smoother in English than he does in Greek, but comparison of the account of stasis
with passages from other prose writers cited below will bear out some of Dionysius’
main points.
At the other end of the scale from Thucydides, Dionysius sets the style of
Lysias (c. 459–380), exemplifying the plain style. A number of Lysias’ orations survive,
mostly forensic in character, and he is regarded as the finest example of the pure
Attic stylist. In an essay devoted to him, Dionysius distinguishes a number of
characteristics including his use of the ordinary vocabulary of the speech of his day
(unlike Thucydides, he does not use archaisms), the expression of ideas in this
everyday language without much use of metaphor, and the ability to reduce ideas to
essentials with lucidity and terseness of expression. These may seem humdrum
virtues but Dionysius praises him as a fine literary artist who can conceal his art in
the production of stylish melodious prose.
Rhythm is a not unimportant factor in prose: it is not to be classed as an inessential
adjunct, but to tell the truth, I consider it to be the most potent device of all for
bewitching and beguiling the ear.
(Demosthenes, 39)Melody cannot be represented in translation, but his other qualities may be suggested
by the concluding paragraph of the speech Against Eratosthenes, one of the thirty
oligarchs who ruled Athens at the time of her defeat in 404–403.
However, I do not intend to talk of what might have been when it is beyond me to
describe the truth of what was perpetrated, which would be beyond the scope of
any number of accusers. But there has been no slackening in my eager regard for
our temples, which they sold or desecrated, for our city, which they brought low,
for our shipyards, which they destroyed or for the dead, whom they failed to
protect in their life and whom you must avenge after their death. I believe these
dead are listening to what we say, and will know that you are making your vote,
and feel that every vote of not guilty will be a vote for their own condemnation,
every vote of guilty one of retribution on their behalf.The style is easy yet formal, lucid yet patterned, simple and smooth yet morally
intense.
Having established the styles of Thucydides and Lysias as touchstones for the
grand and the plain respectively, Dionysius distinguishes a third style that is a mixture
of the two, which he variously calls the middle, the mixed or the well-blended. The
Classical exponents of this are Plato and Isocrates. Though paying general homage
to Plato’s writing, Dionysius is not particularly illuminating in the actual examples he
170 THE GREEKS