn is called 'sowing'; but to cast forth its flame,
as said of the sun, has no special name. This nameless act (B), however,
stands in just the same relation to its object, sunlight (A), as sowing
(D) to the seed-corn (C). Hence the expression in the poet, 'sowing
around a god-created _flame_' (D + A). There is also another form of
qualified metaphor. Having given the thing the alien name, one may by a
negative