{{short description|Greek term that refers to a pattern, example or sample}} {{italic title}} '''''Paradeigma''''' ({{langx|el|παράδειγμα}}; plural: '''''paradeigmata''''') is a technique used in Ancient Greek rhetoric used to compare the situation of the audience to a similar past event, like a parable ({{langx|el|παραβολή}}). It offers counsel on how the audience should act.<ref>Liddel, Henry G., and Robert Scott. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpara%2Fdeigma "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon."] Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, παράδειγ-μα. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.</ref> Aristotle was a prominent ancient rhetorician who explicitly discussed the use of ''paradeigmata''.
In the Greek tradition many ''paradeigmata'' are mythological examples, often in reference to a popular legend or well-known character in a similar position to the audience.<ref name=MM>Willcock, M. M. "Mythological Paradeigma in the ''Iliad''", ''The Classical Quarterly'' New Series, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Nov., 1964), pp. 141–154.</ref> Homer's ''The Iliad'' (24.601–619) – Achilles is trying to encourage Priam to eat rather than continue to weep for his dead son Hector. He brings up Niobe, a woman that had lost twelve children but still found the strength to eat.<ref name=MM/> He is trying to counsel Priam to do what he should by using Niobe as a ''paradeigma'', an example to guide behaviour.
It is also the etymological root of the English word "paradigm".
==See also== * Exemplification theory
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Rhetorical techniques Category:Aristotelianism
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