The Shadow of Helen: The Status of the Visual Image in Gorgias's "Encomium to Helen" Author(s): Diana Shaffer Source:

Rhetorica, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Summer, 1998), pp. 243-257 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20135585 Accessed: 31/07/2009 13:14
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Diana

Shaffer

The Shadow

of Helen:

The Status of the Visual toHelen

Image in Gorgias's
Abstract: between
masculine,

Encomium

to Helen Encomium Gorgias's verbal and visual art. Where

attempts a logical persuasion,

presumes language,
the visual

envisaged
image,

similarity as
seen as

feminine
mind

and disruptive,
Gorgias's

overwhelms
of Helen

the beholder
takes as

and

leads
point

the
an

astray.

account

its starting

interpretation of her role which originates in book three of the Iliad, where her beauty is seen as causing the Trojan war and inspiring Homer's epic. The tragic poets identify her with destruction. Gorgias proves her innocence, but only by transforming her from a voluntary subject to a passive object. Because Helen was overcome by eros for the by visual stimuli she cannot be held responsible of her actions. In this assertion has used consequences Gorgias verbal logic to delimit and overcome the emotional force of previous caused
images of Helen.

Who

named

her Helen
destroying,

with

such entire
city-destroying1

truth? For fittingly

ship

destroying,

man

his famous introduces the lyric of Aeschylus motif of the following inquiry, the status of the in Gorgias of Leontini's to Encomium image rhetorical written Gorgias's display, ostensibly Helen Helen's of blame guilt, but for causing the Trojan war, also the likeness of visual

central visual Helen. to free

not only presumes and verbal art, and

1 Aeschylus, Helen, Translation ? Number

trans. D. M. MacDowell, 681-89, Agamemnon, Gorgias: Encomium and Commentary Press, 1982) p. 34, n. 2. (Bristol: Bristol Classical for the History of Rhetoric, Rhetorica, Volume

of

The International Society 3 (Summer 1998)

XVI,

243

244

RHETORICA

or and image. Helen of Troy, the abducted the gendering of word a pivotal a cataclysmic who wife war, occupies provokes eloping tradition of females who engender in the Western anxiety position and of female beauty the paragon and conflict. Just as Helen, is persistently she and strife, generates suspicion as male of for the authority. Befittingly, object struggle exploited icon?the exoneration of this provocative supreme Gorgias's a comparison of desire?concludes with between symbol literature and the visual arts. Though Gorgias's fourth argument an between and visual postulates analogy poetic eloquence cumulative of four the his arguments beauty, development a and dramatizes the irrational visual image rivalry between rational speech; moreover, this rivalry is strictly gendered. On the a masculine one hand, some logic contributes prerogative, speech, on the other, the visual image, seductive to the discourse of Helen; and compelling, overwhelms the beholder and leads the mind even as erotic Thus of desire and the astray. Gorgias's coupling censures visual the visual its for image image disruptive potential, as a powerful it nevertheless sanctions in trope ekphrasis2 sexuality,
persuasive oratory.

Encomium to Helen, in public delivered Gorgias's by the on was rhetor several in also disseminated occasions, Sophist written form for imitation by his students. Though the exact date of its composition has not been determined, historians believe that were written of in in the circulation Greece copies speech during the last quarter of the fifth century. The written that fragments have been preserved illustrate Gorgias's in from expertise arguing
2 During

to refer to the rhetorical used time, the term ekphrasis was Gorgias's or events. of persons, The virtue in a speech was of ekphrasis to description places, so the subject the eyes of the audience before that they believed the bring vividly described Itwas not until the third century that the term came subject was present. to refer composing rhetorical foundation Philostrati literary plastic, and visual to the literary ekphrases textbooks description constituted known as of works one of of visual the art. During standard the Second Sophistic exercises of the writing from the rhetorical Starting rhetoricians?Lucian, exercises for more the complex of works

by the progymnasmata, provided and Callistratus?elaborate these artistic art purposes. as though Their

progymnasmata. four master textbook

of the ekphrasis by potential of this essay is the connection

prose eloquent ekphrases, interpreting dramatic the artistic they were spectacles, enlarge it with other A concern forms. fusing literary secondary between Sophistic rhetoric and the history of ekphrasis.

The Shadow

of Helen

245

as well as his remarkable of the same question prose short clauses, by symmetrical rhythmically and word assonances, rhyming syllables, this of and stunned play, provocative display epideictic oratory even Scholars have classified puzzled Gorgias's contemporaries.4 as "a brilliant controversial oration tour de force",5 "a Gorgias's an of and rhetoric", mythological showpiece "epideictic encomium".6 the of Notwithstanding diversity interpretations several sides style.3 Characterized balanced antitheses, proposed ?encompassing and poetic rhetorical,
3 An Larue Harvard translation features Van attempt Hook, to recreate trans., Press, encomium,

historical, perspectives7?the
the effect vol.

psychological, philological, scholar contemporary

Isocrates, 1945),

claims that he "seeks to imitate George Kennedy a fondness for parallel assonances, antithesis, [Gorgias's] style, including or clauses with and equal number of syllables word phrases (parisosis)...[and] play of which the use of rhyming is the most {paronomasia), (homoeoteleuton) syllables See George 'On Rhetoric': A trans., Aristotle, conspicuous". Kennedy Theory of Civic Discourse of (New York: Oxford Press, 1991) p. 283. For an earlier version University see Rosamond this translation, Kent ed., The Older Sophists: A Complete Sprague of Translation in Die Fragment der Vorsokratiker, by Several Hands of the Fragments of South Carolina (Columbia: Press, 1972) pp. 50-54. University 4 The Platonic as Plato's discussion of name, as well dialogue bearing Gorgias's him elsewhere the high esteem indicate in which he was held. See Meno 70, 76, and

University of the

of Gorgias's can be found in original Greek MA: 3, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, hereafter In his most recent Isocrates, pp. 55-57.

19e. For additional see Rosamond of Gorgias, 95c; Apology The profiles Sprague, Older Sophists, n. 3 above, pp. 30-67. 5 Isocrates, vol. 3, p. 54. 6 See Charles P. Segal, and the Psychology of Logos", Harvard Studies "Gorgias in Classical 66 (1962) pp. 99-155, p. 100. Philology For a representative of see: Scott range interpretations (hermeneutic) "The Styles of Gorgias", Rhetoric 22 (1992) pp. 43-53, Consigny, Society Quarterly S. Duncan, Thomas of Art", Classical Journal 33 (1938) Theories (aesthetic) "Gorgias's pp. 402-415, (epistemological) A Re-examination", Rhetoric: Richard Southern "The Epistemology of Gorgias's Enos, Speech Communications Journal 42 (1976) pp. Susan the Sophists: Classical Jarratt, Rereading Southern Illinois Press, 1991), University

35-51, feminist) (historiographical, Rhetoric (Carbondale: Refigured G. B. Kerferd, and Reference: and the Relation (sematological) "Meaning Gorgias between and Reality", The Sophistic Movement Language (Athens: Athenian Library of Philosophy, 1984) pp. 215-22, Encomium John Poulakos, (metaphorical) "Gorgias's to Helen and the Defense of Rhetoric", Rhetorica 1 (1981) pp. 1-16, (magical) de Romilly, and Rhetoric in Ancient MA: Jacqueline Magic Greece, (Cambridge, Harvard T. Press, 1975), University J. Rosenmeyer, (dramatistic) "Gorgias, and Apate", American 76 (1955) pp. 225-60, Aeschylus, Journal of Philology (historical, Helen rhetorical) Edward, Revisited", Schiappa, "Gorgias's Journal Quarterly of

246

RHETORICA

a dilemma: still confronts cannot be determined. as Gorgias Though an encomium

the objective

of Gorgias's

encomium

his prose composition identifies specifically criticizes him for not (Hel. 18), Isocrates an encomium an apologia; the distinction between and observing a noble subject, but blames him he praises Gorgias for choosing for offering a plea in her defense.8 Unlike of a person, the defense to the judicial division which of rhetoric, the encomium, belongs or praise of a person by extolling to the inherent qualities, belongs seems more to Because in rhetoric have epideictic.9 epideictic common with literature than argumentation, epideictic classifying is problematic.10 Encomium to Helen this Gorgias's compounds classificatory forms and difficulty techniques because the Gorgias explicitly manipulates of ancient poetry to invent an imposing,

Speech

81

Psychology "Gorgias's

Charles (1995) pp. 310-24, (psychological) n. 6 above of Logos", and (dramatistic,

of Deception", Doctrine The Sophists Franz Steiner Verlag, (Wiesbaden: 1981) pp. 116-128. on For general see: Harold and the Sophists Barrett, The background Gorgias CA: Chandler and Sharp, The Sophists (Novata, 1987), W. K. C. Guthrie, Sophists The Art of Press, 1971) and George (Cambridge: Cambridge University Kennedy, Persuasion in Greece, (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1963). University a subject with ...of those who have wished to discuss I praise eloquence, especially remarkable all others. asserts spoken upon same him who a woman, chose to write one who of Helen, in birth, and he committed he has recalled so because to memory in beauty, and in renown far surpassed a inadvertence?for he slight although of Helen, it turns out that he has actually the composition in defence does not draw nor indeed does it deal with actions of the is appropriate the only when those who excel in some good triple division of rhetoric made

P. Segal the and "Gorgias W. J. Verdenius, rhetorical) and Their Legacy, ed. G. B. Kerferd

even Nevertheless, an encomium that he has written a defence of her conduct! But

the same topics as the encomium, a the contrary; in defence kind, but quite plea a crime, whereas is charged with defendant we praise Isocrates, vol. 3, p. 67. quality." 9 to oratory Isocrates's references indicate the permanent by Aristotle 10 Edward Schiappa standards: "Assignment in Rhetoric, Book warns against of fifth-century I, ch. 3.

ancient classifying texts to a specific

a greater of genre-related presume degree compositional case the "redescription of Gorgias's career"; thus, he recommends during Gorgias's as encomium In his estimation, was achievement predisciplinary". Gorgias's "taking certain poetic texts that 'fuse' certain rhetorical forms and creating goals and forms of composition that soon would be separated See "Gorgias's by later prose writers". n. 7 above, pp. 312, 313. Helen Revisited",

texts according to current of discourse genre may than were the expectations

The Shadow

of Helen

247

and figurai mode of oratory.11 Heuristically, the antithetical and symmetrical assonant and alliterative and phrasing wordplay of the Helen characteristic reflect the forms and techniques of ancient poetry; of praise and blame recall further, the opposition the two poetic genres of eulogy and invective. the Thematically, antithesis of praise and blame fits a recurrent in the pattern tradition of ancient Greece,12 and this complex mytho-poetic tradition revolves around the figure of Helen. on the message the univocality of the poets of Claiming name Helen's an embraces of her (Hel. 2), Gorgias interpretation that originates in book three of the Iliad. This tradition condemns her as the woman who?overwhelmed for desire by amorous her set in husband and motion the of chain Paris?betrayed kingly events that led to the Trojan war. Homer names Helen as the cause of this catastrophic tragedy:13 [Iris] found Helen in the palace, weaving an immense purple cloth that depicted struggles of those Trojans and Achaeans,

ornate

that epideictic as a distinctive literature division proposes Burgess of oratory begins with He identifies six figures of Gorgias. language with Gorgias's these in turn effect name; the style of epideictic rhetoric: figures (l)antithesis; of words; of sound in final (3)alliteration; (2)paranomasia; (5)likeness (4)repetition of successive or clauses; words of words in nearly syllables (6)arrangement equal See Epideictic Literature, also (New York: Garland, periods. 1987) pp. 102-30. Burgess the outlines relations between and poetry, 166-69. Gorgias's oratory epideictic pp. 12 In Greek and Poetics (Ithaca: Cornell Press, Mythology 1990) p. 17, University "Greek its own in terms of the argues: Gregory Nagy epic presents genesis between and blame. As the Iliad puts of Paris opposition it, the Judgment praise entailed the blaming of the goddesses Hera and Athena the praising of along with Aphrodite": [Paris] who blamed when [verb neikeo] the goddesses [Hera and Athena], but he praised they came to his courtyard [verb aineo] her who gave him baneful (Iliad 24.29-30) sensuality also observes that the Iliad refers to the of Paris as an "eris Nagy Judgment 'strife'" (3.100) or "neikos Paris is asked to judge (22.116) p. 16. When 'quarrel'" which of the three goddesses is supreme, the strife or quarrel the goddesses among is extended to the human dimension. Paris chooses in order to win Helen, Aphrodite whose abduction then causes the Trojan war. See The Best the Achaeans (Baltimore: of Johns Hopkins Press, 1979) pp. 218-19. University This passage from the Iliad and those that follow translation of Michael Reck (New York: Icon Editions, 1995). are cited from the

11 Theodore

248

RHETORICA
inwar for her sake

all they had suffered (Iliad 3.126-129)

states that the Achaeans, who Just as Homer fought for explicitly war for her sake", so too the scene in Helen's "suffered possession illustrates the war in her weaving of her depicting synecdochically Helen When narrative. of Homer's her role as the inspiration the on the describes of the herself Troy poet appears ramparts on men: effect the very sight of her produces When they saw lovely Helen coming near they said in a flurry of murmured words:
the Trojans and Achaeans

"no wonder

have suffered
she's marvelously

so long for that lady's sake

like a goddess to see.

Yet let her go home, go home on the ships,

or she'll ruin us and our children too."

(Iliad 3.154-160) Homer status her her semi-divine and invokes specular even as he underscores to Aphrodite, the Trojan's but toward her: she is beautiful and desirable ambivalence as a her victim carried conceives off Menelaus of dangerous. by Priam exonerates her by blaming the gods: "You force, whereas aren't to blame but the eternal gods / who brought this miserable war on us" the of the (Iliad 3.164-65);14 however, champion his abhorrence "that of cursed Achilles, Achaeans, expresses as cause female Helen", her the of conflict and denouncing alike (Iliad 19.325). internal strife among Trojans and Achaeans woman Homer who and goddess?Helen Unlike conflates and Aphrodite?the fifth century dramatic poets equate Helen with and annihilation: destruction she is the catalyst of war resemblance among men. Unequivocally condemning Helen, Aeschylus

man that "[t]he notion of ate enabled Homeric in all good argues on to an external to project of shame". See The his unbearable power feelings Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966) p. 17. of the compulsion and necessity, of the gods but "in fifth Gorgias speaks and goddesses) the (and particular century 'divinity' terminology gods implies faith of a strong and irrational recognition See T. B. L. Webster, "Greek Theories (1939) pp. 166-179, p. 174. force of Art rather and than a belief Literature", in the hand Classical of god". 33

14 E. R. Dodds

Quarterly

The Shadow

of Helen

249

and cities" of ships, death of men censures her likewise, 689),15 bewitching (Agamemnon Euripides "Yet, seeing her, beware her soul-enthralling beauty: spells. / She snareth men's towns, / She burneth homes, eyes, she destroyeth such her enchantments are" the Trojan Queen cautions Menelaus accuses Women not only Helen of Hecuba 891-93).16 (Trojan to civic of selfish sexual but also succumbing abandoning passion, and patriotic duty, thereby causing the fall of Troy: castigates her as "the death Nay, my son's peerless beauty didst thou see, And thine own lust was made thy Cyprian Queen! Ever men's folly is their Aphrodite:
Sensual?senseless?consonant they ring!

Him

in barbaric bravery sawest thou Gold glittering, and thy senses were distraught (TrojanWomen 988-93) to exonerate that

Refusing demands

as Helen Hecuba Aphrodite's puppet, the Goddess be seen not as a personal agent fate but as the abstract embodiment Helen's of erotic controlling passion inflaming her actions. In the Trojan Women Hecuba accuses Helen and finds her

in the Helen Euripides an alternative dramatizes guilty; however, tradition. He claims that the chaste Helen remained with Proteus in Egypt while an eidolon, a created by Hera, went to phantom The taunts eidolon the warriors Troy. accordingly:17 Wretched men of Troy and all you Achaeans who, day after day, went on dying for me beside Scamander, by Hera's craft, you thought Paris had Helen, when he never did All for nothing Tyndareus' daughter has heard evil things said of her, who did nothing wrong (Helen 609-12; 614-15)
15 Oresteia, 1953). Arthur 16 This trans. Richmond Lattimore of Chicago

(Chicago:

University

Press,

Press,

are cited from and the one that follows vol. 1, trans. passage Euripides, S. Way, Loeb Classical (London: William Heinemann, 1925). Library of Chicago II, trans. Richmond Lattimore, Euripides (Chicago: University 1956).

250

RHETORICA

of the Trojan This version Helen's role as the cause in the form her name "Helen" was a construct Two

war explicitly of the conflict of an eidolon,

to justify role as the casus belli then, the one of Helen's questions, or innocent of the war, and the other of her sexual ignoble constant strife the literate and conduct, among engender poets not only claims that the message name Greeks. Gorgias of Helen's is a reminder of the calamities, but also that the poets agree upon the negative denotation of her name. Helen is the woman "about there is univocal have believed

of the question Helen from by separating that the name revealing the war. addresses

whom who

and unanimous those among testimony name has the poets and whose ill-omened a memorial become of disasters" the (Hel. 2).18 Disputing slanderous of the the of designs lying poets, objective purported is to vindicate name: to "refute Helen's those Gorgias's speech who rebuke Helen" is his first duty (Hel. 2). However, seems what a subversive to be revision of the Greek is tradition its reinscription.19 defense of Helen is simultaneously Gorgias's he proves her innocence but only by transforming double-edged: her from a subject who wills her own actions into a passive object. assumes that Helen did in fact go to Troy, but excuses Gorgias her. After a brief account of her birth, providing personal and lists the four possible (Hel. 3-5), he qualities, marriage for her departure to Troy. He then addresses each of explanations the four reasons in turn, arguing that each is such a powerful force that Helen not be blamed should for her behavior. The amount of space he allots to each cause is he significant: whereas with the gods and fate in one dispenses (Hel. 6), and paragraph force in a second seven to persuasion (Hel. 7), he devotes physical
18 George 88.

This

passage

Kennedy's 19 Susan

from Gorgias's and Helen in Aristotle, translation, printed claims

those

that

follow

are

cited pp.

from 283

'On Rhetoic',

n. 3 above,

that Gorgias's is an unprecedented Helen to effort a "to dislodge source for misogynism". history mythic the Sophists, n. 7 above, p. 74. Unlike sees the Helen Rereading Jarratt, Susan Biesecker as a reiteration in oratorical discourse of "the general trend toward further "radically Jarratt reconstruct" subjugation Rhetorical Ballif of women" Texts: A Case in ancient Greece. See "Feminist Criticism of Classical and Michelle TX: Rhetoric in Victor Vitanza Helen", Study of Gorgias's Electronic Phonic, of Rhetoric: Graphic, (Arlington, 1990) pp. 67-82, p. 77.

eds, Realms of America, Society

The Shadow

of Helen

251

(Hel. 9-19). Unlike his first by logos (Hel. 8-14), and five to passion and fate and second and physical arguments?gods accounts of Helen's coercion?which reiterate traditional third and fourth arguments?persuasion innocence, Gorgias's by new into play. and forces logos by compulsion opsis?put a novel invokes the persuasive stratagem, Introducing Gorgias to of of and the force visual power impressions speech compelling remove the calumny name. from Helen's In a striking personification, is a claims that "speech Gorgias lord" (Hel. 8) who powerful was by speech persuaded of four types of illustrations starts with poetry (Hel. 9), then to scientific discourse debate be resisted; if Helen therefore, innocent. Gorgias provides speech to prove the power of logos: he to magic then proceeds (Hel. 10), and she is cannot

before concluding with philosophical to prove (Hel. 13). However, argument Gorgias's principal of logos is its likeness a the power to poetry.20 Gorgias makes formal analogy and between then he describes the poetry, logos in which come under those who listen to poetry its spell. way is like because of its formal Fundamentally, poetry logos "All I name as and properties: poetry regard speech having meter" the emotional (Hel. 9). Then he describes Gorgias begins on those who effect poetry produces come under its spell: "On those who hear it come fearful and tearful shuddering pity and achieves therefore, (Hel. 9); grievous longing" poetic speech certain in the souls of its listeners, effects to them enabling or at emotion sorrows the of and "the others, soul, experience joys some experience of its own at other's through words, experiences (Hel. 9). good fortune and ill fortune" Gorgias example of then explores the magical incantation a of powerful type speech.21 Magic, as like another poetry,

Duncan contends encomium that Gorgias's is really an "occasion to own art...He is well aware that itwill be measured in terms of the power glorify his of poetry, since previous were encomiums in that form, and he is composed perhaps the first to institute the comparison". of Art", n. 7 above, p. 405. Theories "Gorgias's 21 Unlike who insists that Gorgias intends poetry as two and magic Duncan, distinct ibid. pp. 405-6, de Romilly that Gorgias types of speech, Jacqueline argues uses a double to describe the power is like poetry of logos: speech and analogy is like magic. and Rhetoric in Ancient ch. 1. D. M. Greece, n. 7 above, speech Magic MacDowell criticizes de Romilly for overstating the connection between magic and

20 Thomas

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RHETORICA

incantations in prose, he emotional effects. generates Inspired bestow and take he the notices, for, away says, pleasure pain; of the incantation, the opinion with of the soul, power meeting and transports charms and persuades it by its beguiling (Hel. 10). on two levels: initially he argues Here his argument unfolds that is as like share because both such formal poetry speech qualities, then he proposes that speech is like melody, rhythm, and meter; are because both share affective magic properties?both and seductive, beguiling, bewitching, enchanting. Consequently, to poetry is akin because of its formal and speech beauty, to because its of and seductive, comparable magic hypnotic, emotive But either form of the spoken or power. word?poetry to incantation?can lead is therefore, magical persuasion; "speech a lord who the with and most smallest invisible powerful body most godlike works" (Hel. 8). [accomplishes] his third confirms Helen's honor Though argument by the coercive of conclusive power demonstrating speech, Gorgias's innocence is her captivation proof of Helen's by eros (Hel. 15). And eros is the as of he made the powers produced power by opsis. Just of speech evident in his previous now argument, Gorgias must illustrate the powers of opsis. To illustrate the power of opsis he cites first the fear produced armor by the sight of approaching, clad enemy in the aroused (Hel. 16) and then the desire troops beholder's and statues eyes by well-composed (Hel. 18). paintings In a long ekphrastic the ornate armaments of passage describing war stresses the emotional force visual (Hel. 16), Gorgias exert on the psyche, such as the terror the mere impressions sight of enemy armor provokes. First he argues that "we see not what we wish but what each of us has experienced: through sight the soul is stamped in diverse ways" claims that an (Hel. 15). Gorgias actual sight, or even the memory of a scene, causes such alarm in the soul of those who this intense inner impression that experience they flee in terror as though the danger were (Hel. truly present next sentence on the focusses 16). Gorgias's struggle waged between visual and logos for dominance within the impressions The rational of often with the force psyche. appeal logos competes of intensely felt visual stimuli. When people imagine images, or
poetry, Gorgias: contending Encomium that Gorgias them regards n. 1 above, p. 37. as two distinct kinds of speech.

of Helen,

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of Helen

253

thus abandon visions, thought, they terrifying out the and fear drives is (Hel. concept" extinguished "discipline the sight of Paris creates an impression 17). In a similar fashion, so on Helen's results that it produces eros, which powerful psyche or non-rational in her unexpected reaction. physical To explain the desire produced by visual beauty, Gorgias to embrace extends and the analogy between that of poetry logos same art. in and visual Visual affects the persons poetry beauty as verbal of "whenever and colors way many pictures eloquence: a a create of and form, they figures perfect image single figure the sight" (Hel. 18). Accordingly, just as poetic delight language shapes the psyche by being heard (Hel. 9), so too do visual objects seen (Hel. 18); and just as the divine shape the soul by being spell of literature induces pleasure and reduces pain (Hel. 10), so too experience does of sculpture the beauty and painting the sight (Hel. delight And this visual delight in turn produces love and desire 18). (Hel. and verbal art, then, are analogous for two reasons: 19). Visual to affect the emotions their power from first, because both derive skillful formal arrangement; and second, because their formal and

harmonious

and desire.22 qualities produce pleasure exalts the formal and the emotive of words power Gorgias and images over their mimetic the use of function.23 He advocates and movement and color for persuasive rather than language the purposes, descriptive thereby emancipating logos from confines of empirical power of a visual or a reality. The persuasive
that words in (hedone) as the effect 'delight' and dance may on their audience was song, gesture, produce to all Greek fundamental to the tragedians; from Homer but it found its poetics clearest and most in Gorgias". formulation See Bruno Gentili, explicit Poetry and Its combination with Public in Ancient Greece, trans. A. T. Cole (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, University of ancient Greek texts espousing the doctrine of 1988) p. 54. For a general summary see Eric Havelock, aesthetic Press, delight Preface to Plato (Oxford: Oxford University 22 "The notion of pleasure or

1963)23 pp. 152ff.

T.

"the term apate became in Gorgias J. Rosenmeyer proposes: prominent a he placed accent upon what as a positive prior to him had been regarded situation: the frequent between was and words It negative discrepancy things. because or literature had till then?consciously a considered unconsciously?been matter of description?this is of course the epic perspective?that chose a Gorgias term to stress his of the autonomy of speech. Apate the negative discovery signals of the world of the logos in place of the of things". supersession epic world "Gorgias, and Apate", n. 7 above, p. 232. Aeschylus, because

254

RHETORICA

from the harmonious derives arrangement representation of its parts, and so the analogy of visual and verbal art depends exert on the psyche.24 the persuasive formal designs upon power The formal of visual and art?line, color, qualities rhythm, as the those of eye, just shape?rejoice rhythm poetry?melody, and meter?beguile the ear. But more because of the significantly, their seductive of felicitous poetry strength composition, eloquent art lead the mind and beautiful astray.25 and harmonious Beautiful forms bewitch the mind, making or an essential of logos. Gorgias apate, component deception, an as articulates of three apate integral part logos by interrelating ideas: first, apate derives from the non-correspondence between word it depends and thing; second and formal upon the emotive of at it is and third in the least result, power language; part, of the own consent to its Because of the aporia psyche's persuasion.26 between words and things, logos is not a reflection of things but an elastic and autonomous medium: "For that by which we reveal is
24 Charles also contains to reaction

verbal

that in so far as the Helen Segal argues an of poiesis. An embryonic theory the sight of Paris is also the product

is an encomium emotional of a

on

peitho techne. The

the logos, it like Helen's successful

of painting and sculpture creates the favorable emotive in the composition response beholder eros in Helen. created the (Hel. 18-19), just as the sight of Paris Using of Helen, that the persuaded is an accomplice in the act of example Gorgias suggests and furthermore that persuasion its force from an aesthetic derives persuasion, there is a "psychic hence in the emotive action of the logos: the complicity to the artistic in and reacts of the logos"; thus in participates composition rhetorical of logos derives from its poetic techne, the persuasiveness Gorgias's or stated another way, the artistic elaboration of the logos as a composition, "through form of poiesis a chain of emotional reactions will to a desired occur" action. leading See "Gorgias n. 6 above, pp. 126-7. and the Psychology of Logos", 25 W. claims: based his art of rhetoric J. Verdenius [techne] on two "Gorgias appeal, psyche principles, viz. depends largely above, p. 116. 26 Plutarch persuasion: spectacle produced esteemed deceiver deceived pleasure (1) persuasion on its poetic reports is a form qualities". conviction and and was of deception, "Gorgias's and of a speech (2) the cogency n. 7 Doctrine of Deception",

"Tragedy for the men

Gorgias's bloomed of that time

that the psyche in its own complies a marvelous sound and celebrated, one which of myth and suffering by means justly The the the

as 'a deception', Gorgias that the nondeceiver and is more is wiser, of words." justly for esteemed a man that

'in which the deceiver is more says, the deceived is wiser than the undeceived'. he succeeds in what is not

because

Rosamond

Sprague,

imperceptive The Older Sophists,

he intends, and is easily affected by n. 3 above, p. 65.

The Shadow

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255

and existing things. Therefore we logos, but logos is not substances our to is but logos, which do not reveal existing things neighbors, from Hence other than substances."27 apate, resulting something is not an outright lie but a and things, the gap between words on of distortion based the interference of the medium or deception ensues from The misrepresentation representation. the rhythm, melody, and meter from verbal and forms, resonating from the color, shape, and line emanating from visual imagery. art share suasive visual and verbal their Though qualities, is not exact. Gorgias concordance differentiates sensible clearly of things, from logos: reality, or the world And surely it is not possible to say that logos has substance in the if logos has substance, still way visible and audible things have...even it differs from all the other substances, and visible bodies are to the greatest
comprehended

degree
by

different
one organ,

from
logos by

words.
another.28

What

is

visible

is

as visual art possess and verbal similar aesthetic their and not only differ. Gorgias qualities, dynamics authority more from but distinguishes phenomenal reality logos, he two differentiates connotations of term the significantly, logos: on the one hand, on the logos refers to poetic qualities, whereas other, it refers to rational thought or logical argument. third argument absolves Helen because she was Gorgias's she was captivated persuaded by logos, and his fourth because by desire. Because felt visual intensely impressions ignite desire and desire overwhelms the beholder, the power of sight is immense, even came under such a If Helen blinding. spell upon seeing Paris she was an inexorable force: "For she [Helen] striving against went [with Paris] caught by the nets around her soul, not by the wishes of her mind, and by the necessity of love, not by the devices of art" (Hel. 19, italics added). to Paris her reaction is Clearly, not rational but constrained governed agency by by love and desire. The influx of unreasoning or emotion the impulse disrupts a transformation balance of her psyche, in of her normal resulting state of mind, and so the rational appeal of with logos competes the blinding force of her visual her impression, provoking Thus even
27 28 ibid., p. 46. ibid., p. 46.

256

RHETORICA

In fact, the contest between desire. the spell cast by passionate the wishes her Helen's the agonistic and of mind illustrates eyes clash between the rational appeal of logos and the compelling force even as Gorgias's of visual stimuli. concluding Evidently, an analogy it establishes between argument logos and opsis, a sets in motion between and the nevertheless them, rivalry of Gorgias's is arguments states that he wants to add some noteworthy. Initially, Gorgias of Helen, but he concludes the logic to the discourse by invoking fear of combat, blind passion, and erotic desire to illustrate Helen's the power of opsis and Helen's positions purity. He after her persuasion captivation by passion by logos, which means or most that he considers them either his weakest powerful Does he imply that the power of opsis is greater than arguments. that of logos? Or that the force of sexuality is stronger than reason? to prove does he attempt that the logical structure conversely, overcomes of his argument the irrational forces of sexuality, and erotic desire? Are his illustrations more vision, persuasive than the apagogic of his discourse? Does his final methodology indicate that he places to faith in the appeal argument greater to than pathos logos? Like his poetic is preoccupied with predecessors, Gorgias Helen's moral like his predecessors he constructs the behavior; nature of female sexuality as the necessary to contestatory prelude war and the inducement for agonistic As he unfolds his discourse. he associates male arguments, speech with rational thought (logos) and female sexuality with passionate love and the power of vision states his desire to free Helen (opsis). In his prooemium he explicitly of blame and prove the ignorance of her critics, while in his he asserts to his desire to amuse Helen and epilogue praise himself. exonerates Helen because she has been Gorgias a or masculine constrained persuaded by speech, prerogative, by force. He portrays Helen as a passive herself sight, an irrational her all rational and artistic agency. Thus figure, denying Gorgias's encomium reasserts the authority of male as it firmly speech a female strives to overcome is that both and image alluring threatening. "By speech I have removed disgrace from a woman" Or rivalry is strictly gendered. The cumulative development

The Shadow

of Helen

257
cost of her

but the is exonerated, (Hel. 20), he boasts. Helen exoneration is her fixation in "nets around her soul". I conclude
Like a

with
wedge

two poetic
of cranes

fragments:
toward barbarous lands

(a divine where would

foam upon the heads of kings), do you sail? If itwere not for Helen Troy alone, Achaean men, suffice? ?Osip Mandelstam snare
forever,

Was
so

itApollo's
that poets

should be caught
of a Troy that never

in the maze
fell? .. .

of theWalls

from Greece, suspect stranger or a is she a slave queen? --H.D.