Metanoia (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, ''metanoia'', ''changing one's mind'') in the context of
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...
is a device used to retract a statement just made, and then state it in a better way.
[Silva Rhetoricae (2006)]
Metanoeia
As such, metanoia is similar to correction. Metanoia is used in recalling a statement in two ways, either to weaken the prior declaration or to strengthen it.
Metanoia is later personified as a figure accompanying
kairos
Kairos ( grc, καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning 'the right, critical, or opportune moment'. In modern Greek, ''kairos'' also means 'weather' or 'time'.
It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for 'time'; the other be ...
, sometimes as a hag and sometimes as a young lady. Ausonius' epigrams describe her thus: "I am a goddess to whom even Cicero himself did not give a name. I am the goddess who exacts punishment for what has and has not been done, so that people regret it. Hence, my name is Metanoea."
[ Qtd. in Myers, Kelly A. "Metanoia and the Transformation of Opportunity" RSA 41.1 pp1-18.]
Weakening
The use of metanoia to weaken a statement is effective because the original statement still stands, along with the qualifying statement.
[VirtualSalt.com (2006)]
A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
/ref> For instance, when one says, "I will murder you. You shall be punished." the force of the original statement ("I will murder you") remains, while a more realistic alternative has been put forward ("you shall be punished").
Strengthening
When it is used to strengthen a statement, metanoia works to ease the reader from a moderate statement to a more radical one, as in this quote from Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...
's ''Meditations
''Meditations'' () is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy.
Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the ''Meditations'' in Koine ...
''
I still fall short of it through my own fault, and through not observing the admonitions of the gods, and, I may almost say, their direct instructions (Book One);[The Internet Classics Archive (2006)]
The Meditations
/ref>
Here Aurelius utilizes metanoia to move from a mild idea ("not observing the admonitions of the gods") to a more intense one ("not observing... their direct instructions"); the clause "I may almost say" introduces the metanoia.
References
*Cuddon, J.A., ed. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory'', 3rd ed. Penguin Books: New York, 1991.
*
{{refend
Narratology
Rhetoric