An image also is a metaphor; for it differs very little from it. For when Homer says of Achilles, He like a lion rush’d. It is an image. But when he says, the lion rush’d, it is a metaphor. For because both are brave, he calls Achilles metaphorically a lion. An image also is useful in prose, though but rarely; for it is poetical. Images, however, are to be introduced in the same manner as metaphors; for they are metaphors, differing in the way we have already mentioned. But images are for instance such as what Androtion said on Idrieus, “That he resembled whelps freed from their chains.” For they bite any one that falls in their way, and Idrieus when freed from his bonds was morose. And as Theodamas assimilated Archidamas to Euxenus, who was ignorant of geometry; and this from the analogous. For Euxenus is the geometrical Archidamus. Another instance of similitude is from the 5th book of the Republic of Plato. “That those who in battle plunder the bodies of the dead, are similar to whelps who bite stones, but do not touch those who throw them.” And in the 6th book, it is said of the people, “That they resemble a strong, but deaf pilot.” And in the 10th book speaking of poetical measures, it is said, “That they resemble those who are in the prime of life, but without beauty. For these in the decline of life, and verses when they are dissolved, no longer appear the same.” Another instance is that of Pericles on the Samians, “That they resembled children, who take their food crying.” And on the Bœtians, “That they resembled flints; for flints are struck against each other, and the Bœtians fight with each other.” Another instance is that of Demosthenes on the Athenian people, “That they resembled those who are sea-sick.” And that of Democrates who assimilated “Rhetoricians to nurses, who swallow the food themselves, and anoint the children with the spittle.” And again, that of Antisthenes, who assimilated Cephisidotus who was a thin man, to frankinsence, “which delights while it consumes.” For all these similitudes may be used, both as images, and as metaphors; so that it is evident that such words as are approved, and are used as metaphors, will also be images, and likewise that images are metaphors, which are in want of argument. It is always, however, necessary that a metaphor should be converted from the analogous, and be referred to the other part, and to things homogeneous. Thus if a cup may from analogy be called the shield of Bacchus, a shield also may appropriately be said to be the cup of Mars. From these things, therefore, an oration is composed.
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