The origins of Greek tragedy are shrouded in mystery.1 The genre that we trace to the sixth century and its development in the fifth eventually formed the basis for Western drama. It became part of festivals dedicated to Dionysus with the aim of entertaining the audience and influencing both citizens and allies. Aristotle’s Poetics is still a good source for the beginnings, although it was written about two centuries later than the material described. He traces the origin to the dithyramb (a hymn in honour of Dionysus) and a type of satyr drama. Herodotus (1.23) tells us that Arion of Methymna (c. 600) first composed dithyrambs in Corinth. The Suda claimed that Arion invented the tragikos tropos (‘speaking in the tragic manner’). The perform-ance/recitation of Homer was another precedent for Greek tragedy. Herodotus (5.67) also says that there were tragic choral celebrations of the hero Adrastus, which the tyrant Cleisthenes at Sicyon incorporated into the cult of Dionysus. The Doric elements in the tragic chorus also argue in favor of a theory that traces the origin to the northern Peloponnese. In any case, the earliest form of tragedy was a masked drama that was danced, sung, and recited.
There are only three fifth-century Greek playwrights whose works survive in more or less complete form: Aeschylus (c. 525-456, seven tragedies), Sophocles (c. 496406, seven tragedies), and Euripides (c. 480-406, eighteen tragedies and one satyr play - the comic play that shared elements with tragedy and followed the presentations of the tragedies at the festivals). These constitute roughly one-tenth of the plays these tragedians wrote.2
Aeschylus in many ways is the most poetic of the three major tragedians that have survived.3 His language shows many of the features that one associates with rhetoric, particularly in its verbal fireworks: word play, alliteration, similes, anaphora, and hyperbole, to name a few. He catches an audience’s attention with metaphors like ‘the Aegean sea was blossoming with corpses’ (anthoun nekrois, Agamemnon 659), or children as corks (phelloi) that hold up a net (i. e., a family, Choephoroi 505-506). In this earlier drama, which helped shape future rhetoricians, the two main features were
Verbal display, as Aeschylus showed in his choruses, and persuasive arguments meant to convince crowds and the court. Sophocles4 shows even more rhetorical proficiency than Aeschylus, and the sophisticated use of rhetoric will increase even more with Euripides.5 Drama reflects the growing influence of rhetoric on the society in general, a curve that continues in the fourth century.6
Of all the fifth-century playwrights whose work has survived, Euripides uses the most rhetorical devices, particularly those derived from the sophists, but at the same time he recognizes the ethical problems associated with their use. In Euripides’ plays there is a more ambiguous interpretation of the gods; if the gods intervene, it is generally to the detriment of man. Euripides’ plays regularly feature debates, speeches to persuade, and lamentations. However, Euripides was not popular with the Greeks and won only four victories during his life by comparison with Sophocles who was said to have won twenty-four and Aeschylus thirteen.
Greek tragedy used rhetoric to further dramatic action and define speakers, and we find in it Aristotle’s three main types of oratory as set out in his Rhetoric: deliberative or symbouleutic (addressing a political gathering); judicial or dicastic; and oratory that praises or blames to suit an occasion (epideictic, 1358a-b).7 Speeches were usually addressed to individuals rather than groups, but given the constant presence of the chorus (and in Aeschylus the majority of the lines), there is always a crowd to convince, or an audience on stage, besides the audience before whom the drama is performed.8
Rhetoric developed into a systematic art for practical use mainly during the second half of the fifth century with the sophistic movement (on which, see J. A.E. Bons, Chapter 4). It reached its acme in the fourth century in the works of the orators. Sophists, or professional rhetoricians, were thought to prize the persuasive content over truth, factors to the dismay of Plato (see the Gorgias, where rhetoric is dismissed as a technical skill comparable to cookery or a type of flattery; cf. H. Yunis, Chapter 7). Aristophanes parodied sophistic skills in the Clouds (cf 423), showing how rhetoric can be used to justify the bad argument as well as the good one, and persuasion counts more than truth (see T. K. Hubbard, Chapter 32). Also, in Rhetoric 1356a3-7, Aristotle saw persuasion winning the day by good argumentation presented by a person of good character, and by arousing the appropriate emotions in the audience (see W. W. Fortenbaugh, Chapter 9).
The practice of rhetoric appears in the speeches in the first surviving complete Greek drama we have, Aeschylus’ Persians of472. But there is no clear articulation of theory such as that attributed to Tisias or Corax, the legendary fifth-century ‘founders’ of rhetoric.9 Drama contributed to the art of rhetoric, and rhetorical practices contributed to drama.10 The rhetoric of drama is used to please, enhanced by rich vocabulary, meter, and poetic devices. It can sometimes have a magical effect on the listener (see the binding song used by the Furies in Aeschylus’ Eumenides 306-396). Arguments persuade by appeals to reason, the senses, and the emotions.
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