ИСТИНА

Unlike the metaphor, the simile as a theoretical matter of classical antiquity thinking has been analysed by few researchers. Aristotle, paying particular attention to simile termed ει̉κών and denoting certain processes of building artistic reality, also creates a new original system of both functioning and constructing of simile. The analysis of the explicit part of his theory shows that Aristotle does not set strict limits or boundaries of the device expressed by simile, on the contrary, he tries to expand them as much as possible. The explicit part of his theory is balanced by the implicit one – the examples, each of which is self-sufficient and demonstrative in itself, and, at the same time, all these instances build a certain system. It should be noted that further rhetorical tradition is not entirely based on all the elements of Aristotle’s comprehensive system of simile functioning. What was carried over and used in the development of further theories on the simile is linked to but several elements of the system. Aristotle’s provision on the simile being a type of metaphor has probably become the most remarkable and controversial issue. This postulate is to become the cornerstone. The correlation between the metaphor and the simile and disputes over their priority are to divide the Classical critics in two groups: those sharing Aristotle’s views in this area and their opponents. Let us at least recall the idea of Quintilian: “metaphor is a shortened simile”, from which is follows that it is not the simile that is a type of metaphor, but the opposite: metaphor is a simplified simile. In the Greek tradition, the issue of simile theory is considered in detail in the treatise “On Style”, attributed to the Peripatetic Demetrius Phalereus, and the treatise “On Tropes” by Tryphon. Aristotle was the first author who did not only provide a description of the simile, but also showed the manifold applications of this artistic device in general, its diversity and variety. His Rhetoric differed from other treatises on the subject comprising a set of definitions and rules, as it was a scholarly discourse on the theory of elocution, which explains the nature of his analysis.