Asked by Gabriel

Read the excerpt from Pericles’s funeral oration by Thucydides.


We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

Which rhetorical device does the speaker use?

antithesis
hyperbole
irony
meiosis

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Antithesis.

Thucydides sets two contrasting ideas in parallel—"minds his own business" versus "has no business here at all"—to emphasize the sharp opposition. It’s not hyperbole (exaggeration), irony, or meiosis (understatement).