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extend access to The American Journal of Philology
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THE ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC
IN HOMER.
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24 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER. 25
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26 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER.
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28 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER. 29
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30 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER. 31
22The usual Stoic position seems to have been that rhetoric is the
product of nature, practice, and art. This theory had been developed
in sophistic times (cf. Paul Shorey, " vLa-s, MeXeT77, 'E,rta-7?,7,"
T.A. P.A., XL [1909], pp. 185 ff.) and is the basis for the reconciliation
of Homeric rhetoric and sophistic ars by Cicero and Quintilian. The
best proof that it was held by the Stoics is its appearance in the intro-
duction to the first book of Cicero's De Inventione where the progress
of man is described as well as the recognition by the sage of the quali-
ties innate in man and the development of rhetoric. It is there con-
cluded (I, 5) that rhetoric is a result of nature, practice, and art. The
reference to the sage shows Stoic influence and the whole passage seems
to have been drawn from the account of human progress written by the
Stoic philosopher Posidonius (cf. R. Philippson, "Ciceroniana I, De
inventione," N.J., CXXXIII, 6 [1886], pp. 417ff.). The rhetorical
theories of the De Inventione are derived from school rhetoricians, but
the introduction is philosophical.
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32 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER. 33
orWo Lt' oXov Tro Spa'L/aTao (o7rEp EeTrlT?Tr1E Kat 8aL TTrcaVTv TrV
a'toXpeoiV "Orlpoes i MappTVpE L' T?V r TEv rXvrVl EvaL Kvptav iV TOts
Xoyol;, LXXa TO T7 VfOVC(ws KpaTOs Kat TO 0oKoUv T) OEI
(ed. Dindorf, II, p. 31).
23 The reference to Empedocles was drawn from Aristotle's Sophist,
cf. Diogenes Laertius, VIII, 2, 57.
24 L. Radermacher, "Timaeus und die Ueberlieferung ueber den
Ursprung der Rhetorik" (" Studien zur Geschichte der griechischen
Rhetorik "), Rh. M., LII (1897), pp. 412 ff.
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34 GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
yvort 8'av rtay T ( ?Xfaro r vY fvov avTrsj KaL VlTrp TLVOV KaL
TrrXAIKwv TO a apX V KT aAPx vp K T 7rpadTTe KCUL 7rott 8ta reXAov
(ed. Dindorf, II, p. 63).
It has not, so far as I know, been pointed out that Aristides
is making use of a traditional reply to the philosophers which
was developed by earlier rhetoricians,26 but it is not surprising
that he should do so. His defense of rhetoric is one of the most
extensive that we have and represents the fullest development
of one side of a debate which was then five hundred years old.
Aristides does not, however, specifically mention the rhetoric of
Odysseus, Nestor, and Menelaus, nor that of Corax and Tisias,
nor does he specifically contrast the two types of eloquence.
There was nothing in Plato's attack to require him to do so,
and these specific details would be obvious. I believe, to his
audience.
This account of the topic of Homeric rhetoric, which seems
to me to accord with logic and with all the existing evidence,
may be summarized as follows: the studies of the Stoic gram-
26 It is perhaps partly against this same belief that Quintilian argues
in III, 2, 2 when he denies that a need for defense brought forth the art
of rhetoric, although he seems to have in mind some rhetoricians who
said that an art of defense historically preceded an art of offense.
2 Andre Boulanger, Aelius Aristide (Paris, 1923) contents himself
(pp. 232 ff.) with pointing out certain similarities between the speech
and points made by Isocrates and Cicero, among which he includes the
divine origin of eloquence.
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ANCIENT DISPUTE OVER RHETORIC IN HOMER. 35
marians
marians ledled
themthem
to note
toin note
the Homeric
in the poems
Homeric
certain
poems
passages
ce
which
which bore
bore
a superficial
a superficial
similarity
similarity
to later rhetorical
to latertheory.
rheto
They
Theythusthusconcluded
concluded
that the
that
Homeric
the Homeric
heroes should
heroes
be re- s
garded
garded as as
rhetoricians,
rhetoricians,
and Homer
and was
Homer
thus the
was fount
thus ofthe
still f
another
another virtue.
virtue.
The school
The school
rhetoricians
rhetoricians
had always had
regarded
alway
their
theirartart
as having
as having
been invented
been invented
by Corax and
by Tisias
Corax in and
the T
fifth
fifth century
centuryin Sicily.
in Sicily.
In the middle
In theofmiddle
the second
of century
the seco
the
thephilosophical
philosophical
schools
schools
became became
alarmed atalarmed
the growing
at the
power gr
of
ofrhetorical
rhetorical
studies
studies
and sought
and sought
to disprove
toits
disprove
claim thatits
it c
was
wasanan
art.
art.
In so
Indoing
so doing
they fixed
they onfixed
the belief
on that
the the
belief
Homeric
that
heroes
heroes were
were
rhetoricians
rhetoricians
and asked,
and" asked,
How, if rhetoric
" How, isifanrhet
art,
could it have existed before the art was invented ? " The school-
masters replied by denying the existence of rhetoric in Homer
and insisting that the art was invented in the fifth century.
This topic was still vital when Quintilian wrote in the late first
century of our era; its logical basis, though not its specific
details, is clearly seen in Aristides, and it still found a supporter
in the author of the Prolegomenon at the very end of antiquity.
GEORGE A. KENNEDY.
HARVARD UNXIVlRITY.
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