Monday, October 07, 2024
Verse Easier to Remember
Plutarch, The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse 27 (Moralia 407 F; tr. Frank Cole Babbitt):
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Then, besides, there is nothing in poetry more serviceable to language than that the ideas communicated, by being bound up and interwoven with verse, are better remembered and kept firmly in mind. Men in those days had to have a memory for many things.Or, what is practically the same, song.
ἔτι τοίνυν οὐδὲν ἀπὸ ποιητικῆς λόγῳ χρησιμώτερον ὑπάρχει τοῦ δεθέντα μέτροις τὰ φραζόμενα καὶ συμπλακέντα μᾶλλον μνημονεύεσθαι καὶ κρατεῖσθαι. τοῖς μὲν οὖν τότε πολλὴν ἔδει μνήμην παρεῖναι.
