- Source
- Aristotle. Aristotelis De arte poetica liber. Kassel, Rudolf, editor. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1965 (printing).
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg034.humanitext-grc2:8.1-8.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-27
Discusses how the unity of plot is not achieved merely by being about one person, praising Homer's excellence in constructing his epics around a single action rather than the entire life of the hero.
μῦθος δ’ ἐστὶν εἷς οὐχ ὥσπερ τινὲς οἴονται ἐὰν περὶ ἕνα ᾖ·1 πολλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἄπειρα τῷ ἑνὶ συμβαίνει, ἐξ ὧν ἐνίων οὐδέν ἐστιν ἕν· οὕτως δὲ καὶ πράξεις ἑνὸς πολλαί εἰσιν, ἐξ ὧν μία οὐδεμία γίνεται πρᾶξις.
A plot is not one, as some people think, if it is about one person; for many and even countless things happen to one person, from some of which no single thing comes to be. In the same way, there are also many actions of one person, from which no single action arises.
διὸ πάντες ἐοίκασιν ἁμαρτάνειν ὅσοι τῶν ποιητῶν Ἡρακληίδα Θησηίδα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ποιήματα πεποιήκασιν· οἴονται γάρ, ἐπεὶ εἷς ἦν ὁ Ἡρακλῆς, ἕνα καὶ τὸν μῦθον εἶναι προσήκειν.
Therefore, all those poets seem to have erred who have composed a Heracleid, a Theseid, and such poems; for they think that, since Heracles was one person, it is appropriate for the plot also to be one.
ὁ δ’ Ὅμηρος ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα διαφέρει καὶ τοῦτ’ ἔοικεν καλῶς ἰδεῖν, ἤτοι διὰ τέχνην ἢ διὰ φύσιν· Ὀδύσσειαν γὰρ ποιῶν οὐκ ἐποίησεν ἅπαντα ὅσα αὐτῷ συνέβη, οἷον πληγῆναι μὲν ἐν τῷ Παρνασσῷ, μανῆναι δὲ προσποιήσασθαι ἐν τῷ ἀγερμῷ, ὧν οὐδὲν θατέρου γενομένου2 ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ἢ εἰκὸς θάτερον γενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ περὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν οἵαν λέγομεν τὴν Ὀδύσσειαν συνέστησεν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἰλιάδα.
But Homer, just as he excels in other respects, seems also to have seen this well, whether through art or through nature; for in composing the Odyssey he did not include everything that happened to Odysseus—such as his being wounded on Parnassus, or his pretending to be mad during the gathering of the army—of which events, the occurrence of one did not make the occurrence of the other necessary or probable. Instead, he constructed the Odyssey around a single action of the kind we mean, and likewise also the Iliad.
χρὴ οὖν, καθάπερ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις μιμητικαῖς ἡ μία μίμησις ἑνός ἐστιν, οὕτω καὶ τὸν μῦθον, ἐπεὶ πράξεως μίμησίς ἐστι, μιᾶς τε εἶναι καὶ ταύτης ὅλης, καὶ τὰ μέρη συνεστάναι τῶν πραγμάτων οὕτως ὥστε μετατιθεμένου τινὸς μέρους ἢ ἀφαιρουμένου διαφέρεσθαι καὶ κινεῖσθαι τὸ ὅλον· ὃ γὰρ προσὸν ἢ μὴ προσὸν μηδὲν ποιεῖ ἐπίδηλον, οὐδὲν μόριον τοῦ ὅλου ἐστίν.
It is necessary, therefore, that just as in the other imitative arts a single imitation is of a single object, so also the plot, since it is an imitation of an action, should be of a single and moreover of a whole action, and the parts of the incidents should be so constructed that if any part is transposed or removed, the whole is disrupted and disturbed. For that which, whether present or absent, makes no visible difference, is no part of the whole.
- 8.1ἐὰν περί ἕνα ᾖ
Conditional clause meaning "if it is about one person." The predicate of the main clause (εἷς ἐστιν) is omitted, forming a logical structure of negation (οὐχ) implying "it does not follow that the plot is one if it is about one person."
- 8.3ὧν οὐδὲν θατέρου γενομένου
θατέρου γενομένου is a genitive absolute construction ("one of them having occurred"). The preceding relative pronoun in the genitive ὧν ("of which") depends on it. The literal translation is "of which things, when one occurred, it was not necessary or probable that the other (θάτερον) should occur," indicating the lack of causal connection or necessity between the two episodes (the wounding and the madness).