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    Aristotle

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    Nitya Kapur

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    ~ ARISTOTLE 6 Aristotle A Note Aristotle’s father, Nicomachus, was the physician to the king of Macedonia. Aristotle was born in Stageira, in Chalcidice, and came to Athens in 367 B.C. to attend Plato's Academy, where he spent twenty years until Plato's death in 347. He then spent a few years teaching and lecturing, first in ‘Assos, then in Mytilene, until he was invited, in 343 or 342 B.C., to become the tutor to the son of Philip of Macedon, who would eventually become known as Alexander the Great. In 335 Aristotle returned to Athens and opened a school of philosophy later known as the Peripatetic school from his habit of talking to his students while walking up and down (peripattein in Greek) the pathways of the grove called the Lyceum, sacred to Apollo. Known for his kindly nature and the friendly spirit of his school, Aristotle was also a collector of manuscripts which formed the first notable library. He also founded a museum of natural objects of interest. He left Athens in 323 B.C. when the political climate was unfavourable, and died in Chalcis in 322. Aristotle was first and foremost a teacher, spending the mornings talking with his own students and afternoons lecturing to a wider public. The works of his that we have were probably composed when he was still a member of Plato’s Academy or teaching at Assos. His early published writings of which only fragments remain, were dialogues on philosophical and other subjects, intended for the wider public. They are less poetical in style than Plato’s but well-written and clear. Ata later stage he published other works, collections of data from Systematic research, which he thought should always form the basis of Philosophical speculations. Most of these works are lost, and what we now have of Aristotle’s work is mainly lecture notes or summaries, = Sa 44 | Readings in Classical Literature : Aristotle possibly even written not by him but his pupils, and put together by later editors. Though at first a follower of Plato, he came to disagree with his doctrine of Forms or Ideas, and was original in stressing that speculation not be abstract but based on experience of reality and research. Hence the practical nature of his Ethics (Eudemian Ethics and Nichomachean Ethics) and Politics, and his influence on later ages in periods when a scientific approach was favoured, rather than an idealistic one. He also wrote several treatises on Logic, on Metaphysics, on Natural Philosophy and on Rhetoric and Poetry. His Rhetoric is on the methods of persuasion, which include the conveying of the speaker’s ethos or character to create a favourable impression, then the swaying of the audience’s emotions and types of argument he may use, and finally his style, which should be clear and fitting, while the whole should be well-arranged. Only a part of the Poetics survives, In it, Aristotle asserts that poetry, similar to other arts like music, dancing, painting and sculpture is based on imitation (mimesis). The manner of imitation differs according to the type of poem, lyric, dramatic or epic. Some kinds of poetry imitate man in his higher aspects, or men above the average level, others, such as comedy, represent men who are below the norm in ways that are ridiculous. Aristotle traces the origins of tragedy and comedy and their development. He isolated the basic elements of tragedy as plot, character, language, thought, spectacle and song, and said that it must represent 4 single action of a certain magnitude. It should have a beginning, middle and end. The parts of a tragedy he discusses are those found in tragedies of his day, such as the prologue, the episodes, the exode and the songs of the chorus. The prologue, not found in the earliest tragedies, was monologue or dialogue, occurring before the entry of the chorus, and establishing the situation. Episodes are scenes, in which one or more actors speak and sometimes engage with the chorus; there may also be songs of comment, lamentation etc. by the chorus, The exode is the final scene, after which there are no more songs by the chorus. In discussing plot and its construction, he uses a critical terminology that has become central to many later discussions of tragedy, though the — Introduction | 45 sense of the words changes over time. He analyses the use of ‘reversal; ‘discovery and the complication of the plot, followed by its unravelling of denouement, which should ‘arise from the circumstances of the plot itself’ and not be managed by a deus ex machina (Chapter 15). There is also a scene of suffering (pathos in the Greek) a destructive or painful action which is here translated as ‘calamity’ Aristotle’s examples are not of mental but physical pain. ‘Reversal’ or beripateia in Greek refers to the turn-around in the hero's fortunes, whether towards disaster, as in tragedy, or to success, as in comedy. Anagnorisis or ‘recognition’ can be fairly literal, as when Eurycleia recognises Odysseus by his scar when bathing his feet. It does not refer to an inner acknowledgment of his guilt by the protagonist. (It is in fact particularly found in Euripides as a way of resolving the complications of the plot, and is only occasionally found in Sophocles). In several places Aristotle speaks of the organic unity of the relationship of a poem’s parts to the whole; beauty and order will not be achieved if the parts are disproportionate. In this concern for unity he follows Plato. In chapters 13 and 14 Aristotle discusses the aim of tragedy which was to produce pity and terror in the spectators. Where Plato might have viewed this as harmful, Aristotle argues that these emotions are aroused and then released, in a purging or catharsis, as he had mentioned in chapter 6. In his other writings he does not deny the value of emotions but does argue for a proper balance or ‘mean’ in them. To awaken the feelings of pity and fear the character of the hero must neither be fully good nor bad but that of a ‘man who is not conspicuous for virtue and justice, and whose fall into misery is not due to vice and depravity, but tather to some error’ (Chapter 13). The Greek for ‘error’ is hamartia Which should not be translated as ‘frailty’ as if it were a weakness of character or a moral fault, in a-modern sense, since the word in Greek is used for ‘missing a mark} ‘making a mistake’. It implies ‘an error of judgement due to ignorance of circumstances; which might even be an “navoidable ignorance in some cases. The absence of deliberate evil Purpose is a key element in the word’s meaning. Characterisation is examined in chapter 15, where Aristotle shows a Soncern for life-like qualities and probability, as well as goodness. Some be cl a SS 46 | Readings 1" Classical Literature : Aristotle remarks on the rules for writing epic poetry appear in chapters 23, 24 and 26, with an analysis of its subject matter, plot and structure, then 2 ) then comparison of tragedy with epic, which gives the final preference to tragedy. In this section there is some discussion of what might be termed realism. Aristotle gives a place to the marvellous (a source of pleasure) in both tragedy and epic, but it is easier to avoid absurdity in narratives than on stage. He also writes that ‘probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities, and prefers a rational storyline. He gives practical comments on how to maintain the audience's interest, by a variety of incidents, for example; this concern for the effectiveness of poetry is untroubled by Plato’s worries over its possible evil impact, ‘A famous remark of Aristotle’s is that poetry is more ‘philosophic’ than history, because though based on mimesis it is not confined to particular facts but rises to general truths. This implies a greater respect for poetry than Plato’s distrust of it as twice removed from the truth. In the same sentence, Aristotle also says poetry is ‘spoudaioteros’ more earnest or more worthy of serious attention, than is history. (These favourable arguments were taken up in the Renaissance, for example by Sir Philip Sidney, who sees poetry as better at rousing emulation, more inspiring of noble deeds than history). In the Renaissance scholars began to be influenced by the ideas of Aristotle, especially his discussion of drama, which was mistakenly assumed to insist on the unities of time and place as well as action.! In fact Aristotle, who is not writing a ‘how-to’ manual, but recording and analysing the practices of his day, only insists on the unity of action. Furthermore many dramatists of the Renaissance period, such as Shakespeare, were either ignorant of ‘Aristotle, or chose to draw on native dramatic traditions which happily violated the unities. Ben Jonson among Shakespeare’s contemporaries comes closest to observing them. However the notion of the unities was the prevalent doctrine in seventeenth century France, and debated in England by writers like Dryden, and in finally laid to rest perhaps only in 1765, with Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare. 1. For example Castelvetro’s edition of the Poetics published in 1570 lays down observance of the three unities of time, place and action as @ rule. > Introduction | 47 yitersrY Criticism before Aristotle AS Homer's epics enjoyed great prestige throughout Greek history, and were part of standard education, there are several scattered remarks by other authors on various aspects of them, On drama too, Aristotle is not the first critical voice, as Aristophanes, the great comic playwright of fifth- century Athens makes fun of several poets and writers and literary fashions in his plays, especially the last of the famous tragedians, puripides. In The Frogs for example, there is a hilarious competition between Aeschylus and Euripides in Hades, for the title of best tragedian Dionysus is the judge, and equipped with a pair of scales, weighs the utterances of each poet as he quotes a line from his works. The scales repeatedly dip for the weighty lines of Aeschylus, who is declared the winner. Despite this joke, Aristophanes clearly admired Euripides and knew his plays well; he illustrates all his comments by quotation from the plays. He appreciates Euripides’ realism and vivid passages of dialogue, and his use of a prologue to explain events that precede the action. Other playwrights too, to judge by the titles of their lost plays, also incorporated some literary criticism into their works, which is testimony to the interest the Greeks had in such matters. Plato, Aristotle’s predecessor, has many remarks on poetry scattered through his works, referring to Homer 331 times in his Dialogues. Not only did he write poetry himself but even his prose is poetic in style, and his imagination provides him with many vivid metaphors. In the Phaedrus he recognises that the inspiration of poets can be divine; they are not necessarily mad. Like Aristotle after him, Plato divides poetry into different kinds, dramatic, lyric and epic. ‘The idea of the unity of a work of art is discussed in the Gorgias and Phaedrus, and a recognition that tragedy can offer representations of the best and noblest actions in life appears in the Laws, Pity and fear are picked out as the emotions peculiar totragedy in the Republic and in the Phaedrus, and elsewhere he discusses the nature of the special pleasure that watching @ tragedy can induce. In the Republic, as well as the full treatment of poetry in Book X, he also discusses it at the end of Book II and at the beginning of Book lll, AS a means of education for the Guardians, Plato feels, poetry is 1 ¢ : Aristotle 48 | Readings in Classical Literature because it shows gods and heroes doing immoral deeds bad effect on impressionable young minds. In one Plato also criticises the practice of recitation of poetry, which makes the young speaker temporarily ‘impersonate a character not his own, perhaps even a bad one, when his task is to develop his own moral strengths. The term mimesis or imitation is Plato’s discussion in Book X of the way in which a unsatisfactory and this will have a use of the key terin mimests, further developed in nin | painter or poet in representing anything, is actually making a copy of an object which is itself only a copy of the Idea or ideal form of that object made by ‘the workmanship of god.’ So for Plato, the mimetic quality of poetry is a defect rather than an admirable feature. Furthermore, its effect on its hearers, in a theatre for example, is likely to encourage imitation of the weaknesses and moral errors of the characters depicted, as these emotional states are easier for the poet to imitate than ideal calmness of mind, In all these points, Aristotle in the Poetics differs from his original mentor, and it is possible that at least in part, the Poetics is written as a response to the ideas of his former teacher. — Harriet Raghunathan On the Art of Poetry* INTRODUCTION Poetry as Imitation Under the general heading of the art of poetry, I propose not only to speak about this art itself, but also to discuss the various kinds of poetry and their characteristic functions, the types of plot-structure that are required if a poem is to succeed, the number and nature of its constituent parts, and similarly any other matters that may be relevant to a study of this kind. I shall begin in the natural way, that is, by going back to first principles. Epic and tragic poetry, comedy too, dithyrambic poetry, and most music composed for the flute and the lyre, can all be described in general terms as forms of imitation or representation. However, they differ from one another in three respects: either in using different media for the representation, or in representing. different things, or in representing them in entirely different ways. Cuaprer I The Media of Poetic Imitation Some artists, whether by theoretical knowledge or by long practice, can represent things by imitating their shapes and colours, and others do so by the use of the voice; in the arts I have spoken of the imitation is produced by means of rhythm, language, and music, these being used either separately or in combination. Thus the art of the flute and of the lyre consists only in music and rhythm, as does any other of the same type, such as that of the pipes, The imitative medium of dancers is * From T. $. Dorsch, Classical Literary Criticism, 1965. pp. 31-57, 65-69, 74- 75. Dorsch’s base text is that of Ingram Bywater in the Oxtord Classical ‘Texts. Chapters 19-22 and 25 are omitted, The notes are Dorsch’s. 50 | Readings in Classical Literature : Aristotle rhythm alone, unsupported by music, for it is by the man they arrange the rhythms of their movements that they re characters and feelings and actions. The form of art that uses language alone, whether in prose or ver and verse either in a mixture of metres or in one particular kind, has Ner in Which ‘Present Men's se, Up to the present been without a name. For we have no common name that we can apply to the prose mimes of Sophron and Xenarchus and the Socratic dialogues, or to compositions employing iambic trimeters op elegiac couplets or any other metres of these types. We can say only that people associate poetry with the metre employed, and speak, for example, of elegiac poets and epic Poets; they call them poets, however, not from the fact that they are making imitations, but indiscriminately from the fact that they are writing in metre. For it is customary to describe as Poets even those who produce medical and scientific works in verse. Yet Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common except their metre, and therefore, while it is right to call the one a Poet, the other should rather be called a natural philosopher than a Poet. In the same way, an author composing his imitation in a mixture of all the metres, as Chaeremon did in his Centaur, a thapsody employing just such a mixture, would also have to be called a Poet. Such are the distinctions I would make. Again, there are some arts which make use of all the media I have mentioned, that is, rhythm, music, and formal metre; such are dithyrambic and nomic poetry,! tragedy and comedy, They differ, however, in that the first two use all these media together, while the last two use them Separately, one after another, These, then, are what I mean by the differences between the arts as far as the media of Tepresentation are concerned, Cuarrer 2 The Objects of Poetic Imitation Since imitative artists Tepresent men in action, and men who are necessarily either of good or of bad character (for as all People differ in their moral 1. The Nome, or nomic Song, was an ancient type of ode, akin to the dithyramb, sung to the lyre or flute in honour of some god, usually Apollo. On the Art of Poetry | 51 ure according to the degree of their goodness or badness, characters nat ot always fall into one or other of these types), these men must be a ented either as better than we are, or worse, or as the same kind “pole as ourselves. Thus among the painters Polygnotus represented 3 eubjects a5 better, and Pauson as worse, while Dionysius painted them jyst 88 they were. It is clear that each of the kinds of imitation [ have referred t0 will admit of these variations, and they will differ in this way gecording t© the differences in the objects they represent. Such diversities may occur even in dancing, and in music for the flute and the lyre; they occur also in the art that is based on language, whether it uses prose or verse unaccompanied by music. Homer, for example, depicts the better types of men, and Cleophon normal types, while Hegemon of Thasos, the first writer of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the Deiliad, show them in a bad light. The same thing happens in dithyrambic and nomic poetry; for instance, the Cyclops might be represented in different ways, as was done by Timotheus and Philoxenus. This is the difference that marks the distinction between comedy and tragedy; for comedy aims at representing men as worse than they are nowadays, tragedy as better. Carrer 3 The Manner of Poetic Imitation There remains the third point of difference in these arts, that is, the manner in which each kind of subject may be represented. For it is Possible, using the same medium, to represent the same subjects in a variety of ways, It may be done partly by narration and partly by the assumption of a character other than one’s own, which is Homer's way; or by speaking in one’s own person without any such change; or by Tepresenting the characters as performing all the actions dramatically. These, then, as I pointed out at the beginning, are the three factors by which the imitative arts are differentiated: their media, the objects they "present, and their manner of representation. Thus in one sense Sophocles might be called an imitator of the same kind as Homer, for they both "present good men; in another sense he is like Aristophanes, in that they th represent men in action, men actually doing things. And this, some Pe 52 | Readings in Classical Literature » Aristotle say, is why their works are called dramas, feom thelr representing men doing things.' For this reason too the Dorians claim Per of both tragedy and comedy. Comedy is claimed by the Megaria ns, both by those here in Greece on the grounds that it came into being when they be came cily because the poet Epicharmus, who a democracy, and by those in was much earlier than Chionides and Magnes, came pom there; certain Dorians of the Peloponnese lay claim also to tragedy. They regard the names as proof of their belief, pointing out that, whereas me Athenians call outlying villages démoi, they themselves call them komai; so that comedians take their name, not from komazein (‘to revel’), but from their touring in the komai, when lack of appreciation drove them fom the city. Furthermore, their word for ‘to do’ is dran, whereas the Athenian word is prattein. So much then for the number and character of the different kinds of imitation. CHAPTER 4 The Origins and Development of Poetry Tue creation of poetry generally is due to two causes, both rooted in human nature. The instinct for imitation is inherent in man from his earliest days; he differs from other animals in that he is the most imitative of creatures, and he learns his earliest lessons by imitation. Also inborn in all of us is the instinct to enjoy works of imitation. What happens in actual experience is evidence of this; for we enjoy looking at the most accurate representations of things which in themselves we find painful to see, such as the forms of the lowest animals and of corpses. The reason for this is that learning is a very great pleasure, but for other people as well, however limited t They enjoy seeing likenesses because (they reason out what each represei ‘this is a picture of so and so’); not for philosophers only, heir capacity for it may be. in doing so they acquire information nts, and discover, for instance, that for if by any chance the thing depicted }- The word ‘drama’ means Mterally ‘a thing done’ and is derived from the verb dran (‘to do’) which here pr ‘vides the translation ‘doi ings’. Cf. the last Sentence of the paragraph, loing things. Cf. the a On the Art of Poetry | 53 not bee? seen before, it will not be the fact that it is an imitation of as ‘ hi g that gives the pleasure, but the execution or the colouring or in} meth e other such cause. The instinct for imitation, then, is natural to us, as is also a feeling nd for rhythm — and metres are obviously detached sections r music @ of this. Starting for these natural aptitudes, and by a series of for the most part gradual improvements on their first efforts, men eventually created poetry from their improvisations. However, poetry soon branched into two channels, according to the tem ments of individual poets. The more serious-minded among them represented noble actions and the doings of noble persons, while the more trivial wrote about the meaner sort of people; thus while the one type wrote hymns and panegyrics, these others began by writing jnvectives. We know of no poems of this kind by any poet earlier than Homer, though it is likely enough that many poets wrote them; but from Homer onwards examples may be found, his own Margites, for instance, and poems of the same type. It was in such poems that the iambic metre ‘was brought into use because of its appropriateness for the purpose, and itis still called iambic today, from being the metre in which they wrote ‘ambs, or lampoons, against one another. In this way it came about that some of our early poets became writers of heroic, and some of iambic verse. But just as Homer was the supreme poet in the serious style, standing alone both in excellence of composition and in the dramatic quality of his representations of life, so also, in the dramatic character that he imparted, not to invective, but to his treatment of the ridiculous, he was the first to indicate the forms that comedy was to assume; for his Margites bears the same relationship to our comedies as his Iliad and Odyssey bear to our tragedies. When tragedy and comedy appeared, those whose natural aptitude inclined them towards the one kind of poetry wrote comedies instead of lampoons, and those who were drawn to the other wrote tragedies instead of epics; for ba new forms were both grander and more highly regarded than the Sacius my scope here to consider whether or not tragedy is now as far as it can be in its various forms, and to decide this both a 54 | Readings in Classical Literature : Aristotle absolutely and in relation to the stage. Both tragedy and comedy had their first beginnings in improvisation The onc originated with those who led the dithyramb, the other with the leaders of the phallic songs which still survive today as traditional institutions in many of our cities. Little by little tragedy advanced, each new clement being developed as it came into use, until after many changes it attained its natural form and came to a standstill. Aeschylus was the first to increase the number of actors from one to two, cut down the role ofthe chorus, and give the first place to the dialogue. Sophocles introduced three actors and painted scenery. As for the grandeur of tragedy, it was not until late that it acquired its characteristic stateliness, when, progressing beyond the methods of satyric drama, it discarded slight plots and comic diction, and its metre changed from the trochaic tetrameter to the iambic. At first the poets had used the tetrameter because they were writing satyr- poetry, which was more closely related to the dance; but once dialogue had been introduced, by its very nature it hit upon the right measure, for the iambic is of all measures the one best suited to speech. This is shown by the fact that we most usually drop into iambics in our conversation with one another, whereas we seldom talk in hexameters, and then only when we depart from the normal tone of conversation. Another change was the increased number of episodes, or acts. We must pass over such other matters as the various embellishments of tragedy and the circumstances in which they are said to have been introduced, for it would probably be a long business to go into them in any detail. Cuapter 5 The Rise of Comedy. Epic Compared with Tragedy As I have remarked, comedy represents the worse types of men; worse, however, not in the sense that it embraces any and every kind of badness, but in the sense that the ridiculous is a species of ugliness or badness. For the ridiculous consists in some form of error or ugliness that is not painful or injurious; the comic mask, for example, is distorted and ugly, but causes no pain, Now we know something of the successive stages by which tragedy On the Art of Poetry | 55 developed, and of those who were responsible for them: the early history of comedy, however, is obscure, because it was not taken seriously. It was along time before the archon granted a chorus to comedies; until then the performers were volunteers.' Comedy had already acquired certain clear-cut forms before there is any mention of those who are named as its poets. Nor is it known who introduced masks, or prologues, or a plurality of actors, and other things of that kind. Properly worked out plots originated in Sicily with Epicharmus and Phormis; of Athenian poets Crates was the first to discard the lampoon pattern and to adopt stories and plots of a more general nature. Epic poetry agrees with tragedy to the extent that it is a representation, in dignified verse, of serious actions. They differ, however, in that epic keeps to a single metre and is in narrative form. Another point of difference is their length: tragedy tries as far as possible to keep within a single revolution of the sun, or only slightly to exceed it, whereas the epic observes no limits in its time of action — although at first the practice in this respect was the same in tragedies as in epics. Of the constituent parts, some are common to both kinds, and some are peculiar to tragedy. Thus anyone who can discriminate between what is good and what is bad in tragedy can do the same with epic; for all the elements of epic are found in tragedy, though not everything that belongs to tragedy is to be found in epic.” CHAPTER 6° A Description of Tragedy I shall speak later about the form of imitation that uses hexameters and _ The Greek dramatist submitted his play to the archon, or magistrate, in charge of the religious festival at which he hoped to have it performed. If the play was chosen for performance, the archon ‘granted it a chorus’; that is, he provided a choregus, a wealthy citizen who, as a form of public service, paid the expenses of the production. The earlier‘ volunteers’ presumably paid their own expenses. 2. Herein, it is perhaps worth pointing o treatment that Aristotle gives to drama. ut, lies the justification of the far fuller ee | Reins in cuss ierature + Aristotle or the moment I Propose to discuss, about come aie ofits essential character fg fy Saving together te ™ va seep be se isa representation of an action that i wong Trage complete initself,and of some amplitude; in language ei eared vf aristc devices appropriate to the several parts ofthe arr te form of action nt natrations By means of py PR presented inthe gation of such emotions. By lange?! bringing about the purgat ocean ee SURE that i cored I fr to language posesing rhythm, and music or gpg ei by ani devices appropriate tothe several parts I mean that som, prota te medium ofr alone, and thers gui wih ey io New sinc the representation is carried out by men Performing the action it fellows in the fist place, that spectacle is an essential pang tragedy, and secondly that there must be song and diction, these ring the medium of representation, By diction I mean here the arangenen of the verses; song is a term whose sense is obvious to everyone, In tragedy it is action that is imitated, and this action is brougs about by agents who necessarily display certain distinctive qualities bo of character and of thought, according to which we also define the nature of the actions. Thought and character are, then, the two natural causes of actions, and it is on them that all men depend for success or fie Therepresenation ofthe action isthe plot of the tragedy; forthe ordered arrangement ofthe incidents is what I mean by plot. Character, on be ‘other and, sthat which enables us to define the nature of the participans and thought comes out in what they say when they are proving a poist or expresing an opinion, Necessarily then, every tragedy has six constituents, which wil ‘termine its quality They ae plo, characte, diction, thought, specie tnd song, Of these, two represent the media in which the action * ‘ePrsented, one involves the manner of representation, and three # pase me

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