Aeschylus

Some of Aeschylus’ most prominent rhetorical arguments can be found in the Suppliants (cf 467) and the Oresteia (cf 458). Pelasgus, the king of Argos, is persuaded by Danaus and his daughters who are fleeing from Egypt into a marriage with their cousins that is repugnant to them. Pelasgus says he will instruct Danaus in what he has to say to persuade the people (to koinon) to be favorable (eumenls) to his request (Suppliants 518-519), and concludes this speech with a prayer to persuasion (peitho) and good fortune (touche).14 The herald proposes that might makes right and that he will use force, but Pelasgus stops him, claiming the superiority of the Greek gods, Greek wine (which comes from grapes and not from grain), and the Greek men themselves (Suppliants 911-953). The Greek approach in this play is to use persuasion first, whereas a barbarian favours force first, arguments later.

In Greek tragedy, many speeches justify murder. The Oresteia is a mine of persuasive rhetoric. For instance, at the end of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (the first play in the Oresteian trilogy) Clytemnestra justifies her murder of Agamemnon with three reasons: first, he killed their daughter for the sake of winds so he could sail to Troy (1415-1418), second, he brought home as his war prize and concubine, Cassandra (daughter of the defeated Trojan King Priam, 1438-1443), and third, Clytemnestra claims that she is the embodiment of atte, or the family curse following the misdeeds of Atreus, Agamemnon’s father (1497-1504). Ultimately it is the force she holds as ruler with Aegisthus, supplemented with guards, that prevails until Orestes appears as an avenger.

Orestes kills his mother in the Choephoroi (the second play of the trilogy), and then in the Eumenides (the third play of the trilogy) he justifies his action in a court of law over which Athena presides. Both the judge and the jury must be persuaded to acquit him. In this play we have an example of examination and cross-examination in a formal legal proceeding.15 The argument by Apollo that a mother is not really a mother but simply a receptacle for the male seed seems rather offensive to modern audiences, but it probably was not so to the ancient audience given what they knew about biology. Perhaps even stranger to a modern audience was Athena’s voting in favor of her brother Apollo (who pleaded Orestes’ case) simply because of natural inclination: being predominantly male (only born from the father) herself, she sides with the male. The jury is tied, and it is finally her vote that allowed Orestes to be acquitted (734-741).

Athena then uses all her powers of persuasion, both logical and supernatural, to convince the Furies to accept the decision, combining promises with threats (Eumenides 824-836):16

You are not dishonored; do not with excessive wrath blight the land of morals, goddesses that you are!

I, for my part, have trust in Zeus, and - why need I speak of it? - I alone among the gods know the keys of the house wherein is sealed the lightning.

But there is no need of it; let me persuade you. . . since you shall be honored and revered and dwell with me!

As first fruits of this great land, you shall have forever sacrifice in thanks for children and the accomplishment of marriage, and you shall approve my words.

She first flatters them as co-goddesses, adding a threat, but note thepraeteritio (‘why need I speak of it?’) to save their egos. She invokes persuasion as a goddess, Peitho, who soothes and charms (885), but the memory of the lightning bolts is certainly not forgotten.

She offers them a new title (Eumenides), but what prevails is a bribe (a shrine, cult, and offerings), and the fact that there is very little the Furies can do when these younger divine bullies (Athena and Apollo) decide on something.17 However, an attempt was made at verbal pacification and order is reestablished at the end. Convincing rhetoric is a useful tool for those in power, even if it is rarely effective unless there is force to back it up, or a suitable bribe. This was as true for the Athenian democracy as it is in modern times.