Aristotle defines the art of rhetoric as "the power of seeming in each [case] the possible means of persuasion." This is avowedly an ability, a faculty, a dunamis, a power of the rhetorician, but is not the exercise of that power. Conversely, when Homer speaks of "winged words," he focuses attention on the exercised power, not, however, of the speaker, but of the words themselves. Although different Homeric speakers have different ways of winging the words, ultimately it is the words themselves that are winged.

        Nobody supposes that Homer was specifically concerned with an art of rhetoric, as Aristotle clearly was, but his descriptions of speech and of speeches are very illuminating. The words are "winged" because they traverse space--the distance between speaker and hearer--and they do so with speed, force, and accuracy. Initially, the metaphor is derived from birds which, like the words, are winged or feathered and which naturally fly in a purposeful manner. Birds naturally wing their way, but it is their way which they pursue, moved by an internal principle of motion, their nature. Similarly, the words, once released by the speaker or once they have escaped from the speaker, take on a natural power of their own. They move with force and direction; they are vectors.

        The metaphor is transformed, however, by the technology of war. Birds have a natural power to fly--they are winged or feathered--but the arrow, too, is winged and feathered, and it, too, flies. "Winged words," as a metaphorical phrase, becomes more directive, more menacing, more penetrating, and more menacing, more penetrating, and more hostile. The natural power of the feathers becomes a stabilizing device for a pointed shaft. The power of winging comes from the bow and the bowman, and the natural power inherent in the feathers is diminished into a supplementary means.

        Moreover, birds fly naturally, by nature, and the wings and feathers are natural parts of the bird. They share in the ends or purposes that the bird, as a whole, serves. The sharing means that they are improved or benefited by accomplishment of those purposes. Arrows fly artificially, by artifice, and the wings and feathers are artificial parts of the arrow which has no purpose of its own. Nor are the wings and feathers improved or benefited; they serve merely as instruments of use. They are pure means, simple technology.