Folklor/Edebiyat (May 2016)
Cicero’s Metaphors Being Derived from Navigation and Aspects of the Sea / Cicero’nun Eserlerinde Denizcilik Kaynaklı Eğretilemeler
Abstract
Metaphor is derived from the ancient Greek verb metapherein which means to carry across or to transfer. Ancient Roman authors used the word translatio derived from verb transferre. Metaphor is a word or phrase which belongs properly to one subject, but transfered to another on the grounds of similarity or comparison between them. The area from which the proper word is borrowed is denoted by source of the metaphor. Like any other literatures, metaphors are also widely used in Latin literature. The commonest metaphors of Latin poets and writers are derived from navigation and aspects of the sea, farming, breeding animals, slavery, military, fire and flame, hunting and circus games. All these sources, especially navigation and aspects of the sea, are frequently seen in works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the most significant character of Roman rhetoric, philosophy and politics in 1st BC. In this study, the theories on the definition and purposes of metaphor in ancient rhetorical treatises will be summarized initially, then will be focused on Cicero’s works which includes his judical and deliberative speeches, philospohical treatises and his letters. The metaphors derived from navigation will be detected and categorized on the basis of borrowed words. The aim of this study is to recollect this kind of metaphors as a corpus which scattered among his works. Each category will be commented by selecting examplary phrases and the rest which bears the same meaning will be listed below. Exemplary phrases are in Latin in the main text, translations in footnotes.
