Cause and effect, Virtue and Vice.

In Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen we see a heavy usage of cause and effect throughout the entirety of the speech. This make a lot of sense in a judicial speech because one needs to describe why something happened. Why did someone do something? What caused it? However I might classify this particular speech epideictic in nature. The word encomium actually means “praise of a person or thing”, it also is nearly synonymous with the word epideictic, which means "fit for display." Gorgias is bold enough to praise Helen so that he might flex his rhetorical muscles. He praises and defends a woman reviled by the Greeks for her lewdness. Gorgias still uses cause and effect in his faux-judicial speech as he analyzes why Helen left subsequently starting the Trojan War.  Her actions are clarified by defining several plausible causes i.e. abduction, the will of the gods, love etc. Through dissection of the plausible causes of Helen’s abdication Gorgias acquits her of her charge by stating that what she did was permissible. Circumstance demanded that she had to do what she did. He argues that one cannot blame Helen.

It is important to note the idea of virtue and vice which is mentioned in the ninth chapter in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Basically virtue is good and beautiful, and vice is evil and ugly. The common coconscious between the Greeks at that time is that what Helen did fell under the vice category and therefore shameful. Gorgias infers that it is more shameful to accuse Helen in ignorance. In the very last paragraph Gorgias says, “I tried to put an end to the injustice of blame and ignorance of opinion.” In reality I’m sure Gorgias doesn’t really care about clearing Helen, I think he is more concerned with showing his prowess in speaking.