Abbreviated Work Title:
D.H. Comp. 16
Work:
De compositione verborum
Section:
Section 16 line 107
Text:
...εἰ γάρ τις ἔροιτο ὅντιν’ οὖν ἢ ποιητῶν ἢ ῥητόρων, τίνα σεμνό-
τητα ἢ καλλιλογίαν ταῦτ’ ἔχει τὰ ὀνόματα ἃ ταῖς
Βοιωτίαις κεῖται πόλεσιν Ὑρία καὶ Μυκαλησσὸς καὶ
Γραῖα καὶ Ἐτεωνὸς καὶ Σκῶλος καὶ Θίσβη καὶ Ὀγχη-
στὸς καὶ Εὔτρησις καὶ τἆλλ’ ἐφεξῆς ὧν ὁ ποιητὴς
μέμνηται, οὐδεὶς ἂν εἰπεῖν οὐδ’ ἥντιν’ οὖν ἔχοι· ἀλλ’
οὕτως αὐτὰ καλῶς ἐκεῖνος συνύφαγκεν καὶ παραπληρώ-
μασιν εὐφώνοις διείληφεν ὥςτε μεγαλοπρεπέστατα φαί-
νεσθαι πάντων ὀνομάτων·
Translation:
For instance, if someone were to ask any poet or rhetorician what grandeur or elegance there is in those names which have been given [by Homer] to the Boeotian towns Hyria, Mycalessus, Graea, Etoneus, Scolus, Thisbe, Onchestus, Eutresis, and the rest of the list which the poet records, no one would be able to say that they possessed any such quality at all. But Homer has so beautifully interwoven them and dispersed them among supplementary words that sound pleasant that they appear as the most impressive of all names...
Translated By:
S. Usher (1985)