The Logic of the Maxim between Euripides, Stobaeus and Cormac McCarthy

Abstract

We can define the maxim, drawing inspiration from Aristotle, as any statement concerning actions, particularly regarding whether they should or should not be carried out. The maxim, of course, serves widely varying roles depending on the author, genre, work, and era. In Euripides, for example, it helps structure the plot, predisposes the audience to certain emotions, highlights personality traits, justifies actions, and so on. In the anthologies of the late-antique and Byzantine world, its function changes: severed from its dramatic context, it is generalized; it transitions from being relatively universal to entirely universal. This essentialization is evident in Stobaeus (5th century), whom I take as a model of this second way of employing maxims. In modern narrative, the maxim tends to assume a more controlled and subterranean structuring role in the plot than in Euripides. I will address an extreme representative of this approach: Cormac McCarthy and his novel All the Pretty Horses, the first volume of the Border Trilogy (1992-1998). I aim to exemplify the functions of the maxim in three authors, genres, and eras. The premise of my analysis is that maxims, when they cannot be strictly attributed to a particular character, often reveal the figure of the implied author.