Again, since Tragedy is an imitation of persons who are above the
common level, the example of good portrait-painters should be followed.
They, while reproducing the distinctive form of the original, make a
likeness which is true to life and yet more beautiful. So too the poet,
in representing men who are irascible or indolent, or have other defects
of character, should preserve the type and yet ennoble it. In this way
Achilles is portrayed by Agathon and Homer.

These then are rules the poet should observe. Nor should he neglect those
appeals to the senses, which, though not among the essentials, are the
concomitants of poetry; for here too there is much room for error. But of
this enough has been said in our published treatises.



XVI

What Recognition is has been already explained. We will now enumerate its
kinds.

First, the least artistic form, which, from poverty of wit, is most
commonly employed recognition by signs. Of these some are congenital,--
such as 'the spear which the earth-born race bear on their bodies,' or
the stars introduced by Carcinus in his Thyestes. Others are acquired
after birth; and of these some are bodily marks, as scars; some external
tokens, as necklaces, or the little ark in the Tyro by which the
discovery is effected. Even these admit of more or less skilful
treatment. Thus in the recognition of Odysseus by his scar, the discovery
is made in one way by the nurse, in another by the swineherds. The use of
tokens for the express purpose of proof --and, indeed, any formal proof