Volonaki, Eleni. Professor, Department of Philology, University of Peloponnese
Abstract:
"Means of Persuation in Greek Oratory"
Greek oratory plays a vital role to the private and public life of classical Athens, since it is employed in all forms of power, executive, political and legislative. Athenian citizens who had rhetorical skills delivered speeches at the Assembly and the Boule, at the Athenian courts and at festivals or public burials and ceremonies. According to Aristotle there are three kinds of orations, the forensic, the deliberative and the epideictic speeches. Forensic oratory aims to persuade the judges to convict or acquit the accused, whose verdict is final and unchangeable, and it refers to the past since, it involves offences that have already been committed. Deliberative oratory aims to advise the Athenian assembly to approve or disapprove a policy or any decision that concerns the Athenian public life in external and internal matters; it refers to the future and needs to advise about what is in the best interests of the city or dissuade the citizens from any harmful action or decision. Finally, epideictic oratory constitutes a form of praise or slander and involves the present; the most characteristic form of epideictic oratory is to be found in the funeral orations, which are delivered during the burial of the dead and praise not only the virtues and deeds of the dead men but also the history and constitution of the polis.
The present lecture will present the means of persuasion used for each separate form of oration, the types of proofs used for forensic speeches, the themes of advice for deliberative speeches and the content of praise for epideictic speeches. Apart from the theoretical approach and presentation of all various means of persuasion, a selection of texts from oratorical speeches throughout the classical period will also be examined to demonstrate the convergence and digression of practice from theory. As will be shown, each speech constitutes a distinct case with reference to the circumstances of the deliverance, the time and the period, and the persons involved; therefore, there is a flexibility and differentiation in the use of the rhetorical means of persuasion in order to fulfil the aims of the speaker at the time. Furthermore, there is a development and evolution in the use of rhetorical means of persuasion which is not associated only with the evolution of the art of rhetoric throughout the centuries but also with changes that occurred in the political, social and religious context, within which speeches were composed and publicly delivered. Rhetoric not only constitutes an art of speech to deliver in public, but also a theoretical weapon to study and examine in philosophical schools, especially toward the second half of the fourth century BC.