3.11. The Periodic Style: Divided and Antithetical
The periodic style which is divided into members is of two kinds. It is either simply divided, as in “I have often wondered at the conveners of national gatherings and the founders of athletic contests,” or it is antithetical, where, in each of the two members, one of one pair of opposites is put along with one of another pair, or the same word is used to bracket two opposites, as “They aided both parties—not only those who stayed behind but those who accompanied them. For the latter they acquired new territory larger than that at home, and to the former they left territory at home that was large enough.” Here the contrasted words are “staying behind” and “accompanying”; “enough” and “larger”. And in the example, “Both to those who want to get property and to those who desire to enjoy it,” where “enjoyment” is contrasted with “getting”.
Again:
“It often happens in such enterprises that the wise men fail and the fools succeed.”
“They were awarded the prize of valour immediately, and won the command of the sea not long afterwards.”
“To sail through the mainland and march through the sea, by bridging the Hellespont and cutting through Athos.”
“Nature gave them their country and law took it away again.”
“Some of them perished in misery, others were saved in disgrace.”
“Athenian citizens keep foreigners in their houses as servants, while the city of Athens allows her allies by thousands to live as the foreigner’s slaves.”
“To possess in life or to bequeath at death.”
There is also what someone said about Peitholaus and Lycophron in court, “These men used to sell you when they were at home, and now they have come to you here and bought you.”
All these passages have the structure described above. Such a form of speech is satisfying, because the significance of contrasted ideas is easily felt, especially when they are thus put side by side, and also because it has the effect of a logical argument; it is by putting two opposing conclusions side by side that you prove one of them false.
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:
dōrhētoi t’ epelonto pararretoi t’ epeessin
At the end:
ouk ōēthēsan auton paidion tetokenai,
all autou aition gegonenai
And:
en pleistais de phrontisi kai en elachistais elpisin
An example of inflexions of the same word is:
axios de stathēnai chalkous ouk axios ōn chalkou
Of the same word repeated:
su d’ auton kai zōnta eleges kakōs kai nun grapheis kakōs
Of one syllable:
ti d’ an epathes deinon, ei andr’ eides argon
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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