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[7] The clauses of the periodic style are divided or opposed; divided, as in the following sentence:
I have often wondered at those who gathered together the general assemblies and instituted the gymnastic contests;
1
opposed, in which, in each of the two clauses, one contrary is brought close to another, or the same word is coupled with both contraries;
1410a
1
for instance,
They were useful to both, both those who stayed and those who followed; for the latter they gained in addition greater possessions than they had at home, for the former they left what was sufficient in their own country. Here
staying behind,
following,
sufficient,
more are contraries. Again:
to those who need money and those who wish to enjoy it; where
enjoying is contrary to
acquiring. Again:
It often happens in these vicissitudes that the wise are unsuccessful, while fools succeed:
At once they were deemed worthy of the prize of valor and not long after won the command of the sea:
To sail over the mainland, to go by land over the sea, bridging over the
Hellespont
and digging through
Athos
:
And that, though citizens by nature, they were deprived of the rights of citizenship by law:
For some of them perished miserably, others saved themselves disgracefully:
Privately to employ barbarians as servants,
2
but publicly to view with indifference many of the allies reduced to slavery:
Either to possess it while living or to leave it behind when dead.
3
And what some one said against Pitholaus and Lycophron
4
in the lawcourt:
These men, who used to sell you when they were at home, having come to you have bought you.
20
All these passages are examples of antithesis.
Rhetoric. Aristotle. John Henry Freese (Translator). London. 1926.
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