heiones kraxousin. Add to this that Ariphrades
used to ridicule the tragedians for introducing expressions unknown
in the language of common life, _doeaton hapo_ (for _apo domaton_),
_sethen_, _hego de nin_, _Achilleos peri_ (for _peri Achilleos_), and
the like. The mere fact of their not being in ordinary speech gives the
Diction a non-prosaic character; but Ariphrades was unaware of that. It
is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of these poetical forms,
as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far
is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt
from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor
implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.

Of the kinds of words we have enumerated it may be observed that
compounds are most in place in the dithyramb, strange words in heroic,
and metaphors in iambic poetry. Heroic poetry, indeed, may avail itself
of them all. But in iambic verse, which models itself as far as possible
on the spoken language, only those kinds of words are in place which are
allowable also in an oration, i.e. the ordinary word, the metaphor, and
the ornamental equivalent.

Let this, then, suffice as an account of Tragedy, the art imitating by
means of action on the stage.

23

As for the poetry which merely narrates, or imitates by means of
versified language (without action), it is evident that it has several
points in common with Tragedy.

I. The construction of its stories should clearly be like that in a
drama; they should be based on a single action, one that is a complete
whole in itself, with a beginning, middle, and end, so as to enable the
work to produce its own proper pleasure with all the organic unity of a
living creature. Nor should one suppose that there is anything like them
in our usual histories. A history has to deal not with one action, but
with one period and all that happened in that to one or more persons,
however disconnected the several events may have been. Just as two
events may take place at the same time, e.g. the sea-fight off Salamis
and the battle with the Carthaginians in Sicily, without converging to
the same end, so too of two consecutive events one may sometimes come
after the other with no one end as their common issue. Nevertheless most
of our epic poets, one may say, ignore the distinction.

Herein, then, to repeat what we have said before, we have a further