Epanodos
Naming several things, then returning to treat each one in the same order.
Epanodos (Greek, "a going back") states a set of items and then takes them up individually in sequence. The listener is given a map and then walked over it, which makes complex material far easier to follow by ear.
The figure also names a related pattern: repeating words in reverse order for emphasis. The distinguishing feature in both senses is deliberate return — the speech circles back to material it has already announced.
It pairs naturally with enumeratio and eutrepismus. Where those number and separate, epanodos supplies the return trip, giving each item its expansion in the order first promised.
Common mistake: breaking the promised order. If the list ran first, second, third, the expansions must follow the same sequence; a reordered return leaves listeners tracking two structures at once.
“We lost time, money, and trust. Time, because the audit ran twice. Money, because the audit was billed twice. Trust, because we told no one.”
Keep reading the glossary
Breaking a subject into its parts and listing them for force or clarity.
Numbering your points aloud so the audience can count them with you.
A rhetorical figure that repeats words in reverse grammatical order to reverse the sense.
Repeating a key word from a previous clause at the start of the next, for emphasis.