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ALLEGORY (iXXos, other, and ayopeuav,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 690 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALLEGORY (iXXos, other, and ayopeuav, to speak) , a figurative See also:representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. It is generally treated as a figure of See also:rhetoric, but the See also:medium of representation is not necessarily See also:language. An allegory may be addressed to the See also:eye, and is often embodied in See also:painting, See also:sculpture or some See also:form of mimetic See also:art. The etymological meaning of the word is wider than that which it bears in actual use. An allegory is distinguished from a See also:metaphor by being longer sustained and more fully carried out in its details, and from an See also:analogy by the fact that the one appeals to the See also:imagination and the other to the See also:reason. The See also:fable or See also:parable is a See also:short allegory with one definite moral. The allegory has been a favourite form in the literature of nearly every nation. The See also:Hebrew scriptures See also:present frequent instances of it, one of the most beautiful being the comparison of the See also:history of See also:Israel to the growth of a See also:vine in the Both See also:psalm. In classical literature one of the best known allegories is the See also:story of the See also:stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius See also:Agrippa (See also:Livy ii. 32); and several occur in See also:Ovid's Metamorphoses. Perhaps the most elaborate and the most successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the See also:works of See also:English authors. See also:Spenser's Faerie Queene, See also:Swift's See also:Tale of a Tub, See also:Addison's See also:Vision of Mirza, and, above all, See also:Bunyan's See also:Pilgrim's Progress, are examples that it would be impossible to match in elaboration, beauty and fitness, from the literature of any other nation.

End of Article: ALLEGORY (iXXos, other, and ayopeuav, to speak)

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