Poetics   

may then use the fourth for the second, or the second for the

fourth. Sometimes too we qualify the metaphor by adding the term to

which the proper word is relative. Thus the cup is to Dionysus as

the shield to Ares. The cup may, therefore, be called 'the shield of

Dionysus,' and the shield 'the cup of Ares.' Or, again, as old age

is to life, so is evening to day. Evening may therefore be called,

'the old age of the day,' and old age, 'the evening of life,' or, in

the phrase of Empedocles, 'life's setting sun.' For some of the

terms of the proportion there is at times no word in existence;

still the metaphor may be used. For instance, to scatter seed is

called sowing: but the action of the sun in scattering his rays is

nameless. Still this process bears to the sun the same relation as

sowing to the seed. Hence the expression of the poet 'sowing the

god-created light.' There is another way in which this kind of

metaphor may be employed. We may apply an alien term, and then deny of

that term one of its proper attributes; as if we were to call the

shield, not 'the cup of Ares,' but 'the wineless cup'.

A newly-coined word is one which has never been even in local use,

but is adopted by the poet himself. Some such words there appear to

be: as ernyges, 'sprouters,' for kerata, 'horns'; and areter,

'supplicator', for hiereus, 'priest.'

A word is lengthened when its own vowel is exchanged for a longer

one, or when a syllable is inserted. A word is contracted when some

part of it is removed. Instances of lengthening are: poleos for

poleos, Peleiadeo for Peleidou; of contraction: kri, do, and ops, as

in mia ginetai amphoteron ops, 'the appearance of both is one.'

An altered word is one in which part of the ordinary form is left

unchanged, and part is recast: as in dexiteron kata mazon, 'on the

right breast,' dexiteron is for dexion.

Nouns in themselves are either masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Masculine are such as end in N, R, S, or in some letter compounded

with S- these being two, PS and X. Feminine, such as end in vowels