χρήσιμον δὲ ἡ εἰκὼν καὶ ἐν λόγῳ, ὀλιγάκις (25) δέ· ποιητικὸν γάρ.
οἰστέαι δὲ ὥσπερ αἱ μεταφοραί· μετα(26)φοραὶ γάρ εἰσι, διαφέρουσαι τῷ εἰρημένῳ.
(27) εἰσὶν δ’ εἰκόνες οἷον ἣν Ἀνδροτίων εἰς Ἰδριέα, ὅτι ὅμοιος (28) τοῖς ἐκ τῶν δεσμῶν κυνιδίοις· ἐκεῖνά τε γὰρ προσπίπτοντα (29) δάκνειν, καὶ Ἰδριέα λυθέντα ἐκ τῶν δεσμῶν εἶναι χαλεπόν.
καὶ (30) ὡς Θεοδάμας εἴκαζεν Ἀρχίδαμον Εὐξένῳ γεωμετρεῖν οὐκ ἐπι(31)σταμένῳ ἐν τῷ ἀνάλογόν <ἐστιν>· ἔσται γὰρ καὶ ὁ Εὔξενος (32) Ἀρχίδαμος γεωμετρικός.
καὶ τὸ ἐν τῇ Πολιτείᾳ τῇ Πλάτωνος, (33) ὅτι οἱ τοὺς τεθνεῶτας σκυλεύοντες ἐοίκασι τοῖς κυνιδίοις (34) ἃ τοὺς λίθους δάκνει, τοῦ βάλλοντος οὐχ ἁπτόμενα,
καὶ (35) ἡ εἰς τὸν δῆμον, ὅτι ὅμοιος ναυκλήρῳ ἰσχυρῷ μὲν ὑπο(36)κώφῳ δέ,
καὶ ἡ εἰς τὰ μέτρα τῶν ποιητῶν, ὅτι ἔοικε τοῖς (1407a1) ἄνευ κάλλους ὡραίοις·
οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀπανθήσαντες, τὰ δὲ (2) διαλυθέντα οὐχ ὅμοια φαίνεται.
καὶ ἡ Περικλέους εἰς Σα(3)μίους, ἐοικέναι αὐτοὺς τοῖς παιδίοις ἃ τὸν ψωμὸν δέχεται (4) μέν, κλαίοντα δέ,
καὶ εἰς Βοιωτούς, ὅτι ὅμοιοι τοῖς πρίνοις· (5) τούς τε γὰρ πρίνους ὑφ’ αὑτῶν κατακόπτεσθαι, καὶ τοὺς (6) Βοιωτοὺς πρὸς ἀλλήλους μαχομένους.
καὶ ὃ Δημοσθένης (7) <εἰς> τὸν δῆμον, ὅτι ὅμοιός ἐστιν τοῖς ἐν τοῖς πλοίοις ναυ(8)τιῶσιν.
καὶ ὡς Δημοκράτης εἴκασεν τοὺς ῥήτορας ταῖς (9) τίτθαις αἳ τὸ ψώμισμα καταπίνουσαι τῷ σιάλῳ τὰ παιδία (10) παραλείφουσιν.
καὶ ὡς Ἀντισθένης Κηφισόδοτον τὸν λεπτὸν (11) λιβανωτῷ εἴκασεν, ὅτι ἀπολλύμενος εὐφραίνει.
πάσας δὲ (12) ταύτας καὶ ὡς εἰκόνας καὶ ὡς μεταφορὰς ἔξεστι λέγειν, (13) ὥστε ὅσαι ἂν εὐδοκιμῶσιν ὡς μεταφοραὶ λεχθεῖσαι, δῆλον (14) ὅτι αὗται καὶ εἰκόνες ἔσονται, καὶ αἱ εἰκόνες μεταφοραὶ (15) λόγου δεόμεναι.
ἀεὶ δὲ δεῖ τὴν μεταφορὰν τὴν ἐκ τοῦ (16) ἀνάλογον ἀνταποδιδόναι καὶ ἐπὶ θάτερα [καὶ ἐπὶ] τῶν ὁμο(17)γενῶν,
οἷον εἰ ἡ φιάλη ἀσπὶς Διονύσου, καὶ τὴν ἀσπίδα (18) ἁρμόττει λέγεσθαι φιάλην Ἄρεως.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
since both are courageous, he has transferred to Achilles the name of ‘lion’.
Similes are useful in prose as well as in verse; but not often, since they are of the nature of poetry.
They are to be employed just as metaphors are employed, since they are really the same thing except for the difference mentioned.
The following are examples of similes. Androtion said of Idrieus that he was like a terrier let off the chain, that flies at you and bites you—Idrieus too was savage now that he was let out of his chains.
Theodamas compared Archidamus to an Euxenus who could not do geometry—a proportional simile, implying that Euxenus is an Archidamus who can do geometry.
In Plato’s Republic those who strip the dead are compared to curs which bite the stones thrown at them but do not touch the thrower,
and there is the simile about the Athenian people, who are compared to a ship’s captain who is strong but a little deaf;
and the one about poets’ verses, which are likened to persons who lack beauty but possess youthful freshness
—when the freshness has faded the charm perishes, and so with verses when broken up into prose.
Pericles compared the Samians to children who take their pap but go on crying;
and the Boeotians to holm—oaks, because they were ruining one another by civil wars just as one oak causes another oak’s fall.
Demosthenes said that the Athenian people were like sea—sick men on board ship.
Again, Demosthenes compared the political orators to nurses who swallow the bit of food themselves and then smear the children’s lips with the spittle.
Antisthenes compared the lean Cephisodotus to frankincense, because it was his consumption that gave one pleasure.
All these ideas may be expressed either as similes or as metaphors; those which succeed as metaphors will obviously do well also as similes, and similes, with the explanation omitted, will appear as metaphors.
But the proportional metaphor must always apply reciprocally to either of its co—ordinate terms.
