Important Latin Poetical Devices Flashcards
Alliteration
Repetition of the sound of the initial consonant.
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word(s) at the start of successive clauses.
Aposiopesis
“[A] figure in which the feelings of the speaker induce him to interrupt the expression and leave the sentence incomplete.”
Quos ego—!, Aeneid 1.135.
Apostrophe
“[T]he speaker, instead of addressing directly his proper hearer, turns himself to some other person or thing, either really or only in imagination present.”
Asyndeton
The omission of connectives – as opposed to polysyndeton.
saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector,
ubi ingens/Sarpedon, ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis/
scuta virum…, Aeneid 1.99-100.
quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani tertium qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, Caesar Gallic War I.1
Chiasmus
Chiasmus is a crossing of words, as in the word order ABBA. It’s related to synchesis.
Ecphrasis
Ecphrasis is a vivid/graphic/dramatic description that allows the reader to visualize the object.
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is "the omission of one or more words" Haec secum (dixit), Aeneid 1.37.
Enjambment
In poetry, it’s the running on from one line to the next without pause.
Hendiadys
“The name Hendiadys is applied to a construction, in which two nouns are put in the same case, and connected by a copula, while in respect to sense one of them must be taken as a Gen[itive] following the other, or as an adjective qualifying the other.”
molemque et montes, Aeneid 1.61.
belli atque fortitudinis, Caesar Gallic War I.1.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is “the language of exaggeration.”
terram inter fluctus aperit, Aeneid 1.107.
Litotes
“[D]eliberate understatement or denial of the contrary”
neque abest suspicio, Caesar Gallic War I.4
Metonymy
Substitution of one name for another.
Cererem corruptam undis, Aeneid 1.177.
Onomatopoeia
“[F]orms words so that by their sound they may express their sense.”
magno cum murmure montis, Aeneid 1.55.
Oxymoron
This occurs when opposed terms are joined.
Personification
“[A] form of expression, in which the attributes, or qualities of living beings are ascribed to inanimate objects.
Polyptoton
The repetition of the same word in different form.”
Ex nihilo nihilum, ad nihilum nil posse reverti.” Pers. 3.84
Polysyndeton
The repetition of connectives – as opposed to asyndeton.
Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque…/Africus, Aeneid 1.85-86.
Prolepsis
Flash forward.
submersasque obrue puppes, Aeneid 1.69.
Prosopopoeia
The speaker impersonates someone else.
Synchesis
Synchesis “is a confused and intricate arrangement of words” or a total verbal jumble. Also known as interlocking word order.
Synecdoche
Substitution of part for whole, genus for species, or vice versa.
Tmesis
Tmesis, from a verb meaning to cut, “is the division of a compound word and the interposing of other words betwixt its parts”
circum dea fundit, Aeneid 1.412.
Transferred Epithet
Rhetorical device in which a modifier, usually an adjective, is applied to the “wrong” word in the sentence. The word whose modifier is thus displaced can either be actually present in the sentence, or it can be implied logically. The effect often stresses the emotions or feelings of the individual by expanding them on to the environment.
templumque vetustum desertae/Cereris, Aeneid 2.713-14.
