Hello all! I hope you are having a fantastic Friday! Homer’s Iliad is chock-full of intriguing examples of successful and unsuccessful rhetoric. In the second book, gods and mortals alike use both rhetoric and figurative language to convince people of their own opinions. For example Zeus (or Jove) sends a deceitful dream to Agamemnon to get the Achaeans to fight Troy. The messenger is Nestor, a close friend of Agamemnon. Thus, knowing that Agamemnon trusts Nestor, Zeus considers the audience of his dream, Agamemnon, when sending his false, persuasive dream. Another successful use of audience, as well as kairos, comes when Agamemnon convinces his men to return home despite the false dream. This brings up a question that maybe one of you could answer: why, if Agamemnon and Nestor trusted the dream, did Agamemnon want to send the men home? However, Agamemnon does want to send the men home and cunningly mentions the men’s wives and children who are anxiously awaiting their return. Kairos is thus implemented in this case because the Achaeans have been away from their families for nine long years without much success. If Agamemnon attempted to use the “family card” in the first month of the voyage, for example, the men would not care as much and it would not be the opportune moment that kairos is.
Agamemnon also speaks with great Greek decorum as he does not accuse the men, which would be rude, but rather speaks holding his “imperishable staff” and talks of pride and bravery, important aspects of Greek tradition and custom. Homer uses fantastic figurative language to describe the common soldiers who flocked to hear Agamemnon speak. Homer writes that “the people swarmed like bees that sally from some hollow cave and flit in countless among the spring flowers” in order to create an intriguing image in the minds of the people listening to the oratory. Not only do the readers/listeners understand that Agamemnon was a great orator because of the flocking, but also that the people worked in a community as bees work in a community. Furthermore, once the people are convinced to return home, “they surged to and fro like the waves of the Icarian Sea with loud cries towards the ships.” This simile thus keeps listeners interested because they can picture the swarms of people gathering at the ships and the great, chaotic happiness of the people to return home.
Odysseus is also as successful a persuader as Agamemnon when Athena and Hera tell him to convince the others to fight against Troy despite Agamemnon’s commands. Odysseus is most successful in his use of decorum and audience. He speaks to the chiefs and the kings with great respect but consistent pushing toward the fight—“the flight is cowardly…we do not know Agamemnon’s mind.” He thus maintains respect and control over the kings’ minds. However, to the common soldier he is much more brusque and rude. He tells them to “hold your peace” and “you are a coward and no soldier.” Because of his knowledge of decorum and audience, Odysseus convinces all, even Agamemnon, to sack Troy.
Homer also gives an example of someone who does not know the basic rules of rhetoric, kind of like how I don’t really know the rules of rhetoric yet. Thersites rudely accuses Agamemnon of loving gold and women and having more treasure than the others. However, Homer convinces us that Thersites should not be listened to by describing him as having “a glib tongue,” a shrill, squeaky voice, and being the ugliest man in the army. Greeks prized beauty, so a man who was extremely ugly would also, by Greek customs, be extremely inappropriate and not worth listening to. He broke decorum so much that Odysseus beat him up. Thersites is a clear example of the problems with not knowing how to argue.
This blog post went well over 300 words, but the Iliad and especially book two, have so many intriguing examples of successful and unsuccessful rhetoric aided by figurative language that I felt I could not squeeze in most of it in only 300 words. I would love to hear all of your thoughts, especially if you think that it was fair for Thersites to be beaten for his opinion and if you know the reason why Agamemnon wanted to go home after Zeus promised him, however falsely, victory against the Trojans.
-Katie Johnson
Katie, you bring up some brilliant examples of rhetoric and illustrate your points very well. Thanks for a solid blog example to get things started. I appreciate the questions that you proposed. I especially take interest in the reason for which Agamemnon chooses to speak to his audience as to address the opportunity to go back home.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Agamemnon had no intention of going home when addressing his people. Personally, I think he was trying to create new perspective through the use of rhetoric (poor as it was) thus allowing a renewed determination to sack Troy but resulted unsuccessful because he misread the desire of his audience. In doing a little research many opinions suggest that Agamemnon was probing to find out the will or desire of his troops; if they would stay and fight or go home (see http://www.novelguide.com/the-iliad/summaries/chap1-2).
This being said, I disagree with the idea that Agamemnon was simply attempting to find out the will of his troops due the statement made by Homer right after Agamemnon's speech, "With these words he moved the hearts of the multitude, so many of them as knew not the cunning council of Agamemnon."
We can see that Agamemnon had a "cunning council" or hidden agenda which was to provoke the people to fight instead of flee. It simply was an unsuccessful attempt at the use of rhetoric to his benefit.
In the end, his speech still resulted his desired fruits. Ulysses was able to rally the troops to again desire the fight as a result of Agamemnon's speech. The troops became more emphatic to fight because of their embarrassment and hurt pride from their manifested desire to go home.
Through this perspective I would like to propose another question. Check out my blog to see what it is!
With the object of rhetoric is to convince someone to see your point of view, telling other people to do the opposite might seem counterproductive. I wonder if Agamemnon, by telling his soldiers that "Our wives and little ones at home look anxiously for our coming, but the work that we came hither to do has not been done... let us sail back to our own land, for we shall not take Troy.", was He allowing himself to look like the good guy, all the while knowing that some of the Greek captains would feel the disappointment of quitting, something that was frowned upon in Greek society
ReplyDeleteIn order to get what he wanted, but make it look like he wasn’t getting what he wanted he played the Greeks against their ideals and waited for them to come around.
That in and of itself can be a form of persuasion
Great post Katie. You stole my ideas about Agamemnon right out from under me! I really like how you made the example of the "family card". I kind of missed that one, as I was to focused on how he was addressing his armies in the first place, which seemed atypical for a ancient king to be addressing them in the way that he did (you can read more about my ideas on this on my post).
ReplyDeleteJames makes an intresting point on his ideas on "the family card". I am not sure whose point is more valid, or rather I think both could be. In sales I have personally seen the point James makes in making it seem like you are on their side and aren't really getting what you want. Intresting.
What does everyone else think about the "family card" that Agamemnon uses? Which way do you think he meant to use it?
James, I totally agree with your comments about Agamemnon. It makes sense that he had a deeper plan
ReplyDelete