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... Rhetoric was regarded by antiquity as having been discovered in the fifth century in the democracies of Syracuse and Athens, despite the fact that many features of the subject could be found in Greek literature before its invention as an academic discipline. ... Before this there was some conception of rhetoric in a more general sense. The common title for an early handbook was techne logon, ¡¦Art of speech¡¦ and logos can be taken as the genus of which civic rhetoric was a species. In Isocrates¡¦ Nicoles logos is a dynamis, the same word Aristotle uses to define rhetoric; it is an innate instinct to persuade. Before the word ¡¥rhetoric¡¦ came in use peitho, ¡¦persuasion¡¦, was its closest equivalent. Plato¡¦s Gorgias was the first literary work in which Peitho was identified with rhetoric, where Socrates attributes to Gorgias the definition of rhetoric as peithous demiourgos, ¡¦the worker of peitho¡¦.
I feel it important to explain some of the idiosyncrasies inherent in Athenian democracy (and most probably in Syracuse also), which made rhetoric flourish and be viewed as invaluable. ...
Aristotle, in his work On Rhetoric, outlined three species of rhetoric: judicial, where the audience is a judge judging events of the past, deliberative, where the audience is a judge judging what action to take in the future, or epideictic, where the audience is not being asked to take any specific action but rather be influenced with respect to their values and beliefs. Classical rhetorical teaching consisted of five parts that parallel the act of planning and delivering a speech, and primarily focused on judicial rhetoric. ...
Lysias I adheres to convention and contains many of the features described above. I need not make any mention of the fourth or fifth part, ¡¥memory¡¦ or ¡¥delivery¡¦, as these cannot be ascertained from reading the text. The first three parts are more easily analysable and indeed deployed by Lysias in this speech, however the boundaries for separation are frequently blurred, as for example style is linked to characterisation, and arrangement clearly contains within it both style and invention. Therefore I would like to look at each section of the speech, which is divided conventionally, and discuss the various techniques Lysias employs in each.
In the prooimion Lysias concentrates on pathos, developing a rapport with his audience, attempting to invoke sympathy from the jurors and attune himself to them by stressing the disadvantages of the situation. ... ¡¥ƒàƒÕƒâƒÙƒnƒÝƒÕƒÞƒnƒßƒåƒÞƒnƒ|ƒ|ƒ|ƒnƒäƒØƒÞƒnƒÑƒåƒäƒØƒÞƒnƒÔƒÙƒÑƒÞƒßƒÙƒÑƒÞƒnƒÕƒÓƒÕƒÙƒÞ¡¦# is another example of this technique, in which Lysias essentially dictates to the audience what their opinion should be, and in the first four sentences there are eight instances in which he uses this rhetorical technique. ... Lysias begins as well his characterisation, choosing words which convey the idea of Euphiletos as the victim rather than the offender and someone who acted out of civic obligation in accordance with the laws, such as, ¡¥ƒÑƒ×ƒÑƒÞƒÑƒÛƒäƒßƒÙƒØ¡¦, ¡¥adikhmatos¡¦, ¡¥timoria¡¦. ...
In the diegesis Lysias develops the ethopia of Euphiletos whilst making these depictions seem realistic and plausible, hinting at his innocence.
Approximate Word count = 2481
Approximate Pages = 9.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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