There are two instances in Book 2 of the Iliad where
characters pretend to be “in the likeness” of other characters—the Lying Dream
as Nestor in lines 23–24 and Iris as Polites in lines 792–810. In both cases
the Lying Dream and Iris know their audiences: whom their audience trusted, what
audiences believed, and how their audience’s morale was faring.
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| Okay, this is the bad guy from Rise of the Guardians. But he looks like a Lying Dream to me. |
Agamemnon was probably feeling discouraged with the status
of the war. So the Lying Dream’s news that the king’s victory was at hand was
likely welcome. Add references to Jove and Juno, the god and goddess Agamemnon
believes in, and he is hooked. Oh, and the words came from Agamemnon’s most
trusted councilor. No suspicions aroused. And that was necessary for the lie to
be believed to move Agamemnon to action.
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| Rainbow (not war) Goddess Iris |
Iris needed to move her audience to action as well, but on
the defense. This goddess was personified as the rainbow—not quite the war type.
So to warn her audience, she adopted the persona of someone she knew the
Trojans would listen to: a war vet and the watchman. She spoke with force, but
maybe not how he would because Hector caught her. In this case, though, the lie
didn’t matter since the call to action was for defense rather than offense.
Knowing the audience is, I think, half the battle in effective
persuasion. The other half in is the presentation. Part of that presentation is
physical. For the gods, their visual appearance was actually altered.
We can’t do that exactly. But we do present ourselves a
certain way in what persona we adapt, how we dress, how we act, how we stand,
and how we speak. That’s part of rhetoric, too.
"Knowing the audience is, I think, half the battle in effective persuasion. The other half in is the presentation." That was a beautiful summary! I liked how you mentioned that though we can't alter our human forms, we can change the way that we present ourselves. Especially in oral rhetoric, the way we present ourselves is crucial.
ReplyDeleteI think a message's strength truly lies in the deliverer. I've turned down many recommendations for tv shows, books, etc. simply because I didn't approve of some part of the messenger.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point that I feel everyone can apply to themselves. In school and in many professional sectors, we will be required to not only step out of our comfort zones, but also take on a whole other persona for the sake of the message being conveyed.
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