Rhetoric in Ancient Greece and Rome: a Historical Perspective
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Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal Vol.8.Issue 1. 2020 Impact Factor 6.8992 (ICI) http://www.rjelal.com; (January-March) Email:[email protected] ISSN:2395-2636 (P); 2321-3108(O) RESEARCH ARTICLE RHETORIC IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Dr DEEPALI DHAUL Guest Faculty, Dept. of English, HPUDES, Shimla Abstract This article proposes to study the first two stages in the evolution of rhetoric. It will trace the history and development of rhetoric from ancient Greece to Rome. Rhetorical devices are literary devices that combine with style to form an important aspect of rhetoric. The codification of the rhetorical devices was a long process toward acquiring the present nomenclature. This article will outline the history of Article Received: 30/12/2019 English rhetoric, with respect to the rhetorical devices, and trace and limit itself to its Article Accepted: 19/01/2020 inception in the classical traditions of Greek and Latin. The focus will also be on the Article Published online: rhetorical devices as systematised by the Sophist, Gorgias, to the augmentation by 28/01/2020 Roman rhetoricians. DOI: 10.33329/rjelal.8.1.81 Key words: rhetoric, Sophistic, Hellenic, rhetorical devices, Gorgias, Plato, Aristotle Introduction presented a Ciceronian form of rhetoric in The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, and in the Modern scholarship of English rhetoric is translations of Boethius. The art of rhetoric between founded on the principles and theories of ancient the Middle Ages, until the fourteenth century did not literary critics and rhetoricians of Greece and Rome. witness any progress and remained limited to Public speaking existed in Greece since Homer’s preaching, letter writing, and poetry. It is only with time, but the judicial pleadings under the tutelage of the Renaissance movement, during the fourteenth Corax and Tisias, of Sicily, saw the advent of the century in Europe, that a radical transformation of professional teaching of rhetoric by the Sophists in social and intellectual values was witnessed and led Athens. This may be taken as the beginning of a to the revival of classical rhetoric in a big way. systematic study of rhetoric. The sophism of Gorgias Renaissance rhetoricians like George of Trebizond and Protagoras; to Plato’s dialogues in Gorgias; and and the Italian humanist Petrarch, re-established Aristotle’s response in Rhetoric, together, mark the Greek and Roman models of rhetoric. The late first phase in the journey of rhetoric in the Hellenic Renaissance period also witnessed participation of age of Greece. The Roman rhetoricians, Cicero and women writers like Margaret Cavendish of England Quintilian developed the art (techne) considerably where rhetoric had flourished at the same time. which culminated in the second Sophistic. The period between the decline of the Roman Empire to the rise Seventeenth century Europe witnessed a of Christianity in Europe saw a major decline of period of transition where established traditions rhetoric and what emerged of it in the Middle Ages were questioned, social and intellectual issues were was an appropriated form of Roman rhetoric. St raised, and scientific temperament was on the rise. Augustine of Hippo preached a ‘Christian rhetoric,’ The Italian rhetorician Giovanni Battista Vico suited for the needs of the Church, and his professed the rhetoric of imagination and viewed contemporary Martianus Capella, also a rhetorician, rhetoric as essential to all arts. In England there was 81 Dr DEEPALI DHAUL Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal Vol.8.Issue 1. 2020 Impact Factor 6.8992 (ICI) http://www.rjelal.com; (January-March) Email:[email protected] ISSN:2395-2636 (P); 2321-3108(O) a major shift from the oral to the written word during decline and eventual revival of rhetoric during the the eighteenth century. There was a rise in education fall of the Greece to the Romans, also called the and English was slowly replacing the Latin that had second Sophistic. hitherto been the language of scholarship, especially Rhetoric in Greece of the ecclesiastical order. There were, thus, more takers for rhetoric in England than ever before. The beginnings of rhetoric can be traced Rhetoricians of the Scottish school like, George from ancient Greece to the rest of the English- Campbell, Adam Smith, and Hugh Blair developed a speaking world. The history of classical rhetoric new model of rhetoric focusing on eloquence and covers almost two thousand years, from its inception argument which also influenced American rhetoric. in the fifth century BCE to the first quarter of the British rhetorician Richard Whatley presented a twentieth century—the rhetoric being practiced more traditional form of rhetoric that emphasized on thereafter is referred to as the new rhetoric or the practical aspect of argument. stylistics. Like the doctrines of the other disciplines of grammar, poetics, and rhetoric, the formulation of The two World Wars presented the world the rhetorical devices was arrived at unconsciously; with the need for a new form of rhetoric, one that grammarians and rhetoricians dressed them with could discover a new language to explain the moral names for others to follow. In its initial stages, dilemma that could not be answered by the strides Western rhetoric existed in an unobtrusive form of scientific advancement. The new rhetoric was an around Homer’s time during the eighth century BCE. admixture of the classical rhetoric moulded for the The skills for expressing themselves through speech, present times. Scholars from all disciplines debate and discussion, in effect, arose out of a acknowledged the presence of rhetoric in their area natural ability for disputation that manifested in the of study, including science. This rhetoric, which rhetorical art. Rhetoric, thus, is derived from the emerged in the twentieth century, was founded on Greek techne rhetorike, the art of speech and the basis of arguments and the audience, pioneered persuasion. by Chiam Perelman, a Belgian philosopher and his colleague, Olbrechts Tyteca. American rhetoricians First Sophistic Kenneth Burke, Lloyd Bitzer, and Wayne C. Booth The Sophists are regarded as the have developed rhetorical theories in the present formulators of the systematic study of rhetoric. The times. Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian linguist, has term Sophist is derived from the Greek word sophos, contributed to the rhetorical nature of language and meaning wise or skilled; sophia means wisdom, and culture that resulted in the ‘polyphonic’ discourse. the title Sophistes corresponds with the present day The intellectual movement of the last century saw meaning of professor or wise men (Duke n. pag.). the emergence of a renewed interest in persuasive These were professional men who, for a fee, hired discourse in the works of Ferdinand de Saussure, themselves out as speechwriters (logographos), Claude Levi-Strauss, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, teachers of public speaking and professional orators. and Jacques Derrida. In recent times, feminist The city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily is regarded writers, such as Sonja K. Foss, have called for the as the birthplace of rhetoric. Corax, a rhetorician, documentation of women’s voice in rhetoric which offered training to the people of Syracuse to argue they feel has remained male centric. their land cases after the death of a tyrant named The present article limits itself to a study of Hieron: “His systematic approach to teaching oratory the origin and creation of the rhetorical figures in the was quickly adopted by others, and was carried to first and the second Sophistic only. These two Athens and other Greek city-states by professional periods bear witness to the obscure beginnings of teachers and practitioners of rhetoric known as rhetoric from Homer to the itinerant Greek Sophists; Sophists” (Herrick 33). Corax thus not only helped from the suspicions of Plato to the refutations of establish a certain system of rhetoric which gave the Aristotle; from Cicero’s eloquence, Quintillian’s ordinary people a means of pleading their claims in oratory, to Longinus’ sublimity. It further traces the court but also propelled “Syracuse toward 82 Dr DEEPALI DHAUL Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal Vol.8.Issue 1. 2020 Impact Factor 6.8992 (ICI) http://www.rjelal.com; (January-March) Email:[email protected] ISSN:2395-2636 (P); 2321-3108(O) democratic reform” (Sutton 87). Many authors Hippias of Elis, and Protagoras of Abdera are consider his pupil Tisias, as the teacher of the Attic important Sophists, but Gorgias is best remembered orator, Isocrates. for his hypnotic style, “for developing stylistic devices that were later augmented and adapted by Gorgias visited Athens as an ambassador many subsequent orators and rhetorical theorists” and to him is attributed the distinction, “for piloting (Herrick 44). In modern times Gorgias is famous rhetoric beyond its judicial function into the sphere because of Plato’s dialogue, which bears his name, of philosophy” (Bradford 3). At this point of time in Gorgias, but in rhetorical history he is famous for history the Hellenic city-states, the polis, were bedazzling Athenians with his brilliance in oratory undergoing major reforms that guided them from and copious use of rhetorical devices. In order to aristocracy