A Companion to Greek Rhetoric

A Companion to Greek Rhetoric

Language: English

Pages: 632

ISBN: 144433414X

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


This complete guide to ancient Greek rhetoric is exceptional both in its chronological range and the breadth of topics it covers.

  • Traces the rise of rhetoric and its uses from Homer to Byzantium
  • Covers wider-ranging topics such as rhetoric's relationship to knowledge, ethics, religion, law, and emotion
  • Incorporates new material giving us fresh insights into how the Greeks saw and used rhetoric
  • Discusses the idea of rhetoric and examines the status of rhetoric studies, present and future
  • All quotations from ancient sources are translated into English

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have been a real one, delivered after the liberation of Messenia from the Spartans in 369, but it could just as well be an exercise composed some time later. Alcidamas likewise exhibited his talents for virtuoso display in four other known speeches: there was an Encomium of Death (Cic. Tusculan Disputations 1.48.116), as well as encomia On Proteus the Dog and On Poverty (Menander Rhetor, Division of Epideictic Speeches 3.346.9–18), and On Nais, a well-known courtesan (Athenaeus 13.592c).24

deliberative and epideictic is unfruitful since those categories post-date Isocrates’ work and he seemed only to distinguish between discourses in law courts and discourses outside of law courts.5 I will sort these fifteen into three 60 Terry L. Papillon categories, but only in order to discuss representative examples: Isocrates wrote educational treatises (13, 15); he wrote celebratory discourses in honor of people or Athens (4, 9, 10, 11, 12); and finally, he wrote discourses offering

specifically in the field of political discourse. Expertise in political discourse accords with the assertion of power that is a source of pride to Gorgias and Polus. Yet it is precisely the rhetorician’s expertise in the political domain that Socrates will contest. Upon questioning, Gorgias admits that his expertise covers not the particular matters that concern political communities and affect them for good or ill, but only the ability to persuade audiences, regardless of the topic or occasion

(457a–b). Socrates proceeds to offer an account of sophistic rhetoric and Athenian democracy which shows that the rhetorician usurps the role of the political expert and makes it impossible for the political expert to transmit his knowledge to the polis. In Plato’s view, Athenian democracy is not a rational enterprise where informed citizens prudentially deliberate about and vote on the community’s best interests. Rather, Athenian democracy is a setting where politicians compete for the favor of

descriptions. In the second chapter, the diverse demegoric arguments that may be used are presented in connection with the seven major issues that constitute the agenda of the debates in the Assembly (Ekkle¯sia) or Council (Bouleute¯rion): forms of worship, legislation, the constitution, diplomacy, war, peace, and finances. The argumentation is explained in a more practical way. For example, regarding the religious issue, three different cases are considered: an increase in the expenses, a

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