While contemporary use of these rhetorical devices seems to detach them from their historical and mythological foundations, I argue that often the cosmological viewpoint of marginalized people often dictate and entail a re-association of the devices with their historical basis. That is, the worldview that uses narrative to comprehend the natural world is more inclined to intimately associate with the narrator of a story—or as is referred to the Western world—with a myth. Etter-Lewis (1993) asserts that the narrated story “creates an intimate bond between the narrator and the audience,” (190) while validating the narrator’s authentic experience through recalling emotions associated with the event. Thus, by grounding these rhetorical devices within their cosmological framework, we can re-create the narrated experience that offers some validity for their usefulness in the audience members’ lives. Understanding this connection will aid in the comprehension of the usage of the rhetorical devices later.

In reference to the Greeks, Buxton (1981) notes that interpretations/discussions on myths reveal “that they are not ‘just stories,’ but tales with a logic of their own and with a profound relevance to issues generated by Greek culture” (xiii). Buxton also asserts that the examination of myths provide “insights into the way in which [they] make statements about social reality through the deployment of an empirical logic” (xvi).

Likewise, Mbitu and Prime (1997) argue that “African myths... are insights, related through narrative, poetry and ceremonial language into a reality that represents the experiences of unique and varied modes of existence” (xxii). They contend that African “myths express ancient beliefs that have underpinned behavioural patterns, justified social institutions and established customs and values” (xxii).

Other discussions on myth and mythology (Vernant [1974] 1980; Haskins and Biondi, 1995; Okpewho, 1998, Scheub, 2000) are supplemented by the re-telling of the myths themselves (Homer, “The Iliad”; Homer, The Odyssey”; Ovid, “Metamorphoses”; Mbitu and Prime, 1997; Vernon-Jackson, 1999; Vernant [1999], 2001). These same myths are grounded in historical and cultural contexts of the people themselves (Griaule, [1948], 1965; Diiop [1955/1967], 1974; Vernant [1991] 1995; Haskins and Biondi, 1995; Pomeroy et al, 1999). From these historically grounded texts I argue that the rhetorical devices have come to be associated “in accord with codes of perception that [they do] not control” since they have become separated from their seminal historical context.