Lecture
Antitheton, synaeresis (from Ancient Greek ἀντίθετον «opposition», συναίρεσις «juxtaposition») — a rhetorical figure that sets two thoughts against each other without creating an apparent contradiction, unlike antithesis. For instance, no contradiction arises when what is contrasted are not opposite qualities of a single object, but qualities of two different objects:
Ivan Ivanovich’s head looks like a radish, tail down; Ivan Nikiforovich’s head looks like a radish, tail up. N. V. Gogol. The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.
“One of them was gracious in giving, the other cunning in taking; the one, everybody wished for, the other they avoided, so that he would not see them. The modesty of the one was pleasing to all; the shamelessness of the other was agreeable to himself alone, and bitter to everyone else.”
Original text
Likewise, no contradiction arises when the second contrasted phenomenon is a consequence of the first:
“[Christ] lowered himself, that he might raise us up. He exposed himself to danger, that he might take us under his protection; he was bound, that he might set us free; he was torn apart, that he might renew us; he shed his blood, that he might heal us; he hung upon the cross, that he might do away with the cruelest tyranny that oppressed us. Finally, he desired death, that he might prepare for us an eternity with his Father.”
Original text
This use of the term antitheton, however, is not the only one. Thus, antitheton is sometimes used to mean antithesis or oxymoron.
| Figures of speech | |
|---|---|
| Figures |
Adynaton • Allusion • Amplification • Anadiplosis • Anacoluthon • Anaphora • Antithesis • Antitheton • Apocope • Apostrophe • Attraction • Asyndeton • Hyperbaton •Homeoteleuton • Gradation (Climax, Anticlimax) • Distinctio • Zeugma • Isocolon • Nominative of theme • Inversion • Correctio • Mesarchia •Polyptoton (case variation) • Polysyndeton • Oxymoron • Parallelism • Paronomasia • Parcellation • Periphrasis • Pleonasm • Prolepsis • Retardation •Rhetorical question • Rhetorical exclamation • Rhetorical address • Symploce • Solecism • Tautology • Exact repetition • Aposiopesis • Chiasmus • Exergasia •Ellipsis • Emphasis • Epiphora |
| Tropes |
Allegory • Antiphrasis • Asteism • Antonomasia • Hyperbole • Dysphemism • Irony • Pun • Catachresis • Litotes • Meiosis • Metaphor • Metonymy • Personification •Pathos • Periphrasis • Sarcasm • Synecdoche • Simile • Euphemism • Epithet |
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