The Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library Classics) (249 page)

⁷⁴
is metaphorical,
(20)
the best known standing ‘alone’. (3) A change, as Hippias of Thasos suggested, in the mode of reading a word will solve the difficulty in
⁷⁵
and in
.
⁷⁶
(4) Other difficulties may be solved by another punctuation; e. g. in Empedocles,
. Or (5) by the assumption of an equivocal term,
(25)
as in
,
⁷⁷
where
is equivocal. Or (6) by an appeal to the custom of language. Wine-and-water we call ‘wine’; and it is on the same principle that Homer speaks of a
,
⁷⁸
a ‘greave of new-wrought
tin
’. A worker in iron we call a ‘brazier’; and it is on the same principle that Ganymede is described as the ‘
wine
-server’ of Zeus,
⁷⁹
though the Gods do not drink wine. This latter, however, may be an instance of metaphor.
(30)
But whenever also a word seems to imply some contradiction, it is necessary to reflect how many ways there may be of understanding it in the passage in question; e. g. in Homer’s