The Sublime in Antiquity

710 Pages·2016·3.87 MB·English

by  James I. Porter

THE SUBLIME IN ANTIQUITY
Current understandings of the sublime are focused by a single word
(“sublimity”)andbyasingleauthor(“Longinus”).Thesublimeisnot
aword:itisaconceptandanexperience,orrather awholerangeof
ideas, meanings, and experiences that are embedded in conceptual
andexperientialpatterns.Oncewetrainoursightsonthesepatterns
a radically different prospect on the sublime in antiquity comes to
light,onethattoucheseverythingfromitsrangeofexpressionstoits
dates of emergence, evolution, role in the cultures of antiquity as a
whole,andlaterreception.Thisbookisthefirsttooutlineacompre
hensiveaccountofthesublimeinGreekandRomanpoetry,philoso
phy, and the sciences, in addition to rhetoric and literary criticism.
It offers new readings of Longinus with an eye tosituating him in a
much largercontextof reflection on the sublime inantiquity.
james i. porter is Chancellor’s Professor of Rhetoric at the
University ofCalifornia,Berkeley.Anauthorityonancientcriticism
and aesthetics and an important figure in classical reception studies,
heistheauthorofTheOriginsofAestheticThoughtinAncientGreece:
Matter, Sensation, and Experience (Cambridge, 2010), Nietzsche and
thePhilologyoftheFuture,andTheInventionofDionysus:AnEssayon
The Birth of Tragedy (both 2000), as well as the editor of several
collections. He is also co editor of the “Classical Presences” series.
The present book is the second installment in a trilogy, the aim of
which is to bring back into focus ancient aesthetic thinking and to
uncover its forgotten traditions.

THE SUBLIME IN ANTIQUITY
JAMES I. PORTER
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107037472
©JamesI.Porter2016
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2016
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Porter,JamesI.,1954–author.
Thesublimeinantiquity/JamesI.Porter.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-03747-2(Hardback)
1. Sublime,The. 2. Greece–Antiquities. 3. Rome–Antiquities. I. Title.
bh301.s7p672015
1110.850938–dc23 2015024702
isbn978-1-107-03747-2Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofurlsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
List of illustrations page x
Acknowledgements xii
Abbreviations xiv
Note on translations xvi
Preface xvii
1 Introduction: the sublime before and after Longinus 1
Makingsenseofsublimity 5
Currentbiases 7
ThesublimewithoutLonginus 18
Thebubbleofhupsos?Towardsanewhistoryofthesublimeinantiquity 25
Words,words,words 34
Misinheritances:Boileau,Romantics,andthelosttraditionsofthesublime 36
Logicalandthematicmarkersofthesublime 51
Varietiesofsublimity 54
2 The art and rhetoric of the Longinian sublime 57
Artandnature 60
Therhetoricalconstructionofthesublime 83
“‘Sublimityistheechoofanoblemind’” 93
Therusesofsublimeartasnature 102
Therhetoricalquestionandthequestionofrhetoric 105
Fiatlux 107
Presumingthesublime 116
Sublimityasatheoryofreading 117
Theartoftheemotions 124
Hupsēlonpoiein:makingthingssublime 130
Sunthesis 134
Theartofsublimecriticism 136
Therhythmofthesublime 137
Theaestheticsofthekairos:theinstant,themoment,andthedetail 141
Sequencing:theinterstitialsublime 147
Hupek 148
vii
viii Contents
Visualization 155
Cosmicintervals 160
Intervalsandthelogicofthegap 171
Thelogicofexcess 173
Longinus’cosmicmap 175
3 The sublime before Longinus in rhetoric and criticism:
Caecilius to Demetrius 178
Hupsos:names,synonyms,andequivalents 180
Polemics,predecessors,andpossibletargets 183
CaeciliusofCaleacte 184
“Thegrandstyle”:megalopsuchia 195
Longinusashisownpredecessor 201
Otherpredecessors 203
DionysiusofHalicarnassus 213
Poeticexpressionandthesystemofstyles 214
Thesystemofcompositionaltypes 230
DionysiusasaprecursortoLonginus 235
Theeuphonisttradition 239
Demetrius,OnStyle 246
Poeticexpressionandthesystemofstyles 248
Stylesasadverbs 253
Theforceofgrandeur(andviceversa) 260
Ontheusesofexcess(hyperbole) 270
Demetrius’achievements 277
4 The sublime before Longinus in rhetoric and literature:
Theophrastus to Homer 283
Theophrastus 283
Aristotle 289
TheRhetoric 289
ThePoetics 297
Fourthcenturyoratorsandrhetoricians 303
Demosthenes 304
Aeschines 306
Alcidamas 308
P.Oxy.410 309
Gorgias 314
Aristophanes,Cratinus,andearliertheoriesoftragedy 319
Tragedy 334
TheSublimeformoftragedy 335
Tragicphysics:sublimeaithēr 344
Praisingtotheskies:Pindaricheights 350
Thegreatocean:Homer 360
Contents ix
5 The material sublime 382
Thematerialandimmaterialsublimes 390
ThesublimematteroflanguageinLonginus 397
Natureasasublimeobject 411
ThePresocratics 415
Empedocles 416
Anaxagoras 421
Earlyridiculeofthematerialsublime 431
TheLucretiansublime 445
Maiestasrerum 446
LucretiusandLonginus 450
Antecedents 454
DemetriusofLaconia(?):P.Herc.831andtheearlierEpicureantradition 457
Asurprisingafterlife:VergilandKant 463
OntheCosmos 473
Bodiesoflightandcelestialvoid:Manilius’Astronomica 483
Manilius’Lucretiansublime 488
Rerumdiscordia 496
Bodiesandvoidintheheavens 501
Godisgreat 505
TheAetnapoet 508
Cleomedes,OntheHeavens 517
Naturemadesublime:aLonginiancoda 526
6 The immaterial sublime 537
Sublimityanddivinity 541
Homer 542
Presocratics 547
Aeschylus 554
Aristotle 554
Beautymadesublime:Plato 557
HupsosinPlato 559
Hupsosandbeauty 563
ThecaveoftheRepublic 569
ThecosmologyofthePhaedo 573
“Beyondtheheavens”inthePhaedrus 576
TheSymposium 594
“Beautybeyondbeauty”:Plotinus 601
Therhetoricoftheimmaterialsublime 610
Conclusion 618
Bibliography 623
Index locorum 658
General index 680
Illustrations
FIGURES
1.1 Codex Parisinus graecus 2036, fol. 178v.
Image: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. page 2
1.2 Codex Parisinus graecus 2036, fol. 1v.
Image: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 3
1.3 Humphrey Sydenham, Sermons upon Solemne
Occasions: Preached in Severall Auditories (London 1637)
134–5. Image courtesy of Mandeville Special Collections,
UC San Diego Library. 44
2.1 Detail from title page of William Hogarth, The Analysis
of Beauty: Written with a View of Fixing the Fluctuating
Ideas of Taste (London 1753). Image courtesy of Special
Collections and Archives, UC Irvine Library. 139
3.1 Alexander Mosaic. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples,
Italy. Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource,
NY. Reproduced with permission. 267
5.1 Detail from Salvator Rosa, Empedocles Leaping into
Etna (c. 1665–70). Eastnor Castle Collection.
Photograph by Photographic Survey, The Courtauld
Institute of Art, London. 464
5.2 Illustration of Etna erupting, from Athanasius Kircher,
Mundus subterraneus, 2 vols., 3rd edn. (Amsterdam 1678).
Unnumbered plate between i:200 and 201. Digital
image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. 465
x
List of illustrations xi
5.3 Diagram of Homer’s universe. Venetus A, Marcianus
Graecus Z.454, fol. 100v ad Iliad 8. Image courtesy of
the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice and the Center for
Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. 529
TABLES
3.1 The Organization of On Style. 252
3.2 The Relationship of the Four Demetrian Styles Viewed
as Adverbs. 258
Acknowledgements
Some time ago I began an inquiry into aesthetic thought and experience
in the Greco-Roman world, which has since taken the shape of a trilogy.
The first volume, The Origins of Aesthetic Thought in Ancient Greece:
Matter, Sensation, and Experience (2010), broached the foundational role
of the senses and of matter in aesthetic experience broadly conceived.
The third installment, still in progress, will cover developments in literary
aesthetics after Aristotle and down to the age of Augustus. The present
volume investigates the sublime in criticism and literature, in rhetoric
andphilosophy,andinsciencebeforeandafterLonginus.Giventhescope
and complexity of the material, only a selective approach was possible.
As a result, certain aspects of the sublime, especially as it appears in other
media (for example, sculpture, painting, and music), had to be left largely
to one side.
Where the first volume was intended as a multi-faceted suggestion,
The Sublime in Antiquity is conceived as a focused argument, albeit
one with broad implications of its own. For a variety of reasons to be
discussed below, the sublime has been something of an unwelcome pres-
ence in Classics until most recently, although it was never this outside
thefield.Asaresult,thesublimewasdeemedtobeeitherunapproachable
or simply off-limits, particularly once one strayed from Longinus’ text.
This is a shame. The sublime is a vast and difficult topic, but also an
immenselyexhilaratingonetoworkon.Myhopeisthatthepresentbook
will not only call attention to the problems that the sublime poses to our
field,butthat itwillalso emboldenreadersto feellicensed to examinethe
categoryanditsmanifestations,whetherintheareasjustlistedorinothers
that I have neglected to name. If nothing else, I will be happy if readers
come away from this book with a greater appreciation of the depth and
ingenuity of ancient authors andthe inexhaustibleriches they leftbehind.
For comments on different parts of the manuscript and on questions
related to it I wish to thank Ian Balfour, David Blank, Paul Bové, Shane
xii