Allegorical Simile and Allegorical Metaphor in Books of Rhetoric

Metaphor is one of the major topics of Rhetoric which has been a subject of permanent research. In our days conducting researches on metaphor is even more developed: some combine metaphorical and rhetorical dimensions, and some others do nothing but to repeat the already discussed ideas. One of the known combinations is allegorical metaphor which, in many cases, is wrongly taken for allegorical simile. This article through distinguishing between allegory, allegorical simile and allegorical metaphor, examines the different aspects of them in rhetorical books and finally proves that although they have some features in common, in essence they are distinct from one another.