Syncrisis
Comparison of two people or things, point by point, to evaluate both.
Syncrisis (Greek synkrisis, 'comparison') sets two subjects side by side and measures them against each other across matched criteria. It was a standard exercise in the progymnasmata, the graded rhetorical curriculum of the ancient schools, and it structures Plutarch's Parallel Lives, where each Greek-Roman pair ends in an explicit comparison.
The figure differs from simple analogy in that both terms are of equal interest. An analogy explains A by means of B; syncrisis judges A and B together, and the judgement is the point.
In quotable form it usually appears as a balanced antithetical sentence, which is why syncrisis and antithesis so often coincide: the parallel grammar makes the comparison auditable in a single breath.
Common mistake: stacking unmatched criteria. If one subject is praised for courage and the other faulted for lateness, the comparison is rhetorical sleight rather than syncrisis.
“Demosthenes' power lay in his argument, Cicero's in his charm.”
Keep reading the glossary
A grammatical balance of two opposed ideas — 'to be or not to be'.
A rhetorical scheme in which successive clauses have the same length and grammatical structure.
An ABBA word-order reversal — 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'.
A comparison that uses 'like' or 'as' — 'my love is like a red, red rose'.