A Comparative Analysis of Early Greek Rhetorical Theory

A Comparative Analysis of Early Greek Rhetorical Theory

The Rhetoric word has been derived from the Greek word Rhetor meaning speaker and meaning of the term is an art of public speaking (Habib 2005 ) The art implies various techniques applied by the speaker to create dramatic , intellectual and emotional appeal while delivering the speech . It also implies composition and arrangement of the text making it more appealing and persuasive for the listeners

Since last two hundred years , the scope and application of rhetoric has considerably changed in the changing literary , social and

intellectual contexts . The art of rhetoric has been modified to meet various needs in the political sphere , in the sphere of institution and discipline of philosophy , in the institution of theology whereby rhetoric has been placed in context to the expression of divine revelation , in the entire sphere of education practices and literary criticism . In all these areas , rhetoric is placed and articulated to meet their specific interests

Rhetoric was originated in Ancient Greece in the fifth century B .C and got into existence by Sophists , Aristotle , and then from the Roman world to Cato , Cicero and Quintilian . The father of Church St Augustine enlisted the form of rhetoric during the service of Christian doctrine Classical rhetoric had five parts : invention , arrangement , style , memory and delivery . There is also held opinion that the art of rhetoric was founded in 476 BC by Syracuse whose student Tisias spread the teachings of this master and brought it into the main stream . All theorists and historians have acknowledged the fact that rhetoric was used profoundly in the political activities and was the most important component in democracy . The ruling powers had all the right to express independently and in an articulate way and had judged that it was only through the control of language , ideas and worldviews that a particular class could have a control over the economic and political spheres . The trend was true in our ancient and is very well prevalent in the democratic world of today (Habib , 2005 ) The following essay will be the analytical comparative study of the two Greeks theological perceptions on rhetoric and the way they developed the same

Socrates was living during the age of what classicist Eric Havelock has named the crisis . in the history of human communication , when Greek orality transformed itself into Greek literacy (Havelock , 1988 br

. 1 . Before this education was imparted orally and through poetic tradition going back hundreds of years and the Socrates opposed this form of education by proposing that education be made professional and should be imparted through dialectical examination of ideas and he was sentenced to death for the same (Havelock , 1988

Socrates developed his form of rhetoric from differences between the older tradition and the new literacy forms offered by the Greek alphabet . Greeks used different words to develop two different forms of communication-epos also known as discourse that was both in written as well as in oral form . The public speaking and public...