This device should not, however, be employed except where the subject invites heroics or redundancy or exaggeration or emotion, either one or more of these. The facts naturally sound more imposing from the accumulation of names to signify groups instead of individuals. There is the same sense of multiplication in 'Forth came Hectors and Sarpedons too,' ** and in the passage of Plato about the Athenians, ** which we have also quoted elsewhere : 4 'For no Pelopes nor Cadmi nor Egypti and Danai nor any other hordes of born barbarians share our home, but we are pure Greeks here, no semi-barbarians,' and so on. These all mean one person, Oedipus, and on the other side Jocasta, but the expansion into the plural serves to make the misfortunes plural as well. Of all the foulest deeds that men have done. That gave us birth and having given birthįlung forth the self-same seed again and showedįathers and sons and brothers all blood-kin.Īnd brides and wives and mothers, all the shame 3 This is the case with Sophocles' lines about Oedipus : but it is still more worthy of notice that the plural sounds more full-mouthed, while the very idea of multitude which the plural number conveys is itself impressive. Scatter the length of the beaches and thunder, 'the Tunny, the Tunny!' ** 2 Now in the category of number not only are those uses ornamental where the singular form is found on consideration to signify a plural - take the lines :

And consider, too, what variety and liveliness is lent to the exposition by changes of case, tense, person, number, gender.

G Again, accumulation, variation, and climax, the so-called 'figures of many cases,' ** are, as you know, a most effective aid in giving ornament and every kind of sublime and emotional effect. Click on the G symbols to go to the Greek text of each chapter. , On the Sublime (2), On the Sublime - Chapters 23-44

Sublime in a sentence