Epideictic Exaggeration:
Throughout his Oration, Pericles talks about "our city," "our belief," "our empire," "our state," "our power," "our constitution," "our system of government," "our being a model to others," "our deep respect," "our obedience," and "our own real courage and loyalty." I find this to be an exaggeration of unity in his civilization. He assumes that everyone in the audience (he is definitely having an epideictic monologue) shares his Greek pride and agrees with him that Greece is the best civilization around.
When I read about epideictic oratory in chapter 9 of Aristotle's Rhetoric, the following passage reminded me of the exaggeration in the Oration. "...exaggeration is always best suited to speeches for display, since they take up actions that are agreed about, so what remains is to adorn them with magnitude and beauty" (page 166 line 1368a 27). It is clear that Pericles was in a position to deliver an artful display of words. He magnified many aspects of the great Greek Empire by highlighting all that the Greeks share.
Not only does Pericles exaggerate how amazing Greece is, he establishes that he knows what he is trying to accomplish in doing so. Before he really begins honoring the soldiers, he explains to his audience, "Praise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point, the point where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about." Pericles establishes that he and all the Greeks agree that they are great, that they could fight nobly if they need to, because they all believe in the great principles of the Greek Civilization that motivated the dead warriors.
"This, then, is the kind of city for which these men, who could not bear the thought of losing her, nobly fought and nobly died." - Pericles
It is extremely true that epideictic rhetoric is full of exaggeration. Perhaps, that makes epideictic orations less convincing if we know that the speech will be full of exaggeration. Just as epideictic rhetoric is full of exaggeration, judiciary rhetoric is full of enthymemes. To get some examples from Encomium of Helen, check out my blog post, Popular Persuasion: Opinions are Greater than Truth
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