Greek Mid-Term Essays

Essay Question 2:

The Socratics and the Sophists were in clear opposition as to their views and uses of rhetoric. Sophists were rhetoricians, which Socrates found issue with.

Socrates, a philosopher, believed in the idea of absolute Truth. This Truth was of a higher moral realm, and could not be changed. He believed in reflection of life , (“the unexamined life is not worth living”), which is evident through the medium in which he communicated. Socrates communicated in a dialogue, one-on-one format where he could question and cross-examine his pupils, forcing them to reflect to arrive at a realization of the Truth.

Rhetoricians, like the Sophists, did not believe in a concept of absolute Truth. They based their speeches in popular opinion of the general audience. Socrates saw the rhetoricians as using rhetoric to manipulate. He believed Truth could not be changed and did not agree that rhetoricians changed truth based on opinion. Rhetoric just gave people what they wanted to hear, and was used for the self-interest of the rhetorician to gain power. It did not allow people to arrive at the actual Truth. Socrates also found a problem with rhetoric in the sense that it was used on a larger, uneducated crowd, instead of a one-on-one conversation with a student of philosophy.

In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates is presented in a dialogue with a group of Sophists. Socrates engages them in his questioning, cross-examining discussions to try to prove his points in defining rhetoric. In the dialogue, he questions Gorgias and twists his words to make it appear that even this Sophist agrees with Socrates, the philosopher. In this respect, Gorgias is set up to be a straw man, in which Socrates makes his enemy, or the opposing side, agree with his side. The real Gorgias would not allow for this questioning to confuse his words. He would use his rhetoric to give a counter argument to Socrates’ philosophies.

Essay Question 6:

Both Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” and Pericles’ "Funeral Oration" are examples of epideictic oratory. They are epideictic because they are given in a setting focusing on the present time, and they praise their subjects.

In Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen,” he blatantly states, “I wish to free the accused of blame and, having reproved her detractors as prevaricators and proved the truth, to free her from their ignorance.” He wants to remove Helen of the blame and condemnation she is under. Gorgias does this by presenting Helen to be a victim – a person who was persuaded, having done nothing by fault of her own. “It has been explained that if she was persuaded by speech she did not do wrong but was unfortunate.” Gorgias’ speech is an example of epideictic oratory as it deals with the concepts of praise and blame of one of mythology’s most infamous characters.

But, this speech has an ulterior motive and serves another function. Gorgias, a Sophist, has a self-motivated goal to show off his use of rhetoric to gain students and power. The “Encomium of Helen” is not really about Helen at all. Gorgias does not really care about removing blame from her. He is just using the speech as a way to show off his rhetorical abilities which we blatantly read at the end of his speech: “I have by means of speech removed disgrace from a woman….I wished to write a speech which would be a praise of Helen and a diversion to myself.”

Pericles in his "Funeral Oration" also stays true to epideictic oratory as it praises the Athenian war victims who died in battle. He appeals to ethos as he praises their character – how the men courageously laid down their life instead of giving up and being spared. But this speech too, is more than just an example of an epideictic oratory. It also has ulterior motives in its function. During this time, Athens, once a great city-state, had suffered from the conditions of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles was using his speech, his praising of the war victims, to call others to action and to unite Athens again. The funeral oration uses pathos to remind the people of the great nation they were. Pericles immortalizes the war victims as heroes, which in praising them, he is also igniting others to become heroes for their state.

Both Gorgias and Pericles give their epideictic speeches as a means to praise their subjects. But both also have an alternate function and purpose as to why they were given.