The Rhetorical Resolution of Sophokles’ Aias

Abstract

AbstractThe resolution at the end of Sophokles’Aiasis brought about through a collaborative rhetorical strategy between Odysseus and Agamemnon. They agree to redirect theiragônaway from the deliberative question of whether to bury Aias toward an interrogation of Odysseus’philia, so that Agamemnon can eventually grant the burial publicly as a favor to Odysseus. In Aristotelian terms, the debate takes the unusual form of developing the characterpistisin isolation from the logicalpistis. This mutual avoidance of a demand for theoretical agreement is analogous to democratic practice.