RESTORING A HOMERIC QUOTATION TO THE POETICS VIA THE ARABIC ARISTOTLE

Abstract This article aims to elucidate the oblique insight that the Arabic translation can offer on Aristotle. In the case of Poetics 1461a29–30, the Arabic evidence supports a variant rightly disregarded as corrupt by modern editors. The Arabic rendering of the erroneous variant, however, simultaneously misquotes the Homeric verse and syntactically acknowledges its status as a direct quotation, a status neglected by modern critical editions of the Poetics. Surveying the Aristotelian evidence in light of the Arabic translation reveals the need for an analytical approach to Aristotle that fully takes into account the testimonies of the witnesses even when—or rather, especially when—they disagree.