the difference will be felt if we substitute the common words,
"nun de m'eon mikros te kai asthenikos kai aeides.
"Yet a little fellow, weak and ugly. "
Or, if for the line,
"diphron aeikelion katatheis oligen te trapezan,
"Setting an unseemly couch and a meager table, "
we read,
"diphron mochtheron katatheis mikran te trapezan.
"Setting a wretched couch and a puny table. "
Or, for eiones booosin, 'the sea shores roar,' eiones krazousin, 'the sea shores screech.'
Again, Ariphrades ridiculed the tragedians for using phrases which no one would employ in ordinary speech: for example, domaton apo, 'from the house away,' instead of apo domaton, 'away from the house;' sethen, ego de nin, 'to thee, and I to him;' Achilleos peri, 'Achilles about,' instead of peri Achilleos, 'about Achilles;' and the like. It is precisely because such phrases are not part of the current idiom that they give distinction to the style. This, however, he failed to see.
Studies
