Have you noticed that for the first half of the Iliad every dialogue contains a form of persuasion from one individual to another? I found it fascinating how imbedded into the story different forms of rhetoric were. And it was pretty amazing to see the chain of persuasion that started from a pouty little boy who didn't get his girlfriend running to his mom and crying. Yeah this is a pretty light way of putting it but lets face it….. Achilles was just mad that he didn't get the girl and mommy started the chain of persuasion by calling in a favor from Zeus. Zeus sends a deceptive, yet persuasive, dream to Agamemnon. Agamemnon tries to persuade his men to go home. Odysseus masterfully calls everybody out for being weak and persuades most of the army to stay. Thersites tries to stand for something and persuade everybody that Agamemnon is just in it for himself and again Odysseus calls him out in front of everyone and silences the rebellion through what? Yep thats right…... persuasion.
Although we were not looking for details in the story, The details highlight how each character used the art of rhetoric to push their agenda, which typically was pushing the agenda of another individual leading back up the chain to Achilles and his poutiness (if that’s even a word). What is so amazing is that you can clearly see how the Iliad is a demonstration of the power of persuasion and how appealing to the needs of an individual audience and using appropriate decorum, people are able to influence others.
Gavin C made the claim that the reason why Agamemnon proposed going back home to his troops was because he was using Kairos to appeal to his men. First of all I couldn't agree more. But second of all I would make the argument that EVERY example of dialogue in the entire Book 2 was intended to exemplify an appropriate use of Kairos. Each character (with possibly the exception of Thersites, who may be showing us a bad example) forms their dialogue to match WHO they are speaking to, and speaks WHEN it will make the most impact to their audience. To make my point clear, The characters within the Iliad show us wonderful examples of everything that we are learning in this class and it all started with Achilles.
I like your focus on the details. This only proves the point further that form and content are truly indivisible. No matter how much you might think the how of communication is the most important, the what is just as important to the ultimate outcome.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out how everyone had kairos except Thersites. it is interesting because you can see how his he was punished for his point of view. so perhaps it was the wrong time for him to speak up, but in the same moment odyssius silenced him perhaps because he was going to turn the troops towards the side of heading home. So Thersies did have some kairos in that it was a good time for turning people to his side but bad timing because he was in the wrong place to speak up without getting hurt.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny to picture Achilles, the greatest war hero in the Iliad, as a "pouty" child, but you do help paint a clear picture. Whether he was acting juvenile or not, he did know his audience well-- in this specific case, his mother.
ReplyDeleteTo influence an audience one needs to decide what the correct topic material should be used, as well as how to organize one's ideas. Many might mistake this as manipulation, but I prefer to call it strategy!
It's interesting to note how widespread the use of kairos is in this piece. However, there is still a plethora of other examples of rhetoric. Even the uses of kairos noted in this post could be multiple other tools of rhetoric. This really demonstrates how widespread the use of persuasion is and how, even if done subconsciously, appears in almost all encounters.
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