Introduction

We don’t know the true origin of rhetoric, similar to painting or dancing. Once people found out how to use symbols to not only communicate but to accomplish their goal as well, rhetoric was born. Rhetoric as a Western tradition stems from Greece in the eighth through the third centuries BCE. The presence of rhetoric was even seen in Homer in the ninth century, Homer describes three functions of language, “heuristic, eristic, and protreptic.” Heuristic function is a capacity for discovery, the eristic function draws our attention to the power of language, and the protreptic function expresses language’s ability to direct human thought. Heuristic is focused on the discovery of facts or insights. Eristic funcion focuses on the power of language to engage, uplift, or even damage. Protreptic focuses on language’s power to persuade. Some of the earliest and most interesting practical use of rhetoric was employed by bards. Bards would sing songs and tell stories of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece. Bards had to compete with other bards to capture the attention of an audience, so bards unknowingly used rhetoric to alter their songs in order to make them the most appealing to larger audiences. This is still seen today with publicity stunts and advertisements in the music industry. Homer used rhetoric to shorten the time in between critical actions during the war with Athens and Troy. This goes to show that rhetoric was experimented with long before it was formally taught.

The Rise of Rhetoric

Empedocles was a poet, magician, physician, and orator in Sicily during the fifth century. Empedocles was known for her impressive speaking ability, so impressive that he opposed the rulers of his time period. His studies reflected an understanding of not only words but the power his words possess. Like Empedocles, rhetoric as a discipline came from Sicily as well. Specifically in the city of Syracuse some time around 467 BCE. Hieron, a tyrant, died and caused an uproar of families who were owed their land back. An orator named Corax began offering training in judicial argument so citizens could defend their claims to their land in court. This caused an uptick in people teaching public speaking, so much so that it eventually made its way to Athens and several other Greek city-states. Professional teachers and practitioners of rhetoric were known as Sophists, many of them went to Athens to train anyone who could pay their high fees. Sophists’ teachings brought major political change in Athens. They were very influential in the transition from aristocracy to democracy. Political power began to come from speaking skill instead of class, male citizens were able to partake in the right of isegoria, the opportunity to speak freely in public assemblies. The shift to democracy brought along a completely new era of politics in Athens. People began looking more to the polis, the citizens of a city, rather than the city itself. Greek citizens prided themselves on ruling through debate rather than force. This revelation brought a need for more education in rhetoric.

The Sophists

Rhetoric was made a systematic discipline by the Sophists, their name was derived from the Greek word sophos, meaning wise or smart. Their main focus of study was of techne of logos, which could mean a multitude of things from an argument to just a word. Sophists did many things including speechwriting, teaching public speaking, and giving speeches all for a fee of course. They quickly became known for their impressive feats of speech and many of them became rich just as quickly. As Athens went through a Renaissance their advancements in oratory skills helped solidify them as the cultural and intellectual capital of Greece. Most impressively, oratory had more influence over Athenian culture than Plato had. Socrates, Plato, and his followers were overshadowed by the orators at the time. The Sophists taught their students arete, or virtue, excellence, and a capacity for success. Teaching ordinary members of the demos, or the masses, was something that the elites of Athens took as a threat to their control. Since education was a path to a higher social class, Sophists became a threat to the Athenian order. Sophistry was still seen as a way to achieve personal success. Sophists taught their students to be able to argue both sides of a case by using dialectic. The Sophistic method aided students with thinking on their feet and to speak with eloquence. Their teaching brought about a public distrust, many people claiming they were charlatans profiting off unsuspecting victims and bringing an immoral sense of truth to the public. Plato went as far as to say that Sophists are “masters of the art of making clever speeches.” A major reason for the public distrust stemmed from Sophists teaching their students to live more freely by ignoring Athenian rules. Giving people the power to pursue their goals without the restraints of social conformity was alarming for the traditional citizens of Athens. The Sophists ability to persuade large audiences as well as their status as mostly foreigners was enough to spread public distrust of their teachings.

Two Influential Sophists

Two influential Sophists were Gorgias and Protagoras. Gorgias was most known for his formulation of skeptical philosophy:

1. Nothing exists.
2. If anything did exist, we could not know it.
3. If we could know that something existed, we would not be able to communicate it to anyone else.

Gorgias believed in the persuasive power of speech and that got him followers as well as critics. Gorgias claimed he had the ability to persuade anyone of anything. He had the skills to back his claim, some people including Plato claiming he had an “almost supernatural” influence over an audience. Protagoras on the other hand was more significant when it came to the development of a philosophy of rhetorical practices. He was an advisor to the Athenian leader Pericles, and he taught a practical approach to both personal and political questions.

Isocrates: A Master of Rhetoric

Isocrates is responsible for much of rhetoric’s rise to prominence during the fifth and fourth century. Like Plato, he studied under Socrates and chose him as his model. He didn’t succeed as a public speaker so he turned his attention towards education. Many of Isocrates’ students went on to be famous orators and statesmen. He wanted to be thought of as a teacher of the nation rather than a teacher of orators, so he would write speeches and pass them around the city. Isocrates believed that persuasion is inherent in humans and claimed that no institution was created without using the power of speech. He wanted to advance Greek society through rhetoric, and warned people against fighting one another. Greece had a crushing defeat in Chaeronea by Macedonia, this defeat hurt rhetoric for a period of time.

Women Writers of Ancient Greece

Women in ancient Greece were not seen as full citizens and were confined to their homes for most of their lives. Women in Sparta were at least allowed an education, but women speaking publicly was still looked down on. The women of Sparta still would speak publicly in places like markets, sometimes saying politically motivated statements to the men of Sparta. One of the most famous records was a Spartan man telling his sister about her son’s death in battle. The sister responded, “While I am glad to hear he died thus, it’s too bad that you were left behind when you might have accompanied him on such a glorious journey.” Greeks were surprised by the “freedom” of speech Spartan women had. Greek men were afraid of women with rhetorical skill and sadly for the women of Athens, no matter how widespread democracy became they were still not considered citizens. Much like Western politics today, the saturation of men in power made it very difficult for any woman to have freedom. A rhetorician named Aspasia was unmatched by anyone in Athens for her knowledge of politics as well as her ability of speech writing and teaching rhetoric. She taught rhetoric to many people, including Socrates. Aspasia is known as the only woman in classical Greece to have distinguished herself in the public domain.