Aristotle, Second Part of the RHETORIC Complete

Translated by W. Roberts.

Aristotle Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Aristotle in Print

II: 43 pages - You are on Page 16

Such, then, is the nature of antithesis. Parisosis is making the two members of a period equal in length. Paromoeosis is making the extreme words of both members like each other. This must happen either at the beginning or at the end of each member. If at the beginning, the resemblance must always be between whole words; at the end, between final syllables or inflexions of the same word or the same word repeated. Thus, at the beginning

"agron gar elaben arlon par' autou "

and

"dorhetoi t epelonto pararretoi t epeessin "

At the end

"ouk wethesan auton paidion tetokenai,

"all autou aitlon lelonenai, "

and

"en pleiotals de opontisi kai en elachistais elpisin "

An example of inflexions of the same word is

"axios de staoenai chalkous ouk axios on chalkou; "

Of the same word repeated,

"su d' auton kai zonta eleges kakos kai nun grafeis kakos. "

Of one syllable,

"ti d' an epaoes deinon, ei andrh' eides arhgon; "

It is possible for the same sentence to have all these features together-antithesis, parison, and homoeoteleuton. (The possible beginnings of periods have been pretty fully enumerated in the Theodectea.) There are also spurious antitheses, like that of Epicharmus-

"There one time I as their guest did stay,

"And they were my hosts on another day. "

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