Due to the recent downpours I have been walking through each time I leave a building on campus, this post by Courtney B caught my attention.
Her analysis included pointing out the different audiences Pericles addressed: the general citizens of Athens, the parents, the brothers and sons, and (briefly) the widows of the fallen soldiers. It is my wish to build upon and refine what she discovered, specifically drawing attention to the different persuasive appeals employed and how Pericles observed decorum.
In this epideictic oratory, Pericles appeals to ethos when addressing the general audience. He seeks to establish the credibility of his speech by brilliantly referencing the greatness of Athens. When he first focuses in on a smaller audience, the parents, he changes tone and appeals more to pathos, speaking of the possible emotions they may be feeling and reminding them their sons died honorable deaths. Then, when addressing the brothers and sons, he again changes and this time appeals more to logos, simply and logically explaining that they have a great task ahead and standard to live up to. Finally, he gives some borderline sexist advice to the widows to "not be inferior" (which was completely acceptable to say in that time period).
The second half of my post is dedicated to examining the audience Thucydides intended to address in writing his account of the Peloponnesian War, and how it influenced the genera causarum he chose to use. Thucydides, commenting on his own writings, stated, "I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time." A legislative oratory, for many reasons, would be unfitting for the task at hand to record history since history is about the past. However, if the intended audience was the rest of mankind, he also couldn't write a judicial oratory, lest he be proved wrong, and his work discarded. This is my reasoning for why he chose to write a epideictic oratory.
I like the idea of Pericles shifting his focus between appeals throughout his speech. It makes being a rhetorician seem a bit like a musician; you have to subtly emphasize some parts and deemphasize others in order to have the most powerful effect.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he uses pathos and ethos quite effectively, but I don't think he was worried about logos much. It seemed to me that he was much more focused on establishing his credibility and then bringing out deep emotion. Which is interesting to think that some speeches don't need all three of the persuasive appeals.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought...