In ancient rhetoric, the terms εικών/eikṓn (literally ‘image’, ‘illustration’: often for short comparisons), παραβολή/parabolḗ (especially for similes) as well as Latin simile, similitudo cover diverse phenomena dominating a word, sentence or even a text that create a relationship between two facts or spheres of the imagination. The primary function of emphasis placed the comparison close to the topos (Quint. Inst. 4,1,70), and the exemplum (5,11,22; but cf. Cic. Inv. 1,49), the figurae sententiarum (Cic. De or. 3,201 = Quint. Inst. 9,1,31; figures).
A theory…