Description
Book SynopsisKnudsen argues that Homeric epics are the locus for the origins of rhetoric.
Traditionally, Homer''s epics have been the domain of scholars and students interested in ancient Greek poetry, and Aristotle''s rhetorical theory has been the domain of those interested in ancient rhetoric. Rachel Ahern Knudsen believes that this academic distinction between poetry and rhetoric should be challenged. Based on a close analysis of persuasive speeches in the Iliad, Knudsen argues that Homeric poetry displays a systematic and technical concept of rhetoric and that many Iliadic speakers in fact employ the rhetorical techniques put forward by Aristotle.
Rhetoric, in its earliest formulation in ancient Greece, was conceived as the power to change a listener's actions or attitudes through wordsparticularly through persuasive techniques and argumentation. Rhetoric was thus a technical discipline in the ancient Greek world, a craft (technê) that was rule-governed, lea
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Rhetoric in Homer
1. Reconsidering the Origins of Rhetoric
2. Investigating Homeric Rhetoric
3. Patterns of Aristotelian Rhetoric in the Iliad
Part II: The Genealogy of Rhetoric From Homer to Aristotle
4. Explaining the Correspondence between Homeric Speech and Aristotelian Theory
5. Rhetoic in Archaic Poetry
6. From Poetry to Theory
Appendix: Analysis of Remaining Iliadic Rhetorical Speeches
Notes
Bibliography
Index
