The Art of Public Speaking: Greek Oratory
Oratory is the art of public speaking. The Greeks’ fondness for this finds its proper context in the new socio-political forms after the tyrannies, organized in democratic regimes. One of the basic tenets of democracy is the right of every citizen to freely present their views at meetings. The first speakers who composed “Tecnai” were Corax and Tisias. With them, rhetoric appears as an art that establishes the theoretical principles underlying speech. They cultivated the doctrine of “ejikob” (foundation of credibility) and structured speech into three parts: introduction, discussion, and conclusions.
Greek rhetoric is the evolution of the old hymn-poetry, so the ancients believed some heroes and gods were the first Greek speakers and Homer as the inventor of rhetoric. At the time of Pericles and during the Peloponnesian War, Athens displayed a lot of characters from the Hellenistic world. The Sophists were the core:
- Whether each of its manifestations was due to nature or human convention.
- A good education required, above all, a great capacity for argument and dialectic.
Through dialogue, the disciple came to the solutions to problems. The Sophists dealt with grammar; the goal was correction and property in the use of language.
Gorgias: In his speeches, the main elements that will later appear in so many eulogies and praises are now present. Gorgias’s theory of rhetoric emphasizes the systematization of what he called “Gorgianic figures.” He discovered the artistic value of the word outside of poetry, in prose. The rhetorical influence was one of the decisive causes in the decline of tragedy and other genres of poetry.
Aristotle’s Classification of Oratory
Aristotle classified oratory into three genera:
a) Political Oratory
The greatest orator of antiquity was Demosthenes (384-322 BC). Demosthenes conquers and captivates the listener with his beliefs and feelings, and above all, it is the presence of general ideas that gives his argument a lifting power and deep penetration into the consciousness. Demosthenes’ style reveals careful study. His style is vigorous and severe. His best-known works are the Philippics, four speeches with which he inspired the Athenians to fight Philip of Macedonia, but Philip won the battle of Chaeronea. And On the Crown, which was against Aeschines, another speaker and a political rival. After the death of Alexander, he returned to Athens and put the people against the Macedonians, but he preferred to kill himself before falling into Macedonian hands.
b) Judicial Oratory
Forensic speeches were written by professionals, called logographers, for the concerned parties to pronounce. The first was Antiphon, who gave the scheme that was the basis for subsequent forensic speeches. The parts of speech are: Introduction, Narration of the facts, Establishment of the topic, Presentation of the arguments, Rebuttal of the arguments to the contrary, Amplification, and Peroration.
Lysias: Forensic oratory reached its zenith with Lysias. He supported the democratic sectors. Thirty speeches are preserved; everyone deals with their clients’ private affairs, except the XII “Against Eratosthenes.” In Lysias, one acknowledges the accuracy of his legal interpretation, selection and assessment of the evidence, the dialectic of his argument, skill, and energy of the peroration. He emphasizes the ability to create a character and give feelings. Expressed simply, he used pure Attic language.
c) Epideictic Oratory
This type of oratory is less well represented than the others. Isocrates was the most representative. He created a school of rhetoric. Their activity must be seen in its dual role as a political essayist and master of rhetoric. The theoretical program of teaching appears in “Against the Sophists,” a manifesto against them, which distinguishes him because he put eloquence in the service of civil and political ideals, against the ethical indifference and relativism of the Sophists. Isocrates was the most influential political thinker of the century, but above all, he was a great artist of Greek prose, which he led to perfection and endowed with a self-paced structure, a mixture of poetry and prose.