Homer, Evenus and the 'Discovery' of Litotes

The notion of litotes is considered to be a late arrival on the rhetorical scene: a clear identification of this figure seems to emerge only in the imperial age. By contrast, I shall argue that the “discovery” of litotes can be traced back to Evenus of Paros between the 5th and the 4th century BCE as a result of his engagement with Homer. Arguably, Evenus widely used the figure he had successfully identified, something that helps make better sense of his remarkable influence on Plato as well as of his poems in terms of imitatio cum variatione with respect to Homer’s epics.