Metaphor and the Ancient Novel (original) (raw)
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Aristotle and the Metaphysics of Metaphor
Asked what his first decree would be, were he to become emperor, Confucius allegedly replied that he would fix the meaning of words. It is easy to appreciate the good intentions of the eastern sage; Aristotle may have had something similar in mind when he stated that a word which does not have a single meaning has no meaning. 1 This expresses a central truth about the nature of language, thought and reality; not, however, the full truth, since language does not lend itself to such Procrustean fixity; Aristotle recognised this better than most. Only a tyrannical philosopher king could legislate as suggested by the anecdote concerning Confucius. Perhaps the clearest challenge to such a decree is analogy; this occurs most commonly as metaphor, which is surely one of the most marvellous feats of language. Bereft of metaphor, everyday language would remain flat and univocal, each word atomically attached to a single object. Indispensable to our way of understanding and articulating the world, metaphor is richly revealing of the relationship between knowledge and reality. It deeply penetrates our way of perceiving and expressing the world. John Middleton Murry did not exaggerate when he remarked: "To attempt a fundamental examination of metaphor would be nothing less than an investigation of the genesis of thought itself." 2 "Metaphor" means literally "transfer" or "transport." The word is used as such by Herodotus, who relates that the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus "removed all the dead that were buried within sight of the temple and carried them to another part of Delos." 3 He also uses the word to describe the use of levers for the lifting of stone in the construction of pyramids. 4 These are both strongly physical and visible uses of the term. The first, as it were, "metaphorical" use of the word-as a noun-is found in the orator Isocrates, who describes the wealth of stylistic means enjoyed by poets, compared to the dearth of literary devices available to prose writers: "The poets are granted many methods of adorning their language, for besides the use of normal words they can also employ foreign words, neologisms, 1 Metaph. Γ, 4, 1006b8: τὸ γὰρ µὴ ἕν σηµαίνειν οὐθὲν σηµαίνειν ἐστίν. 2 J. M. Murry, 1931, p. 2. 3 I, 64.2-3: τοὺς νεκροὺς µετεφόρεε ἐς ἄλλον χῶρον τῆς ∆ήλου. 4 II, 125, 4.
Changing the Aspect: Situating Aristotle in the Contemporary Debate on Metaphor
This is a paper I presented at the Instituta de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, in July 2015. In it, I attempt to argue that the question of Aristotle's place in the contemporary debate about metaphor has, up to now, not been adequately posed. I then go on to outline what I think is a more pertinent way of posing the question, and lay the groundwork for future research on the question.
Metaphor by any other name. A cognitive linguistic reassessment of Aristotle’s theory of metaphor
Toward a Cognitive Classical Linguistics, 2019
Abstract: Aristotle, according to the dominant view in the field of cognitive linguistics, is the father of an old, defunct and now refuted "classical" theory of metaphor based on literal similarity. But is the theory of metaphor put forward by Aristotle really so antithetical to the contemporary theory of metaphor in cognitive linguistics? Scholars in and out of this field have begun to question this depiction. In this paper, I take advantage of the very tools afforded by cognitive linguistics to reinterpret Aristotle's theory of metaphor. I argue that Aristotle has been misrepresented and suggest an alternate view which will be of interest to philosophers, philologists and cognitive linguists alike.
Neither the use of the term metaphora in Latin texts nor the concept of metaphor in Roman linguistic thought has been sufficiently investigated. Roman approaches to metaphor can be characterized as eclectic, based on the Aristotelian and Peripatetic traditions, while also including Rhodian influences. 1 From Quintilian on, the term metaphora is established in Latin linguistic thought and used regularly by Roman grammarians such as Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Pomponius Porphyrio, Aelius Donatus, Maurus Servius Honoratis. This paper's aims are however more limited: to examine the first uses and discussions of metaphor in texts where linguistic issues were debated. The first of these that has survived is a Latin handbook on rhetoric, the ad Herennium. Cicero and the Augustan grammarian Verrius Flaccus (to the extent that his relevant considerations on metaphor have been transmitted in the Lexicon of Festus) will also be examined. In order to follow the use of a linguistic term in Latin, Greek texts need to be taken into account. Grammarians and rhetoricians worked in a bilingual cultural context, and from the very beginning reciprocal influences are both expected and observed. Latin texts were in fact to a considerable extent translations from Greek grammatical and rhetorical handbooks.
Call for Papers for the Panel 'Μορφὴ ἐπέων: Interdisciplinary Approach to Ancient Metaphors', 16th Celtics Confernece in Classics (Coimbra, 15-18 July) deadline 20 February 2025, organized by Maria Arpaia and Laura Massetti Abstract length: maximum 600 words without bibliography. Deadline: February 20, 2025. Language: English. Submission: anonymous abstract in Word and PDF should be sent as an attachment to Maria Arpaia (maria.arpaia@unior.it) and Laura Massetti (laura.massetti@unior.it). Information: please contact Maria Arpaia (maria.arpaia@unior.it) and Laura Massetti (laura.massetti@unior.it). The panel features the following keynote speakers: 1 Prof. Anton Bierl (University of Basel); 2 Prof. Anna Novokhatko (University of Trento) 3 Prof. Douglas Cairns (University of Edinburgh).
Di Biase-Dyson & Egg, Drawing Attention to Metaphor: Introduction (2020)
Drawing Attention to Metaphor, 2020
This volume is the product of a conference, The premeditated path. Deliberate metaphor in ancient and modern texts, that was held in Berlin in July 2016 under the auspices of the Excellence Cluster 264 ‘Topoi: The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations’. The impetus for the conference and its subsequent publication was twofold: firstly to attempt to engage with the different sides of the debate about “deliberateness” or “marking” in metaphor usage and secondly to see whether texts from the ancient world could offer some new perspectives on the signalling of metaphorical language.
The typology of linguistic metaphor in first-century CE Roman thought
Lemmata Linguistica Latina, Volume I, Words and Sounds, ed. by Holmes, N. / Ottink, M. / Schrickx, J. / Selig, M., 2019
This chapter, belonging to the field of the history of Roman linguistics , builds on my previous analysis of the theoretical linguistic treatment of metaphor in Roman thought from first century BCE to first century CE. It argues that metaphor from the very beginnings has been analysed not only within rhetoric but also within both linguistic and philosophical domains. Aristotelian cognitive approaches are significant for understanding Quintilian's treatment of metaphor, which Quintilian develops along semantic and pragmatic lines. Seneca's approach to metaphor contributes towards an understanding of the intellectual context of Quintilian's first-century CE Rome. The iconicity of metaphor and metaphorical mapping developed in Seneca's semiotic use of 'mental pictures' in their interplay with metaphor constituted a particularly important contribution to theoretical debates on metaphor.