hesxeto

Updated: May 19, 2025

But whenever also a word seems to imply some contradiction, it is necessary to reflect how many ways there may be of understanding it in the passage in question; e.g. in Homer's te r' hesxeto xalkeon hegxos one should consider the possible senses of 'was stopped there' whether by taking it in this sense or in that one will best avoid the fault of which Glaucon speaks: 'They start with some improbable presumption; and having so decreed it themselves, proceed to draw inferences, and censure the poet as though he had actually said whatever they happen to believe, if his statement conflicts with their own notion of things. This is how Homer's silence about Icarius has been treated.

Aristotle - Aristotle on the art of poetry