During the time period of ancient Greece there were many prominent figures throughout the years. Figures would come and go, but each figure would help develop rhetoric in Athens. Sophists were the first of many important figures to come through Athens. Sophists developed the idea of rhetoric through different theories from different rhetoricians. Gorgias and Protagoras were among the first sophist to arrive in Athens. Both having different theories on rhetoric drawing vast crowds to speeches drawing immense attention. The new ideas they introduced to the people through speeches, writings, and debates and also the teachings that were taught as professors hindered rhetorics development. Gorgias was a major figure prominent in Athens due to his development in rhetoric, through his skills of making the weaker argument appear stronger and the ability to answer questions randomly asked through the crowd on the spot.

As Gorgias was in the forms of the first generation of Sophists., sophists were introduced in this time period as being the wise professors in the Ancient Greek world. Sophists were seen as masters of language and speech.  Sophists being teachers who traveled around the cities of Ancient Greece giving speeches on subjects like rhetoric for money. Gorgias first traveled with Protagoras to Athens to speak as an ambassador to seek military assistance for his hometown of Leontini. During his time speaking as an ambassador he continued to win over many fans with his eloquent speeches, which left him to then become a sophist. As some people disagree like Plato, these Sophist professors would work for pay instead of to better the people. Sophists were introduced before the Plato era and as Plato despised the sophists he did not agree with many of the sophists ideas. After Plato, Sophists were seen as superficial, destructive, and at worst deliberate deceivers of the people. The teachings of the sophists were very diverse as some teachings included speculation on the nature of the universe. As for Gorgias his teachings consisted of great speeches to the people of argument both sides to an argument and turning the weakest part of an argument into the strongest.

His special feature that went along with his mastering of speeches was his ability to answer miscellaneous from the audience. He ushered in rhetorical innovations involving structure and ornamentation. Some of his most well known writings included the Encomium on Helen ,where he would display his argumentative skills. On Gorgias’ Encomium he was intrigued on experiments with sound, rhyming style that strikes modern readers as overdone. This famous speech was intended to demonstrate that the skilled rhetorician can prove any proposition. He reveals his skill by arguing the unlikely thesis that Helen can’t be blamed for deserting Menelaus and following Paris to Troy. Gorgias argues that Helen “could not have resisted the power of logos,’’ or persuasive words, which constitute a type of witchcraft or magic. Gorgias would work to great lengths to exhibit his ability of making an absurd argumentative position appear stronger. In each of his works he would try to defend positions or arguments that seemed unpopular or of the weaker side. He saw rhetoric as being equal to persuasion while using ethos, pathos, and logos in his speeches and writings. Gorgias in his writings would argue on the nonexistent and how “things exist”. His argument concluded with the idea of, “ in order for something to exist, existence must come from nonexistence. With limit it is eternal and without limit existence is nowhere and therefore can’t exist since everything existing must be somewhere.” Like in his speeches Gorgias wrote these arguments to show his abilities of how each side of everything can be argued equally. One of the most famous things from Gorgias come from his three formulation of skeptical philosophy:  Nothing exists,  If anything did exist, we could not know it, and If we could know that something existed we would not be able to communicate it to anyone else. Just as every other philosopher and speaker of rhetoric, Gorgias had many followers and critics throughout Athens.

Sophists formed a revolution in thought that even today influences about their  education, politics, and rhetoric would be taught and spread. Gorgias who was one of the earliest teachers and practitioners of the art of rhetoric was originally sent to Athens as an ambassador. He then had a tremendously successful career as a diplomat, teacher, skeptical philosopher, and speaker. Gorgias boasted of being able to persuade anyone of anything, noting his powers of persuasion were legendary. Specifically, Gorgias defines rhetoric as “the ability to persuade with words judges in the courts, senators in the senate, assemblymen in the Assembly, and the men in any other meeting which convenes for the public interest.” He was very intrigued on the thought of rhetoric as magic and the power of persuasion words and language can have on a humans mind.   Effective rhetoric had a hypnotic effect on audiences captured by the Orators verbal spell. Rhetoric for Gorgias was verbal magic, One of his greatest critics Plato called it “almost supernatural” influence on audiences. He developed a rhetorical incantation that hypnotizes audiences, not a tight, logical proof. Gorgias believed that words worked their magic most powerfully by arousing emotions such as fear, pity, and longing. Gorgias also introduced the idea that truth is a product of the clash of views was, as we have seen, closely related to the concept of kairos. Kairos is the concept of belief that truth is momentary and relative to circumstances. The view also reflects the Sophists’ commitment to Aporia. Aporia is the effort to place a claim in doubt. Once clouded in the doubt, the orator’s goal was to demonstrate that one resolution of the issue was more likely than another. A sophist specializing in speechwriting were called logographos. Others were teachers who ran schools in which public speaking was taught along with other subjects. A third group were professional orator’s who gave speeches for a fee, whether for entertainment or in a court to legislature. Of course many and any sophist could have provided all three, speechwriter, professor, and professional speaker. Sophist earned the reputation for “extravagant displays of language.” These sophists also astonished audiences with their brilliant styles, colorful appearances, and flamboyant personalities by drawing audiences and memorizing them with their skills. A stated above sophists were teachers of the art of rhetoric and verbal persuasion. However if you talked to sophists they would say they taught more than just speech making but also instructed their students in Arête. Arete suggested that all of the qualities that marked of a “natural leader”, excellent, virtue, and capacity for success. As some Greeks thought that Arête could not be taught but was more of the upbringing. Sophistry was more than the study of persuasive speaking, since sophists taught rhetoric, careful management of one’s resources, and some aspects of leadership most young men saw sophistic education as the key to personal success. Sophists accepted the notion of dissoi logoi, or contradictory arguments. That is because sophists believed that strong arguments could be produced for or against any claim. Many Athenians greeted the sophists and their art of rhetoric with great suspicion. Their ability to persuade with clever arguments, and their willingness to teach others to do the same, led some to see the Sophists as a dangerous element in Athens. Plato, who lived in the generation just after the arrival of the Sophists in Athens encouraged such suspicion with his multiple dialogues.

As these prominent figures came into Athens they changed the perspective of many people and influenced the thoughts and ideas of many different individuals. As these Sophists were brilliant and fascinating speeches, writings, and lectures teaching young and old individuals on the importance of multiple things. As stated above theses individuals did not only teach the art of rhetoric but also how to be a natural leader and also verbal persuasion. These figures developed rhetoric throughout Athens by putting it into classrooms, drawing enormous crowds to various speeches attracting followers and fans of their theories, writings that express the many theories, and bringing rhetoric into courtrooms and trials.