In accordance with the principles laid out in the Introduction (page 5), this chapter on style focuses on the concepts that are discussed in the scholia with some frequency and does not attempt to give an overview of ancient notions of style in general. As a further restriction, the present account excludes most of the rhetorical figures that deal with single words or very short phrases (metaphor, synecdoche, litotes, etc.) and/or are of a more ‘technical’ type (epanalepsis, homoioteleuton, isocolon, etc.). They do not really address the questions of literary criticism that are the focus of this book and, more importantly, are better studied on the basis of the rhetorical handbooks. Instead, the chapter primarily discusses stylistic terms and concepts that can be applied to entire clauses, sentences or even larger units of text.

GRAPHIC QUALITY (ENARGEIA)

The title of this section needs a brief explanation. The word ἐνάργεια is usually rendered in English by ‘vividness’. However, the Greek concept of ἐνάργεια does not primarily refer to liveliness, vivacity, the state of being animated, etc., as ‘vividness’ suggests. Rather ἐνάργεια is a visual concept (comparable to German Anschaulichkeit) and designates the graphic description that enthrals the audience. ‘Graphic quality’ is an attempt to capture the visual connotations of ἐνάργεια. This visual foundation of the term manifests itself, among other things, in the way that the concept often goes hand in hand with the notion that the gripping account turns the reader into a spectator.