4. The simile also
is a metaphor; for there is very little difference. When the poet says of
Achilles,1
“
he rushed on like a lion,
” it is a simile; if he says, “a lion, he rushed on,”
it is a metaphor; for because both are courageous, he transfers the sense and
calls Achilles a lion.
[2]
The simile is also
useful in prose, but should be less frequently used, for there is something
poetical about it. Similes must be used like metaphors, which only differ in the
manner stated.
[3]
The following are examples of
similes. Androtion2 said of Idrieus that he was like curs just unchained; for as
they attack and bite, so he when loosed from his bonds was dangerous. Again,
Theodamas likened Archidamus to a Euxenus ignorant of geometry, by
proportion;3 for Euxenus
“will be Archidamus acquainted with geometry.” Again, Plato
in the Republic4 compares those who
strip the dead to curs, which bite stones, but do not touch those who throw
them; he also says that the people is like a ship's captain who is vigorous, but
rather deaf;5 that poets' verses resemble those who are in
the bloom of youth but lack beauty;6 for neither the one
after they have lost their bloom, nor the others after they have been broken
up,7
appear the same as before.
Pericles said that the Samians were like children who cry while they accept the
scraps.8 He
also compared the Boeotians to holm-oaks; for just as these are beaten down by
knocking against each other,9 so are the Boeotians by their civil strife.
Demosthenes compared the people to passengers who are seasick.10 Democrates said that orators resembled nurses who gulp
down the morsel and rub the babies' lips with the spittle.11 Antisthenes likened the skinny Cephisodotus to incense,
for he also gives pleasure by wasting away. All such expressions may be used as
similes or metaphors, so that all that are approved as metaphors will obviously
also serve as similes which are metaphors without the details.
[4]
But in all cases the metaphor from proportion should
be reciprocal and applicable to either of the two things of the same genus; for
instance, if the goblet is the shield of Dionysus, then the shield may properly
be called the goblet of Ares.12
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1 Compare Hom. Il. 22.164 ἐνάντιον ὦρτο λεὼν ὥς.
2 Pupil of Isocrates and historical writer. Idrieus was a prince of Caria, who had been imprisoned.
3 Meaning that there was no difference between Euxenus without a knowledge of geometry and Archidamus with a knowledge of geometry. The proportion of geometrical knowledge will remain the same, so that Archidamus can be called an ungeometrical Euxenus, and Euxenus a geometrical Archidamus （see 4.4, note for “by proportion”）.
7 If metrical restrictions have been removed and they are read as prose.
8 Meaning that they did not appreciate the benefits received from the Athenians, who conquered the islands （440 B.C.）.
9 Or, “are cut down by axes, the handles of which are made of their own wood.”
10 It is disputed whether Demosthenes is the orator or the Athenian general in the Peloponnesian War. The point of the comparison is that in a democracy the general instability of political conditions makes the people sick of the existing state of things and eager for a change.
12 As the shield is to Ares, so is the goblet to Dionysus. Proportion is defined （Aristot. Nic. Eth. 5.3.8） as “an equality of ratios, implying four terms at the least,” and the proportional metaphor is one in which the second term is to the first as the fourth is to the third; for then one can by metaphor substitute the fourth for the second, or the second for the fourth. Let A be Dionysus, B a goblet, C Ares, D a shield. Then by the definition, the goblet is to Dionysus as the shield is to Ares. The metaphor consists in transferring to the goblet the name belonging to its analogue the shield. Sometimes an addition is made by way of explanation of the word in its new sense, and the goblet may be described as the shield of Dionysus and the shield as the goblet of Ares. The shield and the goblet both come under the same genus, being characteristics of a deity, and can therefore be reciprocally transferred （Aristot. Poet. 21.4）.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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