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Jordan (no login)
Posted Feb 24, 2005 11:54 AM
Week 21
Longinus is believed to have written “On the Sublime”; however, we do not really know who wrote it, we can only guess. The time in which Longinus could have lived was a span of around 300 years. There is only one surviving manuscript of “On the Sublime” that our text depends on. There are several chunks lost out of the manuscript. Sadly the very important section on Pathos is missing from the manuscript. Longinus not only attempts to define sublimity (chapter 6), but he illustrates it brilliantly in his writing. The fact that readers of Longinus desire to write sublimely simply by reading his work shows how Longinus attained his goal in “On the Sublime.” There are five things necessary for literature (The common groundwork for these five necessities is competence in speaking): Grand conceptions, vehement emotion, proper construction of figures, nobility of language, and dignified and elegant word arrangement. Longinus did not like the Odyssey because it did not measure up to his measure of sublimity because it lacked the intensity of the Iliad. The Iliad was written in the height of Homer’s grandeur while the Odyssey was written in his old age. In Chapter 33, Longinus says that it is better to achieve “grandeur flawed in some respects” than flawless excellence in writing. Chapters 34 and 35, Longinus reaches the peak of sublimity, both in his example of Demosthenes (34), and in his best moment, Chapter 35.
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