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Readings on Canvas

Charles Palandati

How does your artifact function as a rhetoric of display?

The artifact I will be analyzing in the Encomium of Helen by Gorgias. First, it is essential to understand what is rhetoric of display? It is the use of language that utilizes eloquence. This eloquence is most obviously displayed in epidiectic rhetoric (which is praises or blames, deals with values, focuses on the present). According to Plato, this type of rhetoric is all for show with no real substance.Whether that is true is another discussion, the point is that rhetoric of display appeals to an audience by showing a way with words.

Encomium of Helen is epidiectic. One of the goals of the speech is to praise (remove blame from) Helen. However, Gorgias combines other types of rhetoric by logically explaining why Helen is not at fault for running off with Paris of Troy. That being said, the rhetoric of display is most obvious when Gorgias gives reasoning for the 4 possible scenarios. For example, Gorgias discusses the power of persuasion. While yes, he uses logic to make his point, he also uses eloquence when backing his major premise. Gorgias states “For if all men on all subjects had both memory of things past, and awareness of things present, and foreknowledge of the future, speech would not be similarly similar…” The different literary devices used creates a statement that is believable just based on the way it sounds. In such ways Gorgias employs epediectic rhetoric throughout, which help strengthen his writing, and more easily persuades others to buy his argument.

 

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