Alliteration: the repetition of a sound at the beginnings of two or more words in close connection.
1 put off / your plan, I pray— (Aen. 4.427 -8) 2
Allusion: is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event.
Anaphora: the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses. no truth, no sanctity, no fear of the gods, no standing by oaths, no religion—( Livy, 21.4.9)
Antithesis: an opposition or contrast of words or ideas.
Covetous of others' possessions, he was generous with his own,' (Sall. Cat. 5)
Aposiopesis: a breaking off before the close of the sentence.
whom I—? But no, let me first calm the restless / swell,. (Aen, 1.190)
Apostrophe: a sudden break from the previous method of discourse to address, in the second person, some person or object, absent or present.
O boy whom we lament, if only you / could break the bonds of fate and be Marcellus. (Aen.
6.1178)
Assonance: the occurance of similar vowel sounds in words close to each other (cf. alliteration ). litus ut longe resonante Eoa tunditur unda
where the beach is pounded by the far echoing Eastern wave— (Catullus, 11.3-4)
Asyndeton: the omission of conjunctions.
Our anchor is down, the sterns stand on the shore (Aen. 3.357)
Bathos: the juxtaposition of the intense or important and the trivial.
the mountains are in labour, and there will be born a comical mouse— (Horace, Ars Poetica ,
139)
Catachresis: is an extravagant, implied metaphor using words in an alien or unusual way.
I will speak daggers to her.
– Hamlet
Chiasmus: a pair of balanced phrases where the order of the second reverses that of the first haec queritur, stupet haec
this woman complains, gapes this one
Diacope: repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase.
We give thanks to Thee, 0 God, we give thanks … — (Psalm 75:1)
1 NB: alliteration may occur in translations, but this does not necessarily mean that the original Latin is alliterative in that particular place; it may, however, be an effective device of the translator to convey the tone of the Latin. Conversely, it may prove too difficult or awkward in some instances to preserve alliteration.
2 Line numbers are from Mandelbaum's translation.
Ellipsis: the shortening of a sentence or phrase by the omission of words which can be understood quid plura? [should I say]?— (Cicero, Philippic, 8.5.1)
Euphemism: the substitution of an agreeable or non-offensive word or expression for one that is harsh, indelicate, or unpleasant.
[The Trojans know] how a woman driven wild can act (Aen. 5.8)
Hendiadys: a single idea expressed through two nouns. we pour from bowls and gold –(Virgil, Georgics , 2.192)
Hyperbole: rhetorical exaggeration.
The seas are heaved to heaven (Aen. 1.146)
Irony: the statement of an apparent fact with the manifest intention of expressing its opposite.
This seems indeed to be a work for the High Ones, / a care that can disturb their calm (Aen.
4.518-19)
Litotes (understatement): the use of an expression (often a double negative) by which more is meant than meets the ear. surely we're not ignorant / of earlier disasters (Aen. 1.276- 7) and inside there was the appearance of a not-quiet funeral— (Ovid, Tristia, 1.3.22)
Metaphor: an implied comparison. she [Helen], the common / Fury of Troy and of her homeland, (Aen. 2.771-2)
Metonymy: the use of one thing to signify another, which it suggests.
I sing of arms and of a man (Aen. 1.1)
Onomatopeia: words or combinations of words, the sound of which suggests their sense.
My ears ring— (Catullus, 51.11)
Oxymoron: the juxtaposition of two words of contradictory meaning to emphasize the contradiction. a discordant harmony —(Lucan, Bellum Civile , 1.98)
Pathetic Fallacy: a device in which natural objects mirror the emotional state of a character.
The very springs and pines called out, the very orchards were crying for you, (Verg. Ecl. 1.38-9)
Personification: the attribution of the element of personality to an impersonal thing.
Flee from these cruel lands, this greedy shore (Aen. 3.57)
Pleonasm: the use of unnecessary words. thus she spoke from her mouth— (Virgil, Aeneid, 1.614)
Praeteritio: an apparent omission by which a speaker pretends to pass by what he really emphasizes.
And I need not / remind you of the wars that boil in Tyre / and of your brother's menaces and plots (Aen. 4.57-9)
Recusatio: a formal refusal to write on a specific topic or in a particular style; the reason given not be meant seriously.
When I started to sing of rulers and battles, Apollo tweaked my ear / and told me "Tityrus a countryman
should be / concerned to put flesh on his sheep and keep his poetry spare.” (Verg. Ecl. 6.3-5)
Simile: a figure which likens or asserts an explicit comparison between two different things in one or more of their aspects.
just as, often, when a crowd of people / is rocked by a rebellion, (Aen. 1.209-10)
Synecdoche: the use of a part for the whole. the sterns stand on the shore (Aen. 3.357)
Transferred Epithet: an epithet which has been transferred from the word to which it strictly belongs to another word connected with it in thought.
the ramparts of high Rome (Aen. 1.12)