History, rhetoric, and legends

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of the rhetorical Demades in debates and interpretations of Homeric epics and the Persian Wars—as well as other less monumental episodes from Greek history. Homeric heroes and themes substantiated many types of progymnasmata exercises—including synkrisis, or comparison (between heroes, or between them and other characters), confirmation, laudation, and invective—and provided rich material for antilogia, approaching the same subject from opposite perspectives, a technique that was a sign of rhetorical mastery. The figure of Demades was employed to develop rhetorical themes on Homeric subjects—such as the Cyclops, Helen’s fleeing to Troy, and the Trojan Horse—which produced “wandering expressions” that were attributed to Demades and other historical characters. The liberal rhetorical approach put references to ancient Persia and its rulers in the mouth of Demades, who lived more than a century after the Persian Wars and who, according to other texts, allegedly lacked schooling and paideia.