Aristotle · Complete work
Chapter 9
Chapter 9 of 26. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Ancient Greek
φανερὸν δὲ ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων καὶ ὅτι οὐ τὸ τὰ γενόμενα λέγειν, τοῦτο ποιητοῦ ἔργον ἐστίν, ἀλλ’ οἷα ἂν γένοιτο καὶ τὰ δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἢ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον.ὁ γὰρ[Bekker 1451b][Bekker 1451b line 1]ἱστορικὸς καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς οὐ τῷ ἢ ἔμμετρα λέγειν ἢ ἄμετρα διαφέρουσιν (εἴη γὰρ ἂν τὰ Ἡροδότου εἰς μέτρα τεθῆναι καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον ἂν εἴη ἱστορία τις μετὰ μέτρου ἢ ἄνευ μέτρων)· ἀλλὰ τούτῳ διαφέρει, τῷ τὸν μὲν τὰ γενόμενα[Bekker 1451b line 5]λέγειν, τὸν δὲ οἷα ἂν γένοιτο.διὸ καὶ φιλοσοφώτερον καὶ σπουδαιότερον ποίησις ἱστορίας ἐστίν· ἡ μὲν γὰρ ποίησις μᾶλλον τὰ καθόλου, ἡ δ’ ἱστορία τὰ καθ’ ἕκαστον λέγει.ἔστιν δὲ καθόλου μέν, τῷ ποίῳ τὰ ποῖα ἄττα συμβαίνει λέγειν ἢ πράττειν κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἢ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον, οὗ[Bekker 1451b line 10]στοχάζεται ἡ ποίησις ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη· τὸ δὲ καθ’ ἕκαστον, τί Ἀλκιβιάδης ἔπραξεν ἢ τί ἔπαθεν.ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς κωμῳδίας ἤδη τοῦτο δῆλον γέγονεν· συστήσαντες γὰρ τὸν μῦθον διὰ τῶν εἰκότων οὕτω τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα ὑποτιθέασιν, καὶ οὐχ ὥσπερ οἱ ἰαμβοποιοὶ περὶ τὸν καθ’ ἕκαστον[Bekker 1451b line 15]ποιοῦσιν.ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς τραγῳδίας τῶν γενομένων ὀνομάτων ἀντέχονται. αἴτιον δ’ ὅτι πιθανόν ἐστι τὸ δυνατόν· τὰ μὲν οὖν μὴ γενόμενα οὔπω πιστεύομεν εἶναι δυνατά, τὰ δὲ γενόμενα φανερὸν ὅτι δυνατά· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐγένετο, εἰ ἦν ἀδύνατα.οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις ἐν ἐνίαις μὲν ἓν[Bekker 1451b line 20]ἢ δύο τῶν γνωρίμων ἐστὶν ὀνομάτων, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα πεποιημένα, ἐν ἐνίαις δὲ οὐθέν, οἷον ἐν τῷ Ἀγάθωνος Ἀνθεῖ· ὁμοίως γὰρ ἐν τούτῳ τά τε πράγματα καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα πεποίηται, καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον εὐφραίνει.ὥστ’ οὐ πάντως εἶναι ζητητέον τῶν παραδεδομένων μύθων, περὶ οὓς αἱ τραγῳδίαι εἰσίν,[Bekker 1451b line 25]ἀντέχεσθαι. καὶ γὰρ γελοῖον τοῦτο ζητεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ γνώριμα ὀλίγοις γνώριμά ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως εὐφραίνει πάντας.δῆλον οὖν ἐκ τούτων ὅτι τὸν ποιητὴν μᾶλλον τῶν μύθων εἶναι δεῖ ποιητὴν ἢ τῶν μέτρων, ὅσῳ ποιητὴς κατὰ τὴν μίμησίν ἐστιν, μιμεῖται δὲ τὰς πράξεις.κἂν ἄρα συμβῇ[Bekker 1451b line 30]γενόμενα ποιεῖν, οὐθὲν ἧττον ποιητής ἐστι· τῶν γὰρ γενομένων ἔνια οὐδὲν κωλύει τοιαῦτα εἶναι οἷα ἂν εἰκὸς γενέσθαι, καθ’ ὃ ἐκεῖνος αὐτῶν ποιητής ἐστιν.τῶν δὲ ἁπλῶν μύθων καὶ πράξεων αἱ ἐπεισοδιώδεις εἰσὶν χείρισται· λέγω δ’ ἐπεισοδιώδη μῦθον ἐν ᾧ τὰ[Bekker 1451b line 35]ἐπεισόδια μετ’ ἄλληλα οὔτ’ εἰκὸς οὔτ’ ἀνάγκη εἶναι.τοιαῦται δὲ ποιοῦνται ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν φαύλων ποιητῶν δι’ αὐτούς, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν διὰ τοὺς ὑποκριτάς· ἀγωνίσματα γὰρ ποιοῦντες καὶ παρὰ τὴν δύναμιν παρατείνοντες τὸν μῦθον[Bekker 1452a][Bekker 1452a line 1]πολλάκις διαστρέφειν ἀναγκάζονται τὸ ἐφεξῆς.ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ[Bekker 1452a line 2]μόνον τελείας ἐστὶ πράξεως ἡ μίμησις ἀλλὰ καὶ φοβερῶν καὶ ἐλεεινῶν, ταῦτα δὲ γίνεται καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν γένηται παρὰ τὴν δόξαν δι’ ἄλληλα·τὸ γὰρ[Bekker 1452a line 5]θαυμαστὸν οὕτως ἕξει μᾶλλον ἢ εἰ ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτομάτου καὶ τῆς τύχης, ἐπεὶ καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τύχης ταῦτα θαυμασιώτατα δοκεῖ ὅσα ὥσπερ ἐπίτηδες φαίνεται γεγονέναι, οἷον ὡς ὁ ἀνδριὰς ὁ τοῦ Μίτυος ἐν Ἄργει ἀπέκτεινεν τὸν αἴτιον τοῦ θανάτου τῷ Μίτυι, θεωροῦντι ἐμπεσών· ἔοικε γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα[Bekker 1452a line 10]οὐκ εἰκῇ γίνεσθαι·ὥστε ἀνάγκη τοὺς τοιούτους εἶναι καλλίους μύθους.
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from all 26 Ancient Greek chapters with all 279 Bekker markers preserved for fidelity, technical precision, clarity, and structure.
It is also evident from what has been said that the poet’s task is not to tell what has happened, but what might happen—what is possible according to probability or necessity.For the[Bekker 1451b][Bekker 1451b line 1]historian and the poet differ not in speaking in verse or without verse—for the works of Herodotus could be put into verse, and they would be no less a history in verse than without verse—but in this: the one tells what has[Bekker 1451b line 5]happened, the other what might happen.For this reason poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history; for poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars.By a universal I mean what sort of things a certain sort of person will say or do according to probability or necessity, which is[Bekker 1451b line 10]what poetry aims at, though it assigns names to the persons; by a particular, what Alcibiades did or what befell him.In comedy this has by now become evident: the poets construct the plot through probable events and then assign whatever names happen to occur to them, instead of composing, as the iambic poets do, about the particular[Bekker 1451b line 15]individual.In tragedy, however, they adhere to names that have actually existed. The reason is that what is possible is credible: we do not yet believe that things which have not happened are possible, whereas it is evident that things which have happened are possible, since they would not have happened if they had been impossible.Nevertheless, even among tragedies, in some there is only one[Bekker 1451b line 20]or two familiar names, while the rest are invented; and in some there is none, as in Agathon’s Antheus; for in that play both the events and the names are alike invented, yet it delights no less.Thus one should not insist absolutely on adhering to the traditional stories around which tragedies are[Bekker 1451b line 25]constructed. Indeed, it is ridiculous to insist on this, since even familiar stories are familiar only to a few, yet nevertheless delight everyone.It is clear from this, then, that the poet must be a maker of plots rather than of verses, insofar as he is a poet by virtue of imitation, and what he imitates is actions.And even if he happens[Bekker 1451b line 30]to compose about events that have actually occurred, he is no less a poet; for nothing prevents some actual events from being such as might probably have occurred, and it is in virtue of this that he is their poet.Of simple plots and actions, the episodic are the worst. I call a plot episodic when the[Bekker 1451b line 35]episodes follow one another with neither probability nor necessity.Such plots are made by bad poets through their own fault, and by good poets on account of the actors; for in composing pieces for competition and stretching the plot beyond its capacity,[Bekker 1452a][Bekker 1452a line 1]they are often compelled to distort the sequence of events.But since imitation is not[Bekker 1452a line 2]only of a complete action but also of fearful and pitiable events, and these occur most of all when they come about contrary to expectation yet because of one another,the marvelous[Bekker 1452a line 5]will be greater in this way than if the events arise spontaneously or by chance; for even among chance events, those appear most marvelous that seem to have happened as if by design. Thus the statue of Mitys at Argos killed the man responsible for Mitys’s death by falling upon him while he was looking at it; for such events seem[Bekker 1452a line 10]not to occur at random.It follows, therefore, that plots of this kind must be the finer ones.
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from all 26 Ancient Greek chapters with all 279 Bekker markers preserved.
It is also clear from what has been said that the poet’s task is not to tell what has happened, but what might happen and what is possible according to probability or necessity.For the[Bekker 1451b][Bekker 1451b line 1]historian and the poet differ not in speaking in verse or without verse—for Herodotus’s work could be put into verse, and it would be no less a kind of history in verse than without verse—but in this: the one tells what has happened[Bekker 1451b line 5]and the other what might happen.For this reason poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history; for poetry speaks more of universals, while history speaks of particulars.A universal is the kind of thing that a certain kind of person will probably or necessarily say or do, which[Bekker 1451b line 10]poetry aims at even when it assigns names; a particular is what Alcibiades did or what happened to him.In comedy this has by now become clear: the poets construct the plot through probable events and then assign whatever names occur to them, rather than composing about a particular person[Bekker 1451b line 15]as the iambic poets do.In tragedy, however, they keep to names that have actually existed. The reason is that what is possible is credible. We do not yet believe that things which have not happened are possible, whereas it is clear that things which have happened are possible, since they would not have happened if they were impossible.Nevertheless, even among tragedies, in some there are one[Bekker 1451b line 20]or two familiar names and the others are invented, while in some there are none, as in Agathon’s Antheus; for in that play both the events and the names are invented, and it gives no less pleasure.Therefore one should not insist in every case on keeping to the traditional stories on which tragedies[Bekker 1451b line 25]are based. Indeed, it is ridiculous to insist on this, since even familiar stories are familiar to only a few, yet they nevertheless give pleasure to everyone.It is clear from this, then, that the poet must be a maker of plots rather than of verses, insofar as he is a poet by virtue of imitation, and what he imitates is actions.And even if he happens[Bekker 1451b line 30]to compose about things that have happened, he is no less a poet; for nothing prevents some things that have happened from being such as might probably happen, and insofar as they are such, he is their poet.Of simple plots and actions, the episodic ones are the worst. By an episodic plot I mean one in which the[Bekker 1451b line 35]episodes follow one another with neither probability nor necessity.Such plots are made by bad poets because of their own shortcomings, and by good poets because of the actors; for when they compose competition pieces and stretch the plot beyond its capacity,[Bekker 1452a][Bekker 1452a line 1]they are often forced to distort the sequence of events.Since imitation is not[Bekker 1452a line 2]only of a complete action but also of things that arouse fear and pity, and these arise especially when events occur contrary to expectation but because of one another,the[Bekker 1452a line 5]astonishing will be greater in this way than if the events occur spontaneously or by chance. For even among chance events, those seem most astonishing that appear to have happened as if by design. For example, the statue of Mitys at Argos killed the man responsible for Mitys’s death by falling on him while he was watching it; for events of this kind[Bekker 1452a line 10]do not seem to happen at random.It follows that plots of this kind must be finer.