Longīnus on the Sublime

Longīnus on the Sublime (Peri hypsous), Greek literary treatise (a third of which is lost) of unknown authorship and date. Manuscripts attribute it to ‘Dionysius Longinus’ or ‘Dionysius or Longinus’ and until the nineteenth century it was generally believed to be by Cassius Longinus (above). This tradition is contradicted on chronological grounds by internal evidence indicating a date in the first century AD. The author says that his work is a reply to a similarly entitled treatise of the first century BC by Caecilius of Calactē, who gave what ‘Longinus’ considers to be an inadequate account of ‘sublimity’, failing in particular to attach sufficient importance to the emotional element in this concept. It is addressed to a friend, Postumius Terentianus (of whom nothing is known but who is presumed from his name to be Roman), and is on the subject of what constitutes sublimity in literature. It has greatly appealed to later readers by its enthusiasm, sage criticism, apt illustrations (mostly from Greek literature), and clarity of expression. The author analyses the constituents of sublimity, and finds them in elevated thought (‘sublimity is the echo of a noble mind’, 9. 2); strong emotion; certain kinds of figures of thought and speech; nobility of diction (‘truly beautiful words are the very light of the spirit’, 30. 1); and composition, i.e. word-order, rhythm, euphony. He lists the faults to be avoided: turgidity, puerility, false emotion, frigidity; discusses the part played by imagination and various figures of speech; and illustrates his points by a wealth of quotation. There are interesting observations on successful and unsuccessful ways of representing supernatural beings and of exciting awe, and comparisons of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and of Demosthenes and Cicero, which are very rewarding. The author finds the chief examples of sublimity of style in Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes, of whom he speaks with appreciative enthusiasm. At one point (in a section on selection and organization of material) his quotation preserves an ode of Sappho, translated by the Roman poet Catullus (see poem 51). There is a notable passage (9.9) in which the author points out, as an instance of grandeur in representing the divine, the first verses of Genesis. No other pagan writer uses the Bible in this way, and one must presume that the author had, unusually, both Roman (in the case of his addressee) and Jewish contacts.

This is a critical work of great importance; the writer is able to transcend the rhetorical tradition within which he worked and contribute to our understanding of true literary greatness.