Rhetorical Figures

The Byzantine tradition of tropes and figures, as it survives in various “handbooks,” is chiefly pedagogical in nature, aiming at practical proficiency. It derives from treatises composed between the first and fifth–sixth centuries ce, which were reworked and supplemented numerous times, but generally retained the late antique division into tropes (τρόποι), figures of diction (σχήματα λέξεως), and figures of thought (σχήματα διανοίας). This chapter describes the types of surviving treatises, their principles of classification, the lists of tropes and figures they contain, and their place in the rhetorical “curriculum.” It sketches out some prominent literary and rhetorical functions of figurative language in Byzantine literature, such as creating emphasis, blending concepts, setting a pace, expanding or contracting certain meanings, epitomizing arguments, and engaging the audience. The chapter is accompanied by a glossary of commonly used tropes and figures of diction and thought.