A bummer of a triathlon

The actress for Hecuba was phenomenal at displaying sorrow.  The only other person I know that can cry convincingly at will is my sister.  Definitely an art.  When I looked up the definition of mimesis on the website rhetoric.byu.edu, I noticed that this word was closely related with imitation.  What was the actor trying to imitate?  Obviously the sorrows that a mother would feel when her family and city had been destroyed.  Her sorrow seemed amplified to highlight one of the modes of persuasion that Hecuba used.  Mimesis contributes significantly to plead her case for justice, or revenge.

A few weeks ago I moved into my new apartment.  In less than a day management had cut my bike lock and impounded it.  I discovered this to my great dismay a couple days later when I went to load my bike up for a triathlon that morning.  When I finally spoke with them, I pleaded that I had been given insufficient warning, was incompetent, and suffered from the inconvenience of not having a bike on race day.  These pleas proved ineffective.  A few days later I tried a different approach.

Hecuba had a backup method of persuasion.  By reasoning with Agamemnon, she told him about the inhumane way that her son had been killed.  She explained the asset he would have been had he been preserved.  Then she explained the faulty motives that Talthybius had in killing him.  By her logic, she was perfectly justified in her revenge.

I did not kill anyone over my bike, but I did present a better case to management when I brought documents that showed them they were in the error.  To avoid a small claims court, they acquiesced to reimburse me for a new lock and to give me my bike back.

Persuasion comes in many forms.