O Centro de Estudos Clássicos da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa promove mais um Seminário da Área Clássica, no dia 03 de Dezembro de 2019, a partir das 18h, na Sala na Faculdade de Letras.

Com Rui Miguel Duarte

Resumo

Hermogenes of Tarsus commences his treatise On Issues (cf. Malcolm Heath’s translation) with praise of rhetoric. In his words, rhetoric comprises “many” and “great” elements that make it an art. Nevertheless, the use of these two terms together—in Greek, πολλά and μεγάλα (pl.)—was not an invention of Hermogenes. In fact, research made on Greek texts reveals a large number of passages with these two words appearing in tandem in the works of rhetoricians (e.g., Aristotle, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Hermogenes, Pseudo-Hermogenes, commentators on Hermogenes, and the Anonymous Seguerianus) and in the speeches of writers and orators (e.g., Herodotus, the prologue of the Hellenistic translation of the deuterocanonical book of Ben Sira, Diogenes Laertius, Isocrates, Demosthenes, and Dion Chrysostomus). Some rhetors state explicitly that the duo of πολλά and μεγάλα had a place in epideictic rhetoric and specifically in exordia.
The use of this rhetorical and literary device, however, was not a topic retricted to praise; it could be employed when one’s intention was to attack or reproach someone or something. Reproach is the opposite of praise, so both kinds of speech belong to the epideictic genre. In general, then, the issue boils down to “how great” someone was and “how many” of something there was. Whenever persons, deeds or facts (whether deserving of admiration or blame) were deemed so important that the orator or write could not but emphasize them, the use of πολλά and μεγάλα in tandem was a rhetorical strategy that could be brought be bear upon the subject. In this presentation the use of this rhetorical and literary device in several passages will be discussed, with the focus being on how it functions and the extent of its usage.

Email para contactos, inscrições e informações: centro.classicos@letras.ulisboa.pt